Samantha (Samanthahalf)

@samanthalf

Librarian, crafter, wokerati, she/her. Knitting & spinning & chatting & sewing & reading & generally carrying on. Business librarian in higher ed. Easily distracted. Owns small child and giant baby, posts indulgently on the subject. Tries to be an Ally 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

536 Following1,129 Followers7,527 Posts

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Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Jun 25

Finished! Let's see how it holds up. Quite pleased with how neat it looks though.

A fairly neat looking white insert for a window opening (held on by velcro but you can't see that). It has a grey bar across the bottom third and the hose from a portable air conditioning unit is slotted neatly in into it.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Jun 4

BABY'S FIRST BUNDT CAKE. Imagine my shock when it came out of the cheapo Sainsbury's tin in one piece with no effort. Excellent job Habitat.

a circular cake with a hole in the middle, with a few slices removed from it, on a white cake stand. In the foreground is a matching white plate, because I'm posh like that, with a slice of the cake on it. The cake is orangy yellow with drizzled icing.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· May 21

First published in 1994 🤣🤣🤣

Cover of a black paperback book with the title "The World in 2020: Power, Culture and Prosperity: A Vision of the Future" by Hamish McRae.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· May 8

Well this bit is beyond the pale. Sure, let's lie to other people's children about what's in their food, why not, what could go wrong. Also, children are not stupid, they know it's not rice.

Image shows photo from a book: "We have some great recipes that children love to help make and eat, and if you're cooking for children other than your own, just don't tell them that their rice is cauliflower, their spaghetti is courgette or that there are black beans in their brownies! And we haven't yet found a child or grown up who wouldn't be happy with our Vanilla Maltshake on page 291."

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Apr 19

Look at this absolutely bonkers spider I found. I picked it up thinking it was a seed head on a bluebell in my garden, imagine my surprise! I'm not a spider fan but he's pretty cool. *shudder* There is no content warning for spider.

White spider on a thick green Spanish bluebell leaf. Has a massive back end.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Apr 11

Very nice it is too.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Feb 13

I DID FRENCH KNOTS Not very good ones. Not very consistently sized ones. But considering how long this embroidery has been in the naughty corner for containing French knots I'm very pleased with myself.

Close up of the back end of a line-drawing alpaca on embroidery cotton. Neat multicoloured vertical lines and stars in different stitches fill the grey, unembroidered outline. A wonky line of deep pink-purple French knots, in different sized and not perfectly placed, is in roughly the centre.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Jan 1

Broke the teapot lid yesterday, must've been smashing out the old year! Unless any of you happen to have a lid with no teapot and want to come to an arrangement it looks like I've got a new plant pot and a new pleasurable shopping task. It's not often to you get to buy a new teapot.

Rachel Barker for John Lewis tea pot with no lid. It's white with a delicate blue design of stylised coriander plants.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Dec 27

I did it! I waited till the sale and didn't spend tooooo much and LOOK AT MY DIORAMA

A ski slope scene with a white cardboard slope with a ski patrol figure in orange with a labrador at the top. A ski jumper is blue tacked on half way down. At the bottom, a Christmas tree is lit with little coloured lights and a child makes slow snow angels (this is a still image but it move) as another child looks on. The whole "slope" is surrounded by orange fencing like on a real slope, and lots of pretend pines in different sizes.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Nov 21

Skillet what I did the spices in!

A teal blue frying pan/skillet sitting on the edge of the sink, a kettle in the background, with a wooden spatula sticking out

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Nov 21

Tagine!

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Nov 16

Go me!

An orange and yellow image of a cartoon bird with the phrase "I'm on a 600 day learning streak!"

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Nov 6

IT'S ALL OVER FOR YOU ALL NOW NO ONE CAN STOP ME

A red left handed tin opener still attached to its black label. No one else may use it.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Oct 22

The cable car kit might need a bit of build up, not least because it's nearly two hundred pounds. Without, as far as I can see, either the gondola or the chair lift.

A tiny scene of the bottom of a (working, but you can't see that from the picture) cable car, with appropriate snowy surroundings, fake cliffs, tiny skiers, etc.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Oct 11

I cast on these socks just before I was pregnant with the big lad, and cast off just after he was 9 months old. I did make a few other things in between as well as a whole person, tbf, but I should probably knit more. Or faster.

A pair of white lady's feet wearing a pair of hand knitted socks in an orangey, greeny, pinky variegated colourway reminiscent of spring flowers. They are ribbed at the top and slightly textured on the body of the feet.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Sep 15

*Finally* put up my @gailmyerscough.co.uk print of Forton Services. It's so great! Because when I saw Forton as a little girl it usually meant we were on our way to my grandparents - or nearly home. Really need to paint the walls in here though...

A print of the white tower at Forton motorway services, the one that used to spin and had a restaurant in it. A huge yellow sun is in the background of a teal sky, and the bridge stretches across the motorway in the foreground. It is a stylised, almost 60s style illustrative, graphic type image.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Sep 13

Alright. I am really pretty pleased with this one. It was worth doing two cakes to get this one right!

A mermaid birthday cake on a glass cake stand with turquoise and purple icing around the sides, pink on top, with loads of sprinkles, mermaid tail candles, a 5 candle, and a glittery cake topper that reads "happy birthday" with a mermaid on it who looks a bit like Ariel.

A close up of the sprinkles on the pink top of the cake. There's pearl balls, large and small turquoise and pink oblongs, starfish, shells, mermaid tails, fish, glittery bits in different colours - it's very great.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Sep 9

Not my best work but it'll do! Palette knife easier to work with than the kitchen spatula I usually use but still not very flat. Suspect I need to beat the buttercream much, much more.

A garishly pink single tier birthday cake, inexpertly iced in not very flat buttercream. It has a large gold 5 candle and five white birthday candles on it. The outside edge is decorated with amaterishly piped pink rosettes and it is covered in pink and white sprinkles.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Aug 13

I love my peace lily but she's a monster. Also please ignore the bit where the baby made an attempt on her life

Large dark green peace lily with one white flower on a cane corner shelf

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Aug 8

With no streak freezes, either!!

An orange 500 day learning streak badge from Duolingo, for French. Duo the owl is orange, outlined in yellow flames, like a phoenix.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Aug 6

Aw, thanks! I'd love to take credit for lovingly tending it from a bulb but I actually bought it at the garden centre a month or so ago. They grow them themselves so I just lucked out. I saw these gorgeous ones in their own garden today.

Bright pink pompom dahlias in a sea of green leaves with more of the same flowers in the background.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Aug 6

This year I got a bit better at gardening. I've got a big yellow dahlia and the tallest sunflower is 2.5m now.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Aug 6

This is my other dahlia. This is a pompom style, apparently.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Aug 6

This one isn't all the way out yet, but it's also in my garden. I got this as a bulb and somehow didn't kill it.

À white dahlia with pink tips to the petals, not fully out into the full puffy shape yet.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Aug 1

Happy Yorkshire Day!

A simplified drawing of a red rose with a white interior and five green leaves, arranged roughly in the shape of a pentagon. It is the heraldic symbol of the House of Lancaster.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Jul 31

Many thanks to the person who dropped this straight into the charity shop without even opening it (the ribbon is still tucked in from the printers). I'm sorry you didn't like it but it's a win for me and Oxfam.

A copy of Nigella Lawson's book At My Table. The cover is a black and white picture of her looking wholesome in her trademark boatneck style dress. There is a pink stripe down the left side of the book. It lies on a mustard cushion next to a baby toy.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Jul 6

I'd forgotten about this until it popped up on my memories! Colour changing gin! It's delicious, too. Don't have any anymore, mind.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Jul 4

It's getting worse. They're deporting whole libraries now.

The BBC earlier asked the Reform-led council and the Reform councillor who overseas libraries for a list of books which had been removed, but received no reply.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Jun 21

I DIDN'T KILL THE SWEETPEAS! First time ever!

Pink, purple and white sweetpeas growing in the earth, up a white pole. You can just see trellises and sunflowers - with no flowers yet - in the background.

Samantha (Samanthahalf)@samanthalf· Jun 15

I cannot tell you how desperately I want to know the story behind this sign.