Outside looking in

The wonderful thing about keeping a sketchbook is that you can tell it secrets that you would not tell anyone else. Whether anyone else understands what is inside, or even likes it, is neither here nor there.

Nothing but needle felt

I feel I ought to make some kind of apology for my blog being about very little but needle felt - however, that is what my life mainly consists of. I don't go out, don't do the cinema/eating out/shopping/concerts/whatever most people do. I tend to stay in my overcrowded room working and hope to earn a bob or two along the way. I did manage to update my shop recently and have stock for the first time ever. Sparrow Hill Cottage was snapped up within seconds though.

I have two teeny tiny toadstools left, gift boxed and tagged - and am happy to add clips at no extra charge, for pegging onto trees and wotnot.

My new fox and polar bear brooches were also bought at once, so I'm offering them again as custom orders, with a four day lead time, each one taking a day to make.

Nobody loves my crow brooch! Andy hates it. Maybe he's right.

I have four robins up for grabs -

- and just two Silver Pine danglies left -

And for the first time in two years, I have desk top calendars, at the same price as they were two years ago.


None of these things are as desirable to most people as a Kindle, an iPad; or a new pair of fashionable shoes, (none of which I possess). I like to think that they will last a lot longer and are a heck of a lot cheaper as well as being 100% handmade.

Bracken hare

December's hare is called Bracken and he is going to my very first male customer. In nearly four years of needle felting, all my customers (apart from the odd one buying for his lady love) have been women.




Bracken is definitely a 'chap'; he is heavier in build than Willow and has big paws to 'box' with. There is a great little home video of boxing hares here.




I read somewhere that hares take on the colour of the earth where they live. Last Sunday we were over the border in Gloucestershire on a cold winter walk. There were three orangey tinted hares grazing - this is a terrible photo, but they are actually a long way from us, and my zoom was struggling.

This is the field next door, beautifully ploughed and glowing copper orange in the weak sunlight, not unlike Bracken himself. So maybe it is true; all the hares I have ever seen have matched the earth of their area.

The Fibreworks & a giveaway

The other week I popped over to the nearby market town of Chipping Norton, to meet up with a fellow blogger/Twitterer, Cristina Colli. She has the most gorgeous lifestyle and interiors blog with exquisite photographs that put my snaps to shame, appropriately called 'Positively Beauty' and she was showing me the new wool and haberdashery shop on the block, The Fibreworks.

I can remember this little shop in other guises, but it has never looked as beautiful as this. Light, airy and yet cosy, it is a treasure house of lovely and unusual yarns, with a well lit bay window area, where you may sit comfortably to knit or browse one of the many craft books on sale. Claire and Lesley, the shop owners, are always on hand with advice and help, should your latest creation be proving a challenge.

I don't knit - craft and needle felting being my 'day job' five day a week at least, I shy away from having a crafty hobby. But the wonderful wools on display were almost enough to tempt me.

I did lust over the pretty haberdashery section though and invested in a couple of thread winders, with the noble intention of beginning to tidy my tangled thread box. The shop (despite the absence of people in my photos) was bustling and humming - Chipping Norton needed a shop like this.

I was actually there to talk about doing a needle felting workshop there next year; I am already booked to do a weekend course down in Bath, this January for a private group. After some discussion we felt that starting with a simple thing such as a flower brooch would be a good three or four hour project for beginners.

We haven't decided on a date yet, but if you are in the Chipping Norton area and think you might be interested, do contact The Fibreworks, we should hopefully have sorted a date out soon. Their blog is here with photos of the various workshops and happy crafting customers they have had in the short time they have been open.

Here is Cristina, asking advice about some hand warmers she had begun at a knitting course there. Claire and Lesley give everyone a warm welcome, so do pop in if you are local or even just passing through. Chipping Norton is a really great little town with a wide variety of independent shops and a bustling atmosphere. You might even bump into me if I've winkled myself out of my studio.

♥♥♥GIVEAWAY♥♥♥

There is a review of both of my Puddletown Tales books (featuring my needle felt toys) on the UK Handmade blog, and a giveaway of one of each titles. To enter, you need to click here to visit the blog and answer the simple question. I'm also adding a signed postcard and pin badge with each one. CLOSES TUESDAY NIGHT DEC 6TH UK TIME!

And finally...thank you to the Cuteable blog, for giving my Teeny Tiny Toadstools a mention!

The Great Mushroom Hunt 2011

I have barely left the fug of my studio in almost two weeks, needle felting like a thing possessed. Last Sunday was misty and murky and I needed a change of scenery, so we decided to pop over to the woods, to see if there were any mushrooms around. We have had so little rain that the fungi season has barely happened. The woods are beautiful at this time of year and everything was slowly dripping as if nature herself was quietly weeping.

It is a very late autumn, but at last the leaves are tumbling and things are bedded down and dying back for the winter. The trees take on a dishevelled witchiness.

We met a woman with a nice Red Setter dog and stopped to chat - she said that not only were mushrooms out in number, but she had seen lots of those 'red ones with white spots' in a particular corner which we know. A few days ago, she had met the chap who collects edible fungi for the nearby and oh-so-upmarket Daylesford Organics; he thought he had found some Chanterelles, which we have never spotted here. But there were plenty of things to look at - some good sized Wood Blewits which I wanted to pick, but Andy claims they are too woody for him. As I only had two paper bags, I left them where they were - these two were the size of a tea plate, about 7 inches in diameter.

The fun of mushroom hunting (and taking copious photos) isn't just about finding edibles, but finding out more about unknown types and trying to identify them later - such as these pretties, which I think are Grey Milkcaps. The clue is in the name, but I didn't know that until I got home. Next time I'll try breaking a cap to see if it leaks 'milk'.




These little fellows were hiding in the undergrowth, just a couple of inches tall - I hesitantly think they are some kind of Scalycap.

Joy of joys, we found another Penny Bun, or Cep. It was absolutely perfect; this is only the second one we have found and they are the best, so delicious!

Penny Bun 2011

It was growing very near where we found our first Penny Bun, last year, a tall chap with a fat head, easily identified.






A proud moment and a text book example. Although something had been nibbling at it, it was still a good size.

Penny Bun 2010

Last year we also found a Death Cap in one of our patches. It seems silly to say this about a toadstool, but they really do seem to have a sinister feel about them. This is last year's specimen -

Death Cap 2010

And growing in the same area, this year's specimen - (even the other mushrooms and toadstools seemed to give it a wide berth, growing far away from it).

Death Cap 2011

Here we also found several Shaggy Parasoles - these are darker brown ones and best when younger, before the caps get leathery. These can cause gastric upsets in some people, but we've eaten them before and our only problem has been wishing we'd picked more! Their gills start to turn pink when they are picked, which is a good way of double checking they are what you think they are.

As usual, Andy found Puffballs.

Did we find the copious Fly Agarics - or red ones with white spots as the dog lady called them? Oh yes! Lots, to my joy! Make way for fairy toadstools (but don't eat them: the fairies don't like it).

Personally I can't look at enough pictures of Fly Agarics, as you may have gathered. But, onwards and another great edible find; a Matt Bolete in very good condition - often the slugs have got at them and they are useless.

Further on, a near relation, the Red Cracking Bolete. My first wild mushroom at the tender age of 11 was one of these; I found it in the woods, identified it in my little book, double checked with mum and fried it myself. It was delicious and I became hooked on mushroom foraging. Even though this one was a bit nibbled, it was still good enough to gather.

One last mystery - this clump of oddly textured, gelatinous looking toadstools. Can't find them in my books or online.

If you look closer, you can see that they are bleeding a clear orange liquid. from the stems Most odd. I will not rest until I discover what they are.

We ended up with two bulging bags of various mushrooms, which was far more than I had anticipated.

The short afternoon was already closing in and it was not even three.

Time to head home.

One last delight, the jewel-like Spindleberry, my favourite wild shrub.

Once home with a pot of tea, everything was checked in our 'bible' - Roger Phillips 'Mushrooms'. Not only matching up pictures, but reading the descriptions, what they look like when cut, habitat - just to be absolutely sure, even though we were pretty certain of most of them. I fried them all up and we had them with bread, eggs and bacon.

As I am writing this several days on, we obviously survived.