crafts & knitting

More yummy yarn

One of my daily visits in blogland is to Rebecca’s site. I admire her philosophy, her creativity and she also has fabulous photos of the beautiful countryside around her home. I discovered the concept of a ‘carbon footprint’ via her blog and her informative, unpatronizing writing makes me ponder more about the wastefulness and destructiveness of modern living and ways of living in better balance with the environment. Anyway, in tribute to her ecologically-friendly life style I’ve decided to work on a couple of partially* eco bunnies. I’ve found this gorgeous organic cotton yarn (from Angel Yarns) in natural shades – it is un-dyed and actually grows in these colours. On the label is says that the growing of cotton around the world accounts for 50% of world pesticide use(!!) so buying organic cotton helps to reduce the use of chemical pesticides, fertilizers and defoliants. It’s a small step, but it’s a start.

Ecoknit2

* can’t find an eco-friendly stuffing – anyone got any ideas??

On a non-knitting note, I have been tagged by Rachael at Tinkerblue to reveal 6 weird things about myself. I am as averagely normal as they come, but here goes:

1. I cannot stand to get pruney fingers. So whilst I love a long hot bath I need to keep my hands out of the water and once my fingertips start to wrinkle, that’s it, I’m out.

2. I learnt to ride a motorbike before I learnt to drive a car. In my pre-children days I used to love commuting into London and bombing around the countryside on my Honda 400 (now sadly sold – although I did ponder the merits of a side-car for the kids!). This is my helmet.

Helmet

3. I can read novels over and over again. Iโ€™ve read some of my favourites more than 6 times – even though I know whatโ€™s going to happen.

4. I usually read the last page of a new novel first, to gauge whether itโ€™s worth the investment of time! (apparently this is not that weird as both Monica from Quilt While You’re Ahead and Carolyn from Willow House do it too!)

5. I would happily live in pyjama bottoms – the most comfortable item of clothing ever invented. The first thing I do after I come into the house is go and change into my jammies. I have 15 pairs of brushed cotton jammy bottoms – not quite enough to rival Ali’s impressive knicker collection!

6. I have an occasional but undeniable craving for pickled eggs! Sorry!

There are rules that come with this tag but I’m going to throw caution to the wind and ignore them. Instead I throw the challenge open – give it a go and reveal your inner weirdo!

crafts & knitting

A BIG THANK YOU

This is a post mainly to say a humongous thank you to a wonderful person called Julia who is so thoughtfully kind and generous and has sent me 10 balls (!!) of yarn from her stash (which, judging by what she sent me, must be an amazing treasure trove!) Julia, I can’t thank you enough, I love all of it but my special favourites are the baby alpaca – a beautiful butterscotch colour and very soft, the gorgeous luxury tweed – the mottled colours are lovely and the wonderful ball of red marl cashmere. I was so excited by this that I had to begin knitting with it straight away. I’ve not knitted with such fine guage yarn before and have opted for 2.25mm needles (tiny stitches!). This will become a most luxurious jumper for one lucky little bunny – I love the marl effect and it is extremely soft. Thank you Julia for making my day. Aren’t some people amazing?

Juliayarn

 

I’d also like to thank everyone who emailed me when my shop went on line yesterday evening. Thanks to everyone who bought a toy and many apologies to those of you who were pipped at the post. I will be making more soon and will email my advance list the day before putting the shop back on line. Have a great weekend everyone.