Pen and ink, and drawing pencil

Two sketches of the same model done at class, I do like drawing folds and creases in clothes, though proportion was better on the pen and ink drawings than the pencil drawing.

And a by the way, I'm thanking my small amount of common sense that I have photographed and uploaded pictures of my drawings.  The big sketches are on A2 paper and I'd put them under the sofa to keep flat and safe, and the cat weed on them.  Aargh!

And finally ... catching up with the Sampler Quilt

9. Clamshell
Ironing fabric onto freezer paper as with Inner City, but this time the pieces are curved, technically more challenging but looks good, and they are appliqued down like roof tiles rather than pieced.  This gave me a chance to use a nice colour changing piece of ikat as the background and some of the smaller scraps of the Naturescapes fabric used carefully to complement the changing colours of the ikat as well as a new toning fabric.  Looked lovely when I created it as it was and then even better when it was quilted and the shells really stand out.

10. Folded Flying Geese
I really liked this way of forming the flying geese units, preferred it to the more wasteful method used on the Mystery Quilt but it does have its drawbacks, the points aren't quite so accurate and it leaves flaps which can catch, although I solved this by quilting each triangle down.  I really liked using a range of the remaining fabrics to create the graduated effect of each 'flock', I decided right away that since I have more of the yellow left than anything else this would be my background colour and many of them are created from selective cutting from an ikat piece.

Knitting: turning a necessity into a pleasure

Knit1 Slip1's Boyfriend Hat

Christmas with my husband's parents was lovely, nothing like taking the edge off an overexcited 7 year old like being able to hand her over to her grandparents, however, I left my lovingly knitted glittens (gloves that have a mitten bit that flips over) and my hat in Turriff so got busy knitted two gloves from the wonderful Ravelry site which offers thousands of great free patterns that do really work.  So I made a slouchy hat which will match with the gloves when I get them back, knitted in Creative Yarns DK Rainbow Multi #0343 Jumping Castle from HCS Crafts.

Eyelet Arm Warmers

I had previously made these wristies in the same wool but colour #345 River Rafting, both change colour to look like Fair Isle when knitted up but I wasn't as impressed with Jumping Castle, the colour changes were less frequent and interesting.  This lovely pattern with eyelets is from Stitch Style's Mittens and Gloves: Twenty Fashion Knit and Crochet Styles which I got from my local library. I like working circular knitting on double ended pins, no seams!  I'm going to try and make some knitting presents for Christmas, if I start now I might be fine.  I've ordered some nice looking James Brett DK Woodlander in L5 Bark, L3 Bracken and L4 Ash from Readicut which always has great value offers on craft stuff, I felt it in the knitting shop in Dundee and it felt fine.  I found that one of the DKs I ordered online, Sirdar's Crofter, and it didn't seem to be DK thickness, more like 4 ply.  Well, I learned that lesson.

Witch cats hat by Christine de Savoie

And this is the second hat I made, which was a bit fiddly but enjoyable, in general I prefer something that challenges me and this really did.  I made it with cheap DK just to see how it knitted up and I think I wouldn't do all the top cat rows next time, but it does look rather good. I had to learn how to carry the colours across the back, called stranding, where you catch the colour you're carrying across in the back of the knitted stitches, and end up in a horrible tangle at several points if you're me.

Blackwork sampler

I love the purity and simplicity of blackwork, and the sense of tradition, dating back as it does to Elizabethan times when real lace was prohibitively expensive and thrifty housewives came up with an alternative.  The sources for this sampler are from a number of sources, mainly Lesley Wilkes' excellent Beginner's Guide to Blackwork but also online sources, and I can add to it as time goes on.  It's a rememberance as well of the true origins of the sampler, not as something just beautiful in and of itself but as a aide memoire to the needleworker as to how to create a stitch.