Farmyard Friends

Since having a bit of spare time in the evenings, I've had the chance to go through a few of my old designs in my notebooks. I've been wanting to knit another chicken for months now, and it was good to find that my handwriting was still legible and the instructions still made sense - in fact, on knitting this after so long, I can hardly believe that I came up with such canny shaping!

This hen has the secret hatch in her bottom, revealing...

...an egg waiting to be laid.

I've knitted this is some rather coarse yarn that I got at the Unravelled knitting show earlier this year - it's made the chicken slightly larger than usual but given it a nice texture.  Instead of the wire legs used for the animation, this chicken has simple crochet feet - just as effective. I quite fancy making a small flock of them...

However, there are other things to be done first.  I designed this cow pattern over two years ago for a friend to give to a baby, so it is soft and very child friendly.  I had an enquiry about the pattern for it recently (OK, months ago now...) and have been meaning to transcribe my scrawl into a workable pattern for sale in my Etsy shop.  I actually began it this week - it might take a few more days to complete, but the pattern will be for sale soon.

We visited the Festival of Crafts at Farnham Maltings over the weekend.  Sometimes craft fairs can be a little disappointing, with the same old items being sold from table to table, nothing new or exciting.  However, we were pleasantly surprised this time - there was a lot of very original jewellery, some beautiful ceramics, interesting knitting and needlefelting work, lots of lovely cards and prints, and some things that defy description!  I bought this pair of gorgeous screen prints for the ridiculous price of £3 as I just love the scruffy crows.  I framed them straight away and now have to find a space on the walls to hang them.  The lady who made these, Jule Mallett, also had some very weird but truly captivating soft sculptures - see her work here.

On the easel : that double dog portrait...sigh...
On the needles: some unexpected bits for the animation!

Peek-a-moo!

Here's anudder knit animal - thank goodness I didn't have to knit poo for her as well!

Now he fits in the new car comfortably, Clovis's horizons have widened considerably.  He's one tired dog this weekend!

Hieroglyphics.......

For those of you who think I have magical powers and knitted animals just fly off my needles, have a peek at my scribbles! I hope that no-one ever wants to buy one of my patterns as it would take the Rosetta Stone to translate some of the garbled notes I write down as I go.

It does make life easier for making the creature next time though - only once did I make the mistake of not writing a pattern down as I went along.

By the way, these are notes from two different patterns - if you want to make a cat with cow's legs, these are the pages for you!

Good Moo-rning!

Although I've felt in the doldrums a bit over the past week, creatively speaking, this little lady has made an appearance.


A couple of months ago I designed this cow for a client of mine and actually had the foresight to write the pattern down as I went - amazing! Coming back to it I found the instructions a tiny bit garbled and a couple of errors where I'd changed the number of stitches and forgotten to write down the alteration, but it was clear enough to make Bossy here.


She'll be going into my Etsy shop later in the day - got to go to the day job this morning!

The reason I feel creatively bogged down is my latest painting - I saw some brown hessian canvases in an art shop in London and thought they looked cool. Well, yes, they are cool but also the worst thing I have ever painted on. My style involves small brushes and delicate paint application - rough, shiny hessian is not condusive to this method! Not only that, but I am painting a large sprig of apple blossom, which needs the delicate touch in order not to look like a cardboard cut-out. I don't often give up on a painting but I am coming close with this one!

Moo!

Here she is, after a week's hard work, Daisy the Cow finished and complete. I love it when someone gives me a commission which is completely outside my comfort zone, because after the initial panic and thoughts of 'Oh God, what have I agreed to? I can't do that?' it is lots of fun to work out exactly how it can be done.


Daisy has been knitted in acrylic yarn, with safety-backed plastic eyes, a red ribbon and little cow-bell. She has wool-jointed legs so is fully poseable...when she feels like it!


She has curly grey horns, lovely black markings, and even a set of (non-functional although wouldn't that be fun!) udders.

I have sort of written down the pattern for this as I went along with a vague idea of either being able to knit another cow should anyone want one, or selling the pattern at some point on Etsy. I haven't decided yet, but if you fancy owning a cloned Daisy, do let me know - she will cost you £20 plus p& p.


And as the sun is actually shining here today, I have been able to get a decent photograph of the gazelle painting in which the black is black and the colours and light are correct. This is how it really looks!

It's a Cownundrum....

Talk about winging it! I've been asked to make a cow soft toy, and rather than search fruitlessly for a pattern that I know won't be what I want, I have chosen to make up my own. The above head is the result of a couple of evenings work, which wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I guess when you knit enough soft toys you get to learn what goes where and when to increase or decrease to shape the item. I think the most time-consuming part of this was writing it all down in a legible form just in case anyone else decides they want a cow toy! (I remember the mad scramble for the guinea pigs before Christmas!)

The other two pieces of knitting are lace shawls that have been put on the back burner for a while - the white one is so close to being finished but I needed a break before my eyes began bleeding!

Let's hope the body and legs of the cow will be as painless as the head...watch this space!