Knitting Adventures: Yarn Store Spotlight

I don't take much persuading when it comes to buying more yarn and in this new feature, I want to share some of my favourite places to shop.

First up is Little Owl Crafts. Run by the lovely Heather Sherwood, Little Owl Crafts is an organic fibers and handspun yarn specialist store on etsy and it's what I'd describe as an undiscovered gem. 

I'm a big fan of supporting fellow UK crafters and Heather's yarns are all handspun in Exeter, Devon.

available here

She has a lovely selection of single ply yarns in a gorgeous array of colours - I still have a skein of pastel blue and green shades tucked away, but my favourite has to be her corespun yarn. I confess, I hadn't come across corespun yarn before stumbling upon Little Owl Crafts and my, what a happy discovery! A collection of fibers that she's sourced locally, Heather uses yarn from recycled sweaters as the core for this range.

available here
I bought a very similar skein to the one above, a while back and it was so much fun to knit with. I love textured art yarns - it was perfect to add to a plainer project to turn it into a statement piece.

You can find Little Owl Crafts on facebook - I'd recommend following to be first to know when Heather lists new yarns, so you can snap them up quickly!

I'm going to be sharing more of my favourite yarn-based haunts, including old favourites and new discoveries, over the coming weeks.

A ♥

DIY Stamped Notebook Cover

Last night I hand stamped some polka dot canvas - and today, instead of doing schoolwork, I decided I it would make a pretty cover for my notebook.   

Hand stamping is such an easy way of patterning fabric, these polka dots are the result of fabric paint and the eraser end of pencil. 

You'll Need:
A notebook, fabric, Mod Podge, paintbrush, fabric scissors, and (not pictured) clothes pegs or bulldog clips.

Coat the cover of your notebook with a generous layer of Mod Podge.

Wrap your chosen fabric around your notebook - I cut two slits into the canvas, so I continue to use the elastic strap on my moleskine.

Use clothes pegs or bulldog clips to hold the fabric in place while it dries.
When dry, trim the edges of the fabric up to the notebook cover.
Tip: dip the edges of the book cover into Mod Podge to prevent fraying.

Done! I'm going to use leftover fabric for a mending project I've been putting off for ages - canvas is really versatile!

Have a lovely weekend!
A ♥

Film Love

Whilst I'm awaiting summer 2013, I want to share some film I shot last summer - all these are taken with expired APS film, at the night in July where The Boss headlined Hard Rock Calling. I'm a huge Springsteen fan (thanks Mum & Dad) and I'm seeing him twice this summer, but here are some photos from last year.

Yep. That's Bruce and Sir Paul McCartney.

An amazing night. If you get the chance to see him on The Wrecking Ball tour, seize it with both hands! 

You can see these photos at larger sizes here

A ♥

Waiting for Summer

There's one week to go until final hand-in, and another until the last day of term. I cannot wait. In fact, I'm not waiting, I'm already getting started on my list of summer projects. I might've rearranged my entire living room last weekend and I might've repainted my hallway on a whim this afternoon…
That yellow you see, well it's called Bumble Bee and it's the colour of my new 'feature wall'.

I'm looking forward to having time for myself this summer. This summer I'm going to make my home beautiful. I'm going to stay with my friends. I'm going to make things. I'm going to grow things. I'm going to knit all the clothes I'll need for winter. I'm going to draw. I can't wait.

A ♥

ps. I tend not to talk about sad real-life things often here, but everyone gets heart broken and life goes on. I want Happy Daisy to be all about honesty. Even if it's not always happy honesty. 

Knitting Adventures: A Yarn Review

I recently purchased a crazy amount of yarn from Art Equals Happy - as if I didn't have enough yarn already - and Kim asked me if I'd mind reviewing my purchases. 

It's partly Kim's fault that I've turned into a bit of a yarn and fibre snob. A couple of years ago I wouldn't have thought twice about using 100% acrylic yarns for my projects, lured in by the price and the wide availability. But as my skill level has progressed, the maxim "life is too short to knit with cheap yarn" has become all the more relevant to me, however, even now, colour, over almost anything else, is what attracts me most when purchasing yarn. I avoid overly bright, neon colours, preferring the more natural shades, mustard yellows and greys - the colourways in the Art Equals Happy Hand-Dyed range are right up my street. 

I bought several skeins of yellow - dyed with Buckthorn, and two shades of chunky/bulky weight yarn dyed with Indigo, amongst others. The chunky yarn is lovely to handle - I've incorporated my indigo shades into an oversized cowl and it's added a lovely texture to the project.

Working with the yarn is pleasant, it's sold in attractive skeins that are easy to wind into balls. Only one of my ten skeins (yep, I went a little crazy!) had yarn breaks that I noticed whilst winding it, but that doesn't particularly bother me, I wound it into several smaller balls and put it aside to make socks with at a later date.

The dyeing is a high quality of all over colour, reassuringly there's no colour residue to come off on your hands whilst you're knitting and there's no pulling apart the chunky yarn with your bare hands, it's been plied well and you'll need scissors! They're all attractively labeled with the wool used (Blue Faced Leicester) and the dyeing extract used. The only thing missing are washing / care instructions - but as any seasoned knitter knows, hand wash only for 100% wool yarn, and you can find Kim's recommendations for which size needles to use for which weight, on her shop site.

As far as purchasing goes, if you're buying online, you'll be treated to high quality photographs - the colours of which are very true to life. I also received a 10% coupon code for my next order - which is always nice - Kim's yarns are of an extraordinary value when you consider each stage of the process they go through, from white fleece - coloured skeins, all by her own hands. If you're a fibre fan or general creative type and want to find out more about her processes, you can find out more about them on her blog.

Unless you have a generous budget, hand spun yarn isn't really practical for larger projects like jumpers - and even if blessed with a full wallet, it's hard to get large quantities of the same shade or dye lot if it's been hand dyed. However, it's perfect for smaller projects like socks or scarves, depending on the weight you choose - or mixing with other yarns from your stash, adding trims or decorative ribbing to projects.

If you're a fibre enthusiast, or a fan of natural dyeing, I'd totally recommend Art Equals Happy yarns. I can't wait to get to cracking on some more of the projects on my 'To Knit' list.

A ♥

Gardening Without A Garden

I love gardening. Growing and nurturing seeds into plants is one of my favourite things about summer. Nature really is amazing and I've been spoiled by years of living with my parents, their large garden and three vegetable patches. Now living in my first floor flat, we don't have a garden, or a balcony, so I had to get creative. We do have a fire escape however, a big metal structure at the back of our flat, which comes in handy for drying washing and sitting on when the sun's shining. 

Primarily, I'm growing vegetables - I love being able to eat home grown food, lettuce, tomatoes, spring onions and runner beans. As well as rosemary and coriander - two of the herbs I use the most. 

I love this wire pot holder - I bought it from Tiger (a Scandinavian shop that sells all sorts of quirky homeware, office supplies and all sorts).

If you're interested in container gardening or gardening on a budget - here are a few tips:

- Save the plastic trays you get mince or strawberries or grapes in - washed up, they make great seed trays - make sure to put a few holes in the bottom with a skewer if they don't have any already.

- Start your plants off inside, on windowsills so they get plenty of light, stand your trays in shallow dishes so water doesn't leak onto your floors.

- You can get really cheap gardening supplies like flower pots, flower canes, seeds and even bags of soil in money saving shops like the 99p Store. Supermarkets are really good for bigger plant pots too.

- Plants that grow upwards are perfect if you don't have much ground space - flowers like sweetpeas, vegetables like runner beans or peas wind round canes or railings - good for balconies.

So far all of the plants I have are grown from scratch, but the church around the corner from my university is having a Plant and Produce sale this Saturday and I'm hoping to pick up some geraniums for a reasonable price. I tend to avoid garden centres because they're pricey - but you can pick up plants from car boot sales and all sorts of other unlikely places and I swap my extra plants with friends - because no one needs 15 tomato plants!

A ♥

For more updates on my garden project search #gardeningwithoutagarden on instagram.

The Little Moments

We've had a few days of sun around these parts and despite having a crazy amount of schoolwork to do - end of year deadlines - I've snatched a few precious hours of sunshine this week.

Not having a garden means H and I retreat to a little park around the corner from our flat, on sunny days, armed with books and a knitted blanket.

I've also discovered the most amazing cafe - that I've been walking past everyday on my way to university for six months, yet had never ventured inside. They have the most amazing smoothies, and the decor is beautiful.

I have a big project due in tomorrow - which will be a relief, and then I'm going to spend a couple of days working on fun stuff, before diving straight back into schoolwork. 

 I hope you've had a lovely Bank Holiday Weekend.

A ♥

Knitting Adventures: Yarn Excitement

 A while back, my friend Meghan from The Suffragette and I decided to do a yarn swap, it was somewhat delayed by my disorganisation, but it was really fun. Above is the yarn I sent to Meghan in New Zealand, the two skeins on the far left are hand dyed, the three in the centre are unravelled from secondhand sweaters and the remaining skein is by Debbie Bliss - I picked it up at the Spring Knitting and Stitching show. 

This is some of the yarn Meghan sent me - I didn't photograph it before I used half of it. Oops.
Following on, on the yarn theme, look at this beautiful handspun yarn I bought from Little Owl Crafts. 

So much yarn, I have so many knitting projects I can't wait to start!
A ♥

Spring Knitting & Stitching Show

A couple of weekends back, Kim and I went to the Spring Knitting & Stitching Show at Olympia. I went to the Knitting & Stitching Show at Ally Pally back in October and I was excited for the Spring show - purely so I could lust over pretty yarns and get some inspiration for future projects.

Sari yarn! The colours are gorgeous, they'd look amazing crocheted into a rug. Or a bag...

They had an exhibition of patchwork quilts, which made me feel a little inadequate about my own quilt.

These two. Favourites of mine.

There were some beautiful displays of pure wool yarn, I loved this snood / cowl, it has an element of a Jacobean Ruff about it!

I think because it was missing the knitted model village and the Tales of the Unfinished exhibition, it wasn't quite as exciting as the autumn show, but I still bought some pretty yarn, which is a day well spent in my opinion.

A ♥