How does my garden grow?

VERY well, thank you :o) This weather & lots of watering are doing wonders!

My purple sprouting broccoli is, well, sprouting :o) Not sure when its ready to harvest... its about 2 foot tall & veeery bushy, with little sprouty bits on a couple of `em. What do I do? Pick off the sprouting bits as they appear & it`ll keep on cropping? Or do I leave & pick the whole thing off & then the plant is finished? If anybody knows please tell me... there was no info on the tray of seedlings & I cant find it even googling.

Its all lovely and lush down the side, as you can see :o) Lots of tomatoes & courgettes are coming, and the strawberrys have already provided a lovely big bowl full ...

Beans, herbs and rhubarb are coming on...

Elsewhere the tayberrys are ripening, & potatoes & onions looking good. Rachael is entering the junior section of a local gardening show in September - she has a dahlia and savoy cabbage growing for that :o) Will take pics & post another time.

Latest hat

Well here it is...

I made this one from Lizzie Houghtons Felting Fashion book. Anyone who knows me knows how RARE it is for me to make any project in a book, let alone for it to look remotely like the one in the book. But this little hat just looked so sweet, and I like the colours & just happened to have similar stuff in my stash, so...

Its 3 layers of merino, with oodles of locks & silk fibres, 100% silk velvet (YUM) plus silk/rayon blend velvet... notice how different the 2 look? The silk velvet felts in like a dream... doesnt even need locking in, the silk/rayon has felted in well but is more textural when finished & does need to be locked in just a little. I liked using them both together, its made the felt very tactile. When the felt was dry I did quite a bit of random machine embroidery, then sewed it up & added some more embroidery.

Just got to get someone to model it for me to take a photo now... getting bored of seeing myself under my hats :o) and Gary ran a mile when I reached for the camera.

Im off to enjoy the fabulous sunshine now :o) Have a good weekend folks xx

Fun felting

In between days at work and other mundane essentials (like shopping & housework) plus making the most of the sunshine with the dogs over in the fields :o) Ive done some really fun felting projects!

A few days ago I read a post on Daily Felt, Inger was asking if any feltmakers wanted to make & send starfish to a group supporting children with cancer. The group are having their 5th annual funday & want to give each child a starfish. Its a really touching post, and immediately I wanted to make a starfish & send it to help bring a little happiness.

More organised than usual :o) I took photos step-by-step...

I started out by covering the star shaped resist with lovely lime green Icelandic wool; I wrapped around fine strips of batt until it was completely enclosed... I did 2 layers of Icelandic (the 2 layers perpendicular was interesting! :o)

Then I covered it with 3 layers of my favourite cobalt blue merino top.

For decoration one side was liberally sprinkled with sari silk fibre, and on the other side I layed out a design using a homespun boucle plied with a metalic thread. I crocheted a `wagon wheel` on a big hook to go in the centre.

Turns out the handle on our new French doors are perfect for drying this sort of thing on!

It made a really strong, sturdy felt... the sari silk twinkles & shimmers and on the other side theres just an occasional glint of metalic thread sparkling. I`ve stuffed it with clean / soft fleece from a local flock of free range organic sheep... Its very cuddly & tactile & measures just over 10".

I also made another hat! This is from Lizzie Houghtons Felting Fashion book (great book!) A little pillbox hat, as a sneak preview heres the top before felting...

Well, thats it for now... Have a good weekend x

Ahoy mateys

Had a good day working at the Pirate event yesterday! Perhaps because I didnt have to ` oooaaaaagh` myself hoarse this time lol... trust me, its happened in the past! I spent the day working on pirate eyepatches with the children :o) The weather was beautiful till about an hour before the end when the heavens opened... I was close to a `pirate DJ` & steel band - luckily not playing at the same time.

The event was at Haden Hill House (lovely) which is one of Sandwell Museum Services sites. For anybody nearby its well worth keeping an eye open for upcoming events; theres quite a bit planned for the summer (as usual). SMS have a fan page on Facebook - Sandwell Museums and everything thats going on gets posted there, plus photos of the sites & news etc.

Not sure if Im just a bit tired today... or feeling unmotivated cos I know Im at work Tuesday & Thursday - so any big project I start is going to be interputed... Ah well, time to shake myself off & wake myself up & GET TO WORK!

Have a good week

x

As promised...

This is my new bag, that I finished making yesterday!

I was inspired by the lovely bags that Heather at Wool Love Functional Fibre Art made & blogged about a couple of months ago... at around the same time I felted a big flat piece, trying out my goodies from the Reenactors Market. I decided at the time that it was going to become a bag... but Ive only just gotten around to actually putting it together!

First of all I had to find just the right leather belt for the handles... a few weeks scouring local charity shops got that sorted, its a nice well worn brown leather one - about 1 3/4" wide; I cut it with a stanley knife down the length to make 2 handles. I didnt cut all the way to either end though, which made it easier to sew on (with my leather needle in my sewing machine).

And then there was the lining. Eventually I found a lovely piece of fabric while mooching through my moms stash; its from one of my nans dresses - not sure exactly how old it is, but I think its safe to say its vintage :o)

It has a nice zippy compartment & strong magnetic snap fastner

Today, Im dyeing a silk lap, impatiently checking whether the silk I dyed earlier this weeks dry yet...no! And photographing & preparing supply listings.

Have a good weekend folks - whatever you are doing... Im working at a pirate event on Sunday :o)

x

The week so far...

has been pleasantly productive :o) in a gentle, plodding sort of way. I played with the silk saris on Monday...

This is the chiffon, with added banana silk (this is the chiffon I overdyed with gold)

Green peacock silk sari in cobalt merino, with loads of sari silk fibre & yarn

.

Im wearing this scarf today :o) its all long `n skinny and feels really elegant to wear (you know when you feel like you look nice in something?!)

Plus Ive felted and sewn together another cushion cover... so now I have a pair; sun & moon...

More Icelandic wool

And yesterday I dyed a load of silk ... which is still drying. I`ll post tomorow with photos of todays work, and hopefully yesterdays silk too.

x

Holiday pics

We had a wonderful camping trip in North Cornwall last week! And for once the weather did exactly what the met office had promised; Tuesday, the day we went, they said it would rain till 1 ish then clear up and be nice for the next 3 days. Driving down the weather was absolutely dreadful... rain so bad you could barely see anything - especially with the spray on the motorway. I kept think "ooooh, I hope theyve got it right" ... 4 of us plus 2 dogs in a tent in rainy weather are not my ideal (I hate the tent getting damp!) Lo & behold though, come 1.30 the rain was stopping & by 2.30 when we arrived it was great! We pitched in sunshine and a light sea breeze; the tent was up and all the stuff sorted within 30 minutes :o) and we were off! The weather just got better and better. Tuesday afternoon and evening were delightful, Wed, Thu & Fri were absolute scorchers - definately needed the factor 40! Here are a few of my favourite pics...

It was bloomin` cold at night though, I must say! I was wearing; shorts, thermal vest, thermal leggins, bedsocks & a fleece with my sleeping bag drawn up as much as possible just to be warm! First night I rather stupidly got in (while it was a pleasantly mild 11 o`clock) in shorts and T-shirt OMG I WAS FREEZING! I barely slept... was glad when I woke up down the gap between the 2 blow up matresses cos it was warmer :o) so I stayed there for the rest of the night.

We did loads of walking... out between 8.30 & 9.00 and walking pretty much all day till about 7.00 - there was lots of paddling, rockpooling,ferry rides and stopping to enjoy the scenery too of course.

We were lucky enough to see a pod of dolphins leaping in the mouth of the camel estuary heading toward Polzeath, a seal floating sunning himself at Tintagel, and what Im 99% certain was a Peregrine Falcon over the cliffs between Polzeath & Daymer Bay - AWESOME! Could only see him from beneath though and it was against a very bright sky so couldnt see his markings... the shape & size suggest Peregrine though and they are fairly common there. I didnt get photos of any of them though... I was too busy watching & enjoying them to take my eyes off long enought to find the camera!

Since we got back we have been playing catchups... Yesterday the kids were back to school & Gary at work - so I got a little felting time! Played around with the silk saries... shall have to post pics.

Anyway, Im off to felt ...maybe a cushion cover?

x

My silk stash

Loads of new goodies arrived in the post today... I sat rubbing my hands together in anticipation looking at my 3 parcels - it was just like Christmas morning ... and then the paper started to fly in my opening frenzy ;o)

I have 2 lovely vintage saris from India... one is a gorgeous fine silk the other is chiffon silk (not sure if its a blend)... not so thrilled with the colour of the chiffon - it was a lot paler than I expected it to be. BUT, Ive dyed a scarf sized piece this afternoon, in the microwave with the chemical dye I usually use on silk and its really taken well! Looks nice and rich now :o) Im thrilled to bits with these saris, one of my friends recently went on holiday to India and was unable to buy any silk saris let alone vintage silk - so I feel pretty lucky!

Also, I have some silk laps! Im very excited about these too :o) They are undyed as yet... and look like fun.

My third parcel was filled with lots of sari silk goodies to go in my `fancy felters supplies` section - soon to be added to my shops.

x

Girls days and stuff

Im not posting much at the moment... a) time has flown by (doesnt it always though?!) and b) I havent really got anything new and exciting to blog about at the moment.

Ive had a couple of really lovely girly days out with friends... Infact its been amazing - Id gone for what seemed like ages without seeing or talking with any friends - and then 3 in one week! When it rains it pours hey?!

Clare came over for a very chilled out pleasant afternoon, for lunch we had homemade tomato soup & fresh bread with a delicous herby salad straight from Clares alotment; baby radishes with their leaves (which I didnt know you could eat!) red lettuce, chives, garlic leaves, rosemary, sage, mint and young dandelion leaves with a little ranch dressing. And for desert... victoria sponge cake!

We didnt quite manage to tame the beast that is my `new to me but really quite old` knitting machine. Although I now know that part of the problem was the manual I had been following - it was for an earlier model so no wonder I was having trouble! You Tube is a fantastic help though... I think (touch wood) that I may be getting there with it... We also harvested wild galic from the woods - theres a huge patch of it 30 steps from our back gate :o) and we both cooked some delicious meals with it over the weekend.

Spent another lovely day out with my friend Nicky. We went to the Jinney Ring Craft Centre where we caught up with another friend Brenda Marshall - Brenda has her Felt & Textile studio at the Jinney Ring. We made friends with a moma duck and her baby (soooo sweet!) and generally drooled over the many wonderful items made by the resident artists & artisans. Unfortunately I had a migrain come on just as we were about to come home :o( which wiped me out for the next couple of days.

We really enjoyed the mini heatwave over the weekend :o) And Im sooo glad that we have the new french doors and balcony - they were very well used this weekend! Hope its nice again next week while the kids are off for their half term holiday...

Anyway, more soon...

x

This weeks felting fun

Had a pleasant, plodding sort of a week... in between work, gardening & housework (BOOOO) I have felted another hat & a cushion cover - both using my Icelandic batts.

Not sure which way round it should go yet :o)

It started out loosely based on medieval split brimmed hats... but evolved into something more tricorn-ish. However Matthew (my 13 year old) says its definately a Mongolian style hat! To be honest I seem to recal seeing a picture of Genghis Kahn wearing something similar :o) This has layers of one of the silk caps I dyed on the inside & out.

It was amazingly quick & easy to make prefelts for inlays using the batts! Ive noticed that you need to use a lot more soap with Icelandic than Ive used with either merino, gotland or Norwegian wools. Im using a fair old bit of hot water too.

long run... I think its from the 70s and must of cost an arm & a leg when it was new - its got everything imaginable. Its actually quite scarily complicated, I have managed to knit a few practice swatches & with the help of youtube think Im ok with casting on & off now. Tomorow Clare is coming over for a girly day, hopefully with both of us on the case we shall tame the beasty and knit something :o).... Im gonna get a big gooey cake to help calm frayed nerves if it doesnt work out that way.