WOYWW 802 Watercolour and Kanji stamp

Hi all, 

Back again for our weekly bloghop care of Sarah’s craftshed. 

My desk first, not much to see as we’ve started drawing our next projects- a landscape based on Eric Ravilious. 

I’ll be using water-resistant charcoal, (took some finding but Cretacolour make some) then liquid charcoal and watercolour. I’m basing my painting on the Manifold Way, where I once went cycling with my Mum. 

On Thursday we had a trip to London to the VanGogh exhibition at the NG and then the Silk Road exhibition at the BM. We don’t go to London much but in the end it was too much to do in one day, especially as the National Gallery hadn’t made the slightest attempt to set the HVAC for the number of people attending. It was really hot and unpleasant. The pictures were great though and I’m ve always loved the Silk Road. 

LLJ these are even older than your favourite Lewis Chess pieces!

♟️ 

Below, on silk, is the story of the Khotan princess who smuggled silk moth cocoons and mulberry seeds west in her headdress. 

A happy Bactrian camel. 

. 

Dear old Xuanzhang, a 6th century monk who defied laws forbidding him to leave China because he was fed up of conflicting stories about Buddhism. So he went on a 10,000 mile trip to India and brought Buddhism back to China. Remember the Journey to the West or ‘You have much to learn, grasshopper!’?

It was a fascinating exhibition and showed how’The Silk Road’ was a multiplicity of routes. Vikings went east to Constantinople, religions spread east and west, and lots of trade moved along it, from horses, to silk, gold and jade, carpets, tea, cotton and wool.

 I had some happy post from the East myself this week. My own Kanji stamp: I’m not good at stamping it upright yet  

I chose the Gyousho font. 

I've never seen anything wrapped so beautifully.

Bella sends purrs to you all.

And finally...

I'll be round to comment when I get back from my watercolour class. 

Happy WOYWW everyone!

WOYWW 801 Abstracts and six-sided grannies.

Hi all, 

Back to my current desk this week, sharing our blogs via Sarahscraftshed.co.uk

Wasn’t it fun to remind ourselves of our initial blogs and memories for our 800th anniversary?

Last week at art class, we were on phase 3 of the Apple project. #1 was the Apple study sheet, #2 was the collage based on  #1 and  #3 was an abstract watercolour traced from  #2. 

Above are phases 1 and 2. Here is phase 3. Claire encouraged us to add swirls, splashes, stencil marks, smears and all sorts to it. 

I brought it home and just glared at it every time I saw it. Eventually it occurred to me to do it again if I disliked it so much. So here’s phase 4. 

Bella’s telling me very firmly that it’s finished, that the chair is now hers, and I mustn’t forget to send her purrs to you all. 😻

It will never be my favourite painting but I’m more pleased with it than #3. This Wednesday we’ll be moving on to Eric Ravilious-esque landscapes, for example:

We’ll be using tinted charcoal and watercolour to give his muted effect, but based on photos of paths. I want to paint the Manifold valley path that I once cycled with my Mum. 

A man congratulated me on taking my Mum out and she replied‘I’m taking her!’ since she was the regular cycler. 🤣. A golden day. 

I’ve also had a delivery of yarn this week, American yarn that Lovecrafts ran out of and hasn’t reordered 😡 but I found a US seller on eBay who offered free postage. I’m much taken with the hexagon cardigan. 

I started it with this new Premier Yarns Spun Colors Blue Ridge I bought. It won’t lie flat, but that’s intentional. 

When you crochet 2 hexagons , you can fold each one to make 2 L shapes, forming the sleeves and body. 

There’s a free pattern here:https://sarahmaker.com/crochet-granny-hexagon-cardigan/

There are other, simpler patterns where you don’t decrease for the sleeves but I think that would make them too bulky. When you’ve finished the 2 main pieces, you can add more on one side of each for the centre back, join them at the back and add more length. Et voilà! (In theory😁). 

Last Saturday was the Apple fair at Perry Court Farm where they grow over 200 varieties of apple. It was another golden, sunny day with a barrel organ, lots of craft stalls and morris dancers. 

And steam engines. 

We came home with pears, Bramleys, Coxes, Egremont russets and a few of the other apple varieties. Brian bought me these glass earrings.  I’ve taken off the earwires and added jump rings to fit in my sleepers. 

And finally…

I’ll be back to comment after my art class. 

Take care and happy WOYWW

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 800 Congratulations

Hi all, and congratulations to Julia, Jan and Sarah and to us all or keeping our weekly bloghop going to reach an amazing 800th edition 🎉🍾🎂🍷🍹🥂

You can join in via https://www.sarahscraftshed.co.uk/?m=1. I’ve fallen in love with a new yarn, it’s Premier Yarn Spun Colors in Blue Ridge, 35% wool, so soft and beautiful. I’m making a Hexagon cardi:

It looks very wonky till you fold it to show it’s a side and a sleeve. 

Bella sends purrs to you all. Because the main theme today is to repost our first posts, I’ll not say more apart from adding an ‘And finally,’ which I didn’t do at first. It was Shaz Silverwolf who gave me the idea. 

And Finally

Take care, hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 411
A toe in the water....



Hi all, I'm Lynne, and after a long time of reading LLJ's posts, I've finally taken the plunge into the Whats on Your Workdesk Wednesday circle, hosted by Julia of http://stamping-ground.blogspot.co.uk/.

I don't usually have a workdesk (OMG, what's she DOING here???) as I'll work on a tray or on my lap, but here goes.

I recently had the idea of making steampunk chatelaines. they were originally going to be mainly functional, for sewing and knitting, as I'm always losing my crochet hook, but the "ctional"soon got overtaken by the decorations.

Having made one for LLJ, here's the one I'm making for myself. I liked the vintage sewing kit/pod I bought, but its enamel is too fragile to mix with all the brass bits, so I'll have to think about what to do with that.

I'll make some earrings from the jade fans. The black and fawn stripy beads looked too interesting to pass, but I don't know what to do with them yet. Any ideas?

I've usually also got some knitting on the go. Having just finished aran jumpers for friends, I needed to knit something fine, so I'm making myself a 4-ply (fingering, I think, outside the UK?) cardigan.

The pattern is a really easy woven stripe stitch from the brilliant Walker Treasury project.
You only knit one colour per row, but the combination of slip stiches and the self-striped wool makes it look more complicated.


Anyway, that's all for this week. I'll contribute as often as I can.
Cheers! Lynne

  

WOYWW 799 Zigzags, apples and abstract

UPDATE: I see my Apple project needs a bit of clarification. In week 1 we did the Apple study sheet I showed last week. Then we traced positive and negative shapes and used those to make an abstract collage, shown below. This week we have used the tracing of the collage to make an abstract watercolour painting using colours in light, mid and dark tones from the study sheet. I’ll show that next time. I hope that’s clearer! Lx

———

Hi all, welcome to our amazing 799th bloghop. Are we doing anything for next week? Here’s my desk. 

We used last weeks apple paintings to make shapes in white, brown and black and traced over them. 

This week we’ll paint the resulting page, with white representing the lightest apple colours, brown the mid-tones and black the darkest colours to make apple-inspired abstracts. While I wasn’t pleased to be doing collage again, I like where it’s going now. 

My zigzag blanket is growing. It’s still a triangle as it’s only about 50” wide yet and needs to be 90” before I do the ‘rectangle’ rows. It’s been my main crafting this week as my migraines have been accompanied by dizziness this week, but better now. 

Bella has been supervising, of course and sends you all purrs. 

And finally…

As ever, I’ll be commenting later on Wednesday. 

Take care and happy WOYWW 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 798 Watercolour apples and sashiko

Hi all, I’m glad to be back at our weekly bloghop. Sorry I didn’t comment on a lot of blogs last week; I’ll try to do better when I come back from my watercolour class. I had a checkup at the eye clinic (drops to blur your eyes and wait for ages), seeing the neurologist about my migraines (I might be trying a new medication) and apple painting. 

Here’s my desk. 

Claire wanted us to do an apple study sheet. We’re going to use the apple this week for a semi abstract painting. I’m looking forward to that and have bought some half-imperial paper (close to A2) to work on. 

Just for fun, do you see turquoise as blue or green? Here’s a little test to find out: https://ismy.blue/ I see it more as green, and my husband more as blue. 

This was my result. 

I’m enjoying my Step 2 it crochet along from Polly Plum and am liking my yarn better.

 Thanks all of you for your suggestions for using my sashiko panel. I’ve thought of turning my sashiko into a cushion and have another panel for Monet’s waterlillies. They’ll make a nice pair. 

I was so pleased, the first time I went to Giverny, to see how Monet loved paintings/ woodcut prints by Hiroshige and Hokusai, my favourite artists. 

This tutorial on sashiko is helpful for keeping my tension straight and for starting/finishing without knots. 

https://youtu.be/M-5RXN6Tk4M by Xiaoxiao yarn

Bella is practicing hibernation for the winter, but sends you all purrs. 

We had a nice walk along the Military canal this week. Finally, some sun!

And finally 

Take care and happy WOYWW. 

Hugs 

Lynnecrafts xx