Category Archives: Needlefelt

A Push in the Right Direction…

…sometimes you need a little shove.  I’ve got rather off track over the last few weeks with highs – birthday celebrations, and lows – the poorly pussy cat, so I’ve been really grateful for a bit of focus.  So I’m saying a big thank you to two blogging lovelies who have put in a lot of work to come up with a ‘Big Idea’ which not only concentrates the mind, but introduces a whole new section of the blogging fraternity.

Firstly, there’s Silent Sunday.  It’s a wonderful idea, which you can find out all about here, because if, like me, you always have your camera with you, even when the week is such that you just have no words… there is always a photo which will say it for you. Thank you Jay, photographer extraordinaire!

And then there’s Handmade Monday, curated by Wendy of Ist Unique Gifts who has concentrated my mind wonderfully over the last couple of weeks so I’m getting back on track. Thank you ladies!

So what have you been up to, I hear you wondering… Well, I’ve been tinkering around with the idea of making framed pieces using  needlefelting, to give more of a context to them, and I’m just beginning to feel happy going in that direction.  My first piece was this, which is in the folksy shop now…

And with my Handmade Monday hat on today I put the finishing touches to this…

…a framed flying pig….I’m very fond of the flying pig!

I’ve painted and distressed the frames I bought to experiment with, they are a soft Swedish grey with a beeswax sheen which is a favourite of mine.  Quite a few pieces of nondescript furniture in our cottage have had that treatment!  I wan’t sure what to put in the smallest of the frames but today I devised this….

…the ribbon along the bottom has been hand printed to say…

And just to add the little extra to the whole ‘handmade’ aspect of this evening, as I’ve been typing this, the room, no the whole house, has been filled with the smell of Banana Bread cooking! I feel SO virtuous!

Which reminds me, thank you so much for all the lovely comments about the Welsh Cakes.  They really seemed to strike a chord, especially with expat Welsh ladies!  I hope the recipe worked for you, and brought back a little taste of home…

If you want to meet all the other Handmade Monday Bloggers, you’ll find them here. And if you decide to join in, with this or Silent Sunday, do let me know, I’ll be paying you a visit!

See you soon! x

Sweet Peas, Strawberries and Stitches…

It’s Friday again, how quickly it comes around!  At the moment the sun is shining so I must try and nip out to make the most of it before the next band of rain arrives.  It seem only five minutes ago we were begging for rain in East Anglia, never satisfied!

I’ve had a varied week, lots to tell you about.  It was my actual birthday (I know, I’ve been milking this event for weeks) so  some lovely flowers were delivered…

…and the house has been filled with the scent of lilies ever since.

I had a special needlefelting order to complete which I was pleased with, but the light was so bad I’m not so happy with the photos I took.  He is sitting on a little crochet mat with a ball of wool to play with…

I’m obsessively knitting too, since I saw this on Penelope by the Sea’s lovely blog. It’s the Boneyard Shawl.  I don’t know about knitting for winter in the summer, I can’t wait to finish it to snuggle up in it now, it’s been so cold!

Isn’t  it gorgeous yarn?  It one I can actually get locally, (we don’t have dedicated yarn store, it means a trip into Norwich) it’s Sirdar Escape wool rich DK and the colour mix is very pretty and random.  I’m struggling to work out when to stop knitting, unlike crochet you can’t lay it out flat when you have so many stitches on the needles, so it’s a bit hard to judge what’s going on.  I’m nearly at the end of the third ball with one more to go and I’m thinking better too big than too small.

Which leads me to the next purchase.  I started knitting on standard needles, but the pattern requires circular needles which I didn”t have in the size, so when I saw a Tweet about a promotional discount from a new online wool shop I wizzed over to see what was there.  I found these lovely bamboo circular needles.  I do like using bamboo, but have never found circular ones.  In order to qualify for the discount, I had to spend a bit more (life can be tough) and fell madly in love with some fabulous Bluefaced Leicester yarn from the Natural Dye Company…

Such a nice way to shop!  I had a Twitter conversation with Joanne from Wool and Buttons whilst putting in the order, a tweet to tell me it was in the post and it arrived the following morning before 9 o’clock.  So pay her a visit, and say I sent you!

So the next project, socks or mitts? I can’t decide!

I’m loving having fllowers to cut for the house growing this year.  It’s a bit accidental, the garden’s been rather neglected one way and another so I ended up with a bamboo wigwam in the veg bed where I popped in some sweet pea seeds.  It’s taken forever, but at last they are flowering and the colours are rich and the scent is heavenly.  Added to a self sown cornflower I have been able to have a little posy of colour and scent on the dresser all week…

And the strawberry?  Well I had to show you this lovely pressie from my dear friend Jen.  It starts off small…

…unravels…

…and turns into the very thing for carrying home the spoils from a visit to the yarn shop!

Well, lovelies, I’d better get out in the garden and do a spot of deadheading.  I hope you all have a fabulous weekend.  Higgins and I are taking a trip to visit the lovely Emma of Silver Pebble who is opening her studio this weekend.  Emma has made me something rather special which I will share with you soon.

Can you guess what it might be?

See you very soon x

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