It seemed manic preparing to take Adelaide Walker to the WonderWool Wales show, I’m sure April must have been a week shorter this year. At the same time we were blessedly busy with orders at the mill and had problems with a custom fibre blend which took a little sorting. Mum does her best to keep me busy too and we also managed to squeeze in a lovely day together at the Sheffield Botanical Gardens which is a favourite with me. It’s not over large but has Victorian glasshouses and lots of spring plants and trees in flower just now.

I drove the van (yup, white van girl for a weekend) to Wales and back and I wasn’t too bad driving down but the more I drove the van the more I lost my confidence and I’m sure anyone following me on the way back must have been cursing me for holding them up. Fortunately I’m back to normal now I’m driving my car again, I don’t know what happened there I usually enjoy a bit of van driving. Trying not to worry what I’ll be like next month when we go to Woolfest!

On Tuesday night I had my photo taken by a student from Bradford College doing a HNC photography course. As her final piece Margaret had chosen to show artisans at work trying to capture the look of concentration on working faces. In addition to me she’d gone round everything from a card maker to a farrier and we’ve all been promised some photos plus an invite to the exhibition open evening. I’ll keep you posted.

I’ve had no time to make felt but have snuck in a few minutes hooky time her and there to make a start on a baby blanket – I’m going to be Great Aunt Angela – something about the great aunt title makes me feel old and crumbly. Perhaps I could work on getting known as mad / eccentric Great Aunt Angela, that sounds better.

When I visited the knit and stitch show at Harrogate last November I treated myself to some patterned silk chiffon for which I’ve had a project in mind for aaaaages. Tomorrow may just be the day when I can start – it’s a nuno project and the largest project I’ve undertaken for some time. Wish me luck.

Whatever word you choose to use I thought I’d share a project from the Easter holidays. My Daughter wanted to do ‘something crafty’ together and all forms of fibre seemed to be off the menu so I searched the house looking for inspiration.

I found these two vases which never seem to get used and are were just gathering dust. After a good wash we began our endeavours. The plan was that we could do anything we wanted to the vases but using only items that were already in the house, nothing was to be bought. Two reasons for this, I didn’t want to spend the money and my Daughter wanted to start the project now not after a shopping trip. First up is the tall vase worked on by my Daughter.

She loves orange and was delighted to find that we had an orange glass paint in the cupboard. It was very lucky as it was the only glass paint we had and is so old no-one can even remember where it came from or what it might have been bought for. She is very pleased, justly so, with her handiwork of tiny scrolls and has decided to keep the vase.

Mine got even messier than I expected when I chose to use some old pieces of net curtain and some glue. These lacy flowers were cut from an old net curtain two years ago and once I’d started I couldn’t stop. They’ve adorned many a piece of felt and now have a new use on this vase and yet there’s still loads of them left. It was just like being at school with glue all over my hands. I do like the finished effect but I’m not very sure that it’s me and will be used.

My Mum goes to a craft group every week where they often do dried flower arrangements and are sometimes looking for new containers to hold them. This may find a new home with Mum.