Back To Art, simple as that?

It's been a long time since I've kept an art journal and actually worked on developing an idea artistically. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with making art, love using it as a form of expression and for dealing with emotional issues but hate the selfishness and what I see as the uselessness of it (My art sits in the attic collecting dust) I also get caught up in thoughts like, is it any good? it's not important art, or the stuff that I do make that I think is important isnt seen by anyone so whats the point!? There are a million other questions and problems with my relationship with art and in particular my art. I'm not a big fan of the art world either, I think I've written about that before.

Having said that I'm just starting to realise that it doesn't have to be for anyone else. It doesn't have to hang in a gallery. I don't have to be working towards being a 'professional' artist, just being an 'artist' 'artmaker' is fine. This argument works for more personal works but sometimes I want to make art about bigger issues, personal but also related to something bigger, then being just an artmaker or artists for my own sake doesnt work, then I need to work towards being a professional artist and getting my stuff out there because it has to reach those who it is trying to speak to. And so I go again chasing my tail!

At the moment I'm just focusing on more personal ideas and so avoiding the issue above. All other ideas that are not of the personal sort are being filtered out until I can sort out the top dilema.

Here is some work that is in my visual diary at the moment. It's been inspired by a book called Women who Run with the Wolves, Clarissa Pinkola Estes. I see so much of myself in what she writes. I think I will need to read the book a few times to get all the information and advice out of it. So many of the problems facing women that she talks about relate to myself. The work is not only inspired by the ideas in the book, making art again in general has been inspired by this book. I recommed it to any woman of any age! It is like a bible for women.

Anyway I will share a few photos of some of my work that is happening at the moment.

This is a watercolour that is of a friend of mine, Bell. It's not meant to be a likeness of her but it has her red hair, and I was thinking of her when making it. I will pass on my book or buy one for her when I return home. I drew the wolf part as a mask with visible stitches because I think we have to work to make our connection with the wolf woman within us. So we stitch, we cut, we mold we do what we have to with our minds and hands to make ourselfs in the wolf woman's likeness. Here I just played around with a drawing I made using Adobe photoshop, getting back to my old art days where I did a fair bit of image manipulation type art.

I want to make this work again, and to not forget or cut off my 'art making' life. I will need support though and I feel finding it will be just as important as making art.

Bad Blogger and Crochet Disaster

Yes I have been a bad blogger. It's been over a month since I last posted and I feel a little guilty about having neglected the blog. I am proud to announce though that I have been a good girl and have kept For The Love of Crochet Along, another blog I manage with a great bunch of crocheting chicks, up to date.

It's not that I haven't been doing anything crafty it's just uninspiring photos of my stuff and a lack of patience to sit and write. Above is a snippit of a doily I made a few weeks ago. I made another one (same pattern) last week too with the intention of making a set of three for under my sugar, coffe, tea pots. I've also been crocheting a baby jacket but the whole thing went to poo when I realised the neck wasn't wide enough for the body. Have to start the WHOLE thing again. It was almost finished when I realised. (Mind you I had already undone half of it when the arms were not the right size) I have a pattern now to work from, no more making it up myself!

Here are some photos of the disaster!

I tried to cut a bit of the top to make a larger neck opening but of course you cannot undo crochet from the opposite way that it's been worked... found that out the hard way.


It was looking cute, there was a bit more blue on the end and then a red edging all around. The sleeves also had a few read stripes on them. I will try again at a later point with the pattern found.

A Little Crochet Heart Doily

I have been working on a little doily for a few weeks now, on and off between reading and crocheting the cardigans. I was thinking of using the doily to make a ring bearers cushion for our wedding but I am still undecided, I think I might make it through cross stitiching a pillow. Anyhoo, this is the first time I´ve attempted to crochet using cotton rather than yarn, and it is the smallest hook I´ve ever used too (1.25). I must say it is tricky. Getting the tension right takes practice and I don´t know how many times I´ve undone rows. I am getting better though, thank goodness and I am happy with the results so far.


The pattern is a free pattern I found online, Crochet Memories, Free crochet-a-long Hearts doily pattern. The pattern is pretty good just had trouble in one spot, still don´t know what its trying to tell me but I made up I didn´t understand myself and it seems to be still working. There are three different rounds of it, this is just the first two so I´ll keep you photographically posted as I finish the last two parts.

Hexagon Granny Square Cardigan

I was looking online for another baby cardigan pattern. I´m not really interested in ones that require me to sew arms and back and fronts on, I like the more work from the top down kind of patterns because I find I can understand them better. Googling away I came upon this niffty pattern which is made up of two large hexagon grannys. I was quite baffled when I first saw the pattern, couldn´t really work out how the grannies formed the arms but after watching a youtube tutorial it all became quite clear. This pattern is from Bev and can be found here.

I wasn´t too keen on the holes from the granny square pattern so I decided to make mine from solid hexagrannies. I later found this on the net, a solid hexagranny cardigan. It´s good to see others coming up with similar ideas!

This solid hexagranny jacket is by Cozy´s Corner, and the pattern can be found here.

These last two photos are of my attempt to make a solid hexagranny jacket. So far its been really easy and I can see how it will become a jacket but I worry about the proportions. I think the sleeves will be too wide. I think in order to make the jacket long enough or wide enough the are holes have to be the size more suited for an 18 month old or 12 months old with the body measurements for a 3-6 month old. We shall see how we go.

The floppy hexagon granny and how it transforms into one side of a cardigan!

Here is now a photo of the finished product. I did alter the pattern a bit and put a few rows down the back to make it wider without making the sleeves wider. This was a bit of a bother and disformed it a little until I crocheted the edging. I put 4 rows of edging and no collar to make up for the adjusted back. Anyhow it all worked out in the end and I am pleased. Also a very quick project just 4 or 5 hours worth of work!

It's Finished and It's Cute!

Just a quick post to show you the finished baby cardigan. I am very pleased with it and very glad that I pushed myself to try a new pattern for the bottom half. Usually I just continue in straight rows. Although, the pattern for the bottom half takes a lot of yarn and thus this little piece has taken about 6 50gm balls of yarn to complete, usually I get away with just over 3 balls. I'm not sure what aged baby it would fit, I think maybe about 12- 18 months. I made the arms very long so that the child won't grow out of it too quickly, when it's younger we can just roll the sleeves back in the manner you can see in the photo.

Another Baby Cardigan, but with a Twist, or More so a 'wave'

Yes I am at it again crocheting baby cardigans for a baby that has not even been concieved yet. But this time I got a bit more adventerous and incorporated a different pattern for the bottom half. It takes forever to grow, 2 rows = 1 cm but I think it´s worth it! Here are some update photos.Hope everyone had a great weekend I did and even spent some of it crocheting on the subway in Berlin hehehehe people dont seem to care which is good but one lady asked to look and she spoke in German. She saw that it was for a baby and said something I just shook my head to say yes because I had no clue what she was saying later Axel told me she was congratulating me on being pregnant Oops! hehehehe oh well. I should probably tell people I dont uncerstand rather than pretending I do.

Lena´s First Birthday Present

I got some great 4 ply yarn from one of the Saturday markets last week with the intention of making a baby cardigan for our ´someday´baby. I asked Axel to choose some yarn that he thought could be for a boy or girl and he chose this great yellow ball with specks of green, pink, red and blue.

Having completed it though I realised it was quite big and probably for a 1 year old not a new born. I could wait and keep it for when our future baby turns 1 or is big enough for it but then I thought why should it wait that long to be worn, Axel´s niece is turning 1 next week she would look great in it and it goes with the t-shirt we already got her. So alas the cardigan is now packed for Lena´s birthday and I will just have to keep on making others for our ´future´kids. We are that eager to make some but waiting until a better financial time. pooey also I don´t want to be pregant in my wedding dress.

Here are some photos of the cardigan...


Happy May Day to all the Germans reading this! Have a great weekend everyone.