Fanciful conker chairs

I'm especially grateful to Natalie for sharing one of her childhood projects with me. These appealing little conker chairs kept the girls (and me!) occupied on a wet half-term afternoon. Simply made by pushing dressmaking pins into 'flatties' and weaving colourful threads or yarns to make a pretty chairbacks.

Mittens from scratch

I've been working on a secret knitting project. Sketching, swatching, charting, knitting, frogging, more charting, more knitting and eventually a very pleasing design for a pair of mittens. I'm turning my notes and charts into a pattern, which will be test-knitted and published here early November. I'm also making another pair without the halo of Drops Alpaca and variegated colours of Mini Mochi yarns, although it was the gorgeous greens in the Mini Mochi that inspired the whole idea ... that and my wish for snow this winter. Off for a walk in the woods with the children now, it's another gorgeous sunny day and they want to see fungi and horses.

Rainy Day Art in London

On my way to Iknit (on a typical grey drizzly day) I was stopped in my tracks by the beautiful art installation of umbrellas suspended outside the Channel 4 offices on Horseferry Road, London. The vibrant colours and geometric shapes of these lost and found umbrellas gave the overall form a soft balloon-like appearance as though the entire structure would float away at any moment. I love Channel 4's whole idents series - the way their '4' logo gradually reveals itself to you as you are taken on a magical journey of perspective around a larger than life everyday structures.

If you also think this is inspiring you may like this article on other stunning umbrella art installations at http://www.environmentalgraffti.com/

Shelter by Stepahnie Imbeau
Using lost and found umbrellas, lighting attached & a steel frame
1600cm x 1200cm

KIPing & KTOGs

The past few weeks have been busy and interesting, opening up opportunities for meeting lovely new people and starting new projects. The Summer holidays are over and the girls are back at school in Year 6 (final year of primary school) and Year 10 (start of GCSEs) leaving me to resume a more regular working pattern and make plans for the months ahead. Best of all, the lovely Outcasts have all regrouped! We've had lots of catching up to do and plans to make for our knitting in public events, not least of all a spontaneus group effort to knit a banner.

Outcasts! 8ft long bunting-style banner. If you'd like to personalise one of your own a link to our pdf instructions and chart can be found here.

The first KIP event was Iknit Weekender, London - we knitted little hats for Innocent Smoothies Big Knit 2009 and presented our knitted letters for the Poetry Society's centenary Knit a Poem event. We had also hosted a 'stitch together' event in Reading and stitched together almost a fifth of randomly selected words from this secret poem, the unveiling of which is scheduled for October. Exciting!

The next event was Iknit Weekender - the first knitting show I've attended and I really enjoyed the relaxed shopping, chatting with other knitters and exhibitors, and also ... meeting the enchanting Ysolda. (Smith also met her too! a bit crumpled from his journey I think but still obilged her request for a photo).

Finally, whilst the Outcasts were running Let me Ease Your Day (LMEYD) in Reading Town Centre, making knitted items for the public, I was at a community BBQ near Caversham doing "a little knitting activity with the locals". They had seen me at the Children's Festival and were really keen to have a similar event at their bbq with a familiar face. It was quite exciting to be asked but I felt strangely responsible for honouring this craft and passing on my enthusiasm and skills to others. I think it went okay - I took along a basket of yarns, needles, a few cosy knits from home (blankets, cushions, hats, shawls) and printed off a few simple patterns for Innocent hats to get them started. It was truly lovely to see how much unrequited interest there is in knitting from all ages and the patterns were perfect. Everyone at the stand was soon chatting and reminiscing about grandmothers' cosies and childhood sweaters that their mothers made. They are now asking about how to set up a knitting group! - great I said, you'll need tea, cake, friends and of course needles and yarn.

That kind of brings me up to date - I'll leave Wemake Christmas Fayre, and the projects for that, for a future post.

Simple pleasures

What with a now condemned car and a depleted bank balance, the past couple of days have been all about seeing how much fun we can have on our doorstep for a few pennies. Yesterday the 4 of us all bought an Explorer ticket on Reading Buses for a bargainous £12 and had a grand day out around Wargrave and Henley. We could have gone on again to Marlow but we were too happy lolling around by the river in Henley reading (and knitting!) and DD2 was in her elements when she found her own private roller blading track - she'd been carrying them in a back-pack all day waiting for the perfect moment and place to let whiz!


This morning, we set out to have lunch with friends at Deans Farm and stopped off en route at Reading Cattle Market & Auction to see the horse sale. I love the buzz of an auction and I've been frequently taking the children there since they were born to see animals, carriages, cars and antiques being bought and sold. I've even been known to bid on an item or two there myself, but only raised my hand to take aim with my camera today ...

Had to take picture of this also also on the way out as a recent photo that AlabamaWhirley took of this made me think about how much I've taken this magnificent mural for granted over the past few years - even though it makes me smile every time I pass it.

When we eventually arrived at Karen's she greeted us with her usual gorgeous, uplifting, home-baked goodness ... she's an ace baker as well as a great friend. I managed to get photo evidence before it was demolished by 4 ladies and 7 children!!

After some lively chat, whilst the children busied themselves in the gardens playing with tiny frogs, we went for a walk to the nearby lake, picking something up along the way for a supper time treat. A pretty relaxing and successful day - simple pleasures are the best!

Blackberries and Plums picked from nearby lake.

All together now ...

Finally, I have the girls back from their exciting adventures and, 'Stone me!', DD1 actually bought me back a gift from Normandy ... yarn!!

After the pleasant shock dispelled we made tea, looked at photos and chatted for hours mostly listening to her tales of the fun evenings spent on the beach with good friends and 'cool' teachers, who for once were letting their hair down to reveal very 'human and likeable personalities'.



Also, on a more serious note, she spoke about how moved she was on her visit to the war cemetries and the on-going gratitude shown towards British visitors for the friendship extended to France during WWII. I'm very grateful too - very grateful that I have such a mature and compassionate teenage daughter.



Whilst clearing away the tea things I put the teapot back on the shelf and realised what I'd make with her yarn ...

Friendship Tea Cosy
Size: for a 2pt tea pot
Materials: British Breeds Yarns Guernsey 5 ply as the main colour. Phildar Oxygène, shades 102 and 106, as the 2 contrast colours. Used just over half of each ball.
Needles: 3.75mm
Pattern: Tea by the Sea by Keren Smith

Another 5 days

What an exhausting and emotional week. The house has been like a departures/arrivals lounge with all the girls’ comings and goings on school trips. Not to mention the rehearsals for 5 concert appearances and 2 performances of the school play! All were simply amazing and enjoyable but after 3 hours sleep on Sunday night, and only just getting DD2 back from her week away, I couldn’t restrain the tears when waving DD1 off to Normandy at the crack of dawn on Monday. “It’s only 5 days mum!”, she calls back as they drive away in the drizzle. Only 5 days …

Love this time of year! Gorgeous long sunny days, usually not too hot or dry, and the rest of a hopefully long lazy summer stretched out ahead. Thanks to good Spring weather, the garden is absolutely bursting with blossom and fresh green shoots and looking it's very best at the moment - thankfully seducing my DH into developing his green fingers for a change this year ... and he's loving it!

After a massive clear out of wild blackberries and weeds in late April and a back-breaking digging over, (even proudly adding a sprinkle of home-made compost!), the vegetable boxes have been planted with red cabbages, beans, lettuces and shallots, and elsewhere herbs and tomatoes have been squeezed in to borders and potatoes stacked in stray buckets and tubs. Previous years' tayberries, blueberries and strawberries are plumping up once again - in fact, everything's shaping up nicely for those yummy summer muffins, salads and ices.

From top to bottom, left to right: tayberries, pyracanthus, peony, monarch,
lavendar, foxglove, smokebush and a mixed herb bed

Top left: cabbages and beans. Top right: blueberries.
Of course this all prettry tantilizing for rabbits, Sugar and Spice (bottom)

We're also busy preparing for holidays. Not our own exactly, but our two girls are are both off on separate school trips to Normandy and Somerset at the end of the month and I've been inundated with kit-lists, wish-lists and post-it notes everywhere reminding me about timings, schedules, emergency contacts, medical consent, diet sheets etc etc

And I'm trying really hard not to increase my burgeoning yarn stash at the moment or start another shawl. Instead I'm trying to finish my works-in-progress and planning ahead for Autumn / Christmas gifts - if you knew how unorganised I am you would understand. The good news is though that I have finished the lovely Clapotis this weekend thanks to a very very long day at the girls' music centre's annual garden party picnicing on strawberries and cream and listening to those very talented children performing a succession of soothing classics - my favourite was the cello quartet playing Pachelbel's Canon - sigh, a blissful afternoon.

Finished Measurements: Approx 60 x 12(-20) inches, unblocked
Materials: Skein Queen Elegance in Plumcious, DK, 2 skeins (200g)
Needles: I used 4mm which was smaller than pattern suggested.
Pattern: Clapotis by Kate Gilbert

Look at what I bought

What can I say ... I've been in a bit of a flurry over the past month, shamelessly knitting at every opportunity. I behave like this frequently when swept away by a new idea. Plus I've been feeling like an accomplished knitter after my Swallowtail Shawl and all that. Then one knit night, Skein Queen bought in a selection of her latest hand dyed yarns including 2 skeins of this little beauty which she had dyed especially for me ...

Skein Queen - Finesse in Plumcious

which I am turning into this ...

Clapotis Shawl - Kate Gilbert

and I also made another little purchase ...

Skein Queen - Finesse in Olive Tapanade

which I am turning into this ...

Madli's Shawl - Nancy Bush

Then I sat, slightly giddy from all that lovely yarn, knitting and quietly reflecting on the change in me over the past 7 months since I re-discovered knitting. Everything else can wait - the laundry, the weeds in the garden, the shopping - there's always tomorrow, right? Right! That's what I thought. I will get knitting into balance with everything else, soon. I'll just do a few more rows and reflect on that a bit more.

hi

well, here we go! ... my own blog

I perhaps should have done this years ago. I've gained so much recent inspiration from other generous bloggers, and so much encouragement from the Ravelry community, that I finally feel I can start sharing in this goodness that's abound in the creative online blogging community too.

So that's that for now, first post done.