Sun and shadow

Hurrah! The sunburst vessel is finished - only it isn't quite a vessel any more! I've been crocheting away like mad this week to get this finished, confidently happy with my idea of a lovely wide, platter shaped vessel, and watching it slowly emerge. When I thought of these organic shapes, I realised I would need a simple form that would show them off to their best advantage so the previous bowl shapes were dropped quickly, and a shallow, broad expanse of curly swirly happiness sounded just the thing!

Putting them all together on the flat - ahhh:)) Now that is nice and bright, and yummily swirly. Kind of looks like very ornate script lettering in places..... But what about into the vessel shape??

Looking good I thought. Took a bit of time to get things placed just the way that looked best but I got there in the end and packed up another evening to get some shuteye. I had a niggling feeling I still wasn't showing this off to its best advantage but decided to sleep on it and hope for a fresh perspective in the morning. Luckily for me I didn't have to wait quite so long! You know how sometimes when you are very tired, your conscious mind has pretty much switched off and you're working on automatic pilot? Yup? Well, I was switching everything off for the night (including me) and heading up the stairs, passing the bowl dimly lit by the stair light, and it hit me. What if it wasn't a bowl?

I have been so locked into thinking 'vessel' that I had missed the obvious - a FLAT piece. Oh, the irony:)) Having a lightbulb moment when that fatigued doesn't do much to promote a restful night's sleep so I gave up and tried hanging it on the wall instead. Tah-da!

Oh, I like! Then I noticed the shadows it was creating....... ooooh! Off the wall it came and back up it went about a foot away, suspended quickly with some cotton from the ceiling. TAH-DA!!

Oh now, what would this be like as a ginormous circle? (Forgetting the fact that this has taken about two solid weeks to make and is only about 45cm/18" in diameter...) Looking at this impartially, the units are a bit too large in scale for the present diameter and would balance a lot better in a larger circle but I will have to have enough dyed yarn and patience to make such a big piece - as well as somewhere to hang it when its finished:))) But I'm thinking I'll have to have a go, somewhere in the near future. Until then, I'll reduce the motif size and stick to a more manageable scale - for now.....:)))

But on to the more practical aspects of the making. The wire is a total success. It bent so easily, maintained the shapes and as long as the spaces between didn't get too large, held together well. The units were stitched together as invisibly as I could make them and I tried to make sure there were enough joins for stability, without compromising the flow of the pattern too much.

The crocheted units have two distinct sides as well. There is the 'right' side which looks nice and smooth and the back which has more visual texture due to the form of the crocheted slip stitch. Again, I fully intended to have the right side facing out but when it was lit up for the photos, the reverse just came to life and it seemed really obvious that it should be the front. Happy surprises all round!

And lastly, the ends! Thank you everyone for all your very helpful and creative suggestions here, on flickr and on ravelry. I tried out a good few ideas but none seemed to gel well with these curly shapes. I eventually decided that any form of disguise was only drawing more attention where it wasn't wanted so I ended up exposing a bit of the lovely copper wire underneath and bending it into a small loop at each end. You can just see the loops in the close-up picture - little glints of copper (aaah, lovely!) - whilst practically helping to keep the stitches on the ends! It works for me till I can think of another solution.

So, it's all finished. I feel a little strange that this baby I've been working on has now been completed. It feels like I've been living with it constantly for so long that I don't want to start anything new quite yet. Maybe I need some quiet time to savour this little achievement and then get back into things tomorrow..... :)

Optimistic October

Oh, the first fire of the Autumn. Today, it's very cool, the beautiful autumn sun of this morning has gone to be replaced by a light rain blowing through, spattering on the windows - brrr! The overcast clouds are making it feel later than it is too but soon it will be dark. Time for a hot drink and a snuggle up beside a warm fire I think - mmmm:) Makes me think maybe a lovely hot chocolate could be in order soon - I must get some marshmallows!

Only problem is, I haven't actually done much this afternoon as it's just so cosy and I don't feel like moving much. And the fire is hypnotising...... lulling me into a peaceful and quiet place. Most relaxing!

Lighting the fire has acted as a bit of a catalyst in other ways though. Suddenly it seems like I should be spinning, knitting warm cozy jumpers and making christmas presents  - as well as considering hibernating for winter:) I'm also thinking that if I actually count the weeks I have left to make said presents those faint stirrings of panic might blossom into something more significant - so I won't look too closely for now...... The fire has just been lit and I still have plenty time, don't I?

Maybe I should start making a list, just in case. This will be the idealistic list. The list that gets whittled down to the bare bones by December till it resembles something of more realistic proportions. Even though I do this every year, I just can't help being overly optimistic in October!!

Wickedly fuchsia

So time for a reveal! Yes, the long awaited wicked vest is now finished, blocked and buttoned and ready to wear. Only took me over a year to get this one off the needles but hey, at least this one managed it:)) I can finish small projects easily but long ones seem to die a death or end up in a long hibernation once I start getting bored. So I don't tend to make many big projects any more. Every now and again I try - like the hawaiian flowers blanket - but its very stop and start at the moment too. I LOVE the flowers, I enjoy making them too but I just don't seem to be able to be monogamous in my projects! Got to have more than one on the go:)

But the wicked vest has made it and it fits! This was an issue as I thought the ribbing and my use of a different weight yarn might mean a very skinny rib fit but no - whew! Looks nice and skinny on the dummy though:) Not quite so skinny in real life - probably because I don't have adjustable buttons to reduce my bum size :))) What a wonderful thing that would be!! I'm not totally convinced about the white shirt underneath either. I'm not really a shirt person so it looks and feels a bit uncomfortable on me  - rather a staid look for me, even in fuchsia! So I think I'll need to experiment a bit till I get the right combo or it'll end up never worn, and that would be a shame after all that knitting and all that waiting!

I did manage to find some really cool rose shaped buttons for this though. I swithered on whether to have a contrasting or harmonious colour as I've seen lovely versions on ravelry that worked either way, but the subtle combinations won the day - if you can call bright fuchsia buttons subtle! But what a job I had getting the right shade of pink! I didn't realise how difficult it would be trying to match this yarn. It's not bright pink, nor rose and has a paler tone overall so nothing seemed to be 'just right' as goldilocks would say. Eventually I decided to go for see-through ones hoping that the yarn colour would come through and soften the overall tone of the buttons. I think it's worked rather well ;)) Girly but not girly, if you know what I mean.

Now, I have to consider the other poor projects in hibernation.... if I don't get distracted...... again! :))

tutorials page

You may notice there is a new tutorials page appeared today! I decided to gather all the posts I've done so far that in some way consitute a tutorial or a how-to guide and put them together so we can find them quickly. Trawling through three years of posts can take some doing:)) and its much nicer to be able to put your hands on those pages you need rather than using the search button or going methodically through the achives.

It's still 'in progress' so I will be modifying and updating as I go so any feedback would be welcome! Now, I'm trying to work out how to make and upload free PDF files - anyone got a quick and easy solution to suggest?!

Back soon with a finished knitting project - yes, I know! Actually finished! :))) It's waited about a year and a bit so it's about time! A quick peek for you.....

Now, I wonder what that could be??? It looks wickedly fuchsia like to me :)

Sunburst

I've been experimenting recently with lots of different ways to make strong enough 3D crochet vessels and I thought I'd give the most obvious method - wire - a try this time. I found some wires too inflexible and difficult to mould as well as being too skinny in diameter once crocheted,  so I decided to try wire with its plastic coating still on - like the ones you find in electric cables. In the UK that will be brown and blue colours:)  (the earth wire doesn't have a plastic coating inside the big grey tubing which I stripped off,  just the bare copper - which is very nice in its own right and I will keep for later!)

Ok, so I have my plastic coated wire, and now I can see how it moulds - yummy! Perfectly easily. I thought I'd have to use long nosed pliers but in fact they made little awkward bends rather than smooth curves so I just went with moulding it with my fingers.

Then I started to crochet around the wire with some of my stripey dyed sock yarn - this one is 'mango' ;) Oooh, I'm liking this! Lets get onto another shape and see how it looks......

Oh yes, I think this will work! I will still have to attach the units together like the flowers in the green vessel but that's ok. I'll have to work out a solution to the wire ends though. If I fold them, there will be an unsightly lump in the spiral - not ideal at all - and I have to make sure the end crochet stitches don't slip off either. I'm thinking a little spot of glue but I run the risk of sticky mess on the yarn.....

Aha! Maybe I crochet a little end cap thingy - picturing knitted i-cords here, only in crochet:) A little tube end before crocheting around the wire..... off to see how that works. Back soon!

Fibre Optic weaving

Thought you may be interested in watching this video on the use of fibre optics in weaving. Just fascinating how they have been able to use modern day technology such as twitter feeds and airport traffic reports to translate into compositions of woven light. Thanks to the daily art muse for the link!

progress check......

I thought I'd just show you my recent projects mosaic for 2010 - so far.....:) Sometimes when you look back and think you have been making, making, making, you realise that overall, the finished pieces aren't quite as many as you originally thought! Still, there are still 4months of 2010 to go so I can still work on adding a few more things to the grand total. And there is always the christmas pile that will considerably add to the overall count! (I know! I don't want to think about it either but if there is any making involved this year, 4 months isn't that much time really. At the speed I seem to have been working at, I should have started last january!!)

1. flower vessel, 2. pineapple edging, 3. 58 flowers and growing...., 4. booties, 5. lace pattern, 6. jasmine cardi and dress, 7. limone cuff, 8. flower heads, 9. lily edging, 10. close-up of decreases, 11. little red shoes 2, 12. chloe buttons, 13. pineapple crochet detail

All the pics have a flickr link to see them in more detail too. Ah, I've just realised that there a few pieces missing - whew! Now I feel a little better ;)) The white filigree vessel isn't there or my more recent crochet samples and experiments, nor my recent sampling with new dyed yarn colours. That certainly pads things out a bit - and makes me feel a little bit better about where my time has gone:) Well, looks like I'll be updating the mosaic sooner than I planned!

I do update these mosaics on my projects page every now and again  - tab under header - so feel free to pop over to catch up on anything new. Sometimes little things sneek in there (and on flickr) that I haven't blogged about - like my collage/stitched card on the left (no 8 flower heads). It's just an experiment that may lead to something bigger soon if I can drag myself away from my crochet vessel experiments - more on that soon.

Oh and on the knitting front, Jaden has been relegated to the short term hibernation pile - again! After having to rip back the completed front lace panel, twice, as the shaping decided not to shape - silly YO's again - I decided it was time for a sanity break. In a way though, it has given me time to experiment with the crochet and that's been working out well. I think I have cracked the whole keeping 3D shapes thing  - well, it's working for what I want to do so far..... fingers crossed! It just takes a little while to crochet enough to make a decent sized vessel worth photographing! So in a day or two, hopefully I shall have enough to show you where its all going.....:)

Righty-ho, back to some more crocheting. See you all soon!

So who do you write like?

Every now and then, I like to go random internet browsing - isn't it fascinating going from one link to another, to another and to yet another as you get lost in the miriad of internet trails, rings and webs:) I came across this link whilst browsing though my favourite blogs this week. You paste in a blog post or a piece of your own written work and click to see whose style your work most resembles. I tried my most recent post and I got......

I write like
Arthur Clarke

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

So, apparently I have a literary style like Arthur C Clarke:) not bad! I like science fiction and fantasy as well so maybe my writing style has been subtly influenced from an early age!

It would be interesting to know what parameters are used for this application - how many names are in there? I did test the program to see who popped up with other peoples writing so I know there is at least Jane Austen and H.P. Lovecraft. Sigh! Maybe my language isn't erudite enough to be Jane Austen or maybe I'm missing that wry, conversational style she uses. Or maybe it's just that explaining techniques makes things sound more technically written so therefore I mostly resemble the language and literary style of Arthur C Clarke's science fiction. It's a long time since I've read any of his books. Maybe I shall sit down and see if I can find any resemblance.......:)

So, who do you write like? I would love to hear from you in the comments if you try this out!

Edited to add:

I tried your idea out Kit and put a piece of my fiction writing in instead and, blow me down with a feather if I didn't get......

I write like
J. R. R. Tolkien

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

WOW! I feel an epic fantasy novel coming on:)))