On the make....Tales from the New Forest!

I took my leave of HH last week for a week away in our motorhome. A visit to the New Forest, planned some months ago, was upon us! And what a beautiful area it is! Ponies of course, rule the roost, and roam freely along with the cows and the donkeys. They have the right of way over traffic and caused their own special brand of roadblock!

Apparently, as decreed by William the Conqueror, the animals are owned by those who live in the forest confines, "commoners" as they are called! Each person still has the right, upon payment of a certain levy, to graze animals, collect wood and, if they wish, dig for clay!
We were very close to Lymington and so the lure of a short ferry trip across to the Isle of Wight was too much to resist! Beautiful weather and beautiful views!


I always have to take along a crafting project when I go away and this trip was no exception. I'd carried on the weaving started when we were at Waterstones last month and had the idea that I would make a little cushion, similar to that featured in our book.


However, by the time it came off the frame, I decided that a textural 'vessel' was more the order of the day!!

So, using the same technique as the little Knit Collage 'nest' in our book, I set about making a fleecy bottom - over a glass of wine, of course! Nic had given me a sample of a new yarn that will shortly be arriving at HH, to try out.

It's called 'Baba'. Aren't the colours just fab?

In between the crafting we ventured out on some beautiful walks.

The views were enormously varied from countryside to coast in one walk - how cute are these newly shawn llamas? They were a little wary of young Rory!

I took this photo of the dandelion flower and seconds after Rory showed his appreciation by demolishing the subject matter!

A funghi shot especially for 'mushroom' Jane!

We stopped for a picnic en route!

Before reaching the shoreline......

This reminded me so much of our day spent on the Nacton shoreline when we were doing our candle style shots this time last year! The only thing missing is the candles!

On the final day of our hols, I managed to finish my project! I think it will be perfect for my overspill of odds and ends of ribbon that currently need a home! Despite the glorious colours and textures I can't help feeling that the addition of a button would add a certain something....you know me!

And, just to finish, a very contented and pooped Rory after another long walk, just before we made our journey home!

A fab time was had by all!

Who needs to go abroad?

Jacquix

Here are a few of my favourite things...

One of the best things about taking Halfpenny Home out and about to a craft fair is the packing up of all our most favourite things...this Aspalls bag has been used an awful lot and not always just for the lovely Aspalls Cyder bottles it was originally designed to carry - it's also perfect for transporting the handpainted knitting needles that we love using!

It was my turn to choose which of our favourite goodies from HH HQ I wanted to take along to the Saint's Fair in Ipswich, a BRILLIANT craft fair organised by the rather wonderful Jess and Chris combo imakefunstuff - it's always a lot of fun!

As you can see I decided to show off just some of the ribbons, ric rac and trimmings that we have along with some rather wonderful Knit Collage and Gedgrave Flock yarns!
It was lovely to meet people that had read about Jacqui and I in the EADT piece by Steven Russell 'The Tweeter and the Tax Investigator' BUT the highlight (for me!) was meeting up with a fellow Tweeter @katiewardwriter ! Katy has just had her first novel Girl Reading published and as we are all local writers Ipswich Waterstones have been so very supportive and organised events for us!
Twitter brings the most unlikely people together - crafty girl meets a proper author! Katie is as lovely in real life as she is on Twitter! (as this bit of the blog is all about my obsession with twitter I should add a :-) right about now...) as I also met up with @katyark who I have met a lot in real life but didn't realise she was her...and she dodged the camera, tsk!

Look at those scrumptious yarns...irresistable!

The other great bit of Sunday was that on arrival I found that the HH stall was right next to a great friend of both Jacqui and I! Anita is a glass blower and she runs amazing workshops where you can transform old glass into beautiful pieces of art for your home!

Some of the fantastic cheeseboards that Anita makes from old wine bottles.

All this socialising and chatting about craft can build up quite an appetite but I never bother with taking along a picnic (unusual for me!) for the Saint's Fair as the food on sale there is always fab!

The lovely stallholders even delivered...

What a lovely day, Nic x

A Yearning for Yarn...

Mmmmm....lovely new yarns from Knit Collage arrived at Halfpenny Home yesterday, we've been waiting a little while for these so the excitement meter hand hit maximum!
Rolling Stone is one of the yarn ranges that sit alongside the very much loved Gypsy Garden ones that we are such big fans of at HH HQ - it gets non-knitters knitting and even fellas find it hard to resist a bit of a knit...

Gorgeous!

We were both especially taken by the scrummy Pixie Dust yarns - we've not had these before and they are amazing! Lumpy, bumpy yarns with angelina fibre for some heavenly sparkle...

Look at how lovely and green the Emerald Rainforest is.....sigh! I'm so eager to get out a pair of needles and knit one of these up but can't decide which one....

After these lovely crocheted apple cosies appeared on the cover of Mollie Makes we've all been making them - they're addictive! It gives us a good excuse to get the hooks out, use up some of those odd bits of yarn and (of course) choose a very special button with which to embellish them with!

A great deal of debate over the practicality of such fruit jumpers raged during knitting on Wednesday and following a recent trip into Ipswich I can report that they do indeed help to prevent your breaktime apple from getting bumped and grazed whilst rolling around in your favourite wicker basket....
The trip to Ipswich was to pick up the fliers for our 'crafty afternoon' which is on Friday 3rd June at Ipswich Waterstones. We'll be there from Noon with some of the projects from A Green Guide to Country Crafts, come along and say hello, it would be lovely to see you!

Janine at Ipswich Waterstones is really lovely and particularly good at promoting and supporting local authors like us and Katie Ward, a fellow 'tweeter' whose first novel Girl Reading has just been published.

There we are! We are those 'crafty'people...

Look forward to seeing some friendly faces there and perhaps even meeting up with some blog-buddies?
Nic and Jacqui x

Art and Craft (and cake!)

The good wives of Sew and Crow don't usually need much of an excuse to plonk a cake on a cakestand! We did, however have a very valid reason indeed - Lisa Museum's Birthday! Sam made her a wonderful cheesecake ala Nigel Slater and as Lisa is a stitcher and crochet queen we all partook in a little embroidery for the evening.
So armed with hoops, linen, silks and disappearing marker pens we were ready for what proved to be a very, tranquil evening.

Jeanetta approached this make-along with a little trepidation but inspired by the Made in France book by Agnes Delage-Calvet and Annie Sohier-Fournel and Doodles by Aimee Ray she was soon well and truly hooked! Last seen hotfooting from Halfpenny HQ clutching some embroidery hoops...

Miss Pat tackled these pretty intials for her daughter.

Lisa stitched these lovely little birds!

Michelle tackled this mother bird feeding a worm to her chick, and all the way through Wellington, Sam's cat snoozed gently...

Back at Halfpenny Home the following morning I was met by the postman bearing a parcel from the USA, it was from Amy at Knit Collage and contained yarns from her new collection!

They are fab, Amy had sent them over for one of our online customers.

Amy had suggested the yarn Rolling Stone in the colourway Shooting Star as a substitute for Stardust Garland which is sadly out of stock at the moment. Knit Collage produce handspun yarns with trimmings added during the spinning process, they are so special it's no wonder they were so popular at the recent TNNA trade show in the US.

This is Candy Cane in Cotton Candy (above) and Blueberry Marshmallow (below) YUM!

All wrapped up and ready to go off to the lucky recipient...

Meanwhile, I had been given a job to do - some moss for Jane Southgate's art exhibit Rural Collusions.

We've been getting some of HH's enthusiastic knitters to make musrooms and we have gathered together quite a herd which will accompany the ones that Jane has made herself - each one has been lovingly made and returned to HH HQ and a slip of paper with the craftsperson's name written on has been placed inside.

Even though the pattern was the same the differences in yarns, needle size and the tension of the knitter means that they are all so different!

The Wednesday morning knitting group is currently held at The Rampant Horse Inn which is just over the yard from Halfpenny Home. Jane and Robert have made us feel very welcome and Robert brings us coffe, tea and cakes. Jane and I were particularly pleased to see Battenburg making an appearance this week.
Jane was showing off her latest non-fungi related knitting projects, the peaked cap and her socks which I'll do a post about with mine shortly!

I've been wearing my Colinette scarf almost non-stop since I made it as it's been so very cold and that means that I haven't had the chance to show off the button jewellery that Jane made me for Christmas!
But last night I was invited to have dinner with friends and took the opportunity to show it off!

I love it! Nic x