Strawberry Pots forever

 

A lovely crop beckons from our little pot of strawberries out in the garden. Thanks to Granny to providing the summer entertainment which is providing many and various opportunities to confirm colour names. Tilly is adamant that the ENTIRE plant is red and ready at all times and needs significant convincing that there may in fact be green elements to it occasionally.

Crafting with unofficial materials Part Two

Part One here

My surfing and meandering through the long and expansive halls of the internet has unearthed this lovely range of little wonders: all available online and through the joys of Ravelry, with the exception of two books which are particularly floating my boat this week:

Uncommon Crochet and

Knitting Green: Conversations and Plant-friendly Projects

Suffice to say, they are now on my wishlist and have inspired all manner of pretty things on my needles (the imaginary ones in my head, of course. I’ve already got about 8 WIPs going already)…

And so, without further ado… the patterns… Will be sharing my progress on one or other of these in the near future… Let the string hooky commence…

Helen Limbrick’s Twine basket

Alice Merlino’s Starling Bag

Erika Knight’s Knitted Baskets

Kim Hamlin’s On the Go Bike Basket Purse from the lovely looking Knitting Green: Conversations and Planet Friendly Projects

Flower Burst bag pattern by Yasmin Gamal

Abigail Bailey’s Summery Jute Bag

Crafting with Unofficial Materials

No matter where you look, there is inspiration to be found. There are bits and bobs all around your house that are just waiting to be purloined and repurposed, as I have found to my delight on the wonderful ‘From Trash to Treasures’ group on Ravelry.

I’ve had a thought for a while of making placemats out of parcel string for my parents’ house. Their dining table is in a conservatory and placemats always fade in an instant when exposed to such constant and strong sunshine. The ‘outside-in’ elemnt of string placemats has also piqued my interest…

However, a basic search of patterns yielded nothing at all. I think this is most likely because the ‘yarn’ doesn’t exist as an official individual catalogued yarn and therefore it’s difficult to pin down…I then remembered that I can search by projects and so hunted for ‘twine’ in projects.

Wowsers what a source of inspiration and wonder…

Bufordsmom’s Crochet bags

Catfluff’s Deluxe String Bag with gorgeous trim applique

Yarnyday’s beaded placemat

Wubbahed’s Jute-a-long Handbag

PumeZA Doily Rug

Ikasatka's pot&glass-holder

RaeA’s Messenger Bag with extraordinary handles – you can read more about her work here

KellyLane6’s Round Cushion with string, rather than twine

Mocakava’s Miragamo bag with leather handles specifically commissioned from a local craftsman for such a fabulously professional finish.

A post on patterns and other official routes to achieve this gorgeous look to follow… :-)

Thanks for the mention!

Lovely Studio Parlay chose my handprinted teatowels to feature in her Friday Folksy roundup!

How very splendid!

Get yours here, and don’t forget that you can have ANYTHING YOU LIKE printed on the towels – quotes, poems, ceremony readings or even just a simple little one-liner that makes you (or the recipient) smile…

Thanks Danielle and happy crafting!

World Wide Knit in Public Day picture…

Wine tasting was excellent.

I'm test-knitting a shrug for buttons and beeswax and was delighted to discover this morning that there were no glaring mistakes in my tipsy stitching.

Will upload projects notes to Ravelry once I’ve finished the project – should be shortly as I’ve promised it by the end of the month… eek!

World Wide Knit in Public Day

Today, as I’m sure you’re aware, is highly prized on all international holiday calendars. I’m sure Hallmark has a range of cards to support it. I’m sure you’ve sent your felicitations and have celebrated in all the time honoured traditions… What?? You mean you don’t know?? Goodness me…

Today… is … World Wide Knit In Public Day.

I’m off to the Peahen to join in a winetasting evening with my fellow St Albans Stitch n Bitchers with yarn in hand, a combination I’m sure you agree is guaranteed to end well… Photos, wine reviews and pictures of ever-more-wonky knitting to follow…

Feeling friendly!?

Come over and find me here: facebook.com/homespunliving…

I’ve finally got on the job and created a ‘social networking’ presence – I’ll be highlighting new workshops, new sales listings and general chatter there – it’d be great to see you around!

x

The Chateau of Princes

The incredibly imposing and vast estate of the Chateau de Conde was the setting for the wedding that took the Boy and I over to sunny France over the jubilee weekend. We were sad to miss the extended and exciting celebrations, not least of all the street party that I had to pass on to other neighbours to organise this time. However, it was hard not to forget the British jubilations in such splendour and celebrations as we experienced on the south side of the Channel…

Waiting before the service in front of the glorious Chateau, then walking over to the village of Vallery’s church before the service… The bridesmaids and exceedingly cute flower girls were dressed from Monsoon, though they don’t seem to be available anymore on the site.

   

The groom is a Major in the Marines so there were plenty of uniforms to feast your eyes upon as well, if you were able to tear your glances away from the stunning bride. My friend runs marathons for FUN (I know, I don’t understand that sentence, either) and my the figure she gets from such ridiculous activity shows! An utterly stunning lace and silk dress with whispy train and floating veil for the church. 

A knight in shining armour was demanded by the bride, and one of the groomsmen obliged with full regalia.

The dinner that followed was delicious, finished off with the scrumptious cake cut by no less than the Sword of Galahad, not to be confused with the Sword of Gryffindor… Two very different weapons…

The cake was by a friend of the bride, who I later discovered was no less than Rachel of Rachelle’s Cakes, one of the contributors to the Natural Wedding Book and a guest speaker at the upcoming Cake and Bake Show in September. I will do a separate post on her creations, but I can confirm that her cakes are even more delicious than they look.

All in all, an utterly splendid way to spend a few days in the sunshine. I’m sure her Maj won’t mind too much that we missed her party.

En vacances…

Gorgeous gardens behind the Cathedral in the scrumptious town of Sens…

 

Pretty streets and ancient buildings in the Sens central avenues…

 

Silly faces pulled on our holiday home steps in the Fountainebleau Forest…

A lovely time with sufficiently few pictures to prove it. It must have been relaxing!

Wasp Bag – my new BFF

I just had to dedicate a whole post to this fabulous pattern.

My long-serviced Accessorise handbag had finally begun to give up the ghost. I LOVE my golden yellow Breagha handbag, but sadly Harris Tweed is not ideal for hot summer days… I began searching the internet for inspiration and ideas for a summer version, thinking I could raid my stash, maybe, for the right pattern…

And what a pattern! The use of the thrifted leather belt for shoulder strap reminded me of a scrap length of gold leather I ‘liberated’ from a wardrobe department I once worked in, and I FINALLY found a use for my favourite ever piece of printed canvas (it’s either linen, silk or cotton twill – it’s a dense weave, but is very light in weight and doesn’t crease like linen, so I’m veering towards silk…) that I found in a bin at a charity shop for about 50p.

 

 

 

 

I took it out this morning for the first time, with Tilly in tow… This is a rundown of the contents this morning:

• wallet
• keys
• phone
• sunglasses (in case)
• three lipbalms
• large Factor 50 suncream
• Tshirt, leggings and pants in case of ‘accident’
• Tilly’s sunglasses
• water bottle
• business card holder
• 2 x hankies
• cereal bar
• mini raisins box
• travel card wallet
• nail file
• mints
• hand sanitiser
• cheque book
• pen
• hair bobble

Suffice to say, this is no pansy-ass bag. This feels substantial, carries your cr*p like the Tardis and still looks stylish.

And yet, it still manages to squeeze itself out of less than 70cm of fabric and only take an evening to knock together.

 

I *fear* every person I know is going to get one of these for Christmas… Colour/ print requests accommodated on a first come, first served basis…

Stitching and Sunshine

During my bloggish downtime, I managed to make use of a pretty label on the reverse of a friend’s wedding cushion. Can’t show it yet, but delighted with it in any case! Will be off to France next week to celebrate with her so will post on our return.

  

Cath Kidston scraps patched together into a small lap quilt for a friend’s birthday, backed and bound in one with pale green cotton… 

Another wedding commission, this time for a friend, featuring hand embroidered detail to the reverse and appliqued vintage fabrics to spell out their new titles! The ‘r’ of Mr is a man’s shirting fabric, and the ‘M’ of Mrs is a vintage embroidered handkerchief…

 

Let’s not forget the knitting either…

Autumnal Mitts and Holiday shrug – not exactly hot weather work but hey ho!

And then gratuituos picture of sunshine happiness to ensure we’re all aware of the GLORIOUS weather we’re having.

Have a lovely weekend!