Last Minute Dogs...

 It never pays to get complacent - these dogs were a commission that I got about a fortnight ago, to knit replicas of a pair of beloved pets.  I thought I was going to have some spare time to prepare for Christmas!  These did not go to plan - I started the lurcher using a ball of yarn I had of a discontinued line, hoping that it would be enough. It wasn't.  I was lacking two legs worth.  So I ordered something similar and hoped for the best.  When I started another dog with the new yarn, I realised it was a bit too thick, but I had to soldier on as there was no choice in the matter.  Then when I went to a garden centre last Friday, I found that they had a few balls of the original yarn in their craft section - hooray!  So that saved a lot of extra work!

The second dog is a French Bulldog.  Due to time constraints, I was not able to come up with my own pattern, but vaguely remembered that there was a pattern in the book Best in Show, Knit Your Dog.  Note to self: NEVER use this book again.  In fact, throw it away.  Right now. Put it in the bin.

For a start, the dimensions for the body were way too large for the head.  So I improvised, missed out a 6 stitch increase and used smaller needles.  Then when it came to knitting the  head, which is done on the stitches left on the two side sections, the instructions were so confusing that I ended up unravelling it and starting again as I had done it completely wrong.   As for sewing the thing together, the instructions are so meagre that they were just about no help at all.  The head before shaping looks like a long bag - all you are told to do is fold it up and stitch to head to form nose....huh?  If you do that, you are left with a wadge of fabric with nowhere to go.  It took me over an hour to experiment with shaping and moulding it into some resemblance of a face - it's a good job I am a very experienced knitter & also one that makes a lot of knitted animals.  No novice would have been able to make this pattern successfully.  There are no diagrams, very little help at all.  This is not the first time I have come a cropper with this book  - the patterns are very badly written, with making up instructions that are unclear and fail miserably.  On top of that, the actual dogs that result from these patterns look amateurish and shoddy unless you spend a lot of time fiddling and needle shaping.  It really annoys me that this book is a best seller when it feels to me that the patterns were either rushed, or not proof-read & given to some knitters to try out first.  I know from preparing for the Nudinits book that we were extremely careful to make the patterns accessible to any knitter, whatever their skill level, and made sure that we actually knitted the items again from the written patterns to ensure they were correct and as mistake-free as possible.

Rant over!  I got there in the end and just in time for posting before Christmas.  I'm taking today off!

Pope's Oak

I don't know where Pope's Oak is, but I think I'd like to go there!  I finished this yesterday afternoon, just squeaking within the deadline - it's been tough finding time for painting with the dire New Year we have had so far.

This is painted in acrylic and the composition was very tricky.  I was told what was wanted, but given a selection of about twenty photos to work from as I had to paint the woodland walk, put in three children walking/running, none of which were in a photo together.  I also had to age them by a few years as the photos I had were from a while back. Then I had to add three black labradors...no photos there, and the French Bulldog.  Oh yes, and I had to make up their clothing as well. Thank heavens for Google Images - hours spent looking for photos of teenages walking away fromcamera and suitably posed labradors!

I am relieved to say the lady who commissioned this was over the moon with it and picked it up within an hur of it's completion.  I now have absolutley no work on, but that's OK - I haven't had a break since about last September so am going to take a few daysto re-group and paint a fewthings of my own.

Plus today is the day my darling Clovis goes in for an echocardiogram - I'm praying the news won't be too dire, but I'm not very hopeful - so I think I will need a bit of space for a while.

On the needles: a dog coat for Daisy.  This has given me a couple of ideas.....

Milo

Yesterday I put the finishing touches to this, with a slight tinge of regret.  I could tinker with it for another couple of days but in all honesty it is complete.  This was painted with acrylics on Dalerboard treated with several layers of gesso for a smooth surface.  It makes life a lot easier not having to battle against the rough surface of the board, especially when making tiny precise brushstrokes.

I thoroughly enjoyed painting a different kind of dog - I seem to paint a lot of lurcher types and labradors. Nothing wrong with those, it's just nice to ring the changes occasionally.  However, next up are a pair of greyhounds - the photo session for them was a nightmare, they just wouldn't keep still!  Out of 40 photos taken, I managed to get 2 that are workable.

On the needles: nothing in particular - no commissions at present, so it is time to work my way through the pile of WIP's that seems to have accumulated.

Progress Report

I've been able to work on this every day this week and progress is steady.  Going at this rate, I should be finish it before I'd planned to, which is good news.  Acrylic on Dalerboard.

In a spare five minutes I had another play with Quink ink and a water spray.  I'm loving the effects that can be created and want to explore this medium further.

For the time being however, it will just have to be a few snatched spare moments.

Busy Fingers...

Sometimes it feels like I'm just hanging around the house having fun with paint and yarn all day, but while that is pretty much true most of the time, there is work being done!  Another Rudolph trophy completed today and up for sale in my Etsy shop.  I can make more, just don't leave it until too close to Christmas as these take a few days due to the stiffening process for the antlers.

I put in a good few hours on this yesterday - I worked on the head and the area around the head.  I can see this is going to be one of those paintings where it will get finished quickly which will make me feel I didn't do enough.  It doesn't always have to be a struggle, but when it's too easy it is a bit disconcerting!

There was enough stripy sock wool left over to knit myself a pair of wristwarmers - I think that kind of justifies the expense of the initial ball of wool...doesn't it?  There is a tiny bit left over but not enough to make anything in particular. 

I think the sudden surge in creativity has a lot to do with the onset of autumn and the fact that the garden no longer gives off  it's siren call. Everything is slowly dying off out there and all that needs to be done is gradual clearing up of the dead bits.  I did pick one last sweetpea yesterday and some fragrant honeysuckle flowers the day before so all is not gone yet.

Sheer Bliss...

I always love painting and drawing dogs, they are my favourite subject.  Sometimes, however, they can be a bit of a struggle when the photos are bad or the colour of the fur is dark.  Not this one though!  I have an amazing set of photos to work from, the dog is cuteness personified and the painting is not a chore but a complete joy to do.  This is still only in the blocking-in stages, with the only part almost complete being the eyes, yet already he is peering out of the canvas urging me to get on and paint him. 

This is in acrylic on Dalerboard with a good three coats of gesso to obtain a smooth surface.  Can't stop to chat, I need to get back to this!