Sketching & Doodling

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.

Luckily, I happened to have the right sort of pens and pencils to do it without buying anything. The website and the newsletters are quite informative. I found this site was quite good for more design ideas - TanglePatterns. The designs look incredibly complicated but the method behind it is broken down that even someone who believes they have no artistic leanings would be able to produce a zentangle.

I ended up making a sampler page to try out the different designs I found and so I could use it as a reference too.

I've not quite finished with it. I keep adding more and filling in the gaps - so it's a work in progress.

Anyway, back to the knitting.

AGY 1st Birthday

It was the first birthday party of my lovely little woolly haven, A Good Yarn, Cleethorpes. Everyone had joined in to make a few surprises for Kate. There was a lovely window display, as well as a knitted party buffet.

Julie's Blancmange

Michele's Jelly Rabbit

My contribution was to make the pattern for the bunting - as well as knitting the Happy part; plus I made a knitted cover for the champagne bottle. Julie was the one that got us all organised and pulled it together - she did a great job. There was also a journal that we'd all contributed to.

Dawn's Birthday Cake & My Champagne Cover

On the day, there were some mini workshops organised. Kate sorted out the jam pot covers and flowers and I designed the patterns for the mug cosies. So everyone got to pick a kit and we spent the day knitting.

Mug Cosy Kits - I was a bit slow to take a photo (there were a lot more at the start!)

At every hour, there was a special offer on in the shop - with caused much sales frenzy. Julie and Kate had made some fantastic cakes for us all too.

Everyone could put there name into a prize draw and there were lots of prizes. There was another couple of prizes not shown - a needle roll and project bag by Nicsknots and a voucher for a Birds and Bees Photography shoot, which I happened to win :)

 There was a big turnout and it was a really fantastic day.

Here are few links to other blogs about the birthday party - A Good Yarn & Faded Reverie

I'm hoping to write up the bunting pattern soon and I'll put it on Ravelry.

Cushion Stuffing Day

Just got back from a fantastic day at A Good Yarn, Cleethorpes. Spent all day helping to stuff cushions for Woolsack. 

Tables all set up ready for the little helpers.

One of my cushions with all the swatches from the pattern booklet. If anyone wants the free patterns for the cushions, they are available here.

All the cushions had to have the labels sewn in, then stuffed with pure wool fibre then sewn up.

Most of the cushions have personal messages from the knitters attached.

These are my contributions.

They're not all here but at last count there were 31 cushions that we did today; with a few more expected this week. Everyone helped; thanks to all that turned up. I was thrilled with all the different cushions and designs. A few of them are my designs but there are lots made with the knitter's own inspiration. I found it really interesting with what everyone came up with.

All the natural coloured cushions are made from Jarol British Aran and the coloured ones are from yarn donated by the National Fibre Company.

Let's just hope that the Olympic competitors like their welcome gifts.

 

Freeform

What a fabulous day! I spent yesterday at A Good Yarn, Cleethorpes; being taught by the wonderful Heike Gittins. It was a Freeform Madness workshop and I spent it alongside my fellow knitters and crocheters, such as Faded Reverie. Here are some photos of the creativity going on. (Apologies for the not so great photos; taken on my mobile).

The bags at the top are Heike's creations and very inspiring indeed and the photos don't do them justice. I love all the lovely little details on it. Lots of buttons and ribbons....

I found it very creative and a fabulous idea to use up all my oddments.

I need a new swimming bag so I'm going to try and build it up quite a bit and make a large bag.

Below is what I have made so far: I got carried away with the crocheting. I love the contrast between the textures of the knitted and crochet fabrics.

Woolsack

This last week has been a bit Woolsack orientated for me. A while back, Kate from A Good Yarn asked me to design a few cushions to give people in the shop some ideas on what to make for Woolsack cushions. A lot of the ladies from Knot Just Knitting group have made some lovely cushions and last Wednesday we had a cushion making day at the shop. The local paper turned up and wrote an article about it. In the paper there was an interview with me too but that's not on the web (thankfully).

The wool for the cushions has been donated by A Good Yarn and The Natural Fibre Company. Below is the 2nd cushion I made with some beautiful gold wool from the Natural Fibre Company. We are having a cushion stuffing day at A Good Yarn on Sunday 25th March, so please come along if you have a cushion for Woolsack.