In the Making...

I had some really wonderful surprises from my family this Christmas. I had lots of lovely knitting/spinning gifts. Some very helpful knitting books. And some gorgeous spinning fibre and some Knitpro Cubix needles. Going clockwise, starting with the braid, it is 100% BFL - Enjoy the Ride from Countess Ablaze . The others are from HilltopCloud , 100g Yellow Batts - shetland, merino & camel, and a 35g Frog Prince Batt and 100g Hand Blended Frog Prince Roving. And my best knitting present of all was made by my niece. I love it. Though, not sure what the warning is about, perhaps flying needles and balls of yarn! I'm sure I'm not a dangerous knitter...

Going to veer away from knitting for this one. For the last few years I've been going to a ceramics class every Tuesday morning with my mum-in-law at Brushstrokes ceramics at Waltham Windmill near Grimsby. Thought I'd share with you a few of the projects that turned out well. First is the Christmas present that I made for Jim; he has a huge shed out in the garden which he near enough lives in, (which presumably most men do!). So I thought I'd make him a name plaque for it. It was a lot of fun because normally we just stain or glaze the pots but I made it all mushrooms and leaves etc from clay myself. The glazing turned out well too (it can be a little temperamental; you don't often know what it will look like until after it has come out of the kiln). I've also been doing a few plates with my own artwork on the first was an Islamic inspired plate that is glazed: Since I was 18 I have also been to a local botanical watercolour painting class (slipped a bit re...