....Bearing an Olive Branch.....

A sweet little project I've been working on this week - a knit dove with an olive branch in his beak.

It's such a pretty pattern and the soft slightly fluffy yarn accentuates his frothy wings and tail.

He's about five inches long and cute as a button!

Dogs & Spring....

The little Airedale is now kitted out with a smart green coat and a bed and blanket to sleep on.  As soon as he has a bowl and ball, he will be going on Etsy to look for a new home.

Of course, on days like today, some dogs don't bother with beds - a warm place in the sun on the carpet does just fine!

I've spent the past 4 days sorting out the mess that was my garden - some hard work involved there!  Yesterday I visited the garden centre and bought a few plants including this rather pretty anemone.

Finally, after all this Spring sunshine my tomatoes have started pulling up their little socks and growing properly.  These are the yellow hanging basket variety which seem to be doing the best so far.  The larger varieties are still quite straggly.  We may be catching up with Soggibottom's plants yet!  Of course, the real test is to see which one of us gets a tomato first, so it's still up for grabs....

*Double Trouble!

Good Lord, now he's brought a friend along to decimate the garden!

The second blue-tit has been knitted with more muted colours, which has worked out nicely - he looks far more realistic.  He just needs a pair of feet now.  If you'd like a blue-tit, do get in touch.

*I was going to title this post 'A Pair of Tits' but thought better of it.....

Pink Habu And A Perigee Moon

This delicate triangular scarf is knitted from the wonderful Habu Cotton Gima yarn in a pretty sugar pink.  The yarn is flat and papery but washes and softens like cotton - it's terrific stuff!  The scarf has been knitted in stocking stitch into a long triangle with an eyelet and picot edging, with simple pink flower shaped beads at intervals along it.  The top edge has been crocheted for stability and also has picots. 

This will be on Etsy for sale today. 

Last night was the 'perigee moon' - a full moon at it's closest to Earth.  We went outside to marvel at it several times throughout the evening, but getting a decent photograph of it was a different matter.  This was the best my camera could manage unfortunately - take my word for it, it was very big and very bright!

Back In The Groove...

A few weeks ago I had the most awful case of painter's block - no inspiration or enthusiasm whatsoever.  So I made myself paint this zebra - it was something I knew I could do without much risk of failure and also got me back into the discipline of working on a daily basis again.  That's the trouble of not having commissions, you get lazy!

This is a watercolour, with a few touches of coloured ink at the end.  The zebra is one photographed at Marwell Zoo a couple of years ago - I have many reference photographs from Marwell saved up!  Now this is complete, I have a commission on the horizon and also a couple of ideas for my own work, so all is back on track once more - phew!

Woolly Warbler

About this time of year, when everything in the garden is starting to bud and bloom, along come some little vandals who peck holes in the daffodils, shred the primulas and pick at the pear tree.  Look, here's one of them now...

What's he got his eye on this time?

No, not the pansies as well - beaks off, mate!

This little knitted blue-tit is from a pattern in a brilliant book I bought recently called 75 birds, butterflies and beautiful beasties to knit & crochet .  I can thoroughly recommend this book if you want to knit a slug, caterpillars, bees...you get the picture!  The instructions are clear and easy to follow despite the intricacy of the patterns - I had ends of yarn all over the place and as this little chap is life-size, it was a fiddly project, but it was very clever how everything went together to create the final bird. It was all knitted in one piece apart from the beak, so someone really worked this out well.  Not too sure what to do with him now........maybe he can scare off those real life birds that plunder my plants!

N.B. My father's favourite joke was to go into a greengrocer's and ask the man behind the counter 'Can I have a coconut for my wife's tits?'  He used to fall about laughing....we died of embarrassment!

Artists Help Japan

 Seeing what has been going on in Japan has moved us all and we want to do everything we can to help.

My son has put up an original painting for sale on his blog, all proceeds to go to the Artists Help Japan fund.
Take a look and see if it something you might like to own.

I think I might go through my own portfolio and see what could be sold to add to the donation.