Sea Queen Day - baby's shrug

3-6 months

for sale at the annual Sea Queen day

toddler girl

Sea Queen Day - baby socks

6 - 12 months. My short rows are getting better, although one looks bigger than the other...

For sale at the annual Sea Queen day

recycling - wildflowers

My felted piece with wildflowers... cut up...


Mmmmm, I'm sure there is method in my madness...

recycling - yellow fields

I started with a 6"x4" piece of painted fabric - machine stitched and hand embellished. Think I made it 3-4 years ago...

It was a bit blah so I cut it up to make 3 ATC sized pieces, one like this...


I'm going to add colour and more abstract shapes on top. Like this work in progress...


More to come...

Recycling

I have decided to rework some of my stitching projects.

They're just lying around, unframed, unloved, and unseen.

So as Tim Gunn would say I'm going to "make it work".

Degree Shows

Art college degree shows for future reference...

Duncan of Jordanstone
Vision @ Seabraes Seabraes Yard Greenmarket, Dundee DD1 4QB
23rd May - 6th June
Monday - Friday 9.30am-8.30pm
Saturdays & Sundays 9.30am-4.30pm (excluding Saturday 6th of June when the exhibit will be open from 9.30am to 2pm)

Edinburgh College of Art
Locations: Main Building, Hunter Building, Architecture Building Entrance via pend at 74 Lauriston Place or via Lady Lawson St Evolution House. Entrance on West Port
Art & Design: 13–23 June 2009
Architecture & Landscape Architecture: 20 June–2 July 2009

Glasgow School of Art.... not yet known

formatting

I have changed my template. The indented lines were REALLY annoying me.

Knitting - Blue Cone 1

I 'acquired' this mystery cone of blue wool several weeks ago. There is a lot of it.

I think it is 2 ply in thickness and is a little bit rough. I think it is a wool mix (perhaps some nylon?).

I do have some 4ply patterns in mind, but I need more info!

I rolled some balls and started some swatches. I don't normally gauge my gauge (I think I'm a loose knitter, so I just go down 0.5mm in needle size) but I think this will be an interesting experiment.

So, using one strand and 2.75mm needles I cast on 30 stitches...

garter stitch

stocking stitch

Its a lovely colour and the 'fabric' is quite open. Not at all dense.

Next steps:-

1. measure, wash, measure again
2. knit more swatches using slightly larger needles, maybe 3.25mm needles

Sea Queen Day - garter stitch jacket

3-6 months, needs a ribbon for the eyelets...

For sale at the annual Sea Queen day

a really long list - update

My last really long list was November!

Surely not!

In honour of my new motivated self and the fact I now know how to use strikethrough font, here is an updated list...

• Work through my colour wheel exercises (using my watercolour pencils and stranded cottons).
• Finish my Christmas shopping.
• Make some cards using materials I have to hand and do 2 things - talk to a local shop re selling them and photograph them and list them on Etsy.
• Rework 3 pieces from my recent exhibition, i.e. take them out the frame.
• Knit or sew some clothes for Toddler Girls babies.
• Plant 165 free spring bulbs.
• Finish the cardboard kitchen for Toddler Girl.
• Finish my wisp scarf that I knitting with my Noro Kureyon sock wool.
• Complete a marketing course through Aberdeen College.
• Finish knitting Toddler Girls shrug... just some ribbing to go...
• Use my Procion Dye.
• Start my random piece...
• Start reading books again
• Download some new music...
• Finish painting the kitchen door
• Get my hair cut.

wow, I only have 2 things on my really long list...

garden - sweet peas

5 weeks from 'conception', all wrapped up and safe from slugs...

garden - lillies

Toddler Girl insisted that this was the correct way to plant lily bulbs... its hard to argue with a 2.5 year old...

formatting

I like the new colour and general layout of my blog but the indentation on the first lines of text is REALLY bothering me.

How do I stop this?

Anyone...?

Fife Contemporary Art & Craft - Artists and Makers Forum

Yesterday I attended a one day forum in Rothes Halls, organised by Fife Contemporary Art & Craft.

The theme for the event was Contemporary Art outwith the gallery context. Something that wasn't immediately relevant for me (as I immediately thought of sculpture in a town centre...) However it proved to be a very informative and inspiring day.

In the morning we had presentations from three groups about their experiences outwith Fife.

Ganghut - a very funny and motivating group who motivate the artist, audience and community
Big Things on the Beach - professional and positive community group
Thomson & Craighead- very clever use of 'data' -content and presentation.

and in the afternoon we heard about experiences within Fife

Keiko Mukaide
Babs McCool
Tim Fitzpatrick

Summary notes:-

• I really enjoyed listening to artists talk about their work, thought processes, difficulties and accomplishments. Most spoke well with little arty farty gobbledygook. Talking with my Professional Artist friends (Karen and Anne) it seems art school training teaches you to continually assess and justify your work which feels a little beyond me...
  
• Recession, lack of conventional gallery space and a drive to fully engage the viewer has led to artists seeking alternative options in displaying, selling and communicating with their audience... Don't narrow your exhibiting outlets and/or viewers
• politics, red tape, more Nos than Yeses. Just do it.

On a more personal level...

• I need to talk to more adults about non child things. I need more debate and challenge. I need to stop lurking!
• I need to stop procrastinating and saying I don't have the time to make art and just do it.
• What is the difference between a fibre artist and a textile artist? <insert punchline here>

Some artists groups present on the day...

Fizzy Milk - bringing contemporary art to young people
Cupar Arts & HeritageProject
Blacksand - Kirkcaldy based group of artist
DAM- Dunfermline Arts and Media Group
Ovenstone Artists

I have a thick wad of paper with the other delegates details. Tomorrow night I'll look through their info...

new discoveries

spotify for instant free music... so far liking it!
evernote for list making and collecting
tweetdeck for tweeting and Facebook
Eleventh Hour - new TV drama on Living. Watching it just now...
Mentalist - new TV drama on Five.

Knitting - a tale of two socks

After seeing me knitting my second Noro sock (yes, I am still knitting the 2nd sock...) Toddler Girl asked me to knit her one. Or rather, I promised I would knit her a pair if she gave me back my sock...

I'm using Pitter Patter by Jacqueline Ziegler at luusmeitli knits & crochet.

The first one knitted up quickly, I did it by just reading the pattern and I'm not very happy with it. Its very baggy and there are lots of mistakes in the short row heel (I'm still very fuzzy on the s1yb and s1yf). So I quickly started the 2nd one, using the Silver's Sock Tutorial and a knitting book to make it better.

What a difference! The short row heel is still abit messy, I might be mixing up my yf and yb or maybe not keeping the yarn taut. Anyway I will have to knit a third sock as these two are too different, even for a Toddler...


Both these socks are knitted using Sirdar Snuggly and I used 3.75mm 5" double pins. The only difference is the sock on the left was casted on over two needles. The one on the right is casted on over one needle. I'm shocked at the difference in width.

Hopefully I can knit a third one that matches the right one...

ArtCubes

I bought a fat quarter of Terri Stegmiller's ArtCubes fabric at Two Creative Studios.

I love black & white and grids... how could I resist.

Not sure what I'm going to do with it!

I like the idea of painting it and then stitching and embellishing. Making them into individual pictures. Each picture is 1.25" x 1.25".

I love teeny tiny too...

I could also incorporate it into my Black & White fabric book.