77,777 visits to my corner of the world

After almost three years of blogging on this site:


Compared to The Huffington Post with 28 million visits a month, my blog readership is definitely small potatoes. 

But that number will all the sevens in it just struck me as somehow significant.

Take the 10 Minute Art Challenge

Ninety-one entries as of 2-9-11 came into The Daily PaintWorks Challenge found here.  This is a fun experiential art challenge.  More information from the same site says:

The rules: Get a timer. Divide your canvas or canvases (I used 2 - 6x6in Raymar canvases) into 8 or so small squares (or rectangles). They should be smallish – a couple or 3 inches square or thereabouts – they don’t have to be perfect. Now choose ONE object. Just one. Set your timer for 10 minutes. Paint your object in the first square. When the timer goes off – stop! I mean it. Repeat until you are done. You can rotate your object and/or change the light for each new square.

The objective: You want to get a feel for your object in terms of brush strokes. Make sure you SQUINT and SIMPLIFY! Whatever you do, DON’T get bogged down by the details or you’ll never finish. Try to think of it NOT as an apple (or whatever you’ve chosen) but rather just shapes and colors and values. Paint what you see – not what you THINK you see. If you find yourself doing the same thing every time – experiment! You won’t learn unless you try something different. Expect the first one to be bad – you are getting a feel for just how long 10 minutes is. They will only get better.

Carol Marine of Austin posted the above challenge on the Daily PaintWorks website.

Here are some of the entries for Carol's challenge:

Now YOU try it.

Here is an owl I chose to view, and then paint:

Looking for shapes?  I think not...still too focused on detail!

The fourth attempt was the better one.  But it still had too much detail.  However, it did look a bit less like a cat and a bit more like an owl.  Back to the drawing board.

The 10 Minute Challenge was a great exercise. IMHO.

Norwegian Shawl (Sivia Harding)

Four months later, the Sivia Harding Norwegian Shawl found here on Ravelry is finished.  Dimensions are 74" x 33" from  2-ply, Cascade lace weight yarn, hand dyed in Cherry Creek, NC.

(blocked and drying)

Here is the couch wearing the shawl:

Of all the shawls in all the towns I've ever knit, this one was the most difficult (for me) to finish.  But I'm glad I did, and ya can't say it will ever be too small at over six feet in width.

Sivia Harding has a wonderful line of knit patterns found here at Sivia Harding Knit Design.