One water pump scavenged from the scrap yard....

....has saved us about 50 squids in addition to a roll of copper pipe donated a couple of years ago by a friend, and "viola" as they say in France - another stage of the plumbing is done.

Looks very complicated and that is because it is. It is set up so that the bathroom radiator always takes priority over the other rads, and also has been plumbed to allow for thermo syphoning - but we don't know if it actually will or not - hence the pump.

While Brendan was doing this complicated set of pipework I have to admit that I ran away to my studio, knowing full well that the only help I could offer today was the cleaning up afterwards.

So I got on with some more bags - guess what everyone is getting for Crimble!!

Thank you for the belt donations - the first ones are being used for bag straps today.

Feeling sooooooo satisfied

It is a wonderful feeling to finish a crafty project in a couple of hours.

Today I crocheted a rug from the recycled t-shirt strips I cut a while or so ago, and used my handmade wooden crochet hook to make it with.

And now it adornes the floor in the bathroom.

This was so easy to make, but I really fell in love with using recycled cotton t-shirts and my huge hook because it is just so so so so fast!

Start with a chain of 25, on the basis that my strips of fabric were a couple of centimetres wide on average and my hook is about 22 mm size, this gives a width of approx 60 cm.

The body is then crocheted in half double crochet, a new stitch for me but really easy, it gives a denser, knobblier finish to the rug.

I have no idea how many rows I crocheted because I just kept going until I had used up all my cotton strips.

At the end of each row, chain 2 to create the first stitch, turn the work, then hdc in each stitch to the end.

How to : HDC = half double crochet

yarn over the hook as you would for a double crochet

push the hook through the top two yarns of the hole

hook the yarn and pull through all three loops on the crochet hook - don't yarn over again

so, yarn over the hook, push through the top two yarns of the hole, don't yarn over again, pull through all three loops on your hook to create one half double crochet stitch

When it was time to join the strips, I just knotted them together and wove the tails back through the stitches.

May have to reward myself with a glass of wine and slice of cake now.

Productive Day in the studio - new bag design on vintage fabrics.

The lovely weather is continuing - not - lovely for ducks perhaps. With the grey skies looming overhead with the threat of yet more heavy rain I decided to shut myself away with my stereo and my sewing machine in my studio.

I designed another easy bag on my very useful plastic coated publicity material, lit the fire and started cutting away.

I finished sewing up the bag I started the other day, finished it with some wooden beads,

 then used the same vintage 70s cotton to make up another bag in my new design with some hand crocheted flowers to add a bit of detailing, then had a go at another nautical themed bag in the same design.

 Very pleased with the way these have turned out, and also how my new design works, only two pieces, a round bottom, then a single cut of material to form the tube body of the bag, then this pattern piece is folded in half and creates the template for the handle.

Very productive day.

Shoe fetish - moi?

I had no motivation today, not a drop, not a trickle, not a teeny tiny 'ickle bit.

I don't really know why, but I think we all have days like that, days when we wish we had stayed in bed with the covers drawn up.  I did manage to drag myself out of bed, had my coffee, tried to read a new book (which was so bad I had to abandon it at the first chapter - you know it is a bad sign when you find three spelling mistakes in the first two pages) then went and watered the greenhouse.

I decided that the best thing to do other than dragging myself listlessly around the house and garden, was to shut myself in my studio.

So with my MP3 player set to play my new Johnny Cash downloads I shut the door, turned the lights and the sewing machine on and got on with the bags I cut yesterday.

And instantly felt lots better.........

....  so with my newly motivated self, I pinned together the black bag lining and the outers ready to be sewn up, and cut another tweed bag and the lining.  One skirt recycled, one dress recycled.

Rather than make material straps for this bag, I took some old brown suede trousers, and cut a single shoulder strap from them, and also some strips to make a suede hem for the bag opening, as well as a button flap.

After work, I finished assembling the bag, got it sewn together, and found a lovely vintage button to use as the fastening.  No photos today as I forgot to charge the battery in my camera - will get some uploaded tomorrow. (edited on Friday to include photos)

Hurrah for the studio - saved by a recycled bread oven!


When we were out shopping yesterday, Brendan got some new shoes.

New shoes are my absolutist most favouritist new thing to have.  I love how they smell, how they look in the box, I  love trying them on, posing in the mirror with them and most of all I love wearing them.  I was very sad to get home without a new pair of shoes for me, but then new shoes are really far down my list of things I need to buy.

Once upon a time in a land far far away, when I wore a boring grey suit to work and added up columns of figures for fun, I used to buy a lot of shoes, I mean a LOT of shoes.  A LOT OF SHOES.

In fact when we moved, and downshifted and switched lives with some French peasants from a century ago a lot of people asked me what I was going to do with all my shoes, I replied quite naturally that I was going to bring them to rural France with me - obviously.  What else would you wear when planting spuds in the rain in a muddy field, but some cerise kitten heels from nine west?  As for letting the chickens out, well I have a pair of 5 inch stiletto heels in a very fetching patent black with some contrast piping in turquoise!

I don't really need 200 pairs of shoes, these days I only ever wear my muck boots, and a pair of faux UGG boots as slippers.  I can't sell them though, one day I may need to wear a pair of cream sandals with crocheted flowers and a metallic sculpted heel - probably to plough the field with.

Reluctant model

With the rain finally easing off, and after a manic hour of weeding in the garden as well as getting my beetroot seedlings planted out, I finally got my reluctant model to don her coat and head outside for a few photos.

I finished this lastest round of hats the other week, but had not managed to get them listed yet as both the weather and my model were conspiring against me.

With this dry spell possibly continuing into tomorrow I may be able to get the rest of my items photographed and listed. This afternoon I am making a start with these.

Late Spring may seem to be the wrong time to list wooly hats, but as the inclement May has shown us, it is not summer yet.