M.I.A

YES it's been a hectic couple of months, so I've been Missing In Action.  but with the Christmas holidays now upon us, I've taken 5 minutes to myself, along with a touch of cleaning, which my flat was poorly in need of,  space creating, ie: taking unwanted clothes to the charity shop, and a quick trip upto Portobello Road yesterday, just to get me in the mood for Christmas. And where I found the lovely feathered ear cuff.
on returning home I knitted  this lovely little cropped tank.  This will be my Christmas gift to myself.  I'm in love with it.  :)
I've knitted it from a Chunky bamboo yarn, which is soft soft soft, and this pink is lush.

It always makes me happy

When a customer takes the time out of their day, to capture an image of them wearing an iLE AiYE garment. Yesterday Hilary sent me this cool image of her new black comfy iLE AiYE sweater, which I was so happy to receive, as I've said before it's a rare thing to see my knits being worn by someone other than me or my mum, so a surprise convo with attached pictures really makes my day. Hillary is a fine photographer taking this image herself, with a tripod and self timer. Wow.. she really is very talented. you can check out her professional work here hilaryannestephensphotography.ca/ and here http://www.flickr.com/photos/hilaryannestephens/ I'm loving her great atmospheric landscape work.

Some Chunky loose knit cowls

Having used some of this chunky yarn on my chunky winter sweaters I couldn't resist knitting up some winter cowls, so using some of the alternative shades which are waiting in the wings to become sweaters, for now they will be used in these cowls.

In publication

YEAH last night I attended the Press launch of the new publication 'inspired London' a coffee table book of fine handmade talent available in our capital city. I'm really pleased to be included, (Page 160) And a fun evening was had, meeting up with some old friends as well as meeting some new. The book is available to purchase via the button above at £12.99

Todays New shoes

Today's new shoes are coming from Zara.com Mr iLE AiYE treated me, So I have a happy :)

A few more chunkies

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All knitted with the luxurious bamboo mix yarn

Some Chunky knits

I just couldn't wait any longer since my trip to Ibiza I'd been wanting to knit up this bamboo mix ivory yarn into a chunky cropped top, so yesterday I gave in to my temptations, and had to proceed. I love the yarn, the chunky warmth, and the simple style. I'll be making more in different chunky yarn mixes, and some with more coverage over the chest. :)

knitting in the sun

So I'm back from my trip to Ibiza which was stunning, cute beaches around every corner, glorious sunshine, and lovely company, I was lucky enough to meet up with many different artists, who were staying in the same apartment, and preparing for a show, so there was lots of creativity around me, Laura a petite hip hop dancer was kind enough to model my new summer beach dress,which I designed whilst soaking up the sun, and occasionally knitting whilst soaking my feet in the pool to keep cool. :)

Such a pretty lace top

I thought I'd share my latest purchase, finding the perfect lace top, is something I've been hunting down for some time. Last week I found this on zara.com it arrived today, and really it's nicer in real life than what I could have imagined, for only £39.99 it's going to be one of my special pieces, for autumn, any holiday parties, and I'm taking with me on my holiday to ibiza which I leave for on Monday, :) don't hesitate if you've been looking for a lace top, this really won't disappoint, it also comes in cream.. I'm tempted.

Just as things were hotting up

It took London until the end of July to finally get a hint of sunshine and heat. honestly we were experiencing the worst summer upto until then. but just as the sun comes out, it's time to think of Autumn, and with just one week left of August, Autumn is literally around the corner. so on some of the hottest days this year, there was I knitting up some new iLE AiYE Cowls. It's a new yarn, and very nice it is too. I'm not a huge fan of marble effect yarns, I've used once before on my romantic gloves, but when I spotted this one, I couldn't resist. A mix of 7.5% Alpaca, 42.5% Wool, 50% Acrylic which comes is some fab Autumn shades, for now I have two to tempt you.

iLE AiYE in illustration

These are a couple of sketches taken from some of my poses in the iLE AiYE collection, http://www.etsy.com/shop/il... the artist Barbara of http://www.etsy.com/listing... asked if she could use some of my images to make up sketches, I'm totally thrilled. I've only been drawn by Mr iLE AiYE to date, so it's quite a thing to see myself in cartoon type form. :)

some new shades

The cream side slit sweater is a combined effort, a customer in the US who breeds Alpacas, asked if I could knit her up some of my designs in the wools weaved from her alpaca farm. I was delighted when a box of lush alpaca yarns arrived, the cream sweater is no.1 of 3 garments, it's funny how the yarns are so different, despite coming from the same animals, One of the yarns is really quite oily, something I've never experienced before, it seems to be doing wonders for softening up my finger tips. :)

Loving my birthday

Today is my Birthday and I've spent it in the country (Somerset/Bath) with my Sister, and with my old girlfriend. Which really made my day and weekend super special. The icing on the cake were : a bargain new pair shoes, £25.00 in the sales, down from £90.00 Sitting in coffee shops with my sister. a Birthday breakfast in the garden of my Girlfriends cottage. Along with a fish and chip supper in Chedder Gorge on Sunday, Mr iLE AiYE and my brother law coming home from a fishing trip with 17 fresh Mackerel and hitting the town all dressed up last night to see Rufus Wainwright in concert. A girl simply couldn't have asked for anything more gorgeous.

some iLE AiYE collages

An iLE AiYE shrug and the mother of the bride.

To my delight, I received this photograph yesterday, from a lovely customer in the US, who had worn her Silver firefly loose weave shrug, to finish off her mother of the bride outfit, It's always a treat for me to see my work worn by my customers, these days it's a rare treat, with most of my sales being done via the web. I'm thrilled at how perfect the shrug pairs with her gorgeous dress, and works in exactly the way I designed it, ie: a little glam, arm cover up on a strapless/thin sleeved gown. Thank you Lisa for allowing me to use your image on my blog, and in the first instance for taking the time to send me an image of your special day,

A burgundy summer shrug

Double knitted luxury alpaca and silk m2m sweater

This was a custom order, the yarn is the softest most gorgeous of yarns I think I've worked with to date. all beit a bit tricky to knit with, as double knitting two skeins at the same time can lead to some tangling, I really need to get some kind of skein holder to make this task a little easier.

Just thought I'd share

One of my team mates directed us to this great community site, called ODesk, It's a community of PC based/designers,web builders, writers, admin, web support, Sales and marketing. There a whole list of support which from time to time you might think, gosh I wish I knew someone who could do that. well it looks like ODesk is gonna be the place to look. Check it out here https://www.odesk.com/contractors/?sid=2001&g=&clear_button=1 you never know when you'll need that little extra help.

Amazing work by Sergio Delifino

Sergio is one of my oldest friends, we were in primary school together from the age of 5, and spent many summers hanging out on the beach in Wales,  
Sergio headed to Bristol Uni and began working at Aardmans (Wallace and Gromit)   
Since then he's worked on many animation movies, ie: Legends of the Guardian, Chop Socky Chooks
His latest project is a short animation 'A Cautionary Tail' http://www.acautionarytail.com/ a funny fable about a girl born with a tail who stands up to bullies.
Serge is responsible for creating 'Alex' the little sculpted model above,  The animation is struggling for funds, but due to $1.00 plus, donations, it's raised over $48,000 well on it's way to the $80,000 needed to complete. 
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/513958374/a-cautionary-tail-0/posts/241186

I'm a very proud friend, and wish him all the success in his new adventure.

A custom cable sweater

This was a custom piece, 4 cables on the front, 4 on the back, and one on each arm. What you can't see in these images, is the little gold beads in the cotton yarn, it really is a special finish,

iLE AiYE and IKEA

Well you wouldn't normally match iLE AiYE and Ikea, would you, no  I wouldn't either. but this week, a stylist for the next UK Ikea tv advert bought this mustard hat,  which will be worn in the shoot, and all being well we get a few seconds on their next TV Advert.  I'll see the cut in about 6 weeks.
I'm a little bit excited. :)

A holiday tank

This was my first knitting project whilst on holiday, I knitted it up on the first morning, and wore it often at the beach, it came in really handy when we wanted to grab some food, I could just  pop this on, and away we went.  and even in the high temperatures, the cotton yarn kept me cool. :)

some more holiday knits

Another yarn/shade that's been waiting in line for the longest time to be knitted  up, 

Mr iLE AiYE said he really loves this colour, and once again the Greek sunlight brings out the best in these images. 

What a gorgeous RED

So by now you'll all know RED is one of my favourite shades, but finding that  perfect red, in yarns, is always tricky, sometimes it's to pink, or to orange, but this yarn is totally red, It's the same fibre content as the white cotton/linen sweater below, but due to not having enough yarn on my trip to Greece, I was unable to add sleeves, but as a tank top I think the design still works.  

I've since ordered more of this yarn,so in the coming days some sleeves will be added, and I'll have me a perfect red summer sweater. :)