Blogtober 2024 : Day 26 – Meet Lucy of Attic24

It’s Saturday!!  Ooh, my favourite day of the week because I consider it to be my Day Off and I can do whatever I want to – within reason, of course, and sometimes I might choose to involve the family … if they’re good! 🙂

I thought that this weekend, I’d introduce you to my other two yarny friends in case you’ve never met them before.  It’s entirely likely that you’ve found your way to my blog through them so hello to you – and we are obviously all in good company if we all admire their creativeness!

Today, I want to talk about my friend Lucy of Attic24.  Lucy is a blogger and a crochet designer, and although she has many talents, her speciality is colour design and crochet blankets.

Source: @attic24

I first met Lucy at Yarndale in 2013 – the very first Yarndale – when she was set up in the Knit n Natter lounge …

Goodness, it was busy, with so many people wanting to come and say hello to her and talk about crochet.  In future years, Wool Warehouse would be with Lucy so that she could sell her blanket packs because (in case you were unaware and as popular as her blog posts are), it’s crochet blankets that Lucy is really famous for.  Oh, so many blankets!  She has now created 23 blanket designs which have been hugely popular; some of them have been standalone blankets and some of them have been her winter CAL (crochet-along) blankets, but all of them have free patterns and tutorials on her blog so that anyone can make them at any time.

You can, of course, buy the yarns from your local yarn shop or use your stash, but selling kits through Wool Warehouse is how Lucy earns her living and over the years, many people would choose to come to Yarndale to look at the blankets in real life and then buy the kit there and then, ready to start as soon as they got home.

On that first Yarndale weekend, however, it was just Lucy and her crochet, and a queue of people that snaked out of the doors and into the Auction Mart.  I bought her a brew and a sausage sandwich (I was going for one myself and it didn’t look like she was going to get a break), and then I got to sit in the crochet throne whilst we chatted for a couple of minutes in between Lucy talking to other people, and that might have been the only time we ever chatted …

Except that one of Lucy’s blanket patterns is the Neat Ripple pattern and I really loved it.  I made my own out of Lucy’s original Attic24 colours and that is still my favourite meditation blanket as I made it long enough to wrap myself right up in it, right down to my toes!

I couldn’t stop there – I made a cushion cover …

and then I decided to design a pair of socks to match …

and I was working on them when I went up to Yarndale in 2014.  At a quiet moment in the Knit n Natter Lounge, I went up to Lucy and whipped out my partly-knitted socks – and the rest is now history!

Lucy was very happy for me to call my socks “Neat Ripple Socks“, and yes, she would like a pair for herself …

and when I took them up to Skipton to give them to her (why would I post them when I could have a day out and make sure they didn’t get lost?!), we chatted non-stop until the time that I had to leave and we were already planning the next time we could get together.  Do you ever meet someone and you just click, as if you’ve know them forever?  10 years later we are still chatting!

In that time, I have had the privilege of getting to see some of the behind-the-scenes workings of new blanket patterns and projects coming together (not everything, of course, because much of what goes on in a designer’s mind needs to stay there until they are ready to share), and I can honestly say that if you are new to crochet (or even if you’re not!) but fancy wrapping yourself up in a snuggly, colourful blanket, then one of Lucy’s patterns is the best place to start.

Here are just three of them, but I can tell you that every one that she creates is my new favourite!

From L-R:  Hydrangea, Aria, Fireside     Source: www.attic24.typepad.com

I can crochet but it’s not something that I do very often (and if you could see the amount of Lucy’s Moorland Blanket that I have actually completed, you would probably tell me I need to do it a bit more often! 🙂 ) so I really appreciate her easy-to-follow tutorials to remind me of what I’m supposed to be doing.

Source: www.attic24.typepad.com

The combination of colours and clever-but-simple stitches mean that anybody can create a blanket to be proud of – I’ve even suggested to not so small daughter that she take one of Lucy’s blanket packs to university with her, but whilst she likes the idea, at the moment she’s too busy have a good time exploring the city and making new friends to want to sit in her room and crochet!  Fair enough, I think I am happier that she’s doing that too 🙂

Lucy’s talents don’t end at blankets, though.  She has created ornamental wreaths …

Source: www.attic24.typepad.com

bags, cushions (this is the Jolly Chunky Bag and a cushion cover in the same colours) …

Source: www.attic24.typepad.com

Mandalas, flowers and leaves of all shapes and sizes … there really is something for everyone in Lucy’s blog pages!

But aside from the crochet and Lucy’s beautifully-written blog posts illustrated with photos of her home town of Skipton, we have known each other long enough to be able to talk about more than yarn and patterns.  I consider myself very fortunate to have a friend who is balanced and thoughtful in her view of the world, and she is often one of the first people I turn to if I’ve got something on my mind that I need help to make sense of.

If she only drank tea instead of coffee, she’d be just about perfect! 😉