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...

Get Into Craft Amigurumi Collection

Five of my Simply Crochet patterns have been included in their Get Into Craft Amigurumi Collection. It's basically a collection of amigurumi bits (patterns and articles) from previous issues all in one place so if amigurumi is your thing and you haven't been buying Simply Crochet or missed a few issues then this could be really handy.



There's some really sweet things in here. Of mine they used Frank the sausage dog, the triplet dolls, acorn dude, robot and dinosaurs. They pop up in miniature form throughout the issue too which is nice.



It's a little weird seeing things I worked on quite a while ago being printed again. I can't help but cast a critical eye over some of it, knowing how I'd do things differently now. But that's as it should be I suppose (so long as I'm not too harsh on myself!), if I wasn't getting better and learning things then that would be bad. I've got a few things at the moment that I can't share including a pretty big (and cute, obviously) project for Simply Crochet at the minute so I'm excited to see that published too. Once I've finished it and sent it off, I should probably get on with that...

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day from all the grumpy little chicks :)

Days 160 - 166 // 365 2015

Day 160 - Oh so forever jealous of my parent's garden.



Day 161 - Jealous of their house in general.



Day 162 - I always get really excited when I see the jay. I'm gonna make it be my friend.



Day 163 - Saturdays.

Day 164 - Bernard is my constant source of amusement. Why won't he use his hands to lean on the strawberry pot?! Why does he sit so dainty!?



Day 165 - Pretty shells be pretty.



Day 166 - Went to the library.

Sketchbook ~ A Witch, Brown Jenkin and Me

Self portrait of a windy day. When I got where I was going I wiped my face and it was covered in little bits of grit. To be honest I mostly look like this without the grit wind anyway.



Pusheen is my spirit animal.



Will's been reading some Lovecraft and Brown Jenkin scares the shit out of me. Just after Will first told me about him there were some weird old house noises and it sounded so much like Brown Jenkin was in the walls.

Days 153 - 159 // 365 2015

Day 153 - Unicorn wip.



Day 154 - Patch planning.



Day 155 - Making purses.



Day 156 - A few of my new heroes.



Day 157 - Bernard is inquisitive. Especially about things that drift about in the wind as these things make no sense to him.



Day 158 - Photographing things ready for being listed online.



Day 159 - Taking photos of lights never gets old.

Days 145 - 152 // 365 2015

Day 145 - Working on my stock to do list and a cheeky eyeball clip for myself.



Day 146 - 148 - I told you I'd developed a problem. At least I could pretend it was because I was working on stock for my roller derby table...



Day 149 - Will made a desk friend.



Day 150 - Accurate depiction of feels.



Day 151 - Sometimes he let's me think he's sitting with me but I don't think it's on purpose.



Day 152 - And more. I'm giving my wrists a break for a bit now, after the stall, but I will definitely be back at it. I'm thinking about doing a post about it to share some thoughts and better photos too.