More colour ...

On Saturday I set myself a  challenge using the colours 'extracted' from this photograph ...

I bought some lovely fat quarters in Worcester, the spots are to represent the background and the holes in the colander, and found some little lime green buttons and these threads in my stash.

Now to do something creative. I think this is a great exercise as these are not the sort of colours I would normally sway towards ... not a dab of Duck Egg Blue in sight!

Tuesday Treasury - Swallows

I've seen lots of swallows and swifts flying about this week, chasing little insects, and their silhouette makes such a great motif, so this week i've put together a 'Swallow' mini-treasury.

Pair Of Swallows Brooch, with wonderful stitched detail -
http://www.etsy.com/shop/teasemade

Swallows Tale Bracelet, the slate blue beads look great next to the silver swallow -
http://www.etsy.com/shop/chainofdaisies

Pink Bird, Pink Rose And Turquoise Bead Necklace, I love this retro colour combination -
http://www.etsy.com/shop/lusciouslockets

'Tweet, Tweet My Lovely', silver earrings with handpierced swallow silhouettes -
http://www.etsy.com/shop/fromchaoscomesbeauty

Another treasury next Tuesday ...

Pathways

Pathways is my sketchbook challenge for June, here are some of the photographs I took as a starting point for my sketchbook work ...

Time for a Giveaway!

This is blog post number 503! I did say that I would have a mini-giveaway to  celebrate my 500th blog post, so here we go ...

There's a 'By The Sea' theme to the giveaway, must be all these fish i'm knitting! I've been making some knitted fish brooches, slightly smaller than my yarn bombing fish, so there's one of those in the giveaway ...

I've also got two mini skeins of Knitting Goddess yarn in Marine and Coral ...

... and this Seaspray memory wire beaded bracelet.

There will probably be a couple more goodies appearing in the pile over the next few days, but i'll keep them as a surprise!

To enter my giveaway, just enter a comment below.

I'll make the giveaway draw on Sunday 17th July at 6pm (GMT).

Challenge 52 - Week 25

This week's challenge is one that I signed up for at the beginning of the month and have done nothing about ...At the start of June Very Berry Handmade posted an interesting blog article about colour, and how to 'extract' it from photographs using picture editing software to creat colour schemes. This seemed like a great idea, but them the month got busy! So this morning I downloaded Paint.NET , found a picture on Pinterest, and had a go ...

I used the dropper tool to select the colours in the photograph and then created the 'paint chart' under the image using these colours (just draw little squares and fill them with the selected colour), now i'm going to look through my yarn and fabric stash to match these colours. I'm hoping i'll be able to great something  using these colours in the next week or two.

http://paint.net/
http://veryberryhandmade.co.uk/

Tuesday Treasury - Summer

So, it's the middle of summer ... tennis on the TV, strawberries and cream after dinner, and some rain to grumble about ...
I'm busy making some bunting for a craft stall, and also sorting out my giveaway!
In the meantime, here is my Summer mini-treasury ...

'Nine Tiny Beach Huts' Stained Glass Panel. I own a panel with three tiny beach huts and I love it! -
http://www.etsy.com/shop/amyorangejuice

Buttercup Earrings, brass and painted filigree beads, so pretty -
http://www.etsy.com/shop/lazygiraffe

RingOs Pimm's O'Clock, Snag-Free Ring Stitch Markers for Knitting, I need these, great little tin -
http://www.etsy.com/shop/fripperiesnbibelots

Set of 2 Summer Fruits Hair Clips, made from wool felt, very cute -
http://www.etsy.com/shop/MayCrimson

Challenge 52 - Week 24

I've had a very busy week! We've had an inspection at work (which went really well!) and it's not left much time for being creative. I'm still working on last weeks challenge, so pages from my sketchbook on Flickr when i'm ready.

I've had some great messages on here, Twitter and Ravelry about my yarn bombing last weekend, and someone suggested that I should make some more of my fish! I've decided that i'm going to take a knitted fish with me wherever I go and leave it for someone else to find. I'll attach a tag with my blog address written on it, and hopefully, one day someone will leave a comment to let me know they're the new owner! So, that's my challenge for this week, and for any week where i'm going out and about. It's a lot easier to leave a single fish than a whole string of them!

I've made a purple and grey fish this morning, and i'm knitting a very bright orange and purple one at the moment, so they can be stashed in my bag for this weekend! I'm using my lovely vintage needles from Me and Mrs Fisher in York.

Don't forget to let me know if you find a fish! I live in the West Midlands, but do an awful lot of travelling about the country by train, so you never know!

Oh, and by the way this is my 500th blog post, so news of a mini-giveaway very soon ...

Tuesday Treasury - Foxes

Foxes are the new owls ... they're everywhere in the craft world! I love my Sailor Tom brooch by Mariet Vosloo, and watching Glee with my teen last night I spotted Brittany wearing a knitted 'Fox Stole'! Here are some lovely goodies from Etsy for this weeks mini treasury ...

Hand Screen Printed Fox Cushion in French Navy -
http://www.etsy.com/shop/robinandmould

Faye, the patchwork fox -
http://www.etsy.com/shop/barbarabearo

Clothed In Silver -
http://www.etsy.com/shop/karendavis

Woodland Mr Fox -
http://www.etsy.com/shop/strawberriesandcream

International Yarn Bombing Day

At last I get to blog about this! The weekend was busy, and this is the first chance i've had to sit down and blog about  it!

Saturday was International Yarn Bombing Day and Knit In Public Day. I'd knitted fish with the hope of positioning them near the canal side. When I got up on Saturday morning I felt unsure about whether this was the right place ... the canal is just off the high street, and I was concerned about yarn bombing in such a prominent place ...

Then I thought about leaving my fish near to the river in Shrewsbury ... I was just hanging a string of fish from a tree when I suddenly realised that an elderly  man walking his dog on the other side of the river was  looking at what I was doing, and yet again I 'chickened out'.

I got back home and headed for the canal again. It was early evening, so not that many people about. I threaded my long string of fish through an archway leading from the high street to the towpath ...

... and hung my single big fish on a gate post leading from the main road to the canal ...

So, it happened a bit later in the day than I had hoped, I obviously need to get a bit braver! In the future I think i'm going to make small items that I can tie-up quickly, trying to hang up the long string of fish seemed quite difficult!!

And don't ask me about knitting in public ... I actually knit in public every day, it's a great way to pass the time on buses and trains. However, when it came to Knit In Public day I found out that one of my needles was still sitting on the table where I had left it that morning, so I spent my train journey looking at my knitting in public rather than doing it.

Oh well, next year then ...

Challenge 52 - Week 23

This week i'm concentrating on my sketchbook challenge, I carried away with my mystery knitalong last week, so didn't start any sketchbook work. The sketchbook challenge for June is Pathways.

The theme could be translated metaphorically or literally. I'm taking the literal approach, i've been staring at the ground looking at the paving beneath my feet.

I'll be taking my camera out and about with me, recording different textures and tesselations, using these images as an inspiration for my sketchbook pages.

Today is International Yarn Bombing Day, my knitted fish are complete, so i'm ready to go. I'll be blogging about it tomorrow ...


http://sketchbookchallenge.blogspot.com/2011/06/june-theme-pathways.html

Tuesday Treasury - Goldfish

I think i've probably mentioned it a million times, but this coming Saturday (11th June 2011) is International Yarn Bombing Day!

At the moment I am sewing up knitted fish, sewing on eyes and knitting a long i-cord!!

I've been using orange acrylic knitting yarn a lot! So, it seems fitting to show you a mini-treasury of 'Goldfish' inspired goodies from Etsy this week ...

Koi Notebook, hand-stamped cover, and squared paper on the inside. Ideal for knitting notes -
http://www.etsy.com/shop/badbooks

'Goldfish' fibre, 70% Alpaca, 30% BFL, for hand spinning -http://www.etsy.com/shop/JunoFibreArts

Drawstring Red Goldfish Silk-Screened Bag -
http://www.etsy.com/shop/minimonos

Needle Felted Goldfish Earrings -
http://www.etsy.com/shop/RebeccasEmporium

Sailor Tom

A couple of weeks ago I added some pictures of Mariet Vosloo's embroidered brooches to one of my Pinterest boards, then by complete coincidence I was told about an interview and giveaway of one of her brooches on One Sheepish Girl's blog ...

http://onesheepishgirl.blogspot.com/2011/05/artist-interview-giveaway-felt-fox-pin.html

The link above is worth reading, it shows how Mariet makes her brooches, they take about two days to make! Anyway, lucky (old) me was the giveaway winner! And on Saturday 'Sailor Tom' arrived all the way from South Africa. I feel incredibly lucky, it really is a beautiful piece of embroidery.

This picture shows the immense detail in her work ...

I will be wearing Sailor Tom on my jacket all week. You can see some of Mariet's amazing work on her website:-
http://kittens-with-mittens.blogspot.com/

Challenge 52 - Week 22

As it's the first weekend of June, this week's challenge would normally be a sketchbook one ... but then I got carried away on Ravelry and suddenly I have a new obsession.

For the first time ever I am doing a Mystery Knit Along! That's right, i'm knitting, but I don't actually know what i'm knitting!!!!

I had joined the One Skein Knit Along group on Ravelry some time ago, but had never really done anything other than looking at other members' projects and reading the forum posts.

Anyway this month I took the plunge, I think a lot of it is down to me needing a different project to knitting grey and orange fish ... (The Yarn Bombing is going fine by the way, just lots of stuffing and stitching to do!)

The knitting is being done on 5mm double pins using aran weight yarn, so far I have a lacy arrow pattern, but other than that I do not know what it could be ...

Hope fully i'll be able to post some updates as my work progresses.

If you are interested in doing this project, follow this link:-
http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/one-skein-kals/1683924/51-75#53

Craft Space

So, half-term is nearly over and i've spent much of it demolishing and building desks, sorting out my fabric stash and recycling magazines I thought I needed but can actually live without!

My craft space is getting there ...



Before

After

The computer desk has been replaced with a little table, just right for my sewing machine. My stash of fabrics and yarns are in clear plastic stacking boxes so I can ACTUALLY see what i've got! I've painted an old CD storage unit cream to hold my sewing things (you can just see it next to the black canvas bag) ...

My shelf no longer contains manuals for computer software and old boxes. I've put my favourite books on there, together with my seagull, campervan and Diddybears!
... but there's still work to do!
The keyboard and stand in the corner need a new space to live, and my chair needs some TLC! I think I need some bunting on the wall behind my sewing machine too, but i'm happy that I got the main bits of this project sorted before my return to work on Monday.

Serenity

My challenge last week was producing a piece of fibre arts using the theme 'Serenity'. I created a pinboard of serene imagery and collected together fabrics and threads in blue, cream and black.

My first job was to break up the pattern of the polka dot fabric, lots of running stitch was the answer. The 'mirror' is an appliqued piece of cream wool felt - the most unlikely texture for a mirror I know! Then I added the frame with black cotton thread, I wanted it to look like I had just grabbed a black biro and doodled over the surface.



I've now posted these images on the FibreArts/Mixed Media Flickr page where you check what other artists have done using 'Serenity' as their starting point.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/fibermixedmediaart/pool/