CWW Walk part 2 and the drive home

Back along the river on the THAMES PATH at Henley: we started just after 13:40 and had got to Henley by 3 pm, then to the weir and back and between 15:30 and 16:10 we had a break . Some went to the pub and others to Maison Blanc for tea and  cake. Being on WW I purchased cake to take home and they put it in a box and then a carrier bag for me or it could have got crushed in my backpack.
This is the home stretch: relaxing and peaceful and dry. No rain all day and quite a lot of wonderful sunshine and those bright brilliant BLUE skies. Lots of baby white clouds as well as baby goslings and ducklings to see. Then the weir at Hambleden which I had not visited before and with all the recent rain it was quite a sight, AND SOUND. RUSHING WATER EVERYWHERE.

More rushing water at many levels:

Fascinating such energy in all that water.

And that was the end of the 5 mile walk. Back at the car.
This photo is looking back up the hill where a winding single track lane brought me here from Ibstone via Fingest, Skirmett and Rockwell End. The route here was amazing but on the way here I was nervous and worried about finding the car park and being late. As it was I arrived exactly at 13:30 into the car park after a lovely couple up on Colstrope Lane had re-assured me of the way.
We arrived back at 17:16 and my old WW pedometer had recorded 22,208 steps and estimated a distance of 4.55 miles walked . ( with a stride length of 13'').
On the way back I drove with the top down and in a more relaxed way and here are a few photos on the way home.

This was a road I turned left into at the end there is a sign saying Padmore Lane or somesuch, it was not on any of my maps so caused much confusion on the way out.

The sun shining through the new BEECH leaves in these woods was just incredible. A green so bright and yet light and ethereal too. Quite magical.

There's more but having technical problems so the rest of the drive and a video of the rushing water at Henley weir are in another post. This last photo was taken on Colstrope Lane. There is building works going on there and there's a wood on one side and a lovely view of a valley on the other.This is a wee glimpse of the view.

CWW second walk Henley 5 miles

Ok now we'll try it in the correct order:

Breakfast at 10:30 am was being weighed as usual: I am sooo pleased and happy as I have re-shaped my personage by 18 lbs recently and WW pro points system has been terrific for me.
This is one of my trade secrets: porridge made with water in microwave and then you add Options chocolate powder: yummy.

Ready to add just a little water as I like it very thick.

After that I planned the driving route to Mill End car park and got my walking boots ready by waterproofing them:

And here are the photos from the walk:

Right near the start we walked through this large rapeseed field it was shoulder high for tall people and head high for us shorties, in fact wear a yellow hat and we'd dissappear as one lady said. It had lovely far reaching views too but the camera cannot capture what the naked eye can see.

Then came a bkuebell wood.

And after a stroll through fields etc we arrived into Henley.

Then we walked to the weir and back before having a break and a cup of tea at Maison Blanc.

CROCHET - MOTIF - FLORAL VEST SEAMLESSLY PART 2

Hi TODAY Sunday of the Bank Holiday weekend was all about crochet and creativity for me.There was a plan to go walking but even though the weather looked fine- cold but dry at least- I didn;t go as I wanted to stay with the family. Miss E in particular had been running a temperature and slept all day Saturday so I wanted to be home.

I have wanted to make this little lacy floral vest or a T with short sleeves for some time now, It's from a Melody Griffith's book CROCHET IN NO TIME : so I played around with a 3mm hook and some white 4 okly cotton and made 3 motifs according to the book- see above the book photo?

Then below that is the vest I want to make, only in white first and then in a royal or periwinkle blue if it works out OK.

Only I want to make it with as few ends to sew in as possible. The original starts with 16 motifs in 6 rows, that's 6 times 16 times 2: OH NO that's FAR TOO MANY ENDS!!!

So I consulted How to crochet seamlessly from the Kristin Omdahl book and cd and divised my own method based on her principles.

See yous start by crocheting the first row in half motifs?

And then you return completing them on the way back.  Oh and below is the motif again but joined in the way the book demonstrated but I diddn't like this samole, it's too jumbled don't you agree?

So I drew out in a kind of schematic way the shape of motif and how and were I wanted the motifs to join. And also what ''negative shapes'' I wanted to create by way of the method of joining the crocheted original ( or positive) shapes. And here it is below: Colourcoded for crocheting back and forth. Very much like in Kristin's book which is VERY HELPFULLY colourcoded also.

And there it was , I had a go and very pleased I was too.

Hi, TODAY Sunday of the Bank Holiday weekend was all about crochet and creativity for me.There was a plan to go walking but even though the weather looked fine- cold but dry at least- I didn't go as I wanted to stay with the family. Miss E in particular had been running a temperature and slept all day Saturday so I wanted to be home.

I have wanted to make this little lacy floral vest or a T with short sleeves for some time now, It's from a Melody Griffith's book CROCHET IN NO TIME : so I played around with a 3mm hook and some white 4 okly cotton and made 3 motifs according to the book- see above the book photo?

There 's a BIG BUT though as the pattern starts with 6 rows of 16 motifs and they are ALL made separately and then ''joined - as - u go'' which I amfamiliar with as a technique , the BUT is that it leaves you with 2 ends to SEW IN BY HAND for each motif?!!!Yeuch, NOT my cup of T.

32 TIMES 6 ENDS TO SEW IN before you even ger to the last few rows for the back and front...

Sooo I was thinking : I had a new book for Christmas 2011 called SEAMLESS CROCHET by Kristin Omdahl and it explained a technique where you join motifs row by row SEAMlessly so there are only TWO ends to sew in at the end: the start end and the finish end, not bad eh?

VERY CLEVER INDEED.

Now she does not have the identical motif in her book nor is a similar one joined in the same way so I practiced with the Melody motif but joined in the way described in the book on page 74 via a diagram.

So that's the photo under the last bit of script, it was looking a bit solid and too jumbled up so I drew the motif in schematic form- not a crochet stitch diagram- but joined in the way I thought it was done in the little vest I so admired and then I colured in the methodology for crocheting this new motif and joining sequence in the ''seamless way''....

Then I had a go and VOILA this is the result, IT WORKED and I am really happy with it.

As per the last photo: there are only TWO ends.

There are a few refinements at the end- as per far left in photo - to be worked out but I'll be really happy if I can make this vest/ t-shirt all lacy but with only a few ends to sew in.

So I had a little CROCHET adventure day, learned a new technique AND adapted an exisiting pattern to USE and apply the principles of the new technique.

We also had poffertjes from our new pan- JJ was much better at frying these than I was, I didn't have it hot enough... I made Nigella's broccoli and stilton soup for lunch and Nigella's PRAISED CHICKEN for dinner but I didn't read the recipe so It would have been dinner after 9 pm - it cooks for 2.5 hours!- and all that exciting crocheting made me very late starting dinner preparations-lol

So we'll be having it tomorrow. It scented the kitchen divinely all evening.

Also a lovely walk with the dogs which will be blogged soon.