More lists

A fairly solid block of colour is looming in my Outlook calendar as I begin yet another activity-packed couple of weeks.  Today, my last day at home for a while, I thought I would work out a schedule for my packing, which could prove almost as interesting as when we were in Peru earlier in the year, because although my feet are unlikely to hit the ground in one place for very long, my Hero will be to-ing and fro-ing, coming home from time to time whilst I’m gadding about.

The first bag is packed.  Well, to tell the truth, it hasn’t been unpacked.  When I arrived home from the workshop in Cwmbran last week, I simply checked everything to make sure I had plenty of supplies for the next event, tidied it up a bit and put it to one side ready for Wrexham, the day after tomorrow.  But I haven’t put aside my overnight things nor given one thought to what the weather is going to be like and if I need to wrap up warm.

My mind was already beyond North Wales and into next week and I googled “packing lists” in the hope of finding a starting point.  There was certainly plenty of choice and yet, nothing quite fitted my requirements.

 

For example, I’d probably consider taking about half a dozen items from the list above – does anyone take “bandages” on holiday?  Am I likely to need a universal sink stopper in the next couple of weeks?  I don’t think so.

So I took out my paper and pencil and drew up four lists.  One, for things I’m going to need the whole time and which can stay in whichever bag I decide to take.  I think the charging cables and so on will go in this collection.  A second list is for the next two nights away in Wrexham, when I’m unlikely to need very much at all but must remember to take that bag of resources!

Then it gets more complicated, but thankfully, I’ve got most of Sunday at home to think about the next two stages and write a couple more lists…

I would find it so much easier if I took the time and trouble to work it all out like this but sadly, if I did, there’d be no time to actually do the travelling!

Maybe I need a capsule wardrobe?

Dashing away

The Philips Azur 4340 and I have shared some steamy times together over countless school shirts, bedding and suchlike.

Recently, though, I’ve suspected that one of us just wasn’t trying as hard as before and all the effort I was putting in seemed to be wasted.

The end came over a creased king sized duvet cover on Monday, when after half an hour together, it was clear, our relationship had run its course.  No amount of descaler would persuade it to return to its old, steamy habits and  it was time to trade it in for a newer, younger model.

Did I say “flashier” too?  We could iron in the dark! 

Our new, German model is efficient and effective.  Steamy times have returned chez nous you’ll be pleased to learn.

Achievements

Yes, we’re in ticking things off the list mode around here.

There was work to be done in Cwmbran yesterday.  Good, fulfilling work that is, with interesting people who make workshops as rewarding to teach as I hope they are to take part in.

Whilst I facilitated discussions about learning styles and Tuckman’s Group Dynamics theory, my Hero and chauffeur was working in the next room completing our tax return!  Hey, who says we don’t both have fun on a weekend?!  Seeing the poppy there in the photograph (it had fallen from my jacket a few minutes previously) I realised that we’d have been in Lytham St Anne’s this morning had it not been for this prior commitment.  Whilst preparing the lunch this morning, I thought of our friends there at the Cenotaph and missed our usual November weekend at the seaside.

But ticking more things off the list was the aim today and there was a box awaiting my attention since it arrived on Friday afternoon and at last I had time to open it up and discover what delights were inside.

Look what I saw!

If ever there was an intriguing parcel, this was it.  An hour later, I’d explored the other bubble-wrapped packages, each one as curious and amazing as the last and though I can’t share any more of the contents (because they’re not mine to share) I couldn’t resist taking a photograph of those little hands.  The life of a craft assessor is never dull, I can confirm!

I was able to tick off that task for the weekend and was delighted that the clever maker of the dolls will be able to tick that one off too.

So, having dealt with most things on my list by lunchtime, I felt I could spare a couple of hours to explore something I’d bought online at the end of last week.  I’ve done Foundation Paper piecing before and it’s a pretty foolproof process that even I can manage. I didn’t really need to buy a pattern or anything to create a simple shape like this.  But I was curious about how this would work in the embroidery hoop of my Bernina and with a special offer on the price of the pattern, I thought I’d give it a whirl and got out my bag of fabric scraps.

It’s interesting to see how carefully it has been worked out, but oh my, the process is very slow.  But all the stitching is programmed to be in exactly the correct place and in addition, each fabric placement is done along a stitched line too.  So there really is no excuses for not getting it perfect.

Except that as always happens, one piece of fabric wasn’t quite big enough.  The one, single process that was left for me to manage and I failed.

Grrr.

What’s especially annoying is that particular foundation piecing trick trips me up every time, too.

Boo

We don’t do Halloween.  However, our no-longer-quite-so-small friends and their friends have a tradition of dressing up and visiting a few familiar places in the village and of ending up by knocking on our door.

I have a few spooky-cute bits and pieces which usually make an appearance around 5pm and are put away again shortly after we’ve said goodnight and waved them goodbye down the drive.

I usually put a few bits together including something to do (this year, these fortune tellers) and since they’ve usually gone to some considerable trouble with the dressing up, we made a kind of photo booth under the stairs as well.

With a few apples bobbing in a bucket of water and a towel alongside, we were all set when the knock came on the door.  In they all tumbled, excited, shy and giggly at the same time whilst Mums and Dads stood back and enjoyed the fun.  Photos were taken and a few apples were bobbed when someone noticed,

“hang on, they’re not with us!”

Three small boys had tagged along in their ghostly get ups and helped themselves to a bit of rice krispy stuff, a gingerbread person or two and a bag of sweets before disappearing into the darkness.  We had no idea who they were or where they’d come from!

At least they said thank you

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!