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Mr. and I spent a day at The Basket Case recently and had a great time. We made a willow basket each from scratch. This is the only photo I managed while we were making the baskets 8 hours and many scratches and broken nails later; we had a willow basket each. Mr.'s Mine Mr. very kindly made his so that it stacked with mine (just a happy coincidence)- makes storing them at home a lot easier. The woman who taught us was a very good teacher and it was a nice relaxing day. They grow their own willow for weaving and we got to see it growing too.

It's something that I've been intending to make for awhile and finally got round to it a few months ago. I'd wanted to make a dpn case because they were stuffed in pencil cases and weren't organised at all.  I'd made the fabric on my Kromski Harp Rigid Heddle Loom intending it to be a table mat but it was so soft it didn't seem to want to stay still on the table; so I reused it into the cover for my needle case. I lined it with some silk left over and added in extra lines so it would fit short and long dpns. The button is a plastic button that I covered in thread - think the technique is called Passementerie. It was something I saw on Create and Craft TV and thought it was really pretty. Didn't follow a pattern for this - just winged it and wish I'd made it a little shorter. Also, i'm sure there was a way to sew it up differently but ended up putting binding on like with a quilt - though it gives it a nice firm edge.