Samantha (Samanthahalf)
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samanthalf.bsky.social
Samantha (Samanthahalf)
@samanthalf.bsky.social
1K followers 510 following 6.2K posts
Librarian, fangirl, crafter, wokerati, she/her. Knitting and spinning and chatting and sewing and reading and generally carrying on. Business librarian in higher ed. Easily distracted. Owns small child and giant baby, posts indulgently on the subject.
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samanthalf.bsky.social
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
November 21, 2025 at 4:51 PM
samanthalf.bsky.social
Tagine!
A big oval cast iron pot with a cream inside and red outside in the colourway "cerise", cooking a beef tagine with a wooden spoon sticking out
November 21, 2025 at 4:49 PM
samanthalf.bsky.social
Go me!
An orange and yellow image of a cartoon bird with the phrase "I'm on a 600 day learning streak!"
November 16, 2025 at 7:51 PM
samanthalf.bsky.social
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.
November 6, 2025 at 5:23 PM
samanthalf.bsky.social
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.
October 22, 2025 at 12:59 PM
samanthalf.bsky.social
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.
October 11, 2025 at 11:47 AM
samanthalf.bsky.social
*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.
September 15, 2025 at 1:38 PM
samanthalf.bsky.social
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.
September 13, 2025 at 11:40 AM
samanthalf.bsky.social
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.
September 9, 2025 at 1:23 PM
samanthalf.bsky.social
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
August 13, 2025 at 9:36 PM
samanthalf.bsky.social
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.
August 8, 2025 at 2:35 PM
samanthalf.bsky.social
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.
August 6, 2025 at 6:26 PM
samanthalf.bsky.social
This year I got a bit better at gardening. I've got a big yellow dahlia and the tallest sunflower is 2.5m now.
A large yellow dahlia.
August 6, 2025 at 6:04 PM
samanthalf.bsky.social
This is my other dahlia. This is a pompom style, apparently.
A red/pink pompom dahlia.
August 6, 2025 at 6:01 PM
samanthalf.bsky.social
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.
August 6, 2025 at 6:00 PM
samanthalf.bsky.social
This is one in my garden. They tend to be very fancy flowers with lots of colours, one of those kinds that men of a certain age retreat to a shed to obsess over.
Large dahlia, the sort that isn't quite a full pompom, with yellow central flowers and peach outside ones.
August 6, 2025 at 5:58 PM
samanthalf.bsky.social
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.
August 1, 2025 at 8:02 AM
samanthalf.bsky.social
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.
July 31, 2025 at 6:28 PM
samanthalf.bsky.social
I grew a dahlia!
A pink-red flower on a long dark green stem in a garden with very tall stems of sunflower plants behind, blurred. It has many long slightly pointed petals in a beautiful rounded shape.
July 29, 2025 at 7:34 PM
samanthalf.bsky.social
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.
July 6, 2025 at 6:37 PM
samanthalf.bsky.social
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.
July 4, 2025 at 8:27 PM
samanthalf.bsky.social
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.
June 21, 2025 at 12:49 PM
samanthalf.bsky.social
I cannot tell you how desperately I want to know the story behind this sign.
Blue sign at the de Havilland Aircraft Museum, which reads "Many years ago farmer Derrick Brunt spotted this Comet Racer Replica rotting away in a field in Kings Langley. Contrary to what is written elsewhere, Derrick rescued it and stored it safely in one of his barns at his microlight airfield near St Albans before donating it to the Museum here where it was subsequently restored. Thank you Derrick DH88 Comet at 90"
June 15, 2025 at 2:29 PM
samanthalf.bsky.social
Any one any good at caterpillars? I found this hairy lil dude on my pink climbing rose, which seemed like an odd choice for them🐛.

Casting around online I'm thinking Fox Moth? But I can't see a very exact match.
Close up of a hairy black caterpillar with orangey stripes on a bright pink rose. You can see me rose buds in the background.
May 29, 2025 at 6:50 PM
samanthalf.bsky.social
There are five (5) functional pockets on these dungarees for a 3-6 month old boy. I know they could have made pretend pockets because they've also got knee pads, like you'd get on jodhpurs.

All of these things conspire to make it harder to put them on but god forbid a summer dress have pockets.
A baby's bum in dark khaki ish green cord dungarees, showing two functional pockets and three functional belt loops.
March 31, 2025 at 9:00 AM