WOYWW 850 the Hand of Autumn

Hi , I’m back for our weekly bloghop care of Sarah’s Craftshed. 

Here’s my art class desk first. We’re doing the Hand of Autumn in the style of Arcimboldo, and I’m loving our first project, filling the outline of my hand with leaves, fruit, acorns and a feather. We’ll gradually cover the outline with foraged bits and pieces, painting all the items as we go  

This is one of Arcimboldo’s, an Italian who lived in the 16th century. 

I’ve loved reading ‘Georgia’ a novel about Georgia O’Keeffe by Dawn Tripp and it inspired me to paint something different: My Beaujolais. 

Sorry  I didn’t get far round last week. I had to search through all my mother’s photos and memories for these photos of my aunt, Chris, whose wake is this weekend in Stoke (for which we’re making a flying visit). I confess it upset me far more than I expected, and I escaped into reading. 

This one is my aunt as a girl with my Grandad and Nan Collis. It’s typical of her so it was worth finding. 

I finished Miss Mathilda who’s coming to Stoke for my cousin. 

Bella loves sleeping on my lap while I’m crocheting and sends you all purrs. 

 And finally:

Sorry this is a mess. I put it in my poetry blog by mistake and only just realised. The original is here: lmcollis.blogspot.Com. 

I’ll be round visiting after class. Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

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WOYWW 849 Chevrons and the Reading Tree

Hi all,

Hasn’t this week come round quickly! I’m back for our blog circle care of Sarah’s Craftshed. 

Here’s my desk:

I’ve been working on a new watercolour, I’ve called the Reading Tree. I had one when I was 8 or 9 years old, an oak tree in a nearby field. I’d take my book, a drink and a sandwich, hauled up in my Mum’s shopping bag with a length of rope, and I’d happily stay there for most of the day. 

My first Enid Blyton favourites were the Magic Faraway tree series, quite apt, considering 😀

My chevron blanket is progressing, I’m on my third strip now. Our Twiglet said I must be very patient to crochet like that, but the truth is that I have to keep my hands occupied, so I crochet while we watch TV or listen to an audiobook. We’re enjoying Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series at the moment. 

Bella approves and sends you all purrs. 

A new Sicilian restaurant has opened in Folkestone so we gave it a try last weekend. It’s called ‘Let’s Amore’, an odd name but we love Sicilian food so worth a try. We loved the starters: caponata (a sort of sweet and sour ratatouille), spicy sausage, a paste of sun-dried tomatoes, and olives, with focaccia. I could eat that as a main course!  Their signature main course is a fried closed pizza. I might try that another time as you can choose to have ricotta for the cheese element. I’m ok with fromage frais as it’s the tyramine in aged cheese that triggers my migraines. I had chicken Milanese, which was  very filling. The chef/owner gave us pistachio cannoli for dessert which were light and delicious. It makes us nostalgic for Sicily! 

And finally…

My art class starts again on Wednesday mornings so I’ll be visiting your blogs in the afternoon. 

Happy WOYWW

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 848 Chevrons and witches

Hi all, back again for our weekly bloghop courtesy of Sarah’s Craftshed. Here’s my desk as I was finishing my latest Peak District watercolour. 

We’ve had a relatively busy week, going to see Martha Wainwright in concert at the old Booking Hall venue in Dover. (It was good not to have to go to London for a concert). She’s an excellent singer and we enjoyed it, although we’re more familiar with her mother and aunt’s (the McGarrigle sisters) music. 

On Sunday we went to an open-air performance of Macbeth at Goodnestone Castle gardens, by the Duke’s Theatre company. I love Macbeth, having once played First Witch at school in a long, ginger wig and Yoko Ono sunglasses. The one on Sunday was an excellent performance, and despite recent unsettled weather, it was dry. Here’s a scene with Macbeth and the witches. 

They were very inventive with having suddenly appearing red ribbons for all the blood. Of course, at the beginning we had to answer ‘When shall we three meet again?’ with ‘I can do next Tuesday’ as per Terry Pratchett. 😀🧙‍♀️🧙‍♀️🧙

I’ve done more work on my chevron blanket, too. I’ve put in a stitch marker I’ve called my ‘Are we there yet? Marker’. I’ve only reached full length once the strip is twice the length of the AWTY marker and it avoids temptation to measure the strip continually. 

Here’s my first 180cm long strip, doubled up. 

Bella approves and sends you all purrs. 

And finally …

I’ve always been fond of Wiley Coyote:

Happy WOYWW

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 847 Chevron blanket

Hi all, 

I’m back for our weekly bloghop care of Sarah’s Craftshed. 

I haven’t done much crafting this week as I’ve been sorting out my MSc, PhD research and associated paperwork that’s cluttering the office. I’d like to be able to use the desk for painting, and we don’t have a use for all the copies of research papers now. 

I have started a chevron blanket, as the first on has proved ideal. The yarn has some alpaca in it, so it’s warm in winter and sufficient with a top sheet in summer when we don’t want a duvet. 

Here’s the first one I made. Bella loves it, as did poor Gracie:

Here’s my wool (King Cole harvest and Bramble):

It’s a two row pattern, from an American company, Mary Maxim, made in 4” wide strips and crocheted together at the end. 

Sunday was a beautiful day here. sunny but without the forecast heatwave. In fact, the whole weekend flouted the regulations that say it must rain on bank holiday weekends.😹 We went up to Perry Court Farm for lunch and shopping.  We’ll be back on 5th Oct for the Apple fair but they had some lovely Worcester Pearmains already. 

I noticed they had some hand knitted sheep for sale - the prices made me blink!

We came back up over Wye and stopped at the Devil’s Punchbowl for a walk. The view’s stupendous.

Bella sends you all purrs

And finally…

Can’t resist this one: 😹

I think they’ve already taken over 😹😹

Happy WOYWW 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 846 Crochet critters and watercolour

Hi all, I’m back for another Wednesday bloghop courtesy of Sarah’s craftshed. 

All those of you who guessed that my latest emotional support critter was a dragon were spot on. 

They’re currently sitting on the back of the settee where the hens are looking quizzically at Brian. 😹😹

I’m also trying to do another painting, this one of the Peak District, but I’m not happy with it. 

I had to fix the printer first(to get my reference photo)  as the magenta wasn’t printing. I tried changing the ink cartridge, running a clean but nothing was working. I went online and found the deep clean option, which finally worked. Then I almost gave up on the painting but I keep lifting out and trying. I think most paintings go through an ugly phase so I keep trying to fix it for longer now. 

I’ll see if I can turn it round. I need more of a slant on the rocks and a better shaping, as well as the layers of sky and hills. 

Bella prefers me crocheting to painting. She sends you all purrs, between her absolutely essential and frequent naps. 😻

And finally:

I’ll be in and out tomorrow, so it might be later before I can start visiting your blogs. 

Happy WOYWW 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 845 Windy watercolour and Crochet critters

Hi all, 

Another week has whizzed by, so here I am again for our weekly bloghop care of Sarah’s Craftshed. 

I’ve added a bit more shade to my watercolour:

I’m working on another ‘Crocheted Critter’. I don’t know if you can guess yet what it is? I’m adding boning to the wings to make them ‘fly’.  

This boning is a bit hard to sew through and I have to pull the needle through with pliers but I’m hopeful it will make a nice effect. I’ve since covered it with a crocheted hem. It’s hard to get a decent angle as it’s not yet stuffed but this might give you a better idea:

I want to say ‘Fly my children, fly!’

Bella approves and sends you all purrs. 

I hope you can all stay cool in the hot weather this week. 

And finally…

Take care and happy WOYYW

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx