Needlefelting

I made these last week, my first attempts at needlefelting, although I 'd had the kit for a while. The little heart is made into a frdige magnet, the other is a needle case/book, felted on to ehssian, lined and bound with bias binding. I made the felt pages from some felt I had made a few years back, but had no particular use ofr, so it was just waiting to be used.

I enjoyed doing this, and would like to have a go at a 3D animal, maybe a sheep from some natural fleece. Hooked, anyway.......LOL

Glad it's Monday................

I can have a rest LOL!! Seems ages since I posted, looking forward to catching up again. I had a really busy, but very enjoyable weekend.
MrL took Friday off, so we were up and out early - shopping, tip run, bits and pieces; we came home through Milborne Port, right on the Somerset border, and took some time out on my favourite hill



I sat on the bench and knitted for a while; the view is astounding, you can see for miles. The Somerset levels are off to the top right-ish direction I think. It's very peaceful up there, apart from a couple of horses clattering past.

Saturday took us to Devon, to meet up with some friends from the Creative Living forum. Lots of tea and cake, nattering and knitting, and admiring of chcikens and ducks :)


We even fitted in a visit to a local recycling centre on the way LOL. Bit more pricy than mine, but I got a wonderful old mincer ( another one.......), a very pretty soap dish for the bathroom, and Bean found me this plaque for the shed/garden


We got back quite late, but treatedourselves to a late supper of smoked salmon from South Uist, the best I've ever tasted, and a couple of glasses of wine.
Sunday dawned bright and sunny, so I planned to outdoors. MrL loaded up with chainsaw and went off to cut wood somewhere, ready to store for seasoning. There's more to come back next week, so we've a good amount to start replenishing the stocks with. I did et outside,a nd lovely it was too. I got the last greenhosue sorted, new edgings in place, bed cleared over and pots in place for tomatoes - they'll be here before I know it, waiting to be planted in place. They're germinating already in the ktichen, on the sunny windowsill. I got a lot of seeds sown too; makes for great optimism in march, sowing seeds of pumpkins, courgettes, beans, herbs, sunflowers.......
I lifted and divided some perennials from the back to replant in the new front border, so that was a good job done; it needs the annuals sown in amongst now, but I'm using self-sowing ones - nigella, limnanthes, escholzia- so they can pelase themselves int eh eyars to come. It's looking promisin
g out there. The area I lifted the plants from is being turned into my dye garden - at Last! I have the seeds ready to go, and need to get them in this week. More details on that later.
So, by last night, I was ready for a sit down, a glass of cider and some knitting in fornt of Time Team :)
Lots of knitting on the go at the moment; pair of socks finished for an order, shawl well under way, poppies waistcoat being made up and continuing on the hrose blankets for Lluest.
Spring cleaning beginning in earnest thsi week, along with major de-cluttering.
As I type, the wind has really come up, and it's clouded over, so it looks liek we might get the rain they promised - will be good to soak in the new plants, though!

I'd just liek to say hello and thankyou to all my followers - there have been a few new ones over the past couple of weeks, but I'm afraid I can't see who they are as there is soemthing worng with the Blogger follower bit. Must chase around and see if I can find out when it's going to be fixed - I'd like to know who you all are LOL
Welcome, anyway, hope you enjoy the blog.

Knitted cactus

This makes me smile......................LOL

Needlefelting

I unearthed my needlefelting bits last night - whilst looking for something else LOL - and want to have a go now! Did a quick Google, and came up with this lovely, lovely youtube on needlefelting - take a look. Made me smile, she's great!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkdGCiu7Tzk

Little woven purse

I made this little purse to keep my bank card in. Up until now, I've only had a big purse with card sections in the back to keep it in. It was the only thing in the whole pruse, so seemed daft to keep it just for that - not particularly nice to use or look at, big and bulky, so I made this. It's the first project where I've done all three of the spinning, dyeing and weaving. I spun the pink and dyed it with cochineal, then plied it with some spare sage green, then woven on a small table loom. Very pleased with it, and it's a pleasure to use.







It's the most beautiful day here - I hope everyone else's weather is as nice. What a difference it makes - people are more cheerful, and I really feel more like getting onw ith things, insde and out. Drawback - shows up the dirty windows LOL

We had these for supper last night. The recipe is a slightly modified version of Elisabeth Luard's one in the April issue of Country Living magazine.

It's a good way of using up eggs - I'm getting nine or ten a day between the chickens and ducks, so that's quite a few! It's also an excellent way of using up stale bread/stale-ish bread and scraps of cheese and that odd bit of onion in the fridge :)

8 hard boiled eggs
about 150g breadcrumbs
2 large eggs
herbs of choice - I used herbes de Provence this time
teaspoon of made mustard - wholegrain,Dijon, English
1/2 small onion, grated
250 g of grated cheese
black pepper
good pinch of nutmeg

Serves 4

Shell the eggs and set aside. Set aside 2 handfuls of breadcrumbs to use for coating. Separate the eggs and put the yolks into a bowl with the rest of the ingredients, mix throughly to a softish paste type consistency; I had to use a bit of extra egg, but it just depends. Take a portion of the paste, use your thumb to make a depression in the middle and set the egg in, mould the rest of the paste around the egg until covered. Repeat for rest of eggs. When they all have their jackets on, whip up the egg white until frothy, coat each egg in egg white, then in crumbs, one ata time. Heat some sunflower oil or similr until hot, and gently fry until golden brown all over.
We had ours warm with potato salad and carrot, apple and pine nut salad, but I think they'd be lovely cold too. Very popular here, so will be making them again.

I think it's a nice adaptable recipe too - different mustard, different bread and cheese to ring the changes. It also made a version of the traditional Scoth Egg that Bean could eat, being vegetarian.

Weekend treasures............

We had a short trip around the charity shops in Gillingham on Saturday,and these two bits came home with me.

The little vase is from the 1930s; I love the bold bright colour and simple design of it, slightly reminiscent of some of Clarice Cliff's work. I used to be a fan of her work, but have moved on now, but still like the style and colours of the era.
The plate is a limited edition Amish plate, from America. It's no 162 of 2,500, "from the landmark series of watercolours painted by artist Harlan King for the AAA Morot Club of Iowa", 1974. It's actually made by Royal Grafton, in England, so has come back to its roots! Strange to think it's crossed the Atlantic twice.