Category Archives: Textiles

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

Frogging…

When I mentioned ‘frogging’ to a friend the other day I was met by a blank stare. However, when I then said ‘Rippit, Rippit’ the blank stare turned to enlightenment, and sympathy.

There’s been a lot of ripping involved with my latest cushion. It’s not that I haven’t knitted fair isle before, but I’ve not had a palette of seventeen colours, and I wasn’t changing the background colours as well as the pattern colours. I’m blaming Kaffe Fassett and his book Pattern Library. I think he has a special sort of brain that doesn’t get boggled, because boggled my own brain certainly became.

The crochet cushions are the same back and front, but I didn’t think my sanity would last long enough to knit both sides, so I dug out some needlecord in a really pretty blue and some gorgeous red wooden buttons which I think work well.

Too late I noticed I’ve got the nap of the needlecord running both ways which makes one side darker than the other, but I’ve decided it’s a design feature!

So, would you like to see it? Here’s a little hint…

…and another…

This is the reverse side!

…and that’s quite pretty too, but here is the finished article…

I have two more little cushion pads left so I’m having a ponder about what I do next. There are the lovely grandala ideas over on Crochet with Raymond, I could do Lucy’s granny stripe, zigzags might be fun…

In the mean time I have been resting my eyes from all that colour with some pristine white cotton crochet, another bunting experiment. I have resisted so far because I’ve seen lots of other versions of crochet bunting but I deliberately didn’t look too closely at anyone else’s so I could invent my own take on it. So far, I’m liking it…

Well it must be time to finish blogging, if only because Henry the cat has come to sit on the keyboard and I can only access some of the keys. Have a lovely weekend…x

Compensations of the Season

Last year the Virginia Creeper was a solitary, spindly strand struggling to stay clinging to the wall. I was a little brutal and trimmed it back to door height during the winter and it’s done so well over the summer, despite being torn off in the wind several times. Now it is truly glorious, and I have high hopes of it spreading really well next year, and hiding the join between the old house wall and the extension.

I was a bit premature in a previous post when I said how well the sunflowers had withstood the wind and went outside to find one drooping miserably over the fence. Never mind, it’s all looking pretty good in a vase.

I’ve been playing around with my basket of Stylecraft Special DK and working on a cushion assortment to compliment the crochet blanket. Ikea came up trumps – again – on my last visit with small cushions, 30cms, for a ridiculous price, something like 79p a piece! I managed to hold back though and only got six.

My first two have been a colour experiment. A cool one…

…and a warm one.

I’m happy with how they look…

…and the quality controller is testing them as I write!

There’s another cushion in the making but for now I’ve got to persuade Higgins it’s time for walkies, just as he’s decided it’s time to get comfy…

Fairy Cakes and Bunting

Where has the week gone? I do seem to have been dashing around, hither and yon, but even so I managed a little hooking and knitting as I went. I’m still loving my new knitting book and have been going a little mad on teeny weeny socks. They’re all packed up now and winging their way as I type to keep tiny toes warm but I’m sure it’s ok to give you a little peek…

Aren’t they cute? And I love the yarn which is merino wool, cashmere and silk, lovely to work with…

I’ve also made a scarf from this pattern…

Which is incredibly cosy and warm, and very quick to knit.

I’ve also done a spot of baking. It was the first birthday of our very swish Eco built village hall and everyone was invited to the party. It seemed a fairy cake sort of occasion and I’d found some polka dot bun cases…

…and some gorgeous little mini smartie decorations I was longing to use…

They did show up rather well on the cake table!

It was a lovely excuse to meet up with friends for a cuppa and something sweet and sticky (I’ll get back on the Weightwatchers regime tomorrow- honest!)

As I said, I have been hooking too, but with all the little socks I’m not quite ready to show you what I’ve been up to just yet, so I’m going to talk about bunting again. This bunting…

Lots of lovely people have been leaving nice comments about the pompom bunting I made with my leftover wool and Vanessa over at Do You Mind If I Knit was kind enough to mention it and link to Planet Penny. It made me think I’d like to do something a bit special for all of you who have been visiting over the last months so I have decided to do a …

GRAND POMPOM BUNTING GIVEAWAY!

Would you like to join in? All you have to do is leave a comment on this post, and to be in with more of a chance if you put a link from your blog to Planet Penny I will put your name into the hat twice! The bunting is several metres long so will make a really pretty decoration, and being multi-coloured it will match most colour schemes. I’ll make the draw on Saturday 2nd of October so there’s plenty of time to enter the draw.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you all…enjoy your weekend x

P.S.I’ve just realised this post is enough to give you spots before your eyes!

A Sunny Sunday and Using Up Leftovers

No lie-in allowed this morning! Last night’s weather forecast promised us we’d lose the sunshine in the afternoon and the beach was calling. We were there by nine o’clock, bright sun, an incoming tide and a stiffish breeze. Very bracing. Only two other cars in the lane ( the beauty of our favourite beach is that there is no car park, no tearoom!) so once we came over the top of the dune the beach was nearly deserted. Higgins is now reliable enough to run off the lead, although he really misses having someone young enough to run with him.

Considering his reluctance to set foot outside when it’s raining and puddly he’s quite intrepid when it comes to the interesting pools forming as the tide raced in…

He hasn’t quite found a deep enough bit to actually have to swim yet so I hope I have the camera to hand when he does.

While Higgins sleeps off all that exercise I’m sorting out my leftover yarn.

I have a bit of an obsessive thing about winding wool. I have a lovely gadget for doing the big balls, but these little bits get wound very carefully by hand so they look pretty. (Yes, OK! I know it’s weird but it makes me happy…)

And it’s something to do while I decide what I else I can make.

I’ve lost my diary. It’s slim, anonymous, dark blue. Perfect for slipping in between books and magazines and losing forever. Well at least long enough to be madly inconvenient. So I decided to get something more substantial, an academic one so I can start it now.

But it’s not really me, is it? But, with a little application of brightly coloured yarn it can be made much harder to lose…

Although Tim has pointed out that I’m going to lose it as soon as I put it down on the blanket….

I’m also suffering from rapidly cooling coffee, but not any more…

… there are STILL bits of wool left, but I have a plan! Bunting! Well, everyone loves bunting. In fact, it would be quite nice to think of a new slant on bunting….

….Pompoms!

I’m very happy with the pompoms…and I still love all those colours. I also have lots of cushions just waiting for covers…and a new sofa which needs cushions.

Which is why I went back to the market on Friday…

…for fresh supplies!

Cue Drum Roll…

…Fanfare? …or just a plain old Da-daa? It’s a show and tell moment. Blanket time! I’m feeling very happy about my blanket. As someone who has been known to struggle with finishing something (that butterfly mind thing where I find a new project before the end of WIP) I’m feeling just a little smug…

And it’s a happy blanket. Lovely summery colours which are going to be very cheering as we go into gloomy old winter.

It’s a good size too. The right size for a single bed or a throw over the sofa and also perfect for curling up in front of the fire. I used 17 different colours, 100grams of each and it was almost exactly the right amount. I then bought a couple of extra balls to do the edging and I really liked the greek fishing boat blue shades.

I thought I’d do a bit of an arty shot in the garden, but I had a slight problem with my photographic assistant…

He didn’t quite ‘get’ what I was trying to do…and then got very tired…

I thought it might look rather nice in the studio…

Ahem, excuse me, can I just get past please…? Thank you…

So if you are ready..here we are…

And also, on the bed…

I’m almost, almost but not quite looking forward to cooler weather now!Ii’m still in love with the colours so I’m very tempted to buy another batch and have a bit of fun with matching cushions.

But now I have one or two other little projects on the go so I can’t rest on my laurels. I’ll tell you about those next time…

Four and Twenty Blackberries…

…to bake in a pie! That seems to be all I can find. Just enough berries to colour an apple pie prettily pink. Certainly not enough for jam or jelly. I know they are late this year but an awful lot appear to have shrivelled and died before even ripening. Higgins doesn’t like blackberry picking. HE likes to decide when we stop and start on a walk, and he’s not going to climb into prickly places with HIS short legs, Oh no!

Still, I might just make the most of these by making Blackberry and Apple Crumble Icecream. I’ll report back on that later so bear with me.

I’m happy to be able to show you the latest baby gift before it goes off to my great nephew. ( Why does being a Great Aunt feel so much more aging than a Granny?)

I’ve also tried one of the patterns from my new knitting book. (You didn’t think I could wait ’till I’d finished everything else did you?) Remember these?

Being an American book I had to find alternative yarn, but I was more than happy with what I got.

Cashmere….Merino wool….Silk…Machine Washable! It’s lovely, really soft and cuddly…

It is Sublime baby cashmere merino silk DK which I bought in Norwich for £4.50 for 50gms but I’ve since ordered some other colours online from Shadow’s Discount Wools at £3.90 a ball. I’ve had a sock thing for ages, as you might recall, so these are perfect to add to my repetoire for present giving.

Finally, there’s the blanket. I’m SO near to finishing. Remember this?

Well, this is all I have left…

Just three more rows of edging to go and I’ll be ready to show it off, Hooray!