Summer pickings

Snip, pinch, pluck. 

Crunching, roasting, drying, jamming.

It seems incredible that I never did any of this in Italy, because is there a European country with better fresh produce than Italy? 

A north-facing flat, 8 floors above a clattering road and permanently covered in smoggy soot did not lend itself to home growing. And why bother, anyway, when going down to the weekly market and arguing with the traders about how many lemons one small family could feasibly get through in a week (tantissimi, signora, sono stupendi) was such a rite of passage? 

Not here; The Swedes have an enthusiasm for the foraged, the lovingly coaxed out of the ground in the short but intense growing seasons. We live in a garden-less flat now too, but its balcony is my solace. I promise you, there's little you can't grow in pots these days. Cucumbers, strawberries, all manner of salad leaves, herbs, green beans, chillies, and these dinky little round carrots not even the vegetable-averse Bean could resist. 

Yes, I have hit middle-age as well as middle-class, I think, taking pictures of my haul. And what I can't grow myself but am able to pick by the crate-load from a local farm? Recruit the small person (who now mistakes cow parsley for elderflower!), jam it all and show it off to the world. There's nothing better than summer pickings, is there. 

Do you grow or pick your own? What's your favourite summer treat to make?

I'm linking up with Katie for The Ordinary Moments and Chantelle for My Expat Family.

PATTERN: The Sea Breeze Hoodie

When it became apparent we'd be moving from Italy to Sweden, my immediate thought was: we'll freeze! Don't get me wrong, as a pale-skinned redhead I wasn't sorry to say goodbye to months of humidity and heat (we lived in a smoggy city, not by a beautiful lake or beach!). It was, nevertheless, clear that we would need a little wardrobe adjusting. Out with the flimsy dresses and tiny tanks, in with sensible windproofs. Because, oh my, is it windy here. Even on a lovely, sunny summer's day it can howl straight through you. Windproof jacket, warm and practical layer underneath. The Sea Breeze Hoodie, the perfect summer staple on Scandi shores.

Does practical exclude fun and frivolous? Certainly not: mismatched buttons and bright yellow sleeves. Soft, soft organic cotton. A quick and easy construction with minimal shaping, and there you go. The perfect summer to midseason layer for boys and girls aged 12 months to 10 years and ´lucky` enough to live in windier climes. 

You can purchase the PDF download in US and UK terms from my Ravelry store now.

The Sea Breeze Hoodie is worked in three panels from the bottom up: one for the back and two for the front, which are then seamed together. Both the hood and the ribbed sleeves are worked seamlessly into the selvedge edges. Finally, the piece can be finished with either buttons or a zip – this pattern includes instructions for both. 

Difficulty level
This pattern uses an easy stitch pattern (linen stitch) and simple shaping, making it perfect for confident beginners who want to venture into garment-making. The pattern comes with full written instructions as well as stitch diagrams and schematics. A step-by-step photo tutorial for the ribbing is available here.

Materials
4mm and 3.5mm crochet hook (US size G/6 and E/4), or as required to meet gauge
scissors
wool needle
buttons or zip
yarn: 3 (3, 4, 4, 5, 6) x 50 g skein of Pickles Thin Organic Cotton in Sea Water 06 (MC); 1 (1, 1, 1, 1, 1) x 50 g skein of Pickles Thin Organic Cotton in Sun 21 (CC)

Yardage
MC 190 (250, 300, 350, 420, 580) m / MC 210 (275, 330, 385, 460, 635) yds
CC 90 (90, 90, 90, 90, 90) m / CC 100 (100, 100, 100, 100, 100) yds

Yarn alternatives
Choose a light to medium-weight yarn (DK to worsted, or 8 to 10-ply) with a soft handle and a recommended hook size of E/4 to 7 (4.0mm to 4.5mm). I recommend using 100% cotton or a cotton/merino blend, as these feel non-prickly against the skin. 

Sizing
12M (24M, 2-4Y, 4-6Y, 6-8Y, 8-10Y)

Tension
a 10x10 cm (4" x 4") swatch should consist of 15 rows of 16 stitches, using larger hook.

Stitches + Skills
Basic crochet stitches, basic shaping, short row shaping (explained with diagram), basic sewing skills

You can purchase the PDF download in US and UK terms from my Ravelry store now.

€4.50 (plus VAT if applicable)

I'm linking up this post with Moogly Blog and Petals to Picots

Crochet meets Patchwork Blanket: Green Squares Pt. I

The Crochet meets Patchwork Blanket is an ongoing project that I started on my old blog in July 2014. It is inspired by scrappy, patchwork quilts and provides a great opportunity to play with colours, try different motifs and learn new crochet stitches.

All the patterns for the squares used in this blanket are free - some are mine, some are by other designers (always credited; if you spot one I've credited to the wrong person please get in touch). You can find details of the project, including step-by-step tutorials to my own patterns, on the Project Page. A complete ebook guide will be available in due course. 

You can also find all the patterns and tutorials mentioned below on the Crochet meets Patchwork Pinterest Board, and follow along with my progress on the Emmy + LIEN instagram account.

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Crochet meets Patchwork Blanket

- green square pattern round-up Pt. I - 

The green palette is the one I started off with, and I still adore it. It's so soothing to look at, don't you think? Wherever possible, I’ve linked to the original patterns and their designers. As you’ll see, however, there's one that I can’t track beyond Pinterest. If you know who owns the copyright, I’d be very grateful if you could get in touch. 

Notes

2.5 mm (C) and 3.5 mm (E/4) hooks
DMC Natura Just Cotton 4-ply
Colours: Jade (A), Ivory (B), Gris Argent (C), Aswan (D)
Individual square size: 10 cm x 10 cm (ca. 4" x 4")
Total square size: 40 cm x 40 cm (ca. 15" x 15")

Patterns

1. "Square Target" by Jan Eaton - I found this as part of a set of four diagrams on Pinterest
2. “Sunburst” Granny Square by Priscilla Hewitt. I used this photo tutorial by Jenny at Nittybits to learn how to make the square.
3. “Ribbed Cross” Granny Square by Eline Alcocer at Emmy + LIEN
4. “Triple Puff” Granny Square by Eline at Emmy + LIEN
5. Standard Granny Square - goodness knows who came up with this pattern first (!) but I used this step-by-step photo tutorial by Allison at Dream a Little Bigger to learn how to make granny squares.
6. “Paeonia” Granny Square by Djaya - this pattern is in Russian but there are very clear photographs for every step as well as a diagram at the bottom of the post.
7. Standard Granny Square - see no. 5
8. Unnamed - this is an extension of a pattern for a tiny granny square, which appears as part of a tutorial on how to read crochet charts by The Best Knitter’s Guide. Instead of doing the picots in round 3, I simply kept repeating rounds 1 and 2.
9. “Snowflake on the Square” by Laura at Baking Outside the Box.

Joining the squares

Before joining the squares together I made sure they were all the same size by adding an extra round of DCs (SCs in US terms) using the smaller hook here are there, and blocked them individually. I then used this joining tutorial by Carina at Carina's Craft Blog to crochet them together. 

Border

- Details coming soon -

Holibobs

By this afternoon, the Bean will have completed his first full preschool year in Sweden. Tomorrow the two of us head to Belgium to see my family for a week. The holidays are here. 

Not a moment too soon; The last couple of days he has been settling in with an older age group and, while he is developmentally more than ready, emotionally? Not so much settled as tornado-like. A break is much needed.

I feel quietly excited about our first summer holidays since moving here. Right on cue, the weather has taken a nose-dive - after two months of glorious sunshine and (uncharacteristically) high temperatures, it's grey, chilly, damp. But still, there is much to look forward to. There's that at week at my folks', then three whole weeks back here with no schedules, no firm plans, no expectations other than to see where each day takes us. We've got visitors for a few days in the middle, but otherwise I just foresee plenty of picnics, lake trips and PJ days.

(Mr E+L is also trying to convince me to go camping. "Trying" being the operative word here. We had a trial run last weekend in a friend's back garden for midsummer, and the tent collapsed in a storm after precisely one hour.) Finally, we head back to the UK in August for a few weeks. Not without some trepidation, in light of recent developments over there, but I hope we will be able to focus on family and friends in the way we want to.

Most of all, I look forward to slowing down a bit and focusing on my husband as well as the mini-tornado. Maybe, just maybe, I'll also get a chance to do some sewing or a little outdoor knitting. I bought these pretties a while ago to make socks with, because there doesn't seem a holiday project more perfect than socks. I'm thinking of trying the aptly-named Travel Trio by Clare Devine. 

In the meantime though, for the last pre-holiday work day, it's all systems go. I've got one pattern going out to testers later and another to draft, two suitcases to pack, invoices to send, plant-watering instructions to write. There's a pair of bright red wellies drying in the oven after a full-body puddle experience yesterday. 

From tomorrow things might go a little quiet here on the blog, until we get back in late August. I hope you won't mind. I hope you have a really nice summer too, wherever you spend it x

YARN REVIEW: MoYa Whisper

What kind of yarn is it?

• MoYa Whisper is a  100% organic cotton. It's a standard Double-Knitting (DK) yarn, with a recommended hook size of 3.5 to 4.0 mm (needle size 3 to 4 mm). For a loose crocheter like me, 3.5 mm is spot on.
• This yarn is hand dyed, so each ball has its own unique colour gradation. The peach shade pictured above ranges from a very light baby pink to a dark raspberry. However, each ball within a dye lot has the same base colour, so they do of look good together. 
• The colour range includes 19 powdery shades, with a good number of neutrals and a few delicious brights thrown in.

image credit: scaapi.nl

Who makes it?

MoYa Yarn is based near Cape Town in South Africa. The company is run by a mother and daughter team, who specialise in hand-dyed, unique yarns.

Plus points?

• MoYa Whisper has a high twist, meaning it absolutely does not split. When you're doing fiddly stitches such as puffs, this is a godsend!
• Like all cotton yarns it's fairly dense, but it still feels soft and supple to work with. I've found it softens up more over time, too.
• The colours are to. die. for.
• It's organic! 

Negatives?

My only complaint is that MoYa yarns are still a little tricky to get hold of in some parts of the world. However, I know its distributors as working hard to change this. For European stockists you can check Scaapi's website, and the Australia & New Zealand market is covered by intambo. 

What should I use it for?

MoYa whisper is perfect for baby and children's items such as blankets, sweaters, hats, etc. Even though cotton is usually recommended for wash cloths and the like, I wouldn't use this yarn for those - it's just too nice! 

Suggested pattern: Peach Pocket Tunic

Disclosure: I received one ball of MoYa Whisper as a sample. The decision to write this review, and all opinions and words included in it, are my own.

On my to-do list || June

I'll be brief this month, partly because we're already halfway through June (wud?!) and partly because I'm in the throes of the pre-holiday rush - 2 weeks to go! So during what remains of June I will be:

• Making all the jam - fresh produce is finally available locally and I intend to use up every last scrap of it
• Eating all the jam - such as this tongue-tinglingly good elderflower and apple jelly that I made last night. The recipe is by my friend Juliane at Notes from Björkåsa and I could have it, spread on toast, for breakfast, elevensen, and afternoon tea. and dinner. Every day. 

• Writing all the patterns - the rationale being that if I do all the thinking now, I'll be able to do all the making when the small person is around 24/7. Because I definitely haven't got a deadline scheduled smack-bang in the middle of the holidays and two for straight after... (I do maybe have a bunch of new commission freshly placed, yay!)

• Keeping all my marbles - I'll admit, I'm struggling with the juggling this month. Yesterday morning I managed to lock myself out of the flat, sans phone and avec pyjamas. Says it all, really, doesn't it. Also, I've been shouty mummy far too often lately. No matter how busy I am, I will need to set aside some time to calm down as well. I tend to take a lot of flowery pictures when I'm stressed, and in the evenings you'll find me knitting away furiously at something just for me: a Maeve shrug by Carie Bostick Hoge in the most beautiful organic cotton + merino yarn. I loves it and I can't wait to wear it. 

• Looking forward to all the squeezes - two weeks to go, and then the 3yo monkey is all mine!

Have a good month (or what remains of it, at least)! Also, don't get locked out in your PJs! 

Sea Water, Sun and Yarn

Yesterday I handed in a stack of autumn/winter design proposals. Now I just have one or two more things to try out for the Emmy + LIEN label, and then I think I can draw a line under all things dark and wintry. Only until the sample making starts, of course, but the initial head-scratching part is done. The result: a stack of swatches. About a month's worth of work. Doesn't look like much does it?!

One late summer design has snuck in there, and I wanted to pull it out for a little sneaky peek. And a yarny drool. 

Meet my new crush: Pickles. They're based in Oslo and, oh my, don't they ever produce deliciousness. I ordered two types (for now!), Summer Wool and Thin Organic Cotton. 

Summer Wool consists of 70% organic cotton and 30% fair trade Peruvian merino. Plant-dyed, entirely scrumptious, and swiftly set aside for a knitted cardigan for Yours Truly (more on that another day). 

Thin Organic Cotton isn't actually that thin - it works up almost like a worsted weight rather than a DK - but it is very lovely. It feels much softer than 100% cottons usually do, and so it's perfect for a summer to mid-season vest design I've had in mind. Though I normally get lead times spectacularly wrong, this *should* be coming out fairly soon. Swatch done, colours picked, mood board fun had. First test subject: the Bean (though I think it'll be a child to adult pattern - I want me some of this too!).

I'm waiting for the rest of the yarn I need to make up the sample to arrive. I settled on this muted "sea water" blue, and added a yellow called "sun". Sounds like a perfect summer of making to me. 

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Just so you know: I have not been compensated in any way for writing this post. 

Maker Me vs Creator Me

On the 1st of March I officially launched as a "professional" designer. I can't bring myself to get rid of the inverted commas yet, even though I really am doing everything I can to approach this in a professional manner. I think it's because I still feel there is so. much. to learn.

Learning is a good thing, of course, and in my opinion even the most professionally professional "experts" (maybe I just like inverted commas, actually) should have to continuously work on honing their skills. But for me, right now, everything about this business is still new. 

The steepest learning curve has been detaching "Maker Me" from "Creator Me" (whaddaya know, I do like inverted commas). Maker Me is very reactive to her surroundings, the seasons, and what happens to be in stock at the local yarn shop. Maker Me will fall head over heels in love with a particular colour or yarn, and Buy before she Engages Brain. That's why I end up furiously making gloves and hats for the entire family the week before a cold snap is forecast, and why even big blanket projects meander along a completely random path.

None of that is remotely professional, and doesn't Creator Me half know about it. Creator me wants to work with magazines and release patterns in good time so that other people don't end up doing the hat scramble. Creator me makes mood boards, pays attentions to trends, and thinks about what other people will like. Creator Me is, admittedly, finding swatching with wintry woollens on a sunny day in June very weird.

Despite their seeming incompatibility, I know that it is Maker Me who gave rise to Creator Me, really: in the middle of churning out granny squares I realised I was also coming up with entirely new ones, and that it might be a good idea to share them. Maker Me is the one who took the leap, Creator Me is trying to keep up after a phenomenal response. 

The challenge for me, then, lies in keeping both Mes happy. My brain is raring to work out ALL THE IDEAS, but at the end of a long day my hands just want something mindlessly repetitive. My family still needs the hats, but I guess that come winter I'll be thinking about pretty cottons and pastels. 

It's all part of the process really, isn't it? I can neither stop making nor stop creating, so I have to find a compromise that works for me. So far I've turned to lots of To-Do lists: for Brain-ON daytime crochet, for Brain-OFF evening and weekends, for everything else ever.

It all feels a bit schizophrenic sometimes - on the same day I could be rummaging through piles of moody, dark wool as well as putting the finishing touching to a zesty mid-season top.

But I'm realising there is a time for soothing swatches, and another for crunching stitch numbers. My pattern release schedule is still all over the shop, but as I said: I'm learning. Long may it continue.

Do you have a Maker Me and a Creator Me? Do you ever find your makes are out of step with what is going on around you? How do you solve that (or do you just not worry about it)? I'd love to know! 

A Maker's Morning

A morning after our first winter in Sweden, THE morning. A Scandinavian morning in spring, any morning, every morning, feels like a deep and invigorating breath.

For months I have felt like a mole. Blind, snuffling, disoriented by the lack of color and nuance in the world. Color... As a crochetwear designer colour is my caffeine, really, and my daily fuel consists of the textures I find outside.

But what do to when there is so little light that seeing true hues is impossible? We tried, of course, to give the darkness short shrift with cosy blankets, bright cushions and twinkly lights. Still, there are only so many candle-lit breakfasts at 9 AM (nine!) one can endure before “hygge” can hop it.

No matter though, spring is here, the light is back, and I wake up to the sun’s delightful trickery. 

Once the boys have been dispatched to school and work respectively and the breakfast table cleared of detritus, my dance with the morning light begins.

The treasures collected the day before come out (I’m one of those people with perpetually crumby pockets, and it’s not due to my three-year-old’s snacks hiding in there), projects are piled on every surface. Yarn is squeezed, textures are tested, everything is arranged and rearranged. 

The big camera comes out. Sometimes the results are good and sometimes (more times), the results are rubbish. It doesn’t matter though; this is a Scandinavian Spring Morning. A breath… it’s all in the process.  

As I take pictures my mind stills. It clears: Winter’s dark cloak has been shaken off and with the light the ideas decide to wake up as well. I have to grab a notebook, quick. 

Now the day’s work can really start. See? I told you colour was my caffeine. Well. That and real tea. 

Moving to Sweden || nine months in

The end of April marked a momentous occasion: a year since we decided to take a leap of faith and move to Sweden. This only a month after the initial offer came through, and by the end July we'd packed up, squeezed our friends and left Milan for good. There wasn't really any time to think.

I think that time might have come now though. Nine months in and we've survived the physical move (barely), embraced the newness (giddily), tackled most of the bureaucratic palaver (grudgingly). We've emerged from the disorienting darkness that is the Swedish winter. Routines have become established, and then April came and the full force of our decision hit us like a bus. Bloody hell. We live in Sweden. 

Most days the hit-by-a-bus feeling is followed by positivity: Bloody hell we live in Sweden AND we like it here. There are so many things to like - I'll get to those in a minute. I can't lie though. There has also been a fair amount of anxiety. 
 
WORK
I think the anxiety is mainly down to our work situation. Mr E+M is on a two-year contract, which means we are nearly halfway through. That, dear people, is a scary thing. 
I freelance, which is always unpredictable, and it just so happens I have exactly zero projects lined up for after the summer holidays. First time in about 5 years that's happened. This is also a scary thing.
The combination of being a bit scared plus knowing you're on to A Good Thing that you want keep hold of is making it quite hard to live in the moment and say "we'll just see what turns up" in the way we always have done. Nevertheless, there is of course more to life than work, especially when all the non-work is good. 

LIFESTYLE
From the moment the sun - real sun with real light and real warmth - returned it was like the entire country came out of hibernation. Neighbours we didn't even realise we had dusted off barbeques and picnic tables (or, in the case of Swedish Super Dad across the green, built one), loaded up their coffee flasks and decamped to the Great Outdoors for the forseeable. On some days it's still bloody cold, but it matters not. The light is here, with it a riot of colour, and it all needs to be adored. I'm all up for adoring. 

Siberian Squills in early Spring

Fritillaries and other meadow flowers in May

So we've had alfresco lunches in our fleece-lined cagoules and taken our thermoses down to the beach. We went to see the cherry blossoms in Copenhagen in April. Next weekend we're off to explore Stockholm, our Midsummer Party invites have come through the letterbox, and we're even planning a camping trip for July (I am not a campy person).
The light is wonderful. It's making it really hard to sleep at night, but I guess before long we'll have six months of winter to do all the sleeping we like.

HOME
With all this light and outdoorsiness, it's impossible to resist trying to turn our flat, our lump of sixties' concrete, into some sort of airy summer cabin thing. Despite the short nighttime darkness I haven't bothered putting up black-out blinds. I spend as much time as humanly (i.e. 3yo human) possible in my crochet chair by the kitchen window.

Also: in with the plants, lots of plants. We have a postage stamp-sized balcony, but I'll be damned if I don't turn it into a model of urban sustainable living. There are all manner of herbs, carrots, cucumbers and strawberries, sunflowers, lavender, hanging tubs full of flowers. The aphids have already got to the lavender and I know we'll be lucky to get even 5 carrots, but I'm having a blast trying. 

THE BEAN
Now that our surroundings look more or less as green as they did when we first arrived here, I can see how much my Bean has changed in the last 9 months. The space, the little forest paths, the myriad opportunities to get properly dirty. He was so afraid and clingy when he arrived, but now he's a happy, confident little explorer. He has his found partners-in-crime at school and comes home telling me, in the same breath, how much he loves them and how one of them hit him on the head with a spade. He eats like a horse, fights sleep like a champ and never has clean finger nails.

He's forgotten every word of Italian he ever knew, too, and speaks way better Swedish than I do (which is, admittedly, not hard). He has days when he's so horrible I consider auctioning him off on eBay, but that has nothing to do with us having moved across Europe anymore, and everything to do with Being Three. The Bean is grand. 

SOCIAL LIFE
Talking of beans, my closest friend in Milan had another baby recently. The ache of missing her, and missing out on this huge experience in her life, is painfully acute. It was always going to be and I don't know how to solve it. One thing is certain though: yay for creativity. Having plucked up the courage to attend a couple of crafter's meetups, I can honestly say I've made real, meaningful connections despite having only been here for a short time. There is an openness, a willingness to just sit, chat and share among the makers in this area that I am truly grateful for. And they bring you wee plant friends when you invite them for coffee, which is always a bonus. 

For Mr E+L the social aspect has been trickier, mainly because making friends with your colleagues doesn't seem to be the done thing here. When your work (and the possibility of there being more) is 100% results-based it's of course difficult to step away from it for long enough to pursue a social hobby. I think we somehow will have to make that a priority soon though. That, and learning Swedish for me. If I really want to integrate into the creative community here (and say more than hej to my son's friends!) I need to swallow my pride and feel stupid in a classroom again for a while. Come September, if the work really does totally dry up, it might be the right time. 

September. Gosh. By that point we'll have been here for over a year, the Bean will have gone up an age group at school, and we'll have had a whole summer of wind-swept barbeques. There is so much to want to stick around for, and so little point in worrying about it.

I'm linking this post up with Chantelle at Seychelles Mama for #myexpatfamily