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!
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
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!
Blimey just looking back at my photos reminds me of just how busy July was in my world. I had 3 trips – not my normal kind of month at all! We made our annual trip to Norfolk and Suffolk to visit family, I headed off down South to Carry on Crafting AND our family went to London at the end of the month to celebrate the graduation of Eldest from university.
Trip to East Anglia
Sunset on the River Yare, Norfolk
At the start of the month, we made our annual pilgrimage down to Norfolk and Suffolk to visit family. We were blessed with lovely weather and were able to get out and about to enjoy it.
We had a lovely evening walk along the side of the River Yare in Gorleston (the opposite side of the river from Great Yarmouth). We stopped for an evening drink outside the Pier Hotel – which for film fans was the location for the ending of the Danny Boyle film Yesterday.
We also made our regular visit to Southwold. We have so many happy family holiday memories of this place – when we lived in Gibraltar, we would often stay in Southwold and use it as our base for a week while we visited family nearby. It’s such a lovely spot, although it does get busy on a sunny summer’s day, but if you are lucky enough to stay there overnight, you find that once the crowds of day trippers leave around teatime, you feel like you have the place to yourself.
There are so many Instagramable corners and alleyways, the little fishermen’s cottages are so well looked after and painted lovely colours, there is often an abundance of hollyhocks growing in the tiny front gardens adding to the pastel-coloured palette of the place. I do so love it there!
You can’t go to Southwold and not get a portion of chips to sit on a bench and eat – we did that – I also managed a bit of seaside crochet too for old time’s sake.
I don’t really know what I expected, but it was brilliant in every way – Justine managed to arrange beautifully dry, sunny weather for us and even arranged for England to win in their World Cup match while we were there! (Sadly it didn’t last).
Carry on Crafting 2026With Eleonora from Coastal Crochet
It was a truly lovely weekend. I arrived on Friday and met up with my glamping buddy for the weekend, Nicky from A Heart Shaped Cherry. Nicky was there as a stall holder and she had a space in her bell-tent for one more (me!). It was a long old trip down there by train from Manchester to London, across London with heavy bags and camping chair on the Underground, then an overland train to Haywards Heath and a bus to the show ground – but my word it was worth it!
On the Friday I helped Nicky pitch her gazebo and get ready for the visitors coming the following morning. We had some dinner, a nighttime herbal tea and then collapsed onto our camp beds!
Nicky on her Heart Shaped Cherry stallWith Kitey aka The Yarn Whisperer
Morning brought with it more sunshine and lots of opportunities to wander, potter, chat to people, meet new friends, see old friends and generally have fun. I joined a wired crochet workship with Kitey from The Yarn Whisperer. It was such a treat to get to meet him IRL after being a customer for quite a few years AND speaking to him for the Making Stitches Podcast back in 2022**. The workshop was very addictive – we were creating feathers or petals by crocheting around wire using Kitey’s hand dyed yarn specially created for the weekend – called Carry on Crafting 2026.
It was so lovely to chat with Kerry Lord from Toft in person too after speaking to her for the podcast a few years back. I was able to see quite a bit of Eleonora from Coastal Crochet too on her own home turf! We have met in person a couple of times before up north at Yarndale, but this was the first time at her local festival.
Lovely to meet Carol from @nanaseamakesThank you Justine!
Can we just have a moment of appreciation for Justine and her amazing team of volunteers who bring the festival to life. It’s no mean feat. It’s a huge undertaking. You are talking about campers, toilet/shower facilities, food, traders, craft and vintage vendors, craft workshops, publicity, electricity, football and movie screenings and that’s probably not even half of the things that need to be looked after to put on an event of this kind.
Thank you Justine for the most amazing weekend. I loved every minute of it. I’m just sorry I had to leave on Sunday morning in order to get back in time for Sunday dinner time and getting everything ready for school and work again for the following week.
Footnote: Thank you also to my brilliant little brother and his lovely wife who were ‘present’ in the house while I was away and for the amazing job they did dismantling my back garden decking!
If you would like to get a flavour of what happened at Carry on Crafting this year, you can listen to the latest episode of Making Stitches Podcast – I took my microphone with me and recorded my favourite episode of this year so far. You can listen to it on all good podcast apps and on YouTube too, or here.
Graduation Trip to London
Celebratory mini me for Eldest
We hit a milestone in our family towards the end of July when Eldest graduated from University. I can’t put into words how proud I am of him for what he has achieved. He’s a clever lad but he worked so very hard to get the grades he got.
We had a family trip en masse down to London to celebrate with him. Only two of us were able to be with him when he got his degree conferred on him, but the rest of the gang were able to watch on a livestream while it happened. We then all got together to spend the rest of the day with each other, and he got the chance to give Grandma and Grandad a tour of the campus.
Such a brilliant day. Here’s to the future for all the fabulous young people who have been celebrating their graduations this summer – the future is bright for us all.
Podcast News
As well as sharing the episode on Carry on Crafting in July, I also shared a fun episode with a film maker who explored the journey of yarn from sheep to finished products.
I published a chat I had with a film maker called Paul Wyatt, who made a film called Sheep, Actually exploring the story of wool. Paul visits city farms in London to see where sheep live with the capital city, he also speaks to crafts people (including Kitey from The Yarn Whisperer) who use wool in their crafts from yarn dying in Kitey’s case, weaving, knitting and other crafts and the project to collect the fleeces from all of London’s city farms, wash and process it and turn it into wool. It’s a lovely film, and one you can apply to screen at your own local venue. You can listen to Sheep, Actually here.
Summer Craft Challenge
My 10th annual Summer Craft Challenge is well underway and it’s brought me a lot of pleasure already. You know what it’s like when you get stuck in a rut with things? I was seriously getting worried about losing my crojo in the recent weeks and months. I had to consciously decide to pick up my hook and wasn’t always too happy with the results.
Despite that, the prospect of doing something creative every day during my sons’ school summer holidays as has become a tradition for me, filled me with such joy thinking about what interesting places I would be able to take my projects with me to, and encouraging me to dig to the bottom of my wip pile and get busy finishing some things off at last.
As in previous years, I have been joined by a merry band of creative folk who have joined in and shared photos of what they’re working on as part of their own Summer Craft Challenge. So far we have had knitting, crochet, cross stitch embroidery, weaving and flower arranging photos shared, I wonder what else we’ll see before the summer is out?
If you fancy joining in too, please do – just take a photo of what you are working on in your moment(s) of creativing and share it on Instagram with the hashtag #SummerCraftChallenge2026
And that just about brings this Postcard from July to a close. Thank you for stopping by and for reading my ramblings! It’s been lovely to have your company.
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!
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!
Hello there, I hope this finds you doing ok. I’m a bit earlier with this monthly review than I managed last month, but not by much! I had a lovely month in June – although it didn’t produce many exciting pictures to share (other than a very impressive evening I spent at the Etihad Stadium in the company of Gary, Howard & Mark!).
The main reason for being so late to the game with this update is because of the Carry on Crafting Festival which happened just over a week ago – it was utterly amazing and I look forward to sharing more of it with you next month. In the meantime, you can catch the latest episode of Making Stitches Podcast to hear a flavour of Carry on Crafting (which was an absolute delight to edit last week!). Anyway, back to June..
Crochet Corner
My Carry on Crafting Squares so far…
I had a bit of a dabble with designing again in June. I am working on another little amigurumi character, but I want to wait to share her with you once she is finished – she is currently sitting on my sideboard without a head (poor love!). Away from amigurumi, I had the chance to give away a pair of tickets to Carry on Crafting festival on my social media channels, and that inspired me to make a few CoC inspired squares. I am hoping to make a complete Carry on Crafting blanket over the course of the summer, so will share more squares with you as they develop!
Also, a good friend of mine at work celebrated a big birthday last month and I simply had to knock up a mini-me for her. I was bought the Crochet Iconic Women book by Carla Mitrani by Eldest a few years ago and along with creating quite a few of those wonderful ladies (including HM Queen Elizabeth & Emmeline Pankhurst) I have used the pattern to create so many little people as gifts when they have hit milestones like big birthdays and other events. I can honestly say this is the most used crochet book I have! As a matter of fact, I am using it right now to create some more little characters – more on them next month!
A mini me gift for a lovely colleague
Take That!
Now to the biggest thing which happened to me in June…
Back in the 1990s, I met Take That very briefly when they visited the place I was working at (conveniently during my lunch hour) I got Gary and Mark’s autograph on my spiral bound notebook! I had never seen them play live in their original incarnation, but amazingly during our last summer living in Gibraltar (in the days before Covid) they came and did a few songs at the Gibraltar Music Festival which was literally a 10 minute walk from our home! It was at the very end of their big world tour. It was not a Take That concert in the conventional sense, but it was a thrill to see them at last as they sung about half a dozen songs between Rick Astley and a Mel C DJ set!
A couple of years ago, I was offered a last minute ticket to see Take That appearing in Manchester at the AO Arena – and when I say last minute – I mean literally hours before. It was an unexpected and very pleasant surprise. It was a truly amazing show – I’d heard they put on a good show but it blew my mind. When I heard that they were coming back to Manchester this summer, I joined the online queue for tickets when they went on sale and was amazed to be successful in getting a couple of tickets.
Take That in Gibraltar 2019Take That in Manchester 2024
My Mum said when I went the last time, that she wouldn’t mind seeing Take That and that she’d never actually been to a ‘gig’ before so I offered her the other ticket. She didn’t hesitate in saying yes! So, I took my Mum with me which was lovely.
Belinda CarlisleThe Script
The support acts were Belinda Carlisle (I was amazed how many songs she had and how many of them I remembered from my teens) and the Script (who we also saw at the Gibraltar Music Festival in years gone by). They both put on a great show with the crowd singing along.
Then the show began – wow! It truly was a show. It went on for hours, had a cast of hundreds of performers, acrobats, dancers, a tightrope walker, trapeze and the most amazing mechanical elephant which had a woman dangling upside down at the back to give the impression of a tail! I felt privileged to be able to witness it – it defies description.
I’m so glad I got to share it with Mum too. It was a perfect evening – apart from the journey home which including queuing in the world’s longest queue for a tram home which didn’t help Mum’s legs.
The longest tram queue in the world – this was less than half of it!!
Podcast News
In June, I released a couple of episodes of Making Stitches Podcast:
Episode 107 Connection, Confidence & Community with Melissa Santiago-Val – I really enjoyed my chat with Melissa who set up the charity helping people through sewing after a lockdown Covid mask making initiative grew into something lasting and very impactful.
Episode 108 Reconnecting with your imagination with textile artist, Murron Fraser – Murron is a textile artist based in my hometown of Manchester. She uses her work to encourage others to reconnect with their whimsical, childhood imaginations and is inspired by nature, folklore and storytelling.
Anyone for a Craft Challenge?
Back in the summer of 2016, as I approached the 10-week-long school summer holiday in Gibraltar with apprehension, wondering how I was going to manage the juggle of entertaining 3 young men for all that time and keep my sanity.
I decided to set myself a challenge. The plan was to do something creative every day during the long, hot school summer holiday. It worked – and the #SummerCraftChallenge was born. The simple act of giving myself permission to do something for me (even for a short while) really helped.
Every year, since then, (except for during 2020 when we relocated back the UK that summer holiday) I have kept up the challenge. This year, I am going to do the same.
My youngest is the only one still in school – GCSEs loom next year – but even as they got older and I found myself back in work rather being stuck at home, I kept the challenge going. His school breaks up for the summer today, so as of tomorrow, the #SummerCraftChallenge2026 will begin.
If you’d like to join in, please do! All you have to do is share a picture of what you have done that day (which can involve any sort of creativity) and use the hashtag #SummerCraftChallenge2026 – at the end of each week, I will share a blog post with a round-up of peoples’ summer creativity. There is no pressure to do something every day (I don’t always manage it myself to be honest), it’s just a gentle reminder to do something that makes you happy and takes you away from the stresses of the everyday grind.
It would be lovely if you could join me!
That’s all for this time, thanks for stopping by! Lindsay x
Hello there! Bit late getting this out to you again – it’s been quite a week what with back to school shenanigans and a trip up to Glasgow for a University Open Day. But here we are, well into September now and with everyone in my household back at school or university. Back when I first started this Summer Craft Challenge in 2016, I was staring down the barrel of a 10-week-long school summer break with 3 young children. It was a bit of a marathon keeping everyone entertained back then, but times have changed. My boys only get 6 weeks off now we live back here in England AND they are a lot more independent these days, so the summer school holidays don’t feel quite the same for me.
It was still fun to deliberately seek out some time for creativity (almost) every day during that 6-and-a-bit weeks this year. It was also great fun to be joined in the challenge by even more people as well. Thank you to everyone who joined me this summer, it was so nice to hear that the challenge had inspired some of you to dig out some wips and get them finished or try something new. Thank you for sharing what you have been working on this year!
Here’s a little look back at what I got up to during the sixth and final week (and a bit) of the school summer holidays:
In Week 5 I started making another heart for the North West & North Wales Paediatric Transport Service but ran out of stuffing! I made a quick trip out to the shops and restocked on my stuffing stash and was able to finish this one off!
On Bank Holiday Monday, I had to make an early morning dash to Snowdonia with son number 2. He needed to gather some evidence for a geography A-Level piece of work. The trip had been scheduled for earlier in the holiday but Storm Floris blew in (not the best conditions for climbing hills) so it was put off, then ill health got in the way so we were left with only one option – to drive to Wales on Bank Holiday Monday – not ideal.
We were up with the lark and he got the work done while I sat on a rock and crocheted!
Not much time for creativity on Day 39 – busy day back at work for me and I was a bit tired in the evening, so only managed one cube on my Hello Hooray Blog embroidery kit.
This Orla Square was made while watching Manchester United get knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Grimsby Town. The dark colour of the flower in my Orla Square was rather appropriate!
Day 41 and I suddenly realised we were hurtling towards the end of August and I still hadn’t completely decided what I was going to do for my September Square for the Making Stiches 2025 CAL – nothing like leaving it until the last minute eh?
Throughout this Summer Craft Challenge, I have been making these really fun Orla Squares. My aim is to create a garment with them, and, as I often do, I have set myself a potentially unrealistic target for finishing it! On Day 42 (Friday 29th), I laid all these beauties out and was trying to decide whether to go random with their colour placement or have some sort of pattern – I simply couldn’t decide!
Fast forward to Tuesday 2nd September. Week Six officially ended on Day 42, and I had planned to keep going every day until both of my younger boys were back at school, but the weekend was exceptionally busy and didn’t allow for any creativity, so as I climbed aboard a train bound for Glasgow on Tuesday afternoon with Son number 2, I was thrilled to have a good chunk of uninterrupted train crochet time!
Sadly, on our return journey from Glasgow on Wednesday 3rd, things didn’t quite go to plan. A damaged power line meant no trains south of Carlisle, so we had a rather stressful journey home, which took about 4 hours longer than it should have done. We arrived home on Thursday morning ready for a full return to school, university and work. I didn’t get any crochet done on the return leg, so just posted this collection of 9 squares I managed on the journey north.
And that’s it for my 2025 Summer Craft Challenge! It has genuinely flown by for me, I cannot quite believe that we are back in the old routine again. School’s back, Eldest has gone back to University and we had our first football match of the season this morning with Youngest. It’s as if it was all a dream, but at least I have lovely memories and a lot more crochet done and it was so lovely to spent my summer with you all.
Huge thanks to everyone who has joined in with the Summer Craft Challenge this time – it has genuinely been so lovely to have company on this challenge. Included below are some of varied Instagram posts I’ve seen including crocheted rainbow fans by Sarah @Sarah.livelovecrochet, a lovely scrappy sock in the making by Kristina @crochet_at_holme, a beautiful festival cardigan modelled by Carol @nanaseamakes, fabulous mountain-top crochet with Zeli @yarnstorms, the final pocket of a cardigan being made by Sarah @sarahsheehangib, stunning felt fungi by Sandra @wilddaffodilwild, the cutest crocheted avocado made by Jothi @Jothiquestcrafts, a lovely crocheted rose brooch by Karen @seasidekaren & utterly stunning Persian Tiles by AnnMarie @crochetscot – Thank you all!
And that’s all for this week and this summer! Thanks again to everyone who’s joined in with the craft challenge to keep me company over the past six and a bit weeks! Anyone up for joining in next year? If so, watch this space!
Hello there! Bit late getting this out to you following the Bank Holiday Weekend. It’s thrown me out of routine and I’m only just getting back on track (and knowing what day it is!) today. We started Week Five of this year’s Summer Craft Challenge up in the Lake District visiting some lovely friends of ours. The view behind the pictures above is of Grasmere, where we enjoyed a lovely kayak around on Sunday. We have visited the Lakes many times over the years, and have never seen it in such warm and sunny conditions – we were really lucky.
Here’s what I got up to this week!
Last Saturday, we woke up in the Lakes again and packed a picnic ready for a big climb. We managed to get to top of a mountain! Cat Bells to be precise. When we made it to the top and found a quiet space to sit, those cheese rolls tasted like nectar from the Gods! Bliss! After our picnic lunch, I whipped my hook out and made another Orla Square at the top as a souvenir of our big climb.
Sunday morning was my last Lake District crochet session, we went to Grasmere and got our friends’ inflatable kayak pumped up so the boys could get out on the water. Once they had all had a go paddling around the island in the middle of the lake, my friend and I got in and had a go. While I was waiting for my turn, I sat in the shade and hooked up another Orla square. I wonder if I will remember where I made each one, when I finish the project later on? Maybe not, but they will certainly remind me of this summer.
On Monday, after work, I found myself back at home with the rather boring backdrop of our dining table for my Orla Squares today!
On Day 32, work was incredibly busy and the evening was too, but I managed to find a bit of time before bed to begin another heart for the North Wales and North West Paediatric Transport Service (full details of appeal is here). Unfortunately, once I was committed, I discovered I’d run out of filling to stuff it with, so had to leave it like this! Off to the shops soon…
Wednesday already and as I am planning on using my Orla Squares to make a garment (once I have enough made), I realised that I will probably need some ‘half’ squares to help with the shaping, so I did a bit of experinenting tonight.
Busy day on Day 34, including a really lovely funeral for a very good friend’s Dad, so not much inclination for making when I got home, some mindless sock-knitting rounds was just the ticket.
On Friday, I did a different bit of crafting – I crafted a podcast episode! The first episode of the new series of Making Stitches Podcast is ready to go live on Friday!
And that’s it for Week 5 of my Summer Craft Challenge from my part of the world.
Huge thanks to everyone who has joined in with the Summer Craft Challenge this week, it’s been so lovely to have company on this challenge. Included below are some of varied Instagram posts I’ve seen including a beautiful crocheted sea shell from Sandra @wilddaffodilwild, a beautiful Crochet Sanctuary Christmas blanket and a cardigan in the making from Kristina @crochet_at_holme, a Making Stitches 2025 CAL Bonus Birthday square from Sarah @sarahsheehangib and the cutest Snoopy and Woodstock from Jothi @jothiquestcraft – Thank you all!
And that’s all for this week, thanks again to everyone who’s joined in with the craft challenge to keep me company this week! If you want to join in, you can do at any time, just share what you’re making (any crafts welcome) over on Instagram using the hashtag #SummerCraftChallenge2025 and we can all enjoy each other’s creativity!
Week Four of this year’s Summer Craft Challenge was much like week three – a real mix of things going on. I made a point of trying to have something different each week. Back in the old days when this summer challenge first started, it was completely different – we were living in Gibraltar (where the beach was a 10 minute drive and the sun (almost) always shone, I was a stay at home mum and my kids were a lot smaller. I now work part time, have only 2 young men at home and they are teenagers, so things have needed to be a bit more strategic.
This week was chilled for the lads as I was working 3 days, then we packed up the car and headed north again (not as far as our last holiday to Scotland though) and went to visit our very good friends who live in the Lake District. It was quite hard trying to find time for crochet or anything else in between things on my working days, but after that, it was a different matter.
Here’s what I got up to this week!
Last Saturday was a busy one (every day seems to be busy at the minute) and the first time I had to sit down and get my hook out was in the evening as I watched Guardians of the Galaxy 3 with the boys. That’s another 2 hearts made for the North West and North Wales Paediatric Transport Service. For full details on why I’m making these, check out this post!
Sunday and I revisited my Orla squares. I’m really enjoying making these as they work up so quickly.
On Monday I managed to make a third yellow heart for the North West and North Wales Paediatric Transport Service. That’s a fourth trio of hearts done.
On Day 25 and I took my knitting into work with me in the hope of getting a few rounds done on my sock at lunch time. I was a crazy busy day at work with one thing and another, so no time for lunchtime knitting for me. I enjoyed a sit down late at night and managed a few rounds whilst watcing the finale of Series 3 of The Guilded Age.
Blimey it was really hot on Wednesday (Day 26), and I managed to spend a good chunk of the afternoon sweating it up under a nylon cape at the hairdresser while she made my ‘silver highlights’ a bit less silver. I managed to hook some more squares up while I was in the chair!
Day 27 found us in the Lake District visiting some very dear friends. First night there involved half a pint of local ale and a lovely pub meal. I managed a teeny bit of crochet while we waited for dinner to come.
On Friday, I found myself beside Loughrigg Tarn (after taking a dip on my first ever wild swimming experience). It was a bit cold, but very invigorating and I am so proud of myself for going out of my comfort zone. I also managed to get last night’s square finished by the side of the water too!
And that’s it for Week 4 of my Summer Craft Challenge from my part of the world. This is coming to you a little bit late on Monday rather than Saturday owing to us being away for a few days. Back home safely now and back to ‘normal’ again for the time being.
Huge thanks to everyone who has joined in with the Summer Craft Challenge this week, it’s been so lovely to have company on this challenge. Included below are some of varied Instagram posts I’ve seen including some crocheted sea anemones from Sandra @wilddaffodilwild, a beautiful Merton Abbey Flower Square designed by Janie Crow and made by Kristina @crochet_at_holme, a stunning black crocheted fan comission from Sarah @Sarah.livelovecrochet. A truly lovely cardigan in the making from Carol @nanaseamakes, some dressmaking for the first time this summer from @seaside_karen, a Making Stitches 2025 CAL August square from Sarah @sarahsheehangib, a stunning collection of Granny Squares from Jothi @jothiquestcraft and finally a beautiful photo from Zeli @yarnstorms of her crocheting at the top of Foel Offrym, the Hill of Sacrifice in Wales. Thank you all!
Some of the brilliant Summer Craft Challenge posts shared on Instagram
And that’s all for this week, thanks again to everyone who’s joined in with the craft challenge to keep me company this week! If you want to join in, you can do at any time, just share what you’re making (any crafts welcome) over on Instagram using the hashtag #SummerCraftChallenge2025 and we can all enjoy each other’s creativity!
Week Three of this year’s Summer Craft Challenge was for us a mix of being back at home and in work, traveling down to London to visit Eldest and entertaining friends back at our home in Manchester. Lots of fun times for us all and thankfully a few little windows of opportunity for me to get crafty!
Here’s what I got up to this week!
Last Saturday we headed off on the train down to London to visit Eldest. It gave me the perfect opportunity to get a good amount of crochet done, I couldn’t help but start a new project! I found the pattern for these ‘Orla Squares’ from @psicrochet on Instagram and fell in love with the multi coloured flowers. I only had a teeny amount of the off-white yarn for the centres so squeezed as many out of it as I could while on the train both ways.
Sunday and Day 16 offered me the chance to sit down and relax a bit after a very busy day of traveling and walking around London the day before. I was able to add to my collection of little Orla Square flowers before running out of the yarn for the middles.
Last day of leave for now and it was mainly spent cleaning, washing and ironing! I did manage to fit in a teeny bit of crochet time in the evening though to complete my third trio of hearts for the North West and North Wales Paediatric Transport Service. If you don’t know what this is, please find the full details here.
On Day 18 and my first day back at work after our holiday, I received some happy post to come home to – supplies of the yarn I need to turn my Orla Square flowers into squares – hurrah!
Yet another busy day in our household, once work was out of the way, we were joined by some lovely friends from our days in Gibraltar who traveled up today to visit us for a couple of days. Needless to say, there wasn’t much time for craft, but I did fit in a few moments of sock knitting in bed, before dropping off!
I’m so pleased with these little squares which are growing slowly but surely in number!
Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to our lovely friends on Friday, we had a really lovely time with them. As I sat in front of the TV after taking them to the station, I indulged in a little bit more of this embroidery project which I started in Scotland. Will I get it finished before the end of this Summer Craft Challenge? Somehow, I think not, but it’s proving a really cheerful ongoing project.
And that’s it for Week 3 of my Summer Craft Challenge from my side of things.
Huge thanks to everyone who has joined in with the Summer Craft Challenge this week, it’s been so lovely to have company on this challenge. Included below are some of varied Instagram posts I’ve seen including some embroidery from Kristina @crochet_at_holme, an ever growing crochet coral reef from Sandra @wilddaffodilwild. Also included below are a Making Stitches 2025 CAL July Square from @sarahsheehangib, purple mandalas from Mo at @mojo_5_yng, a rainbow wind spinner from @sarah.livelovecrochet, a beautiful rose covered blanket from @jothiquestcraft, a temperature embroidery from @crochet_at_holme, a brand new project from Ann Marie aka @crochetscot and a beautiful granny square in the making from Carol @nanaseamakes. Thank you all!
Some of the other Summer Craft Challenge posts from Instagram
And that’s all for this week, thanks again to everyone who’s joined in with the craft challenge to keep me company this week! If you want to join in, you can do at any time, just share what you’re making (any crafts welcome) over on Instagram using the hashtag #SummerCraftChallenge2025 and we can all enjoy each other’s creativity!
