early

 

I'm often up early - that's the nature of parenting but it's not often that I get the chance to slip out with my camera before everyone is awake. So while everyone snoozed upstairs, rather than start some chores I wandered out to enjoy the new day. As I walked the sun rose higher. I noticed a new poppy that the previous day had been just a bud. The first flower from the rose I planted last autumn - a beautifully fragrant Gertrude Jekyll. I listened to the swallows and the swifts as they zoomed over head, the buzzing of the bees, the trickle of the water in the brook... I came home and was rested. Glad of a chance to stop and just be outside in peace.

What recharges your batteries?

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Today I'm blessed to be over at Magic Onions with a textiles tutorial - be sure to check it out!
If you're visiting from Magic Onions - hello! you're very welcome!

woolly wednesday - June

Currently I've been working with some fellow artists for a show as part of Somerset Art Weeks - using both my fibre work and my ceramics. This month I've been experimenting with the natural dyes around me. Buttercups are abundant in the meadow near my studio and they produce a pretty subtle yellow. I mordanted with alum and cream of tartar and solar dyed over a 48 hours period. The yarn is spun from Portland on my new (!) wheel - I can't wait to use it in a bigger piece later in the year. 

This is cross posted in Somerset Stitched - a blog following our creative journey towards Art Weeks in the autumn....

adventures in dyeing ~ part one

While at Wonderwool I treated myself to some plain skeins of merino/tencel sock yarn... I have great plans for these little beauties...

I love my Brown-eyed Susan shawl so much - just in time for this seasonally unseasonal May weather (brrrr - nearly lit the wood burner last night but settled for more jumpers and a hot water bottle last night.)

The challenge I set myself was to dye the sock yarn into the purpley shades I love.

I started with KoolAid in grape and tropical fruit but the grape wasn't dark enough for me. So after a while I decided to over dye with some violet food colouring I had in the cupboard... Et voila! the purpley shade I was looking for.

So, three skeins ready to be knitted into another gorgeous Brown-eyed Susan - just the project for long summer road trips. Almost can't wait! Meanwhile the circles throw is growing bit by bit. (75 square circles down - 244 to go...)  Hurrah!

on more knitting and being organised...

I realised that I never showed you that shawl I knitted in Canada last year (I only realised when I figured out that I hadn't uploaded much to Ravelry recently. However, I finally got round to taking photos and thinking about how I should be more organised...

I'll knit another but I think it needs to be much, much bigger - maybe in handspun, who knows....

In other news I have started the Quill Hap shawl.... oh and a crochet blanket.... (need more hours in the day!)

making me happy...

 The sun is out and so are we! Finally the weather has been kind enough to get us all outside basking in the light which has been missing for what feels like an age. (Jago didn't recognise the sun the other day - he thought the moon was very bright...)

• being outside, walking, running, jumping...
• listening to the dawn chorus
• being surrounded by family and friends while this brief holiday lasts.
• knitting and spinning (outside!) 
• and (weirdly) spring cleaning

Long may this last! Now for the weather to warm up a smidgen and things will be perfect!
Happy April everyone!

a doll for Ellie

See, I'm doing it again... just dropping by to show you a doll I made for my friend's littlest daughter. It's her second birthday in early April and I made her a doll that looks just like her.

It's my first attempt at a Waldorf style doll and I have to say I was sorry to see her go to her new home...

I used a hank of badly plied (plyed?) handspun which I dyed with a combination of onion skins and henna for her hair, some of Jessie's old clothes for her outfits and knitted her up a coat. (It's still freezing here so a coat seemed essential.) I have orders for dolls from my own children so I think Ellie's doll won't be my last. I hope she loves her...

While I've been away....

Well I didn't mean to take such a long break but there just didn't seem to be enough hours in the day recently...  What there has been time for (apart from very poorly little people and stupidly behaved weather) is yarn.

For Mother's Day (along with the gorgeous homemade cards and the time spent with my mother) I received this beautiful and so inspirational book and a variety pack of Koolaid.

Now I know that you people over the pond can get Koolaid easily but it's something we can't get easily here in the UK (unless anyone tells me otherwise.) Also the concept of Koolaid dyeing is not new or special to you but bear with me I'm still having fun...

I'm loving the bright colours - not loving the smell so much but there is much worse out there I'm sure. I'm also excited about dyeing up some merino roving. Can't wait to spin it!
What are you guys up to craft wise these days?

a quilt for Jess

A few years ago, when I was expecting Jago, I made Jess a quilt top and didn't get any further. You know, that pregnancy rush of energy closely followed by 3 years of very, very busy.

Rummaging in one of my (many) crafting cupboards I found this carefully folded away and decided that I have to make the final push and finish it for Jessie's birthday - 3 years late (!)

So now, I'm spending the evenings when she's sleeping to hand quilt. There are some evenings when there is much procrastinating about bedtime when nothing is sewn, but my, do I understand the need for a thimble now...

elving ~ part 2

the list is slowly getting shorter - but not by much...

• chilli relish and chilli jams ~ tick!
• Chilli vodka ~ tick!
• Knitting ~ almost tick....
• quilt one ~ tick!
• everything else waiting patiently for attention....

I am stupidly proud of the bias binding I made for the quilts - yes I know, making bias binding is easy but this is my first and it's very pretty...

Also, stupidly I decided to cast on something yummy for myself (not on the list) which my brain tells me 'won't take long.' To be honest it's something I can knit whilst watching The Killing reading all those subtitles (if I don't keep up I haven't a hope of figuring out what's going on!) The pattern is the Lonely Tree Shawl by Softsweater (ravelry link) knit in Rowan Little Big Wool which I had in my stash... Honestly it's so awful out there that it's best to stay home and knit. It's raining and stormy again and the flooding around here is amazing (and not in a good way.)

Hope you are warm and dry wherever you are and Happy Thanksgiving to all those in the US!

in my studio

Things are getting busy here as lots of pre Christmas events are going on... It's easy to keep your head down while time is so precious. (I'm not in the studio for long before a little voice calls 'Mummmmmm!!!!!')

Looking up this morning with the autumn sun shining through the window and I felt
inspired all over again...

adventures in baking - meet Wilbur

 

 

 Over the summer I've been making sour dough bread (recipe from here) Jessie and I made our starter by 'catching' a wild yeast and with regular feeding Wilbur, our starter dough has become a bit of a family pet. A yummy, bubbly, edible pet.

 

The night before I bake I make up the sponge with a 100ml of Wilbur and some warm water. I mix and leave covered overnight. The next morning I add more flour and some sea salt and oil then knead for 10 minutes or so.  Son (or daughter) of Wilbur then gets to spend all day rising slowly and surely before being baked ready for tea.

When I get the loaf out of the oven I wrap it in a clean tea towel to soften the crust a bit and leave for about 30 minutes before we devour it... with mature cheddar, home made chutneys and pickles and butter... yum...

spinning the sky

Ever lie on your back staring at the blue, blue sky? (Not that people in the UK had much chance of that last summer.) Ever been amazed at the vivid colours that appear in nature?

 

Some of the of the bundle of tops I bought in Hay on Wye are the colour of the sky on a summers day. I gently blended them with white merino as if they were clouds chasing across the sky.

Jago says when I have my basket of carded batts that I'm a giant spinning the sky. He's making me look at colours in a new way - how the hedgerow shades would look blended into a yarn... I love the fact I'm seeing the world with a three year old engaging with his fascination and sense of wonder.

off grid weekend

These recent storms have led to erratic electricity supplies hence the erratic blogging. Another storm is on its way and fortunately none of our immediate rivers are on flood warning (though 37 others in the county are.)

 An enforced day in led to crafting... Well, Jago mastering scissors and sprinkling confetti every where. No electricity for the hoover so why stress?

  Say 'hello' to Jessie's castle complete with Queen, moat and sharks... Yes, we are channeling Blue Peter c. 1980.

 
There was a little bit of time for sewing...

 ... and plenty of time for muffins toasted on the fire with melty butter and marmite. I could get used to this off grid lark...

Daisy and Jess by the sea...

As you know I spend loads of time at the sea and loads of time knitting. Last year I was inspired enough to design these wrist warmers as a present for Kate. (here she is sporting them at the beach last weekend)

Then we got chatting and thought how if we liked seaside buttons so might other people. So today we are proud to announce we have updated our etsy shop with lots of handmade buttons made from pebbles, shells and sea glass! Let me know what you think... *

*Apologies for this horrible act of terribly unBritish self promotion. Sorry!!!

making it, mending it

I'm not sure if it's just me being clumsy but there's an awful lot of things breaking around here. So, in the spirit of make do and mend I have:

• just glued my kitchen bin back together. (I feel stupidly proud)

• hunted around charity (thrift) shops for 'new' white cotton pillow cases after I couldn't repair my last ones any more. RIP old pillow cases - you have a new life in my duster basket (not that I dust much / at all ever)

• got a mending basket which is bulging with things to mend. I reckon it stares at me as I walk around the room...

• learned to darn my favourite gloves. A good friend found them for me - saying 'I knew these would fit you, they have freakishy long fingers too.' I've never had a pair of shop bought gloves that have fitted. So these stripey guys need preserving and will now live to see another winter.

Oh, happy February 29th too! 

trying something new

 

I've never been a big fan of cross stitch. It's not a craft that made my soul sing. I think I thought it was too mathematical - I come from a family where you're either an artist or a mathematician. My fabulous sister is both a mathematician and a cross stitch addict. I knit, I sew, I work with clay, I photograph. I was biased. I found Emily Peacock. I changed my mind.