WOYWW 899 Othello, stretchier yarn and watercolour

Hi all, WOYWW 899, who’d have thought it? I’m so glad we’re still going, thanks to Julia, Jan and now Sarah, who groups us all via Sarah’s Craftshed. 

My desk right now is rather flowery:

I’m trying to paint an outsize daffodil for our exhibition, and am letting it dry before adding a bit more colour to the petals.

Several of our art class had lunch today to meet up and to discuss our exhibition which will be from mid-September in Saltwood, Folkestone. 

We also visited the Hythe Art Society’s Summer Show, where one of our group. Frances, has paintings. She did a beautiful landscape with the hills crinkled with clingfilm, and a lovely hare. 

I even won an embroidery book in the tombola!

My elbow is improving and I’ve done a bit of knitting. I don’t want stripes as such, because the upper chest on the right and the lower on the left has horizontal ribs. I was trying to add the occasional fine line of contrasting colour. 

Unfortunately, carrying the yarn along the back meant it had no stretch. 

I tried doing it in alternate stitches which works better. 

On the back it looks like that Latvian braid I did for our hats Jan!

We had no internet for a few days but now it’s back I’ve ordered a couple more colours of the yarn to add in. 

On Saturday evening we went to see Othello at St Augustine’s abbey in Canterbury. We have some new Ozzigear camping chairs, but were struggling to put them together, providing much entertainment to those around us. The cast were going round selling programmes so Othello’s lieutenant Cassio, helped us put our chairs up! 

The play was being performed by the Lord Chamberlain’s men, who do Shakespeare as it was performed at the time, ie with men acting women’s parts. I was dubious about this, as a feminist, and also after seeing David Mitchell’s comedy Upstart Crow, but they were excellent. Here’s Desdemona on the right. 

And finally…

Happy WOYWW

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 898 better yarn and watching the eclipse

Hi all, another week has flown past and I’m back for our weekly blog circle care of Sarah’s Craftshed. 

My rib has improved but now my old injury to my elbow tendons has flared up. I’ve had to tell myself that I don't have to do everything I’ve planned: more emotional support chickens, one for a friend and more for our exhibition like last year, paintings for the same exhibition,  living line embroidery and another present  due in September, the demand for lots of cannula sleeves…

I’ll get more done if I rest but I’m so used to keeping my hands busy….

I’m trying to dictate this blog so if anything peculiar pops up, that’s why.

My ‘desk’ is my lap again. I’m up to cannula sleeve number five now;

I’ll do the sewing up and adding of twiddles at the end. 

 

The wool I didn’t like has been sent back and I have this new blue, ice and beige upcycled alpaca mix yarn from Hobbii to make the waistcoat I showed you last week. I feel the pattern will be better with plainer yarn.

Bella doesn’t mind what I Knit as long as she can supervise 😹. She sends you all purse x no, purrs.  

We went up to the edge of the North Downs, at Farthing common, for the eclipse, as did many others. Most stayed calm but there were one or two ‘roid rage drivers who lost their patience. 

This is a photo of the view from there off google so you can get an idea of the view, though it was sunny last week. 

We were next to a family who’d come up for the day and had rigged a binocular lens to point at cardboard. Their system worked beautifully and they were a lovely family to spend the time with. They had no eclipse glasses so we shared. I couldn’t get a direct photo, even trying through my eclipse lens but this is from their system. 

On Saturday evening, we’re going to see an open air performance of Othello in Canterbury. There’s been a bit of rain around, but it’s currently forecast sunny for Canterbury on Saturday evening.🤞🤞🤞

And finally …

Happy WOYWW

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 897 Mad chickens and bumpy knits

Hi all, I’m back on our weekly bloghop courtesy of Miss Sarah. 

I’m getting better from my fall, now the surgery’s given me some better pain meds. 

My desk this week is:

I was trying to paint a mad chicken in the style of Brian James’ seagull but it hasn’t worked. 

I love the look in his eyes, ‘So where are your chips then?’

I’m happier with my tulip in the same style though. I remembered I could use a sponge to tidy up the tip of the petal. 

Apart from that I’ve carried on with my cannula sleeves, - I was reminded of them when I had a cannula for my contrast CT scan at the hospital last week. Brian was telling the phlebotomist all about them. 😻

The challenge is always to find as many bobbly knit stitches (without holes) to make the texture as interesting as possible. If you know of any, I’d be interested to know!  I can’t do ribs apart from top and bottom, either. 

Bella’s happy to supervise and sends you all purrs. 

I’m still not sure about the yarn for my waistcoat,  don’t like the browny patches. 

I’m ready for the solar eclipse tomorrow evening - are you? I remember standing in Regent’s Park with colleagues for the one in 1999. This one won’t be complete here, but I want to see it, so: 

And finally…

I just like his grin.😀 

Happy WOYWW 

hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 896 Swirly watercolours and an embroidered card

Hi all, I’m joining in with our weekly bloghop courtesy of  Sarah’s Craftshed. 

I’m writing this in the A&E department of the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford. I tripped and landed an upper chest rib on the hard suitcase-like handle of my art bag. It’s painful to breathe so I went to see my GP, who sent me here. We’ve been here over 6 hours now. They’ve checked my breathing, taken bloods and done an ECG, and I’m awaiting a CT scan, and the subsequent report. Hey ho, there are people in a worse state. 

I wasn’t planning on coming here so I don’t even have any embroidery, crochet or knitting with me. 

Something else I didn’t expect was they’ve just given me a morphine tablet. I did tell them I have to drive home later 😵‍💫

Most of this week I ve been knitting, with the pattern and yarn I mentioned last week. I like the pattern but am less sure of the yarn - it has these not so nice brown sections. As it will be very late when we come home I guess I’ll show you that next week. 

I was taken with some swirly watercolour by an artist called Brian James, which I’ve tried to imitate. 

I’ll do this one again as I messed up the point of the red petal but I’m pleased overall. 

My other crafting was a card for our Jan. I had to get her to photograph it for me as I sent it off without remembering to do it myself. 🙄 

Bella prefers me knitting to painting as there’s room for her on my lap. She sends you all purrs, though I’ve had to text her aunty Liz to feed her as it’s past Bella’s teatime. 

And finally

Hopefully I’ll be home soon 😀 and can visit tomorrow 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 895 Wrestling with a nostepinne

Hi all, I’m back for our weekly blog circle care of Sarah’s Craftshed. Firstly, I’m sending healing hugs to our Jan (LLJ), who’s been very poorly, this week. I especially hope she’ll feel better for Sunday so she can enjoy her birthday. Happy birthday for Sunday, Jan! 

I’ve not done much crafting I can show you. Bella’s been helping me to knit and she sends you all purrs. I like to make these cannula sleeves for patients with dementia out of lots of textural stitches, as well as adding twiddles. 

I did a bit of embroidery but was so concerned to find the right sized envelope that I forgot to take a photo. 🙄

We bought a new mattress topper and installed it this week. It came in a big box, which delighted Bella. 

I hadn’t thought she was into boxes before; evidently they weren’t big enough. 😹. Once we were allowed to move the box and make the bed, it proved to be very comfortable and supporting. 

I’ve fallen for a new yarn and project, but the yarn cake did not behave - yarn barf. 

🤮 

It’s Red Heart Roll with it Melange in Catwalk. I love the purples and greens in it, and I’ve wrestled it into submission with my nostepinne.

 

If you want to know more about nostepinnes, there’s a link here: Nostepinnes I want to make this waistcoat in this yarn if I can get the tension to fit. 

It’s going to be too hot for knitting this week so I’m out of phase with the weather again!🙄. I might be back embroidering again sooner rather than later.

 At least if we have to go out we now have working Aircon in the car again -yay! The garage did the service and degassed the Aircon today, whatever that is😼

And finally:

Happy WOYWW everyone 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 894 Embroidery and the Wife of Bath

Hi all, is it time again for our Wednesday blog circle? The week passes so quickly. I’m joining in via Sarah’s Craftshed.  I was inspired this week by our BJ to start a living line embroidery. 

You may have seen on Facebook that I felt a pressure straight away to make something useful - to use it to illustrate one of my Freddy the Dolphin stories, where a crab steals a bracelet and Freddy gets an octopus to tickle the crab to recover it. This embroidery’s supposed to be a zen activity, not purposeful, and I realised my mistake the following day when I was too tired to do such a task.

I might embroider an octopus at some point but I’ll keep it light. I’ve bought a pair of tapestry sticks to roll it on to, once it’s long enough. 

Since the weather is cooler, I’ve done a bit more knitting of a cannula sleeve. Bella likes me doing this as her ‘cushion’ doesn’t move much. She sends you all purrs. 

We had a good evening on Sunday, as the Rude Mechanicals came to do their latest play, The Wife, on the field at the centre of our village. It was cooler so by the late evening we were in coats and blankets, but it was great fun. It’s based on Chaucer’s the Wife of Bath but is full of jokes and songs. 

At school I wish we’d done the Canterbury tales but we did his Troilus and Cressida instead and spent the whole time translating it line by line. It killed Chaucer for me, whereas it could have been so much fun. We could’ve debated what women want, as the Wife of Bath asks, although sovereignty might have been too revolutionary for early 1970s at my girls’ grammar school. We did human biology until it came to reproduction, when we switched to rabbits. In our 6th form the headmistress was still refusing to have sex education taught, despite the fact that one of my class had left, pregnant. I hope they’ve improved now!

And finally…

Happy WOYWW

hugs

Lynnecrafts xx