Holiday

We are just back from a week on the Croatian island of Hvar. Stayed in a little town called Jelsa. As usual I took loads of pictures, most of them of flowers and stones. But some of the family too, of course. And the usual pictures of the port, the beach and the sea. Food was ok (fish and pizza), weather a little less than ok (hard rain half of the time), but from an esthetic point of view the trip was quite amazing. So many beautiful flowers and plants, colors and shapes! The little town of Jelsa was very pretty too.





I picked a lot of dried out plants that I photographed close-up. This is of a poppy. I really like the pattern on it. Inspiring indeed. I never knew the poppy had these stripes on them, it makes such a stark pattern. Again the colors (or lack of colors) are beautiful, I think.





I was intrigued with this pattern I found on the many steps that led down to the port. The cement is worn down, revealing a sort of grid pattern. The various fungus/ mushrooms form a organic, soft pattern. I like the colors too, and the contrast between the cement grid and the fungus. Reminds me of some Japanese prints, it became very clear when I included the twig with the leaves. The difference in color is due to the light when the picture was taken.

By the sea

We spent some days by the sea, at our place on the coast. Beautiful weather, and I had my first bath this year. Cold, of course. I took an enormous amount of pictures, I'll publish them on Flickr. So much inspiration for my printing. Plants, flowers, the pattern on the rocks. I I bought a very good book on printing, June Fish, Designing and Printing Textiles. I certainly have a lot to learn.

Yet another Coraline

It's not easy taking a picture of yourself. I found the position where the arm is raised upwards in a sharp angle, in order to get a full body photo, the most challenging. Arm a little shaky (to little exercising of biceps?), and picture gets blurred and totally out of focus. But you get the idea. My Coraline no 2 is finished. Well, it has been for a while, it just took some time to fasten the buttons. I decided to have more buttons than the pattern called for. I made size 36 ", in Koigu Kersti Merino Crêpe. It's hand dyed, if I'm not mistaken. I started the project when I was in hospital, quite weak, knitting in bed. Hence the somewhat imperfect hemline. The yarn was strange. In the beginning it was 'bleeding' dye, so my bamboo stitches got all orange and my fingernails too. Now the bleeding has stopped, it seems. The yarn is great, very nice to work with.