Clever Knits!

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

Fungi Fun!

The dye pots have been out again and this time we have a perfect excuse (not that we need one!) as we have been dyeing all sorts of textiles for Jane Southgate to use in her artwork.
Sam whose alter ego is Peg the Dyer at Kentwell Hall has been leading the dyeing and working with Jane to get the correct colours. We love to dye with plants at HH and are particularly fond of the purple feather reed heads that grow around here. They are ready to use in the summer but the season is so short that we have been experimenting with drying and freezing the heads so that we can dye with them all through the winter too!

The dyebath made from the reed heads looks just like Ribena!
We are extremely proud to be sponsoring Jane's latest projects at Thornham Walks and Lackford Lakes in Suffolk but we made it clear from the start that we would expect her to join in when we came to dye the yarns and fabrics...

Here she is supervising the madder dye bath, that fleece hanging on the line behind her is from the Gedgrave Flock www.gedgrave-wensleydales.blogspot.com a lovely curly fleece!

Even though the reed head dye bath is the colour of Ribena the shade you get at the end is this - actually my camera struggles with this and it's much greener in real life!

As well as the fleece and yarns from the Gedgrave sheep Jane is also making good use of the Colinette 'Point 5' yarn that we sell at Halfpenny Home and this is the shade 'Turquoise'. I'm pretty sure that it's not what the Colinette designers would have expected their gorgeous hand dyed yarn to be used for...

Jane is planning to make a hundred of these...can you imagine them all swaying in the breeze? The star of the show (so far) for me has to be this bracket fungus, the bottom part has been dyed with woad and the curly lid is the fleece that we dyed with madder. Everyone who meets it wants to hug it!

Jane is using natural fibres only as the artworks will stay in situ for a year while nature does it's own recycling...

The moss which is knitted in moss stitch!

Mushrooms!

The mushrooms knitted with Colinette 'Skye' in the colourway 'Star Anise', lovely! Jane wants us all to knit a mushroom for this and has written a pattern for them, so if you would like to knit one let us know and we'll send the pattern, yarn (and if you need them, some double pointed needles!) to you.

Country Crafts from the Studio of Halfpenny Home!

Visitors to Halfpenny Home have been inspired by some of the many craft titles that CICO books have produced. In particular, the Cabbages & Roses Home Made Vintage has sparked lots of creative makes at the studio in recent months.

Imagine then, how excited we were when CICO asked us to write a craft book for them! CICO are part of Ryland Peters and Small and produce beautiful craft books with lavish photography. As you can see, we've been enjoying just a small selection of these! Our book is going to be produced under CICO's Green Home series, which sits perfectly with the ethos of Halfpenny Home!

We have been asked to produce 35 projects with step by step instructions. We are very privileged to be working alongside a really great photographer, Gavin Kingcome (www.gavinkingcome.com), who has provided the photography for a number of the River Cottage Handbooks.

It's been a really brilliant excuse to play with lots of creative supplies and we have also asked some Halfpenny Home friends to help us. Laura, who makes soap and Sam, who every summer becomes Peg the Dyer at Kentwell Hall, Long Melford (www.kentwell.co.uk)

So thank you to all our Halfpenny Home friends and followers for all your enthusiasm, inspiration and support.

Nic & Jacqui x