roman sock

after kissmas silence

Christmas is all done and dusted! One of the more successful ones of the last couple of years, no disasters, no trips to emergency, no cooking fiascoes and I actually remembered not to open all my presents on Christmas Eve. It's a terrible habit I started years ago and it means Christmas morning is always a bit of a let down, but not anymore!

This is a Christmas present I made for my love, who demanded a proper crochet wall hanging, so this piece is much larger than I would normally work.

Blue-tits are her favorite birds, so I thought I would start there. We have them in the garden so I spent a bit of time observing in nature, and then fell back on flickr for inspiration. I tried to give the house a slightly whimsical feel and finished off with a GIANT pom pom.

 

The bird is interchangeable so I made a couple of options:

 

A robin, and for fun I also chucked in a mini flamingo.

 

The whole set looks quite sweet together too!

So I hope you had an amazing Christmas and are looking forward to a simply fantastic new year!

Here is a wee peek at our woodland themed tree.

Treasures

Thank you so much for all the wonderful comments about pass the piggies! I am so happy it brought back some great memories from childhood. I love those golden memories, where days felt like weeks and weeks like months. Everything goes so much faster now!

I have been very busy crocheting some more secret thingsfor Christmas so I don't have any new projects to show you. I did however take a trip to Kelvingrove Museum and wanted to share my favourite works.

The first is Landscape with Cattle by Joseph Crawhall. I just love the complete simplicity and the overwhelming sense of calm, anchored in a completely timeless scene. I just can't get enough of looking at it, I think the pinkish hue taps into something really ancient, like we should be hanging out with cows and not working in an office block.

I wish I could jump into it like one of those chalk paintings in Mary Poppins. Not the most lavish or technical work but just completely perfect for me.

 

You can just about make out the swallows, full of flight and energy.

The other work was in great contrast, a Harpy.

 

Coming face to face with a creature that looks completely real in every detail with such a fierce expression is really something. The detail on her arms is so realistic, you feel like she will move in just a second and pounce on you. It feels immense, bigger than you and bigger than human, a bit like real magic.