For positively the last time

I will post photos of this finished (yay!) quilt.

It’s had quite enough exposure, but I am grateful to everyone for the encouragement, helpful advice and kind comments without which I feel sure it would have still been lingering there on my table.

I’m often asked the question “why do you blog?” and I think the answer lies with my quilt.  I blog to keep a record of what I’m doing, and of what I’ve done, mostly for my own personal use, but in sharing good intentions with friends I can also set myself up with a challenge.  Sometimes, I deliberately post the start of a project, because sooner or later, someone will ask “whatever happened to…?” and I will respond in the same way I used to respond when my Mum asked the same question ;-)  Yes, I’ll sigh, roll my eyes a bit and then succumb to the kindly shove and do something about it.

I will never admit to having stuffed “that yellow dress” down at the back of the wardrobe or to cutting it up for some weird project or other.  But I might turn a delicate shade of pink and look a bit shifty…

For my next trick

I plan to get out the old “tricotin” again.  Maybe you can remember the loopy scarf I knitted last year?  Well, last week, whilst at Kelmscott Manor, Mary, Joanna and I stalked a French woman who was wearing this

I recognised the style immediately and began to mutter La Droguerie in a way which gave them some concern.  When we got home, I opened one of my pattern books and Voilà! there was the pattern.

In French.  Bien sûr.

Parlons-nous francais?  Un petit peu.  Fortunately there’s also a good, clear diagram.

So, we have yarn (Debbie Bliss 4ply Rialto), we have a working tricotin and later, we may have lift off.

There.  I’m committed now, aren’t I?

Inspiring

I was at an inspiring workshop yesterday, hopefully the start of something exciting.  There was certainly a great deal of inspiration, a wealth of talent and a buzz of enthusiasm in the room and if all of that could be bottled and put to good use, then how can it result in anything less than amazing?

We heard of great things which have already been achieved and plenty about what we might do ourselves, but for me, one very stylish and beautifully dressed woman stole the show as soon as spoke about people who put a button in the fruit bowl, who feel they have to pick up that pretty pebble and take it home. 

Erika Knight  was one of those names which seemed familiar as soon as I saw it on the agenda.  I knew it from knitting books, but felt I'd heard it elsewhere too.  For sure I had, for when she introduced herself and what she has done, I think that anyone interested in craft, fashion and textiles in the last twenty or thirty years must have encountered her work in some form or other.

Her current work (above) hits the spot with me.  More important, it was clear that her words resonated with the other women there in the room as she identified a shared personality trait amongst us and described so accurately what characteristics set us aside from other people.  It's that beautiful button which we pick up and roll around in our fingers, the one which we want to keep, to cherish but yet don't have a use for.

The button we put into the fruit bowl.  The pebble which stays in our pocket or finds its way onto the bathroom windowsill.

It explains why there's a small Vietnamese coin and a little wooden cross from a friend who went to Jerusalem in the paperclip dish on my desk.

Why there's a few odd shells, seeds and pods in the drawer where we keep the paper napkins in the sitting room

and possibly why there's a bit of Christmas ribbon, a green Waitrose charity token and a hat* from an Innocent drink in the kitchen basket where we put all kinds of oddments.

Or perhaps that's simply that I haven't had a clear up for a while? Definitely can't excuse everything away by simply saying I have a creative mind!

Have you got a button in your fruitbowl?  A collection of what my Mum would have called "odds and sods" in the corner of a drawer?  Would you have been there nodding with agreement as you recognised yourself?

Another first for me later in the day as I sat and listened to someone with experience to share.  The name was sort of familiar, her background seemed to fit...I gradually put two and two together and identified a fellow blogger!  I have met other bloggers before, of course, for some brave souls have come and introduced themselves to me at AllyPally and such places, but that's always been prompted by a mutual friend or somehow been less of a suprise than this time, where we were both there in a more professional capacity.  I must say that although it felt a bit strange knowing rather more about each other than normally would be the case on meeting someone for the first time, it was lovely to meet the warm and friendly woman who tells the stories and who creates such interesting bits of knitting and stitching.  I still felt a little bit like a stalker though!!

*  I might have answered my own quesiton when I found the link to Innocent above, but  does anyone know if Innocent recycle these little hats for next year?  Can I send these back to them?

Looking for Cinderella

because the slipper doesn't fit me.

I finished the first of a pair of Cocoknits Ballet Flats last night.  I'd read they were a quick knit and even I managed to complete one in an afternoon/evening, but sadly, today it will be frogged because it's way too small.

I'm pleased with my choice of yarn, even if it did make the knitting a little more challenging than it need have been.  Or perhaps it concealed more mistakes/irregularities than a plain yarn would have done?  Anyway, it was from my stash and was ideal for the slippers, being practical dark coloured wool but with a bit of frivolity too! 

I like the way the toe is shaped and think the pleated front is worth the added hassle - it's not that difficult even if it took me a while to work it out to begin with.  The construction is clear and easy to follow and I had no problems.  I knit the middle size, supposedly for a US foot size 9.

But the decreasing cast off really put the lid on it and no way would my foot go into the slipper, let alone feel comfortable once wearing it.

I'll try again later.

A January weekend

 

Walking to the office in the pouring rain on Friday, I spotted these diamond-encrusted stems by the side of the path and simply had to stop to take a photograph.  It was a gloomy day, my mind was elsewhere for most of it and this simple thing was enough to lift my spirits and look forward to the weekend.

Strictly Come Dancing at the NEC yesterday was fun and we enjoyed seeing all our favourites stepping out once again.

Interesting to see just which page Lynn kept  open in her programme.... 

Today we have a quiet day at home and Charlotte's Web is finished.  I struggled to work out how to crochet the edge - had the picture on the pattern been clearer, I could have worked it out, but as it was my crochet experience is insufficient to interpret all but the clearest of directions.  I mulled it over for a couple of days, thinking I didn't want a fringe anyway, before the light dawned and I set to work and completed it.  I'm glad I did - that fringe is a good way of adding a little weight to the edge and once it's blocked, it will be even better.

Thanks Nita for getting me going on that one - you are such a clever and talented friend!

 For much of last evening (when my eyes were averted from Gordon Ramsay's exploits in India*) the extraordinary shapes and colours of last week's anemones captured my attention.  I'd cut them short to go into a small round vase and yet they have continued to grow, some to over a foot high.  The magenta pink of the petals has faded, the deep purply black centres have taken on a hyacinth blue tone and the soft green leaves and stems set it all off so beautifully. I kept looking at them, noticing the negative shapes in between flowers and stems, creating some kind of composition in my head.  I'm not sure I'm ready to throw them away yet, thinking that whilst they keep their colour and shape, they are still beautiful.

*We recorded Gordon Ramsay's latest Indian journey on TV and have watched two of the three programmes so far. Can't bear the man, dislike the foul language and "attitude" but oh my, the Chicken Biryani I cooked from his book on Thursday was good!

Today

I didn't intend this to become a weather blog.  Neither did I mean to document the dull and frankly, rather boring, details of everyday life.  So, fired up with the enthusiasm that results from a re-entry into the world after almost a month of hibernation at home, it's time to place a marker or two about where I am right now, creatively speaking.

Charlotte's Web is taking shape nicely, though I've got to the part where doing one row takes forever.  With only fourteen more rows to go, I'm aiming to get it finished sooner rather than later, because I have these in mind.

Or possibly these.  Who knows, I might even knit both!

Yes, it's that kind of day.

The Christmas Journal is complete and resulted in a bumper edition this year.  Finishing all the details on that, including a couple of pages from Mark about his week in Umea means that my "paper" workspace is looking pretty good right now.

That could be because most of the creative output of the last few days has been taking place elsewhere.

Spotlight has been on the sewing machine, which has been red hot, creating one or two samples for a little project I'm doing with some online chums.

When not sitting at the sewing machine, I've been at my computer, working through an online class exploring the nether reaches of Photoshop.  Time to get the Wacom out and get scribbling.

But my first few pieces of work bore a fair bit of resemblance to Athena posters of the 1970s, so I went a bit off piste, preferring the result of yesterday's creation to previous efforts.  Sometimes, I find it hard to strike out and do my own thing when a class is as prescriptive as this one, but if I'm to learn anything from it, then I have to apply the processes learned in my own way.

 

 The weaving's fine.  I've got myself a copy of a more helpful book.

I now need to work on my posture, for I find that weaving for anything longer than a few minutes leaves me with an aching back.  Not having back trouble of any kind so far, I don't want to start now!

Finally, there's the piles of guilt.  The larger-than-expected quilt top, which I'm building up courage to deal with.  Can I realistically expect to be able to machine quilt it myself?  Should I identify a manageable means of handquilting it?  Or should I cut my losses and get it quilted elsewhere?  There's also the halfway house option, of getting it professionally basted and then doing the quilting myself.  Decisions decisions!

There's also a pile of christmas fabrics sitting on my bench.  Now, wouldn't January be the perfect time to begin on a  couple of small Christmas quilts for 2010?  I have plans for something simple here....maybe a stacked coin design?

Not to mention the piles of books.

Recent reading has been easy, difficult to get into but fine when I did, quick and very entertaining and currently, thought-provoking.  I have my next book group title still to get into, never miind the pile in the photo.

Finally, somewhere in the middle of all of that, there's work to be done.  After all, who couldn't fail to be persuaded into exciting opportunities to hear about the latest vision, presented by dynamic practitioners?

You mean to say you wouldn't be influenced by the venue, a local rugby club?