Something for the Weekend.......

Owing to the rapid sale of Spud the puppy, who is winging his way to Denver as we speak, I thought I had better knit up another boucle puppy, in white this time. He is also knitted in Sirdar Snowflake Snuggly yarn, with a smart red and white check knitted coat. As soon as he has all his belongings made he will also go up on Etsy, sometime next week.


I've also had fun knitting this tamoshanter hat from a pattern in this month's Yarn Forward magazine. It is knitted in the round using a lace rib pattern, with a hexagonal decrease pattern on the crown. I've added a tassel for fun. Sorry about the bad quality photograph - oh for some decent daylight to take pictures by!


This is the underside of the hat, with a couple of inches of rib that keep it snugly on the head. If and when we ever get a dry day, I will be re-photographing these before they go on Etsy.

Just a reminder, see below for my giveaway - an original potato painting in acrylics, the 101st and hopefully last ever potato painting I will do, so a bit special in its own right. I still have a couple of alterations to make to two paintings before they go for publication, but only about an afternoon's work.

I shan't be twiddling my thumbs however, as after a week of wondering what to paint (slight creative block!) I have been given a family portrait to do which I am really looking forward to.

It's Giveaway Time!

To help me celebrate the end of the potatoes, who would like to own the 101st potato picture? I did this one for fun (Fun? Are you mad, woman??) as I thought it would be a good giveaway prize. It's not to the standard of the ones going in the book - not that I didn't try hard, but I painted it on canvas which has a bumpy surface and prevents me from achieving quite the same detail. It's quite small - one of those postcard sized canvases. Just leave me a comment below - doesn't matter where on the planet you are, if you fancy owning a painted potato just go for it. You never know, I might be famous one day and this will be worth a fortune........
I'll draw a name out of a hat in a couple of weeks, shall we say Valentine's Day?


This little chap is not being given away - he's just gone up on Etsy, so you'll have to pay for him. I have now knitted him a bed, blanket, toys & bowl and he is ready to be re-homed. I think his name might be Spud..........Sold already! But I'm making another one, white this time.

Interesting?

I've been given this award by Midge at Soggibottom and have t0 give 7 interesting facts about myself....ummm....it's early in the morning & that involves brainwork....

1. I can't ride a bicycle...tried over and over since I was a child, it's not going to happen.

2. I used to work at BBC Television Centre as a secretary. One of the reasons I don't like Terry Wogan is that he let the main door slam on me instead of holding it open behind him like a gentleman. The chaps in the band Thin Lizzie held the door for me once, why couldn't he?

3. I don't like eggs - can't eat them, won't eat them and am very tired of people acting like I have three heads because I don't eat eggs...

4. I used to work on a cruise boat as a telephonist - I think it was fun, but was permanently half asleep due to the long and anti-social shifts!

5. I travelled to Greece on the 'Magic Bus' in the early 80's - £21 fare, four days on a coach through Belgium, Germany, Austria and what then was Yugoslavia. Great experience, but something I would never do again!

6. My sister and her husband were in charge of the Olympic stables for the Athens Olympics...we even saw my sister striding across the television screen when the news featured some poor horse that collapsed & died.

7. I once paid £5 to spend twenty minutes in a cage with wolves.....fantastic, but have kicked myself ever since for not having my camera with me that day. Wolves are incredibly soft-furred and more than a little scary, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

I'm supposed to pass this on, but forgive me if I don't today - really must go to work.....

New Growth...

We started clearing away some of the snow-caused debris from the garden over the weekend and it made me so happy to see lots of bulbs starting to poke their bright green shoots out of the pots and flower beds. It always cheers me up in these drab winter months to see a sign that Spring is slowly coming and we shall have lots of daffodils and whatever else I have planted out there blooming soon. I'm a bit of a haphazard gardener - I never remember from one year to the next just what I have planted where!

The potato-painting marathon is now officially over - I went to see all one hundred paintings displayed all together at the author's house yesterday. Took me aback slightly to see just how much work I have done over the past year and a half - I'm also always a bit surprised to see that what I have painted actually closely resembles what it is supposed to. When you haven't seen a painting you have done for over a year, it feels a bit like someone else did it. Out of 100 paintings, only three need some minor modification, which should take an afternoon or two - not bad going! The book should be ready for publication in the Spring, complete with a book launch - now it's getting exciting.

So now I am free...and a bit at a loose end! I've had non-stop commissioned work since 2008 and now I have to choose for myself what I want to paint (until the next commission) which I seem to have got out of the habit of. It's hard to resist the temptation to sit and watch tv drinking tea and eating biscuits - for goodness sake, someone give me something to do!

Tell Me What You Think To This........

I haven't made jewellery for such a long time - this set is just for me and I doubt I'll be making any similar for any one else.


Here's a close up of the bracelet....what do you think I have used to make this pretty bauble?(hands down you in the back, I know you know, but give someone else a chance!) Have I splashed out on some gen-you-wine chunks of turquoise? Nope.
Are they plastic imitation? Nope.
Paper-mache? Nope.

I'll put you out of your misery - these beads were made from............


....yes, a potato. Not only do I paint the darn things, I'm wearing them as well. It all started when I got a Secret Santa parcel through the post containing a very delicious box of chocolates and also a sheet of paper with How to Make a Potato Bracelet instructions tucked into an envelope. At first I laughed heartily, but then had a thought that if this method worked, it would make quite a fitting keepsake to remember the past 18 month spud marathon. Originally, I had planned that I would wait until I had the 100th potato finished and use that as the basis for a bracelet, but as you can read below, I never actually got Potato No.100 in my hand, so this has been made with the 99th - not quite as symbolic but close enough!


First I had to cut the potato into rough cubes, slightly larger than the beads I wanted to end up with. Then I speared them through the centre on a wooden skewer and left them to dry. The first batch were put on top of the radiator on some tinfoil and just left - these ended up quite angular and a few sort of caved in on themselves. After my son's adventures making freeze-dried potato stew with his Bolivian cookbook that he got for Christmas (a whole other anecdote...) I made a second batch and popped them in the freezer overnight. The has the effect of drawing the moisture out of the potato as it defrosts, making it dry quicker but also you can squidge it a bit and soften the edges - these are the smaller, rounded beads. Above is how they look when dry - they are as solid as pebbles.


Then each bead was painted turquoise with acrylic paint and left on a knitting needle to dry.


They needed a second coat to get a good covering - this is half the mess I got into......


When the turquoise paint is completely dry, paint the beads with black acrylic paint. Now, you have to be quick here - the instructions said paint with black paint and rub off with a paper towel - that just left me with a smudgy black bead. What you have to do is mix a slightly watery black acrylic, paint it on then quickly dip the bead in a pot of water and rub with a damp paper towel until the black is left only in the cracks and fissures of the beads.


When this is dry, do the same with white acrylic paint - you can see in the photo how little remains in order for it to look authentic.

Finally, paint the beads with two or three coats of acrylic varnish - I used matt finish as I preferred to have a soft sheen rather than a high shine on the beads - it's a matter of personal taste.

It's a very effective but quite labour-intensive way of making your own turquoise - I'm pleased with the results and wore my necklace to work today where it got quite a few compliments. The beads seem really hard and robust, although doing the washing up with the bracelet on might not be such a good idea on a regular basis!

ONE HUNDRED POTATOES!

For those of you who follow this blog, you will know that for the past 18 months I have been working on illustrating a book about the humble spud. Today....roll of drums, cue the fanfare....I have painted the hundredth and LAST potato!

It feels a bit anti-climactic to be honest as after painting 99 potatoes from life and being able to see every detail, this last one had to be referenced from photographs as no specimens could be found at this time of year. So I am not celebrating just yet, not until I find out whether or not it looks like the actual variety. But the thought that I may just well have painted the final spuddy brushstroke isn't bad at all! Now all that remains is to go over the whole hundred paintings with the author to make any final adjustments that may be necessary.

On the downside, I don't have any other work in the pipeline......oh dear!

Frosty Blue Cloche Hat

When I stayed awake long enough, I crocheted this cloche hat last week in a thick pale blue frosted boucle yarn. It's thick and warm and covers the ears, all prerequisites for a good winter hat! I have knitted several flowers and leaves to make a decorative posy stitched to one side of the hat, using Rowan Kidsilk Night, some fine pure merino grey yarn, and some funky eye-lash yarn with strands of silver tinsel in it. There are also a few focal beads - one large frosty turquoise one in the centre of the larger flower and a few pearl-like ones in the Kidsilk rose.

When I get some batteries for my camera (!) I will be putting this on Etsy. If in the meantime you like the idea of owning it, it will be £15 including p&p - just e-mail me.