Happy New Year Readers and welcome back to Needle and Spindle! I hope you had some enjoyable holidays and if you did not, then let us be done with them and embrace the year ahead. With my resolution to find balance in all aspects of life still freshly sown, it seems apt to begin another blogging […]
Tag: Reviews
I have been feeling a bit small recently, small and glum, small things made, small achievements, small amounts of time…small. But reading Betsy Greer’s new book, Craftivism: the Art of Craft and Activism has reinvigorated my outlook. Small can still be significant. I am reminded of the powerful stories within Paul Kelly‘s great song, ‘From little things, big […]
We caught up with some old friends from Adelaide recently and I found out that one of them has a startling secret life…he is an artisan soap maker! I am not talking murky bars of obscure smells that I tend to buy at the farmers’ market…he makes beautiful bars of beautiful soap with beautiful scents […]
Some you might remember me posting about a wee children’s picture book called Pelle’s New Suit last year. Our family has read that story many, many times since then and in honour of Wovember, that special month of wool appreciation, I think it is time to revisit dear old Pelle. Pelle’s New Suit tells the […]
This is a cautionary tale for the passionate seamstress. A dear reader reminded me of this story in response to my dolly clothes frenzy. It is the story of a mouse who sewed a bit too much. So frenzied was her sewing that her poor mouse love had to do all the cooking, cleaning and […]
My Dearly Beloved is off to The Hobbit tomorrow. He has found a place in Munich that is showing it in English. We have to see the film in shifts because the Little Rabbits are just a bit too young to go. So there is Hobbit in the air and I thought it was time […]
I have just been peeking at my Man’s recent copy of Empire which is full to bursting with pics from the forthcoming Hobbit film. Excitement is building, especially since I have noticed the amount of knitwear sported by the dwarves. Have a look at Bofur’s fingerless mitts in seed stitch. Online forums are wondering who […]
One of our dear girl’s gifts for her recent birthday was a sweet little book called Pelle’s New Suit by Elsa Beskow. It was first published in 1912 in Sweden and has been reprinted many times since. It depicts the making of a young boy’s suit from his shearing his own sheep, through the various […]
