In the Making...

Last night, a group of us from knitting went to the Paintbox Ceramic Cafe, Cleethorpes for mug painting. It was great fun and they all made some fantastic mugs. None of them are glazed yet, we'll get to pick them up next week.  I thought Charlotte's frog was brilliant! I normally go every week, so I just carried on what I'd been working on. Though it did happen to be a mug. Here's mine - I also did a little teaspoon stand, as well, which will be a present for Mr; done using my current zentangle obsession. I'll let you see them once they're fired, as the colours really brighten. Here's most of mugs by the end of the night. Julie and Stacey made the night great. Here's a few of the pieces in the shop, that Julie's painted, with some gorgeous tulips. It's was a fun night and hopefully everyone enjoyed it.

I've recently been looking into different cast on methods. I've tried quite a few and they've all got their purpose but I have taken quite a fancy to the Estonian Cast On (a.k.a. Double Start, Latvian). It's quite simple to execute, it's stretchy and can be quite decorative too. It works well with 1 x 1 and 2 x 2 ribbing because it wraps around the base of the column of ribbing. It's a super cast on for socks. The tutorial is for the single strand method. 1. Measure out a long tail. I tend to use 1 inch per stitch for thicker yarn and 1/2 inch per stitch for DK weight and thinner; plus another 6 inches for luck! Make a slip knot and place on your needle. 2. Place your fingers between the strands and tilt your hand back into a catapult position. This creates a cross on the thumb strand. 3. Insert your needle into the loop around your thumb from below. 4. Reach across over the top of the strand on your forefinger. 5. ...

At my LYS, A Good Yarn , there was the New Launch sale last week (I bought too much and daren't blog about it). There were lots of lovely yarns in stock. I wanted to use the Bergeré de France, Coton Fifty  and the shop has had Mary Jane's Tearoom patterns in stock. They have been hugely popular in the shop, probably in part to the wonderful samples that have been knitted up. I always have a penchant for stranded colourwork and Bo Rabbit appealed to me the most. So I ended up sketching a Bo Rabbit to try out a different colour combination. Here's my "Bo in Blue": It would have been better if I'd used my sketchbook but it helped me make a decision. So here's the yarn I bought to make him. However, the side effect of the sketch was, I really wanted to draw again. Some of my friends had been pinning some " Zentangle " designs that caught my eye.  So a fair amount of research and many hours later. Here are the results. ...

I had a lovely Sunday, we went to Doddington Hall - in search of a walk and some inspiration. I had lots of fun taking photos, it's been ages since I went out specifically to photograph and I forgot how much I enjoyed it. It was an overcast day and I took lots. Here are a few of my favourites. Doddington Hall Hellebore - Christmas Rose I think this is meant to be a Unicorn! This was my absolute favourite of the day Barbed wire We had a little photo shoot while we were there. Though I much prefer being on the other end of the camera. What a fun guy? (I'm sorry, but couldn't resist) I love this one with Mr. in the background. Horse Chestnut I thought these were a good demonstration of using different focal points - I think I prefer the first one. The most enormous gnarled Horse Chestnut - there were three in a row and they were all huge. I'd never been to Doddington Hall before and must say it was lov...