do you mind if i knit

Polar Bear cub taken into care.

Have you heard about Siku the Polar Bear cub that has been taken into care? His Mum wasn't able to produce enough milk, so he's being fed and cared for by humans. Round the clock care, three carers (wish I was one of those carers), the cutest thing you've ever seen. The link to the film which you may well end up watching more than once is here.

And, if you've got a quiet moment, grab your knitting or crochet or whatever, and listen to Julian fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey, being interviewed on Desert Island Discs here.

And lastly, how to spot a dodgy cash machine, link here. (I thought this might be quite a useful link!)

Well, dearest readers, I'm off to embark on Christmas, so I'll be away from blogging for all of next week. Have the most wonderful Christmas, take care, fill yourselves with love and good cheer, and I shall see you in 2012. 2012!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vanessa xxxxxxxxxxxxx

To be a blanket, or not to be a blanket, that is the question.

What a perfect time of year to be talking about the subject of blankets.

For those of us in chillier climes, just the word "blanket" has comforting connotations.

Snuggly and buggly, cuddly, bundled up, cosy, warm, fire glow, hot tea in a mug. Such nice warm things to warm the cockles of our hearts, and make us glad.

I've slowly been progressing with making my striped and plain coloured diamonds.

Last night my curiosity got the better of me, and I started to join some together. I wanted to see how they'd look.

I love them!

I know they're not perfect.

This is because I've used different makes of 4-ply yarns to knit with, and every yarn company seems to have a different idea of how bulky 4-ply yarn should be. (I could now tell you who does a thick 4-ply, and who does a very thin 4-ply). So the diamonds are varying slightly in size, which makes it difficult to sew them together.

But never mind, I'm telling myself it has a quirky charm.

I've also moved on from the idea of using bits-n-bobs of yarn left over from other projects, to actually buying balls of 4-ply for this project, as I didn't have enough 4-ply left-overs.

And as I've progressed with these diamonds, I've had a nagging thought that just won't go away.

This would make a great blanket.

It was going to be a scarf, but now I can't leave the thought of a blanket alone. I'm finding it difficult to shake off this thought, even when I think of just how much work would be involved in making a blanket for a ............ king size bed.

I'm probably mad.

Maybe I shouldn't commit to anything at this stage, just carry on till I get too sick and tired of knitting tiny diamonds, and joining them together.

I've been enjoying using the Rowan Fine Tweed I mentioned a few posts back, and have started to mix the tweed with the solid coloured yarns, which is quite effective.

I've also been enjoying reading these books I bought from our wonderful local second-hand book shop. I was seduced by the covers, I have to admit (sheepishly), but have enjoyed reading them enormously. I'm just about to start on 'The Dean's Watch' by Elizabeth Goudge, after finishing the book of short stories by Georgette Hayer, 'Pistols for Two', and 'Peridot Flight' by Doris Leslie. I never thought I'd be in to reading historical romances, but there we are, I seem to have developed an appetite for a relaxing easy read, where women seemed to be rescued from various plights by handsome and extremely wealthy men. That's more Georgette Hayer's plot lines. 'Peridot Flight' has a very plucky heroine, and the subject of women's lib is touched upon, and Peridot (such a great name) finishes the book being the bread winner.

I'd really like to say I've been re-reading my collection of short stories by Anton Chekhov (which are a superb and thought-provoking), or delving in to the other classics sitting on our book shelves, but no, I'm reading historical romances, as guiltily as if I were devouring a very large cream cake (preferably a Victoria Sponge cake, yum).

So many of these old books have lost their dust jackets, it's such a shame. According to the proprietor of the book shop, where I bought these books, many people would remove the dust jackets. Such a shame.

Well I think that's all I have for you today. I hope your preparations for Christmas are going well? Take care.

Vanessa xxx

 

Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich.

Hello, something a little different for you today.

Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich are artists (see their website here), I thought I'd introduce you to them, partly because I also want to show you a piece I made for Zoe, commissioned by Neil as a gift for Zoe's Birthday.

A boat on a tea cosy.

But not just any old boat, a magic boat, a boat that shimmers and sparkles and is also a radio station, almost as if it had flown in from another planet.

The piece I made for Zoe is based on their work of art, 'Celestial Radio'.

Celestial Radio was a piece they created, which involved gathering stories and sounds from the Isle of Skye, off Scotland, to broadcast from their boat, covered in 60,000 tiny mirrored squares.

There is a wonderful photograph and more information about this work here. It's absolutely breathtakingly beautiful and magical, I urge you to have a look at the link.

My brief was to create a tea cosy, with a beaded boat on the top, that resembled something between Zoe's drawing of the boat (for a map that was produced), which you see in the first photograph, and the actual boat.

Celestial Radio was to be embroidered on one side, and the equivalent Gaelic words on the other.

It sounds quite simple doesn't it?

There were a few considerations, like the tea cosy being able to support a beaded object which could be too heavy for a knitted tea cosy. After discussions with Neil, I came up with what you see above. A week of long hours working on it produced the finished piece. It would have been less than a week if the radio mast on the boat hadn't presented me with problems, my fifth attempt at it produced what you see above.

Perhaps I should have placed this beaded boat I made against a black backdrop, and lit it so it sparkled, like in the beautiful photograph you see in this link.

Neil had suggested putting a couple of patchwork squares on the tea cosy, and that led to me doing quite a detailed patchwork tea cosy.

I became very involved in creating the patchwork. As I hand sewed each piece of fabric together, it started to represent the stories that Neil and Zoe gathered, to broadcast from the boat. I imagined little old ladies and men, relating their histories over mugs of tea, warming their toes by an open fire.

I debated a while as to whether I should sign this piece. In the end I did, and Neil was pleased, he loved that detail. Zoe loves the tea cosy too.

Neil said that the tea cosy makes having a cup of tea a real joy, that's a wonderful compliment, don't you think?

(You might wonder where my beading has suddenly sprung from............ I've been doing it for many years, though very little over the last year or so, it's very time consuming. You can see some of the beading I showed on my blog a few years ago, in my beading section here, just to show it's something I've been obsessed with in the past. I taught myself how to bead from books, just in case you're wondering where I learnt).

Vanessa xxx

Scottish Weather, I mean, Scottish Weekend.

Hello! The wind is playing a tune on its whistle outside at the moment. There are low tones, high tones and poetic lulls and gusts.

The high winds are wonderful to listen to if you're tucked up inside, cosy and warm.

I went in to town earlier, and joined the other people battling the wind. Our faces were screwed up against the cold, and there were moments we were held in the grip of the wind, not able to take a single step.

I've just heard an ominous noise, and I can't bear to investigate.

I investigated something earlier. A loud crash. I found some of my lovely old ceramic  plant pots had been lifted off the window sill and thrown to the ground, smashing them.

We live on the border of Scotland, and you don't live in a place like this for the weather.

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Scotland for a long weekend, to celebrate my Mother-in-Law's seventieth Birthday. It was a family gathering, all paid for, very generously, by Alan and Susan, my Parents-in-Law. We had a wonderful time, everyone was very excited to be staying at Crieff Hydro. It's an amazing place, extremely family friendly, so the children had a ball going off to their various entertainments. It's the sort of place that families go back to year after year, and the children of the families take their families. Hugo's family went there when Hugo and his sister were children, and now my Sister-in-Law and her husband take their four children there. There's something wonderful about that don't you think?

Hugo and I like going to Scotland for a holiday, despite the variable weather. You just have to accept that it's probably going to rain, especially this time of year, and it doesn't bother us (much).

The Scottish landscape is more dramatic with great big thundery clouds racing across the skies!

Whilst we were there, we managed a couple of excursions. The one I'm going to mention is a place that is AMAZING.

The Scottish Crannog Centre. Link to its website here.

To see more amazing photos of Crannogs, go to this link.

A Crannog?

What is a Crannog, you may well ask. Well, to get a short, expert explanation of what a Crannog is, go to this link.

We got to go into the house on stilts you see in the photo above, which is a reconstruction of a Crannog, the remains of which are further up the Loch, and are being investigated by Archeologists (who work under water).

To think we were sitting on sheepskin covered benches in a reconstruction (but which felt like the real thing), of a Loch dwelling from the early Iron Age, FIVE THOUSAND YEARS ago! Amazing. I recommend a visit.

We were shown how the people of the time made fire (very hard work). The tour guides were excellent, making the whole place come alive.

I was drawn to the hand dyed, hand spun yarn on display in a basket.

Apparently a foreign visitor to the area, of the time, recorded that the people living in the area wore the most wonderful colourful clothes, but were very smelly.

I love places like this Crannog centre. There's a place about an hour-and-a-half drive from us, called Beamish. It's a superb living museum, and it's always a real treat to visit.

We did a lot of driving through dramatic rugged landscape that weekend.

It was so cold, that getting out of the car was a bit of an ordeal unless I was wrapped up in a coat, hat, scarf and gloves.

We did manage to catch a few rays of sunshine one lunch time. We parked beside a Loch, to sit and admire the view whilst eating our bread and cheese.

I wanted to take photos of my newly acquired GORGEOUS Rowan Fine Tweed yarn.

This is a new yarn by Rowan. It's beautiful 4-ply tweed deliciousness.

I'm using it to knit my striped diamonds.

I don't think you really get the feeling of just how cold I was in this photo above.

The idea was to take photos of each ball of my new Tweed yarn in different parts of the Scottish landscape, areas where the colours of the landscape were similar to the colours in my tweedy yarn.

I didn't get very far with that endeavor, it's uncomfortable to take photos of yarn in a rain soaked gale. There is also only so much help you can ask of a husband in these circumstances.

The weather did affect my photograph taking quite a bit on our mini break, it was bitterly cold, really very bitterly cold. But we still managed to have a WONDERFUL time!

It was in the week after returning from that little holiday, that everything kicked off with 'The Pig's Knickers' winning The Sheffield Children's Book Award (blog post about it here), which was very exciting, and you were all so lovely, sending me wonderful messages of congratulations, thank you so much. I was left some fantastic comments on my blog post about the publication of 'A Secret Worth Sharing' too (blog post about this here), and I want to give you a great big huge enormous thank you for that too. I'm sorry that those of you in America weren't able to access the iplayer link to CBeebies.

There was something else that made last week extra exciting too, and that was an article in our local newspaper about 'The Pig's Knickers'.

The article is excellent, Ian Smith, the jounalist who interviewed me, did a wonderful job, it's beautifully written.

(If you click on the photo above, it will appear larger, and you might be able to read it).

And just to end this blog post, a photograph of the author of The Pig's Knickers, Jonathan Emmett, wearing spotty knickers over his trousers, to accept the award.

You can visit Jonathan's fun website 'Scribble Street' here.

See you soon!

Vanessa xxx

A Secret Worth Sharing.

Hello! Here's a lovely little story for anyone feeling a bit down, a bit miserable because of the dark evenings, or generally not quite 100%.

Something to sweeten your day, sweeten your tea, sweeten the next few minutes!

Just before I start telling you all about this story I'm going to tell you about, it is going to be read by the actor Tristan Gemmill (who appears in the t.v. series Casualty), on CBeebies television programme at the bedtime hour tonight, 6.50 p.m. Exciting don't you think?!

And the story I want to tell you about is my latest book, just published. It's the fifth book in the series of mole books I've done, and it's a very, very sweet story.

These are the other books in the series. They all contain stories about mole conquering different situations, emotions, trials and tribulations, a bit like we all had to as children.

In this book mole finds a out about sharing, which has to be one of the biggest issues to deal with in any childs life, from sharing a toy, to sharing a parent with a sibling. Sharing is a BIG deal.

Sharing is a big deal in to adulthood too don't you think? So adults and children will relate to this story very easily.

Would you like me to take you through the book, in a brief kind of way, as though you were casting your eye over it in a book shop?

Here we go.

This is the front endpaper. I like to set the scene in the mole books with the front end paper, and finish off the story with an image on the back endpaper.

There's mole coming out of his hole.

It's such a beautiful day.

Can you hear the low buzz of insects in the summer sun? Can you feel the warmth of the sun?

Off mole sets, on his happy way.................

The heat! It's too much for a small mole, even an energetic small mole.

Who's THIS?!

Hellooooo ...........

Mole has met a rather sweet mouse, someone his own size, with the prettiest little smile.....................

Mouse is a great little home maker, which mole thinks is rather amazing.

You see that lovely soft moss she's got on the floor as a rug? I wouldn't mind curling up on that myself.

Her leafy bed is somewhere I'd like to hibernate myself.

And there's always flowers in mouse's house. Always.

Mouse is a bit special.

Mole thinks mouse is very special. They seem to have so much to talk about, so much in common. There's just one thing, mole has accidentally-on-purpose decided to keep mouse a secret from his pals. He wants her all to himself, and does not want to share her with his friends AT ALL.

His friends wonder what mole is up to, and are nice enough to go searching for him, isn't that nice of them?

But mole is nowhere to be found.

The next morning mole's friends return, and find mole!

Does mole tell his pals about mouse?

No. Mole somehow neglects to tell his friends about mouse.

So mole's friends get a bit of a surprise when they hear a sweet little mouse-like voice calling to mole.

Check out the guilty, and also slightly worried expression, on Mole's face.

Mole is very put out that mouse is so chatty and friendly with his friends.

Aaaawww mole!

Mouse assures him that he'll always be her special friend, but it's so much more fun to share.

Mouse is a secret worth sharing.......................

The end.

So there you go, a lovely bed time story, a very much shortened version by me, Jonathan Emmett's words make the story much more magical.

It's nice for me to go back to this book, as it's about a year between finishing a book, and it being published and appearing in book shops. I sort off forget about the books I illustrate when they're in no-mans land like that, finished, but not yet published.

I'd better go, because I want to catch it being read on CBeebies.

Vanessa xxx

P.S. You can buy this book on amazon here (U.K. Amazon), here (U.S. Amazon).

P.P.S. I just watched it on t.v. and not only is Tristam Gemmill rather delicious looking, but he read it really, really well. I was so exciting to see it being read, and see my pictures up on the television screen. I was watching it like it wasn't my book, and I was totally entranced! I've just got the link where you can watch it on iplayer for the next seven days, the link is here. Lovely! Have a wonderful weekend! Cheerio!

Brooches, tags, cards, and busy life.

Gosh! Where do I start?!

I know.

With a big thank you, that's a good place to start.

Thank you so much for all your lovely comments on my last post, they are appreciated ENORMOUSLY, really, really, they are. Hugely gigantically appreciated, thank you so much.

And next, I wanted to do my usual blog post last Friday, but I had to just keep my head down and carry on stoically with the commission I was working on, the deadline was Monday, (yesterday), and it was a race against time. I'll show you that piece another time.

Now that's done, I can breath more easily, it feels quite luxurious, to breath a little more easily, I suddenly have the misguided notion that I have all the time in the world. I don't have all the time in the world, but it feels like it compared to last week.

Before we went away on our weekend break a week or so ago (which I still haven't talked about because other things have got in the way), I made these three broches above, to commission. I love making these brooches. They're time consuming, but ever so satisfying to create. And sort of more-ish. I've started making another brooch, and that might be followed by different kinds of brooches, but I'm not sure yet. That's probably me just thinking aloud.

I've been putting a few things in my etsy shop today.

Some more brooches, different to the holly and berry brooches.

These are all crocheted, all different to each other, and all presented on hand painted cards.

And talking about cards, I've listed some tags in my shop too.

They are just adorable!

A set of five Christmas tags, to go with the Christmas cards I'm selling (I've just listed a pack of five Christmas cards too, as well as the pack of ten Christmas cards I already have for sale in my shop). There are only six sets of the Christmas tags available, so not many.

And a small number of sets of five tags to go with the greetings cards I also sell in my shop.

I've had a few people asking if I would sell tags, because when they've received something they've bought from me, they've loved the tag I send with the parcel. So I've got a small number printed, just to see how it goes really.

There is something lovely about these tags, just tiny versions of the images on the greetings cards. There's something very wonderful and covetable about their small size. They're like teeny weeny postcards.

I had a fun old time punching the holes, then puncing in the eyelets on each tag, then putting the string through! Still, I like little touches like this, I feel it makes them a little more special, especially having an eyelet rather than a plain hole to thread the string through. I love detail.

I should have put this blog post up a few weeks ago, but you know how it is, other things got in the way, so I thought I should put it up pronto, before it's too late and Christmas has passed.

Is there something I've left out? I can't think. No. I think that's it for today.

Oh yes, my etsy shop link is here (!)

Righty-ho, I'd better be off, things to do, things to make, doggies to cuddle, and tea to drink.

Cheerio!

Vanessa xxx