the patchwork dress

things afoot...

Spring is in the air.  Today we are being treated to spells of sunshine and showers.  The birds seem frisky and full of song.  Spring is afoot.

Speaking of feet, I am working on a second pair of socks from this book, using the bamboo sock wool bought in Harrogate.  

the book is laid out as a graphic, broken down into steps and stitch numbers to keep you right... also a pic of what the socks should look like completed...

They are more complex than my first pair of socks, and you have to really keep an eye on the ball, as the pattern is worked in a repeated round of 4 rows, with each row different.  

I find I like to 'knit' - and 'purl' is just a distraction until I can 'knit' again. It's a strange game I'm playing with myself...  'Purl' just makes the 'knit' times seem better, and there is enough knit and purl exchanges in this to keep it interesting!  Does anyone else do this?

There are a few errors where I lost track, and my cast on is a bit annoyingly lacy - but I hope to improve these with experience. These, as they say in Glasgow, will be just 'a wee pair of wearing socks' for N around the house, while improving my sock knitting confidence.

'One Good Market' got in touch to say they were closing down the site, and hence my shop - a shame - it wasn't working out for them.. truth be told it wasn't working out for me either, but I assumed everyone else was doing a roaring business and it was just me.. so I don't feel as big a failure.

- so I am back to keeping my Folksy shop going, but feeling quite relaxed about the whole thing.  It's important to have some projects which are creative satisfaction outside of work and 'business', and while it is nice to sell things I also want to find time for enjoyment and gifts, otherwise everything can end up as 'business'.

Keeping things flexible means I can wax and wane the 'selling' side of things to keep in balance with periods of freelancing and grow it when things are quiet.  Whatever it seems important to love what you do, or at least have some part of life where this can be your credo. But, hey, you never know what's coming and I do still love reading about those who have given up the dayjob on Etsy!

1 : scandinavian clutterbuckets!

I have some new, full size clutterbuckets in my shop - made from a lovely soft charcoal wool - a bolt of fabric that I reclaimed + upcycled from a charity shop  (all the fabrics have been prewashed).  

The inner is a sweet striped cotton with rosebuds, and the handles have a new bird and heart design braid. There is also a more unisex version with striped flannel inner and a blue stripe braid.  

I think they have a scandinavian feel!

I am going to attempt an advent post each day - in addition to general musings I'm going to recommend my favourite finds of the year (books, film etc) incase it inspires anyone who hasn't come across them yet.

Ps - anyone buying a clutterbucket will have it wrapped in handstamped paper complete with one of my handmade tags - ready for gifting!

Happy December!

in the clouds

Hello!..

I had to laugh at the comments on the last post - there we all are doing our tax returns, ahem... but all distracted by blogland!  I'm glad to say it's all off to the accountants now, and I feel like I can 'play' again having done the homework.  Hope you've both come out the other side too!

This is a picture I made recently for a friend's new baby. Taking one of my photographs into Photoshop I used the ink stamp tool to clone little pieces of cloud and make the lettering.  I thought it would be a nice way to put a name on a child's bedroom door, or picture for their new room.

I think are downloadable cloud fonts and software out there if you aren't confident in Photoshop - dafont.com is a great place for free unusual fonts.

 

 

paying it forward... eventually!

11:11:11

we are all one(s)

Resurrection Fern has alerted me to the fact that Amy Krouse Rosenthal's film "the Beckoning of Lovely" is available to watch online today... an experiment in the spirit of co-creativity..

.. - this is the day I am finally getting around to posting about the 'Pay It Forward' project which I started out back in July 2009!  I had an idea at that time to make a book bag which I would send out to Polly, Ginny and Debs, who had all agreed to take part.

I don't know why it took me so long, but things never came together at once, and I wanted all 3 to be the same.  In that time I developed the design for the 'clutterbucket' - so now, 2.5 years on, I am ready to give these away to the Pay-It-Forwardees!

So now they can keep books, clutter or whatever they like in their 'clutterbuckets'.

Here's one I have collected over the summer - a pile of 'not sure what to do with, but keep in one place paperwork' which I am shortly going to sort through!

...for business...

...or pleasure...

There are a couple more bags in my folksy shop, and I'm going to be adding some more soon... as they will make a great gift for anyone who could use organising.  I made them for nearly all my gifts last year, so am going to have to think of something else this Christmas!

a small completion

Before the new beginnings of a collage I spoke about in the last post, I personally feel at the opposite end of the spectrum, or perhaps the end of the tail of the circle, just before recircling again with a new start I am itching to finish off a few things, maintain and repair other items in my life.

Clearing the decks, completing the old, making space. Perhaps no coincidence that this was a project knitted in the round?

At the beginning of the year I challenged myself to learn something new, something that I could pick up and put down without losing track too much, and something that would have a number of small completions - even if only a couple of rows one evening squeezed between dinner and bed, I would feel as if I were progressing on a personal creative project, even only if increments.

Ok, so they are slouchy socks that will probably never make it over the threshold!  I told my perfectionist self it was ok to make mistakes, as these were practice socks - teaching me the technique and there was enough in the pattern to learn, let alone picking up dropped stitches etc - that is something I'll teach myself next.

On the first sock I was so carried away by the heel turning, that I totally missed the part in the pattern which created the sort of rib effect on the heel.  So despite them not matching, I tackled it in the second sock.

I am fairly pleased with these 'fireside' socks, seeing as I had to keep looking up reminders on Youtube about how to cast on and basic things like that. It's been a long while since I knitted anything.

This was a very useful video I watched (and rewatched months later for the second sock!) showing how to pick up the stitches for the triangular 'gusset' after the heel.  I liked that it was a guy who made the video for his sister and it wasn't annoying like those "now today we're going to" videos that crop up.

Wool and pattern details back here.

 

a wedding present

As usual, I didn't think to photograph this until after I'd framed it - so apologies for photo quality!

This is a slightly belated wedding present for two friends C + S, who got married (ahem) 2 months ago. 

I hope they don't see this as I haven't given it to them yet!

I had the idea in my head, but had to wait until I found the right map, despite hunting it was quite elusive - but came at last in the great stash from Christine - a 1951 map of Glasgow, in unusual pink, green, blue and buff colouring.

The letter 'C' covers the area where the church is where their ceremony took place.  The 'heart' shows their current home.  The 'S' shows the hall where they held the reception.  Coincidentally the shapes left holes in the map, in a practically vertical north south alignment!

I added the scales and typefaces for some interest, which hopefully add to but don't detract from the initials.  The whole is mounted in one of those deep Ikea Ribba frames in white.

a hungry hedgehog

On Saturday we came home to an unexpected visitor behind our garden.  It was around 5pm and this little hedgehog was being barked at by a dog (who may actually have saved him!).  So I picked him up with gloves into an old fruit box and put him in our garden, where he proceeded to speed off... in search of food.. He showed no fear, but was obviously desperate to find edibles.

I wonder if he had just surfaced from hibernation.  Quite small and a bit tick ridden.  I put an egg out on a plate, which he sat in, and devoured it!  It was quite a small egg, but filling for a wee hog - I think the protein and moisture may have done him good.  However there was no interest in a second, he wouldn't hang around and took off out of the garden again.

I was quite concerned as he was heading for a busy carpark and possibly the road, when N also remembered we had hedgehog biscuits from last autumn.  So I caught up with him (now asleep between 2 bricks) and sprinkled some around.  

That caused much nose twitching, crunching, and waving of paws. Quite an amazing scene.

Last we saw he had turned round and was heading off up the hill to safer havens, and snuffling at full pelt for any other tidbits he could find!

I've never seen a live hedgehog so closely and so animated - it inspired me to get out my sketchbook and record the event!

turning

It feels, today, at last, as if the season could finally be turning.

After all those weeks of enclosed grey, dark mornings and cold evenings I am desperate to see the sunlight again.  Today it feels like something has turned - the energy is on the up and the sun is shining.

I have even turned the radio off this morning to hear the frantic cheeping of the birds - they are definitely in egg mode.

My project for the new year was to teach myself to knit socks! I got this great book and new that it would be something to aim for, but first I just have to knit a pair of socks from this book to understand the technique.  It took a lot of effort to get started - first I couldn't find the weight of yarn specified in the pattern.  In fact the assistant in John Lewis wool department disappointingly didn't know what 'worsted wool' was - a good start, eh?

Next I couldn't find any stock of the needle size I wanted!  A few enquiring emails to Pebbledash, to see if she would be my sock guru.  Eventually, with patience I found some lovely merino wool here and needles here! It occurred to me that the more difficult it was getting, the more I was actually learning about knitting socks!

They may not be the greatest pair of socks ever - but last night I 'turned the heel' - the part I was most afraid of. Reading patterns is rather like gobbledegook - I just had to take each step at a time.. Another lesson I could apply elsewhere in life.  That plus a few videos on Youtube!

Consequently I have turned the heel following one of these videos, so it may be a bit different from my pattern.  I really just made it up as I went along - determined not to get any holes! I also noticed last night that I was supposed to have ribbed the heel flap - which I didn't pick up on at all until a bit late! Nevermind.

The foot of this one looks like it may be meant for a giant :) - but these are my practice socks - probably to be worn of an evening infront of the fire next winter!  However I am really happy to be learning something new that I can see progress in stage by stage.

The heel has turned - hurrah!

featured

I wonder how everyone feels on the subject of recognition.

On my screenwriting course, we were taught that the desire for it (eg being believed, seen, recognised, successful) is one of the 8 major themes that can motivate the character of a movie (or life!). 

We are often so wary of being 'big headed' or blowing our own trumpets - ironically that is what most blogs are really about - however I think for most artists or creators it is as important as getting paid - to have someone desire your work, to receive feedback, to watch someone's face as they receive a commission you have made for them... these are all things that I like and find most fulfilling about my creative work in whatever form.

It has its light and its dark, yet I suppose the root is about being received and accepted by others.

Yet I also feel quite awkward about it - I cringe at getting too much attention, have a fear of bragging.  It is messily caught up in the areas of advertising, self promotion and exposure. I secretly love and desire to be recognised within a work context, but constantly worry about the scale of it and the context in which it is done.  Does anyone else?

This week it was lovely to receive recognition in the form of having one of my bags featured on anothers' blog in her UK craft roundup - thanks, Talie.  I was genuinely thrilled when the email came through.

On the other end of things I was also delighted to hear that 'Perfect Sense', a film I worked on in 2009, will receive it's premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this Monday.  Very exciting.

While this was a much larger project I played a small part in (creating graphics for action and set dressing), I can think of no better place than Sundance for David to show his film and have it received.  

I hope it does really well!  I have a feeling it will, as it has a unique and moving storyline.  Watch out for it, I can't wait.

suzanne's map

I did this map as a Christmas present for my friend Suzanne - initially had the idea as a birthday gift 1.5 years ago, so it has taken me a while to get round to it!

This map took on a different form from ones I've done in the past.  I liked the idea of using a traditional patchwork hexagon.  After a little research about honeycomb (which is turned on its side vertically) I abandoned my original idea of trying to make a formal pattern.  With the honeycomb as an idea for the build up of a creative life, it took on more of a story.

I started with her birth/childhood place in the middle, and then spiralled out, adding additional hexagons or creative cells, which told of her creative journey - adding in places that had meaning for living, working or visiting - and culminating in some parts from the Isle of Lewis where she buys the tweed for the things she makes.

I stamped out a little bee from one of the hexagons, symbolising the trip on the ferry across to the island that inspires her.

The message is "be(e) creative" - which I proffer to all of you too!