Mother’s Day Gift: Hot Water Bottle Cover

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Today I’d like to share a picture of the knitted hot water bottle cover I made for my mother in law for Mothers Day.

Hand knitted hot water bottle cover from ‘The Little Knitting Company’ kit.

The project was from a kit I saw on C&C, lucky I bought it a while ago as it took ages to work out what I was doing. Luckily after getting in touch with the company, there was a revision in the pattern which helped it make more sence and they also linked to a tutorial for how to do the tie for the top,which I got a bit stuck on.

Sure hope she likes it, I seem to have an allergy to wool and sneezed like I had a cold throughout the project. No more wool for me! The yarn was called Geko and is 85% wool, 15% alpaca. It shed a lot of fibres as I knitted it, so maybe that’s what made me sneeze so much.

Have since found some more hot water bottle cover designs on Ravelry so I’d make MIL another one, but out of different yarn MIL is never far from a hot water bottle cover and these covers look like a much more cozy option to cuddle up to.

My fave hot water bottle cover pattern (design-wise I haven’t tried it yet!) is; All you Need – a classic.

Make Mum smile, make her something special with time and love. You know she will treasure it, and prob show all her friends too

Thoughts and prayers for everyone (like me) whose Mothers are no longer with them.

Links

• The Little Knitting Company
• Hot Water bottle Kit

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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Seth Apter’s The Pulse 5: Chapter 8; Tell All

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Last year I took part in Seth Apter’s online artists survey; The Pulse. This week you can hear me; Tell All, over on his blog.

The Artists Pulse v5 Chapter 8; Tell All

Would you like to be involved in The Pulse of Mixed Media? There’s an open call for artists, which if you are quick, you still have time to enter. More details on Seth’s Blog.

Links

• The Pulse 5th Edition: Chapter 8; Tell All. Here me tell all over on Seth’s blog.
• The Pulse 6th Edition: Open call for artists. Closing date 3 march 2013, hurry if you would like a chance to be involved with the next edition of The Pulse.
• The Altered Page

Many thanks Seth, for including me in your creative project and for putting this blog on your Art Blog directory. Seth’s work is amazing, whenever I visit his blog, he kicks starts my creativity in new directions. Rush there now, to find out more.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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Pencil sketch; Poinsettia in graphite

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This Christmas DH came home with a poinsettia for us. Regular viewers will have noticed that since it didn’t expire too quickly, I have been making the most of the subject and sketching it. Here is my latest drawing of the Poinsettia, this time in graphite pencil.

Poinsettia sketch on graphite pencil.

I used my Kohl Noir Progresso pencils for this sketch. I love those pencils as they are all graphite without any wood casing so you can get quite expressive with them before they wear down too much. DO give them a try if you can get hold of some.

The picture is a little dark, that’s winter for you Just for comparison, the reason I don’t always brighten my pictures with the computer, is because doing so also alters the look of the shading. The picture below was brightened, its brighter but the tones in the shading have altered too much from the original image. Hope we get some brighter weather soon, I’d like to get more drawing practice in.

Poinsettia sketch on graphite pencil.

Hope you like it, how about you, what have you been drawing this year?

Best wishes and thanks for reading see you soon

Billie

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Poinsettia Leaf sketch in Inktense Pencils

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Today I’d like to share a sketch with you. Sorry the picture is a little dark, its the weather, Photoshop would wreck the shading if I ‘helped it’. So this is the view of the sketch that I have on my board.

Poinsettia leaf sketch in Inktense pencils

Poinsettia leaf in Derwent Studio pencils. Colours used 15, 19, 20, 43, 45, 53

I drew this using my new LIght weight drawing board and found the flex that the board had both stopped me pressing as unnecessarily hard and also evened out my marks. Very pleased with how this turned out. It’s intentional that only half the sketch is more layered. I wanted to look back to see the coloured I had used underneath and how I’d layered them.

I’ve had Artists pencils by Derwent for years and really struggle with them. Mainly because for too long I’ve been saving them and didn’t want to ‘spoil’ the set by using them (anyone else do that). Now I’ve started using them properly I still struggle blending and find them a bit smudgie.

These Studio pencils have the hexagonal barrel to the pencil rather than the round one of the artists ones. I’m still confused as to whether the ‘lead’ is said to be the same or different. At the time I purchased the Studio one’s I thought they were said to be harder leads but what ever it is, I find them much easier to blend with.

My favourites have to be my new(ish) Inktense pencils, which I’m still very much in love with.

How about you, what are your favorite materials to use and why do you love those in particular?

Best wishes and thanks for reading see you soon

Billie

If you would like to check out the pencils, head up to the Art tab at the top of the blog and go to the Art: Suppliers section. I’ve linked to Derwent from there.

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Poinsettia Sketch in Derwent Inktense Pencils

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Another quick sketch, this time of a poinsettia ‘flower’ ok they kinda don’t have flowers it’s the leaves (or maybe brackts) that go red in places but call it what you will.

Poinsettia in Derwent Inktense pencils

The sketch was created using Derwent Inktense pencils. Colours used 400, 530, 1320, 1550, 1420

Poinsettia sketch in Inktense Pencils

It’s really hard to photograph in the winter low light, these are as I see them on my drawing board. Can’t ‘improve’ them in Photoshop without upsetting the look of the blending. Check out the Art tab at the top of the blog and go to Art: Suppliers section to find a link to Derwent website. This will give you a full colour chart of the range. LOVE, LOVE those pencils.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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Long Winter Slipper socks

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In today’s post I’d like to share a picture of some LONG slipper socks I recently made. I picked this yarn coz I liked the colour way, I’ve since found out that Tweed is all the rage at the moment. Coo get me, cozy and in fashion, that’s a first! Just in time for the cold snap, weather people say snow is on its way! {Update came down this morning & there is a ducting of snow on the ground and more forcast for this afternoon}

Long winter slipper socks

• Yarn: Sirdar Connemara, Tweed effect chunky, Colour 355 Hornpipe. These slippers took 3 balls total 150g
• Needles: Knit Picks Sunstruck Options; 5.5 mm

The original pattern was Non Felted Slippers from Ravelry by Yuko Nakamura,  which I loved and have made as the pattern suggested before but I get very cold in the winter and have previously added a few rows of 2×2 rib to make them into ankle boots. This time I went OTT and added 50 rows of the 2 x 2 rib to give almost knee-high slipper socks.

Perfect for curling up on sofa in the evening, no more gap between slippers and ends of my trousers

Links

• Sirdar Connemara Colours currently made
• Non-felted Slippers by Yuko Nakamura

How about you, have you had chance to create yet in the new year? What new craft will you be trying in 2013.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

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Hand Made diary

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Today I’d like to share a couple of pictures of a diary I made.

Hand made diary: 2013

The layout I created from scratch using Craft Artist software v1, the cover is made from white hammered card. The binding style is Coptic stitch, so that the book lays flat in use.

Best wishes and thanks for reading, see you soon

Billie

PS: Yes I know there aren’t any numbers on it, that was intentional, I’ll write them in, so I can use the same template each year without having to retype so much

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