What to do with a horrible bit of black monoprinting on brown paper?

Add a bit of bling. Well - a lot of bling. Minimalist it isn't.

First you crumple the brown paper and Bondaweb it to felt. I rubbed it with gold wax but it was pretty subtle - well, more like invisible.

Then you FME it. I used a variegated thread but with hindsight wish I'd used black as it would have shown up more. Or gold.

Then I cut it into 3" by 4" pieces and played around with them. Two ended in the bin - Maggie Grey may be able to cut a brown paper and felt sandwich with a soldering iron but all I got was ragged edges, a nasty smell and a headache.

As they looked boring I decided to try foiling one. I discovered that one advantage of the stickiness of cheapo acrylic paint is that, when ironed, it takes foil well. As you see.

I was looking for beads for something else but these fake jet ones demanded to be a fringe. With gold thread. I added the French knots to try to bring out the swirls of machine stitching - but I'm not sure it works. Perhaps a few more? I also think it needs a focal point - probably some Klimtish spirals, unless anyone has any better ideas? Funny how black and gold always make me think of Klimt.

I like the back too -and the negative scan is quite ghostly.

I have also printed on the paper which I stamped and sponged with Inkaid. The sponged one is more suitable for my purpose - but I like the stamped one too. I hope this may produce fabric I can hand sew - some fabric is drying as I type.

And I have finished - at last - a monster piece of computer knitting. What is computer knitting? i like to have something mindless to work on while reading e-mails or doing anything else computer related that doesn't need hands. it has to be stocking or garter stitch - or rib, although that can go wrong more easily - nothing I have to think about / look at too often.

For many months I have been using up my oddballs of black, grey, turquoise and yellow in a blanket - I just cast on lots of stitches and knit garter stitch, changing colour every row and leaving long ends to make a fringe. It has turned out to be big enough to cover the legs of both of us when we sit together on the sofa - so with a sweater on the top half, we can turn the heating down and put two fingers up to British Gas!

Trouble is, I haven't got anything to knit now, apart from a baby cardigan which is definitely not computer knitting!