Here we go... here we go... here we go...

Please excuse the completely out of character football chant, but I am feeling so pleased to have mastered the "provisional cast on" method from the one skein wonder book... with the help of a friend and the loan of a crochet hook...

I can now tackle the shawl I have been longing to try... and also one of the hard-to-find knitted patterns for amigurami (as opposed to crocheted ones).

Feeling very accomplished tonight! (A rare feeling!)

Art class week 7

The challenge today was to paint a picture in water colour from a picture or photograph of our choice.

Mine is of an Australian outback farm building.

I really enjoyed doing this picture, and I learned a lot about mark making in the foreground, mid-ground and background.

In my art class, I am sitting next to a young Muslim girl. She is very interested in drawing objects from her culture, and today she brought in an ornate brass coffee pot to do a painting of. It was lovely, she got the shape beautifully.

There is also an interesting fellow who sits the other side of the class from me. He looks like John Prescott, and is quite gruff. He likes to do Turner style pictures, and boasted that he took the same approach to painting with watercolour as he does to emulsioning. He is odd, because he pretends to be a beginner and declare that everything is too technical and too complicated for him, and yet he gives away, through his comments, the fact that he knows a lot about painting and art.

Anyway, a most enjoyable session today.

Half balls and scraps

My knitting needles have been busy this weekend. I have been trying some more of the patterns from "one skein wonder" which is proving to be a great way for me to try out new stitches and techniques.

I tried the tamashanta pattern this weekend. Something went a bit wrong though, as it is not wide enough in the main part of the hat, and not flat enough on top. My little boy likes it though, and has claimed it for himself. Athough I was disappointed overall, I was very pleased with my seed stitch, and the very neat way of decreasing at the top of the hat. I had also adapted the pattern to knit on 2 straight needles instead of a circular needle, so maybe that had something to do with it.

More successful were some knitted flowers which I intend to sew brooch backs onto and use to liven up my spring jackets (yes spring is here now!!). This involves a very strange twisting action which twists the entire piece of work around the needle, and then catches it in place with the next stitch.

Homework - trees of green

This week I have managed to do a piece of homework for my art class. I wanted to use the colour theory we learned a week ago to produce a range of shades of green that could be used to convey distance. The brighter, purer greens being foreground colours, and muted ("greyer") greens in the distance.

Our art teacher insists that we use a palette of only 6 colours (2 yellow, 2 blues and 2 reds) and mix all our shades from first principles. That way we understand what we are doing with colour.

My attempt below is a little confused, but the basic elements are there. Disastrously, I changed tack part way through, and so some of the colour ranges I had established became wrong in relation to the other items I was putting into the picture. So, for example, although the foreground trees have good foreground colours, the greens immediately around them are more mid-ground, and some of the mid ground colours come too far forwards. I also struggle with changing the brush strokes I use to help to convey distance. I need to work on a range of different brush marks.

Art week 6

Today we tried applying last week's colour theory to a still life in water colour. I did not do very well! I found it very difficult today... I could have spent all morning on the sketch, let alone try and deal with the colour.

Anyway the good points are, I like some of the texture I achieved on the taller jar, and the reflected colour from the apple. Overall, though, I was disappointed.

On a more exciting note, today is the closing date for applications to SP10, and so in the next 2 weeks I should find out who I am going to be secret pal to (i.e. the person I will be sending stuff to) and I will also be allocated to someone who will then send stuff to me (i.e. they will be the secret pal to me). It's exciting. I have been on the lookout for nice things to send to my pal, and am looking forward to finding out what she likes and what she does.

Sap rising

In a previous post, I mentioned the sari silk bag that had gone horribly wrong.


Well, I have now finished recycling it into something else: an embellished, knitted, abstract picture. I have called it Sap rising as it was inspired by a picture of tree bark posted on In the Pink, and the glass beads remind me of the way sap oozes and crystallises from a branch when it is cut.





The only problem now is, as with all abstract pictures, which way round does it go?

Now that's what I mean

In my SP10 questionnaire I mentioned mixing bold colours in bold ways. Good kharma bunny put me on to this site http://www.knotjustknitting.com/ ... then go to the "what is freeform" page...

Amazing!

Chunky collar

I recently bought the book "One skein wonders" edited by Judith Durant. It's a great book - full of small (one skein!) projects of varying complexity and using a wide range of yarns.

I decided to try out one of the projects using some hand spun, hand dyed wool that was given to me by a friend for my birthday. The wool is dyed using things found in her garden, and the two pieces I used were alum & onion skin, and elderberry.

The project I chose was the "chunky collar" which is a neat alternative to a scarf, and is knitted in "broken rib" pattern.

Well, it takes about 3 hours to complete... and I am wearing it already as it is so comfortable, warm and not at all bulky. We live in an old house, and our boiler is on the blink as well, so it can be a bit chilly at times... but no longer thanks to this fun little project!!

By the way, that is NOT my wrinkly neck showing from underneath the collar, but a handily sized plant pot!

There is no art to report today, as we did colour theory, and I doubt that my various blobs of green and orange hues (guaranteed to aid aerial perspective in my next painting) will be of much interest here.

Stitched and dissolved silk

I have had a skein of recycled sari silk yarn in blues and greens in my stash for some months. I recently knitted it up and attached some handles, with the intention of making a craft bag for my Mum. The finished item, however just did not work. The handles were curved, and the weight of the sari silk meant it all bunched up and hung in an ugly mass from the centre of the handles. Now, the problem with sari silk, is when you have stitched it up, the stitches just disappear into the yarn, so it is not possible to unpick it. What to do to salvage the beautiful colours and textures in the knitted piece? Well, the answer lay in the dissolvable fabric I bought at the show in Harrogate last year...



I chopped the knitted piece away from the handles, and stuck it to a piece of backing felt, then I put over the dissolvable fabric and stitched through it to secure the fibres. Then quick rinse in warm water got rid of the top layer, and after drying above the Aga overnight, I have been left with this...







The colours glow more than this picture shows, but once again the stitching has disappeared into the fibres of the sari silk. The slight ribbing from the way it was knitted, and the mix of colours remind me of a picture of tree bark posted on "In The Pink" (see post 07/02/07). The next step will be to embellish with some beads and maybe some angelina fibres. I think I shall also try to pleat it a bit to give it some more 3D shaping. I'm excited by this... I think it has good potential.

Half term mayhem

This week has been half term... and it has been mad! Little chap started his week off from school with 2 1/2 days soaring temperature and non-descript virus type symptoms. We spent time doing art and craft projects, including some plaster of paris moulds of "monster trucks" which he painted, and attached to friction drive wheel bases.... lots of fun.

When he felt a bit better we went to a local theme park for the under 12s. It's a great place, not least because there are plenty of opportunities for parents to be big kids too. Our favourite ride is the bumper boats. These are like huge tractor tyres with an out-board motor that you ride on a boating lake. The aim of the game is to bump each other, and if you get the bow wave just right, give each other a good splash! The best thing is that for the 10 minutes that you are out on the lake, everyone becomes playground pals, and there is fun, laughter and banter freely flowing between dads, mums, sons, daughters and across all different ages. It is completely rejuvenating.

We also went to a local museum, where there was a temporary exhibition on the holocaust, persecution and genocide. I know it doesn't sound like a place to take a 5 year old, but there were beautiful, if haunting, pictures of people of all races, creeds and social situation, along with slogans promoting understanding and condemning prejudice. So my little chap and I sat on the bench and talked about not being fearful of people who seem different, but taking the opportunity to get to know them and understand the things that are different between their lives and ours. So it turned into a lovely positive moment, aided by a beautiful picture of an African boy of 4 or 5 years in age pulling a toy string on a car ... something boys across the world love to do.

I have not done much in the way of art or craft this week. Despite having a mega Amazon session and buying "one skein wonders", "Yeah, I made it myself" AND "alternacrafts"... so inspiration abounds, and I am looking forward to some "caged minutes" next week. This will, however, have to do battle with the need to finish some painting (of the redecorating kind) in the hallway, this quarter's VAT return, and another practice run at book keeping with the ultimate aim of producing a perfectly formed Trial Balance!!!! Oh! And Spring is coming, so the garden beckons with increasing urgency!

Secret Pal 10 Questionnaire

Having seen the fun others have had with Secret Pal, I decided I would sign up for the latest round. What a great idea to send and receive to/from other crafters around the world. It is very exciting... The first step, of course, is to complete the questionnaire... so here goes...

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

I like both fine and chunky yarns, and these can be natural or synthetic... but what I like best are yarns with different colours in them, as I love seeing the way the colours mix and build up when the yarn is worked.


2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?

I keep my needles in two earthenware jugs, one that I brought back from Portugal in 1986, and one that I received from and Irish relative as a wedding gift in 2000. I also use earthenware jugs to keep my paintbrushes in and also my button collection.


3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?

I have been knitting since 1979 when our school got everyone to knit squares to sew into blankets and send to Africa as part of Action Aid. I am probably still classed as a beginner... I do small, simple or quick projects, and don't do many fancy stitches.


4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

No.


5. What's your favorite scent?

Lavendar, lemon and nutmeg.


6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?

I don't have a very sweet tooth, although I like milk chocolate but don't tend to eat much of it.


7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?

I sew, draw and paint (watercolours). I like trying new things, and am a dabbler. I have recently bought some disolvable fabric and am enjoying playing around with it. I don't spin.


8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

I like jazz and blues and folk. Also David Bowie, Simply Red, The Scissor Sisters, Chrissie Hynde, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.
I like South American music.
I love the sound of the clarinet and trumpet.
In terms of the technology, I'm just getting to grips with MP3s.


9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?

I like purple, orange, green and gold. I like strong colours mixed in unusual ways.


10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

I am married with a 5 year old son and a 16 year old step son. We have no pets.


11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?

Yes! Especially hats and scarves. I have a woolen cape, but have never had a poncho.


12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

I like to knit small pieces that I then sew, embellish, cut up or otherwise work into other objects. Last year I knitted 17 hats as gifts for various people! In the last year I have also knitted bags, purses and journal covers.


13. What are you knitting right now?

A hat made from recycled sari silk, I am also using some fibres spun by a friend of mine to make lampshade.


14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

I love to give and receive handmade gifts. The love and care that they embody makes them all the more special.


15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

I tend to use aluminium needs, but only because that is what I have. I have never used circular needles, although I once knitted a pair of socks on four double ended needles.


16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

No.


17. How old is your oldest UFO?

I am ashamed to say it is 21 years old - it is a half made cross stitched tea cosy in the shape of a cottage. I don't think it is ever going to be finished. Apart from that I tend to finish items within a couple of weeks of starting them.


18. What is your favorite holiday?

May bank holiday - the weather is nice, and it is the start of the season of garden fetes and country fairs which I really enjoy visiting.


19. Is there anything that you collect?

Soda syphons, wooden fruit and ceramics decorated with fish motifs.


20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

I'm working my way through my mother's old set of "Golden Hands" - a craft series from the 70s, so I have not been looking at books and subscriptions recently.


21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?

Felting, shibori stitching, machine embroidery.


22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

I have only once knitted a pair of socks - I was 14 years old at the time and the socks were fluorescent green! I take a UK size 5 shoe.


23. When is your birthday?

11th January.

Art class week 4

We were back to still life today (as opposed to drawing from a picture)... and it was boots! This is quite funny, as I have long wanted to draw boots. When I was at school everyone who did art drew their Doc Martins. I, however, was studying science. Then there was a fabulous and huge picture of DMs in one of the first "locals" that my husband and I drank in. I drank 'directors' and he drank Guinness. It was a funny old pub, full of the local winos, but a great plus for it was the real ale and the fact that there was no juke box. Last year, after a discussion about whether a 'technical' approach to art was required, we set ourselves a challenge to do a picture of boots in our own styles and look at the results side by side (this challenge as yet is unstarted).



So this is a trial run for my side of the challenge. I have learned a lot from drawing these boots... firstly matt, old, worn in boots do not pick up many reflections! Secondly, the temptation to reproduce all the lines of stitching is very hard to resist. Thirdly, boots are a weird and very awkward shape!







And what did I learn of the people today? Well, I learned that my art teacher is 65, that he did not go to art college until he was 50, that he had a riding accident a few years ago, and that one of his main income streams is painting other people's horses. He also told me he thought I should be very pleased with my picture of a castle on a hill (and I am), and he suggested some ways to work it up a bit more to improve the overall effect. I shall give it a go and post the results.

Peace Gardens

I have been making peace gardens for a few friends who have Spring birthdays. I save nice ceramic pots through the year, stencil them, and plant them up with bulbs around November time. I keep them cold and dark, and then around the end of January/beginning of February I have some nice sprouted bulbs. I then have to hope and pray that the bulbs do not flower before the birthday of the intended recpient! (If they threaten to do so then the recipient has to have their present early!). The final touches are to add decorations suited to the person they will be given to. I usually add candles, incense sticks, beads, and a small figure.

Here are some details from the "good kharma bunny peace garden" and "poetry peace garden" I hope the people I have given them to have as much enjoyment from them as I have had making them.

Art class week 3

Today our challenge was to do a tonal drawing from a picture of our choosing. I chose a photograph of Lindisfarne.







I was pleased with the drawing. It is a complete scene, and some of the elements of depth and texture work. However, there are some bits I want to change and develop. I think the midground rocks are too dark, and similarly the right hand sections of wall are too dark. Also the path is a bit dodgy, but I am not sure what to do about that section.



As for other aspects of the class... I am a creature of habit, and tend to sit in the same place in a classroom each week. The benefit of this is you get to know more about the people who sit around you (albeit at the expense of not getting to know those on the other side of the classroom). Today I learned that the chap who sits next to me (the one with the injured thumb) had once thought of buying the small cottage next to our house, and the chap who sits next to him used to be the policeman in our town 25 years ago. This came about because I showed them a picture of our house. My long-term project is to produce a drawing or painting of the house by the end of the term. Anyway, on seeing it they both exclaimed "that's old Sutton's place". And they were right. Our house used to be a dairy that was and is still known throughout the town as "Suttons".

Art class 2

Today was the second lesson of the term. There was snow on the ground, so I was unsure how many people would make it, especially as a large proportion of the class are elderly and/or infirm. Anyway, there were 12 of us, including one who didn't make it last week, and a completely new chap whose acrylic painting course had been cancelled, so he had signed up for our class belatedly.

It is always the case that newcomers to the course bring nothing on the first day - not a scrap of paper nor a pencil. The college advises that the tutor will tell everyone what materials they will need on the first day - but that doesn't help if you are empty handed for a 2 hour drawing lesson! Anyway, the group as usual was very supportive and offered paper and pencils to the new chap. He was determined he would sit out the first lesson and just observe, but Barry (the tutor) cajoled him into giving it a go.

I had the new chap on one side, and on the other side a chap who missed last week as he had an operation on this thumb, and so his arm (left arm thankfully!) was all strapped up.

We knew that the lesson was to be tonal drawing of flowers, but our hearts sank when we saw an array of battered silk flowers including roses, hyacinths, petunias and assorted foliage. Having hated boxes and jugs for so long, we now all felt very fond of the previous uniform objects we had had to draw.

The girl who had longed to draw flowers, was also dismayed as she had to portray them in black and white, when she longs to let rip with the colours of nature.

A major issue with still life in this class, is that it is held in a porta-cabin, with windows on 2 sides, and strip lighting above. So any sense of light source and shadow is very difficult to find and maintain.

Anyway - here is my tonal drawing of roses strewn across a desk next to small wicker basket. I am actually quite pleased with it. Although I missed a trick in choosing a very linear composition, and so I had little scope to try to portray depth in my picture. I like the fact that I drew very few outlines, instead concentrating on the contrast of light and dark. I am also pleased that I did not do a botanical drawing, but instead looked at the overall form of the flowers.



"Dancin' fool" always picks out her favourite element in any of my pictures, and this can be as small as a single petal or the handle of a jug. I look forward to hearing what she has to say, and I admire her ability to look into a picture at elements, and not just glance across a whole surface.

I am also looking forward to having a good friend visit this blog (You know who you are) and hope he will catch the blogging bug!

Homework!

This time round, I am determined to do some homework in between each of my art lessons. I know next week we are doing a tonal composition of flowers, so I thought I had better have a go at a tonal drawing of a flower. It should be no different from a box or a jug really... bit it is! It is the irregularity of the shapes I think that is causing me issues. Anyway - see what you think...






It's a daffodil by the way! - I think there are too many lines, and not enough tonal variation.

Where for Art thou?

In 2005 I signed up to an art course "painting and drawing for beginners" at a local college. I had missed the 2004 autumn term, so was joining for the last 2 terms of the academic year (spring and summer). It got off to a very rocky start on my first day, with me almost at the point of lodging a complaint against my tutor for bullying. But our first-week clash was soon forgotten, and I really enjoyed the course. In 2005 I did the autumn term to complete the 3-term course. 2006 was all over the place for me with my little boy starting school, and my father's illness, so I did not manage to rejoin the class.

Today however, I went back (again having missed the first term of the academic year!), and had a really good time. Two of the class were still there from Sept 2005, and one even from Jan 2005, but the others were new faces. It's an interesting mix of people and I will tell you more about them as the weeks progress. Today I identified:

2 petrified newbies;

2 old dears who chat and back chat all the session;

1 die hard technical draughtsman;

1 very interesting Asian woman who according to the tutor draws everything like a tapestry, and whom he is trying to "convert" to western art style;

2 grandmothers who have not drawn since school days and who are being argued out of cross hatching.

That leaves me, another of the returning students from 2005, and 3 absent pupils. I also learned that several of the pupils from previous years have progressed to the intermediate and even advanced courses. I wish them all good luck, and hope I might cross paths with them at the college, I would love to know how they are doing.

Having gossiped about the course, I had better show you what I produced:

Be kind... And tune in next week for more exciting stories from "Art from Charnwood Forest".

Alterations

I'm a user-interface designer, and one thing I know is you have to live a design for a while to find out if it really works. So I applied the same principle to the little purple purse that I posted before, and found it really worked better if the dinky little handle was sewn down as a strip to the purse flap.

So here is the amended item... I think it looks much better like this.

2006 reviewed

I was transferring birthday dates and other important stuff from lat year's calendar to this year's and had the idea of picking out a few key happenings from each month of 2006. It gave me an interesting perspective on last year:

January
Mum came to stay for a few days - first opportunity for her to spend any length of time with her grandson since she retired.
Birthday meal out at a local swanky restaurant (Gray Lady) - very difficult to find your way through the forest in fog!
Participated in a 2 week radio listening survey.
Commenced 3rd year of volunteering for local toy library.

February
2nd course of MMR imms for little boy - and same old worries about reactions.
Took little boy to local magic lantern show - old photos of local scenes.
Attended consulting course in Berkshire - remembered what my old life used to be like.

March
Joined the committee of the PTA for my little boy's school.
Took son and step-son for professional photographs in local photographer's studio (to commemorate the year of starting school and also GCSE year) - very pleased with result.
Little chap stopped attending day nursery (1 day a week).

April
Family holiday in Jersey.
Little boy started school part time.

May
Helped out at plant sale at school.
Attended Oaks country fair (annual tradition) - held in beautiful series of fields on a hillside - closest thing I have come to "Little House on the Prairie".

June
Manned the "pick a pot" stall at school summer fete.
Attended school sports day (did not take part in the mothers' race!).
Held a book party.
Launched blog site.
Small work project with educational software company.

July
Local carnival.
Mother, son and Aunty seaside holiday in caravan in Mablethorpe Lincolnshire.

August
Major design project for educational software company.
Attended local summer event including excavating dinosaur bones from giant sandpits.
Father taken seriously ill and in hospital for 1 week.
Husband and step-son on 2 week scientific expedition to Slovakia.

September
Grandmother dies - attend funeral.
Little chap starts school full time (difficult first couple of weeks).

October
Family trip to Legoland.
Small scale reunion with 2 old work chums.
Attended fashion and embroidery exhibition in Harrogate.

November
Little chap attends first school-chum birthday party.
Take son and friend to local church Christmas Fair.
Fireworks at local pub as community event not held this year.

December
Parents evening - good feedback on little chap's progress.
Small design project for educational software company.
Community carol service.
Family Christmas party.
Short break in Chester including a sunny hour on the beach in Prestatyn.

Orchids

It was my birthday yesterday, and as part of a pamper myself day, I set aside all afternoon to do some painting. Now usually this would mean emulsioning walls or ceilings. But this time, I got out my watercolours and had a go at painting some orchids which I received for Christmas.

I have mixed feelings about the results. I am pleased with some of the brushwork, but the overall shape of the orchid petals was very difficult, and is not right. The main thing, though, was that it was a very relaxing and enjoyable couple of hours. I have also signed up for another term of a painting and drawing class. I am really looking forward to spending some time each week on artistic pursuits.