Quick break from the break...

A peek at a new lino print I'm working on for an order.

Thanks so much to Kim Gray for featuring the pencil cases I did for Urban Degree today! (This lino above is related to that ....)

And while you're checking out Kim's blog, be sure to have a look at the shoot she styled for O Magazine, using some of my prints among others. See who else's work you can spot in the gorgeous photos!

Break

Need to take a blog break for a little while: all my part-time bits of work have suddenly decided to go full-time, at the same time. It's fabulous, but I wish there was a queuing system!

I'll see you on the other side of this mountain of work. (I'm sure I'll be twittering through it, though).

(Don't forget the craft meeting on Saturday, and the cd launch on Sunday - busy weekend!)

The best beret

It matches my dog! It's Urchin, by Ysolda, and it's quick and easy and interesting to knit and holds its shape beautifully. Some more pics, to show the shaping:


It's also a great example of why Ravelry's the best invention since circular needles. The wool was a present, but I only had one skein; I searched high and low for another in the same dyelot, because all the slouchy beret patterns I had used more than one, but no luck. Then I searched on Ravelry for a one-skein beret pattern, and this popped up. I made it with 10cm to spare, leaving out the last wedge in the pattern.

In my 'hood

Some graffiti folk I've come across on recent walks.

Patterns

A few more transfer brooches; inching towards a batch big enough for firing.

Now that's what I call knitting!

You know when you learn a new technique and you just don't want to do anything else? That's how it is with twisted stitches - can't keep my hands off them. Travelling stitches learned for this pattern (free pattern on Ravelry here), Lisa R Myers' Travelling Stitch Legwarmers.

Lumpiness due to preknitted wool and no blocking yet - I hope.

Fragments

Some more bits of pottery I've found on my walks. Look at that ship one, isn't it amazing? I love seeing the different styles and marks and textures next to each other. It still astounds me, too, that I don't find matching bits.

Thinking about fragments, and discussing a fragmented online persona (not my words) this morning, and wondering what the need for it is. Some advice is that it's better to have different 'departments' for different work, and go under a different name for each. To have clearly differentiated brands. To not mix up art and commercial work. To not have people see instantly that you work for ad agencies as well as doing fine art.

My feeling is that it's better (and easier to manage) to have everything in one pot. It's all online anyway, so people will make connections. But I'm not very in touch with things, so I really don't know what's best. Is it confusing to know that one person does comics and illustrations and textile designs and fine art prints? And that some illustrations are for cool publications and some illustrations are for school books? Does it make that person seem a worse comic artist if you find out that they spend a good part of their time designing knitted dolls?

Is your work diluted by appearing varied, or does it all somehow come together and seem stronger?

Colourways

Knee-deep in transfers today, which is a pretty good place to be!

Good advice

Read this post by potter Whitney Smith, and feel instantly calmer and more collected. It's not easy, but it is simple.

At last!

Very exciting news! The people who play loud music in my house (and bring biscuits and cake, so it's fine, really) have recorded an album, and it'll be launched on the 21st of June. You can read all about it here, and listen to some tracks from it too.

Handles - now with bags

A tiny little splash of daylight (not even sun, just light) at mid-day today: I rushed around with chairs, camera and wobbly tripod to snatch these shots of my new bags. It's been months now that I've been fiddling around with possible designs, yet these are pretty much the same as the knitted bags I made a long time ago!


I still need to work out some things, like an inside pocket, and possibly elastic inserted in the casing to hold the gathers a little more tightly, but I'm happy with the general shape and function. And the possibilities!

Better notebook covers

Although I was happy with the solution I've been using for cardboard inserts for my notebook covers, it kept bothering me that they didn't quite look or feel like a hardcover book. And the scoring and folding took just a little too long. So here's the new improved version: 3 separate pieces of card, with a strip of cloth tape glued on to hinge them together.


(I should have some of these in the shop by next week; today is one of those days when everything has to be done 3 times to get it right, which is slooow going...)

O list

Some of my printed buttons in O magazine this month, thanks to Kim Gray!