Shake your booties

These are the “One-Hour Baby Booties” from Stitch ‘n Bitch Nation, and they’re on their way to baby Max as I type these lines.

After faffing about with different needle sizes and settling on 8mm, I probably spent about 2 and a half hours on these. Next time (and I plan to knit another 2 pairs in time for October!) I’ll be quicker … and I would certainly recommend this as a cute, quick knit for the upcoming baby in your life, or the life of somebody near you. A modicum of knitting, a cheaty bit of crochet (just chain stitch for the strap) and a small amount of sewing up … et voilà.

I used leftover Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Bulky in “Chianti”, which is less girly-pink than it appears in this photo, and the buttons are in reality pale yellow. I bought this wool in 2006 in order to knit a hat from the first book in the Stitch ‘n Bitch series, and I’m amazed that the 4 skeins I purchased have seen me through so many projects over the past 2 years.

Lilies on blue

My lilies are still keeping me pretty company after a week perched on the CD tower in my living room. I drew this from them yesterday on a watercolour postcard, and it’s already on its way to an artist friend, though she doesn’t know it yet.

Profipen, white gel pen & blue watercolour on Khadi handmade cotton rag paper on a watercolour postcard.

Just a little green …

Today’s entry title is for Andrea. 🙂

Those of you who love a happy ending will be thrilled to know that I’ve been reunited with my watercolour bijou box, which turned up in the back of my parents’ car!

EDM Challenge #116: Draw something green

Over the years I have developed an unhelpful attachment to certain watercolour pigments which aren’t very useful, simply because they look pretty in their pans. An attempt to weed these out of my palette led me to bid a fond farewell to Sap Green, which left no ready-made greens at all among my 12 half-pans, and recently I’ve noticed just how dull and limited are the greens I’m able to mix. So I’ve ditched my waste-of-space Burnt Umber and acquired Winsor Green (Blue Shade), which is jewel-like, too bright to be used pure, but great for mixing a variety of fresh, clear greens and rich browns. The colours in this spread from my hand*book have scanned badly, which rather defeats the point. But anyway. Green.

Twists and turns

“E-J’s Christmas Yarn”. This is one of three skeins of merino wool that Liz hand dyed for me as a Christmas gift. I’m using them to knit myself a cabled scarf. Profipen, watercolour & white gel pen in small hand*book journal.

EDM Challenge #96: Draw something sweet

I saw this Chocolate Twist at Costa and it reminded me of a skein of yarn. Pastry, chocolate chips, a dusting of icing sugar. I don’t usually go for pastries, but I bought it to draw. It smelled so good when I took it from its white paper bag that after I drew it, I (and Paul) ate it. It was fabulous! Profipen & watercolour pencil (used dry everywhere but in the shadow) in small hand*book journal.

Chatteris Museum sketches

The good news is that our scanner is now up and running, so I can now post my Chatteris Museum sketches. The bad news is: they’re not pastels! I say this only because of the rapturous reception my pastel sketches received from artists in the EveryDay Matters group who were kind enough to leave me a comment. I kept my materials for the SketchCrawl simple and light: these are all Edding Profipen .01 with watercolour (or watercolour pencils), 3.5″ x 5.5″.

We have a carpet beater made of cane, an earthenware pitcher, some tea paraphernalia, a hardware store bell (EDM Challenge #21: Draw something old, antique or vintage – we were spoilt for choice, really), Keys (#37) and police whistles.

 

Cunningly, I also managed to cover challenges #38: Draw at a museum and #72: Draw somewhere new with this trip!

The paper in the hand*book journal is rougher than the Daler-Rowney sketchbooks I’m used to and seems more absorbent to watercolour, but it’s pleasant to use. Since joining EDM I’ve noticed worrying symptoms of a serious sketchbook fetish I don’t recall having before …

SketchCrawl #13: Chatteris

Saturday 17th March 2007 marked the 13th WorldWide SketchCrawl.

It’s horribly frustrating not being able to share my sketches yet: I feel like the only kid who isn’t allowed out to play! Thanks to Anita Davies of the Fenland Visual Arts Collective, however, you can see what went on at Chatteris Museum in Cambridgeshire that day via the FenVAC blog.

Anita is the kind of compulsive sketcher I can only daydream of being as I sit dithering about what to draw. Thanks to being in the enthusiastic company of the “Fenland Friends”, I did fill five pages of my shiny new hand*book journal (not actually shiny – which is why I prefer it to the Moleskine) with drawings of whatever historical artefacts caught my eye. After several hours of sketching, yakking, laughter, lunch and poking around in one another’s sketchbooks, I bussed it back to Ely feeling more positive and excited about my art than I have in ages.

Sketches to follow. Honest guv!