Friday 28 January 2011

Illumination


I've been going to some photography evenings in our community hall recently. A local photographer, Paul, has been generously giving his time to bring together a group, and to help us explore the possibilities of our cameras. It's scary wandering away from the safety of automatic settings but also wonderfully exhilarating! Our last evening made the most of the long dark nights and we had a lot of fun taking it in turns to sketch these beasties with torches whilst keeping our shutters open. I don't think I'll be getting bored if there is ever a blackout!



Posted by Picasa

Monday 17 January 2011

New Year Project

You know how much I like tweed. I love the warmth, the texture and the amazing number of colours that go into producing one seemingly-plain weave. When you look up close, there are often shots of lime green and turquoise in fabric that had announced itself, at first, as something quite conservative. I imagine, in days not too long ago (and perhaps still, in one or two places on the Western Isles) an old weaver setting his loom up in his weaving shed, choosing the threads that will make up the warp and weft. In comes his wife, and she is apparently shocked at reels of magenta and deep purple in amongst the more sober tones of mossy greens. 'Surely you can't be thinking of adding those colours to the tweed?' she exclaims. He says nothing, just smiles and carries on his work. She rolls her eyes and sets down his mug of tea, both of them knowing full well what makes tweed sing and move with hidden depths. Have a look one day, pulling out a few threads and you'll be amazed at the colour recipes, revealing the genius of their creators.

Among my lovely Christmas presents this year,  my mother-in-law gave me a subscription to Marie Clare Ideés which is a fabby French magazine, full of inspiration and fresh ideas. In the latest edition there is a section aimed at more masculine taste using wools and tweed. It looked like the ideal project for my scraps, but once I got going I decided not to make cushions. Instead, I'm going to make a quilt instead, which I can throw over the sofa and cosy up under this winter.

I couldn't help noticing this chair too.

Hmm, doesn't it look similar to something I made earlier this year?

 Nice to be ahead sometimes!
Posted by Picasa

Monday 10 January 2011

It has been soooooooo wonderful to be at home these last couple of weeks to be with family and celebrate together. Hogmanay was very special this year - we got together with our neighbours for a 'street' party complete with a BBQ and ceilidh dancing up and down the track behind our house - thankfully there was no snow this year! The boys are back to school today and I have one precious day to myself - my 'studio' has finally been given a very long overdue sort out, tidy up and clean out, so I'm planning on spending most of the day there with the first major project of the new year. I wish you all a very, very Happy New Year and leave you with a few images from the last few weeks - I did manage to get my Advent Three hats finished - it was wonderful seeing all three chaps leaving the house wearing them today...I hope they make it home too!











 PS. The DH's hat pattern is this one (I've made it twice and it's very good) and the childrens' hat is this, both from Ravelry. I sewed a wee turtle on one and a dinosaur on the other for a bit of personalised detail.