Serendipity

Posted on January 25, 2019 by The Little Room of Rachell

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

Lao Tzu

Today I had a rather nice thing happen. While walking at Blenheim, lamenting that my usual six mile loop is still not able to be accessed, I paused to ask a couple who passed through the same gateway if they knew of a circular route in the direction we were headed. It’s always nicer not to retrace your steps. Also familiar with the loop I walk, they were trying another one by using a map app. I ended up joining them, after saying a few times that I was happy to drop back and follow at a distance so I didn’t intrude, but instead she asked me if I bake and had I heard of Bundt cakes? Well, you know me….I LOVE talking about baking, cake recipes and eating cake is one of my favourite pastimes, and so we were off!

While we walked we covered topics like bundt cake recipes (I’ve never actually made or eaten one in England, though I have in Australia and USA as they’re not that common here, but I do fancy a cherry and coconut version I said) walking 1,000 miles in a year, backpacking, living in the countryside, NT membership and much more.

It was a really lovely 5 mile circular walk with good conversation. At the end we swapped numbers saying we could maybe meet up and walk together again, but I knew that even if I never heard from, or saw them again, I’d had a really lovely time.

However by the time I got home I found I had a text from L with a Fitbit map of our route so I could do it again, if I wanted. How thoughtful. I said they’d got me looking up bundt cakes…! They’re based on European cakes, but actually bundt tins were invented in the 1950s by an American guy who’d bought an Aluminum Company in Minnesota to make Scandinavian items. I could tell you more facts, or you can Google them too. I love finding out random information. I know I’ll have forgotten it all in a few weeks time, as my brain is custard, but I like the short-term knowledge!

We exchanged a few cake based messages and I went to the dentists for my annual checkup and came out absolutely starving hungry. I don’t know about you but I don’t eat too near to an appointment. I’d had another message to say R was making a coffee and chocolate fudge cake as he thought that was suitably American. Aww!

I received an email from Ramblers this afternoon about Time to Talk Day. This will be on February 7th and aims to get people together to walk and talk about mental health issues, with an aim to reduce the stigma around talking about it. This seems like a very good thing indeed.

Mental health problems affect one in four of us, yet many people are still afraid to talk about it. Walking is a perfect way to start having a conversation with others and opening up. Being physically active, connecting with nature and other people – the ingredients of a Ramblers group walk – are all things which have been shown to have a positive impact on mental health and wellbeing.

From the Ramblers website

I’m recording my pedometer mileage as usual every week, but this year am totting up the miles to see how close to a thousand I walk during the year. I’m not putting any pressure upon myself, especially as I have a tendency to knee problems. So, if it’s half that amount then so be it, but it’s cool to have a goal to keep in mind. I can then aim to beat this year’s total next year.

How are you doing? (I always, always hear Joey from Friends when I say that! Do you read it in his voice?!)

Now – an Autumn snapshot

Posted on October 31, 2015 by The Little Room of Rachell

One of my nearest and dearest gave me a little verbal prod the other day saying: “I’ve had a look at your blog, but there’s been nothing for a while has there?” Noted and now rectified!

I’ve been carrying on crocheting my Spice of Life blanket (not far off the darning and border now) or knitting a few rows of my Hitchhiker scarf most days. I don’t think continually showing the same projects, just a few centimetres further on, would be interesting. Which is why I haven’t been around here much recently. There IS another project I’ve been working on too, but that’s hush hush as it’s a present. You’ll see it one day….

I really love Autumn: the crisp cool days, walking along kicking up piles of crunchy leaves, the beautiful colours of leaves and berries, the sunsets bringing brightness to often grey skies, soups and stews, casseroles and countless pots of tea. Do you love it too?

Rainbow Granny Stripe #2 finished!

Posted on December 19, 2012 by The Little Room of Rachell

It’s finished! I did the final round of the picot edging on Sunday. That’s the fourth and final blanket of the year. Phew! I think I’m going to have a break from blanket making for a bit.
Apart from one row in the middle somewhere (where I’d run out of yarn and so had to substitute another colour) the colours are in the same order as for the first blanket. They were randomly chosen and seemed to work, so I just worked from the list I made in the summer.

Have a look here if you want to see the first blanket. As before the colours for the edging were chosen by the future birthday girl.

The yarn is the Stylecraft Special DK pack that Deramores and Masons sell, there are 17 colours. It’s nice to work with and apparently washes well. I used a 4mm hook. It’s a single bed size , shown folded in half here in my pics.

If you fancy making a Granny Stripe blanket too you can find the pattern here on Lucy’s blog: Attic 24

Now I’m working on Blooming Flower cushion #2. A certain little someone has asked me a few times “Are you making my blanket and flower now?” and I’ve grinned at her. Next week she’ll get to put it on her bed, then both little girls will have rainbow brightness.

Alternative Granny

Posted on March 5, 2012 by The Little Room of Rachell

I saw this blog post and absolutely loved it…. I especially like seeing the edges. I love the little Vs on the edge of crochet! I really do!

When I tried using Jan Eaton’s target square pattern in her book I came a cropper with the 7 ch bit, the square was a wibbly mess. (Practise makes perfect and all that, but the * and ** and repeats instructions for this square are really confusing to a bear with little brain like me.)

I saw this pattern on CrochetQueen’s blog.

Then I tried to crochet my own AG square using the pattern, but got really confused; mostly about what to do with the 5 ch. There were holes where there weren’t meant to be holes!

I wailed to CrochetQueen that I needed help. She added some tutorial pics to her pattern in about a day. What a star!

How helpful is that?

The generosity of other bloggers in giving patterns, advice and free tutorials is very much appreciated. Maybe one day when I’m more proficient I can do the same? It would be nice to pass it on….

So anyway, using CrochetQueen’s pattern and photo tutorial here’s what I’ve come up with so far…

I know I’ve basically posted the same photograph again and again and again, but I do LOVE those edges!

I used a 3.5 mm hook because I’ve realised my tension on granny squares is always a bit loose and they looked too wibbly using a 4mm.

The yarn is Stylecraft Special DK from my pack bought from here.

While I waited for these photos to load I’ve had a think about trying a slight variation on the number of trebles in each round. I’m going to have a little play again later.

Yesterday afternoon I looked out of the window to this, they really make me smile….

Can you see it? :-)