All things Christmasy!

I am glad to say that virtually all my preparations for Christmas are complete. Do you like my peg angel I designed her as a hand made gift for the girls to make for their teachers and a special friend (- you'll know who you are when you receive yours!) After making my trial one above I bought the pegs, cut out all the fabrics, ribbons etc and stuck on the hair so all they had to do was assemble them and do the glueing. It sounds simple doesn't it, how is it with children nothing ever is!!! However, here are the ones they made- a whole host of angels.

I don't know about you but i think they're gorgeous and I'd be very pleased to receive one.

Thankfully all my handmade christmas cards are now completed and posted so all this mess has disappeared, 150 cards later! I'm not sure if I'll have time to blog again between now and Christmas, incase i don't -
                                       MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL.

What have I been up to recently?

Well although I haven't blogged for a while I've been really productive, honest! It started with this Darth Vader birthday cake for my husbands birthday, not a masterpiece but recognisable at least.

Then it was full steam ahead on handmade christmas presents- knitting scarves, tea cosies, socks, hand warmers/ fingerless gloves, and sewing aprons, bags and fabruckets etc- I'm just hoping no-one i've made them for will see this post before they receive the gift!! And then of course there's all the culinary goodies i've been bottling and baking.

I have still managed to find some time to crochet up a few more puffballs, for my Rural Collusions project, in these fabulous new shades of the cotton tape that I dyed earlier with Nicola and Sam at Halfpenny Home (check out the blog at www.halfpennyhome.blogspot.com).  These colours are the green from purple feathery rush heads (common reed), the pale pink from brazil wood and the darker rose colour from kutch( i'm not sure that's spelt correctly) over dyed with brazil wood and don't they look good placed on my christmas tree for a real natural, and festive, effect. Right I must go and finish making my christmas cards i think 100 are done only 20 odd to go!!!!

Moss Carpet and tree weaving

Two other pieces I have started making for Rural Collusions, using some of  the natural dyed yarns, are a knitted moss carpet to be placed around the base of a tree at Thornham walks and a maquette for a weaving I am going to make between, and incorporating, a row of trees also at Thornham walks. The moss carpet is knitted in moss stitch of course, (I find that deeply pleasing and it makes me slightly smug!) , and this will eventually be 'rag rugged' in places later . The weaving will not only be made with all these wonderful yarns, both things we have dyed and those straight from the suppliers, but also I will include grass, twigs, naturally occurring plant sources etc from Thornham. It's so exciting.  Back to work lots to do! 

Purple feathery rush heads and puffballs

This piece of work that is based on the purple feathery rushes (common reed) is to be shown at Lackford Lakes, Suffolk, the reeds are found growing widely there. Not only am I basing the work on the form of these reeds, but we have used the reed heads to actually dye some of the textiles I am using. It produces the green colour of the pieces dangling from my rushes. I am hoping to make a beautiful colony of these on one of the sand banks that will waft around in the wind.

Puffballs

These pieces crocheted in cotton tape and based on puffballs have also been dyed with purple feathery rush heads. These are also to be installed at Lackford and will eventually creep along a branch and form a cluster hanging down from there.

Lots to do before next Easter!!!! 

Natural Dyes and bracket fungi

I have made this bracket fungi using natural Gedgrave flock fleece dyed with madder , the orange top, and cotton interlining dyed with wode for the gills. We’ve dyed with weld- yellow, golden rod - yellow, brazil wood – varying shades of pink and purple, madder – orange, and wode – blue.

Dont these colours look amazing, scrumptious and make you want create something marvellous !

Rural Collusions

I am currently working on a project with Ruth Richmond called Rural Collusions. The work will be exhibited at Thornham walks, Thornham Magna and Lackford Lakes, Lackford from Easter 2011. 

My work for this project is concentrating on organisms that grow in rural places and assist in the recycling process in nature, for instance fungi that grow on dead and rotting items.

I wrote this pattern for my knitted mushrooms by playing around with my knitting and looking at images of chanterelles. Nicola Gouldsmith from Halfpenny Home (Halfpenny Home Blog) is very kindly sponsoring my work and her first input was to teach me to knit-in-the-round, she’s a great teacher and I was soon able to make up my pattern. I’ve made over thirty mushrooms now and have even got the ladies from Halfpenny Home knitting groups to follow my pattern and add their own mushroom to my infestation. I am using natural fibres so that as the work is left in situ for a year and it is added to or recycled by nature- our rural collusion, it is not detrimental to the environment. I have even been using natural dyes with Nicola so that the work is even more kind to its surroundings.