The work goes on....

With endless problems raising their head in the day job and all those other things that life throws in the way, crafting has unfortunately taken a bit of a back seat, but the creativity has never stopped, the work has still been continued even though its slowly but surely!
Firstly, ive still be knitting away in my spare moments and thankfully its something that i find very relaxing.
At the moment on my needles is a pink scarf, in a lace pattern. The only problem i have, as i'm knitting in the evenings in front of the television, is i'm getting distracted and keep forgetting which row of the pattern i'm on!

Susan has got up-to-date with completing the embellishments on my previous scarves. So my black fluffy scarf now has marabou feathers around the edges

The blue 'wave' scarf has blue/clear beading across the bottom waves to add a touch of sparkle and glamour.

And the big cable - small button scarf now has the colourful wooden buttons to embellish the cables.

I also have a new project on the go.  I had the desire to make a hanging, decorative piece, made up of crocheted birds. I have been learning on the go with this project as crochet is a new, and self taught skill. With the aid of youtube 'how to' videos ive learnt to do large circles and small triangles.

Ive brought out the 'knitting dolly' to knit the cord to go through the centre, i have the bells to go on the bottom, i just need to source something to make the tail feathers. This is a fun and quirky project for me and im hoping it will turn out how i envisaged.

All these items are up for sale on 'Folksy' , so check out the threads n shreds store now.....

Pink fluffy scarf...

So it's been a while, as I was away on holiday, sunning myself and then caught up in the tangle of work issues, and every day life - but have been able to do a bit of knitting on the side.

Its been a little tedious this one. Although straightforward to knit, as there were no fancy stitches used - the yarn spoke for itself

I did have to take care so that the ends did not get knitted in and did actually stick out for the " fluffy " effect! But it did seem to take ages, and I could not wait to get on with the next project...
The " pink fluffy scarf " is on Folksy to purchase...

For my next project I have chosen a dip dyed, lovely pink yarn that I purchased from ' Tiger'. This time I will use a lacy pattern, and will use larger sized needles to give a more open effect...

Quick trip out...

The two of us popped out for a quick trip to the local exhibition centre 'The Lightbox', to see the POP ART exhibition...

The art was a little disappointing for me, as it was not the obvious, blatant images that i would associate with that movement, but there was a section of 60's clothes and artifacts that were pretty cool...

Upstairs, we found a smaller exhibition, a selection of photographs of Paul Weller by Lawrence Watson. I found these photographs quite impressive and for me as usual i like the black and white portraits as i think they are more edgy and give off more of a 'mood'. I was surprised to learn that Paul Weller was born in Woking and 'The Jam' were formed in Sheerwater secondary school !!!

threads 'n' shreds have an afternoon out...

At last we managed to get a day off at the same time, so we planned an afternoon out. We chose to go to Farnham, as there were a couple of craft venues that we wanted to check out. Firstly we visited The Maltings, where there were a few craft items for us to view, and then we went on to The New Ashgate Gallery.

This displays work from all independant artists in all different genres. Unfortunately upstairs was closed due to re-hanging for a new exhibition, but we had plenty of different items for us to view, with the knitted lampshades standing out for me, for being different...
We had a wander around the town, which has kept its traditional old buildings, and oldy worldy feel.

We checked out a couple of charity shops, and had to pop into the fabric store, where we picked up an off-cut to use for a future project. One of my favourite shops in the town is called Colours, this has a geat mix of clothes, and nik naks, and has a great eclectic mix of funky, ethnic and of course colourful items...

We then moved on towards Godalming, to a gallery called The Surrey Guild craft centre, which we found out about earlier in the day after picking up a leaflet. This was again a mix of different artists work, who all belonged to the Surrey Guild.

It was enjoyable looking at other peoples work, and i liked the 'wire pictures' and the 'seahorse' pottery. What really stood out to both of us were the kaleidescopes. They were amazing, and we could have stood there for hours looking at the amazing patterns that they kept throwing out...

Then it was home for another crafing session... We spent some more time researching rabbit features, but decided to put that project on the shelf for the time being, until we come up with a solution. Instead we had been inspired by the fabric we had bought earlier, as we imagined it being a luscious indian elephant, with fabulous big flappy ears.

So it was back to the drawing board, and another template drawn, and more rummaging through the material boxes to find some complementing fabrics for the features.

In susans bathroom she has butterfly transfers on her shower screen, and everytime i looked at them, i had the desire to do a butterfly cushion. So we put together the basic outline, and we thought that this would give us the opportunity to come up with some beautiful, ornate, and decorative cushions, using some very luscious colourways.

So thats another two animals to add to our menagerie, and we even had some help from Nim the cat...

cat, sheep & rabbit cont...

Threadsnshreds had another get together, we wanted to continue with the cushions that we had started the previous week. Susan meanwhile had been attatching the features, and whilst the cat and sheep were coming along nicely, and starting to take shape, the rabbit was still causing us plenty of issues. It wasn't looking like the cute bunny we had hoped for, it looked a tad scary, so we still need a solution to get the eyes right. The material we had chosen for the body we found was totally unsuitable, as it was too stretchy, so it buckled.
So out came the material boxes again, as we put together some more colourways. We found pieces of a beautiful oriental fabric and put it with plain turquoise, this will turn out to be our Persian!
Another cat was born with a mixture of green textured fabrics.

And lastly for the evening we put together another sheep. We found another cream textured material, but this time teamed it with muted pinks & purples for its features...

So all in all it was another successful evening till next Tue...

Threads 'n' shreds get together...

So fnally threads 'n' shreds manage to have another crafting get together! Its been awhile since our Owls were created, and we've found the time in our busy schedules, to now come up with some more creations, and add to the animal empire! We were hoping by the end of the evening to have come up with two templates, but we managed three!! And so the Cat, Rabbit and Sheep have started to take shape...

The first proto-types are always the hardest, and takes some experimenting with putting the pieces together, trying different techniques and getting the sizing of the features correct...

 When drawing the 2D image, the features look right, but transform them into 3D and you find that you need to really accentuate the features, to make them stand out!

Susan hit across a couple of issues, when attatching the various componants. Either the shapes were buckling, or the two different fabrics wouldnt mesh very well, but its all a learning curve!

So with any luck, we will get together again next week, and these animals will spring into their 3D shapes.......

my next scarf...

Once i am in the middle of a project, i have to use self-control to focus and complete it, as my mind and excitement start to wander towards the next project!
Whilst on a weeks holiday, staying with my Mum, we visited a gift store selling unique gifts, cakes put together with towels and beauty products, which unexpectedly was selling a small variety of gorgeous fancy yarn at a bargain price - which of course i just had to purchase some of! My dilemma was which colour to purchase! In hindsight maybe i should have just bought the lot, as it as such great value - maybe i showed just too much restraint!!

So my next project, inevitably had to be in the bright pink, textured yarn that i had purchased. I was dying to see how this would knit up. I decided to combine it with a pale pink ball of mohair i already owned. This would make the textured yarn go further, plus would hide the itchiness that mohair tends to have.

As yet i do not know how this scarf will pan out - I have no plan for the centre as yet!  I just was too eager to get started!!