Tag Archives: Needle Felting

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!

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

Reasons to be Cheerful – Lucky 13!

The first thing I found this morning when I went on the computer is that the Guardian has a feature called Reasons to be Cheerful, so we are in good company! And one of their reasons made me very happy, new in at IKEA is this…

Oh how I love raspberry pink! Now IKEA is a day trip for us, we have to do the meatballs and everything, but I might have to work on a visit very soon. I realise there’s a whole love/hate thing with IKEA too. When we introduced Aimee to it she nearly had to be carried sobbing and screaming into the carpark after half an hour but lured in by something like raspberry pink dishes I think I can be brave!

Going from one extreme to another, in this case a multinational Super Store to an individual business, I love the way most of the things I buy on line from small retailers tend to arrive looking like little presents…

…bamboo crochet hooks from Wool and Buttons…

I love using bamboo knitting needles, I’ll let you know how I get on with these…

I’m being optimistic about the garden too, although the last few days have been too gloomy and wet to get anything done at all. I went out in the drizzle this morning to encourage Higgins to follow, he’d really rather not when it’s wet.

I had spotted the yellow crocuses which grow in the lawn were about to open and thought I could get a lovely shot of Higgins smelling the flowers…

‘Higgins! Look! What’s this?’

Gallopy gallopy…CHOMP!

…one less crocus to brighten the gloom…will I ever learn?

We went off to the garden centre to replace the mini plastic greenhouse which was really useful for starting off seeds but had been ripped off the wall and seen off by the gales. Fortunately, still half price so it didn’t break the bank at less than £15.00. This time we’ll put in stronger fixings. This is a problem when you live in windswept Norfolk.

A new trowel and fork in bright blue. New because you might have noticed someone chewed the handles off the old ones, and bright blue so I don’t keep mislaying them…

…and they look very jolly along with my gardening gloves…

And while I’m waiting to get to grips with the great outdoors, I have a few indoor projects from the cut price shelf to be going on with.

I’m very cheerful that I’ve sold one of my Love Bird Hearts on Folksy and later today I will be adding the larger one, which has been finished off with a primrose…

So, despite the gloom, I’m managing to keep my spirits up, how about you? If you’ve got some cheerfulness to share please join in with the Linky below, or leave a comment on the post. It’s always lovely to hear from you….!

Reasons to be Cheerful about January!

It’s a good thing I take my camera with me where ever I go so I can catch those fleeting moments of loveliness which are standard for British weather in any month of the year. Today has been gloomy, damp and grim. Tim has just come home with Higgins with a thick layer of mud on his underside. That’s the problem with a 4″ inside leg measurement!

However on Monday the day dawned like this…

and ended like this…

…and in the middle was a chilly walk on the beach!

Which was very enjoyable!

I had a really good time at the OutHouse Studio in Aylsham yesterday, teaching a beginners needlefelt course. I didn’t realise it was the very first course to be run, which made me feel rather honoured. It was a small group but everyone had lots of fun,(including me) and were very happy to go home with a Cupcake pincushion. The OutHouse now has a website which you can find here and if you are in Norfolk do keep an eye out for all the other crafts which will be featured over time. Next month the course is needlefelt animals, which I promise to show you soon.

And there are Wedding plans! My younger son is getting married in May and my future daughter in law and I are plotting flowery country loveliness galore. Obviously all under wraps for the moment, but if you have any suggestions of blogs or websites of the crafty country wedding kind, we’d love some tips!

And finally I’d like to share this, the best Facebook status I’ve seen…

“listening to music while sorting out paperwork makes the job worthwhile!!”

I’m sure you’re wondering why, most of us listen to music on a daily basis. But this was written by my niece, who recently had her cochlear implant switched on…How fantastic is that!

So what are you reasons to be cheerful this week? Do join in, via the Linky below or in the comments column and spread a little happiness, all over the world!

See you soon xxx

2011 – A Year in Pictures

It’s the end of the year, so I thought I’d do a recap. It’s been very interesting trawling through the archives and seeing how things have developed over the months and I thought I would share the experience…

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

It’s already giving me lots of new ideas for the next twelve months, so I hope you’ll drop in again to see how it’s going! In the meantime, I wish you all a very Happy New Year, where ever you are….see you in 2012! xxx
http://youtu.be/QEVF0fah17k