Elmo Mural

Well I don't want to make a habit of this, and it's not what I started the blog for, but today I thought I would post some older art work. Life and travel has sort of got in the way at the moment of doing anything arty, there has still been a little knitting happening, but I'll update that in the next post.

A few years back I painted an Elmo mural for my nieces new baby's room - I was a bit worried having never done a mural before, but really enjoyed the process, and was happy with the end result. Elmo was my niece's choice, as she is a big Elmo fan - we figured the baby had no choice!

Unfortunately they had to move from that house, I wonder if the new owners kept Elmo?
 

proposal sketches

 

outlining

 

coming together

 

finished 'dance' and 'dream'

 

sweet dreams

someone to chat with during changes

peep eye

someone to read with

 

close ups (sorry bad flash reflection)

 

 I would love to do another mural one day - have lots of ideas of stylish ones for my house back home, just as soon as we stop the plaster falling off the walls!

Keep creating!

Catch up

Oh dear, bit of a slump on the regular posting there - I could reel off a list of excuses about a dying laptop, constantly changing travel plans blah blah blah, but lets face it these things are a constant and the very reason I set up the blog to keep my focus on the creative. Less TV more creativity!

So moving on. I'm not entirely sure about posting what I have been up to knitting wise, as it's all gifts and the receiver won't see them for a few weeks yet. Seems I need to either create a spoiler alert system or be creating enough non-gift things at any time to keep up blogging! On this occasion I'm going to go with a personally sent spoiler alert.

I finally pieced together the cotton bolero I blocked a few weeks back.

Pattern; Blossom by Rowan. Yarn; Rowan Fine milk cotton

 

I decided to crochet a picot edging around it, rather than follow the pattern which has a knitted decorative edging sewn on. The original pattern also has a large knitted flower on the clasp - far too easy for a grump toddler to constantly pull at, I went for a cute simple button and loop instead. Really happy with how it turned out. I'm also really happy to have nearly used all my stash of Rowan Fine Milk Cotton - it's quite unforgiving to knit with, showing every fault in tension as the yarn has no give (as with all cottons), and splits very easily. I also found I had to knit tightly on very small needles to achieve the pattern tension.

Last Christmas I made laundry tags for all my hand knitted gifts, so I've started to develop that idea a bit further. I'm thinking there's something good to be done with the tension squares, but haven't figured that out yet. I had made the little sample of the pink knitting just to test the picot edging, it was just dumb luck that it fitted so nicely on the swing tag.

 

 

Then whipped up a batch of boy accessories, I do love knitting baby booties and hats, so satisfying to knit something from start to finish in an evening!

Pattern; Hat -'Striped Hat' Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino book 2,

Mary Janes by Lucie Sinkler, Slip ons Caroline De Hugo.

Yarn; Patons Dreamtime Fairytale 4ply

 

I came unstuck though when trying to finish the one ball of blue wool I had with some stripey socks, the blue ran out at the heel of the second sock - rats. So pulled them both back, halved the blue and knitted them two at a time to ensure they matched (why didn't I think of this the first time?)

Pattern; Stripey Socks by Debbie Bliss - Baby Cashmerino 2

Cardigan - Sirdar Patons Dreamtime Fairytale 4ply

 

Ta da, just a few less stripes and we got there. This cardigan and socks are supposed to be for the same age group, the socks look way too big to me, maybe just because they're flat?

Altogether though I think they make a nice little gift pile;

 

 

 Not a lot of activity on the art front lately to report. I spent an afternoon in the Leeds art library reading up on the History of Dogs in Art, and studying the eyes of different mammals - these are my sketch notes from that afternoon;

 

 

and a few folks from the Tiled Hall cafe when I stopped in for a coffee - 1 minute sketches.

 

Remember - less TV more creativity!

 

Hasta manana 'til we meet again

I spent the end of last week in Stockholm, Sweden. I love Stockholm, so much water, nature, history and culture rolled into one city. Unlike the UK there are four distinct seasons too, and I have been lucky enough to visit in each, from needing sunblock to minus 20! I had such a fabulous time catching up with friends on this visit though that I'm afraid neither the knitting or sketchbook made it out of the suitcase!

I did revisit Djurgarden, one of my favourite spots, and the Thielske Gallery. I still get a little heart flutter seeing some original Degas and Lautrec. Yet in Autumn I think some of the best framed views in this gallery are the ones through the windows. We then planned to have a simple stroll around the island back to a coffee shop. Unfortunately we seemed to choose every path except the one that led to the coffee shop, which made for a gorgeous walk, only eventually finding the coffee shop after it closed.

So I thought I'd share a few photos of Stockholm in its Autumn glory.

Interior, Thielske Gallery

Interior, Thielske Gallery

Walking on Djurgarden

Djurgarden

View across to the Nordic Museum

View from top of Skansen across to the city

Djurgarden

So to quote ABBA, Hasta manana 'til we meet again.xxx

Finland Finland Finland

I have been back to Helsinki this week for a short visit, I've visited here quite a bit over the last couple of years, and always like returning. It's a great compact city, easily walkable on foot when the weather suits, and equally easy to master and use the comprehensive public transport system when the weathers not so pleasant. I always enjoy the experience and challenges of travelling around a place where English is not the first language - but I must admit I'm glad most Finns, especially those in any service capacity, speak English as I can not get my tongue around any Finnish beyond hello (hei, terve or moi), cheers (kippas), thank you (kiitos), sorry (Anteeksi) and welcome (Tervetuloa). My menu reading of Finnish is reasonable, but it's fair to say that any meal or cocktail may include a surprise element, or at worst in no possible way resemble what I thought I had ordered - looking forward to sweet pastry and biting into something filled with cardamon has been a frequent disappointed.

As one of my favourite hobbies is sketching animals, Helsinki feeds that well with both a zoo and a Natural History Museum (unlike my current hometown of Birmingham UK which has neither). So I have spent many hours here at both.

This trip I took along my pastel pencils, I have no recollection of ever buying these or using them before, but they are various lengths which would suggest I have. I also splurged and bought a black Moleskin book a couple of weeks back for this purpose, the paper is not ideal, no tooth to it, but its an easy enough travel option for something other than white. These are the two sketches I completed in an afternoon at the museum.

 

Unfortunately it was just a constant drizzly day when I went to the zoo this time - so I didn't get any sketching done. So I thought I'd post a few sketches and pics from past visits.

 

rabbits

 

rabbit enclosure

reindeer - love them!

 

from my Helsinki travel journal - the footbridge to the zoo (it's on an island)

                                    

waiting for the zoo ferry in summer

my first zoo experience in 5ft of snow, Feb 2011

 

So it's Moi Moi to Suomi, and Hei Hei to Sverige!

Nesting has kicked in

Something in my brain definitely kicks in as winter approaches, and sends me on a knitting frenzy. It happens each year around this time, and I knit furiously for a few months, and then sometime during spring, without realising it turns off again. I usually don't even notice it until some time later when it occurs to me that I stopped knitting months earlier.

It's usually accompanied by a sudden urge to clean and purge through the house, decorate, and finish home projects.

Last week within a few days I knitted all the pieces for a toddlers summer cardi, Rowan's 'Blossom'. In the same week I also noticed (and am yet to rectify) a considerable amount of dust has accumulated on the 'unused' furniture and surfaces around the apartment. It would seem this season the knitting urge has come on with a vengeance but the getting the nest ready for winter hasn't appeared yet.

Strike while the needles are hot I think, the dust isn't killing anyone - yet.

I've been spurred on further by learning so much more about knitting lately. To date I've made it as far as I have with my knitting using the skills my Mum taught me many moons ago - and what a great knitter she was in her time too, and I think I can say from my past efforts, she was also a pretty good teacher. With the internet providing such a massive resource now, a glimpse of a pattern on Ravelry leads to reading other knitting blogs, leads to researching various terms, discovering more and more techniques.

With this cardi alone I learnt; a new cast on style, how (and why) to 'block', and that your tension square should be measured after laundering and pressing as the garment will be after completion (makes sense really). Not that the way I was casting on or finishing garments before was wrong, just that it turns out there are multiple options to chose from depending on the yarn and garment style. As in the case of this cotton, the different cast on, and washing the pieces, drying into shape before sewing up, should give it an improved finish appearance.

I still need to sew it up and add a picot edging;

All the pieces washed, dried and shaped to size. Cotton grows so much when its wet that when I first laid it out the back was 3cm too wide, a bit of a shake at the shoulders and re laying it conscious of not stretching and it's exactly to pattern size.

After washing the increase and decrease edges have settled in and look so much neater

I'm taking this tension square thing seriously now, knitted, washed and ready to measure. I also knitted an extra bit of the pink cotton to practise my crochet edging, and washed it to check it then sat flat. Results all round.

 

 

This seemed like a good spot to put up a photo of something my Mum knitted, a homage to all her skill and hard work - alas many miles from home and my old photos, this is the only one at my fingertips. My 'old poss' jumper (from Shirls Neighbourhood) and beanie for my first school ski trip. The photo just doesn't show its total glory, I loved that jumper, ooh and she knitted me leg warmers to match. Yep, I thought it was pretty cool at the time, but then it was the 80s.

 

Knitting stocktake

I think I'm due a win on the knitting front, and am very happy with my work this week, if for no other reason than they are for me - and that is almost never the case when I knit!

After a number of modifications and corrections to the rubbish pattern provided in the kit, I have a pair of fingerless mittens, perfect for sketching in cold museums. The yarn is Rowan Silky Tweed - a combination of lambswool and silk, and it's exceptionally soft - but unfortunately also discontinued now.

I wasn't sure about the colour, but a couple of Cath Kidston buttons cheered them up.

I also finished my mohair scarf, and it's so lovely and light but warm to wear, I just used the entire ball of wool and then picked up the cast on stitches with the cast off  to form a loop. It's long enough to wear doubled, or even tripled, and deep enough to wear over my head and secured around the neck - like a hood, perfect for under my biggest winter coat when it's icy and snowing.

Whilst looking for other mitten patterns I was browsing Ravelry, which I've briefly looked at before - but now I'm converted. I don't think I've ever come across such a user friendly, suited to purpose system (and as that used to be part of my previous career, I'm doubly surprised) - and it's free! If you knit, or crochet, or have an interest in starting it's a fabulous resource of patterns to download, free or to buy. You can see other knitters comments on the pattern - if they found it difficult, errors they found, how it fitted etc, and see their photos. Always a bonus if you're not the stick figure the knitting companies use in the pictures - nothing worse than spending months knitting a jumper to find it just does not work on curves!

As a member (free to join), there are tools for recording all your needles, hooks, patterns and yarn stash. List's to create from both Ravelry and your own patterns, of what you're making and future plans. You can shuffle the order, add 'due dates' and notes, and it automatically matches up your recorded stash yarns with your wish list patterns to recommend what you've already got to make the item! Wizard!

 

So, there went my entire weekend. Starting Friday by pulling out all the various yarns I have managed to stash in the three years I've lived here (aka stop hiding it all behind the couch and face the truth). I did self impose a ban on any further yarn purchases at the beginning of this year, and with good reason.

 

 

Firstly I entered all the yarns in the stash function. Then all my patterns and books in the library function (loved this, I can see at a glance online all the patterns I own in hardcopy). Then all my needles, along the way finding that I'd lost two?

 

Saturday and Sunday - between weekendy things and lots of coffees, I matched up all my stash with desired patterns, owned or downloaded free from Ravelry, and ordered them in my Ravelry queue. Bagged and tagged and ready to start. To be fair, at this point I was starting to think I could have knitted a whole garment by now.  

 

 

Now the previously exploding pile of bags behind the couch are condensed down to one neat tub, no need to rummage as I even put them in the tub in order of the Ravelry queue. Ironically the very first project I chose to start required one of the missing needles. So after tidying away all the yarn there was a lot of crawling on carpet looking under couches and shelves. Raiding bags that have carried knitting projects in the past, and then looking in more and more random places. Both needles were eventually located - one down the side of the couch, and the other in the boot of the car (that one took some thought). So project number one in my queue is underway!

If at first you don't succeed

Sometime ago I bought a Rowan boxed knit kit when it was on special (at normal price they are ridiculously overpriced for the contents). It's for a tweed finish Cable Snood and Fingerless mitts. Rather that's what I thought, now having read the fine print I see it only contains enough wool for one or the other.

It also contains the needles and pattern, or again, I presumed it did. It contains a pair of needles for the snood but the mittens need two other sizes (and the instructions are for two colour striped mittens?). So I set about making the tension square for the snood, for which the measurements are taken on the cabled pattern (note no cable needle included either). Two rounds into the pattern, mine didn't look anything like cabling. Pulled it back, started over, second time around, two rounds in and again it doesn't look like cabling?

Now I can cable, and usually like cabled patterns, they seem to grow quickly, but this one makes no sense - or cables as far as I can tell.

If at first you don't succeed, try and try again.......then swear, throw a grump, unpick it and go on Ravelry and find another pattern for the wool!

Seaside underpainting

It feels like a week since I last posted, I'm most surprised to find it was only Friday! So far it seems my impetuous for blogging is working - I hoped it would help focus me creatively, and so far so good.

Yesterday I began another painting - so far just the initial under painting done, and I can already see the changes to be made on the next sitting, but fell happy with it as a start. It's based around two photos of loved ones and places from home. I've been thinking of this painting for such a long time now, its good to see it coming out.

 

 

 

Over the weekend I got up to a bit of knitting. I bought this ball of mohair in Helsinki a while back, and thought it would be a nice therapeutic bit of knitting this weekend, to knit up a scarf, after the cardigan fiasco. I hadn't realised how much green was in the mix, so it's even brighter than I expected. It will certainly be hard to lose me in winter with this and my orange winter coat.

 

 

And a bit of 'un' knitting - pulled back all of the disaster cardigan and bundled it up ready for washing and winding back into balls.

 

 

 

 

As it was the weekend, and we had a birthday in the house, I also enjoyed quite a bit of this!