Sketching, Stitching, Crocheting

So sorry I neclected my blog. My cold was still lingering, and heaps of stuff to do at work. I always was so exhausted after work. I don’t like staring at a computer or doing too detailed embroidery with sore eyes. Now I’m really better and regular blogging and crafting will hopefully resume.

First I show a little sketch done outdoors, It shows, well, corn, and a little pointless doodling with colour. I call it “the colours of corn”.

Second is a little sneak peak at some crochet I did on the commute. I’ll show more of it after hiding the loose ends, washing and blocking.

Last, another sneak peak at some embroidery I currently work on.

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A Bad Cold and Some Lace and Stones

Hey, I know this blogging break was longer than I said it would be. My vacation was fun and interesting but also hard on my body. In the end, I caught a really bad cold so I spend the last few days in bed, unable to do much. I’m still very tired, so I post some stuff I did before my vacation, but I will have sketches and photographs to show as soon as I feel up to sorting them.

I always admired the crochet covered stones of Margaret Oomen at resurrection fern, and wanted to make my own. now she has released a tutorial with a pattern here, and there also is a flickr group for crochet covered stones to check out. So I finally picked up the crochet hook.

Here is a look at what I did. yes the pics were taken on the train, the blue background are the train seats. I like rocky, uneven stones better than the smooth ones, so that’s what I tried to cover. I also crocheted a beaded chain with the vague intent to use a covered stone as pendant. I used ecru coloured Anchor crochet cotton 40 for it all.

The covered Stone. The crochet cotton lookes a bit rough on the little thing, I’ll have to get 60 or 80 when I can go out again.

A closeup of the chain. Not the colours you would normally use for jewelry, but so nicely stoney.

The second stone to cover. It is in fact smaller than the first, and has nice structor of its own. I’ll definitely need cotton size 80 there.

Work in Progress

Well, it is not wednesday, but I have time for a blog posting and don’t want to wait.

The first one is the crochet doily. It is done, and lies flat properly. It was not yet blocked. Would anybody want the pattern? I’ll chart it and post it here if yes.

Another lace knitting pattern. this one is true lace, that means yrn-overs and purl-togethers on the wrong side. I did not add a second repeat because I did something wrong with the first one.

This is the smpler I’m using to try out my TAST 2 stitches. It started life as a sampler during the laid work month of last year’s challenge.

Work in Progress Wednesday

I need to have some more structure to my blogging if I want to do it more regularly. So I’m going to try and show you what I actually do every wednesday, no matter how boring it is.

Since last wednesday, I have been working on that doily pattern again. This time, I used Nr 20 crochet yarn, not 10, which I like much, much better. It does lay flat this time round.
the knitted stuff is supposed to be Victorian Lace. I felt I needed a new challenge in knitting, so my christmas present to myself was the book Victorian Lace Today as recommended by my friend at textiledreamer. Thanks to her, I also bought knit pro knitting needles which seem to be very good for this. Since then I’m busy trying out all the patterns so I’ll learn how to do it and can decide which complete project I want to do.

I also tried to come to grips with a certain knot stitch, ponto grilhao, not very successful so far.

The last thing I have to show is progress of a very different sort. Some time ago, I oderered a male roborowski hamster from a breeder to mach the female I already had. I got a female cambpell hamster, and the poor thing went into labor as soon as she arrived at my place. It is a wonder that she raised 2 pubs after that stress. The first pic shows one at about 20 days, the next at three weeks. Didn’t they come a long way since their birth, naked and blind? They are almost adult size by now. I will keep poor mom and give her a good home although she bites, but I will try to find new homes for the young.

What’s Going On

Since I’m back online I have been surfing a lot, and want to share a thing or two I found.

Shelley from mermaidspurse has posted a very wonderful tutorial on stitching pink carnations in needleweaving. Do check it out!

Meri has posted instructions on a surface stitch I’ve never seen before, it is somewhat similar to palestina stitch in appearance. I have jet to try it but it looks great.

Johnny Murder at donkeywolf is the guy who seems to have coined the term manbroidery, and his work is spectacular. He is sharing the blog with his partner Penny, she is, among other things, interested in spinning and working with her own yarn.

Ricard Saja blogs at historically inaccurate, naother “manbroiderer” who does surface embroidery over printed fabrics, and other fun and thoughtful things. (Warning! not work save)

To add a little bit of eye candy, here is a sneak peak on the oddity I’ve been working on on the commute last week. Yes, it’s a self-designed round-filet doily, but the design prooved unsuccessful (it won’t lie flat). No more on this, exept when I ever get round to fixing it. I’m prone to create such things when lovesick LOL (or just generally insane).

I also have new pets – lots of them. But that is a story for another day.

Tif 5 – crocheted doily finished

I’m sorry you didn’t read anything from me for long. Stuff like back pain, a cold and my job kept me from posting, and the few days I was well I went out to enjoy the nice weather. However, I did do a little bit of craft. I finished the hot pink doily. Well, here it is. The design is not that good, but I didn’t want it to grow too much more, so I finished off quickly. As you can see, I used a new thread that is slightly different, couldn’t get the original one any more.

I’ve also been to the botanical garden last weekend, but I’m not sure you want to see any more photographs.

Click on the picture to enlarge!

Crochet

I was bored in class, so I did these…

They were done with coats embroidery thread 40, so they are pretty small. The pattern is my own too. I already know in which project I’m going to use them, but I guess I have way too many wips so it may take a while until I can show the finished thing.