Poppies - new print, t-shirts, cushion covers and bags

 Drawn first in Painter, auto traced in Illustrator and then coloured in and detail added. Very subtly enhanced in Photoshop by adding a texture.

Credits:
Texture 55 by Inadesign-Stock

MCN: CS9UL-UKC28-WM1LK

 Available now click the link to the shop above to see the whole collection,

Available right now!

 

All the t-shirts are also available as hoodies and various designs of t-shirt, 

baby grows, baby t-shirts and stickers:

 To check out all my designs, click here.

Artemis - Wrist Warmers and Brooch Set

Here's my latest wrist warmer set:

Artemis

The wrist warmers have a fancy yarn (guinea fowl yarn is what I call it) cuff section and a burgundy red Debbie Bliss Cashmerino 'glove' section. There is a lovely diamond lace pattern running up the centre front and picot edging along the edge of the hand section and thumb.



The brooch is a double cabbage rose in both yarns and adorned with real guinea fowl feathers:


When the writst warmer is worn the lace pattern shows up nicely. There's also a little irridescent ribbon to finish off the 'Artemis' look - elegant, glamorous and timeless. :-)

The back has my trademark cable at the inside of the wrist. This makes sure the wristwarmer sits nice and tight around the wrist.

Here you can see the details:

The set will be available in my Etsy shop unless you snatch it up first. If you're interested, drop me a line.

Moebius Shawl

Here's the Moebius Shawl I made last week. It was a fairly quick knit although the first row was quite difficult.

The pattern is by Cat Bordhi and one of her free patterns.

The shawl is knitted in one piece with a half twist and no seams. It's a bit like knitting an Escher painting. Here's some info on the Moebius strip.


I don't think I would have been able to knit it without this helpful video by Cat Bordhi on YouTube. Once started, it's quite easy... as long as you don't think about how you are knitting this. LOL

Here's a picture showing the shawl in detail (natural light). The shawl is knitted from the centre and just grows from there (don't ask me how, can't get my head around it).


And here's another picture with flashlight showing off the gorgeous colours and texture of the FleeceArtist Merino yarn in the colourway Paris.

The yarn used in the original pattern is a much heavier weight than this so I doubled up the number of stitches and rows which worked really well. I also changed the border of the shawl to a picot edge.

Mimi the Wishing Cat

Here's a little cat I made earlier....

... she's a special present for my sister who's moving house soon. She loves cats but is allergic to them and I thought this little cat is perfect for her.

Mimi

Little Mimi is a special wishing cat. She makes wishes come true. :-)


She's knitted using a pattern I made up as I went along in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in rose, fuchsia and burgundy.


Her face has been embroidered with embroidery silk, and cotton, and yarn and her eyes are two black buttons.

The flower (she insisted on having) is hand crocheted and embellished with another button.


Mimi is all soft and squishy as she's stuffed with pure lambswool.

Her paws are also embroidered.


Mimi can't wait to get to her new home....

If you want your own special cat, let me know and we'll sort out something. :-)

Spring in Paris

Spring is here - three days (at least) of sunshine and here's my offering to the goddess of Spring, Persephone:

Spring in Paris

This is another long necklace, but this time I included a clasp so it can be worn wrapped around your neck twice.

And doesn't it look just like Spring in Paris? It's elegant, romantic and a little whimsical with a shabby chic edge to it. Lipstick and sugar pinks, pale fresh Spring green, soft cream with a floral theme set off against stark black and with the vintage touch of the verdigrised filigrees.

I've added another organza/tulle flower, with layers in mint green, dark brown, burgundy, pale pink and cream and lovely gorgeous watery green Miyuki beads.


The flower is set onto a filigree with three more watery green Miyuki beads as a counterweight and so it looks pretty just in case it does turn the wrong way round. The filigree has been hand painted with a verdigris finish in acrylic paints and covered with two layers of special varnish.



Below you can see the details:

Little filigree hearts - painted verdigris - set between beautiful floral fabric beads that have gorgeous leafy bead caps in matte black. The fabric beads have come all the way from France again from the little beadhive shop on Etsy.

The pale green beads are amazonite rounds and the black ones are gunmetal beads.

The sugary pink beads are reconstituted pink turqoise and the bright lipstick pink ones are trade beads from Africa.


I've used two types of chain: one is a gorgeous matte black chain (new) that has little crescents strung together with (soldered) jump rings. The other chain is a vintage chain with a very dark patina and teeny tiny links.

The chain has a dangle that overhangs the small clasp with more watery green Miyuki beads.

I've also made a commission, but since it's for Mother's Day I won't show it on here till next Monday... just in case.

Cold and Cold

When will this infernal weather stop? I am soooo tired of the cold, the rain, the snow, the sleet and the grey skies.

Been draped over the sofa or snuggled up to the radiator by the PC for the past few days with a cold. So no pictures of all the finished projects yet, especially as it's raining today, so not enough natural light to take some pictures.

However, I have finished:

• my Green Blossom scarf
• my Black and Teal Flapper hat.

My beautiful Thorny Rose bag is still a little damp and needs a little TLC after the rough felting in the machine, however, it's looking good and I can't wait to show everyone.

I've also started a pair of dark red lace fingerless gloves. Maybe not a brilliant idea with a stuffy head and a cold as the pattern is quite fiddly, especially the increases for the thumb. However, the first one just needs the side seam sewing up and hiding all the lose threads. And, if I feel a bit better later I might start the second one.

Hopefully, I'll have some pictures in the next couple of days.....

Busy, colds and Gothic Splendour

Things have been very busy here, but I am getting there... I've made lots of wrist warmers this year as Christmas presents and tried to make them different. Below is a prototype of my

Gothic Splendour Wrist Warmers


The pattern is my own design, with a lace up feature at the front (or the back, whichever takes your fancy as they are reversible) and a cable pattern at the back. The cable pattern ensures that the wrist warmers sit snug, the lace up at the front/back allows for adjustment.



I've used dark burgundy wool for the main wrist warmer and the same yarn but in black for the crochet trim at top and bottom edges. The yarn is the lovely Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, which is a joy to knit with and even lovelier to wear.




Here's the beautiful Louisa Harding Kimono ribbon I used for the lacing in detail:

If you fancy a pair of these wrist warmers, let me know. I make them to order in a colour you like. It takes about 2 days to make them and I charge £20 per pair, postage is free.

After Christmas I will post all the other goodies I made.

News Flash: my Christmas card is 2/3 finished and I'll post it here soon... Just too much to do every day! AND I've got the dreaded cold that's going round like a wild fire here. Hope everyone else escaped it.

Black Orchid Shrug

Here's my latest shrug - finished yesterday afternoon - of course, by that time it was too dark to take pictures!

Black Orchid Shrug

This shrug was a story and a half. I bought a pattern for a wrap. I bought some wool and thought the two would go together, so I started on the sleeve. I got to the main part and decided I didn't like the pattern they'd used so I found one I liked much better... which was for some socks originally. LOL However, I liked it, but as I was knitting I realised that the 100% wool, although the right gauge was far too heavy for a 6ft wrap! Okay, so mid-knitting I decided to turn it into a shrug similar to my Shosenshi blue shrug.

I love the deep red (it's even darker in real life, but for some reason the camera always sees red when it sees red (you know what I mean).

Below is the knitted lace pattern I used:


The sleeves in the original pattern would have been plain ribbed 3/4 sleeves which I thought was just not right with the dramatic colour of the shrug, so I added the tulip cuffs.


... and finished the cuffs and the collar with black crochet edging.


The shrug is warm, cosy and looks great. I am so pleased with it. :-) Wearing it right now and it keeps me warm without restricting me, much better than any cardigan.

... now I am off to knit some more. My latest project are some modified fingerless wrist warmers, similar to the previous ones, but I simplified the pattern, and I am making them longer. Oh, and there will be some extra bits... AND they are in the most gorgeous deep charcoal cotton/cashmere yarn... Watch this space.

Earring Mania and the Cambridge Folk Festival 2008

Sorry guys, I've not had much time, spent it all at the Cambridge Folk Festival last weekend, and then I needed a couple of days to recover and finish some commissions. My Etsy Shop is going fairly well at the moment (knock on wood this is a trend) and I'll have to upload some of the new stuff very soon. (If I tell myself often enough I might actually get round to it).

The folk festival was great fun (check it out here) and I saw some bands which I really, really enjoyed. The ones I liked best (in no particular order) were:

Levellers, Allen Toussant, The Waifs, Richard Hawley, Cherryholmes, Eliza Carthy and most of all Eric Bibb. If you're interested, most of them are presumably on Youtube.com.

The food was great too - I love Jamaican curried goat with plantains. (Sorry, if you're vegetarian.) There was so much different food and all good - from plain chips with cheese (or Cajun spices) and bacon rolls to vegetarian burgers, Greek meze, to Indian, Chinese, Carribean and Japanese food there was something for everyone.

The nice thing about the folk festival is that it works well for families. The kids are safe in the compound and there's a playground where they can hang out whilst their parents are listening to music.

There are 3 stages, one large, one medium and a small club tent. The music fits under a very generous 'folk music' umbrella and everything from country & western to blues and anything else that vaguely fits in is being played.

~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~

I did manage to make some earrings to go with my Nightblooms flower garland and my Nightblooms bracelet:



I am quite pleased with the way they turned out. I've used 20 gauge half hard sterling silver wire and threaded some of the burgundy and black silk rod on it, interspersed with purple beads and a black matte bead at the bottom. The wires are bent in a sort of oval shape and the silk has been 'feathered'. They look quite stunning on.



Below are some recent earring purchases. The first two I bought recently at the Open Studios here in Cambridge from an artist called Gina Gherardi:

The earrings are both made from handpainted silk petals threaded onto sterling silver wire and interespersed with glass beads. Although my nightblooms earrings were inspired by them, they look very different, where mine are curvy and fluffy these are far sharper and with more precise detail.

Here are the teal ones close up:


Here are the black ones close up:


Finally, I bought the most beautiful Heartleaf earrings at the folk festival. The jewellers had a stall there and I could not possibly resist these earrings:

The detail and the smooth softness of the design is just so beautiful. The craftmanship shows and they are lovely and heavy, not flimsy at all, whilst maintaining the feathery light feel of a real leaf.


Check out the Silver and Stone website for more delectable jewellery.

Nightblooms - Flower Bracelet

I fancied a bracelet to go with my flower garland, so I made one. :-)

Here it is:


It's made from the same materials as the garland necklace, however I did not add the cocoon but replaced it with a flower crocheted from black laceweight cotton. I wanted the flower to lie fairly flat on the bracelet so it wouldn't catch on everything.


I hope you noticed the matching nail varnish. ;-)



The clasp is similar to the one on the garland with an ebony wood bead and a loop that is part of the bracelet.


Here is the flower in detail:

This set and the matching earrings I am currently contemplating will be available as a custom order in my Etsy shop where you will be able to choose the colours and length of the necklace and bracelet. The standard price will be for a longish necklace plus five flowers and one flower for the bracelet. Additional flowers will be charged extra.

For those of you curious to know how long it takes me to make a flower garland:

About 1/2 hour preparing the silk (dampening it and separating layers, cutting the cocoons in half and making scalloped edges.

About 1 - 2 hours for the necklace 'chain' itself depending on length, width and detail.

About 1 hour for making the five flowers in the green/blue garland, twice that for the gothic one because each flower centre has a crocheted flower centre.

About 1/2 hour for putting it all together.



The bracelet takes about:

1 hour for making the bracelet itself (crochet).

1 hour for preparing all the separate parts of the flower.

1/2 hour for putting it all together.

Each design will be different as the silk is shaping differently for each silk rod and I may add bits and pieces (like beads, tendrils etc) to bring out the beauty in each design and make it an individual creation.