yarn along:dreamcatcher

Joining in a little differently with the yarn along today, I mean, it is mostly made of yarn so I guess it counts right! This dreamcatcher came about by just playing with yarn and a hoop really, there wasn't any kind of plan it just evolved as I went along. The hoop is an old kids basketball hoop which I covered in a layer of tightly wrapped yarn. The tree started with the strand you can see going straight up from the bottom middle to the top middle, making the trunk. As I wrapped and thickened this central line I just took bits and pieces branching off whenever I felt like it. All the yarn wrapping took me about 2 days on and off in between normal mothering duties, cooking for hungry mouths and homeschooling. I then added the traditional netted 'dreamcatcher bits' in really really thin sewing thread (this was a delicate operation for sure!), and sewed some silver and white beads and crystals to it. The dangle underneath is made up of threads, lace, beads, a dried teasel and some dried everlast flowers that faith gave me a few years ago. It now hangs above my bed, hopefully letting some lovely dreams in.

Jo x

make: all the beads

Montessori maths materials. Need I say more. Well, yes, probably! The Montessori method for teaching maths involves a lot of manipulative materials that are tempting to touch and lovely to look at. The bead cabinet is one of my favourites but the price tag is a bit off-putting! This one is great and the cabinet to store it all in is too but together the cost is reaching thousands. Obviously not affordable, but crafty doesn't say can't, so here is my homemade version for considerably less (approx £40 total by buying the beads when on sale). 

The materials. Beads - a whole load in various colours, wire ( I ended up going back for more), pliers, wire cutters, jump rings and plastic mesh.

The beginning - when I had no idea how long this was going to take!

The thousand cube! Yes it is solid and made of 1000 beads all wired together. Do you see the plastic mesh in between the edge rows and the second row in? That's what holds it all together.

The squares and cubes 1-10. I made one cube of each and the number of squares equal to its size, eg, 3 - 3x3 squares, 8 - 8x8 squares, 10 - 10x10 squares etc.

Bead bars, approximately 60 of each, although more of the 10 bars.

The bead chains. Short bead chains that show the square of each number (eg, 6x6), and the long chains show the cube of each number (eg 6x6x6). Let me tell you that the long chain of 10 is very very long and time consuming to make! It's extremely cool when you can compare it to the 10x10x10 cube and see that they are the same though!

I also made snake games which involve some more of the bead bars, some bead bars 1-10 in different colours for holding places, and again in another different colour for negative numbers. Somehow I forgot to photograph the snake game but here is one by another DIYer so you can see what I'm talking about.

I have plans to show you how we are using these beads in our homeschool, but for now I'm just taking a breath after all that bead stringing!

Jo x

Beach art

The 2nd of January gave us a beautiful sunny day and found us at the beach creating beach art.

We made sculptures from found items, balanced pebbles to make towers and also found some coloured earth at the base of the cliff which Faith mixed with water in a seashell and used to paint on a piece of wood she found. Paintbrushes included feathers, leaves and a stick with a spongy center which when sharpened worked just like a fibre tip pen. 

In a very timely way, this discovery of natural pigment coincided with the delivery of taproot magazine which had an article about creating paint with natural pigments. Amazing how these things happen isn't it. I see more of this in our days.

Jo x

wooly updates

Despite the seeming lack of activity going on there has been lots happening. Sonny, our pup, has grown into a great big 12 month old and has taken up some racing (just for fun) in his spare time, Roghan is approaching 2 and has discovered that his new favourite word is 'nope', faith is pursuing her interests in dance and drama more than ever, and me... I've been knitting! ...lots.

Actually lots more than this but when I come to download the pictures I find they are not there, it must be that pesky photo piskie that pinches all the photos I'm sure I took. It seems to be very active around these parts. Maybe I dream about taking photos? Strange thought. I will be joining in with a yarn along on Wednesday so will hopefully manage to get some more knitting updates by then.

Jo x 

Spin!

Each year I set myself a goal of a new skill to learn or a task to achieve, last year it was this blog (which I did), and to improve my needle felting (which I didn't). This year my goals are spinning and soapmaking. My wheel arrived mid january and, oh my, i think I may have found a new calling. I love love spinning so much, I would spend every moment there if I could. 

Faith is my chief plyer (my computer thinks that's not a word, I beg to differ), she just naturally gets the right tension on the yarn, i am a little in awe of how quickly she could do that actually.

My first balls of wall were random and chunky and tiny thin in places but still lovely.



The very first skein of crazy weight single ply was made into a quick and warm cowl for faith. 

The other balls are waiting for inspiration to strike. I have to say that after about a month of practicing the yarn is starting to get finer and neater and more even but I still think those first lumpy skeins are very special and I'm looking for just the right project for them.

beautiful day

Oh we needed today so much, a beautiful sunny day, and to be outside most of the day without being cold - what bliss. We packed a picnic and headed for Boscawen-Un, a stone circle only a few miles from us and a place I always used to walk to growing up. 

We took watercolours and sketchpads and even Roghan obliged by not trying to throw the water everywhere and rip up all the paper (a rare event I assure you). There is something so good about painting outside, it is an entirely different experience to painting indoors, the movement and the air and the smells and sounds make their way into the painting too and it all just seems freer and more - well - more natural.

This is Faiths painting of the gorse (pictured below), I so love the way children paint, they really get to the essence of their subject and are not so rigid about the form. Faith's painting doesn't look like a photo of the gorse but it really feels like the gorse and the way it was moving slightly in the breeze.

So, while the children were happily occupied with painting and sonny was happily creating a pile of woodchips (see below), I of course did something productive like knitting or tidying away the picnic leftovers..... er, no.....

... I lay down in the grass and watched the clouds go by. Time well spent I think.

Quote from Faith: This grass isn't green, its light green and dark green and yellow and orange and gold and brown.

She then got the paints back out and carried on painting.

I'm going to make an effort to learn from her and look a little closer.

Below, Roghan's not entirely sure if he approves of my new flapjack recipe.

Time to go.... I think we shall be returning here many times this summer. 

(wow, 11 photos! Can you tell I enjoyed myself today.)

Jo x 

fairy houses

During our week away we didn't take any toys or forms of entertainment with us so Faith spent most of her time outside creating making stick swords, exploring the pond, riding her bike and building fairy houses.

I'm so grateful that Faith had this opportunity this past week, I hope one day to be able to provide this near our home so that she can be out and about more.

Jo x 

the handmade christmas

There have not been many make posts around here for a while because I have just been busily elving away for christmas. Here are some things I was working on.

This is the quilt that I started back in the beginning of July, see the post here. I really enjoyed making this. It is double bed size and I did the piecing by machine but the quilting and binding are all hand done. I'm glad I started early so I didn't have to rush but even so I only finished it 3 days before christmas. I am happy that it has now gone with my brother and his wife to its new home.

Next is a puppet theatre I made for Faith. Strangely in the christmas eve rush this is the only picture I got but basically it hangs in the doorway and above the house scene is a big window with theatre curtains where you do the puppet show. It is from a pattern in the book 'oliver and s little things to sew', I had to re-size it a bit though as I think the authors doorways must be twice the width of ours!

Here are the puppets to go with the theatre. They were really fun to make.

These are not home-made, they are ostheimer figures. The horses we got for Faith and the dog for Roghan. I have included them here because they came with the promise of home made stables / kennel. That wasn't completed before christmas but we are now halfway through the stable building and working on the kennel design. More on those to come.

These are fingerless gloves I made. The ones on the left were for my sister in law. They are veyla by ysolda teague, ravelry notes here. I loved these gloves and am glad they have a good home. I may be making another pair for me in the near future! The pair on the right are very simple wrist warmers, they are just a ribbed tube with a gap left for the thumb and striped of colour around the wrist.

The socks were made of a really soft chunky yarn just using my own very basic sock pattern and they were well received. The hat I made with one of my favourite yarns, fez by debbie bliss. It is from a pattern in 'last minute knitted gifts'. It was for my teenage nephew and went down well. Useful to know as teenage boys are a notoriously difficult gifting group.

This quilted bag was a bit of a risk as I used bold colours and it is an unusual shape. I hope it will grow on its recipient.

Also made were new stockings for the kids. I just drew a paper shape and made them very simply, no linings or anything like that.

This year I'm going to try to make one gift each month through the year to avoid the last minute rushing. I have said this pretty much every year but this year I really mean it .....

Jo x