2012 Calendar Challenge – Count me in!!!

I’ve been following Kate Crane’s art journalling blog for most of 2011 and she’s been doing a 365 Calendar challenge for a couple of years now (this year it’s 366).  So in November I decided that for 2012 I would join in as well and this is my January 2012 page.  I painted the background with purple acrylic paint, and stenciled over it in white and blue paint through a crafters workshop swirly stencil.  I then stuck on the squares for each day and the titles. I drew the snowman on paper and coloured him in using distress inks and water.  I’ve also put a bit of glossy accents on the stars which were stamped using a free stamp from Craft Stamper magazine (december 2011) and there you have it my first calendar page!!

Close up to show the glossy accents and on the 9th I bought some fantastic purple shoes so I emphasized them with the glossy accents too!! (Marks & Spencer sale £9 – I couldn’t say no!).

I’ve almost completed my February page too as I didn’t want to get behind schedule too soon.

Happy New Year!!

I know it’s been AGES since I blogged last but I’m hoping to blog regularly this year.  Do not fear I haven’t stopped knitting or crafting, in fact I started some new crafts in 2011.

I have been knitting and have knitted several lace shawls, socks, tops and scarves.  I have been sewing and made a skirt in November from a pattern I drew myself.  I’ve also made 4 wrist pincushions from scraps of fabric and milk bottle tops.  There’s been a patchwork bag for my knitting to live in, with matching fabric wallet, needle case and the first pincushion. I’ve made a little bit of jewellery too.

I attended art classes again in the spring with the intension of making 2 mixed media collages on canvas with a steampunk theme.  They didn’t quite come to fruition but I haven’t given up on them and have been learning lots of new stamping/art journalling techniques that I hope will help.

Art journalling/mixed media/stamping has become the new sliced bread as far as I’m concerned.   I bought Kate Crane’s art journalling DVDs which are so inspiring.  I love her style of work a lot.  I’ve also started reading Craft Stamper magazine and have discovered Tim Holtz and the Dylusions stamps/inks/paints. I’ve been making cards all year instead of buying them and have used them to try out all thte new techniques I’ve been learning. Last Christmas (..I gave you my heart) I made linocut printed Christmas postcards and this year I did stamped/inked ones with T’was The Night Before Christmas as the inspiration.

And I’ve started a 2012 Art journal Calendar this month and hope to keep up with it all year.  I’m trying to get ahead so my February page is half prepared already and I made the January page in November so that it wouldn’t get forgotten because of Christmas. 

Anyway I’m glad to be back and hope to keep it up all year so watch this space!!

Dank u wel!*

Look! Tall skinny houses with gables and hooks for loading things in through the windows – it must be Amsterdam.  I took this photo while on a canal boat tour.  I loved it, Amsterdam is such a cool place to visit.  I went to 7 museums and saw lots of amazing paintings by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Van Der Ast and many others.  I even went to the Tassenmuseum and saw the most amazing collection of vintage and modern handbags – funnily enough I only saw one man in the whole place. 

And these were everywhere and I mean EVERYWHERE.  This was the most extravagantly decorated bike I saw but there were millions of them.  I quickly learnt to look both ways at junctions of pavements and roads, not for cars or trams which move quite sedately in the city centre, but for bikes.  The riders of which seem to do everything they would when walking including using their mobiles, holding umbrellas and most people cycle one handed permanently.  If I go again I am definitely hiring a bike for the day just to experience life in Amsterdam from that point of view. 

On my first evening I headed out across the city to De Jaren eating a cone of chips ‘met fritsaus’ (which is with mayonnaise but it’s not the same as mayo you get here and instantly brought back memories of eating chips in Germany when I was about 7 years old) and joined the Amsterdam Stitch n Bitch group.  I really enjoyed meeting them all and had a lovely time knitting some socks I had cast on especially as my holiday knitting. 

All in all, I can happily recommend Amsterdam for a visit, it’s small enough to walk all over but there is plenty to do to keep you busy if you want.  If you want to just get a coffee and sit by a canal and watch the world go by (probably on a bike!) then there’s tonnes of opportunities for that as well.  The only downside is they don’t drink proper tea there so if you want tea TAKE TEABAGS!!!

* thank you very much – pretty much all I said in Dutch as everyone speaks amazing English.

Presents!

Look what I got today!! It’s so awesome. It’s a copy of Really Wild Tea Cosies by Loani Prior. And even if I never knit any of the tea cosy designs I still love this book as it makes me smile. The designs are just really good fun. I only have a small tea pot and I have made it a very functional cosy but I am really tempted to make it one of Loani’s now. But which one? there are too many to chose from. I may end up making some of them into baby hats instead as they don’t care what you put on their heads!!

I also got this wonderful bag made by my mum.  I chose the fabrics from her huge stash and she’s made it for me.  It has pockets inside for my phone and iPod and loops to tuck pens into so they don’t disappear to the bottom all the time.  I chose a turquoise lining so that I could see inside it -  I hate it when bags are all dark inside and black straps so they won’t show the dirt. 

It’s got a strip of multicoloured scraps down the middle that are a mixture of modern and older fabrics.  One was from a dress mum had, one used to be a shirt and there’s even a piece from a dress I had when I was little.  I can’t wait to take it to Amsterdam on Monday!!

Inspired

Since my week off I’ve started back at college on Tuesday evenings doing my sketching and drawing – this term focussing on my mark making and possibly doing some linocuts.  I’ve started a course on Thursday evenings at the local arts centre learning to make silver jewellery and have made a simple silver ring already.  I’ve had a stinking cold and felt completely crap. 

I’ve just finished reading Beads, Boys And Bangles by Sophia Bennett, which is the sequel to Threads. Two books about Nonie and her friends and how they discover Crow a young fashion genius. I loved the first book when I read it last year and I’ve just read the second one today and love it just as much. Nonie’s best friends are Edie who wants to save the world and join the UN, and Jenny who has just become a famous teen actress. But what is great about them is they are normal teenagers who have to go to school, do their GSCEs, have boy trouble and mum’s who say they can’t stay out late. I love Sophia’s descriptions of Crow’s designs and all the fashion. I wish I had read these books when I was at school!

Heavenly

Hi, I’ve had this week off work and it’s been heavenly. I’m so relaxed and de-stressed it’s wonderful.  I made myself a list of indulgent, lazy, relaxing things to do.  The things you don’t always get to do when you have to go to work every day and I’ve done most of them. 

I’ve drunk lots of tea, read in bed, had coffee out, read in the park, been for walks, enjoyed the sunshine, knitted a little, watched some horror films and other dvds (but not too many), cycled a little, made granola, cooked recipes out of the Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights, spent the day with my best friend & her baby, eaten lunch out, cleaned the kitchen cupboards, and made lots of jewellery. 

I didn’t get stressed, have a headache, feel tired, sleep too much, go to bed too early and I haven’t been grumpy all week.  I just wish I didn’t have to go to work on Monday!!

I’ve also been to the V&A to see the Grace Kelly exhibition and the Brockenhurst Needlework Fiesta and tomorrow is knitting group. 

I think the thing I have enjoyed the most is cooking, I made recipes that I wouldn’t normal be bothered with after work and I’ve even made GRANOLA.  It was wonderful, I need to make some more for my breakfast next week as I’ve eaten all of the first batch already.  And it made the house smell wonderful!! Get me, I’ll be baking cakes and cupcakes next ;o)

Amsterdam!

I’m going on holiday! I haven’t been away for about 5 years and I’ve booked myself 4 days in Amsterdam in June.  I can’t wait, I’m so excited.  I’ve even found a knitting group that meets on Monday nights in Cafe De Jaren so I’m hoping to go and see them on my first day. 

And today I’ve finished a WIP that I’ve had on the needles for almost 2 years.  It’s a pair of blue tofutsies socks that I started in May 2008.  I’m never going to knit a long pair of socks without a pattern again.  The main reason they’ve taken so long is because I didn’t quite know what I wanted to do and kept pausing while I made decisions.  I’m also not really that happy with them as they are too tight around my calf muscles.  I should have frogged them really but I was stubborn/lazy.  But it IS good to have finished them.  It means I have only got one WIP at the moment – the Lacy Tea Top from The Knitter Issue 1 that I cast on last January in some mohair that I have.  So hopefully I will get on and finish that soon too!

In other knitting news, I finished my orange gloves last Sunday with the knotty cable on the back of the hand and wore them a lot this week.  I’m really proud of my cabling and will hopefully be able to use the pattern to teach myself how to design some other patterns.

Keep Off The Grass

This is the second Om Yoga Mat bag I’ve made, this time for Sarah.  I didn’t have as much of the cotton dk left so the colour bands aren’t as even as they were for Laura’s but I think it looks ok.  I’ve also made the strap with lilac/pink as they were the colours I had a lot of.  Hopefully Sarah will like it as much as Laura likes hers. 

This is the necklace I made today, I got a new dress called Keep Off The Grass by The White Stuff yesterday and the fabric has the same blue, yellow and pink in the pattern so this is to match.  It’s designed to be worn as a long necklace or short by putting a bead/loop as a fastener halfway up the sides.  Seems to work well so far, just need to trim the ends of the cord.  It was a complete pain to thread the pink beads though as the holes were tiny!!

Knitting group was fun last week, although a few people were unable to make it.  I spent the time knitting orange i-cord fingers as I need some orange gloves to go with the scarf and hat I knit last year.  I’ve joined 4 fingers together so far but have paused while I figure out if I want to put a cable pattern on the back of the hand like these (scroll to bottom of post) ones that Jane has knitted.  I love the cable and will take it into a rib that is the same as the one I knitted on the scarf and hat.

Feedback

Laura loved her yoga mat bag so much she’s asked me to knit another one to give to our friend Sarah on her birthday next month!! It’s very similar to Laura’s but as I was using up all the ends of the cotton dk the colour bands aren’t as even and the strap is pink/purple but at least that means they won’t pick up the wrong bag at their yoga class.  I shall say that it was deliberate!

I should start going to yoga myself as I’m sure it would help my sore back/shoulder but I keep forgetting to book.  I can be so useless sometimes. 

Knitting group tomorrow and I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone.  It’s lovely to have a group, I’d wanted to go to one for sooooooo long and now we’re properly established it’s great!

Oh and in other news, my necklace commissions were gratefully received by both wives on Valentine’s day.  It would be so nice if I could actually make a living from doing creative things instead of what I do now.  sigh – if only…….

Commissions!!

Finished Simple Lace Socks knitted in Zauberball wool.  I love these, they have turned out perfect.  The JSSBO works brilliantly making the cuff super stretchy.

 

In January I made a necklace as a present for a colleague and as a result I got two commissions to make these as valentine’s presents for two lucky wives.  I just hope they like them!!

I made this today for mum, she picked out the beads and then I’ve just taught myself how to do wirework.  I think it’s worked out pretty well.  She likes it so that’s the main thing.  It’s nice to learn a new skill especially as I wouldn’t have made one for myself. 

And last night I made this for myself. The pearl and black square elements were part of a necklace I bought in Accessorise and then dismantled. The brown center piece I used last week was also from the same necklace. There are two pieces left for me to turn into two new necklaces. I’ve got ideas but they’re still developing.

This is an Om Yoga Bag (pattern from Stitch n Bitch Nation) made for Laura as she got a yoga mat for her birthday.