Halloween

A Postcard from October 2022

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Hello there! I hope this finds you well. It’s November – eek! How did that happen??

Here’s what I’ve been up to over the past month…

Autumnal colours

October began and ended in a blaze of orange! The first photo is of one of my little Acers which took on a great colour at the beginning of the month, we also enjoyed this sky of fire at the start of October (below) – the second sunset was taken on Saturday evening before the clocks went back to put us on Winter time….. the last hurrah of the summer that was…

Changing times…

Postcard from Gibraltar

Last month, you may have noticed that there were some changes on this blog from Postcard from Gibraltar to Making Stitches Blog. I won’t go into all the reasons behind it, as you may well have already read the previous post, but if you have just landed here and are wondering why Postcard from Gibraltar is no more, you can read why here.

Yarny news

Last month I decided the time had come to finally dig out my knitting needles and have another go at knitting some socks! About a year ago, I was inspired by Christine Perry of Winwick Mum, to have a go at knitting socks for the first time. Now I learned to knit well before I learned to crochet, but apart from an odd cardigan here and there over the years I haven’t done too much so the prospect of knitting in the round, turning a heel and using double pointed needles sent me running for the hills. (It turns out you don’t need to used DPNs after all – hurrah!) After interviewing Christine for Making Stitches Podcast, we got together for a brew and with her help I actually managed to knit a pair!

At Yarndale this year, I picked up a ball of Yarndale sock yarn called Hope (I have admired this colourway for a while). I have done non-stop crochet for so long, I fancied a change and early in October I cast on the first sock. Determined that it wouldn’t take me months to complete this project (as happened last time) I powered on through and had my first sock finished in less than a week!! I’m very pleased to say that on Monday (31st) (with the help of Christine’s fabulous book “Super Socks“) I Kitchener Stitched the toes of my second sock and I own a second pair of hand knitted socks made by me!

Up the Garden Path friends

Oakley the Acorn Tree Sprite & Agatha the Fly Agaric Mushroom Up the Garden Path crochet patterns

Two new friends joined the Up the Garden Path gang in October, Oakley the Acorn Tree Sprite and Agatha the Fly Agaric Mushroom. I had loads of fun making these – they had both been in my head since last autumn, and finally I was able to complete the patterns in time to get them out for this autumn. Oakley and Agatha should actually have a couple of other autumnal companions but I’m afraid other things got in the way of getting to the finishing line with them, so they will need to stay under wraps (or maybe that should be hibernation) until next autumn.

I took them with me to the gorgeous Dunham Massey National Trust parkland for a photo shoot a couple of weeks ago on a bright sunny morning. It was so lovely to have the perfect excuse to get out of the house and enjoy nature for a few hours. It was great fun finding suitable spots for them to pose with the gorgeous natural backdrop. The only issue is that as it is a deer park, there are lots of lovely areas you can’t go into because they are exclusively for the deer. Any parts where you are allowed to stray a little from the path are generally rather well populated so there’s a ready made audience for a crazy middle aged lady arranging crocheted little people on tree stumps or next to fungi.

I tried to keep my head down and not make too much of a spectacle of myself but I was sniffed out by a rather lovely little spaniel on a super long lead at one point, and at another, I was asked by an amateur photographer if he could photograph my little people too. Those were just the passers-by I engaged with – with many others I just ducked down behind the ferns and tree stumps and hoped for the best! I think most people were just glad to give me a wide berth as I was clearly barmy.

Downloadable PDF patterns for Agatha and Oakley are available now in my Etsy Shop if you fancy making either of them and if you would like to make both, you can buy the pair as a bundle with a bit of a saving.

As you can see below, it was a truly stunning morning at Dunham Massey when I went for my photo shoot….

The first Great Northern Textile Show

A week or so ago it was the first ever Great Northern Textile Show, just down the road from where I live in Manchester. I stumbled across the event on Instagram and reached out to the show’s organiser Tracy Fox to ask for more details. Once I’d spoken to Tracy it became apparent that not only did I have to go to the show, but that I also had to go to meet Tracy and hear more about her story. Tracy is an artist working with textiles, she dyes fabric to create art cloth for art quilts and can use anything from leaves from her back garden to rusty saw blades to create the most amazing patterns. I interviewed Tracy for Episode 52 of Making Stitches Podcast which you can listen to below. Then, on 23rd October I found myself at my second big show in a month by going to the Great Northern Textile Show. It was fab – I met some really lovely people. I shared my experience of the day in the latest episode of the podcast which went out last week – you can also listen to that below too.

Tracy Fox – my guest for Episode 52 of Making Stitches Podcast

In other podcast news, I got a rather lovely surprise at the weekend. I noticed that there had been a rather big upward surge in my listener figures so thought I’d check on the Apple Podcast charts to see if the numbers had had an impact there – and they did! I found Making Stitches Podcast at the Number 1 spot in the craft podcast charts in the UK, Canada and New Zealand, at Number 2 (then up to Number 1) in Australia and at Number 5 in the USA!! What a thrill! The podcast has made it to number 1 several times in the past but never in so many places at once or for so long. Thank you to everyone who has listened to it, recommended it to a friend or left a review – I am a very happy podcaster!

A return to ABBA Voyage!

If you read my August Postcard, you may remember that I made the trip down to London with a couple of school friends to see Abba Voyage. The trip had originally been meant to be for my parents to join me but their holiday which had been booked for 2020 and had been rearranged so many times ended up clashing with the ticket dates. I was able to return to London this month with my lovely Mum, the person responsible for introducing me to ABBA in the first place. It was super to be able to share the experience with her. (It also meant that I was able to meet up with Eldest – who is now a London based Uni student – for the briefest of times for a quick cuddle before hopping onto the train back home).

Half term football fun

Last week was half term week for the two youngest Little Postcards. Youngest is back in love with football after breaking his thumb and really enjoyed being able to take part in the local soccer school for the week. There was some rain, but they were really very lucky with the weather. The pitches, despite appearances, were rather muddy so I spent a week with the washing machine going almost constantly!

Pumpkin season

After a busy half term week and a weekend grass roots football match, it was rather nice to have some time at home on Sunday. Sunday afternoon meant there was time for a session of pumpkin carving and pumpkin soup making with the innards. I may have been a little heavy handed with the chilli flakes – the soup is in need of yogurt to make it palatable but never mind. It was fun to do.

And that, is that. October ticked off. It’s been a pretty good month all in all and the icing on my cake was the arrival of Eldest home late on Halloween night for a reading week break from Uni. It was so lovely to be able to get him back home again and look after him. He has been very sorely missed these last six weeks.

That’s all from me for this time, thanks so much for stopping by and reading my October ramble!

Until next time, take care!

Lindsay x

Sunday Sevens #4

~ Making Stitches ~ 2 Comments

Time flies when you’re having fun, I can’t believe this is my forth installment of the Sunday Sevens series. I have linked up with Natalie at Threads and Bobbins to let you see what I’ve been up to during the past week. There was no watercolour class to share this week and my dressmaking class didn’t offer up any exciting photos so I’m craft free this week in Sunday Sevens.

1 Let’s go fly a kite

Last Sunday, we all jumped into the car and headed off up the coast to just outside Estepona. We had a great family day out visiting my brother and his fiancée who had just flown over to stay for a long weekend with her family at a beautiful villa right on the seafront. My boys absolutely loved playing in the huge garden there, and spent most of the day tearing around the enormous lawn. Although the weather wasn’t perfect, it didn’t dampen our spirits, the windy conditions were perfect for kite flying. We were also able to handover the frog & fox hats I’d been working on for a few weeks.

2 More rain!

The wet, autumnal weather of the last few weeks has continued here in Gibraltar. Thankfully it hasn’t been as wet as it was last week and the landslide I mentioned in my rainy weather post has been cleared up and the road reopened thanks to some frantic work. The rain brought this little chap out and was a focus of much attention on the school run by my own little bug hunter. He was fascinated by the snail, and we had to look out for him each day to see if he was still there, sadly he has moved on…

3 Lunch with a view 

I went for lunch with my parents to the Eroski supermarket café one day this week and had front row seats for the activities going on at the airport. We sat out on the roof of the supermarket and watched the comings and goings. This photo shows the EasyJet to Gatwick taking off and for those of you not familiar with Gibraltar and it’s unique airport arrangements, it also illustrates how the main road from the Rock to the border with Spain bisects the airport runway. The traffic is brought to a standstill with traffic lights and barriers each time a plane needs to take off or land. Well, almost each time, my in-laws were once on a plane which was forced to pull up at the last minute and take a brief detour as the pilot saw traffic still on the runway as he was coming in to land! That, thankfully, is a very rare occurrence.

4 Sunset at the marina

One evening this week, I found myself walking through Queensway Quay marina at sunset. It was really lovely and I couldn’t resist taking a photo.

5 Ocean Village Marina 

Another of Gibraltar’s marinas is Ocean Village, it’s the largest and busiest. I walked through on my mission to buy some more school uniform ready for the soon to come winter weather and thought it looked glorious in the afternoon sunshine.

6 Street art

This beautiful wooden sculpture appeared outside a frame shop in Gibraltar this week. The shop is called Face Frames, so it perfectly illustrates the name don’t you think? How refreshing to see something so beautiful to advertise a shop instead of the usual neon or plastic signage. It sits right at the end of a road off Main Street and has instantly become a landmark, dominating the end of the street. I love it!

6 Hallowe’en

Now, if you read my previous post Trick or Treat? Hallowe’en – bah Humbug!, you might find this photo a surprise. I am not quite the old misery I perhaps made out, so when my boys asked if we could carve a pumpkin, I couldn’t say no. Here’s our very simple effort. With more time I would have liked to make a more intricate carving but time didn’t allow. (The face was designed by my 8 year old, he wanted a cheeky face, not a scary one :-)).

7 Midterm getaway

  

It’s midterm in Gibraltar now, school broke up on Friday. We decided to go away for a few days so yesterday we reluctantly said goodbye to my parents who have been here for the last couple of weeks, we packed up the car and drove a short distance along the Costa del Sol to just outside Marbella.  This magnificent palm tree is right outside our home for the next few days. 

I believe strong winds and rain are lashing Gibraltar this morning, luckily for us the bad weather hasn’t followed us here. 
Have a great week all of you. 

Trick or treat? Hallowe’en – bah humbug!

~ Making Stitches ~ 1 Comment

This post was first published in the e-magazine Mum on the Rock, and I’m afraid it reveals my true inner grumpiness, read on at your own risk!

I’m afraid I’m a bit of a misery when it comes to Trick or Treating and all that Hallowe’en has to offer. As a child I was never encouraged to embrace the whole spooky prospect, maybe that’s because it wasn’t quite such a big deal back then. As a child, I remember us hiding in the back of the house and not answering the door when Trick or Treaters came round knocking for sweets and money. I used to be scared of the witch masks and thought the threats of having eggs and flour thrown at the house were horrendous. Eventually the persistent door knockers would give up and move onto one of our neighbours who may have been more accommodating.

My Mum often spoke of growing up in Scotland where Trick or Treating was a completely different set up. A gang of kids would knock on neighbour’s doors and be invited in. There, they would have to perform a song or play a musical instrument, or even try to trick the inhabitants into giving them an apple, a toffee or a coin. Therefore the cheek of turning up in fancy dress costume and demanding sweets didn’t go down too well to someone who’d had to earn their reward in childhood!

I guess this sentiment has been passed on down to me over the years and even now I find the whole prospect of knocking on somebody’s door and asking for sweets a bit out of my comfort zone and therefore I have never encouraged my own children to take part in the practice. I can remember just once going on a Hallowe’en Trick or Treating expedition as a child. I had been press-ganged into joining a friend from the next road along and in the company of several other witches and ghouls I rather awkwardly headed off into the night, shrouded in the obligatory white sheet with eye holes cut out. I remember that on the whole, our presence on peoples’ doorsteps was not welcomed. I guess our neighbourhood back in the 1980s hadn’t fully embraced the wonder of Trick or Treating kids.

The act of ignoring door knockers on Hallowe’en night continued into my own adult life. When we were still living in England, I was once told off by a friend for leaving her and her children out in the cold who, unbeknownst to me, had walked the length of the estate to knock on our front door. They knew that we would be in and wrongly assumed that we would have some booty for them as a reward for the their long trek in spooky get-up. I didn’t make the same mistake the following year, they had an allotted time slot when I would answer the door and dish out the specially bought Hallowe’en themed sweets.

As far as my family’s concerned now, maybe it’s because I have only sons, but we don’t really do a lot of dressing up in our house. In fact, I would go so far as to say that certain members of my family positively detest it. I am the Mum who looks like she’s made the least amount of effort when the kids turn up to school on a special themed dressing up day. I am the parent you see dragging a sobbing child to school because they didn’t want to wear a costume or the one who’s kid looks like his parent either didn’t get the email about the required costume or just couldn’t be bothered. It’s just not something we embrace in our house, and as Hallowe’en is optional, we tend to opt out. I completely get the whole idea of Hallowe’en parties though, in fact, last year we went to one as I thought it would be a bit of mid-term holiday fun. It was great, there was face-painting, hallowe’en crafts, spooky food and themed games, it was great fun and most of our family really enjoyed it. However, I was the only parent who arrived with children not in the appropriate vampire/skeleton/wizard/ghost/werewolf fancy dress costume (their choice, it wasn’t because we didn’t have the costumes at home). Being the only children at the party wearing ‘normal’ clothes they won awards ironically for the most imaginative Hallowe’en costumes!

Now that I have a child in middle school, I’ve been reminded of the slightly more sinister and mischievous side to Hallowe’en night. Each year, shortly before the end of October the pupils get a visit from the Police advising them to be careful and not engage in illegal activity, namely vandalising people’s property, playing with Agua Fuerte and letting off fireworks. I find it quite shocking that middle school aged children have to be spoken to about these issues, might they even consider getting involved in such things?  As a child, I remember being warned at school about the dangers of fireworks, so I guess it’s on a similar level, but it just reinforces the idea that the whole mischievousness of the Hallowe’en tradition isn’t to be encouraged as it can easily get out of hand, or so it would seem.

So you have probably guessed that this October 31st, our household will not be running around the neighbourhood in witch hats and ghostly costumes, we won’t come knocking on your door expecting to be given handfuls of sweets, nor will we threaten to egg or flour your door for failing to answer when we know you are at home. We’ll be sitting tight indoors ourselves with the lights off, the tv turned down and the doorbell disconnected. Happy Hallowe’en everyone!