photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright

I asked Carolyn to please take some pictures of the Jane Austen hook when it arrived in England.  I was delighted that Jane Austen was going home, and looked forward to seeing the hook in England.

WELL!

I was completely awestruck and enchanted when Carolyn sent me photos of Jane Austen REALLY going home!

Carolyn made a trip to Chawton, just so she could take pictures of the Homage to Jane Austen hook ‘at home’ in Jane Austen’s village and at her house.

AT JANE AUSTEN”S  HOUSE!  oh my goodness!

I have to share these enchanting photos with you: They are used with Carolyn’s permission and she holds copyright on all of them:

Jane Austen's house

There she is! At Jane Austen's house! eeeeeeeeeee!

Ah, which way?

Carolyn and Jane Austen relax with a little crocheting

Well, Jane Austen, you have gone home!

Sigh, someday, I would love to go see Jane Austen’s house, too…… sigh….

(Thank you so much, Carolyn! The pics are WONDERFUL!)

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A few weeks ago, I begged him to puhleeeeeeeeeeeeeeze spend some time at the lathe for me… so, bless his heart, he picked up his chisels and started turning….. yay!

Ah, bliss….. I love having all that ‘blank canvas’ potential!

And here’s what I’ve been up to in betwixt and between meeting book deadlines…

A Fairy Door Mighty Mamma…..

There were 2 Homages  to Jane Austen, but one of them has already flown away.

This Jane Austen is wearing a blue cloak.

And, last but not least, this Mighty Mamma is going to be a Gnome’s garden….. when I have a chance to actually finish up the painting!

For now, the little Gnome Girl is looking longingly at her empty garden, wondering when it’s going to bloom?

Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright 

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What on earth does Jane Austen have to do with Panda Bears?

Here’s the scoop – I have been working on a new Jane Austen spool knitter for weeks now.

It really hasn’t gone well. I have drawn the face at least 7 times, and each time, I have ended up sanding it off the spool knitter. argh.

I ended up painting layers of gesso on the spool knitter and just leaving the white ‘ghost of spool knitter future’ sitting on my desk.

I asked Jim to turn me another Jane Austen and he looked significantly over at the verrrrrrrrrrrry blank one. Oh okay!

sigh….

I have also been having trouble with 2 other spool knitters.

I painted and sanded off the paintings and painted again and sanded off again… and again. Ah, phooey.

I was looking at my blank spool knitters and feeling like they were mocking me. But then, a whisper of an idea started to unfurl…. earlier in the week, I had seen a pic of a panda bear online.

I love panda bears. I’ve designed all kinds of homages to them:

crocheted: (from my book:

Crocheted Teddy Bears

and woven on the potholder loom : from my book:

Potholder Loom Teddy Bears and Monkeys, too

It struck me that the simplicity and charm of the panda bear face would be wonderful on the spool knitters.

Bingo! I was totally inspired! So, I sat down and started painting.

I painted a Panda Bear 4 peg spool knitter:

and since two Panda Bears are better than one, I painted another one! This time, a 5 peg spool knitter:

Painting the panda bears in just black and white was very liberating. It made me realize that I wanted to work with just black and white and grey for the troublesome Jane Austen spool knitter.

It’s really clear to me that the spool knitters are very determined that they are going to be what THEY want to be, and I have to stand back and let them flow through me. When I try to push my concepts and ideas on them, they push back and refuse. Sigh.

So, when I let go, the spool knitters come to life in a delightful way. Which is exactly what has happened with the new Jane Austen spool knitter:

Isn’t it neat about synchronicity and how one thing can lead to another in the creative process? It’s like one thought or image can become the doorway for a whole cascade of ideas.

Have you had a strange pairing up of ideas that helped you to break through a stumbling block?

What’s your version of ‘Jane Austen and the Panda Bears’?

Image Source: Noreen Crone-Findlay(copyright) 

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I am just loving working on this series of Jane Austen spool knitters.

It just delights me every time Jim comes in from the workshop with a new ‘Jane’ that he has turned.

At some point, I am actually going to get to live with one of them. But for now, they keep getting adopted and flying away.

Hmmmmm…… I suppose I really ought to design a spool knitted Jane Austen doll…… hmmmmmmmmm

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For the last week, this Jane Austen spool knitter has been sitting on my desk, unpainted.

I have been waiting for the perfect moment  to start drawing  the image on it.

All of a sudden, today it just seemed like the right time to draw her…. so  here she is!

Homage to Jane Austen in a lace trimmed cap………

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An ‘e’ friend of mine, Marian Clark, has the most extraordinary collection of spool knitters I have ever seen.

She fell in love with the Jane Austen with a purple cape Spool knitter and bought it. She also bought the -next-

Jane Austen, even though I was still working on it, and hadn’t photographed it yet!

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So, I am steaming along on new work that has got me just beside myself with excitement….. and I can’t say peep about it!

BUT, luckily, I am working on other things that I can chat away about like mad.

One of the things that I am sooooooooo excited about is our new series of Jane Austen Spool knitters.

Jim’s really busy these days, so he doesn’t have a lot of time at the lathe. I keep bugging him to puhleeeeeeeeze turn me another Jane Austen….. so in self defense, he’s squeezing in as much lathe time as he can.

Here’s the Jane Austen homage spool knitter that I just finished.  I take the pics of the spool knitters before I varnish them, as the varnish flashes so much that it messes up the pics.  This pic was taken late at night, so it doesn’t do her justice. But, I was so excited about her that I just had to put her pic up!

This one has our Jane Austen heroine wearing a lavender cape with the hood up….

And now…. I need Jim to turn another Jane Austen….. there are so many more I want to make…….

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I am just in seventh heaven.

PBS is having a Jane Austen extravaganza that has me completely blissed.

I’ve been a Jane Austen fanatic since I was 11 years old, and still have my first copy of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ that  started my addiction.

I’ve been working madly to deadline on new design work, so haven’t had time to get to the Jane Austen spool knitters that I have been languishing to start.

I met a pile of deadlines this week, so I took a breather, and finished up this first Homage to Jane Austen spool knitter.

I made a Jane Austen crochet hook a week or two back and posted about her

Ah, PBS…. thank you thank you!

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