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What are these, you ask? Why they're washcloths, or you could use them as dishcloths if you'd rather. I have been knitting loads of them this last week and it all started with Vincent proclaiming his lack of a face flannel and desire for same.
I've never liked those commercial terry towelling flannels because they tend to end up mouldy and/or slimy, which isn't the greatest bath time experience. So I thought, well how hard can it be to knit one? And that's what I did; just found some nice stitch patterns and improvised. If you fancy having a go yourself I used DK cotton and a size 3.5 circular needle - they aren't knit in the round, I just use circulars for everything as I find them much more comfortable to work with.
Cast on 35 or so stitches which will give you a cloth approximately 7" wide and use whatever stitch pattern you like. I used a mix of knit and purl because that gives a nice knubbly surface for washing with, but if you'd rather have a smooth cloth just do stocking stitch with a garter or moss stitch edging so that the finished cloth lies flat and doesn't roll in on itself, then knit until your cloth is square, or rectangular if you prefer. Cast off and there you are, one luxurious washcloth to pamper your skin.
Of course, if you don't feel like making your own you can get mine here. More will be added in the next day or two.
I always love it when I can find new and creative ways to use existing pieces of work. For this journal the inspiration came from a bunch of collage tags I made last year. I enlarged one and printed it out then backed it with kraft paper and added a metal washer and string ties to make an unusual cover. I'm really pleased with how it came out and can just imagine sitting on a windswept beach jotting down ideas and observations along with a sketch or two in it!
Yes, time for my yearly obsession with men on bikes, the Tour de France began yesterday in Monaco and continues today to Brignoles. I spent some very happy holidays in the South of France so it's lovely to see the area again. One of the delights of Le Tour is watching the countryside and the towns go by as the cameras ride along with the cyclists at a pace which, although pretty nippy, doesn't stop you enjoying the scenery.
That and all the lycra of course.
Just a quick post today because we have a heatwave here and my studio is like a sauna. However I am trying to get more books made for PAD so I've been sitting at my desk with a fan positioned carefully so as not to blow all my papers around the room!
Anyway, these little babies are my latest creation and I think they're really cute, measuring just 2.25"x2.5". The set of three has copies of vintage matchbox labels on the covers and the other two have original drawings of my little houses on them. On Etsy now, I'll also be doing some for PAD (if I don't melt first!)
The studio purge continues. It's slow work as I don't think I'd truly realised the amount of stuff I had lying around just waiting to be dealt with. So I clear a bit then work a bit. Yesterday I made these aceos because I unearthed my watercolours and of course had to use them right away! Oh I do love colour. The sunset one was inspired by the Iron Men that stretch along the shore at Formby. As they rust and are colonised by barnacles they become more and more beautiful in my eyes. There is something profoundly moving about decaying structures and landscapes, or perhaps that's just me.
Meanwhile, in other news, the third season of The Wire has just started on BBC2. So that's my late night viewing taken care of for the foreseeable future.
I am being a baaad art girl at the moment, not much new work being worked on, no indeed. Too many distractions, too little time (and energy, thanks to my insomnia stepping up a gear). I have got a couple of cute notebooks done - see above - inspired by the 27 Houses I showed you the other week. My favourite Murano paper for covers and hand drawn row of houses, so each one is original and different. The lime one was in an Etsy treasury which was on the entrance page of the site and it (the book) got 300 hits in the space of about an hour! Wow!
But I was talking about distractions, before I got, er, distracted. You will have heard me bleating on about the state of my studio for some time now. Well, I decided the other day that the only solution is to completely rearrange everything: workspaces, storage etc. (I just know I'm going to regret this). Anyway, Vincent very helpfully put up a row of narrow shelves to store all my miscellaneous pots of stuff and paints so that was what really got me started. With much huffing and puffing I managed to move the huge work table that we share into a better position against the wall so now there's much more space.
The plan is to have a separate small table for cutting - paper, fabric for quilts and so on - and a desk where I can have my sewing machine set up permanently, which will leave the big table for painting, collage and book binding. Of course there is a TON of stuff to sort through and find proper storage space for before that stage is reached, but it will be so much more accessible and pleasurable to use once I'm done - well that's what I keep telling myself anyway. Wish me luck!
I am the happiest of campers today, having just taken delivery of these beauties. If you've never seen such things before, they are type cases for storing the lead fonts used in typesetting. Of course nowadays most 'typesetting' is done on the computer making the print shop and its equipment obsolete. But way back in the day I learned how to do it the old fashioned way with a pair of tweezers, painstakingly picking out the individual letters and the spaces between the words and arranging them in a galley, back to front, so that when run through the press there would magically appear a page of (hopefully) coherent text.
Unpacking these drawers was a real blast from the past and brought memories of the college printshop flooding back. Each drawer traditionally held a single font with all the extra characters necessary for compositing. They were stored in great racks with the drawers of capital letters above and the drawers of small ones below - the origin of the terms lower and upper case - and when filled with lead type were incredibly heavy, hence their sturdy construction.
Well I don't have ambitions to set up my own printworks but I did think these would make wonderful bases for some assemblage art so that's what I plan to do, although first they need a thorough clean as there's many years of accumulated dust inside them. I'll post more updates as the project progresses!
And so, dear reader, I have been absent for some time, partly due to more health issues and partly because, put simply, I was tired of talking (or writing in this case). I'm sure pretty much everyone has phases when they just can't be bothered to some extent and I suspect that the way this manifests itself will depend largely on your own personality. I am naturally inclined to be a cat who walks by herself and consequently my solution is to do even more of that and for more protracted periods of time. It usually helps, and sooner or later I resurface ready for whatever's next.
Anyway, I have spent the last few days with a high fever of semi-hallucinatory proportions which turned out to be related to a tooth infection and is currently being nuked by some heavy duty antibiotics. It has been both frustrating - dizzy, weak and devoid of energy - and curiously soothing in a way that I haven't experienced fully since being confined to bed as a sick child.
Patience is not often one of my strengths but I have had to exercise it a good deal lately. All the 'must dos' and the inner promptings to get on with life have had to shut up for a while as I make my recovery. I practice looking at clouds and listening to the house martins screaming as they swoop after bugs outside my window. I doodle 27 houses in my sketchbook, comforted by the familiar repetition of the shapes and the movements of my pen on the paper. And I feel better than I have in a long while knowing that I'm right where I need to be and that, in truth, I always have been.
Here's what those skeins I showed you the other day look like when I've finished with them!
More pictures in the listings.
What are these, you ask? Why they're washcloths, or you could use them as dishcloths if you'd rather. I have been knitting loads of them this last week and it all started with Vincent proclaiming his lack of a face flannel and desire for same.
