It was after a recent visit to the local wool shop that my youngest pointed out that my entire palette was reminiscent of Harry Potter, hence the Slytherin gloves.
Testing the new gloves
How the gloves came about was an entirely different conversation that happened at the zoo a couple of weeks back. My youngest loves to take photographs but with the colder weather fast approaching, he was disappointed about the prospect of not being able to take so many as it’s not so practical with conventional gloves.
Anyway, I suggested that fingerless gloves might work, and he was totally sold on that idea. So, eager to ensure that he wouldn’t miss out on any photo opportunities, I grabbed my crochet hook and his favourite shade of green…Slytherin green, of course.
But how to make a warm pair of gloves from double knit? Well, I’d been making the cushiony arm covers for our IKEA chairs, and they’d come up nice and chunky. So I slipped one of those onto my youngest’s arm to check for fit, and it was spot on!
Fingerless gloves in teal
With the smallest modification for a thumb hole built into the pattern, I rustled up a pair of fingerless gloves in a few hours:
With a 2.75 hook, chain 28 and form a ring with a slip stitch.
Round 1: Chain 4, treble in next stitch to end of round. Slip stitch into chain 4 to complete.
Round 2: Chain 4, front post in next stitch, back post in following stitch. Continue to alternate to end of round. Slip stitch into chain 4 to complete.
Rounds 3 to 8: Repeat pattern.
Round 9: Repeat round 1.
Round 10: Repeat round 2 but at some point in the round skip 3 trebles and chain 3 instead.
Round 11: Repeat round 1, placing a treble in each of the 3 chains made in round 10.
This one is all down to Hubs. The title for this post may have been a little subtle, but some of you may have spotted the IKEA connection.
Stripy teal and dandelion arm covers
We’ve had these chairs for a few months now and they’re lovely. However, I am constantly slipping cushions down the sides to pad my big dog’s butt when he snuggles up with me for the evening. Did someone say ‘spoilt’?
I like to work in double knit as it’s really versatile. However, it’s not the best for a project where you want some cushioning. So I set about eperimenting with the thickest texture that I could achieve with good old DK, and this is what I ended up with.
The cover is basically a tube (which Hubby was able to slide onto the arm by removing one of the screws) made up of trebles and post stitches. It comes up lovely and chunky.
For a perfect fit for the IKEA POANG armchairs:
Chain 28 with a 2.75 hook and double knit, securing the round with a slip stitch.
Round 1: Chain 4, treble in next stictch and all the way round.
Round 2: Chain 4, front post stitch in next stitch, back post stitch in next stitch. Continue alternating post stitches to complete the round.
Repeat rounds 1 and 2 until there are 26 rounds in total.
Stripy burgundy and dandelion arm cover
I’ve just completed the first arm of the next armchair. This time I’m using the dandelion (which is obviously a good match for the chair covers) mixed with a burgundy stripe (which matches our IKEA cushion, which incidentally went through a phase of appearing on just about every US TV drama…not our actual cushion of course…unless it snuck out at night).
Watch out for another use of this cosy pattern coming soon!
Scarred with unsightly scratches (mainly by the darling cat who has refused to use every cat scratcher on the market), this faux-leather tub chair —which was second-hand in the first place—was well overdue for a revamp.
The finished Granny Chair
Now, I’ve had a few false starts with this project. And it’s been kicking around probably for the best part of a couple of years—a mixture of being overwhelmed by the size of the project and not being happy with the fit.
Determined not to overthink the project or pander to my inner perfectionist, I grabbed the box full of odds and ends of yarns and got crocheting.
My aim was to keep it simple, relaxed and fun. Colours were plucked at random and tied together…yes, even if the round was incomplete!
A large granny square was the starting point. I basically kept on adding rounds until the square tuck behind the cushion and all the way down the back of the chair. Then, it was a matter of adding rows of treble crochet on opposing sides of the square until they reached the ends of the arms. No tape measure allowed!
At this point, I tucked one side down the side of the cushion and marked where it met the other side. Then, it was a case of crocheting a few more shorter rows to make an end piece and securing this flap to the other side and top with single crochet. Fit-wise, this really makes a difference as I didn’t want to have to rearrange the cover every time someone sat on it.
The final step was another large granny square, this time big enough to cover the cushion, and some more treble crochet rows on one edge to protect the front.
And there you go. A great way to use up loads of bits and bobs and a colourful addition to the room. Even the poodle likes it!
It was a quiet afternoon in a leafy suberb of Sheffield. The towels were drying nicely on the line; hubby had brought out his work, having been driven from the loft in the soaring temperatures.
Suddenly, I heard a very loud buzzing. You know, like the stuff of horror movies (if I watched them).
“Get inside, now!” I shouted to my husband as I abandoned the washing and herded the dogs inside (just the two—‘herded’ may be a little elaborate).
After a few mad seconds of securing all the windows, we looked outside to see a huge swarm. Even people on the street were stopped in their tracks by the noise and black cloud that was circling above.
At the time we had no idea whether we were dealing with bees or wasps. And having already experienced a few pretty nasty run-ins with accidentally-disturbed wasp nests at the woods, I wasn’t taking any risks.
From the safety of the house, it was a truly fascinating site. My son got his camera and hubby managed to get a photo: honey bees. Well, that was a relief. And really good to see with all that you hear about the declining bee population. I appreciate that wasps also play a really important role in the ecosystem but appreciate a little more distance between me and them.
Black cloud of bees
Over the next half an hour, the cloud became more concentrated around a small tree in the neighbour’s garden, until eventually there were just a few hovering around the branch.
At that point, I decided that it was safe to venture out again to rescue the washing and the ancient guinea pig (who we deemed to be a little risk, being close to the ground).
Beecause…
But this whole episode got me thinking (and Googling). Why do bees swarm?
There are a couple possiblilities. The weather was very warm (for Yorkshire), up at around 26 degrees celcius. Bees may swarm simply if their hive gets too hot and humid. Other factors such as lack of food or water, or even the presence of a parasite can also result in absconding.
However, as a warm sunny day at the end of July, following a rather unsettled period of weather, probably the most likely candidate was the result of a healthy bee colony reproducing.
Battle royal
As I understood it, a bee colony is centred around a queen. So how does this work? Does the colony just up and move to bigger premises when the hive gets too crowded? Well, no. It’s a bit more complicated than that.
Swarming that’s planned, and not due to environmental conditions, is a military operation. I don’t use the word ‘planned’ lightly here. Swarming takes weeks of preparation.
The workers start to get the queen ready for her flight. To put it bluntly, she’s put on a few pounds being stuck in the hive for the majority of her life and is a bit out of shape. So, they put her on a diet and give her a boot camp-style workout.
One is not amused
At the same time, workers feed up some of the specially-chosen fertlised eggs. They basically give them an overdose of royal jelly that allows their reproductive organs to fully develop (unlike the female workers who can only lay unfertlised eggs that develop into drones—the males whose only job is to mate with the queen and then die. Great.).
Now, if you’re feeling sorry for our starving and exhausted old queen, read on. Our new queens start to hatch and call to each other. No, they’re not being friendly. They’re calling in their competition for a fight to the death. There’s only one new queen allowed on this block.
So what about the old queen? Well, this is where we get back to the swarming. Old queeny is now in good enough shape to make it out of the hive and is accompanied by around half of the existing colony. The other half stay put with their new queen, where they can grow and prosper.
However, old queeny gets tired rather quickly and the swarm will need to find a somewhere to rest for a few hours or days while workers go scouting for their new permanent residence.
Official residence?
This morning, as I gaze out of the window at my neighbour’s tree, I can still see a few honey bees hovering around the branch. There are certainly quite a few bees in the garden, too, so my raspberries should do well this year.
From what I’ve read, I doubt that this tree will be their final home. Honey bees build their nests in cavities, either above or below ground. Next door’s tree is pretty small and healthy, so I doubt that there are any hollows that would be suitable for them there.
Only time will tell. In the meantime, this has been a great opportunity to find out more about these amazing (and quite frankly, rather brutal) pollinators.
There are currently two groups of meerkats at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, and this little chap belongs to my favourite mob.
Meerkat on the lookout (monochrome)
They have a more relaxed approached to the whole lookout business and would rather spend their time sunbathing, playing football and wrestling. So, at least for this gang of meerkats, this was quite a rare moment.
Unfortunately, an unexpected gust of wind meant that this shift was rather fleeting, and our furry friend decided that he should stick to the aforementioned activities instead. Nice try!
We visit the zoo almost every week. It’s our thing. Over the past nine months, we’ve got to know the animals pretty well: where they like to hang out, their behaviours and quite a few names, too. But these tree-huggers had proved most elusive. We had only managed to catch glimpses here and there.
Only by a series of unfortunate events (not for us!) were we lucky enough to spend probably the best part of half an hour watching these stunning sisters interacting and feeding. Their usual keeper was off ill, leaving the keeper in charge of sea lions to do their morning feed. However, he happened to be running rather late (and we were quite early to the park that morning). This has got to be one of my favourite moments so far.
Okay, I know we go to the zoo to see all the unusual, exotic animals from all over the world. But somehow we always seem to return with just as many photos of squirrels, bunnies and birds. Native British wildlife is awesome!
This confident little chap was loving the camera. What a cutie!
PS. Yes, I understand that they like to damage trees and drove out the native red squirrels from many parts of Britain. However, we’re not exactly angels either!
