Jumpers!

How to construct a knitted rabbit hutch....that has been the conundrum on my mind the past few days. In the end I used a cardboard box, whittled down to sized with some cunning scissorwork and masking tape, which was then lined with Ingres pastel paper in a nice woody brown. I spent an inordinate amount of time knitting a box cover for it - first a rectangle, then picking up stitches on each edge separately and knitting the sides, which were then sewn together. This had to be then slipped over the box and stitched all round with about half an inch of the knitwork folded over into the box - ouch, my fingers!


The hutch door caused me more problems - I had cut the right shape out of card and then cut out the central hole. How then to cover the remaining shape...... in the end I resorted to winding yarn around it as tight as I could, using tacky glue to keep it in place, with a bit of jiggerypokery around the corners. The mesh was sewn and woven with grey wool, with a bit of fabric stiffener applied overnight. I still have to work out a nice child-friendly catch to keep that rabbit in! Oh, and he has a knitted boucle straw-coloured mat inside to represent...well, straw!

Next on the agenda, how to knit a lettuce leaf.......


I finally finished the complicated chunky lace pullover for myself - there is no way I could have completed it before going on holiday, the sewing together alone took me a whole evening. It is knitted in pure alpaca yarn, called Peru I think, in the shade 'blanket'. I didn't notice until blocking it that the yarn formed quite distinctive stripes even though it was all from the same batch. Whether or not this fades with washing, I don't mind as it is a quite nice effect.

I love the way the extra long sleeves with their 'U' shaped finish go almost right over my hands - a definite plus in the cold weather, expecially for someone like me who suffers from cold fingers at the best of times. No photo of me modelling it - far too cold today to be taking clothes off and on!

Blue Jellyfish Two

Another watercolour painting, this time on some Cotman paper but I still managed to end up with a streaky wash, probably due to trying to add another layer of paint to an already perfect wash - grr! However, I quite like this one, it has a watery feel to it.

I think that's enough jellyfish for the time being, before it gets boring. I have some paying work to get on with anyway - yup, a couple more potatoes and that poor neglected pet portrait started too many weeks ago.

If anyone would like to take these jellyfish paintings off my hands, please get in touch as they are for sale.

Cuddle-Bunny

Here he is, a mini-me based on an actual rabbit. I have been wondering for a couple of weeks how I was going to achieve this, and in the end it has been with the use of three different patterns for three different animals, selecting the bits that looked rabbit-like and adapting them accordingly. I embroidered on the distinctive markings and gave him button jointed legs so he is fully poseable.

Now the conundrum is how to knit a hutch that is going to keep it's shape - will need a little cardboard inside I feel.....

I also have to knit a mini-me guinea-pig which should be fairly easy...famous last words. If any of you out there would like your pet miniaturised in yarn, feel free to contact me but if it is for a special occasion, give me plenty of notice as I am one busy lady!

Yawn.....more holiday snaps....

I'm afraid due to one of my dogs vomiting copiously several times yesterday on just about every rug in the house and having to be rushed to the vet, any idea of painting had to be shelved. (The dog is fine today by the way, just old and rickety....)

Also, as my holiday snaps were ready yesterday, I spent the evening putting them into an album so only spent an hour or so fashioning a rabbit's head with knitting - I have been commissioned to make a miniature of someone's pet. Who'd have thought I'd ever make money immortalising pets in wool.......

So I am sorry, but here are a few more picturess of Boston. Our choice of subject matter is sometimes a little obscure, but I hope you can appreciate what appealed to us in these photographs.

This is the West India Goods Store in Salem - the original building, and just like something out of Little House on the Prairie!


I spent a great deal of time hand-feeding sparrows! I love all birds and the novelty of these little guys being so tame never got old.


Instead of walking round the Freedom Trail, you could go on a Segway tour - how mad is that?


This was just beautiful.


Macy's - we eventually had a look inside and were a little disappointed to see it was just another department store, albeit very plush and lovely. I think I had visions of it being like a movie set inside or something!


One of those pictures that just seem to work, the clock tower in Boston at night.


We got a little lost while hiking the Freedom Trail and stumbled upon a busy fruit and vegetable market. When I looked at the road, I discovered this amazing brass rubbish set into the tarmac - brilliant!

As no dog has been ill today and there are no outstanding potatoes to be painted, I'm off to try another jellyfish picture....

Indigo Jellyfish...

This is my first attempt at painting one of the deep blue jellyfish we saw at the New England Aquarium last week. This is in watercolour - I started out by making a very faint pencil sketch of the jellyfish's position. Very faint as I definitely didn't want any pencil marks showing through at the end of the painting.

I then painted a turquoise wash, followed by an ultramarine wash with some salt sprinkled over the central fronds to give the frilled effect. I had to leave this to dry overnight, and today painted a further deep turquoise wash over the whole paper. The jellyfish body was painted with indigo paint, as thick as I could get it and brushed over a pre-wetted area. I pushed and pulled the paint with a damp brush while it was still wet to get the rippled effect around the base of the body.

The central fronds were painted with a lighter wash of indigo mixed with a touch of crimson. The legs/tentacles (?) were painted with pure indigo using a rigger brush to get the thin and flowing lines.

Finally, I lifted some of the paint off the centre fronds with a wet brush and dabbing with tissue in order to add a bit of texture.

I want to paint a series of these, so hopefully will improve technique as I go - I would prefer the blue background to be smoother. I used Canson extra smooth paper which is lovely for detail but does tend to hang on to pigment and leave brushstrokes on drying when you think you have done a perfect wash!

Bits & Pieces.....

One photo that I forgot to upload yesterday - looks a bit dull doesn't it? My partner was snapping away at just about everything while on holiday and took this picture of a plane landing at Logan airport. It wasn't until it was downloaded on the computer and viewed on the big screen that we realised just what the large plane on the landing strip in the foreground was.....Airforce One! We'd missed the Obama motorcade - we were in the aquarium and didn't know the president was in town anyway, so it was quite exciting for us to find out we'd at least seen his plane.


Here are the pieces of fabric and bead edgings I bought at a discount fabric shop. If I'd known this lot would only total $9, I would have grabbed more......don't ask me what I am going to do with the John Deere tractor fabric, I just knew I had to have it!


Faced with the vast selection of cookie cutters, I had to be sensible and only buy ones that I knew I'd use. So we will be having lobster cookies, Golden Retriever cookies, and will never be short of Halloween shapes...unfortunately I just haven't got round to making any Halloween cookies yet, too busy!


Who could resist this gorgeous cuddly octopus? I just had to have him!


Finally, I haven't just been sleeping or washing vast piles of dirty clothes since coming back from holiday - I did finish this pretty scarf. It's knitted in purple Sublime mohair with a soft fluffy eyelash yarn edging with a touch of silver tinsel. The scarf is in simple stocking stitch with a flared edge either side, and then gathered gently down then centre to create the ruffles. This will be for sale on Etsy shortly.

A Whistlestop Tour of Boston...

We discovered today that between us we have over 600 photos from our trip to Boston - that's going to take some sorting out when it comes to printing them! Other people's holiday snaps can be a terrible bore, so I have tried to reduce mine to a few choice ones that sum up our break.


We went to the New England Aquarium and saw penguins being hand-fed their breakfast....


...each one got their own portion of fish which was duly noted on a chart - to make sure no-one got left out.


We saw Myrtle the Turtle (not my choice of name!) being fed sprouts and broccoli.......


...this was to keep her from taking chunks out of the divers who were feeding the other fish in this enormous cylindrical tank which dominates the centre of the building.


My daughter's favourites were the seals, particularly the small one which reminded her of our dog for some reason.


This tank of jellyfish was incredible - I really want to turn our shots of these into a painting.


The Freedom Trail was a long hard slog in the rain - I am sure it was longer than two and a half miles! This is Paul Revere's house.


This fascinating graveyard had stones dating back to the 1600's, including Paul Revere's.


We were lucky to get on the final whale-watching trip of the year - our first attempt was cancelled due to rough seas. This wasn't a smooth trip by any standards but didn't merit the amount of throwing up going on around us by sea-wimps! This is Boston's skyline as seen from the boat.


We saw about 12 different humpback whales, including this mother and calf.


This has been a long-time ambition of mine, and I couldn't really believe I was actually on a boat seeing whales with my own eyes - it all felt very surreal.


The freezing cold wind felt real enough though! That amorphous lump swaddled in my arms is my daughter sheltering from the cold.......


...she emerged when we reached the shelter of the shoreline - Hello Eskimo Nell!


Here she is warming up eating 'Chowdah!' in Quincy Market.


The next day was a complete turnabout and was warm and sunny when we took the boat to Salem.


It being the week before Halloween, some people had gone all out with their decorations - how cool is this back yard!



This made me laugh..a lot! I now have this bumper sticker on my car - if you saw where I live and some of our neighbours, you'd appreciate this even more!

Hope this wasn't too dull! I have had a complete break from painting and crafting, but will get back into the swing of things in a few days after all vestiges of jet-lag have gone away.