rubykittyruby

  Okay, here's a festive question for you.  Are you happy buying people presents from charity shops?  (And when I say charity shops, I really mean any source of secondhand items, such as jumble sales or Facebook marketplace.)  Also, would you be happy to receive 'pre-loved' gifts?  It's tempting to jump in with an immediate and enthusiastic 'yes!', but I wonder if that's more about virtue signalling than cold, hard truth.  I've been mooching around charity shops today, and bought a crafty minded relative three good-as-new craft books.  In all I paid £3.25, and brand new they would've cost me at least £40.00.  I'm hoping she'll be happy with secondhand - money going to charity not Amazon, recycling is greener than buying new - but you never know whether the recipient might smile and seem happy, but be privately thinking 'cheapskate!'.  I'd be perfectly happy receiving thrifted books in good condition as that's how I buy the maj...

It's mid-afternoon on a Saturday when storm Darragh is doing its thing.  Thankfully it's not my part of the country where it's at its fiercest, but even so there are very blustery winds and constant rain, and the daylight's already poor enough that I need the overhead light on.  Actually I might put the twinkly fairy lights on too, just to make it extra pretty in here.  The photo above is of my 'doodle cloth' - inspired by Jessie Chorley and her book 'Journal with Thread'.   I've also been working on an embroidered heart.  Not sure yet if I'll turn it into a pin cushion or applique it on to a page of a fabric book.   The tiny seed stitches give a lovely texture, and I've mainly used that and overcast stitching.  I've added buttons upcycled from clothing - which mainly came from charity shops - and added a butterfly which came from a broken piece of jewellery.  There'll be sequins and seed beads to represent colourful glass pin heads, ...

Well, my Monday got off to a good start.  On the domestic front, two loads of laundry washed & pegged out on the line to waft in the breeze.  On the missing bag front, some kindly person had handed it in at the railway station and I collected it today, all contents accounted for.  (Though what someone else would've wanted crumpled tissues, till receipts and a pink plastic hairbrush for I don't know.)  I'd gone to the station after a nifty detour into a charity shop, and that went well too.  A massive bag of crewel and tapestry wool for £4.00.  I've been learning this year how to embroider with regular stranded cotton, and the next aim is to embroider using crewel wool, so this'll be perfect.  I love the simplicity of these Appleton labels wrapped around the vintage wool.  Okay, enough of my bargain buy, let's get back to the Harrogate Knitting & Stitching Show.  Today it's all about the work of Jessie Chorley.  She was there in p...