Workshops and Baking

Lovely day at the knitting-workshop! (or should I say, "detention"!) our tutor, and guest, provided us with a yummy lunch, stacks of yarn to play with AND sent us home with a goodie bag which included a Rowan studio book - how cool is THAT for a "detention"?

Back home now, and no.2.son is busy baking choc-chip cookies - I'll take a pic when they are cooked (and before they are eaten!!). He's quite a good cook, and enjoys it too, unlike me - I still remember baking peanut butter cookies and after biting into one before properly chilled, fresh from the oven, having to prise the wretched thing off my TEETH after it "set" as I clamped my teeth around it and spent several mins sucking at it hoping not to lose any teeth in the process! The family will confirm this is quite usual for me!

I like what my friend is up to! And also the neat idea of storing and sorting her perle threads! MUCH easier to see what you've got and less likely to tangle too, seeing her block makes me miss the bit of hand stitching I'd enjoyed doing recently!

Why knit?

This is funny! you might have seen it already : The Sacraments Of Knitting: A Simple Tract, the lumpy sweater.

Secrets of The Yarn Collectors is another I've enjoyed reading and following the comments too! over at Knitting Daily/Today's Post.

Bits and Pieces (non crafty)

School is having to rearrange pupils for tomorrow due to strike action, and no.2.son is off but no.1.son is in! both, however, are off on Friday for planned INSET day. At the same time, our tutor has arranged for a workshop on the Friday for our group for part of the day, and I kidded the lads it was a "detention" - they asked what will we be doing on our detention, and I said, oh I don't know! I expect she'll make us knit or something! THAT!, they said, is NOT punishment! .. and I think they are right!

Coming soon, 9th May, I have booked a place on Sarah Hazell's Learn to Crochet day as I feel this would be nice, I mean good for me (to learn properly!) and I am delighted to find that 3 other ladies from our regular weekly course are also attending! Sarah does loads of Rowan workshops all around and its worth checking out the website for reference as day courses are a lot of fun.

BOTH cats are in trouble today! Lilly (unusually) because she was caught playing chase and catch (and burst!) with no.2.son's mini-football and Bertie (typically) because he somehow managed to get IN to my sewing room despite my checking the door is closed MOST of the time, and took a piece of needlefelted fabric and CHEWED it! I know it was him, as I followed the trail of fibres all the way into lads' bedroom and found him SITTING on it underneath their bunk beds trying to pretend he didn't know how it got there .. I wouldn't mind, but I managed to find some of the purple floral fabric that makes up half of my pin cushion that he seems to favour, particularly, and made HIM a catnip filled one which, inevitably, he has ignored totally! It seems he knows what is an authentic crafty notion and what is a fobbing-off attempt at a notion! Anyway, its raining this morning and I've put them BOTH outside .. grrr

I've got to catch up today! I've got some experiments with cling film to try out!

Creative Textiles

This week was a catch up week, slowly each of us are having our work inspected! this week it was my turn! It must be nice for our tutor to see how each of us have set about our sketchbooks and the samples we choose to work on to demonstrate the various techniques, but quite how she can resist the temptation to rush off home to have a go herself we don't really know!!

The trouble with this class is, there isn't much time to work on projects during each weekly session and quickly you find yourself getting behind and/or sidetracked if you don't keep on top of things and then, inevitably, you get overwhelmed with all the catching up that is required! This looks like happening with a couple of ladies.

I prefer to see pieces of work, and in addition to samples I've tried to make a few things, and there are more ideas in my head that just need some time to prioritise! with the summer holiday fast approaching, I must, also, start thinking about wrap skirts too!!

With that in mind, for the past month I've been fair starving myself and doing without gin and cake and have lost a miserable 4lbs, where hubby - just to keep me company - suggested he'd give up beer and chocolate too! (mind, I'm not certain that SWAPPING beer & choc for wine and licorice allsorts IS the same as "giving up" but I can't say anything, as HE has lost a staggering 12lbs! which must surely mean he drank a lot of beer or ate a lot of chocolate!) Men do lose weight differently to us, I know, but its certainly most annoying given it was MY idea and its ME thats making up all these crummy I mean yummy SALADS every day for a month now .. zzz

For health reasons, we've been going for a "walk" each day - again, to keep me company, dh suggested HE walk too! which is FINE, except he walks at about 4times my pace and when I try and suggest, somewhat breathlessly, that he slow down! he mutters about how much BETTER it would be if I jogged .. jogged! ha!? me!? I don't think I've broken into a jog for the best part of 20years! not properly. not a serious "jog" as in out for a run.

ONCE I went for a jog.
its not all its cracked up to be.
and its not EASY either.
WHERE do you go?
HOW do you start? - do you come out of the house jumping on the spot and race off past all your neighbours as they stand outside by their cars WATCHING YOU?
well yes. if are in fit and glam. in designer sporty wear with crop tops and fashionable trainers.
NOT if are wearing old baggy jumper, manky leggings shrunk in the wash with several darned areas where the seams split not quite meeting the socks at the ankles which are from the kids drawer and a pair of beach pumps.

WORSE - when you get to the 4th house and are PANTING, face beet-red, gasping for air, legs gone all weak and feeling FAINT, grasp the streetlamp and pretend to do hamstring stretches while doubled up with terrific stitch and feeling bit sick and they all stop washing their cars to STARE and enquire are ALL RIGHT THEN? yes. ! of COURSE! am just. umm LATE .. blush .. thud .. its NOT what it looks like!? am not JOGGING! am just dashing to the err shops! ..

I once tried going jogging wearing skirt, blouse and heels with handbag flapping over my chest - thought could pretend to be late for WORK or something.
that doesn't work well either. even with LOW heels is awfully hard to actually JOG and all that sweat and makeup! they don't mix well. the LEAVING is fine. its the returning! oh! err. forgot! silly MEE! dashing off to work thinking was late! got to bus stop! remembered: IS MY DAY OFF! I only ran BACK to not waste any more of day off! slides to knees pressing key into door resolving to try HARDER with the indoor skipping and the fitness video! (who am I kidding?)

I took one of the lads once!
thought THIS might be another option! take a CHILD - pretend to be running to CATCH up with the child!
note. to self. MUST remember NEXT time to ask the child to NOT run quite as FAST! I was lapped twice as I staggered home, eventually, to find CHILD swinging feet on the wall telling the neighbours that mummy's really SLOW isn't she? I've done the block 4 TIMES now!

AND you can't stop to chat!
I mean. aside from the panting and the stitch and the beet-red face, theres the other matter of .. I NEEEDDD THE LOOOOOO!!! crossing legs in a deep curtsey and clutching blancmange middlebits, sink to the side and grit teeth and try to remember muscles one is promised by the ante-natal nurse is WORTH remembering and hiss at the neighbour that one is NOT doubled up in breathless agony, ONE IS COOLING DOWN and is a modern hamstring stretch (and hoping not to leave a puddle behind ..)

AMAZING that my neighbours NEVER stop to chat .. normally ..

Luckily for me, I can dressmake. SEW .. large skirts it IS this summer ..

colourful socks!

wow! look at these colourful socks! fair makes you want to rush out and buy some yummy yarn and knit!

I've neglected my sock knitting - boo! and a recent conversation with my sewing-pal-Ann about socks has made me determined to get back on track and with such YUMMINESS about how can I resist? Ann's daughter, Elizabeth, had also got bitten by the sock knitting bug and was annoyed to realise she'd read the turning of the heel instruction incorrectly and had somehow done it upside down! We had a bit of a chuckle about it, but really socks are the sort of thing you need to knit at least twice before you really know what you are doing!

Mine are still on their pins, and I've two hanks just waiting for the knitting up of!

My Pink Quilt is DONE! yahooo!!

My quilt is finally FINISHED and very pleased with it I am too!
But first, my little darning and couching sample for last weeks' textiles course homework:

I enjoyed this project very much and am pleased with how it looks, given there is no embroidery stitches within it, just a series of cords and yarns couched to create a mini picture based on the pic to the side which you can see I've simplified to give the effect rather than a true copy. I'm not terribly thrilled with the sky, you can see the top edge curling under the darned yarns? maybe I should have hooped the fabric for better results? anyway is pinned FIRMLY into my sketch book now!


This quilt was a bit tricky to handle! I'm certain fellow quilters will be nodding their heads with me as I say there is a fair bit of fierce man-handling of fabric going on under the "foot" sew to speak! The finished size of some 60" square was quite big enough for a first attempt and at one point during the free motion quilting of the outer border I'd got a whole bunch of it thrown over my left shoulder, a wadge under my right elbow and a firm grip in each hand of another wadge either side and at one point was seriously contemplating getting my left LEG involved, possibly by throwing it atop the horn cabinet to steady the excess!
Watching several video's uploaded to U-tube didn't help! with their graceful and artistic motions, I felt like a huge carthorse chucking my weight about!


If you look carefully you can see where I mistakenly stitched a decorative pattern in pale pink to adjoin the blocks and inner border, it doesn't quite "go" but I'm certainly not going to unpick all that satin stitch patterning!!
I went for random swirls and wiggles for the red border, here you can see me having fun!

hmmm. SEW. Bertie found his way into my sewing room! Surprisingly he's taken his ban quite well and hasn't even scratched at the door all weekend, but he did sneak in this afternoon - for a bit of a check and found my quilt which, inevitably, he had to take a closer look at!
I've a feeling Bertie will claim this as his own!


Here you can see the finished quilt. I went for four outlined heart shapes at each corner of the deeper pink border, and filled in the rest with random heart shapes and general swirls which works quite well and suited my inexperience!!

The closeup below shows the corner detail.

The binding has been machined and, thanks to my good cyber-pal-Debs, I managed to disguise the accidental folding back and stitching down OF the backing fabric, by applying some steam-a-seam to some pink fabric and I may do some hand stitches to the edge if it looks like coming loose/fraying etc!
NOW FOR THE NEXT PROJECT! oh yes! no.1.son.15yrs has requested one!!

My Quilt Project - progress

I can truthfully say this is "my first quilt project" as my first EVER quilt project is still lying abandoned in a bag unfinished! And here it IS .. ta-daaa .. (not quite finished, but with better prospects of being finished!)

For £2 a bundle it was the centre panel of some 16 8.5" squares made up of strips from the bundle of pink fabrics that started the process. Originally I intended to make samples up to demonstrate "colour" as part of my course and then with my enjoyment of the crazy patch theme, I decided to make it up in a similar way but felt this style would be "easier" to manage and quicker to make up the blocks! Adding the inner border at another £2ish, the outer border and backing (a delicious sugary pink) ringing up at some £40 and £12 for the wadding, my "£2" sample has ended up rather expensive! eekkk .. HOWEVER, as everyone who crafts KNOWS, its not cheap what we do and we don't necessarily do it FOR cheapness either!

Its ended being some 58" square and looking really rather splendid - but a heck of a task to get it through the machine! It sits now draped over the bannister awaiting further quilting before binding the edges which you'll see are still pinned at the outer edge.

Poised at the top of my stairs hanging onto the bannister and peering over the top of my stepladders I see Bertie eyeing up his chances of getting ONTO the quilt as it lays across my drop leafed table being pinned together in stages prior to quilting.
I advise Bertie in strong tones that he is NOT to jump up ..

.. which he duly ignores (naughty cat! he is, in fact, now banned permanently from my sewing room and I'm attempting to train him to accept this after he has repeatedly sought my purple pin cushion and scattered pins and needles all over the house and I'm concerned he'll lose my needles I mean hurt himself on my needles!)


As you can see, I've not quite got the hang of this discipline thing yet .. but as official inspector of all things crafty, EVERYTHING must first be thoroughly inspected.

Fair took me 10mins to get it UNDER my machine! I was exhausted after one seam! at one point I'd got a heap of bulky quilt over my left shoulder, both hands agrip and was toying with the notion of using my TEETH to turn the corner! this is a BIG project! and it weighs a lot!



Here it is on the floor, all the inside blocks and the borders are sewn through the layers using my walking foot to anchor the quilt, all that remains is to decide how best to tackle the decorative quilting and then bind the edges!

It looks quite crumpled, thats because it IS quite crumpled! after all the man-handling to get it machined - bit like curtains, almost not worth ironing!