Looking for Purple

You see the magenta outline around the lightning forks? And the dark purple clouds? OK. Now try and picture a shade of purple between those two colours - reddish, not bluish - and that's the colour of the yarn I used for my pansies.

Can I capture it with my camera? Nope. Indoors, outdoors, morning, afternoon, increasingly random jabbings at -2 something to +1.7 something, assorted light settings, all I get is some very beautiful shades of blue, lavender and slate, and washed-out-life-is-pointless-bluuurgh.

So I went a-Googling, (ho-li-daaaaaay....) as I do, for pansies of the colour I've used. None.

I googled 'purple flowers'. Not a one. But feast yer eyes, anyway! And the iris comes from an enchanting flower blog.

Perhaps my zingy synthetic purple dye does not exist in nature, unless..... down in the depths of the ocean, where everything glows in the endless darkness.....

And that search led me, via this fella, ..not quite, but...

to Purple Dreamy and this fella! but no...

This? Nearly...

And this - almost! That bright, rich shade in the centre!

What about birds?

Oh! definitely getting warmer with

But the closest is, the sun-polished, iridescent sheen of this handsome creature.
My mother used to make beautiful needle tapestries, drawing on years of gardening, and a faultless eye for colour. The only flower she ever almost gave up on was the iris, because of the difficulty of finding an embroidery silk of the exact purple she needed. I've been reminded of this as I've ransacked Google to locate 'my' synthetic purple in nature.

Anyway. Two pansies, one made on a 3.5mm hook, and one on 4.5. Also a briar rose in the same gold and purple, but though it looks cheerful, I found it frustratingly fiddly to make, and I don't think I'll try another two-layer flower for a while. The big one's lush, but too big to use right now. The little one, though, looks delightful on my waistcoat, opposite the knitted poppy that set me crocheting in the first place. Not that you can tell from this photo, but never mind. Just as long as you know -

That slate blue? It's a purple!

Primroses and folding chairs (first two days of the holiday)

I can crochet! I mean, I've got the hang of it again, having learnt last winter, and done nothing since. I made these yesterday, sitting outside with a whole series of cups of tea, hooking (and unhooking), and hooking (and unhooking) and......... until - Ta daah!

OK, crocheted primroses may not be your cup of tea. (I'm not entirely sure they're mine...) but I think the yarn works very well for their matte leaves and petals. And I'm tickled pink with managing a 2.5mm hook for the first time - and single crochet, half doubles, doubles and triples. Fascinating to see the forms develop on the hook from this list of code. (Meanwhile Keef, poor thing, was up to his ears in Java Script or some such.)

I'm going to have a go at a pansy and a briar rose today. If I can keep my tension loose enough on the 2.5mm hook, with finer yarn, I'm going to try crochet cotton next - even thinner, and no stretch, so quite a challenge for me, but I want the sheen and delicacy of cotton for flowers. Poppies. Love 'em.

This morning I took a couple of old pairs of jeans and replaced the perished upholstery on a folding chair that I found when we moved in. Denim's so strong, and jeans only ever get worn out at the crotch and hems, so it was a cheap and cheerful exercise. I'd love to call the result shabby chic, except that shabby chic doesn't do a thing for me. Let's call it cack-handed kitsch. (Keef's been very restrained.)

But it'll do for this summer, and now I know what I'm doing, I'm going to check out the end of season sale at muy chichi Tejidos Julián López on Gran Vía for some fab deckchair canvas, and do it over again for next year - together with this 18€ folding chair with drinks holder, book pocket and canopy that I bought from my favourite Chinese bazaar for supervising kids at the pool in July.

Stylish, or what?