Poppies in the Park - Rowntree Park, York It'll soon be time to take the Poppies in the Park installation down (Thursday 16 July 2015) and send them on their way to the York Branch of the British Legion (red poppies) and to the Friargate Quaker Meeting (white poppies). It's been fun working with lots of different people to make them and we've had such a lot of positive comments. I thought it would be interesting to work out how long they took to make. So with some actual info and some…

Extreme knitting in progress - and now I have proper end stoppers on my needles thanks to Andy! You may know that extreme knitting is a hobby of mine. And you may also know that I've already knitted a giant red poppy. Well - now I've also knitted a giant white poppy. It's 1m in diameter and it took 1.36 kg of yarn made from cut up white sheets (which took a very long time to cut up!!). 890g ball & 470g ball of extreme yarn - it took both balls! More facts - the black centre is aproximately…

Knitted Tree Brooches Liberty Print Fabric Necklaces in Tresco Liberty Print Fabric Necklace in Pavilion Liberty Print Fabric Necklaces Wooden Domino Brooches Bird Button Brooch Aluminium Button Brooches Knitted Tree Brooches Christmas Cards Ceramic Button Brooches Wooden Button Brooches Raku button brooches Lace Print Ceramic Button Brooches Liberty Print Fabric Necklaces Fabric necklaces, button brooches and bracelets, flower brooches Fabric necklaces, vintage geology map notebooks, coin…

1.5m knitted pot plant

A Rainbow of Fabric I'm just getting everything together for my Upcycled Flower Brooch workshop tomorrow. I've been dyeing some fabric this week so there's a nice range of colours - don't they look great all piled up together. Also there's lots of colourful buttons. (Had to eat a lot of pesto to get all those jars!) Jars of Buttons

Yarnbombed Pillar Box The Olympics & Paralympics have been great - haven't they? All that effort and excitement and medals - and now it's over. Olympians and Paralympians, we salute you and in a special tribute to Team GB there has been a little yarnbombing going on in York. "Good as Gold" Team GB Yarnbomb In my own small way I say,"Well done!" to our team who have been as "good as gold"! 2012 Olympic "Good as Gold" Medal Hope it stays in place long enough to entertain a few people! If…

Champagne Restaurant featuring Champagne Cork Chairs and Innocent Smoothie Bottle Top Table Wire & Woolly Robins Waiting for a Friend! It's amazing what fun you can have with a few left over bits and pieces. I've enjoyed making the champagne (or in my case Prosecco) cork chairs so much that I've made some more. Then using an Innocent Smoothie bottle top and an ordinary cork I've made a table. Add a lacy mat and a menu (more cork for the stand) and what do you have - a champagne restaurant…

An over zealous title I'm afraid. Really it should be "More Embroidered Jumper" but that sounds a bit funny. Anyway this is just to let you know I've completed another jumper - this time with BOOM on the back. And the jumper was green to start with! I did wonder, when I was embroidering it, whether the black would run into the green in the wash. But I didn't let that stop me. And guess what - it did! However a couple of packets of Colour Run Remover and a couple of days later and the runs…

Fairy princess embroidered jumper Yet again I have to apologise for the title - it isn't "Yet More Embroidered Jumpers" - it's "Yet More Embroidered Jumper". I think it's becoming a bit of a thing! I now have a little stock of jumpers waiting to be upcycled & embroidered with some strange & wonderful(?) phrase. The cycle begins like this, first scour the charity shops for suitable candidates (in jumper terms that is - I like to buy pure wool ones in nice colours - which generally, for me…

Yarnbombing Area in Rowntree Park Deborah New (textile artist & teacher), the Friends of Rowntree Park & the City of York Park Rangers & I are organising a Yarnbombing event in Rowntree Park, York this summer (date for your diary - Saturday 13 July 2013 from 2-5pm - Rowntree Park's 92nd Birthday Party). So dust off your needles, grab your yarn and get knitting - or find your sewing kit and get stitching - either way, it'll be great! Knitting on Catbells near Keswick I've found you can…

Extreme Knitting I'm very excited because my super large knitting needles are now up and running (perhaps that should be up and knitting!). They were made locally and are just great. The first time I tried them out, they were too long (my fault - they were as I specified them!). But now they are a little shorter they are fine. At approx 1.9m long and 50mm wide they are quite an impressively sized pair of needles! Extreme Knitting Unsurprisingly they work just the same way as any other…

The sun was shining, the yarnbombing was fantastic, there were lots of people really enjoying it all - what could be better? So here's a quick journey round the exhibits. It is by no means everything but I hope it gives you a flavour of the day. Before you even got to the Yarnbombing area there were some treats on offer ... Bunting at Rowntree Park Reading Cafe & what a view! Lovely bunting Didn't Rowntree Park Reading Cafe look great decked out in bunting. Thanks to the Knitting Group that…

The sun was shining, the yarnbombing was fantastic, there were lots of people really enjoying it all - what could be better? So here's a quick journey round the exhibits. It is by no means everything but I hope it gives you a flavour of the day. Before you even got to the Yarnbombing area there were some treats on offer ... Bunting at Rowntree Park Reading Cafe & what a view! Lovely bunting Didn't Rowntree Park Reading Cafe look great decked out in bunting. Thanks to the Knitting Group that…

I thought I'd tell you about my crochet experience which began this summer and is still going on. In July, (after the Yarnbombing in Rowntree Park - http://hippystitch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/york-yarnbombing-event-rowntree-park.html), York had a Festival of the Rivers - http://www.yorkfestivals.com/rivers-festival.html. I went along and happened upon Ruby McGrath of Frank & Olive. If you haven't heard of Frank & Olive here are the details ... Ruby makes fantastic, colourful crochet garments…

Those of you that have visited the "How to make ..." page on my blog will know that there have long been instructions on how to make pompoms. You'll be pleased to know that I've recently added another quick make in time for Valentine's Day in the form of some upcycled 3D paper heart decorations. They can of course be used for other occasions and can be easily adapted for more general use. I did make some round ones in time for Christmas - and made some map based ones for the Geographers I…

Wool Shirt Cushion Recently I spotted a rather nice grey shirt on the reduced rail in my local charity shop. It was only 50p and it was 80% wool. I thought it had potential so I snapped it up. After pondering (briefly) about the possibilities I decided that its fate was to become a cushion. One reason for this was the rather nice placket it had down the front, covering the buttons - an instant opening for the cushion pad. Also, I liked the shirt pockets (with flaps) on the front - excellent…