Woodland Flowerpot

This is one of my favourite things I've made at ceramics. A little flowerpot with a woodland scene. Lots of stylised trees and cute little mushrooms around the tray.

Plus a little catepillar inside the tray.

Party Bunting

I've added my first pattern to Ravelry. The Party Bunting pattern is now available for free. Check it out!

Owlets

 My latest piece from the ceramics studio. There definitely seems to be a lot of cute owl motifs around at the moment. So jumping on the band wagon, I've painted a child's mug with little owls on a branch.

AGY 1st Birthday

It was the first birthday party of my lovely little woolly haven, A Good Yarn, Cleethorpes. Everyone had joined in to make a few surprises for Kate. There was a lovely window display, as well as a knitted party buffet.

Julie's Blancmange

Michele's Jelly Rabbit

My contribution was to make the pattern for the bunting - as well as knitting the Happy part; plus I made a knitted cover for the champagne bottle. Julie was the one that got us all organised and pulled it together - she did a great job. There was also a journal that we'd all contributed to.

Dawn's Birthday Cake & My Champagne Cover

On the day, there were some mini workshops organised. Kate sorted out the jam pot covers and flowers and I designed the patterns for the mug cosies. So everyone got to pick a kit and we spent the day knitting.

Mug Cosy Kits - I was a bit slow to take a photo (there were a lot more at the start!)

At every hour, there was a special offer on in the shop - with caused much sales frenzy. Julie and Kate had made some fantastic cakes for us all too.

Everyone could put there name into a prize draw and there were lots of prizes. There was another couple of prizes not shown - a needle roll and project bag by Nicsknots and a voucher for a Birds and Bees Photography shoot, which I happened to win :)

 There was a big turnout and it was a really fantastic day.

Here are few links to other blogs about the birthday party - A Good Yarn & Faded Reverie

I'm hoping to write up the bunting pattern soon and I'll put it on Ravelry.

Fibre & Fleece & All Things Nice

After having a look through my handspun; I was looking at one of my favourite books The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook by Deborah Robson & Carol Ekarius.

As a spinner, I felt that I was sadly lacking in even basic knowledge of different breeds of sheep and other animals and what each fibre was ideal for. This book helps to fill in all those gaps. It only covers fibre that comes from animals; so there isn't anything about cotton/linen/banana fibre etc. but what it does cover is very comprehensive.

I love the maps inside the front and back cover that show where in the world each animal is native to. There is clearly a very strong history of sheep and wool in the British Isles because an individual map of the UK is needed to show all the different breeds.

For each fibre there is a, wealth of information succinctly shown. There are clear photographs of the fibre in all sorts of different states; raw, clean, spun, knitted and woven samples. I like that it shows that they've actually tried the fleece and are talking from experience. There are photos of the animal; as well as some detail of the origins / history of the animal. There is a good list of facts including fleece weight, staple length, fibre diameter, lock characteristics and natural colours. The most interesting part for crafters is the section for what the fibre is ideally used for which includes how well it dyes, what fibre preparations and spinning tips they recommend, whether it works well for knitting, crocheting and/or weaving and what it is best known for.

There are lots of sections throughout with extra information of the more well known breeds as well as some well placed photos from companies that use the fleece to make commercially available yarns.

The majority of the book is taken up with the myriad breeds of sheep but there are some more unusual animals such as angora rabbits, wolves, dogs, bison, goats etc.

It really is a fantastic and comprehensive book.

Yards of yarn

A quick catch up on my spinning. I have a few of my most recent skeins photographed.

The purple/green handspun is 70% BFL / 30% Silk. It's a 2ply laceweight, 25 w.p.i and there is about 452m. The roving was bought at Woolfest from FeltstudioUK.

This one is the same mix of fibre, 70% BFL / 30% Silk. This was spun on a spindle and is single ply laceweight and there is about 920m worth. Again the roving was from FeltstudioUK.

70% BFL 30% Kid Mohair. 2ply & 246m. This I bought when I was at Fibre East last summer from Picperfic

This is some beautiful Suri alpaca that Chrissie from Homefield Alpacas gave me to try. Homefield is a local alpaca farm and a lovely little place. There are lots of alpacas, Shetland sheep, Gotlands (who are a bit weird for sheep - they were quite fussy and wanted petting) and Buster, the Lincoln Longwool. Definitely worth a visit. 

Quilts

I've just been flicking through some of my photos and came across some of my hand made quilts that I haven't shared with you before. 

Tumbling blocks

They are all hand pieced; I tend to use the American method now. Using Jinny Beyer's Quiltmaking by Hand as my bible. I find it very quick and only marginally slower than using a machine; with the extra upside of being able to take it with me if I'm out. Saying all that the top quilt was made using traditional English paper piecing; which makes for very accurate piecing but very slow work.

Inner City

The Inner City quilt was for a friend, who is a big traveller and the border fabric is of  old luggage labels. A little gimmicky but seemed to work well. 

Compass points

I forgot to take a photo of the compass one when it was finished. The photo is of the top just before basting.  It was a gift for my Mother-In-Law. I was especially thrilled with the compass points (all the points are there - when machine sewing it's so easy to sew across the tips of the points) and another reason why Jinny Beyer's method is so good.

New obsession

Oh Michele, what have you done!!     Pinterest  :D

Twisted cables

 My current WIP (one of quite a few if I'm being honest) is a pair of socks; Alpine Glow by Stephanie van der Linden. I'm really enjoying them; the pattern is quite detailed. The yarn is Sparkly Stripes - Sparkle Duck.

I'm always in wonder at the simple little tricks that there are in knitting. The top cable travels across the foot and it's such a simple thing. On the right hand side a stitch is made every few rows and decreased on the other side and voila the cable moves over. The little triangle I've drawn is where the stitches are made.

Cushion Stuffing Day

Just got back from a fantastic day at A Good Yarn, Cleethorpes. Spent all day helping to stuff cushions for Woolsack. 

Tables all set up ready for the little helpers.

One of my cushions with all the swatches from the pattern booklet. If anyone wants the free patterns for the cushions, they are available here.

All the cushions had to have the labels sewn in, then stuffed with pure wool fibre then sewn up.

Most of the cushions have personal messages from the knitters attached.

These are my contributions.

They're not all here but at last count there were 31 cushions that we did today; with a few more expected this week. Everyone helped; thanks to all that turned up. I was thrilled with all the different cushions and designs. A few of them are my designs but there are lots made with the knitter's own inspiration. I found it really interesting with what everyone came up with.

All the natural coloured cushions are made from Jarol British Aran and the coloured ones are from yarn donated by the National Fibre Company.

Let's just hope that the Olympic competitors like their welcome gifts.