WOYWW 897 Mad chickens and bumpy knits

Hi all, I’m back on our weekly bloghop courtesy of Miss Sarah. 

I’m getting better from my fall, now the surgery’s given me some better pain meds. 

My desk this week is:

I was trying to paint a mad chicken in the style of Brian James’ seagull but it hasn’t worked. 

I love the look in his eyes, ‘So where are your chips then?’

I’m happier with my tulip in the same style though. I remembered I could use a sponge to tidy up the tip of the petal. 

Apart from that I’ve carried on with my cannula sleeves, - I was reminded of them when I had a cannula for my contrast CT scan at the hospital last week. Brian was telling the phlebotomist all about them. 😻

The challenge is always to find as many bobbly knit stitches (without holes) to make the texture as interesting as possible. If you know of any, I’d be interested to know!  I can’t do ribs apart from top and bottom, either. 

Bella’s happy to supervise and sends you all purrs. 

I’m still not sure about the yarn for my waistcoat,  don’t like the browny patches. 

I’m ready for the solar eclipse tomorrow evening - are you? I remember standing in Regent’s Park with colleagues for the one in 1999. This one won’t be complete here, but I want to see it, so: 

And finally…

I just like his grin.😀 

Happy WOYWW 

hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 896 Swirly watercolours and an embroidered card

Hi all, I’m joining in with our weekly bloghop courtesy of  Sarah’s Craftshed. 

I’m writing this in the A&E department of the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford. I tripped and landed an upper chest rib on the hard suitcase-like handle of my art bag. It’s painful to breathe so I went to see my GP, who sent me here. We’ve been here over 6 hours now. They’ve checked my breathing, taken bloods and done an ECG, and I’m awaiting a CT scan, and the subsequent report. Hey ho, there are people in a worse state. 

I wasn’t planning on coming here so I don’t even have any embroidery, crochet or knitting with me. 

Something else I didn’t expect was they’ve just given me a morphine tablet. I did tell them I have to drive home later 😵‍💫

Most of this week I ve been knitting, with the pattern and yarn I mentioned last week. I like the pattern but am less sure of the yarn - it has these not so nice brown sections. As it will be very late when we come home I guess I’ll show you that next week. 

I was taken with some swirly watercolour by an artist called Brian James, which I’ve tried to imitate. 

I’ll do this one again as I messed up the point of the red petal but I’m pleased overall. 

My other crafting was a card for our Jan. I had to get her to photograph it for me as I sent it off without remembering to do it myself. 🙄 

Bella prefers me knitting to painting as there’s room for her on my lap. She sends you all purrs, though I’ve had to text her aunty Liz to feed her as it’s past Bella’s teatime. 

And finally

Hopefully I’ll be home soon 😀 and can visit tomorrow 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 895 Wrestling with a nostepinne

Hi all, I’m back for our weekly blog circle care of Sarah’s Craftshed. Firstly, I’m sending healing hugs to our Jan (LLJ), who’s been very poorly, this week. I especially hope she’ll feel better for Sunday so she can enjoy her birthday. Happy birthday for Sunday, Jan! 

I’ve not done much crafting I can show you. Bella’s been helping me to knit and she sends you all purrs. I like to make these cannula sleeves for patients with dementia out of lots of textural stitches, as well as adding twiddles. 

I did a bit of embroidery but was so concerned to find the right sized envelope that I forgot to take a photo. 🙄

We bought a new mattress topper and installed it this week. It came in a big box, which delighted Bella. 

I hadn’t thought she was into boxes before; evidently they weren’t big enough. 😹. Once we were allowed to move the box and make the bed, it proved to be very comfortable and supporting. 

I’ve fallen for a new yarn and project, but the yarn cake did not behave - yarn barf. 

🤮 

It’s Red Heart Roll with it Melange in Catwalk. I love the purples and greens in it, and I’ve wrestled it into submission with my nostepinne.

 

If you want to know more about nostepinnes, there’s a link here: Nostepinnes I want to make this waistcoat in this yarn if I can get the tension to fit. 

It’s going to be too hot for knitting this week so I’m out of phase with the weather again!🙄. I might be back embroidering again sooner rather than later.

 At least if we have to go out we now have working Aircon in the car again -yay! The garage did the service and degassed the Aircon today, whatever that is😼

And finally:

Happy WOYWW everyone 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 894 Embroidery and the Wife of Bath

Hi all, is it time again for our Wednesday blog circle? The week passes so quickly. I’m joining in via Sarah’s Craftshed.  I was inspired this week by our BJ to start a living line embroidery. 

You may have seen on Facebook that I felt a pressure straight away to make something useful - to use it to illustrate one of my Freddy the Dolphin stories, where a crab steals a bracelet and Freddy gets an octopus to tickle the crab to recover it. This embroidery’s supposed to be a zen activity, not purposeful, and I realised my mistake the following day when I was too tired to do such a task.

I might embroider an octopus at some point but I’ll keep it light. I’ve bought a pair of tapestry sticks to roll it on to, once it’s long enough. 

Since the weather is cooler, I’ve done a bit more knitting of a cannula sleeve. Bella likes me doing this as her ‘cushion’ doesn’t move much. She sends you all purrs. 

We had a good evening on Sunday, as the Rude Mechanicals came to do their latest play, The Wife, on the field at the centre of our village. It was cooler so by the late evening we were in coats and blankets, but it was great fun. It’s based on Chaucer’s the Wife of Bath but is full of jokes and songs. 

At school I wish we’d done the Canterbury tales but we did his Troilus and Cressida instead and spent the whole time translating it line by line. It killed Chaucer for me, whereas it could have been so much fun. We could’ve debated what women want, as the Wife of Bath asks, although sovereignty might have been too revolutionary for early 1970s at my girls’ grammar school. We did human biology until it came to reproduction, when we switched to rabbits. In our 6th form the headmistress was still refusing to have sex education taught, despite the fact that one of my class had left, pregnant. I hope they’ve improved now!

And finally…

Happy WOYWW

hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 893 Home again

Hi all, We’re home again, glad to say, so this week I’ll be joining our blog circle care of Sarah’s craftshed from home with good WiFi! 

I’ve some ideas for projects, painting a couple of images made of composite bits, in the style of some I saw in France. 

This one is by Karine Girault. We went to buy wine from Domaine Jean David and he was hosting an exhibition of her work in his winery.  His wine is organic and without added sulfates, and I discovered I can drink a glass or two without triggering a migraine. 

It’s a lovely idea, buying wine and admiring art at the same time. 

I’ve been impressed by BJ’s living line embroidery as well, and have bought a pack of bits and pieces off Etsy to get started. 

We ventured to the market in Nyons and to a museum and mill La Scourtinerie, where they make filters for olive oil presses, (Nyons being the centre for Provençal olive oil), mats, curtains and all sorts of things from coconut fibre. 

This last week was very hot so we went up Mont Ventoux. Those 1,920m drop 10 deg off the heat of the day so it was a lovely 24deg C. 

 

Bella was happy to see us home and I even thought she was going to get in the bath with me last night  😹

She’s been staying close and sends you all purrs. 

And finally…

Happy WOYWW 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

 

WOYWW 892 Landed

Hi all,

I’ve found some slow but working WiFi at last. So sorry I haven’t visited. I also haven’t done any crafting apart from turning up the hem of my dress. 

Three of my owls landed in their new homes, the Hedwig one for our goddaughter, Alexia,

the blue keepsake owl for my French sister, Evelyne, Alexia’s Mum;

 

and a third one, a sewing kit owl was exchanged for 20 centimes to Alexia’s cousin, Ornella, who works in the vineyard. 

It’s been pleasantly warm since we got here, not too hot, but if the forecasts are right (35deg) then Mont Ventoux is nearby and we can drive up there where it’s only forecast to be 24 deg, at 6270ft. 

I have my watercolours with me and I can try to paint the views here again. 

Sunset is lovely:

As I missed the Conscrits festival in Létra in May, I arranged to meet up with some of them at the local bar. They turned it into a ceremonial presentation of my hat and cockade, and Marie-Claire made me a card cactus, in line with the class theme of cowboy country and Lucky Luke. 

I was so touched. 

These are some of the members of our class (xxx6), who are 70 or 80. 

Robert, in the 1956 t shirt, had his grandson born in 2026 in the parade with him, wearing a tiny version of my hat.

He was the friend who originally invited me to join the Conscrits. 

In my first year, 2006, Monique and I celebrated by drawing huge 6s on the road between her farm and our family’s farm, laughing like loons. It’s a special memory 

That was the Friday night. On Saturday, officially the first day of Alexia’s birthday weekend, they celebrated our 43rd wedding anniversary and the 50th anniversary of Brian coming to the farm as a grape-picker. 

And Alexia and Pierre shared their news, Alexia’s expecting a baby next January. I’ll have to get knitting again 😀

And finally…

The WiFi’s gone v slow so I’ll wish you happy WOYWW

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx