Crafty

I had such entertainment crafting this little bag from the Lavenham Blue wool dyed with woad.  All those little design decisions that are an inevitable part of making it up as you go along - that's what made it fun.

I used a broken rib for the main bag, with an Alice Starmore cable from "Celtic Knitting".  The top edge has an applied i-cord which gives a very neat finish.  Choosing the button gave me pause.  It has been suggested, since I propose to use the bag for a packed lunch, that appropriate foodstuffs might be correspondingly archaic.  I am put in mind of the ber bannock we tried for lunch on Orkney - a very dry crust it was too.  So for the button - a slice of reindeer antler?  a  peg of bone?  But in the end this Celtic cross won out.

Browsing recently in a charity shop, I came across this fine plate, signed "L.Piper", and made by Iden Pottery.

Now this looks very like a bowl which my husband bought for me many years ago on a visit to Rye, from the Rye pottery, except that the painting is much cruder.

And, of course, both of them are similar to the Oxney Green items in my kitchen, such as this plate.

Oxney Green had two designs, the second being a fishing trawler - I have some items of each.  But then, on the lid of the teapot is this little image, which takes us back to the Iden Pottery plate.

In fact, Oxney Green seems to have been an offshoot of the other two ventures, which were related to each other.  I just love the harmony of the colour and the image on all these pieces.