Tuesday 8 September 2015

Tangle Wood

Tangle Wood: A Captivating Colouring Book with Hidden Jewels by Jessica Palmer
Published by Search Press
7th August 2015
Paperback Edition
 
 
Illustrator and papercutter, Jessica Palmer, has created 75 pages of enchanting hand-drawn pictures for you to colour and lose yourself in. The images all have a magical woodland theme, and each one includes a a 'hidden jewel', intricately worked into the design, which will include rings, brooches, pendants, chains, bracelets and earrings featuring insects, animals and leafy patterns. The book will include designs that fit on a single page as well as those that extend across a double-page spread. Some of the designs will fill the entire page and others will sit within it. Others will have space left for the reader to extend the design themselves.
 
 
Colouring books for adults are the newest craze to hit the shops this year, and even when you browse the bestseller lists, colouring books crop up along with the top fiction and non-fiction reads.  I must admit, I flick through lots of them when I see them out and about, but there have been lots where there are one or two nice pages inside and then the others are a bit bland, and samey.  There doesn't always seem to be anything special about them.  When I saw this new publication from Search Press however, I knew I was onto a colouring winner.
 
Jessica Palmer is a papercutter, which is the most amazing talent, it just looks so difficult and intricate, and way above anything I could even contemplate doing.  Anyway, she has just brought out her first colouring book, and I hope it won't be her last.
 
Tangle Wood has 75 pages of beautiful woodland designs in it, some are on one page only, and some extend to two pages.  There are complex scenes, and much simpler ones where you can add your own ideas and designs should you be able to draw (unlike me who sticks to colouring only).  I loved the detail involved in the images, it's not only so wonderfully done but the pictures are gorgeous.  I hope my photographs do them justice.  Here's a peak inside:
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
G x
 

Friday 4 September 2015

Blanket Tale

Hello, yes I am still here, I can't believe the summer has flown by and I haven't posted since the end of July!  We still have a few more days of the holidays left as the girlies don't go back until Tuesday but I must sort out them, and myself, for hopefully I will find some teaching work very shortly.

I have been determined during my time off to finish those pesky wips that lie about and remain an annoying temptation that need completing.  Therefore, having been challenged by my friend Caroline, aka @granplumley to finish my granny square blanket by the end of July, I quickly rose to the challenge, provided that I got my yoga blanket knitted up first!

Almost finished

And I did them both!  I am very impressed, especially as it was still warm during July (what happened in August I'll never know) and knitting and hooking with two largeish blankets on your lap is no mean feat.  At one point, the yoga blanket came out onto the lawn during Wimbledon fortnight!

So here they are in their finished glory:


One very large yoga blanket knitted in James C Brett Aztec Alpaca Aran wool


One granny square odds-and-ends blanket to go with my other one from Caroline.

Next though, I need to finish one of my first ever crochet projects that I started with Lottie forever ago.  It's from an early edition of Mollie Makes magazine, and whilst I'm over halfway through, I've just unsewn all of the squares I'd put together and removed the cream from the edges of every single square.  For the actual blanket I'd used Sirdar Crofter which isn't a particularly cheap wool, but for the edges I had chosen a particularly rough acrylic yarn that I didn't actually like the feel of, so away it went.  I now have 60-odd squares that all need a final row, plus more to make up and hook together and then this beauty will be completed too - one day!


I've made lots of other things too, and Agatha van finally has electricity so I'm in there lots and starting to make her my own at last - more on that to come!

G x