Category Archives: Planet Penny Cotton Club

It’s Spring, It’s Spring!

Wow! Look at the sunshine!

I think Tim brought it back with him. We went off for a walk in Bacton Woods yesterday. We haven’t been since the time Higgins had a play with a very bouncy spaniel, got a sore leg and had to be carried back to the car. He might be little but he’s very solid! But it was lovely, and I’ve spotted clumps of bluebells so we must be sure to go back again at the right time.

The gorse made a lovely splash of yellow…

…and Higgins even met a little friend…

I’ve spent the afternoon in the garden today, I’m glad you can’t see the compost under my fingernails! I’m trying very hard to keep up with the Garden Diaries but I’m afraid I’m a bit of a fair weather gardener. The broad beans are coming on very nicely and I might have a few baby salad leaves to harvest next week, but the carrots and spring onions are taking their time. I hope a bit of warm weather might do the trick.

More and more things are bursting into flower. This really is my favourite time of year. You can feel things growing all around, and I love the fact that the roadsides are filled with daffodils and the hedges with the starry white blackthorn blossom, and every time I go out in the garden something else has popped out.

There’s still the odd garden pest though!

I also love the weeping willow at this time of the year, at the point where the leaves have emerged just enough to turn the branches limey green without hiding its gracefulness.

I’ve been very busy indoors too, and after all the wrapping and packing I’m nearly at the end of this batch of rainbow yarn. I’ve had so much lovely feedback as the pink parcels have arrived at their destinations.

‘My cotton has just arrived ! It is so so gorgeous (even better than I thought!)’

‘The cotton arrived yesterday afternoon. It is WONDERFUL!! Better than any cotton I have ever used. I LOVE it! THANK YOU so much for sharing. I am off to crochet a little mouse… 8-)’

And it’s great (and just a little strange) to see the yarn turning up on other blogs in other countries, in Australia and the USA.

If you haven’t got your pack yet,

find out all about it here,

Please get in touch with any questions

here

I’ve been needlefelting, working on the piece for the Taster Exhibition at the Forum in Norwich for Open Studios but I haven’t anything to show you just yet! What is so frustrating is having a pattern in my head for another crochet idea and NO TIME TO MAKE IT! I’ll try very hard to fit it in before Handmade Monday comes around again, I do hope it works.

So on that note I’d better stop chatting, and skedaddle off to work again, I hope the sun’s been shining where you are…

See you soon…x

Planet Penny Cotton Club Update

I’m just slipping in a quick post because I’m away for the weekend. By now, everyone who was ordered their very own cotton rainbow will have received their pink parcel in the post. As I understand it, those who are not actually using the yarn yet are gazing at it lovingly and squishing it gently, it gets you like that!

We’re all systems go for the next batch, and I have quite a substantial waiting list. As I mentioned before, I am rejigging the price just a little. There seems to be a cost associated with every stage of moving money about, whether it’s within the UK or paying for goods in Europe. I started this because it seemed a nice way of sharing a lovely discovery, and I’m having to learn how to do it as I go along, so please bear with me!

I’ve done a test post to the US which has worked and it took about 10 days to arrive. I’m prepared to give that a go with the next batch, especially as I have so many lovely people from the US on the waiting list desperate to try out the yarn! Once I’ve worked out all the postage rates I will update the Cotton Club Page so you can see exactly how much it will cost.

One thing I have to say with the postage is that I am sending everything First Class Post with Proof of Postage and Airmail to the US. It is possible to arrange for it to be signed for in the UK, obviously bumping up the cost, but that facility will cost far more than the cost of yarn sending out of the UK. Once I have handed over the parcels to the Post Office and collected the proof of postage, it’s out of my hands, so please bear in mind when you order the yarn that it will be best endeavours on my part to package it safely and post it to the address I have been given, but that it must be at your own risk.

Over on the Planet Penny Cotton Club page there are already links to take you to members blogs so you can see what they’ve been doing.

At Baxter’s Rest there really is a rainbow…

In the Little Room of Rachell it seems to be being admired at the moment!

Penelope by the Sea over at L is for Love has done some gorgeous embroidery…

And Mrs Micawber , who was my US posting ‘guinea pig’, couldn’t wait to get started on her stash…

Please add your blog to the Linky on the page if you have one, and don’t forget to add the PPCC button to your sidebar. If you don’t have a blog but want to share what you have been doing, you can join the Flickr group.

So have a lovely weekend one and all. I’m off to the theatre tomorrow and then staying with friends in a part of Norfolk I don’t know very well – it’s a big county – so I mustn’t forget my camera!

See you soon x

Birthdays and Crochet Butterflies

Oh, how wet and miserable it’s been today! Tim has just donned waterproofs and wellies and winkled a very reluctant little dog out from the bottom of his bed to go for a splosh down the road. I have to be on standby with towels and a roaring fire for their return. Meanwhile I have crochet butterflies to make…

Hang on! That didn’t last long…they’re back…Higgins got 100 yards down the road, did what he had to do, then made a determined bid for home and the towel on the utility room floor. It’s so comical the way he goes flat on his tummy and wriggles around to get dry, before I even get down there with him to help…

Then on to the dry towel in front of the fire to finish off…

Steaming nicely now!

I mentioned that March is birthday month in our family, starting with younger son on Friday, and today was my mum’s turn, 83 today! A small family gathering for tea and birthday cake, deliciously chocolatey and made by my sister, whilst the smallest great-grandson entertained my mum in fine style.

So of course there were presents…

…and flowers.

And also crochet butterflies! I found these little lovelies on line and thought they were perfect for the Planet Penny cotton. Because there has been an issue with the link breaking I have written and photographed my own version of this pattern so it’s available to you as a downloadable PDF. Just click this Crochet Butterflies link. They are sooo quick and easy to make…

I also tried knitting with the cotton as someone said it looks as if it’s only suitable for crochet, and I have to report it knits like a dream. I made another little jar cover, as it’s ideally suited for showing off a sample. I think I could have cast on another 2 or 4 stitches as it’s a teeny bit stretched but it still works well and shows off the colours…

So I hope the weather is being a little kinder where you are, but in the meantime make some crochet butterflies and dream of summer!

If you’d like even more butterfly love, how about a Butterfly and flower mobile You can find the pattern here.

See you soon…x

Sharing our Reasons to be Cheerful…

…just one more time!

Which doesn’t, of course, mean we can’t keep looking for them!

Here on Planet Penny, I’m still finding little flashes of springtime promise, (even though as I type the wind is howling and rain is lashing against the window!)

Higgins is not quite so cheerful because although the ‘boss’ came home from work last week, he’s had to go away again on a course…so Higgy hasn’t got his early morning vantage point. The routine is that Tim sits in the reclining chair to drink his morning tea, and Higgins gets as far down the chair as possible, so he can lie on ‘ a person’, always the best place as far as he is concerned, on red alert, looking down the garden ready to leap, like a coiled spring when the post lady and the paperboy arrive. This is how he does it…

After my last post it’s been very cheering to have lots of enthusiasm and lovely comments (thank you!) for the Planet Penny Cotton Club project, and I’m still trying out different ideas…

…and I’ve been happy to pack up the cotton packs in the pretty pink mailing sacks!

(If you’d like to join in do get in touch, there are still some packs left, and if I sell out there will be a waiting list!)

This is the last Reasons to be Cheerful post and Linky for now, I hope you’ve enjoyed it, either joining in or just following the links to meet other bloggers. I know I’m really happy to have gained some new bloggy friends!

Please join in for this last Linky below, or leave a comment so we can go out on a high, I do love to hear from you…thank you for taking part x