Oh my goodness I am totally overwhelmed by the number of comments I got for my last post. At the time of writing I have no less than 93 comments. Can you believe it? I obviously have a lot of shy readers who I've enticed out of the woodwork!
Seriously though THANK YOU VERY MUCH for all your lovely comments and wishes. It was so nice to hear from you all especially those who have been lurking for a while (as one commentor put it). It was lovely to know who was reading and who thought what. I wish I could reply to you all but it would take forever. However, one thing I try to do is go and visit the blog of someone who has left me a comment so I will do that over the coming days/weeks.
It's going to take me a little while to write out all your names and pick three winners so I will do that by the end of the week at the absolute latest. You see I've set myself a few tasks beforehand like sorting out all my dyed fibre, keeping the best curls and carding the rest. I started the job on Friday morning and it seemed to take forever. I need to take stock of the colours I have and the ones I haven't and then I need to get dyeing. Or rather I need to get mordanting first. (Oh how one longs to use Dylon sometimes and just open a tin and know that the job will soon be over. No, I don't mean it really. I love the plant dyeing but it's a lot of prep).
Look what I picked up this morning for £4 - about sixteen bunches of daffodils. I told the florist that I wanted to dye with them and as most of them were open she let me have them cheaply. I was hoping to get some flowers around here but when it came to it I didn't think it was the done thing to go around pinching other people's daffodils and I can tell you there is plenty of temptation - they're everywhere.
I ordered some more dyes last week and I've now got plenty of fleece to be getting on with. I have some lovely cotswold and some wensleydale and on Saturday I found a chap at the Farmer's Market selling small amounts of wensleydale cross which is nice and I also bought some brown bluefaced leicester cross from him. I washed it all over the weekend and it's ready to use. However, the weather has turned a bit chilly here so I might leave the actual dyeing till the weekend. All in all I'll have some more bags of curls and carded for sale very soon.
What else have we been up to? Well, Amber has finished her beret and has worn it everyday so far.
It's slightly big but she loves it. I decided to have a go at it myself so I used up some of the indigo dyed aran leftover from Raj's tanktop. I went for the smaller size which sits quite differently on Amber's head. Still, it's a very nice pattern, very quick to knit and it would look gorgeous in red or grey. (It's actually Rohan who is wearing it in this pic).
Sunday was Mother's Day here and I was treated to homemade lardy cake by my husband. In a fit of insanity he decided to make breakfast but luckily was distracted from trying croissants and went for the lardy cake instead. I say distracted because croissants from scratch sound extremely difficult and we might have had to wait all day for them. Instead the poor man left his dough to rise overnight and was up at 7am to do all buttering, layering, rolling that was needed for these:
This confection(?) has no less than 8oz lard, tons of sugar and 8oz of butter in it so you can imagine that it was utterly delicious. Sadly, both cakes vanished within a few hours. In our house LOVE is trying to turn your wife into a tub of lard.
The children made lovely cards and gave me such nice gifts as usual. They take it so seriously which is touching when one thinks how seriously we take their celebrations. Here are a couple of their presents. Raj spent ages making this card for me - he sewed on the buttons and embroidered the stems and leaves:
and Rohan made me this little pincase at. So sweet:
I must just show you what he made for a close friend of ours for her 60th birthday. She's suffering from depression and wasn't really going to celebrate her birthday but we made her come over for tea and showered her with thoughtful presents:
I gave her the sock book, the knitting wool and the alpaca walking socks. Amber crocheted her a brooch, Rohan made her the little bird which I have to show you a close up of and Raj made the oak chopping board with Dad. Tom cut it to shape and we let Raj loose with the electric sander on it. It came out a treat and it's complete with woodworm holes! Here's Rohan's bird:
Isn't it just amazing? This is my son who struggles with anything crafty. He decided to make a bird as our friend likes bird watching. So I drew a bird shape on a piece of wood, Tom lopped off the corners and Rohan went too with his carving knife. He sanded it and oiled and decided with Tom's help to put it on a base. He was soooooo thrilled with the result. Needless to say I didn't want to give it away in the end but I did. I hope he makes one for me sometime.
Well, I'm off to boil up my flowers. I'll just leave you with a link to a place in the Forest of Dean that used to be famous for it's wild daffodils. I was told about this place last week when I mentioned to someone that I wanted to try dyeing with daffs. Sadly, we didn't make the weekend walk that was on - it was just a bit too far to go. Click here and here to see for yourselves.
Simmy~
Wow! Your WHOLE family is SO amazing! What wonderful gifts you made for your friend. And Happy (belated) Mother's Day to you! Enjoy your daffodils :)
Posted by: sue | March 20, 2007 at 11:56 AM
Love the daffs, the hats, the Lardy cake, the wooden bird, the chopping board, the wool, the book etc....it's like the conveyor belt on the generation game! I love the fullness of your blog!
Posted by: Simone | March 20, 2007 at 12:01 PM
How do you dye with daffodils? I'd love to learn more about this!
Posted by: Marsha | March 20, 2007 at 01:03 PM
Yes, yes! I'm with Marsha! How do you dye with daffodils? Not that I'm sure I could bear it as they are my all time favourite flowers. I bought 2 tiny bunches for a fund raiser for the school and I have them on the table waiting for them to open...I'm now hoping that I can enjoy their loveliness and then when they are all whithered use them to dye with. Please tell me it's so...please don't tell me I have to cut them down in their prime! Here in New England we are still waiting for the bulbs to pop up. They started to show their stems in January when the weather was very mild but have since disappeared.
Lovely gifts from your very talented and generous family...in Singapore I used to get a double whammy with both US and UK mother's days. It's funny...in Australia we celebrate US mother's day and UK father's day...go figure!
I'm also loving that hat...wouldn't mind a pattern like that myself. I know the exact ball of wool I'd use for it.
Posted by: Georgia | March 20, 2007 at 02:16 PM
Oh the bird, how did you give it away! I need to do a few more acts of service to cheer others around me. This was so thoughtful.
Posted by: Erin | March 20, 2007 at 04:12 PM
Your children's creativity is incredible (so is yours!)It truly is inspiring.
Posted by: Taimarie | March 20, 2007 at 08:42 PM
Simmy that liitle bird is just beautiful. The simplicity and love you can see it in are wonderful. What colour dye do daffodils give?
Posted by: little jenny wren | March 20, 2007 at 10:04 PM
Those hand made gifts are tremendous - the card w/ the buttons - how clever & cute AND THAT BIRD IS ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!!!
(btw, when I posted my first post in yesterday's contest I noticed I left out the number 1 in my email address. Today's is correct.)
Posted by: jo | March 20, 2007 at 10:09 PM
That bird is lovely - I would have insisted on one for myself!
Posted by: Gwyn | March 20, 2007 at 10:55 PM
All your Mother's Day bounty is just beautiful but I'm most impressed by Raj's bird and Amber's hat! Beautiful work - such crafty kids!
Posted by: Ash | March 21, 2007 at 09:45 AM
you always do such wonderful things in your family! wow. i guess it's the waldorf influence. i love that things. they are perfect! i really should plan a little holiday over there in the crafty home of yours *lol*
you have creative and beautyful children, simmy.
Posted by: ramona | March 21, 2007 at 12:19 PM
hi simmy! my goodness you guys have been busy over here. everything is so amazing to see. i love hearing all about your celebrations and gift giving. happy spring and happy blogaversary...i'm glad you're here!
Posted by: ~vicki | March 21, 2007 at 02:00 PM
The daffs look lovely - it seems such a shame to boil them up! It will be facinating tho to see the results. Well done to Rohan re his woodworking. The bird is delightful. I too would have had a hard time giving it away.
Posted by: Carol | March 21, 2007 at 02:19 PM
Happy belated blogging anniversay. The berets and bird are just superb!
Posted by: sooz | March 22, 2007 at 02:55 AM
hi, i just saw the bird on flickr.
What a lovely family you have !! enjoy your flowers.
Posted by: ilse | March 22, 2007 at 01:15 PM
How wonderfully crafty your entire family is. I love the little wooden bird too, how sweet and clever your son is. I love your daughter's beret too, just gorgeous and so is yours. I cant wait to see how bright the color from the daffodils comes out. It must be nice getting natural colors from plants and flowers, and not wasting it either. I love reading your blog and it is always nice to read what your family is up to and creating.
Posted by: Sue | March 22, 2007 at 11:05 PM