A visit to Toft Alpaca and a colourful talk by Kaffe Fassett.

What an amazing day!

I left the house at 6 am and got to Toft Alpaca Manor 9 ish, I did end up on the 303 going the wrong way at one point! due to going around the roundabout wrong at Newbury. I managed to find my way back along a tiny lane, luckily the roads were fairly quiet so I got away with it.

We were greeted by the gorgeous colourful Alpacas.

Dyed especially for the event with animal friendly dyes that fade gradually and the Alpacas will be back to their normal colour in a week or so (quicker if it rains).

The food was fantastic, coffee and danish pastry to start the day served by very happy people. I was on my own so quite nervous to start with, but I shouldn’t have worried. Everyone was lovely and very chatty, I met some great ladies. One group of local ladies had recently finished making a knitted garden which sounded fab. (I am so hopeless with names I think I need a dictaphone when I’m out and about)

Lots of people were interested in my scumbled bag and it got lots of compliments and oohs and aaahs and how did you do it’s 😉

In the morning there was a walk around the Alpaca farm.

where I managed to take a few pictures.  Most of the day I spent chatting and forgot to get my camera out.

Lunch followed the walk, with yummy colourful cupcakes for pudding.

Then it was the talk and waiting for Kaffe Fassett to come in the room I could hardly breathe. I felt like a teenager going to see there favorite band. It was very strange. I have admired his work for a very long time, and never thought I would get to meet him.

The talk was very funny and so inspiring. It was weird because I felt tearful and totally overwhelmed. It made me feel normal !

I have days where I am embarrassed about my house being higgledy piggledy, with bits of old wall paper and carpets from the past still visible, rooms that still need painting and a crazy colourful kitchen. These were the things that Kaffe liked and photographed the character of a place. I have turned down 2 interior photographers this year because I don’t think my house is ready to be photographed, but looking at the photographs that Kaffe was showing I could see what they have seen. (though it still does need a lot of work doing to it!)

The talk has also inspired me to keep going, we all have days where we wander if we’re on the right path don’t we? Sometimes its just a chance meeting, being in the right place at the right time that can take you to the next level. I am lucky that I have been able to experiment and make what I like all I need now is that lucky break 😉

 

When the talk ended we were all able to go and get our books signed..120 of us! poor Kaffe. Everyone was very excited to meet the man himself. I could hardly talk when I got mine signed but did ask him about crochet and showed him my bag. I probably mumbled and ran away quickly. He has just written a crochet book for Rowan so I will be looking out for that when it is published.

I bought ‘Knitting With The Colour Guys’ by Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mobly.

There is so much beautiful colour inspiration in this book.

I love the photography in it.

How exciting to have it signed to. Ya 🙂

It was the most fantastic day and the Toft Alpaca team were superb led by the very lovely Kerry. Congratulations to Claire also on organising the Kaffe Fassett talk.

I am sorry I did not take many pictures the wool all looked very yummy as did the mulitcoloured macaroons at the end! I was either to nervous or talking to much lol

Have a good week everyone. T x

 

 

 

Hanging Owl New design.

After being so inspired by looking at lots of lovely Owl pictures I designed my own. Double sided this looks great hanging in a tree or hanging in the kitchen as I have done 🙂

Colourday Owls Owls and more Owls.

I am seeing so many Owls around and about I thought I would share some.

Apparently ancient cultures believed the owl offered protection against evil spirits and ill health.

Here’s a few colourful happy owls. If you click on the photographs it will take you to the source of each one. There are some very talented artists and makers out there!!

I love these boots!!

Owl dress by Orla keily for people tree.

 

 

Retro folk art owls.

colourful crochet owls.

Owl by Ashley Percival

There are soooo many more around all cute and colourful.

 

Have a great weekend T . x

Colourday: A visit to Butterfly Bright full of my favorite colours!

Today I went to Butterfly Bright in Sherborne for a Yarn Bee (knit and natter), a morning of crochet chatting and eating cake in a very colourful shop owned by Ali Nurts (@AliNurts on twitter)

I met some lovely ladies who were being taught to crochet by Caroline Bradshaw (@carolinemakesit).

Now to the colour! Beautiful buttons.

Yummy fabrics (these are 30% off at the moment)

Gorgeous bundles of felt.

Colourful displays.

Cute little containers by Rice which I could not resist..

because they are all my favorite colours 🙂 They will soon be full of beads and buttons, great to take with me when I’m running workshops.

Ali also now stocks my cards,brooches and jewellery. 

What a fab day.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend T x

Painting with friends and a bit of stitching.

I have been asked by a few of my friends to teach encourage them to paint. So we they  have decided that every Wednesday is painting day.  Which is great because it means I get my paints out and join in. Very important as I have 2 exhibitions booked The Somerset Arts Week at The Art House in Glastonbury and an exhibition in November at Divine Wines in Wincanton, so I seriously need to be more disciplined about painting every week.

I wasn’t sure what the ladies would like to do so got out a variety of art materials to play with.

We ended up talking quite a lot, about different artists and how to use colour.  Acrylics were chosen to work with. None of the ladies had used them before so the idea was not to try and paint a picture as such but  just have a go with the paints and see how they mix, what happens when use different brushes etc. Picking out colours from the view but not trying to paint exactly what is there seemed to work well.

I did a tiny acrylic sketch trying to capture some of the colours and not just paint green.

We were really lucky that the sun came out, there was no colour yesterday just grey.

Next Wednesday we will be using water soluble oils and I will be setting up a still life with lots of colours and textures.

Now its time to get back to my day job and finish stitching brooch backs on to all these flowers.

A visit to Courts Gardens NT

I had a lovely morning out with my Mum. We visited Courts Garden in Holt Nr Bradford on Avon. 

It was so nice to see the flowers coming out and feel the heat from the sun.

The beautiful blossom in the trees.

A walk around the ponds.

Admiring all the flowers.

We sat down over looking the ponds with a flask of tea I had brought and a homebaked cake. Bliss!

We nattered a lot, and watched the wildlife.

It was so nice to catch up and enjoy the sunshine together.

There was a a fab children’s den part to the gardens hidden in between the trees, which gave me lots of ideas for the bottom of our garden.

We also found a lovely cafe near the carpark with the yummiest looking cakes and salads..I will be going back with Tony and Arthur soon I think.

After dropping Mum back in Trowbridge I headed home picking up some baguettes from Whiterow Farm Shop at Beckington.

I am now back in my garden concentrating on writing a new pattern for funky wristwarmers.

What a perfect end to a great day 🙂

Colourday: Crazy Colourful Circles.

I love circles especially in lots of different colours. 

Painted.

Crochet .

Decals.

On tree stumps.

A scarf made of circles.

Circles in design.

Circle shades.

 

Happy Colourday 🙂

T x

 

If you click on the pictures it will take you to the source 🙂

So there we were Friday night settling down with a glass of wine in front of the fire to watch ‘Not Going Out’ on Bbc1 when Daisy (Katy Wix) walks in wearing one of my handmade brooches. I nearly dropped my glass of wine as I stood up pointing and shouting thats my brooch ha ha.

A brooch I crocheted and stitched, carefully choosing colours that compliment each other and vintage fabric to edge it with. How lovely to see it being worn by ‘Daisy’ who has a personality not dissimilar to mine (as Tony pointed out)

I did finish the evening with a couple more celebratory glasses of wine 😉

I have spent today topping up my website with a few more of these brooches. As a few have sold over the weekend. 

I hope you’ve had a great weekend  

T x

Crochet Necklace inspired by the sea.

I have been trying out some more textured crochet stitches and using the Rowan Tweed Aran wool.  The combination of wavy texture and the blues and greens in the wool remind me of the sea, I have added little beads that catch in the light as the sun would catch sparkle in the water.

This is what a holiday by the sea does even if it is cold 😉

I love the texture of this wool and the bumpiness of the stitch.

This picture was taken last summer in cornwall, the colour’s are exactly those found in this gorgeous wool.

I will be concentrating on writing some patterns for my website over the next few weeks, I have so many ideas bubbling away and sketchbooks full of designs. I must concentrate on one at a time 😉

Inside Crochet and a Peek inside my Studio

Last Thursday Inside Crochet’s April edition came out. Knowing I was in it I rushed to Sherborne (approx 10 miles away) to get my copy.  I had been tweeted about the feature early in the morning (my favorite time on twitter) by a few people and was getting very excited. A fellow tweeter and crochet designer Kat Goldin was also featured with a book review on her new book Crochet at Play and  a Pretty Tutu pattern taken from the book.

Unfortunatly I could not find it in any of the news agents in Sherborne and did not feel like driving to the next town, so had to wait until the Friday to get my copy in Frome.  With my phone pinging all day from people who had seen it 😉

When I finally got my hands on a copy I was thrilled to see the lovely colourful photographs and read the 2 page feature beautifully written by Lindsey Harrad.

Inside Crochet has changed a lot over the last year and is looking and feeling fab. There are some great patterns, book reviews and lots of gorgeous photographs to get you inspired to pick up your crochet hook!     I am planning to make the Dream Catcher by Sara Sinaguglia for Arthur, may change the hearts and flowers to little cars to make it boyish. It looks like a lovely pattern.