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.

Christmas Bunting Tutorial

A very short post today,just to tell you that the tutorial for the whiter cotton bunting is all done and dusted and can be found in the tutorial section of Planet Penny, which is here, or at the top of the page. I’m sorry I had to have a rather gloomy background, but as I’ve got a very light, bright look to my house,I couldn’t find a location with a strong enough background colour to show off the detail.

I’m not going to be around for a couple of days. We’re having a bit of a family get together which is involving a six year old, two four year olds and a four month old baby plus assorted grownups ! Higgins is really looking forward to it, no-one has told Henry the cat yet!

Happy Halloween, see you all soon x

p.s. Higgins has asked me to point out that the picture of him in his coat in the last post is suffering from bad lighting. It is not a PINK Coat, it is a RED coat. It is a very manly, soldierish RED COAT… He is very upset that people think he would let himself be dressed in a PINK COAT… that would be silly ….

Drippy, soggy weather…

…hasn’t helped the general mood. Is it the same where you are? I have been cheered however by setting the laptop wallpaper to show a slide show of my blog photos. I didn’t really think when I started blogging what a bonus to general life it would be. I record so much more than I would have done without it, and my photography has improved enormously. Watching the changing display on the screen brings back lots of little moments I would otherwise have forgotten about. I know I really ought to get to grips with Flickr, but after a little tussle over passwords and things this morning I’m afraid I decided to do something more rewarding…Ironing, anyone? Mmmm, perhaps not!

Also, having a blog focuses the mind on getting on with things, and I have been beavering away at a tutorial today, for the white cotton Christmas Bunting which I hope to publish very soon.

Higgins doesn’t like this weather AT ALL and even though we’ve got the fleecy jacket out again, he just feels silly.

It actually makes a huge difference being able to wash the jacket rather than bath Higgins after every walk, but I haven’t convinced him yet!

Oh, and I’d like to share this with you. I’ve noticed on other blogs other pampered pets have gorgeous little knitted, crochet or even patchwork blankets. And you’ve probably noticed that my own pampered pooch doesn’t. This is why…

This was once a cushion cover…

I’m going to end with a couple of cheery pictures, little unexpected bits of flowery happiness, just the thing for a dark, wet and windy evening.

Who would expect to find something as beautiful as this in a Little Chef car park?

And this jolly pansy graced a table in the couryard of a St Leonards coffee shop…

Hmmm…I think I need to change my coffee brand…

Tuppence…

…well, two Pennys anyway! Our trip to the south coast meant I could catch up with a new friend, one made in blogland and another Penny.

We met here, at the De la Warr Pavillion…

Which is a lovely place to sit on the balcony, drink tea and have a natter while gazing at the sea. Penny’s blog is L is for Love and as we have been following each others musings for a while now we knew we had lots in common. Do pop over and have a look, and also to see the beautiful teacosy that Penny has made because she kindly gave me the pattern. And no, Penny, you didn’t talk too much at all!!

I have taken SO many pictures of the sea, the sky, the view along the coast I could fill several posts so I am going to be a little selective (you will be relieved to hear!) We were really fortunate to have glorious weather, if a little chilly, in contrast to what was going on back home. I made myself quite unpopular with my boastful phone calls about sipping coffee by the sea while everyone in Norfolk was enduring hailstorms…Sorry!

I think I was overwhelmed by how clean it all felt. After the muddiness of our little lanes the washed pebbles and glittering sea was wonderful, especially as the sun was coming up…

As usual I found a lovely shop selling gorgeous sewing bits and pieces. This one is The Owl and Sewing Cat, tucked away in Bexhill-on-Sea but with another branch opening in Eastbourne very soon. Do look out for it if you are in the area, it’s really worth a visit, and I’ve just discovered, they have an online shop too, so I don’t have to wait until my next visit…Woopee!

I bought some ric rac and pompom braiding…

Yes, more pompoms! And a card of assorted braids…

Which has a distinctly Christmassy feel don’t you think? It must be nearly time to be allowed to think about it now, surely?

This being so, I’d better step away from the computer and get on with being creative while it’s quiet. It is very quiet too, as Higgins is STILL sleeping off the effects of being on the go non-stop with two little boys for a week. He was scared to take a nap in case he missed something!

Actually, while he is asleep and can’t be embarrassed, want to see some cute baby pictures?

All together now…Aaaaaah!

Hello, Hello!

We’re home from our hols… The first holiday we have taken all together as a family, me and Higgins and the boss (so Higs and I let him think….ssssh!) The little country dog has been to town, and done shopping, and hot chocolate,

and walking along the Promenade.

and when he is not doing all that he has been with his Boys…the Big One and the Little One, having so much fun. Today has been the first day back and has been devoted to sleeping, some sleeping and a little bit more sleeping…

There’s lots to tell you all about so please call back when you can, I should have sorted my photos out soon!

Taking a Break…

…and taking advantage of a lovely day Higgins and I went for a little hike. I also wanted to test out my new fingerless mitts. The first pair I made were the largest size and are just a tad loose, my hands are long rather than wide. I used the pinky colourway of the wool I bought last week, it’s really pretty.

A much better fit, the middle size on the pattern which you can find on Ravelry, and of course, even quicker to knit.

It’s quite hard to find quiet places to walk amongst all the arable land in our bit of Norfolk but a lot of the fields have unploughed verges…

… and in places there are maps of the permitted footpaths.

Eventually we came to the lane leading to our local broad. Did you know I live on the Norfolk Broads? It’s a area of waterways linking large shallow expanses of water which are thought to be ancient flooded peat diggings. The only way to see them really is by boat, the road network scarely links up with it at all, but we have a small broad in the area which is isolated from the river system and is protected for the wildlife.

I’m ashamed to say I haven’t been there for years, you know how it is when you live near something. However, our little womble took us to the end of the lane and it looked very inviting…

…at the end of the lane we found this…

At the end of a small boardwalk is a reed fence panel overlooking the broad which acts as a hide for bird watching…

There’s a footpath running round part of the broad which we will explore another time, but time was getting on and it was time for Higgins supper…

This morning I had a lovely surprise. Isn’t it exciting to have a present when it’s not Christmas, when it isn’t your birthday, and you really aren’t expecting anything. Lovely Sarah, who won the pom poms sent it as a thank you. It was beautifully wrapped in a recipe with a letter on flowery paper, and a sweet crochet flower to finish it off…

… and inside…

…a notebook and pen, bluebell smellies for the bath, and a dear little fairy cake brooch which went straight on, it exactly matched what I’m wearing today!

We’ll be taking another break soon. Higgins and I are going to the seaside. I’m not sure whether I will be able to post much over the next week or so, but there’ll be plenty to see when we get home again. I’ve had lots of lovely comments and also questions about some of the things I’ve been doing so I will be doing my best to answer questions, and also to get to grips with some tutorials, zigzag crochet and the white crunchy bunting to name but two…

Look out for a postcard from the sunny (I hope) south coast of England!

See you soon…

Frogging…

When I mentioned ‘frogging’ to a friend the other day I was met by a blank stare. However, when I then said ‘Rippit, Rippit’ the blank stare turned to enlightenment, and sympathy.

There’s been a lot of ripping involved with my latest cushion. It’s not that I haven’t knitted fair isle before, but I’ve not had a palette of seventeen colours, and I wasn’t changing the background colours as well as the pattern colours. I’m blaming Kaffe Fassett and his book Pattern Library. I think he has a special sort of brain that doesn’t get boggled, because boggled my own brain certainly became.

The crochet cushions are the same back and front, but I didn’t think my sanity would last long enough to knit both sides, so I dug out some needlecord in a really pretty blue and some gorgeous red wooden buttons which I think work well.

Too late I noticed I’ve got the nap of the needlecord running both ways which makes one side darker than the other, but I’ve decided it’s a design feature!

So, would you like to see it? Here’s a little hint…

…and another…

This is the reverse side!

…and that’s quite pretty too, but here is the finished article…

I have two more little cushion pads left so I’m having a ponder about what I do next. There are the lovely grandala ideas over on Crochet with Raymond, I could do Lucy’s granny stripe, zigzags might be fun…

In the mean time I have been resting my eyes from all that colour with some pristine white cotton crochet, another bunting experiment. I have resisted so far because I’ve seen lots of other versions of crochet bunting but I deliberately didn’t look too closely at anyone else’s so I could invent my own take on it. So far, I’m liking it…

Well it must be time to finish blogging, if only because Henry the cat has come to sit on the keyboard and I can only access some of the keys. Have a lovely weekend…x