Category Archives: Textiles

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

A Push in the Right Direction…

…sometimes you need a little shove. I’ve got rather off track over the last few weeks with highs – birthday celebrations, and lows – the poorly pussy cat, so I’ve been really grateful for a bit of focus. So I’m saying a big thank you to two blogging lovelies who have put in a lot of work to come up with a ‘Big Idea’ which not only concentrates the mind, but introduces a whole new section of the blogging fraternity.

Firstly, there’s Silent Sunday. It’s a wonderful idea, which you can find out all about here, because if, like me, you always have your camera with you, even when the week is such that you just have no words… there is always a photo which will say it for you. Thank you Jay, photographer extraordinaire!

And then there’s Handmade Monday, curated by Wendy of Ist Unique Gifts who has concentrated my mind wonderfully over the last couple of weeks so I’m getting back on track. Thank you ladies!

So what have you been up to, I hear you wondering… Well, I’ve been tinkering around with the idea of making framed pieces using needlefelting, to give more of a context to them, and I’m just beginning to feel happy going in that direction. My first piece was this, which is in the folksy shop now…

And with my Handmade Monday hat on today I put the finishing touches to this…

…a framed flying pig….I’m very fond of the flying pig!

I’ve painted and distressed the frames I bought to experiment with, they are a soft Swedish grey with a beeswax sheen which is a favourite of mine. Quite a few pieces of nondescript furniture in our cottage have had that treatment! I wan’t sure what to put in the smallest of the frames but today I devised this….

…the ribbon along the bottom has been hand printed to say…

And just to add the little extra to the whole ‘handmade’ aspect of this evening, as I’ve been typing this, the room, no the whole house, has been filled with the smell of Banana Bread cooking! I feel SO virtuous!

Which reminds me, thank you so much for all the lovely comments about the Welsh Cakes. They really seemed to strike a chord, especially with expat Welsh ladies! I hope the recipe worked for you, and brought back a little taste of home…

If you want to meet all the other Handmade Monday Bloggers, you’ll find them here. And if you decide to join in, with this or Silent Sunday, do let me know, I’ll be paying you a visit!

See you soon! x

A Nature Walk…and a Ta-Daaaa…!

Did you go on Nature walks when you were at Primary School? I can remember being marched along the pavement in a crocodile, hand in hand with my best friend, collect leaves and nuts for the Nature table. All my memories seem to be Autumnal, I’m sure we went at other times too.

Higgins and I went for a walk yesterday which turned into a nature walk, although I did all my collecting with the camera. I’ve just been turning them into a mosaic and I liked it so much I though I’d share it with you…

It’s amazing just how much there is to see in quite a small area of countryside.

And the Ta-Daaa? Well, I’ve finished the Boneyard Shawl, which I wrote about here (and that’s despite making all those pompoms!)

I really love the colours…

and it’s lovely and soft and snuggly…

I used 4 balls in the end so it’s quite a good size…

Although I don’t what it was with the shaping, it must be me…it looks a little like a sting ray!

One of the compensations of the end of the summer is going to be having an excuse to get all wrapped up in knitting!

Well, the prickling of the hairs on the back of my neck tell me…just let me have a peek… yes, as I thought, I am getting a HARD STARE…it’s walkies time again.

I’d better get the lead …
Follow my blog with Bloglovin

More Hearts…More Pompoms…

Hello!!! Is it Thursday already? This week is galloping by. Firstly, because I know you’ll want to know, Henry is still doing nicely. The medication has been finished, and as I write he is snoring contentedly, in his bed. This is a relief, as when he first came back the only place he wanted to be if he couldn’t have a warm lap was a warm keyboard.

The only little cloud on the horizon is the visit to vet next Monday for the removal of the stitches. This will probably require the entire squad of nurses and maybe one or two brave volunteers from the waiting room as he will NOT be a happy bunny!

Oh, and some hair restorer…

His tummy was shaved for the ultrasound, his head was shaved for the spinal tap, patches were shaved on his legs for the drips, and his throat was shaved for the operation. Thank goodness it’s summer, I don’t think he’s be happy in a jumper, however beautifully knitted!

But pompoms, I hear you cry, you said there were pompoms!

There are SO many pompoms! I found this wonderful gadget…

Do you remember the Heart and Pompom bunting…

…which I made in January?

I still love it, but I made the pompoms with a little gadget which my mum had given me because she wasn’t very happy with her results. Well, I tried really hard with it, and made so many pompoms using up my leftovers…

but they were never as firm and fluffy as I wanted them to be.

Now I have found this gadget…

…and it is wonderful! The smallest sized one makes a beautifully firm pompom in just few minutes and it is so compulsive I had to pack the gadgets up and put them away as there was a danger that my entire stash would be used up!

The solution was to make a larger version of the Heart and Pompom Bunting – the tutorial for that is here. I just worked the last row in the pattern in the main colour and added an extra row in the contrast colour to make the hearts bigger and made the joining chain slightly longer between the hearts so I could use slightly bigger pompoms.

Would you like to see?

It was hard to find the best way to show you. When I hung it up inside I realised how much my house needs redecorating, and the light wasn’t right so here it is outside the studio…

There’s actually a bit too much light here, it rather bleaches the colours, but I’m not going to complain about sunshine! (If you can’t find the pompom maker locally I got mine from Clothkits thank you, Kaye!)

Now we have another sunshiny day I’d better get out into the garden. All the strong wind over the last couple of days has blown my little plastic greenhouse and flowerpots all over the garden. (Higgins has done his best to round things up but the toothmarks are a problem…)

Talking of Higgins, he’s rather had the spotlight taken off him with recent events but if you were wondering…he’s fine…

You see…?

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Good Grief, is that the time?

I always start out with such good intentions to do a post twice a week, and then I skid to the last day and find it hasn’t happened. So not much of a theme to this post, rather an eclectic mix of happenings.

On Monday, I went to Norwich Deaf Centre, where I had a long standing booking for a needlefelting class for the Craft Group. Good fun was had by all…

The felting needle related injuries were minimal…

..and everyone was very happy with their own needlefelted cupcake pincushion!

Good enough to eat!

Talking of eating, has anyone else made sour dough bread? I’ve been wanting to have a go for ages, but chickened out of the little pot of bubbling goo thingy that you have to go through to make it. Any way, I consulted Mr Fearnley-Wittingstall here, and started out on my scientific experiment a couple of weeks ago.

(I put a little label on the lid saying don’t be scared ‘cos last time I tried I threw it away in a panic!)

Anyway it sat for nearly two weeks bubbling away while I fed it and this week I decided to actually make the loaf. It starts off overnight as a spongy batter, then with more flour added and kneaded in it progresses over the day…like this…

And the verdict? Well, I’ve not had sour dough bread before so I’ve no idea how it compare to the experts’ version. It’s tasty, with an extra edge, a slightly sour tang like lemon juice or vinegar, without the flavour. It’s good with cheese, and toasted with lemon marmalade. It seemed to go dry quite quickly, almost as it cooled, but that could be a fault in the making. But it was fine toasted. I’m fairly confident T will NOT be impressed, being a fan of the sliced white or 50/50 loaf so it’s quite faff for one person, but I’m glad I gave it a go. I’d love to know if you’ve tried it. How did you get on, and what did you think?

I’ve been creative in other ways too. I had a special commission, a present for a small boy who isn’t really into birds, or sheep or frogs, but really likes his bike. So let me present,

The Biking Bear, complete with cycle helmet…

And I’ve also been working on a new Bluebirds of Happiness project…

What do you think?…

And finally, I’ve been doing a little dressmaking. This week I came across this lovely blog, Sew Scrumptious and Louise, who is currently collecting little dresses for Dress a Girl Around the World. You can can read all about it by following these links, and it’s such a lovely thing to be involved in. today I made my first dress…

It’s a really easy pattern which you can download, and with a brilliant tutorial here, even a novice can turn out a beautiful dress to make a little girl happy!

It would be lovely if you could join in too, what better way to use up all those pretty scraps of fabric you can’t bear to throw away, but don’t know what to do with?

See you soon! x

An Easter Present…

Firstly I would like to say thank you SO much for the good wishes that have been sent for my Mum. One of the pleasures of the blogging community is precisely that, community. It’s easy to feel very isolated when these things happen, especially when you are in a rural area and you have to be on hand when someone’s ill. I can’t tell you how it’s helped to have your kind thoughts to read. Nan (yes, that’s her name, it’s not short for Nanny!) is gradually improving and getting stronger, although not nearly fast enough for her liking. I’ve ben asured by a nurse tho’ that the Noro virus takes ages to get over when you are generally in good health, so it will take while yet for someone like her. (And I’m sorry Alice, that the name of your favourite wool obsession has been hijacked for something so nasty!)

It’s been tricky fitting in as much making as I would like with all the to-ing and fro-ing going on, but with Easter in mind I’ve produced these for the Easter Tree.

Do you have an Easter Tree? We first saw them in the Netherlands nearly 20 years ago and I have had one ever since, it’s such a lovely herald of Spring. These decorations are the size of a hens egg, and being needle felt are light enough to hang from a twiggy branch of twisted willow. They will be in the Folksy Shop very soon.

And I though it would be nice to have an Easter giveaway, especially as I have found the perfect thing for your morning cuppa on a bright spring morning!

So if you like cows…

or hens…

or even sheep…

…it doesn’t matter because they are all here together on this one sunshine yellow cup and saucer!

All you need to do is to leave a comment here, and if you put a link to your blog, Facebook page or Tweet about it be sure to let me know and I’ll put you in the hat twice! I’ll keep it running until the 15th April and get Higgins to help me with the draw. (I’m sure he’ll get the hang of it eventually!)

Alpacas and Piglets

Blogland is meant to be a jolly place so I don’t like to bring along any trials and tribulations but I just want to briefly say things have been a little tricky over the last week or so if I’m not about so much, or fail to sparkle conversationally, please bear with me. My mum was whisked off to hospital ten days ago with heart problems and contracted the Noro virus and so has been very poorly. She’s home now and recovering, but her weak state of health means quite a bit of to-ing and fro-ing between houses, and I’m spreading myself a little thinly at the moment.

However, I do want to keep on top of things on Planet Penny and Higgins and I have our little trip out last week to meet the Alpacas down the road to tell you about. I wanted to get some more fleece for felting, and it’s nice to meet the four legged suppliers in person. Higgins was also very interested to meet the resident pussy cat, who was beautiful, white with apricot ears and apricot stripes on her tail…

Higgins still hasn’t mastered the social niceties of meeting cats. His bounce and squeak technique just doesn’t work…

He wasn’t fazed by the Alpacas either…

…and was happy to be introduced…

I’ve just got to make sure he doesn’t discover the bags of nice soft fleece I’ve brought home or I think he’ll be lining a little Higgy nest with it!.

I haven’t processed this yet, but I had just enough left of the last bag for this little bunny to come into being…

and also this one…

and they will be on Folksy as soon as possible.

And finally, if you haven’t had enough of cute animals, I’ve got to show you these, spotted next to the the little stall at the end of the road where I buy my eggs…

Altogether now… Aaaaah!…