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oh no… not again!

baby cardigan! gargh…. all my street cred has just gone out of the window (ok… never had any street cred anyway but shhh… I’m in the process of kidding myself!)

I made my ‘niece to be’ a cardigan using Debbie Bliss Eco Baby yarn and the pattern was from Erica Knight’s Essential Crochet book – I don’t have any babies around to measure so I have to follow a pattern!

Despite this being a very simple pattern I ended up having to re-do the front twice which was rather annoying.

I think it’s a little plain so I might add something to it but I’m not sure what yet.

 

Baby Cardigan, Erica Knight pattern and Debbie Bliss Eco Baby Yarn

Baby Cardigan, Erica Knight pattern and Debbie Bliss Eco Baby Yarn

The parents like the colours orange and purple… the picture colours are slightly off as it was dark and I was too lazy to get out my mini lighting lamps …  I would like to take photographs with the ‘niece to be’ wearing it :-D

 

I’ve also started a baby blanket… I’ve had to change my idea as it wasn’t working the way I wanted :-(

 

I have loads more squares to do… I’m glad it’s a baby blanket as they are obviously a lot smaller than a regular blanket.

Debbie Bliss Eco Yarn and I’m using the flower granny square stitch from the ’101 stitches to crochet’ set.

 

Debbie Bliss Eco Baby Yarn and Erica Knight Pattern Motif

UPDATE: I give up!!! well… on those particular squares anyway… the flowers take too long to create the amount of squares needed so I started again … still featuring the granny square – have 30″ so far but it’s a rather plain so I might have to add something to it… not sure what yet though.

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Wedding bells…

 

I had a go at wedding photography! ok… I’ve done it once before but that was about 10 years ago :-)

My twin brother’s Wedding was held in Paris (where the couple live) and a sudden heat wave took over for the duration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 images to be re-added soon! sorry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and the other being my Neice which was held in Cheltenham back in March which also had spectacular weather!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

oh and my Twin and his new wife are expecting their first child… I will be having a Niece called ‘Sola’ :-D !

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darn it… I don’t normally do this but…

 

I made some baby booties!

When ever I’ve told someone I crochet they give me a strange look – I’m not sure if it’s because they are not sure what it is or they are surprised someone like me crochets? (I’m pretty sure I fit the cliche.. overweight… covered in cat hair?!) I usually say ‘oh, not cutey stuff like baby booties’… well I can’t say that anymore as I’ve just made several.

These are for my twin brother’s daughter to be :-D who will arrive in May 2012.

The fabric shoe pattern was brought on Etsy.com and Precious Patterns sell lots of patterns to download.

The material was brought from John Lewis and I have to say trying to buy coloured elastic was a nightmare… ebay to the rescue as usual but these booties have cost me a huge amount of money!!!! I just hope they fit… I don’t have a baby on hand to try them out.

Fabric hand-made 'Crossover Baby Shoes' (Pattern by Precious Patterns)

Fabric hand-made 'Crossover Baby Shoes' (Pattern by Precious Patterns)

Two crochet booties ‘Rosebud Slippers’ – pattern by Erica Knight featured in the book “Essential Crochet” (see link below for Amazon link to the book) – I followed a pattern as I don’t know how big baby feet are and I’ve forgotten how to shape in crochet as it’s been awhile since I last tried.. most of my creations have been ‘freeform’ ie: I make it up as a I go … and they are slightly weird so no one notices any errors in stitches.

'Rosebud Slippers' pattern by Erica Knight - Essential Crochet

'Rosebud Slippers' pattern by Erica Knight - Essential Crochet

 

'Rosebud Slippers' pattern by Erica Knight - Essential Crochet - still need to do the crochet 'ribbon' (not featured in Erica Knight's book... she uses an actual ribbon

I have several other hand-made things to make but I have a few months so hopefully it should all be completed by then!

 

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Dribbling…

I really need to start a project soon but in the meantime take a look at these… fantastic!!!!

Dribble Necklace by CLare Knox-Bentham

Dribble Necklace by CLare Knox-Bentham

 

Dribble Necklace by Clare Knox-Bentham

Dribble Necklace by Clare Knox-Bentham

well I’m making baby booties at the moment which is slightly annoying as I tell people I can crochet and sell but not cutey type stuff… but I can’t say that anymore… gargh… the up side is that they are for my twin brothers daughter to be :-D

I’m not surprised people just buy baby gifts as so far these booties have cost a flippin fortune and I’m only half done!!!! why has this country have a shortage of coloured thin elastic? hmmm???? I can only buy things from the states!

I do hope to get a few things done for the new baby soon as I have a gift box plan of several hand-made items (child friendly and safe types!) but I do also want to start a major project soon as I’m going out of my head doing nothing!

 

 

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Private View at Open House W12 Pop-up Exhibition.

I went to the Open Doors Pop up exhibition which featured Owl Knit You – Emily Spence’s web installation and prints at her first show!
Lots of other Artists were there and creators of the pop up who decided they wanted to create a platform for artists to show their work and also help people create and understand their own communites.

 

I took a few pics which can be seen in this slideshow below which also shows a few abstract shots of Emily’s Web!

Unfortunately, a couple of images from other artists didn’t come out very well but hopefully the other people taking photos would have got those as well!


I had several favorites… click ‘more’ to see individual images and links (if supplied) cont…

Read the rest of this page »

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Floofy Ring and Choker

I brought the ring base (I’ll have to look up where from as I can’t remember off hand) and it’s an adjustable silver square design.

Thick felt was added… red with a cream stripe and 3 little perl beads were added. I then fluffed up the felt to give it a more wispy feel!

 

The choker band in the background was taken apart as I wasn’t happy with the finish… might remake it if I can find a better way. It had a cream ribbon threaded through it’s centre and was made using a thick cream felt which was fluffed up!

Floofy Ring

 

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Chaos creates beauty!

CHIHARU SHIOTA WORKS.

 

How wonderful is this!

photo: Sunhi Mang   copyright: Chiharu Shiota

photo: Sunhi Mang copyright: Chiharu Shiota

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Shibori object by Janine Berben

Shibori object by janine berben
Shibori object, a photo by janine berben on Flickr.

Luuuuurve this type of work… lump, bumbs and textiles with strange forms and sculptured shapes. Is it normal to get such a feeling of satisfaction and completeness from seeing this.. but then also ache to make my own forms too?

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Textile Web Epidemic in London!

Whilst I’m floating around Emily’s ‘Owl Knit You‘ website I thought I’d share her fluffy bits with you – hopefully she won’t mind.

Emily is from Pittsburg and finished studying a MA last year in London – feeling somewhat lost in London (as most people do – it is the place to congregate when you have no roots… just like me!) she decided to embark on a creative project that would help her feel more connected… and how connected can webs be?

Webs can either be comforting (as long as you are not terrified of spiders… but let’s assume the webs are spider free and were created with warm fuzzy feelings). They can make us feel cocooned in a safe place or they can feel like traps that are impossible to get get out of leaving you with a sense of fatigue from all that fighting for freedom – or hopelessness that you are on your own with no connections to anyone or anywhere!

Emily started off with small webs that she yarn bombed around London… (all photos by Emily Wilson @Owl Knit You unless otherwise stated).
In Emily’s words:

“Graffiti is rather like marking your territory. It’s leaving a mark for others to find and identify with or against. It’s a bit like a conversation between the maker and finder. For me, it’s identifying myself and claiming my existence the foreign city in which I find myself living. It’s about becoming a Londoner. “

Owl Knit You - yarn bombing around London

Owl Knit You - yarn bombing around London (photo by me!)

she even web bombed a police horse (I would never have the guts to even ask!!)

Owl Knit You - yarn bombing around London

Owl Knit You - yarn bombing around London

Owl Knit You - yarn bombing around London

Owl Knit You - yarn bombing around London

Owl Knit You - yarn bombing around London

Owl Knit You - yarn bombing around London

She then moved onto installations of larger web structures

Owl Knit You - Web Installation

Owl Knit You - Web Installation

Owl Knit You - Web Installation

Owl Knit You - Web Installation

Her next plan of action is to create a social workshop at the IndieTracks festival.
you can read the interview for IndieTracks here: http://indietracksblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/workshop-interview-3-owl-knit-you.html as well as hear more on her blog and Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Owl-Knit-You/148062365243204

you can keep up with Emily at her website http://owlknityou.com http://hellopixy.wordpress.com/
https://twitter.com/#!/owlknityouxo
http://www.tumblr.com/tumblelog/owlknityou
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hellopixy/

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Clara: The Final Word for Now: via Owl Knit You

Obviously Emily is my biggest fan… and equally I’m a fan of hers!

Clara: The Final Word for Now I posted a while ago about my friend Lenny Carter. She makes the most amazing puppets (among other things!) She just graduated with a 1st from London College of Communication. I went to see her degree show the other day and saw the final incarnation of Clara. Clara is a misunderstood young girl, who feels as though she’s being manipulated by the people around her. In response, she creates her own world to which she can escape reality. Clara is th … Read More

via Owl Knit You

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A Girl, Monsters, and Psychology: via Owl Knit You

My friend Emily has posted about my critters a couple of times and it’s strange to hear from someone else’s perspective… some times it’s a little to clear and I guess I’d like not to be so flippin obvious! ;-P

A Girl, Monsters, and Psychology: Work by Lenny Carter One of my really good friends, Lenny, is doing a degree in Digital Media and in her interpretation of the assignments, she intelligently combines ‘analogue’ media with the digital. She combines arts and crafts and wool and resin into fully formed beings (human or otherwise) that express strong emotions and strong insights into the human condition. The combination of a huge personality into a small puppet and ameoba-like shapes give her works thei … Read More

via Owl Knit You

 

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Graduating..

I decided to try out student hood before I got too old!

I tried a 2nd year of a HND a few years back but no students or tutors turned up (plus after a years tution the other students didn’t know how to open Quark which I thought was pretty bad… opening a piece of software is the same no matter the type!! so I left as I was only working part time and couldn’t really afford to do something that wasn’t going to teach me anything).

I probably should have done a different course but a BA in Digital Media Design was linked to the work that I’d already done so it was a practical choice – I could have gone into the 2nd year but decided that I needed a break from working full time (been 25+ years!)… well the course was a mix of video/audio/web design/design and it seems to be an intro to each subject.

I didn’t really take to the video/audio as I’ve only dealt with still images (photo/drawn/illustrated/DTP etc) so I’m slightly surprised that I ended up doing stop motion… wish I’d paid more attention to it all now ;-P

I’ve mentioned the Clara project before…

here: linky

and here: linky

both of those show Clara’s previous head… I burnt the super sculpey clay head when fixing a broken eye! took four tries before I got one that worked… is slightly better – I do want to try and re-make her head with actual rotating eye balls… which I hope to work into the storyline.

Clara's ruined head next to a fresh formed attempt - which developed cracks 24 hours later!

oh and one more thing… I got a First :-D

 

New website landing page layout

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