Mousy Brown's House-Creating, crafting and collecting. Enjoying Life.

Happy Halloween!

Music all the way.

On Sunday night after driving back from Hereford, I drove to Liverpool to see Newton Faulkner.
He is so fantastic live - just so lovely and so talented - it was a perfect end to a perfect weekend.  He was also supported by Lisa Mitchell ( have you heard it on the comfort advert? I loved it but didn't know the singer), she was also fantastic and complimented Newton Faulkner perfectly.

P.S. Sorry - I tried to put these videos directly into the post but after a frustrated hour almost pulling my hair out - I decided life is just not long enough, put up an old picture of me enjoying some music and went to play with my kids instead!  Hope you don't mind too much x

Teepee time!

In the penultimate post about my weekend away I want to show you where we slept.  I love being under canvas and camping holidays with the children have been some of the most memorable and enjoyable family holidays we have had.  After saturday night however, my idea of what makes up that canvas cover may have become a tad more ambitious!

We arrived at our campsite to see this.

 

We glowed gently in the dark like this.

  

We woke up bathed in sunshine to a view like this.

A wonderful, wonderful end to a wonderful, wonderful day - now I just need to work out how to make one of my own!

 

Felt-making Fun

Today I want to show you the felt-making we did in the afternoon on saturday.  I loved this part so much and think I could get mildly obsessed with creating things out of felt! (I hope all my family are prepared for felty presents for christmas!)  Unfortunately, felt making is such a hands on (wet and soapy hands on!) process that I haven't many photo's of the making.  It was definitely one of those times when the doing and enjoying far outweighed the recording and I make no apologies for that.

This is my one and only shot of the felt in process and it is fairly far on in to the technique - I will try and explain simply without pictures what happened otherwise and hope you will forgive me when you see the shots of my finished item!

In the above shot you can just see the bamboo mat that we placed everything onto.  We were trying to make a circular piece of felt with two sides and a space in the middle ( a bit like a pitta bread).  Jane Meredith, our tutor, explained that this would later allow us to cut into the felt and turn it into a bowl or bag, depending where we chose to cut.  To form that space in the centre, we used a circular piece of heavy plastic (like you would find compost or wood delivered in).  We carefully layered merino fleece onto the plastic, alternating sides and wetting and smoothing each layer under an old piece of net curtain in between.  The photo above shows the final (fourth layer) which we decorated using plant dyed fibres (both merino and silk).

Once we had completed this decorative layer on both sides the hard work began!  We spent about half an hour rubbing the surface of the felt bundle, through the net, until the pre-felted stage had been reached.  Lots of laughter, chatter and aching arms accompanied this part of the process and it was quite a relief when we were allowed to finish.  A final rolling movement with the felt wrapped inside the bamboo mat and we were ready to cut into our 'pitta bread' to remove the plastic.  A bit more rubbing to shape the felt and a final rinse under the tap to remove the soap and the finished item was ready to show off!

I don't mean this to be a full explanation of felt-making (there are many good books and more experienced teachers for that) but I do want to show how simple and enjoyable this technique is.  I really love the softness and the subtle colours of my finished bowl and can't wait to have another go - hopefully I might have tempted you to go for it too?

Wonderful weekend - Part Two

Today I promised some stories and photo's about weaving - I hate to break a promise so here they are!

First of all we were introduced to the Brinkley looms and shown how to warp them up.  As someone who was put off weaving at Art College by the shear complication of warping up a loom ( made even harder by not being able to find anyone else who knew how to do it and could show me!) these Brinkley looms were a revelation.  We simply laid a broom across a gap between a table and chair, threaded the loom on to the handle and using our choice of beautiful naturally dyed yarns, spun the loom away from us, around the centre point, creating the warp as it spun.  We warped up in pairs, which was great fun and allowed us to get to know each other better, as well as being helpful in spotting any problems/ remembering new techniques as we went along.

Soon, we were all weaving away like we had been doing it for years.  Spread between two rooms, with roaring fires to keep us warm, we worked steadily, chatting quietly, stopping only to eat the delicious flapjacks and to admire the swans - which kept up a constant display of landing on the River Wye just outside the cottage door!  Some of us wanted to try felting (I was one of these) and we did smaller pieces, others were happy to weave all day and attempted much bigger, more ambitious works.

What was truly amazing, was that with the same basic materials and tuition, not one piece of work looked anything like another - they were all totally beautiful and unique.  We felt this compared well with our group - which came together from disparate backgrounds, united in an inspired way by our mutual friend to create harmonious result.

Here is a shot of my attempt - you can just see the clever way that the work wraps its way behind the loom as it gets longer. We broke for a lunch of homemade soup with bread and cheese, eaten at a wooden table outside (overlooking the river) before returning for an afternoon of more weaving or to start felting if that was your choice.

I will leave you for today with this shot of us removing a finished piece from the loom, another incredibly simple procedure (I am so impressed with this style of loom!)   I will return tomorrow to show you some pictures of the felt making I tried in the afternoon - another craft I am now totally enamoured with :)

 

Let's start at the beginning!

Wow!  What an amazing weekend!  So much fitted in, I hardly know where to start - but I think I will start at the beginning.

I started from home at about 7.30 on saturday morning, it was only just getting light and the roads were clear as I made my way from my home in Wales, through Shropshire and on into Hereford.  Just before I left, my little one commented on how sad it was that Mummy was going to be in a car, driving all by herself, for 21/2 hours.  In fact it was wonderful - I travelled through the early morning, watching the world come to life, the sky a heavy, rain-laden grey and the foliage spectacular shades of red and yellow. 

In the car was a new cd I hadn't managed to listen to properly and that became the atmospheric soundtrack to my journey.  The picture at the top is the stunning view that welcomed me as I arrived at my destination- a perfect place to relax and enjoy crafting with a group of amazing women.

 

The cottage was beautiful and welcoming, filled with loads of tempting naturally dyed yarns and fleece, fresh coffee and homemade flapjacks and friendly happy faces.

 

We bonded instantly, as if we had all known each other for ever and listened carefully as we learnt what we were going to do during the day.  I could go on and on, but I think that is enough for today - I'll return tomorrow with stories about weaving and photo's of our 'work'  - hope your weekend was something special too!
 
 

 

 

Have a good weekend.

I'm off for a very exciting weekend - a day of spinning, weaving, felting and natural dyes - at a most wonderful celebration, preparing for a special friends marriage.  As if that wasn't exciting enough, we get to top it off by spending the night in a teepee!

I get back on Sunday in time to zoom off with another good friend to see Newton Faulkner play live in Liverpool.  Something, having seen him last year at the V festival, I am very much looking forward to.

All that fun - in one weekend!  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend too, full of your favorite things and people you care about,  I ll be back (hopefully with some photo's) next week.
 

Sunny Yellow

Today has been a cold, dark, rainy day.  After some gorgeous weather for the last couple of weeks, with bright blue sky and golden sunshine, today has seemed somewhat bleak.  Once I had closed myself in behind thick lined curtains with a roaring wood fire I decided to show you these sunny yellow photo's I took last week.

They are of my latest (or one of my latest!) wip (work in progress), a sunny yellow scarf knitted in gorgeous soft Cotton Aran by Debbie Bliss.  I bought ten balls earlier this year with no particular project in mind - I just loved the soft, warm colour and the even softer feel.

Last week I was ironing these linen trousers from White Stuff ( a recent ebay purchase) and it all became clear - I needed a soft yellow scarf to wear with them.  Something to pick out the lovely velvet ribbon and embroidery detail on the leg.  What better excuse could there be for starting a new knitting project? 

 Now, on this bleak, cold day I am so very glad to have this sunny yellow project, like knitting summer sunshine, in my hands and these lovely sunny photo's from last week to warm me up as I knit!

 

Thank You.

Yesterday morning, as I was dropping my little one off at school, I was stopped by my favorite crafty swap pal (We love all the same things and the fact that she is 7 and I am 30 years older never seems to matter!) In her hand was the most fantastic 'Thing 1' peg toy, that she had made just for me.  I had emailed her Mum with a link to Zakka life, as soon as I stumbled upon this tutorial over the weekend.  I know they are all big Dr Seuss fans and I thought this was just up their street.  It never even occurred to me that I might end up with one of my own.

Here Thing 1 is visiting my dresser but actually I am having most fun driving around with Thing 1 in my car.

It's here I think that Thing 1 will stay - bringing a huge grin to my face every time I get a glimpse.  So it's a big, big thank you that I want to say to my best crafty buddy - you really made my day! 

Is it wrong that wool makes me so happy?

I've finished the yarn I started spinning last tuesday!

I've given you three views as it changes colour depending on which side you look at it.  I ply-ed it with some other hand dyed yarn I had spun before (it's the blue I used here).  I can't wait to use it - orders are already pouring in from my boys!  I don't think there is anything else to say, except, it makes me very, very happy!