Knitted mittens for the twins

Knitted the girls mittens for Christmas. Will match the hats done previously. Hoping the ribbon attached will avoid premature loss of mittens! Also sewed some ultra thin elastic inside the cuff. Took an afternoon and used old style craft 4693 pattern with dk wool. Really easy pattern.

White choc, mocha and milk choc cake

It's defo not all wool n knit here. B's birthday cake. Not my best effort. Amazing what icing n sweets hide..

Soz's Christmas bobble hat

Close up of bobble hat. Not a brill pic to show stitches (pearl then moss) but shows the vibrant colours.

Soz's bobble hat

Did this bobble hat with double knit, aran and super chunky and doubled /trebled up strands to try and get similar thickness to the rowan big wool which the free pattern I had specified. Used size nine needles this time, which gave a snug fit... Used my makeshift bobble maker for bobble (hee hee). Super quick winding but scissor bit a nightmare..

Another one bites the dust - crochet exits

At LAST I have finished crochet poncho and hat and scarf for my friend's girls - they were quick to make but finishing them, taking pics for future reference, re making the items and patterning them so I can have a copy of what ive done, eternal deliberations...... all took AGES!!  I shall have to change my colour pallette of choice soon, before i do overkill - but still loving the grey pink and red combo.  The grey wool is a gorgeous super chunky by Wendy, in Jet.  The red and pink are DK or Aran weight - combined to provide a similar thickness to the wendy yarn.  The Crochet stitches are mainly DC or SC, although on the poncho i experimented with stitches and did some rows with alternating stitch colour which provided interesting patterns.

Also made hat and scarf for my 5 year old niece - she looks gorgeous i think! She wanted 'sparkles' on hers so I added a few sequins - red stars and tiny black ones (cant really see on this pic). Have also experimented with how to make bobbles - i'll do a separate post on this.

Christmas decorations

                                                                                                                     

felt heart making from recycled jumper, wool and sequins

 

Had some spare time today to replenish christmas decorations - had a little factory going of cutting felted jumper up (lovely grey lambswool jumper salvaged from brothers bin!), sewing sequins, remembering the satisfaction of french knots and how effective hand sewing can be. Got the tree today - so chuffed, its just as beautiful as last years. 

Blue tulips scarf is packaged and gone!

Really pleased that one of my favourite scarves from my collection has been bought and has left the fold.......  Had great pleasure in deciding how to package the scarf, designing the label etc. Its all still WIP really, but this makes a good start...  Had wanted to source square boxes but these seemed a nightmare to find at the size I wanted.  But the box I used (recycled photoframe box) is perfect!

Beach Huts and Collaboration with The Fashion Lab

I'm very pleased to be collaborating with Fiona from The Fashion Lab - she is putting together an inspiration board for ideas for textile designs for the children's wear market - here is a selection of my work she has for the inspiration board.....


http://thefashionlab.tumblr.com/

- a link to The Fashion Lab blog - really inspirational imagery on there!!!

The work comes from a 'card design' project I did during my textile degree course, and was in response to a brief set by a card company (paperclip) (see some of my cards in early blogs i think) - the work above combined scans of textile prints i did using heat press transfer / disperse dyes (floral and dots) and watercolour, ink and pastel drawing.  There is a fair bit of collage too which is really fun and effective.  

Was really excited the other day because I did some more stationery for my scarfs collection, like an order form etc - Spurred to do it as my scarves (and Southwold collection cushions) are currently on show in Painswick, Stroud, at the Gloucestershire guild of Craftsmen Summer Exhibition. 

How the scarf collection evolved

The scarf collection for my final project for the textiles degree emerged from a group of experimental drawing using some new brush pens.  I'd admired some drawing which seemed to effortlessly combine drawn lines of varying completeness and thickness etc etc. I had actually bought the pens as a (somewhat naive) substitute for chineses brushes, which i really wanted to try out. What emerged from just having a muck around, was some quite free looking images that were very quick and enjoyable to do.  I wanted to keep the colour pallette to a minimum to add impact, and had chosed mustard after a session on looking at colour trends in fashion.

Collection of work - a compilation of styles...

This is a collection of my work over last three years at Bath Spa Uni - the images were compiled to show my different styles, prepared for a submission to a card company 

DEGREE SHOW SNIPIT TEST

This image is based on a paper cut out of Southwold, and various patterns etc from sketchbook.  After working on it digitally, it was printed onto a cushion and a canvas frame for the degree show.  I really loved doing the cut outs - and really pleased with the outcome.  I plan to do lots more of this kind of style.

 

The design above is based on 3 hand drawn exerts from my sketch book for final degree project, which were then ammalgamated on photoshop. As in all the scarves i aimed for no perfectly straight lines and had fun compiling reams of pages of just lines! (#satisfyingstripes) A similar design found its way into my silk scarf collection for the final show.

 

Another design realised in final degree show collection - printed onto linen to make a cushion cover.  Again, based on a photo taken in Southwold, featuring the fantastic lighthouse and Adnams Solebay pub!

Circus watercolour based on photo of somerset circus!

From sketchbook on scarves project - a watercolour based on local circus. It was bit scarey doing watercolour again after what seems like an age, but quite liked the outcome.  Wasnt so keen on its potential for a scarf though - needed some more design work!

more getting back into sketching - southwold

  After a break from drawing (dissertation) I have been getting back into it again.  Spent some time looking at a great designer I was recommended - Jaqui McClennan - lots of styles and media used. Used one of her designs as a starting point to sketching again, where a page was divided into grid with a little pic in each - it makes drawing less daunting.  Sketches from trip to southwold that other stuff is from. 

getting back into drawing - Southwold

Havent picked up a paintbrush for what seems like an age.  Continuing on Southwold as focus have started 'practising' drawing and painting again.  Got some good photos from recent trip - it was just too cold to do in situ! Apart from the boys on Beach (pen then w/c), all are pencil first, then water colour or pen and then water colour.  The process is less painfull than feared at the moment. Now to keep going...

Boys on Southwold Beach Feb 2012

Adnams wine shop and view towards Nelson Pub - Southwold

(these are TINY, and look loads better on here than in flesh)

Very quick sketch of someone v v vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv special!

  from Southwold Pier

Southwold near lighthouse / green

Lighthouse nighttime

 

playing around with digital collage of lighthouse using line and stitch drawn images, and scan of mixed media collage. going to experiment more with the embroidery (v subtle on here)

SOUTHWOLD SCENE WORK IN PROGRESS

southwold sketch in progress

third year final project soutwold pier preliminary for print

some prep stuff for doing print - the pier gives a good sillhouette but not sure about it yet as a subject matter . started with two line drawings and a tissue paper experiment then added them altogether on photoshop. very rough , but gives a good idea what could be done with disperse dyes and screen print over top

3rd year final project preliminary drawings for print ideas

very early stuff for final project - a drawings and photoshop (rough) Southwold lighthouse. Getting ideas for screen printing. Dont want the work to look 'flat' and digital like this, but this gives a good idea about colours and layering and block v line, inverse etc. See original drawing at end. Was inspired by tiles on marrakesh hotel - see pattern work. want to do some more with this - not hitting the mark yet!!!

 like the colours in the green and gold one above.

The shape of the lighthouse lends itself well to pattern work. might stick some chandeliers in too!