Draw a Little, Knit a Little

I woke up at 5 AM with rain hitting my bedroom window. So it's been an indoor craft day. I took my sketchbook to Cafe 247 and drew for awhile. I'm trying to find a comfortable place to draw away from home. The library would work but it is closed on Friday.

The last decent drawing I did was a few days ago, so I'll post those photos.

My other big project right now is this shawl thing I'm knitting, but I can't decide if it is a headscarf or a full sized shawl or what. If I make it much bigger I'll need to get another circular needle so I have enough room for all the stitches to stretch out.

Feather Art by Fayme Harper ©2014

Feather Art by Fayme Harper ©2014

Knitting a shawl.

Quail in my front yard.

Don't ask me why, but my blogger photos are coming out in funky dimensions. If they don't look right, click on them to see the original photos in a separate window.

Project Update: Nalebinding and Knitting

It doesn't seem like winter. Look at this beautiful sunset.

A bunch of photos had piled up on my camera, so I thought I'd post the craft related ones and talk about what I'm doing in each one.

Knitting a gray teddy bear. So far I have the head shape done and I'm working on knitting the body.

 

Before I moved here, I was trying to learn Nalebinding http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A5lebinding  but I lost the needle I had made. So I tried to make a new one out of wood from the yard. The one on the right had a very soft pith in the center so I couldn't make the tip sturdy. So I gave up on it and made the one on the left. I may have to make the eye bigger. The dots are where tiny branches used to be. I need to sand it a bit more and put a finish on it. Then I'll try to learn nalebinding again.

Writing in my journal is something I try to do daily. See the tree behind me on the right? I think the wood for the nalebinding needle is from that tree, but I don't know what kind of tree it is. The wood is quite hard.

Taking The Bear To Bed

Before I call it a night, I will go make my bed, take the teddy bear I started knitting today, and sit there in my room and knit until I can't hold my head up anymore. I'm really sleepy right now, but you know how it is. By the time I get ready for bed, turn out all the lights and so on and so forth, I'll be wide awake again. This is a gray teddy bear made of yarn that is 20% wool and 80% acrylic. I thought starting a new bear would cheer me up a little.

Work In Progress: Crocheted Hexagons & a Knitted Snake

These are crocheted hexagons. Each motif has 5 rounds.  Here I am on round 4. We are having an unseasonably warm January so I've been able to knit and crochet outdoors in my yard. I haven't decided what I want to use the hexagons for. I don't really need an afghan.

I also worked on my knitted snake today. I think I'm at the halfway point so from here on out I'll be decreasing. It's been fun adding different colors to it.

Knitting a snake on DPN's in Stockinette stitch.

A fun project but I'm not looking forward to weaving in all the ends.

A Bit of Crochet

I had a super busy day today. Somehow I squeezed in some crochet while being driven to and from the grocery stores. I'm not sure how far ahead I got because I had to frog some of it. Each hexagon has five rounds. I can't quite remember every round, so I have to keep referring to the book, which is difficult while sitting in a car and balancing a crochet hook and little motifs. Challenging but not impossible.

Seems every other day is a different temperature. Today I dressed for cool weather and melted all day.

We also made chicken noodle soup from scratch. I haven't even had any yet, because our friends came over and wanted to go out to dinner instead. They'd been looking forward to a particular restaurant all day so how could we say no? At least my boyfriend can take some to work with him tomorrow and I can have some for lunch.

Ontario Hills Mall

I knew I was going to be at a mall today for about five hours so I took projects with me. I sat down, looking forward to working on my crochet hexagons, and realized I didn't bring the crochet, just the knitting. Nothing to do for it, so when I got tired of walking around the entire perimeter of Ontario Mills Mall, I sat down and knitted for about an hour. I also took some cross-stitch but my eyes were so tired from reading all the way to Ontario, that I didn't even bother with the embroidery. At least I got my daily reading done and it was good to get away from the computer and do other things. I don't think I've been in a mall in a year, and I found it very entertaining. Here are some photos:

Animal Legs Barstools

Giant Butterfly

Beautiful butterfly

Rainforest Cafe

Pin-up Bootique. Fabulous.

Forever 21

Giant Grapes

Knitting Update

I had surprise visitors for 3 days. I took my knitting along and worked on it whenever I wasn't chasing my grand kids. My grandson kept asking me what I was knitting, saying he wanted to do it too. I kept telling him it was a secret. He's not quite 3 so knitting isn't really an option yet. But it proves to me that little boys are just as interested in knitting as little girls, until society teaches them otherwise. Since I didn't finish it before he left, I'll have to mail it to him.

Maggie will be one in Feb.

My daughter and granddaughter

Snuggles

It's all about the monster trucks.

Me on my birthday wearing a necklace that Lezlee crocheted for me.

Weston is almost 3.

Sunny Day and Outdoor Crafting

The two newest paintings are on my art blog now: http://hypnokittyartstudios.blogspot.com/2014/01/what-bleep-girl-and-palm-tree-girl.html. 

I also did some knitting and crocheting today. I'm working on crocheted hexagons and I'm knitting something secret for my grandson. I hope to do more of it tonight, but I have guests coming tomorrow so I need to do housework too. But I'm starting to get tired. It was about 70 degrees today so I was able to paint outdoors. I can usually work outdoors from about 10 AM until the sun goes behind the hill at around 4 PM. Then the temperature drops and by nightfall I'm in the house making a fire in the wood burning stove. I takes about an hour to warm up and get cozy in here.

I also have writing to do tonight. So what are you up to on the 2nd day of the new year? Staying warm I hope.

Today's self-portrait. See the rest of the painting over on my art blog.

Mixed Media Painting

It was a beautiful sunny New Year's Day so I spent it in the yard. I started out working on a knitting project for my grandson. But I promised myself I would make some time for painting today. So when my fingers were too tired to knit, I set that aside and worked on a mixed media painting of a pretty girl with a serious look.

I did a lot more work on it, but don't have photos of that part yet. I did a pen and ink tree sketched from the one in my neighbor's yard. I sketched in the grapevines. I added text from the movie "What's the Bleep and my own thoughts on the movie. Then I added chakra circles. I really like the way it is turning out. I'll look at it tomorrow and decide if it is done yet.

First painting of 2014.