Friday 28 March 2014

Mollie Made picks for Mothers Day


For an annual event like Mother's Day it can be very easy to fall into the routine of flowers or chocolates as a gift each year, but it's so easy to find something a little different.

No matter what your budget, there are lots of gorgeous unique gifts and cards available worldwide from the talented designer-makers on Etsy.

I was thrilled to hear from fellow CraftBritannia team member Veedubz that my sugar cane scarf had been picked as one of the selections from Mollie Makes in their guest blog feature!

They selected some fantastic handmade gifts for that special lady in our lives.

I particularly like the Mother's Day card by TheRainbowInMyMind - so pretty and fresh.

I'm tempted to treat myself to the Bee-Friendly Wildflower Seed Mix by TheLondonBeeCompany!


Which are your favourites?

Monday 24 March 2014

Outlaw #2 is nearly here!

I'm so excited to be included in the second Outlaw Craft Fair which is taking place in Penzance on Saturday 5th April!

The Outlaw team are offering a mega prize giveaway at the moment - head on over to their Facebook page to get in on the action!


Wednesday 19 March 2014

Banana yarn

I've discovered banana yarn... and I like it!

Also known as vegan silk, this is made (obviously) from the banana plant. As it's a plant rather than animal fibre it requires cold-dyeing - something new to me. I finally tried it and found it sooo easy! 
It fits in rather well with my busy schedule too as I can set it up, put the lid on and leave it unattended until I get around to it again. Perfect.

The banana yarn I have is a fine laceweight - fine as in 1000metres per 100grams. Believe me, that's fine.

 It's the right-hand skein here - on the left is the bamboo DK that I'm trying out. I'm liking that one too, but that's another story.
As the banana laceweight is so fine and my time is limited, I've machine knitted a sample swatch on my trusty Bond knitting machine. It's rather pretty I think.

The next stage is to fire up my Knitware software to churn out a pattern for a summer tunic for my eldest daughter with it. Thankfully she thinks it's pretty too!