Thursday 25 February 2016

A tale of two scarves...

Scarf No 1 -
Knit on 9mm needles using 5 skeins of Debbie Bliss Paloma.
Time taken - 3 evenings.


Scarf No 2 -
Knit on 2.5mm needles using 2 random skeins of 3ply lurking in my stash.
Time taken so far - 4 hours.

Conclusions -
1. I hate using big needles almost as much as I hate knitting moss stitch. The finished scarf is, however, gorgeously soft and squishy and warm and I love it so it was worth 3 evenings of annoying knitting.
2. I love, love, love using tiny needles and variegated yarn. This scarf is possibly going to take the rest of my natural life span to finish but I don't care because I'm loving the process.


Friday 19 February 2016

When things don't go according to plan...

Lately my creative pursuits have hit a number of brick walls.

A lace weight knitting project was going swimmingly until I spotted an error that I can't work out how to fix and so it lies unloved and ignored in a bag.

A pair of trousers I was sewing were looking good until I made an adjustment to narrow them in the hips and now I can't get my hands in the pockets and they're lying in a heap waiting for their waistband.

A shirt I made for myself looked lovely until I tried it on and I realised that the buttons were straining to come undone in a most inappropriate area - now I've lost interest in adapting the pattern even though I have some gorgeous fabric patiently waiting to become a shirt.

I spent three whole days working on a new painting of a wood pigeon and was almost finished when I decided to use an acrylic glaze to seal it - it reacted to the paint underneath and the whole thing was ruined - at this point I may have cried.

I have no photos of these disasters as I didn't want to depress myself so instead I've included some photos of the pop up shop I'm involved in at the moment...








It's taking place in Studio 4 in The Black Swan, Frome and will be on until the 27th February. The photos are not great but we've managed to pack a lot into a small space. There are 5 of us taking part (known collectively as The Keyford Artisans) so there's a good variety of hand made crafts on offer.

Following my disastrous week or two I only managed to add one new painting to my collection - another raven...


and also enjoyed whipping up a few crocheted daisies for some more bunting...


When in doubt, go back to the things you can rely on - in my case, crochet and crazy birds!