In reverse order:

This morning I made biscuits. From the Mary Berry Baking Bible. They’re ok, but arguably not worth the effort. Decided not to bother icing them and dipped them in my coffee instead.

Yesterday I did a little more of the Latvian mittens for my mums’ Christmas present. I’m hating the fair isle slightly less. It’s growing, and that’s satisfying, but still the pattern and the yarn are not up to much. And I keep forgetting that I’m going to have to face two of the damn things.

Friday I listened to the first Grayson Perry Leith lecture on radio 4. It’s terribly funny, and charming and insightful and generally a lovely experience. Everyone involved in making and having their work critiqued by others, even in the most non-professional sense, should have a listen. The linguistic analysis of art boffins had me pissing myself, if I had a pound for every time I’d heard someone use the ‘word’ visuality or experienceability I could stop going to work entirely.

Tuesday I drew another Christmas pin-up girl. I’m quite pleased with the overall look, but her face is a little shaky. I tried to photocopy them down to a smaller size but the black ink in my printer seems to have dried out. Printers hate me, I’m not trying to sort this out, I know full well if I get more ink something else will just fuck up. I’ll go to a printing shop some time, assuming those are still a thing.

Last weekend I started on an embroidery idea I’ve been meaning to get cracking on for a long time. I stitched a woman wearing a strap-on, in crewel work wools on a scrap of creamy-coloured fabric. I think it was pretty successful! Now I think I’d like to get some abstract blocks of shade in underneath the outline, so once I find a new subject image I’ll give that a go.

And this week I’m going to the Art Macabre Death Drawing Halloween special. Should be awesome! I’ve bought a new sketchbook in anticipation – an A3 300gsm pad, which I consider to be quite a serious choice for both size and paper weight. I’m hoping to get some good drawings in with ink and other wet media and then embroider into them later.