HOT OFF MY NEEDLES-FINITO

Hi Everyone!

It's been a few weeks since my last post and I've been a busy girl.  I've been creating art and knitting my fingers to the bone <grin>.   That's right, my Wips (works in progress) are whittling down and soon I'll be forced to work on the Summer KAL (Knit A Long) Zadie Sweater.  It's been so hot here that the thought of working on a sweater makes me sweat, so I put it aside to work on some smaller projects.

For the life of me, I can NOT remember where this yarn was purchased; so bad about taking the wrapper off yarns when knitting and forgetting where I put them for safe <wink wink> keeping. Before my BFF Bonnie came down a few weeks ago, while doing the mad dash knitting pile clean up I came across a WIP and knew that needed to be finished.  The Drop Stitch Scarf.

Oh my, the colors and texture of yarn was just so pretty.  Don't you agree?  Stunning changes in color and texture made my heart sing as I was knitting along.  Oh did I mention I had to look up how to do the Drop Stitch pattern again on You Tube?!?  Here it is if you are interested in trying the Drop Stitch scarf.  This yarn was perfect for the Drop Stitch pattern, believe me I knit it several different ways before coming up with this pattern.

Next I was on Craftsy.com (have I mentioned how much I LOVE Crafsy.com?) and found a few patterns/kits I wanted to try for Fall/Winter.  This one is called the Leaf Press Shawl  and it is just so pretty, loving the stripes and leaf pattern. I couldn't help myself.  Look for a post when this scarf/shawl is done!

This kit is called  Concerto Cowl .  This is my finished Concerto Cowl that is hot off my needles and it will not be my last one either, I can already see it in other colorways. It knits up very fast and is a fun pattern to knit and will be nice and warm for my next trip to NY in October.

Oh AND I finished my Cable Knit Blanket last week!!! I'm definitely on a knitting roll!!!  This is called Violet's Cable Knit Blanket.   I LOVVVVEEE it !   I knit it up in Big Twist yarn color Sky Blue and it is Soooo soft, yet light weight enough as a nice throw over the legs when needed.

My husband has put a claim on it and my daughter has already said she wants one.....good thing this knits up pretty quickly with large needles and once you get the initial rows started, it is easy to follow the pattern without having to read or memorize it.  The only thing you have to keep track of are the rows where cables are inserted.  Easy peasey cables too!  I could knit this one in my sleep. Lol!

Well, that's what I've been up to lately, how about you?  Got some finished projects? Would love to see them.

Bee Creative,
Suzy

Hi Everyone!

Last week I missed posting on here.  It was that kind of week. It's my husband's annual trip north to Saratoga Springs and the annual visit from my BFF.  BFF Bonnie was coming in town and there was prepping for the big week of art and some housekeeping to be done beforehand between working and getting hubby out the door.  If you know me, you know I'm a procrastinator, last minute kinda gal. But I got it done and was ready for some fun!

Bonnie was here when I arrived home from work on Wednesday afternoon, we caught up, did a little grocery shopping (no, I didn't get to the store beforehand) and I cooked us a nice dinner to start off the visit.  Unfortunately, I had to work on Thursday but that gave Bonnie a chance to rest up.

Let me give you a little back story: Bonnie and I love to paint with watercolors and when we get together we try to get out to paint, sketch and draw, (see our  blog: SketchyGirlz) but this year we decided to try acrylic painting.  I was recently inspired by a painting class where I used acrylics as my medium and shared the experience with Bonnie about the class, she naturally wanted to try acrylic painting.

Another back story: In January I had joined an online site Creative Bug that has loads of crafts (knitting, crochet, cooking, jewelry making, etc.) plus videos how-to's and classes.  You've got to check it out! Yes, it does involve a subscription to join but it is WELL WORTH the cost.  On this site is a class by famed artist Flora Bowley called Intuitive Painting which I really enjoyed and thought it would be the perfect art adventure for Bonnie and I to try when she came down for her annual visit.

Armed with video instruction we took a "walk about", taking photos for inspiration and then interpreted the images for the painting process.

 I will not spoil the process for you, but let's say it was WAY out of our comfort zones and took multiple times of viewing the videos to be able to paint in such an abstract way. Bonnie is a realistic painter and I am too pretty much, although I have a more intuitive paint style than her.  She likes to know what the END result is going to be, where I'm more of a go with the flow/intuitive painter. Nothing wrong with either style. Flora's process is very intuitive and somewhat abstract (at least for this lesson) in the fact that this process doesn't really involve a great deal of realism.

Suzy BEFORE: Half way thru process. 

With that said, we dove in and just tried to go with the flow, at times it was easy and at times it was downright hard.


Throughout the process when we would doubt our abilities, we just repeated Flora's mantra "we are awesome for trying this" and we would say out loud what we LIKED about our painting.

Bonnie BEFORE Half Way thru process

Half-way thru the process I think we both wanted to call it quits but we pressed on.  As you can see the half way point was mostly abstract and way out of our comfort zones.







It WAS fun and it WAS challenging and we both were pleased at the final product and we both said we would try it again and are planning another painting using this method.  

AFTER: Bonnie's Final Painting 

AFTER: Suzy's Final Painting

  So all in all, a very successful art adventure was had by the Sketchy Girlz.  Tell us what you think. We'd love to hear your comments. Oh and be nice!

Bee Creative!

Suzy