At the harbour

Don't you just love it when you find great textures and colours when you're out and about - and just happen to have your camera to hand? I was ambling back to the car parked on the harbour quay at Penryn after spending a lovely afternoon catching up with a friend - yup, tea and cakes were involved;) - I was pleasantly tired,  head focused on getting home when I suddenly 'saw' all these lovely textures and colours around me just literally a few feet from the car. Sad to say I've parked here quite a few times now and hadn't stopped to appreciate the real beauty of my surroundings before - I need to get my creative antennae working again :)

It was a beautiful still evening so there were lots of slow ripples and slightly wavery reflections of the boat masts on the water to capture too. And it was soooo quiet. Really peaceful and relaxing with only the occasional seagull and the quiet clunking of the boats and masts in the background.

 

And of course there were lots of tangled ropes, rusty chains and a very rusty barnacled anchor at the quay edge to photograph. Many close-ups of textures, colours and flaky layers of rust were taken and I've already got some lovely ideas for experimental dyeing and stitch, erosion and weathering..... I'm letting it all percolate in the brain for a while and see what comes out!

And I just love this boat! Maybe it's the strong aqua colour but it's so typical of a harbour scene. Reminds me of a jigsaw picture actually ;) It may be a bit twee but it's very jolly. I loved all the tall towering masts too and managed to get a few shots in before the light went.

Clink, clink, nice and quiet. Time to pack up and make my way home again. I'll be back another day. That's the beauty of nature, it will always be different every time:)

150 flowers done!

A little bit of crochet and the last row of flowers are done! Feeling good now. 150 flowers all ready to crochet into the finished blanket - at last! This is the bit I've been waiting for; the balancing of the coloured edgings against all the other flowers in situ - should be fun:) I might not be able to see the floor for a few days/weeks, but at least it will look colourful! I also have a feeling the cat will decide that this blanket should belong to her....of course;) I will try to catch her on the camera sneaking into prime comfy position - right in the centre, I'm thinking!

The weather here is very wet and dismal today so perfect for snuggling inside for some hooky time. Now, just need to find a good film to watch and I can get started. No deadline for this really but I need to get back on a roll and keep the crochet mojo going;) I haven't seen any finishing rows/borders on other versions of this - maybe nearer the time crochet blanket experts may have some suggestions for me? Maybe it won't look as if it needs one..... but all ideas would be very welcome!

Righty-ho, I'm off for some flower hooky fun. Starting the count - 149, 148, 147...... :))  See you all soon with another update!

Sunshiny garden

Hello, hello! Didn't mean to be away so long...... the sun came out and I started tackling the garden and, whoosh, time has disappeared - again! But things have been coming up in the garden, a little later than last year, but having a really sunny April has helped jumpstart a lot of the flowers - like these lovely tulips.

They are from a mixed bulb pack so I don't know the variety but they are lovely and bright! Of course, I did forget to plant them early enough so they grew rather later than probably everyone elses tulips but, hey! Same goes for all my daffs. I found the bulbs in a bag in the shed, um, the end of january and had to plant them in a rush. But they're all still flowering nicely albeit a couple of weeks after everyone elses:-)

Another lovely flowering plant in the garden is my pink rhododendron which is coming along nicely. It's only been in the garden a year but it seems pretty established in its little space now and looks happy catching all the sun.

One thing I love about the garden is surprise plants that grow. I haven't planted them and suddenly they are there! These lovely pinky purple flowers are one of them. When the leaves grew I decided to wait and see if it was a weed or a new surprise - yay! A surprise! I still have to look it up to see what it's called so if anyone knows, I'd be grateful. I do have lots of flower seeds to sew as well but I keep forgetting. Must put that on my to-do list pronto or it will soon be too late!

ETA: after checking, it's a drumstick primula - shame there's only one.....:-)

At least we are getting some more colour in the garden now. I do miss that in the winter and even early spring as I haven't got many crocuses or snowdrops planted as yet either so the garden can look a bit bare and drab. But that is a job for me to organise for next spring - remembering to plant them in time of course!

Have a lovely little stripey top finished to show you tomorrow now its all blocked and the buttons are on. Then I'm thinking of catching up on some dyeing and shawl knitting..... Back soon!

Giveaway winners;-)

Well, today's the day for announcing the stitch marker giveaway winners! I can't believe a week has passed already. The christmas knitting list has had to be shortened to more realistic proportions so I can stop the panicking now and start to enjoy the run up to Christmas.

So, in true Christmas spirit, let's give away some pressies! And using a random number generator, the winners are:-

First up, the swirly markers and the winner is....

Jersey!

Second set of markers were the multi-coloured ladybirds/ladybugs, and the winner is.......  Julie!

Next are the lovely big flower marlers, and the winner is.....Aik!

Next are everyone's favourites - the smilies! And the winner of these is........ New Jersey Laura!

And the final set of red ladybirds goes to ...... Purple!

Thank you everyone for taking part and congratulations to the winners. If  Jersey, Julie, Aik, Newjerseylaura and Purple could contact me at labellehelene@btinternet.com with your postal details, I will get the stitch markers off to you as soon as possible - hopefully before Christmas!

I will be stocking my Etsy shop with these over the weekend so if you weren't so lucky this time you can always treat yourself to a little stocking filler! I've also been debating just how many markers make a set - 4? 5? 7? I would be grateful for your thoughts on this as there doesn't seem to be a hard and fast rule on this with sellers but I bet knitters know the answer:-) I'm thinking 5 at the moment but look forward to hearing what practically works for you.

Back soon with some more present making, and thank you all again for taking part in my little christmas giveaway:-) elaine x

Stripey crocheted mitts

I've been meaning to get around to starting my hexagon blanket for the last few weeks now and the balls of yarn are just sitting there, patiently asking to be used..... but I want to have a nice block of quiet time to spend crocheting away on the hexagons without any interruption - which just hasn't happened yet. (quiet rant about wet floors, insurance claims and five days clearing the whole downstairs of furniture....yada, yada....rant over:-)

So, to get my quick fix of bright colours and crochet, I decided to rustle me up a pair of stripey mitts, inspired by Attic24 and Henhouse. Oh, the pleasure of crochet! I forget how quickly it grows compared to knit and how theraputic it feels just to be crocheting away happily in the corner, with nothing more pressing than choosing the next colour in my bright rainbow.

See how it grows in just in one evening? To be fair, it's not a massive square:-) only 34 chains wide and crocheted using a treble stitch (or double stitch - US). But its good to feel like you are getting somewhere quickly!

I made a little scalloped edging on both ends, just cause it looks nice:-) Now, all I have to do is make another one the same and sew it up  - leaving a space for the thumbs. I'm so glad I learned how to crochet in the ends as you go as it means there is no daunting sewing task at the end. Bonus!

I may decorate mine with buttons like Henhouse's version but I'll wait and see how it looks when finished - but I think I might:-)) Any excuse to embellish!

Hexagon crocheted blanket

I'm starting a new project this week..... A large cosy crocheted hexagon blanket, to be precise:-) It has to be a stash busting exercise as I have so many little balls of yarn stored that aren't big enough or even nice enough to use on their own. Unfortunately this means that most will be acrylic but hey, the colours are lovely and bright!

I took all the available stash that isn't in the loft (that's too big a job for me right now, but someday...) and laid it out in a colourwheel to see what colours I wanted to use. I want a nice, clear, bright palette - no murky or subtle tones for this one!! So there are a few on the wheel that will have to go, particularly the toothpaste green at 11 o'clock and the dusky rose about 3 o'clock. I did see a lovely apple green yarn a few weeks ago that I knew I should have picked up but I was being 'good' - sigh! I just knew I'd regret it! Well, I'll pop in on thursday and see if it's still there but I don't have high hopes because, well,  that's sods law, isn't it?!

I also need more of the pale pink as that little ball is all I have and I like it a lot. Most of the others have more than one ball in the stash cupboard so hopefully I won't be buying too much. Spending too many pennies would defeat the whole stash busting exercise really:-))

Once I get the missing colours, I can get going so watch this space for some colourful crocheting goodness:-))

Colour interpretations

Occasionally I find one of these quizzes that I feel I'd like to try - just to see:-) I came across this one today which tells you what your personal colours are based on how you answer a series of questions. I love colour and this intrigued me. So what colours would represent my personality and how would my answers be interpreted?

Your rainbow is intensely shaded green, red, and violet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is says about you: You are a passionate person. You feel strong ties to nature and your mood changes with its cycles. Those around you admire your fresh outlook and vitality. You are patient and will keep trying to understand something until you've mastered it.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

Actually, its rather accurate. I can have patience on some things as I love to learn new things but those mood changes lead me to switch tasks regulary and have my fingers in many pies:-) I couldn't be a one project or one craft gal, I'm afraid as I get bored too quickly. Or maybe it's less like boredom, more like I've learnt that so what's next! Definitely a mixed media, hands-on, try everything gal:-))

Crossroads and Gladioli

Not that crossroads and Gladioli have anything in common but both have been on my mind of late. The gladioli because they are now dying back and it reminded me I hadn't posted to show you the lovely richness of the purples against the green stalks. They are a little light here and don't show the deep rich velvetyness of the purple petals as well as I would have liked but you take what light you can for photographs at the moment!

The richness of colour combinations always makes me want to dye some yarn or fabric - play a little with colour. And I still mean to get round to it at some point this month, along with making presents for christmas. But there are very few people I know that would appreciate dyed yarn as a present - only my mum! Something knitted up with that dyed yarn would be a different matter, I suspect! But I'm taking a hiatus on the knitting for a bit to clear my head and give me space to think about direction.

I've always loved to learn new things. Weaving, spinning, knitting, embroidery, collage, painting.... I've always avoided putting myself in a category. I trained in Textiles but I love the conceptual aspects of art too. I love print, collagraphy as well as the humble potato print. I love collage, mixed media, balancing a composition. I love the subtleties and contrasts of colour, texture and fonts. The more I discover, the more I want to explore. And although I enjoy knitting, it doesn't let me address all these facets of myself that I feel need to be taken out and looked at with a fresh eye.

But confidence and time have a lot to do with artistic development - or not. Not having had the time for a long while to discover who and what I am and where I want to go, I am now in the position where I have a little breathing space to try and find out exactly that. But being creative requires positivity and a confidence in yourself and your work. So how to rediscover that?

I'm going to work small, start experimenting and explore materials and mediums and see what happens. I may not post every day what I'm working on but I'm going to try and produce some small outcome every day - even if it is only worthy of the bin or being cut up for collage. I need to get inspired!

Lavender's blue dilly dilly

Lavender’s blue dilly, dilly, Lavender’s green;

When I am king, dilly, dilly, You shall be Queen.

Who told you so, dilly, dilly, who told you so?

'Twas my own heart, dilly, dilly, that told me so

Call up your men dilly, dilly, Set them to work,

Some with a rake, dilly, dilly, some with a fork.

Some to make hay, dilly, dilly, Some to thresh corn,

Whilst you and I, dilly, dilly, Keep ourselves warm.

The garden is in full bloom!

100% saturated colour

I was rummaging at a car boot sale last week and saw this peeking out from underneath a pile of clothes - isn't it lovely? No-one else seemed to have spied it so I decided it was obviously meant for me!!


Doesn't it remind you of smarties? Although it's not very large, it's got that touchy feely quality - all those bobbles!


I'm going through a bright phase right now - bright clothes, bright colours in my work - so this fits in perfectly. I don't quite know why though, I do tend to shift between bold 100% saturated colours and subtle colour palettes. I have noticed there are a lot more clothes around in the shops with intense colour ranges - probably influenced by the 80's! In fact, I seem to remember owning a lot of brightly coloured clothes then too; jade, aqua, orange, yellow, pink - usually worn all at once! And don't forget the matching socks! That is one thing that is harder to find now. I can find stripes and pastels but not a full range of in your face brightly coloured socks.


Maybe I should dye my own sock yarn and get knitting!!

Hats and Holidays

After a busy week so far, there are now more things on the website. Please feel free to have a gander! My new camera has been a godsend for sharp photos - shame the light isn't quite so good now that summer has definitely left us. But on the good side, all the beaches in Cornwall are now relately empty which means I can wander about with my camera snapping away, testing all the buttons.

This is Crantock beach, near Newquay - the tide is way out and has left lots of rippling sand patterns to photograph.

I did try out the new macro lens on my camera and got some good close-ups of the madly coloured seaweed/moss washed onto the beach.

I thought these offered interesting colour combinations, possibly for dip dyeing yarns or fabric for new projects. The colours are subtle but still manage to retain a bright pink element - I like that. Nature is very clever in her colour choices - can't beat it!

Of course, we couldn't go to the beach without some drawing on the best free canvas!

A photo heavy post today - back soon hopefully with more progress and some images from the Angie Lewin exhibition I visited today.

Caio for now,
elaine