Category Archives: Craft

Planet Penny Bakery

Just a little post to tell you about the Planet Penny Bakery which is happening next weekend at Arts Desire in Norwich. The Craft Lounge at Arts Desire is hosting a workshop next Saturday morning between 10.30 and 1pm where I will teaching how to create these low calorie, high fibre cupcakes. A plateful of these little fancies would look so cute on a dresser full of eclectic vintage china, and they make great pincushions!

There are still a few places on the course. It would be lovely to have you along to learn a fascinating skill which once mastered will open the door on all sorts of projects. The only limit is your imagination! If you don’t live near enough but have friends in the area, please spread the word…

Don’t forget to come back and visit very soon because I have such a great giveaway coming up!

I’ve always enjoyed finding gadgets, books, patterns etc I can recommend via the blog. These days I get approached to write and host reviews. This is very flattering, but I value my relationship with all of you far too much to want to turn my personal space on Planet Penny into advertising space for random ‘Stuff’. (Believe me, some of the ‘Stuff’ I’ve been approached about is extremely random! )

So I’ve got something fab to tell you about, and then I’ll be giving you a chance to win one of your very own…Can’t wait? Well, come back tomorrow to find out…

See you then…x

P.S. This week I’m linking up with Handmade Monday so do call over and catch up with all the crafty goings on!

Happy Birthday, Higgins!

Oh dear..I’m sorry to have been away so long! I’ve been working hard on the ‘next big thing’ and there just haven’t been enough hours in the day.

But Higgins! It was his birthday this week. I can’t believe it’s nearly four years since we brought home this tiny bundle of black and tan trouble…

(You can see more cute photos in the 2009/2010 archives)

He was calling the shots right from the start! I tried very hard to get him in the party spirit for his birthday photo but you can tell, he really didn’t like wearing a hat, party or not!

He’s already eaten all the squeaks out of his birthday presents too, but he had fun doing it!

And coincidently I had a Higgins related present this morning which I’d like to share with you. You’ll remember from this post I had a needlefelting workshop at the Art’s Desire Craft Lounge making little fantasy birds, and one of the participants was Willow, half of Farrell and Holmes who make beautiful things like this…

Will had such a good time learning to needlefelt I don’t think she’s stopped since, and this morning I received a card…

and a mysterious little package…

In which I found..

..this gorgeous little mirror!

Now while I’m pretty sure Higgins would love to sit and gaze at his own reflection I’m sorry, it’s going in my handbag! Thank you, Will!

I’m off to do some photography now. Remember I was working on the Knitted Mouse Pattern? Well I’m nearly there and plan to launch it this weekend. If you are one of those frustrated non-crochet-ers who have been begging for a knitting pattern there not much longer to wait, I promise. All fourteen of the new knitted Rainbow Mice are lining up to show off their best profiles for the camera right now.

I’ll be back soon….!

A Pain in the Neck!

If it’s been a bit quiet on Planet Penny the last few days it’s because its all been a bit of a pain in the neck…quite literally! I don’t know how it’s possible to lock one’s neck up completely just turning on the pillow to look at the alarm clock but that’s what I did, very effectively. So my midweek post got delayed, and now I’m back in the chair with strict instructions from Lara, my amazing chiropractor, to set an alarm and step away from the computer every 20 minutes….

Which is quite tricky…

I was mobile enough to take the second Needlefelt Workshop yesterday at Arts Desire and like the first one it was great fun.

It’s always fun to see the different interpretations of the same basic skill when we all get together, last week we had these little chaps (spot the bumble bee!)…

…and yesterday these little feathered friends were born…

The Craft Lounge at Arts Desire is proving a great venue for these workshops and I’m looking forward to the 27th July and the Planet Penny Bakery when we will be needlefelting lots of low calorie high fibre treats! If you are interested in joining us you can find out more right here…

Meanwhile, I have been responding to many requests for a Rainbow Mouse knitting pattern for all those who don’t crochet and I’ve come up with this little fellow…

and introduced him to his crochet chums…

What do you think? As soon as I feel happy with the design it will be available alongside the crochet Mouse pattern via the Etsy shop…

He seems to be looking very much at home..

And the sun is shining! The creaky neck has put paid to much gardening, but my lovely son has been over and planted my Sarah Raven Sweet Peas. It’s a super scented collection of white, blue and deep pink …

…and I just can’t wait to pick my first bunch and fill the house with their scent.

I don’t think I’ve shown you my Planet Penny Cotton garden project! It seems a bit mad, but so far has withstood the weather really well…

A possible tutorial? Let me know what you think…

And now, because the sun is still shining and it’s heading towards being the hottest day of the year so far, I shall take my basket of yarn and the embryo mouse pattern into the garden and enjoy the rest of my Sunday, knitting under the cherry trees.

I hope you enjoy your Sunday too!

See you soon…x

The Knitters Mobile

Do you remember the Knitters Mobile? Back in February I returned to the Knitters Christmas decorations I made for the Advent Calendar in the run up to last Christmas…

…and decided to make a mobile. I knitted some tiny bunting to go round a wooden hoop, suspended all the little balls made with the Planet Penny rainbow colours and ‘Hey Presto’, a Mobile!

It’s been hanging around quite literally, for a while and was a source of amusement during Open Studios but over the last few days it made an appearance on the Loveknitting Facebook Page which has sparked a fresh wave of interest. Planet Penny yarn is perfect not just for crochet but knitting too so a pattern to reflect this is well overdue. The Knitters Mobile requires minimal knitting but is a fun project to start off with. I have written a set of instructions and you can download them here, for free.

(Ed. to add: due to a few Facebook comments about sharp pointy things I would like to point out – This is a decorative piece for a craft room. It is NOT a toy, it is NOT intended to hang in a crib, it is for the enjoyment of adults, not children!)

I still have a fancy for a lampshade with these hanging all round the edge, wouldn’t they make wonderful shadows?

There have also been requests for a kit. I am thinking of perhaps a pack containing all the materials necessary to make the mobile which could be bought along with Planet Penny Crafty Cotton Pack. Would love some feedback on this idea, especially from those of you have bought the cotton already!

And finally, I’ve cracked the challenge of a knitted version of the Crochet Rainbow Mice! The Knitted Rainbow Mice Pattern is now available from the Etsy shop as an instant download, as are all the other patterns…

Enjoy your week, I’ll be back soon…x

Turf, Surf and Needlefelt Birds

A mixed bag post today, I’ve been lurking inside a lot consoling myself with needlefelt because of the unseasonably cold weather, but then rejoicing in sunshine and warmth when at last we get a brief indication that it’s actually summertime! I’m only wearing TWO layers today, and no thermal fleece!

The wind seems to have blown constantly for months in this part of the UK and we live in the windiest corner of the village, near the remains of the old mill. Wind always seems to make everything worse, doesn’t it? Colder, and so noisy with it whistling around the chimney. Yesterday’s walk was a bit scary, with small branches being blown off the trees. I wasn’t sorry to see some rain for the garden though, and Higgins was relieved that the thunderstorm which hit Norwich skirted around us. Despite all this Mother Nature is flourishing in the hedgerows…

The grass is long enough now to ripple in the wind like water, and is such a lush green…

But, in true English fashion today the weather is completely different. The sunshine in the garden brought the bees to the chive flowers…

I know you are supposed to snip the flowers off if you want nice chives for kitchen use, but how can I deprive the poor bees?

Such a beautiful morning was too good to waste, so Higgins and I headed to the beach before breakfast. What could be better than a deserted Norfolk beach in the sunshine?

The sand is gradually returning after being scoured by the winter gales. Only a couple of weeks ago this stretch was down to red clay.

Higgins was very happy..

And quite intrepid too in the shallows…

…and the pools…

Back home I’m getting ready for the first Needlefelt Workshop next weekend at Art’s Desire Craft Lounge in Norwich. The first one is all booked up and the second one is filling but fear not, further dates have been added to the calendar! The Birds on a Branch piece I created for Open Studios last year is in the shop window because we’ll be making birds, of all descriptions…

This is my latest flight of fancy….

Happy, not Angry Birds!

And, in case you were wondering, there is a winner for last week’s giveaway of a copy of Caroline Zoob’s gorgeous book, The Hand-Stitched Home. Thank you, to everyone who entered with wonderful stitching memories, I really enjoyed reading them. It seems for every school day horror there was also a wonderful teacher or relative who passed on their own love of the subject.

It was so hard to choose, I wanted everyone to win, but there’s only one copy of the book!

Please imagine the drum roll, or the pregnant pause beloved of TV Games shows so that I can announce…the winner is… Nikki Pierce who writes her own blog Tales from Swallow Barn.

Congratulations Nikki, I hope you enjoy your copy of the book and that we see some of your creations on your blog before too long (No pressure or anything!)

I’m off now to put the kettle on. I hope you’ve got your feet up with a cuppa too!

Have a great week and I’ll be back soon…

Daisy, Daisy….

I promised a daisy post and while they are still shining vibrantly in the lane I’m fitting in this little post.

I love daisies, don’t you? They are the simplest flower, their shape is the one we first learn to draw, the one we doodle while we are on the phone. They are a link to childhood… did you sit on the school playing field in the sun making daisy chains with friends as I did? And they have become very much linked with the Open Studios season, as each year the edge of the lane leading to the studio is lined with a mass of Ox Eye Daisies…

Last year Kit, my Open Studios partner-in-crime, was inspired by the daisies as you can see from this post and turned her sketches into a beautiful little etching. I treated myself to a pack of cards as they are perfect for personalised letters…

And that would have been all, but for the new book which I reviewed last weekend. Caroline Zoob, writing in the The Hand-Stitched Home featured a beautiful curtain, patchworked from vintage lawn and lace.

It would take ages to amass such a wonderful collection but, nothing daunted, I called into our local charity shop just in case someone had been clearing out Miss Haversham’s attic!

Well, they hadn’t..but in a pile of textile odds and end I found a little crumpled treasure which, carefully washed, starched and ironed revealed…daisies! It’s a wonderful piece of hand stitched cut work on fine lawn, a little frayed in places but this, I think, adds to the charm…

Unfortunately my name isn’t Susan…

but for 25 pence – 25 PENCE! – that’s a minor detail…

I have been debating for a week or two what to put in the little window in the new door into my office. I’m not a fan of nets, I didn’t want to lose the light but I just wanted to hide the interior from prying eyes if anyone called while I was out. This small piece is perfect and with the help of some pins I covered with vintage fabric a while ago I have my own little bright white curtain…

And 25p was well spent, I think you’ll agree!

If you’ve been inspired, there’s still a chance for you to win a copy of The Vintage Home. Visit the post and leave a comment, what’s your sewing story?