Ivy leaf wool wash

OK ... you're thinking. She's finally lost the plot. The sun has addled her brain.

But bear with me. There's been a lot written across the internet recently about how you can use ivy leaves as a wool detergent. With all this warm weather I don't have much need of my woollies, so it seemed the perfect time to get things laundered and try out this crazy idea.

I went off into the wilder reaches of the garden and gathered myself a big bowl of ivy leaves, which I washed under the tap to rid them of their cobwebs and dust. Next I tied the leaves in an old T-towel so that they wouldn't escape and mess around with the inner workings of my washing machine. I placed my trial woolly jumper in a mesh wash bag, and placed it in the machine along with the bundle of leaves and popped them on the wool-wash cycle.

Happy Hens ...

A big "thank you" to the lovely hens I hosted earlier in the week for a crafting hen party. It was hot, it was sunny and there were cacti everywhere!

We made bags, we made key fobs, we knit a scarf - for some of us, it was a first scarf ever. Hope the big day is everything you dreamed of, Amelia, and all the best for a crafty ever-after,

Bonny x

Provisional cast-on - crochet methods

I was recently asked to demonstrate how I went about doing a provisional cast-on. I have 2 methods, both using a simple crochet chain, and, truth be told, they amount to pretty much the same thing. The cast-on in crochet is essentially a disposable beginning, which in both cases can be ripped back to expose a second line of live stitches so that you can do a knit-down finishing or some other join in your knitting.

Lazy summer evenings ...

Sometimes in the middle of London on a balmy summer evening it's hard to believe that you're in the metropolis. Those precious pockets of green that are so liberally dispersed across the city have a way of lulling you into believing that you're somewhere else - somewhere peaceful and calm and serene. This was Ealing Common the other evening as the WonderDog and I were going for a postprandial stroll. If you closed your ears to the roar of traffic on the A406, you could almost believe you were in the countryside.

All the best,

Bonny x

Hagseed and Cacti

My homage to the cactus is born of the fact that it's the only houseplant that I can reliably grow. I'm so not a houseplant person: I totally lack the constancy. I'm here today, gone tomorrow and when I get back a few days after that every plant in the house has given up the ghost and gone off to live in the great green plant heaven of the ever-after. Every plant that is with the exception of my valiant cacti. Cacti and I can be relied upon to get along splendidly together. They generally survive and flourish in the barren desert of my care regime.