Tag Archives: Handmade Monday

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

Needlefelt Brooches for Handmade Monday

It’s a little tricky when you get yourself into the blogging mindset of photographing everything and filling the little file in the back of your brain where you store interesting and useful stuff for a blog post and then running up against secrecy! As in wedding plans! All of a sudden I’m doing things I can’t show you for a while, and it’s very hard keeping it to myself!

My darling daughter came home last week and frog marched me off to do ‘Wedding Outfit Shopping’. I’ve been failing miserably on this front. I live in jeans, jumpers and boots in the winter and swap to jeans, shirts and sandals as the weather warms up and I’ve been totally intimidated by the whole ‘frock’ thing. I like haberdashery and stationery shops, nothing which requires me to go into a changing room and remove my clothing in front of a full length mirror!

Thanks to Aimee, John Lewis and a pair of Spanx, I now have an outfit suitable to be the ‘Mother of the Groom’ in, just the shoes, bag and hat to go! I’ll give you three guesses what colour I’ve chosen!

Yesterday, Aimee and I lent our support to the Groom as we went off to sort out his wedding outfit. I think we are going to be hopeless on the day as we both dissolved into tears when he came out of the changing room looking so handsome and dashing in the full regalia. And I can’t show you any of it!

I can tell you about the up coming Needlefelt course I’m going to teach at the OutHouse Studio, in Aylsham, Norfolk on 17th of this month. This time we will be making little brooches and pins…

And my other needlefelting project is underway…

…can you tell what it is yet? All will be revealed before too long, I promise!

On the Planet Penny Cotton Club front I am still getting emails from happy people who have received their rainbow packs. The next delivery should be in by the middle of April, slightly delayed because one colour is out of stock. I’m already taking names for the next batch so if you want to join in do email me with your details, you can find out all about it here...

Once again I’m linking up with Wendy over on 1st Unique Gifts for Handmade Monday. Do visit all the other blogs taking part and find out what every one’s been creating for this latest Handmade Monday!

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

Hooray for Crochet Mice!

The Making of the Crochet Mice…

I’ve set myself a challenge, to see just how many projects I can get out of the Planet Penny Cotton pack, at one ball of each colour. One of the reasons I put this collection together is that I found it impossible to find one stockist, on the high street or online, who had every colour to make up a rainbow, and going from place to place, or buying a ball here and a ball there from different online stockists was time consuming and expensive.

From the time I dyed my own colours I was determined to use every scrap of Bluefaced Leicester 4 ply I had so painstakingly coloured myself. I’m still using the little leftovers the needlefelted pincushion from this post, and the Sophie Digard inspired scarf from this post.

I wanted a pattern for crochet mice which was just right for small amounts of yarn and this silky smooth cotton yarn is perfect for amigurumi, and the bright colours just lend themselves to something fun so I devised this cute crochet mouse pattern and made one in every colour.

So I developed my own simple pattern for crochet mice, and used beads for the features as I have made them to be strictly ornamental However, with embroidered features they are ideal for a small child (just right for little hands) or filled with catnip for your favourite puss cat.

And so the knitters out there don’t feel left out, there a knitted version too!

~~You can find the yarn, the knit and crochet patterns for the mice, as well as other patterns using the gorgeous Planet Penny Cotton yarn in the Etsy shop here…~~

Ed. to add. the Etsy shop has now closed but you can find the patterns FOR FREE here…

I’ll be back soon …xx

Wearing my Miss Marple Hat…

(not the most dynamic of sleuths, but the only one I know who knits!)

It’s time to tell you about my detective work, which started back in the Autumn and all because I really, really wanted something.

And what I wanted was a rainbow…

And I knew there was one to be had, because I kept seeing them, out there in cyberspace…

Lots of beautiful crocheted bit and pieces, in a rainbow of glowing colours.

I looked and looked, but couldn’t find anywhere to buy exactly what I had seen in the UK.

So, having got the bit between by teeth I trawled around the net searching for clues until I found the supplier, in Europe, who confirmed that they didn’t have a UK stockist.

The good news was that I could buy the yarn, my rainbow, directly from them. However, the bad news was that I would have to buy…a lot…

More than I would probably manage to use up in a month of Silent Sundays or Handmade Mondays.

But it occurred to me that if I love it, then maybe you out there would love it too, and maybe it could be the start of something exciting, and something we could share.

I took the huge step, and ordered the minimum order, which was still a great deal of money and yarn, and three months after started the search and the negotiations I took delivery of a large carton of gorgeousness. I opened it full of trepidation, having chosen from a huge colour chart of tiny swatches but it was a bit like opening a treasure chest…

…just an explosion of colour!

I’ve shared with you some of my experiments over the weeks, the crochet carnival bunting…

The Hearts and Flowers Garland…

The Stuff Jar…

and all the other bits and pieces.

…so I hope it’s whetted your appetite! The rainbow packs of mercerised cotton DK, comprise one 50g ball (125m) each of 14 different shades priced at £36.50 per pack. It has a lovely sheen, and I’ve found it very easy to work with, sometimes cotton’s lack of stretch can make it less easy to use than wool. It knits beautifully too, and I imagine would lovely for bold and colourful embroidery.

You can find out all the details on the Planet Penny Cotton Club page here.

So, what do you think? Is this something you’d like to try, or will I be giving my family and friends rainbow coloured lovelies for the rest of my life!?

Edited to add: The yarn is now available via the Planet Penny Etsy shop via this link

I’m linking up with Handmade Monday again on 1st Unique Gifts, I hope I qualify even though this week has been mainly sorting balls of yarn and getting ready for the needlefelt class I’m teaching on Tuesday at the OutHouse Studio.

I’ll be back soon, I’m looking forward to hearing from you! x