I love these books by Lesley Stanfield and in fact have bought the first one at least seven times for friends. The knit and crochet flowers are easy even for a beginner and I just love to make these tiny things and attach them to parcels and clothing and presents. I intend to have just as much fun with the second so to all you out there watch out for my beasties! Meanwhile here are a few pics to inspire you to give it a go.
These are the very simplest ones and only take a few minutes with odd scraps of wool.
Also must add that I was very amused to see this photo of Bjork - I always think she looks totally weird!
Bjork
And if you want to be totally inspired take a look at Attic 24 - click on my sidebar.
Today a friend introduced me to Beadtime - a marvellous store in Kingston upon Thames, which stocks everything you could possibly need to make jewellery and much, much more. I took a few pics (not sure if I was allowed) just to give you a little idea of what the shop stocked ...
Oh my goodness where to start? The place was absolutely heaving with beads, buttons, ribbons and trim of every description. I decided to try and make myself something very simple to begin with ... and settled on a bracelet.
As I have said before I am not too artistic but luckily I had a very artistic companion and she helped me choose appropriate colours and styles - we had such fun choosing beads and changed our minds very frequently but eventually settled on these ...
Now sadly no pics of the beads as at this point my camera ran out of battery ... so putting it on charge I set to to design and make my bracelet ...
Even though I had chosen the simplest design and materials - being so ham fisted it took me ages to get them all in order and onto a chain - and then I found it almost impossible to actually fasten the bracelet on my wrist - after struggling for ages I managed to secure the fiddly fastening and now I am never going to take it off (I cannot anyway!)
I have seen these bracelets many times before in expensive shops (Pandora) and made this one for a fraction of the cost so I am rather pleased with myself. What do you think?
Much Later.
Some photos - I still cannot get the bracelet off so will have to wear it until someone comes home and rescues me from it! So some poor photos taken with great difficulty while wearing it ...
I shall post a better pic when I have had the manacle removed! (Not a problem with the clasp merely with my ham fisted hands!)
A little note about the shop.
There are many jewellery workshops in how to make charms, bookmarks, earrings, bracelets, hair pins, pendants, brooches, and necklaces and watchstraps. The prices of these courses range from only £10 to make a small item, to £40 for a day course and up to £160 for an intensive jewellery school which runs for four weeks. See the web-site for more information.
I have pinched the title of this post fromBenta (thank you :) The knitting group has been a success for me as not only has it given me good therapy for my hands, it has also let me meet a lovely group of people. I am making some 'fairisle' socks - that is with the lovely Crofter wool that I used for the hat in a previous post. This time I have gone all 'pinkish' ... why do I so love pink? I got very stuck with the sock pattern and had to wait until I got some expert advice to continue ... meanwhile I worked on the second sock. Now all has been explained (I am a fool - you cannot imagine just how long I lay in bed trying to puzzle out just what the pattern actually meant - and it was obvious once it was explained)!
This was the progress on the first sock before I got stuck and did not know how to proceed - the dividing instructions for the heel really confused me.
This was the progress on the second sock up until this morning. Now I understand what I should be doing I am hoping to complete this pair by the meeting next week. Last week a hat, this week socks, maybe next week a cover for the new olympic dome?
Some of the other ladies are making much more complicated stuff, which is really useful as they are experts and can help me along.
A fiery red haired beauty is making this shawl - the colours will go beautifully with her hair - it has grown enormously since last week.
The pattern starts from the pointed end (it is 'V' shaped) and grows and is now on a long circular needle - it must take forever to do a row.
This is the second sleeve of a jumper with a very complicated pattern. The lovely lady finished the first last week.
This jumper for a child is knitted from the neck down in 'odds and ends'. Remember this lady made a similar one last week? She certainly has lots of 'odds and ends' and lots of children to clothe!
I loved this rich coral pink coloured jumper, which was not too different a colour from my own Marks and Spencer jumper and socks of the day.
Wow! This very clever lady just finished a sleeve in this very difficult design. I love the blue.
Here is more of that lovely Sirdar Crofter Double Knit, only this time in a more interesting colour ... and this is how it knits up into a child's top ...
Isn't it lovely? As you can see none of the group wish to have their faces on the net but all were very happy to share their work. Once again I did not yet feel able to take photos of everything - maybe when I get to know them better they will be more approachable. The group of about 20/30 range in ages of between 20s and their 70s - and 'no' I am at neither end of this range!
Highest resolution photo of the earth Jan 2012
Courtesy NASA
Image - Habitable planets with short window for life to develop.
The red star destroys obliquity and therefore seasons.
Courtesy David Arguilar
Wonders of the sea urchins
Via Tumblr
A puzzle
A second puzzle
These two are actually topographical maps of the moon created by NASA and the USA Geological Survey. Amazing to have this much detail on a place so very far away.
The Milky Way Galaxy
Apparently the Milky Way Galaxy may contain 160 billion planets!!!
Alarm clocks come in all shapes and sizes - this is ours! We have a very noisy bird living in a tree right by the house. It is a green woodpecker and it makes itself known very early each morning.
For the whole of my life I had never actually seen a woodpecker and then one day last month I saw one in the garden. Later that day, a mile away in my son's garden, I saw another! Two in one day - how extraordinary. Now I see this little feller most days and hear him (I assume it is a 'him' as it is so noisy), all the time. Wow isn't 'it' beautiful?
Woodpeckers are known for chiseling and pecking wood loudly. They have extremely long tongues, and stiff tail feathers helping them perch upright in trees ... and boy are they noisy!
Listen here ... this actually sounds so much more like the noise than any of the u-tube real bird noises that I could find!
We are so lucky to live in such a convenient part of south London, surrounded as we are with parks and gardens, shops and restaurants. Richmond Park,Bushey Park and Hampton Court Palace are all nearby and the Thames riverside walks and much commonland surround my home, yet we are barely ten miles from Central London with its wealth of shops, galleries, theatres and historical sites.
This week has been very cold - the trees are bare and the grass is crisp underfoot yet little shoots of spring flowers have appeared and there are even some daffodils flowering along the roadside verges. Mr Whizz Kid is away once again saving the world so I had a little outing with friends to Richmond. The drive to Richmond from my home can either go through Bushey Park or through Richmond Park, both equally enchanting - we choose Richmond Park. I took these photos along the way ...
Map of Richmond Park
View from Richmond Hill over Ham and The Thames
View Richmond Central Square with icy fountain
View from Richmond Hill over Petersham and The Thames
View across Pen Ponds
London skyline from the park
Early daffodils on verges
Afternoon tea in the park
First flower on hebe
First spindly crocus
Another struggling crocus
Peeking through the gravel
Delicate blooms
Scary creatures up close
Boy its cold in here!
Cold sun-kissed tree
Via starrymessenger
This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body. —Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
The park is very beautiful and has a wonderful cafe - Pembroke Lodge.
This is a favourite London wedding venue and serves excellent food.
