Under the Sea - A Water Themed Art Project

So last week I was in a lovely school in Wigan, St Catherine's, working on a big felt project.

The theme was water and that led us to a lovely design featuring lots of sea animals. The school has links to a school in South Africa and two teachers came to visit that week - Vivienne and Godfrey. This influenced the design with a mixture of British and South African sea animals featuring. 

Part of the project was making a smaller hanging to go back to South Africa - it's very exciting to think that a piece of my work is now over there! 

Every child, members of staff and both visitors participated and contributed to the work. I love sharing felt making with others and my favourite bit is when they've managed to felt and stick the wool together - it's like magic! 

Here are a few photos from my week!

           A gift to take back to South Africa

                         Making felt seaweed

                                         A little fishy before felting

                                      How amazing is this Killer Whale?

       Creating the first panel - British Sea

  The second panel all ready to felt - South Africa Sea

The panels are now all dry and ready to be prepared for hanging (I sew a thin channel of fabric to the back to be threaded onto a pole) and then I'll take them back to school to be hung. I can't wait to see them up! 

The Felted Garden

Here is the reason I've been so quiet recently - I've been working on an enormous felt project at Winstanley Community Primary School in Wigan.

The project included every child in the school (approximately 300) and was all based on their school garden. I started in Nursery and worked my way through the school with each class working on an aspect - Nursery made flower pictures using nepps, Reception bees and ladybirds, Year 1 flowers, Year 2 butterflies and caterpillars, Years 3 and 4 made trees, Year 5 birds and Year 6 animals.

Year 5 and 6 children helped to put the panels together.

I had lots of fun working on the project and the children were just amazing. Here are a few photos of the process and the finished panels.

5KCBWDAY5 - Something a Bit Different

It's that time of Knitting and Crochet Blog Week again - time to produce a post a little bit differently to what I would normally do.  Last year I made a Vlog (Video Blog) which you can check out here.  This year I'm going for a post that is mainly photographs.

On Wednesday I took photographs of my day to share with you all.  I've included a short caption with each so that you know what it is of and how it relates to my day.

A Day in the Life of Me

Starting the day tutoring (and eating my breakfast!) 

A quick stop on the way home for supplies.

Beans on toast for dinner.

Time for a spot of fabric and yarn dyeing

Uneven dyeing some vegetable threads for my felt course

Drying on the line - you'll have to wait and see what they are for.

The Peace Silk really absorbed the colour.

Time for a bit of crochet - working on a mesh shopping bag in cotton .....

.....and a cup of green tea to go with it.

Stopping to see the cows on my way to tutoring in the afternoon.

Look at the pretty flowers.

Doing a bit of spelling.  Some interesting words with the 'ee' sound.

Time to relax with a spot of knitting.

Finally, time to make my list for tomorrow in my Bullet Journal before going to sleep.

A Very Animally Day!

Hello from a very sunny and warm Scotland! I am enjoying a well earned week away with Mr Bunny in the Scottish Borders.

Today we have visited Main Street Bookshop in Newton, the Roman Fort in Melrose and The Scottish Donkey Sanctuary.

We always visit the donkey sanctuary when we are up here and join one of their donkey tours where you get to meet and feed the donkeys! They also have shetland ponies, llamas, goats, pigs, chickens, ducks, peacocks and even frogs in their pond! All the donkeys are rescued and they do an absolutely amazing job!

On the way back we were happily held up by the farmer herding the sheep down a lane to a new field. In true sheep fashion, many of them tried to stop for a snack on the way!!

I have a few crafty visits planned for the week and will keep you posted on these!

Sarah x

Doggy Blankets

On Sunday I answered a plea.  A plea for help.  A plea for support.  This plea came from the lovely Plutoniummuffin who wanted kind knitters to join her in knitting blankets for the abandoned and mis-treated dogs rescued by Battersea Cats and Dogs Home in London.  This was a plea that, as an animal lover and supporter of animal rescue charities, I had to answer.

Some of the dogs who arrive at BCDH find kennel life stressful, may be ill or need an operation and are taken in by foster carers whilst they recover. The blanket is part of a 'doggy bag' which they take to their foster home to comfort them and then, when they are rehomed, they take this with them to ease the transition - what an amazing idea. 

I have been meaning to do for a while, and I downloaded the pattern a few months ago, but never got round to starting it.  This was the kick up the bum I needed to get it done and so I replied and joined the Knit A-Long (KAL).

Plutoniummuffin was very excited and you can see her reaction here on her blog. 

I chose my yarn, DK acrylic, in purple, lilac, royal blue, turquoise and yellow and retrieved my funky purple 4mm needles and started knitting those squares. 

The pattern, written by the wonderful Deadly Knitshade of 'The Scarf of Doom' fame, is entertaining (as always) and very easy to follow.  I have completed 5 squares so far in royal blue and I love the patterns for the paw prints - so cute! 

There is still time to join the KAL and to show your support for the dogs at Battersea Cats and Dogs Home (they are always wanting blankets so even if you can't join us now, you could add it to your queue for a future date!)  Links to the pattern, Plutoniummuffin and the Ravelry group are below.  What are you waiting for?  Get knitting!

Plutoniummuffin Blog,
@plutoniummuffinTwitter
Battersea Cats and Dogs Home
Blanket pattern on BCDH website
Blanket Pattern on Ravelry
Ravelry Knit A-Long Group

A Well Deserved Break!

Last week I had a well deserved break and headed off to the north of Scotland for my hols with Mr Bunny.  My aunty kindly called in on 'The Farm' to feed the creatures whilst we enjoyed a busy, but restful week away.

We chose to stay in Gardenstown near Banff, along the Moray Firth, an area of Scotland we haven't really explored before and we fell in love with it!  Gardenstown is a fishing village and you have to take some pretty steep roads to get down to the sea!  We were staying in an old fisherman's stores, The Wee Hoose, which has been converted into the perfect, cosy holiday cottage for 2 with spectacular sea views. 

Gardenstown

The village was full of quaint cottages, a pub and a local shop called Gamrie Larder which sold the cutest pottery houses of which we bought 3 and 1 for my aunt.  They now have pride of place on my fireplace!

This area of Scotland is a great place for walking and wildlife spotting.  We took a walk up to Troup Head, an RSPB nature reserve on the cliffs and spotted ganets, guillemots and puffins - they are super cute. 




Troup Head

We regularly called off to see the seals at Portgordon who bask on the rocks quite close to the land.  We also had a close encounter with a deer who ran straight infront of the car one night - luckily we stopped in time although a stiff drink in the pub was called for after that. 

The highlight of the entire holiday for me were the dolphins at Spey Bay.  We spent many hours there in the hope that we might spot them and eventually we did.  I got so excited when I saw them that I feel over in my rush to get closer.  We were very lucky as we watched them for around half an hour feeding and playing in the bay and it was awesome.  To see dolphins in the wild is so special and I will cherish those meories for the rest of my life!  The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society have a vistors centre at Spey Bay where you can find more out about dolphins and the local wildlife, including osprey and otters, as well as a little shop.  The volunteers in the centre are full of information and are very passionate about the dolphins - they were very keen to chat to everyone.  I adopted a dolphin, Mischief, whilst I was there to.



Sunset at Spey Bay

Amongst other activities we went on a boat trip, to the Glenfiddich and Glen Grant distilleries and to the Speyside Cooperage as well as popping along to local villages and catching up with some of our friends. 
I took my crochet with me but only managed  a few rows on my shawl as it was all a bit non-stop.  I started a scrap book whilst away and will share it with you all when it is complete later on this week.

I hope you are all enjoying this extra long weekend and eat plenty of cake!

Woolfest!

Yesterday was a most exciting day, it was Woolfest day!  We (me and my Mum) got up very early and set off on our 2 hour drive to Mitchell's Lakeland Livestock Centre in Cockermouth.  I had put the postcode in my Sat Nav, however, just past Keswick it appeared to freeze.  We had no need to panic, as Woolfest was very clearly signposted from the A66.  Parking was easy, with a large number of men directing us to our parking spot and making sure we all budged up to fit all the wool addicts in!  We were a little bit early, but managed to get our tickets, a programme and nip to the loo before we were released into the hall (SQUEAL!)

I have to say I was completley overwhelmed by all the stalls offering a whole range of wools, hand spun, hand dyed, commercial and then there where books, buttons, felt, spinning wheels - the opportunities to spend a small fortune where endless!

We started by visiting the animals.  There where sheep, goats, bunnies and alpacas to admire with lots of information on hand.  We particularly liked the alpacas who where just the cutest things ever!

Angora Bunny

Alpacas

Angora Goats

We then started our shopping, admiring all the yarns and notions on offer.  The choice was immense and you could certainly find something for everyone.  I had a lovely chat to the nice people from Inside Crochet magazine where I purchased a subsrciption and some back issues.  We then headed over to The Textile Garden who sell the most beautiful buttons and shawl pins.  I definitley recommend checking out their website!  Heartfelt by Liz was amazing!  They make beautiful items out of felt and other textiles and had the most amazing flower brooches and hair pins.  We purchased a kit to make them and where able to watch a fabulous demonstration aswell which was truly inspiring (so inspiring we are now looking at a feltmaking course!)  We purchased yarn from Fyberspates and artisanyarns who had a great choice of colours and blends. 

A fraction of my stash!

When we needed to rest our weary feet, there were plenty of places to grab a drink and some food and to have a sit down.  I purcahsed some beautiful lemon cake from a handmade stall and there was even ewes milk icecream, which we didn't have chance to try but I am assured it is delicious!!!  If you fancied some entertainment whilst you rested, you could watch some clog dancing, a harpist or a folk band.

We had a fantastic day and left inspired and ready to start many new projects.  The venue was perfect for the event and extremley well organised with clear signposting, a help desk and plenty of people on hand to help you get the most from your day.  I would recommend heading there with a mission or two to focus you in or you made end up as overwhelmed as I was! 

Next years Woolfest takes place on the 22nd and 23rd June 2012 and I am looking forward to it already!