Nettle Soup

Vibrantly green and full of goodness, Stinging Nettles are a common and often overlooked food source. It might be a little late in the year, but its a sunny day and I fancied a bit of wild food, so I grabbed my basket and scissors and off I went!

Its amazing what a bit of nature and sunshine will do for a sour mood, especially when you spot a Raven! You can't tell from this picture but its huge, about the size of a seagull!

 Using potato, leeks, mushrooms, garlic, stock and of course nettles, I made a lovely chunky soup. I would love to use wild mushrooms but I'm not 100% certain what is what and definitely don't want to risk getting poisoned.
To go with my soup I also made a flavoured oil using Jack-In-The-Hedge and sunflower oil, and drizzled onto the soup created a fresh garlicky taste while also looking quite pretty.

Sunny Craft Fairs

Its been a busy week, with busses, trains, hiking miles and even hitch hiking to get to craft shows. For me, selling my crafts and knowing that somebody will treasure them is just as fulfilling as the actual making part. Its been tiring and I'm a little sunburnt, but its very worth it! 

Angora Baby Bonnet

Today I finished making this baby bonnet from Mossy's fur. I love it so much! I wanted to make something fairly big with Mossy's wool without using all of it up, and this turned out just how I wanted. I used this pattern (I'm not quite up to making my own yet!) http://www.craftfoxes.com/how_tos/vintage-style-baby-bonnet-free-pattern

Angora fur is so luxurious and soft it is perfect for babies, but I would also like to start making things for adults too. I'm just so nervous about using lots of this precious wool! 

Handspun God's Eyes

This sunday I am lucky enough to have a stall at the Whealcrafts Tavistock Craft Fair this Sunday so I am franticly trying to make lots of lovely things in time. One thing I am really enjoying is using my handspun naturally dyed wool to make little God's Eyes which I think are adorable!

The outside pinkish wool is dyed with tea (who knew?!), the gray is some of the lovely Mossy's fur, the yellow is tumeric, and the stripy one is brown sheep wool plied with onion peel dyed wool. I think they are a great way to showcase a range of these natural colours in a fairly quick and very cute way.

 I read that God's Eyes are Mexican in origin and were used to protect the home, so hopefully they will give a home a nice secure feel while also looking pretty!

Natural Dying

Although I have done a bit of it before, natural dying is something I really want to do a lot more of. I wanted to start a new spinning project so I thought I would combine a bit of spinning and natural dying and make some socks! I started by spinning loads of wool from Brecon which is so lovely to spin with because it has very long smooth fibres. 

 After plying some together I gently washed to reveal a blindingly white yarn underneath all the grime.

 I then added about 3 tea spoons of turmeric powder to some water and boiled for about ten minutes before adding the wool. One lovely thing about natural dying is that it can be so cheap! Unless of course you use things like cochineal or indigo! I would really love to learn more about natural dyes you can forage for, especially shades of green although I hear its very hard to get a good green colour. I did attempt to dye some wool green using nettles but failed miserably! I'll have to keep experimenting...

 Gold!!! I am so amazed by the vibrancy of this colour, I can't stop staring at it!

 Since I had some dye left and its such a lovely colour I thought I would jazz up some of my black and white pants. may as well!

 I'm half way through knitting some socks with the turmeric dyed and undyed spun wool and I love it! I think they are so summery and cheerful, who says wooly socks are just for winter? I can't wait to get them finished and put on Etsy, although I would be very sad to see them go. I can't wait to have a go with more natural dyes, this is so addictive!

Ivy Basket

One thing I love about my crafts, is that I can get away with not spending vast amounts of money on presents because I can make them instead! I seem to be having a particularly low budget period (in other words I'm skint) so I cant afford many materials, but luckily I know a place where everything is  free! Nature!
I know the basics of basket weaving from a course a few years ago, and although there are no big crops of willow around here, there is lots and lots of ivy. There is something so satisfying and primal about being able to create something totally from scratch with the materials Mother Earth has given you, working in harmony with her instead of exploiting her. I find this is a common theme in my crafts.
I started by gathering loads (or what I thought was loads) of ivy and bring it home to weave with, however, as you can see I ran out pretty quickly and had to relocate my crafting to the park.

 Spot the wren! Or what I think is a wren.

 I think someones annoyed I'm here...

So I've still got a bit o trimming to do and probably will need to go over the basket with more bits of ivy because ivy shrinks lots as it dries, but I think this is a pretty decent basket considering its made from ivy and I haven't made many baskets before! I would like to make myself one at someone, and will probably have to soon seeing as Mossy keeps on eating mine...

Someone Wants Your Attention...

Mossy has a funny way of letting you know when she wants a bit of love. She'll gently put her paws on you, wait a moment, and if you STILL aren't stroking her, she'll start digging on your chest!

 Poor Eddie, but she was asking very nicely!

 At last, cuddles with mummy...