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

Finished object Friday...

These little mitts were actually finished a while ago...bought at Wonderwool from The Old Piggery as a kit they knitted up super quick and they were just the speedy project I needed to recover from the linen stitch shawl of doom...yes I did finally finish it but no photos yet, I can't stand to look at it at the moment!

I've also cast on another project using yarn from this dyer, wensleydale this time rather than mohair but an equally beautiful semi-solid (it's the pale green skeins in my basket here).  I have a few finished items that I need to take pictures of but time, light and inclination are not all coming together at once...I promise to try harder!

Have a good weekend! Hope it's full of sunshine and laughter...

Handmade gatherings.

I treated myself to Handmade Gatherings by Ashley English last week and have been enjoying stolen moments with it ever since.  The combination of recipes and crafts is my idea of a perfect book and when you add in the seasonal elements and atmospheric photography, it is a lovely way to dream away an afternoon...especially when my knitting is close at hand too!

 

Learning as I go.

Are you a process knitter? Or are you more interested in the final product? I can't decide...

I definitely enjoy the process, it relaxes me, challenges me, "keeps me busy", feels like a lifeline at times...

But I also love the finished items, wearing them, sharing them, gifting them to those I love...

I don't think I could knit, just for the love of knitting, if I knew I was never going to reach the end...

But some of my favourite projects to knit have never been worn and others like the one above...which has been a disaster from beginning to end...end up being my daily choice once finished, worn endlessly and loved completely...

I sort of feel that if I could sort it out in my mind, I might have a better idea of what project to cast on next.  I might find the solution to finding the "perfect" item, one that is pleasurable to knit and wear! 

But for now, I can't decide and I am pottering along, learning as I go...

Aquilegia...

Aquilegia, otherwise known as Granny's bonnet or Columbine, is to me the flower that signals Summer is on it's way...arriving as they do after the other Spring flowers and filling my garden with their beautiful, delicate petals.  I've never planted any and the varieties that self seed are all the common Aquilegia Vulgaris, I think...but I would miss them so much if they failed to appear. They are particularly lovely in the evening light, lit from behind as the sun is decending.  Their flowers form a backdrop to our early Summer days, appearing in every corner of the garden, in shades from the palest pink through blues and purples...some single blooms and others like little fluffy pom poms.  The bees love them too and whenever you are near them you hear the distictive low buzz of multiple visitors enjoying their nectar.

How about you? What flower means Summer to you?

Needle Felting with Jenny Barnett

As I mentioned here, we branched out a little at Wonderwool Wales this year and took one of the woolschool classes.  My younger son and I took a Jenny Barnett felting course together last year (we made foxes...) and I was amazed at what we achieved in just one day...so when I saw she was teaching at Woolschool I suggested it to my friends and we all booked on straight away.

We spent a happy couple of hours stabbing away with large dangerous needles and by the end we each had a cute grey seal to take home...

...mine now lays in a relaxed way between shells, driftwood and soft beach pebbles, seeming quite at home even out of the water...

 

Reading and Knitting.

This week joining in with Ginny

I am reading 12x12 by William Powers...I think I saw it recommended on yarnalong a while ago and decided to give it a try.  I am enjoying how much it makes me think...and I am dreaming of living in a tiny house, no matter how unlikely that eventuality really is. It is an equal mix of depressing and inspiring and I am hoping that it is the inspiration that will stay with me once I finish reading it...

I am knitting on my Memory Blanket.

After a long time debating which "scrap" project I was going to start (hexipuffs, crochet stripes and others all caught my eye) this simple but clever design has got me knitting.  It is designed to be made in a DK yarn but I only have sock yarn scraps so it's a smaller square and longer project on the needles. Every square seems like magic, as it morphs from a straight line and the joining as you go is such a neat way of doing things.  I am definitely addicted and mutterings of "just one more square.."can be heard echoing around the house...

My crafting companion.

Wherever I go and whatever I do, she follows...

Today we went for a walk along the lanes and then settled down together to knit.

A mug of tea, my knitting and a soundtrack of gentle snores...I don't think it would be possible to find a better crafting companion do you?

Handmade Home.

I have been de-cluttering for a while now..."letting go" of things I don't need, will never use or those which I keep out of a sense of responsibility...gifts and pass me downs, items with emotional attatchments or items needing repairs or for crafting projects I know I will never get around to...

Trying to keep William Morris's quote in mind, I am keeping only those things I know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.

This change of perspective has also enabled me to stop "keeping things for best", treasures that were hidden and not enjoyed enough are now in daily use and the pleasure they bring far out weighs the fleeting sadness felt when something gets broken or damaged.

It has been a good learning process and each day it gets easier to let go, to enjoy, to live in the moment.

The rewards are views like this above, the pillowcase I made one spring, the bag - a crochet reminder of the very first visit I made to Woolfest, the bed salvaged from a barn in pieces and paid for by family and friends when we got married...none of it expensive but full of worth and a constant reminder of just how good a handmade life can be.

Do you like to puzzle?

I've always been partial to a puzzle...in fact my Mother loved to tell the story of the time she left me in my cot for an afternoon nap and came back hours later to find I hadn't been sleeping as she thought but had in fact completed every puzzle I could find and drag back to my bed...

Recently I decided to treat myself to a new puzzle and settled on "The Elements by Theodore Gray" .It appealed to my geeky side and hey you can't go wrong with a puzzle that has that many plain black pieces! The challenge is in the impossibility isn't it?!

I am trying to control my urge to become obsessive and am limiting myself to a handful of pieces at a time. Having a table to leave it on helps with this intention, especially one with a door between it and the rest of my life...

Daisy Daisy...

I've been spending as much time in the garden as possible...the long grey Winter is slowly becoming Spring and I need all the vitamin D I can get.  Slowing down and sitting quietly for an hour each day, when I get back from school, makes me feel so much better and gives me the boost I need to carry on with all the chores that need doing every evening.  It doesn't happpen every day but as much as possible I get my garden chair, my knitting and a cup of tea and go out to spend time with my new chickens!  Often my needles rest in my lap as my eyes are caught by all the simple lovliness about me. Fuzzy orange bees, with their little nest holes in the grass, the garden birds busy meeting and nest building and the daisies...which this year are particulary plentiful and as I get up close reveal a complexity and beauty I so often overlook at less meditative moments in the day...