Category Archives: Craft

New Crochet Bunting for Handmade Monday

There’s been a lot of weather about this week! Anyway, moments like this when you’re out for a walk make it worthwhile, even when it’s below freezing point. And no apologies for sharing another snowdrop picture, I’m getting a little obsessed by seeing things from a miniature dachshund’s viewpoint!

I’ve been happy and relieved that this week at our monthly Knit and Stitch meeting the little heart pattern was tested out by a relatively new crochet-er, and it worked ! (Bearing in mind I might have been crocheting for a while, but I’m a novice pattern writer!) Not only that, but having cracked the pattern, Carol went on to reinterpret the heart with crochet wire and beads, which is so pretty…

They look huge here, but they’re not much bigger than a 10p piece, delicate crochet jewellery.

My latest rainbow creation from my gorgeous cotton yarn basket is a new version of crochet bunting. I know the white Christmas Bunting is very popular but there’s been a lot of white around just lately, and I needed an antidote!

I’ll be posting the pattern in Tutorials very soon.

Which brings me to the fireplace. And the hearth rug. the scene of many a power struggle amongst the four legged members of the family. On the one side is Henry, who has been here for getting on for 17 years, who isn’t in the best of health, but who know exactly what is due to a senior citizen and is quite prepared to use all his ‘Grumpy Old Man ‘ tactics to make sure he gets his way. And on the other side is Higgins, who is absolutely sure that everything is all about him…

Today my sister arrived with a special present just for Henry, and I rather knew it was going to cause trouble…

A beautiful rag rug, exactly what a old and bony pussy cat needs…

um…hang on…

…that’s better…

But when a little chat about ‘sharing’ fell on deaf ears…

Higgins retired to the sofa…

Hang on, can’t you see him?

It’s a dog’s life…

But enough of all that. It’s Handmade Monday again, and it’s time to visit the lovely Wendy over on 1st Unique Gifts and find out what everyone else has been creating this week.

Next week I’m hoping to share a new idea with you, one you might just want to join in with…

In the meantime, see you soon! xx

Reasons to be Cheerful – Hearts and Flowers Bunting

I really should have written this yesterday, a glorious day when the sun shone and I was feeling bright and positive, very ‘hearts and flowers! Today has been a ‘tupperware box‘ day, and I’ve been as grumpy and growly as Higgins with a new bone.

I will get out yesterdays photos and try to talk myself out of the glooms…

The day started beautifully, and despite the low temperatures managed a slow thaw during the day. I spread bird seed under the cherry trees and had a lot of visitors, chaffinches, sparrows, tits and a robin, three blackbirds and to my delight, a song thrush.

Also a mystery guest, slightly bigger than the thrush and blackbirds, and rounder with feathers in shades of grey. It didn’t get close enough to see properly, and I only managed these slightly grainy shots with the zoom…

Anyone got any clues? (Edited to add: Celia, of Purple Podded Peas, has enlighted me…A Fieldfare, thanks Celia!)

We went for chilly walk…after a disagreement about wrapping up warm to go out…

and despite the fact that by 4 o’clock it was freezing fast…

It was still very enjoyable…

and in the evening I made lots of little crochet flowers and leaves then sewed them together with the hearts from this pattern to make a Valentine’s Day garland. What do you think?

So I hope you’ll join in with some reasons to be cheerful to dispel any negative thoughts floating around. I must finish to get ready for this month’s Knit and Stitch meeting, that should cheer me up!

So do join in via the Linky below where you can leave a link to your blog, or by using the comments list. It’s always lovely to hear from you.

See you soon x

A Snowy Handmade Monday

If my Silent Sunday photo was the day before, this was what those clouds were heralding…

(and if you look closely you can see someone has made a little bow wave!)

Funnily enough, after the early morning excitement, Higgins was NOT very enthusiastic about a walk later on in the day…

But he soon got into the swing of things…

…and definitely appreciated the coat in the end!

So there’s been a good excuse to linger indoors and do a bit more crochet. I had a lovely book for Christmas which is full of inspiring things to make…

…and had some fun with these…

and in the spirit of re-using containers, and as excuse to use this fab ribbon…

I gave a tin of Heinz Tomato Soup a whole new lease of life!

I started on a little something for Valentines Day…

…and if you’d like a pattern I’ll be putting one on soon.

I’d also like to share some other little handmade lovelies which although are designed for Easter, are much to pretty to hide away. One of the wonderful things about the blogging/making world is the new friends you make. People you would never otherwise have met. I had lunch with one of these friends last week, a couple of hours of frantic chatter, comparing notes and trying to fit everything in! Gabriella and I both had stalls at the Pick’n’Mix Market last year, run by another blogging/maker friend Lisa of Bobobun, you might remember this photo of the Moobaacluck Stall. So I was so thrilled by this present from Gabs…

I don’t think I have enough handles in the house!

So now it’s time to join in with Wendy’s Handmade Monday over on 1st Unique gifts, where you’ll find all sorts of yummy things going on! It’s well worth a visit!

See you soon xx

The Importance of Stuff

These days we all seem to have ‘stuff’, and mostly far too much of it. But the stuff that drives me mad are all the little bits and bobs which accumulate in small piles and clutter up random bowls and baskets because they don’t have an immediate home as we dash about doing everything else. You know, the things we can’t throw away, like till receipts, business cards, the top to the pen that we can’t put our hands on just at that moment (note to self – clear out handbag) and things which will probably ‘come in’, elastic bands from the mail, paper clips, buttons and safety pins.

So the plan is to have a designated place, and a promise to sort it out on a regular basis. (It’s now down in black and white, that promise!) So the cogs have been spinning in the brain…where to put the stuff…

…stuff….snuff….where did they keep Snuff?

In a JAR!

And what have I been collecting over the year because ‘they are just too useful to throw away’?

Coffee Jars!

I’ve got them tucked away in the studio holding craft materials, and on the mantlepiece filled with Mother of Pearl buttons, and sea shells…

But I keep drinking coffee, and I keep collecting jars!

And then there is my basket of gorgeous rainbow yarn…

And so I’ve made a STUFF Jar! Would you like to see?

But you’ll have to excuse me now, I’ll have to go and empty out all those random places full of little bits of Stuff…

And I’ve just thought of something else I want to make!

See you soon x

Cats and Crochet for Handmade Monday

It’s hard to believe that another Monday has come around again, and not only that, we’re at the end of January. How did that happen?

It’s been a very cold grey day here today, but we’ve had a couple of bright and sunny ones, and I’ve been out pottering, quite literally, in the veg plot as I’ve been rounding up all the plastic pots which were ‘going to come in handy’ and in fact have blown into various nooks and crannies, binning the broken ones and washing the useful ones and stacking them in the new mini greenhouse. I’ve started a diary of my gardening efforts which you’ll find via a tab under the header so I won’t repeat myself. Not much happening at the moment but hopefully there will be!

I found a cheerful bunch of tulips in the supermarket yesterday which have brought a ray of sunshine into the gloom today….

The big excitement of the week was a long awaited delivery. My very own rainbow in a box! I’ve got some wonderful new cotton yarn to play with. Not available in the UK just yet and I shall have to be a little secretive about it for the time being…

…but I can let you have a peek…

…do you want to see?

It’s so pretty. It’s a thinnish DK weight cotton with a beautiful sheen, and crochets like a dream on a 3.5 hook. I’m going to be doing lots of experiments with it over the next few weeks so watch this space…

And coincidently, the day before it arrived, I had an email from Jill, who writes the Stocki blog, about the Beautiful Blogger Blanket. I don’t know if you have come across it in your travels through the Blogosphere but you can find out all about it it here…

Jill was letting me know that my name had come up on the Beautiful Blogger Blanket Wish List, proposed by BebeRouge (Thank you BebeRouge, what an honour!) as somone she would like to see creating a square for the blanket. So this has been my very first project with this fab new yarn.

I will replace this photo asap when I have better light to do the colours justice!

I’m sorry I won’t be able to share the yarn brand just yet, but the pattern, which I have devised, will be available in the tutorials very soon.

I’ve had a little help with photography from Henry …

…whom I’m a little worried about at the moment. He’s been much brighter since he had his big operation last summer, and still rules the roost and keeps Higgins in order, but he’s never really regained the weight he lost despite having a big appetite. He seemed to be showing all the signs of having a thyroid problem but the tests have come back negative, and he’s lost a little more weight. He’s under observation, and we are keeping our fingers crossed, but he still likes to be involved in everything that’s going on, so that a positive sign. (Oh, and note the socks. A sign of how busy I’ve been, socks still on the needles, and I’ve hit the supermarket!)

And while we’re on the subject of cats, I’vew been working on samples of needlefelt animals for my next course at The OutHouse Studio and this is the first one..

And finally, I had to show you this. Higgins in his favourite spot in the sunshine, in a good vantage point to shout abuse at passing tractors, bicycles and joggers. (Note the chewed remains of a ball, and the stolen flower pot, great fun to steal that when I was trying to stack them up)

And now the back view, not easy to maintain ones upright watchful position without the aid of a box…

…and eventually it all gets too much, and you have to let things slide…

So all that’s left is to hand you over to Wendy over on 1st Unique Gifts where she is hosting this week’s Handmade Monday and where you will find lots of other handmade goodies to see.

Have a good week,

see you soon! xx

Planet Penny

Crafts, Needle Felting, Crochet, Patterns & Tutorials