Sunday Sevens #220 3.5.20

April 27, 2020May 4, 2020 ~ Making Stitches ~ Leave a comment

Hello there! I forgot all about Sunday Sevens yesterday, so here it is a day late. I hope you are ok and managing with your situation right now.

Anyway, here goes:

A Sunday stroll

Last Sunday we went out for a slightly longer than usual walk. It had been a week since our last ‘proper’ walk other than a quick trip to the recycling bins or a 5 minute trip round the block. It was filled with wildlife…

Griffon vulture being chased off by seagulls

And finally a beautiful Passion flower…

Bank holiday walk

On Tuesday it was a bank holiday here in Gibraltar for Worker’s Memorial Day. After the minute’s silence at midday, we went out for a short walk up to the edge of the Upper Rock Nature Reserve. The wildflowers were a riot of colour. It was a real treat.

A first!

When I went to the supermarket last week there was some flour for bread. So I had a go at making some for what I think is the first time since being at school. It worked!

Back to the shops

I headed back to the supermarket on Saturday. Last week it was rather grey and miserable at this time, this week, it was glorious. There was a bit of a queue to get in, but it moved quickly. Shopping was done and I headed home triumphant for another week.

I was inspired by Monty Don and co on Gardener’s World on Friday night. I have now planted lettuce and nasturtiums but run out of compost for the sweet peas (they may need to wait until next year!). I’ll keep you posted on their progress.

A walk to the Alameda Gardens

We took a walk to the Alameda Botanic Gardens this weekend. It was beautiful. We had missed it and were thrilled to see it was still open despite lockdown.

Pandemonium CAL

I’m loving the purple dragonflies at the top!

I didn’t manage to finish this week’s rows until last night as I have been concentrating on my jumper WIP I mentioned last week, but here’s my progress so far. I decided it was time for a rainbow after seeing so many beautiful rainbow inspired Pandemonium blankets online 🌈🌈🌈.

Podcast news

And finally, this week I released a new episode of my Making Stitches Podcast, and this one was with my lovely blogging friend Eleonora from Coastal Crochet. You can listen to it by looking for ‘Making Stitches’ on your favourite podcast app or here. Enjoy!

That’s all for this week, I hope it’s a good one for you. Take care x

Sunday Sevens was first created by Natalie from Threads & Bobbins.

Sunday Sevens #219 26.4.20

April 26, 2020 ~ Making Stitches ~ Leave a comment

Hello again, I hope this finds you well where ever you are in the world. Sunday has come around again… it’s been a week of baking, crocheting and a new podcast has gone out into the world!

Baking part 1

Eldest made some truly scrumptious dark chocolate cookies last Sunday – they were perfection with gooey centres. Yum!

A long standing WiP

I was inspired by Black Sheep Wools this week to dig out a long-standing WIP (work in progress) and get it worked on. Well now’s as good a time as any. The challenge was to get it ‘finished by Friday’. I’m not sure which Friday, but I’m on my way.

The front of the jumper was wrong and unsalvageable it had to be frogged. I’m now almost back to where I started!

Baking part 2

We had a lockdown birthday this week. A Little Postcard turned one year older. The cake was rather nice, even though I say so myself.

A postcard of thanks

This week, households across Gibraltar received these lovely postcards to send to people we want to thank for helping during the pandemic. It’s free postage. What a lovely gesture.

A rare sight

So, I was brave and headed out to Morrisons for the first time since before lockdown yesterday. We’d managed so far with food deliveries from friends and neighbours while I was unwell and we were in isolation, and after that managed by just visiting smaller shops in town.

The thought of queuing for up to 2 hours just to get in just filled me with dread… but I decided enough was enough and I should go. And there was no queue!! What joy!

Even the wet weather couldn’t dampen my mood – hurrah! A fully stocked fridge again!

A short coastal walk

Yesterday I popped out on my own for a short walk down to Camp Bay. We hadn’t been for a couple of weeks and the Little Postcards were not interested so I had a slightly damp solo trip to the seaside for about 10 mins. It was short, but a treat nonetheless.

A new podcast is born!

If you follow Postcard from Gibraltar on Instagram, you may already know that on Friday the first episode of ‘Making Stitches’ podcast went live. It featured a chat with the two lovely ladies from the Crochet Sanctuary (Lynda & Lisa above). It was a fun chat about the Crochet Sanctuary and their current Pandemonium CAL.

If you haven’t heard it yet, you can find it on my other website makingstitchespodcast.com as well as on lots of podcast Apps including Apple Podcasts & Google Podcasts. I’d love it if you gave it a listen. 😊

Talking of the Crochet Sanctuary ladies and their Pandemonium CAL, here’s my latest progress. Really not sure at all about my colour choices – there are some stunning ones on show on Instagram and Facebook. Oh well, time will tell!

And that, I’m afraid, brings this week’s Sunday Sevens to an end. It’s been a busy old week inspite of everything. I hope it’s been a good one for you, and you are coping ok with lockdown.

Take care, and until next time, bye for now x

Sunday Sevens was first created by Natalie from Threads and Bobbins.

Sunday Sevens #218 19.4.20

April 18, 2020April 19, 2020 ~ Making Stitches ~ Leave a comment

Hello!!! I hope this finds you safe and well. We’re doing fine now I’m pleased to report. Can it really be a week since Easter Sunday? I can hardly believe it. Although we have long days at home, the weeks seem to fly by. Here’s this week’s Sunday Sevens…

Easter egg hunt

Last weekend we didn’t let the lockdown stop the Easter fun. We had an Easter egg hunt in the apartment. Eggs were secreted around the apartment, balcony and patio. It was good fun.

Spring migration

On Monday evening as we were eating our dinner I spied swirling black birthday streaming past our windows. I dashed out to get a proper look at them. I think they were black kites again.

Sunset

We haven’t had a sunset for a week or two in Sunday Sevens I don’t think, so here is Tuesday’s lovely sunset. We had some rather gloomy days this week, with grey skies and rain, so this burst of colour at the end of the day was very welcome.

Spooky storm

At 1:30 on Thursday morning as I was turning in for the night (I had been lost in a world of Netflix and crochet) I noticed the sky was flashing. I investigated by going out onto the balcony to see the most incredible silent and dry lightning storm. This photo was taken at 1:30am – it would normally be pitch black apart from the lights from the ships and across the Bay in Algeciras.

After watching it for a while I went to bed and couldn’t sleep for the noise of the rain which suddenly began hammering down on our roof. It was incredible – and still the lightning continued for a long while. It was very spooky to see the lights but no rumbling thunder.

Uno on lockdown

The inclusion of this photo is because I was asked to put it in. One of the Little Postcards’ attempt at a rainbow using Uno cards! 🌈 Incidentally out of 8 games, I lost every one!!

Evening walk

We have been good and taking our walks when it looks quiet out and about. One evening it was just before the 8 o’clock clap for key workers, and we had to hurry home to make sure that we were home in time!

On another walk we spied this lovely rainbow banner…

Pandemonium CAL

My Pandemonium blanket is growing by the week. I’m enjoying this so much as the pattern gets released twice a week 7 rows at a time. If you fancy joining in, you can find the pattern on the ‘All things Crochet Sanctuary’ Facebook page.

And that brings Sunday Sevens to an end for another week… almost. This week I launched a trailer for my brand new Podcast ‘Making Stitches Podcast’ you can find it on Spotify & Buzzsprout for now, hopefully it will appear on other podcast apps very soon. If you want to listen, you can also find it on my new website makingstitchespodcast.com

My thanks to Neil Warburton who has designed my fantastic new logo for the podcast – I think it’s lovely!

My first ‘proper’ episode will be coming out this week all being well. Thank you so much for stopping by. Stay safe and until next week, bye for now.

Sunday Sevens was first created by Natalie from Threads and Bobbins.

Sunday Sevens #217 14.4.20

April 14, 2020April 14, 2020 ~ Making Stitches ~ 2 Comments

Hello and welcome to another Sunday Sevens in lockdown… I’m rolling with the theory that all the days are merging into one another, so here’s Sunday Sevens on a Tuesday!

All clear

On Tuesday I had a call from the Gibraltar Health Authority to say that I am now officially no longer infectious. With the Dr’s blessing we went out for a walk – a short one. It was lovely to get out into the fresh air again after 3 weeks without leaving the apartment (I have spent time on the balcony though). Although it really tired me out.

There were just a handful of people down at Camp Bay below us enjoying a walk in the afternoon sun including a pint sized Superman in a red cape! Can you spot the sea swimmer too?

Rainbow of Hope

Buoyed up with the good news that we were Covid free, I thought I’d have another go at crocheting a rainbow. I followed advice to do a circle and fold it in half- it worked! It’s now up in our lounge window.

Pandemonium CAL part 2

I’m slightly worried that this blanket is going to end up looking like an explosion in a yarn factory but I’m trying to use one row of each ball of yarn I have in my stash. It’s going to be a rather eclectic colour scheme!

Foray into filming

Last week a lady I follow on Instagram put on a lesson about how to make a stop motion animation film. The lady in question is Eleanor Dobbs. She is a fabulous illustrator and is currently working on illustrating some Peter Rabbit books. Her paintings are adorable.

Anyway, I’m currently working on a project called ‘Making Stitches’ and I thought I’d have a go making a film. I hope you can see it ok – it’s my first time embedding a film in a blog post, so here goes…

Recycling at dusk

Our second trip out of the apartment came on Thursday for a rather pretty walk to the recycling bins – such glamour!

Good Friday walk

By Friday I was feeling a good bit stronger, so attempted a walk down to the seaside from our apartment. It was less than 10 minutes downhil to Camp Bay, it took a lot longer huffing and puffing back up the hill! A long sit down was required afterwards and a cool drink. This photo was taken from the pier you can see in the first photo above.

Easter egg hunt

Even though we are living through extraordinary times we thought we should still have an Easter egg hunt. Eldest took charge of hiding the eggs while I was on distraction duty. 25 tiny eggs and 5 chocolate farm animals were secreted on the balcony, around the apartment and on the patio. It was great fun and amazingly there was no falling out. It was a huge success.

I hope you are doing ok wherever you are reading this and that you have had a good Easter weekend

Sunday Sevens was first created by Natalie from Threads and Bobbins.

Until next time, stay safe & well. X

Sunday Sevens #216 5.4.20

April 5, 2020April 5, 2020 ~ Making Stitches ~ Leave a comment

Hello, I hope this finds you safe and well. It’s been another funny week. I feel like I’ve not really done anything and was surprised I managed to find seven photos from the last seven days to share with you. Here goes…

Swab time

Last Sunday morning I was phoned and asked to come to the drive through testing for Covid-19. I had phoned the helpline on Saturday – 10 days after calling the first time to report symptoms and after being told to self-isolate which we had done. It was a bit of a highlight being able to leave the apartment albeit for about 25 minutes in total.

It wore me out though. I needed to go back to bed afterwards to have a sleep! I haven’t had my usual energy at all.

Sunset

No Sunday Sevens is complete without a sunset photo don’t you think? This was last Sunday’s view from the balcony.

Whoops, looks like I started another blanket…

So, last week I spotted that a new CAL or crochet-along had begun to be completed while we are all under lockdown. It’s been put together by the lovely people behind the Crochet Sanctuary and is called ‘Pandemonium’. If you would like to join in, you can find the pattern (which is released twice weekly) on the ‘All things Crochet Sanctuary’ Facebook group.

Don’t look too closely though… I did it a bit wrong and had to unravel slightly. 😉

Rainbows of hope

I thought I would jump on the rainbow bandwagon this week (this lockdown has helped me rediscover my crojo – had you noticed?). I saw loads of lovely patterns online for crocheted rainbows but thought I’d have a go at doing my own. After two failed attempts at an ‘arc’ which were wonky (and yes, I know I could just do a circle and fold it in half) I gave up and did a little flag instead.

Home learning

We have been very fortunate in that the Little Postcards have all had online lessons this week. The teachers here in Gibraltar have done a great job keeping their pupils engaged through online teaching. However before the lessons kicked in, Littlest had a go at growing carrot tops. They are coming on rather well. They will be given to Diamond, our house rabbit, for a treat once they’re a bit bigger.

Pandemonium Part 2

The second part of the Pandemonium CAL was released mid week – what a treat to look forward to! I’m really enjoying it.

It’s finished – at last!

In case you missed my post yesterday about it, I finished my Catalan Bay blanket this week. It’s only taken a year 🙈. I had to wait until Friday for the sun to come out to take a photo!

So, there you have it, another week on lockdown. As for the test results, they came back positive for Covid-19. I suspected as much, but I felt a lot better knowing for sure. It’s not been nice, but I am feeling extremely lucky to have had a relatively mild dose in the scheme of things. I am thankfully now on the mend, although I don’t think I’ll be fit for climbing the Med Steps again for a while even if it was allowed!

For now we remain in self-isolation but hope to be able to get out of the apartment sometime next week for a government sanctioned walk once we know the household is completely clear of symptoms. It’s strange how the things we took for granted just a few weeks ago now seem so precious.

We have some very good friends and neighbours who have delivered shopping and medicine to our door. Thank you so much for that – we’re very grateful.

Gibraltar has risen to the coronavirus challenge. Whilst we haven’t been able to witness the empty streets other than on our car journey to the drive-through test facility, I have watched the daily governmental briefings and seen news reports about the new Nightingale hospital facility at the Europa Point sports complex, heard about the volunteers who have come forward to help in many ways and joined in the clapping and appreciation for all our key workers at 8pm each night.

Thank you to all of you who have contributed to the effort, your work is very much appreciated.

Until next week, stay safe & stay at home x

Sunday Sevens was first created by Natalie from Threads and Bobbins.

A Catalan Bay Blanket Story

April 4, 2020 ~ Making Stitches ~ 9 Comments

Once upon a time (about a year ago) a lovely crochet designer called Eleonora published a crochet-along (or CAL) pattern for a new blanket called ‘Changing Tides’. The previous year, Eleonora had published another seaside themed blanket on her Coastal Crochet blog called the ‘Seaside Stash Buster’ which I joined in with and created my Sandy Bay Blanket.

Even though I had approximately 7,248 other crochet projects on the go at the time (well not quite, but it felt like it), I couldn’t resist having a go at Eleonora’s new project, and so it began…

Just like the previous year, Eleonora posted helpful You Tube videos along the way to help with tricky stitches and rows and soon had us all crocheting like pros!

I set off like a bull at a gate and didn’t take the time to plan what my colour choices would be, and decided (resonably early on) that I didn’t like what I had done so started again…

My project came with me on holiday…

…and before I knew it, I had a rather nice ‘changing tides’ sea developing in front of me. The name ‘changing tides’ is very appropriate because at the end of each row you turn your work and travel back the way you came in much the same way the waves do as they land on the beach.

It even made it down to the beach…

…those bobbles are rather time consuming, so I did a spot of bobbling on the bus…

…and still the tide came in.

And look … it even featured on Eleonora’s Instagram feed on one of her weekly round-ups! That made my day I can tell you.

By this point I felt that perhaps it was time to think about something other than just sea and waves…

And inspiration hit me. Last year’s blanket was based on Sandy Bay.

Why not make a blanket based on another of Gibraltar’s lovely beaches…. Catalan Bay?

The brightly coloured houses gave me lots of excuses to use some different vibrant colours.

But what colour should I opt for first? What about the aptly named ‘shrimp’?

Shrimp was just the ticket for another row of bobbles and they could represent the buoys which hold up the nets in the family swimming area.

It felt good to see a pop of colour against all that blue. The buoys were finished during a short break in Spain while sitting under the cool of some trees.

And again, my blanket made it into one of Eleonora’s weekly round ups! What a thrill.

Time for more waves, and then finally dry land and a beach!

Then came the sandy bobbles, a terracotta coloured sea wall, and those brightly coloured houses which populate Catalan Bay. Behind the houses came the green vegetation which then gave way to the grey of the upper Rock and finally the sky and wispy Levanter clouds forming on the crest of the Rock.

I tell you what, those different colours were a bit fiddly and you do not want to see the loose ends that were on the back!

It’s taken an inordinately long amount of time to get to the end, but get to the end I have! It’s time for the big unveiling!

Last year, I was able to do my big ta-dah moment on Sandy Bay beach itself. This year, because of our current situation in lockdown because of the Coronavirus, my big ta-dah is just having to happen on my balcony… at least the sun’s shining!

Thank you very much Eleonora for yet another fabulous crochet-along pattern. Thank goodness I managed to get this one finished before you launch this year’s blanket (just a week before I believe!). The online community which was formed because of these blankets is truly wonderful. It’s so important to feel like you are part of a community, especially at times like this.