What In The Heck Have I Been Doing All This Time?!

"Cerebration is the enemy of originality in art."
Martin Ritt

These 3 eagles (can you find all three?)
is what greeted me when I stepped outside this morning

Rather then my Sunday chapter notes for The Artist's Way I thought that I would try to answer my own question: What have I been doing? Where have I been? (The next chapter update for the Artist's Way will return tomorrow.)

There are times when I feel as though I have accomplished nothing. When painful days run together I get so darn frustrated because I just wnat to be painting,drawing, knitting, quilting, - all of the things that bring joy to my life. Thankfully, when I stop for a minute & think about it I realize that I have, in fact, been producing - just not as fast as I generally like to!

Here is a peek at my desk - all of the accouterments of art are there - just waiting for me to sit down and play!

I love fingerless gloves. I wear them all of the time - generally indoors and outdoors in the Winter because my hands get so cold. For Christmas last year I made about a dozen pairs of a simple pattern - and it is one of the few things that I have gifted people with that everyone seemed to enjoy using. That always makes me feel good to get feed back! I found this pattern on Knitty and fell in love with it. It is called "Fetching" and is designed and graciously shared by Cheryl Niamuth from Vancouver, BC - just across the road from me. I love this pattern and my first pair was made from Jo Sharp worsted in 'Lichen' - Oh! Do I love this yarn. I want more and more of it! I just started a pair in Lion Brand WoolEase in 'Lemon Grass'. Thus far I think it will work well. I am on the look-out for a pair of fingerless gloves in a more lacey pattern now.

This is the pair of socks I am working on using Conjoined Creations Flat Feet yarn with their 'Ladder Socks' pattern. The pre knitted pieces are really wonderful to work with. Much tidier than working with skeins of yarn. I like the pattern - just a bit of added texture than the sock pattern I usually use. I am hooked on the pre knitted pieces too. KnitPicks has aome preknitted sock blanks and a started set of dyes that is on my list of must purchase items. I am waiting for another thing from them to get something else back into stock and then I can give dyeing my own blanks a try!

Next up is one of the several silk pen rolls I have been making. This one is for a wonderful lady who sold me a pen that I had been lusting for at a more than very fair price. It is a Pelikan M400 honey tortoise & it has become my most favorite pen. It's nice to lust for a pen and then, when you actually get it, it performs as well as you hoped it would. Oh so beautiful & Oh so smooth. I cannot believe that I have found a pen that eclipses the love I have for my Bexley. I wanted to make this for her as a heartfelt thank you for selling me the pen at such a low price. I will be shipping it off to it's new Austrailian home on Wednesday.

The inside of the roll is Dupioni silk and the outside is from vintage kimono silks from AH!Kimono.