I don't usually post my daughter's drawing. She is doing GCSE Art, so there is quite a lot of drawing and painting going on. But these ones are a bit personal, as she did them for the family. They are charcoal drawings of our pets. The first one was done about a year ago, and has been up on the wall, so I have been pestering for a picture of the cats to go along side it. I was really pleased when she did one of the cats last week. Although they are mother and daughter, they don't like each other very much, so it would be very unusual to get them sitting this close. I do think she has captured their characters - particular Noodle, who is often a bit of a grump.
Just
a reminder that my Ginx Woolly Linx party for June is now running.
Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I
would love to see what you have been working on this month.
In nearly the last of my series of baby shoes, I have strayed from Spring into Summer.
I have not been able to take a photo of the meadow I have in my head that inspired these shoes. I was going to look for a picture online, but perhaps I don't need to.
The meadow I was thinking of is a complete mixture of flowers: a few bold scarlet poppies, a smattering of deep blue cornflowers, some jolly buttercups, a cow parsley reaching above them all, and some daisies down low. Can you see the meadow now in your mind's eye? The sun is shinning and the flowers are blowing in a gentle breeze. It is a perfect day.
Just
a reminder that my Ginx Woolly Linx party for June is now running.
Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I
would love to see what you have been working on this month.
OK guys, this month you have me beat. I really could not narrow my favourites down to just four. There were so many lovely projects, so I have decided to pick my four favourite crochet projects, and then my four favourite knitted projects.
My party, so I guess I can change the rules. Perhaps I shall say that this doubling up, is to celebrate the party having been running for half a year! Even with this doubling of my favourites there were still some projects that I wish I had picked, but had to leave out. So keep on linking, and you will get featured ...
Howling at the Moon made this wonderful cat bag for her friend. I love the stylised cats. Take a look at the other pictures on her blog.
Marjan of Atelier Marie Lucienne has combined crochet with sewing to make this beautiful bag. She dyed this wool herself.
Carla of Maaksels van Carlak has crocheted some feathers, some of real birds and others imaginary.
and finally Ineke inekedcblog has made a whole airport of planes and a heliocopter. Aren't they great!
And now to the knitted projects
Barbara of Knitting Work in Progress has use a textured stitch called Pin Check to make this beautiful blanket. Lovely subtle colours and the stitch is reversible. I want to try this out.
Tonna of Sew Crafty Crochet has made this scarf in shades of denim. I love the simplicity of the design, and the fact it is all in garter stitch.
Anja of Zoomsnoren has made the Danish entry to the Eurovision song contest, Rasmussen. Just shows there really are no limits to knitting.
and finally I just love this hat from Gema of Hebra de Lana from Spain. The pattern is called Anagram, and I want to knit one.
So thank you all for joining the party, and congratulations if you were featured this month. I would love to see what new projects you have been working on. Remember the party keeps going all month, so you can join in at any time.
If you were featured this month you can display the You Were Featured Button if you wish.
One of my favourite spirng flowers in my garden, are the wild garlic plants that come up every year in a shady corner at the bottom. (This last sentence gives the totally wrong idea about my garden - that it is huge and I live on the edge of an area of woodland. My garden is actually the size of a postage stamp, and I live in a town. Hubby planted the garlic, and it comes up every year.)
I think these flowers are so beautiful, so used them as inspiration for the design on these shoes. I'm not sure that garlic is a particularly popular theme for babies. But if you look at the beautiful flowerhead above it really should be.
These Wild Garlic Shoes are for sale in my Etsy Shop, along with a selection of other baby shoes inspired by nature. I'm getting near the end of the spring-flower inspired shoes.
Just
a reminder that my Ginx Woolly Linx party for May is still running.
Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I
would love to see what you have been working on this month.
I made this post a few weeks ago, and some how forgot to post it. We have all gone a bit wedding mad here in the UK, so it seems like the right time.
I read a very interesting post on Sum of Their Stoires, about sewing with vintage patterns. One of the patterns looked familiar to me, so I had a look through the old patterns I have in my sewing box. I was mistaken, as it was not quite the same pattern, but clearly from the same series.
And since my sister and I have been sorting through the family photos, I thought you might like to see me in the bridesmaid dress. I was bridesmaid for my cousin. I also still have the dress hung up in a wardrobe, and my daughter wore it for a while when she was the right size.
I think I might be giving away the fact that I am a bit of a hoarder!
Just
a reminder that my Ginx Woolly Linx party for May is still running.
Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I
would love to see what you have been working on this month.
I love daisies - such an unassuming little flower but so pretty. I have made daisy shoes before, but looking at the flower really carefully, I realized that by using daisy stitch I was not really reproducing how the flower actually looks.
So with the shoes above I have used a simple circle of stitches, which I think is closer to the real flower. I love the greyish wool, which I think looks like a stone wall. I was going to knit another pair from it, but don't have quite enough. Annoying!
The pattern is my Baby Bee Shoe pattern, and these shoes are also heading for my Etsy Shop. I still have to make some little drawstring bag for them, and am definitely GOING TO DO IT TODAY. (I am shouting at myself.)
Just
a reminder that my Ginx Woolly Linx party for May is now running.
Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I
would love to see what you have been working on this month.
Last week a raveller from Canada, Cat Beattie, posted some pictures of a Dutch Pencil Case that she had made from one of my patterns. She made it for her father-in-law, who is about to make a trip to Amsterdam. Hasn't she done a great job. I love seeing my patterns made up. This is one of my free ones. It has been downloaded 90 times, but this is the first time I have seen it made up by someone who isn't me. Here is a link to the pattern - Dutch Pencil Case.
Cat really kindly said I could post her pictures, and in our chat we have found we have quite a lot in common - black cats, knitting, love of nature ... I do love how crafting (and the internet) brings people together. Perhaps international relations should just be left to us crafters. (I do hope my next paragraph is not going to ruin this.)
In trying to think of a title for this post I typed in "expressions containing the word Dutch". What a lot of them there are! "Double Dutch", "Dutch courage", "to go Dutch", "a Dutch uncle", and a few others that I had not heard, "take Dutch leave", "a Dutch wife", and "a Dutch agreement". I found a site which explains some of these, if you haven't heard them before. So it led me to wonder if these expressions are peculiarly English or are they known in other parts of the world. As I know quite a few Dutch people look at my blog, I wonder if you have any expressions about the English? I would love to hear if you use any colloquial expressions, the more unusual the better, but not any that would cause offense ...
Just
a reminder that there is still plenty of time to join in my Ginx Woolly Linx party for May.
Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I
would love to see what you have been working on this month.
