Printing Course

 

Over the last few weeks I have been going to a community printing course run by West Devon Arts. We have been working with stencils, and the above were my first attempts at screenprints onto fabric. We did a bit of practice on paper. I was very happy with these, and am now thinking of a sewing project to use them, so you may well see them again.

Another week was printing from handmade blocks. Because of the snow and a cold I missed this session, but Andy the teacher gave me a link to a video and the materials to have a go at home. In some ways I enjoyed this technique more, as the results look more handmade. Also no tricky cutting with a craft knife, but simply scissors and scoring the patterns into the foam with a pen. The blocks were made from sheets of craft foam, and really the only other thing needed is the printing medium to mix with the paint. So I ordered these and plan to do some more prints on fabric at home.

 

This week we are going to do batik, which is something I have always wanted to have a go at. The community part of the course is that some of us will then go into a primary school, to help Andy do some printing workshops with the children in a few weeks time.

More Wee Mouse Photos and Pattern

As promised here are a few more photos of my mice, this time with what is a bit more of a wedge of cheese. Hard to find a piece of cheese that was perfect. This bit is jarlsberg and had the shape but not quite the holes. But the emmental in the shop had lovely holes, but were all cut into cubes shapes. I have spent quite a lot of time recently looking at cheese!

So at last the pattern is published. Thank you to Jennifer, who proof checks for me, and is brilliant. However careful I think I have been she finds something!

As mentioned before this pattern is knitted with 4-ply or fingering wool, and takes a small amount, about 15g. Well it is a wee mouse. I thought of this idea partly because of To a Mouse poem by Robert Burns. It is Burn's Night on 25th January so I have roughly the right date to publish the pattern. My daughter is off to visit one of her friends in Cambridge today, and is going to a formal Burn's Night Supper, followed by a ceilidh. I don't think she has experienced either before, so it will be interesting to see what she thinks

So here are links to the pattern on Etsy, ravelry and LoveKnitting, and I hope anyone who buys it enjoys making some mice, and you don't find they are overrunning your kitchen.

Wee Mousie Knitting Pattern

I wrote quite a long while ago about a pattern I was working on for a little mouse. There was something not quite right about the first mouse (although he was cute) so I have revisited this. The new mice are knitted in 4-ply, and I have just used some odds and ends from my stash of wool. I have altered the legs and toes, which I think are now a bit more realistic. I have gone for wool that is a bit fluffy, but I think any 4-ply yarn would work. A mouse only takes 15g of wool, and a tiny bit of pink for the ears, nose and toes.

So as you can see, I have had quite a jolly morning trying to photograph the mice. At one point I took my eye off the cheese, and realised it was not getting eaten by the mice, but my dog was licking her lips.

So keep an eye out, as I think I will have one more go at the photos, perhaps with a block of cheese, before publishing it in all the usual places. There is a lovely cheese shop in Tavistock, and I was trying to pluck up the courage to ask to photograph the mice by one of their enormous cheeses. But in the end I did not have the nerve.