Author Archives: penny

About penny

I live in Norfolk, England in a cottage on the edge of the Norfolk Broads where it can be peaceful and beautiful, or wet and muddy, or occasionally wild and windswept. With me is husband Tim, Henry the elderly and opinionated tabby cat, and Higgins, the miniature dachshund with a massive personality. You’ll find me chattering on about wool and textiles, knitting and crochet, recipes, books and patterns, exhibitions and shopping and of course, the adventures of a small dog! Planet Penny has a Facebook Page, you can find me on UK Handmade and I am featured on Channel4/4Homes Favourite Craft Blog List.

Primroses and a Pink Pooch!

I’ve had a complete change of gear over the last week, making a prop for our village Pantomime. We’re very fortunate not only to have a shiny new Eco-built hall but a lot of home grown talent so we have an original script, scenery painted by a professional artist and wonderfiul costumes designed by my friend Kit. I’ve been involved over the years, and have made all sorts of weird and wonderful things… A Humpty Dumpty costume which reduced gradually all the way through the panto as he went on a diet, Daddy, Mummy and Baby bear suits, an egg laying goose are just some of the bigger things.

This time it’s Sleeping Beauty, with a Queen who wants everything to be pink including her dog, so the request was for a custom made glove puppet style dog for the page to carry. Kit came round with the fur fabric which in the shop had looked to be a candyfloss pink; in the cold light of day it is scarily fluorescent! The logistics of making chuntered round in my head for quite few days. It’s a strange process, like hunting through a tangle of wool trying to find an end and then, Ping! a lightbulb moment, there’s the thread and everything starts to wind into a neat ball of resolution.

Needle felting was the answer, and what I used to form the face of the puppet. I then stitched the fur fabric on to make the rest of the head and the body and blended the wool and fur fabric together. And here he is…

He’s not quite completed yet, needing front paws and a wavy tail, but I’m pretty happy with the way he’s shaping up so far…

(Edited to add: I’m being asked what Higgins thinks about Pink Pooch; he is desperate to tear it to shreds. Vigilance is necessary!)

Remember I mentioned a knitting project which I was playing around with, the one which didn’t need a lapful of pets? I finally finished it, a little fairisle heart…

It’s sweet, but soooooooo time consuming. I knitted up two squares (the back one is striped) put them in with a load of washing, felted them and then stitched the pieces into a heart shape and stuffed it with wadding and lavender. It’s just waiting for a ribbon hanging loop which will happen once the Pink Pooch is all sewn up.

It’s still really quite cold here, but I managed to fit in an afternoon of cheering up the courtyard area by my studio door. A tray of primroses is always a treat…

and inside I’ve had hyacinths to fill the air with scent. White…

…and blue.

I can’t believe it’s the last day of January…See you next month!

All Wound Up with Sunset Colours!

Hooray! I’ve wound all those lovely colours into nice neat balls with my trusty wool winder. I do like using it, it makes such nice soft balls which mean that there is no tension on the yarn to stretch it. I’m working on an idea at the moment, which I hope to show very soon, although I have had very little help from the four legged members of the family.

Apparently the only reason I ever sit down is so that my legs form a lap, and the only thing in the world that a lap can be used for is not to support a book or some knitting, or, heaven forbid, a pattern and knitting, it needs a cat, no, a dog or both, or a jealous punch up between cat and dog.

So keep your fingers crossed that tonight the fire is hot enough to keep them squabbling over the warm spot on the hearth rug instead of the warm spot on my lap so I can get to grips with my woolly project.

I have made some really cute little baby shoes though. there’s something about tiny baby shoes, isn’t there? My three babies were born with enormous feet and were really slow at learning to walk so by the time I came to buy them shoes they were practically into adult sizes! (I’m going to get into trouble for this!)

However, I was really keen to find out how well the wool I have just dyed would felt so I knitted this…

…and then I just popped them in the washing machine with a normal wash and they came out looking like this…

Aren’t they sweet? I’m so excited about them! (and yes, they are nearly small enough for Higgins to wear before you suggest it, and no, because he would eat them!)

And today the sun shone and Higgins and I went for a walk and there was NO MUD! (well, it was sort of fudgy, but it didn’t stick) and I’ve just realised where I got my colour scheme from..

See that shadow? It’s me!

After so many grey days it’s just magical watching the pink splashes spreading across the purply violet clouds and that golden glow before it vanishes as if someone has flipped a switch. Then it’s a quick trot home to get back in the warm.

And finally, I have been working on the Hearts and Pompoms tutorial and if you want to make your own version it’s on the Tutorials page at the top. Please let me know if you do, I’d love to see.

Right, ok, I’m going to tiptoe off to the sofa now and try and do a bit of knitting befor someone spots….THE LAP!

See you soon x

P.S. Siobhan, I tried to email you but it didn’t work, but I just wanted to say Yes! my cat is Henry and the ‘My Fair Lady’ connection IS why we named Higgins as we did. By George, you got it!

A Time to Live…

…and a time to Dye! Do you remember this post? It was all down to wanting a Sophie Digard inspired scarf similar to the one which Vanessa made and not being able to find the colours I wanted.

Well I’m at it again, this time with a larger palette of dye shades. Last time I ended up with this inspiring basket of yummy colours…

and I am still using up all the little ends in the needle felting even after I’ve crocheted the ends of balls into tiny flowers. When you’ve dyed it yourself you don’t want to waste an inch!

I had a kilo of 4ply wool to wind into 25gm hanks which has taken quite a long time to get out of the way.

It’s so BORING! Trouble is, once you’re in the swing of it, you just want to keep mixing and dying and its too frustrating to have to stop to wind more wool so you’ve got to get everything ready beforehand.

I got the utility room all geared up to make a start last night,

and immediately got a volunteer to help…

Thank goodness Higgins can’t jump quite that high!

I’ve carried on mixing and microwaving and rinsing on and off ever since. It actually fits in really well with writing the blog as I have 15 minute time slots while the microwave is doing its stuff to sit here typing! (It does mean I’ve abandoned the rubber gloves and I’ve just noticed how grey my hands are getting!)

The light is fading now and I have a very fed up little dog wondering why we are not out walking, so I will leave you with a glimpe of the story so far!

Lifting the Gloom with Hearts and Pompom Bunting….

We really need something a little cheerful at the moment don’t we? January is such a gloomy month. Higgins and I went for a ‘squelch’ this afternoon and although it quite mild, it was what my Mother calls a Tupperware box day, and no one’s taken the lid off.

But, the days are getting longer(by about one and a half minutes a day apparently) and I have little daffodils bursting into bloom in front of me as I type.

I was really lucky to receive a lovely gift at Christmas, a beautiful jug which I have been coveting for about five years. Do you remember this post when I was given a pretty little mug for my birthday? Well my clever Daughter-in-law tracked down the very jug I have been hankering after all this time from the same designer, Gabriella Miller.

And I’ve found the little notebook I mentioned in the other post, where I had expressed my desire to have some Gabriella Miller pieces as well as all sorts of useful notes and pictures.

However, I’ve been working on something to cheer up the gloom, and the bareness left now the Christmas decorations have been consigned to the attic for another year. I’ve been playing around with a crochet hook and the yarns left from the cushion and blanket project which are a real splash of colour in themselves. And with February round the corner, and Valentine’s Day there are hearts, and I still love the pompoms so I thought Hearts and Pompom Bunting…

I’ve been fiddling around with the pattern and written it down which I’m really proud of because I got so excited about the whole process, and the prettiness of all the colours. I’ll do a few photos as soon as possible to turn it into a tutorial if you think you’d like make your own version but in the meantime, want to see some more?

(By the way, do you like the cup, saucer and plate on the top shelf? Another Christmas present which I love!)

And finally, bringing all the cheeriness together… Planet Penny Hearts and Pompom Bunting

A cheerful note on which to start the weekend! Have a lovely one, I hope the sun shines for you. See you soon x

Ed to add: You can find the pattern for this bunting here…

Telling ‘Tails’! – The Dachshund Creed

The Miniature Dachshund Creed

1. If it’s in my mouth, it’s mine!
2. If I like it, it’s mine!
3. If I can take it from you, it’s mine!
4. If I had it a little while ago, it’s mine!
5. If it’s mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way!
6. If I’m chewing something up, all the pieces are mine.
7. If it looks like mine, it’s mine!
8. If I saw it first, it’s mine!
9. If you are playing with something and put it down, it automatically becomes mine.
10. If it’s in the same house I’m in, it’s mine!
11. If it’s broken, it’s yours!

Now, here’s a little reminder of the Higgins appeal…

…the laid back attitude…

…and inquiring mind…

The enquiring mind which led a little nose to poke into the pocket of the jacket I had hung over the back of a chair – well there could have been dog biscuits – and find…my gloves…these fingerless gloves..

Pretty, aren’t they? Well, they were…

Not now, however…

Hmmm…

Then there were the cushions. Cushions which were admired in this picture…

Where the damage to the covers doesn’t show. I had a set of these, very cheap, I couldn’t have made them for the price, but pretty. And right from when he was very young Higgins would first suck, then late chew the corners when no-one was looking. When I thought he’d grown out of this baby habit, I remade the covers. Huh…who was I kidding.

There’s just one left now, it’s Higgins very own cushion.

I expect it will become very boring now, very quickly!

Still I though he could redeem himself by helping with the draw for the 150th Blog Post prize. I thought he could use this hat…remember this hat?

The way he did last year when he drew the winning ticket for That Elusive Line.

But no. When I walked in the door holding the hat in my hand he released the springs in his bottom and BOING! BOING! BOING! all he wanted to do was to chew it to bits. I had all the tickets printed and ready…

and I did try make the tickets more interesting than the pink fluffy felt but it took two of us to corner him to get the hat back.

In the end, once the hat had been forgotten, I invented an extremely exciting (for a dachshund) game with little bits of paper until he suddenly picked one up and ran with it. Result!

So one lucky person is about to absolve Higgins from absolutely all the above charges. (Although I do get the feeling that all you out there are mostly on his side anyway!)

And who is that lucky person? Well, Alice, and your artistic director Raymond,it’s you! Congratulations! It’s lovely to think that a little piece of Norfolk will be winging it’s way to New Zealand.

I do hope you like it x

A Splash of Colour

The Christmas decorations have all gone and it’s a grey, dull, wet January day so a Splash of Colour is sorely needed. After I had cleared away the last of the festivities I found, at the back of a shelf, a glass jar in which I have collected felt beads which I have been embroidering at odd moments over the last few weeks. I’ve been meaning to get them out to show you, and to do something with them for ages, and now seems the perfect moment!

So, what to make? I unearthed my box of beading bits and found some little fasteners and cord and all the bits I needed and found I had just the right number of beads to make two bracelets and a necklace.

And here they are. Bracelet 1…

…and bracelet 2…

…and shall we say, a slightly less exuberant colour scheme for a rather elegant necklace.

The temptation is to look in my wardrobe and see what they go with, but no, I’m going to be sensible and put them in the Folksy shop in the hope that someone will love them as much as I do! No more procrastination!

Thank you for all the get well messages following my last post about the uninvited swinish visitor over Christmas and the New Year. T and I had the flu vaccine just before Christmas so we are still keeping our fingers crossed. It was the younger generation who were afflicted, especially the four year old. Just to update you, they are back home now on the South Coast and recovering well, even the small one who had an ear infection and a perforated eardrum. It’s a dreadful thing, and a reminder to us all to get the jab if at all possible every year.

Also Higgins is being very big headed about all the compliments he has been receiving from you. He can’t understand why I keep putting all this woolly stuff on the blog when you would obviously like more pictures of him. Next time I will show you evidence of some very naughty goings on with Mr Higgins and those lovely shiny teeth!

P.S. Don’t forget, there is still time to enter the draw for the needlefelted Christmas ornament in my last post.