Tag Archives: crochet

A Prize Draw for Handmade Monday

I can’t quite believe how quickly the weeks are whizzing by, and it’s time for Handmade Monday again! It’s been busy, busy, busy here on Planet Penny. The felting needle’s been red hot, the sewing machine has been whirring away, and it’s all stuff I can’t show you at the moment! We are now on the final countdown. Never mind about Will and Kate… that wedding is so last year… it’s just thirteen more sleeps till Will and Louise’s big day!

The weather is still appalling, I’m hoping it will get all this rain out of it’s system so we can have just one sunny day on the 12th. Surely that’s not too much to ask?

I’ve been in and out of Norwich getting the last few bits and pieces so I don’t let the side down, and now have proper Mother-of-the-Groom shoes, no boots or Fitflops for now, and a trip to Get Ahead Hats for a smart titfer. I probably ought to get a very large brolly too!

I fitted in coffee and a ‘team talk’ with the Mother-of-the-Bride which was lovely, and a satisfactory plan was hatched involving a champagne bucket and two straws! Well, we can dream, can’t we?

Kit and I went to the Norfolk and Norwich Open Studios Exhibition private view last Monday in the Forum in Norwich and there were lots of beautiful pieces of work. There is certainly going to be masses to see over the three weekends that it’s running, with studios open all over Norfolk and Norwich. I really hope that if you are in the area you call in to see us in our little corner.

I’ve also been beavering away with the Planet Penny Cotton Club yarn putting the packs together…

and the Rainbow Mouse packs have also been very popular…

And in my spare moments in the evening I’ve been wielding the crochet hook, using up all the oddments of cotton left over from all the other projects. I’ve been making little flowers…

I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with them yet. To be honest, by that time of the evening I haven’t many functioning brain cells but it’s a simple little pattern I can do on auto pilot and I’m sure a cunning plan will present itself eventually.

But, I hear you cry, what about the draw? Who is going to giving a good home to Goldie the sheep?

I’ve been all through the comments, and I firstly have to thank you all for all your good wishes for my trip to the dentist. It was worth all the trauma of the visit to know that the problem tooth has gone and all is well, and I’m sure all the positive thoughts you sent my way helped, so thanks again.

However, back to the comments… I added up all the entries, with the extras for Facebook and Twitter, and there were 68! Then allocated every entry a number, and used the Random Number Generator to choose the winner…

and….

it was…

Natalie, of Free Spirit Design!

Congratulations, Natalie. I’ll be in touch to get your address very soon!

Thank you to every one else who entered, and commiserations. Not to worry, I’m sure there will be another excuse for another draw before long! But now it’s time to link up again with Handmade Monday over on 1st Unique Gifts, where you’ll find plenty of places to visit, and lots of lovely crafty things to see.

I’ll be back soon….x

Carrot Cake! – for Handmade Monday

I’m sitting at the computer in the gloom, listening to the rain hammering down. This is certainly the wettest drought I’ve ever experienced!

In fact now it’s hailing, so that’s going to do for the blossom on the cherry trees, what a crazy mixed up spring!

I’m just praying that Mother Nature will get it all out of her system before the 12th May, and the wedding.

This morning Kit and I went off to the Forum in Norwich to deliver our pieces for the Norfolk and Norwich Open Studio Taster Exhibition, which starts tomorrow, so I no longer have my branch of woolly birds hanging on the wall. I’m rather missing their colourfulness!

Once again my creativity this week has been of the secret kind, with the wedding in mind, but I do have a completely scrummy cake recipe to share. Hands up who likes carrot cake!

Unfortunately I didn’t get to it quickly enough with the camera, but you can get the impression of yumminess from this last remaining slice I’m sure! I’ve put the recipe in the Planet Penny recipe folder, or you can find it here.

It’s been a little quiet on the Planet Penny Cotton Club front of late because I have been awaiting an elusive out of stock colour, but it’s now on it’s way, so if you are on the waiting list, please bear with me, it’ll be here very soon. ( If you are a new visitor you can find out all about it if you follow the link.)

However, I have been plotting, yet another ‘cunning plan’! I’ve had a huge amount of traffic on the Crochet Rainbow Mouse Pattern page and it’s been pinned on lots of Pinterest boards and ‘liked’ on Facebook hundreds of times, and people have asked to buy the finished articles.

It occurred to me that if you really wanted to make the whole set of mice in all the rainbow colours, but didn’t want to end up with lots of unused balls of yarn left over then it could be good to buy a Rainbow Mouse Pack, with the required amount of yarn to make one mouse in each colour, which would make it much more economical.

So, that’s what I am offering, and at the moment I have just three packs, on a first come first served basis. The pack contains 14 balls of yarn, each ball enough to make one crochet Mouse…

…with the pattern and instructions on how to make it into a mouse wreath, plus the beads for the eyes and noses. All you will need to add would be a 3mm crochet hook, toy stuffing and some black sewing thread, and if you want to make a wreath, I used a florists wire base which cost 75p.

I’m offering the packs at £15.00 each, plus £3.50 P&P (UK)

If you would like to purchase a Rainbow Mouse pack, please contact me here and let me know your address, and the email address linked to your Paypal account and I will send you a Paypal invoice to pay. It’s as simple as that!

Don’t forget, if you haven’t already entered, the draw to win Goldie, the needlefelt sheep is still running. I will be taking the winning name out of the hat next Sunday in time for next week’s Handmade Monday, so there is still time to leave a comment on the post, and for extra entries, ‘like’ Planet Penny on Facebook, follow @woollyplanet on Twitter, or become a Planet Penny blog follower and let me know about it.

In the meantime, I shall leave you with the usual link to 1st Unique Gifts and the Linky to all the other creative bloggers taking part, do go and have a look, and I’ve just joined the High Tea Linky Party at Black Cat Originals where you’ll find some more yummy recipes.

I’ll be back soon….x

Needlefelt Birds for Handmade Monday

Happy Easter to all! Are you full of chocolate yet? We’re having a quiet time here as the family are away and so needlefelt birds have been in the forefront of my mind and the felting needle has been smoking…(which is what mustn’t happen to the lamb shanks I shall be putting in the oven shortly for a long slow cook for our dinner à deux tonight !)

We celebrated the start of the hosepipe ban last week with a really rainy day here…

Some people found it most depressing…

Of course, Murphy’s Law applied too, as after days and days of dry weather, this was the day the soil was delivered to fill my beautiful new raised beds from Home Grown Revolution…

These are now looking absolutely splendid…

…all ready for warmer weather and the time to get them planted. I’m feeling very guilty about the garden as despite my best intentions things are slipping rather, but short of that elusive extra day in the week I would love to find, it can’t be helped.

As well as the smoking felting needle, the keyboard’s been pretty hot too, as I’ve been writing. I haven’t mention it before (because I sort of didn’t believe it until I saw in black and white) but I am now a Features Writer for UK Handmade, and you’ll find my first offerings here and here if you are curious. And if you haven’t found UK Handmade’s website before, there are lots and lots of really interesting articles by some amazingly creative people to keep you amused over the holiday weekend!

I was also asked to write a guest blog post by Sue, of SusanD1408Crochet Addict which you can find here if you’d like to know how Planet Penny came into being.

Meanwhile, back at the felting needles…. You’ll remember last week I had got as far as this…

….but nobody guessed where I was going with it.

I started with the pale yellow on in the middle…

(those little feet are very important) …and turned into a special Easter chick…

However the real aim is a piece to exhibit at the Norfolk and Norwich Open Studios Taster Exhibition at the Forum in Norwich next month. This has existed in my head for so long it was rather a shock to realise that I hadn’t actually made it yet, so I’ve been working on it all week. This involved my Easter Chick having a few more friends, a whole flock of needlefelt birds…

I’m now at the final stages, with leaves crocheted in Bluefaced Leicester wool….

…and with any luck I should finish it this evening in front of the fire. The branch is made from the lambswool yarn I bought from High Fibre, and used with the needlefelt robins at Christmas and I’m really pleased with the way it works in with the whole concept. One day, when I have time (!) I will knit myself the raspberry colour mug hug from the yarn I bought from Fiona at the Pick’n’Mix Market last year.

Needlefelting is getting a fresh burst of publicity this week with this month’s issue of Mollie Makes. Aren’t these cute?

So I hope there will be lots of enthusiasm for the Needlefelting Course I’m teaching on 17th April at The OutHouse Studio in Aylsham, North Norfolk. I think there’s a place or two left, so if you are near enough, it would be lovely to see you!

I’ll leave you with a link to Wendy, over on 1st Unique Crafts who hosts Handmade Monday, and there you will find plenty more interesting things have been going on over the past week!

See you soon x

Silent Sunday

Crochet Owls for Handmade Monday

We’ve had such lovely weather for the past few days in this corner of the UK, it’s been great for getting outside…

and also visiting the garden centre for a little inspiration. I rather wanted to take home the pond in our local one…

I got a colour fix inside, I could spend a fortune in here, I can get so carried away!

and this bee was enjoying the scent of the hyacinths as much as me!

I had a bit of an ‘eeek’ moment this morning when I printed out my pages from the Google calendar for the next few weeks. We’ve known for months that the coming few weeks were going to have everything which is planned for 2012 crammed into them, mainly two weddings and Open Studios. And I’ve just come to the point where sticking my fingers in my ears and going ‘la-la-la’ isn’t going to work any more… So if it appears to go a little quiet here on Planet Penny for a while, it’s not true, I just won’t have time to tell you about it as it happens!

I’ve had a small amount of time to play with the pattern I’ve had in my head for a while (usually at 2.30 am!) having been inspired by the little owl Rachel, one of the Planet Penny Cotton Club ‘team’ made with her rainbow pack. I’ve made three so far, each a little different and I would really like some feedback on which you prefer.

I made this one first…

…and was quite happy with it, although the eyes look a bit bulky, and I don’t think there is enough colour contrast for the beak to show enough. Then I made this one…

I like the colours on this one, but I’m still not happy with chest piece. Finally there was this one…

…and now I’m completely confused! Here they are all together…

I’d really like to know what you think!

If you would like to see what other people are making with their Planet Penny Cotton Club rainbow packs head for the PPCC Page where you will find links to the participating blogs. I’m expecting another delivery of yarn in the next couple of weeks so…

If you’d like a rainbow pack,

find out all about it here,

Please get in touch with any questions

here

For now it’s time to head off to 1st Unique Gifts where Wendy is hosting Handmade Monday to see what everyone has been creating over the last few days,

See you soon…x

A Pink Crochet Bunny for Handmade Monday

Higgins and I are home after going our separate ways for a night, I stayed with friends with beautiful pussy cats, so it was deemed safest for Higgins to have a little holiday with my son and his fiancée. (A little tiring for them by all accounts because Higgins has it firmly fixed in his head that Uncle Will is the best interactive toy ever, and followed him around constantly waiting for the next burst of canine centred entertainment.)

It was just as well he didn’t see how unfaithful I was being with this little beauty…

or with her sister, who discovered I had a cat treat in my bag…

But I’ve come straight back with my Planet Penny hat on because the Cotton Club yarn has arrived and needs sorting and wrapping and bagging and packing and there is a very long waiting list to sort out…so this is going to be a very short post! I’ll be in touch with the waiting list people very soon, so please bear with me!

I’ve been asked to write up my modified mouse pattern which I will do very soon, and it will be joined eventually by a pattern for a bunny. My Pink Bunny…

So for now I’ll leave you in the capable hands of Wendy of 1st Unique Gifts as she hosts this week’s Handmade Monday. Pay her a visit and find out what everyone else has been up to over the week..

See you soon x