Hello! Welcome to Week 2 of the creative challenge I’ve set for myself for 2023, (as described in this post). If you’re taking the challenge, too, I hope you created something you love last week.
1)
I crocheted a doily following a pattern I’d never done before. It’s called “The Mediterranean Surf Doily” and the pattern is free, here on the Yarnspirations Site. Note that the complete pattern yields a larger doily, so I made it smaller by only working rounds 1 to 11.
The pattern is described as requiring an “intermediate” skill level. I found it somewhat challenging but not too hard. And, it included one row of stitches that I’d never done before and I’ve been crocheting since I was 7 years old, so it was fun and interesting to learn something new.
I used a natural fiber yarn by “Loops & Threads” that I found at Michael’s. It’s called Capri and is 100% tencel, which is “produced by environmentally responsible processes from the sustainably sourced natural raw material wood.” (Source Tencel.com) . This was my first time using this yarn and I’ve really enjoyed working with it. It feels very silky and has a nice subtle sheen. The colour I used is called “Cream”. Doing the 11 rows of the doily pattern, using a 3mm hook, created a doily that is 9 3/4 inches across.
So, if you’re a crocheter, I recommend giving this pattern a go. I’ll be making more in other colours, for sure.
2)
I include growing plants as a creative endeavor, so I’ll include the plant in these photos as an achievement. These are a few cuttings I took from my outdoor coleus plant last fall, and rooted directly into a pot of soil, using a bit of rooting hormone. Coleus is a tender annual here in Canada, so it cannot survive the winter outside, so in the fall I took lots of cuttings to try to over-winter it indoors and this specimen, which has been sitting in a south-facing window, is the nicest of the bunch. I can’t claim that all the cuttings have been successful, but this one is lovely! Here’s hoping it lasts until the end of April when I’ll be able to put it outside where it belongs.
↑ If you’re into thrift store shopping, the vintage deer figurine is one of my favourite finds-in-the-wild ever, discussed in this thrifting post. The plant pot was also thrifted, as seen in this post. ↑
3)
My husband Nick won’t be contributing to the “Creative Challenge” every week but this week he offered something up. He’s an amazing cook and these are some cheddar and potato pierogis he made completely from scratch, using his old-school hand-cranked pasta maker to roll the dough. Today (we just had this for Sunday lunch) he served it alongside a mixture of sautéed sauerkraut, onions and carrots, some bacon and some sour cream with chopped fresh green onions.
I played in small part in this wonderful plate of food, in that, while thrifting just before Christmas, I picked up one of those mixed bags of things that they put together and amongst the goodies inside was a little pierogi maker gadget. It was a cheap one and broke almost immediately, but we’ve ordered a new quality one which will be arriving this week. So, there are plenty of delicious pierogi meals in my future. Yayy!
I know this is not the best photo of the dish and if he’d known I’d be quickly grabbing my phone to take a snapshot of it at the last minute, and then posting it on the internet, he would have probably have plated the meal with that in mind. That said, he did give me permission to share it with you!
4)
I also posted 2 images of some winter décor, to my new Instagram account, found here : Loulou Vintage Home on Instagram
So all in all, it’s been a fairly creative week over here. Thanks for reading and I hope you’re doing well.
xo loulou
