Get On This Train......

Now that life has settled down a bit, it's time to get on with all those outstanding commissions.  This is an unusual (for me) little piece - I was asked if I could produce some travel drawings in the style of etchings.  I'm not sure if it has been achieved here or not - still awaiting approval from the client, but it was fun just using a pencil with a sharp point and nothing else.  This is quite small - A4 - but still took quite a few hours.

Now it's time to start those Inktense jungle creatures....

Frilly Interlude...

I've had this yarn for a while now - it is baby camel which really appealed to me, the idea of baby camels being brushed/shorn for their fleece. You would have thought it might be a bit whiffy (we've all smelled the camel enclosure at the zoo....) but it's not and is incredibly soft and warm.

Originally I was going to make some wristwarmers, but while going through my vast collection of old knitting magazines, I found this delicious pattern for a neckwarmer instead. It's a bit of a nightmare to start off, having 288 stitches on a circular needle, and I made a couple of mistakes to begin with which hopefully don't show. The end result however is simply adorable, looks very feminine when worn, a bit like an Elizabethan ruff. Because of the errors and the fact I knitted it on smaller needles than specified which means I have to really pull it over my head, this one is staying with me - but I have bought some more suitable yarn and am in the process of making a cream coloured one for sale in my shop.

You can see in the background all the detritus from my painting.....I'm a messy so-and-so but that appears to be how I work best. Still labouring every spare minute with the various commissions and counting the hours until the half-term break (5, yes, only 5...) when I have a week off the day job and can really catch up with everything.