Gryff: AKA Coontastic Gryffindor Update 25 May 2020

[Squirrel]

Lovely to see Griff again and see the progress on it too. Well Done Richard.


I am truly amazed at the things you do and the way you adapt machinery etc. Way to go Richard - go for it and I hope it works just as you want it to.

[wendywombat]

Don't know which I admire more, the machine that can make the spirals or the gorgeous spiral pen...

Or the man who can MAKE the pen USING the machine.

Or the man who can MAKE the machine to make the pens

I am in Awe!!

BTW Gryff is coming on so well. Do you have to scrub your hands with bleach before picking up your stitching?

[Garnet]

Well goodness me, I now know what a CNC Lathe is, can you use it to inscribe other things or is it soley designed for pens? Needle holders spring to mind.

You do amaze me Richard with your ingenuity.

[richardandtracy]

The lathe should be useful for anything up to 8" diameter and 14" long. Above those sizes things are possible but more difficult. Materials: metals and plastics. The lathe runs too slowly to machine wood at small diameters.

Needle holders, as in little screw topped pots made from fancy coloured plastics are all possible. But... If all goes really well, I MAY finish the machine this year - and it's been a long time since things went really well!

Wendy - I'm not allowed past the kitchen unless I've had a good hand wash and been inspected minutely for pieces of steel or aluminium swarf. Tracy's feet seem to have swarf magnets and if she treads on any I know very quickly at a volume that sets my ears ringing and am banished until verifiably swarf free. [Hope I've not missed any automatic corrections of 'swarf' to 'dwarf' as it rather changes the sense of what I was saying.]

Regards

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

[Hope I've not missed any automatic corrections of 'swarf' to 'dwarf' as it rather changes the sense of what I was saying.]

I think we can be fairly certain that you are verifiably dwarf free...

[fccs]

Please, I'm used to cats, and am totally unfamiliar with anything other than total contempt coming my way. It's a bit disconcerting..

To be honest, it's nothing special. I'm just trying to do something for myself as I can't buy exactly what I want. Must be a bit picky, and don't want to put up with something that's not quite right for me. There is a side effect - I'm learning lots.

Regards

Richard.

Richard, I think you are far too humble.

[richardandtracy]

After lots of contempt coming my way and being sworn at by cats, I eventually re-started Gryff on the 25th of August, beginning page 16. There is little of Gryff's body to be seen, and what there is, is caked in snow in a couple of places where his fur has picked up lumps of the stuff.

The chart page map is as below:

As you can see, page 16 is mostly snow, which sped things up a great deal as there are is a limited palette of only 15-20 blends over most of the area, made up from some 30 skein colours. So, the progress is as below (slightly skewed for some reason - it didn't feel as if I was falling over when I took the photo, and the edge of the roller frame is visible where the end of Gryff's tail is wrapped around it) :-


There are over 1100 stitches of a light grey blend in there, along with 970 stitches of a yellow/green blend along with pinks and a few purples, and yet for some strange reason it's beginning to look like snow... Very odd. The only colour NOT there is white.
However, I am pleased with progress and will crack on to the end of the page, which is possibly 1000 stitches away out of the 7000 on the page.

Regards,

Richard.

[Podolyanka]

He has his paw now and is progressing very well. I adore him and always look forward to new updates. He looks so real, one feels like touching his fur. Cant wait till he "looks" at us. Happy stitching!

[richardandtracy]

Actually, it isn't a paw, the snow was so soft on that day that even his huge paws sank 10cm (4") into the snow. That is the part of his leg that on a human would have been the heel, it just looks like the paw on the end of a very short leg because you can't see the rest of the picture. It all makes sense when you can see the whole photograph, and then you can see that he has lumps of snow stuck to the side of his leg which hides part of his thigh and creates the impression of a paw when looking at only part of the photo.

Later that day he came in from playing in the snow with so much snow in his fur he could hardly move, and we spent 10-15 minutes breaking up the lumps so he could move and not drip all over the house when it melted. He absolutely adored the snow and was happy to spend all day in it, but having such long fur, the snow did stick to him in large amounts, and he wriggled like anything when we tried to remove it - he seemed to think it was another game where he lost if we got his snow!

Regards,

Richard.

[Podolyanka]

Funny how languages work. In Ukrainian or Russian if you say "a paw"(in both the languages the word is the same and sounds "lahpah" with a stress on the first syllable), it means the whole leg and foot. If I understand correctly, "a paw" in English stands only for "a foot"? Thank you in advance for explanation.

The more I look at your cat, the more I am thinking about how great your programme is. Did you "clean" confetti stitches? Did you do anything to the chart before it was ready for stitching? All those programmes on the internet need additional work of an artist/designer, otherwise they produce a disaster.

[Squirrel]

I can just imagine what a wonderful time Griff had out in the snow and what a job to clean his fur of it when he finally came in. Great valets to be sure.

A wonderful update Richard.

[fccs]

and he wriggled like anything when we tried to remove it - he seemed to think it was another game where he lost if we got his snow!

Regards,

Richard.

Oh, Gryff. I didn't even know you but I know I would have loved you from head to tail, including the snowy toes. I'm so happy to see this again.

[Jessica28]

Really gorgeous cat. Cannot count the different shades you have in this piece already, It is beautifully worked.

Jessica

[wendywombat]

Gryff! What a character he must have been. One of our cats liked the snow but as she was a Tortoiseshell had short fur so snow didn't cling. I can just imagine what 'fun' you had trying to get the snowballs off his furry tummy!!

I always look forward to seeing your updates on this Wonderful tribute to Gryff!

[Podolyanka]

You should see our Yorkie when he comes back from his walk in winter! As he is not groomed from late September till the last day with minus temperatures, and his coat/overall does not hide his legs, tummy with his riches, his beard/moustaches, and the tail, when he comes in he looks like a 1950s Soviet New Year tree- with lots of cotton wool on it to cover the lack of ornaments. Balls of frozen snow hang off him, and he obviously does not like them. First aid is putting him into a large sink half filled with warm water- this speeds up the process of liberation. Funny enough, he likes walking in the snow, ploghing a path with his broad chest( broad- due to his 3 months' doggy school) and jumping into snow drifts.

[karen4bells]

I am truly in awe!! Great update!!!!

[richardandtracy]

Thank you all for your lovely comments. We adored Gryff and it was such a terrible loss when he died. I am so glad that this is triggering so many memories of him.

Podolyanka,

I did no editing of the chart after conversion. The whole picture is confetti, trying to reduce the amount would have been to destroy the accuracy of the conversion. I did nothing whatsoever to the chart after conversion, as that requires artistic skills I really do not have - I'm an engineer not an artist! The editing beforehand was simply to place the oval over the image (at Allyn's suggestion) to hide the fact I missed the tip of his huge tail from my photo. I hope this un-edited chart was not a disaster, despite the fact that it was not edited! I wrote the conversion program to do as much as possible for someone like me who has no artistic skill at all and who wants as accurate a conversion as possible. I feel it has worked quite well so far, but I've only put interesting photos through the program at this time. Maybe with others it will fail. I hope not, but until it has been very widely tested, I still regard it as slightly experimental, though the indications are good.

Yes, a 'paw' is the foot at the end of a leg, and includes the toes, claws and pads on the underside. It is strange how languages differ, it can make using another language quite a challenge. I do think you are amazing being able to cope.

Regards,

Richard.

Edited for tripe writing error.

[Mabel Figworthy]

Gryff is looking great, and so is the snow! Fancy there being only 15 blends in that...

[kbaywolf]

Wonderful labour of love. Will be quite an achievement when complete!

[rcperryls]

and he wriggled like anything when we tried to remove it - he seemed to think it was another game where he lost if we got his snow!

Regards,

Richard.

Oh, Gryff. I didn't even know you but I know I would have loved you from head to tail, including the snowy toes. I'm so happy to see this again.

Couldn't have said anything better!
He looks like he is having a fantastic time! And the stitching of course is great.

Carole