Showing posts with label knitting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label knitting. Show all posts
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linda
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We love visiting the Museum of East Anglian Life, there's so much to see and always something to learn about the fantastic part of the country that we are lucky enough to live in!The annual Steam and Craft fair is a brilliant event with so many steam engines and crafts people from far and wide...Jen (pictured above) is a dedicated volunteer, fund raiser and a (quite brilliant!) Wednesday knitter!
We set up our stall in the pole barn and it was clear to everyone as we donned our aprons and got the pots warming on the stove that this was no ordinairy craft fair...
There were the brilliant colours achieved through the microwave technique - a little bit quicker than the natural dyeing that we do...
...and the chance to see the famous Needham Market fire engine a recent acquisition for the museum!
So, happy that all the pretty bias bindings, ribbons, ric racs and knitting needles were displayed at there best for the day we got busy with the woad!
We had a lot of fun doing the woad dyeing section in A Green Guide to Country Crafts and all think back fondly to Gavin Kingcome's fascination with the whisking!
Woad creates a rich blue dye by reacting with oxygen so although the surface bubbles here are a gorgeous shade of blue if you part the foam you can see the very yellow dye bath below!
The colour starts to develop as soon as the items are removed from the bath! You need a lot of people around to help 'air' the skeins of yarn and silk scarves so each 'dip' ended with the shout of 'WOAD' and the ringing of a great big handbell that Lisa Museum lent to us for the day!
Here they are drying on our line and yes that is a skein of green yarn there - it's what you get when you 'over dye' yarn that has previously been dyed with Dyer's Greenweed - it's Lincoln Green!
Now it's time for a little bit of an apology - the reasons for the LONG gap between this post and the previous one, my trusty old laptop gave up! It had worked hard and written many a blogpost and luckily as it was coming up to my 40th birthday my very lovely and brilliantly supportive parents bought me a new one! How lucky am I?
It was definitely party time at HH HQ last week and Wednesday was also the day that BBC Radio Suffolk came to visit the knitters and as it was also Wednesday Wendy's birthday we had a little party. Tina made these amazing cakes and as you can see they didn't even hang around long enough to get a snap of all the letters!They were amazing, thank you Tina!
Jo Lea, knitting moss for an ornamental hanging basket and quite determined to teach Jon from BBC Radio Suffolk to knit!
Just one of the very brilliant birthday presents - a marvelous book by a brilliant knitter! This is my bed time reading...
The lovely birthday gifts will get a proper blogpost all of their own after I've written my thank you notes...but this one deserves a special mention as it was tracked down by Mike the Glassman and it's a beauty!I LOVE glass as much as I love yarn and there had been much plotting, texting and consultation with The Good Wives of Sew and Crow to find a piece of glass that would make me go giddy and I know that Mike is particularly pleased with himself for finding this Martini jug by Holmegaard glass...
...he takes his glass seriously and being charged with this task made it tricky for me to pin him down in order to pick a winner for Country Buntkin bunting giveaway!
BUT, I finally got him - comment 7 is the winner! Congratulations Cath, send me some details halfpennyhome@googlemail.com and the bunting bits and bobs will be flapping their way over to you!
And finally...how proud were Jacqui and I to see a good friend of Halfpenny Home, Polly's Textiles featured in Oh Comely magazine?!Well done Danielle, your 'Beautifully Purposeful' hand screen-printed fabrics are gorgeous and your aprons are definitely a favourite of ours and featured in one of our favourite magazines too!
Phew! Think that's about everything...Nic x
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linda
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You may well wonder why such an amazing piece of fabric knitted and hooked to resemble moss is doing at the base of a tree in Thornham Walks, Thornham Magna, Suffolk and why it is being left to degrade, have real moss to grow on it and hopefully have insects living on it and in it! Read on...
The most fantastic part of Halfpenny Home is how it attracts such a great bunch of talented people through it's magical blue doors! We never know who is going to turn up but we can almost guarantee that they will have something interesting to say and hopefully something to show us!I first met textile artist Jane Southgate last Spring, she came in and with a cup of coffee in one hand and a copy of Selvedge magazine in the other started to tell me all about her work...
Jane has been working with Ruth Richmond to create Rural Collusions - we've all enjoyed seeing (and in some cases helping to create!) some of the work taking shape before our eyes! The mushrooms were particularly popular and has led to Jane sometimes being referred to as Mushroom Jane...
We've had a fantastic time helping Jane to scource natural yarns and fabrics and dyeing fibres with plant dyes with the help of Samantha Hayes, who is a Tudor Re-enactor at Kentwell Hall every Summer.
Just love the colours on this piece of weaving! This is the first of Jane's pieces that you will encounter on the walk through the woods and it is breathtaking!
Can't possibly have a blogpost without a break for cake...Lady Galula's newest creations - raspberry cupcakes with glitter icing in exactly the same shade of pink as the sunhat I'm knitting for my niece!
Another artist who is a frequent visitor to Halfpenny Home HQ is Amy Louise Nettleton. Amy currently has some work on show at the Waterfront Gallery in Ipswich.
I went along to the Private View and loved the selection of work on show and it's all by local artists.
Although these photos are great you should really go along and see the work yourself - it's a fabulous space in such a beautiful setting! It will be there for all to see until 11th May, Nic x
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linda
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After the third attempt I've finished! My Knit Collage cowl is finally done! And now there are two! I originally followed a pattern which required 4 skeins of Knit Collage, but when knitted up it just felt too thick and cumbersome, so I started again, this time leaving out the cabling, making it half the width and adding very easy buttonholes and button fastening.
The buttons are gorgeous coconut shell buttons which, of course, came care of Halfpenny Home! 
Here it is on!
And perfect, because I now only needed two skeins for my cowl, I could knit one for my lovely sis in law whose birthday is later this month. She'd admired the yarn before Christmas so fingers crossed she'll be pleased! It's wrapped and ready to go! 
Hope she doesn't read this before her birthday!!!Jacquix
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linda
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A very Happy New Year!
We couldn't let too much of 2011 pass before our first blog of the year! It's one of our New Year resolutions to blog more!
We hope you had a fab festive period? Halfpenny Home may have shut its doors for the holidays but Nic and I have both been busy! 
Lots of knitting has been done - Nic will be sporting some stirrup socks, which will be appearing on a post very soon, I've no doubt! A mere novice when compared to Nic, I have managed to complete a cotton facecloth....
And, the saga of my Knit Collage cowl goes on.....I knitted it all up, even made a lovely button brooch to pin it with (thank you to Maria B who gave me the idea).....then decided it was too wide and I would prefer it a little thinner, so promptly unravelled it to start again! I am working on the new version - fingers crossed!
The end of 2010 was tinged with a good deal of sadness for me, with the loss of my beloved westie. He did have a fantastic long life but it doesn't make it any easier. He is irreplaceable and will always have a very special place in my heart. After convincing myself that I was not being disloyal by having another westie, we went to see some 11 day old puppies over the Christmas period. This is just one of the litter - how cute! Like minitiare polar bears. We visit again this month and, fingers crossed, one of the puppies will choose us!!!
With a birthday also over the festive period, we undertook the annual birthday pilgrimage to Southwold! I love it in Winter though I have to say the weather was not particularly great! It was a job to even see the sea! Southwold is home to Adnams and no visit is complete without a trip to the Adnams shop. I'd read that Adnams were producing their own gin (a favourite tipple) and so a small bottle was purchased for sampling on arrival home!
With all the traditional festive fare consumed at this time of year, the lure of a meal out just wasn't there! So, we had fish finger ciabatta sarnies - and gorgeous they were too!
As part of my birthday gift, Nic brought me some home made millionaires shortbread. It is to die for! It arrived appropriately beribboned on a lovely Piggery Pottery plate - just in time for dessert! What a fab birthday tea.
Halfpenny Home will be opening it's doors again on Saturday January 8th and we're both looking forward to a busy and exciting year. We wish you peace, happiness and lots of crafting joy for 2011.
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linda
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There are not many things that will stop us making stuff together but this latest spell of cold weather very nearly did!Anyone who has paid a visit to Halfpenny Home during the winter months (which last year seemed to run from October 2009 to May 2010!) will vouch for the fact that it can get pretty chilly there at times. In the past we have persevered, gritted our teeth and just got on with it but this year we have teamed up with Jane the landlady of the Rampant Horse Inn.
I first approached Jane with the proposal that the group of us who knit together on a Wednesday morning come to the pub for coffee and cake and she agreed to take us in! Platters of cakes and fresh coffee was laid on and everyone seemed to enjoy it, the regulars found it amusing when they popped in for their lunchtime pints!
Jane has also let us take over the restaurant on Monday evenings so the Sew and Crow ladies also get to craft in comfort and it's so close to HH headquarters (you can just about see our sign on the wall from the pub) which makes it the perfect alternative venue as we can just nip back to the shop for supplies!
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linda
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Finally - the hat which will be featuring in my Autumn/Winter collection. Along with my really long scarf and my big mittens it will keep me warm when I'm riding my bike!
I love the Knit Collage yarn that we have at HH and have been eager to get on with fashioning myself a hat in it. Just choosing the colour was hard enough as they are all so yummy...
I decided to go for Raspberry Sunset as it goes perfectly with this Fandango yarn from Colinette. I finished it this morning just in time for my trip down to the allotment to let out the chickens - before that I managed (with difficulty) to get a couple of pics. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out! The Fandango covers my ears and is really soft and snuggly, the Knit Collage is so chunky that it's made a lovely warm hat.
With the help of my lovely mum I have finished my jacket/cardigan/wrap thing that has been on the go since last Summer.
It's knitted in chunky Tweedy by Sirdar and was supposed to be finished in time for last Winter. I had nearly finished but when I did the sleeves I didn't like them so it's been folded up and sat on a stool next to my sewing machine all this time. I couldn't face starting the sleeves again so when mum said she fancied doing a bit of knitting I had it all ready for her!
She knitted them up in a flash and I couldn't wait to sew it all together and show it off! It has these long sides that waterfall down like this...
I'll have to get a snap of Floss wearing it so you can see it in all it's glory!Now I can get back to making Christmas presents, Nic x
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linda
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If you were wondering why Cherry is wearing a rather fetching green cuff...it's because she went roller skating and had a little bit of an accident! She is midway through knitting a rather lovely beret in a sparkly yarn and being left suddenly one-handed has left her with a dillema - to knit or not to knit? French Knitting maybe the answer, her sister Lily has been very productive as you may have seen in an earlier post.
Knitting is a pleasant and mildly addictive pastime as illustrated nicely by the photo below. On Saturday we had our last Craft and Vintage Fair at the Halfpenny Home Studio. Sam popped in for a bit of a knit before heading off to a family barbeque, Josie had come for the Vintage and Craft Fair but I managed to get her to knit up some Knit Collage yarn for me. Kate had cycled over from Stowmarket for some special buttons - we made her stay for a cuppa and she got out her knitting!
It was great to meet Marion who makes all these lovely things including chilli jam (my favourite) vegetable stock, chocolate brownies, preserves and lovely toys from recycled fabrics.
Scoffin' did us proud again with these cupcakes, banoffee muffins, bakewell tarts
fruit and cheese scones
and a fantastic carrot cake that was ordered for a special somebody's birthday!
The next Vintage and Craft Fair will be at The Ark in King William Street (near the Co-op) on the 18th September. All the usual crowd will be there and we look forward to seeing you again, as well as, we hope, lots of new visitors! If you would like a stall at any of the forthcoming events, or want to find out more, then please do email or phone the shop.
We look forward to seeing you, Nic x
