Basket Making Course Day 2

We completed our second and final day of a short basic making course.

I finished a round shopping basket and started the base of an oval shopping basket that I will complete at home, 

hopefully tomorrow if I get a chance.

While the knowledge and techniques are still fresh in my mind.

I imagine that it is a skill that could be easily forgotten if not practised occasionally. 

This is the round shopping basket in its early stages.

I have just finished the border and inserted pegs as markers for the handle.

I turned it upside down to build the base. I forget the names of the weaves!

And this is the final product, I just love it! I think it looks so traditional and I can think of so many uses for it.

Basket Making Course Day 1

I am attending a beginner weekend basket making course in Furbo, Co.Galway with Ciaran Hogan, son of famous basket maker Joe Hogan. There are eight of us all from different parts of Ireland. 

Furbo is located in Connemara, the seafood and scenic views are breathtaking. There are cows grazing in the small stone walled fields, that to the eye appear to drop off into the Atlantic Ocean. A beautiful part of the world!

Yesterday, Saturday we made a simple bread basket and started the base for a shopping basket. We are having great fun and learning traditional skills.

 

Table Lamp Upcycle

Our little girl broke a third lamp so far this year.

I loved this particular lamp, it was lit in the evening in the kitchen. It give a warm cosy light that worked well with our traditional kitchen.

I was gutted when she broke another lamp, this lamp!

Hubby decided he would take some timber from the wood pile and fix up the lamp for me.

He cut a length of timber to size and sanded and oiled it down before drilling a hole through the middle.

A bit rustic and for sure a once off, but I was delighted. And our little girl will not be able to break it this time. 

And when visitors ask, I will be able to tell the story behind it!

A New Hairband

Our little girl is going to be a flower girl tomorrow for her aunts wedding.

I was given several tasks to do, one of which was to make a nice hairband to match the dress.

I spent 30 mins today making up a little hairband from bits of spare material and the band of a broken princess crown.

I was very pleased with the result. It is great to get something new from some old items laying around.

She is going to love being dressed like a princess for a day!

Soaking willow rods

I had planned since the start of the year to make some willow baskets, but I never got around to it!

I wanted to make a wide shopping basket to have when going out to the veg garden to pick produce for the evening meal.

I also had hoped to make a large turf basket to replace our current one that sits by the solid fuel range.

I received a bundle of rods from friends last week. 

They need to be soaked for a week in water before they are soft enough to work with. 

The longest rods are easily ten foot, so as you can imagine I was having difficulty  finding somewhere large enough to soak them.

But then it dawned on me, there is a pond in the field behind our cottage.

Perfect!

After wadding into the middle of the muddy pond barefoot, I dropped the bundle of rods into the water.

They should be ready tomorrow, although I should have weighted them down with a large stone so that they would be fully submerged.

Tomorrow will tell, I guess!!

Beeswax, honey & oatmeal scrub soap

I finally got around to making some soap yesterday!
I made 18 bars so it should last us a while. I used lots of lemon essential oils in it and it smells divine. I can't keep my nose out of it ;-) but I need to let it mature for another 4-6 weeks.
I found that my sensitive skin has improved enormously since moving to homemade for my face. But at €4 a bar, I prefer to make my own and use them generously for hand washing and bathing for the whole family.
I got this recipe out of a soap book I have,'the handmade soap book' by Melinda Coss.

Recipe:

10oz/283g veg fat
12oz/340g olive oil
10oz/283g coconut oil
2oz/57g beeswax
11oz/312g spring water
5oz/142g caustic soda/lye
2oz/57g oatmeal
2 tbsp honey
1tbsp essential oils

Grease your molds ready for use.
Put all oils into saucepan and melt.
Add lye to water and stir till dissolved. .
Let them both (oils and lye) cool down to an equal temperature between 49-60•c.
Pour lye into oils and stir occasionally until it starts to thicken.
Add honey, oatmeal and essential oils and then pour into molds.
Rest for 24hrs to harden.
Using gloves, remove from molds and let cure for 4-6 wks.

Crochet, this and that...

Our little girl loves dressing up in my shoes, sunglasses and bags. I had some left over colourful yarn and I decided to crochet her own little bag. It only took me one evening to make it. She loves the flower on the front. She uses it for carrying around her bottle and any keys she can find!
I knitted a scarf for myself last week. It takes so much longer to knit than crochet that I have decided to do a few more crochet project instead of knitting ones. Also it is more creative as you can crochet lovely patterns like flowers.

It was a lovely warm day today and the bees were very busy flying and bringing in pollen to the hive. The polytunnel has come alive this week and I was so excited to see courgette, butternut and pumpkin seeds have sprouted. We are counting down the days/weeks till we are eating fresh peas from the pod. I planted peas outdoors also today.
We are bringing the kids to the zoo tomorrow but Sunday has been booked to get the outdoor veg beds sorted. The chickens undid much of the work we had done in February. We planted out 300 onion sets back in Feb and they are doing great.

While collecting eggs the last few mornings, I was finding no eggs only a mess of broken eggs in the nest box. It could only mean one thing! Magpies or crows, or worse both! Sure enough on close inspection of the chicken coop, there was damage done to the timber of the nest house which must have occurred during the storm last week. A couple of nails and a hammer later the problem was solved. So this morning I was delighted to collect one egg after milking about eight thirty and a further three by eleven.

We are awash with milk now and we love it. I brought in 5ltr this evening from milking, then filtered it. Before it managed to find its way to the fridge there was only 1.5ltr remaining!
We find that people can be surprised that we have a cow and wonder how is it possible to use all that milk. But when the quality of the milk is so good, everybody uses more and more of it and it is a lovely thing to be so generous with it. Generous with cream in cooking and baking, coffee and hot chocolate and yummy creamy porridge with our own honey. If we are rushing and don't have time for breakfast, we drink a quick pint of milk and it keeps us going for the day.

Toddlers Sleep Bag & Apron

Our little girl is out growing her old sleep bag and I needed another one during laundry rotation, so I started one last night.
 I took a pinafore dress that she has as a template and just made it much longer!
I had lovely kids fabric for another project that I never got around to starting. And I found in the back of the hot-press a  mattress protector and a fleece. They were never used but have been in the hot-press for a few years. As good an excuse as any to cut them up.
So last night I made a template and cut out the pattern. The boys loved the pattern so much so that they wanted one also, so I cut out the starting of an an apron for them.
I find once I start something I generally finish it, so the fact that they were cut and ready to go I knew that I'd get them done. Otherwise that fabric could sit in its box for another few months.

It being Sunday and the weather been miserable, we had a house day which give me plenty of time to get started after dinner. I don't know really how long they took to make as with kids, I sit down and start, an audience forms, then offers of help! Then the urgent damages for a drink, toilet paper, kisses etc. So it took much of the evening.
But I also managed to start a sourdough starter and a ciabatta bigga for tomorrow.

So I cut up the mattress protector as inner padding and the fleece as the internal shell. So its very warm and cuddly soft. She'll love it!
I machine the three layers together and then added the zip. I fixed up around the neck/arm area and then sewed it together. The thickness of it was a challenge for my little sewing machine but she pulled through.

After that I tidied up the hems on the apron and added the red strings. Very quick and easy in comparison

I took photos but my iphone has decided to retire. I think I'll be phone shopping tomorrow! After I eat the ciabatta of course..

Toddler Dress

This is a dress that I made for my little girl. There were just three parts to cut out for the pattern. The back is simple with three buttons. It was a very straight forward pattern but I would not have been able for anything complicated. It would only put me off trying again for life. 

I choose a size pattern of 2-3yrs, so she will get plenty of use of it during the summer.
It took me about 4hrs from start to finish.

This is my little girl showing off her new dress. I was very pleased with my first attempt. I just hope she doesn't outgrow it too quickly. The great thing about kids clothes is how brave you can be when choosing the fabric. The more bold and funky the pattern the better.

Next project that I'm starting tonight, well, I'll cut out the pattern for a start is a toddler sleep bag . Fingers crossed for how it will turn out.