Tag Archives: Handmade Monday

New Crochet Bunting for Handmade Monday

There’s been a lot of weather about this week! Anyway, moments like this when you’re out for a walk make it worthwhile, even when it’s below freezing point. And no apologies for sharing another snowdrop picture, I’m getting a little obsessed by seeing things from a miniature dachshund’s viewpoint!

I’ve been happy and relieved that this week at our monthly Knit and Stitch meeting the little heart pattern was tested out by a relatively new crochet-er, and it worked ! (Bearing in mind I might have been crocheting for a while, but I’m a novice pattern writer!) Not only that, but having cracked the pattern, Carol went on to reinterpret the heart with crochet wire and beads, which is so pretty…

They look huge here, but they’re not much bigger than a 10p piece, delicate crochet jewellery.

My latest rainbow creation from my gorgeous cotton yarn basket is a new version of crochet bunting. I know the white Christmas Bunting is very popular but there’s been a lot of white around just lately, and I needed an antidote!

I’ll be posting the pattern in Tutorials very soon.

Which brings me to the fireplace. And the hearth rug. the scene of many a power struggle amongst the four legged members of the family. On the one side is Henry, who has been here for getting on for 17 years, who isn’t in the best of health, but who know exactly what is due to a senior citizen and is quite prepared to use all his ‘Grumpy Old Man ‘ tactics to make sure he gets his way. And on the other side is Higgins, who is absolutely sure that everything is all about him…

Today my sister arrived with a special present just for Henry, and I rather knew it was going to cause trouble…

A beautiful rag rug, exactly what a old and bony pussy cat needs…

um…hang on…

…that’s better…

But when a little chat about ‘sharing’ fell on deaf ears…

Higgins retired to the sofa…

Hang on, can’t you see him?

It’s a dog’s life…

But enough of all that. It’s Handmade Monday again, and it’s time to visit the lovely Wendy over on 1st Unique Gifts and find out what everyone else has been creating this week.

Next week I’m hoping to share a new idea with you, one you might just want to join in with…

In the meantime, see you soon! xx

Cats and Crochet for Handmade Monday

It’s hard to believe that another Monday has come around again, and not only that, we’re at the end of January. How did that happen?

It’s been a very cold grey day here today, but we’ve had a couple of bright and sunny ones, and I’ve been out pottering, quite literally, in the veg plot as I’ve been rounding up all the plastic pots which were ‘going to come in handy’ and in fact have blown into various nooks and crannies, binning the broken ones and washing the useful ones and stacking them in the new mini greenhouse. I’ve started a diary of my gardening efforts which you’ll find via a tab under the header so I won’t repeat myself. Not much happening at the moment but hopefully there will be!

I found a cheerful bunch of tulips in the supermarket yesterday which have brought a ray of sunshine into the gloom today….

The big excitement of the week was a long awaited delivery. My very own rainbow in a box! I’ve got some wonderful new cotton yarn to play with. Not available in the UK just yet and I shall have to be a little secretive about it for the time being…

…but I can let you have a peek…

…do you want to see?

It’s so pretty. It’s a thinnish DK weight cotton with a beautiful sheen, and crochets like a dream on a 3.5 hook. I’m going to be doing lots of experiments with it over the next few weeks so watch this space…

And coincidently, the day before it arrived, I had an email from Jill, who writes the Stocki blog, about the Beautiful Blogger Blanket. I don’t know if you have come across it in your travels through the Blogosphere but you can find out all about it it here…

Jill was letting me know that my name had come up on the Beautiful Blogger Blanket Wish List, proposed by BebeRouge (Thank you BebeRouge, what an honour!) as somone she would like to see creating a square for the blanket. So this has been my very first project with this fab new yarn.

I will replace this photo asap when I have better light to do the colours justice!

I’m sorry I won’t be able to share the yarn brand just yet, but the pattern, which I have devised, will be available in the tutorials very soon.

I’ve had a little help with photography from Henry …

…whom I’m a little worried about at the moment. He’s been much brighter since he had his big operation last summer, and still rules the roost and keeps Higgins in order, but he’s never really regained the weight he lost despite having a big appetite. He seemed to be showing all the signs of having a thyroid problem but the tests have come back negative, and he’s lost a little more weight. He’s under observation, and we are keeping our fingers crossed, but he still likes to be involved in everything that’s going on, so that a positive sign. (Oh, and note the socks. A sign of how busy I’ve been, socks still on the needles, and I’ve hit the supermarket!)

And while we’re on the subject of cats, I’vew been working on samples of needlefelt animals for my next course at The OutHouse Studio and this is the first one..

And finally, I had to show you this. Higgins in his favourite spot in the sunshine, in a good vantage point to shout abuse at passing tractors, bicycles and joggers. (Note the chewed remains of a ball, and the stolen flower pot, great fun to steal that when I was trying to stack them up)

And now the back view, not easy to maintain ones upright watchful position without the aid of a box…

…and eventually it all gets too much, and you have to let things slide…

So all that’s left is to hand you over to Wendy over on 1st Unique Gifts where she is hosting this week’s Handmade Monday and where you will find lots of other handmade goodies to see.

Have a good week,

see you soon! xx

Love Birds and Hearts for Handmade Monday

Hello, It’s Handmade Monday time again! Doesn’t it come round quickly? It very good for concentrating the mind though, otherwise SO much time could be wasted on Pinterest, purely for research purposes of course!

I would like to say thank you to every one who left such kind comments on last week’s Handmade Monday post about my exciting trip to the hospital. I’m still absolutely fine, but I really appreciated your concern, thanks so much …

I’ve been busy making, but plotting too, so I’m going to run my latest plan by you as it may be something you would like to join in with. A while ago I had two beautiful raised beds put in the vegetable area of the garden. They have lovely chunky railway sleepers which you can sit on, and metal bars over which I can put a polythene cover to make them into mini poly tunnels. (If you’ve been visiting for a while, you’ll know they have featured on several occasions in Higgins type incidences and if you put ”raised beds’ in the search box you will find plenty to have a giggle at, too many for me to add individual links to here!)

Last year I got so tied up with the Open Studio plans that nothing really got started, so I decided that this year, I will get to grips with the whole thing, and see how much I can produce using the two raised beds and some containers. I’m going back to basics, and I will be picking the brains of my friend Gaynor, who lives in the next village. Gaynor is one half of Home Grown Revolution, who specialise in raised beds, and one of her New Year’s resolutions was to get out from the office and to get her hands dirty in the veg garden. As the other one was to start a blog, we are going to be helping each other along, so watch this space, I hope it’s going to be fun!

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching I’ve been turning my thoughts to something new to needlefelt, and so we have the Love Bird…

He’s just 2 to 3 inches tall, but he has some smaller little friends too, who have come to roost in little woolly hearts…

and they’ll be for sale in the Folksy shop very soon.

I’ve been playing around in the button box again…

…and I’ve tried, but not quite managed to produce a crochet square a night with my lovely New Zealand wool…

…if only there were more hours in the day!

With that in mind I will step away from the computer, and leave you to pop over to 1st Unique Gifts where Wendy is hosting the Handmade Monday Linky to find out just what everyone else has been up to over the past week.

See you soon …x

Button Up for Handmade Monday

Buttons, badges, pins or even brooches? Not sure, but I’ve been having fun with them! If you read this post you’ll know that I had a little kit for Christmas and now it’s all gone quiet I’ve been having a play.

click on the image for info

They are very easy to make with the equipment supplied in the box…

and clear instructions…

…and there’s lots of scope for individuality. They look pretty just as a way of showing off a lovely scrap of favourite fabric, or with embroidery and embellishment can be as fancy as you like…

I particularly like these two…

…which I do think can be elevated to brooch status, but I also have a soft spot for this jolly one…

It’s certainly easier than the ones I made a while back using the buttons you cover yourself as I had to remove the button shank, and then cover the rather tatty looking back with felt before glueing on a pin.

It still works well though, and as you can see I’ve been experimenting with a little crochet edging in my own dyed wool. (It was far to much work dyeing it to waste a scrap!)

This one which was made using the biggest covered button I could find is covered in a piece of vintage embroidery salvaged from a very stained tablecloth…

It’s all been a bit of a displacement activity because I keep seeing all sorts of ‘mission statements’ on other blogs about intentions for the New Year and I’m still faffing around, not being able to make up my mind. Do I put all my ideas in black and white and frighten myself with a huge list and set myself up to fail, or do I just come up with a couple of things and do them really well, or shall I just make it up as I go along…? As usual…

Hmmm, I’ll let you know!

One thing I am going to do is to get to grips with the vegetable plot this year. Last Spring I got so tied up with Open Studios (and that’s happening again this year!) that in the end all I grew were Sweet Peas.They were the most successful Sweet Peas ever, but not what my raised beds were put in for so this year I must do better!

It was actually sunny and mild this morning, so I went out and cleared the first raised bed of all the chickweed, forget-me-not seedlings and oxalis…

…so I could put the cover on it ready to warm the soil…

The cover is looking rather well worn now, but does sterling service, and I leave the metal supports in place as they are so handy to lean on when you’re feeling a bit creaky!

Well, I think I qualify to join in with Wendy and the other Handmade Mondayers over on 1st Unique Gifts. Do go over to see what happening and also to admire Coral the Camper van!

See you soon! x

Paper Chains on Handmade Monday

I’ve had a dis-AAA-ster! My camera’s packed up! It’s like having my left hand tied behind my back (and I am left handed) I think I’ve probably worn it out, I’ve used it nearly every day for 13 months. Anyway, it’s off to the repairers, but that won’t happen till after Christmas, and I’ve ended up trying to get stills off my little Flip video camera, and they’re not up to much. So I can’t show you a lot today, but in the spirit of Handmade Monday, I’ll do my best.

Do you remember this, which I brought home from the Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally Pally?

Wel,l when I had a sudden urge to make paper chains, Origami paper seemed to the answer. I bought a multicoloured pack in Hobbycraft, 5 7/8″ square, divided each square into 6 strips and set to work with the Pritt stick and Hey Presto! paper chains to match the Origami Ball!

We still haven’t got the Christmas tree up, every time we try it snows and sleets and makes it wet again! I think we’re going to bring it into the utility room tonight to dry off, or we’ll never get it decorated. Hopefully I can find a way of sharing it with you before the big day.

If you call over at 1st Unique Gifts you’ll find all the other crafty people, busy with their Christmas makes and linking up for Handmade Monday.

See you soonxx

Dolly Peg Angels for Handmade Monday

Hello, and welcome to another Handmade Monday. I hope you’ve had a lovely weekend as we all rev up towards the Christmas festivities. I was very excited to find that I was able to control the weather on Planet Penny and arrange for some seasonal snow to fall!

I’ve just about reached the point of RSI on the needlefelting front now, and I’m longing to spend an evening with the hexipuffs or some crochet. I can’t believe how popular the needlefelted robin baubles have been, I think it’s the Kirsty effect! I’ve just posted the very last ones for this year on Folksy, the result of an experiment, but I really like it.

One of my fellow stall holders at the Pick’n’Mix Makers Market is Fiona Henderson of High Fibre yarns and she makes the most unusual yarns, a bit like french knitting, from lambswool, and I bought a few skeins to try out. So this is what I’ve used to make a little creamy wreath on which two teeny tiny robins can perch….

…they’ve still got the little feet that make everyone go ‘aaaah!’…

Looking at then here they look huge and a bit hairy, but in fact they’re only 2″/5cm long from beak to tail.

I also have a rather gorgeous raspberry pink yarn from High Fibre destined to be a mug hug soon, another reason to get at the knitting needles!

By way of a change, I’ve revisited the Dolly Pegs, and made a little Choir of Angels who are also listed on Folksy…

…and then decided the Dolly Peg Dolls would make a great tutorial to share, and you can find it here! I hope you enjoy it, I’d love to see your versions.

I’m off to do some baking now. We have the Christmas meeting of our Knit and Stitch group this week, and I’m using that as an excuse to get out the Frangipane Mince Pie recipe. I’ll have to get them into the freezer the minute they’ve cooled down though, they are SO more-ish I doubt there would be any left if I don’t!

Finally, thank you so much for the congratulations and nice comments about Planet Penny being on the Ch4 Favourite Craft Blogs list. I hadn’t realised before how many links there on the 4Homes website for makers and crafters, well worth a look. And of course the other place to visit today for handmade inspiration is Wendy’s Handmade Monday Linky over on 1st Unique Gifts.

I’ll leave you browse…

Have a lovely week! x