Here is my backtack offering - A startled rabbit!

She’s made from Matchmaker 4ply, and knit in the round.  I threaded the buttons onto the yarn before hand, so that I could knit them into place, like you do with beading.

I wanted to keep to Wee Wonderful’s bunny pattern, but knit it rather than sew, which meant lots of measuring, and fiddling with the pattern as I went along, but overall I’m pretty happy with.

She has a gathered head - a homage to Jean Greehowe. :)

Poor thing, she does look startled though! She obviously needs lots of love and a nice view, to help her settle in. I’m sure, at Ariana’s she’ll do just fine. :)

—

In other swaps and challenges news, I’ve had to drop out of the Nectar Gallery ‘Wall of Yarn’ exhibition. I feel like a total jerk and hate letting people down, but everything I tried just looked terrible. You know sometimes an idea really works and you get into a really creative groove? And sometimes exactly the opposite happens and you wonder why you’re even trying in the first place?

Well yeah I had one of those. 

I guess I figured doing something artistic, instead of useful and pretty was like riding a bike - even if you haven’t done it in years, you can just do it and it’ll be fine. But it’s obivously not, and with hindsight I feel a bit stupid for thinking it would be. It took years to earn my artistic skills and since I didn’t keep them up after university (or rather they morphed into something more practical) they are rusty now that i come back to them. I think maybe i need to back off the deadlined projects for a while?

Either way I feel really bad.

I posted my Back Tack III parcel today. :)

Now to get the Nectar Lounge piece sorted and sent off. *panics*

On friday I’m meeting my lovely mil so we can go try on some Boden clothes at their london store. She is bringing me the yarn she bought while in the US. Yay! American sock yarn! I can’t wait.

And because I think this post needs an image:

(Me in our allotment last week - before I went on a shearing frensy and chopped all the long grass down, and generally tidied up.)

So when I got back from our holiday - look what was waiting for me?

A package from Kelli!

How cool is that?

Also included was a big bar of chocolate (which i snarfed) and a mix cd which is on top of the stereo, having been played quite a bit over the last week or so.

Thank you Kelli! What a lovely suprise!

(And now she has to be patient, because though her package is in the mail, it had to go surface so is going to take a few more weeks than I’d like. :( But it’ll be worth the wait. :)

Ok. So firstly I should wear necklaces more often. Generally I should probably accessorise more, because it tends to make you look more put together, and, theoretically it’s fun. Only problem is that i can’t find accessories that i like.

However…

Inspired by Craftlog’s post I clicked over to Art School Dropout’s site.  Her necklaces are incredible! You should stop reading this and go check them out.

Back? Ok. So long story short, I made one of my own, using wire i bought about 4 years ago, and beads and buttons I’ve been thrifting from the crafty-hospice shop for the last few months. There is also a bead from my Gifty3 stash, and wooden beads my sister gave me, as well as plastic beads from japanese pokemon jewelry, and a shell button I got at Liberty when I started knitting kids stuff for friends.  Oh and oval beads from a braclet I bought about six months before I finished my degree.  Also the chain is from the necklace my sister bought me for graduating. I’m intending to share it between this and the pendant she got me. :)

Point being, the final piece is full of lots of little memories - which is a very cool side of the Use What You Have challenge that I hadn’t considered before.

(Talking of memories - the tee is an old David Devant and His Spirit Wife teeshirt that I cut into a V-neck, and wore on my wedding day until I put on my dress. :)