do you mind if i knit

Winifred Nicholson's flower paintings, a good substitute for sunshine.

This was the splash of colour on my desk a few days ago!

At this time of year, when grey days are numerous, my brain needs colour, a substitute for sunshine.

This little Cyclamen plant was a gift, and when I look at it I think of Winifred Nicholson's paintings of flowers on windowsills.

That's something else I find good for combating the grimness of grey skies, slowly leafing through my book of Winifred Nicholson paintings.

"Luminosity, open space and quick movements characterise Winifred Nicholson's paintings. Flowers on windowsills are a favourite subject, not only for their intrinsic beauty, or even their personalities, but above all for their living, transluscent colour".

  Quoted from "Winifred Nicholson" by Christopher Andreae

I love Winifred Nicholson's flower paintings, because she perfectly captures that moment when you first look at flowers in a jug or jam jar, and you get a jolt at their beauty. They're perfectly calm, and perfectly beautiful, and it's a pure moment in a busy day.

I find art with a domestic theme powerful, and Winifred Nichoson's work had a mostly domestic feel to it. A painting of a bowl of flowers on a windowsill, affects me more than a painting expressing an artist's angst. It's not just a bowl of beauty, it can be more than that, a moment of clarity and realisation of our smallness, and how fleeting perfection is.

The painting above is one of my favourite, it sings with sunshine. Winifred Nicholson managed to capture a sunny feeling in her work without being sentimental.

You can see more of Winifred Nicholson's work here and here.

And you can read more about her, here.

I hope Winifred Nicholson's work gives you a bit of alternative sunshine, if that's what you're needing just now...................

Cheerio!

Vanessa xxx

 

 

Not many words, just lots of colour.

Hello!

I've got my back to the sound of the gale I can hear blowing outside, and my face to the screen of the computer, where I am now going to create a big fat dollopy colourful blog post for you.

I'm going to be relatively word free today because I've got a headache that I woke up with and can't shake off, and that always makes me a bit brain-tied, and also tongue-tied. Brains that have aches don't work properly. Every time. Frown lines form during these periods too.

So flowers and colour, from the couple of country shows we've been to over the last month..................

I've just had a flash-back to my dream last night. I was having tea with Royalty, and I felt very uncomfortable. Hugo says I was shouting in my sleep last night.

............As I was saying, colour. For you, because you might be having the same lousy weather we're having, and it could help to cheer you up.

Was that good? Did you feel the love of the people exhibiting their precious blooms? Imagine the hours of patience and care that went into the cultivation of these "Nature's Works of Art". The thought is quite soothing.

Just before I go,

I've finished my Coraline Cardigan! But I need to wait for a good opportunity to get Hugo to photograph me wearing it. Plus, I do have to admit something, I fancy making a Starboard Skirt to go with the cardigan, because I've got just the right fabric for it. It will be a Double Reveal, how about that!

Vanessa xxx

 

A tent FULL of Sweet Peas!

Last Saturday we went to a Sweet Pea Festival at a place called Sprouston, a tiny village with a beautifully kept church, but no pub, a village green, pretty yellow stone houses huddled round the green, and a smart new village hall (lovely and insulated, but lacking the character of the old crumbling village halls you still see standing occassionally).

To say I was excited when I heard about the Sweet Pea festival is an understatement, I was very very very very very excited, though I didn't shout about it.

I felt a bit on edge as we walked from the car to the marquee housing the precious Sweet Pea displays, I was that excited I felt TENSE.

You know that excited tension you get, when you're about to visit a shop selling a particularly nice yarn or fabric or whatever it is you love, and you're getting closer and closer to it, and then you're opening the door of the shop, and then you're there standing infront of the shops displays? That sort of tension.

The Sweet Pea Festival was celebrating the Centenary of the Reverand Denholm Fraser winning first prize in a national competition for the best bunch of Sweet Peas grown by an amateur gardener, back in 1911. The Daily Mail newspaper organised the competition, and was offering a huge money reward to the winner.

The Reverand sent two bunches of Sweet Peas off to Crystal Palace in London IN THE POST (!!!!!). They travelled all the way from the Scottish Borders to London in the post, amazing. One of the bunches was in the Reverend's wife's name, the other was in the Reverand's name.

The Sweet Peas were grown from seed in the Reverand's garden. The bunches he sent to London won third and first prize! And the total prize money came to £1050, that's the equivalent to about £400,000 in todays money!

The history surrounding the show is wonderful isn't it?

The walled garden where the Reverand grew his prize winning Sweet Peas was open to the public, but wasn't as glorious as I imagine it once was, though there are some Sweet Peas being grown as specimens by a volunteer from the village.

For me, the tent with the Sweet Peas in their jam jars was the exciting bit. I did like that they were displayed in jam jars, there was something very charming about that. Some people even left the labels on their jam jars, which gave their displays a quirky touch.

You would have thought the tent would have been overpowered by the scent from the Sweet Peas, but it wasn't, though if you smelt the flowers close up, you did catch their heady scent. I find that if you leave Sweet Peas in their vase on a window sill in the sun, it brings out the perfume, the smell can be quite powerful.

There might not have been a strong scent in the room, but the jewel colours were enough to make me dizzy with delight. It was pure visual gluttony.

It felt very old fashioned and loveable. People showing their prize Sweet Peas in humble jam jars is very wholesome and endearing. Both Hugo and I left feeling we'd attended a special event, it was tremendously satisfying, especially as there was tea and cake to be had too.

A tent full of Sweet Peas in jam jars, plus tea and cake, it doesn't get much better than that.

I'm off to do a bit of knitting now, my Coraline Cardigan is increasing in leaps and bounds, I'll have to show you in my next Tuesday blog post. Have a good weekend. Vanessa xxx

Miss Peony Darling and Master Sweet William.

Of course if you gave your children the names in the title of this post, Peony Darling and Sweet William, they might not forgive you when they grew up, don't you think?

Or they might love the florid start in life it gave them, and that would be an excuse to act outrageously all their lives.

My name is Vanessa, which I've always thought of as a bit exotic, which I'm not. My family shorten it to Vaness, which seems less exotic and I like that. And years ago, I had a friend who would call me Ness, which I found very endearing, and thought was very 'me'. No one else has ever addressed me as Ness, but then I haven't gone about establishing that as my name.

It's quite hard work getting people to call you by a different name, when they've always been 'such-and-such'. I know someone who went from Catherine to Kate, and I think of her as Kate now, though it required studious thought for a while, every time I said her name.

I quite like the idea of being called Rose Grey, or Lulu Rose. But at the end of the day, I've had my given name for forty years now, and I'm quite happy to live with it.

On Wednesday, when I photographed the Peonies, all except one, were curled up in on themselves.

Now the flowers have opened, like pink tissues bursting out of a box. Peonies are so dramatic aren't they? They give you a soft punch with their colour and exuberance.

I've started illustrating a new children's book, for Walker Books, so I'm back at the drawing board. I've been playing around with a new look for this book, and rather than using my usual watercolours, I'm experimenting with acrylic paint, which I don't use very often, gouache paints are the closest I get to acrylics normally (with that saturated opaque colour you get). I'm finding them very gloopy compared to watercolour paint. I love using watercolours, I always have, but sometimes it good to force ourselves out of being comfortable, because you never know where it might lead.

  You might have noticed I bit of stripy knitting nosing its way into my photos in this post? It's my new knitting project, the cardigan in the pattern above.

It's the Annabel Cardigan from Quince and Co, link to the pattern here.

I first saw the pattern being knitted up on the blog Pale Blue Door, (which is a very beautiful blog I have to say), and I thought it looked like a gorgeous cardigan to knit, Barbara's version is here.

I'm knitting mine using the specified 'Osprey' yarn for this pattern, (a very generous Birthday gift), in colours Snap Pea 128 (the green), and Petal 111 (the off-white).

It is beautiful, beautiful yarn. 100% wool, but feels more like knitting with something soft and buttery, like merino wool. It's just described as 100% American wool, so I don't know what type of wool it is.

I've just discovered that Loop in London has started stocking Quince and Co yarn, and they have Osprey in stock. Loop now has a blog, and they feature the Annabel cardigan in one of their posts, you can see it here (scroll down a bit). Their version has just three button holes, and longer arms, and I like this style a lot.

You're going to think me mad, but I have already knitted this cardigan, but using stocking stitch, rather than the garter stitch in the pattern. I undid all that knitting and started all over again for two reasons. One, the stripes were lovely in stocking stitch, but of course they curled at the edges. And two, this is knitted with very, very expensive yarn, and it was whilst I was talking to my sister on the phone, (and I mentioned that I had finished the cardigan), I was trying to stop the curling of the edges by sewing on ribbon, and not doing a very good job of it. My sister said there had been an extortionate customs fee to pay on the yarn, which had come all the way from the States, and I suddenly stopped to think. Very expensive yarn, and here I am with a garment that isn't as good as it should be. This cardigan is very quick to knit up, so I thought it wouldn't be too painful to unravel my knitting, and start over, following the pattern to the letter. The cost and quality of the yarn demands I give it the respect of knitting something successful, which I will love and wear.

I'm very glad I've done this, I feel good about it. I'm also knitting one size up, previously, I knitted the small size, which was silly of me, it's meant to be a comfy cardi, not a skin tight second skin.

I wouldn't be surprised if I had this cardigan finished by the end of the weekend, it's that quick to knit this garment, and it's a relatively easy pattern too, a beginner should be able to master this (with a little guidance possibly, but only a very little).

Well I'm off to make a cup of tea and do some knitting, and try and fulfill my "finished by the end of the weekend" optimism.

Have a good weekend! Vanessa xxx

A chair isn't always just a chair.

Hello! Nice day for a cup of tea.

That'll be a cuppa  infront of the wood burning stove I'm talking about. Turning a grey day into something positive is good for morale don't you think?

It's like the other day, when we went out for a coffee, and Hugo bought a huge slab of of carrot cake to go with my drink, I found myself saying "that'll be good for my curves". A positive way of looking at an enormous, almost intimidating, slab of cake. I ate it all of course.

Anyway, I had planned to wax lyrical today, about my drive back from Edinburgh on Saturday night, after going to see the film 'Little Fockers' (which left me with lots of feel good factor for the entire hour drive home). I was going to go on about the deep dark sky, full of charcoal smudged clouds, and the beams of the headlights carving through the black night, with barely another car on the road. But then I found these photos I've never shown you, these chair photos, and I got very excited.

These garden chairs were in the grounds of an Open Garden we visited last summer. I remember obsessively photographing these chairs.

Such shapes!

Such curves!

So improbably comfortable, but once sat on, very nice for the back.

Like works of art.  All that swirly whirly thing going on, and the big bulgy, curvaceuos back. Lovely.

I vaguely recall a short debate with Hugo, about the proportions of these chairs. The legs are quite plain and delicate, whilst the top half bulges with abundance, and I think Hugo thought they were too top heavy. My argument would have been that they're just so fantastic, maybe a little too top heavy, but charming enough to be perfectly adorable.

No, they're perfect.

The chairs were part of a beautiful garden, and as usual, we were in awe at being allowed into the private haven of the owners. I can't remember the name of the garden, but apparently it's opened up for charity over two consecutive weekends. I think that's incredibly generous of the owners. To have complete strangers traipsing over your beautiful garden, (I saw the appalling sight of a man with a pram forcing his way along a narrow path, trampling plants along the way, when there were plenty of other paths he could have taken), not once, but twice, is the epitome of generosity don't you think?

I love that such a simple thing as a chair can be a thing of beauty.

Well, I must pootle off, to work on a paper mache pig, her name is Louise. I'm also creating some more Evangeline's, she's too much of a character to leave at just the one figure. Cheerio. Love Vanessa xxx

Tra-la-dee-dah-le-dah-tra-la.

Hello. Did you have a good weekend? I hope so. I really do. (We won't mention the weather shall we?).

I went blank when it came to finding a title for today's blog post, hence the strange gobbledy-goop of today's heading, I thought a nonsesical title was just the ticket today.

My weekend started off with not doing my Friday post, because I was so engrossed in my papier mache activities. Which I had hoped to show you today, but was too busy working on a still life painting to take photos in the short hours of day light we have at the moment. It's always a race against time with flowers, before they die. I've been painting some roses from the garden, the last of the roses I imagine. Incredible that they're still flowering, isn't it?

I've had the picture above in storage on my computer, waiting for the right time to use it, and today was the day. It's not one of my paintings, it's from the side of a fairground ride. I think it's beautiful.

Just look at the decoration on this ride! It might be garish, but it's glorious at the same time. Love it.

These photos were taken in Edinburgh last Christmas, see Jenners store in the background?

Hugo persuaded me to go on this ride. I'm feeling slightly queasy just looking at this photo above. I've got a delicate constitution, whereas Hugo loves roller coasters and anything designed to give mere mortals stomach upsets. I went on a ride at a place in Spain, whilst we were visiting my mum and dad, a few years back. I thought the ride didn't look too bad as seen from ground level so I thought I'd give it a try, but when it got going, I knew I had made a terrible mistake. Groans were the only sound that came out of my mouth the whole time we were swinging all over the place. And I'm not joking when I say it took me a couple of hours to recover. Hugo had a whale of a time on all the other rides, which I won't mention, thinking about them makes me feel odd and queasy.

There's something very nostalgic about the decoration at some funfairs.

I like nostalgic things, like these Dahlias. Things born of hard work and traditional skills. That must be why knitting and crochet appeals, I just love that many generations before me were involved with these traditional skills, like growing Dahlias. I'd love to grow Dahlias, and have them in vases in the house, but there is literally no room in the garden, things are squished together as it is.

I've been keeping myself very busy of late. There's the papier mache figures, and I've started doing still life paintings again. I'm inbetween projects at the moment, so I'm making the most of this time I have to do my own thing. And my knitting has been lurking in the background, occasionally finding it's way into my busy little hands.

I've been looking at some the little flower panitings I did, (most have long since gone to new homes), to remind myself of what I did, and reflect on it.

Want to come along and have a look?

A couple of these pictures I kept back, and have made prints of them, soon to be in my etsy shop.

It's nice to remind myself of things I've done in the past. Infact, I must get back to my painting, after I've made a cup of tea. I wonder if there are any biscuits, I'll have a forage.

I'll say cheerio and toodle-loo then. Love Vanessa xxx

Ingredients for my medicine bottle.

Hello! And how are you today? If your sky outside is dark, like my sky outside, you might enjoy a bit of colour from my medicine bottle labelled "colour for grey or dark days. One teaspoon to be taken daily. Dosage may be increased if your weather is particularly bad".

I was feeling ever so, ever so tired last Friday evening, that's why there was no blog post, I'm sorry about that, I do try to be reliable with my Monday, Wednesday, Friday blogging, but sometimes I just can't find the energy, not often, just sometimes. Our clocks went back yesterday, so the evenings are longer, and it's started getting dark too early. This must be the hardest thing about the winter months, the long nights, they drag a bit.

So what's the solution?! For me, it's COLOUR! Colour, colour, colour, extra colour, more colour, tons and bags of colour, and vitamin D tablets, (they're meant to help with lack of sunlight).

So rather than my planned post for today, I've trawled through my photos, picked out a few colourful ones, and put together some mosaics. The post I had planned for today was heavy on sand content, and I wondered why I was feeling "muted" after going through the pictures. Infact, I was wondering why I wanted to have a good scream after looking at about thirty photos all containing the same sand colour..............

Some photos I have used in the past, like my jar of buttons, are one's I love to return to. They just cheer me up. So they go in the "medicine bottle".

Lots of jars of buttons for the medicine bottle, with a bit of Cath K thrown in, and flowers to add a sweet perfume.

I personally can't have enough flowers in my medicine mixture, if anything cheers me up, it's a bunch of flowers.
And I most definitely can't have enough sugar mice to sweeten the mix, or colourful fabrics.

The sugar might give me a bit of a kick up the old you-know-what, get me motivated, you know how difficult it is to get motivated when you just want to curl up and hibernate?

I alway find that bargain vintage finds, mixed in with Provence Rose Cath Kidston patterning is excellent for the medicine mix.

But maybe, just maybe, the last ingredient that is an absolute MUST for the medicine concoction is this:

A waxy, general purpose potato, resembling a desirable potato, with my name on it. (You can read more about the down-to-earth properties of this Vanessa potato here, apparently Vanessa isn't half bad as potatoes go).

That is the perfect final ingredient for my personalised medicine mixture. (Your medicine mixture might need a fruit or vegetable with your name, for the mix to work for you, I can't guarantee a Vanessa potato will do the job as well as it could).

I feel particularly blessed to have a potato which, either, I am named after, or, is named after me. Actually, there is a butterfly, the "Painted Lady", Latin name Vanessa Cardui, but to have my name on a potato feels quite special. The potato photo was taken at a farmer's show of different varieties of potatoes, how marvellous is that?! A potato fair! Well, marvellous if you find a potoato with your name on it, otherwise.........................

Do you have anything identified with your name which is particularly pleasing to you?

And on that delicious, and very satisfying note, I am going to sing tra-la as I gravitate towards my knitting, (which for some reason I'm being reticent about showing you. I'll try and do something about that for Wednesday's post). Cheerio then. Love Vanessa xxx

Flowers in the bathroom.

Mwaah! (That's a big virtual kiss). And a big virtual hug too. Thank you so much for all your comments on my last post, I've been bowled over by the response to my fair isle dress, and I'm slightly worried that all my blog posts, and all my knitting from now on, are going to pale in comparison.

Still, what can you do hey?! Never blog again? Go out on the high of my fair isle dress post?!

Nah, I'll just have to look back on that post as the height of my blogging career, (like a musician producing a popular album perhaps?), and soldier on, trying to live up to the glory and headiness of the applause. That last blog post has made me nervous about this next post, it's just going to seem so dull in comparison, so I've been putting off my return, I will sheepishly admit. Plus, there's been my never-ending headache that's been popping up all over the place. The headache monster, very trialing. The Migraleve tablet hero has finally done the trick, though I did wonder if I had suddenly become immune to Migraleve, which is disconcerting, as there is written on the packet, in big letters, "can cause addiction. For three days use only". Cripes.

So I was racking my brains, and thinking, what could I possibly write about and photograph? Give you a nosy round our house? (This is said from the point of view of someone who LOVES to look round people's houses, considers it a real treat infact).  Well, you've already seen our bedroom here. (Gosh it does look tidy in those photos).

You haven't seen our bathroom though, have you?

Nope, you definitely have not seen our bathroom.

I happened to be taking photos of some wilting roses on the glass shelf in the bathroom the other day. The reason for this is that, on a whim I thought I'd put some fresh flowers, plucked from our garden, in the bathroom. It has made brushing my teeth so much more pleasant, a joy infact. So much nicer than staring at my toothpastey teeth, bared in a grimace as I give them their twice-a-day clean, sometimes three if I remember after lunch.

It didn't occur to me to share this new flowers-in-the bathroom thing, untill the roses were on their last legs. Still, it's the thought that counts, as they say, isn't it.

After I'd taken some photographs of my limp looking roses, I thought to myself, hmmmm, I bet my dear readers would love to have a nosy round this room, it's one of the few rooms they've never been shown.

So after the electric toothbrush, and Hugo's beloved electric waterpik were removed from sight, and the bathmat was fetchingly arranged on the radiator, I started clicking with my camera.

It looks like I'm one of those au naturel gals doesn't it? By that I mean water and soap and not much else, because there's no bottles, lotions and potions on view. The small selection I do have get stashed away in a little cabinet to the left of the sink, I know that information like that is important.

BLIMEY! A Robin just flew in through the open back door, panickey fluttering around the room to various windows, found the back door again, and flew right back out. Blimey.

Blimey.

Anyway, lotions and potions, as I was saying, not much of.......... A robin just flew around the room!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.................... Ca-rumbbbbs.

I might not have fancy lotions, but I do have a fancy magnifying mirror, which lights up. Very useful for plucking of hairs on chin and eyebrows, and observing every spot and line on face as they appear. I always miss this mirror a lot when I go on holiday, and when I return from being away, am shocked at just how hairy I've become. My sister and mum love this mirror when they come to stay, I've noticed.

It was a lovely sunny day, when I took these photos. (Just thinking about this longingly, as we're slowly waving goodbye to summer).

I have been knitting, by-the-way, working on my stripy dress, I'll be taking photos to show you, before Friday's blog post.

And I'm answering a plea from someone, to do the pattern for the Sarah London scarf  I made for Hen a while ago, above. I've had to re-acquaint myself with crocheting it, and am enjoying the crocheting a lot. The version of the scarf I'm making has different colours to Hen's scarf. So that's a pattern that will be going up in a few weeks.

And now I have to be off. There's supper to eat, and my Wednesday night knitting group to attend. I have to wear my fair isle dress tonight, as the knitting group haven't seen it on me yet. I shall be told to twirl, I know it. Well toodle-loo and cheerio. Love Vanessa xxx

Aren't I a bundle of joy today.

Hello, I hope you've not had the drizzly, miserable weather we've had today? We had a whole weekend of SUNSHINE, but today it's fine lines of delicate wet, slightly slanted, and very constant rain.

I don't take grey weather very well, I have to admit, I find it difficult to be jolly, and much easier to be mopey. Like many others I imagine.

I wasn't going to do a blog post today, I don't have much energy, but I must have instilled an automatic "must post Monday, Wednesday, Friday" in my subconscious, because I was going to slump on the sofa and do some knitting, but I found myself lurking next to the computer, feeling my day wouldn't be complete without a little hello to you.

Plus, I wanted to show you my darling little Auriculas, who are pluckily flowering again after a few months lying dormant. I didn't know Auriculas flower twice in the year. How bloomin marvellous. 

I wonder if a glass of wine, and lighting the woodburning stove might add some cheer to my day.

I've been meaning to ask you something, just before I go and open a bottle of white wine. My mother-in-law, Susan, came over for supper last week, and I don't know how the subject came up, but I ended up saying something like "if women were in charge, there would be no wars". I was so surprised at Susan's response which was heartily in agreement, (like she'd been saying this for years, and had been put-down for having this view), she was so happy to find someone else had the same view. I've always presumed that women wearily accept the fact that it is mostly men who start wars, and women who don't want their son's or husband's to fight in a war. Or am I very much in the minority?

Well, on that jolly note, I'm going to potter off, and hope when I wake up tomorrow the sky is a nice blue, not dark grey. And I've got some jolly photos from the weekend to show you which need sorting, must do those. Knitting and wine first. Toodle-pip then. Love Vanessa xxx

I never leave cake on my plate, but there's a first for everything.

Did you get a but of sunshine this last weekend? I hope so, it's good for the soul isn't it? Today is Monday, and it's a bit of a bedraggled day, so I'm turning to my photos from the weekend to give myself a bit of cheer.  We visited another open garden on Saturday, and the tables were set up beautifully. It's grey and lumpen outside and I'm in the mood for colour and sunshine, so here we go, a bit of indulgence on my part.

I don't know why, but when I look at pictures like the one above, I feel happy, excited, inspired, happy, this sort of image is pure escapism, simplicity, cheeriness.

A splendid red-and-white striped marquee had been set up in the garden, infact, a lot of effort had been put intop setting up the event.

We did our usual first port-of-call, the tea tent. My Mother-in-Law, Susan, visited the garden with us, and Hugo and Susan went to get the teas and scones, whilst I chose somewhere to sit from a group of empty tables. I thought it was a bit strange that there were so many empty tables. Beautiful, but very empty.

We all sat down in eager anticipation of our yummy looking scones and cups of tea.

Oh dear. I've never left a scone in my entire life, I love scones, and Hugo will eat anything, but he couldn't eat his either. What a shame. Still, the table decorations made up for the scone incident, they were glorious.

 

 

My gaze did waver from the tables and tea cups a couple of times, like to this coconut shy. There's something very old fashioned about coconut shy's don't you think? That's why I like them.

And we did have an amble round the garden, which was pretty, mainly full of flowers intended to be cut.

  There were some more open gardens on Sunday, but I worked in my garden all day, apart from when I was taking two baby Seagulls who had fallen out of their nests, (and wouldn't have survived without my intervention according to the vet), up to the wildlife centre. They were small and covered in fuzzy grey down, and very helpless. One flapped it's wings, and I was amazed at the wing span on such a small a bird. They're safe and sound as I write this, getting all the love and care they need to grow into great big fat Seagulls, like the one's on all the roofs of the houses around here. The mother wasn't very happy about me taking the babies away, but the vet insisted they wouldn't survive if I left them there, there was a lot of squawking and cries from the Seagulls circling above us.

I've started on the first sleeve of my knitted dress, ripped that out, and started again. Sorry, no photos just yet, but there will be more on Wednesday.

I must love you and leave you know, I'm itching to do some knitting. See you Wednesday! Love Vanessa xxx