Eggstra Eggstra....read all about it!

So here we are in April and I've not managed a blog post since January! I do manage to surprise myself with my inconsistent blogging, but what does it matter really. The years do pass in a bit of a blur, I have to stop and think about what has happened so far!

The main events in February being Maddox's 6th birthday, Elaine and Dave's wedding and a 90th Birthday Party. I managed to lose my bestest woven shawl, then found it the next day! There was weaving, I made a really wide warp in fine cotton and wove yardage in Noro sekku! I'm hoping to turn it into some kind of tunic one day!

March saw me join a new facebook weaving group (Weaving Chat UK) and immediately sign up for a weaving challenge where you exchanged details with another weaver and sent them some wool and they sent you some wool and you wove something with the wool! Here is what I made:

I'm really pleased with how it turned out!

Then the end of March saw me warp up for another quick scarf, all cotton this time....

April arrived! Not got much done as it's Easter holidays but I have managed to finish a sewing project for my sister which needed to be done and out the way, and I've finally cast on some knitting! Only handwarmers, but a good park project for when Maddox is off playing!

Speaking of handwarmers....I ran my first 10k last Sunday (9th April) and my dear husband lost one of my Scrunchie Handwarmers while I was running. Yep these:

I'd been thinking of knitting some more anyway but when I checked Ravelry to see how long I had,  had them I knitted them in December 2007, they did have a good life, didn't they! Trekking don't make this colourway any more or I could reknit a new one!

I'm still finding a little time for spinning! I've just finished off some bfl I've been spinning for a couple of weeks, and there's always a little doodling going on in the background.

So that's me all caught up for now, I do try and keep my Instagram up to date with my current projects and I've got a pile of fibre to put in my etsy shop and I need to make a new warp, so off I trot....till next time X

Just start!

I'm just starting a post here about beginning to draw! Some of my facebook friends have said they can't draw, and some have said they would like to draw, so this is just a little guide about how to start. I for one believe that everyone is creative, no matter how much some people protest. We all had that joy of expression as children. I used to love Maddox's scribbles, and colouring outside the lines, now he has become a perfectionist and gets upset if a picture isn't quite as perfect as he wants it to be.

This drawing on the right is one of my first Zentangle patterns from 2014, I think that's when I first came across it. It's not big, about 9 cm square I think. You can buy zentangle kits which have pens and 'tiles' in but I just read up on it on the web and cut some paper down to tile size. You draw a tangle in pencil, which is the outline shape, then fill it with patterns. You can make up your own patterns but if you look at Instagram and Pinterest there are hundreds of patterns. There are even YouTube videos too, there's a good example to get you started here

  All you need is a pen, pencil and paper. As these are small scale I like to use a 0.1 Fineliner, although I have a set of pens ranging from 0.1 to 0.7 and the more I draw, the more I experiment with different pens and materials,

I did the drawing on the left last week. I knew I was going to be doing this post and took a before picture of the pencil outline, now I can't find the camera. It's also a good example of a picture I don't really 'like' much but I stuck with it.

I mean don't get me wrong, if a drawing is really making you unhappy don't persevere with it, but part of the process is recording and drawing and then looking at what you think works and doesn't work.

I'm reading The Creative License by Danny Gregory at the moment. It's a book I've had for a few years in my quest to 'draw'.

I think it's important to remember these points from page 43:
there are no bad drawings
drawings are experiences, the more you draw the more experienced you'll get
you will learn more from bad, weird or unpredictable experiences than from those that go exactly as you hoped.
release your ego's desire for perfection
take risks
stretch
grow
create as much as you can whenever you can

I don't seem to have had much time for drawing this week, or much else for that matter! I really need to find time to work on my time management!

I did finish this new heart off and I was experimenting with my watercolour crayons in the background.

I really like the way this turned out but my husband thought the background looked untidy....its subjective anyway this art thing and that's what you have to remember.

You don't have to show anyone what you do. It's not what it's about. Just pick up a pen and take it for a walk see where you end up!

Guilty of tearing this one out of my sketchbook! I feel like I ruined it with colour,but I have managed not to throw it away and keep it to demonstrate what I mean!

On a final note it doesn't matter what you draw, that's where the abstract shapes and patterns really help me. KEEP IT SIMPLE! just explore and have fun!

Happy 2017 (I had hoped for a witty pun for a title but nothing rhymed)

I did consider migrating myself over to a new blog. I had a quick skim of Wordpress but some of the time, (ok a lot of the time) I cling on to the old familiar....so for now I will stay here.

I haven't managed a post since Woolfest 2015! How time flies! Well a quick round up of 2016 is in order and then we can put it behind us! In October 2015 I started a part-time job....making posh sofas! I loved this job, but it did mean my time management was challenged when it came to crafts! 2016 was a challenging year for most of us, politically and personally! I left a job, moved away from Hastings, and got married all in a short space of time, and went from living with just Maddox to what is now a family of 5. There was Brexit, then Trump....a lot going on, but things are settling down now.

So my knitting mojo seemed to wane a bit. In 2016 I managed to knit a Matchmaker (Martina Behm) and 3 pairs of socks and finally sewed some buttons onto a cardigan! I did find my way back to my looms once we were settled into our new home and finished off a project that had sat at the loom for far too long. Infact I haven't quite finished the ends off yet! I shall add it to the list of things that need doing!

 

Next I put a beautiful handspun merino gifted warp on the loom. (thankyou Yarnspider). I'd quietly been spinning up purples knowing such a beautiful warp needed handspun weft.

 It took me a week just to get it all threaded on (it was just a busy week). The weaving went by effortlessly. I worried it would be too long, too wide, too woolly, but at the end of the day I just wove as it came, intuitively and it turned out perfect. I am very happy with this piece. You can see all the photos on my Rav project page here. I didn't fret about the fringe twisting either, I get very frustrated trying to get the fringe all twisted and the same perfect length, but from now on I'm going to be perfectly happy with imperfect fringes!

The next chapter....

I found Zentangle back in 2014, I'm not sure how or why but I had some pens and paper and drew a couple of tangles, I knew it was cool, I just didn't make any time for it. 2014/ 2015 also saw the rise of adult colouring books, I even bought a few .In early 2016 I had bought a Zentangle magazine from WHSmith, it was still lurking in the back of my mind. Every year I say I'm going to get back to working in a sketchbook, drawing every day, making art for arts sake. But it's only with the move and the craziness of life that I found sitting down with pen and paper to doodle calming.

I did a few pages of my sketchbook, and there's a simplicity to doodling. To taking the pen for a walk and not worrying about the finished result...because that's the key. That's what all the how to draw books tell you, let loose, don't worry about the results and that's what happens when you doodle.

 Don't get me wrong, I spent 4 years at art college, but I've never been very confident about drawing. I remember being at school and drawing every day....I used to draw and I used to read, and yet when I got to college and we had to do life drawing and produce sketchbooks, I lost my confidence at drawing. I could produce a piece of work but I didn't really feel I could draw....not in the sit in front of me and I will draw a portrait of you kind of a way. I can draw a face, a figure, a hand, I can draw things, I can shade, I can see, but none of that really matters any more because I can doodle.

It's about simplicity and spontaneity and learning to incorporate a mistake into a drawing, or start over with a new idea if you just don't like where it's going. You can keep your ideas in your sketchbook or you can share them with the world. Infact there's a lot of artists and doodlers and illustrators out there working, drawing and showing their work. But it's not just about jumping onto a bandwagon, it's about a personal journey, creating calmness, drawing practice, creates confidence, lines start to flow with more fluidity. I used to do everything in pencil, I used to be afraid of making mistakes.

I used to be afraid of blog writing. Maybe I think it's self indulgent and by writing stuff down I then open myself up to criticism from anyone who reads it. It doesn't matter any more. It never really mattered how many people read it. It never really mattered what anyone thinks, I always knew that, and if I feel like it, I will keep on sharing and writing and showing off. Most of my pretty pictures will be on Instagram but if I have more to say I will post here!

I'm hoping to do something creative everyday in 2017, at the moment it's drawing but there will be more sewing, spinning and weaving too, watch this space!

Happy July!

2 weeks ago tomorrow I drove up to Woolfest and back again! It's 8 hours but I'm not complaining about the driving, we left at 4.30am and arrived by lunchtime. It was good fun catching up with old friends and enjoying the sights and sounds!

This is my modest little collection, I did say I wasn't going to buy any fibre but couldn't resist this little 'goodie bag'.

There has been a little spinning going on, although my wheel had to have a new lower band whilst at Woolfest which meant I didn't get to spin at the spin-in, then whilst plying this week my upper band broke, luckily I had a spare, which reminds me I have to order another one now. Still I think I have had the same bands on since I have had that wheel and I'm sure I've had it since 2008, plus who knows how old my Little Gem 1, actually is, I expect they were original!

This was superwash, nylon, stellina, dyed by me and chain plied!

Finished plying this yesterday whilst waiting in for a parcel. It's Southern Cross Fibre colourway Huckleberry Train from the 2011 Fibre Club, purchased in a destash earlier this year!

Put this on the loom this week. I treated myself to this purple ready made warp when I went up to Fibre East in 2013.

Dotted Rays has been on hold for a few weeks waiting for me to get hold of the right colour. In the mean time I've been weaving more squares on my weavette. Always a handy mindless project when I haven't got anything else on the go!

Unfinished Symphony...

So here we are in June and just for now I have 2 more unfinished items. Yes the scarf looks pretty finished but I haven't trimmed the fringe for now while I consider twisting it. I don't twist fringes as a rule because of the extra time doing it and because I kind of like untwisted fringes, but I recently twisted the fringe on the wall hangings for the hospice and it wasn't too traumatic.

 In the mean time I love this scarf and have taken alot of photos of it, you can see more on flickr here:

Also almost there but not quite is my cardigan in the vintage Jaeger yarn, as you can see I still need to sort out some buttons.

Has Spring Sprung? should possibly called why are we waiting!

So there has been a gentle plodding in the jelly house of late. I did finally finish off these wall hangings for the hospice. Why does actually finishing something become so difficult at times. The weaving was all done last September by the public at the Hospice Vintage Fair. All I needed to do was finish the ends, sew a couple of seams and turn them into hangings, it didn't take me long.

This reminds me that there is a certain weavette square blanket of 304 squares which requires an edging...ok I know what the hold up is here, that edging isn't going to be fun, firstly it involves me crocheting and secondly it requires a crochet technique I am unfamiliar with, thirdly it's getting warmer and I'm not ready to sit under a blanket crocheting an edging, I can quite rightly put this job off until it starts getting colder. Let's just face it, even if we suddenly had a freak cold snap,  I'm sure I could still find any number of excuses not to do it until I am ready!

Some things do get finished around here! Another cowl off the loom and completed. I really like this one, if I do get around to putting it in my other etsy shop it will be called Easy Like Sunday Morning. There's nothing on the big loom right now, while I do some test weaving on one of the rigid heddles!

Handpainted warp and weft, actually this is waiting patiently for me to start weaving, and has been for a week!

In other news, I have finished sleeves for the cardigan I am knitting, this is now waiting for a bath and some blocking. It has only been waiting one day so far, so not excessive but I do wonder why I didn't get the main bit blocked and ready, now I have sleeves and body to block, another task I feel ready to put off until I am ready!

In the mean time I can carry on with the Jazz Hands mittens who have been back to the frog pond and cast on for what I hope is the last time. I found that my row gauge was so far out they were going to be too short and the thumb looked weird. I am now reknitting and planning to knit a different thumb to the pattern.

To Infinity and Beyond...

Spring has definitely sprung and I distracted myself from my knitting with this fabulous puzzle called Bizarre Bookshop. I just loved the illustration so much when I saw someone else show off a picture of it that I had to have it and the littleun is now big enough to know not to throw puzzle around. Infact he's quite into doing jigsaw puzzles himself so it's a winwin situation!

I put a new 'generous' warp on the loom to make some more cowls and do a bit of sampling!
I have some colcolastic which I wove into a sample and washed. I like the sample and the effect was ok, I just thin it would be better with finer yarns. I can get a similar but not so elastic effect by throwing my weaving into the washing machine and forgetting where it is.

This is the first off the loom. What I like most about making these Infinity Cowls is they are shorter than a scarf and I can really just play with colours and textures endlessly in this format, well until I run out of yarn, (yeah as if that's ever going to happen!)

The knitting has been slow, maybe because I have 2 projects on the go now! The mittens (Jazz Hands) have been progressing very slowly mainly because my gauge was off, frogged, the cast on was too curly, frogged, the colourwork was interfering with the thumb increases making them look ugly and weird, frogged thumbs...twice...it's a case of two rows knitted one row frogged, but I do love this yarn and pattern (apart from the thumb) and I will hopefully have a new pair of mittens, just in time for next Winter I expect!

As for cardigan knitting, I'm still on the sleeves (2 at a time) and it seems I'm on a go slow as I just haven't been sitting still watching tv that much.

Story of the Blues!

Last Thursday I made a new (mainly) cotton warp with a small amount of linen for a new cowl. I thought I had made extra warp to sample, I have some small bobbins of colcolastic I wanted to play with but as I was weaving I could see the warp was shorter than I thought I had put on, infact apart from loom waste this was just the right size for another cowl (at least I got something right). I gathered my box of yarns Monday and started weaving, I was enjoying the process so much I finished weaving Monday night and grabbed the sewing machine out right away to finish off the edges

In other news, thanks to Game of Thrones,  I have managed to finish the body of the cardigan I am knitting and  am on the sleeves. I'm now trying to catch up with Fortitude but have also now cast on my Jazz hands mittens.

Spring Fling!

So there I was catching up with posts in one of the Saori groups on Ravelry when I saw they were having a little weavalong for a 'Think Spring Infinity Cowl'.

I had some leftover handpainted warp left on the loom from the last scarf I made and decided it was perfect for me to join the weavalong and make an infinity cowl instead of a scarf.

I had a lot of fun making this and am now contemplating warping the loom for a couple more! I don't like the loom standing empty!

I am making good progress with the cardigan, both fronts are done and I'm just working on the back at the moment. Endless stockin stitch has become a little tedious though but I have just done a provisional cast on this afternoon for 'Jazz Hands' by Kate Davis, Rosanna bought me the yarn (which is Skein Queen Voluptuous Skinny Minnie) for my birthday (which isn't until the end of April). We are going to have a little mitten knitalong!

Marching Onwards!

So here we are almost mid March, and I've been keeping myself busy and out of trouble with an assortment of projects.

I finished some spinning:

I added this woven band to a charity shop find:

I finally found my knitting mojo:

I wove another hand-painted scarf:

More scarf porn here

A February Catch Up....

So February is drawing to a close and it's about time for a catch up! I finally finished the warp off that I put on the loom for the Hospice Vintage Fair. It is quite narrow but lots of fun, you can view a video of the whole thing here. Not sure what it will become yet, I may make some more bags!

 January saw me finally getting to grips with my knitting machine after it has been in storage for 5 years. I've been knitting some blanks up for the time being, yes and dyeing them!

and with the loom being free I soon got the blanks warped and wove a couple of scarves, although I wove scarf one at less ppi than scarf 2 and scarf 2 has a much better feel to it, the moral to this tale, sample you nitwit, you had plenty of yarn! Anyway now I've got a better idea how much warp and weft I need for one of these I will probably experiment a little more with the hand painting and add some more colour!

See you in March!

Finally a FO!

So this week I finally sat down and sewed in the ends of these mittens. They've been hanging around for longer than 6 months. I kind of fell out of love with them before I'd sewn in the ends which is why it has taken so long.

No spinning this week but I have managed to a do a little dyeing. I very rarely dye anything for myself but this sparkly superwash nylon has been in my stash for years waiting for me to do something with it!

I've almost finished another row on the weavette blanket, but decided there was enough yarn left for yet another row of 16 squares, it's all about numbers I think, 304 squares meant more to me than 288!

It's been a dry week....

.....on the craft front! There has been some very serious rain, but in my world that is always preferable to snow! I did finish up the second spin of the year Monday evening and haven't done alot of anything since. Well I wove in some ends on the weavette squares and I did finally get my knitting machine to knit so that was a celebration in itself!

This was some merino/camel that had been put aside. It was the end of the bump and there were some straggly bits making up the 100g, not good enough to sell but still perfectly fine to dye and spin.

I haven't done alot of weaving, still need to plug away at what's on the loom and I've also dug out the last knitting project I worked on which isn't finished.....high time I got the ends sewn in, think it's been in the bag quite a while. Hopefully by moving it into a prominent position they (some mittens) will be completed soon, my project notes said they had been cast off way before LAST JUNE....eeek! I have set myself the target of actually completing them before I start anything else, it would be good to complete the weavette blanket too, but one thing at a time! Achievable goals but maybe it's time spinning took a break while I get these things done and dusted!