Tuesday 26 April 2011

Easter Monday Bargains

Yesterday we nipped over to a local Bank Holiday car boot sale and market and then to our own Village Fair  I didn’t go looking for anything in mind, but I was dead chuffed with what I found…..
Craft Cotton
….. like this craft knitting cotton ….. I’ve been after some for a couple of years now, as I’ve fancied knitting dishcloths as a funny yet practical sort of present for several Christmas’s now (I’ve even got some “knitted by …..” labels to sew on ready!)  So no excuses now, 4 x 100gram balls cost me £2.50 (I haggled a bit), which I think was a bargain.  I’ve cast on 25 stitches on (old) size 3 needles. I’ve done a bit of research on Google and there are whole websites solely for dishcloth knitting patterns, but I’m just going to work a loose garter stitch square to start with.
Picture 137
This small embroidered tablecloth cost me £1.50 after another bit of haggling. The cloth itself is quite discoloured, but the stitching is exquisite, so I am going to risk washing it gently by hand, but do you think it would be sacrilege to cut it up to use as panels on a cloth bag  and/or making it into cloth badges/buttons?
Picture 138
This deep picture frame may prove to be a bit of a pig in a poke ….. unfortunately the cardboard frame has writing on (the names of the flowers), I am hoping it will paint over in cream, and then I want to make little panels with punched butterflies in each space ….. but it was only £1 and I am if that idea doesn’t work I’m sure I can do something else with it.
Picture 139
Finally at our village fair I found this unopened box of wooden building blocks for £1 – there’s 48 blocks in all and I’m thinking that this sort of thing is quite popular as home decor at the moment ….. do I paint them in pastel shades …. or leave them as they are .  I think I would like to spell friends name out with them …. but it’ll take a bit of time to work out how I can maximise the number of names or words I can get from the one pack.