Time to crochet-along…😃

We’re in a wonderful time of year here on the south east coast of England with summer sunshine making an appearance and nature feeling very alive!

The trees look so lush, the springtime flowers are still treating us and being outdoors as much as possible has felt good…💚

The birds, bees and butterflies have all been seen in our little coastal garden…🐝

And I’m really trying to savour it all because I know that time will inevitably march on by so quickly…

Crocheting as always has been my constant, and bursting into action are the two crochet-along blankets which I’ve designed for 2024! Yes, it’s finally time to start crocheting – along! 😃

With less than two weeks until ‘Woodland Wonders’ starts together with the fabulous team at yarn company King Cole on 7th June, the excitement is certainly building for that one.

And my other crochet-along blanket, ‘Pura Vida’, has now begun with issue 108 of Crochet Now magazine out now!

This design is very special to me indeed and I’m so grateful to the team at Crochet Now for including a lovely little feature in the magazine with a photo of my eldest son and introducing the inspiration behind my blanket design… 💚

I’m crocheting along to Pura Vida myself too which is a lot of fun. Although I obviously designed and made the original blanket samples, my son has said that he’d like an extra large version, so I’m crocheting it with a thicker yarn and will do it as the magazine comes out each month.

Here’s Part One of Pura Vida…

And a taster of what’s coming next month in the magazine… yes, it’s going to be a gentle slow grower! 💚🦋

And here I am this weekend crocheting in the garden with my mum there too doing a little gardening for us… golden moments for sure! 💛

In other crochet updates from my coastal corner, I crocheted a summer top for my daughter and plan to release the pattern for it later in June to coincide with a special concert we’re going to! 💃🤩🎶 The design is currently out with testers.

I’m working on a crochet skirt for me to wear to the very same concert. 💃🤩🎶 Here’s the progress so far using the Scheepjes Whirl seen above…

I’m loving those stitches and can’t wait for the colour changes to emerge. The last project I crocheted using a Scheepjes Whirl was my Coastal Dreams dress back in 2020. I remember loving the anticipation of the next subtle colour change…

The pattern for my Coastal Dreams dress remains available here:

Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/coastal-dreams-dress

Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/848077352/

I have a new design coming in Inside Crochet Magazine next month which I’m excited to share and I’m getting ready for the Carry on Crafting Festival in July where I’ll be hosting mosaic crochet workshops.

On 5th June my husband and I will have been married for 25 years!! 😃🥰🩶🩶🩶🩶🩶

That’s quite some milestone and we’re going on a little trip to Scotland next week to celebrate which I’ll no doubt share more with you all!

Do follow along on my Instagram or Facebook for updates on the go but I’m pretty sure I’ll do a blog post about it at some point too. I’ve already checked out the local yarn shops which might need a visit! If any of you have any tips for places to visit near Inverness I’d be very grateful…😃

And finally something extraordinary to share… yes, the aurora borealis (northern lights) were visible from the south coast of England a couple of weeks ago and we were very lucky to see them! Did any of you see them? Or like so many people in the UK, were you asleep?

The camera picks up extra colours not seen with the naked eye, so the vibrant pinks seen here weren’t as bright but what we did see with the naked eye was really amazing too! 💫 Moving waves across the sky in muted shades of the ones you see…

I never thought we’d ever see the northern lights here. It was such an incredible sight and we had fun creating these silhouette photos!

Anyhow, I think it’s worth sharing the photos here and so many people have asked if I’ll be designing any northern lights inspired crochet projects! As many of you know, I’m always inspired by nature so who knows?! I just wish there were more hours in the day! 😃

Till next time, happy crocheting everyone… 💙