The last two weeks has seen me knitting socks like a demon, working on a bright coloured fairisle design for a book.
I will at some later date do a blog devoted to sock knitting and my own personal pearls of wisdom on that.
I taught myself to knit from watching youtube, anyone can do it, get some practice needles and wool from a charity shop (make sure the needles are the right size for the wool) and bobs your uncle. You can get free patterns from Ravelry.com but once the bug has bitten, I dare say, you will start collecting pattern books. Rowan http://www.knitrowan.com/, Louisa Harding and Debbie Bliss have really changed the face of knitting patterns, no longer the joke of times gone by.
As soon as the book is released I shall let you have more info then.
Aside from that, me and the other half have been training to help St. Tiggywinkles Wild Animal Hospital as volunteer rescuers and we had our first official 'rescue' when we captured a Duck and her ten ducklings from a schoolyard. We live near lakes and reservoirs so we took her and her chicks along to one of those and watched them paddle off across the water for the first time in their lives. Ian was working in the studio with Gem at the time we got the call so we all went together. Gem is a new talent we are working with, Ian on the music and myself on the visuals, we are planning our next photo session real soon, heres one we took a few months ago ...
Style and design wise, other than funky rockin socks, we have some major house upgrading planned before Homes & Antiques magazine come back to photograph our little quirky house. My friend Paul from PM Carpentry is helping, we've had some old church beams cut into planks which Paul will be turning into the most amazing rustic and gnarly old floor. I've also been working on a design with Paul for a tv cabinet which looks like an old cupboard. I'm a great watcher of the box but hate the look of them when they are just sitting there, all black, square, ugly and not matching my decorations. Its a simple idea and one which can be adapted to lots of different looks to suit the room style. Expect lots of photos of these, there should be some new and unusual ideas to share.
As soon as thats done I can crack on with product shots for Van Asch.
A little package of the new cushion designs arrived today from http://vanasch.myshopify.com/Van Asch as well as some cool wash bags. Our house will soon be a Van Asch showcase as the new gorgeous colours and designs are fitting in very well with the bright walls I've just painted with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint http://www.anniesloan.com/ ... heres one I did earlier in Provence and Antibes Green.
Oh, go on then, heres another ..
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| a dash of Annie Sloan Florence paint peeping through as a backdrop for Van Asch |
I've really enjoyed taking 'fly on the wall' photographs recently for the Mediaeval Baebes http://www.mediaevalbaebes.com/. Not sure I was a very good 'fly', a bit noisy at times when they were recording for a new secret project to be released at the end of the year. As soon as they start to filter out the photos then I shall be able to, in meantime, heres my dear and lovely friend Kat, deep in thought ...
Woops I nearly got my deers and dears muddled up then. This is a deer, taken recently at Woburn, shameless rubbish link I know ..
Until next time my dear deers ...
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