the twisted yarn

Knitting, crochet, running, and silliness.

Blogs of Much Loveliness.

by 40 Comments

The Arne and Carlos giveaway is coming really soon. Disclaimer: I’m not actually giving away Arne and Carlos themselves – that’d be more of a coup than I can pull off. It’s just signed copies of their books, OK? Meanwhile…

Psst!

Yes, you!

Look! Over here! I’ve got things to show you. Good things. Entirely legal things, in case you’re worried.

One of the best aspects of blogging is getting to know other blogs, as well as the writers behind them. There’s a treasure-trove of wit and creativity out there in the art/craft blogging community, but you probably know that already. Would you like to see some gems? Yes? Right, I’ll just move up a bit so you can sit down and look through these.

Don’t mind me if I do a bit of sewing on the knitted mandala picture while you’re reading, OK? I’m not ignoring you – I’m just desperate to get this blighter finished, so that I can plonk it on the newly-redecorated living room wall and blog about it. Help yourself to some of this rioja – there’s a clean glass on the kitchen table. Oh, and would you like an olive or two?

Anyway, here’s some bloggy loveliness…

Have you met Pauline? She’s the Contented Crafter, and she’s busy in New Zealand using colour in the most amazing way in her artwork. Her work is rich in hue, and feminine/flowing in style. She and I had a little exchange recently, and I’m still smarting with guilt that she was the rather more generous donor. Look at these beauties! Her paintings are for sale as prints and cards in her Etsy shop, if you’re interested. Here, inexpertly photographed, is a little sample of the work that she sent me.

Prints by The Contented Crafter. :-)
Prints by The Contented Crafter. 🙂

And there’s Greenclogs. 🙂 A musical, creative, fellow British blogger, who writes about the things that bring her joy. One of the things that I love most about her blog – and by now she will be heartily sick of me telling her this for the eleventy thousandth time – is her photography. Seriously, she could photograph Slough and make it look like the Hanging Gardens Of Babylon. (With apologies to readers from Slough.) I mean, you can’t really argue with this quality of photographic loveliness, can you:-

Screenshot of Greenclogs' blog. Image used with permission.
Screenshot of Greenclogs’ blog. Image used with permission.

The blog that I most frequent for practical inspiration is Eclectichomelife. Written from very near my own Oxfordshire hide-out, it is – as billed – a very eclectic mixture of wonderful different crafts, but especially crochet, written by a creatively talented Norwegian woman. (There’s a bit of bias here on my part: I adore Norway. It was the first foreign country I ever visited.) Anyway, this is the blog that most frequently makes me think, ‘I must try that’. When – soon – I publish a piece about our revamped kitchen chairs, it will be thanks to inspiration from this blog.

Oh, and have I mentioned Tatie’s World yet? Well I should. She knits and she crochets, but it was to begin with the wonderfully colourful array of her crocheted work that attracted me. She lives in Italy, but hails from Croatia and often posts stunningly gorgeous pictures of flowers and landscapes, especially when she visits home. (Can you tell that I’m jealous?) Here’s a sample of her knitting and a sample of her floral photography:-

Knitting from Tatie's world. Image used with permission.
Knitting from Tatie’s world. Image used with permission.
Floral photography from Tatie's World. Image used with permission.
Floral photography from Tatie’s World. Image used with permission.

And for visually creative wit, I can’t help but admire Sharon Mann at mondaytuesdaywednesday.wordpress.com. Her technical skill is just as amazing as her originality. You really really can’t beat Georgia O’Keefe in a teacup.

And of course there’s the blisteringly wry and stiff-upper-lipped Celia Ladygarden’s Lifestyle For Ladies.

Finally, may I encourage you to go take a look at the Telly and Travels blog? Not craft-related, I know, and I should probably declare an interest because I’ve been friends with its author since about the age of four, when we both lived on a vast modern housing estate where all the roads were named after airports, from the predictable Gatwick Close to the weakly punnish Heath Row. But man, this blogger can write. I like to read her television-and-travel blog even though I don’t own a TV and even though the toddler twinnage scupper pretty much any plans to travel anywhere beyond our village shop. Enjoy.

Oh, you’ve finished looking through these blogs? Right, I’d better put the mandala down and be sociable, then. More wine? Oh hang on, the bottle seems to be empty…

Comments

  2. Thank you for the shout out for my blog and the other fabulous creative blogs! I’ll be checking them out too. 🙂

    Reply

  4. Thank you so much for that very kind shout out m’dear! I feel so honoured to be in this line of fine and amusing bloggers…. I seem to have spent the better part of the day visiting and reading and I have to revisit some too as this is the very day my internet has decided to do a go slow on me. I’ve rebooted the modem twice and even sworn once at it to no avail! I’m loving my stork scissors – the deal was pretty sweet to me 🙂

    Reply

  8. Thank you,Phil!When you messaged me a couple of days ago I knew that you would put down a great post!!!Me too,I’m honoured to be mentioned among all that great crafters and bloggers which sites I visited with a large amount of pleasure and marvel!What a creative and sensitive world!You make me happy today!!! Thanks <3

    Reply

  13. I’m delighted to see Pauline’s work featured here. I have that very same print, center, framed on my wall, and bought the original for a friend. She’s enormously talented, kind and generous. It seems you are, too.

    Reply

  15. Been reading bits & pieces of your blog today. It’s fantastic – love it! Thanks for the ‘like’, too. 🙂

    Reply

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