Felt, cotton and fur.

As many bloggers say at this time of year..in fact at any time of year..life just passes by so quickly and its amazing when I check how long its been since I blogged (or, to my shame, since I read blogs)

I haven't been entirely idle though. I've made a few bits and bobs for an order, some hearts and leaves and Harris Tweets. I don't have any pictures of the tweets but I will be making more soon. They are lying here in a pile waiting for their stuffing and eyes and beaks and legs.

I like the hearts and they've all gone now, but I have to make 10 more for another order

On thursday I went to the Knitting and stitching show in Harrogate with some friends. We all fell for this wonderful book in the Quilt section but can't remember the name of the artist.

Any ideas?

 My pictures are blighted by the shadow of my bulky frame.

 There were many more birds in evidence in the Graduate showcase, Alice Wolfe made these with her father who is a scupltor. They had knitted  'feathers'. They were quite stunning in  a unique way.

 Birds are very 'current' with wings and skulls and beaks in many of the exhibits. A few years ago there were poppy seed heads everywhere. What will it be next? Who can imagine and why does it happen that there is a trending motif?

A particular favourite exhibit was the Korean, Jiyoung Chung with beautiful pieces made of Joomchi a particular type of papermaking technique. Her website is here and is definitely worth a look.

I also enjoyed the Diana Springall exhibit . Her book and tv series in the 80s presented by Jan Beaney was my great inspiration to go ahead and do City and Guilds.There were her original paintings which she worked into designs for embroidery and the finished pieces.

Then there was the Beryl Dean exhibition. It was fascinating to see the great scope of her work from way back in the 30s when her work must have been so 'modern', to her beautiful 'or nue' pieces with precise and controlled stitches. My favourite piece though, was a gorgeous child's dress from the 30s, her student work.
It had beautiful short sleeves made from concentric rows of fabric triangles in shades that looked like a page of the Farrow and Ball paint colour chart, subtle greys and pale duck egg.
No photos allowed!

I ventured downstairs to the knitting and other workshop area. I love this picture with the giant knitting needles and three knitters engrossed in something or other.

 Here is another knitter..sorry I don't have a name. She was telling me about some workshops in London.

I took the knitting pics really for my son's girlfriend who has just learnt to knit and then immediately made some fair Isle socks!!! I mean...how incredible is it to be able to knit Fair Isle? And then to put it into socks? Wow.
She's opened an etsy shop with, knitted accessories and  fimo jewellery. Do pop over and have a look and boost her visitors. Its hard to get your head above the water on ETSY . It took me  4 months of hard work publicising my etsy shop to get my first sale way back in 2007 and then another month and a half for sale number two and slowly steadily its built up until my work is in dozens of treasuries, and I make a reasonable number of sales per month...but my biggest seller?
The teabag paper!!!
Now my son's girlfriend also has a blog and the first post has a neat  home made light box to help with photographs in this miserable climate, no expensive materials needed. So perhaps readers could pop over there to have a look.
Well, I said I hadn't done much but mainly I've been busy with this.

And when I remember how I was this time last year, all those smiles she brings can only be a good thing.