Catching up

Doilylicious!

I know doilys are out of fashion and have been for many a year but I still like them; there, I've said it!  I don't have them all over the place nowadays but I do like to use them as a centrepiece in certain instances.

We have a small table in the lounge which is home to a large plant and I felt it needed a new doily.  It had been sitting on an embroidered teacloth all summer but I wanted a change - even though I have many doilys already I wanted to make a new one.

I rummaged around in my collection of crochet cottons and found this medium weight cotton in an off-white colour.  It's really soft, rather like dishcloth cotton only a bit thinner.  I didn't bother with a pattern and just let it progress in its own way.  I had to undo the scallop bits a few times as I kept miscalculating the number of stitches required!  It's about 17" across.

There aren't any complicated stitches in there as it's mostly dcs and trebles but I think it's quite effective.

My Old Cap

Here it is in all its shabby glory.  This cap was crocheted in the late 1970s from 2 strands of acrylic yarn (black and brown) held together and is still going strong! 

It orginally had a matching scarf which was really long and I made the set to match an afghan coat I used to love at the time.  The scarf has long since vanished but the cap has prevailed although it has been in and out of fashion throughout the years and is now confined to cool autumn/winter days when I'm out in the field with the horses.

But, it's so stretchy now that it keeps falling over my eyes and so I'm thinking about making another one.  I didn't use a pattern for this and looking at the top of it shows that I just did a spiral increasing from the centre.  I remember that the peak was made from an old Fairy Liquid bottle that I cut up and flattened under a pile of books for ages (I was always a Blue Peter girl at heart!).

Maybe this time I'll try a different pattern as there are so many fabulous designers on the web.

Running

Just ticking over now but actually feeling quite good this week.  Apparently the conditions on the Beachy Head marathon course are pretty dire thanks to all the rain we've been having so I may have to resign myself to just getting round in one piece rather than worrying about my time.

A welcome Visitor

This beautiful Painted Lady butterfly paid us a visit on one of the few dry days we've had recently.  They migrate here from Africa each year but it's only the 2nd one I've seen this year so I was very glad to see it.  I've recorded my sightings on the Butterfly Conservation website as they monitor all the different butterflies spotted here in the UK.