In the Making...

This stack of pigs is an awesome piggy bank. I've painted it with one of my favourite things. Lots of different quilt designs. The cute little tails at the back. The top pig has a log cabin design, little applique hearts on the middle piggie and quilted squares at the bottom.

Another fantastic year at Woolfest; despite the exceedingly rainy conditions it was still a wonderful day. It was bigger this year with lots of new stalls. I found it quite overwhelming with the vast array of choice and ideas. My haul was quite large this year. I headed straight for Kate Davies stall and bought the kit for the Sheep Carousel Tea Cosy and also intended to buy the BMC  kit but were already sold out within an hour of opening! I tried to start the Tea Cosy on the way home in the car to quickly realise the one size needle I didn't have was a 3.00mm 16 inch circular; which is extremely frustrating when you've just left a big wool show. I also got Ysolda Teague's Saturday Treat pattern book and some Scrumptious laceweight yarn in Treacle Toffee to make Barley Sugar from the Fyberspates stall.     I bought a dyeing kit from D & T and a bundle of unknown yarn on offer from bluefaced.com A pretty batt and a faux cashmere roving f...

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.

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

 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.

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...

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 tha...