Or at least, that is what it feels like.
OK, so I did say that I would post a photo of the pearl bracelet. So, you could have one of a little pile of pearls beads and seed beads if you like.
The second day of the beading class was good as far as it went, nice chat, several more tips and tricks to pick up, whatever. All was going swimmingly until I came to fasten off the old thread and join in a new one - all of a sudden, the tension was lost at one place, and I had a lot of little beads all strung out (I knew just how they felt) with bare thread in between. The tutor had no idea how it happened or what to do about it - and that is not a criticism, neither did I and I can't imagine anyone would have. The only thing to do was to start all over again. With hindsight, I was wondering if I could have left a loop of thread which somehow freed up, and that could indeed be the case. But when I came to try again yesterday, the tension was threatening to go very loose on me again, so I'm not so sure. I am going to attempt it a third time, but try somehow to put in an extra step, a seed bead or a stitch to lock the tension every few pearls. If that doesn't work, maybe do a peyote band or tube and add the pearl beads over that. I really don't want to be beaten by this.
Anyhow, I digress. I did start one more project, a rather pretty peyote band necklace, with bronze and burgundy delicas, supposed to have just a few decorative touches joining the bands together. But working on it, I realised that I don't do delicate. It's going to change somehow. I have a rather nice oval focal bead that came, I think, from Jazzy Lily, with similar colours in it....watch this space.
So now we arrive at Tuesday, and I went to Backburn to visit a friend and go to a textile exhibition. I had fully expected not to like it, after the previous "modern" one at the Bankfield that I had been to.
The blurb: Viv Scott will be showing her new work in fibre and mixed media.
Over the past 25 years VivÂ’s work in textile art has evolved to include the incorporation of weaving, embroidery, print, paint, latex, and found objects and now to incorporate hard materials within her work. Textiles fibres came to be two and three dimensionally interlocked with solid clay and metals with influence from architecture. Forms take unexpected outlines, angles, curves, closed lines and open spaces; all combine to create a visual and sensual language which makes the sense of touch a new and important element.
I liked it. By and large. That was a nice surprise. Not all of it, but a lot was very interesting. I particularly liked work called the "Indigo series", smallish pieces of various fabrics that had been somehow treated with latex or clay, then rolled - it was interesting to see recognisable textile, but modified in this way, to be quite distinctly hard clay or flexible rubber. It somehow affected how cloth might endure, and rolling the pieces gave an echo of scrolls and thus the carrying information, which textile does, of course, but maybe most people don;t think of it like that.
I wish I had pictures, but although I have googled, I can't find anything on the web, the Museum had no leaflet or post cards, and I forgot to take my camera.
Oy oy, I have more I wouldn't mind saying, but it's bedtime and I'm tired. The DSM is away tonight on another work-related jolly, a leaving do, I think, and I don't usually sleep too well on these occasions, so I will hi me to my couch and perchance will slumber the night away with the sweet soothing sound of two cats snoring in my ear.
A fair night to you all, good gentles.
(And just WTF has got into her, then?)
gw
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Two down
So, it's Saturday evening, and the end of the second of three days at Alston. Yesterday was my regular class, although the lion's share of the work was done by Magrat, who I had inveigled in to teaching a class on fine spinning on my behalf. It went down a storm, she had prepared a very good class, the group liked it very much and also appreciated having someone different for a change. I didn't just sit on my hands - I got to spend time with the two embroiderers, spinning silk and plying; and also with a newcomer and new spinner, who looks as if she is going to be ace, plus a few of the now regulars who are less experienced and really need a little more individual attention that I can usually give. So this worked out well for everyone. It is a continual challenge to come up with fresh and interesting classes over and over again as the months and years go by - the group remains pretty much the same - new people are coming in, either for just a few sessions, more rarely just one and then vanish with rapidity, or sometimes they just join the gang and keep on a-comin'. At the moment, the class is full every month, in fact over-full, another challenge. So someone, somewhere must be doing something right!
Today, though, the boot was on the other foot and I was the student, slightly spookily in the room I usually teach in myself. I'm doing a two day beading class, a real treat. The tutor is very highly regarded locally, and indeed she is a very pleasant woman, is handling a large and diverse group with ease and is good at responding when shouted for - she is spending a lot of the class time with the couple of complete beginners who are members, but is always listening out for any of the rest of us who shriek, and does the rounds regularly anyway. The format is that she has brought a lot of pieces she has worked, with the instructions and materials available to make any of them. I chose to start with a spiral herringbone, which is going well, but I decided that I didn't want to spend the entire two days just doing that. So I got her to show me how to fix the end-cap - basically, superglue!! And then I chose another design, a pearl thing that I think may be similar to one that was in Beadwork a while back, and I will attempt to complete that tomorrow. Maybe. Perhaps. It's a bit self-indulgent - I think if I do beading classes in future, I will pick ones where there is a set project to learn set techniques - but I am having fun, so what the hell.
Not to mention that it gives the DSM some time to himself to play in the garden, which he has done to great advantage, although just why he had a rush of blood to the head and bought a large blue pot for some plant or other, I forget which, when all the others are brown or green, I really don;t know. But as he cooked me penne with asparagus, smoked salmon and creme fraiche for supper, I ain't complaining. I might just bugger orf for the weekend more often!
Pics tomorrow, maybe. Or Monday.
gw
Today, though, the boot was on the other foot and I was the student, slightly spookily in the room I usually teach in myself. I'm doing a two day beading class, a real treat. The tutor is very highly regarded locally, and indeed she is a very pleasant woman, is handling a large and diverse group with ease and is good at responding when shouted for - she is spending a lot of the class time with the couple of complete beginners who are members, but is always listening out for any of the rest of us who shriek, and does the rounds regularly anyway. The format is that she has brought a lot of pieces she has worked, with the instructions and materials available to make any of them. I chose to start with a spiral herringbone, which is going well, but I decided that I didn't want to spend the entire two days just doing that. So I got her to show me how to fix the end-cap - basically, superglue!! And then I chose another design, a pearl thing that I think may be similar to one that was in Beadwork a while back, and I will attempt to complete that tomorrow. Maybe. Perhaps. It's a bit self-indulgent - I think if I do beading classes in future, I will pick ones where there is a set project to learn set techniques - but I am having fun, so what the hell.
Not to mention that it gives the DSM some time to himself to play in the garden, which he has done to great advantage, although just why he had a rush of blood to the head and bought a large blue pot for some plant or other, I forget which, when all the others are brown or green, I really don;t know. But as he cooked me penne with asparagus, smoked salmon and creme fraiche for supper, I ain't complaining. I might just bugger orf for the weekend more often!
Pics tomorrow, maybe. Or Monday.
gw
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Musings, none of a fibrous nature
Driving back from the supermarket run, beautiful day, I'm wearing my mirror sunglasses that came oh-so-cheap from a $$ store in the States last autumn. I got to do today what I love doing - to put my shades on as I drive along. Such a silly little thing, but in the days when I wore glasses all the time, changing from one pair to another whilst continuing to drive was totally impossible. The few seconds of myopic absence rendered it potentially lethal!
I see as I drive through Friendly - we have some good community/village/whatever names around here - a line of little chickies, swallow-babies all blue-bloused and black-shorted, fluffy and innocent (at least one would like to think so, but unless schoolgirls have changed in the last forty years - not)perched on a low wall. Fluttering gently, as the young woman who must have been their sports teacher swung gaminely around a lamp-post trying to seem cool and trying to engender in them some enthusiasm for sport. Probably running, as they were out in the wild, and under that great blue sky. One for the UK list.
Hebden Bridge - where I do not quite live - has come top on another list. Not content with being both gay-friendly and internationally funky (I kid you not) it now is the least clone-afflicted town in the country. No River Islands, Dorothy Perkins, Nexts or Starbucks for us! Actually, Starbucks would have a hard time of it if they wanted to come here, which they won't, as we have at least fifteen coffee or tea shops already (it may actually be more, I lost count at fifteen a couple of years ago. Plus I can just imagine the demonstrating and campaigning that would ensue if they tried it - positively Starbucks Wars....
It is a funny old day. Not really quite sure why, lots of little things. Woke up with the black crow of anxiety well and truly ensconced, but am learning slowly that the trick (partially successful) is to simply ignore it.
So, bright and early this morning, a large party of folk with shovels and pickaxes arrived outside the house. It was all I could do not to fling wide the window and warble a chorus of "Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work &etc", but I forbore. Being of a brightish nature, I realised that the Trust were coming to put the drainage channel in, indeed, it transpired, two. At this point I decided that the better part of valour was to go to the supermarket and let them get on with it.
When I got back, I was not able to cross the work-in-progress, but had to abandon the car until told otherwise. Unbeknownst to me, H was the other side of the construction zone, so came panting up desperate for coffee. Meanwhile, the Troll was out there rampaging and what is more taking photographs, thus giving me carte blanche to get my digital out next time she plays her tricks. I didn't do that this afternoon, when she shot herself totally in the foot by haranguing the Trust people about there not being a Right of Way. Yippee! Grist to our mill.
All this excitement has left little time for fibre pursuits, so nothing has gone on other than completing the first front of the waistcoat - so far so good - and starting the back. This has no design yet. It may develop one on the fly. Tomorrow is Alston, with Magrat, then two more days at Alston, not teaching but beading. Should be good. Knackering - with all the driving - but good.
gw
I see as I drive through Friendly - we have some good community/village/whatever names around here - a line of little chickies, swallow-babies all blue-bloused and black-shorted, fluffy and innocent (at least one would like to think so, but unless schoolgirls have changed in the last forty years - not)perched on a low wall. Fluttering gently, as the young woman who must have been their sports teacher swung gaminely around a lamp-post trying to seem cool and trying to engender in them some enthusiasm for sport. Probably running, as they were out in the wild, and under that great blue sky. One for the UK list.
Hebden Bridge - where I do not quite live - has come top on another list. Not content with being both gay-friendly and internationally funky (I kid you not) it now is the least clone-afflicted town in the country. No River Islands, Dorothy Perkins, Nexts or Starbucks for us! Actually, Starbucks would have a hard time of it if they wanted to come here, which they won't, as we have at least fifteen coffee or tea shops already (it may actually be more, I lost count at fifteen a couple of years ago. Plus I can just imagine the demonstrating and campaigning that would ensue if they tried it - positively Starbucks Wars....
It is a funny old day. Not really quite sure why, lots of little things. Woke up with the black crow of anxiety well and truly ensconced, but am learning slowly that the trick (partially successful) is to simply ignore it.
So, bright and early this morning, a large party of folk with shovels and pickaxes arrived outside the house. It was all I could do not to fling wide the window and warble a chorus of "Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work &etc", but I forbore. Being of a brightish nature, I realised that the Trust were coming to put the drainage channel in, indeed, it transpired, two. At this point I decided that the better part of valour was to go to the supermarket and let them get on with it.
When I got back, I was not able to cross the work-in-progress, but had to abandon the car until told otherwise. Unbeknownst to me, H was the other side of the construction zone, so came panting up desperate for coffee. Meanwhile, the Troll was out there rampaging and what is more taking photographs, thus giving me carte blanche to get my digital out next time she plays her tricks. I didn't do that this afternoon, when she shot herself totally in the foot by haranguing the Trust people about there not being a Right of Way. Yippee! Grist to our mill.
All this excitement has left little time for fibre pursuits, so nothing has gone on other than completing the first front of the waistcoat - so far so good - and starting the back. This has no design yet. It may develop one on the fly. Tomorrow is Alston, with Magrat, then two more days at Alston, not teaching but beading. Should be good. Knackering - with all the driving - but good.
gw
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Sample, sample
That's what we are supposed to do. So I cast on my shetland yarn, and pored over the pattern for the whatever-it-was lace. Got three-quarters of the way along the row when a cat jumped on to my lap and did the favourite trick of getting the yarn wrapped around at least one back leg, thereby preventing me from continuing knitting without running the risk of causing gangrene in the limb concerned. Or something. Oh, and don't ask, just don't, why it would not be possible to remove said cat and retrieve yarn, or vice versa. It Isn't. For one thing, I do not remove cats, no matter what discomfort or inconvenience they may be causing me - they are the boss, and I would only Suffer For It later. And, any attempts would only engender a state of total panic in whichever animal it was, meaning that the yarn would become even more tangled and the panic levels would rise and spread and the yarn would.....I don't really need to say any more, do I?
So, here is a photo of my grey shetland yarn knitted cable/lace/whatever shawl sample.
??
Now, I have, as I have written before, a kind of love-hate feeling about crochet. I used to do a lot of it years ago, and still enjoy the physical act of it. But nearly every time I attempt it, I don't like the look of it and end up ripping it out and doing something else. But somehow, this time...maybe it's because I though I was going to be knitting and only tried the crochet as an afterthought? No, that's too fanciful by half. Somehow, this yarn must be just right in terms of grist, twist, relationship to hook size chosen. Whatever it is, so far so good, and it may grow up to be a waistcoat if all goes well.
Ain't life the weirdest thing....
gw
So, here is a photo of my grey shetland yarn knitted cable/lace/whatever shawl sample.
??
Now, I have, as I have written before, a kind of love-hate feeling about crochet. I used to do a lot of it years ago, and still enjoy the physical act of it. But nearly every time I attempt it, I don't like the look of it and end up ripping it out and doing something else. But somehow, this time...maybe it's because I though I was going to be knitting and only tried the crochet as an afterthought? No, that's too fanciful by half. Somehow, this yarn must be just right in terms of grist, twist, relationship to hook size chosen. Whatever it is, so far so good, and it may grow up to be a waistcoat if all goes well.
Ain't life the weirdest thing....
gw
Monday, June 06, 2005
It's Monday again
I like them better when they are Bank Holidays! But at least we have seen a little sun today, and I gather the promise of more to come.
Yesterday was dampish and chilly-ish, although it did improve as the day wore on. I started out with another trip to the hospital at Elland for poor H to be MRI'd. Rather her than me, all those awful warnings about bits of metal in the body -what about the fillings, eh?
Then spent some time beading. Before we went to France, I googled a few things including "bead shops" and found that there was supposedly one in Toulouse. We did indeed find it on the day we went in. Interesting - not a bead shop as we might know it, but an irresistible cornucopia of luscious Indian beads in a gorgeous jewel range of colours. You know the sort of thing, cheap glass beads, but rich and glittery in appearance, and the pieces that they had on display made with them were quite wonderful. I didn't feel it was exactly the thing to go around the store photographing all of them, and I also didn't feel that I wanted to spend too many euros, but I couldn't leave empty-handed, could I, now? I rather liked some very simple bracelets they had for sale, and I knew I could copy that design, so I got beads to do two of them, plus a handful of great big green gobstoppers for a necklace. Viz:
and:
I am not all that turned on by simple stringing, although with the great beads around, you can certainly make some good things. But these needed to come home with me, and I don't think require a complicated treatment!
The bead email list I am on was reporting a rumour that "Beadwork" is moving over almost entirely to stringing, and it certainly does look to be the case, which is a terrible shame. Might force me to swap to Bead & Button, but as ever the awkward one, I don't like it as well. (It is a fact of life that if there is a minority counter-position to take, then guess who is in there....the EC, any political or social issue,books, plays. I don't know if I was born ornery, or became so for the adrenalin-rush.
Fibre-wise, yesterday found me tearing out my hair. At the SOAR market last year, I for some totally unknown reason bought two balls of a "fancy" yarn, kid silk haze stranded with a variety of other fancy yarns. I don't usually buy yarn at all, I spin enough of my own (or did)but this seduced me. I got it out the other day and started playing with it, and it sucks. Starts out ok with nice funky glittery bits, but then segues in to furry stuff, of which a little goes a long way and I am all furried out. Plus, although I will have bought it with something in mind, I can't think that two balls is enough for anything I want to do. So, do I a) knit something for my mama; b)stick it back in the box; or c) put it up on ebay? (Leaning towards the latter.....)
So, what to knit? Dragged out a large quantity of grey shetland, spun some time back. Can't find a waistcoat that inspires, but oh guess what, it would make a great shawl, in the quasi-faroese mould, but this time with maybe a cable around the neck edge, and something in the centre panel. I have found a veryveryvery simple lace stitch that doesn't really look lacy, just textured. I am sampling. I am barking mad.
I continue to spin the merino/silk blend on my new wheel, which I am beginning to bond well with. I was immensely cheered last Thursday to find that Freyalynn (I would link to her blog, but she only wrote one post in it, last November, which is a dam' shame as she could put up photos of all the LOVELY WORK she does ahem)also finds it a bear to spin well. Don't really understand why it won't draft out evenly, it should do, merino and silk should be a perfectly ok combo. Ah, well.
Onward and upward.
gw
Yesterday was dampish and chilly-ish, although it did improve as the day wore on. I started out with another trip to the hospital at Elland for poor H to be MRI'd. Rather her than me, all those awful warnings about bits of metal in the body -what about the fillings, eh?
Then spent some time beading. Before we went to France, I googled a few things including "bead shops" and found that there was supposedly one in Toulouse. We did indeed find it on the day we went in. Interesting - not a bead shop as we might know it, but an irresistible cornucopia of luscious Indian beads in a gorgeous jewel range of colours. You know the sort of thing, cheap glass beads, but rich and glittery in appearance, and the pieces that they had on display made with them were quite wonderful. I didn't feel it was exactly the thing to go around the store photographing all of them, and I also didn't feel that I wanted to spend too many euros, but I couldn't leave empty-handed, could I, now? I rather liked some very simple bracelets they had for sale, and I knew I could copy that design, so I got beads to do two of them, plus a handful of great big green gobstoppers for a necklace. Viz:
and:
I am not all that turned on by simple stringing, although with the great beads around, you can certainly make some good things. But these needed to come home with me, and I don't think require a complicated treatment!
The bead email list I am on was reporting a rumour that "Beadwork" is moving over almost entirely to stringing, and it certainly does look to be the case, which is a terrible shame. Might force me to swap to Bead & Button, but as ever the awkward one, I don't like it as well. (It is a fact of life that if there is a minority counter-position to take, then guess who is in there....the EC, any political or social issue,books, plays. I don't know if I was born ornery, or became so for the adrenalin-rush.
Fibre-wise, yesterday found me tearing out my hair. At the SOAR market last year, I for some totally unknown reason bought two balls of a "fancy" yarn, kid silk haze stranded with a variety of other fancy yarns. I don't usually buy yarn at all, I spin enough of my own (or did)but this seduced me. I got it out the other day and started playing with it, and it sucks. Starts out ok with nice funky glittery bits, but then segues in to furry stuff, of which a little goes a long way and I am all furried out. Plus, although I will have bought it with something in mind, I can't think that two balls is enough for anything I want to do. So, do I a) knit something for my mama; b)stick it back in the box; or c) put it up on ebay? (Leaning towards the latter.....)
So, what to knit? Dragged out a large quantity of grey shetland, spun some time back. Can't find a waistcoat that inspires, but oh guess what, it would make a great shawl, in the quasi-faroese mould, but this time with maybe a cable around the neck edge, and something in the centre panel. I have found a veryveryvery simple lace stitch that doesn't really look lacy, just textured. I am sampling. I am barking mad.
I continue to spin the merino/silk blend on my new wheel, which I am beginning to bond well with. I was immensely cheered last Thursday to find that Freyalynn (I would link to her blog, but she only wrote one post in it, last November, which is a dam' shame as she could put up photos of all the LOVELY WORK she does ahem)also finds it a bear to spin well. Don't really understand why it won't draft out evenly, it should do, merino and silk should be a perfectly ok combo. Ah, well.
Onward and upward.
gw
Friday, June 03, 2005
Gentle snoring may be heard
Well, not quite. I've got the matchsticks out again. For some reason, yesterday was a long and tiring day - I took H over to the BUPA hospital at Elland for an appointment about her back, and now have to do the chauffeur bit twice more, for an MRI and a followup. But I don't mind, she's in agony, and I'm only repaying what she did for me when I couldn't;t drive. anyhoo, after a thrilling bout of speed ironing before the DSM ran out of shirts, I did go to the coven meeting as I hadn't seen anyone for ages. It was at Freyalynn's - fine, got there ok, no probs, had a nice time poking my tongue out at her first attempts at tablet weaving. Feh. Some people are just too dam' talented (yes, I know, jealousy is an ugly thing....) But on the way back in the dark, I managed to lose my way three if not four times, and didn't get home until midnight, by which time I was of course, a pumpkin. Still, I am VERY pleased with myself, I didn't panic. Even when I had absolutely NO IDEA where I was, except that it was a lonely moorland road...What else are mobile phones for, eh, except that I didn't actually need to use mine. Maybe as a consequence, I had some deeply unpleasant dreams involving some ghastly plague from outer space, which thankfully, it transpired, I was immune to but this was not ascertained until the end of the lengthy dream sequence.....And then I had to get up early because the washing machine man was coming....
OK, let's have a picture to cheer ourselves up. Whilst on holiday, we went to the local offie, but were faced with a huge array of wines to choose from. We did ask for local stuff to narrow it down somewhat, but there was still a lot. Pete being the perfect gent that he is, absolutely insisted that half the choice should be mine - so I resorted to the Sara principle of wine selection:
Aren't they pretty? It worked, too - nice wines!
So, sue me, I haven't finished organising the photo - too many, too much time needed. I will get there one day. Things keep interrupting me. Like the Trollsaga. I can't resist a quick update - like yesterday's visit from the new boss-guy (oh, ha! Literally, his name is Guy!) promising action, yippee! And then this afternoon's visit from the Community Police Ossifer, such a sweetie (did I really say that???)dispensing sympathy and likewise promising action, albeit in a rather more watered down version. Still, even if they are only placating me, at least I now know who to run screaming to if I have to. Every little helps....
OK, to raise the tone, couple more pics.
This is the necklace I completed whilst away:
And a close-up
And this is the bracelet that I started, and finished this week. It is the same design from Beadwork that I did for my first ever bead piece (apart from the amulet bag kit) and liked so much, I vowed to repeat. I found the pretty green AB daggers at GJ in St Ives, just right for this. I love it, well, both pieces. Just wish there were more hours in the day. (The blue background is a woad-syed shawl from Bleu-de-Lectoure, by the way.)
Now - tea, I need tea.
gw
OK, let's have a picture to cheer ourselves up. Whilst on holiday, we went to the local offie, but were faced with a huge array of wines to choose from. We did ask for local stuff to narrow it down somewhat, but there was still a lot. Pete being the perfect gent that he is, absolutely insisted that half the choice should be mine - so I resorted to the Sara principle of wine selection:
Aren't they pretty? It worked, too - nice wines!
So, sue me, I haven't finished organising the photo - too many, too much time needed. I will get there one day. Things keep interrupting me. Like the Trollsaga. I can't resist a quick update - like yesterday's visit from the new boss-guy (oh, ha! Literally, his name is Guy!) promising action, yippee! And then this afternoon's visit from the Community Police Ossifer, such a sweetie (did I really say that???)dispensing sympathy and likewise promising action, albeit in a rather more watered down version. Still, even if they are only placating me, at least I now know who to run screaming to if I have to. Every little helps....
OK, to raise the tone, couple more pics.
This is the necklace I completed whilst away:
And a close-up
And this is the bracelet that I started, and finished this week. It is the same design from Beadwork that I did for my first ever bead piece (apart from the amulet bag kit) and liked so much, I vowed to repeat. I found the pretty green AB daggers at GJ in St Ives, just right for this. I love it, well, both pieces. Just wish there were more hours in the day. (The blue background is a woad-syed shawl from Bleu-de-Lectoure, by the way.)
Now - tea, I need tea.
gw
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
I've got my shawl to keep me warm
And it's a bloody good job, too. It's freezing here, today. It is the first of June and I have just caved and put the central heating on. It's cold, grey and pouring with rain. I want to go back here:
This is a distant view of the gite we stayed in, not the most exciting view in the world, but look! You can see blue sky! And have to know that it is warmer than Midgehole!
I don't have a photo of the shawl. It's the orangey one, just finished (almost - couple of ends need darning in) It looks very nice, large and snuggly. No wonder I keep on knitting shawls, in this damn climate. By which I mean that I have immediately cast on another simple one, but this time of some commercial yarn that I bought at SOAR last year, and it will be purely decorative. Yes, I'll do some photos - and finishing sorting out the French ones - sometime, asap, whatever. But I'm playing Ms Efficiency and getting some actual work done, article and workshop proposals and such. I have finished the green bracelet, too, so I am actually quite pleased with myself. Shows the benefit of a nice relaxing WARM holiday.
I have also put some more stuff up on ebay - spent a bit of time yesterday morning after discussing the book at the Tuesday morning book group just chatting, and another woman there was a mad keen ebayer, so I got all enthused again. Besides, some money would be useful! I only do this at a trickle, but it is surprising how it mounts up. One of the pleasures of discovering this Book Group is how many other shared interests we have. It is a small and fluctuating group, but there is another textile enthusiast (who quite fancies a road-trip to Wingham) as well as the ebayer. Various other points of similarity amongst us as well. It may be that for some reason, all the oddballs have for once rolled in to the same corner. (And I do mean that in the nicest possible way!)
The Troll saga continues gently. I'm not going to go on at length about it here, I have started another blog where I can vent in peace about it - and document everything. If it ever comes to anything approaching resolution, I will share!
For now, will someone please give me the sun back!
gw
This is a distant view of the gite we stayed in, not the most exciting view in the world, but look! You can see blue sky! And have to know that it is warmer than Midgehole!
I don't have a photo of the shawl. It's the orangey one, just finished (almost - couple of ends need darning in) It looks very nice, large and snuggly. No wonder I keep on knitting shawls, in this damn climate. By which I mean that I have immediately cast on another simple one, but this time of some commercial yarn that I bought at SOAR last year, and it will be purely decorative. Yes, I'll do some photos - and finishing sorting out the French ones - sometime, asap, whatever. But I'm playing Ms Efficiency and getting some actual work done, article and workshop proposals and such. I have finished the green bracelet, too, so I am actually quite pleased with myself. Shows the benefit of a nice relaxing WARM holiday.
I have also put some more stuff up on ebay - spent a bit of time yesterday morning after discussing the book at the Tuesday morning book group just chatting, and another woman there was a mad keen ebayer, so I got all enthused again. Besides, some money would be useful! I only do this at a trickle, but it is surprising how it mounts up. One of the pleasures of discovering this Book Group is how many other shared interests we have. It is a small and fluctuating group, but there is another textile enthusiast (who quite fancies a road-trip to Wingham) as well as the ebayer. Various other points of similarity amongst us as well. It may be that for some reason, all the oddballs have for once rolled in to the same corner. (And I do mean that in the nicest possible way!)
The Troll saga continues gently. I'm not going to go on at length about it here, I have started another blog where I can vent in peace about it - and document everything. If it ever comes to anything approaching resolution, I will share!
For now, will someone please give me the sun back!
gw
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