Sketchbook ~ Foodie Cuties

I've been mostly working on various crochet commissions lately and, as is always the way, I really miss drawing but here are some sketchbook bits I've managed to squeeze in.
In other news, I was on photoshop all afternoon sorting out some page layouts for a new zine and then the computer froze and I lost it all. How does photoshop not have an autosave?!

I'm just going to go have a little cry.



I know cs6 has autosave but that does not help me. *grump*

What My Phone Saw ~ June

Unicorn // Butts



Pizza // Doughnut



Wrapping orders is my fave // Working in the garden is my fave



I'm so stylish. Will drew on those shorts for me, I'll have to get a proper picture of them.



More wrapping.



We know how to travel // Morning bird watching face at the 'rents.



Finally got a rake and cleared up the garden a bit. Bernard doesn't get lost in the grass anymore.



"There's a turd floating through the air." Space is so majestic. This is from Packing for Mars by Mary Roach. Read all her books, even her footnotes are awesome.



Tiny tiny plant baby // Got ma helix pierced!

Days 174 - 180 // 365 2015

Day 174 - I set myself up to work in the garden so Bernard could have a proper day out but after his initial investigations he just flopped down and stayed where he was.



Day 175 - 50p mug makes breakfast a little fancier.



Day 176 - I feel so boring at the minute. We're both working really hard and have no time (or money) to go do anything. I want to go on some sort of adventure, even if it's only down the road. I haven't even been able to find time for an afternoon in the meadow (wow, looking at the tag I didn't realise how long it had actually been!). It's hard to go do something non work related when I know I have work to do, what with that wonderful luxury of self employment, knowing that if I'm not working I'm not getting paid and when I am working I still might not get paid. Blah. I'm not really complaining, it's better to have lots of work to do than none. Like I said, I just feel boring and that's not the best. I'm living vicariously (and jealously) through Kaylah at the moment, her road trip posts are beautiful.



Day 177 - Creeping on this cutie.



Day 178 - "Don't poke your eyes out." "How did you know how I was going to get the eyes in the right place?" "Because I know you."



Day 179 - We made Bernard a tent of sorts. There's only a few hours a day when the sun is on his hutch but he's too furry for such things.



Day 180 - I finally got that matted bit of nose hair out this morning. Now he's as fancy as can be. This photo is in memory of that nose dreadlock.

Crochet ~ LSP, Pizza, Ice Lollies and a Unibot

Firstly, let's admire my mad photoshop skills. I'm a real pro.


orange etsy / folksy     fab etsy / folksy     strawberry split etsy / folksy

I'll let you in on a secret, those lolly brooches have never even been to Cromer. I bet I had you fooled.
Anyways, I had a little overdue shop update on Monday with a few new bits. The brooches have actual wooden lolly sticks which is a nice touch if I do say so myself. There's two new purses, LSP and pizza slice. The LSP purse comes with two different eye options, cute or sassy. And a new unibot, he's called Jake.


LSP etsy / folksy


Pizza purse


Jake the unibot

Hope you're having a good week ^_^

Zine ~ April and May

For April's zine I just really wanted to have a go at a folding technique I saw in this blog post. I didn't pay any attention to measurements. I just drew all over a piece of paper and then winged it, folding and cutting in what looked like kind of the right places that would at least make it work even if it's not the neatest thing in the world.

 

It's hard to show how the pages turn without videoing it but I don't have the technology for such things. The pages are one sheet of paper folded and the cover is a separate piece added after. Even though it's double sided you can just keep turning the pages and you end up going back along the other side of it. It's a lot of fun, I think with some proper thought and planning it could be used to make something really good.

 

I had a go at drawing Eurovision and collected the drawings together for my May zine. I tried drawing Eurovision last year but wasn't at all quick enough and didn't even manage a drawing for every country. I managed a drawing for every country this year but mostly just heads and not a lot of detail. My plan is to do it every year as a kind of annual point of reference to see how my observational drawing changes/gets better (and quicker I hope), it'll be an interesting way of seeing how my drawing develops I think.

 

Crochet ~ Staggered Increase

There are a few crochet related things that I've been meaning to have a closer look at so I can find out what sort of a difference using particular techniques actually makes. I figured I'd share them on here incase they were useful to anyone else and it gives me easy reference too. First up, staggered increase. I knew this made a big difference but thought it'd be interesting to do a proper side by side comparison.



These two pieces are the same number of stitches, same number of rounds but as you can see they look quite different. The increases are just in different places. When all the increases are on top of each other they create those points, like corners, and you get a pentagon (in this case) rather than a circle. If you're then going to work up all the way to close it again for amigurumi then it doesn't make much difference and it's much easier to count stitches as you go when the increase is even. If you were making a bowl shape then I think depending on your yarn and how high it went you might get slight points round the edge but mostly this makes a big difference if you're making a flat circle shape.

I started both of these with a magic circle with 5dc into it, 2dc in each stitch then *1dc, 2dc in next stitch* 5 times. For the pink I continued with *2dc, 2dc in next* 5 times, *3dc, 2dc in next* 5 times, *4dc, 2dc in next* 5 times and *5dc, 2dc in next* 5 times. For the orange I did a round of *1dc, 2dc in next, 1dc* 5 times, *3dc, 2dc in next* 5 times, *1dc, 2dc in next, 3dc* 5 times, *4dc, 2dc in next, 1dc* 5 times.
It doesn't really matter where you put the increases so long as they aren't on top of the one you did the round before and they are evenly distributed within the round (or you'll end up with an uneven shape which is awesome but a whole other thing) and you should end up with a nice smooth circle.

Days 167 - 173 // 365 2015

Day 167 - Growing your own food is so exciting. Even if it is only snack amounts.



Day 168 - Reflecting about pants. I need to stop forgetting to take photos till I'm half asleep.



Day 169 - This guy ^_^




Day 170 - First harvest of the season and I found a baby. I was taking some dead leaves off of my jade plant and one of them had this growing out of it. I have no idea how to look after it so I figured I'd plop it in some soil and see what happens. I wasn't sure if it needed to stay on it's leaf but then it fell off anyway so I didn't have to decide. It's so tiny and cute.



Day 171 - Pretty in the garden.



Day 172 - Overworked and underpaid.



Day 173 - Sneaky peek at what I'm working on at the minute. Shhh...