My dear friend Fiona is being made a deacon in the Church of England this summer, and I wanted to make her a stole to celebrate this. I decided to make a green one, as that's the colour for the church's Ordinary Time, which takes up most of the calendar - I figured she'd get most use out of it.
I made her two different stoles, with different patterns, widths and lengths, so she could choose which she liked best - she chose the one with just the waves. I used a linen/cotton mix, with cotton batik fabric for the waves, and I attached them with bondaweb and then densely stitching the edges with a zig-zag stitch using metallic thread.And she loved it! Hoorah!
We can haz new cat-beasts! Well, old cat-beasts, and because I'm a lazy blogger, they've been here for a while now.
Tommy is the black and white cow-cat, and Tess is the naughty tortie. He's 10, and she's 9, and they've big! Tommy is twice the size of Bryher - Tess isn't as long, but she's fat. And heavy. So she's on a diet.They are ridiculously wonderful. Tess is as friendly as could be - she loves her chin being tickled, and she'll twst her head round like an owl to maximise the tickling. But she's a naughty tortie - so the affection can go to neurotic hissing if you annoy her. She's so cheeky, and bullies Tommy, but it's impossible not to love her. Tommy is quieter - I've never known a more talkative cat than Tess - and he'll take a while to check you out before he says hello. But he's... deeper, somehow. His love and affection comes from the depths of his furry heart, and he loves completely. He plonks himself down on your lap, covering it completely, hangs his chin over your knees, and quietly purrs the evening away. And he's mad for chasing things - and I think he'd eat my wool if I let him. He gets very engaged with what you're doing, and will watch me washing up, or sewing, very closely.We got them from the RSPCA shelter, where I'm now an offical cat socialiser. They're owner was an old lady who'd died, and her sister or friend couldn't keep the cats and handed them in. We wanted to take older cats, they young ones get snapped up so quickly, but people don't take the older ones as promptly.
Here's a better pic of Tommy -
This is an old pic - they've been with us since May now, and Tommy has a nasty mark on his nose. Took him to the vet about it, and the words "pre-cancerous" were used. Do not like.
I love webcomics. One of the best is definately Kate Beaton's Hark a Vagrant. Check it out if your day needs some more awesome.She doesn't have many recurring characters, but one dude who pops up from time to time is the fat pony. So I embroidered him, using this comic as a basis. It's a very simple embroidery, and the fabric somewhat obscures the stitches, but I think it captures the spirit of the fat pony. May that spirit live in you today.
A sad thing happened. The furry dude, little Bryher cat, is dead. She had a huge tumour in her right hind leg that had been treated since Christmas. And in the end, she couldn't walk more than a few yards, and I think her kidneys were packing up too. Finally, that leg dragged on the ground so much that she'd worn the fur away, and the skin was broken and bleeding.
I took her to the vets to be put down on 7th April. When she was dead, and lying on the vet's table, I could hold her leg with the tumour, and it weighed about a third to a half of her body weight. She was always a tiny little dude, but she was just skin and bones at the end.
I miss her so much. Rest in peace, cat-face.
I haven't been an inactive crafter, just an inactive blogger. So, here's a couple of updates on what I've been making.I'm totally in love with Lucy Ravenscar's crochet work - I saw her stuff on Craftster and adored it. So, I decided to make myself a version of her Adorable Snow Monster - here's my Yeti.
