Windy March Days

Cable Pullover | Whims And Fancies

 

I find March to be a very fickle month.  In this part of the world, poor thing just can’t make up its mind about the weather.  There were consecutive days of blustery wind and pouring rain.  Then the sun broke through the clouds, touching everything with the warm glow that can only be seen after a clearing storm.  In the meantime, the wildflowers have been taking full advantage of the rain and blossoming everywhere, free and playful in the wind, beckoning me outdoors.

After sunset, as it gets colder, I reach for those knitting needles.  I only knit a little everyday, so my projects take awhile to finish.  I have made good progress on my husband’s pullover.  I restarted those mitts, I like how the current pattern displays this busy variegated yarn.

 

 

Yorkshire Sky Yarn | Whims And Fancies

 

 

Recently I shopped a little for next winter.  Completely swayed by the name Yorkshire Skies, I got this beautiful yarn.  It has the shades of soft pastel aqua, with a hint of faded purple and a light steel grey.  I already know the set of mitts and hat I will be making with this one.

 

 

Madeline Tosh Sample Yarn | Whims And Fancies

 

 

I adore these tiny samples of yarn.  I got 240 yards total to make a pair of mitts with them.  It will be my first multi-yarn knit with the colours of dahlia purple, cardinal red, parchment, light sugar plum and log cabin brown.  I wish I had a tiny basket to put these in!

 

 

Malabrigo Plomo Yarn | Whims And Fancies

 

 

I am venturing into the grown-up knitting world with this one.  I got a whole set of plum yarn skeins to make a cable pullover for my husband per his request.  I had fun shopping for the yarn and the pattern.

 

 

Northern California Wildflowers - Wild Radish, Butterweed, Buttercup, Spring Vetch | Whims And Fancies

1.  Pink Wild Radish  2.  California butterweed  3. Buttercup  4. Spring Vetch (my favourite)

 

It is nice to have those warm woollies to don since we have been putting our hiking boots on and heading out right after work. Rain or shine.  I am learning to take close-up photos of wildflowers.  The afternoons have been extremely windy, making it very hard to get good portraits of the flowers.  They are also very small, sometimes no more than a few millimetres.  It takes a long time and a lot of patience, along with crouching in odd positions, waiting for the wind to die down a little.

 

 

Northern California Wildflower Star Lily, Douglas Iris, Redwood Violet, Wild Radish | Whims And Fancies

1.  Star Lily or Death Camas ( beautiful but extremely poisonous )

2.  Douglas Iris  3. Redwood Violet  4. White Wild Radish

 

One of the trails we go to is also a dog park.  The dogs see me crouching at their level and they come by to play with me, running around me while trampling the flowers.  Their joy is so infectious that I can’t help but laugh out loud and play along with them.  Once they move on, I find a different set of flowers and start the process all over again.  It is a lot of fun, you have to take my word for it.

 

 

Northern California Wildflowers | Whims And Fancies

Walking in the woods

 

If you don’t see me here too often, you know where I will be,  at least as long as the wildflowers are on display!

 

 

Camera And Photography Linky Party | Whims And FanciesWandering Camera

I hope to see a few photos of spring in your part of the world on next month’s Wandering Camera link-up.

Happy Spring,
-Soma

 

 

 

Leave a comment

 

Pencil Case And Index Card Drawings

Viking Penguin Quilt Pattern | Whims And Fancies  

Purchase Viking Penguin Olaf pattern

 

Last year I was working on the icad or index-card-a-day project where I painted one index card per day over the span of two months, totalling 60 cards.  During that time I purchased some loose colour pencils.  I had been wanting to draw a little penguin quilt pattern in Viking costume for ages, so I decided I would make that block for a pencil case.

This little penguin is Olaf and he loves his helmet with horns on it.  I tried to tell him that Viking helmets didn’t have horns, but he was most insistent.  He thought they made him look more mighty.

The pattern is for a 10″ block, but I made a 7″ one for my pencil case.  I finished the block long ago and finally, during my attempt to finish a few projects, the pencil case was completed.  I usually travel with my pencil cases, so I needed to use a dark fabric.  Brown was perfect, plus, it made me think of a wooden hut where Olaf might live.

 

 

Pencil Pouch Tutorial | Whims And Fancies

 

 

I used a frosty branch fabric for the inside.  After all, penguins have to have snow!  This pencil case comfortably fits my pencils and my water brushes.  It is not too large, but big enough for me to toss a sketchbook in there and tie the ribbons around it.

Olaf is available in my shop if you want to make one.  I am thinking of making a couple of friends for him and Polaris –

 

 

Penguin Quilt Pattern | Whims And Fancies

 

Purchase Little Penguin Polaris Pattern

 

A couple of years ago, my friend Janine from Rainbow Hare hosted Making Christmas.  I wrote a tutorial for that event on how to make a pencil case featuring a decorative piece in the front.  I made this little pencil case then with Little Penguin Polaris for my micron pens.  I followed my own tutorial to make the new one and it hardly took any time to make it.

 

Interestingly enough, I made the Viking Penguin Olaf block when I shared the last set of index card drawings.  I often thought of posting them together in one post.  Before I show them though, I thought I’d share a list of all the mediums I used on this project.  I had no idea I used these many!

 

  • Micron pens
  • Micron Gelly Roll pens
  • Uniball Signo pen – white
  • Uniball Gel Impact pens – gold and silver
  • Recollections Metallic pen – copper
  • Pentel Touch pens – silver and gold
  • Faber Castell Pitt artist pens
  • Faber Castell Aquarell watercolour pencils
  • Faber Castell Albrecht Dürer watercolour pencils
  • Inktense pencils
  • Prismacolor pencils
  • Prismacolor markers
  • Gesso
  • Turpentine

 

I have never had any training in painting, I paint because it makes me happy.  This project definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone and helped me explore new venues.

 

 

Index Card Paintings | Whims And Fancies

 

1. Carnival  2.  Milky Way map  3.  Edwardian Mailbox for P. G. Wodehouse

4. Owl – playing in the rain 5. Taxi  6. Element Picker

7. Solitude in rain  8. Wind turbine sentinel  9.  Vintage Porsche

10. California poppy  11. Corn lilies  12.  Tardis

 

 

Index Card Paintings | Whims And Fancies

 

13. Grey dappled foal  14. Route 66 neon sign 15. National parks of America

16. Melrose Abbey 17.  Fairy Door  18.  Snow Globe

19.  Dryburgh Abbey  20.  Disco  21. Psychedelic gravitational waves

22. For Alan Turing 23. Devil’s Postpile 24. Dancing neurons

 

 

Index Card Paintings | Whims And Fancies

 

25. Peacock feather  26. Endeavour & transit of Venus  27. Solar prominence

28.  Ice cream  29. Shel Silverstein 30. Exploding clock

31. Blustery autumn day  32. Unplugged  33. Pre-dawn driving

34.  Self-portrait – walking into the unknown 35. Steampunk wings 36. Stargazing

 

 

Index Card Paintings | Whims And Fancies

 

37. My violins 38. Tell Them Stories 39. Solar eclipse and Shuttle Endeavour

40. Paper tunnel 41. Vineyard  42.  Svalbard

43.  Focusing through lens 44. Saturday night  45. Playing summer 78 by Yann Tiersen on piano

46. Love to walk  47. Dancing Aurora  48. Aston Martin

 

 

Index Card Paintings | Whims And Fancies

 

49. Snowdrop  50.  Star trails  51. Garden bench

52. Downpour  53. Mail  54. Affair of hearts

55. Western view of sunrise  56. Brunel’s SS Great Britain 57. Historic hot air balloon

58. Edinburgh flat  59. Explore other worlds  60. William Blake – Eternity in an hour

 

 

I hope you enjoyed them.  Many thanks to you for leaving encouraging comments, to Dixie from Arranged Words for inspiring me with her artwork to get back to painting, and to my husband for putting up with “I’ll be right there, just need to finish this one little bit” while he took care of a lot of things during those two months.

This year I am doing the daily photo project and sharing the photos on the monthly Wandering Camera linky party that I am also hosting here.

 

 

Camera And Photography Linky Party | Whims And Fancies

 

Wandering Camera

 

I suppose I like these immersing projects way too much!  Art is good for the soul, right?!

-Soma

 

 

 

Leave a comment

 

error: Content is protected !!