Category Archives: Textiles

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

Crochet Mini Mice for Handmade Monday

When I introduced the Mini Mice on a Handmade Monday Post a month ago I had just finished making them, hadn’t written the pattern and was in the run up to Open Studios etc. Definitely the last time I introduce something that isn’t in the final stages of going ‘live’! Since then I have been asked over and over about the pattern, the kits and when I would have them available. The thing is, I really want to get it right. I don’t want to disappoint anyone with a pattern that doesn’t work or a kit which doesn’t look like fun, which is why I’ve been beavering away all week to get things ready for this post.

As you can imagine, the Crochet Mini Mice kits take a little while to build, and I had to find a way to supply the yarn so it’s tidy, but also looks attractive.

I now have a new little windy gadget and some cards. Here’s the yarn in all it’s rainbow gorgeousness…

The Mini Mice kits will also contain the magnets, the stuffing, the eyes and noses and the all important pattern, enough to make 14 mouse magnets. All you will need is a 3mm hook and a needle and black thread. I think my next quest will be to source a supplier for 3mm hooks as I’d love to be able to add those to the kits.

The pattern will be for sale on my new Etsy shop. I’m sort of teetering in the middle at the moment between Etsy and Folksy. Because I have so many visitors from the US, Etsy seems to be more geared toward that market, while being very user-friendly for the UK and other places. Does anyone else have any thoughts or experiences about this? I’d love to hear from you if you do.

If you have previously bought a full pack of the Planet Penny Cotton Club yarns from me and would like a copy of the pattern, do let me know and I will send you a copy free of charge.

I will be putting the kits on Etsy this week at £17.50, but as an introductory offer I have 5 to sell at the special price of £15.00 on a strictly first come, first served basis. If you would like to buy one, please contact me through the Planet Penny Contact Form.

I was all set to leave you with the links to Handmade Monday over on Handmade Harbour where you will find all sorts of crafty goings on, but I embarked on a mini project today inspired by the lovely Penelope by the Sea on her blog L is for Love.

She has been Noticing Yellow this weekend so I popped out for half an hour to see what ‘yellow’ I too could notice. Quite a lot as it happens…

What a lovely sunshiney end to the week!

See you soon…x

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

Needlefelt Sheep for Handmade Monday

I don’t know what the weather is doing in your part of the world, but despite the bright sun, fluffy clouds and blue sky, the wind feels as if it’s just blown off a snow field in this corner of Norfolk! It doesn’t help that we know we live in the windiest spot in the village, as you can see by our proximity to the village mill, now sadly defunct. That’s us, at the end of the arrow…

So even though I’m still finding plenty of newly emerging flowers…

The view is still decidedly wintery…

…and it would actually be really good to get some rain, and I don’t say that very often!

I’m going to share some other people’s handmade lovelies with you now, before making a very exciting announcement! So first of all, have you come across a book called Best in Show – Knit Your Own Cat?

One of the ladies at our Knit and Stitch group was given this for Christmas, and has been knitting her own cats ever since!

Aren’t they amazing? Imagine knitting a tail, with 4 stitches, on 4 needles!

And, since I am running out of time in my life to make anything for me, I went off to Folksy to find myself a peg bag and found just what I wanted from Plum Pudding, and couldn’t resist these little heart fridge magnets as well…

There are so many pretty things in the shop, and the fabrics are right up my street.

And now for my big announcement…

This is my 300th Blog Post!

Added to which, I have just galloped past 100,000 visits on the Planet Penny stats, so as a thank you to all you lovely people who have loyally followed, and commented and generally joined in, I’m going to have a prize draw.

This time, I’m offering a very special prize. Do you remember my needlefelt sheep?

There haven’t been any sheep in the Folksy shop for a while, something I mean to address very soon, and they usually sell for £30.00. But, I have one very special sheep looking for a good home, and because this is an occasion worth celebrating, I am offering her as the prize. Meet Goldie…

Goldie could be yours, all you have to do is to leave a comment on this post for a place in the draw. If you ‘like’ me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter you’ll go into the hat again! It’s that simple… I’ll keep it open for a couple of weeks to give you all a chance to join in.

And can I make a plea for some healing vibes to be sent my way on Tuesday? I dashing off after teaching the needlefelt course at The OutHouse Studio on Tuesday morning to have a tooth out in the afternoon, at two thirty would you believe…(tooth hurty!?…sorry..) So I may be a bit feeble for the rest of the week.

Anyway, off to 1st Unique Gifts now to link up for Handmade Monday again, do go and see what everyone else has been up to.

See you soon x

Planet Penny Cotton Club Update

I’m just slipping in a quick post because I’m away for the weekend. By now, everyone who was ordered their very own cotton rainbow will have received their pink parcel in the post. As I understand it, those who are not actually using the yarn yet are gazing at it lovingly and squishing it gently, it gets you like that!

We’re all systems go for the next batch, and I have quite a substantial waiting list. As I mentioned before, I am rejigging the price just a little. There seems to be a cost associated with every stage of moving money about, whether it’s within the UK or paying for goods in Europe. I started this because it seemed a nice way of sharing a lovely discovery, and I’m having to learn how to do it as I go along, so please bear with me!

I’ve done a test post to the US which has worked and it took about 10 days to arrive. I’m prepared to give that a go with the next batch, especially as I have so many lovely people from the US on the waiting list desperate to try out the yarn! Once I’ve worked out all the postage rates I will update the Cotton Club Page so you can see exactly how much it will cost.

One thing I have to say with the postage is that I am sending everything First Class Post with Proof of Postage and Airmail to the US. It is possible to arrange for it to be signed for in the UK, obviously bumping up the cost, but that facility will cost far more than the cost of yarn sending out of the UK. Once I have handed over the parcels to the Post Office and collected the proof of postage, it’s out of my hands, so please bear in mind when you order the yarn that it will be best endeavours on my part to package it safely and post it to the address I have been given, but that it must be at your own risk.

Over on the Planet Penny Cotton Club page there are already links to take you to members blogs so you can see what they’ve been doing.

At Baxter’s Rest there really is a rainbow…

In the Little Room of Rachell it seems to be being admired at the moment!

Penelope by the Sea over at L is for Love has done some gorgeous embroidery…

And Mrs Micawber , who was my US posting ‘guinea pig’, couldn’t wait to get started on her stash…

Please add your blog to the Linky on the page if you have one, and don’t forget to add the PPCC button to your sidebar. If you don’t have a blog but want to share what you have been doing, you can join the Flickr group.

So have a lovely weekend one and all. I’m off to the theatre tomorrow and then staying with friends in a part of Norfolk I don’t know very well – it’s a big county – so I mustn’t forget my camera!

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