Beaker Button Blog

The last few weeks have been a mad whirl of dyeing skeins of yarn for Wonderwool, which we're going to this weekend.  I've been telling people for years that my favourite colour is purple, so I was a little surprised at how much green dye I was getting through.  It seems I have a penchant for green, as well as purples.  My favourite though, was the rainbow gradient I dyed for the new Bifrost Kit I've designed.  A few photos below for your viewing pleasure.  I'll be running some dyeing experience days in the summer.  Get in touch if you fancy having a go at dyeing your own yarn. This week's letter is below.  See here for more detailed instructions. I'll be shattered next week after the show so next weeks offering may be a day or to late. dyeing sock blanks for gradient yarn gradient in a little scrummy ball Bifrost Necklace Beaker Button Sparkle on the shop shelves autumn colours drying yarn for Eve bracelet about t...

Some of you will know that Beaker Button has hosted two fabulous Felted Fairies workshops with Erica from Arts, Rush and Cane .  As this week is an F week I thought I'd share a little about the felting fairies experience. First I want to make clear this is not a felting tutorial.  It's merely me showing off our fairies. Erica is a brilliant teacher.  She has a knack for making you feel like things are going well, even when she's telling you what you've done wrong.  The fairies we've made are needle felted, and what's great about the class is that you learn several techniques which can be used for all sorts of felting projects.  Erica makes fantastic kits for felting your own fairies as well.  They're £14 and have everything you need including needles and foam.  We have 3 in stock at the moment.  Have a look below at the models for them. Your chart for this week is at the bottom of the blog.  Full instructions are here. We start with th...

I had this weeks post all planned out.  I was going to tell you about rediscovering embroidery and how much pleasure and inspiration it's given me.  However, on Sunday the Hubby, Short Round and I had a very rare day off together, so we decided on a whim to go here. Liberty's Owl, Raptor and Reptile Centre If you haven't been I'd really recommend going.  The centre is a little shabby, but they're working on a shoe string budget after rescuing the whole site, including all the birds, from destruction.  They are very honest about their financial situation and you can see where they are building new aviaries and improving the place as they go.  We had planned to spend the morning looking at the birds then lunching and walking in the New Forest,but we had such a good time that we stayed all day.  We met several of the fellows below, as well as having a very illuminating talk about reptiles and arachnids (I have never been so close to a tarantula outside ...

Short Round and I spent the last two days at my Dad's, having a well earned break.  I thought this week I'd share some of the photos I've taken.  They're in chronological order so you'll get a sense of our holiday without me waffling on too much.  I did buy some beautiful embroidery books, which I'm going to have a good look through tonight.  I'll post about them next week I think, unless something more exciting comes up between now and next Monday. This weeks square is D.  You'll find the chart below and detailed instructions on this post here    Short Round and my rock balancing (mine's on the left) Dad building his stack   Fossil hunting Wallflowers Driftwood and worm tracks (I always come back with something) Nap time at Maiden Castle Bums   so cute! Duchess Dorchester's Roman Town House Spring (and they smelt like it too) Mosaic.  I want to stitch this. Hypercaust ...

This week has been a challenging, although interesting week.  I was pondering what to write today and it suddenly hit me the one of the nicer things about this week has been the singing.  I sing all the time, usually to myself or inadvertently to others if I happen to have an ear worm (for those of you who don't know there is a great description of ear worms here , although there are a lot of adverts on the page).   This week however I was reminded of the power of group singing.  On Tuesday night I had to go to a Wake, for a folky friend.  We spent the evening singing, with some hurried catching up with other friends in between songs.  Although the occasion was sad the hall was filled with the sound of our voices, all singing harmonies.  The sheer noise level was incredible, but with everyone singing together it was also beautiful and joyous and uplifting.  Pearl, who's wake it was, would have loved it. The whole evening felt like a fitting t...

I get asked a lot why the shop name is Beaker Button, so I thought I'd tell you all here.  Some of you will already know that I have a degree in archaeology.  When I was a child my Dad used to tell my brother and I stories about history and prehistory and I have very strong memories of the Beaker people (nothing to do with The Muppets!)  I also spent nearly 10 years working at Stonehenge and the Beaker people are thought to have built at least one of the phases of Stonehenge.  So who are the Beaker people I hear you ask? In my Dad's version they were a prehistoric people, named for the particular pottery beakers they made, who came to England and duffed up the local Neolithic population.  They built burial mounds, took over ancient monuments and generally lived it up until the next lot (the Celts) came over and duffed them up. Archaeologists, however, think they were a lot more peaceful and that Beaker people integrated well with the local population, helping ...