Category Archives: Craft

Advent Calendar – Day Five

We’ve just taken down the display for the Angels and Light Festival so I’m revisiting something I made for the last church Festival three years ago for today’s Advent Calendar make. This where blogging comes into it’s own, being able to look back on previous occasions! Our Knit and Stitch Group had the font to decorate on that occasion too.

The theme on that occasion was a Crib and Wreath Festival and so we decided to encircle the Font as the wreath element with the crib, beautifully knitted by one of the group, sitting on the top. It was rather a challenge, but the design I came up with was for something to which we could all contribute various elements, and could then be split up to be sold in aid of church funds.

You can find the tutorial on this blog post if you’d like to try it yourself…

Oh for more time! I’d like to try it with wire threaded through to bend it into a wreath which could be spectacular, or just with multicoloured scraps which would have a lovely homespun look.

What would you do?

Back tomorrow…!

P.S. If you’d like to join in with the Prize Draw, check out the post for Day Two to find out about the prize, and how to enter!

Advent Calendar – Day Four

Here we are on Day Four of the Advent Calendar and I’ve been ferreting around in the button box! Well, the Mother-of-Pearl button box to be precise…

to reprise a little decoration I made a few Christmases ago. I spotted the idea in an upmarket catalogue and decided it would be silly to buy it when I had so many buttons, had a go at making it and was very happy with the result, and very smug because it hadn’t cost me anything!

The box is rather full, but I’m gradually working my through the small buttons…

I shall have to be inventive for the big ones!

It’s a very simple little button heart…

and apart from the buttons all you need is gold or silver wire and some jewellery pliers.

Select your buttons and lay them out in your desired order. Cut two lengths of wire, about 18″ in length, you just snip off the excess. Twist the wires together a couple of inches from one end then thread the first button on to one of the wires then twist the two wires together for a few turns before threading the next button on a single wire again.

Continue like this until you have used all the buttons, then bend into the desired shape, bringing the two ends together at the top of the heart. Then you can use the excess wire to twist a hanging loop, and snip off the ends.

Finish with a length of pretty ribbon or cord…

hang, stand back and admire!

Of course you can use any buttons you happen to have in your workbox, coloured ones look pretty too…

Have fun, I’ll be back tomorrow….x

Angels and Light – Part 2

A brief pictorial post to bring you up to date with the angels from this post. I’d like to share the beauty of our local church, St Michael and All Angels, and the talents of people in the surrounding area who have made it look even more beautiful for this festival.

You can see Knit and Stitch have quite a selection of angels, apart from the dollypeg ones!

The one I found most moving was the British Legion Angel, an amazing labour of love made as a tribute to all the lives lost to date in Afghanistan. Four hundred and thirty five men, three women and one dog…

Each poppy an individual tribute to a lost life… Such a waste…

If you live in the Norwich/Broadland area this is well worth a visit. The church is open until next weekend from 10 -4 and you will also find some lovely ladies serving delicious soup, cakes and tea and coffee!

And if you are too far away, I hope you enjoyed this virtual visit!

See you soon…x

Angels and Light – Part One

Do you remember me mentioning our forthcoming Angels and Light Festival and my date with dolly pegs? Well, I spent a dolly peg day or two last week and have created a dozen assorted angels, all ready for setting up the display in the church at the end of the week.

I don’t know whether spending a few hours in the company of angels went to my head or not but having spent a few hours with white lace, white yarn and white parchment coming out of the studio blinking into the bright Autumn light for a walk with Higgins gave me some magical moments which I tried hard to capture in the next few photos.

A beautiful Autumn day is a treat, coming in the midst of rain and wind, mist and fog and needs to be savoured. I set off with Higgins and took our usual route across the footpath through the stubble and was amazed by a sight I never noticed before, and yet I must have past it time and time again looking up, looking down, thinking of to do lists and never actually seeing.

The low sun was shining across the stubble creating a shimmering pathway, like the moon on the sea…

…which when I looked closer was caused by thousands, millions of spiders webs spun across the tops of the stubble and reflecting the golden light of the sun…

Shooting into the sun with a compact digital camera without specialised lenses or setting was never going to give me the best of shots, but I hope this will give you an impression at least.

It was mesmerising.

After Higgins had charged across it hot on the scent of a rabbit and returned I found he is just the right height to be a cobweb brush!

At far side of the field, where the footpath continues in the shade of the hedge the previous nights mist was still lying on the grass…

..and the cobwebs here were beautiful in quite a different way…

(It was only later that evening I realised that as an arachnophobe I must have been in the company of thousands of the little beasts!)

The golden light continued…

Everywhere I turned was another photo opportunity…

It was quite hard to return to work and the angels but they are all done and dusted now and ready for next weekend. I’m sure you’ve been wondering whether I would ever get round to showing you! These have auburn locks, made from Wensleydale fleece…

…and these have blonde hair, made from dyed Merino fleece.

They are made in the same way as in this tutorial using oddments of Broiderie Anglaise edging, white felt and cotton yarn. the wings are cut from parchment printed with sparkling flowers. Next week I hope to share the pictures of them as part of our display at the Church.

Talking of next week, I’m off to London again with an invitation to spend an evening with Debbie Bliss as part of the promotion of the Save the Children Christmas Jumper Day As yet I don’t have any details to share, we are knitting a ‘Christmas Surprise’ but I’ll be back next weekend to tell you all about it!

Finally, do you remember Higgins being an artists model?

You can now find out a little more and see some other little sketches by visiting the Thomas Taylor – Author website. I’m struggling to keep up with his fan club by the way, he now has over 200 ‘likes’ (or should that be licks) on Facebook!

I’ll leave you now with the usual link to Handmade Monday. Thank you to all the lovely people who turn up each week to comment on the blog. I do try to return the compliment as far as possible and wish I had time to visit everyone, but I do read all the comments and really appreciate them.

I’ll be back soon …x

Sew Over It – Book Review

This is the second of the books I was sent to review a few weeks ago, and it’s timely to do so now as Lisa Comfort has recently appeared in Kirstie Allsop’s new Channel 4 Show, Kirstie’s Vintage Home. I grew up in the era when home skills were taught in school, Domestic Science, we learnt to sew, dress-make and cook. I do have to admit to being hopeless whilst at school, but as a young married mum without a lot of cash it soon made sense to have the skills to repair and alter clothes, recycle dresses into baby clothes and run up a pair of curtains. Most women’s magazines had knitting patterns, some gave away paper patterns for dress making and amazing part work series were published teaching all sorts of skills from embroidery to macrame! (Such a useful skill – macrame plant pot holder anyone?)

All that seemed to get swept away in a great feminist rage against being hemmed in by domesticity to the point where you had to hide any desire to occupy yourself with a little light embroidery, and ‘homemade’ was considered an insult. Schools did away with cookery classes and sewing lessons and a whole generation were left without useful life skills such as sewing on a button or cooking.

That’s why I’m loving this whole re-emergence of making and upcycling, creating and recycling which is movement of the moment and Lisa Comfort’s book fits right in as an ideal starting point for anyone wanting to dip their toe in the creativity pool. Lisa charts her beginnings from stitching with her child-minder through the London College of Fashion to her sewing café and shop in Clapham, South London where she teaches the skills to be found in this book. If you’ve never threaded a needle let alone sewn on a button, never fear. Lisa starts you off at the very beginning introducing you to the needle and thread, the mysteries of the sewing machine, customising and altering your clothes, making accessories and finally measuring yourself and making a skirt from scratch.

This is not a book for a seasoned dressmaker but I would definitely recommend this to a complete sewing novice needing a virtual hand to hold and guidance starting out on their sewing journey. Probably it would be helpful to have a hands on lesson if you’ve never used a sewing machine but I believe shops like John Lewis offer this when you buy a machine from them. Apart from that, all that is needed is a little imagination and Lisa’s know how and tips. The projects are clearly illustrated and explained, and the book as a whole is colourful and appealing, the photography is inspiring, a great Christmas present idea for a aspiring stitcher !

The ‘Sew Over It’ book is published by Ebury Press and available to buy from Lisa’s on-line shop of the same name, (which is a rather dangerous place to visit if you happen to like fabrics, and buttons, and haberdashery….)

Craft Fairs and Family Fun

It’s been a busy half term week here on Planet Penny what with the How Hill Craft Fair and family fun with a special visit by two little boys over half term. Not that they were always recognisable as little boys…

…slightly troubling for a granny!

The craft fair went well, such a lovely venue…

with beautiful views over the gardens and the Norfolk Broads…

The robins proved very popular and quite a few flew off to new homes…

So the felting needle will be red hot again next week to refill my little tree!

Higgins has had a lovely week with his favourite boys, and even had his moment as an artists model for Thomas, their dad…

…but didn’t quite get the hang of posing!

He was invited along with the rest of us for a wonderful lunch with my second son, and my talented daughter-in-law produced a fabulous cake worthy of the ‘Great British Bake Off‘, and Higgins even managed to get in on the act with this too!

It was all most enjoyable…

So creating has been a little low key this week, I actually have something on knitting needles for a change, but I’ll save that for the next visit.

I’m sending my continued thoughts good wishes over the ‘Pond’ to everyone who has been affected by the horrendous weather. I hope you have all the help you need to get back to some sort of normality as quickly as possible.

I would also like to send a big, BIG thank you for all your visits, and lovely comments and the support you give me here on Planet Penny. Today I reached the huge milestone of having 200,000 hits on my blog since its very tentative beginnings in December 2007. 100,00 of those visits have been in the last 7 months! I have my thinking cap on for a celebratory Giveaway so watch this space…

I’m leaving you for now though with the Handmade Monday link and I’ll be back soon…x