Silence In The Snow

Waking up yesterday morning to a bright white quilt of snow was rather exciting. 

I stepped out onto the balcony to enjoy the fresh and crisp air and was taken by how beautiful everything was looking. A true Winter wonderland!

I couldn't let the morning pass without taking a stroll in the snow. I wrapped up nice and warm (two jumpers, along with my pyjama trousers underneath my jeans) to go and investigate my newly transformed neighbourhood. 

Snow and ice clung to everything, adding a touch of magic to the simplest of things.

The ducks were still swimming about in the lake, looking a tad chilly with snow collecting on their backs.

It was amazing to see that snow had collected everywhere...

and created some rather stunning views!
Look at the contrast between the fluffy looking snow and the dark brownish/green of the tree bark.

The little glimpses of colour that I could see amongst the snow were looking so much more vibrant than usual.
Deep greens....

and bright reds.

The colours were glorious! However, what I love most about snowfall is not only how beautiful everything looks, but the silence. The snow seems to soak up all noise. Walking around the lake, hearing only the sound of the crunching snow beneath my feet was rather lovely.

Jumping on my bike and cycling to work was done in complete silence. The roads were deserted and not a single sound could be heard. A perfect time for contemplation.

For me silence only truly happens when it snows. Even now as I sit at home writing this, I can hear the refrigerator humming.  I'm thankful for my silent walk, it cleared my head and calmed my thoughts.
Hope you're all having a lovely calm week.

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Lalylala

Hello there!

I do hope you are all having a jolly good week?

I've been keeping myself rather happily occupied this past week, with a tremendously fun pattern that I purchased two weeks ago. A pattern so unimaginably cute, that I can barely put it into words!

Shall I show you what I've been working on? 

Those of you that know your way around my blog will know that I have a page called "blogs I love". It's a page containing a small list of the blogs that I enjoy reading and visit regularly for a dose of crafty inspiration. Among the fabulous list is a rather enchanting website, Lalylala.com

I discovered Lalylala about six months ago and have been desperate to make one of these adorable dolls, created by the very talented Lydia Tresselt. 

Have a look at what I mean, all of the patterns for these dolls are available for purchase on Lydia's website, she even offers the pattern for one of them for free:

As you can see Lydia is an extremely talented designer and has clearly put a lot of work into the concept and look of her creations.
After a couple of days of trying to decide which pattern I wanted to try making (they all look rather intriguing to me), I finally took the plunge and purchased the patter for Lupo the Lamb:

Photo courtesy of Lalylala.com

I bought myself some Ököwolle by Wolle Rödel, in the colours required for the pattern, cream and brown.

I got to work with the pattern and enjoyed the easy to follow instructions that I had received on purchase.

The pattern called for a yarn that was suitable for a 2mm-2.4mm hook. The yarn I chose is a little chunkier than recommended  in the pattern and is to be used with a hook sized 6mm-7mm. I thought I'd compromise and try working it with a 3.5mm hook. 

The pattern worked up lovely and the 3.5mm hook really wasn't a problem with this yarn. After a while however, I noticed that because I had ignored the patterns recommendation and gone for a hook size larger than suggested, my doll was going to be humongous!

A little too large infact! So I decided to pull it apart and start again.

I started to remake the doll, this time using a 2mm hook. It was a struggle with the thick yarn, but the results were far better. As you can see from the picture below, the end product was turning out smaller and neater (The upper arm is with the final 2mm hook and the lower arm was my initial attempt with a 3.5mm hook.)

I persevered with the little hook and my doll grew:

I have to confess that I had one more failed attempt at this pattern before I finally got it right. I somehow managed to stitch the legs on backwards, so the joining seam of each round ran up the front of  Lupo's body. I really wasn't happy with that, so  I pulled it apart..... It definitely was a case of 3rd time lucky! two failed attempts all because of me being  silly. Definitely no fault of the pattern, as it was extremely well written, with photographs and diagrams.

I got there in the end though and after a few evenings of after work crochet, had completed the torso, legs and head. 

I added black safety eyes to the face of Lupo (purchased on ebay from a German seller)

Looking pretty dandy already!

Of course he needed his hat:

A gorgeous spiral of bobble stitches:

Some ears:

Arms:

and some ome pom pom decoration to finish him off:

I stitched him all together, and he was done!!!!

What a cutie!!

All of the little features added to create a truly special end product, such a well designed and  well written pattern.

Isn't he adorable? I'm totally smitten with him!

I can not say a bad thing about this pattern, it was fun to make, it was simple, but challenged me enough so I still had to concentrate (which I like). He turned out perfect! SUCH FUN!

I'll definitely be making more of Lydia's patterns,  I'm having a hard time deciding which one though? Possibly Carl the Cactus?....or Paul the Toadstool?......Mici the Mermaid?.......

This post has moved!
You can read an updated and revised version on our new blog.

Click here to read this post in full at it's new home!