books Archives - Lucias Figtree

JANUARY’S BLUES…AND MORE THOUGHTS

Lucia & Francesca / January 10, 2019November 5, 2020 / Lifestyle, Patterns, Stories, Uncategorized

2019…

a new year!

I don’t know about you but I found January a bit of a difficult month…especially after the whirlpool of activities, family, parties, food, visitors, birthdays and so on.

January means the fizzling out of the holidays and that life is about to crank back into action and so I welcome the new year with a mix of relief and sadness, relief because I quite like to go back to my normal routine with the added bonus of a fresh new start, and sadness because I miss having a “full house” as I wave goodbye to Valentina on her way back to London and Giuseppe to university.

my babies…

January, for me, has always been a time for looking back to the past, and more importantly, forward to the coming year. It’s a time to reflect on the changes I want (or need) to make and resolve to follow through on those changes. January is about lists, hopes and resolutions.

I found the resolution’s part quite funny in a way because there are 364 other days to make resolutions, but we choose to make them on a single day!

If you follow me on Facebook and Instagram you probably have noticed that my crochet slows down during the holiday’s period, I finished my beautiful Havana just before the holidays and that was really it..

I made a few hats and a Valentina shawl, but nothing very exciting.

My creativity seems to take a break as I need to empty my head and start to re-focus.

I feel creativity is about imagination and yet it is also about reality too, seeing the world as truly is and observing carefully, so I welcome the peace of these few days to gather my thoughts

about observing…

I read this last night: an extract of a letter Vincent Van Gogh wrote during his stay in Saintes-Maries :

“One night I went for a walk by the sea along the empty shore. It was not gay, but neither was it sad – it was – beautiful. The deep blue sky was flecked with clouds of a blue deeper than the fundamental blue of intense cobalt, and others of a clearer blue, like the blue whiteness of the Milky Way. In the blue depth the stars were sparkling, greenish, yellow, white, pink, more brilliant, more emeralds, lapis lazuli, rubies, sapphires. The sea was very deep ultramarine – the shore a sort of violet and faint russet as I saw it, and on the dunes (they are about seventeen feet high) some bushes Prussian blue.”

Saintes-Maries, 5th june 1888

is it not just amazing? to be able to see reality in such a way? I thought you might like it too.

So after not lifting a hook or thinking about crochet for almost a month, I started ephemerizing again…which means collecting ephemera like pictures, colours chips, dried flowers, quotes, books, photographs anything that catches my eye and I feel my “crojo” akka “crochet mojo” is coming back to me slowly . I needed something easy, rhythmic, relaxing, no headaches of pattern writing… just concentrating on the simple pleasure to see the colours mixing and morphing into each other.

Here it is my new project, it is just 2 days old..so I m not sure where I am going with it but I will share it with you next week..pattern, colours etc.. just give me a few more days to see how it develops.

Love to you all,

Lucia xx

Cosmic, amigurumi and other stories…

Lucia & Francesca / April 21, 2018November 5, 2020 / Lifestyle, Patterns, Stories

Hello everyone,

Here I am with a new blog entry to keep you all updated on my …never-end stack of Works in progress!!..

So where to start…my obsession with amigurumi is still in full swing…

I got a couple of new books one of which is SUPER CUTE! it is all about bugs and butterflies.What fascinated me is that Lydia Tresselt, the designer behind LalyLala, is so skilled that made even a fly looking cute!

I attempted a butterfly, is not finished yet, the pattern is beautifully written as Lydia has been writing amigurumi patterns for a long time.I am sure many of you are well acquainted with her kangaroos and other super cute animals, if not please have a look at her work, it is well worth it a visit.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/lalylala

” Lalylala’s Beetles, Bugs and Butterflies” is her last book, I got it from Amazon a few days ago. It is lovely and a bit different from the average crochet book, the first part tells a story about the life cycle of the insects and the second part is all about patterns for the different stages of the bugs lives. from caterpillar to adult insect, they look very cute and easy to make. I think they would be perfect for a child because they are not only lovely to play with but, to a degree, they could be quite educational, as they are not too “human-like “as often happens to amigurumis. on that subject, I have discovered another amazing designer, Sonja van der Wijk , her website is called Son’s popkes https://sonspopkes.com/

I bought 3 of her patterns on Ravelry, and I got one free I thought to would be a good idea to use some of the Lett-lopi yarn I got in my stash…

if you follow me you might remember the Odinella blanket I made last year using Lett-lopi.

https://luciasfigtree.com/patterns/odinella-icelandic-blanket/

a fabulous yarn especially for knitting and if you are interested in making outdoors garments or beautiful Lopapeysa ,with their recognizable design that has since become a national icon for Icelandic cultural identity ( I love Iceland!)

I made so many Lopapeysa over the years, they have been my favourite knitting project. So if you love knitting and you also love the outdoors I would definitely recommend knitting one. They can be a bit scratchy at the beginning but they become amazingly soft with age and also they last a long time!

Francesca, my daughter, has a favourite one I made for her when she was 16 and she wear it all the time..it has a couple of holes on the sleeves but I think it adds to the charm!

you can see it here.

I also have to finish my last bear and i have to make a “VERY PINK” ‘s one for my niece, Aurora, she is going to be 7 at the end of May and she loves pink…

This week I also finished joining together the Camo-blanket for Francesca.. I loved joining together the squares she made ,and adding a border.

More WIP’s…the COSMIC CAL!! how exciting!!!

I normally don’t do Cals because I am really impatient and I haven’t done a Cal since the Sophie’s Universe, but I think the Cosmic is a lovely one so I decided to give it a go.https://www.crystalsandcrochet.com/

I have been an admirer of Helen’s work since she started designing, she has recently joined the Stylecraft’s blogstars group and has been a real privilege chatting to her, she is not only a great designer but also a lovely all around person!. the Cosmic is going to be my first blanket using Helen’s patterns.

Part one went live this week on the Stylecraft’s web site, it is available in English, American and Dutch, but on Helen’s page is translated in many other languages so have a look at Helen’s page! there is also a video tutorial too on youtube which I found very helpful.

I enjoyed the pattern so much that I made 2 versions as I couldn’t make up my mind about the yarn!! I made a Stylecraft SPECIAL DK ‘s one and an Aran weight one with some Drop’s NEPAL that I had at home.

Some of you ladies as asked me about the colours I used on the Stylecraft’s version so here they are: plum/matador/mustard/petrol/empire/gold/bright pink/aspen/magenta/spice/storm blue/fuchsia purple/lipstick/fondant /tomato.

I am not sure yet how I am going to use them and if I will drop a colour or two…as all of you I am following the CAL so is a bit if an adventure!

I also decided to make my life more complicated and in certain rounds, I used 2 colours instead then 1 so again I don’t know if that will work for all the different parts..I will keep you posted, and here is part one of the Stylecraft’s version finished and I am nearly there with the Aran too.

that is all for today, wishing you all a lovely weekend,

the sun shined in Scotland for a couple of hours!…it is back cloudy now..lol

see you next time! thank you for reading

Lucia xx

It is that time of the year….

Lucia & Francesca / December 1, 2016November 5, 2020 / Lifestyle, Patterns, Stories

I am one of those people that love winter and all the trimmings that come with the season, dark nights, log fires, candles, hot chocolate, lots of carbs,cosy scarfs, mittens, blankets, handmade socks, friends and family gathering for the festive season and most of all I like to have an excuse for making small things to decorate the house with.

Other things I like are Scandinavian decorations and imagery. One of my favourite artists is Lennart Helje,in particular I love his whimsical snow-cloaked world of Tomtes , woodlands and animals, also a few weeks ago I saw a short motion posted on facebook of a knitter tomte from Mochimochiland and I thought was lovely

http://giphy.com/gifs/love-comfort-knitting-3oriO6qJiXajN0TyDu

so I decided to make a small guardian as a central piece for my festive mantelpiece’s display.

If you are not familiar with the concept Tomte, is the Swedish name for a brownie or a hob, they are mythological folklore creatures typically associated with the winter solstice and yuletide. they look after the house and the occupants , they are small, with long beards and wearing a conical cap. they also can have a bit of temperament if ignored but a good porridge and a beer will make them very happy.

My Tomte is made with some ODD ENDS OF CHUNKY YARN, I used some leftover Alafoss Lopi, some DK YARN in red, pale rose and grey ( Stylecraft special ) , SOME SAND or RICE,( can be little pebbles anything that weight down and fit the body), some TOY STUFFING and a bit of WOOL TOP for the beard.

You can change anything of the above to suit your stash or your decor but you need the wool top , the most distinctive feature of a Tomte is his beard so has to be wool top in my opinion.

I didn’t write a pattern because it is straightforward, especially if you are familiar with amigurumi patterns. You have a cone for the body, another cone for the hat, a small half sphere for his nose. I added to mine two little arms with large mittens and a big heart.

Just decide how big you want your Tomte to be. Then start a dc circle ( same as the cushion I posted the other day). When you are happy with the size of the base stop the increases and keep crocheting; the sides will start to come up. Again when you are pleased with the height, place a round of even spaced decreases, more rounds and some more decreases your cone will start to form.

At this stage, it helps to start filling the body. I place a little bag of sand in the bottom to stabilise and stuffing all around.It is up to you how tall, slim you want your Tomte to be, mine has a 9inches tall body and 12 inches tall hat.

The hat is a cone too, start really small, and I added some increases for the rim to give it a’ Gandalf’s look’. Nose a semi-circle with some stuffing.

For the arms I used the A:15 pattern from Kerry Lord’s ‘Edward’s crochet Imaginarium.’ grey dk for the arms and the chunky for the mittens.

Edward’s crochet Imaginarium is a fabulous book. Probably the best I bought this year. Very useful for all sort of little creature projects. The pages are split into three parts: HEAD-ARMS-FEET plus some bodies patterns at the end of the book, so you can combine and make whatever you like.

You can use the body pattern for your tomte too.

The heart….

I found an amazing free pattern online by Mia Zamora Johnson this is the link:

http://owlishly.typepad.com/owlishly/corazoncitos-amigurumi-hearts-pattern-free.html

It comes in 3 sizes: small, medium and large. I used the medium pattern for my Tomte.

The mistletoe on his hat is pattern 53 from Lesley Stanfield ;’100 flowers to knit & crochet’ again anothe good book to have.

Make one it is really fun and a good omen too , all homes should have their own little guardian!

In the next post I will show you some more crochet decorations and how I used them .

Happy hooking! xxx

A Look into my studio

Lucia & Francesca / November 21, 2016November 5, 2020 / Lifestyle, Stories

A look into my studio, my workshop guarded by our family cat Thorin were he is keeping cosy by the fire on a cold day in Scotland.

For more check out my facebook page through this link – Lucia fig tree