Friday 18 November 2011

Folksy Friday - November Nexus 18th Nov

Well here's my second November Nexus blog. I had a great theme all worked out but then some of my best pics went and got sold!! Honestly how inconsiderate, you're not supposed to sell things on Folksy...lol..

Well I managed to find a few other lovely things to add to my list

So here is the Black and White ball, think icy sparkling stars in an inky black sky.





Thats all folks, remember, support your handmade crafts, we may become an endangered species

Friday 4 November 2011

Folksy Friday - November Nexus

Hi, well after a few months break I've decided to join this months daily listing club. It really is hard work making and posting something every day. Particulary with the day job and the nights drawing in, so its hard to photo things.

But enough of my moaning the reason I'm here now is to do a new Folksy Friday featuring my fellow Nexians...? That's not a word...but then nor is Folksians..lol

So here are some lovley items that I found while browsing and clicking on the November Nexus thread.  They are also linked by being fabric based. I'm gonna be brave and try for linking through the pic, so if this works please click on each pic to go through to the shop:






Friday 28 October 2011

Folksy Friday

Well there I was at Westfield Stratford City, London's newest and most crowded shopping centre. We got as far as M+S when I started to feel faint and very strange. Luckily as soon as I got to the open air I felt much better. It must be the air, I did find myself wondering how they keep fresh air circulating through the whole place. (obviously badly..) When we passed Mucky Ds the smell was particularly ghastly. Anyway enough waffling, the thing I wanted to say was that we were looking for a cake tin to put the freshly made Christmas cake when my daughter remembered that we were going to get a table runner or some nice place mats or napkins for the Christmas table. That was when I started to feel ill so we never got round to looking at M+S. But of course I had forgotten Folksy, that handy resource for all things handmade, original and much better than some mass produced item from a chain store.

I've found 9 items so far and when I looked back on them I realised I wanted to feature all of them today, so I will just be showing the pics with a link to the shops. I tried getting the pics to be the links a few times ago but it didn't work very well....so pics and not much writing. Except to say this, the hand knitted and the hand crocheted table cloths, guys!! you are way undercharging for those, I know how much work must have gone into those, I would never attempt either of them, and the workmanship on these items them is just superb.

So without further ado and not in any order of preference:

 Click here for the shop above
 Click Here for the shop above.
 Click here for the shop above.
 Click here for the shop above.
 Click here for the shop above.
 Click here for the shop above.
 Click here for the shop above
 Click here for the shop above.
And click here for this shop. Happy shopping.

Friday 21 October 2011

Folksy Friday

Just a quick post..being hassled to cook dinner. In honor of Halloween and the orange and black gloves that I''m making at the moment, here is an orange and black folksy friday..nothing specifically halloweenish but some great picks..

First an orange! When I saw the thumbnail of this  I thought it was a real one, beautifully simple yet perfect.


View this here

On to one of my favourite categories for gifts for me..hint hint..This lovely bag just jumped out at me. It would make a great knitting bag. You can visit the shop here

And the last orange which begins with z hooray for zeds and zebras. A really beautiful picture which would brighten up any room.
 View this item here

Now on to the blacks, I was looking for something unusual and this brilliant book came along. Very novel (sorry, no pun intended) at least I've never seen anything like it. This would make a lovely present for someone especially a fan of 'Black Books"...lol.


Look for the details of this item here

Finally some jewellery. These sweet delicate earrings are very tempting..no..I don't need any more jewellery..no..no..they remind me of a ginkgo leaf which is one of my favourite shapes.



If you want to buy them go here

And on to a quirky ring, my daughters love lego and funny lego jewellery.

So if anyone you know is like them you can make them happy by going to this shop

That's all for now..enjoy shopping and have a lovely weekend.


Saturday 8 October 2011

Knitting and Stitching show 2011

Well hello there. This is a belated Folksy Friday because I was at the Kniting and Stitching show from opening to closing yesterday and I was too tried to do a blog by the time I got back.

I did enjoy the show although I spent too much money!! I noticed less stalls then last year which itself had less than the year before. Also a lot less knitting and yarn stalls and lots more sewing related stalls. Sigh! I guess that's the way of fashion, I definitely feel that knitting and crochet are slipping out of fashion, I don't know where that leaves me. I love knitting and crochet and I can't sew to save my life..I shall just become an unfashionable granny making things for the ungrateful family. Not a granny yet btw. And since my oldest is only 19 I don't want to be one any day soon.

This is the only picture I took. It is a dress made from recycled black plastic bags and was made by a Central St Martins student called Montana. She is the daughter of Helda who organises the crochet meet ups I get notifications about. I haven't actually met Helda because the one time I made one of the meetups she spend the entire time trapped in a lift at her flats. I kid you not, when her friend came to the meet up and told us what happened I think we all thought she was joking at first. Montana won a prize for this. It is amazing and wonderful in reality, so sorry about the rubbish photo.

So in keeping with the spirit of the show this weeks Folksy theme is Sheep also inspired by a lovely sheep brooch that I found a week or so ago while browsing Folksy forums. I love felt and the luminous colours of this mini work of art just sing to me.

This beautiful brooch can be found here

From a felted brooch to a bead brooch. I love this simple yet very effective image, beading is one of those crafts I could never do but I have great admiration for it.
You can visit this site from here.

From beads to polymer clay, not such a big jump as many beads are made from this material. This Folksy seller used it to great effect. I love her mice which are without a doubt some of the cutest mice in the universe..and these hairy sheep are gorgeous too. Please go to her site and browse, I promise you wont be disappointed.

What does that leave, ah yes these little sheep are made by K Scott Crafts and they are charms on a bracelet, great idea beautifully executed.
Now if all that exertion has left your computer room a bit stuffy then bring a waft of sweet scents to freshen it up with this hanging sheep.


I hope all these lovely quirky funny sheep have brought a smile to your grey Saturday, I know they have to mine.

Friday 16 September 2011

Folksy Friday

It seems ages since a did one of these, oh wait it was...lol..that explains it. I was going to go through my list of already favourited items in Folksy but I realised I couldn't tell which I'd used for a previous post..I'm still saving all those favourites. I realised that Christmas is not so very far away and if you are ordering things by post then you should already be thingking about these things..sigh, sorry to depress with the awful word but many wonderful and varied gifts can be yours for the taking from all the lovely talented Folksy folk. To find this weeks picks I've used the theme of mist as that was a theme in my new scarf that I posted today. I remember someone commenting on one of the forums about how strange the Folksy search engine was, and I noticed it again today, the last two itmes in my selection seem to have nothing to do with the word mist whatsover! Its very puzzeling why they came up in my search but nonetheless they are both interesting items so I've included them.

So on to item 1

This beautiful pendant matches my theme and colours perfectly and what a lovely name for a stone, chalcedony, just try saying it, it conjurers up lovely thoughts of romance and mystery. Please view it here

Item number 2 is also some jewellery, this time misty rose quartz, said to help with love and we all need a bit of that now and again. Click here for the site.

Now onto an actual image of a misty winters day, perfectly captured by Storm the Keep. Please click on the name to go to the site.

This next item is a gorgeous blouse, hand made and customizable, please click here to see the site.
And, last but not least, a truly delicious sounding body scrub. They've made it sound so yummy that I think I would want to eat it not wash with it..


Please visit all these lovely Folksy folk and don't forget...even now I can hear the far off tinkling of bells..oh wait that's my really annoying wind charm...lol. The body scrum can be found here

Monday 1 August 2011

Socks and Wedding Shawls

Well the wedding shawl was finished in the nick of time and delivered. I've been waiting for some of the wedding pics so I can show it at it's best but I haven't heard anything from the bride so I will just post the pics that I took, indoors and not very good. I got paid £50.00 which is what the materials cost. My fault, I offered. I don't think I realised how much work it would be. On the other hand I did actually enjoy doing it and I've learnt quite a bit about crochet lace, good to have to work to a deadline as well. I wasn't even invited to the wedding!!


This is one end...


This is the middle....

And here's the other end...lol..It was 72 inches long, a tad too long for short armed people like me and it turned out the bride. The one thing that didn't occure to me was whether it was the right size. A shawl you say how can that not fit? Well the little matter of it buttoning up to become a shrug the very thing that attracted me to the pattern in the first place, when done up it was a little too long. I was quite upset and worried and I still don't know what it looked like at the actual wedding..watch this space.

These are some socks drying...I love the fact that these are all socks...lol...iPhone socks and feet socks. I'm pretty pleased with them all and I'm currently posting the iPhone socks on Folksy and Etsy. Since they are all made of natural fibers I am able to gently wash and block them to shape, even for something as humble as a gadget sock it makes a big difference.

These are only the second pair of socks I have finished, these are for me mostly because they were another experiment. These were knitted at the same time using 2 circular needles. I like this technique but I don't really like the other patterns in the book so now I'm going to be making lace socks for the first time and using a pattern for 4 dpns and adjusting it to be used on two circular needles.  And to top it all this will only be my 3rd pair of socks...nothing like setting yourself a challenge.

Watch this space for how I get on.

Saturday 18 June 2011

New Yarn Shops

So much to write and so little brain to do it with, also one less finger working well,. due to a wasp or bee sting. I don't even know which bugger it was...summer don't you just love it.


Anyway on with the stuff. First of all number one in my new quest to visit, photo and buy something from every yarn shop in every place I visit. What would be a good name for this quest? All suggestions gratefully received.

This is the yarn shop in Lueven, Belgium where my hubby and I went for a weekend to celebrate our 10th Wedding aniversary and his 50th birthday.

The flipping thing was shut on a Monday! can you believe that? I can understand shut on a Sunday, (which it was as well) but a Monday!! So I couldn't buy anything but I took these photo's anyway.



It looked like a really nice yarn shop too....

Craft fair photos: This was a stall I shared with my friend. It was pretty dire for both of us. I just about covered my stall hire costs but  not my time or coffee and cake bill. For some reason doing a stall makes me nervous and anxious and I eat more when I'm nervous and anxious. Two cakes, one curry and two cappocinos...not good for the figure or the pocket.  I think I was trying to reward myself for the dissapointment of not doing well.  The organisers want to make it a weekly affair. The actual market was lovely and its soo close to where we live...but if I do that badly on the last one would it be a good idea to do a regular stall? Hubby popped in too visit this morning and said there were not nearly so many stalls. Perhaps it is a good idea to get in on the ground floor of what might prove to be a popular venue, I would get regular customers and hopefully some commission orders. On the negative I could waste a lot of money and time and I would lose my lovely lazy Saturday mornings..please guys I really would like some of your thoughts.



COMPETITION:...Announcing my 600 fans competition, please comment on my blog, I really would appreciate an actual comment about some of my posts rather than just, 'I'm commenting' anyway, if you are a follower of this blog then please mention that in the comment and you will get two entries. If you are not a follower you will also get an extra entry if you follow my blog as well. You will have to mention that in your comment.  At the close of the competition, (which is July 18th, midnight BST, ) I will pick a random name out of my large organza bag and that person will win either an iPhone sock, a coffee cosy or a mini kit for one of those two. Sorry no gloves. I am saving these for a really big number now, cause I don't have many left.

Bonus - if you are follower number 100 you will also win one of these prizes or even two if you are follower number 100 and get picked!!

Happy commenting...

Thursday 26 May 2011

Appreciation Photos

Blogger seems to have been broken for the last week or so, wouldn't let me sign in to my own account..what gives? Anyway here's hoping that it works now..Its Thursday and its pouring with rain, we really need the rain here in London but why does it immediately start flooding? No doubt some deeply complicated thing to do with too dry ground or something. Tonight I have a knit meeting in a pub, we are trying to knit the Clapton Mile. Its for the Clapton Festival which is happening on the weekend of the 11th and 12th June. I'm also going to be doing another craft fair as part of that festival, I know after Sutton House I vowed never to do another craft fair as long as I lived..I must be a glutton for punishment. Also, spring/summer is not the best time to sell crochet, but it's making me make my kits up so then if I get it together I should have some stuff to photograph and post. And...all this when I'm going away for the weekend before and the deadline for the wedding shawl is fast approaching.
Next time I blog I will do some update pics of the wedding shawl. Meanwhile here are three lovely customer appreciation photos from the equally lovely DancingRainbows. I can't post them in Etsy because it only lets you post about specific transactions and these gloves were in fact won by my fan for my 500th FB fans landmark giveaway.

So keep a watch out for future giveaways, also I see I have nearly 100 followers on here so perhaps there will be a giveaway here too.










So once again, thanks DancingRainbows.

Friday 20 May 2011

Folksy Friday - Folksy Mayhems

Hi back again, too long between blogs. Somehow I only managed one blog in April, and I don't expect I will get round to another in May so here is my Folksy Mayhem blog. Folksy Mayhem is the daily listing club for May. So here are some picks from fellow Mayhemers. This time there's no real theme, I just favourited things that I liked as I clicked on my fellow daily listers.

First a lovely pick from the Whimsical Wren. Great name too. I love the idea of putting Alice in a bottle, so original. Please click here for a link
 Next a lovely picture, this original work of art uses needle felting and embroidery, both things I love, I can't do either of those crafts but I love the look of them..it can be seen here


Now for some more yarny stuff. This of course will be making its way to my wish list, you never know I might get it for Christmas. Hey if someone buys something off me I could afford to buy it! Here it is

This next item is truly exquisite and would be going on my wish list, but I don't think I'll be able to afford it even if I do sell something on Folksy. It's a more than reasonable price for the materials and work so come on you rich people out there.....you can buy it here

This next pendant is also beautiful, I love the choice of colours and the tiny detail which makes it look like a pop art painting in miniature, please view it here

Finally a bouquet of lovely flowers to cheer you up and leave you looking forward to the weekend..please click on the links and view the items in their shops, so as to boost their views.

Happy browsing...