Happy New Year

Posting Early for 2011!

Thanks to everyone who has been kind enough to follow my ramblings for another year and leave me comments or send me links to sites that you know will pique my interest. Wishing everyone a fantastic, creative and happy New Year. Have a good one everybody!

Paper wonderful

If I can find more even paper animations like this in 2011 I shall be a happy bunny.

Train of Thought from Leo Bridle on Vimeo.

Silly season

We have a friend coming down to spend Christmas Day with us and I made this sign to welcome her. I don't want there to be any illusions that she'll get the traditional Christmas dinner from me as I hate those little green knobbly things with a vengeance. I have friends who swear by a post Christmas recipe to lose weight fast: it's sprout and baked beans soup! You just heat up cooked sprouts with a large tin of those beans and blitz them. Apparently it tastes delicious and works a treat. I suspect it makes you 'turbo charged' and makes a stranger of close companions! Still, for those of you going down this route I made another sign taking my lead from Government warnings.....

...... but for the majority of you here is the real message I want to send. Here in Wales we say Nadolig Llawen but who cares what language it's in as long as the sentiment is truly meant. Thanks for being great friends this year. I've been overwhelmed by people's kindness and generosity of spirit and feel lucky enough to have got to know some great people via our blogs. Long may it continue in 2011. Have a good one everyone!

The Bee Carol

I found this beautiful poem by Carol Ann Duffy in last weekend's Guardian newspaper on the same day that my husband checked his bees. The trays were filled with waxed pieces, signs that they are uncapping the seals and eating the honey to keep them going through this cold, cold winter. Despite repeated requests for jars of honey this summer it made me really glad he'd let them keep the rewards of all their hard work. I hope it keeps them going until the Spring and that you enjoy 'The Bee Carol' :

Silently on Christmas Eve,
the turn of midnight's key,
all the garden locked in ice-
a silver frieze-
except the winter cluster of the bees.

Flightless now and shivering,
around their Queen they cling;
every bee a gift of heat;
she will not freeze
within the cluster of the bees.

Bring me for my Christmas gift
a single golden jar;
let me taste the sweetness there,
but honey leave
to feed the winter cluster of the bees.

Come with me on Christmas Eve
to see the silent hive -
trembling stars cloistered above- and then believe,
bless the winter cluster of the bees.

Postscript

Thank you all so much for the positive comments about my shawl and other items. I'm really not as negative as I must have seemed... honestly! The issue with the yarn has been resolved . I had used a lovely Rowan yarn and stockists are few down here (i. e. 2!) but I called the second one yesterday morning and they had 4 skeins of the colour I needed and yes.... they were definitely dark, so I headed off on the 25 mile trip to Fishguard and snapped up one of them. When I got home, I unpicked the wrong bit and re-crocheted the edge, sewed in all my ends and then delivered it to the friend who is going to wrap it before we present it tonight. She loved it and asked if I'd make her one too. This time I declined gracefully. So I can draw a line under that one and get on with something else, but while in the wool shop I saw a mannequin wearing a fab knitted top over which was worn a similar necklace to this one above. It used the same crocheted motifs, some of which had vintage diamante buttons sewn into their centres, and it looked stunning. The owner told me it is a FREE download from Rowan so if you're interested have a look here. There are some great patterns if you love knitting and crochet or patchwork. Am I going to start crocheting one of these? No.... really I'm not..... please don't ask......

All present and correct...not

I go out with a group of friends most Tuesdays and a couple of weeks ago one of them turned up wearing a lovely knitted shawl with a fluted edge. After a lot of 'oohing' and 'aahing' and questions about how it was made - she did not know as it had been a gift - I had a quick look and said it was simple triangular knitted piece with a ruched crochet trim. One of the others asked if I could make one for her as she would love it, particularly if it was in black. At this point I was politely assertive and said something like ...'in your dreams'. The following day the others phoned me and suggested I made one for our friend as a Christmas gift from us all to cheer her up. She has had a tough year of it with illness and relationship issues and the suggestion was that we all club together to buy the wool if I would make it..... at this point my assertion skills deserted me and I agreed. If only I had realised what a nightmare it would be.I remember now how much I hate knitting. I have had to pick it up and put it down frequently because the black was just too wearing on the eyes and the large scale of it has meant hours of work. Worst of all I ran out of wool whilst crocheting the border and had to go out and buy one more ball yesterday but the shade number is different and you can see a clear difference in the last few inches of the border. I am not happy with this but the option of starting again just doesn't come into the equation, especially as it has to be finished by this Tuesday evening when we will give it to her! I need to sleep on the problem and think about something else which is exactly what I've been doing all the time I've been stuck with this project. Every time it got the better of me I went off and did something completely different.....

First thing I did was make these felt wristwarmers for another friend. I am trying to use up my supply of wool rovings so if I make anything it has to be in colours I still have. Luckily enough she is a lover of earthy colours so these will be fine. Despite doing it for years I've not made much felt in the past year so when these came out so well I decided to make something else rather than go back to the shawl. I then decided to make some boots and a hat for the daughter of a friend. She's expecting a baby in March and I love making small things but the first pair of baby boots were a disaster. They went into the compost bin. I made another pair. They went into the same bin. Undeterred I decided to crack on with the hat - doing anything except that **** shawl. These pictures are not it. Somehow the template I made was a bit off so that is currently on the side folded,pleated and now made into a bag waiting for a button to close it with........don't ask.....

In times gone by I could turn out a baby's handfelted hat in an hour so I had another go. I used to make lots of them based on the 'flower fairies' figures so the mohair and little pieces inside are meant to be stamens and anthers (use your imagination please)

Once they're felted I used to cut the brim to resemble petal shapes but my nerve had deserted me by the time this one was done. The way my luck was going gave me no confidence I could do it properly! I'm just grateful it has held together so I quickly finished it with some buttonhole stitch. I thought about embroidering little french knots on it to make it look like a strawberry but suddenly realised that I was just making more work for myself.

I can do no more to the shawl until the wool shop opens tomorrow. I'm hoping I can get a skein that is closer in colour to the original. If not, I will have to decide what to do for the best. In the meantime I am distracting myself making a bag for another friend for Christmas. You have to pity the poor souls who will be on the receiving end of my efforts this Christmas. Next year, I will plan things better....... what was that phrase I said?.... oh yeah, 'in my dreams'.

Make your day

Hope this makes your day. It made mine when someone mentioned chocolate....oh,yes, chocolate!

WHAT MAKES YOUR DAY? from Napatsawan Chirayukool on Vimeo.

Challenges

It's ironic that I wanted to make a post about challenges today. Ironic, because I have been unable to produce the words in my head on the same post as the video about the mini planners below. Blogger seems to be technically challenged itself today.... or maybe it is me? I found the video through some circuitous route whilst reading about many of the sketchbook challenges doing the rounds at the moment. The common denominator for all of them seems to be the fact that they're all using Moleskine notebooks to collect the images in. I've never bought or used a Moleskine so do not know what they are like. I wonder what I am missing?

Anyway enjoy the stop motion paper cutting work in the video and also pop over to read this post on the blog of Australian artist Sophie Munns. It's all about an artist led challenge using stamps as the inspiration. There are some fascinating links and Sophie's other posts are well worth checking out. I really enjoyed reading about the whole thing and it made me itch to get involved in a challenge of some kind in 2011. I have a few ideas......

MINI PLANNERS from Moleskine ® on Vimeo.

Mariko Kusumoto

Every week I receive a newsletter via e mail from Hand Eye magazine. In the latest was an article about the amazing miniature metal sculptures of Mariko Kusumoto. It made me want to read more and I found gallery images of her sculptures, some of which had been animated with stop motion work. I picked this one because I loved the quirky song but they are all fascinating pieces of work, so intricate in their detail. Have a look here to find out more and then follow the link to more videos.