Daffy Down Dilly

I love daffodils. As a child, the sight of a conversation of daffodils nodding their heads in the park would mean that a birthday wasn't far away. Daffodil brooches are my latest charity project and despite a slow start and much unravelling of prototypes, I'm very pleased with how they turned out.

The first problem was finding yarn in the right colour. I wanted a fine cotton in a nice daffodilly yellow. I could find bright orange and really pale, baby yellow but no daffodil colour. In the end I picked up a plain white cotton and a packet of dye. The result was a bit uneven but I think it makes a nice wild look to the flower and each one is different.

Then I struggled to find a pattern I liked that was fairly quick and easy to make in case they turn out to be as popular as the poppies. In the end I made plain a six petal flower and double crochet round each one with a picot on the top. Picked up stitches from the middle to make the trumpet in the middle with more picots round the top.

Running out of time to sew I decided to stick the brooch pin on the back with superglue. I routed out a tube from the kitchen draw and started to squeeze. No joy. I squeezed harder, nothing. I peered down the nozzle (I did stop squeezing at this point). Still no signs of glue so I squeezed even harder. A few bubbles escaped the nozzle and I felt a burning sensation on my fingers. The glue was pouring out of the side of the tube all over my hands. Luckily I managed to prise my fingers apart and wash the glue away before they stuck forever. Think I'd better stick to needle and thread!

Happy New Hats

 

Happy New Year to you all and I hope you had a good Christmas. We, (Me, OH, eldest son and daughter) were lucky enough to spend Christmas in the French Alps joining my middle son who is working as Chef de Partie in a posh hotel for the ski season. We had a proper White Christmas, it snowed all day giving knee deep powder on Boxing day, great fun and lovey to have quality family time together.

There were lots of lovely knitted and crochet hats to ogle in the lift queues and in particular this year bobble hats in bright neon colours seemed to be very popular. The blue hat A. is wearing in these pictures is one I'd made him last year. T's pink headband was knitted from the end of a ball of Sirdar Indie and is gorgeously soft and warm.

These colours are so "2013" so when we got back I had a rummage in my stash and found some bright acrylic dk in dayglo green, got out my hook and made this, complete with fluffy bobble to send out to France. T. didn't want to be left out so I'm now working on a neon pink version.