Free Beenie pattern .......

Heres my 16 year old daughter Annabelle modelling the hat ( mug shot number one ! ) and heres myself, older, much older ! lol !

and my little Master Finn....aged 7 years...

Beenies are good, for old and young alike and heres my pattern, for you all its free , but you will have to buy the wool...   :)

heres the distructions..........


BEENIE HAT KNITTING PATTERN
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MATERIALS
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1X BALL OF ROWAN BIG WOOL
1X PAIR OF 10MM KNITTING NEEDLES

PATTERN
*********

CAST ON 40STS.

RIB FOR 20 ROWS ( THATS KNIT ONE PURL ONE )

THEN DEC ROW.
(RIB 3 KNIT 2 TOGETHER) TO END OF ROW.
THEN WORK ONE ROW.
THEN ANOTHER DEC ROW AS FOLLOWS
(RIB 2, THEN WORK 2 TOGETHER ) TO END OF ROW.
WORK ONE MORE ROW,
THEN ANOTHER DEC ROW AS FOLLOWS
( KNIT 1 AND KNIT 2 TOG) TO END OF ROW.
FINAL ROW
KNIT 2 TOGETHER TO END OF ROW, SNAP THREAD , LEAVING ENOUGH LENGTH TO PULL THROUGH ALL REMAINING STITCHES, AND DRAW TOGETHER TIGHTLY, BEFORE SEWING THE SEEM.

HAPPY BEENIE WEARING AND SHARING !!

I will be at selvedge this year !!!

I am so happy to say that I have been chosen to exhibit at selvedge this spring !!

I am so excited and busy making a mass of bunnies, I will be there just on the friday, whilst my wonderful friend and fellow artist, Viv , from Hensteeth , will be selling her gorgeous creations on the saturday,

so I hope to see you there !!

on the worktable today.......

Here once again Jack makes her presence felt, by demanding attention, instead of letting any of us work !

We love our cat--she owns us !

The Art of the Toymaker........

The Art of the Toymaker, is a new exhibition at Sudbury hall, that I have curated, that runs till the end of september. Included in the dolls are my favourite Queens Annes, heres some recent photos of the yellow Queenie......

 underneath her skirt, beautiful shoes and no knickers !!

 the lovely bodice and shredded with age, silk sleeves, with a real boned corset beneath...

 a close up of the boned corset, showing the powder blue satin petticoat , with net topping...

 a close up of the petticoat and the hand quilting effect with the netting...

 that beautiful face, with real human hair and mop cap....

 detail of corset and long human hair plait...

 I love this photo of the nape of her neck !

 a closer image of her laced up dress.....

 I love you Queenie ❤ ♡ ❤

a real english rose !

a great family working together........

Bear loves Blythe .....

Hoppy Valentines Day !
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As you can see , my new big bear Valentine, really does love Blythe, but I dont know what she thinks to be truthful.....

My beautiful Blythe, Snowflake is a custom make, from the wonderful world of Bamptonia, if you would like one, go and contact her through her blogg, which is in my blog list, and most of all have a beautiful Valentines Day

.(¯`v´¯)
..`•.¸.•´
(●̮̮̃•̃)..(●̮̮̃•̃)
./█\ ♥/█\

LaLa the Koala............

Freshly completed today, is LaLa the Koala, dressed in vintage liberty print fabric dress and mounted on a mahogany stand , a complete one of a kind, who will be going in my Etsy shop, which will be opening tomorrow, more details soon  :)

free recipe--Tunisian Orange Cake.....

Happy pancake day or shrove tuesday, with something a bit different............. its Tunisian Orange cake, as I dont like pancakes but love this cake, so have it instead, althought the children will still be wanting pancakes too !

Ingredients

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300g caster sugar

6 eggs

150g ground almonds

250ml of sunflower oil

100g of brown or wholemeal bread crumbs

Zest of one large lemon and one large orange

2 teaspoons of baking powder

For the sugar syrup

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juice of one lemon and one orange, both large.

1 cinnamon stick

75g caster sugar

16 cloves

After the cake is cool

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the juice of another lemon !

Method

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combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

break the eggs into another bowl and whisk into the sunflower oil.

Pour the egg mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Then pour into a greased and lined 9inch circular cake tin and bake

for around 40 mins at 180 degrees (fan170) gas mark 4.

For the syrup mixture to pour ontop.

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Whilst the cake is baking, combine all the sugar syrup ingredients in a pan and bring to the boil and simmer for about 5 mins.

When the cake comes out of the oven, pierce it all over the top ith a skewer and pour the mixture on top, removing the clovers and cinnamon stick.

Whilst cold, pour the juice of another lemon on the top and eat.

Vintage Cloth Mother and child........

I find this old mother and child rag doll creation, utterly charming and very moving. Such a simple desgin , but with sooo much emotion. They are almost real to me.

These two dolls really are a very fine example of the art of the dollmaker, where some special magic and love has been woven into the doll and life like qualities are present.

This is one of the very extraordinary dolls that will be featured in the exhibition in gallery 8 that I have curated for the museum and feel very privileged to have done so.

Today I am mostly designing a pig pattern.....

Today after finding this lovely automata at the museum, I was so consumed to design a pig, so today that is what I do !!

I like to make lots of paper patterns first and tape them together till I get it right, then I cut the expensive mohair !
I will ofcourse be letting you know what I come up with, have a creative day now !!
Hugs!!

Beautiful black red riding hood..........

Heres one of the Lovely starlets of the exhibition that I have been putting together for the museum of childhood, shes a large china headed doll, with a cloth body, with clothes to die for and sweet little button boots too !

 She even has her own little kid leather gloves !!

She will be on show at the museum soon, and i will be posting more sneaky previews for you all, and yes I do have a wonderful time at the museum !!
Have a wonderful creative day !!

........a lovely bunny present !!

My lovely friend, Sally at Koukous nest , gave me this enchanting and thoroughly gorgeous , hand stitched cushion, as a thankyou to me, for guiding her through the blogging jungle.
She really shouldn't have, but I am so greatful, it is a wonderful handmade treasure , filled with lavendar to help me sleep too !
Go and check out her new blog and see what beautiful things she makes from vintage french and english fabrics, its heavenly !!

visit www.koukousnest.blogspot.com

On My work table today............

Heres my latest little darlings waiting to be finished, I do love them all very much and its always a hard thing for me to part with them.........

 ...I like to pin them together at first to get a feel of their character...........

 ....Little Noah looks on, he,s still dreaming of becoming a pirate when he grows up.........

 The rabbits may have little clothes on............. and heres a view of my toolbox.........

 I have alot of needle cases, but this is my favourite by far, hand made for me by the lovely Viv at the amazing Hensteeth.... ( check out her blog and where to buy in my bloglist )

......now I must whizz and make more furry friends........ have a wonderful day !