Big Scale Knitting

If you're looking for a new knitting project and have lots of time on your hands why not knit a Humpback whale called Hazel? It's by Bec Brittain and you can get the pattern here.

Happy Royal Wedding Day

I never knew royal weddings were such a big deal, but here in London the shops have put up decorations, people have organised street parties and they even have a day off from work! I love it. My local Jellied Eels Shop put up the best decorations, they make me smile every time I cycle past. It still doesn't tempt me to eat there though.

I'm off to my local street party!

Street Art

I saw this around the corner from me the other day and it made me laugh. I love street art like this, it really brightens up your day.

Prints

Sorry for the radio silence! The weather in London has been so beautiful the last couple of weeks and I've found it difficult to stay in front of the computer for very long. I love working from home and I usually don't get distracted very easily, but with everyone being on holiday, it's been so tempting to just hang out in the park or on our roof all day.

I have managed to get a bit of work done though, I've been working on some print designs that are inspired by Luxembourg. They are still work in progress, but sometimes when you work on your own, it becomes very difficult to judge your creations, so I would love to hear what you think.

Storage

Dad, if you're reading this then I think these shelves would look soooo good in my flat! Of course the shelves my dad would make would look much better ;)

The images are taken from this Guardian article.

Knitted Baby Booties

I've been making a few more baby booties, they're so quick and fun to make - luckily there seems to be a bit of a baby boom at the moment, so I've always got an excuse to start another pair.

I'm teaching a class on how to knit them at The Create Place and there are still places available to book here.

Knitted Animal Pelts

A friend of mine just sent me this:



It's made from 100% non wool - art for vegans!

It's taken from here.

And then I went on to see this:


Slightly less suited for vegans!

The dissected rat is from here.

Luxembourg City

Here are a couple of photos from a walk I took around Luxembourg city (the capital of Luxembourg is also called Luxembourg). It's such a pretty city built on a plateau, so you get amazing views out over the valley below.

I had a lovely time there last week, but it's good to be back home.

Crochet Travel Case

My oldest friend Mette made this case for me on my 29th birthday. It was my first birthday in Berlin and my first birthday being single, Mette and her sister Rikke made it a very special day.

It's practical and it makes me smile.

Luxembourg

Oh how I wish my running route could look like this every day!

It's a running trail not far from my parents' house, it's full of hills that make you feel sick when you run up them but so, so good at the same time.

I love running.

I ♥ Maps

I just saw these images over on the Happiness Is blog. They are collages by Matthew Cussick, made entirely out of maps.

Beautiful!

New baby booties

I've been working on a new pattern for crocheted baby booties and this is the result:


It took me ages to get it right but I'm really happy with them now. I've made two different sizes, one for 0-3 month olds and one for 6-9. They're possibly for a client project I'm working on, so they wont be available to buy just yet.

They're made from organic undyed British wool from Gotland sheep. It's really lovely to work with and super warm.

Knitted Art

Each year amateur knitting group The Materialistics take on a new extreme project, involving hundreds of knitters in their South Tyneside community. This year they made knitted versions of classic paintings.

You can read more about the knitting group over on their website.

The images are from here.

I'm off...

...to Luxembourg for the week.



And I can't wait, it's been such a long time since I went home, I've been in London full time since October and I actually think that's the longest I've ever been in London without leaving. I did go to Surrey for a day, but surely that doesn't count...

I plan on eating lots of good food, drinking my favourite local beer in the sun (hopefully), catching up with family and friends, running in the forest, crocheting in my parents' garden and also trying to find some opportunities to teach over there. Oh and blogging too of course.

Oh Comely

I just read about a new British magazine over on the lovely Coelho Culture blog, and I just love the idea behind it - can't wait to get a copy. Thanks Coelho Culture!

This is what the magazine is about (taken from their website):


oh comely is a magazine about people and their quirks and their creativity, rather than money and what it can buy. It's nice to see you here.

It's a magazine that inspires people to be creative, talk to their neighbours and explore new things, rather than buy stuff or lose weight. Imagine sitting down with a cup of tea and a creative friend to hear all the strange things she says, all the curious stuff she does, and about the things she loves.

Amazing Embroidery

These stunning Penguin Classics covers were embroidered by the amazing Jillian Tamaki. I love everything about them. They would look so lovely framed, hanging on the wall in my living room.

Just imagine the hours spent to complete these!

You can read more about the project over on Jillian Tamaki's blog, this is also where the images are from.

Ideas, ideas and more ideas

I just saw the work of Hazel Hewitt over on the Fabrications blog and loved it. She knits in concrete! I'm still not exactly sure how she does it but I love ideas like that.

I wish I had lots of money and lots of time, that's basically what I would be doing, using knitting and crochet in unusual ways. I keep having lots of new ideas that I get so excited by but I have no time and no money to explore them further - well, mostly it's the money rather than the time, that is lacking.

The other day I went to Leyton Glass blowers in London for a meeting and, as usual, I was coming up with all these ideas in my head that really had nothing to do with what the meeting was about. I was asking Peter Leyton about melting crochet or knitting into glass and he said it's definitely possible and showed me this bowl by one of his interns (I didn't catch her name). So now I have about a million ideas for glass blown products including crochet - I just need to learn how to blow glass!!! The course costs £300 so I better start saving now... one day, one day.



The pictures of the knitted concrete are from the lovely Fabrication blog

The glass bowl is my picture.