On Slowly Recovering...

 It's been a sad old week, but life goes on and we are slowly getting back to some semblance of normality.  Although I miss Clovis desperately, I certainly do not miss the time I spent cooking food to try and tempt him to eat, and the time spent cajoling him to nibble a few mouthfuls before throwing it all in the bin.  There are a few more hours in the day now, and plenty to fill them with.

 Last weekend Stacie put in a request for some 'flower biscuits' - as it's a bit early for violas in my garden, she had to make do with having primroses on these ones - I heard no complaints!  The butterfly shaped biscuits are flavoured with lavender.

 I've also made a start on the latest dog portrait, a rather handsome pair of whippets.  It's good to be drawing again, not only because I love it but it is also very therapeutic.  This is in Derwent Drawing Pencils on watercolour paper.

Knitted myself a pair of wristwarmers in the leftover 'When Clowns Cry' yarn.  They are not anything special to look at but I have customised them for when I go dog-walking - extra long thumb as that's the part of my hand that always gets coldest, and longer over the fingers too, just leaving the tips free for fiddly jobs.  Of course now the weather has warmed up considerably, but they'll be ready for next winter.

I'm also sewing, some more interesting props for an animation - currently labouring over a gramaphone that is only 4 inches high.  It's a head-scratcher!

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.

Back to Work.....

After a few days hiatus over Christmas, looks like the work is starting to trickle in once again.  This pair of girly skull wristwarmers are a custom order, knitted in some nice nubby cream wool with cerise skulls.  As I made a slight error with the sizing on the first wristwarmer I made (not shown here) there will be another pair in my Etsy shop later this month.

This whale isn't work, it was just me testing out another little crochet pattern from the 75 Shells, Corals & Seacreatures book. 

Once the Christmas tree is down and the house is back in some kind of order, it will be nice to get back into a routine once again.  It's been fun having some much needed time off but too much inactivity is starting to pall!

I'm Still Standing......

.......having survived the apocalypse that never was. Must admit there is a very tiny piece of me that is just a little disappointed - now I'll have to cook Christmas dinner!  We had a hilarious present-opening frenzy at work yesterday half an hour before the end of the world was due, just in case we were going to be obliterated before Christmas!  It's raining heavily again today - perhaps the end of the world will come about as we all just quietly float out to sea......

Anyway, due to life carrying on, last night I finished these cozy wristwarmers which are a present for someone special who moaned incessantly last year about the tightness of the thumb-hole in the last pair I made. Ingrate! What's wrong with your thumbs turning blue?  These are my own design, so should fit perfectly.

Very frustrating time of year for creativity - I have a painting I want to start and it is in the back of my mind constantly but due to prepping for Christmas, I have not had any time to sit at my desk.  Hopefully in a few days there will be plenty of spare moments in which to get it down on paper before withdrawal symptoms start to drive me totally crazy!

Christmas Stashbuster....

As usual it is a mad panic at the last minute as far as Christmas is concerned - I just never seem to get it organised in October like some people!  However, I think the majority of the present buying has been done and just awaits wrapping and dispatching, but there are a few people I want to give a little something more personal to.  I found this cute little pattern in a back issue of a magazine (although Molly Makes has a version in their current issue too) and found it very quick to knit up.

The little owl design is really clever, using a few simple cables and a bit of moss stitch - I think there will be a couple more pairs of these knitted up before Christmas!  Plus it gets rid of a few of those balls of yarn that were bought just because they were pretty!

On the needles this week - a policeman's helmet....yeah.....

If you look in the shops at the Christmas edition of the TV Times (out yesterday) all the Christmassy borders were designed and digitally painted by my son - see them here. 

Soft Greens...

After the knitted chair marathon, I finally got around to knitting the second wristwarmer in the soft and delicate green Fiberspates yarn.  These wristwarmers are my own design, using the lace border from the green scarf as a flared ruff around the base of the glove, the main part of the glove being plain stocking stitch with a little vintage mother-of-pearl button at the wrist.

I felt the yarn is so beautiful with it's subtle changes in hue that it would be a shame to detract from it with too much lace. It also has a slight angora type fluffiness to it.  These wristwarmers are lovely and soft to wear as well as being nice and warm.  They are going into my Etsy shop very shortly!

With the day job back in full swing and all sorts of everyday tasks to get done, I haven't had much time for painting over the past couple of weeks, which is incredibly frustrating. I did have the odd half hour here and there to paint a little still life of various pieces of fruit that I gathered from my garden - the last pear, a sprig from the only bunch of grapes that hasn't been made into jelly, one of the very last blueberries and one of the many, many apples on our tree.  I used a piece of Khadi paper that was free in an art magazine months ago - interesting stuff, very absorbent and sucked up pigment like a sponge, leaving the colours quite muted.  Hopefully this coming week I will be able to make more time to pick up a paintbrush before the withdrawal symptoms get too intense!

Knitting-wise, I'm having to design my own goldfish as any patterns I have turn out far too large.  After a few false starts, I think I have a working pattern now so we are good to go for the knitted aquarium. 

I also want to make a little felt doll that will actually pee to use as a visual aid for my new little boy at work....I've had a fortnight of changing nappies and think it's time we moved on!  Of course, a peeing doll may not work, but I'll give it a try.......

Flutterby....

Last night I crocheted this Large White butterfly (pattern from my favourite book, 75 Birds, Butterflies & Beautiful Beasties to Knit & Crochet) with the idea that it would be appliqued onto these....

But it lived up to it's name and was too large.  I suppose it will have to be a brooch instead!  The wristwarmers are my own 'design' and just for me - for when the weather gets a bit cooler on those dog-walking mornings.

Well Begun is Half Done.......

I don't know about well begun, but this painting of a jellyfish has been on the board for a couple of weeks now, another experiment using the Derwent Inktense pigment sticks.  This time I have been using them as watercolour paints, lifting the pigment off with a wet brush and painting it on.  The water effect was achieved by many layers of colour, with masking fluid cutting out the lighter parts for the first two layers of colour.

The jellyfish has been painted in the white pigment with touches of brown and turquoise.  It is still not quite finished, it needs more watery shadows on the tendrils of the jellyfish, but it has been a strange week and I just haven't felt like painting.

A very complicated project is this pair of wristwarmers being knitted in the recycled blue jeans yarn.  I've chosen a twisted cable pattern which really shows off both the yarn and the stitch texture, but each repeat takes a whole evening to knit, so I don't think they will be completed before the end of next week somehow!

And this is a project just for fun!  If you think it looks like a tail, you are absolutely right.  I saw a pattern in a magazine this month for a knitted fox stole and wanted to make it as a present for someone.  When it came down to starting, I decided I wasn't that keen on the pattern as it wasn't lifelike enough (you know what I'm like about realism!) so I have gone off on my own experimenting and writing it down as I go.  It's a good start, but the tail was the easy part - I'm hoping the head will turn out cute rather than a death mask!!

No news on the tomato front - the seeds are not showing yet, although the Cosmos seedlings have already poked their heads up.  I have a feeling this race has already been won by Soggibottom - still a long way to go before the first tomato though.

Knitting a Rainbow....

One of my favourite yarns of all time is Noro Kureyon - the waves of colour and the texture of the yarn make me want to buy every variation and just knit. However, I have discovered a cheaper alternative which has almost knocked Noro off it's throne - Rico Creative Poems. A 50g ball is about half the price of Noro and there is not a lot to choose between them colour-wise. The texture of the Rico yarn is in fact smoother, which for items like these wristwarmers is an advantage.



I knitted this little pair up in a couple of evenings (it would have been one evening but I fell asleep...). They are my own 'pattern', such as it is, just a simple tube with rib either end and a split for the thumb hole. I had originally planned to sew some wooden flower beads on the backs, but while searching through my stash I discovered that these tiny beads matched the colours of the yarn perfectly so were the obvious choice.

These are going into my Etsy shop.

Pink Mitts & a Chutney Glut

My daughter always looks enviously at the things I knit, and although I do make things for her, they are few and far between. She has been spoilt the last couple of weeks though, as she has acquired a pair of knitted socks that had been languishing in a cupboard waiting for the final toe to be completed, I'm knitting her a sweater and last night I whizzed up these cute little wristwarmers out of some sweet pink yarn that has been knocking about for a very long time. They were a surprise, so it was terrific today as she stroked them covetously, saying pointedly how nice they were, to be able to tell her they were hers.


We have one small apple tree in our garden which usually produces a few sad shrivelled fruit each year. This year it has for some reason produced a bumper crop. We have had apple pies, apple crumbles, given them away, and there is still half a tree's worth out there. Today I used up a large bagful together with the last kilo of homegrown tomatoes to make chutney. A lot of chutney. I've not made this before.....who knew you had to boil it for over three hours? Now the whole house reeks of vinegar, as do I!

It has been a lot of fun this year making jams, jellies and preserves in such abundance - even my son has caught the bug and has made pickles, chutney and is currently brewing his own rice wine. We'll be able to have a taste of summer throughout the long British winter...

Noro or Not?

I must admit that with the good weather we have been having this week, I have not been painting or crafting so much but spending time out in the garden attending to about a year's worth of outstanding jobs. It has taken me three afternoons to thin out a huge clump of bamboo which was threatening to take over the bottom of the garden and blocked out an awful lot of light. Summer bulbs and daisies have been planted, brambles hacked, leaves raked and new gravel has been spread. Sweatpeas, trailing geraniums and petunias are waiting in the greenhouse until it's time to be planted out and grass seed needs to be mixed with topsoil to repair the scrubby mess that used to be our lawn.


Two or three years ago I knitted myself a pair of wristwarmers from a pattern in Stitch & Bitch Nation using Noro yarn. I have worn them so much as they are perfect for keeping your hands warm while having fingers free for dog-walking, shopping etc.


I bought some yarn at Unravel a couple of weeks ago that I initially thought was Noro but is in fact called Creative Poems aran by Rico - same lovely colours, half the price! The texture is smoother than Noro, but that's not a bad thing. Instead of making more of the Stitch & Bitch wristwarmers, I decided to design my own, just keeping the 2 x 2 rib for the wrist & palm parts.
I've used a fairly complicated sunflower design from a stitch book which fitted perfectly on the back of the hand.


These will be for sale on Etsy when I can find someone willing to take photos of both my hands modelling them rather than these rather contorted pictures! At least they hide the red weals caused by bamboo and brambles!

Good-Time Gal Gloves and a Very Long Walk......

Although these gloves/wristwarmers were completed last week, it's taken me a while to come up with an idea for the trimming of them. They have been knitted with Rowan Denim cotton yarn in quite a fancy looking stitch. Then I brushed them with bleach and washed them in dilute bleach in order to give them a faded, worn look. I have sewn lace at the wrist and a little ruffle of lace on the top of the finger edge, and added a tiny blue gingham bow. I feel like I should be serving in a Wild West saloon when wearing them! These will be up on Etsy shortly, unless you'd like to snap them up now for £15!!
N.B. Perhaps I should have done the hand-modelling before going blackberry picking! Apologies for any visible scratches, juice or stinging nettle welts!


About five minutes walk from our house we have the Basingstoke Canal. I must confess to not having walked up there for months - mainly due to having a dog that freaks out on the lead if he comes across another dog on a narrow path. My daughter and I decided to stroll up there to do some blackberry picking today (for freezing this time) and had a very pretty walk.


The sun was shining, and although it is hardly the heatwave the media keep banging on about, it was warm and pleasant.


Hard to believe there is a main road a couple of minutes walk away!


We picked a fair few berries, but most of the best ones were about 7 feet up in the air - my daughter's suggestion of bringing a step went down like a lead balloon.....

We walked for about an hour and a half, returning through a playing field where we bumped into an old friend we haven't seen for months which was a lovely surprise, and then back through the woods to home and a nice glass of iced tea.


On the knitting front, I am currently making a lace fichu (fancy name for a collar!) out of Sublime mohair. At the moment it looks like something the cat dragged in as it will need some serious blocking when finished. It's a clever design though - you knit the long neckband and tie first, cast off one end of the tie and then knit the lace from the next 20 stitches, joining it to the neckband by knitting the last stitch of the row together with a stitch that has been left on the needle - seamless! It's about half way there now.

And in the afternoons it is the painting of interminable potatoes.......59 done now.........

Beachcomber Wristwarmers & Mist Scarf

A while back I was very kindly sent some assorted yarn by Jo in Cambridge as a thank you for the many portraits I did for her and her family over the winter. I've been quietly looking for some suitable patterns to use it for, and this week had a bit of a brainwave while fingering the simply gorgeous Louisa Harding 'Cinnabar' cotton mix yarn. I have knitted up a pair of 'Beachcomber Wristwarmers' from the Coastline Designs edition of The Knitter magazine. I think you'll agree that this beautiful yarn and the unusual design have combined to make a very special pair of wristwarmers...and I am keeping them all to myself! (Notice how they cunningly match the bamboo top I made last week....



However, if you would like a pair of these, do get in touch as I would love to make them again - the pattern was really quick and very effective to do.


I've also been knitting this scarf using Sublime kid mohair yarn in a simply wonderful retro shade of blue. Much as I love this, it is going up for sale on Etsy as I only have one neck and an awful lot of scarves already.

Further to the previous post, that zebra painting is still causing me grief. I framed it yesterday as it is going into exhibition this morning. Could I get it clean inbetween mount and glass? Could I *&$%£^&*!!!! And to top it all, as I was struggling taking the painting in and out & cleaning it again and again, I managed to snap the corner off the glass. Ever seen a grown woman curled up in the foetal position on the floor moaning 'no no no NO!'? It was half an hour before the shops shut and I rang our local glazier who is a total superstar and had a piece of glass cut and ready for me ten minutes later when I screeched to a halt outside his shop.

So the darn thing is now framed and off today to the Fleet Art Society Exhibition which is being held this year at Calthorpe Park School, Hitches Lane, opening tomorrow until Sunday 31st May. If you'd like to come and see what all the fuss is about, as well as my cheetah & herd of zebra paintings, do drop in - all three paintings are for sale. I shall be demonstrating on one of the days - not too sure which yet - but it certainly will NOT be a painting of a zebra!

...Matching Wristwarmers

Here are the matching wristwarmers to the cabled collar. They took longer than anticipated, mainly due to my lack of concentration. I thought it would be a good idea to knit them both at once on the same pair of needles using two balls of wool. So far so good....then I got half way through and realised I was making two right-hand wristwarmers. Hmmmm...
So then I had to make two left-hand wristwarmers, but on the plus side, this means I get a pair of these to keep and one for Etsy. They got their first outing today, a very cold and frosty morning. I discovered that not only are they very warm indeed, the design leaves your hands completely free - terrific for dog-walking. The large frills over the hands seem to keep the heat trapped, and as the only restraint is a thumbhole, you have full movement of your fingers.
So I would thoroughly recommend them - and they look fab, like woolly evening gloves!

On the downside, it may have been a very pretty frosty morning, but it has meant the demise of half my garden. There was a profusion of nasturtiums, busy-lizzies, even sweet-peas (yes, I know it is October!). I had three large Echiums that I have cultivated from seed which were looking like they might eventually reach their full 12 ft maturity. Now it all looks like a giant has had a big snotty sneeze over everything, all slimy green and half dead. At least I had the foresight to move the two banana trees to relative safety against the house wall and they seem to have made it through the night. Sometimes I wonder whether it's worth being a gardener...