Golden Light

Hi there,

The golden light and beauty of fall can be difficult to leave behind, and since we are in the blogging ethereal realm, and I am the captain, I've decided to extend fall, at least, pictorially.

Pretty Crab Apples

 

Tanker with its russet bow—Kingston bound.

A Pumpkin with an attitude.

* * *

Pastel

 Sometimes I enjoy the spontaneity of sitting down without a plan,  reaching for a pastel and beginning. These two paintings I fashioned from bits of memory. The second reminds me of the boreal forest of Canada. When I lived in the north, I was surrounded by black spruce with a spongy carpet of reindeer moss covering their roots.

A fact of interest: Canada's boreal forest extends from the Yukon to Newfoundland and Labrador, covering 55% of the country and, at this time, is the largest intact forest in the world!
 It covers approximately three million square km.  

I own a limited pastel palette, but I am searching, most especially, for beautiful blue pastels for the sky and for lakes and the ocean.

On the needles...

Winter companion knitting.

A lovely pattern designed by Gundrun Johnston depicting the trees of Shetland.

'Til Next time...



Cultivate Your Dreams

I'll be linking to: 

Wandering Camera

My Corner of the World

Our World Tuesday

Many thanks ladies for hosting.

Icelandic Lattice Lace Scarf, BBs, Sale

August 2, 2016

Lava Lace Scarf. An fun knit and easy to remember pattern. Raverly post here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you've been reading along for awhile, you will remember that I planted a Gloriosa Lily last year and several of you wanted to see it. (I had wanted to grow one for many years but I couldn't find any bulbs.) Unfortunately, the wind knocked it down last year, so I am happy to finally say TA DA... here it is. It's about 5 feet tall. Although it was hard to do, today I picked one for the drawing board.

Another favourite...Queen Anne's Lace.

Doodles of the Botanical Blue kind. My new Micron pen is not the quite the same beautiful blue as the other one. It's close but not quite. I'm searching for just the right colour.

In honour of my birthday this month, there's a 20% sale on in my shoppe. Just type in SALE at the checkout. 

Enjoy the week...

Yellow Mitts, a Sketch, and a New Project

July 19, 2016

You may remember these mitts from a previous post. I had put these mitts away with only a thumb left to finish. Being mostly a blue colour fancier, they are the only yellow item of clothing I own.  I think they will look nice this fall with my brown coat. But I am not rushing the seasons. Originally these  Rosetta Mitts were knit, by me, in red. Since I love beautiful old stitch patterns, I felt compelled to bring these ones back to life.  If you haven't picked up a copy of my pattern yet, you can find the free pattern here.

From the Sketchbook...

 Unfortunately, my new sketchbook doesn't take water colour very well. I am still searching for an 
8 x 8 inch sketchbook since I prefer that size and one that can take a bit of water colour and ink. In the meantime, and although it goes against my grain, I've sent for a larger one that may work.

Who is she? Since I never met my paternal grandmother, Chrissie, and there only seems to be one extant picture of her in poor condition, I've sketched this in young Chrissie's honour.  
Although I was small when the road that we lived on was widened, I remember feeling my father's sorrow because his mother's flower garden had to go. I know that she loved flowers. 

On the needles...

A small lace scarf I started sometime ago. I know...it's not blue either.  It's difficult for me to knit with other colours because I really do want to knit everything in blue!  
It's another old stitch pattern and so easy to remember. It's called the Lava Lace Scarf.  Evelyn Clark is the designer. It's also a free pattern which you can find here.

Arrival...

The Making Magazine arrived today. I first saw it on Instagram, so I ordered a copy. As you can see, I am about to sit down with my tea and read it. I skimmed the pages and it looks wonderful! I am in no way affiliated with it, but thought I'd share because it's new and you may not have heard about it.  Here's the link.

'Til next time...Have a wonderful week...

Knitting Projects ~ Tulip Tree Shawl

The tulip tree shawl has been in my knitting basket with just three rows left to knit for a long time, so hurray to a finish.  I had hoped to make it larger, but I didn't have enough yarn. Raverly page here.

Enjoyable, meditative, and patience enhancing are just a few of the things/qualities that knitting brings to me and probably a whole host of other knitters, although I can't speak for them. I wish I could do more of it, but about three years ago arthritis struck suddenly and with it came tendonitis, so I was forced to put my needles aside. On the bright side, I've still managed to finish a few projects, including my Rosetta Mitts pattern in 2015. And I've nearly finished knitting another pair of those mitts in yellow, but I've put them away for now.  

Drawing and painting are so much easier on the hands. It's a reinvention of sorts, but one that I really love, too.

For those who may not know, lace knitting looks rather like a jumble of uncooked noodles (forgot to take a pic) and then it morphs into a fine tuned garment once soaked and then blocked.

An old yoga mat that's been cleaned to use as a blocking mat.

After blocking, I noticed the bottom points looked flat, so I re-wet and re-pined those points to sharpen them.

The yarn has a golden hue, but the camera had other ideas.

You will find the free Rosetta Mitts pattern here.

A Maestro cutout from an earlier painting. I usually cut any trash bin paintings into strips and use the white side of the strips to test paint on. But even though he's not finished, I couldn't cut through this birdie. The cutout might work in a shadow box, or as a book mark, although it may be too delicate for that.

Warm weather arrived on Sunday. It was 19C or 66.2 F. The crowd that had been hibernating most of the winter were about and about...many in shorts and flip flops.  Although those temps are cool, the spring sun was warm...hot even. Liberation! 

As the woman in the woods,  and I saw one of the first harbingers of spring: a  Mourning Cloak Butterfly. I've never seen or heard about one before. What a surprise! Another first for my nature journal.

A huge thank you for all your kind comments and support for my wee new shoppe.

xo

Have a lovely week...