And the Winner is....

Big fanfare and round of applause for the winner of my 100th blog post celebratory giveaway who is........ Louise Carswell! Congratulations Louise, it will be coming to you very soon. Louise is a fellow MISI shop proprietor. Her venture is called Loubie Jewels and she sells very pretty handmade jewellery. After considering using random number technology, as used in other blog giveaways, I did as recommended by Kitty Ballistic and used husband-power to make the draw instead... more lo-tech, but effective all the same (most of the time...). Thanks everyone who took the time to write a lovely comment or become a Fan on Facebook (or both!) - I feel very excited to have 61 fans, and am just hoping you don't all de-fan me now the chance of winning a bag is over! And while we're here, I thought I'd include a little picture of what I've been working on over the weekend. A couple of friends have requested knitting needle storage rolls from me, and I have been thinking about making one for myself for a while, so I thought I'd get going with a prototype that I could make use of even if it didn't work out! I wanted to have 2 sets of pockets, one for my knitting needles and the other for crochet hooks. I also needed some wider pockets for scissors, stitch markers etc. I've used some grey wool suiting material, which I hope will make it good and sturdy. The accent fabric is a Liberty print called Bourton, which long time readers of my blog might remember is my favourite fabric. Although since I have seen it used on a pair of wellies I have slightly gone off it. They are the most ugly thing I have ever seen - why would Liberty allow such a thing???! (....and breathe.....). On a brighter note - my potential customers are keen on the design, so I'm now going to try and make versions using some yummy big florals and batiks. Lucky me - more fabric buying... Thanks again everyone!

Crochet Brooches...

I am so busy keeping up with custom orders & mailing orders out - it's absolutely fantastic! But what it does mean is that the Craft Matters Etsy shop is now looking rather empty. I wanted to make a few more of these crochet brooches because they've suddenly become rather popular & I really need to make a dent in my stash of 'just in case' yarn... The yarns I've used here are Rowan Wool Cotton in Bilberry Fool (gorgeous name, it sounds delicious - although how you would pick enough bilberries to make a fool I don't know), Sirdar Peru in Blanket Blue and Noro Kureyon in ....woops I lost the label. Will try and find the name. One of the things I like most about them is that you get such a different feel depending on the yarn & the embellishments used.

I am delighted to have discovered (by a complete accident when I was searching for some fabric for the Apron swap) the name of my fave Liberty tana lawn print - seen here on the cover of my needle book. It's Bourton. Phew, what a relief.