With the launch of our lovely new website www.halfpennyhome.co.uk we were pleased to see that along with the people who walk through the blue doors of Halfpenny HQ creative people from further afield seemed like the same things as we do!
We had an order for some of the Stardust Garland yarn by Knit Collage which is sadly out of stock at the moment but we offered up this lovely handspun Wensleygdale with silk from our friends at the Gedgrave Flock and the customer was tempted but the skeins are rather large, this one was 190g. No problem!

Weighed out, re-skeined and label ammended it was soon on it's way to the lucky recipient!

Meanwhile I had a present to make - Jane look away!
Jane Southgate loves blues and turquoises so this was an easy choice - Point Five from Colinette is lovely to knit with and this shade doesn't hang around long. Turquoise with flashes of purple, yum! Many of our regulars reckon that they enjoy winding the balls almost as much as knitting with it....look at how the colours sing in the sunlight!

I had in mind the cozy neck wrap from Purlbee but I was a bit worried that I would run out of yarn before getting to the tip of the triangle - so I turned it upside down and instead of decreasing I increased. The Purlbee pattern has a buttonhole that the end of the triangle slots through but Jane loves buttons...

To increase you just knit into the front and back of the same stitch before moving the stitch from one needle to the other.

By increasing on only one side it was quickly taking shape!

If you are worry about running out of yarn before you can cast off then lay the yarn along the line of stitches and you need to have about two and a half times the length in yarn to be sure to have enough!

Glazed coconut button in place and ready for wrapping - hope she likes it! Nic x

The textile artist Jane Southgate paid a visit to Halfpenny Home today - it's always great to see Jane as she always brings along plenty of cake and inspiration with her!
We helped Jane with a little natural dyeing in the Summer when we dyed some fleece, yarns and fabrics for her artwork.
To see more please do pay a visit to Jane's Blog where you will see some great photos of her work!

We were admiring one of the new Colinette Point Five yarns that Sam had test knitted up for us - Autum Leaves, it's so lovely with it's subtle browns and blues along with flashes of orange!
Just like the rest of us Jane is busy making a lot of the Christmas presents that she will be giving this year. She's made a fair few scarves of this ruffley yarn but not in this colour!

Jane had come along this morning to make some covered buttons with the button press in the studio, she'd done her prep during breakfast this morning - the circles of fabric needed for the die are exactly the same size as a plastic milk bottle cap!

Two cups of tea and a bit of cake later there's a whole load of buttons, a few knitting pattern problems solved and 42 buttons (+ the 3 that Jane did for me!) on the main HH work table.

What a great way to spend a chilly morning! Nic x