No Stopping...

I completed this dog portrait yesterday - spurred on by the fact that I received another comission which is a bit of a rush job.  This turned into a bit of a mixed media painting rather than just pure pencil, but when doing these portraits, none of them are the same and I have to follow what the image demands.  I'm very pleased with how this has turned out and am hoping the receipient will be too. This has been executed using Derwent Drawing pencils, watercolour, and acrylic white, on pastel paper.

My next commission is of a toucan - about as far removed from a pet portrait as you can get, lots of colour to be used although I am only allowed to use the 8 pencils Derwent are sending me.  This could go either way, be enormous fun or a complete nightmare!

Another rush job was a tiny knitted feather duster....luckily it was quite easy to manage.  I had an hour or so to spare after that to get on with this, my lovely woad cowl.  It's an interesting pattern, free with this month's The Knitter magazine, looks very lumpy in the early stages so I am hoping when I have progressed a bit further it will all come together.  The yarn is beautiful, and must be rich with lanolin as my fingers are so soft after knitting with it!

Nearly There...

Whilst I always thoroughly enjoy painting and drawing dogs, this one has been a bit of a trial.  As it is a surprise Christmas present for someone, the photos I have been given are all I have access to, and the only one with the perfect pose is not only small, but very over-exposed which has bleached out all colour. I have enough other pictures for colour reference, but am also struggling with the colour of the paper.

I would normally have chosen a soft grey/blue background for a painting like this, but the local shop I used to buy my Canson pastel paper from has shut down due to the current financial climate.  So I made a trip to a local town that I know has a well-stocked art supply shop - but for once they didn't have a great selection of colours, and I bought some much lighter blue/grey which seemed a good idea at the time.  Trouble is, I was then having difficulty in getting the lights to show up and the neutrals to get any depth to them.  It looked OK, but a little washed out.

So after working a little while yesterday, I then decided to take a chance and get the watercolours out to give the fur a bit of a burnt sienna wash in order to add some warmth.  It seems to have done the trick and I am a lot happier with how this is going.  All that is left to do is the fur around the neck and then the final tittivating where necessary.

On the needles:  just finished making a park bin, next up a drainhole - exciting stuff!  Although I am sneaking some time to knit a fancy cowl for myself from some fab Blue Face Leicester yarn coloured with woad.

Gnomeland...

I had time this weekend to knock up another couple of these little bracelets.  They are such fun - I wear mine quite often.

They are both up for sale in my Etsy shop - I'm sure someone you know would like a gnome for Christmas...

Half term is over, so it's back to the day job today - how I wish I could be home crafting instead!

Surmounting Problems...

This is an interesting one - the photos I am working from are not very good for portrait reference.  The main pose is an over-exposed picture, printed off a computer.  The other pictures I have show the dog's colour and character but the poses are pretty bad.  So I am having to combine them all in order to get the finsihed painting.  While I am working on it, I feel that it is pretty dreadful and that I really am not achieving much.  However, when I put it back on the easel and look at it from afar, I am so pleased with how it is coming along.  So I will just have to bite the bullet and keep on doing what I am doing and hope for the best!

With Halloween over, it is now time to start making preparations for Christmas (I can hear you all groaning, I did too!)  I traditionally make my Christmas cake at the end of October/beginning November and then 'feed' it with brandy on a weekly basis until just before Christmas.  By that time, it's probably not a good idea to drive if you've eaten a slice!

These little wall lights look deceptively simple don't they...don't be fooled!  They have given me a headache this week - knitting them was fine, but then I had to find something to go inside the shades to keep the shape.  After days of wondering if I could justify spending far too much money on a bulk pack of sauce pots  (what would I do with the 246 left over???) I finally found some plastic shot glasses locally which cost pence.  Then I had the problem of assembling it all so that the shades remained horizontal - there were tantrums last night as my theory of sewing a button to the wire and then to the shades collapsed in failure, with glue and tape not helping.  I slept on it and had a bit of an epiphany - so simple it's laughable, a couple of disks of thick double sided tape stuck either side of the centre and job done.  Phew!

Happy Halloween!

We've all been doing some Halloween crafting this year, making up for the fact we are not visiting Salem!  My daughter has embraced Halloween since spending it three times in the USA, so I am trying to make it a bit special here at home.  We have decorations, pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, she and I are both wearing Halloween themed clothes & jewellery today, there is a cake waiting to be decorated and I have just finished carving this pumpkin.  I'm really pleased with this, it's my first attempt at anything other than the traditional toothy grin - it's based on The Walking Dead.

My partner's pumpkin is a lot simpler but no less effective - bleagh!

And Stacie came home the other day having made this little guy and his webs.  He is so cute I think we may keep him after Halloween is finished.

Stacie also has a Halloween mixed cd, but the least said about that the better - that's being retired after tonight....if I hear that version of Thriller performed by session musicians one more time I am going to throw it out the window!

We're Still Here...

Did you ever wish you hadn't started something?  There is an element of that feeling to all my projects today!
This shell bouquet was very problematic - first there was the glue incident, then I had no idea how to attach all the shells and beads plus wires together.  Then there was more glue play - I'm not good with glue at the best of times.  Finally there was the addition of ribbons and finding the tiniest pieces of feather to insert (with more glue!)  It took me a week, on and off, but I am pleased with the result.  Next problem, how to post it without it getting damaged...

Then there was the aspidistra....I nearly flung this across the room in despair yesterday as I realised I should have inserted wires into the leaves before using fabric stiffener. However, after much thought, I found a solution to the assemby problem with a piece of trimmed polystyrene, into which I sewed the base of each leaf, through the knitted 'earth'.  Then the whole thing could then be jammed into the pot securely.  There are a few pieces of wool at the back holding it all in place which will hopefully never be seen!

This was the scene in my kitchen this morning - I decided it was time to sort out my stash as it had reached the point where I was buying new wool rather than search to see if I had the colour I  needed.  I had to move it all in a hurry a few weeks ago when my partner returned home after 5 years working abroad and hadn't the time to organise it.  Consequently, there were areas that looked like this...

However, now it is all bagged by colour, with all the 'good' yarn in a box away from the everyday DK.  The theory is that I will be able to lay my hands on what I want now with the minimum of fuss. Any bets on how long that will last?

With regard to the 'hurricane' last night, we are still here.  Several trees down in the neighbourhood but no major damage.  Lots of leaves to be cleared up, but that's about it.  Let's face it, it was just some quite bad weather...

Now I Know How Much My Mother Loved Me!

My mum used to make me toys on occasion - I still have the rag doll she made me when I was three, a large, very battered doll called Arriety (from The Borrowers) that still smells the same as it did when I was little and evokes such memories.

I don't remember many others, but I do remember her knitting me a Clanger.  I loved The Clangers, so did she!  I found the original knitting pattern on the net, which must be the exact same one she probably sent away for from the BBC.  It is pretty basic - there aren't any instructions for sewing together at all and I had to wing it.

I thought it wouldn't take me long as most of it was straight stocking stitch - how wrong I was!  The ears were a nightmare - it didn't say they were supposed to be folded in two, I had to work that out for myself.
The fingers are supposed to be pipecleaners but I knitted them with Icord, a much safer option.

The tunic was difficult too - it just said to cut out felt shapes, embroider them and attach them together to make the tunic.  Argh!  I had to search for images of Clangers on my Kindle and keep checking that what I was doing looked OK.

However, for all the messing around, it was definitely worth it.  This one is for sale in my Etsy shop - I do plan to make some more at some point in the future, or if you would like to place an order, feel free to do so.

Whistle-hoot-toot!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is one year to the day since we were in Boston on holiday and got caught in Hurricane Sandy.  This year we are at home over half term and yet there is a predicted hurricane here in the UK, due to hit us overnight.  Hmm, it's a bit windy out there but the sun is shining and my washing is drying nicely.  I don't want to tempt fate, but I suspect our 'hurricane' won't be quite on a par with Sandy....I'll let you know tomorrow if we are still here or if we have been blown away!