A Postcard from March 2025

March 31, 2025 ~ Making Stitches ~ 2 Comments

Hello there! Blimey, the end of March already…. I may be sounding a bit repetitive with these monthly postcards but where does the time go? The year is a quarter of the way through already and it’s showing no sign of slowing down!

It may be going fast, but March was a beautiful month for us here in my little corner of the world. We were so lucky to have quite a few beautiful bright sunshiny days.

Spring did its thing!

My word, the world does look a better place when the sun is in the sky! I really do love this time of year, the end of the long dark nights and cold weather begins as the spring flowers pop up and the acid green new leaves begin to appear on the trees.

I find, at the minute, that the weeks are so full of school, work, after school activities and rushing and then the weekends also seem full of engagements, football matches and other things. It’s quite hard to be able to take a moment to stop and truly enjoy the beauty of the world around me. I luckily had a few short occasions to do this this month. First of all (top picture) was when I went to collect Youngest from an event in Cheshire. As I sat waiting for him to finish, I enjoyed the surroundings of fields and trees.

Then, one day when it was just me and son number 2, we took the chance to head for one of our favourite walks along the banks of the River Mersey near us. It was a beautiful day – the kind when you are reminded how lovely it is to feel the warmth of the sun on your back.

In the middle of our walk, we stumbled upon this lovely bunch of daffs bobbing about in the sunshine.

Clear bright days also often lead to lovely sunsets. Quite often I’m in the midst of cooking dinner when the sun is setting at present, but one evening, we had a parent’s evening at school, and as we came out we were greeted by this lovely sky!

What’s been on my hook lately

I felt compelled to make this Ukrainian inspired sunflower granny square after watching the news on the day of President Zelensky’s visit to the Oval Office. I was appalled at what I saw and felt utterly helpless. Hooking up a granny square doesn’t actually do anything in the grand scheme of things, but it made me feel a teeny bit better.

Sticking with the sunflower theme, we had a sustainability event at work this month and we were giving away packets of sunflower seeds to guests as they left. I thought the basket they were in needed a bit of decoration, so had a go at making this sunflower and bumble bee.

Crochet on the go…

There’s no such thing as a waste of time while sitting in a waiting room if you have a project to keep you company! I’m working on a cardigan as a birthday gift for my lovely Mum. As it was getting close to the deadline (ie: the birthday) I was taking my crochet with me everywhere.

I’m afraid to say I have missed the deadline – what was done was wrapped so she could open it, with the promise that it will be finished soon!

Spring Cleaning was the theme for a brilliant March Crochet Day at the Crochet Sanctuary at Cranage Hall Hotel in Cheshire. I do love my crochet days with the lovely folk at the Crochet Sanctuary!

I made a waistcoat stitch crochet basket and some waffle stitch crochet wash cloths.

A cuppa & a catch up

It had been about 10 months since the last time I’d had the chance to catch up with my lovely yarny friend Christine from Winwick Mum. I forgot to take any pictures of our time at Black Sheep Wools when we met other than our two tea cups – so you’ll have to take my word for it! It was lovely seeing her again and hearing all her news.

An afternoon with some footballing legends

Also this month, I got the chance to take my lovely Dad to the Lowry in Salford for an afternoon with some Manchester United legends. It was a great show with lots of jokes and laughter about the old days in the 1980s and 1990s at Old Trafford.

Podcast news

In March, there have been two episodes of Making Stitches Podcast. The first one featured a chat I had with a pair of friends, Jenni Smith & Kay Walsh, who have written a book called Menopause Makes filled with beautiful sewing projects to help ease menopause symptoms and get people sewing. You can find out more information about this episode here.

Next up was a chat I had with Justine Robson, a crochet teacher and all round fabulously creative person. Justine started the Carry on Crafting Festival after having a dream about putting one on! She is also the current custodian of Little Box of Crochet. You can find out all about our chat here.

Making Stitches 2025 CAL March Square

I decided to go for spring flowers as the theme of the Making Stitches 2025 CAL square this month. They give me such optimism for the future and the warmer days to come. Plus the colours are stunning!

I was thrilled to see that again, literally within hours of publishing the pattern, some March squares began to appear in my Instagram feed. You have no idea how happy it makes me to see other people making my patterns and enjoying them too. Thank you to everyone who has joined in with the CAL so far!

I will be sharing Part 4 tomorrow evening, I do hope you like it when you see it!!

That’s all for this time. Thank you for stopping by and I hope April is kind to you!

Lindsay x

Making Stitches 2025 CAL Part Three : March

March 1, 2025March 2, 2025 ~ Making Stitches ~ Leave a comment

Hello and welcome to March! Happy St David’s Day and happy first day of meteorological spring! What better time than to crochet ourselves some spring flowers?

The days are getting longer in my part of the world, you can see the leaf buds beginning to form on the trees and there are plenty of spring flowering bulbs around. Crocus seem to be at their best right now and my first daffodil flower opened yesterday just in time for this pattern release! March to me, says spring, early spring no doubt, but spring nonetheless!

As with the previous two squares for the Making Stitches 2025 CAL, the colours I have used are not prescriptive. I have made them using my own stash of Stylecraft Special DK yarns and I will include the names and numbers of the shades I’ve used in case you want to replicate what I have done exactly, but you can use any yarn you like. The only thing you need to do is make sure it’s all the same weight, ie all DK or all Aran or whatever yarn you choose, and if you are making the whole project along with me, make sure all your squares are made using the same weight and the same size of crochet hook to make sure they all measure the same size so they can be joined together easily at the end.

So, without further ado, here goes…

2025 Making Stitches CAL Part Three : March – Spring Flowers Square

This pattern is meant to be a stash buster project however, if you would like to use the same yarn as I did, here’s what I used to make this square: Stylecraft Special DK in (A) Clementine (1853), (B) Citron (1263), (C) Meadow (1065), (D) Violet (1277).

Abbreviations (in UK terms): blo = work in back loop only, ch = chain, dc = double crochet, dtr = double treble crochet, flo = work in front loop only, fyo = final yarn over, htr = half treble crochet, mc = magic circle / magic ring, rep = repeat, slst = slip stitch, st = stitch, tr = treble crochet, trtr = triple treble.
Tension: Tension isn’t important for this project as long as you maintain the same tension throughout the project so all your squares are the same size. Once blocked this square will measure approximately 20cm x 20cm. The stitch count of the final round of each finished square will be 120 plus corner chain spaces.

NOTE: The floral buds of the ‘tulip stitch’ in Round 9 are made by making 5tr into the centre of the V stitch created in Round 8. Once you complete the 5th tr, take your hook out of the working loop and insert it into the top of the 1st tr from front to back, then back through the working loop and close the bud with a slst.

Making Stitches 2025 CAL March Square creation — Once the 5th tr is complete remove your hook from the working loop

Central Daffodil motif:

Using Yarn A, make a MC.

Round 1 Ch2 (not counted as a st throughout), 12 tr into MC. Slst into top of ch2 to close the round. (12tr)

Round 2 Ch1, 2dc in every st around. Slst into top of ch1. (24dc)

Round 3A (Trumpet) Ch1, working into the flo, 1htr into every st around. Slst into top of ch1. (24htr)

Round 4A (Frill) (1dc & 1htr into first st, slst into next st)rep around. Fasten off. This will result in a frill with 12 ‘lumps’.

Round 3B (Petals) Join Yarn B into blo of one of the sts in Round 2. (Ch6, 1dc in 2nd ch from hook, 1htr in next ch, 1tr in next ch, 1trtr in next ch, 1trtr in last ch. Miss next 3 blo in Round 2 and Slst into blo of 5th st). Rep around until you have 5 petals ending with a slst into the same blo where you began. Fasten off.

Making Stitches 2025 CAL March Process photo — Round 3B First 6ch

Round 3C (Beginning the square) Join Yarn C into one of the back loops of Round 2, ch2, (2tr in blo of 1st st, 1tr in blo of next st) rep around – making sure you work into all 24 sts even the ones where the petals are attached with a slst. Slst into top of 2ch. (36tr)

Round 4 Ch2, (2tr in first st, 1tr into next 2 sts) rep around. Slst into top of ch1. (48tr)

Round 5 Ch1, (2dc in first st, 1dc into next 3 sts) rep around. Slst into top of ch1. (60dc)

Round 6 (It’s time to square your circle) Ch1, (1dc in next 3 sts, 1htr in next 2 sts, 1tr in next 2 sts, 1dtr + ch2 + 1dtr in next st, 1tr in next 2 sts, 1htr in next 2 sts, 1dc in next 3 sts) rep around. Slst into top of ch1 and fasten off. (64 sts)

At this stage you can neatly sew the petals of the daffodil in place attaching them to the background square. I used the yellow yarn and very small stitches so they aren’t obvious. Once they are sewn into place and stop curling up, they look much more like a daffodil!

Round 7 Join Yarn A in any st. Ch1, 1dc into every st around and work 1dc 2ch 1dc into every corner space. Slst into top of ch1 and fasten off. (72 dc)

Round 8 Join Yarn C in a corner space, ch5 + 1tr into that corner space, *miss 1st st, 1tr + 1ch + 1tr into 2nd st, (miss 2 sts, 1tr + 1ch + 1tr in next st) repeat along the first side to the corner space, 1tr 2ch 1tr into the corner space, repeat from * on next 3 sides (missing the final 1tr 2ch 1tr as this has already been formed at the start of the round) slst into the 3rd of the starting 5ch. Fasten off. There should be 6 V stitches on each side plus one in each corner by the end of the round.

Round 9 Join Yarn D in the centre of the first V stitch of a side created in Round 8 (on the right as you look at it) . Ch2 & 5tr into that V stitch. Once you have competed the 5th tr, remove the hook from the working loop and insert it into the top of the 1st tr from front to back, then back through the working loop and close the top of the flower bud with a slst. *Ch2 and make the next flower bud in the next V stitch (5tr, remove hook from loop, insert it into top of first tr from front to back and then back through the working loop. Close the bud with a slst. Ch2) repeat until you have 6 buds along the side and you have reached the corner space. Work another flower bud as before, ch4, and make a 2nd flower bud into the same corner space V stitch. Repeat the process from * along the three remaining sides of the square. Slst into the top of the first bud and fasten off. (32 buds)

(I am aware that the photos below don’t show the row beginning the V stitch I suggested above – please ignore that fact and stick to the written instructions!)

Round 10 Join Yarn C in a corner space. Ch1, (2dc 2ch 2dc into the corner space, work 1dc into the top of the first bud, work 2dc into the ch space, repeat along the side with 1dc in each bud and 2dc into each ch space). Rep on each side and slst into the top of the 1st dc. Fasten off. (104 dc)

Round 11 Join Yarn A in any st, ch1 and 1dc into every st around working 1dc 2ch 1dc into every corner space. Slst into top of ch1 and fasten off. (112 dc)

Round 12 Join Yarn B into any st, ch1 and 1dc into every st around working 1dc 2ch 1dc into every corner space. Slst into top of ch1 and fasten off. (120 dc).

Your square is complete now. Weave in the ends and block it to make a nice neat square.

You can alter the colours you choose for the outer rows

I chose purple for the flower bud row with the intention that they should look like crocus flowers, but you could use any colour you want to – I think the combination of rounds 8 & 9 are know as a ‘tulip stitch’ and they do look rather like tulips. As tulips come in all shades of pink, red, purple, yellow, white and even black you can go wild!

It was so lovely over the past few weeks to see lots of February ‘All You Need is Love’ squares appearing on my phone – a few of which appeared within 24 hours of publishing the pattern which utterly blew me away! If you are joining in and making a March square, please do use the hashtag #MakingStitches2025CAL so I can see if any ‘Spring Flower’ squares start blooming all over the place!

Some of the February ‘All You Need is Love’ Squares which popped up on my phone during February!

If you have been inspired by my daffodil square design and fancy hooking up some more daffs, you might be interested in my Up the Garden Path patterns for Dave & Cariad. You can find a free pattern for Dave on my blog here or a paid-for pattern for this lovely pair over in my Etsy shop here.

Whatever you’re up to this month, I hope it is filled with creativity and spring flowers for you.

Enjoy!

Lindsay x

🌷🌼🌷🌼🌷🌼🌷🌼🌷🌼🌷🌼🌷🌼🌷🌼🌷

The 3 Making Stitches 2025 CAL blocks so far…

A Postcard from February 2025

February 28, 2025 ~ Making Stitches ~ Leave a comment

Hello there! I do hope February has treated you well. I have had a great month, and for once actually have some photograph worthy updates for you! Here goes…

London calling

The view from Greenwich Observatory towards the City of London

I started the month with a fabulous overnight getaway to London. It was courtesy of Eldest who, for my Christmas and birthday presents paid for me to stay in a hotel near his student hall of residence and booked tickets to take me to see Mama Mia! What a lovely boy – I am one very lucky Mum!

One of the joys of train travel (assuming they are on time and you can get a seat) is the uninterrupted craft time…

Once I’d arrived down in London, we had a bit of time to kill, so Eldest took me for a walk around his neighbourhood, which is in the Shoreditch/Islington area.

Although it’s very much an inner city area, there were lots of quiet back streets to explore and wander around.

I had to stop and take a photo of this, I like the sound of the ‘Worshipful Company of Haberdashers’!

After our wander, we headed back to base so I could get changed ready for our big night out. First stop was a delicious pizza for an early tea before hopping on the tube towards the West End…..

My word, I did enjoy the show. I think I must be one of just a handful of people who haven’t seen any of the Mama Mia films. I have seen bits of them but never the whole way through, so I didn’t know the storyline at all.

It was so good and really interesting to see how the ABBA songs were used to tell the story. Eldest made a great choice getting me this present – it was perfect.

On Sunday morning, we woke up to brilliant blue skies. It was the perfect day for an explore, so we hopped onto the Tube and then took the DLR out to Greenwich. First stop was a wander to the bank of the River Thames and a quick Look at the Cutty Sark before heading towards Greenwich Park.

It was such a beautiful morning that there were loads of people out in the park and it took a bit of negotiating to get to the top of the hill to see the Greenwich Observatory.

We really were spoiled to see it on such a beautiful day. That stunning blue sky was the perfect backdrop to the skyline.

After getting an alfresco cup of coffee sitting in the sunshine by the Observatory, we made our way back down into the town centre.

Back down at the River Thames, it looked more like August than the first weekend in February – it was so beautiful! I really was lucky in so many ways during my 24 hours away from home!

We decided to take an alternative route back to the hotel and walked under the Thames through the pedestrian tunnel!

Birthday celebrations continued…

Just two weeks on from my belated birthday celebration in London, I was taken out for another birthday celebration (I could get used to this!). My lovely brother and his wife told me on by big day back in January, that they wanted to take me out for lunch as my gift.

We went to Dishoom in Manchester for the most beautiful lunch. It was such fun and the food was out of this world. The building where the restaurant is based is stunning too.

After lunch, we called in to this Mancunian institution – Peveril of the Peak. Inside are photos of famous visitors to the pub including Robbie Coltrane and the Gallagher brothers.

I can’t remember the last time I went to the pub in the afternoon! It felt like being a student again!

Loving the longer days…

One of the great things about this time of year is the fact that the days are getting longer. I took this photo on the first day when I got home from work before it was dark! It’s the simple things which make all the difference!

Spring is around the corner

Just this week I went out for a walk on an afternoon off work. The sun shone brightly and lit up this fantastic display of white and purple crocuses – just stunning!

An evening with the News Agents

Tower of Light lit in the colours of the Ukraine flag

I was blessed with two weekends with Eldest this month. He had a week off lectures owing to a ‘reading week’ and came home for a few days to see me and his brothers. On Monday evening (thanks to a last minute booking on my part when I heard he was coming home and it coincided with the show) we went to see the News Agents Live at the Bridgewater Hall in central Manchester.

We both have a fascination with current affairs and politics and love to listen to the News Agents podcast on weekdays. When they announced that they were coming to Manchester I had toyed with the idea of going but discounted it as it was on a ‘school night’, however when Eldest said he’d be here and the dates coincided, it felt like it was meant to be, so I booked two of the last few tickets just days beforehand.

We took the tram into the city centre and walked the short distance from the tram stop to the venue past the Tower of Light which was lit in the colours of the Ukraine flag to mark the unfortunate 3rd anniversary of the Russian invasion and subsequent on-going war. It felt rather fitting to see it on the way into a highly political evening of chat which was rather obviously dominated by conversations about Putin, Zelensky and most notably Donald Trump.

Our view as we waited for the show to start

We really enjoyed ourselves, it was a great show and very thought provoking on so many levels. I would highly recommend it to anyone who might be thinking of going.

As we left the venue and began our walk back to the tram, Eldest exclaimed that he had just seen Emily Maitlis at the rear of the building (her bright turquoise dress had caught his eye) then we spotted Lewis Goodall who was chatting with people who were leaving too. Eldest nearly died of embarrassment, but I went along to say how much we had enjoyed the show as well as the podcast and got a celebrity selfie (please ignore the double chin – I didn’t exactly catch the right angle!!).

Not my best angle but a thrill nonetheless to meet Lewis Goodall!

Making Stitches 2025 CAL February Square

The All You Need Is Love February Square

Love seems to be in the air a lot during February, so this month’s square for the Making Stitches 2025 CAL had to involve a heart. It was so thrilling to see squares appearing on my Instagram account literally 24 hours after I published the pattern – wow! Thank you so much to everyone who has taken part in the Crochet-Along so far.

❤️Some of the brilliant February Squares out in the wild! ❤️

If you fancy tagging along, please do, the patterns will be living on my blog for free (there’s a section now in the main menu where you can find links to the CAL patterns so far). It doesn’t matter if you didn’t start in January – a few new faces appeared online this month and have caught up. You don’t even need to do all of the squares – just the ones you feel like! If you do make a square and decide to share it on social media – please use the hashtag #MakingStitches2025CAL so I can see your square!

I’m off shortly to put the finishing touches to the March square pattern ready for it being released tomorrow!

And finally…

Making Stitches Podcast is back! The brand new episode went live this morning and features a chat I had with Felix Ford from KNITSONIK. You can listen to it here.

In it we chatted about Felix’s work with sound, colour, yarn and stranded colourwork knitting as well as her Masters project which involved making knitted cosies for walking sticks which diverted conversations away from disability and towards appreciation of creativity instead. It also features a few snippets of Felix’s musical compositions too. Please do give it a listen!

That’s all for this time – I’m quite pleased I’ve been able to share so much with you for a change! February may be the shortest month, but it’s been a busy one – I can’t promise my postcard from March will be as exciting!

Thanks for stopping by!

Lindsay x

Making Stitches 2025 CAL Part Two : February

February 1, 2025February 2, 2025 ~ Making Stitches ~ Leave a comment

Hello there! And hello February! A new month can mean only one thing round these parts, and that’s a new square for the Making Stitches 2025 CAL.

Allow me to introduce you to the ‘All You Need is Love’ square! It’s a pretty straightforward pattern following a similar route as the January snowflake square. It begins in the round, forms a central motif and turns into a square later on.

I really couldn’t decide what colours to choose, so I went for all of them (almost)! This pattern is written following the same colours as this rainbow themed square below, but it can be created using as few as 2 different shades of yarn. I can’t wait to see what colours everyone uses when some February squares get shared on social media!

Making Stitches 2025 CAL February All You Need is Love Square

Are you ready? Well here goes….

2025 CAL Part Two: February – All You Need is Love Square

When trying to think of something to feature in February’s square which was connected to the month in question, I did consider a few options, snowdrops, camellias even, but I am afraid the hearts won out. This square is inspired by love, love for the special people & things in our lives, family, friends, partners, pets & even crochet! So please forgive me for opting for the obvious solution for February, however I didn’t necessarily mean to celebrate romantic love and St Valentine’s Day, but love in general – it’s a wonderful thing you know.

This pattern is meant to be a stash buster project however, if you would like to use the same yarn as I did, here’s what I used to make this square: Stylecraft Special DK in (A) Matador (1010) for the central heart motif, (B) Silver (1203) for the background colour, (C) Graphite (1063), (D) Citron (1263), (E) Clementine (1853), (F) Violet (1277), (G) Aster (1003), (H) Grass Green (1821).

I also used a 4mm crochet hook, scissors, stitch markers, and a yarn needle.

Abbreviations (in UK terms): blo = work in back loop only, ch = chain, dc = double crochet, dtr = double treble crochet, flo = work in front loop only, fyo = final yarn over, htr = half treble crochet, mc = magic circle / magic ring, MHC = Mini Heart Cluster (see NOTE below), rep = repeat, slst = slip stitch, st = stitch, tr = treble crochet.

Tension: Tension isn’t important for this project as long as you maintain the same tension throughout the project so all your squares are the same size. Once blocked this square will measure approximately 20cm x 20cm. The stitch count of the final round of each finished square will be 120 plus corner chain spaces.

NOTE: To make a ‘Mini heart cluster’ or an ‘MHC’ miss the next st in the round, and work str 2ch 2tr into the following st ie: [2tr + 2ch + 2tr]. To make a smooth colour change, change to the colour of the heart in the final yarn over of the previous st and change back to the background colour with the final yarn over of the last tr of the cluster. Remember to leave the its immediately before and after the mini heart cluster unworked so the cluster can spread open like a heart.

You can make the square in a variety of colourways

Heart

Using Yarn A, make a MC.

Round 1 Ch2 (not counted as a st throughout), 12 tr into MC. Slst into top of ch2 to close the round. (12tr)

Round 2A In flo, slst 1tr, 4dtr, 2tr, 2htr, 2dc, 1htr 1tr 1dtr ch2 slst into 1st ch, 1dtr 1tr 1htr, 2dc, 2htr, 2tr, 4dtr, 1tr 1slst.

[To be clear; working in the front loop only, make 1slst & 1tr into 1st st, 4dtr into 2nd st, 2tr into 3rd st, 2htr into 4th st, 2dc into 5th st, 1htr + 1tr + 1dtr + ch2 + slst into 1st ch all worked into 6th st and so on around the 12 front loops of Round 1]

Round 2B In blo of Round 1, 2dc into every st around marking 1st with a stitch marker so it’s easy to spot when you reach the end. Slst into top of first st. Fasten off and break yarn. (24 dc)

Round 3A [This is the 3rd & final Round of the heart motif] Rejoin Yarn A into the top of 1st st of Round 2A. In next st make 2tr, then 3tr, 2tr, 2htr, 1htr + 1dc, 1dc in next 8 sts, 1dc 2ch slst into 1st ch 1dc, 1dc in next 8 sts, 1dc + 1htr, 2htr, 2tr, 3tr, 2tr, slst. Fasten off and weave in the end.

Square

Round 3B Join Yarn B into any st of Round 2B and ch2 (does not count as a st) 2tr, 1tr rep around. Slst into top of ch2 to close round. (36 tr)

Round 4 Ch2, 2tr, 1tr in next 2 sts around. Slst into top of ch2 to close round. (48 tr)

Round 5 Ch1, 2dc, 1dc in next 3 sts, rep around. Slst into top of ch1 to close round. Fasten off and break yarn. (60 dc)

Round 6 It’s useful to mark the first dc with a stitch marker so you know where to stop! Join Yarn B in the st directly above the centre of the heart. Ch1, 1dc in next 3 sts, (1htr in next 2 sts, 1tr in next 2 sts, 1dtr 2ch dtr in next st to form corner of square, 1tr in next 2 sts, 1htr in next 2 sts, 1dc in next 6dc) three times, 1htr in next 2 sts, 1tr in next 2 sts, 1dtr 2ch 1dtr, 1tr in next 2 sts, 1htr in next 2 its, 1dc in next 3 sts. Slst into top of first ch1 to close the round. (64 sts)

The start of Round 6 starting above the centre of the heart

Round 7 Join Yarn C into any st, ch1, 1dc into every stitch around and work 1dc 2ch 1dc into each corner space. Slst into top of ch1 to close round. (Each side will have 18 sts – 72dc in total)

Round 8 Join Yarn B into any st, 2ch, 1htr into every st around working 1htr 2ch 1htr into each corner space. Slst into top of 2ch to close round. Fasten off and break yarn. (Each side will have 20 htr – 80 htr in total).

Weave in the ends and sew the heart into place onto the backing square using small stitches in Yarn A so they aren’t visible.

Round 9 Join Yarn B in the last st before the top right hand corner, ch2 & 1htr into that st, 1htr ch2 1htr into the corner space. 1htr into next 3 sts changing to Yarn D with the fyo of 3rd htr, miss the next st and make a mini heart cluster by working [2tr + 1ch + 2tr] into next st changing back to Yarn B in fyo of 4th tr, miss next st, with Yarn B 1htr in next 3 sts changing to Yarn E with fyo of 3rd htr, make another MHC (the section in square brackets above) changing to Yarn B with fyo of 4th tr, miss next st, and with Yarn B work 1htr into next 3 sts changing to Yarn A with fyo of the 3rd htr, miss next st and work a MHC into next st, miss following st and work 1htr into next 3 sts, work 1htr 2ch 1htr into corner space and repeat the process down the left hand side of the square making your MHCs in Yarns F, G & H to follow the rainbow pattern. Once you reach the bottom edge of the square repeat the pattern as worked along the top edge and on the right hand side, repeat the pattern as worked on the left hand side. Slst into top of ch2 to close round (56htr &12 mini heart clusters).

If you don’t want to have multi coloured hearts around the border of your square you can use just one contrasting colour. Change between the background and the heart colour in the fyos as detailed above and catch the non-working yarn within your stitches to save breaking the yarn and having lots of ends to weave in later.

Round 10 Please read the instructions of this round before starting! Using Yarn B, ch2, 1htr into every htr around, and 1htr 2ch 1htr in each corner space. When you reach the sts above a MHC work 1ch to jump over the first 2 tr of the cluster, work 1dc into the ch space in the middle of the cluster and 1ch to jump over the 2nd 2 tr of the cluster before working 1htr into the htrs between the MHCs. Slst into the top of the first 2ch to close the round. (On each side: 16htr, 6ch & 3dc)

Making the 1dc into the ch space in middle of a MHC

Round 11 Ch1, 1dc around into every st and ch spaces above each MHC & working 1dc 2ch 1dc into each corner. Slst into top of ch1 to close the round. Fasten off and break yarn. (26 dc on each side and 104 dc in total)

All You Need is Love Square in Rainbow colour way

Round 12 With Yarn C, join into any st, ch1 and 1dc into every st around, working 1dc 2ch 1dc into every corner space. Slst into top of first st to close round. (28dc on each side and 112 dc in total).

Round 13 Ch1 and 1dc into every st around, working 1dc 2ch 1dc into every corner space. Slst into top of first st and fasten off, weave in all the ends. (30 dc on each side ad 120 st in total).

It was so lovely over the past few weeks to see lots of January snowflake squares being texted to me from friends and appearing on social media. If you are joining in and making a February square, please do use the hashtag #MakingStitches2025CAL so I can see if any ‘All You Need is Love’ squares make an appearance!

Enjoy!

Lindsay x

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤍🩷🩵🤎🖤

A Postcard from January 2025

January 31, 2025 ~ Making Stitches ~ Leave a comment

Hello there! I hope you’re doing ok.

I know lots of people complain that January is a month that lasts forever, but I can’t believe how fast it’s whizzed by in my world. It doesn’t seem 5 minutes since we were celebrating Christmas & New Year and yet here we are on the cusp of a new month.

I’m afraid that although it’s been very busy for me, with work and non-photogenic things, it’s been rather uneventful in bloggable tit-bits, but here goes…

Feeling the cold

We started the month (and year) with a rather cold spell of weather. After a very damp and grey December it was to change. Although it was cold, the bright blue skies one the days we had them were very welcome!

Some local schools were closed due to snow and ice (for those who are used to heavy snow, I’m sure this will sound rather pathetic – but it was quite a big deal for us!).

One day, I was forced to work from home as heavy snow on the morning commute caused such chaos, I ended up turning round and going back home after taking 45 minutes to drive less than a mile!

The snow wasn’t that deep for us, it just fell at the busiest time of the day and caused gridlock! I was grateful to be in a position to work from home next to a toasty warm radiator that day!

I loved seeing these ice crystals on the roof of my car!

Birthday fun

I celebrated my birthday this month, which was rather nice. I took the day off work (I received these lovely flowers from my colleagues too). On the day itself, I had a really nice lunch out at a pub in Cheshire with my Mum & Dad. It was a real treat!

I am also just about to enjoy a very special birthday/Christmas present from Eldest this weekend – I can’t wait. It involves a trip down to London to see him too. You’ll have to wait for the Postcard from February to see that one!

Making Stitches 2025 CAL

On a bit of a whim, towards the end of December I decided to take the plunge and start hosting a CAL or crochet-along.

❄️ A flurry of January snowflake squares ❄️

I have taken part in CALs in the past – particularly when I was a full-time stay-at-home Mum. The little bit of crochet time carved out every now and again around Mum duties worked wonders for my sanity back then. There was the thrill of waiting for the next section of a pattern to be released, the fun of being part of a community of other crocheters working on the same thing at the same time AND the pride at the end of it all of competing a project – usually a blanket, which, if I’d been working on it alone would probably have ended up in the eternal WIP pile!

A year or so ago, I fancied the idea of trying to host a CAL myself. By then, I had designed patterns for my own online shop and for a couple of magazines, so I knew I ‘could’ write a pattern, but could I manage a CAL?

In the intervening years since my first participation in CALs, my life has become somewhat busier than before. There are less disturbed nights and needing to be in three places at once, but that’s been replaced by parenting teenagers and a young adult and a paid job. My days of being able to keep up with a weekly CAL are gone (temporarily I hope).

So, hosting a weekly CAL was off the cards for the time being and that dream was parked until my next holiday when I forget how busy life is and start thinking about all the things I could be doing! But what about a monthly CAL instead? If I could come up with a pattern on a monthly basis, that wouldn’t be so hard would it?!

There’s only one way to find out – just do it!

I felt a bit silly launching my January snowflake square on New Year’s Day when the weather was warmer than you might expect – it felt more like March than January. But lo and behold, just a few days later, snow began to fall in Manchester and I was able to dash out into the back garden and take some photos of my January square in the snow – vindication for opting for a snowflake as my motif for January!

Also, when I first said I was doing this CAL, I really didn’t know whether I was just throwing it out into the ether and no one would be interested. I was really pleasantly surprised to hear back from people who said they wanted to join along too. In some cases they told me they were pleased it was a monthly CAL rather than a weekly one because, like me, they struggle to keep up with a weekly one. What good luck that turned out to be!

Slowly throughout January, I began to see January snowflake squares popping up on Instagram! I can’t tell you how happy that made me feel! Friends of mine who have been crocheting for years, people I only know online and even some people I had previously never heard of said they were joining in! What fun!

You can see above (in the flurry of snowflake squares) that a small collection of beautiful January snowflake squares have, to date, been shared with me online. I know that there are others out there which haven’t been shared with the world yet.

This photo here, posted by @crochet_at_holme on Instagram, was the first one that I saw. Just check out the date it was posted – 4th January! It made its appearance just 3 days after I published the pattern!!

Thank you to everyone who has, so far, joined in with my CAL. Thank you too to everyone who has cheered me on from the sidelines with lovely comments and words of encouragement, you’re all lovely!

I can’t wait to share the February square with you tomorrow….. I LOVE it (hint, hint)!

That’s just about it for my Postcard from January. Thank you very much for stopping by and having a read of my ramblings, it’s lovely to have you in my little crocheted corner of the internet.

Until next time, take care!

Lindsay x

Happy New Year! Anyone fancy a 2025 CAL? Part One: January

January 1, 2025January 26, 2025 ~ Making Stitches ~ 4 Comments

Happy New Year! 2025 is upon us and rather than make some resolutions I probably will struggle to maintain, I thought I’d do something I’ve been thinking about for years – hosting a crochet-along or CAL.

This New Year is a special one for me – 2025 marks this little blog’s 10th birthday (officially later on in the summer time).

It felt appropriate to mark this significant year with some crafty fun, and what better than a year-long CAL? So each month I’ll be sharing a granny square pattern which is pertinent to that particular month. My plan is to use this opportunity to use some of my considerable stash of DK yarn – Stylecraft Special DK specifically which I have left over from quite a few previous projects. By the end of the year, I am hoping the finished blanket will be a riot of colour.

A selection of CALs I have taken part in

I have taken part in quite a few CALs myself in the past with Lucy from Attic 24, Eleonora from Coastal Crochet and the special Pandemonium CAL during the Covid lockdowns with The Crochet Sanctuary ladies Lisa & Lynda-Rose. I completely take my hat off to them with their ability to get patterns out every week for a period of often a few months. I know with my schedule of work and juggling everything else that there’s no way I could maintain a weekly CAL, so I’m going to be releasing patterns on a monthly basis at the start of each month.

Each square will be themed to the month it’s released in in some way, so this month being January when it’s often very cold and frosty and we even get a bit of snow, I’ve opted for a snowflake…

If you’d like to join me, I’d love that. There’s no pressure on time, this is an open ended CAL, I intend to publish 12 squares throughout the year, and the joining method & border will appear at some point along the way. I’ll let you into a little secret – I haven’t designed all of the squares yet, so I don’t know what the finished blanket will look like. I feel very much that we don’t know what lies ahead this year for us, so in much the same way, this blanket will be a voyage into the unknown.

My pledge to you will be to release a square pattern at the start of each month and although this is meant to be a stash busting project to use up some of the excess yarn I have in my secret hiding spaces around Making Stitches Towers, I will share the yarn shades I am using if you would like to replicate the yarn I have used.

What do you reckon? Fancy joining me with a new blanket CAL for 2025?

I’d love it if you joined in. If you do and you are on social media, please tag any photos of your growing collection of squares with the hashtag #MakingStitches2025CAL as I’d love to see what people make along the way.

So, here goes, here’s the first section of the 2025 CAL!

2025 CAL Part One : January – Snowflake Square

I used: Stylecraft Special DK yarn in white (1001), aster (1003), silver (1203) & denim (1302), 4mm crochet hook, yarn needle, scissors & a stitch marker.

Abbreviations (in UK terms): ch = chain, dc = double crochet, dtr = double treble crochet, htr = half treble crochet, mc = magic circle / magic ring, rep = repeat, slst = slip stitch, st = stitch, tr = treble crochet.

Pattern:

We begin with the snowflake.

Round 1 Ch2 (not counted as a st throughout), 12 tr into MC, join round with a slst into top of ch2. (12 tr)
Round 2 Ch1, 2dc in front loop only of every st around, closing the round with a slst. (24 dc)
Round 3 work in front loop only – 1dc, 1htr, 2tr, 1dtr 4ch picot 1dtr, 2tr, 1htr, 1dc, 1slst Repeat twice
Round 4 Work in back loop of Round 2, slst ch7 slst into 4th ch to form a picot & 1dtr in first back loop, 2tr, 1htr, 1dc, slst, 1dc, 1htr, 2tr, *1dtr 4 ch picot 1dtr, 2tr, 1htr, 1dc, slst, 1dc, 1htr, 2tr repeat from * then slst into 4th ch of first ch7.

Round 5 Work a slst around the edge of all the sts on the snowflake. At the 6 picots work 5ch and slst into the picot 3 times into each one to form the 3 ‘lumps’ on the end of each ‘arm’. Where the two layers of the ‘arms’ of the snowflake meet, work through both layers to join them before moving on to go around the next ‘arm’. Work all the way around and fasten off white yarn and break yarn.

Now the snowflake is complete, it’s time to work on the square.

Round 1 This is Round 1 of the snowflake
Round 2 With aster blue yarn, join yarn into one of the back loops of Round 1. Ch2 2tr into that first st, 2Tr in every back loop around, slst into top of ch2 to close round, (24tr)
Round 3 Ch2, 2tr, 1tr rep around, slst into top of ch2 to close round. (36 tr)
Round 4 Ch2, 2tr, 1tr, 1tr rep around. slst into top of ch2 to close round. (48 tr)
Round 5 Ch2, 2dc, 1dc, 1dc, 1dc rep around, slst into top of ch2 to close round. (60 dc)

Round 6 turning the circle into a square

Round 6 Ch1, 1dc in next 6 sts, 1htr in next 2 sts, 1tr in next 2 sts, 1dtr 2ch 1dtr in next st to form corner of square, 1tr in next 2 sts, 1htr in next 2 sts, 1dc in next 6dc, repeat around. It’s useful to mark the first dc with a stitch marker so you know where to stop! Slst into top of first ch1 to close the round. (64 sts)
Round 7 Join white into any st, 1dc into every stitch around and work 1dc 2ch 1dc into each corner space. (Each side will have 18 sts – 72dc in total)
Round 8 Join silver grey into any st with 2ch, 1htr into every st around working 1htr 2ch 1htr into each corner space. Fasten off. (Each side will have 20 htr – 80 htr in total). At this stage it’s a good idea to stitch the arms of the snowflake into place using white yarn to hide the stitches.

Round 9 Join denim blue yarn into the last st of one of the edges before the corner chain space. Work 1dc in that last st, then 1dc 2ch 1dc into the corner chain space and 1dc around as before with 1dc 2ch 1dc into each corner. Slst into the top of the first st to close the round. (Each side will have 22 dc – 88 dc in total).

Round 10 Ch1, 1dc, 1dc 2ch 1dc into corner space and work 1dc into first 4 sts of the next side. Make a 4tr bobble into the next st using white yarn, closing the bobble with denim to give a clean effect (see instructions below if you are unfamiliar with bobbles). Using denim, work 1dc into next 4 sts then repeat with a white bobble, repeat this process across that edge until you have 4 bobbles and end with 4dc in denim before turning the corner. Repeat the process all the way around with 4dc, bobble, 4dc, bobble, 4dc, bobble, 4dc, bobble, 4dc on each side until you come to the last side where you work the remaining stitches after that last bobble and slst into the top of the first st to close the round. (Total of 80 dc and 16 bobbles).

To make a 4tr bobble:

Yarn over hook (white yarn in this case), insert hook into st, yarn over, pull up loop, yarn over, draw through 2 loops on hook – repeat this another 3 times so you have 5 loops on your hook and all are worked into the same st. Yarn over with denim yarn and pull through all of the white loops to close the bobble. If the bobble is poking through the back of the work, gently poke it back through to the front. If you would like a bigger bobble, try it with 5 treble stitches instead.

Round 11 Ch1, 1dc into every st around working 1dc 2ch 1dc into every corner space. Fasten off and break yarn. (26dc on each side and 104 dc in total).

Round 12 With silver yarn, join into any st, ch2 and 1htr into every st around, working 1htr 2ch 1htr into every corner space. Slst into top of first st to close round and fasten off yarn. (28htr on each side and 112 htr in total).

Round 13 With white yarn, join in any st, 1ch and 1dc into every st around, working 1dc 2ch 1dc into every corner space. Slst into top of first st and fasten off, weave in all the ends. (30 dc on each side ad 120 st in total.

And that is the end of this first part of the Making Stitches 2025 CAL. If you are joining in with the CAL, please do let me know, tag me on Instagram @making_stitches_blog and use the hashtag #MakingStitches2025CAL so I can see how you’re getting on.

I can’t wait to see this blanket develop over the coming months! I hope you enjoy it too.

I hope the start of 2025 is a great one for you! Happy making!

Lindsay x

A Postcard from December 2024

December 31, 2024 ~ Making Stitches ~ Leave a comment

Hello there! I hope you have had a good month and that Christmas went ok for you. I have decided to go into 2025 with good intentions and try to be up to date with things so here’s my Postcard from December on the last day of December!

It’s been a funny old month weather wise with us not so much cold and frosty weather as you might expect but plenty of grey, dull, wet and in some cases very foggy days.

In spite of the weather it’s been looking really rather pretty in our neighborhood with lots of lovely Christmas lights adorning people’s homes and gardens.

A lovely yew tree dressed for the season

The FareShare Festive Feast Wreath

I was able to pay £55 to FareShare Greater Manchester just before Christmas, thanks to the sale of patterns of the FareShare Festive Feast Wreath.

Thank you so much to everyone who has bought one! It was a thrill to see photos of wreaths which have been made so far out in the wild!

The pattern will remain in my Etsy shop and any money raised through its sale will continue to go to FareShare Greater Manchester.

Podcast News

The annual Christmas Special from Making Stitches Podcast made an appearance just before Christmas. It was lovely to be able to look back at my podcast year and share a few of the highlights.

It’s still available in case you’ve missed it. You can find it here.

Festive wanderings

We had a nice quiet Christmas and Boxing Day, followed by a lovely walk with family in Lancashire. We visited a route by the River Yarrow near Chorley. It was rather muddy under foot but we were dressed appropriately and really enjoyed our woodland wander.

It felt good to be moving again after a couple of rather sedentary days!

Even when there are no leaves left on the trees it was still a treat to get some ‘Vitamin Tree’.

The walk saw us zig-zag back and forth across the series of small foot bridges as we followed the river.

This bright orange fungus & green moss were real pops of colour on an otherwise grey day.

I believe this spot is a perfect place to enjoy bluebells in springtime. I’d love to come back and see them myself one day…

My word, that work did us all the world of good after a little bit too much chocolate & other naughty food!

And that just about wraps up this final Postcard from 2024. Thank you for stopping by and having a read and to anyone who’s a regular visitor to Making Stitches, thank you for your continued support.

Next year is a big one for me in terms of my blogging, I look forward to speaking more about that next year as this little site celebrates it’s 10th birthday – isn’t that crazy?!

As part of my celebration I’ve decided to release a new crochet pattern each month – a very relaxed crochet-along if you will. Watch this space – more will follow very soon!!

Until then, thank you again for sticking with me to the end of another year, I hope you enjoy your evening tonight however you plan to see in the New Year!

See you in 2025!

Lindsay x

A Postcard from October & November 2024

December 24, 2024 ~ Making Stitches ~ Leave a comment

Hello there! This should really be a Christmas post, but life’s been very busy so it’s a Postcard from October & November instead!

Better late than never eh?

I really don’t know where the weeks have gone but the juggle with work and family meant blog writing got put on the back burner for a while.

Here’s a quick whistle-stop round up of October & November in my world.

October 2024

Half term trip to London

Back in October I took my 2 youngest sons to London to visit big brother at University. As well as visiting him in his Uni accommodation to let Number 2 Son see what lies ahead for him in the not-too-distant future, we did a bit of sightseeing.

We’d prebooked to visit the Natural History Museum as myself and Youngest had never been before. Prebooking was wise because it was so incredibly busy and we skipped the entrance queue. However, once inside it was so busy it was quite unpleasant.

I have never felt panicky in a crowd before (I’ve been to a Wembley cup final & big gigs) but this was intense.

We went to see this big animatronic T-Rex then made the decision that perhaps we should leave as it wasn’t a fun experience.

We took a long route through the museum to appreciate a bit of the architecture, then, once outside we bought an ice cream and found a nice bench to sit on to take a moment.

That bench happened to be next to the Albert Memorial overlooking the Royal Albert Hall.

We sat there for ages as Eldest read us information about the history of the Albert Memorial curtesy of Google. It was an unexpectedly fun hour or so learning about the meanings of all the little statues around the memorial. We just sat there for ages chatting – much nicer than being jostled in a hot, crowded museum!

Then we decided to walk through Kensington Gardens and spied Kensington Palace in the distance as the sun started to set.

We had a lovely meal together before Eldest directed us back to Euston for the trip back up north to Manchester.

One finished jumper!

Well it’s been on the go since about October last year, and stupidly I thought it would be finished for Christmas 2023. It is finished for this Christmas though! I really enjoyed making this Tin Can Knits pattern – for those who don’t know them, you buy a ‘real’ pattern which you can print but you also access it on the Tin Can Knits app and can mark your progress on the pattern and make notes on your app – it’s brilliant! I would highly recommend it!

[The yarn I used was Knit Me Crochet Me by Stylecraft.]

The FareShare Festive Feast Wreath

In case you missed my last post back in October, this is my FareShare Festive Feast Wreath! I started working for FareShare Greater Manchester earlier this year and decided I wanted to create a crochet pattern to help raise funds for the charity. I even made a Making Stitches Podcast episode about it. The pattern’s still available for sale in my Etsy shop if you fancy making your own!

Podcast News

As well as podcasting about the wreath pattern, I revisited a guest who I met at Yarndale this year – Becky Davies-Downes. Becky worked for decades in TV & Film costume departments and now created beautiful things inspired by British wartime fashion. You can find out more about our chat here.

November 2024

And so to November… and that month saw me taking another train journey down to London for a meeting. Thankfully I also got some precious time with Eldest again as it fell on a day he had just one lecture!

It was a bitterly cold day as I left Manchester and saw some lovely snowy and frosty scenes on the way down south. This photo was taken close to the Wedgewood factory in Staffordshire. I took so many but most were blurred as we were speeding past.

I had my crochet for company – the Mischievous Magpie Mal from Heather at Keep Calm & Crochet On & yarn from Kitey at The Yarn Whisperer. One day I will finish this…

After the meeting, Eldest took me to Loop in London – I once visited many years ago while we made a family trip to London from Gibraltar. I remember it was at the end of a long day with lots of walking. Tired, argumentative boys waited outside with their Dad while I walked in and was slightly overwhelmed. I left after a hurried look around aware of the increasingly fractious situation outside and bought, wait for it, a pair of scissors!

This time, Eldest told me he was happy waiting outside and to take as long as I wanted (what a lovely boy!).

Similarly, I was a little overwhelmed by the colours & yarns on offer but this time I left with this lovely hand dyed skein. I wonder what I’ll use it for?

After our trip to Loop and a fabulous pizza for lunch, we went for a short walk along the canal from close to Angel in Islington. It was such a beautiful, bright, sunny day and it was lovely to escape the traffic noise and hubbub of the city.

It really was a lovely day, and a luxury to spend some time with Eldest on my own.

November yarny things..

I decided that I wanted to make myself a quick tank top. After the elation of finishing my jumper in October, I thought I’d see how quickly I could whip up a granny treble cluster tank top. I made one for Christmas a couple of years ago making it up as I went along and did the same with this. I used some ‘Nigel’ yarn I had bought at Yarndale in September. (I did have to order some more mid project as one ball wasn’t enough).

I’m really pleased with how it turned out and how quick it was to make – it goes really nicely over a denim shirt.

Also in November I challenged myself to a bit of knitted colourwork. I ordered the kit for the Season’s Greetings Festive Stocking kit from Black Sheep Wools designed by Debbie Abrahams.

It includes beading with the colourwork and is such a clear pattern to follow. I have amazed myself that I’ve managed to do it so far. I shall share a finished photo when I get that far!

And that just about brings this very belated Postcard from October and November to a close.

As it’s Christmas Eve, I would like to wish you a happy and peaceful Christmas.

If this is a difficult time of year for you, I hope you find some peace and time to do something that makes you happy.

With love,

Lindsay x

A FareShare Festive Feast

October 25, 2024 ~ Making Stitches ~ 1 Comment

It’s 25th October, so that means it’s 2 months to go to Christmas! Apologies for using the C-word so soon but there is a very good reason for it….

Earlier this year, I started a new job. It was working for FareShare Greater Manchester an organisation which rescues tonnes of good-to-eat food from going to waste and then redistributes it to over 200 charities and community groups across Greater Manchester who are feeding those who need it most. It’s a truly amazing place filled with amazing people. You may have heard about it back in the pandemic when Manchester United footballer, Marcus Rashford came along to help the operation here with his Mum.

Last year, FareShare Greater Manchester rescued almost 2,000 tonnes of perfectly edible food from going to waste with the help of more than 21,000 volunteer hours given by our amazing team of volunteer supporters. That food went to more than 300 charities and community groups across Greater Manchester, into parts of Derbyshire and Cheshire too and was the equivalent of 4.6 million meals which would have gone to landfill or some other form of waste management.

At a time when an increasing number of people are facing the difficult choice of whether to spend money on heating their homes or feeding themselves and their families, this work is needed more than ever.

I was so inspired by the things I see and hear about at work each day, that I wanted to do something special myself to help support that vital work, so I picked up my hook and yarn. I decided I had to make something food related and started thinking about Christmas food in particular. First I crocheted a sprout and perfected a design for it, then some pigs in blankets and before I knew it I had a whole crocheted Christmas dinner.

I then thought about what would be the classic Christmas decoration, and settled on a wreath. A wreath cover was made, the Christmas dinner was added and hey presto, the FareShare Festive Feast Wreath was born.

The next dilemma was how would I be able to make money for FareShare Greater Manchester with this wreath? It would take too long for me to make wreaths to sell, but I could sell the pattern and send the money raised from that to support the FareShare operation. So that is what I have done.

Supported very kindly by Jane Czaja, who has tech edited the pattern, and with the full support of FareShare Greater Manchester, I have launched the new pattern on sale in my Etsy shop today.

I would be so very grateful if you would help me spread the word about the FareShare Festive Feast Wreath on your social media channels and tell all your crocheting friends about it. I would, of course absolutely love it too if you would buy a copy of the pattern and make a wreath(s) yourself!

You can find the FareShare Festive Feast Wreath pattern for sale here.

If you would like to find out more about where the money I raise from the sale of this pattern will go, you can check out the FareShare Greater Manchester website and I took my microphone into work with me to record a Making Stitches Podcast episode all about FareShare and my wreath pattern, you can listen to that here.

Thank you so much for your time and for your support in this, I look forward to seeing how much we can raise for FareShare Greater Manchester together!

Lindsay x

A Postcard from Scotland

October 12, 2024 ~ Making Stitches ~ 4 Comments

Hello there, it’s been a while since I’ve posted about any travels and when I looked back at my posts from last year I was surprised to see that my family’s trip north of the border for our summer holidays didn’t make it into blogland. I’m not going back as far as last year for this post, just a couple of months to this summer’s trip up North!

I spent so many holidays in Scotland as a child. My Mum is Scottish, so almost every school holiday, my parents would pack up the car and we would trundle along the 200+ miles from our home in Manchester to my grandparents’ home in Glasgow. We wouldn’t just stay in the Glasgow suburbs though, we’d go to the west coast for day trips to places like Largs, up to Loch Lomond and further afield to visit my Gran’s cousin ‘Great Aunt Daisy’.

Aunt Daisy lived in a tiny place called Tighnabruaich in Argyll. It took hours to get there from Glasgow – almost as long to get there as it did to get from Manchester to Glasgow in the first place in those days with the roads as they were. I have often thought of Tighnabruaich and my childhood trips there in the intervening years but never found a way to return (in no small part because we moved to Gibraltar for 11 years!). Anyway, last year, along with my parents, we made the trip back to Tighnabruaich after many years and it was so nice we went back again this year for another holiday!

View of calm water and a boat at dusk — The view from our rental holiday home this summer

Rather than taking the long way round this time, like we did in the old days with a stop off in Glasgow en route, we drove directly to Gourock, which is on the River Clyde, just west of Glasgow. There, you can catch a ferry which, in less than half an hour lands you on the outskirts of the lovely town of Dunoon, just an hour’s drive from Tighnabruaich.

View of the water towards Dunoon from the ferry — The view from the ferry

Just like last year, the excitement of actually driving onto the ferry (something I’d never done myself until last year) was just magical. It felt like the holiday began as soon as the handbrake went on and we got out of the car to have a look at the water!

View from the deck of the ferry heading to Dunoon

Once we docked in Dunoon, we took a drive to the local supermarket to load up on supplies (this is the nearest supermarket to where we were staying and a 2 hour round trip to pick up something we’d forgotten was not something we wanted to be doing!). Once fully loaded with edibles, we set off on the drive to Tighnabruaich. It takes you through some stunning scenery, much of which is on single track roads with passing places (think Skyfall – I channeled my inner Daniel Craig as I motored along the winding single track roads – not that I was in an Aston Martin I hasten to add). These roads can be a bit high pressure when you suddenly have a large farm vehicle or logging truck bearing down on you out of nowhere – but it’s all part of the experience!

There are climbs and descents throughout the journey between Dunoon and Tighnabruaich, the most spectacular of which has a lay-by with a viewing spot to look along the Kyles of Bute and Isle of Bute – just stunning.

View of the Kyles of Bute from above — Looking south across the Kyles of Bute

Not long after that stopping place, you find yourself entering Tighnabruaich itself.

Tighnabruaich, which means ‘house on the hill’ in Gaelic is a small village which hugs the coastline of the Cowal Peninsula overlooking the island of Bute.

This view (below) taken from the next village along called Kames, looks towards Tighnabruaich. The land on the right of the picture is Bute and the waterway in between heads towards where that viewpoint picture was taken (further above).

Last year, we stayed in Tighnabruaich itself, but this year, we went a 5 minute walk down the coast to Kames. The two villages are pretty much separated by a shinty field so almost run into each other. [Shinty is a sport played in this part of the world, which involves sticks and a very hard ball].

image taken from the coastal road in Kames looking towards Tighnabruaich — The coastal road at Kames looking towards Tighnabruaich

It was such a quiet and tranquil place to have a break. This year we were a 15 minute walk into the centre of Tighnabruaich if we headed one way out of the front door, if we headed in the other direction, we came to this deserted spot.

Up above Tighnabruaich itself, you can find the ‘Ark’. It was built by a local artist to make a statement about global warming and rising sea levels. The structure itself was created using local timber which had to be felled because of disease. It’s really quite a thing of beauty and is striking when you spot it from the road. The view from the top must be amazing on a clear day, although the day we chose to climb up to it, there was a very heavy rainstorm which blew in from nowhere when we got there and before we knew it, visibility was severely reduced!

Image of the Tighnabruaich Ark with the Kyles of Bute beyond — The Tighnabruaich Ark

Also above the village, in a different direction is this fabulous coffee pit stop called Wild Kitchen. I have to give it a mention, because we became regular visitors (the photos here were taken last year when we had much better weather). The coffee beans used here come from the building next door, which happens to be the Argyll Coffee Roasters the coffee there is amazing AND the cakes…

image of Wild Kitchen, Argyll — Wild Kitchen, Argyll

…well, I will let you see for yourself….

image of slice of chocolate cake with caramel on top — Yum! A homemade cake from the Wild Kitchen, Argyll.

One place we visited both last year and this time was Puck’s Glen. We were looking for a woodland walk and found a leaflet advertising it. It was about an hour’s drive from Tighnabruaich, back towards Dunoon. It was so lovely last year, there was a special request from the younger members of the party to return again this year.

There’s a free car park and then you just follow the signs up the hill and away from the main road. Before long you can hear just the sounds of the woodland around you, creaking trees moving in the breeze, birds tweeting and in the distance the sound of water running.

view of path disappearing into the trees

There are different ways to attempt the walk but we followed the path up quite a steep climb through the woodland and eventually ended up on a rough forestry road.

At the road, you take a left over a concrete bridge and then begin your descent down the Pucks Glen gorge. It is a magical place. The path, a Victorian walkway, follows the path of the river past waterfalls, over bridges and down lots and lots of steps. It wouldn’t be a great walk for someone with who wasn’t too steady on their feet and I’d not want to do it with very small children either but it is really worth a visit.

View of walkway at Puck's Glen — The beginning of the path into Puck’s Glen

If you are due a dose of vitamin tree or need a refill of greenery, this is 100% the place to go!

View of waterfall at Puck's Glen — One of the many waterfalls at Puck’s Glen

It is so beautiful there, you feel like you have slipped into a magical world of fairies, or should I say Kelpies?

It’s like something out of Lord of the Rings – just wonderful!

Down at the bottom of the gorge, you pick up a footpath back to the carpark to complete the circular route.

image shows sign pointing to Dunoon pier with woodland in the background

Another walk we made was to the seaside rather than into the woods. We visited Ostell Bay or Kilbride Bay as it’s also known. You get to it along a countryside path alongside fields and wooded areas, then you come to a large area of sand dunes.

image shows country lane with field at the side

Wherever we went and except for when we were in the midst of heavy rain, the views in this part of the world were stunning.

image shows view over fields with a pond

We did get a lot of rain though this year, which of course resulted in quite a bit of mud….

It was worth getting through the mud though, because on the other side of the dunes was this amazing beach which although it had other people on it, is huge, beautiful and so so quiet.

image shows sand dunes with a beach beyond

It’s the perfect spot to have a sit down and watch the clouds pass by!

image shows a deserted beach — Ostell Bay

It’s not a bad place to knock out a few rows of knitting either!

Image shows close up of knitting with a beach in the background

On our final night in Scotland, we were treated to a light show. Not quite the spectacle that many people witnessed in Britain this week, but it made our day!

Image shows a pale hint of pink Northern Lights in a dark night sky — A hint of the Northern Lights

On our last morning, we woke to bright sunshine and the best weather of the entire week – never mind! It was hard to stay goodbye to my adopted crochet corner when we left…

Image shows an arm chair facing a patio window looking out over the water

The weather also meant for a stunning trip back over on the ferry. My word, what a beautiful place!

View looking out over the back of the Western Ferries ferry towards Dunoon on a sunny day. — Looking back towards Dunoon on our homeward voyage

Goodbye Scotland, and thank you for having us!

Spring did its thing!

What’s been on my hook lately

A cuppa & a catch up

An afternoon with some footballing legends

Podcast news

Making Stitches 2025 CAL March Square

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London calling

Birthday celebrations continued…

Loving the longer days…

Spring is around the corner

An evening with the News Agents

Making Stitches 2025 CAL February Square

And finally…

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2025 CAL Part Two: February – All You Need is Love Square

Heart

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Feeling the cold

Birthday fun

Making Stitches 2025 CAL

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2025 CAL Part One : January – Snowflake Square

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The FareShare Festive Feast Wreath

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Festive wanderings

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October 2024

Half term trip to London

One finished jumper!

The FareShare Festive Feast Wreath

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November 2024

November yarny things..

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