My first Granny square

I've long hankered after making a proper 'Afghan' or 'Granny Squares Blanket', but today, after many unravellings and much swearing I have finally succeeded in completing my first proper Granny Square, pattern and excellent tutorial courtesy of Purl Bee.

The Gandalf Tree

One can never paint enough trees! This particular one sits at the top of a hill on the grounds of Eastnor Castle (home to The Big Chill). It's a particularly fine specimen, under which I have caught my breath, had a little sit down, and contemplated the night ahead of me.

Pirate Infested Wallpaper

Threadless have just ventured into the world of the wall sticker, together with Blik. My personal fave has gotta be this pirate-themed set!

mix tape

This is nice! I totally support this sentiment "a zine about making time for the small stuff."

Hailing from Australia, it has definite crafty leanings, but (looks to me at least) to just be about enjoying the simple pleasures of life. And with a cover like that (by Aunty Cookie btw) it's easy to see how it's sold out so fast!

Nice cards

Shameless self-promotion? Well, sort of, they are available in my etsy shop, but really I just think they're beautiful. Designed and made by a local gal based in the East End called Jelly under the name of Splendid!, it's gotta be good to get them out there.

badges, badges, and more badges

Some of the badges I've made recently for Etsy.

Micro Revolt

I was sent this link by the lovely Willow the other day. Micro Revolt are a group of people in America that work on knitting, crochet and needlepoint projects as a little fingers up to sweatshops (and globalisation it looks like). Personally I've never quite got into the whole craft feminist movement - I just enjoy it - but definitely like the look of knitpro. Knitpro claims to translate an image of your choice into a knitting, crochet or needlepoint pattern - it's just a shame it's not up and running at the moment.

Little Doodles

Some really lovely illustrations on Kate Wilson's blog Little Doodles. Also nice to see that she's started selling prints on etsy.

The Make Lounge

One to watch: The Make Lounge, it will be interesting to see how this turns out, and whether or not it'll be an affordable option (one point which is really nice about joining a normal pub-based knitting club!)