Setting Up

Almost ready for the book launch tomorrow evening. I'm completely exhausted, and aiming to be in bed by 9pm tonight. Needing sleep, because tomorrow I'm being interviewed on the radio - eep!

Listen to SAFM just after the 1pm news on Friday to hear me trying to think of intelligent, or at least intelligible, things to say....

Just one tiny chocolate....

Nothing much to show today, as I'm working on illustrations for a children's book, but Heather reminded me that I'd completely forgotten to mention that I Don't Like Chocolate is on sale online here and here!

Test Strips

There's an amazing trim and ribbon shop just down the road from where I live, called the Palms Haberdashery. It's amazing partly because it's within walking distance, but mostly because you never know what you'll find there. Ribbon is sold by the roll, sometimes flawed, sometimes shop-soiled, and seldom in colours you'd expect. It's cheap enough that you can buy ribbon just because it's lovely, and probably find a use for it some day.

My stash of broad satiny ribbon is growing; I can't print on it with fabric ink, as it won't withstand the heat of curing. But oil-based blockprinting ink gives a very sharp print with a nice texture. I couldn't put it up for sale without knowing how it washes, though, so I made some test strips to throw in with my laundry. It's on about 10 washes now, and I've been recklessly washing it with jeans and towels - it's holding up well! Just a few more washes, to be certain...


... and I think I'll make headbands from these.

I just found out that my Rocketmail account is dead, and can't be reactivated because it's no longer supported. I've had that account for about 10 years. I tried to remember to check it every few months, because people do still contact me on it, and I had some juicy emails stored on there too. All gone. It's the end of an era.

Oh, and if you want to go looking for the Palms Haberdashery, it's on Lower Main Road in Salt River, but not where the sign for Palms Haberdashery is. It's on the opposite side of the street. Where the sign says Palms Remnants and Halaal Food. Haphazard, yes.

Looking for home

Prints of this little bird have just been listed in my print and paper Etsy shop!

There's another short story from my comic on the Oshun blog on Book SA, as well.

(I promise there'll be some actual block printing content on the blog tomorrow - if you're not tired of all this comic stuff yet, I am. Everything's pretty much organised for the launch, except of course for the one big thing that I'm bound to have forgotten, but I won't know what that is till Friday, because it's something I've forgotten, and that's how it works....)

Links to love

It's like a snowstorm around here with little bits of paper doily fluttering everywhere. I've been so busy I've barely had time for a systematic read through all the blogs in my bookmarks folder. (I'm old-fashioned like that.... rss? Know nothing about it.)

A few lovely things I've spotted on small expeditions online: the most amazing mural at sakura snow, a yummy selection of lino blocks at elly joel (as well as prints made with them, and stencil prints - have to try that!), and utterly charming stamps at vlijtig. Scroll down a bit for some blockprinted fabric, and have a look at her bag made from vintage embroidery.

Irene from Bloesem has taken lovely photos of some blockprinted tape I sent her, and directed loads of people this way, as have freshly{blended} and from amsterdam, with love. Thank you!

More Doilies

Two hours, one rubber stamp, and a pile of paper doilies ... advertising for the book launch.

I went to every bookshop in town and the nearer suburbs that I could think of today to drop these off. My feet are aching, but - I saw my book on the shelves!

Another book launch

This is one I'm really looking forward to: Friday evening in Observatory, Cape Town. I've snuck a peek at the book, and it's really mouthwatering. The original paintings, some of which will be for sale at the launch, are so detailed, clear, and tactile - get an idea of what will be on show here. See more artwork by Louis Barnard here.

Doilies

I finished an order of doily brooches for a shop this weekend; I haven't made these for ages, but I enjoyed it so much I've started making a few extra, for my Etsy shop.

Market

Saturday's Neighbourgoods Market was pretty quiet and very hot, but still fun. See Heather trying not to wilt in the heat*. I must've been a bit dizzy, because none of my shots properly included the bunting strung above the stall. We survived thanks to large glasses of icy tomato juice, amaretti ice-cream, and iced coffee, imbibed at decent intervals.

My dolls seemed to be having a good time, reclining on the cushions I made for them (see this post for a better shot of the cushions), and guarding that market breakfast staple, a pastel de nata.

*my turn to be in the pictures next time.

New Shop

I'm very excited to announce that my new Etsy shop, jezzeprints, is now open! Thanks to everyone's helpful advice, I've managed to find a printer to reproduce my drawings. Only two prints in the shop right now, but I'll be adding more soon. These first two are printed on slightly textured paper for blockmounting, but I'll be experimenting with different papers and finishes with other prints.

I'll still be stocking my other shop with fabric prints and knitting, but I needed somewhere different for work on paper. I'm looking forward to doing some lino prints on rice paper as well, so it won't all be digital prints.

Heather and I will be at the Neighbourgoods Market this Saturday; I have a whole new crop of knitted toys, fluffier than ever before!

So will you play with me now?

Someone's been waiting very patiently for this day....

And here's a slightly better photo for those of us who are actually interested in books - only slightly better, mind. It's a bad headache day today, and much as I tried to capture the sweetness of the spot varnish on the cover, I had to settle for this as the best shot.

It's all just a little bit unreal; I keep looking at the book, hoping it will sink in.

Peace...

To you, this probably just looks like a white door in a white wall. To me, it means a little sigh of happiness every time I walk past it! It's taken nearly 2 years to get from a green door in a blue wall to this. (I'm not even going to think about how many other green doors we still have in the house...)

Needed a little bit of calm yesterday after trudging through town trying to find a printer (person, not machine) to print pages for my book launch/show. Am I the only one who finds it alarming that so few printers know what acid-free paper is? Is it an unusual term? Should I be asked "Acid... what?" Or told, with the kind of smile generally reserved for women in hardware stores, "No, dearie... our paper is very nice, I've never heard of paper going yellow." Or even: " Is it a new thing?"

So, anyone have any ideas? Digital prints, A4 size, on acid-free, aka archival quality, paper. Preferably somewhere in Cape Town. I was hoping for a printer within walking distance, but I'll settle for anyone, anywhere.

Apples

Another excerpt from my book is up at Book SA on the Oshun blog.

I drew this comic just over a year ago. I was walking home from the shop when I noticed a tiny fruit on one of the trees in our street. It took me a little while to realise it was an apple, and then I raced home to share the news! Not just the novelty of fruit growing on trees, but the coincidence - the comic was already half-drawn before I saw the apple. I hadn't even known it was an apple tree.

I live for moments like this!

Trims

A much-needed shop update is underway. I've added these trims already, and a small coin purse. I'll be adding more as the week goes on.

It's a Party!

While I've been neglecting my little patch of the internet, other people have been really busy getting things ready for the launch of The Comic! Click on the pic to see a bigger version and get all the details.

Then head on over to Book SA and the Oshun blog for the first of a series of excerpts from the book.

I have to confess that it wasn't all work that kept me away from my blog for so long. If you like unraveling balls of string (and who doesn't?) this game will keep you happy for hours. It's great for taking breaks from impending deadlines, and makes you feel really clever up to, ooh, about level 12....

Buses

That's how much knitting I can do on a 4-hour bus ride, without moving my elbows! It was a 'no frills' (tiny seats) kinda bus. Pattern is Anna Bell's Elphine socks, to be found here - scroll down a bit, it's the green picture.

Next to the sock, a jar of aloe and lemon marmelade. I don't know if you can get it anywhere except in Albertinia, which is so off the beaten track I'm not even going to attempt to explain where it is, but if you ever get the chance you really should try some. I loathe ordinary marmelade, but this stuff is amazing. Look how waxy!


The promised shop update will happen sometime this week; I've got bags and purses and printed tape, but I also have an illustration deadline.... It's quite a manageable deadline, if you consider 9 or 10 hours a day hunched over a tiny painting a normal day (I think I do), but doesn't leave much time for other things. Please bear with me, it's nearly over!

Knitterly

In Knit Knit, Teva Durham says that she looks for knitters who knit in a way she describes as 'knitterly'.

"The primary thing about my approach to knitting is the process, the actual making, the energy of the hands," she explains. "My knits should be knitterly in the way a painting can be painterly.... This is the magic. Tight, mechanical-looking stitches are a no-go with me. Give me expressive texture. I create designs to bring out this expressive quality, but in reproducing them, not every knitter has the touch. There are two levels," she continues, "the design and the implementation or interpretation - like a Chopin nocturne needs a feeling pianist."

In response I hauled out some of my more touchy-feely yarns. I know what she means; sometimes, when I'm trying to crank out enough dolls to fill a market table, it's all about colours and speed, not about texture and that elusive knitterliness that makes the yarn live. I'm slowing down (a bit) and enjoying the feeling of the knitting in my hands.

I'm also going away for the weekend, because I haven't had a holiday yet! There'll be nothing but reading and knitting till I get back on Tuesday, hopefully with a new stash of dolls and a shop update too.

Starting as I mean to go on....

...sailing into the new year on the back of a big deadline. I'm starting to realise that I do love my job after all; it's just that the relationship is a lot more complicated than I ever imagined it could be.

Only one New Year's Resolution: I'm going to try to remember people's birthdays this year. And hope to make up for all the ones I forgot last year.

Christmas report

This is what my bathroom ceiling looked like on Christmas morning. The geyser decided to break while we were sleeping! After finding out firsthand what plumbers charge for a callout on Christmas day, Christmas lunch didn't seem so indulgent.... we needed all that pudding just to restore our bloodsugar levels to normal.

But Christmas wasn't all bad. In fact, some lovely things happened.


Cristina proved that even my more garbled patterns can be decoded, by making a very pretty purse from my instructions.


And Deedee improved on my vase pattern. I love how the stitches change shape.


Kaija sent me a book of good things, along with some yummy paper goodies. The little book is beautiful - she still has some in her shop, if you want to get your own.


And I was given this book for Christmas. It's odd, exciting, fascinating; page after page proves that, left to their own devices, no two knitters will produce the same things. And some will think of very odd things. I might never use any of the patterns in it, but I've already had more ideas than I could finish in a year.


This is one of them. What's it for? I'll have to show you next year!

I hope you all have a great New Year's Eve and a wonderful year. 2007 has been pretty scary, quite interesting, and mostly exciting, what with finishing That Comic and starting my printing experiments. Thank you for all your comments, and even more, for all your blogs.

Mmmmm..... Christmas....

Elves are so yummy.

Thanks!

Thank you to all the people who've been talking about my prints recently!


I found this button ring kit at Sew Bettie's Etsy shop, via the Sew Bettie blog, after they wrote a post about my prints . It's time to start thinking about After-Christmas-Presents to myself.... Have a look at Sew Bettie for some experiments in block printing. I can't wait to see what they come up with!



A post about my prints on Modish had me exploring the rest of the site, and led very quickly to these shoes - available on Etsy! Custom made by zerkahloostrah. So thank you for the post, and thank you for showing me shoes I'm going to dream about for a good while.

Bloesem made a lovely display of some of my prints as well - and I found out that Bloesem Kids has just been launched. I love kids' sites; this is going to be a favourite one to browse!

(And to top a great day off, last night I went to someone's work Christmas party, and ate guinea fowl and quail and fruit and sorbet. I'm still smiling.)

There's a 'last chance' market at the Old Biscuit Mill tonight, where I'll be selling bags and purses and dolls and badges with Heather. See her photos of last week's market to see why you should be there!

Accomplishments

I'm feeling like I've earned my sewing stripes today. Not because I managed to make these patched purses (though I'm fairly shocked that they worked) but because I broke a needle! Yep, my first one. Sewed recklessly across a zip, something went 'Thunk!', something landed on the far side of the room, and the pointy bit of the needle was left dangling from a thread. I took a breath, cursed mildly, replaced the needle, and carried on sewing at the same breakneck speed. And I know, because I've seen them, that this is how real sewing people do it.

In case you're still wrapping presents, or in fact making them, or even still thinking about where to buy them, Amy from angry chicken has made some really useful gift tags to download.

Sampler Purses

My little purse seems to be holding up well, so well that I've made a few since. It's a fun way to try out stitch patterns, without having to commit to a whole lot of knitting. The only limitation is that the stitch pattern needs to work in the round; though if you're not as averse to sewing as I am, you could knit it flat.* But that sort of defeats the point, which is that when you're done knitting, it's finished. So satisfying!

Here's how I did it:

1 circular needle
some yarn, whatever weight will work with whatever size needle you grabbed - gauge is not important, other than to note that lots of bobbles at a very tight gauge can be hard on your hands.

Cast on 50 stitches using the Turkish Cast-on (that's 25 stitches on each needle) or the closest number that will work for your chosen stitch pattern. Instructions for the Turkish Cast-on here, or here, or here. Video here.

The number is only really important for even distribution of the bobbles; no reason you couldn't cast on more, and decrease near the top to make a more shapely purse.

Knit till the pocket is long enough - about 7 cm.

Next round, the bobble-making round:
K2, make bobble, *k3, make bobble* to last 2 stitches, k2 (6 bobbles) Knit to end of round.
**To make a bobble, knit front, back, front, back, front into next stitch, turn, k5, turn, p5, turn, k2tog, k2tog, k1, turn, p3 tog. Small, tight bobbles seem to work best for this**

Next round: Cast off 25 stitches. K5, cast on 5 stitches (I just use a single cast-on), *k3tog, cast on 5* to last 5 stitches, k5. Turn.
Next row: knit
Cast off.

If your stitch pattern requires more than 25 stitches, just centre the 25 stitches needed for the bobbles, and cast off the extra stitches with the others in the cast-off row.

*To knit the purse flat, cast on 25 stitches, knit a row, knit the bobble-making row, knit another row, start your stitch pattern, and knit until you have the length you want, then knit the loops, cast off, and sew up the sides.

If my numbers for the bobble placement are squiffy, let me know, I'll check and fix them right away. I have this drawn out on a scrap of paper with many corrections crossed out...

Night market report

Heather has some lovely photos of Friday's Night Market up on skinny laminx. Not just our stall, either; have a look at some of the other people selling things, and see why you should try to be there this coming Friday night!

Night Market

I'll have these bags, and other things, at the Biscuit Mill Night Market this evening from 6 to 11 pm. I'm sharing a stall with Heather, who has loads of beautiful things for sale!

Distractions

My niece has chosen her Christmas present. It never fails... spit on it and it's yours, baby.

A Bumper Crop

Printed last week, while I was waiting for feedback on some illustration jobs:

This is what's so great about blockprinting! I'd planned the pink and blue, but once I started with pink the pattern turned a little too pretty. So halfway down the piece of cloth I switched to red.


Another instance of the same thing. Planned as black and red, along the lines of the prints above, it was quickly obvious that this was going to be horrible. I ditched the red, and started messing around with green.


And came up with this. I'm not entirely sure about it, but I think it could make a nice bag.


Some stenciled calico to use for lining bags.


And, finally, red proteas.


I've also listed a piece of green protea print in my shop.

Zips aren't scary!

Not if you've had a whole weekend, lying flat on your back, felled by a tummy bug, to work out a strategy.

Buttoned

Right in the middle of doing something far more important, I suddenly became obsessed with the idea of a knitted purse that closed without buttons or zips or velcro. After first finishing the more important thing (yes, really!) I started trying to figure this idea out. At about 2am, it seemed to work.

I'll use it for a week or so to see how the fastenings stretch out, and if it still closes. And if it does, I might make some more. I've realised that 'make as many things as possible before the market' doesn't really constitute a Plan, and makes me feel a bit panicky rather than calm and organised. But I can't think of a better Plan; hopefully I won't get too distracted.

Printing in Italian

My printing tutorial translated into Italian, on Indie-guest! Do go and have a look at this fantastic blog - there's so much lovely stuff that I haven't seen anywhere else.

In other news, and before anyone follows my printing instructions too far, I noticed a worrying thing happening to my lino blocks:


Erosion. The sharp lines on the left are turning into those blurry ones on the right. I asked for advice at my local art shop, and they said they'd never heard of this happening to lino before. Neither have I, but there it is..... Could be that it's old lino, but I have a hunch it's something to do with the fabric paint. I've bought some 'easy-cut lino' to try, though I'm not sure what it's made of - it's plasticky texture makes me think that it will seriously undermine any eco-credits I might be earning with this printing process. If the 'easy-cut' doesn't work, I think I'll have to move on to wood blocks (which is rather tempting anyway...)

If anyone has any ideas about what's causing this devastation, please let me know!

Robot

I gave someone a robot for his birthday this weekend, and took the opportunity to try stenciling.* While I've been thinking about the sense of wrapping presents in re-usable cloth wrappings, I also firmly believe that 7-year-olds should be able to rip and tear the wrapping from presents with as much noise and mess as possible.

*I might be betraying the Handmade Pledge; could I just say that the gift wasn't only from me, it was a birthday present not a Christmas one, and I did make the wrapping paper....

Guestblogging

I'm over at the Elle Decoration blog today, nattering on about block printing. (Never have guessed I'd choose that for a topic, would you?)

Pop over there to see some of the printers I've found!

Saving the mid-century

The Werdmuller Centre in Claremont, Cape Town, was built in the 70s, and designed by Roelof Uytenbogaardt, an award-winning architect. I was shocked (though not surprised) to find out via the Elle Decoration blog that it's under threat of demolition.

Although it's a very beautiful building, I've always known it as a shabby, under-utilised and slightly scary place - it's on the 'wrong' side of Claremont's very scary Main Road, a road that requires nerves of steel if you're going to cross it on foot. Apparently the best solution to the problem of this building, and Main Road itself, is a new road, and massive redevelopment of the area. Read more about the developers' plans (oops, I almost said evil schemes...) here.

From the Elle Deco blog:

On Wednesday 5 December , there will be a public presentation of the Heritage Impact Assesment regarding the demolition of the Werdmuller Centre.
To show your support against its demolition, attend the meeting at 5pm. It will be held at 71 Hout Street, Cape Town, on the First floor of the Cape Institute.
If you’re unable to attend, you can add your signature to a petition. Send an email to oh.architecture@gmail.com to find out more.


You can see more photos of the Werdmuller Centre on my Flickr page; I took a whole bunch of snapshots yesterday. It was hard to stop, but I also needed to be quick. You can see from the photos what a desolate place it is on a Sunday morning, but hopefully you can also see what an amazing building it could be. Knocking it down to build 'exclusive' 'luxury' 'loft-style' cubbyholes might not be the best thing to do.