Just Because...

Still very slowly recovering from the 'flu and without a lot of energy. But on my day off last week I decided to just sit down and create for the fun of it with no goal in mind. I've called this Castles in the Air, and to go with it, here's  a quote from Mark Kurlansky's book on paper which C picked up the last time we were at the library (I've already read Cod and Salt).

Here he is quoting Zhang Heng, the earliest Chinese painter whose name is on record: "Real objects are difficult to represent, but the realm of the unreal is infinite."

I didn't want a traditional rainbow, so I used the three different packs of gilding flakes which I have. They look very different in the packaging, not so much when you see them side by side like this. I would have preferred a more mythical looking bird or even an owl - but none of the ones I have are flying.

February Favourites

I did quite a lot of colouring while I was in bed with the flu, but I then find it hard to make cards with the images afterwards - so only two of those make it into my favourites for the month - although I also did both the dotting of the tissue paper for the first card,and the doodling after it had been collaged onto the background, in bed.

I had two choices of pictures to use for a header for March - one was of a thrush in the snow in the back garden (our big snow started on the 28th February last year), and the one I have used, which was later in the month and was taken as we crossed "the Vee", so I'm not sure if it's Tipperary or Waterford.

Snaps on the go

Still not carrying my camera because of my sore shoulder, but there were such beautiful cloud reflections on the way to work on Thursday that I just had to do the best I could with my phone. We're having unseasonably mild Spring-like weather here - normally I expect to be still wearing a hat in April, but not this month.

The last picture is very much on the go. We went down to Cork on the first Saturday in February. It was another bright sunny day and we had a lovely drive - especially as we got near Cashel and started seeing snow on the mountains. I think, looking at the map in the car, that most of it was on the Galtees. It was really beautiful - and all gone by the following week.

January Favourites

Well, I lost an entire week at the end of January, but I still had some good creative time earlier in the month, and time to think about a couple of cards while I was totally confined to bed for the first few days of the 'flu, so they were quick to execute once I was able to make it back upstairs for short periods of time.
The first card called for us to use old supplies in a new way - so I pulled out some Fantasy Film, which is something I used to use enough of that I've actually replaced a couple of colours over the years. But usually I use it for wings - dragonflies, butterflies. This time I stuck it to some card and then blasted it with heat till it started to crinkle a bit and developed a few holes. I had to take two photos to show the shimmer when it catches it the light. The little glass seahorse came back from Portugal on one of C's visits there with his best friend.

No suitable photos from last February for a header, I had to go back a couple of years to find these crocuses. It's going to be hard to find anything for January and February next year at this rate; since I currently have a frozen shoulder I've been trying to reduce the weight I carry in my bag, so don't tuck the camera in unless the weather is exceptionally promising. 

Coffee Shop Chalkboards

There's a little coffee shop near work which is inside a shipping container...with plenty of outdoor seating for the finer days. I haven't actually tried the coffee, but their sausage rolls are pretty good - if slightly over-heated for my taste. Their chalkboard is often entertaining and I've been collecting photos for a while. It's taken a few days sick in bed to get round to gathering them all into one place. There's just one from a little bakery where I often stop to buy bread later in the week when my weekend baking is all gone, and the first one is somewhere I passed taking a different route to work.

I feel sure that "May the pies be ever in your flavour" must be a parody of a famous line, but I haven't been able to identify it.

Hot off the needles...

I did add the blackbird - and I see I need to brush a few strands of stuffing off him. Still not sure where this will hang, but for the moment it's where I can see it in front of me when I sit downstairs, so that I can decide if anything needs to be adjusted or secured a bit more firmly.

Frankie's Woodland Wreath from Ravelry.com

Blackbird from Arne and Carlos' Field Guide to Knitted Birds.

The Goldilocks zone

No, nearly, yes.

I don't know why the one on the left just didn't work, whether it was just because the yarn was slightly thicker. Or the colour was off - it's a beautiful blue but just didn't look right on the wreath, hence my debating whether to include them at all.

The middle one, the yarn is finer and is probably pure wool with a slight lustre, so maybe that's why it looks better, but the stem was wrong.

The one on the right is fine and I'm just going to go and knit another few stems. I also incorporated a stretchy bind-off which lets the bell flare out a little more. I just came upstairs to find yellow beads for my blackbird's eyes. I hope he'll fit on the wreath, or maybe even hang in the centre. He's turned out very well. 

The home straight

Back in Christmas '14 I finally finished  a woodland wreath as a Christmas present, using a pattern from Ravelry by Frankie Brown. At the time I bought two of the polystyrene wreaths, because I knew I wanted to knit one for myself. And ever since, I've been buying odd balls of green and brown wools any time I saw them.

Well, come the end of October this year and we suddenly had an unexpected house guest for nearly a month. I knew she could knit, so I suggested some knitting as something to do that would be therapeutic and relaxing, found her a couple of patterns and some wool and pulled this out to start for myself.

I just have some flowers to add - I've finished some pink and yellow ones, and am in the process of deciding whether I want to add the bluebells or not. Just because they're in the pattern doesn't mean I have to! I'm also planning to knit a blackbird from the book Lorraine gave me and see how he looks on it. C thinks the scale would be wrong, I don't think it will matter and I'd like to see what he looks like.

So I'll be back in a few days with the finished project - when I've added the last details and found somewhere to hang it.

In the meantime, here are a few work-in-progress shots.

Basic wreath with a garland of leaves, ivy and oak

Add the holly and some colour starts to give more life to it

And the mistletoe looks good too

Here I've added the toadstools and little pinecones.

Now the fauna - hedgehogs and owls.

December favourites

Most of my December stamping was for Christmas, as I still needed a last few cards - but there was also one special birthday in there and I finally turned a very late "new house" card  (I originally stamped and coloured the main panel back in October) into a combined New Home and Christmas one - and received a WhatsApp video of the boys excitedly discovering the light-up element.

The old pier stamp did indeed work well for a foggy scene (though I messed up the masking and had to change it from being a one layer card) - looking forward to making a more summery scene with it soon. Thank you, Lorraine.

Ring out the Old...

...Ring in the New

Thank you, Lorraine - your gift was perfect to use to make a card on Monday to ring out the old year and ring in the new. It was such a dark gloomy day that I didn't manage to capture the sparkle on the leaves and the gloss on the berries.