Author Archives: pennygj

500 Blog Posts…?

Goodness Gracious me! It doesn’t seem possible that it was 2007 that I wrote my first tentative post, and followed up with my first recorded finished project…

I’ve spent the last couple of days scrolling through all the posts and collecting images from each year. (And saying to myself…’was it THAT long ago?…how time flies…sigh’) It’s been quite a good indicator of my changing interests and how things have developed. My first year was quite transitional. I started our local Knit and Stitch group, Higgins arrived, I made my first forays into dyeing and discovered the delights of a good compact digital camera with lots of photos of the garden, flowers and nature.

2009

The following year I discovered the rainbow loveliness to found at a budget price with Stylecraft yarn. Got my felting needles out again after a bit of a lull after graduating and my new studio was built.

2010

There was a lot needlefelting in 2011. I had a stall at the Pickn’Mix Makers Market and took part in Open Studios for the first time…

2011

Big things happened in 2012. We had a lovely family wedding, Open Studios again and I discovered the Planet Penny cotton and opened my little online shop. I wrote my first patterns and got invited to few exciting events.

2012

2013 was more of the same, with some needlefelting workshops to run into the bargain, and a new Art Trail for Open Studios…

2013

And this year, with a new member of family and lots of other plans, is shaping up quite nicely too!

2014 – the story so far!

But what has made it all so special is you. All you out there who visit, and comment and sign up to follow. Who leave comforting messages when things are difficult and encouraging remarks .

Writing this blog has meant I’ve met up with like minded people, and also been in touch with people from the other end of of the country and the other side of the world. It’s an amazing privilege, and a lot of fun!

So I’m planning a very special thank you.

I’m going to create a Box of Delights and fill it with the essence of what Planet Penny is all about. Little bits and pieces of everything I do. So there will be some yarn and fabric, ribbons and bindings, beads and buttons, ooh, all sorts of small bits of loveliness!

I’m going to be putting the box together over the next couple of weeks and sharing it so you can see what will be inside. I’m really looking forward to it!

And then? I’m going to give it away…to one of you.

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post to take part. Maybe say something about yourself, about what you do, why you visit Planet Penny (maybe you come to play with Higgins!) The only stipulation is that it’s a)non-offensive and b)it’s not of the ‘me,me, pick me’ variety (you have to do a little work!)

I’ll do the draw when I’ve filled the box, and no, I don’t know how big the box is yet! And it’s open to everyone. If you have a standard postal service in your country I will send it there if your name come out of the hat!

I’m off to the studio now to start looking through all the goodies I have stored in boxes, tins and baskets, and hopefully a by-product of the Box of Delights will be a tidy studio. (Well, I can dream!)

See you soon…x

It’s oh, so Quiet….

…here in the cyberspace version of Planet Penny. But in the real world it’s oh, SO hectic!

I have a full house. All the family are here for the weekend, all planned so that they could meet the latest family member who was due on Valentines Day.

Trouble was, the family punctually arrived on Thursday, and the little one was far too warm and comfy where he was to put in an appearance. There might even have been an element of hiding away from this mob of new aunties, uncles, cousins and grandparents!

However yesterday, after a long night, day and evening for his poor mum and anxious dad, baby Arthur arrived safe and well. This meant cracking open the champagne at 11 o’clock last night (and feeling a little worse for wear this morning) Well you have to, don’t you?

So if I’m not around here on Planet Penny for a few days, you’ll understand why, I’ll be back very soon.

I’ll leave you with the story so far on my Green Man project. There a way to go yet but I’m pleased to find that my efforts to match him to the cherry trees in the garden have worked well. I don’t think I’d like to come across him in a misty woodland at dusk, do you?

See you soon…x

Missing Mojo – Found!

You might remember me bemoaning the loss of my Mojo in this post, the debilitating feeling when inspiration disappears out of the window.

Well, I’m happy to relate that it’s back and I’m beavering away being creative and even the wind and rain whipping past the window and howling down the chimney hasn’t dampened my spirits today!

I realise that I’ve become bogged down, especially with Social Media. When I started writing this blog I had no idea about SEO, I didn’t have a Facebook Page, a Twitter account, a featured board on Pinterest, an Instagram account, Flickr. I wasn’t helping other people with their Facebook Pages, Twitter accounts, websites….

Add that to the Etsy shop, packing yarn, writing patterns, answering queries as well as family commitments and actually having a life… the part of me which I discovered and which grew when I was at Art School only a few years ago was in danger of withering away altogether.

Being part of Open Studios over the past few years has kept me hanging on by my fingernails though, and I’ve loved making the exhibition pieces…

Wool Gathering 2012

How to Knit a Sheep 2013

That time of year is coming round again (so quickly!) and I’ve been rummaging around in my mind for the perfect inspiration. For ages after making the sheep’s head, I toyed with the idea of a stag’s head complete with antlers. The perfect place to hang crochet garlands and pompoms! But then I realised that every time I opened a catalogue or magazine, or watched a design programme on television there seemed to be some sort of variation of a stag’s head, a rhino, a zebra or similar and I knew the moment had passed.

There are also restrictions for the exhibition too. I work in three dimensions but making something which needs a plinth, and finding the plinth too is an added complication, so the hanging format I’ve used so far works best.

Inspiration struck a couple of weeks ago because of our local pantomime. The Am-Dram group in the village is full of creative people and we’re lucky to have someone to devise something beyond the usual Sleeping Beauty/Aladdin/Puss in Boots offerings. This year it was The Green Man.

Aha! the Green Man! And with some research I find this quote…

His name means the Green One or Verdant One, he is the voice of inspiration to the aspirant and committed artist.

He can come as a white light or the gleam on a blade of grass, but more often as an inner mood.

The sign of his presence is the ability to work or experience with tireless enthusiasm beyond one’s normal capacities. In this there may be a link across cultures,… one reason for the enthusiasm of the medieval sculptors for the Green Man may be that he was the source of inspiration.”

Perfect!

I’ve sorted through my stash of fleece and yarns, filled a bag with natural colours and ordered some more from Wingham Wool Work. I also bought a sample pack of dyes and that’s what I’ve been doing most of today, dying natural fleece and yarn, and over-dyeing some bright shades to bring them into the right colour spectrum.

I’ve had such FUN! I’ve looked back in the archives and it was January 2011 when I last dyed yarn and I loved the results then. This is a very different palette, but I’m so enjoying throwing caution to the winds, and mixing up different dyes, and different strengths and dribbling them over the wool to get soft natural effects.

My Green Man has been inspired by the cherry trees in the garden with their grey trunks. His face is bark coloured using natural Cheviot fleece, rougher and hairier than my usual Merino, and lovely to needlefelt. This is the story so far…

Just waiting for the greenery to grow!

The greenery is too damp to use tonight so I will put my crochet ‘Hat’ on as I want to finally finish the bunting pattern which I’ve been editing. It’s looking very pretty…

I’m off to clean up the dye splatters in the utility room, but I’ll be back soon!

Little Shoes for Little People

purlbee.com

There’s something about little shoes isn’t there? I seem to have gathered a whole collection of patterns for teeny tiny shoes, and actually shoes are the last thing a small baby needs!

My own babies were born, like I was, with huge feet and were already too big for the infant sizes by the time they decided to get round to walking. The tiny shoes I had been given when they were born ended up as ornaments!

So it’s probably a triumph of hope over experience that having found this delightful (and very simple) pattern I decided to make my imminently arriving grandson some little shoes that might not fit. (There’s always the possibility that he will inherit my daughter-in-law’s dainty feet, after all!)

I bought the felt from the Blooming Felt stand at last year’s Knitting and Stitching Show, Sarah has an amazing range of colours but I went for subtle shades of grey.

This is a lovely project, very easy to sew, and the felt would lend itself to being embroidered. I can just imagine little cream or white shoes embellished with stitched flowers for a special occasion.

I found the pictures describing the method on Pinterest…

But the pattern and detailed instructions can be found on the Purl Bee website. I know there are lots of prospective new mums and grannies out there, I’d love to know if you make teeny tiny shoes too!

The Year in Books – January

I’m scraping in pretending it’s still January and that I’m not a bit late with my January reading choice….please bear with me!

If you missed it, I’m joining in with the reading project on ‘Circle of Pine Trees’ which I wrote about here and my first book choice was The Red House by Mark Haddon.

As it says on the cover, Mark Haddon is the author of the best seller, ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’, and I was curious too, to find out if he could follow up such a distinctive book.

I wasn’t disappointed. My abiding memory of that first book was the way the author got inside the head of the main character, and with ‘The Red House’ Mark Haddon takes on a whole cast of characters, gives them all a voice and weaves the narrative without ever losing the thread of the individual perception of each person.

The book is a small slice of family life, it’s relationships and complications. Seven days of a shared holiday with a brother and sister, their respective families, the ghosts of the past and the uncertainties of the future.

Having planned to make this my book for the month, I found myself devouring it over a couple of evenings, and becoming so involved with the characters I didn’t want it to end.

But apart from the strong characters Mark Haddon creates a wonderful sense of place, and his descriptive passages are very evocative.

I’m always nervous of accidental ‘spoilers’ when talking about books so I won’t say any more, but I do thoroughly recommend it as an inclusion on your reading list!

My February read is ‘Elegance’ by Kathleen Tessaro.

I’m looking forward to a wander through everyone else’s January books to find a few more recommendations for later in the year, I hope you do too!

I’ll be back soon, when I will admit to it being February!

A Funny Old Week…

It’s been one of those weeks where I feel like I’ve taken two steps forward and one and a half steps back, do you have those? The main calamity was the disappearance of Planet Penny into a virtual black hole a couple of days ago. Many apologies if this affected you in anyway, it was not your computer! The technical term according to the help desk was the ‘White Screen of Death’ which was very scary, but I was really smug when I worked through the long list of instructions they sent and sorted it out…All On My Own!

It’s quite horrible outside, the wind is howling and the rain is lashing down, so I do hope you are keeping warm and dry. My heart goes out to everyone suffering in the floods, it must be horrendous…

It seem very odd that if a disaster happens abroad all manner of aid, both financial and physical is supplied, but when people are suffering hardship from extreme weather conditions in our own country it seems such a struggle for them to get any help. (If you are not in the UK, you might not be aware of the flooding in some areas in the west of the country, but you can find out here.)

Anyway, back home with a cheerful picture of the bike which I found outside our Community Shop this week. It’s owner was probably only about eight years old, but what style… I’m quite envious!

I had great plans to share a new pattern, but what with one thing and another, it’s not quite there. I found some crochet bunting on Pinterest, but not finding a pattern decided to work it out for myself. I wanted something a bit plainer than the more usual ‘granny’ bunting, and I’m very pleased with this. It’s really quick and easy…

Hopefully I’ll finish off the pattern very soon, and there will be more photos when the light is a bit brighter!

I’ve had my ‘window-dresser hat on this week in our Community shop and with Valentine’s Day on the horizon I made this Valentine Tree for the window display…(although I’d actually quite like to keep it on my dresser!

I’m now going to desert you for a comfy chair by the fire with the baby knitting, where hopefully the sound of the howling wind and lashing rain won’t be quite as loud as it is here in the studio!

I’ve amalgamated two of the patterns from the Debbie Bliss pattern book from my last post, so I’ve got a stripy tank top on the needles…

I’ll be back soon…x