Open Studios preview ....

New fun pieces knitted with 0.20 mm coloured wire and 0.20 fishing line which I then overdyed.

 These are hanging in the studio window showing off their sparkling colour in the early evening sunshine.

It had rained off and on all afternoon, and I was beginning to think that I wouldn't have the chance to take these snaps.

This time tomorrow we will be open to all as part of Derbyshire Open Arts 2013.

If you are anywhere nearby, do drop in to see me and the other artists at Long Eaton Art Room, 29 - 31 Lime Grove, Long Eaton, NG10 4LD.

We will all be there from 10.00 to 17.00 Saturday, Sunday and Monday 25th - 27th May

Entranced ....!

A couple of  weeks ago I watched "Later with Jools Holland" on TV.
Not certain whether I would stay awake for the whole programme I recorded it.

There was a great lineup, but the track that stuck with me was "Step" by Vampire Weekend.
I watched the recording a few times the next day, then found their website which included the lyrics.

This has now haunted me in the most pleasant way ever since.
I can be weeding in the garden, or dropping off to sleep all at the same measured pace.
I can't remember when the last time was when that happened.

No doubt I am missing some aspects of the lyrics, but the melody and rhythm are just right for me now.

A couple of days later just as it was getting dark the garden took on a magical quality.

All the white blossom jumped out at me, and I took my phone out to try to capture it.

This image is now part and parcel of the song for me.

Too busy to post?

I have these great intentions about blogging, mentally writing posts when out walking or gardening.
I know, I've said it before, and had good intentions of posting more often.

So, all urgent things dealt with, here I am at the computer, putting off going out to do some tidying up in the garden.

The only thing that should be done this weekend is going in to Derby to continue viewing the Format festival of photography.

Last week, when we had visitors we took in the displays at the museum and some outlying venues.
This time we intend to concentrate on the chocolate factory.

And now back to some recent activities:

The Online Guild January 2013 workshop was on UFO's. 

Rather than finishing off items already started I decided to tidy up the house and re-assign yarn that had been knitted or crocheted as samples and then been abandoned. 

I do masses of sampling before making anything, and when I have sufficient yarn often rip it off the needles once I have tried out the stitch or colour variation. 

Consequently I was able to find many bits and pieces to use in a couple of projects.

I undertook to gather up loads of samples I no longer needed to preserve, and use them.

Going around the house I found small amounts of handspun which I then knitted up into a small scarf.

I did not sort the snippets, unravelling and using them as I came across them.

The central line is loosely cast on, and stitches are picked up on both sides.

The curious shaping is made by increasing at each corner on each row.

The scarf itself is knit in a k2 , p2 moving rib which gently blends the colours.

The samples I have found so far in commercial yarn were unravelled and crocheted into a giant granny square.

It has currently reached 1.2 m (nearly 4 foot) square, and weighs 650 gm (1 lb. 7 oz.), and I am still finding suitable yarn.

The colour scheme in both was taken as it comes, the exception being the cast-off yarn on the handspun scarf.

This was not a neglected sample, but part of the sampling process for a spinning project.

I had to be sure I had enough to effectively finish it off.

All in all a fun on-going project showing how much yarn gets left effectively useless when I am designing items!

I was there ... (2) random images

Cruising through the calendar listing of my photos this year here are a few to give a flavour of 2012.

Firstly, the Erewash Canal was frozen over in February, and as it thawed curious patterns showed up.

Ian and I have had some great walks. This one started from Matlock, also in February. Spot the camouflaged sheep in the landscape. 

In March I started to rent studio space at Long Eaton Art Room. This is the view from the window, out across the cemetery  Now the leaves have fallen, it is pretty much the same view. Only, the studio has much more in it than a branch off our greengage. We still have studios available, so get in touch via the website.

I can't remember the context of this image, perhaps it is just as well. Fortunately, I spotted the laundry from a distance, and had my camera ready as I came into range!

I love pylons, insulators etc. I would have sketched this, but I was out walking with a camera to hand.

Things I see that offer scope for texture work, whether in knitting, crochet, ceramics or metal need to be documented and stashed away for future reference. Maybe even just the idea of photographing the fuzzy stripes has imprinted it in my vocabulary of mental textures.

Sometimes I just go for the plain pretty things too. This was in Edinburgh in the spring, part of a council planting.

But more often it is the strong images that win out. Colour always excites me. 

So do multiples.

I was there ... (1) AIA and Nic and Andy's wedding

I've been meaning to update this for ages, and I have the photos to go with it, but little inclination to stop and think what stories I meant to tell.
So, although this will not be in chronological order, it makes sense to follow on from the previous post.
Nic and Andy's wedding took place on the hottest day of the year.

Ian and I have had a very busy year, and getting to the wedding was complicated by being in Colchester for the preceding week at our annual industrial archaeology conference. 

So, there we were taking in the brickyards,  

Thames barges, 

and mills of various kinds with wedding items to hand.

As we were at leisure, we travelled to Newport with a small diversion on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway, 

and saw this beautifully preserved signalbox

along with the vintage carriages.

Before getting into party mode for the wedding we visited Ventnor, not much good for beachcombing as all I could see was sand!

But it was very lovely sand, reminding me of my first visit back in the early '60s.

On the Saturday afternoon we caught the bus early enough for me to hang my butterflies in the trees. 

If I remember rightly, I had 17 of them to distribute near the food area. This took a bit of doing, twisting turquoise wire round branches to hold them in place. It gave the feeling I had been aiming for though.

Nic looked stunning in turquoise, and Lixie's bunting made the day.

 And then just as the ceremony ended my camera packed up with the lens stuck out, and it's not worth attempting to repair it.
So, I'll just leave it that this was the best wedding ever, held on a wonderfully bright sunny day with a great crowd of friends.

Like a massive game of pick-up-sticks ...

Being creative can be nerve-wracking at times.

Last night I loaded the kiln with some porcelain.
Here it is getting towards the end of the process.

On that shelf at the back are loads of beads and other small pieces.
Each had to be placed by hand, which proved to be a slow business.

Note to self: It would make sense to make more trays so that small items don't need as much handling!
Tomorrow morning, I'll get to see how it all turned out.

Fingers crossed!

Uggh slugs! ... or the trials of a cool wet "summer"

As has just been officially announced, we have had the wettest June ever.
Where we live in the East Midlands, we haven't had devastating downpours, just rather more wetness than we might prefer.

This has meant that our suburban garden has been inundated with unwelcome slimy visitors. 

Here is a close-up of a gathering I took 10 days ago. 

I didn't mind them creeping over the leaves of a lanky geranium on the path, but tonight I was so fed up.

Round about 19.00 I picked 15 slugs, some very large ones included, off the foliage of our broad beans.

Last night I found a couple munching their way through the best bean pod! 

Again, taken 10 days ago, this was to have been the lettuce for our lunch.

I had held back on eating any, as I knew that Ian would be home the following day.

It hardly seems worth planting seeds when this is what happens.

However, it is not all gloom and doom here.

Some plants are reviving as others are being cut down.
Both this clematis and the pink jasmine are giving a better showing than ever.
Perhaps they shouldn't be so far away from the path.

Despite the rain, Albertine is flowering well, and although we have removed slugs from the flower spikes, we have one delphinium giving a pretty good show.

We now have this rather odd double rolled-petalled geranium established safely in an out of the way place.

We have many pink geraniums scattered around the garden. 

Periodically we remove pink geraniums if they get in our way, but this flower type first showed up just at the back door step.

I have kept it there, and attempted to encourage it elsewhere.

This year's hardy and weed geranium flower count taken mid June gave 19 different flowers.

The double one is on its side, bottom right.