Tuesday 5 November 2024

WOYWW 805 Hexi cardies and Margate art

Hi all, where’s this week gone? Here I am for our Wednesday bloghop care of Sarah’s craft shed


I’ve bought a trolley off Temu to collect my art stuff in one place. I’m not sure this is the right place for it, but we’ll see. I was curious to see how Temu are and while they deliver what they say, they bombard you with “credits”. I succumbed to some Baohang watercolour paper and a notebook, but I’m glad I didn’t sign up for notifications from them; at least I can ignore them unless I want to look at the app. Since the minimum order is £15 I’d end up buying more stuff I don’t need. 

It was half term this week so no art class desk to show. 
I wasn’t very happy with my first hexi cardi, so I’m trying a new pattern in Hobbii winterglow, under Bella’s supervision, of course. She sends you all purrs. 
It decreases on the sleeve side of the hexagon. If anyone’s interested I’ll send details. 


B and I had a day out in Margate on Thursday. I took some flowers for my parents in the cemetery and we went to a gallery I’d been recommended; the Carl Freedman gallery for an exhibition called Realms. 
Some were fantastical,

And some were entirely sewn. 
We had a lovely lunch in Bottega Caruso and walked back along the front, behind the Turner art gallery. 

This Wednesday we will be posing glasses of water over postcards (Matisse for me) and paint them with the distortion caused by the glass. 
You can see the effect in this ‘selfie’ photo by Picasso. 
And finally



I’ll be round to moderate and comment after my art class. 
Please sign your comments at least; I’m not comfortable with totally anonymous comments although Google might make you post without your name at the top. Thanks xx

I sincerely hope that the news in these coming days will be good for us all. 



Take care and happy WOYWW 
hugs
Lynnecrafts xx





Tuesday 29 October 2024

WOYWW 804 Hexi cardi and watercolour

Hi all, I’m back at our weekly bloghop courtesy of Sarahscraftshed.co.uk/
My desk this week shows me redoing my Manifold Way landscape. It’s half term so no class this week. I’m trying to make it look more Ravilious and less wild and woolly, though the Pennines often are very wild and woolly. 


This reference card is by Eric Ravilious, to show his style, albeit on the Downs rather than the Pennines. 

I’m also starting to join the edges on my hexi cardi. I’m crocheting the seams. At the mo it’s hard to see if it fits - it feels rather big. I may need to crochet a button band and collar. The sleeves are 3/4 which I like. I’ll also be adding pockets. 

Bella’s been supervising as you can see😻
That’s when she’s not attacking my tape measure. 😹

She sends you all purrs. 
Fingers crossed for me on Friday as I have a phone appointment with the local NHS Headache clinic for migraines. The neurologist I saw privately gave me a private prescription for a new medicine which I take every 48h. I’m hoping this NHS doctor will agree to prescribe it for me as it really works but I can’t afford to keep paying for it privately. My GP said she wasn’t allowed to prescribe it. 

And finally…
The caption for this:
 I’ve sorted the oven clock out at least. 


Happy WOYWW all!
Hugs
Lynnecrafts xx





Tuesday 22 October 2024

WOYWW 803 Hexi cardi and charcoal

Hi all, I’m back for our WOYWW blog hop care of Sarahscraftshed.co.uk.

Here’s my desk - I’ve just got as far as doing a charcoal drawing for my Ravilious style landscape. Colour gets added at tomorrow’s lesson, but I’ve started planning which ones to use. 

My hexagonal cardigan project is growing, with Bella’s help. 😻

Bella sends you all purrs. 

And finally…
I’m 


Take care and happy WOYWW
Hugs
Lynnecrafts xx



Tuesday 15 October 2024

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!




Tuesday 8 October 2024

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 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