Introducing Lizzie Shrimpton

I can't believe it was as long ago as March that I made a start on my first felted doll. Poor felted beauty has been languishing in my knitting bag along side the bare bear's Fair Isle. This week I have been working on both projects. Tuesday night I set myself the task of finishing felted beauty's face and making her a body.

And here she is sitting on a chair borrowed for her debut from vintage Barbie.

She is mainly needle felted from wool tops, including her hair which is from the delightfully curly Wensleydale sheep. Her body is made from fabric scraps, stuffed with wool tops. She is indeed very sheepish. I did a little rudimentary stitching for her lips and eyelashes and her stockings are made from some off-cut cotton tubing that I purchased at the Guild exhibition last week, 3 balls for £1.00.

All in all I think she has turned out mighty fine for a first attempt. Now to make her a perfectly pretty dress. I'm thinking a small ditsy print would be best, possibly Laura Ashleyesque.

This is my first thought.

Not that I have a clue how to make a dress of any sort really but nothing ventured nothing gained.

Extraordinary Folk

You know how it is sometimes, you see an image and it just makes you happy. Here are my top three of the day.

Jim Henson & Bert

Charlie Chaplin

Bjork

Enjoy A Happy Samhain - Bright Blessings.

image martha stewart

Some seasonal wisdom from my friend Valerie who is a crystal healer.

Well here we are back again at the end of another cycle of nature, when we are preparing to move into the winter months and the colder weather. The days are darker and it is a time to go within to think very carefully about what we wish to achieve when the sun returns to warm us in the spring.  

For Samhain we make our healing mandala with crystals and tokens from nature like berries and nuts, such as acorns and hazels, found in the woods nearby to us on the common. The mandala is made in the shape of an eight spoked wheel or the wheel of the year in Celtic tradition. It represents the cycle of the seasons and the end and beginning of all creation. 

This time of the year represents the season when the sun gives us less daylight hours and we move into the womb of winter. It is a time of celebration to acknowledge the passing of all those who have gone before us and who will go after us. Remember that one day in the future we will be our families’ ancestors.  In the knowledge that death is but a new beginning, we meditate at Samhain to share this time with our ancestors and future generations of our families. 
  
The calendar marks the end of a solar cycle when we should get our affair in order. A time when fields lay fallow, nature takes a rest and we experience autumn mists with smokey colours in the sky. 

The mischief side of Halloween is there to respect an aspect of the god who wishes to teach us that he will not let us take ourselves too seriously – it is a time to laugh with your friends and community. In the old days apple bobbing, storytelling, cake making and roasting of nuts were part of the evening’s celebrations around the bonfire. 

Samhain also brings us gifts of wisdom, which can be bitter or sweet according to our circumstances and desires. It is now we consider death as an aspect of our lives and it may be that an old plan, habit or aspiration needs to die now. 

We are taught not to call the dead to us on this night, but believe if they join us freely, if they are able to and if they wish to, we should be open to receive this awareness. If a loving spirit should desire to come back and visit you will recognise them in your mind. If they choose not to come just remember them with love and accept their absence. 

Spend time in meditation thinking of friends, family and loved ones who have gone on to greater things. Keep firmly in your mind that the physical isn’t the absolute reality and that our souls never die. 

As you eat pomegranates consider the seeds as being ideas for your next cycle - affirm that they represent plans and creativities that will sprout and grow to provide you with your next personal harvest. 

Make a list of things you consider are standing in your way like anger, sorrow etc, then write them down and burn them in your the fire affirming that they are now in the past. Whatever you have asked for guidance in see it now replaced by new life and a new system whereby we teach do what you will as long as it does not harm another. 

If you can take time to light a candle maybe you can join us in imagining a new world full of peace, love and harmony with food and water available for all. Leave a plate of food outside the home for the souls of the dead, place a candle in the window to guide them to the lands of eternal summer and bury some apples in the earth to feed the ones who have passed on their journey to the light and are awaiting rebirth. 

In the meantime try to be happy, healthy and wise as you go about your daily routine. Most of all be grateful for all you have accomplished and for the ideas which will flow through you from your spirit guides, who come from the light, during the darker nights. Keep warm and snuggly like the seeds within Mother Earth. 

image mollie makes

You Can't Always Spot a Witch

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and Howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon's blood
Then the charm is firm and good.

Tasmanian Devil

Oh how I do love the old black and white Hollywood films. That is why Errol was simply irresistible when I spied him at the old Heathfield flea market last week. I've told myself to only buy essentials at the moment, trying not to 'waste' money, but a little bit of glamour in a girl's life is essential, no?
Didn't really have enough room for such a big picture either but he's managed to squeeze himself in next to Twiggy, of course he has. And he's giving her the glad eye.

Made By Hand - Lewes

If you are a lover of yarn and textiles this two day event is definitely one not to miss.

Featuring oodles of hand made wonderfully tactile items, some for sale. Plus commercial stands selling all manner of materials for your own projects.

I helped out for a short while this morning setting up the exhibits and managed to sneak a couple of pics.

If you're anywhere near Lewes tomorrow do try and pop in.

The Bare Bear

My poor ole bear is still bare. It's not that I haven't been working on his winter jumper, honestly. It's just very time consuming and I have lots on. Trying to sort out house projects and reorganising the studio, keeping on top of the garden, you know how it is.
He hasn't had a new bit of clothing for years and years so this little Fair Isle number is long overdue.
The pattern is from a 1990 nursery knitting book that one of my friends kindly gave to me a wee while ago. It's full of beautiful traditional knitwear. When I eventually have some grand children, a very long way off yet I hope, it will be be very useful. For now though the bear will be getting the benefit.







The pattern isn't difficult but you do have to concentrate as it's fiddly. I have attached a small length of the different coloured yarns to the page so that I can check more easily when I need to change colours.

I've used alternative colours to those in the book to give the garment a more vintage look and the front will be one V necked piece instead of two.

Close up of Fair isle.

This is the finished unblocked back which has taken me the longest time to complete. I'm gonna be much faster with the front, you wait and see.