I have been in admiration of Louise Walker's faux taxidermy knits for some time now, and I finally plucked (no pun intended!) up the courage to get myself one of her Forest Friend Fox kits. Great value for money at only £30 and you get everything you need, including knitting needles!

I finished making Mr Fox in just two days I was so excited to get him made and hung up in my craft room, although I had a few obstacles to overcome on the way. I had never done a slip stitch before (not quite sure how!) so a quick YouTube video tutorial later and I was on my way. The next challenge was getting my head around the intarsia technique, basically put it's when you knit with more than one colour yarn attached to your knitting needles. I had a grand total of four different bundles of yarn attached to my knitting needles to do each of the fronts of ears, it took a little time but I got there in the end. I'm so pleased with the end result, I'm itching to try my hand at more adventurous knits now . . .

The beautiful hessian packaging that the bits and pieces come in.

Mr Fox finished, even though he's got a bit of a wonky nose and eyes!

For the past 10 weeks I have been attending a Photography short course at the Arts University in Bournemouth, it's been strange going back a few years after completing my degree, its almost like I've never been away, even though there have been a few changes.

As part of the course we had to produce a set of photos with the central theme of either abstract or after dark. I chose to focus on the abstract theme, I had two sets of images that I couldn't quite decide on so ended up taking them both with me to get some feedback on.

 

Flower Power

For these images I focused on close up macro shots (or as close as I could get with the lens I had!) of flowers, I love the hot pinks against the lush green foliage in these photos.

Taken in Bournemouth gardens

Taken in Bournemouth gardens

Taken at Compton Acres

Taken at Compton Acres

Beside the Seaside

In these images I focused on the light within the images and how it highlights certain parts of the object, again I deicded to go quite close in with these shots . . .

Taken on Bournemouth Pier

Taken at Poole Quay

Taken at Poole Quay

Taken on Bournemouth Pier