I can't imagine this will be the last time I knit penguins

A friend asked for a hat in these colours, with no stipulations about the design. At first I thought just something striped or maybe a simple, non-cutesy motif. You know, a non-embarassing all-purpose bloke-suitable beanie. But for various reasons, once I thought of penguins, it had to be a penguin hat! The overall look was somewhat inspired by this penguins galore hat, but the penguins I preferred came from the snowflake penguin hat by Ikumi Kayama, though I modified them to make them a bit fatter. (They still aren't the fat penguins they really should be.)

After these photos were taken, I learned that the hat was a little bit short, so I took it back and ripped back from the crown to where I had started the decreases, to add a few more rows there. With no pics you'll have to take my word for it, but it worked out better because it meant I could finish the penguins before starting the decreases.
   

The Homemade Exchange is alive!

Check out The Homemade Exchange! The online exhibition went live with all the final art works last Friday.  My sister, Demelza Sherwood came up with and executed this wonderful idea and I was thrilled she asked me to be part of it.

Each participant was asked to provide a photo of a 'domestic setting without people.' Demelza then redistributed the photos, each one to be used as inspiration for a piece of creative work in any medium. The picture up top is the one I submitted - my first idea didn't work well and I ended up racing around the house one sunny morning, close to the deadline, looking for something interesting. Those pencils have lived on my windowsill for ages. I really should get them down and draw with them some time.

Above is the delicious image I received back, which came from the lovely Stephanie Hicks. Lots of inspiring texture, and I do love a nice stone wall.

And this is my (untitled) vessel in response. I made a square sided vessel in pieces and appliqued the stones/bricks on separately. All the pieces were just lightly felted before being sewn together, and then I felted the whole piece thoroughly.

A couple of in-progress shots below - after sewing together and before final felting. It was only after I finished felting and was contemplating how to photograph it, that I decided to turn it out the other way and have the applique on the inside. I just liked it much better that way.

The Homemade Exchange is part of Craft Victoria's Craft Cubed festival and will be available online until 31 August. The participants are located in Switzerland, Israel, Canada and Australia, and as Demelza explains in her Craft Cubed interview, she was inspired by the experience of sharing images in Instagram and wanted an exhibition idea that would be a playful collaboration, and also manageable for friends living overseas to join in. 

I loved being part of this, along with a lot of really talented artists and makers, including sister Emma and Rozalie Sherwood too. The absolute best part was late at night on Thursday when I finally got to see all the work in place. I love seeing the different ways people took something from the original photo, whether it was colour, composition, subject matter, or even using the photo itself as source material, and made something extraordinary. The works are so diverse and yet it seems to belong together.