Webnesday

It's Wednesday which means it's time for five weblinks .....

1. Uniqart

Caroline Bletsis of Uniqart is truly an Arty Lady Of Many Crafts. The woman is amazing. She knits, she crochets, she sews, she makes jewellery, she cooks, she gardens, she probably does a bazillion more things but most of all she paints. Caroline creates the most amazing artwork in several different mediums. The photograph above shows a detail of her latest painting which is a sweet little sparrow and some apple blossom. Caroline blogs almost daily and she sells her work in her Etsy Shop.

2. The Panopticon

This is the blog of Chicago-based knitter Franklin Habit. Whenever I see that Franklin has blogged I always smile because I know that I'll be in for a good read. His sense of humour is fantastic and he knits the most fabulous things. Fellow 'Cast On' podcast listeners will know his voice - he has read stories for 'Cast On' many times. If you knit (and even if you don't) do pay a visit to Franklin's blog - you will not be disappointed!

3. myPANTONE

I like colour (obviously) and I like playing about with it to work out new bead colour combos. I also like to look at non-beady things and extract potential colour palettes from them. Pantone have an application called myPANTONE for the iPhone and iPod Touch which does exactly that. At £9.99 it's pricey but so very worth it. You can use an existing photo or you can take a picture of something you see when you're out and about with your iPhone and the app will analyse it and produce a palette based on it. I've used this several times for beads and it really is very useful. Please click here for more information.

4. Print & Pattern

I love Paperchase. I like wandering around it gazing at all the loveliness and stroking the occasional notepad, box or roll of ribbon. If you do the same thing in stationery shops or if you just love fabrics, wallpaper and patterns in general then you need to visit Print & Pattern. It's described as a website 'that celebrates the world of surface pattern design'. It really does do exactly that. Please click here to see all the eye candy.

5. Off-Mandrel

I thought I'd give a shout-out to Off-Mandrel. This is where I buy a lot of my glass from. They have have a walk-in shop in Glasgow but they also do mail order. I cannot fault their customer service - delivery is fast and everything is always presented really nicely. Fab place!

Webnesday

The first thing I do each and every morning is visit my favourite websites and blogs. I sit here with a cup of tea and click away seeing what's new and what everyone else is up to.

I've decided that I'm going to share five of my web finds with you every Wednesday in a feature that I'm going to call 'Webnesday'. Get it? (Don't try and say that word as it probably won't work - it's more of a visual thing.)

1. Pursuing The Art Of Curiosity

Firstly I'd like to draw your attention to Jennifer Dangerfield and her wonderful blog 'Pursuing The Art Of Curiosity'. I have known Jennifer (on a virtual basis) for years - we've never met but we have sent each other countless emails and she works the most amazing wonders with my beads. The 'Cherry' choker above is just one example of that. Jennifer has recently returned to blogging after a long hiatus. I'm delighted about this as I have missed her. Please click here to read Jennifer's blog and click here to visit her website which includes a gallery of her fabulous jewellery.

2. So What's New Today?

Next up is 'So What's New Today' which is a blog by Tina Scott. I have known Tina for about five years now and she is one of the nicest people in the world. I have met her in actual real life, in fact I stayed at her house for a couple of days during which time I threw up all over her kitchen floor, the thought of which still makes me cringe to this day. But because of her one-of-the-nicest-people-in-the-world status she looked after me brilliantly and never mentions the kitchen floor incident. Seriously, I still blush about that whenever I think about it - my face is hot pink right now! But anyway, I digress. Tina is a fellow beadmaker but at the moment she is really concentrating on honing her photography skills and she is blogging the results of her online photography courses. Her photos are fab! Just look at that 'Orange Tulip' one up there. Please click here to visit Tina's blog and click here to have a look at her Flickr Photostream.

3. Artist's Palette Yarns

Now for a web shop. You know I like yarn. You know I like socks. That means I like sock yarn and I know that some of you do too. I'm aware that a few of you have been inspired to take up sock-knitting because of me and my sock-knitting obsession and for that I apologise. Not to you but to your other halves. I know that Chris thinks of my sock-knitting as quirky and very Laura but sometimes he just cannot hide his Sock Shock when I put on a completed pair. The other day I finished knitting a pair of green socks, put them on and then set about getting dinner ready. When he glanced over and saw my feet he let out an 'Argh!', recoiled and guffawed. Thinking back I was wearing lime green socks with a purple dress so I guess a lot of his shock stemmed from that wacky colour pairing. But anyway, if you do knit socks then you may or may not know of Artist's Palette Yarns. They have an amazing selection of hand-dyed luxury goodness and their sock yarns are particularly delicious. I am currently knitting a pair of pumpkin-coloured socks with their Smoothie Sock yarn. Please click here to have a browse.

4. Howard The Drummer

I don't want to make 'Webnesday' all about blogs, beads, socks and jewellery. Sometimes you stumble across a great YouTube video that you just want to share. Take a look at this one. This is a four year old boy playing the drums. I know. If someone asked me if I'd seen the cute-four-year-old-boy-playing-drums video I'd normally pull the same face that I pull when someone emails me a bunch of photos of tiny fluffy kittens posing harmoniously next to big dogs. Normally I detest that kind of thing but seriously, the video of Howard the four year old drummer is pretty amazing! Take a look at it here.

5. Emma Kennedy

And finally a link to a very funny lady - Emma Kennedy. My book-on-the-go at the moment is her hilarious 'The Tent, The Bucket & Me' which is Emma's recollections of camping holidays with her parents in the '70s. It is highly amusing, as is her website. If you have time take a look at her family photos in her Galleries section as the captions that accompany them are very funny!

And that concludes today's Webnesday feature. I'll be back soon with photos of those green socks that shocked Chris .....