WOYWW 752 Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween to you all, or Samhain or All Souls, whichever rocks your boat. 

I’m thinking of my baby blanket as a sensory blanket, with different colours and textures. 

It’s coming along, I’ve crocheted 2 strips of 5 squares, have another one to do and then joining the 3 and a border to do.  

The writing group I take part in is doing a Halloween stories evening with food tonight, (Tuesday). 

I tried making cinder toffee but it wouldn’t set so I’ve bought some gory sweets. I have two stories, one for kids and one about Napoleon’s engineer haunting the Channel Tunnel.  Others are making a chilli and more cakes. 

Brian’s made Welsh cakes and I’ll be in costume, which I tried out at Lyminge market on Sunday. Brian calls my hat my Maggie Smith hat 🥹

It poured with rain so no good for sales, but I had an interesting conversation with the Lyminge librarian, which might be useful. 

We’re just back from the Halloween event. It was raining again! We had half a dozen kids with their families and had a good time. The lights were low (pumpkins lit with nifty electric tea lights) so not good for photos and I didn’t feel I should take pictures of other people’s children these days. A few got involved with the activities but there was one little boy who glued himself to my side till I had finished the story. Sweet! 

In the adult stories, I had a pompous ghost, Napoleon’s engineer, Thomé de Gramond, haunting the Channel Tunnel, an Irish friend had a really scary story about a banshee, there was a mysterious death at a school (in the Ghosts by the Sea anthology which is free on Kindle unlimited), some stone angels, a North witch, and a story about ghosts in the afterlife. 

Bella and Gracie send purrs, Gracie from behind my shoulder and Bella from my lap. 

And finally…

Take care and happy WOYWW 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xxx

WOYWW 751 Squares and hand

Hi all, These Wednesdays come around so fast!

I’ve added more squares to my little ‘cake’ this week. 

With help from Bella! 

Gracie is showing her appreciation of the new blanket. They both send purrs to you all. 

At my drawing class last week our tutor had us drawing our hands with Biros. It’s surprising how much tone gradation you can get with one. 

And finally…

I’ll try and get round more of your desks this week. 

Take care and happy WOYWW 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts 

WOYWW 750 Congratulations!

Hi deskers - 750 editions of What’s on your workdesk Wednesday! It’s an amazing achievement. Well done to Julia, Jan and to us all for such persistence!🎉🥳👏🏻🥂🍾🎊

You can join any time. See Miss Julia at the Stamping Ground.

My desk this week is a blocking board. More below. 

Feeling so sad about the news this week and angry for the war crimes on both sides of the Israel- Palestine conflict. As Bertrand Russell said: 

I’ve invested in a blocking board for my baby blanket squares. 

I’m really appreciating my chevron blanket now the weather’s colder and so are the cats, especially Gracie. 

Bella still likes a previous make, my cat stitch shawl. They both send purrs to you all. 

I found this fantastically simple tip on Facebook for when you’re crocheting a long chain and don’t want it to twist: here

At my art class we finished with winter veg:

I must get bolder with my tones. A top tip from our tutor is to keep a square of Fablon or any sort of sticky-backed plastic in our pencil case - it’s a great eraser. Next week we’re drawing hands. 

We had a lovely time at the Perry Court Apple Fayre on Saturday. Hundreds of varieties of apples and pears with amazingly detailed histories:

 

 

Lots more choice of squashes

And traditional English martial arts:🤣

On Sunday we sold a few more books at Sellindge farmers market

And finally

Take care and happy WOYWW 

Hugs 

Lynnecrafts xxx

WOYWW 749 Chevrons and squares

Hi all, I need to practice my Tunisian crochet more before I can make a gift with it. I’ve gone back to my Polly Plum Stardust Memories patterns to make some squares with this cheery baby yarn for a baby blanket. 

I’ll work on my Tunisian crochet though! 

My chevron blanket is on our bed and Gracie approves 😻

We’ve moved on from marine items to autumn veg at my drawing class, using water- soluble graphite. 

Here’s my desk at the art class. 

Gracie and Bella send purrs to you all. 

And finally:

Till the 70s at least in my case, the cheesier the easier to remember, it seems.  😀

Take care and happy WOYWW 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts x

LMC

WOYWW 748 Chevrons, Sycamore Gap, Tunisian…

Hi all, I was sickened and appalled by the chopping down of the 300 year old tree at Sycamore Gap on Hadrian’s wall this week. Among the many images that were published, I loved this one from MarionMorrison.co.uk. I emailed her to ask to buy a card of it but she's no doubt run off her feet at the mo'.

I wrote a short story about another tree that was crucial to me, as a child. 

It’s here: https://lynnemcollis.blogspot.com/2023/09/sycamore-gap.html. I’ve opened the site up to public view. 

I’ll be reading it at our Write By the Sea meeting on Thursday. 

Here’s my sketch of Sycamore Gap.

My chevron blanket is nearly done. I’ve two more strips to join on. 

This week’s drawing lesson will be on autumn vegetables. I have a couple of pumpkins and a parsnip. I was lucky to get the pumpkins- someone (a teacher from another art class?) was busy buying them all. 😀

While we were working on our pebbles and shells, our tutor showed us images from an amazing book on graphite art:

Graphite: The H to B of Contemporary Pencil Art & Drawings https://amzn.eu/d/443JJFt

Of course, I loved this one,

plus this one: 

I’m also planning my next crochet, a Tunisian baby blanket for a recent arrival in the family. This honeycomb stitch is my favourite so far. 

Honeycomb Tunisian stitch

I asked for tips from a Tunisian crochet group on Facebook on stopping my piece curling up and they suggested:

- Using a larger hook

- Starting with a couple of rows of plain crochet first.

We’ll see. 

I have to say that despite some health issues, I’m buzzing my creativity at the mo’, between the crochet, the writing and the drawing. 

Jan sweetly sent me some beautiful flowers this week. Aren’t they gorgeous? Thanks so much, Jan. 

Bella and Gracie send purrs to you all. 

And finally…

Jan, I know you're thinking this one's just like me ;-)

If only…

Even I might consider one if it did!

Take care and happy WOYWW 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx