bowls from yarn

Lately I've been crocheting bowls.  Making small dishes and vessels from yarn.

I've been trying different designs.

Different sizes and colours.  But mostly grey.

And green, occasionally.

wise quilting

I have a bad habit of changing my mind repeatedly when it comes to making fabric or design decisions.  This week, browsing the wonderful Brave New Quilts, I sketched out a whole new idea for a quilt - completely different from my original design.

And then I started to despair a little bit.  How do I ever decide on a design when there are so many ideas buzzing around in my mind? So, I took myself to Instagram.  There, a very helpful quilter simply told me to make this quilt... and then make another one and another one and another one.  Of course!  It's simple: there's no such thing as too many ideas.  Best advice ever.

quilt planning :: colour

Colour is important to me.   I often have colours in mind before anything else falls into place. 

I knew what colours I wanted the quilt to be months ago – I saw some illustrations of birds that had a similar palette of three main colours.  A bit of yellow, some grey, a patch of brown here and there.  I decided then that this quilt would be those colours.

The yellow I want is contradictory: bright but muted.   Lemon but a bit gold.  Sunny but cloudy.  The grey I'm looking for is a cool grey but not too cold.  Feathery.  Pebbly.  And I want a brown that draws the other colours together.  But doesn't overshadow them.  

I've been playing with my Pantone postcards to assist my colour research - I'm not sure how I ever coped before I had them.  So much fun.

ideas that don't have use-by dates

I found a page in my sketchbook from last year where I had written down a list of ideas I had for things I wanted to make, to do, to create.  I haven't done any of them - I had forgotten about some of the things I listed and moved on to other ideas and other lists.  For a reason I can't recall I'd stuck a picture of a bird at the bottom of the list.  Inspiration?  Perhaps.  It doesn't really matter now.

But the ideas are still valid!  The list still makes sense to me - in fact, I can improve on the original ideas.  I can still do those things.  But of course, I might forget again.  It might be another year until I re-find the list.  But I know I will see the list again.  And the bird.

finding pine cones

There just isn't that much to show at the moment.  Other things have taken priority and I haven't put thread to fabric all week. 

 But, it's all going to change very soon and the studio awaits.  Tidied up and ready for action. 

 In the meantime, 3 small finds: a pine cone found in a field, a vintage crochet pattern found in a dusty shop and string inspiration found in a book.

knowing, doing

I'm coming to the end of the online textile course that I began in March. It has been so exciting to learn from two great teachers and to be part of a community of like-minded people. 

I have taken away so much inspiration and my brain is full of ideas. I want to reflect on the knowledge I have gained.   And then I want to expand on what I know.  And then I want to do.

when a yarn isn't a yarn

I have been thinking lately about crocheting with different materials: yarns that are not yarns. I started with some garden twine – scratchy, rough and a long way from the soft pure wools that feel luxurious and indulgent to work with.

And it wasn't easy; pulling thick twine through loops gave my arms a workout and it wasn't the relaxing experience that I often find crochet to be. That led me to think about how crocheting a doily from garden twine felt more like 'work' than making the same doily from a soft yarn. As though work could be measured in terms of physical endurance, which it can't and shouldn't. But it did make me think about the physicality of making and the ways in which we measure the validity of the making [and the maker].

 And I know I will come back to these thoughts just as I will carry on with my quest for different yarns, stranger yarns, non-yarns.

always the colours

I have been thinking about colour a lot lately; spring always does this to me.  Nature suddenly puts all these tones and shades right in front of my eyes.

I have an idea; a project in mind. It might stay in mind for now but it is simmering away for another moment when I can give it the full attention it needs.

But it might involve petals.

stitching rain

It has been raining for weeks; it feels like it will never end.

I think about the repetition of the rain on the roof, on the windows, on the ground. I am reminded of the repetition of stitches across fabric. And I think about the view from the window and the rain falling in lines, from here it does just look like lines. And I wonder how long it would take to sew every raindrop [line]. 

 And of course, it would take a very long time.

wintertime pledges

Resolutions abound but I don't want to make any.  I don't like resolutions; I like pledges and aims and ideas.   I want to pledge to spend more time doing the things I love. I want to aim to complete projects.  And there are so many things I want to make and so many things I want to do.  I am not short of ideas.

 So, I pledge to continue making things that are both useful and not useful.  And to take photographs, lots of them. And to practice, practice, practice. I want to crochet with strange yarns and I want to avoid the need for perfection in my sketchbook.

And I would like to make a quilt.