A Little Woolly Tree

I don't normally post my needlefelting creations here.  Not really sure why.  Well, since the past week has been about being trapped in the house with wool instead of willow, I've not got anything else to post!! So here's one I made last night!

I doooOOooo love working with wool.  It's very satisfying, if a little odd that stabbing something lots and lots should be so pleasing!

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant news about chickens!!  I'm booked to collect 4 ex-battery hens in the middle of June!  I'm a little apprehensive about how upset I'll be but I can't wait for the opportunity to give them a home!  

When I was in my early teens I plastered my school & family with information about battery eggs, battery meat chickens & battery meat pigs.  Finally I can practically do something to directly offer a bit of relief to a minute fraction of these suffering animals.  Oh... bloody hell...  I can't wait.

hen
xx

Homemaking and crochet

Hello!

As I've been convalescing I've not been able to blog or do anything else much - well, apart from learn to CROCHET!!!!

Thanks to Kittyboo over at the lovely Little Slice of Life blog for the inspiration and the 'Learn Crochet' booklet!  I think I prefer the action of crochet to knitting, my hands hurt less.  It might be because it's all new though.  We'll see.  I'm crocheting a scarf at the moment and I'm loving it.  I'm not sure the edges are as they should be but it's an experimental 'learning' scarf so that doesn't matter too much!

I'm so excited about the fact that you can have a twig with a hook on it, tie a slip knot on to it and then through a series of wrapping yarn round the twig and pulling it through the slip knot you can make really useful stuff!  It's amazing!  I'm going to whittle me some crochet hooks!!

I've also been really enjoying reading lots of blogs.  Today I read a post by Rhonda Jean over at the Down to Earth blog.  I'd commented on her blog a little while ago about how my generation was brought up to see housework and child rearing as a lower class of work, almost demeaning.   I was taught through the media and society that being successful in business was far more important than child rearing.  I now crave the skills that were never nurtured in me.  Homemaking skills.  Basic, day to day running of a home and the simplicity and beauty in it.  

It might sound silly to most of you, but to me housework is a chore and it takes a lot for me to 'get round' to doing it.  Everything, anything, else is way more important and certainly more interesting.  

However, I know deep down that the well-being of the people in my home is partially eased by being in a space that's been lovingly made warm, safe, clean and welcoming.  

I've been working hard for years now to improve how I feel about homemaking and I really think I'm getting somewhere. I know what's right, it's just tough to change the decades of brain washing!  All of the women and men on the Creative Living forum are an inspiration as are the blogs I visit.  Thank you!

Give Rhondas post a read, it's spot on! 

 http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2009/02/secret-life-of-happy-homemaker.html

hen

xxx

Some things what I made over Christmas and that

Now, most of these pictures are really badly shot, as I forgot to take any when I had time and instead snapped them in bad light and as people were trying to leave the house!

This first basket is a 'Little Things' basket that I made for a lovely woman to give to her lovely someone...


This is a basket that I sold so it could be given to someone's lovely mum...


I gave this basket as a gift to my spangly best friend, the bean of spangledom. (Please forgive us our girliness, we can't help ourselves!)


My bro has this now, whether he wanted it or not!


My other bestfriend, we shall call him 'Ebob of no particular wit', puts his pants in this basket now. Unclean pants, I hear. tsk.


I gave the basket below to my aforementioned best friend, Ebob of no particular wit. He puts boys things in it. Pv tape, batteries, bits of string, speaker bits, 'noggits and tings' - whatever they are (smelly boys things no doubt)


I made this little bag for my squeeely spangle bean friend to keep her special stones and cards in. It's the 'horny trinity head bag' that I made on solitary retreat, which I turned into an actual bag, because that's really what it was!


So, I had a busy but lovely time! And everyone was very polite about their gifts too!!

Spinning wool and a great use for my herb basket!

Now, at the risk of going on... I found a perfect use for the little basket I made. Inspired by Mrs L over at her blog 21st Century Housewife, I sat down and practiced my spinning. 4 hours I sat there! It's the first time I managed to fill the bobbin without giving up, so I was pleased! It's a twisty mess but it doesn't matter because not all of it is! I plan to knit a masterpiece with it, well a rustic, novelty masterpiece!



Having that little basket hanging there is perfect! Just for odds and ends and bits and bobs.




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Now playing: Dick Gaughan - Banks Of Green Willow
via FoxyTunes

How to Use a Peg Loom

If you find this post useful, why not leave a comment, I'd love to hear about what you make!

I have only just had a go at using a peg loom for the first time the other week. So there's bound to be better advice by people who have done this loads! This is what I did anyway and I love the resulting bum warmer!! Steve's crafts helped me with how to use the loom. Hope this is useful.
Right...

Ingredients...
A peg loom
Strong warp thread, something you know isn't going to break.
Wool or strips of fabric or anything weave-able

Instructions...

For each peg use about 3 times the length of warp thread of the size of the thingymajig you are making.
Pull the warp through the hole until you get to the middle of the thread.
Bring both ends to the front of the peg, letting it hang loose. They should be of equal lengths.


Repeat that with each peg until it looks something like this...


Starting from one end of the loom knot together the ends of the warp threads of 3 pegs, that should be 6 threads per knot. Repeat with the rest of the pegs.


Get your wool or whatever you plan to use and, a few pegs up from the end of the loom, start to weave in and out of the pegs.
If you're using wool then just tease it into lengths as you weave.
If you are using shortish lengths or your wool separates, then just get your new bit of wool and overlap a few pegs worth of what you have just done.


When you get to the end of the loom go round the last peg and continue to weave in and out.


It'll start to build up quite quickly...


When you get to the top of your pegs you're ready to move what you have woven from your pegs down and on to the warp threads.


Lift out your end peg and give it a little wiggle as you pull the peg up and out of the wool.


The wool should slide on to the warp thread easily.
Pull the thread all the way through until you reach the knot.
Replace the peg into it's hole.


It looks a bit of a jumble as you work your way along the loom, but it's very satisfying.
Remember to replace the peg each time.


It'll look like this when you've done all the pegs...


Now you can start the whole process all over again until your thingymajig is the size you want.

Remember that you have to leave enough warp thread to knot the ends in the same way that you did at the beginning. You do this by cutting the warp threads free from the pegs and knotting together, as before, the threads of 3 pegs.

I like tassles, but Steve's Crafts says that if you don't want them then use a large eyed needle and thread the warp up through the work.

Fleece arrived and I have a squishdog!

Bought some lovely fleece from Ebay so I can get started on my peg loom. Going to make a rug or something??! I bought that copper bowl yesterday from the Red Cross shop and I love it! Not as much as Willow loves that fleece though!


Yes, this is a Border Collie, a breed famous for their hard work in all weathers up the highest mountains in the country. I made up this bed, went to make a cuppa came back and found this! She's so soft! tut, tut.

I made a mitt and it's warm.

Only done one so far. It's the first time I've done rib stitch and added any colours in and I've only done two head bags before, so I am quite pleased. I got the basic pattern from a lovely woman over on the Creative Living Forum. Thank yoo!!

Guess where I got the wool from? Yip, Woolly Shepherd!