Not Quite A Hat ..................

My granny taught me to crochet when I was about 9 and every so often I get an urge to crochet something. Usually what happens is that I buy the wool, start off ok, then it all goes wrong and I lose the desire so the wool gets put away and that's the end of that project!  Last weekend I decided to crochet myself a hat and found a pattern on the internet. I tried for ages to make a hat that fitted my head, but my lack of forward planning let me down, as the wool that I'd bought was a different thickness to the one in the pattern and the crochet hooks I had were different sizes too.  After many hours of crocheting and unravelling I gave up.  But then I had another idea - I'd make myself some arm warmers  as I get cold hands when I'm working on the computer but can't work in fingerless gloves.   This time I didn't have a pattern but just worked the size out as I went along.  They're not perfect (I'm not even quite sure they're the same size as each other!), but they are unique.  Initially I could only wear them when I was sitting down as they fell off when I walked, but thanks to some shearing elastic I can now walk in them too!

I don't think they'll start a new fashion trend, and I won't be making anymore, but they're bright and cheerful and will keep my arms and hands warm when I'm working.  (I couldn't photograph them both, logistics of a camera and not enough hands, but there is a pair really!).

Splash of Colour - December

Here is my Splash Of Colour for December, hosted by Silverpebble.  There are also some bright and cheery photos on the Splash of Colour Flickr group.

I was quite amazed at how much colour there still was in the garden at this time of year:

 1.Christopher Marlow frosted   2.Orange Rosehip   3.Cotoneaster Berries

4.Clematis Freckles   5.Choisya    6.Rose Thorns

7.Red Rosehip   8.Paperbark Cherry   9.Christopher Marlow in the snow

 It's bitterly cold here but we have escaped with less snow than most of the rest of the country.  Hope you're all managing to keep warm.

My Greenhouse Friend

It's been really cold here the last few nights and yesterday afternoon at 5pm the thermometer in the greenhouse was showing -1C. Time to light the paraffin heater!  I have to use a paraffin heater as the greenhouse is over 150ft from the house and has no electricity installed.  Not that I mind having to use a paraffin heater - infact I love it, I just love the smell of paraffin!  It's no hardship having to walk down the garden each morning to turn the heater off, as the smell wafts towards me as I get to about the pond.  I don't know if the neighbours appreciate the subtle smell which must permeate into their gardens too, but they've never said anything.  I know my friend Fran shares my love of this "unusual" smell, as does my Dad (who was once known to try and make toast with a paraffin blow torch!) but I wonder how many of the rest of you do too?  I'm guessing it's probably abit like marmite - love it or hate it!  

 My trusty friend

Seed Head Inspiration (2)

The weather has been very grey here today so I thought I'd share some more colour with you in the form of my other textile creation inspired by seedheads.

 Poppies on Garden Fleece (click to see the detail)

 The poppies on the top layer (made from garden fleece!) were formed by stencilling on gesso and then painting the whole layer with fabric paint.  It was then machine stitched onto the bottom layer of painted pelmet vilene (which had more poppies stencilled on with oil paint sticks).  Free motion stitching with sparkly metallic thread is not something I've cracked yet, and I shouted at it many times as it jammed and snapped and missed stitches etc!  After all that I got the heat gun out and blasted it - the fleece disintegrates VERY quickly!  Finally I distressed the edges (I don't like straight lines) with the solder iron.

Well, if nothing else, it livens up a dull day when even I won't venture into the garden!

Splash of Colour - November

I've decided to join in with Silverpebble's wonderful Splash of Colour project.  The idea (for any of you who don't know) is to post a colourful photo at the begining of each month from November to February to combat the greyness that's outside.  

This is my offering for November, the jumbled and higgledy contents of my thread box.

She's set a flicker group up so you can pop over there too to see lots of wonderful bright colours!

Seed Head Inspiration (1)

Back in the summer Gina posted a series of blogs about a Sketchbook project (click here to see them all), and I had a go at doing alot of her ideas,  (I loved painting with ink and uncooked spaghetti!).  A few weeks ago I decided to experiment further with the stencil I'd made of a poppy seedhead, and stencilled with extra heavy gesso onto tyvek paper.  When it was dry I free-motion embroidered around the gesso and randomly across the tyvek.  Then I blasted it all with a heat gun, painted it with black writing ink, bleached it, and painted over the gessoed area with a gold markal paint stick.  Finally I highlighted areas with treasure gold (a purchase from the Knitting and Stitching Show last month) and mounted it on painted pelmet vilene.

 (To see the detail you'll need to click on the image to enlarge it)

I love how tyvek does its own thing, and how the gesso and stitching goes someway to controlling it, but not totally.  (I'll let you see how I used the same stencil with garden fleece another time!)

Seed Heads

It's most definitely autumn now.  The leaves are turning lovely colours and falling to the ground, we had our first frost which has blackened the dahlias, and the flowers of the summer have given way to sculptural seed heads.  I must admit to having a real fascination with these this year:

Bergamot

Eryngium

Stipa Gigantea

Clematis

Chive

Opium Poppy

I think my fascination is because of their textures and shapes, which slowly emerge after the flowers fade.  I love the hidden seeds in the paper thin casings in the chive and the solid shell of the poppy.  Maybe it's also because I look at them now as inspiration for creating something in textiles and paint, but that's another post (or maybe even another blog to separate my new love of textile art from my old faithful friend of the garden?).