Category Archives: Textiles

This category groups posts around my interest in textiles and textile design

Slow Stitching and The 100 Day Project

I have been slow stitching my way into 2020 nursing a January cold and general ennui! But the snowdrops are beginning to appear, February is here, and the evenings are noticeably lighter. It’s time to shake off the slough of despond created by politicians, trolls and the media and focus on our own mental health, the wellbeing of our nearest and dearest and those in the wider world in need of support.

I have struggled to get myself into gear after Christmas, but thought one way was to join in with the 100 Day Project. Giving myself a daily challenge to do something, however small, to engage myself with creativity. And so enters the favourite shirt!

2011 – now the two little lads at the front are taller than me!

I have had this shirt a long long time!

It’s spent some time languishing in a cupboard because I ‘grew’ out of it, but Slimming World has helped out with that aspect and I’ve been wearing again over the last few months. It’s soft worn linen and cotton, it’s blue and white stripes. I love blue and white stripes! You’ll find any number of permutations in my wardrobe, including all my pyjamas.

But there were a few places where the enthusiastic serving of bolognese sauce has left small stains, where catching the door handle on passing has created a little tear, a lost button, a worn out elbow. In this day of recycling the obvious answer was a patch or two, a darn.

And so my slow stitch 100 Day Project was born. I signed up and pledged to do my thing: every day for 100 days I will stitch my shirt. I will embroider a bit, applique a bit, find loved scraps to stitch into place, and see just how far I can take my soft striped shirt into another existence. It will be an incentive to carry on losing weight as all those stitches are going to slightly shrink it in the process, but that can only be a good thing.

A while ago I spent a day with the lovely Hiroko Aeno-Billson learning about the Japanese art of Boro mending, visible mending of treasured clothes and textiles. This, and a borrowed book Slow Stitch by Claire Wellesley-Smith are keeping me inspired. The project started on 22nd January so I’m a bit late sharing this but I have to keep going until 30th April…phew!

I shall be sharing this journey on Instagram as much as possible as well as on the blog so if you interested come and find me there. I’d love to know if you are joining in with your own project, or if you are slowly stitching and mending too.

Have a lovely week, I’ll be back soon…x

Needlefelt Workshops at the Forum’s Makers’ Month

The needlefelt workshops are back! This spring I will be at The Forum in Norwich running two workshops as part of Makers Month. If you haven’t been before this is a wonderful opportunity to see and try out lots of different crafts for free, as well as book on to some fabulous workshops to learn a new skill in depth and there are fascinating talks and open exhibitions.

Arts and crafts people from across Norfolk, will be at the Forum to show you how to knit, sew, crochet, spin, weave, print, embroider, quilt, draw, paint, sculpt and even whittle. Entrance is free, and everyone is welcome. I’m really looking forward to it!

So if you would like to join me on a Needlefelt Workshop, do get in touch to book. There’s a choice of two, making a 3D sculpture from unspun fleece, or a decorative panel of fleece worked into wool felt. Each workshop will give you the skills to take needlefelting in a different creative direction. Book both for a 10% discount on the price.

I’d love to see you there…x

A Weekend of Dyeing and Weaving with Aviva Leigh

Last weekend I went off to reboot my creative vibe, which has been languishing under a layer of brick dust for far too long! I trotted along to the Norwich studio of Aviva Leigh to spend an inspirational day dyeing with natural dyes to transform a variety of yarns, followed by a day of mastering a knitter’s loom to create a piece of woven cloth.

We were fortunate that it was a small group, just the three of us in our rubber gloves and pinnies, oohing and aahing as Aviva introduced us to the magic of dyeing with plant leaves, woodchips, pomegranate skins and even crushed beetles! yarn for dyeing - Aviva Leigh dye baths - Aviva Leigh crushed beetles - natural dye - cochineal In my mind natural dyes were soft and subtle, but it’s astonishing how vibrant some of the colours are. dyed wool - Aviva Leigh workshop It’s also interesting to realise that the building in which Aviva has her studio is in the heart of the historic textile area of Norwich where the river used to run red with the waste from the dyeing factories.

By the end of the first day our heads were spinning with information! So much to take in about the history, the geography and chemistry of natural dyes. Aviva assured us that the following day would be relaxing and mindful, leaving the steamy atmosphere of the dyeing studio to weave our wool samples into cloth. indigo and pomegranate - natural dyes There were just two of us the next day and it’s a very small world because we discovered that my fellow student follows Planet Penny – so, Hello Tracy!! We had a wonderful day experimenting with colours and textures and different effects. weaving workshop with Aviva Leigh So much so that we both headed home having bought our looms, despite both of us saying the last thing we need is yet another craft. It’s just so addictive. Autumn weaving I’m itching to get my loom ready for some more experiments but I will have to wait until I have fewer builders in the house. Today there are four, it feels a bit like DIY SOS! But we really are on the home straight now, despite the fact that we’ve just discovered the new back door fits the aperture, but won’t actually open…ho hum…

I’ll be back soon…x

Finding the pattern…

Planet Penny has been about pattern making for a while, what with mice, and bunting and other colourful things. However I have long hankered after learning a different sort of pattern making, surface pattern design.

I’ve always been fascinated by fabrics and wallpapers. I used to lie in bed as a very small child finding faces in the flowers in the curtains, and trying to spot identical areas and wondering how on earth it could go on and on repeating.

So that’s why, some time ago I signed up to Pattern Camp, run by Jessica Swift, the painter, surface pattern designer and author. This has meant a lot of time sitting in front of the computer, waaay out of my comfort zone, learning how to use Adobe Illustrator. And although I’ve been using Photoshop for years, I’ve had to discover an awful lot of stuff I didn’t know!

Because I haven’t had my brain in gear for a lot of this year I ground to a halt a couple of months ago and with the course over I hit a brick wall of frustration. But a couple of weeks ago the lovely Jessica announced two free weeks of access for previous campers, exactly what I needed to get me going again.

This time, it all started to click into place, and I’ve had so much fun, especially now I can not only tile a pattern, but make half drop repeats too! (I’m even learning the lingo!)

So, here are my very first attempts… Pink and Gold pattern by Penny GJ Painted flowers pattern by Penny GJ Autumn Colours Bold Flower Pattern - Penny GJ Purple flowers pattern - PennyGJ I only ever wanted to try this out of curiosity, but I love it!

These designs are all about the process, a learning curve, but I really want to push it further. I keep thinking about what I could sew…and wrapping paper! It’s very exciting.

And, in case you are wondering, I haven’t given up on knitting or crochet. There are a couple of posts in the pipeline guaranteed to hit the spot, a different sort of pattern altogether!

See you soon…x

Clever Crafter’s Guide to Wool

In the interests of all things woolly I’m sharing this great infographic, the Clever Crafter’s Guide to Wool from Clippers Ireland. It’s amazing to think that when you snuggle under your wool blanket you are actually covered by seven sheep!

I think I’ve knitted and crocheted with wool from four out of the five animals below, I’ve never tried rabbit though, how about you?

clever-crafters-guide-to-wool (1)

I don’t think I’ll be needlefelting with Vicuna any time soon!

Missing Mojo – Found!

You might remember me bemoaning the loss of my Mojo in this post, the debilitating feeling when inspiration disappears out of the window.

Well, I’m happy to relate that it’s back and I’m beavering away being creative and even the wind and rain whipping past the window and howling down the chimney hasn’t dampened my spirits today!

I realise that I’ve become bogged down, especially with Social Media. When I started writing this blog I had no idea about SEO, I didn’t have a Facebook Page, a Twitter account, a featured board on Pinterest, an Instagram account, Flickr. I wasn’t helping other people with their Facebook Pages, Twitter accounts, websites….

Add that to the Etsy shop, packing yarn, writing patterns, answering queries as well as family commitments and actually having a life… the part of me which I discovered and which grew when I was at Art School only a few years ago was in danger of withering away altogether.

Being part of Open Studios over the past few years has kept me hanging on by my fingernails though, and I’ve loved making the exhibition pieces…

Wool Gathering 2012

How to Knit a Sheep 2013

That time of year is coming round again (so quickly!) and I’ve been rummaging around in my mind for the perfect inspiration. For ages after making the sheep’s head, I toyed with the idea of a stag’s head complete with antlers. The perfect place to hang crochet garlands and pompoms! But then I realised that every time I opened a catalogue or magazine, or watched a design programme on television there seemed to be some sort of variation of a stag’s head, a rhino, a zebra or similar and I knew the moment had passed.

There are also restrictions for the exhibition too. I work in three dimensions but making something which needs a plinth, and finding the plinth too is an added complication, so the hanging format I’ve used so far works best.

Inspiration struck a couple of weeks ago because of our local pantomime. The Am-Dram group in the village is full of creative people and we’re lucky to have someone to devise something beyond the usual Sleeping Beauty/Aladdin/Puss in Boots offerings. This year it was The Green Man.

Aha! the Green Man! And with some research I find this quote…

His name means the Green One or Verdant One, he is the voice of inspiration to the aspirant and committed artist.

He can come as a white light or the gleam on a blade of grass, but more often as an inner mood.

The sign of his presence is the ability to work or experience with tireless enthusiasm beyond one’s normal capacities. In this there may be a link across cultures,… one reason for the enthusiasm of the medieval sculptors for the Green Man may be that he was the source of inspiration.”

Perfect!

I’ve sorted through my stash of fleece and yarns, filled a bag with natural colours and ordered some more from Wingham Wool Work. I also bought a sample pack of dyes and that’s what I’ve been doing most of today, dying natural fleece and yarn, and over-dyeing some bright shades to bring them into the right colour spectrum.

I’ve had such FUN! I’ve looked back in the archives and it was January 2011 when I last dyed yarn and I loved the results then. This is a very different palette, but I’m so enjoying throwing caution to the winds, and mixing up different dyes, and different strengths and dribbling them over the wool to get soft natural effects.

My Green Man has been inspired by the cherry trees in the garden with their grey trunks. His face is bark coloured using natural Cheviot fleece, rougher and hairier than my usual Merino, and lovely to needlefelt. This is the story so far…

Just waiting for the greenery to grow!

The greenery is too damp to use tonight so I will put my crochet ‘Hat’ on as I want to finally finish the bunting pattern which I’ve been editing. It’s looking very pretty…

I’m off to clean up the dye splatters in the utility room, but I’ll be back soon!