Wet Felted Pot

Hello peeps!

Saw our daughter and boyfriend off on their 'Round the World' trip on Thursday.  They have started off in Singapore, where they said it was soooo hot they didn't want to leave their air conditioned bedroom.  I can't even begin to imagine how that feels!! Especially with the chilly weather we have had this weekend.  They are off to Australia tomorrow morning so maybe it will be a little cooler for them!

We have been busy tidying up the garden this weekend.

I pressure washed the patios and OH repaired the leaky shed.  The smiley face is the clean bit! You can see how grubby the patio was! Thankfully it all looks a lot better now.  After all that hard work, we treated ourselves to a glass of wine (or two) whilst watching 'Strictly'!

Did a bit more gardening this morning but now am snuggled indoors with both the heating and the fire on .......

....... enjoying writing my blog and then a bit more crafting and over to Handmade Monday to find out what all the other talented crafters have been up to.

Wet felted pot

I am really enjoying my felting course.  We have just completed week 5 and have just 3 more left.  Last week I made a pot.  You can see in the photos below the process I went through to achieve my pot.

Below is the finished pot.  It is felted in a grey Gotland fleece, ideal as it holds it's shape well.

I needle felted the wavy lines on afterwards and crocheted the pom pom trim and needle felted that on too.

Next week (after half term) we will be starting on our final project.  I have decided to make something useful - a crochet hook holder.  I shall line the inside in fabric so it's not too bulky and as I have just purchased my new embroidery book, thought I would decorate this with a bit of embroidery/cross stitch.  Here's a sneak preview ....

...... bet you can't guess what word I'm stitching. Lol!

Hopefully I'll have a bit more to show you next time.  Have a great week everyone.  Happy Crafting x

I'm back!

Hello, hello, hello!

Long time no see!  I have had a combination of a couple of really busy weeks leaving me no real time to write a post, followed by a rather quiet time with nothing much to write about!

Bit of disappointment on the Hobbycraft front.  The project I was going to do for them was for Children in Need but unfortunately timescales were against us so we have agreed to postpone this until next year.

I have had another couple of workshops over the last month ..........

... this one at Countess Wear Village Hall (above)

.... and this one at the Courtenay Centre!

I'm very pleased to say that a great time and lots of fun was had by all - oh! and the girls all learnt to crochet!

Felting

I have started a wet felting course and am about half way through now.  Wet felting is something I didn't think I would ever get into, but I am really enjoying this so far.

Here are my finished pieces over the last few weeks

I have been waiting for my last piece, the grey pot, to dry out thoroughly and now I think I may embellish it with a bit of needle felting and maybe a crochet edging.  Next week we are making a small 3d  purse and then we start working on our final piece.  Not sure what to choose yet but think I may make a bag.

Embroidery

I bought a new book recently, just because I fancied it!  Here it is A Rainbow of Stitches

It is full of embroidery templates which I am sure will come in very handy one day.  Here is the first one I tried - a very simple 'puddy tat'

Off to join in Handmade Monday this evening, the first time in a good few weeks, so why not make yourself a cup of tea and take a bit of 'me' time to follow me over there to see what all the wonderful crafters have been up to.

Thank you for reading and I'll try and finish my pot for next week, hopefully I'll be back on track from now on.

Chester the crochet cat and Taffy the crochet bear help with Hedge Trimming!

Hello

It's that time of the week again! I shall be visiting Handmade Harbour for the fantastic Handmade Monday Link Party later but first I must start by thanking you for your comments from last week, I read them all but didn't get the opportunity to reply to them this week.  I love receiving them though, so please don't stop!!

Unfortunately no makes this week so I thought you may like to see what Chester and Taffy have been up to.  I'll just give you a quick update on the WIP first.

Hobbycraft
This project is still progressing slowly!  I have a lot of measuring to do in a moment which probably will involve maths too.  Ugh! not my favourite bit of the project, but very necessary.  I am hoping to go and collect the yarn tomorrow, providing the supplier has the correct colour in stock (no I can't tell you what colour it is yet!!!).

Kidsilk Haze Stripe Cardigan
Also progressing slowly!  I'm half way up both fronts now but I think it may have to be put on hold if I get the yarn for the Hobbycraft project tomorrow!!

Chester and Taffy
And now to see what these two characters have been up to.  For those of you not yet familiar with Chester and Taffy click on their individual links below and all will be revealed!

We had some major hedge trimming to do this weekend so enlisted the help of Chester and Taffy!  Or should that read hindrance!  Chester was quite useful as he is rather tall and could reach the high bits but as usual Taffy was up to mischief and no Uncle Martin in sight!

Onto the BIG machine now - just need to fill it up with petrol!

Uh Oh!  Look who's on the scene now!

What have you got in your hand Taffy?

No Taffy!  This is not helpful at all!

(There is no real petrol anywhere near this picture.  

NEVER put matches anywhere near petrol)

OMG what was Taffy thinking of!

That's far more helpful Taffy!  

Thank you for clearing up the mess!

Now what are you up to? You'll get stuck!!!

What did I tell you Taffy?  How do you think you're going to get down now then?

Perhaps best to leave him up there, he can't get into any more mischief up there can he?

Well somehow he got down!!!!  I tell you it's worse than having children!

You need eyes in the back of your head!!

I hope you have enjoyed Chester and Taffy's antics.

It made us chuckle and we knew what was coming next!

Hopefully this little picture gallery has helped brighten up your week or maybe

it will put a smile on your face for the week to come!

Have a good one, whatever you are doing!

Bye for now, see you next week :)

Crochet Workshop, Social Fabric, Totnes, Devon

Hello everyone!

I had a great day yesterday doing my first Introduction to Crochet Workshop for Social Fabric in Totnes.

The lovely proprietor, Caroline, has recently created a new space in the Devon town of Totnes where people can come together and learn new skills or dust down old ones.   We had a wonderful group of ladies who worked extremely hard all day long trying to come to terms with the intricacies of crochet, foundation chains, doubles and trebles etc.  Unfortunately I did a silly thing and forgot to take my camera so very few photos, well none from me actually!

Caroline managed to take this one photo of everyone concentrating really hard!!

but unfortunately it is the only one I have.

Despite there being a tremendous amount of information to take in all in one day, everyone managed to learn the art of crochet by the end of it!  We all agreed we would need to relax with some wine that evening :)

The ladies kindly left some very appreciative comments which I would like to share with you :)

We all had a very enjoyable day and I hope to be returning very soon to tutor another crochet workshop.  Thank you to all the ladies on the workshop and especially to Caroline for supplying us with copious amounts of tea, coffee and biscuits to keep us all going!

Brief updates!

Just to keep you informed, my Kidsilk Haze Stripe addiction is coming along.  It is definitely going to be a cardigan now!  I got the whole 'back' out of one ball of yarn so maybe, just maybe I can manage the rest of the garment out of the 2 balls I have left!  Watch this space!

The Hobbycraft project is progressing slowly!  I'm hoping they will source the yarn for me this week as time is of the essence!  Once I know this I can get planning and start crocheting.  They need to get on with it pretty quickly else we may have to postpone it until next year.  Once again 'watch this space'!  I will reveal all eventually!

Thank you for reading :)

I'm off to Handmade Monday now over at Handmade Harbour.  I wonder what everyone else has been up to this week?

On Holiday with Sloppy Joe Beret!

Hi Everyone!

As you've all realised by now we have zoomed past August and are now well on our way to September!  All the trees will be changing colour soon and Autumn will be knocking on the door!  I actually quite like the change in seasons though, it seems to give me something to look forward to.

I missed Handmade Monday last week as we were away camping in Eastbourne. We had a great time with our friends, the diet went out the window and we had some lovely walks.   Rather than bore you with too many details, I thought I would put a collage of photos together.  The main thing was we managed to get the tent up and down without any rain!!  Someone was looking out for us!

Yes the picture in the top right hand corner is correct!!  The camera toppled forwards - although I think it is my favourite!  Don't you just love the legs!

Whilst on holiday I did manage to get some crocheting done.  You may remember I crocheted a hat for Hobbycraft to display but forgot to take a photo.  Well a lovely lady I clean for asked me to make one for her and this one I did remember to take a photo of!

I made one mistake very near the beginning and thinking it wouldn't matter I carried on!  Well as we all know (but try to tell ourselves otherwise!) it will show up - eventually - I got nearly to the end before I decided the mistake was glaringly obvious!  I couldn't leave it so took it back to the beginning!  Strictly speaking I made two hats really!  I was very pleased with the result (in the end!), it was crocheted using Rowan Cocoon which has a lovely weight to it and is really soft.  The recipient was also over the moon!

Also ..... whilst on holiday ..... I received an exciting email from Hobbycraft!  They have asked me to do a jumbo creation along the lines of Chester to raffle for charity!  I can't tell you what it is yet, just in case it doesn't come off, but I am now frantically designing a pattern and trying to work out how much yarn I shall need.  Watch this space!  I'll try and give you a few sneaky previews over the next month or so, without giving too much away!  I'm rather excited - all I've got to do now is make it happen!!!!

I was in Hobbycraft yesterday again, demonstrating the Jumbo Crochet and added a short post Chester's Choice yesterday so you may like to have a quick look.  Chester had a couple of young admirers!

Well, I'm off to do the washing up and then I shall pop over to Handmade Monday and catch up on all your news.  Thanks for reading :) See you there!

Chester's Choice!

Another enjoyable day at Hobbycraft demonstrating Jumbo Crochet.  Once again I met a lot of lovely people and thought I would just share this one photo with you all!

Thanks to Rosa and Gracie's mum for letting me share this photo.  It made Chester's day :)

and thank you to all the staff at Hobbycraft, Kingsteignton for making me feel very welcome!