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Frautbe Collective

Acrylic paint on tyvek "fabric".

Next step: more shrinking

FO: Hopefully a dress worthy of a dryad

Plant craft

I'll be the first to admit that I do not have a green thumb. When I was small, I used to collect cacti, and that's about it. Helping mum in the garden was not a chore I looked forward to.

Here in my new apartment, I started out with 2 fake plants, to brighten up my kitchen cabinets. Then, a sempervivum caught my eyes. As it did well for several months, I became adventurous and asked around for a plant that would have a positive influence on room climate and not be toxic to cats - as Akuma has a bad munching habit. The mother of a friend of mine provided me with three baby spider plants (apparently they're common as muck around here and virtually indestructible). Akuma ignored them for three days and had a bite on the fourth. So I needed to find a way to keep them in the warmest room with the most light and out of her reach.
They're doing fine since that first attack. With the latest addition, Pogonatherum Monica (funny name, as I had just cast on for a Pogona shawl by WestKnits) I didn't want to take any risks and provided protection from kitty teeth the moment this plant entered my life:
A big vase and huge marble found at 2nd hand, 2 green plastic pots I had gotten for the Ikea Fejka, some ribbon I used in a previous project, a plaster star fish that was part of an art display here at the beach, artificial green sand and a cheap necklace I had initially bought for some window art.

Why do my plants wear jewellry, you might ask?
A) To celebrate their arrival in my life
B) To draw my attention to them (Ooh, shiny!) so I keep checking their water supply and general health.

Swants on the beach

A large portion of my creative energy and time went into making Swants in January and February.
Ines describes the whole enterprise much better:

Click for blog 

As I am a vampire ^*), the photographers at the event had a hard time taking pictures of me in my swants, so here they are in a "selfie":

*)

Do you know why vampires live forever? Because they cannot see themelves in mirrors.

Quiet time

pattern: Pogona by Westknits
yarn: Botany Lace by Araucania bought at Stoffenhuys Paulette
needles: Kollage Square 4mm

pattern: improvisation for Elio Di Rupo
yarn: Special DK by Stylecraft
needles: 3mm

pattern: improvisation for DJ Bravo!

pattern: improv number for flag
yarn: 4 strands left-overs held together
needles: 12mm

pattern: improv loosely based on Maria Behm's hitchhiker
yarn: Scheepjes Sicilia purchased at Stoffenhuys Paulette
needles: 8mm (?)

pattern: Delfts tile, crossstitch text generator

© Ameria
pattern: Swedish Dala horse meets Geo's fursuit - a comission

© Ameria
pattern: Frenchie embroidery improv 

X-Balls Tree

Not being a very Xmas-minded person, I have only set-up a Christmas tree twice in all those years I live in Belgium.

Last year's was only done in the afternoon of Christmas Eve and taken down that same night, because little Moku the cat couldn't be trusted with it.

That's how it looked like:

This year, I started preparing for the tree in November, finished it yesterday night and decorated it this morning.

Needle felting lesson

Since finishing Lalupe (who's now happily sharing a windowsill with her older brother Dagobert), not a lot has happened on the dry felting frontier.
Until, two weeks ago, my friend from Brussels asked me for an introduction. I showed her some techniques (round, flat and long thin shapes, face shaping, basic eyes) and invented a new one for tiny rattie paws.

Draggins!

Somewhere on the intarwebs... a picture from an etsy shop got reposted.
As a knitter, my first thought was, "I can do this!". But I know myself, and at the moment, starting a project is easy, finishing is not. So I decided to knit four mittens at once, one pair for a friend, one pair for myself.

This is how it started out:

shot by Ameria for Naaldzang

This was almost finished (I had switched to my pointiest circs for ease of cabling):

shot by Ameria for Naaldzang

And this is the result:

shot by Ameria for ravelry

shot by Ameria for ravelry

shot by Ameria for ravelry

So glad I was able to finish them, so happy to have them off the needles. So green.

Colourwork Double Knitting

After deciding to quit the Stephen West KAL, I had to find another use for my Einband yarn. Inspiration finally came to me in the shape of an interesting double knit colourwork scarf.

Scarves: check

Colourwork: check

Double knitting: Err?

A tutorial had to be found and I decided to use some stash yarn for a first try.

It's still kicking my butt, but I'm getting better - one stitch at a time.

       

Cancelled Color Craving

I got stuck in the last three rows of Clue I and when I had time to pick it up again I also had a peek at the FO's of others:

©Stephen West

I didn't like what I saw and decided to frog what I had and find a different pattern for my Einband yarn.

Sorry Stephen, but not my cup of tea.