A place to play

Every child needs a place to play .. and so does every adult! Here's my "play space", a fabulous shed in the garden.

I have a lovely old oak table for sewing on, where I keep all my bits and bobs to hand:

On the left is my trusty Singer sewing machine, on the right is my upcycled lampshade that I crocheted with hand-dyed silk. In front of it is a drinks mat made from sea glass I found on the beach.

The stripy thing you can see is my little desk bin, for all those bits of thread and fabric snippings. I had seen something similar on Planet Penny's website and decided to have a go. My knitting needle holder originally had shortbread in it! And old spice jars make great button holders.

I made my "to do" list from a cheap photo frame with wrapping paper in it, and I use a white board pen to add things to it. I made the little birds from air-drying clay and copper wire.

I have a fabulous wee set of drawers that are full of lots of bits and bobs - sewing thread, beads, tape measures and "found" items. On the top I keep my pincushions (I have three but I don't know where the other two are at the moment!), plus some more air-drying clay sculptures (these were created by modelling around small bottles and tinfoil, wrapped up with masking tape before applying the clay).

More buttons, safety eyes and handbag clasps in another old spice jar arrangement. I cheered this one up with red paint and polka dots. I painted the picture but haven't got round to putting it up yet. The yarn is some I hand-dyed myself , in a lovely plate made by a ceramic artist friend of mine. The stones were painted by my eldest daughter.

My bookcase holds all sorts of treasures - my sock monkey stash, my ideas notebooks, and all my sewing and knitting inspiration books. Some are old favourites, some are new additions, all are often referred to. I used to have three times as many but I have pared them down recently. Just at the bottom of the picture you can see my Parker Knoll armchair covered in a Rainbow Granny blanket - for more pictures of it have a look here.

My favourite item in my shed is this picture by a lovely artist friend of mine Charlie Meyer - for more of her work have a look at her regularly updated Facebook page . It never fails to cheer me up!

Anything else you want to know about what you see, just ask! Do you have a place to play too?

Another past project

Here's another in the series "What I have been up to in the last year" !

This is a gift I put together for a friend who is having a tough time at the moment. Firstly, I made her a Dammit Doll to help ease the stress and emotions she may be feeling:

Dammit Doll

And just in case you are unsure of her role, here is the little card I sent with it (apologies for the poor picture, I seem to have been suffering from camera shake! NOT alcohol induced!)

Hence you can see why I gave her felt hair (which unfortunately bears more resemblance to an old-fashioned crash helmet, but we'll let that one go) as I thought wool hair may work loose over time!
Also, since she will be spending lots of time being wanged about (if she is doing her job properly), I thought I would save her modesty (if not her dignity):

Knickers!

I also made her a shawl in a nice bright red, to add a bit of colour to the hospital ward (they tend to be very beige, I've noticed) and to keep her shoulders warm if she got chilly:

It was a lovely quick knit, in King Cole Haze, which I was a little dubious about before I used it but I think it knits up well and is lovely and soft.

Then I made her a bag to keep all her bits and pieces in for when she goes to hospital appointments. This bag is made from curtain fabric samples, I think I used seven in all! It's double layered and has two pockets inside, for drinks and books etc. Unfortunately it came out a bit bigger than I intended, but hopefully it's still a useful size.

I added a couple of vintage buttons to each side to complete the look.

 And here's the inside:

This friend has a young daughter, so I sent her a sock monkey too so that she didn't feel left out:

They were all well received and it was nice to feel I could do a little something, even though I live far away from my friend.

Giveaway!

Here we are at last, I have got my act together and organised a GIVEAWAY :)I decided to go with a theme of blue and made a few different things reflecting my various interests.
So I made a blue and white striped sock monkey, a crocheted washcloth, a blue bracelet with a cat on it, and a wee mobile of knitted hearts. I hope you like them all!
Here is a close-up of the bracelet:

Now then, giveaway rules: you can have up to three chances to win all these (oh, and I'll throw in the fabric that you see in the photo too!)
1. Leave a comment on this blog. You can tell me what you would call the monkey if you like! But that's optional.
2. Post a link to this giveaway on a post on your blog. I need more visitors! Once you have posted your link, come back and post another comment on here to let me know.
3. Put a permanent link on your blog to mine (eg if you have a blogroll, list of faves etc). Again, once you have done so, post another comment on here to tell me. So you may leave up to three comments on this post! If you already have a link on your blog to mine, then post a comment to tell me that.

Please make sure that all giveaway entry comments are put on THIS post, even if subsequent posts appear before the giveaway time is up. It just gets too confusing otherwise for my poor little brain ;)

Closing date for entry will be two weeks from now, ie Friday 29th January. Good luck everyone!

Projects on a theme of ... stripes!

I seem to have made a lot of stripey things lately!Stripey sock monkeys (this is Max and Jake). I love making sock monkeys, I think I have made over fifty now! I love the way they all have different faces and looks, and I love giving them names (though I usually let my daughter Caitlin choose them!).



A foray into sock cats for a change. Not sure how successful that was. It's rather cute, but I'm too in love with my monkeys I think ;)

... and I was commissioned to knit a Dennis the Menace sweater as a Christmas present! Shame I only managed an awful blurry photo of it, taken on a rather dark afternoon. It went down extremely well with the little boy who received it, and was rather fun to knit as well!

The Monkeys are taking over ...

It's amazing. You start off with one or two ...
Then before you know it ...
They start breeding ...

Rather cute though, aren't they?

Meet Cuthbert and Cynthia!

They are very good friends and do like to have a cuddle, but I suspect they just know they look good together! These are part of a commission of five, so they will have more brothers and sisters soon.