One year, six garlands ...

♥

As much as I love all the noise and fun that Christmas brings

I also love those few days between Christmas and new Year.

Nothing is planned, nothing is hurried or stressful, and there is no work.

 There is time to just sit, to drink tea,

to crochet and to think back over the last year

and one of the things I love the most about blogging and Instagram is the record

it allows you to keep of all your makes throughout the past 12 months.

When I was looking back through mine I realised that if I had to name 2015,

for me, it would have to be the Year of The Garland -

I seem to have made loads !

It started back in January, when having taken all the Christmas decorations down

something was needed to hang on the fireplace to try and make it look a little less bleak !

In keeping with the time of year I decided to go with snowbally pompoms.

Using a wondrous pompom maker they were made as quick as a flash

and they are back on my fireplace today,

having taken this years Christmas decorations down yesterday.

As Spring approached a new garland was planned,

one that would bring a little of the garden inside.

From a selection of yarns in the softest of yellows, pinks and greens,

little flowers grew

and there were soon enough to make tiny Spring posies

all ready to be sewn on to a raffia garland.

Just as surely as Spring follows Winter,

Summer was soon just around the corner and we were busily preparing

for our eldest daughters wedding in August.

With so many weddingy makes on the hook and needle,

last years Daisy Garland was retrieved from the bottom of the drawer and re-used.

Nothing complicated, just a string of my favourite flowers -

a giant daisy chain.

Meanwhile, in the background I was beavering away, making a garland of ivory roses,

the plan being that this would decorate the top table at Meg and Adam's wedding.

I think this has to be one of my most favourite makes of all time -

I loved everything about it,

from the fact that the roses were a mixture of knitted ones and crochet ones,

to the excitement that grew with each finished rose.

Little by little, in amongst all the other preparations, it continued to grow

and when it was all completed, just in time for the big day

I couldn't have been more pleased with the finished result.

One section was hung on the ceremony table during the wedding

 and then, when joined to three other sections,

it was long enough to cover the entire length of the top table

during all the celebrations that followed.

I have to admit to hanging a small section of it on our fireplace after the wedding

and every time I looked at it all the happy memories came flooding right back.

♥

With the onset of Autumn came plans for a new garland,

one that would allow me to include all those glorious Autumn shades,

and of course lots of tiny acorns !

What is it about these gorgeous little fruits of the oak tree

that makes them so enchanting ?

Having made a similar Autumn garland the year before, this year lovecrochet.com

had asked me to put together a tutorial for them

and I decided that this time I would go for something

that was quite minimal and rustic looking.

I made the actual garland from several lengths of string

crocheted together, and then the clusters of leaves and acorns

were tied in to bunches with more string

and pegged on to the garland with tiny wooden pegs.

Of course the final garland of 2015 had to be a Christmas one.

Made up of snowballs, tiny Christmas wreaths and decorated Christmas trees

I wanted to create something that had a Scandinavian feel about it.

When each piece was finished I stitched them on to a length of crocheted red wool

and, once hung up for photo's to be taken,

it was very quickly spotted by daughter number 1

and off it went to its new home !

♥

Hopefully there will many more Garlands to come in 2016

as well as lots of other fun crochet projects

but in the meantime I wish you all the very

Happiest of New Years and many Best Wishes for 2016.

♥