In my sketchbook: thumbnails

 My brother-in-law's birthday is quickly approaching, and he is always requesting artwork from me. Isn't he sweet! Since he is a cyclist, I wanted to do some bike-related. To figure out what would work the best, I drew a collection of thumbnails based off of a wheel theme.

My fav so far? Definitely the first one!

Off the bucket list

I have developed a love for woodcut prints over time and think that if I every, one day get to go back to school that I would pursue an art degree in printmaking. It is not just the prints that I'm drawn to, but the  woodcut blocks themselves. There is just so much artistry in them!!

1. Beck woodcut block, 2. Zinnia, block print, , 3. Almost finished..., 4. Aphorism Blocks , 

5. Inked block , 6. Block, 7. Bookplate Block

In the meantime, as I enjoy my days as a stay at home mom, I would really like to use my free time to hone my skills as much as humanly possible. Since I already had the necessary supplies around the house to start a project. (scrap wood from my husband's first homebrew stand and cheapo student-grade wood carving tools) I decided to check this skill acquiring off my bucket list.

If you've taken a peek at my sketches before, this flower motif will be familiar to you.

I didn't quite get halfway through before a blister started to develop on my palm. The quality of your tools definitely matters!!!

Although I'm hoping to finish this up over the weekend, I've got some base boards in need of painting first!

The first step....

is admitting you have a problem, and I think that I might just have one.

'cause I have knit more dishcloths than there have been days in this week...

 and the card that I wrote the pattern on is becoming quite tattered...

but really...

can you blame me?

Variations on a theme....in my sketchbook

 A few weeks ago I posted this picture from my sketchbook:

Nothing grand about it, but it was fun to draw/paint so I thought that I would expound more upon this motif.

A great way to improve your drawing skills and flex those creative muscles is to draw the same thing over....

and over...

and over again!

Also, let's say hypothetically that you have a seven month old daughter who is having her first cold 

...and caring for her is zapping your energy

... and instead of sketching you spend your "free time" napping

... and you feel your sanity slipping through your fingers

and you only have enough strength to muster up drawing  the same thing over and over again!!

Of course all that is hypothetical! :-)

On the needles...

So I made a decision concerning which pattern to use for my next dishcloth project.

Is the suspense killing you? :-)

I selected the Chinese Waves pattern by Margaret Radcliffe!!

 I'm loving it so much that I think that I'm going to start tackling this cone-o-yarn. 

Happy knitting to you all!

Random cuteness

Our neighborhood woodchuck (groundhog) has been enjoying the apples from the tree in our yard. Isn't he the cutest!!

Autumn decorations...this week's creative space

With autumn in full swing I (and a million others out there in the blog-o-sphere) have decided to decorate my house with painted gourds. What makes this special for me is that this year I am using gourds from my own garden. Yay!

A little trick I discovered to help ensure success (meaning that you don't have to chase your gourds/squash across the living room as it rolls off the table you are working on) is to set the gourd into a cardboard tube.

Mine was originally from a skein of cotton crochet yarn but any sturdy tube should do the trick!

Hope you have fun using the produce from your gardens as well!

Dreaming of dishcloths...well dreaming about knitting them

You might remember that I have a significant amount of Peaches & Cream yarn in my stash just begging to be made into dishcloths.

I told you I had a lot!!! (and I have multiples of several of them)

Historically, my dishcloths tend to be rather basic (boring may be a much better word to use).

With the vast amount of yarn I have to knit through, I'm thinking that it would be best to mix up my pattern selection so that I can keep trucking on with my stash knit-down project. So far, here are my favs from Ravelry:

          

     

Hopefully I will have an "On the needles" post for you by the end of the week showing the progress I've made so far (if wishing makes it so, of course!). What is your favorite dishcloth pattern to knit?