Sew what...

Well every evening this week I've had all sorts of plans to tick stuff off my creative to do list; finish the second sleeve on my jumper, start on the animal alphabet, finish off the first little cross stitch I'm doing, UPDATE MY BLOG... but I get too easily distracted!

I'm nearly finished one of those things though! The little cross stitch I'm doing! HURRAH! So here's some photos...

SOOO close to being done! So tonight I just need to fill in those little lines on the banner and do a little bit more sewing and then it's finished and can be sent to it's new home! 

Once it's been sent on it's merry way I can start on the next cross stitch project... and it's quite a big one....

I'd spotted these Emily Peacock cushions on a programme Phil and Kirsty did on Channel 4, but I didn't know that you could buy the patterns to make them yourself until I stumbled across them on t'interweb a few weeks ago. They were going to be a wedding present but I ended up having to show the bride to be and she wasn't too sure future hubby would approve... and I really should be giving them a present they both like! Not to worry though, they shan't go to waste! Just means I don't have to make a second pair for myself now as I get to keep these ones, and I can blog about my progress...

Not sure which I'll start first, maybe the KISS one as there's more blocks of colour so it'll feel like I'm making more progress with it! But I'm not allowing myself to start that until I've at least finished the sleeves for my jumper and done one image for my animal alphabet :s

From Knit to Nit...

I thought it was about time that I showed folk a little of what I do at work as I do tend to complain that I don't have time to do much other than work-work these days.

A lot of what I do at work is for presentations for clients and so I'm not allowed to show you it or I'll get my fingers cut off, but here are some images I did for a report about nit shampoo whihc I'm allowed to share! Yes, I know, exciting stuff.

I was asked to draw some nits (cute ones though) in various poses and doing various things, so here's a couple of them...

It was pretty difficult to design the nits as a lot of them needed to be standing up for the poses that were required and nits have super long abdomens, but I tried my best anyway! 

I drew them all in pencil first, this little guy is supposed to be "fierce nit"...

I created the image in a 2D style without linework first, which I was really pleased with, but as I had about 12 different images to produce I needed a faster way of churning them out...

In order to speed things up a bit I drew over the images in ink and rescanned them and then used the live trace tool in illustrator then coloured the image up from underneath in photoshop. So here's a few... 

The redrawn version of the fierce nit...

Postman nit...

and scared nit...

Not everything I do at work is this fun though, most of the time I draw up concepts for stuff and mock up facebook tabs, but it was nice to do a little bit of cartoony stuff!

I also got to revamp the 1000heads logo for the email signatures at Christmas too, the jumper was the most fun but time consuming bit; making the little knitted pattern out of 'v's!

What? No knitting?...

This 2 posts a week malarkey is proving a little difficult at the moment!

So far this week I've been a little too busy to do much other than work-work, and I'm currently knitting the second sleeve for my jumper so any progress photos would be pretty much the same as the first one. The last of the wool arrived for it this week though, from Knits in the City, so I now have everything I need!

All the bits for my top secret stitching-wedding-present project arrived on Monday from Sew and So so that's all ready to go too! I bought the patterns I needed on eBay and got a few extra freebies with them, so I'm working on this little fellow for a friend, I thought it'd be a nice small one to start me off...

Another project I have on the go is an alphabet of animals. Original, I know... It was more an exercise to give me something creative to do which had a running theme, just to keep me doing stuff.

Remember these Woodland Animals? Well I'm sticking to that style but using a variety of different media to create them... hand drawn, photoshop, plushie, collage, 3D model, knitted, cross stitched... and whatever else I can think of!

Have been googling each letter to find some less obvious animals and to find a little more inspiration, though there are a few favourites of mine that will be obvious choices, I'm sure! Only thing is I need to do 2 per month (with 2 extra to fit in somewhere) and it's already the 19th of January, so I need to get a wriggle on!

Knit-twit...

I’ve been knitting every night this week, and as a result I’ve finished a sleeve for my jumper! Hurrah. Now I just need another sleeve... and a front ... and a back.
The rest of the wool I ordered had arrived when I got in from work I can start on the stripey bits (the front and back) as they’ll take the longest.

So here’s a few photos of the sleeve...

The pattern advises to bind off stitches at the beginning of each row to create the arm pieces, rather than decreasing, which I’m not so sure about, it looks a little messy as rather than a nice straight edge it’s stepped, I guess I’ll just see how it goes though. If the jumper fits well then I already have the wool to make another (thank you John Lewis sale!), maybe next time I’ll alter the pattern a little an try decreasing instead, will see how the seams look when I put it all together... :s


And here's the finished piece...

There’s a lot of fluff stuck to it which makes it look a little messy, might have to take a roll of sticky tape to it!

I ordered all the threads and the aida for another project today too, I found a super awesome cross stitch pattern which I’ll be using to make a wedding present... though I have 3 weddings coming up so who knows who it’s for!... well I do, but I won’t be giving it away, obviously! Does mean that I can’t really blog it though. I might do some sneaky peak photos though then post all the progress snaps when it’s all finished.

Still waiting for my Print Gocco to arrive too, and not even sure whether it’s getting delivered to my London address or back home in Durham!

So this weekends plan... 

*Start on another piece of the jumper, can't decide whether to just get the other sleeve done or to start on a stripey bit.

*Buy some more pins for all these pieces of jumper!

*and if all the stuff for my top secret-wedding-craft project arrives tomorrow then I may be unable to resist starting that too!

And so it begins...

... by "it" I mean the jumper I'm knitting!

I decided that by next christmas I want to be able to knit my own christmas jumper 'cause I've never found one I like that fits (well I did this year but it wasn't meant to be).

I was going to start from scratch and work my way up to knitting the jumper by working through all the basics, but I was looking through my stitch'n'bitch books and came across a pattern for a jumper that is pretty basic and I already know all the techniques needed to make it so I thought I'd give it a shot.

The jumper in the pattern is made of different shades of pink which isn't really my colour, so I've decided to go for navy and white with a little bluey grey in there too. I decided to start with the sleeves first as they were smaller and I wasn't able to get enough skeins of wool in the colours I wanted so I couldn't start on the striped body, and I wanted to be sure I could make complete pieces while I wait for the rest of the wool to arrive.

So here's the first photo of it having cast on and knit/purled one row, I have a little more now but will post that later...

As well as going on a mission for Rowan Cotton Glace and knitting this weekend I had a wonder to Brick Lane and Spitalfields market where there's a stall selling lots of printing press letters. I really want to buy some but haven't a clue what I could do with them...

This evening's plan is to do a bit more knitting and maybe make a new background for my blog, I want something that matches the new title more. I'm thinking... bunting!

OOH and I bought a Print Gocco y'day, just waiting for it to be delivered, I'm super excited, can't wait to have a play with it! 

Remember this guy?...

...well he's back, and this time he's turquoise and is forming the new background on both my blogger and twitter... though turns out I didn't quite make it seamless as when I've tiled the background it's a little off, and I think I might have preferred to use the version with the suckers on the tentacles. oh well, it'll do for now...

TWO THOUSAND AND ELEVEN...

Well I said I'd keep updating my blog after college and... well... I didn't. Not very often anyway... but...

New Year, New Start!

So I'm making it my resolution to update my blog at least twice a week, and as I've given myself a list of projects to this year I *should* have enough to keep it up! I've got a few illustration projects (just for fun), a bunch of stuff to knit, and two lot's of bridesmaids duties which include designing a set of invitations and making two lots of wedding toppers!

So for a start here's a few photos I had knocking about...

My lovely ex housemate Charlotte bought me an awesome calendar for Christmas; every month has a picture of a zombie which also comes flat pack with the calendar so you can build it yourself. After building the first one I realllly wanted to make another, but I'm going to be good and do each one on the first of every month. I do love a bit of paper craft...

One of my housemates took up knitting before Christmas, and as I'm always banging on about how awesome the Stitch'n'Bitch books are I thought I'd buy her one and put a little knitting kit together with some nice wool, bamboo needles and other useful bits and put them all in a bag, so I bought a blank canvas tote and made use of some fabric paints I bought a good while ago and sat down one afternoon to make it all look pretty! 

I cut a piece of scrap cardboard to put into the bag to stretch it out and keep it flat so it was easier to work on, and to stop the paint going through onto the back, then drew on the image in pencil. I mixed the fabric paints to get the colours I wanted and then filled all the large blank areas with colour...

After the first lot of paint had dried I added the writing and the detail to the balls of wool with darker shades of the same colours, then drew on the faces with a black sharpie...

Ta daaaa...

I have done other stuff, honestly, it's just either not that interesting or it's work stuff... which usually is't that interesting either.

This weeks plan is to get some wool so that I can start making a jumper! Though it seems it's going to cost about £40-£45 for the wool I need for it, so hopefully I'll not only finish it but it'll fit!

I really want to buy a Print Gocco too, especially for making the wedding invitations! Maybe I should treat myself...