What a show

As I waited in the long (stationary) line of traffic yesterday morning, I spotted the first signs of Autumn in the trees overhead.  I even had time to fish my camera from my bag and take a quick snap!

I was on my way to Moreton Show, where I had some judging to do.  I always enjoy this particular show for the rich variety of interesting things to see.  Above all, I love to get up close and learn a little about the farm animals which form a large part of the event.  In particular this year, I was looking forward to meeting an old friend and catching up on things with her.

I’ve judged at this show for several years, taking the occasional break as recommended, but usually accepting the invitation with pleasure.  Yesterday, I enjoyed the company of a WI colleague and between us, we made our judgements and left helpful and encouraging advice to the very talented competitors.  This little couple of foxes were sitting, waiting for us and looking utterly charming in their sweet knitted clothes.  I thought I had seen at least one of them before at the show I judged last weekend, not a million miles from here, but looking at my photographs, only the pattern was the same.  I don’t know about you, but I think this pair rivals the knitted originals in terms of cuteness!

(and yes, of course I went to the website and bought the pattern – couldn’t resist!)

Once the work was done, we braved the elements and after a long chatty lunch, decided to explore the show.  Having satisfied her shopping needs whilst I was judging, Sue was happy to follow the sounds of the farmyard with me.  Being a creature of habit, I tend towards the same places each year (evidenced here and here) and yes, we started by seeing some familiar characters.

The judging of the Hereford cattle was coming to a close and the interesting commentary drew our attention for a while.

But some other natives attracted us over, standing patiently waiting their turn in the spotlight.

I love to observe all the chatter and social interaction in these places where people with shared interests gather.  It’s good to see the next generation being so involved too.

I was quite pleased to see this pen empty!

I’d not ventured into the goat section before and was charmed by these pretty little pygmy goats.  What expressions!  But what a racket they were making!

The Gloucestershire Old Spots were out in number, of course.  Thankfully, they couldn’t see the sign on their pen advertising sausages.

We wandered back towards the show ring, where the winners of each cattle class were parading, ready for the “best in show” judgement.  Look who was there, decorated with his champion’s regalia from the Hereford class.

We marvelled at how placidly these huge creatures walked, around and around the ring, showing off their star attributes!

But our Hereford friend was to be pipped as Best in Show by this rather gorgeous Limousin, who paraded proudly around the ring one more time.

The commentator had a word with the winning farmer afterwards, though someone else didn’t want to be left out!

As we left, the winners were being taken to the main ring for the parade of champions.  I listened to the commentary setting the scene: “You will see the best of British breeds here this afternoon: Herefords, Angus and South Devon amongst them. These are the breeds which Britain exported to the world, which have been bred to feed America, Australia and beyond.  World class cattle here in Moreton; you will see no finer examples anywhere”. 

There was a ripple of applause.

“They graze on the best grassland in the world, too”.

As if nature was listening, the heavens opened and the essential factor for such excellent grazing fell from the sky.  Not that it bothered anyone there. 

We’re British.   

Still here

Who’d have thought it?

Ten years ago today, I was chatting to a couple of online chums about starting a blog.  One of them directed me to Blogger…and the rest is water under the bridge  an Elegant Sufficiency!  I thought that perhaps I’d have run out of things to write about by now, but it doesn’t seem to have happened yet   

Anyway, thank you sweet friends for sticking with me through thick and thin.  Most of all, thank you for offering your support and thoughts from time to time.  There are promising events on the horizon as we count down days to this year’s big adventure; there’s a summer road trip planned with three new US states to tick off and of course, there will be the usual agonising decisions to be taken about quilt block arrangements and suchlike (I’m going with the random as you all suggested, btw).

Here’s to the next decade, eh?

Inspiring insights

My work takes me to some interesting and inspiring places on occasion and yesterday was one of the best.  The WI is collaborating with a group of fashion students from Kingston University and yesterday was the second get together.  Having met amongst the textile heritage of the WI at Denman College, now it was time to get an insight into the world of a university fashion department.

It had been an early start for most and after a few caffeine hits, we were ready for our look around.  First stops were made in the resistant materials workshops, where the beauty of the heavy machinery made me want to stop and take photographs at almost every step.

There was something about the colours and of course, a stark contrast from the soft textile areas I normally inhabit.

What visually inspired person couldn’t have been excited by the sight of the rows of toolboxes, set on bright yellow shelves and numbered with those almost random stencilled identifiers?

But whilst I was lingering, taking photos of toolboxes and things the group was moving on and someone passed me what looked like an orthotic for a shoe.

My eye passed over the student cutting painstaking windows in an architectural model towards a table, where other moulds were stored alongside what looked like body parts.  But the technician uttered a couple of magic words which captured my attention and I was immediately eager to know more.

3 D printing.

In this small corner of the room were three machines – one large, two small – and samples of what each can produce.  We passed them round, learning how each was created from a design and some cartridges of what looks like strimmer cable in different colours.  We were impressed …and yet, because every imperfection had been reproduced as well, a little disappointed.  I need to find out more!

On then, through corridors lined with mood boards and design projects, past the moss wall which had originally been created for a fashion show but which stayed.  It was so tactile, so soft and very much alive – a lovely feature in a concrete building!

Nest stop, the sample room – not only fabrics, but cupboards of costumes and historic references from which the students can work and develop ideas.

We passed the empty sewing room, where rows of industrial sewing machines stood quietly, awaiting the first year students who were working on samples including french seams, flat fell seams, darts and facings.   Hang on a minute, though, didn’t we learn that kind of thing at school?  Indeed we did, but these days, fashion students don’t necessarily arrive with the same kind of skills as we learned from our mothers.  In fact, that’s one of the reasons for the collaboration – the WI members who are working with the students bring with them a lifetime of experience and skills like these to share.

Kingston University has a reputation for knitwear design, however, and our next stop was the knitting room.  Solid, traditional machines were there, ready to be set up for the next project sampling.

Traditional machines, tried and tested with all those moving parts working beautifully in the hands of someone who understands them.  A couple of students were working on their projects, quietly cursing as a thread broke or patiently setting up the next sample.  All took time and creating a pattern manually on one of these machines is a very slow and painstaking process.

Which took us to the next room, technician Fiona’s pride and joy – the Shime machines.  These fast, modern machines are computer driven and can create the fine knitwear designs created by the students more easily – once the software has been programmed, of course.  It’s machines like these which will realise the student’s concepts and with which they will work once they graduate so it’s important that they are familiar with the potential – and their limitations, of course.

We were thrilled to see a familiar book in use by Fiona’s computer, as she translated one of the student’s designs ready to create a jacquard sample.

Before lunch, there was time for a quick look in the Stanley Picker Gallery where Laura Oldfield Ford was exhibiting her work.  A fascinating combination of observations, journalling and drawing, we’d have liked longer to browse around.

But sadly, there was time only to glimpse and to learn enough to want to know more about her and her work.  It was getting on for lunchtime and we still hadn’t caught up with what the students had been working on since our first meeting.

After a bite to eat, it was back into the studio then, to see the starting points of the twelve designs.  The students and the members were buzzing with excitement – age and background was forgotten as a shared love of fashion, textiles and colour inspired conversation and creativity.  Naomi and Shelagh chatted about different styles of headgear, taking Shelagh’s wealth of traditional Aran knitting skills into account whilst working on Naomi’s playful designs.  Other groups worked on exciting ways of incorporating traditional skills and of working with handspun yarn, Dorset buttons or hand embroidered embellishments.  I overheard discussions about knitting boots, of felting pattern pieces and crochet trousers…hmmm

A table full of samples to inspire the students was keeping me rather happy, too!  Whilst I’m not taking part in the actual project, I’m a point of contact and support for the members – not that any of them looked in the slightest need of any support whatsoever right then.

So when Fiona asked if Jane and I would like to take a closer look at the Shime machine, you can imagine our response.

(I had to take a photo of the yarn store as we passed, by the way!)

Fiona inserted the USB stick on which she had put a file she had created for a glove.

She closed the lid, pressed the green button and the machine whirred into action.  Actually, it didn’t do so much as whirr, more cranked and wheezed!

We stood watching as the carriage buzzed to and fro, firstly knitting the fingers, one at a time.  It knitted them as tubes, starting at the tip, which it closed off before working towards the palm.  Four fingers done and it created the palm before going back to the thumb and then finally, the body of the glove and the welt around the wrist.

About fifteen minutes later, out plopped a glove (like a cash machine!)  Once steamed into shape, it was only in need of a few small hand made finishes to some loose ends and the welt and it would be ready to wear.

Marvellous.

Before we left, Fiona showed us the samples she’d created from the design of the tea cosy.  WI friends will be familiar with the Parrot tea cosy in our archive which Queen Mary admired at a National Craft Exhibition in the 1920s.  A true textile treasure, Fiona had taken the design and created a knitted motif which was subsequently inserted into the front of a dress.  The dress was shown at the Knitting and Stitching show at Ally Pally and will be at the K & S in Harrogate too, next month – if you happen to see it and have a chance to take a photograph, I’d love one, please!

In the meantime, the students and members have gone their separate ways again, to progress to the next stage of the project whilst keeping in touch via email and our vle.  We’ll meet up again in London, in December, when hopefully, there will be some exciting progress to report!

Loving Liverpool

Our feet haven’t touched the ground since we got back from Switzerland.  We’ve enjoyed a houseful of friends who have come and gone and had a number of fun and thoughtful conversations around tables at home and elsewhere.  We’ve welcomed more friends and put on our party clothes, staying out till the wee small hours celebrating our friend’s birthday and then piling into the car the following morning to make our way up the M5 and M6 to Liverpool.

Now we are home. Just the two of us. It seems awfully quiet.

We must learn to consult the tide tables before we go to Crosby next time, however.  Once again, the tide was right up when we arrived and all we could see of the figures was a head and shoulders in most cases.

Never mind, we walked further up the beach and saw what we needed to see before returning to the car without a cobweb left in our heads!  A good remedy for a late night previously, that’s for sure.

It was on the way back that we spotted this chap wearing a dress of some kind.  Hmm.

First stop in Liverpool was the Library.  Well, we did have our Los Angeles Public Library Docent with us and of course, it’s always interesting to get a professional view of these things.

The vast new atrium is spectacularly light and airy and was well populated even late on a Sunday afternoon.  Lucky Liverpudlians having such a resource available to them.

Good to see the old hasn’t been completely overlooked though.  The traditional, round library building remains and offers a rather more elegant and peaceful place to read or study.

We enjoyed a small exhibition of wartime ephemera including this ticket.  I am sure we’d have been there, given the chance!

Outside, on the street, we enjoyed a shortish walk around the city centre, appreciating the grand buildings, a quick look inside the Walker Art Gallery before it closed for the day and of course, did our best to explain to Mary and Diana just what we think makes Liverpool such a unique city.

The following morning, we were up with the larks and made our way to The Moose Cafe for breakfast.  Well, though the French Toast wasn’t quite up to our favourite Red Flame Diner standards, the artwork and friendly service made up for all of that and we were well set up for the day!

On such a beautiful morning, the city was looking at its best.  We tried to explain about the Liver Birds but didn’t know until later that those clock faces are the largest in Europe.

We watched the Mersey Ferry arrive and wandered around the Pierhead, discovering a wealth of interesting things to see – memorials to a variety of people, a huge urban landscape both new and old and of course, the inevitable people watching.  In our case, listening as well, because the authentic Liverpudlian accent just had to be heard!

As the ferry came in, of course, we sang.

We sang again in the little Karaoke booth in the Museum of Liverpool, this time at the tops of our voices, with full accompaniment and to the great amusement of other visitors peering through the windows.  The thought passed through my mind that the joke would have been on us had the booth had a secret camera with the footage being shown live in the museum entrance but hey, we were having FUN!

Needless to say, for every small corner or media clip that made us smile, there was another one which made us cry.   As an introduction to the city we couldn’t really have done any better than come here and the various displays and themed exhibitions left us all on an absolute high for the rest of the day.

We stepped briefly inside the Maritime Museum to take a peek at the International Slavery exhibit – look who we found here!  You might recall that we came across Frederick Douglass on several occasions during our road trip earlier this year and here he was yet again, remembered for the part he played in the Underground Railroad.

By now it was mid afternoon and a little footsore, the bright lights of Liverpool One beckoned.  Who could resist the attractions of a large John Lewis and a huge Waterstones bookshop nearby?  Not one of us.

It was weary footsteps then, that took us back to the hotel and which later influenced our choice of restaurant for dinner.  That we could see ASK from the window was all that was needed to convince us that eating Italian was an excellent idea!

And now we are home.  We took Diana to Manchester airport so she could catch her flight to Chicago and on to LA and then waved to her later as her plane took off over Knutsford services where we stopped for a late breakfast.  Mary collected a hire car from John Lennon Airport and is continuing her adventure (without us!) She’ll drive eastwards towards some of our favourite Yorkshire haunts before returning south later in the week.

Me?  I have a new earworm.  Well, of course, there was no question about what to watch on TV last night, was there?

The China Dress

The life sized artwork which stands by the lifts in the hotel foyer is a real talking point.  I love it.

Have a closer look.

The “head” – or is it an elaborate hairstyle? – is absolutely in proportion and crowns an elegant form.  I especially love the collar and shoulder shape.

From the side, it’s easier to appreciate the curves and smooth shapes which have been achieved from these very solid and unyielding fragments.

The whole thing is fitted around a metal armature, the pieces “stitched” together with metal wire or staples.

The pattern and form have been so cleverly managed using the pieces available.

Interest and texture is added with more dimensional pieces down the back.

There are small features elsewhere on the dress, too, making best use of the bases, each with a makers mark.

The hem is nicely finished with the deepest blue border, giving weight and balance to the overall figure.

If only it would fit in my suitcase.