Summer Craft Challenge 2026 : Week 6

Well here we are on the final day of this year’s Summer Craft Challenge. I know I say it every year, but it’s gone by very quickly. I’m so glad I do this each year, it’s a little diary of where we have gone, what we have done and what I have created throughout the school summer holidays.

Next summer will be very different for me, as Youngest will be doing his GCSEs and after that, unless he goes on to Sixth Form, there won’t be any more school summer holidays in our house after 18 years of them!! What a thought. I don’t want to wish my life away though, next summer is a long way off – we are only 2 days into autumn after all.

So for the final time this summer, here is my weekly look back at Summer Craft Challenge 2026!

I started week 6 of my 2026 Summer Craft Challenge playing board games – a perfect summer holiday activity. In between manoeuvres towards global domination, I managed a few rows of my current shawl/scarf project! I think my feigned disinterest in the game worked in my favour as the boys paid so much attention to each other’s moves they didn’t notice me slowly claiming North and South America and the North West tip of Europe!

Nothing to report that was exciting on Day 37 of the challenge, just a spot of sock knitting in front of the the telly after work!

Had a bit of a play with mosaic crochet – Eldest has just moved into a new place and has asked me to make him a housewarming blanket! Not sure how long it will take me with my track record, but I enjoying the swatching process.

More mosaic swatching today playing with different colours to match in with the colour scheme.

On the final straight of the marathon scarf/shawl I’ve been concocting this summer. Border time!

And at last, it’s finished. A two tone crossed treble stitch shawlette designed by me this summer – feeling chuffed to have another finished object to show for my time.

Managed a bit of embroidery on this summer companion which has kept me company again over the past 6 weeks. I was kind of hoping I would get it finished, but there’s still a bit of a way to go. Maybe next summer?

And on Day 43 (and day 8 of this final week?! Who’s counting?), my Summer Craft Challenge and my son’s school summer holidays come to an end today. Tomorrow, the early alarm for the school bus will ring and we will be back into the swing of things again as if we were never away! My final evening of creating has been spent with a little bit of knitted colour work in the form of a patten by Annah from Needle & Feather – I love her patterns. I picked up her Peace by Piece Cowl pattern booklet at Carry on Crafting back in July, so thought I’d make a start with a vibrant pink against a silver background. I haven’t planned my colour palette I just took a dive into my stash and these colours shouted at me!

In the past few days, people have been slowly bowing out of the challenge too, as their summer breaks came to an end. Thanks to @alisonswoolnwalks, @crochet_at_holme, & @jothiquestscraft for joining in this week and indeed all summer long – it’s been so lovely to see your many makes as the weeks have gone by. Thank you to everyone else who has joined in over the past 6 weeks, including those who I know are out there but haven’t shared photos. It’s good to know that creativity is in full flow and doing us all so much good!

Until next time, thanks for stopping by!

Lindsay x

Summer Craft Challenge 2026 : Weeks 4 & 5

Hello there, I’ve gone double bubble with this post seeing as I was on holiday for a good chuck of the last two weeks and away from my laptop. Since we last spoke, we have been to Paris and to the Lake District. I feel very lucky to have been able to spend time with my boys away from the usual routine and in such beautiful places – more on that in a different post I’m sure though – now down to the crafty side of my life… and what I’ve been up to on my travels. Here’s Weeks 4 & 5 of my Summer Craft Challenge 2026!

It already feels like a long, long time ago, but after the partial eclipse on Wednesday evening 2 weeks ago, I sat down for a bit a more crochet on this scarf/shawl I’m working on.

A little post A-level results embroidery on Thursday evening. After a few days of growing tension in the house and the emotion of everything that day, it was nice to be able to unwind with my needle! (Good news was received in our house thank goodness, but I spare a thought for those who didn’t get the news they were hoping for).

On Friday, I managed a little bit of doctor’s waiting room sock knitting. Back on Wednesday evening, post eclipse, we sat in the garden chatting until late, ruminating on what lay ahead in terms of exam results and what might happen next. While I was out there, unbeknownst to me, I was bitten on both ankles by something nasty which resulted in my feet and ankles swelling up way beyond what was decent to share with you. It turned out I had an infection in both bites. Knowing I was heading off on holiday just 48 hours later, I thankfully acquired a doctor’s appointment and secured some antibiotics to counteract the nasty reaction.

With the medicine kicking in and my ankles and feet slowly returning to their ‘normal’ shape, I sat down for a bit more sock knitting on Saturday.

Ooh, the most exciting type of crochet here on Sunday – plane crochet! Three of us flew to Paris and met Eldest there who had come from London via the tunnel. Such a lovely start to our few days in France.

Monday was a lovely hot, sunny day and perfect for some sightseeing. This photo was taken late afternoon, while sitting on a bench having a break in a park a short walk from the Eiffel Tower.

A spot of regal crochet was on the cards on Tuesday – I took my crochet hook and yarn on a train trip out to the Palace of Versailles! What a beautiful place it was. We didn’t manage to get into the Palace – tickets to get in are booked until the end of the year (or something like that) we didn’t fancy the humungous ‘without prebooked tickets’ queue so visited the majestic gardens and hired bikes to ride around the wider estate – what a stunning place!

Summer Craft Challenge 2026: Week 5

Summer Craft Challenge 2026 Week 5

Onto Week 5 here on Wednesday last week – although I had completely rather a lot of the blue section of this scarf, I just wasn’t happy with it, so frogged back lots of rows to where I thought I was happy and started again… This was in my hotel bedroom after a lovely morning at the brilliant Natural History Museum in Paris.

Homeward bound means more plane crochet! Still not happy with the blue section, I sat at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport and ripped all the blue back to the start and started again. I think I’m happy with it this time!

New day, new location – this sock knitting happened at one of my oldest friend’s kitchen table in the Lake District! We had a very quick turnaround, landed back at home from our French trip at dinner time, did 3 loads of washing, ironing, repacking and was on the road by mid afternoon on Friday up to the Lakes.

Al fresco crochet this time, post breakfast while waiting for a certain teenager to get out of bed so we could go out for a walk!

Back at home and ready to face the real world with a bit of Sunday night embroidery. The car was unpacked, washing done, cases back in the loft and packed lunches made ready for work on Monday – why does the fun have to come to an end so quickly?

At least there’s a bank holiday coming soon, so no Monday morning alarm next week…

A bit more evening embroidery on Monday evening in front of the TV… slowly making progress filling the pattern on this lovely kit from Hello Hooray Blog.

And my last post for this week, a bit of evening crochet after work and the sad news that Dolly Parton had died. What an amazing lady she was – I think we should all be a bit more Dolly.

Thanks to the wonders of Instagram, it’s not just me taking part in the Summer Craft Challenge this year. It’s open for anyone to join in with too. All you need to do is have a moment (or longer if you can manage) of creativity in your day. Take a photo of what you are working on and share it on Instagram with the hashtag #SummerCraftChallenge2026 and we can all see what you are doing. Thanks to @alisonswoolnwalks, @crochet_at_holme, & @jothiquestscraft for joining in during the past two weeks!

Thanks for stopping by for a read, and thank you to everyone who’s joining in with the Summer Craft Challenge this year too! It’s fun being creative together.

Until next week (the final week), take care of yourself!

Lindsay x

Summer Craft Challenge 2026 : Week 3

Hello there, a bit late with this weekly round up this week. It’s been a very busy time in our house with A-level results and a University place secured (hurrah!) so this fell down the to-do list somewhat. Anyway, I’m here now, so here’s what I got up to in Week 3 of my Summer Craft Challenge 2026!

I made some curly whirly stamens for my wired crochet flower on Wednesday, it’s almost finished and ready for the grand reveal. This project was started in a workshop with Kitey from The Yarn Whisperer when I was at Carry on Crafting Festival in July.

My first finished item of my Summer Craft Challenge this year – the wired flower from Carry on Crafting. The yarn was dyed specially for the festival by Kitey from The Yarn Whisperer and is called ‘Carry on Crafting 2026’.

It was such a fun project to work on and a dangerous new crochet rabbit hole for me to disappear down! Thank you Kitey!

On Friday, my lunchtime was spent parked on a dusty road being wobbled by the big HGVs and tipper trucks thundering past while I did my Mum taxi thing and waited for a teenager to be finished doing what he was doing. At least the sun was shining as I sat there knitting my sock!

Saturday morning alterations were on the cards for Day 18 of the challenge. I bought a top in the supermarket a couple of months ago and I really loved it, but it was just a bit too big round the arm holes. So, rather than take it back (they didn’t have any smaller sizes) I decided I’d just take it in on the sides. All well and good, but it sat in my bedroom all this time waiting for it’s alteration moment – seeing as we were forecast some more hot sunny weather, it seemed appropriate to fire up my old sewing machine and get on with it – mission accomplished!

Time for a bit more crochet on Sunday, all while listening to a great podcast episode featuring Kitey from the Yarn Whisperer chatting on the Make Joy Podcast – I highly recommend a listen.

Time to mix things up a bit and introduce a new colour in this crochet pattern….

And finally, to bring this week to a close, I decided on a little evening embroidery. I managed a few more colourful sections on this embroidery kit from Hello Hooray Blog.

And, thanks to the wonders of Instagram, it’s not just me taking part in the Summer Craft Challenge this year. It’s open for anyone to join in with too. All you need to do is have a moment (or many) of creativity in your day. Take a photo of what you are working on and share it on Instagram with the hashtag #SummerCraftChallenge2026 and we can all see what you are doing. Thanks to @alisonswoolnwalks, @crochet_at_holme, & @jothiquestscraft for joining in this week!

Summer Craft Challenge 2026 : Week 2

Two weeks done already, blimey, this summer is running away with itself! How’s your week been? Good I hope!

Here’s what I’ve got up to in my creative endeavours this week (another 7/7 week!).

It took a few hours in the afternoon to get to grips with yesterday’s failed heel flap. I got into all sorts of trouble – in part due to tension and in part due the yarn being a bit splitty and having a bit of fluff to it which felted together into a right old mess.

I’m pleased to say I managed to frog it back to the start of the flap and started again. This time I took my time, paid more attention and tried to keep my tension a bit looser and it worked! Hurrah!

There you go – it’s not the most beautiful heel flap known to man, but it’s a darn sight better than it was looking 48 hours ago! The gusset shaping has begun!

On Friday I felt it was time to try something new, so I got a few of my crochet books out and started playing with textured stitches. This was a cross between moss/linen stitch and crossed treble stitch. I really liked the way it looked.

I think it’s safe to say I fell well and truly into a rabbit hole of texture this weekend. After yesterday’s experiment I decided to have a go at creating a new pattern…

I didn’t quite have the stitch count right on yesterday’s experiment, so I cracked open a new ball of yarn and tried again. This time, I think I’ve cracked it. I didn’t want to unravel yesterday’s work just yet as I didn’t want to lose what I was aiming for. Now that I have this cracked. I can unravel and rewind the ball from yesterday and stick with this one.

Back onto the sock. Had a bit of a stressy evening and didn’t want anything which required too much counting. As I had finished the shaping of the gusset and am just going round and round in circles with no counting whatsoever, this seemed like the perfect antidote – a little al fresco evening sock knitting!

Thanks to Christine from Winwick Mum for the brilliant pattern!

And finally to bring the second week to a close, I dipped into my WIP pile and dug out this very recent WIP – the project I started when I attended a workshop run by Kitey from The Yarn Whisperer when I visited Carry on Crafting Festival a few weeks back.

It was for wired crochet petals and feathers. It’s a bit fiddly to begin with but looks really effective when it’s finished. I am determined to get this finished soon. It’s a lovely palette cleanser of a project. Thanks Kitey!

And of course it’s not just me taking part in the Summer Craft Challenge this year. It’s open for anyone to join in with too. All you need to do is have a moment (or many) of creativity in your day. Take a photo of what you are working on and share it on Instagram with the hashtag #SummerCraftChallenge2026 and we can all see what you are doing. Thanks to @alisonswoolnwalks, @crochet_at_holme, @jothiquestscraft & @woodedgecrafts for joining in this week!

Summer Craft Challenge 2026 : Week 1

Hello and welcome to first of this summer’s weekly round-ups for my Summer Craft Challenge. I know I say it all the time, but I can’t believe where the time has gone and that we are at the start of week 2 already! Mind you, it has been quite a busy time for us as a family with a trip down to London for a couple of days for a very special celebration, but more on that later! Here’s what I’ve been up to this week…

I started Day 1 with a new amigurumi project – I couldn’t share it at the time as it was a special gift (which I will reveal at the end!). I used this brilliant pattern book by Carla Mitrani. It was a gift a few years ago from Eldest – and this time I used it to make a mini me of him (not that he’s an iconic woman, but he is pretty iconic in my book).

Day 2 featured my first lot of train crochet of the summer – I’m not sure how much of that there will be this year, but we’ll see what the weeks ahead bring. I was continuing work on that project from Day 1 whilst on the train down to London.

Now to the reason behind the trip and a clue to what I was making – last week, my Eldest graduated from university and the family made the trip down south to London to see him receive his degree. It was such a proud moment for me. I am still on a high from it all. I’m thrilled to bits for him and his future.

Now for the big reveal… here’s Eldest’s Mini Me!

He’s been created based off the pattern for Greta Thunberg (in case you were wondering!)

Back home from our trip to London and feeling a little tired, I reached for a project which hasn’t seen the light of day since last year’s Craft Challenge! This embroidery kit is from Clare Albans at Hello Hooray Blog. I loved its cheerful colours when I saw it and knew I had to have one for my house – not sure how long it will take me to complete though…. It was nice to get back into some calm, slow stitching!

It might not look like much progress but over the past 48 hours, I managed 9 different sections of colour on this!

Sticking with the golden oldies of my WIP pile – I revisited this unloved and abandoned sock, which was started back in the spring of 2025! Onwards…

It was a bit of a false start yesterday – I began the heel flap and was knitting quite tightly in the tension stakes, this wool has quite a bit of fluff to it which knitted together in knots and stopped me from being able to see where my stitches were on this slip stitch heel flap. Disaster! I lost so many stitches that I had to unravel. I put it in the naughty corner.

And finally one of the joys for me of the Summer Craft Challenge as well as being creative myself, it brings other people to the part too. My thanks to everyone who has joined in on Instagram this week and shared their own moments of creativity including @amandaswoolnwalks @crochet_at_holme @jothiquestscraft @sarahsheehangib and @wonders_of_wool!

It has been great to have company on this challenge so far – if you fancy joining in, please do! There’s no pressure to post everyday, but if you have a moment of summer creativity in the next few weeks, please just take a photo of what you’ve been up to and share it on Instagram with the hashtag #SummerCraftChallenge2026 so we can all see who is in the Summer Craft Challenge community this year.

Thanks so much for stopping by, see you next week!

Lindsay x

Summer Craft Challenge 2026 kicks off today!

☀️ Today is the first day of the school summer holidays chez Making Stitches and while it’s a normal work day for me, I’m still marking the official start to summer with my Summer Craft Challenge!

This will be my 10th year creating posts throughout the school summer holidays showing a bit of creativity every day.

The challenge was born in the summer of 2016 when I was a stay-at-home Mum of 3 young men, aged 12, 8 and 4!! Back then, we lived in Gibraltar and experienced/endured 8-week-long school summer holidays – believe me, they were lengthy!

My first ever Summer Craft Challenge photo taken in Gibraltar on 9th July 2016

Each year I would feel completely exhausted and bogged down in the hamster wheel that is being a parent and my creativity took a back seat – there just wasn’t the time (or at least I thought there wasn’t). Then, in 2016 I read something somewhere that basically said it was up to me to find time to do something for myself (even if it was only for 5 mins) and surely it would have a positive impact on my mood. I tried it and it worked.

I made sure that I didn’t leave home without a small crafty project with me, crochet, embroidery, knitting or anything ‘creative’. That way, if I had a window of opportunity, no matter where it was, in a carpark, a waiting room, the beach, on a bench, I could do something creative and I felt like I’d achieved something that day.

By posting a photo each day, it kept me accountable and kept me going on days I felt I couldn’t be bothered.

That year, and every year since then (except in 2020 when we moved countries) I’ve been joined by fellow creativity seekers who have also shared their summer makes and that has given me such joy to see.

If you want to join in, I’d love you to! All you have to do is take a snap of your daily creativity (or weekly, or whatever you can manage) and post it on socials with the hashtag #SummerCraftChallenge2026

There’s no pressure to do it every day, some people just do a week or two when they are actually on holiday. Dip in and out at will, you will be most welcome!

Here’s to some crafty summer fun!

Lindsay x