Category Archives: Textiles

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

It’s SPRING!

Hooray, it’s official, today is the first day of Spring and Higgins and I have been in the garden in shirtsleeves! (Well I have, Higgins is still stuck in that hairy vest he wears) Hope you all had a lovely weekend. Tim and I went off to look for daffodils yesterday, and found some! Isn’t it ridiculous how you go off on holiday and hunt out nice places to go, but never get round to visiting places right on your doorstep at home?

We have the lovely Hoveton Hall Gardens literally next door to us and as we’d already missed the Snowdrop Walk for various reasons I was determined we’d get along to the Daffodil Walk. Unfortunately we didn’t have quite the glorious weather on Sunday which we enjoyed on Saturday so the photos aren’t quite at sparkly as I had hoped, but never mind. What is nice is that you can really see the bare bones of the garden as it comes to life and I’m now quite determined to go back at regular intervals and watch it grow, I think the rhodedendrons and azaleas will be glorious!

If I lived here I think I could spend quite a bit of time just drifting round this little lake in a rowing boat listening to the birds singing and the wind in the trees…

…with permission from Mr Swan of course!

I’ve never seen daffodils like this before…

Not entire sure what I make of these, there’s some thing a bit Bart Simpson-ish about them don’t you think?

I can’t wait to visit the Spider Garden when everything is in bloom, despite the scary guardian of the gate!

if you can’t quite make him (or her) out, this is what I mean!

After a nice walk and a cup of tea I got back to my latest needlefelting project. I was sorting through all my dyed yarns the other day and found a gorgeous little bag of something soft and very cuddly, and a completely natural colour.

It’s Alpaca fleece, and the herd live two fields away, here! And although it’s alpaca, doesn’t it just make you think of bunnies? Easter Bunnies? so here is my own Easter Bunny…

right down to his fluffy bunny tail!

Mr Bunny is now for sale in the Planet Penny shop on Folksy, so I think I’d better go and size up those Alpacas to see if they can spare any more fleece so I can make him some little friends!

Hope Spring is springing where you are xxx

Feeling Sheepish!

I’m sorry, it’s been ages hasn’t it? There seems to have been quite a flurry of activity here and every time I’ve sat down to write, another distraction has taken me away again. And now I’m off on holiday for a week, and I didn’t want to go without saying ‘Byeee!’

I did manage a rush round the garden yesterday with the camera and my little assistant. The sun popped out for the day, I have to say he’s popped backed in again today!

The crocuses are still going strong…

even though they have to take a bit of a battering…

It’s really hard to get a good picture of a low-down dog in full sniffer mode…

Higgins went off on his hols this morning. He was collected by the lovely Sharon of Barking Mad and it took quite a while to check off all his luggage for the week, and to pass on all special instructions so his routine carries on as usual. Talk about a surrogate child, only another besotted dog owner will hear how I held out the toy box so he could choose the ones he wants to take with him and not think I am completely POTTY! He’s off to stay with two whippets, I don’t know who will be more tired at the end of the week!

I too, will be tired as I am attempting to ski for the first time for years! It might be that I spend the week reading with a hot chocolate or glass of Gluhwein in hand, I’ll let you know!

In between the packing Ihave done a spot more needlefelting. I had some suggestions after my last post, so may I introduce the sheep?

These three hang on the wall in the bedroom, waiting to lull you off to sleep.

And this one, well I tried her on the lawn to keep the grass down…

…but she was more interestd in eating the flowers!

Oh dear, is that the time? I really must dash off and finish the packing. I’m sure I have more thermals somewhere. Think of me next week, looking for my snow legs, and all being well I’ll be back very soon! I’ll leave you with a picture of my Mum’s birthday flowers, just because they are gorgeous! Byeeeee! x

P.S. For the cat lovers. Just to reassure you Henry has his own staff to keep him happy for the week too, no favouritism round here, and he get to stay at home with his!

Primroses and a Pink Pooch!

I’ve had a complete change of gear over the last week, making a prop for our village Pantomime. We’re very fortunate not only to have a shiny new Eco-built hall but a lot of home grown talent so we have an original script, scenery painted by a professional artist and wonderfiul costumes designed by my friend Kit. I’ve been involved over the years, and have made all sorts of weird and wonderful things… A Humpty Dumpty costume which reduced gradually all the way through the panto as he went on a diet, Daddy, Mummy and Baby bear suits, an egg laying goose are just some of the bigger things.

This time it’s Sleeping Beauty, with a Queen who wants everything to be pink including her dog, so the request was for a custom made glove puppet style dog for the page to carry. Kit came round with the fur fabric which in the shop had looked to be a candyfloss pink; in the cold light of day it is scarily fluorescent! The logistics of making chuntered round in my head for quite few days. It’s a strange process, like hunting through a tangle of wool trying to find an end and then, Ping! a lightbulb moment, there’s the thread and everything starts to wind into a neat ball of resolution.

Needle felting was the answer, and what I used to form the face of the puppet. I then stitched the fur fabric on to make the rest of the head and the body and blended the wool and fur fabric together. And here he is…

He’s not quite completed yet, needing front paws and a wavy tail, but I’m pretty happy with the way he’s shaping up so far…

(Edited to add: I’m being asked what Higgins thinks about Pink Pooch; he is desperate to tear it to shreds. Vigilance is necessary!)

Remember I mentioned a knitting project which I was playing around with, the one which didn’t need a lapful of pets? I finally finished it, a little fairisle heart…

It’s sweet, but soooooooo time consuming. I knitted up two squares (the back one is striped) put them in with a load of washing, felted them and then stitched the pieces into a heart shape and stuffed it with wadding and lavender. It’s just waiting for a ribbon hanging loop which will happen once the Pink Pooch is all sewn up.

It’s still really quite cold here, but I managed to fit in an afternoon of cheering up the courtyard area by my studio door. A tray of primroses is always a treat…

and inside I’ve had hyacinths to fill the air with scent. White…

…and blue.

I can’t believe it’s the last day of January…See you next month!

All Wound Up with Sunset Colours!

Hooray! I’ve wound all those lovely colours into nice neat balls with my trusty wool winder. I do like using it, it makes such nice soft balls which mean that there is no tension on the yarn to stretch it. I’m working on an idea at the moment, which I hope to show very soon, although I have had very little help from the four legged members of the family.

Apparently the only reason I ever sit down is so that my legs form a lap, and the only thing in the world that a lap can be used for is not to support a book or some knitting, or, heaven forbid, a pattern and knitting, it needs a cat, no, a dog or both, or a jealous punch up between cat and dog.

So keep your fingers crossed that tonight the fire is hot enough to keep them squabbling over the warm spot on the hearth rug instead of the warm spot on my lap so I can get to grips with my woolly project.

I have made some really cute little baby shoes though. there’s something about tiny baby shoes, isn’t there? My three babies were born with enormous feet and were really slow at learning to walk so by the time I came to buy them shoes they were practically into adult sizes! (I’m going to get into trouble for this!)

However, I was really keen to find out how well the wool I have just dyed would felt so I knitted this…

…and then I just popped them in the washing machine with a normal wash and they came out looking like this…

Aren’t they sweet? I’m so excited about them! (and yes, they are nearly small enough for Higgins to wear before you suggest it, and no, because he would eat them!)

And today the sun shone and Higgins and I went for a walk and there was NO MUD! (well, it was sort of fudgy, but it didn’t stick) and I’ve just realised where I got my colour scheme from..

See that shadow? It’s me!

After so many grey days it’s just magical watching the pink splashes spreading across the purply violet clouds and that golden glow before it vanishes as if someone has flipped a switch. Then it’s a quick trot home to get back in the warm.

And finally, I have been working on the Hearts and Pompoms tutorial and if you want to make your own version it’s on the Tutorials page at the top. Please let me know if you do, I’d love to see.

Right, ok, I’m going to tiptoe off to the sofa now and try and do a bit of knitting befor someone spots….THE LAP!

See you soon x

P.S. Siobhan, I tried to email you but it didn’t work, but I just wanted to say Yes! my cat is Henry and the ‘My Fair Lady’ connection IS why we named Higgins as we did. By George, you got it!

A Time to Live…

…and a time to Dye! Do you remember this post? It was all down to wanting a Sophie Digard inspired scarf similar to the one which Vanessa made and not being able to find the colours I wanted.

Well I’m at it again, this time with a larger palette of dye shades. Last time I ended up with this inspiring basket of yummy colours…

and I am still using up all the little ends in the needle felting even after I’ve crocheted the ends of balls into tiny flowers. When you’ve dyed it yourself you don’t want to waste an inch!

I had a kilo of 4ply wool to wind into 25gm hanks which has taken quite a long time to get out of the way.

It’s so BORING! Trouble is, once you’re in the swing of it, you just want to keep mixing and dying and its too frustrating to have to stop to wind more wool so you’ve got to get everything ready beforehand.

I got the utility room all geared up to make a start last night,

and immediately got a volunteer to help…

Thank goodness Higgins can’t jump quite that high!

I’ve carried on mixing and microwaving and rinsing on and off ever since. It actually fits in really well with writing the blog as I have 15 minute time slots while the microwave is doing its stuff to sit here typing! (It does mean I’ve abandoned the rubber gloves and I’ve just noticed how grey my hands are getting!)

The light is fading now and I have a very fed up little dog wondering why we are not out walking, so I will leave you with a glimpe of the story so far!

Lifting the Gloom with Hearts and Pompom Bunting….

We really need something a little cheerful at the moment don’t we? January is such a gloomy month. Higgins and I went for a ‘squelch’ this afternoon and although it quite mild, it was what my Mother calls a Tupperware box day, and no one’s taken the lid off.

But, the days are getting longer(by about one and a half minutes a day apparently) and I have little daffodils bursting into bloom in front of me as I type.

I was really lucky to receive a lovely gift at Christmas, a beautiful jug which I have been coveting for about five years. Do you remember this post when I was given a pretty little mug for my birthday? Well my clever Daughter-in-law tracked down the very jug I have been hankering after all this time from the same designer, Gabriella Miller.

And I’ve found the little notebook I mentioned in the other post, where I had expressed my desire to have some Gabriella Miller pieces as well as all sorts of useful notes and pictures.

However, I’ve been working on something to cheer up the gloom, and the bareness left now the Christmas decorations have been consigned to the attic for another year. I’ve been playing around with a crochet hook and the yarns left from the cushion and blanket project which are a real splash of colour in themselves. And with February round the corner, and Valentine’s Day there are hearts, and I still love the pompoms so I thought Hearts and Pompom Bunting…

I’ve been fiddling around with the pattern and written it down which I’m really proud of because I got so excited about the whole process, and the prettiness of all the colours. I’ll do a few photos as soon as possible to turn it into a tutorial if you think you’d like make your own version but in the meantime, want to see some more?

(By the way, do you like the cup, saucer and plate on the top shelf? Another Christmas present which I love!)

And finally, bringing all the cheeriness together… Planet Penny Hearts and Pompom Bunting

A cheerful note on which to start the weekend! Have a lovely one, I hope the sun shines for you. See you soon x

Ed to add: You can find the pattern for this bunting here…