Caught Knitting

Rosie in Wonderland!

2011-03-01T20:53:00.000Z

Can it really be March already? Did you remember to say "rabbits" this morning? (I forgot, the shortness of February always throws me). I love March, it is when I start to feel bouncy again, after the winter lull. March supposedly bring Mad March Hares, but I've already had a good hare sighting this year, a couple of weeks ago: three hares playing tag in a field by the main road on the way to Ely. Last March I spied a couple of hares boxing there, something I'd not seen for years.

Meanwhile, I'm feeling a bit as if I've fallen down a rabbit hole, though it was actually a case of travelling to Farnham Maltings, (with Sparkleduck and her husband). The Maltings is more rabbit warren than rabbit hole, as you can see from the shot below.

into the warren

I realised that I was approaching Wonderland, though, as we walked from the carpark and Sparkleduck spotted knitted arrows pointing to Unravel. A few paces further on and we saw knitted moles bursting out of knitted molehills, swiftly followed by genuine sheep, grazing under an awning... Once inside, the wonders increased. Pillars clad in knitting:

Knitted toilet roll covers (but of course) in the ladies, a motorbike covered in knitting, a knitted wedding dress, knitted food in the cafe:

knitted lampshades:

and there were fabulous talks, woolly demonstrations, and the most tempting marketplace, thronged with eager knitters.

I'd love to pretend...

2011-02-14T21:01:00.007Z

I'd love to pretend that the reason I've not blogged of late is due to my exciting lifestyle. Alas, it has far more to with an evil virus that laid me low. Oh, and I've had rather of loose ends to see to!

If you want to see where all the ends came from, hop over to my City & Guilds blog.

Finally, since today is not just the feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius, but also that of a certain Valentine, (and Mr Caught Knitting made a gorgeous apple crumble to celebrate!) I thought I'd leave you with a rather romantic view of Ely Cathedral.

Yarn O'Clock!

2011-01-24T20:04:00.000Z

I obviously need to buy more red yarn...

note to self

2010-11-19T09:09:00.000Z

Time to work out how to fit these objects into the house! I love the combination of updated 1950s feel with countryside images and Burleigh Pottery is a wonderful story in itself. The tote bag wouldn't need much room, would it?

More about the artist, Mark Hearld, here. At the moment, I've got one of his greeitngs cards (a picture of blackbirds, very like the ones on the plate) displayed on my dressing table,a souvenir of last year's visit to Hay on Wye.

Barcelona: Glasselona

2010-11-12T17:45:00.000Z

Sagrada Familia

a celebratory (plastic) glass of cava

Sagrada Familia

One day I'll work out how to space the pictures properly and arrange them in an order and layout that I like, but for now I'll just have to content myself with this series of images!

Barcelona: underfoot

2010-11-08T21:40:00.000Z

Tessalating sea creature paving tiles, designed by Gaudi

tessalting tiles, Pedalbres

two different patterns side by side in a cell off the cloister, Pedalbres Monastery

Herringbone brick cloister floor, Pedalbres Monastery

Mosaic floor, San Pau del Camp

The hand of God, mosaic floor, San Pau del Camp

tessalating isoceles triangle parquet flooring, Casa Mila

Barcelona: Here Be Dragons...

2010-11-08T17:39:00.000Z

scary Gaudi gateway dragon

friendly fountain dragon (plus gulls)

there are four of the friendly fountain dragons in total

window frame dragon (one of a pair)

Barcelona Five-O

2010-11-08T17:13:00.001Z

Terrified by the prospect of turning 50 (how did that happen so quickly?), I decided to flee the country, taking only Mr CK, a few belongings and the camera. We settled on Barcelona as Mr CK wanted somewhere warm, preferably with orange groves, parrots and churches, whilst I wanted art, archticture, history and shop windows. (And yarn, which turned out to be Drops alpaca and sock yarn courtesy of the very wonderful All You Knit is Love.)

What an amazing place it turned out to be. We had a comfy, quiet, yet very central hotel; we ate really well and drank loads of Cava (priced from £2.40-£2.93 per glass. It would have been rude not to!) I'll be doing a few posts about this trip, I suspect, but here's just a flavour of what we found:

Testing our head for heights on the roof of Gaudi's Casa Mila.

Mr CK discovering his dream shop.

Even the leaves on the pavement seemed very different from here.

The monastery at Pedralbes, so calm and peaceful (until the local parrots started screeching.)

Looking up to the ceiling of the Sagrada Familia.

A novel use of colanders in Origens, a place that served hearty, delicious, Catalan fare.

Coming soon: an assortment of dragons...

the wool that wasn't

2010-10-17T07:53:00.000Z

This window display caught my eye a couple of days ago. Well it would, wouldn't it? But closer inspection revealed that the shocking pink "wool," artfully wrapped around suction pads, was a rather plastic looking twine. I didn't go inside to check the labels in the knits mind you.

poignant

2010-10-11T18:01:00.000Z

Spotted this on the way to work this morning, artwork by Lisa Wilkens (who works for Plurabelle Books when not doing her art) in the former Galloway & Porter premises. It looks so beautiful, yet is made entirely from old, unwanted books. If you want to read more about it, I've snapped the written text and included the pictures over on Swatch this Space, my City & Guilds blog.

Off to Mr CK's ancestral haunts...(via Wibbling Wools)

2010-10-09T20:41:00.000Z

It is one of Mr CK's proudest boasts that an ancestor of his came to England from Normandy (1066 and all that) and was granted a manor in the hamlet of Gestingthorpe. Back in the days of said ancestor (whose name translates as "William the Sinner") Gestingthorpe was in Suffolk, but somewhere in the intervening centuries, it has ended up in Essex. (I hasten to point out that this is due to administrative boundary reorganisation rather than geological activity.)

Now, Gestingthorpe isn't really all that far from Cambridge, but it takes quite a bit of ingenuity to get there by public transport. We first made it there in April this year, when we had a brief holiday in Lavenham. To celebrate Mr CK's birthday I spent hours plotting bus routes and timings and we made it (see picture above for proof). Gestingthorpe remains a small hamlet, but it has a beautiful late medieval/early Tudor church and a wonderful gastropub: The Pheasant, where we had the yummiest of lunches.

That was 6 months ago, and we hadn't expected to get back there so soon. But a friend of ours, who lives on the Suffolk coast, suggested that we meet in Bury St Edmunds and that she would then drive us to Gestingthorpe. We'd planned to eat at the Pheasant again, but soon realised that it would make more sense to eat in Bury St Edmunds. Se we lunched at the Fox, which just happens to be very close to Wibbling Wools. And I just happened to drop into Wibbling Wools, where I accidentally purchased some Rico Tasai and 5mm Lantern Moon rosewood circulars. So I spent a happy afternoon clicking my way through the Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire countryside, whilst Mr CK dreamed of his knightly forebear.

If only I had a piggy bank to raid :)

2010-10-08T17:45:00.000Z

Cecil Higgins Art Gallery & Bedford Museum: Unseen Works by Major British Artists to be Sold at Fund Raising Auction

Knitted cupcakes are SOOO over...

2010-10-07T18:49:00.000Z

If you want to be truly on-trend, you should start knitting dogs, NOW! (Or, for £200 you can commission a knitted portrait of your very own faithful friend).

Meantime, here's a picture of one of my FOs from earlier this year:

Log cabin cushion worked entirely from stash yarns.

An afternoon in Essex

2010-10-05T20:16:00.000Z

Today was going to be deicated entirely to mounting swatches for my Gity & Guilds studies, whilst waiting for a kitchen door to be delivered (long story). But the door arrived at 9.30am, the sun was shining (well, it wasn't wet, anyway) and after a couple of hours of cutting and gluing and weaving ends in wanderlust set in.
A trip to Saffron Walden beckoned, so that I could get to the Fry Gallery;before its winter closure.

I'm so glad that I went! The Gallery, which houses art from C20th artists who live(d) in that part of Essex has had a revamp since last year. Large plan chests in the centre of the main room, and touch screen catalogues in a newly-opened sideroom mean that far more of the collection is now accessible. Much of the collection is work by Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden, but there is also currently an exhibition of work by Richard Bawden, Edward's son. He shares his father's somewhat quirky humour but sometimes favours bolder colours. I wish I could have bought the dodo bench (a glorious metal bench with a design of a pair of dodos for its back) and the linocut print of a dodo in rainbow colours. One of the drawers in the aforementioned plan chest opens to reveal a matching rainbow dodo napkin.

Look what I've found

2010-10-04T07:52:00.000Z

Whilst bloghopping this morning I came across a link for a new online magazine for knitters and crocheters:
http://www.tangledness.com/html/pattern_features_index.html

Looks interesting, but I won't be making the skirt.

new look

2010-10-03T22:02:00.000Z

I've decided it was high time to improve the look of things round here so, after much experimenting with colours and layouts, I hope that you'll like the new look. Maybe not as drastic as the transformation of my desk over the last few weeks...
Before:

After:

still alive!

2010-10-01T19:03:00.000Z

Yes, this blog has been sorely neglected of late, but with good reason; I'm working fulltime giving me rather less time to roam around rural East Anglia. Even the crochet and knitting have been cut back, I'm trying to focus on a City & Guilds qualification in handknitting. (If you'd like to follow my progress with that, I've set up another blog: swatchthisspace.blogspot.com). Work has got very exciting; we've opened up another floor full of books and whilst I'm still on the second floor, I've now got a floorful of art, travel and (yes!) craft books, rather than academic books. Yippee.

In other news, the dreaded 50th birthday looms and I still haven't decided how to celebrate. any suggestions?

Emergency fungii pots

2010-03-30T21:07:00.003Z

Friday dawns, and with it the realisation that I need more pieces for a textiles exhibition on Sunday afternoon. This would be fine if I didn't need to go to work on Friday, London on Saturday and a party on Sunday morning (life is good!)... When time is short, my thoughts turn to crochet. And then they turned to fungus (if you've seen my avatars on Ravelry you'll know that I am mad about fungii, lichens and mosses).
Mushroom the first (the rust/purple/grey one) was cranked out during my breaks at work. Mushroom the second (the green/turquiose one) kept me sane during a rather frustrating journey to London. I then nearly lost it whilt at the V&A but happily it was spotted and rescued by some of my fellow City&Guilds students. And the fluffy brown mushroom (I love the way that Noro Silk Garden felts: a silky sheen with a mohair haze) was started at the V&A and completed on the journey home. (This was also a frustrating journey, but whereas the journey out was complicated by a fire at Cambridge station, the journeyy back was jinxed by my hopping onto the wrong tube train, having to backtrack and then finding myself in a carriage full of West Ham supporters. But at least they didn't seem fazed by the crochet...)

And here's my mushroom trio on Sunday afternoon:

I'm absolutely delighted with them.

This made me smile

2010-03-09T15:43:00.003Z

Shortly after watching David Dimbleby talking about how women were not allowed to take part in life classes at the Royal Academy when it was founded (except, of course, as models) I found this on Adrienne Sloane's wonderful blog: The Knitter's Eye: Comic Knitting!! Life Knitting: now there's a thought!

conefall, churchyard wall

2010-03-03T18:04:00.003Z

Just a few pictures from a walk Mr CK and I took on Sunday. We'd planned to walk round the wood behind the church but it had turned into a quagmire, so we went round the churchyard instead, which was good as I'd been meaning to take pics of the rather unusual cones for ages.

When Mr CK was on the PCC (Parochial Church Council) many hours were spent discussing the wall, it is a veritable patchwork in stone, brick, mortar and even has different shapes along the top. The colours (red brick, grey brick, neutral stone, greyish flints and stunningly acid green lichen are wonderful. Just think of the many different pairs of hands that must have worked on the wall over the years...

February Fill-Fen

2010-02-28T10:11:00.010Z

Warning: this is a very wordy post, shot through with some decidedly purple passges, but peservere, my knitterly friends, as there are pictures of luscious yarns and links to fabulous shops. Now read on...
"February fill-dyke, be it black or be it white" (traditional proverb)

Yesterday I simply had to go to Ely as Mr Caught Knitting had run out of his favourite bathroom cleaner. Tragically I can't find the brand required anywhere in Cambridge. (And note how I'm not telling you what the brand is, nor I am letting Mr CK know that soda crystals work just as well, as I need to make him think that trips to Ely are necessary. Nothing to do with the two new yarn shops there! That means, what, only 4 places where you can buy yarn, and that's not counting the £shops, etc. Nothing to do with Peacocks tearooms and their grapefruit moon tea. The Babylon Gallery doesn't come into it. Topping Books? Of course not. Cathedral, nah. Burrows newsagent with tempting array of American magazines no longer to be found in Cambridge now that Borders has gone? As if!)

New timetables mean that there is now only one bus an hour (I don't count the 12 via Newmarket; takes forever) but at least it was a double decker and I managed to get a seat upstairs at the very front. The revised X9 route is rather twisty, and it crosses the A10 at least 3 times, as it wends it way through Milton, Landbeach, Waterbeach, the IQ Business Park, Streatham and then touches on Little Downham (at least, I think that's where it is) before snaking into Ely via a long, long circuit of the outskirts. It now takes an hour, but what an hour it was. The views were stunning. The soil along this route is more orangey-brown than the peaty darkness of the soil you'd see from the train journey (which clings quite closely to the banks of the Ouse). But I love the patchwork-field effect that you see from aloft and the varied textures and colours. Some of the fields had been ploughed recently, and the claggy ruts were often glistening from recent rainfall. Many fields were flooded. On the way out these giant puddles were sparkling in the sun and many gulls were floating lazily on them. I travelled home through a storm (thunder, lightning, hail: very exciting) which obscured the view for a while but, when the sun finally peeped through again (a soft, weak, lemony-peach light against the inky-blue sky), the watery expanses glinted and shimmered, looking almost like enormous beads of mercury but darker. The fields are divided up by hedges, trees and many a ditch. I swear that as the bus approached Milton on the way home I got a glimpse of a bittern's bottom, as the bittern fished its way through a dyke. One of the great excitements of the journey out, though, was seeing the shapes the trees made against the skyline. They are, in the main, still bereft of leaves, so the colours and textures of the bark show well (not just brown, but some ochre and rusty hues) but closer inspection ( particularly when branches whipped against the top deck) revealed burgeoning catkins (including soft grey-beige pussy willow buds) and incipient buds. I'm wondering whether the acid, yellow-green of the weeping willows was due to buds or bark: I don't know.

One of the great pleasures of this journey is catching sight of Ely Cathedral in the distance for the first time. It was so sunny on the way out that at first the cathderal looked like a shimmery shape in the distance. And in the last few minutes of the bus ride there is a fantastic cloe-up of the octagon tower. Frustratingly, though, the new "improved" route no longer passes so close to the Cathedral on the return route, tough I've realised that if I'd stayed on the bus as it headed on towards March it would probably have gone that way. Ah, well, maybe next time.

The next frustration was that as soon as I got off the bus it started to rain (boo, typical) so no location shots. Let me tempt you, instead, with yarn...

Look at this luscious stuff (and I never thought I would describe a yarn rich in acrylic as "gorgeous stuff") from the newly-opened Yarn on the Square, a spacious and stylish shop with welcoming and enthusiastic owners. (Not to mention armsful of Noro). The yarn I caved in to, though, captures the colours I saw on the journey in, and anticipates the plumage of the bittern that I may (or may not) have seen on the way home. It will--I hope-- be turned into a "fen fields" scarf, starting with the browner yarn and ending in the greener (with, I hope, some sort of stitchwork to represent leaves or buds). The yarn is also available in a blend with more greens, a vivid magenta, grey and blue. And each colourway is available with or without metallic highlights. (I went for the metallic, it makes me think of sun glinting on rain-washed fields, of the sparkle of snowflakes and the glimmer of spring).

I'll spare you a purchase-by-purchase, store-by-store account of my time in Ely (I've outlined it above, anyway) but suffice to say that the route to the bathroom cleaner shop took me past the little yarn kiosk that Barbara runs. There's only room for one customer at a time, so I had to queue! It was worth it, though as the booth is bursting with budget yarns in interesting colours and textures. Here's the armful that came home with me...

After all the heady yarn-buying excitment I had to calm down a bit (after all, I still had Ely Wool Shop to go) so I headed to Peacocks for soup, a cheese scone (8/10, only surpassed by the cheese scones I had at Durham Cathedral some 12 years ago) and the afore-mentioned grapefruit moon tea. Mmm, inhale that cardamom and citrus. After that came the Babylon Gallery (which will get a post of its own when something very special has dried in a few days' time. That's got you guessing!) Fortified by art (and riverside views) I headed back uphill, past the Cathedral and out along St Mary's Street to Ely Wool Shop. Sandra's store is a delight. I was going to get just one skein of Malabrigo silk-blend DK (so soft) to make a small cowl, but hit on the idea of buying some merino wool in the colour of my gloves to mix in. And the colours of the Rico cotton DK proved irresistible. (But how did I stop at just 2, when I wanted all of them?) So here's the final haul of the day:

(note the Ivore needles that got pounced on at the cashdesk).

And so, a near-perfect day out, marred only by the fact that I bought two bottles of cleaning stuff, when just one would have meant a cast-iron excuse for going back again sooner. But who needs excuses? February has ended on a high for me.

Still Doing Different

2010-02-18T15:06:00.017Z

Well, I survived the dinner party, but I really should have taken my crochet. At one stage another guest asked the hostess how her shoulder was getting on and it turns out that she'd injured it by doing too much crochet. At this point I confessed to being a fellow crocheter and she rushed off to fetch her absolutley stunning Babette. Needless to say she was given one of my crocheted pots as a thank you present.
(This is a before felting pic of the pot).

Reading books by men has been mixed. I enjoyed Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan, which is full of magic and feuding women. But I've given up on The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw: too many adjectives, which seem to have been chosen more because they sound euphonious, rather than for their meaning... But best of all, by a long way, is Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada: not always an easy read (it is set in Berlin in 1940 ) but one I'll go back to over and again. I've not been neglecting books by women: I'd recommend The Children's Book by A.S.Byatt, not least for its stunning visual imagery which has got me itching to design and knit a soft sculpture inspired by Art Nouveau vases; Garden Spells by Sarah Addison was a quick, pleasureable read, though I think that Alice Hoffmann's Practical Magic covered the same terrain even better; The Truth About Melody Browne, by Lisa Jewell was another quick read: I like the way that "chick lit" is growing up, there was romance in this, but the plot is really aboutrememebring and coming to terms with childhood trauma. Now I've gone back to an old favourite: Susan Howatch. I'm deep into Glamorous Powers, which is about a psychic monk questioning his vocation. It ties in with a lot of the medieval mystics that I studied years ago. On the poetry front I've just treated myself to Redgrove's Wife by Penelope Shuttle: this is a profoundly moving meditation on terminal illness, grief and moving through mourning. I've gone back to this book following the rapturous reception that Christopher Reid has received for The Scattering (including the Costa Prize), which covers similar themes. Am I being cynical when I suggest that Reid's book is the one that's gathered all the plaudits because when men talk about losing their partner it is a brave and serious thing, whereas when a woman does the same thing, well, she's just talking about feelings and that's what women do. I hasten to add that I haven't (yet) read The Scattering so I can't make an informed comment! Next on my poetry list will be The Water Table by Philip Gross, which has won the T.S.Eliot Prize: much of it is about The Severn Estuary, so it will be interesting to compare his work to Gillian Clarke's take on the same subject in Words on Water(one of the best books published last year).
I've not had many days out yet this year: a trip to Ely (which reminds me, I've also got a copy of Don Patterson's Landing Light to read, I picked that up in Topping Books); a flying visit to Oxford as I wanted to see the Edward Bawden mural in Blackwells bookshop (see how my days off turn into busman's holidays!); and, staying in Cambridge, I've enjoyed the Sickert and Spencer exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum (must go back on a weekday, it was too crowded for comfort). Still on the theme of Doing Different I've been to the theatre for the first time in many years. Ibsen's Wild Duck is as jolly as you would expect from Ibsen, but one of my colleagues was in it and she was superb.
But have I been Caught Knitting? Er, not much, but I'm pulling my socks up now and am finally making progress on the City & Guilds course that I've started with Knit Design Online. I'm having fun playing with textures at the moment, creating a curious green swatch that has been inspired by an ammonite. And I'm off to Textiles in Focus tomorrow, so watch this space!

Do different!

2010-01-21T13:17:00.004Z

I don't make New Year's Resolutions but I do often curl up on New Year's Eve and think about things I'd like to do during the next 12 months. Previous years' wish lists have included taking a boat trip to see seals (tick), visiting a wool festival (tick), visit countries I've not visited before (ongoing); you get the idea. Things that it would be fabulous to do and which I am more likely to do because expressing the desire makes me more likely to take some action, but also things which it won't matter if I can't do them.

This year's list includes the usual thoughts about places to visit, things to do, people to see... but also, in view of my Norfolk upbringing, it includes the determination to "do different". I wasn't sure what I'd "do different", more a case of "follow your nose wherever it goes; unless you don't like the look of the destination in which case turn round and try again".

And I most certainly have been "doing different". I've bought some books by male authors, as I've realised how rarely I choose anything other than women writers. I've been to a karoke evening with some colleagues (and, no I did not sing, but I surprised myself by actually really enjoying the evening). And on Friday I'm off to a dinner party. I've never been to one in my life (I could write the Bumper Book of Reasons and Excuses for Declining Dinner Invitations). I'm terrified (especially as I've never even met the hosts, let alone the other guests; these are all people from Mr CK's world, not mine). Will I be able to make spirited, yet polite, conversation? Dare I sneak some emergency crochet in in my bag? Is it impolite to crochet between courses? (Sadly, I suspect the answer is "yes" and maybe I'd be pushing my "do different" a bit far if I tried to hook a few stitches). I'm also trying to decide which would be better for soothing my nerves beforehand: camomile tea or G&T? Watch this space.

Oh, and watch this, too (see the entry for 21 Jan 2010), and let me know what you think of it (NB my speakers have blown, so I'm not sure what the sound is like: I'm guessing bagpipes and bleating). My "computer chair" where I'm sitting to type this, is almost identical to the one the sour-faced grannies were knitting in!

Oh, h*ll

2009-12-06T12:21:00.008Z

I'm supposed to be spending the entire day today doing housework, tidying, etc and many other domestic tasks that I have been postponing for (blush) many weeks. But I only have about 4 more days off work between now and Christmas when, all being well, my parents will be coming to stay. Mr CK does more than his fair share around the house, so I really do have to get on but, really, housework is my idea of:

click the pic to enlarge, then look at the lower third, and you'll see what I mean.
This rather fabulous depiction of housework is from the ceiling of the Baptistry in Florence. which reminds me, I've still not posted any pics of that excursion, have I?

So here goes (and hang the housework for just a wee while longer...)

First, a view into the cloisters at Sante Croce. As you can see, there was a lot of restoration work going on. We loved it here and the museum, in particular, is worth a visit to see the 14th century painting of the madonna sewing (at least, I think it was 14th century. After a day or so we realised that to the Italians a date of, say, 1481 is 14th century, whereas to to Brits it would be 15th century

Look at the incredibly blue sky! we only got one fine day, but what a day. I think the towers here are (on the right) the Palazza Vecchia and (left) the Badia. (You'll have to excuse the spelling, stepdaughter is off to Florence next week, so she's got all our guidebooks etc). The Badia is a monastery, of which we saw very little as much is being restored. Nevertheless, it was one of my top 5 places as it felt so peaceful and unspoilt.

Look! A knitting group (in Melbookstore). I failed to pack any knitting (RSI was bothering me somewhat) but after seeing these knitters at work I soon put things to rights. We only found two things to be inexpensive compared to Britain. The first was academic textbooks (Graham now owns various TS Eliot texts with English on one page and Italian on the facing page)and the other was yarn. The first store I found was a factory shop, so I assumed that was why the prices were so low 2p/g in some cases). But a bit more exploring, and 3 more yarn shops later, I realised that Italian spinners do some really yummy wool blends at knockdown prices. One day I'll get organised (well, the last full moon was a blue one) and post details of the yarns and the shops...

The final picture is in our room. the hotel we stayed in was decidedly shabby genteel. I'm not sure that it is a good idea to have a live socket in the bathroom right next to the washbasin... But the room was clean and comfy and the staff were incredibly helpful. And finally, my personal top 5 places in Florence:

1. Museuo di San Marco. (Peaceful cloisters, amazing works of art and monks cells thqat each have their own fresco, some by Fra Angelica. The Annunciation has long been one of my favorutie paitings but seeing it in situ, at the top of a flight of stairs, took my breath away. Some parts were closed due to restoration).

2. The Baptistry. That ceiling (see above) is a glittering mosaic. Heaven, hell, angels, archangels, Christ in Majesty... Can you imagine working, at height, round a domed ceiling, with those tiny tesserae? the only place we visited that didn't have any restoration work going on. (But someone was testing microphones and there was some excruciating feedback!)

3. The Badia. So peaceful. Despite the noisy building and restoration work going on. I love the way that some places manage to feel tranquil even in the midst of turmoil. I wish I could master that feeling myself.

4. Museo di Firenze comm'era (Musuem of Florence as it used to be). Yet another museum set in cloisters. This one is for map and plan fanatics (eg me), though fortunately there are some rather wonderful demi lunette paintings of Medici palaces to keep husbands amused.

5. Santa Croce and its Museo. Much of the interior of the church was closed off (restorations) but the museum made a virtue out of the restoration work by showing conservators in action.

You'll notice that the Uffizi didn't make the cut! We'd both been so excited about finally getting to see some Ucello paintings, only to find that one had been loaned to another museum and the other was being restored.

And now, off to do the housework. (I can feel those imps prodding me....)

Chaos

2009-12-03T11:30:00.003Z

We've been treated to our very own personal power cut. (Well, we also shared it with next door). We came home on Tuesday evening to discover that the power had been off for about 2 hours. A kindly neighbour took us in and gave us tea, then Mr CK and I enjoyed a suprisingly relaxing evening watching the fire and listening to the clock ticking. At about 11pm our peace was rudely shattered by workmen with pneumatic drills removing half of our neighbour's drive. We got our power back sometime in the small hours of the night, but the giant hole is still there, so we suspect more work (and further power cuts) to follow. The neighbour tells us that last time something similar happened there were problems for months afterwards. We're getting a supply of candles in!

swept away!

2009-10-28T12:34:00.016Z

Sorry I've been so silent of late: I've been here, there and everywhere over the last few weeks. Exhibitions: Edward Bawden at the Cecil Higgins Gallery, Bedford (very highly recommended. I'm planning to go back again); two visits to Making and Mending at the Bury St Edmunds Gallery (the first to meet Celia Pym, the second to take part in Kai-Oi Jay Yung's Sock Exchange, which was huge fun); the Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace; a week's self-catering in Thaxted, Essex (where we did lots of gentle walking and even more gallery visiting: Henry Moore's Sheep at Saffron Walden Musuem, and yet more Edward Bawden at both Saffron Walden Musuem and at the Fry Gallery); next, we had 36 hours at home (mainly spent catching up with laundry) followed by 4 nights in Florence (museums, churches and galleries galore, not to mention a knitting group in a bookshop). Since then I've done 4 days back at work, and now I've got more holiday: we've had the sweep in today and I'm busy preparing a handout for the class I'm teaching at a fibre Retreat in Devon this weekend!

Once I'm back from that, I'll try to blog some selected highlights from my travels.

Walls Have Knitting Patterns

2009-09-13T09:53:00.010Z

Just over a week ago I got up early, threw a few sandwiches into a box and, three buses later (citi 6, citi 7 and Village Link 5), I was in paradise (well, apart from the aircraft noise, but I'm still thrilled to be able to hear again properly).

Where was I? Deep in the heart of the Essex countryside, in the Chelmer Valley (and on the Stansted flightpath) is Thaxted, a town that grew rich on three trades: thatching, cutlery and wool. And when I say rich, just look at the sumptuosuness of the buildings in this tiny market town:

the Guidhall, for instance

and Dick Turpin's house (yes, the Dick Turpin, as in "stand and deliver!"):

But best of all was the pargetting on many walls, instant knitting pattern inspiration...
giant cables:
entrelac:
basket weave:
and welted modular shells:
You'll probably have seen that shape in old knitted bedspreads and some of you will have seen a tiny cushion that I've made with this motif.

Where was I?

2009-09-13T09:17:00.007Z

As you've probably realised, I've been making up for lost time over the last few weeks! The ear infection really did knock me for six (months) and as for the killer headaches I'd been getting: I want to forget those. They've almost gone now I've got my glasses, who'd have thought that eyestrain could be so evil?

Anyway, back to my whirlwind tour of East Anglia and, in particular, Cromer. I first went to Cromer when I was about 5 years old. We caught a coach from King's Lynn and it wound through rural lanes, taking us through such memorable places as Great Snoring (prompting much teasing of my poor Pa) whilst (even more memorably) my darling little sister suffered from travel sickness. Once we got to Cromer we went to a hotel that had a television. I'd never seen a television before. (It was 1966 and, as you'll have realised, we had neither a car nor a television in those days!) Another great surprise was that my Nanny (my Mum's mum) was staying in a guesthouse just round the corner. (This was a great surprise to me, but not to Nan or my parents; they'd planned it, of course). And I seem to remember that Nanny and Ma spent rather a lot of time in a marvellous shop called the Peddlar's Pack. I remember wall hangings and yarn: it is the first wool shop I can remember, though it made less of an impression on me at the time than the television did... The shop's long gone but look what I found in Cromer Museum:

The Peddlar's Pack sign and even a brochure for "the handicraft Gift Shop that is So Different."

Ma still has a Danish wallhanging of twelve different pictures (printed on canvas) of the same two little girls playing out in all weathers (one picture for each month of the year). At the time she bought it, sis and I were much the age of the little girls in the picture. Now even the nieces are bigger than those girls, but the hanging has only slightly faded and is still as delightful as it was then.

Cromer Museum is wonderful: converted from fisherman's cottages, complete with a wash house:

And there's a fabulous geology room with lots of fossils to play with (er, study) and cases full of North Sea amber. All through that first coach trip to Cromer Dad was telling me great tales of the place we were going to visit (to distract me, doubtless, from vomiting sister and peellywally Ma). If I looked really, really hard, I might find amber on the beach. It would feel warm to the touch, not cold like other stones. And it was made from resin from trees that were around at the time of the dinosaurs! Oh, and if I listened hard enough, I might hear church bells coming from under the sea: from the drowned church that was part of the drowned town just off the coast, just under the North Sea. I didn't hear the bells and I didn't find any amber, but still had a great time. But 40-odd years later, in Cromer museum, here was the amber and -more exciting still- lots of information about the town that drowned.

But the best was yet to come: ganseys! But they're going to be in another post as ganseys seemed to be the theme running though my visit to the I Knit weekender (on Friday) and before that, I've another outing to regale you with...

Coastal Knitting

2009-09-03T19:50:00.010Z

First: an exceptionally delightful purchase that I made in Sheringham's yarn shop yesterday... I certainly don't need any more DK, but Mirasol's Hacho has a most seductively bouncy quality and the colours sang out to me. Note how the yarn is posing artfully on a table of a train en route from Sheringham to Cromer.

During this journey I was also working on a modular scarf that's combining Sirdar Escape DK with Katia Pailettes but it was, alas, one of those days when there was more unknitting than knitting. Even more gallingly, I'd made the mistake the previous evening but had knitted on the train for two hours thinking "this doesn't look quite right..." before I realised that I'd missed out 8 rows. Sigh. I would show you a picture, but Blogger is refusing to let me upload any at the moment so I'll terminate this post here and write about the Sheringham/Cromer gansey knitting tradition tomorrow. All I'll say now is size 18 needles and 15 stitches per inch.

Norfolk railway stations

2009-09-02T20:25:00.010Z

Here's where last week's walk started:

And here's where it ended:

This was today's first stop:

And the next:

(I'm glad to say that Cromer is far more interesting than this shot of the station might suggest). But I wonder whether the same might be said of North Walsham?
I didn't get off there, I wonder why not?

I'm happy to report that I scored some excellent yarn in Sheringham and found plenty of ganseys in Cromer museum. But more of that in another post.

Vast skies and wild blusteriness

2009-09-01T19:08:00.017Z

There are times when I get a desperate yearning for peace, quiet and the great outdoors. Last week was one of them. And, since Mr CK and I were celebrating our wedding anniversary, we remembered a remote little halt that we'd visited on our honeymoon. And off we went... Two buses and two trains later, here we were:

Berney Arms is a request stop, the penultimate station on the line to Great Yarmouth. But it feels a world away from its seaside neighbour. The first thing that strikes you (once the train has pulled away) is the absence of engine noise. Berney Arms can only be reached by train, by boat, or on foot. When we arrived last week we were the only people to alight from the train and we couldn't even hear any boats. But it was far from silent: the wind was whipping through the long marsh grass and sighing through metal posts. Berney Arms itself is so small that even the word "hamlet" is too large for it: a farmhouse, a windmill,

a pub, a noticeboard, a bench:

The bench is accurate. Just look at the vastness:

We fortified ourselves in the pub (I particularly enjoyed the half of local cider)then set off to walk along the banks of the Yare, heading for Reedham (the next stop on the line to Norwich). Last time we'd done this walk the sun was beating down, and atmosphere was incredibly still. We saw vast numbers of birds, including egrets. This time the wild headwind (with occasional gusts of crosswind)kept the bird numbers down. But we still saw a couple of egrets and the only humans nearby were on boats. The wind didn't do much for my hairstyle...

but the walking was invigorating.

After a couple of hours we were in Reedham and the sun was shining. We spent a very pleasant interlude sipping more local cider, this time from the Lord Nelson Inn.

The whole day was blissful.

Knitting content!

2009-08-23T13:30:00.011Z

Yes, Caught Knitting has finally got round to doing some knitting again.... The impetus was that I was part of the teaching team for a workshop on Horst Schulz's knitting techniques (if you follow the link, you'll need to scroll down a couple of entries: it's worth it!) and I'd volunteered to cover Horst's rather wonderful way of combining short row wedges with slip stitch stripes.

I had huge fun raiding the stash (and also treating myself to a couple of wonderful indlugences from Rowan's autumn colours: kid classic in a burgundy melange and a tweedy DK in teal) and decided to make a cover to fit the smallest cushion pad that I could find: 35cmx35cm from John Lewis. Much happy knitting later:

There's no seaming at all on the front of the cushion. After working one patch, I picked up stitches from its side tow ork the next. For the final patch I also worked a purlwise join at the lefthand side (onto the base of the first patch)
By the time I came to work the back of the cover, I was running short of time, so decided that the simplest way forward would be a giant mitered square, picking up stitches from two sides of the cushion and keying into a third side with a purlwise join (thus leaving me with just one seam to sew: result). Horst works his mitered squares by alternating two rows (ie one ridge) of garter stitch, with 2 rows of stocking stitch and always decreases on wrong side rows. Since each of the four patches was 45 stitches wide, I picked up 180 stitches (on the assumpton that each sdie was 90 stitches wide). I worked a few inches without any qualm but then began to feel that it was all looking rather too saggy. And few things are more disappointing than a saggy cushion cover. It was too late for me to rip everything out and start again (my preferred option)but then I realised that I had a few tricks up my sleeve. I used slip stitch bands (another Horst favourite) and garter stitch to change the tension and I reduced the stitch count very slightly by working an occasional decrease on a right side row. And it worked:

I completed the knitting at 1am on Friday, sewed the seam between 6.40 and 6.50am, took the bus to work at 8am, worked to 4pm, then went to Marlow by train. In Marlow, I stayed with Jill, who organises the Patchwork Knitters workshops. The workshop ran from 9.30-4.30 yesterday and I was back in Cambridge by 8.30pm. I slept 10.5 hours last night!

The course was huge fun, not least due to Jill's marvellous and meticiulous planning and organising and fellow-tutor Heather's knowledge and enthusiasm.

another month whizzes past....

2009-08-16T20:54:00.010Z

OOps, have just realised that I've not blogged for about a month.

I've been very happy and very busy. There have been outings (Norwich for medieval and tudor buildings, King's Lynn for a concert and to see my parents and two visits each to both the Botanic Gardens and Kettle's yard), there's been crochet and there's been a grand knitting project (involving many, many tension swatches and about 15 different yarns). Oh, and there's been an eye test and I am now horribly broke and awaiting some varifocals.

I'll supply pictures and more info on the crochet and the grand knitting project as soon as I've done some housekeeping on the computer (I daren't put any new pictures on the hard drive for the time being) and taught on a patchwork knitting workshop next Saturday (the grand knitting project is closely linked to the workshop). There will not be any pictures of me in my specs.

So: more from me in a couple of weeks' time.

ps: this is what I'd be up to if I were braver....

printmakers and popular art

2009-07-15T17:00:00.008Z

Here's a link to a brief video of Angie Lewin, one of my favourite contemporary artists, making a print.

Not been doing much of late as the ear is still not right. But I did manage to pay a flying visit to the Fry Gallery in Saffron Walden last Friday: I'm utterly smitten with the work of Edward Bawden and the gallery changes their selection each year. I'm also eagerly anticipating the autumn, when Bedford Gallery (which is, unsurprisingly, in Bedford) will have a major exhibition of Bawden's work. Better still, they're doing some gallery talks and archive afternoons.

Whilst I was in the Fry Gallery this caught my eye:

There, under glass, was a copy of one of my favourite King Penguins. At first, I couldn't work out the connection between this book and the Fry Gallery's collection, which features works from the artists who used to live in Great Bardfield in the mid-twentieth century. Then I looked more closely. Next to "my" book, was another book by the same author and this one, on English Life, had illustrations by Bawden. Hmmm, can see I'm going to have to start haunting book fairs again...

Crafting at the Fitz

2009-07-04T17:16:00.010Z

First, thanks for all the good wishes; I'm happy to report that my ear is on the mend! Not only that, but I'm feeling up to socialising again and I've just spent a wonderful day at the Fitzwilliam Museum, crocheting coral. The workshop was part of a Crafts Council Project and also ties in with the fascinating Darwin exhibition which is on at the Fitz at the moment. The project is supplying kits (materials, ideas and worksheets) to community groups, schools and galleries who would like to create their own reefs which should, eventually, be merged with the reef that started at the South Bank last summer before touring (and growing ever-bigger) at the Knitting & Stitching Shows. Its eventual destination looks set to be the Eden Project. The Fitz already had a couple of mini reefs on display. One that had been started at the Sedgwick and fabulous selection of work from a community group and a primary school in the Kings hedges area of Cambridge.

I'd forgotten just how much fun you can have armed with yarn and crochet hook, surrounded by fellow fibre fiends. But I'd also (yet again) forgotten my camera. So you'll just have to take my word for it that some fabulous forms were created and quite a few newcomers have become"hooked" on crochet.

a total pain in the ears...

2009-06-23T18:25:00.002Z

Sorry, still no photos and no crafty items to report either. All due, alas, to a boring ear infection that has now been complicated by a boil in one of my ear canals. Ouch. Hoping the latest course of anitbiotics will do their trick...

outings 2, photos nil

2009-06-11T16:45:00.006Z

Is anyone else old enough to remember when the football results used to come in via the noisy old teleprinter?

Anyway, here's my life summed up in a few results...

week commencing Sat 1 June 2009: outings 2, photos nil

week commencing Sat 8 June 2009: social events cancelled 4, germs too many to count

(I'm currently deaf in one ear, and can neither taste nor smell things but at least I've not had to take Tamiflu, unlike Daisy!)

Last weeks outings were huge fun and I'm so cross with myself for forgetting the camera not once, but twice. I went to Ely (again) and Mr CK and I were taken on a grand tour of Hackney Downs and Bethnal Green (his daughter lives there) which included Prick Your Finger, the Museum of Childhood and Victoria Park.

The display of crocheted lizards (and a frog) at PYF is amazing (sadly I missed the hunk erecting the sign... but the blog makes intersting viewing) and we all had huge fun at the museum. I particularly like the Quentin Blake and Roald Dahl exhibition they have on the moment. Birthday girl (aged 29) took full advantage of the boxes of dressing up clothes!

I shall draw a veil over this week...

if you do just one thing tomorrow....

2009-06-03T19:59:00.004Z

USE YOUR VOTE!

(Sorry for shouting, this is something that has mattered to me enormously ever since I was 14, or so, when my Guide Leader told us about the Suffragettes).

Mayday awayday

2009-05-09T19:36:00.008Z

The 1st of May was going to be the day that I tidied my desk, tidied my computer files and did heaps of other overdue tasks. But the sun was shining, the birds were singing and, well, it was the first of May. Not only that, I needed yet more plastic boxes to store yet more stash. And when it comes to plastic boxes, only Thing Me Bobs shops have the type I like at a price I like. And is there a thing Me Bobs in Cambridge? Why, no. Instead, I have to make the difficult choice between going to Newmarket, Bury St Edmunds or Ely.

I'm glad that I chose Ely: look what I saw!

Foal dozing near the cathderal...

Flowers sprouting out from the top of a wall (I'm taking quite a few wall photos at the moment, and am thinking of doing some wallflower pots)...

And a wonderfully gnarled tree.

I came home with 2 boxes and also (mysteriously) rather a lot of books and magazines (some were gifts, but most were of the knitting and crochet variety).

an evening stroll in the millennium garden

2009-05-09T19:21:00.005Z

What's this: Mr Caught Knitting out and about sans hat and backpack?

Why, yes. This stroll was taken a couple of evenings ago, just before dusk and in a light sprinkle of drizzle (hence the umbrella that you'll see peeping out above the cow parsley)...

Editor's note: we wish to reassure readers that normal service (ie pictures of Mr CK with hat and backpack) will be resumed as soon as possible.

But not just yet....

Harry Potter in dramatic ageing sensation!

2009-05-08T15:20:00.005Z

(This is, in fact, Mr Caught Knitting off to a Supervisors' Dinner at a Cambridge College. The dress code said "gown and lounge suite" but the final "e" had been scored out in biro, so I managed to talk Mr CK out of his plan to take an occassional table with him by way of accessory... I'd better point out that, in the unlikely event of your recognising Mr CK's college tie, this is not, repeat not, the college that made the spelling mistake!)

long time, no blog

2009-05-08T14:36:00.025Z

Ye gods, is it really more than a month since I last blogged?

I could pretend that I've been immersed in producing a masterpiece (or two); that I'd been trekking through inhospitable desert (for the good of my soul); or many other crazy or unlikely fibs.

The truth is rather more exciting (for me, if not for anyone reading this). I've been having a lazy, wonderful time. (Punctuated by some health wibbles, but most of these are now dismissed).

First, I've been on a winning streak: I'm now the proud (and colourful) owner of these decidedly dashing "smalls", dazzlingly dyed by the lovely Ambermoggie. And, within hours of hearing that I'd won them, I discovered that I'd also won The Morville Hours Karen's non-fiction book giveaway. What an engrossing book it is, definately the work of a polymath. I've scarcely been able to put it down since I received it and, having finished it last week, am poised to embark on an almost immediate reread. It has shot straight into second place in my all-time-favourtie books chart. (Number one is still The Leaping Hare.)

During the time I've been able to tear myself away from the book I've been on several adventures, including a trip to Hay on Wye which just happened to coincide with a certain Wonderwool Wales and a workshop in Hay with one Prudence Mapstone. Good job that there were innumerable bookshops (and an ice cream parlour) to absorb Mr Caught Knitting the while... I've also been on a May Day away day; got a permanent contract at work (yay!) and signed up for a City and Guilds diploma in handknitting (guess who should be doing her homework now this instant?)

Posts with pictures will follow but the sun is shining, Mr CK is at home and I think we should take advantage of the weather to go for a stroll!

my new heroine: Maria from l'Aquila

2009-04-10T08:35:00.003Z

It was the Yarn Harlot who drew our attention to a report from Cambridge University which concluded that, whilst knitting had a marked effect on coping with the aftermath of trauma, few people were likely to carry "emergency knitting".

Fortunately 98-year old Maria D'Antuono of L'Aquila has proved to the researchers that, sometimes, people do have emergency crochet to hand. According to the guardian and Ansa news agency, she spent 30 hours waiting for rescuers to dig her out after last week's earthquake and, asked how she had passed her time, she reportedly said that "she had been busy with her hook and wool".

Rescuers gave her a packet of biscuits, but she asked for a comb, so that she would look decent on arrival at hospital.

Respect!

working in the garden...

2009-04-02T16:32:00.008Z

Yesterday morning, as I wiped the sleepy fairies from my eyes, Mr Caught Knitting announced that it looked like a good day for working in the garden. I had to agree...

So whilst he rounded up the lawnmower and secateurs, I played hunt-the-pasting table. (In the shed, somewhat mildewed after being moved there in the aftermath of the garage floods last year). Mr CK looked bewlidered. He became even more puzzled when, after giving the table a good scrub, I demanded to know where the masking tape was and wanted to know what had happened to the many bath gel bottles that I'd been stockpiling. When I grabbed my cauldron and dye powders, it finally dawned on him.

Yes, my idea of "working in the garden" means setting up the pasting table on the patio and indulging in some textiles pursuit or another. As it was such a windy day I decided that my usual method of yarn painting--dipping foam brushes into plastic pint "glasses" of dye--would result in my dyeing the patio. Hence the use of the bath gel bottles, so that I could squirt dye on the yarn and also so that if a container did blow over it wouldn't splash its contents round and about.

Here are a couple of glimpses of the finished yarns:

I rather suspect that the colours were inspired by the plants I saw in my parents' garden when I visited them last Friday:

nesting...

2009-03-24T10:29:00.010Z

I think it was back in January that I hatched the idea of crocheting some tiny, untidy nests in which to nestle easter eggs. They had to be untidy, as for years I have treasured a description of one species of bird's nest (one of the crovids, but can't remember if it is a magpie or raven/rook/crow). Anyway, the description read "like an untidy washerwoman's basket". Is it the washerwoman that is untidy, or her basket? Are the nests strewn with windblown knickers/sheets etc, or are there twigs slipping out and large holes in the side of the nest?

Cut to March and I've finally found time to execute my plan. Not only that, my lovely friend Wye Sue presented me with raffia and "washed and combed Blue Faced Leicester locks" (from a wonderfully-named firm: Moral Fibre) whilst we were at SkipNorth last weekend. But the final inspiration for the project came as I made my annual, ritual SkipNorth 'phone call: I always ring Dad as we pass through Huddersfield, not least because the coach sometimes drives (literally) over where my grandparents used to live. (The house was demolished for road widening in the late 60s). As I spoke to Dad I had a sudden memory of my grandad showing me a blackbrid's nest in the garden, then taking all the eggs out and teaching me how to blow an egg. Not the sort of thing I'd ever consider doing nowadays, but it was legal back in 1966.

Suddenly I knew that I just had to have some felted eggs in the nest. So, carding combs in hand, I blended together wool tops in three different shades and then asked Roger Prime (the tutor of the wonderful experimental textiles classes that I go on Thursday evenings) if he could think of a way of using the felt-ball making technique he'd shown us to make felt eggs. And he did!

For the nests themselves, I decided to eschew my usual technique of crocheting, then felting in the washing machine, not least because I wanted to incorporate materials (raffia, sheep's locks) that were unlikely to survive the washing machine. Instead, I decided to pinch a technique from Irish crochet: crocheting around a cord. I dived deep into the stash and emerged with some ancient extra-thick green yarn to use as the cord, and some chunky brown yarn to work over it

I then cut snippets of raffia and some of my sludge-coloured handspun and worked these and the locks into the nest as I crocheted. I also created "moss" using some of the bargain, 99p, Wendy Cosmic yarn that I found at Coldspring Mill last Saturday.

And here's the end result (with one nest shown empty, though I have 5 eggs for each):

lettuce and ladybirds

2009-03-18T13:10:00.012Z

About this time last year, two interesting projects collided in my brain. First, Emily made a simple, but absolutely exquisite, brooch: a knitted leaf with a ladybird button stitched on. Then, when I heard Daina Taimina talking about hyperbolic geometry, she mentioned lettuce as a prime example of the supposedly "impossible" geometry that had been on mathematicians' plates all along...

And so the idea for "ladybirds on lettuce" was born. (And yes, it is just my basic sea anemone formula, what took the time was mixing a sufficiently lettuce-like dye!)

The buttons are by Injabulo, who supply fair trade imports from South Africa. I got mine in Norfolk Yarn in Norwich. The Cascade 220 that I dyed came from Wibbling Wools in Bury St Edmunds.

I've made them to sell (I can picture them filled with tiny, foil-wrapped Easter eggs), but may not be able to part with them (see previous note re Easter eggs). time will tell!

production line

2009-03-17T16:57:00.007Z

I've been so entranced by my newly-dyed yarns that almost every spare minute of the last week has been devoted to crocheting. I'll show you the fruits of my labours soon.

But first, please excuse me whilst I shout, dance sing and giggle with excitement. for yes, it is almost time for me to Skip North again. I'm off to Howarth on Friday for another bout of yarn shopping and cake eating in the company of fellow yarnaholics. As much of our time will be spent in t'mills, I've been reading The Blackpool Highflyer, one of Andrew Martin's books featuring Jim Stringer, Railway Detective. This one is set in and around Halifax and features engines, mills, anarchists and ventriloquists.

Back to the pots. First of all,and I'm afraid it is rather blurred, this is the pot that used the two-tone grey yarn that I overdyed. The frill is done in the plain yarn:

Next, this week's crop before being thrown into the washing machine...

And a glimpse of them drying in the airing cupboard

Of all the yarns I dyed last week, my favourite is the one used for the pot front right. It reminds me of the colours of violets nestled in moss. And my favourite pot combines this yarn (for the base) with the robin's egg blue yarn. You can see it in the "before" picture, bottom left.

You might have spotted that (most unusually) I've done a couple of pots where I've used the same colour for sides and trim. I've got a special plan for these...watch this space!

marmite girtonoise

2009-03-11T16:56:00.013Z

No, panic not, this is not a post about that yeasty spread that people either love or hate (though, for the record, I fall into the love camp).

Instead, this is where I reveal the fruits of last week's dyeing session. And what, you may well be asking, does that have to do with marmite?

Marmite happens to be the French for "cooking pot" and is an alternative name for my cauldron (aka steamer). I spent about 7 hours by the stove last Wednesday (during which time bad Mr Caught Knitting took great delight in telling assorted neighbours that "Rosie is dying, but don't worry, that's dyeing with a silent E"). In the end I produced 1.7kg of vividness.

It was deepest, darkest night when I put the last few skeins out on the line. You may also be able to spot the BIG mistake I made. Cascade comes in skeins, which is great, as they are ready to dye. But what I'd forgotten is that they are tied in only one place and, to survive all the saoking, painting, steaming etc, a skein really needs to be tied in at least 3 places. I've got some untangling fun ahead of me...

As ever, I seem to have ended up with far more green, turquoise, purple and pink-based colourways than intended and none of the dramatic reds I'd been intending to produce.
But I'm very happy with what I've got. I started crocheting with them yesterday and have produced 2 sea anemone pots (currently "cooking" in the washing machine. Here's the first one hot off the hook:

I love the plump felt that I get from Cascade 220).

Speaking of Cascade 220, on my latest trip to Wibbling Wools I was able to pick up some which was marled in 2 shades of grey and I used this, as well as the usual plain natural as a base.

I like the end result very much, though it isn't very obvious when crocheted up. (You'll have to take my word for this, as I've thrown the marled pot in the washer without snapping a "before" shot!)

I should have taken more care over this shot! The mottled grey yarn is on the right, the solid on the left.

Now I must go and sew brooch backs onto the latest batch of floral corsages. Or, to use another of Mr CK's dreadful puns: I'm off to Broochback Mounting...

Cases of mistaken identity and life turning full circle

2009-03-06T19:45:00.008Z

As Mr Caught Knitting and I strolled through the grounds of King's College yesterday, I was rather surprised to see a tall, casually dressed young lady, with distinctive strawberry blonde tresses, walking out of a door. Surprised because I though it was Graham's daughter, who now lives in London. I thought maybe she was back in town to see her PhD supervisor, but he's at a different college. As we got closer I realised that my middle-aged eyesight had let me down again. This girl's hair was darker and curlier than Laura's. But once we'd passed the young woman in question, Graham nudged me in the ribs and whispered: "Did you see her? Did you see her?".

By this stage I was quite confused. Surely, if it had been Laura, father and daughter would have greeted each other? Of course not! It turns out that the person whom I'd mistaken for my stepdaughter was, in fact, supermodel (and Cambridge student) Lily Cole...

There was a further case of mistaken identity this afternoon, when I answered a lound knock at the door. There stood the window cleaner, who said "Oh, I didn't think it would be you, I was expecting your father." Again, I was somewhat confused, as Pa lives some 40 miles away. And then the penny dropped. Well, honestly, I know that Mr Caught Knitting is a good 19+ years older than me, but really! As Mr CK himself says, was the window cleaner trying to flatter me, or insult him? Hmm.

Meanwhile, on matters crafty, I'm suffering from major impatience. I hand-painted a large batch of yarn (17 x 100g skeins) on Wedenesday and they're still not dry. Having had a major run on my sea anemone pots (I've sold 14 in the last fortnight and the handpainted ones are currently outselling the ones in Twilleys Freedom Spirit) I'm eager to make more. I've also had one of those strange moments when you realise that something in your life has come round full circle. Last month I designed and crocheted a batch of berets, using Patons Shadow Tweed (which has some scrumptious colours). Last week I sold two of them via the local Country Market (the markets formerly known as WI Markets). Acouple of days later I had a vivid flashback to being 12 years old, in town, shopping with Dad. There on the Saturday Market Place was a new, and fascinating, stall full of homemade things. The lady on the stall explained that this was the "WI Market" and that they usually just had a stall on the Tuesday Market.I was utterly smitten and dug deep into my pocket money to buy myself some flapjack and a gorgeous crocheted beret!

Enough reminiscing, I'm off to work on a knitscape (I'll reveal more about those in a future post).

'twas the pigeons what done it!

2009-03-03T19:39:00.003Z

Yay! After weeks of ever-decreasing internet availbility, coupled with an increasingly crackly 'phone line, I'm back in the blogosphere.

We finally had the line sorted out today. Apparently various vital wires had been corroded by pigeon droppings.

The internet connection is still a bit "on again - off again" in the evenings (I suspect this has to do with the broadband supplier) but, really, who'd have thought that pigeon poo could cause such havoc?

not so grey matter...

2009-01-16T17:15:00.002Z

Well, the headline says "Scientist Knits Anatomically Correct Brain" but I hadn't realised that "grey matter" was so bright and beautiful!

roots and boots

2009-01-15T12:38:00.004Z

Aha! Online research reveals that my weakness for shoes* is genetic: my great grandfather was a shoe salesman. I already knew that his son (my grandad, described in the 1911 census as a "pattern warper") and his father ("dyer") were in the (you've guessed it) wool/textiles industry. Rootling round online has been fun, but I'm glad that my grandfather had a middle name that marked him out: my first search for the family surname combined with the parish they lived in (Sheepridge) came up with nearly 300 possible people.

My Dad has already traced this side of the family quite a way back, but I did find something new. I'd not realised that the census recorded how many children a woman had given birth to, including those who'd subsequently died. I'd always though of grandad as one of three, but it seems that his mother had 5 children, 2 of whom had died by 1911.

* a note on my weakness for shoes: this is kept under control by the fact that I have very awkwardly-shaped feet. I buy, on average, two pairs of shoes/sandals/boots each year. I wear them out at a similar rate. But I don't like throwing them out (if you see me in my pink suede shoes, please don't look at the holes in my soles). Graham insists that I am "the Imelda Marcos of shoes" as I must have ooh, all of 12 pairs (including hiking boots, wellies, clogs and my one-and-only pair of heels) of which 4 pairs really should be thrown ouot.

thawing, de-frosting, soaking burning...

2009-01-08T13:47:00.005Z

I'm busily multi-tasking today. As well as working on the Spring 2008 issue of SlipKnot, I'm trying to catch up with assorted domestic tasks.

Watching the thaw yesterday suddenly reminded us that our freezer needed defrosting. And how! It is only a tiny one (about 25% of the total fridge freezer) yet I found some pastry in there annoucning "use by May 2006". I only ever buy pastry for use at Christmas, so it must be at least 3 years since we last defrosted. Oops.

I'm also trying to soak labels off assorted bottle and jars. In some cases this is because I'd like to reuse the bottle (I especially adore deep blue glass) in others it is because I want the label (I'm smitten with the fox on Thatcher's Old Rascal cider). But the labels and bottles are refusing to part company. Has anyone got any handy hints?

Meantime, I'm also trying to cook lunch whilst blogging. So far I have
* turned on the wrong hotplate and burnt the left over bubble and squeak from breakfast
* turned on the correct ring, but forgotten about it, so the pan has boiled over.

Think I'd better go and keep an eye on the stove!

Swooning!

2009-01-07T21:16:00.004Z

What a day! Not only did the first issue of The Knitter* (a seriously glossy new knitting mag) hit the shops this morning, but I've just heard that there'll be a UK-based crochet mag from March.

Be still, my beating heart!

* if you follow the link to The Knitter, you'll need to scroll down to 25 December.

Ode to Stagecoach

2009-01-04T18:49:00.002Z

How do I hate thee?
Let me count the ways...

On second thoughts, that would take far too long. Suffice to say that introducing a new Sunday timetable (without bothering to tell your drivers, let alone your customers) is not helpful. And I got a taxi home after waiting 50 minutes in sub-zero temperatures this evening. Checked Google as soon as I got in and discovered the awful truth. If I'd stuck it out just 7 minutes longer I could have saved myself £9.60.

Thank goodness that I was wearing the wonderfully snug neckwarmer that I crocheted myself on new Year's Eve (pics will follow when I find my camera...)

where did 2008 go?!

2008-12-31T20:36:00.003Z

New Year's Eve already?!! The last few weeks have vanished in a fog of germs, so here's to a happy and healthy 2009.

this evening's post should have been accompanied by a compilation of pictures of Graham's back (in Granchester, in Oxford, at Woolfest, in Safforn Walden, in London, in Norfolk) but Blogger ate my pictures again...

mid-December already???!!

2008-12-17T17:48:00.003Z

Where has time gone? It certainly hasn't been spent on the TSKPs (Top Secret Knitting Projects): I had 6 items to complete and progress to date consists of 9 rows on the first one. Ooops. And I rather urgently need to get on with some jellyfish and anemones for the IFF's crochet reef in LA. Think the TSKPs will have to be handed over at Easter. (Note to self: do I really dare give IOU notes for Xmas?)

Ma's surprise party was a huge success and though I wasn't actually there, I was thrilled to find half a bottle of champagne waiting for me when I got home from work. Bookselling has been huge fun--I'll miss the job when the contract ends soon--and I'm now keeping my eyes out for new employ.

Must dash: I've got brooch backs to sew on ready for the market tomorrow and a top secret wet felting/sewing project to complete.

Busy...

2008-12-05T09:29:00.003Z

Panicking, moi? Oh yes. Parents arriving in about 2.5 hours for weekend visit. Need to clean/tidy and catch up on laundry (but have realised that normal winter laundry drying place, viz spare room) is off limits as I'll be sleeping in there. also, need to make large batch of corsage brooches by about 4pm.

We're having a very small surprise party here tomorrow for Mum's 80th birthday. But I'll miss it as I'll be at work. I've bought all the savoury food (sis is seeing to drinks and sweet stuff) and have no idea when I'll prep the crudites without Ma cottoning on. Oh, I'll just have to rpetend that I've offerd to take a batch in to work, or something else equally implausible.

But it will be great to spend today with Ma and Daddy.

Must go housework calls. (A call I usually igonore, but one which is deafening me today!)

why, oh why, didn't I take my camera*?

2008-11-28T17:20:00.012Z

To Bury St Edmunds today, as I simply had to go to Wibbling Wools to get some yarn for some TSKPs (Top Secret Knitting Projects). And, since Bury St Edmunds must surely have the highest gift shop:population ratio of anywhere on the planet, I also planned to succeed at Christmas Shopping. (NB, most of said shops are a touch too frou-frou for my liking but some of them are brilliant). None of this screamed "take the camera!" at me, so I didn't...

Mistake! Within seconds of leaving the bus, I heard the words "Red Hat Society", looked up and, sure enough, there was a sea of elderly ladies dressed in purple, with red hats.. They were moving towards a veritable landmass of similarly-dressed ladies. I remember being utterly stunned when I first saw them congregating in Cambridge earlier this year!

Red Hat ladies at Queen's College, Cambridge, Spring 2008

Oh well. Photo opportunity missed but, what the heck, on with the shopping. I began at the council-run Art Gallery, always a good bet for an interesting exhibition, as well as fabulous gifts and cards. I scored a direct hit (oh, yes), not only finding something that a gallery in Cambridge had promised (and failed) to find me, but also finding it for less money. Result!

Buoyed-up, I headed down the hill to Wibbling Wools, pausing only to be astonished by the enormous crowds of shoppers. Think December Saturdays in Oxford Street and you'll get the idea. Weird. Getting closer to Wibbling Wools, the crowds grew thicker and I could hear jazz over a PA system. Then I caught sight of stalls and carousels on Angel Hill. A Christmas Market, I'd found a Christmas Market. (If any of you have ever heard me squealing with excitement, do, please, insert relevant sound effects here).

But first, there were TSKPs (Top Secret Knitting Projects) to be attended to, though I did stop to look at the "genuine Victorian" Galloping Horses roundabout where I was rather amused to note horses with positively 20th/21st century names like "Kelly" and "Dionne-Lauren" as well as the more traditional "Elsie" and "Joan". I was very, very tempted to take a spin but then realised that it just wouldn't be the same when you've nobody to wave to as you whizz round. Resolve strenghtened, I entered Wibbling Wools and realised that, truly, I had found Paradise. Purchasing materials for the TSKPs was a positive delight.

Off, then, to view the Christmas Fair. It wasn't quite up to the standard of those I saw in Vienna last year; here the range of things on sale reminded me very much of the sort of stalls that you get at County Shows, etc, but many stallholders were in Victorian dress and, despite the cold drizzle, spirits were high. (I could see rather a lot of mulled wine being quaffed). There was a French market where, somehow, I resisted the many delicacies on offer. There were stalls in the Abbey Gardens and the jazz trio I'd heard earlier turned out to be playing in the Abbey Gateway. Back to Angel Hill and walking further along towards the Cathedral I found some craft stalls, where several purchases were effected. And then I saw the highlight: the "Living Nativity" near the entrance to the Cathedral Refectory. No more Victorian dress, here were kings and shepherds with sheep (real) and donkeys (real) leading us to a stable (recreated) populated with more donkeys (real) and llamas (real). It was breathtaking. Why, oh why, didn't I have my camera*?

After all this excitement I needed food and cider, so headed to the Mason's Arms (which Liz and I discovered a few months ago). Yum (and hic!). (Eavesdropping on the many Christmas Fair-goers I gathered that many of them had come by coach from all over East Anglia). After lunch, on to the the Corn Exchange for more Christmas stalls and a recital of carols--some in sign language-- from a local school.

Finally I thought I'd better go and pay Rendell's Yarns a visit. Oh dear. Regia 6-ply in Kaffe Fasset colours, calling out to be another TSKP (one I wasn't even planning). This purchase necessitated a return trip to Wibbling Wools (what a shame) for a set of Britanny 3.5mm dpns followed by a determined I-will-not-buy-anything-else march to the bus station.

The bus journey was long (70 minutes) and slow, but how I wish I'd had my camera. As we left Newmarket the sky was ablaze. No painting could have captured this sunset, though maybe some dichroic glass might have captured the scintillation.

All in all: a most productive trip.

* and why didn't I have my camera? The batteries are flat and Mrs Meanie (aka me) has been too mean to replace them. That'll learn me (as we Norfolkians say).

How (not) to Shop for the Festive Season

2008-11-24T18:28:00.003Z

Today must be my least successful round of present buying ever. I headed off into town with vague ideas about what to get for whom. I walked through town rejecting each and every idea. And I failed to find any alternatives...

Back to the drawing board!

Banksy strikes again!

2008-11-21T14:37:00.010Z

Banksy's knitting (though ungrammatical) grannies made me smile!

And it looks as though there could be rather a lot of knitted tags appearing in Cambridge soon, with the news that Magda Seyeg, aka knittaplease, will be hitting The Shop in the New Year.

Meantime, I leave you with a picture of (part) of the birthday cake my nieces made for my sister...you should have seen it when the candles were blazing!

hallucinating!

2008-11-19T15:54:00.003Z

Thanks to everybody who sent such kind and thoughtful messages about poor old Jiminey; we miss her but at least we've got past the stage where every time the (new)boiler switches itself we think we can hear Jimbles coming in through the cat flap: the two sounds were so alike.

I've been rather busy since my last post: learning the ropes at my new job (I love it!); teaching modular knitting to a wonderful bunch of spinners, weavers and dyers; making more brooches and scarves for the Country Market stall (though my sales have ground to a halt, so I'm doubly relieved to have a "proper" job again, albeit just for a few weeks).

Now I've gone down with some lurgy or other. I took myself off to the spare room last night, in the hope that at least Graham would get a good night's sleep. Somewhere in the small hours I was woken by somebody talking to me. Nobody was there, but I heard thumps and bumps coming from the garage. I realised it must be burglars and (very bravely, I thought) locked the door that connects the garage to the hallway, then went upstairs to wake Graham and ask him to confront the burglars (note how limited my bravery reserves are). He felt my forehead, rolled his eyes and then, gamely, came downstairs with me, and we proceeeded to check not just the garage, but every possible hidey hole in the entire house. No burglars. We both headed back to our respective beds. An hour or so later: thump! I screamed. "Get out burglars, go away." (Why can I never find any swear words when they might be appropriate?) This time the "burglars" groaned and "they" turned out to be poor old Graham, in the kitchen making himself hot chocolate, as he (unlike me) had been unable to get back to sleep after the first batch of burglars. (OOps).

Back to sleep. Except now there was a motorbike crunching all over the gravel outside the front of our house. I opened the window of my room and croaked "go away", very crossly. But neither the man with the motorbike, nor the two men who were banging the garage door would go away. I'd had enough at this point, and thought I'd better call the police. Decided it didn't merit a 999 call, so went off to find the 'phone directory. To my horror, though, even though I'd gone to the study to fetch the thing, I was suddenly back in my bed. And then I'd realised that I'd woken up, this time had just been a nightmare: oh, the relief.

Next time I woke up was about 8am, so the burglars had obviously gone home. Today I just feel like a puppet that has had all its strings cut but at least yesterday's awful hot and cold, shivering and sweating has gone. I've cancelled all engagements for today and tomorrow, and am hoping to have a burglar-free night.

endings, beginnings...

2008-11-01T21:50:00.002Z

Just back from a wonderful week in Devon (with my sister, brother-in-law, nieces and their dog). Looking forward eagerly to my birthday (tomorrow: I'm an All Souls Day girl, unlike my late grandmother, who was born on All Saints day) and to starting my new job (temporary,very few hours, low pay but it is in a bookshop: yay!)on Tuesday.

But, as another year turns, I came home to a rather forlorn household: Graham and Laura (his daughter) had to take our beloved Jiminey Cricket to the vet's this morning, and her spirit left this life at about 9.40am... She was 17.5 years old, quite an age for a cat, and will be sorely missed. She was a shy cat and the most gentle creature I've ever encountered (though Graham, too, is a very gentle soul). I'll never forget the first day I let her out of the house here in Girton, about 8 days after we moved here. She vanished for almost 12 hours and I got the nasty feeling that she wouldn't be coming back, that I'd have to 'phone Graham (in South Africa) and Laura (in Luton) to tell them that I'd lost their cat... then I heard the most extraordinary keening sound and little miss puus was there on the lawn, busily torturing a mouse. I knew then that she'd be happy in this new home, with her newly enlarged family which suddenly contained me, as well as those she knew and loved. Darling Jimbles (Minx, Little Miss, Snoof Cat, Squeaklepuss, Prooples, Jimbulatories, Squeaky Girl, Pumpkin): you'll be sorely missed.

With the reality slowly sinking in, I've just been to unpack my bags and, as I went to place my laundry in the washing machine I've discovered, to my horror, that the garage is underwater again! This time we know its not the washing machine. It might be that water has seeped in under the garage door as the rain has been lashing in that direction, rather than flooding the back garden, as it usually does (but flooding the garage to a depth of a quarter to half an inch, though? Hmm, am not convinced.) Poor Graham thought I was joking when I called out to him. Most of the things we store in there are up on raised platforms after the last flood. We're going to sleep on the problem. Now I must wash my hair, slathering on tons of conditioner: my poor sister has just 'phoned to say that she has just discovered that she has nits and I'm taking no chances.

Life, eh?

Quiet

2008-10-21T12:59:00.002Z

Diving down: seeking shelter. Nothing to worry about, it happens from time-to-time and I always bounce back.

Bad

2008-10-11T21:22:00.004Z

Bad, bad, bad me. Not only did I spend too much at Ally Pally (I got seduced by roving from finland and Kauni yarn from Denmark) I've just visited amazon and this and this have accidentally made their way through the checkout... (strange, that).

Off to Ally Pally again tomorrow but this time to look at the exhibitions and get people adding bits to the coral reef.

Stash shot will appear soon...

No darned socks!

2008-10-08T12:29:00.009Z

I've just had an email from Twisted Thread (organisers of that infamous yarn orgy, politely known as "The Knitting & Stitching Show") asking me to bring a darned sock or two with me for this man's darning project .

It is a very polite request. But I say "no darned socks". Once upon a time, long ago, in a different marriage, I offered to darn my husband's socks. What I didn't bargain for was being asked to darn the same socks over and again. I started using slightly different coloured thread each time, and when I could see 3 different mends, the socks went out. I got rather tired of darning and let a massive pile of socks build up. One day, husband returned with about 27 pairs of socks that he'd got on a multibuy at BHS. I took it as implied criticism and that was (as they say) the beginning of the end.

(And that is the most intimate fact I'll ever reveal on this blog!)

still soggy, much less anxious and thinking about udders

2008-10-07T13:10:00.013Z

Thanks so much for for all your kind thoughts.

There's good news (well, comparatively good): Graham threw some things in the washing machine this morning, set it going, closed the garage door and then heard the sound of running water. Yes, it seems that our machine has decided to wash floors rather than laundry. (I do clean the fluff filter regularly, but maybe we'd better not mention all that felting I do?) I've left voicemail for a repair man and am now need to handwash some towels (joy).

Life looks so much better today! And Ravelry has come to my rescue again, thanks to the members of the UK Spinners group and, especially, Natalie from The Yarn Yard. I'd been producing very strange yarn, that managed to alternate overspun and drastically underspun sections. Natalie has not only explained to me where I'm going wrong, she's also likened what I was doing to milking a cow then trying to drive the milk back up into the udders. With vivid imagery like I've really realised the whys and wherefores of my errors.

soggy and anxious

2008-10-06T14:39:00.004Z

Life has been so action-packed of late (learning about colour on a Rowan course, being part of the teaching team on a patchwork knitting day, editiong SlipKnot for the Knitting & Crochet Guild), that I've wondered how I ever managed to fit in a job, as well.

But I think I'd better find one, fast. I heard a horrified gasp from the garage this morning, followed by "water! Where's it all come from?". We're still trying to find where its all come from (though we've a sinking feeling that it may well have something to do with the stream which, locals tell us, used to flow where our house is built...) So far we've had to throw out a futon mattress and lots of carboard storage boxes. My sewing machines have both got damp. I have rather a lot of LPs drying out (I've placed them in the dish drainer!) and I've had to put lots of my stepdaughter's toys and books into the airing cupboard (she'll be home tomorrow to assess the damage).

I can't thank Graham, and Bob (who is the world's best neighbour) for all the sterling clearance and investigative work they're doing. We did wonder, to start with, if it was just storm water that had leaked in under the garage door but, alas, it does look as if it has been coming through from under the wooden platform where we've got our washing machine. I suppose there's a chance that water has gradually been leaking down from the back of the washing machine into the back of the platform, but having seen the back garden turn into a pond yesterday, and having seen water lapping just below the ventilation bricks under the living room, (and the living room slopes gently downhill toward the garage, which is part of the house, rather than a seperate building) I'm very nervous...

To cheer myself up, I must (i)remind myself that it could be just a plumbing problem! (ii) I shall insert a picture of the fabulous posy that I bought on the country market stall a couple of weeks ago! And (iii) note that life still goes on: I'll be papermaking in the textiles course that I go to each Thursday and Friday is Knitting & Stitching Show. Maybe I should knit a yurt?

But now I must do some serious income-hunting...

lust...

2008-09-29T00:07:00.001Z

Has anyone seen this yet? I get the feeling that I need to own it! (Oh, the perils of checking amazon during a sleepless night!)

me, right now

2008-09-28T08:48:00.009Z

I switched on the computer to do some work on SlipKnot but got sidetracked (as I often do) by Ravelry, where I spotted that Mary had updated her blog, and I felt that I simply had to join in...so here's me on Sunday 27 September, 2008 at 9.50am. In the background: a corner of Graham's desk and a bit of his filing cabinet.

Here are the instructions, so that you can join in, too:
1. Take a picture of yourself right now.
2. Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair…just take a picture.
3. Post that picture with NO editing.
4. Post these instructions with your picture.
5. Add it to the Pool.

caught knitting caught knitting shock... (and mr caught knitting caught napping)

2008-09-25T20:04:00.009Z

I know that I tend to crochet (or, indeed, spin) far more than I knit these days but I wasn't prepared for the shocked expressions as I was caught knitting at Tuesday's KTog. In fact more than one person said "I've never seen you knit before". I have, in fact, cast on 2 cardigans in the last 12 months, but neither has got vey far. My foxtail got abandoned as I hated the way the hem was rolling and I really don't know why I abandoned the little silk garden number I was making (yes I do, I decided that it wouldn't be remotely flattering). So a certain Mr Caught Knitting has been casting aspersions about my ability to finish my current project: a tank top (I can't get used to calling them slipovers) in Noro sock yarn.

We shall see. In the meantime, here is a picture of Mr Caught Knitting slumbering on a friend's smallholding last friday afternoon.

equinoctal ramble

2008-09-21T17:48:00.011Z

Yesterday, alongside the footpaths between Girton and Coton: teasel, reedmace, crab apples, blackberries

And, in Coton itself, medlar (or "open-ers" as Chaucer called them... that's "ers" as in "*rse", owing to the way the fruit split open when "bletted", which is to say, frost-damaged and very ripe...) edited to add: excellent, the Wikipedia entry on medlars, quotes not only chaucer but some nice, bawdy, Shakespeare
medlar with small yellow snail the village tapestry (brilliant idea, every village should have one) on display in the church
detail from the tapestry
and a monument which we weren't able to read (couldn't get close enough) but--with the hourglasses, the angel and the skull and crossbones--we got the general message (the sort of message that is always on my mind at the year's quarter days). Mind you, I'd have liked to have known more about the whys and wherefores of the mattock and spade underneath the skull...
Agriculture has clearly played an important part in this village over the centuries. The stook of corn made me smile (most of the corn cut hereabouts gets rolled up into big tubes and shrink-wrapped in black plastic). And a wonderfully wonky house...As we left Coton we stopped at the Plough, to imbibe cider, then we ambled along the cyclepath to Cambridge where, after pausing to imbibe more cider at the Eagle, we caught a bus home.

Autumn is my favourite season: fruit, falling leaves to crunch through, puddles to splash in, bonfires and brilliant sunsets.

a surreal safari...

2008-09-21T09:28:00.019Z

Forget Hunting Tigers Out in Africa (are there any other Bonzo Dog fans out there?)
Earlier this month (or was it the end of last month?) Liz and I went hunting elephants in Norwich...

We didn't see all 54 of the baby elephants, but we did find about 30 of them, as well as this herd of tiny elephants

decorated by local schools. I loved the stories that went with these "We didn't tell the children that the elephant was coming" (you could pciture the surprise on the faces as the children spotted an elephant in the playground)and "the children were worried that the elephant had lost its Mummy, so we painted it bright colours so that Mummy could spot it easily".

Some of the artists and community groups involved went for bright colours, too. Meet "Split and Polish" the multi-tasking nail bar elephant that was in Jarrold's department store:

We met an Ancient Mariner (with an uncanny likeness to Catweazle) on an elephant's posterior

a recylcing elephant:
a daffodil-strewn trunk
swans on an elephant's flanks
frogspawn on its trunk
and pebbles and waterweed on its feet
More pictures over on flickr.

darn it (but don't stone the crows)!

2008-09-16T16:16:00.019Z

I've lusted over some strange things in my time (I have vague memories here, for instance, of a schoolboy on the 35b bus, referred to by my friends as "the tall, greasy, spotty one", but who I though was rather gorgeous, not least because he always had his head buried on a book on how to build synthesisers.) But, honestly, darning wool? Who falls in love with darning wool?

Well, me, obviously. But head here, and you, too may be smitten (natural dyes, made in France, ravishing colours). And then drop in here (one of my favourite blogs) to view some truly jolly packaging for mending wool.

My heart has also been captured by some amazing (textile) crows. I've always rather liked the various rooks, crows, jackdaws and ravens; the way they strut, their raucous cries and (especially) the magnificent iridescence of their feathers.... Now here, at last, thanks to a link from Jo's blog, I've found someone who shares one of my more outre passions, just take a look at all these corvidae-inspired yarns over at Blue Moon Fiber Arts. Major lust...I feel some raven socks coming on...

Unfortunately the association of socks and crows reminds me of one rather gruesome (though secretly rather fascinating) aspects of growing up on the fringes of the countryside: the crows' legs and heads that local gamekeepers used to nail up on gates. For a more scientific, and less macabre, account of crows and the Norfolk countryside I can recommend Crow Country, by Mark Cocker, which is now available in paperback.

when I grow up, I want to be...

2008-09-14T08:22:00.010Z

I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up! I'd love to go back to primary school, but as a pupil, rather than a teacher.

From what I remember, primary school meants hours of painiting and lots of singing. I didn't have any talent for either, but I put plenty of passion into them! At home I did more of the same, plus lots of reading. I presume there were other lessons, but they've not left any impression.

In fact, the only lesson I do remember was one we had to do when I was 10 years old, one that I thought was pointless. We used a textbook of some sort, that had little snippets of information about various animals. Then we were told to write about otters and draw a picture. I asked if there were other books we could look at, and was told there weren't. So the lesson was simply a "copy out or paraphrase" one: so disappointing, as I thought the otters sounded wonderful and I wanted to know more. (I think my mother, too, needs to take some of the credit here, the first film she took me to see was Ring of Bright Water). Since then I've read many books on otters. But I've still never seen a real one.

So just imagine my envy when I discovered this whilst blog-hopping this morning! I love my own life but am feeling a wee bit envious...

But back to primary school. I've decided that this autumn is going to be full of colour. I've enrolled on an experimental textiles course, every Thursday evening. (We've been screen printing: beats potato printing!) And I spent yesterday skeining up over a mile of assorted yarns to dye (white Sublime merino DK, some creamy-yellow Adriafil angora, Kidsilk Haze in pale apricot/green blend) and am about to do more. I've also got a good quantity of Cascade 220 which is already in hanks, but I think I'd better put some extra ties in it...

Graham's away until tomorrow so I'm turning the kitchen into primary school. I shall sing, I shall paint my yarn and whilst there isn't an otter for company, I do have a wonderful cat! And I'm going to be joined for some of the time by a pig wot knits(though I think I'll limit the singing whilst Bekki's around, my voice is all cracked and rusty these days).

illusions (optical and otherwise)

2008-09-12T20:39:00.004Z

Wot? Still no pictures? My dearly beloved has, alas, been proved wrong: the internet connection has been even worse during daytime hours than it is in the evening. So you'll just have to pretend that there are pictures to go with this post (which is, after all, about illusions...)

Sitting browsing through The Times this afternoon I spotted an article about a scientific survey which shows that...wait for it..."a stastically significant number" of those surveyed felt that women look slimmer in horizontal stripes than they do in vertical strips. Whilst this goes against the received wisdom passed on to us by fashion editors, grandmothers etc it is no surprise to those of us who used to love the pages in annuals devoted to optical illusions. If you take 2 squares of the same size and fill one with veretical parallel lines and the other with horizontal ones, the vertical square actualy looks dumpier: both broader and shorter than the horizontal "square" which actually looks more like a tall oblong. I particularly liked one observation in the article--that vertical lines going over a large behind will look distorted--and the suggestion that this accounted for the fact that whilst horizontally striped tights come in and out of fashion, vertically striped tights haven't been repeated since Mary Quant first tried them out! (We're talking coloured stripes rather than ribs/welts). And then there was the very wounding (to those of us who fall in the broad and short category) comment that "fat people will always look fat".

After that sobering thought I felt the urge to treat myself to the latest issue of Let's Knit!. I do wish I hadn't, as (a) I'm broke and (b) it has a decidedly 80s feel to the patterns and styling. Which might be OK if you are 30 or under but is positively undesirable for those of us who are nearing 50... Not only are we treated to a long-line, short-sleeved, deeply-v-necked, jumper in wide bands of bright blue and white (though, it must be admitted, the bands are horizontal, so there is a saving grace) we are also shown models in sequinned frocks teamed with metallic-looking cowboy boots. Nice.

But it did contain an illusion: someone on the editorial team ( see "Splurge versus Steal, pp56-57)suggests that spending £11.00 on a 100g (270m) skein of Manos Silk Blend is a "luxury option", then proposes Malibrigio Bahia (£5.25 for 50g/ 137m) as a "Budget" alternative. Here we have the "I didn't do the maths illusion": yes, if you are buying 100g, the Malibrigio saves an entire 50p whilst offering you an extra 4m... Frankly, at least until I find myself some gainful employment, both are "luxury options". Then again, if I can resist the next 5 issues of Let's Knit (£4.99 each) I'll have more than enough money to buy 100g of each of them...

I Knit Day

2008-09-10T19:57:00.004Z

Hmm, well, I've just reviewed my pictures of I Knit Day and found: one out-of-focus-shot of The Yarn Harlot (think I must have been laughing too hard to focus!); one shot of my knee and, erm, that's it.

And so, alas, here comes another photo-less blog post. Socks will be pulled up soon, I promise!

But back to Saturday, a day that falls so firmly into the "day to remember" category that all I can remember now is the utter exhilaration rather than the detail. So I'll just cluster a few words together to give the effect:
friends (too numerous to mention but vigorous waves to you all); delayed trains (all the better for getting on with one's crochet and I want one of those mechanical grab things that was loading scrap metal into a goods train while we were delayed at Hitchin); so much yarn that I got yarn blindness and didn't buy any (!); yummy fibre for spinning (I caved in); falling under The Yarn Harlot's spell; unbelievably talented knitters from all over the world; an abundance of aliens (mine looked so small amd mous-y compared to everyone else's that I now have a complex and fear that middle age is eliminating my creativity and bravado). (Sorry about the existential wail. Today was my last day at work and whilst I'm overjoyed I'm also feeling terrified). Back to exhilaration: a fudge stall with free samples (I thought I'd gone off fudge but this was just like the stuff I remember from childhood!), poetry readings, fashion shows and (especially) enjoying hearing squeals, squeaks and squees as each and everyone of us found his/her own personal fibre nirvana.

Whilst money was being spent left, right and centre this didn't feel like a commercial event. Some of this was because there were many charitable causes present. But I think most of it was because this was a day run by yarn lovers for yarn lovers. And love it I did.

long time, no blog

2008-09-07T19:53:00.011Z

Sorry about the recent silence: let's just say that my broadband connection is rubbish and that even my dial-up service is often on the blink because of problems with our 'phone line. We're hoping to effect some improvements before too long. I've done so much in the last few weeks, and have plenty of photos to share, but think they'd better wait until one of those (rare) days when the broadband service is in a good mood! (Graham tells me that weekday daytimes are good. I've not had any of those free recently, as I've been working extra days prior to escaping my job, but come the end of this week daytimes will be mine again.)

Meanwhile, here's a whirlwind summary of the last 3 weeks or so.

The trip to Walsingham was a great success. Graham throughly enjoyed the service and I had fun mooching around, watching the arrival of the travelling community for whom Assumptiontide is an important gathering. One of the travellers was wearing the finest hoodie I've ever seen (I adore hooded garments): it was a soft mink colour and the hood was lined with the largest, most bronze sequins I've ever seen. After Walsingham we caught a bus to Wells Next the Sea, where we lazed and lunched, then caught the coasthopper right the way round to King's Lynn, where my parents live. Two weeks on, and I made another trip to Norfolk, as Liz and I went elephant hunting in Norwich. This will make sense if you follow the elephant link, promise. It was a very entertaining day and I've got some great pictures to share. (The time our broadband connection functions best is weekdays during the hours of daylight. Since my last day at work is Weds and I've still no job to go to I should soon have the chance to bring you proper reports and pictures!

I've not only been to Norfolk, but also to Suffolk. First for the KTog Knitting Picnic/visit to Wibbling Wools in Bury St Edmunds and then (3 days later) to see Beguiling, an exhibition of art inspired by witchcraft and myth. Some pieces, like Lyndall Phelps's witches balls filled with crochet chains, captivated me instantaneously; others took longer to work their spell. So that's another post I'll have to write. I also had to return to Wibbling Wools as I'd been totally bewitched by the Cascade 220. It is economical, felts like a dream and comes in a wide range of colours. Better still, it comes in skeins and is available in a nice natural colour, making it ideal for dyeing. (Ooh, roll on end of job: I want to get into my kitchen splashing my dyes around! I'm hoping to be doing lots of splashing outside the home, as as I've enrolled on an experimental textiles evening class.)

This leads me on to recent FOs. I've lots to show: a "pilgrimmage pot" (made in Cascade 220!) as a souvenir of our trip to Walsingham, a nudibranch (sea slug)-inspired scarf and several small, crocheted aliens... so please bear with me, and drop back in a week or so!

The aliens were for I Knit Day...now that really deserves an entry all of its own (for now I'd just like to note that it was amazing and that Liz not only has a brilliant reports on her blog, she also has some rather compromising pictures of a slightly sozzled me posing with the stupendously gorgeous plait of merino tops that I purchased from Jo, an erstwhile swap pal, whom I was very excited to finally meet in person) .

As I've had to reconnect about 18 times whilst typing this I'm calling it a day for now. (Alternates between sighing and cursing!) I've also just managed to delete about 30% of this post, including links to I Knit Day. Time to wallow in the bath, methinks, or to carry on crocheting an ever-increasing circle. I have no idea why I'm crocheting it, nor what it will eventually become but I'm having fun!)

escape!

2008-08-14T06:48:00.002Z

We're off to Norfolk for a couple of nights. though we're staying with my parents in King's Lynn, Graham's aim is to go to an Assumptiontide service in Walsingham. I won't be joining him in the church but will go along for the (very complicated) ride. We're taking a bus from Lynn to Fakenham; another from Fakenham to Walsingham; after the service we'll catch a bus to Wells Next the Sea. We'll then return to Lynn on the Coast Hopper, which runs through such alluring places as Holkham, Burnham Market and Thornham (I think Thornham Creek has to be one of the most beautiful places that I know) before going on to Hunstanton and Heacham, then along the main road back to Lynn. If the weather is good we'll do a bit of hopping off and walking, but we're not holding any breath! (We could also, of course, hop from Wells to Sheringham or even Cromer before hopping back to Lynn but that might be too much excitement for one day).

And now on to the real escape...I've handed my notice in at work despite not having found another job yet. Sometimes bold moves have to be made and this is one of those times.

stalled

2008-08-09T14:28:00.006Z

Sorry I've been a bit quiet of late, nothing really wrong (but let's just say I'm scanning job ads very eagerly!)

I've also been quite busy. Sunday before last saw my first-ever solo stall. The event was truly charming: cream tea in the Needham Institute (part of Cambridge Uni's Oriental Studies Department), organised by a small committee that raises money to sponsor children overseas through primary school. This is the same committee that organises the village's art show each year. I'd asked if I could be included in that but, apparently, the overall feeling is that crochet isn't art so I was offered the chance to do this instead, with the comittee taking 20% commission on sales.

Needless to say the footfall was far lower than it would have been at the art exhibition and I'm not sure that people attending had been told that there would be craft on sale. Add to that an overwhelmingly hot day (would you want to pick up, let alone buy, a mohair scarf on a hot day?) and, well,

unsurpisingly, I didn't sell a great deal but I did have fun setting the stall up and finally got round to investing in some Moo mini cards to hand out. Time to track down some craft fairs I think.

Since then I've been hard at work on yet another crop of corsages and now I'm working on a project for the "Ravelympics". (Note for the uninitiated: the "Ravelympics" is simply a challenge to Ravelry members to do something new/different/challenging during the duration of the Olympics.) A large bevy of KToggers gathered in the garden of the Cambridge Blue early yesterday evening to start our projects off. I'm freeforming an alien lifeform, here's my progress so far...

Last, but by no means least, if you get a chance to go and see Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, seize it. I managed to get some preview tickets, so Liz and I went to see it on Tuesday evening. A gentle, jazz-age fairy tale: fabulous soundtrack, gorgeous costumes and just enough reality mixed in with the champagne bubbles.

Her first KIP

2008-07-28T21:37:00.004Z

There are days in a young girl's life that she'll never forget; so I wonder how my niece will look back on her first KIP (that's Knitting In Public, for the uninitiated)?

We had a brilliant time together at the end of last week. She added a request to my list of things to do:"help nate wrist warmer" and by 5.30am (!) she was rewinding some of the yarn she painted on her visit here last year. She selected a wonderful mulitcoloured wool: mainly pinks and turquoises, with shots of purples, greens and yellow but also asked if we could buy some black yarn as she wanted stripes. (vertical stripes at that, this was also her first knitting design). She also discovered that her older sister must have appropriated all the needles. So we set off to Chelmsford with a cunning plan: buy black yarn, buy needles, visit all-you-can-eat-Chinese-buffet, buy purple nail varnish (all the better for showing off your wristwarmer).

Having eaten far too much (neither of us had room for the free ice cream, imagine that) we plonked ourselves on a bench and cast on. At first she was a bit anxious ("suppose people stare at us, what if I someone I know sees me?") but soon she was engrossed. As Miss Pegs knitted, I crocheted. We weren't jeered at but I did see several people looking on in surprise and one elderly lady gave me a thumbs up, which was rather wonderful).

Once home, Pegs put the dvd of St Trinians (new version) on, and soon proved that she could multi-task, quickly getting the hang of knitting whilst watching (it took me years to get that far, clearly my Mum has had a far better pupil in Miss Pegs than she had in me!) She stopped, reluctantly, for a meal of cheese and lettuce followed by raspberries, cream and chocolate cake (the sort of meal that aunties devise for hot days, particularly aunties who want maximum crocheting, minimum meal prepping time) then knitted on whilst watching strange programmes on strange channels with names like "Scuzz" and "Dave". (How can you have a TV channel called Dave? Yes, Auntie has yet to enter the brave, far-from-new, world of Freeview).

Towards the end she started to get a bit tired, so asked me to do the last 10 rows, whilst she made a dress out of a blue bin liner, ready for scout camp. Note how both wristwarmer and dress were very successful.

And I was amused to see that she was still wearing the wristwarmer when she headed off to Scout camp the next day, with a pack that is almost as large as she is.

I was delighted to see her showing the wrist warmer off to her friends, too, saying, very proudly: "I made that!"

fun in the offing...

2008-07-23T19:41:00.003Z

My sister has put out an SOS to The Flying Auntie Serivce, so I'm off to have some fun with my younger niece. Here she is mowing the garden for us whilst visiting last year. Note that she has stolen Uncle Graham's hat.

I gather that her current interests are makeup and getting muddy (and, apparently, it is vital to put make up on before going out and getting muddy)so I'll be taking plenty of cleanser and soap with me...

mossy wall pot (updated)

2008-07-18T21:41:00.015Z

There are times when a girl falls in love with the oddest things, such as this wall, just outside Cockermouth:

As Lakeland walls go, it isn't an especially romantic one. The stones are quite large and I feel sure that mortar has been deployed in its construction (no doubt there are health and safety rules to ensure that any wall with integral stile must be constructed so that it is held together by more than gravity!) But I loved the variety in colour in the stone (there are iron seams very close by, which may explain the pinky-red colour that you can see in places) and, in particular, the lumpy, bumpy surfaces. I was also quite struck by the splotchy wash of mud (or was it cowdung?) at the bottom.

Even as I squeezed through the stile (and it was a squeeze, believe me) a pot began to take shape in my brain. Grey wool, shot through with flashes of other shades of stone. (How would I do that? Tapestry crochet? Applying another colour on the surface later? Spike stitches?) A few muddy lowlights at the bottom. Lumps and bumps. How about capturing some of the greenery that was sprouting from the side, or would that be too much? Before long we were in a wooded valley, where virtually every surface was covered with moss. Moss that reminded me of some very green, very frondy yarn (something by Crystal Palace, I think) that I'd purchased from Woolly Workshop 2 or 3 years ago, with no particular project in view. I pictured a wall topped with moss, then turned my mind, eyes and ears towards the urgent business of squirrel-spotting; all thoughts of crochet were forgotten.

Once back home, on the edge of the Fens, I decided to use one of my mossy photos (the "green candyfloss" of last week's blog entry) as my avatar on Ravelry. Fellow Raveller Danielle mentioned that she thought it might have been something that I'd crocheted... prompting me to remember the walk, the wall, the moss, the planned pot....

A quick dip into the "yarns for felting" bag and I had grey eco wool (for the stone), a scrap of brown eco wool (for the mud/cowdung), Freedom spirit in a greyish/reddish/brownish mix for the colour variation in the stone). Then a dive into my freeform stash (subcategory: posh/expensive/use in moderation yarns) for Rowan tweedy 4-plys (which I've been collecting for years) in 2 shades of green and for the aforementioned Crystal Palace frondy stuff.

Then the fun began. Streaks of mud and lumps and bumps. Seams of ore. Always two yarns spiralling their way up the pot, but only one colour at a time being used for the stitches, the other just being caught in place. Most of the time I was working in half trebles but, whenever I felt like it, I'd put a few more wraps round the hook and work into a stitch further down or off to one side. Sudden increases and decreases were carefully stacked to form pouches in the sides.

It was slow going (though it guzzled up yarn alarmingly quickly), but I enjoyed it. Finally, it was moss time. For most of the time I worked with all three moss yarns held together, increasing in every third or fourth stitch on the first row and every stitch on the second. I (deliberately) worked just the first fifth or so of the third row, to emphasise a bulge. And every so often I made a tiny deviation. Using just one of the greens and a small hook I did a small chain, worked a few half trebles in the end of it and slipstitched my way back, to make a few little fruiting fronds.

Then the terror set in. This would be the first time I'd felted something with so many different yarns and textures. Into the machine it went (with one small sea anemone pot, and two pots destined to be fringed anemones). I kept going through to the garage to see what was happening. Would the synthetic green fluff melt at 40 degrees? (Fortunately not).Would it shed over the other pots? (No, thank goodness.) Would all my textural and colour work be flattened out and muted by the felting process? (Slightly, but not too much).

And here, at last, is a more respectable photo than that originally used!

green candlyfloss and cumberland sausage

2008-07-13T18:15:00.017Z

I think one of the greatest joys of our recent trip to Cumbria was the chance to explore a landscape so very different from the flatlands that we live in. Here's Graham hitting the trail, somewhere between Strawberry How Farm and Slate Fell It was a fairly short walk (about 5 miles) but even so we found a remarkable range of wildflowers, including ragged robin and some orchids.

I'd hoped that we might get a glimpse of red squirrels, particularly as we staying very near Cockermouth's cemetery, a known red squirrel haunt. Someone managed to spot one next to the road. Someone else saw two of them playing in the grounds of the Youth Hostel. Alas, I failed, even though we also went on a 10-mile hike to another top red squirrel-sighting point. But I wouldn't have missed that walk for anything!

We headed out from Cockermouth towards Redmaine, then from there we went across clover-strewn pasture into a steeply-sided, deeply-wooded hidden valley

before emerging in Isel. Passing through the valley, I was particularly amused by some branches so thickly wrapped in moss that they looked like green candyfloss.

Whilst we totally failed to find the local squirrel colony, we did enjoy visiting Isel Church.

There are even ancient sundials carved into the church wall:

From Isel, we headed steeply uphill through a wooded track (where Graham acquired a rather stunning stick),

then descended through pastureland back into Cockermouth. Here I saw a mustelid of some type (still not sure whether it was a weasel or a stoat) and some fabulous views.

Back in Cockermouth, we headed straight for liquid refreshment (in my case, a couple of pints of lime and soda with ginger beer chasers: I was seriously thirsty). And then I had a rare outbreak of meat-eating! somehow it seemed rude to be in Cumbria and not order Cumberland sausage. It was every bit as tasty as it looks!

New outbreak of ripplemania

2008-07-13T18:10:00.003Z

Uh, oh, the contagion spreads... I think a new pandemic may be on the horizon...

UK Swap - question(s) for week 5

2008-07-11T17:53:00.002Z

This week we've been asked to answer lots of quick fire questions, then type the answers into goolge images, select one image from the first page for each search term and paste URLs into a mosaic-maker... I'm just going with the questions, as our internet connection is so cussed at the moment that I can't ven upload pics to blogger without it cutting out, boo!

1. Stop or go? Go.
2. Going out or Staying in? Staying in.
3. Small town or big city? Neither; give me villages, market towns of any size and small cities, please!
4. Happy or sad? Happy.
5. Straights or Circulars? Crochet hooks!
6. Red or Blue? Red.
7. Seaside or countryside? Both together.
8. Fish or chips? Mushy peas.
9. Surprises or plans? Surprises.
10. Wine or beer? Cider (or gin).
11. Sweaters or cardigans? Cardis
12. Pizza or Pasta? Pasta.
13. Chopsticks or fork? Fork.
14. Early Bird or Night Owl? Early owl (ie up at 7.45am, bed by 11pm)
15. Knitting or crochet? Crochet.
16. Hot or cold? Cold.

sea anemone mania

2008-07-09T16:37:00.006Z

Yes, after last year's dose of ripplemania, I'm now totally hooked on sea anemones. I've been making my hyperbolic pots for several months now (and they're selling really well) but I've also decided to make some variations.

Firstly, after I accidentally felted some pots in a 60 degree wash, rather than a 40 degree, I discovered that the smaller size as popular with customers. (Thus proving that every cloud has a silver lining). I also decided to follow up on my hunch that some colours of The Freedom Spirit yarn felted much more drastically than others. This meant getting (by my standards, at least), all serious and scientific. I crocheted 3 pots to exactly the same pattern (I usually just increase/decrease wherever and whenever I feel like it, varying the rate of shaping following my mood). I threw them into the washing machine together. And look:

three distinctly different sizes. The red pot has felted to the same degree as most of the larget pots I'd made. The lightest colour has shrunk least (sometimes I've had to give pots in this colour a second wash to get them fulled enough, but this one isn't too bad). And as for the tuquoise one: plumptious and tactile, but oh-so-tiny.

Then on to my next plan. When visiting Norfolk Yarn earlier in the year I saw some dyed Wensleydale locks and hit on the idea of some fringed anemones. I felt that a mad fringe deserved a sober background, so was delighted to discover Sirdar's Eco DK in Sew Creative. I picked out the natural brown colour and had 2 pots ready and waiting for their fringes before heading to Woolfest. Whilst there were locks aplenty for sale (Teesdale, as well as Wensleydale) I fell for the utterly gorgeous colours (and bargain price) of Willo Alpacas' bags of rainbow dyed shetland/masham cross fleece. I've still got plenty of the red left and some fabulous blues and greens to play with, so I bought more Eco Wool at Sew Creative today, in grey and in cream. It'll be particularly interesting to see how the various shades of Eco wool felt.

Finally, here's a little cluster of anemones on the table. I love arranging them en masse.

faux fossils

2008-07-05T21:40:00.014Z

I've been fascinated by fossils ever since I can remember, so I suppose it was only a matter of time before I attempted to make some with yarn. (Though I went off fossils for a while after my 40th birthday, when my cheeky little sister presented me with a tiny Smarties box, filled with even tinier fossils and labelled "fossils for an old fossil". Cheers, Hilla!)

Whenever I looked at the beigey/browny/greyish colourway of Freedom Spirit I'd pictured rock (the non-edible variety, not the lovely pink sticks that Jo has recently recreated in felt!). So I whipped up, and felted, a very simple bowl shape. Then the fun began...

It took four attempts beore I finally had exactly what I needed,

though I have to admit that my favourite is the Mk3 version.

Here's the finished bowl, with Mk 4 sewn on.

If you're interested in how these were made, I've put exhaustive notes up on Flickr and fellow-Ravellers can look at my notebook.

Last, but by no means least, my lovely secret pal has sent me a little "teaser" gift of yummy dark choc (vanishing rapidly) and a fabulous set of stitchmarkers. I'll take photos of these as soon as I can (I'm aiming for Wednesday, when I should be at home during ideal light conditions) and also one of the unbelievably beautiful shawl that Ambermoggie gave me at Woolfest. Speaking of Woolfest, I'm hoping to post more details soon, though all my photos of the event are out-of focus and the stash has yet to be snapped...

Wild, Wet and Woolly...

2008-06-30T18:18:00.002Z

Back from wonderful break in Cumbria (including Woolfest) Many pictures taken, many tales to tell. Am about to work about 9 days without a proper day off, so report may not be immediate.

Must now go and help Mr Caught Knitting; no sooner are we back than he is off to a conference...

nom de crochet

2008-06-22T20:08:00.006Z

Forget the nom de plume, I have a nom de crochet.

This clashingly colourful object of mine is on display in the Hayward with The International Coral Reef, and my name is given as "Rosy Sykes".

Note how it is next to a quote about "sea-mucous"!

busy!

2008-06-22T19:53:00.004Z

I've been spoilt (by Sarah, blogless) via Zoe's Bookmark Swap

I've been ambling around the local botanic gardens with my friend Tamy

And I dragged my sister along to the crochet jam at The Royal Festival Hall, where she had her first-ever crochet lesson
picked things up quickly
and soon had her very own hyperbolic coral to add to the UK reef
Yay, Sister!!!

Another fun-filled week stretches ahead of me, so watch this space.

It was 34 years ago today...

2008-06-15T21:20:00.005Z

Mum and I were off down memory lane when I 'phoned her this evening. She'd seen footage of the Queen's (official) birthday procession and asked if I could remember the time we went to see it. Which she insists was in 1974. Gulp. It can't have been that long ago since I was 13...
Now, whilst she remembers that we had to tell my little sister when to jump (so that she could get a glimpse of the Queen over the sea of faces) and that the salads in Selfridges were served on plates that were still hot from being washed up (ugh), my memories are slightly different. First of all, I remember that I was delighted to get tongue with my salad. Does anyone still eat tongue? Secondly, it was a blisteringly hot day, so when it suddenly rained we saw steam rising from the pavements of Oxford Street. Ah, Oxford Street: my first-ever visit there. It was on this trip that I first discovered Miss Selfridge. Mum remembers the jacket I got there: a sage green denim blazer. I also remember the olive green skirt that I got to go with it. It had an elasticated belt with it and since one of the belt loops was broken Mum negotiated a sizeable discount. (I love the way mums teach you these useful things!) And I got a neat little straw hat, which I name Mams'elle Chritofunnel (the story behind the name is a long one, stretching back to 1966 or thereabouts, and yes, I still give my straw hats names).
But most of all I remember the corasge that I wanted to buy to complete my outfit. Oh, how I wanted it. A soft green rose, just tinged with pink at the edges. But mother put her foot down, uttering the unforgettable words: "No, they're what tar...er, nasty girls wear". Could this be why I now spend several hours a week crocheting corasges to sell to feed my hooking habit?

(Oh, and sorry about the absence of pictures. This week I've walked from Cromer to Sheringham but forgot my camera. I went to Norwich but found the batteries were flat. And at WWKIP I was so busy crocheting/chatting/eating cake and daintily sipping ribena and G&T-- though not both at once-- that I forgot to buy replacement batteries. Sigh)

UK Swap Question of the Week

2008-06-15T20:25:00.004Z

Saturday 14th June is World Wide Knitting in Public day.
What are you doing to participate in WWKIP day on Saturday?

Saturday was a brilliant day but (renegade that I am) I must confess that I was crocheting in public... First of all about a dozen of us assembled outside Sew Creative, where chairs, bunting and even a parasol were waiting for us. The lovely staff (waves to Janine, Jill and Allison) were plying us with Ribena, tea, coffee and cakes and choccie biccies, mmm. And we were awarded 10% discount cards, valid until the end of August. Mine has already saved me over £3.00 (ahem) with a colourful assortment of balls of Twilleys Freedoms Spirit, ready for making felted pots. (I've made 5 in the last 4 days, so the new yarn was essential, oh yes). From Sew Creative we headed to Parkers Piece where some 20+ of us knitted (and 3 of us crocheted) alongside the Country Fair. They even had a tent where I was able to get a Gin and Tonic, mmm. So it is probably just as well that I headed home at about 3.30pm, before a posse of knitters headed off to a local hostelry.

I'm hoping to be able to link to some pics soon.

What is the strangest place you have ever knit?

Depends what you mean by strange! If we're talking exotic, then I've knitted in the Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa, and with my feet dangling over the Pacific Ocean in the Marina in San Diego. If we're talking liable to raise eyebrows, then I've crocheted in both Norwich and Ely cathedrals (but not during services, as I never go to services!). The most bizarre position I have knitted in is lying face down on my bed with hands jutting out over the foot of the bed. I was in agony with sciatica but determined to knit bootees for my best friend's first baby. I dislocated my jaw in the process.

In Praise of Fresh Air

2008-06-07T20:01:00.008Z

First of all, a promise: there will be photo posts coming soon! Meantime, read on to enjoy trips into the Cambridgeshire Countryside!

Though the hayfever season is here (and there has been much sniffling and sneezing chez Caught Knitting) I still love being outdoors and the last two days have been wonderful.

My friend Tamy (scroll down past the ripple scarves to see her!) is back in the UK but currently a bit too jetlagged to spend the whole day researching in the University Library, so yesterday we ambled through the meadows to Granchester and back. All that cow parsley that dominated the landscape so recently has faded, now there are tall waving grasses as far as the eye can see.

And today I went to Wimpole Hall's Woolcraft Weekend, with Marianne and Barry. As well as seeing a demonstration of sheep-shearing methods ancient and modern we had a wonderful time admiring the farm animals, especially the naughty little Tamworth piglets who kept squeezing through the railings. Marianne got some superb pictures of them but what the camera can't capture is the sounds: I was particularly amused by an exhausted sow snoring and almost overwhelmed by the noise of a Shire Horse peeing (what enormous bladders they must have...)

It was a fabulous outing but the naughty National Trust kept tempting me with things like freshly-baked cheese scones, bacon butties made from local pigs and local ice cream. After so many calories I decided that it would be a very good idea for Graham and I to wonder round a few local fields after we ate supper this evening. I'm so glad we did as we were rewarded with glimpses of larks and lots of birdsong.

Now I'm off to do some spinning on Radish in the hope that one day I'll be as good as the ladies from North Herts spinners who were demonstrating at Wimpole.

coral reef update

2008-06-06T17:37:00.007Z

Earlier today I was telling a friend about the crocheted coral reef project (and trying to persuade her to join me at the hyperbolic crochet jam at the Royal Festival Hall on 21 June, noon-3pm). As we were near a computer at the time I tracked down the Institute for Figuring's website and clicked on the London Exhibition link. Scrolling down the page I suddenly spotted two of my tube anemones (the green pair in the second reef-in-progress photo). Nowhere near as stunning as the gorgeously bright and candy-striped work by Ildiko Szabo but I am so excited.

musical interlude

2008-05-28T15:59:00.019Z

No, this is NOT an angry rant about the outcome of I'd Do Anything! (If you haven't followed the series, then you really won't be interested. If you have, well let's just say that I think John Barrowman and Denise Van Outen are lousy judges. Jessie was robbed thanks to their malign influence over an undirscriminating public. Jodie certainly does consistent, but oh so bland and cheesy. I won't pay to go and see her. I love Oliver, so Jessie--or, indeed, Sarah or even Rachel, would've been different...). Oh dear, I appear to have given my rant. Moving swiftly on...

Glancing through the Fitzwilliam Museum programme recently, I was thrilled to spot a lunchtime harpsichord recital. My mother adores harpsichords and I share her love so I suggested that she and Dad join me and Graham there. The programme was celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Arnold Dolmetsch
If, like me, you played the recorder during schooldays, you may well be more familiar with the work of his son, Carl Frederick, who compiled lots of recorder books for schools. Needless to say, the programme had a real "early music" flavour. And we loved it! (Though I was surprised to notice Ma's nose wrinkle up at one point, only to have my nostrils assailed seconds later. Still, I suppose that afflaetus causes less disruption to a concert than coughing or nose blowing...)

After such a treat I found myself at quite a loose end the following day (both Graham and his daughter are in deep in the throes of academic masterworks at the moment and both of them wanted to use the computer; it was one of those "I'm outta here" moments!) So I headed off to Ely, planning an idle day of rootling through the antiques centre and the market stalls. But I found myself drawn to the cathedral. (No, not the stirrings of Christian sentiment in my breast, just the call of an ancient monument and the joy of sacred space, no matter to whom--or what--it is dedicated). And as I went in I spotted a small notice advertising a choral recital later that afternoon. I had no idea what the programme would be but, as the admission charge was merely a donation on the way out (if you see what I mean) I decided to give it a go.

What serendipity. The acoustics in the Lady Chapel are bizarre: you will be flummoxed by even the clearest of diction, yet you can tell preciesly which singer is making which sound. You can differentiate bewteen each alto, each tenor. As the choir launched into Palestrina my spine tingled, and the hairs of my arms stood on end. As they moved into Peter Philips' ascendit deus, a praticular favourite of mine, there were tears in my eyes. That was the absolute high point but the rest of the programme was inspired: a couple of Victorian church pieces, it is true, but alos Britten's Hymn to St Cecelia; an e.e. cummings poem and, to conclude an American spiritual arranged by Bob Chilcott.

The performance, by the University of London Chamber choir, was outstanding and the Lady Chapel just amazing. If you've never been it is a cavernous space with white walls, flooded with light from windows largely devoid of stained glass. It is a wounded space, ravaged by Cromwell's followers who erased faces on the many little human figures carved round the sides, but it reamins triumphant. Cromwell's men left the grotesques carved above the friezes and the focal point is a modern, very sexy, statue of Mary (by David Wynne) looking anything but demure and virginal. Her hair is impossibly golden, her complexion improbably fair, her hips sashay (surely she is dancing) and, whilst her eyes are looking down (with token modesty)her nipples, pointing heavenwards, defy gravity!

It was, truly, an unforgettable afternoon. (The music so sublime that I couldn't face watching I'd Do Anything that evening, preferring to let the dying notes of the last piece echo around my brain).

What an extraordinary gift that recital was. Maybe concerts-- like buses (and men, but that's another story)--come along in twos.

How not to tidy your desk...(secret diary of a procrastinator aged 47 and a half...)

2008-05-28T13:02:00.004Z

1. Start on Friday by removing large piles of paper and stacking them precariously on the floor so that the desk at least looks tidy and so that step daughter can use the desk and computer over the weekend. Promise spouse (and self) that it will be your number-one-top-proirity-no-excuses-made way to spend your next day off. (Today, Wednesday!).

2. Oversleep on Wednesday and wake up with slight headache. Decide to read in bed for a while to see if headache goes. It doesn't, so try sleeping a bit longer... That doesn't work, and time now nearly 10am, so try shower. Slight improvement. Sort laundry and put first load in washing machine.

3. Decide that it would be a very good idea to check through all email accounts, ravelry, friends' blogs etc in case any replies are needed. Explain to spouse that this is really urgent and, anyway, it would be much easier to tidy desk whilst he is out teaching this afternoon, thus giving me entire run of study. (He can be so gullible). Unload washing and spread over clothes horses as sky looks so grey.

4. Brainwave! If I have an early lunch then I will have lots of afternoon to do tidying in. After lunch, realise that there is lots of afternoon stretching ahead of me, and thus decide that it wouldn't harm to have a bit of a break before tidying starts. Catch up with the serials in People's Friend (people don't believe me when I tell them that this is my favourite magazine, but just remove my watch from me sometime, and you'll see that its a prize from their "Love Darg" in 2000). Something in People's Friend reminds me of something I want to google for. In reflex action I accidentally log in to ravelry and go blog hopping. Discover rather intriguing quiz, but am shocked by result:

Take the Quiz here!

Horrors! I am sensible and boring. Now feel even less like tidying desk, in case I live up to quiz's utter misdiagnosis.

Think I'll begin by removing all distracting craft materials/projects from study. Might help if computer is moved to another room, too. Suspect main problem lies in the fact that most of the "compost" on my desk is unclassifiable. Feel like crying. Admit to self that real literary heroine is Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden. Most particularly in the chapter called "I Won't, said Mary!"

Help! Anyone got any handy hints on how to make tidying painless (nb please do not say "regular filing"). Oh, and there is a very tempting sticky choc cake in the kitchen but spouse has taken careful note of its dimensions and will know if I cave in...

Five Things Meme

2008-05-24T18:49:00.010Z

I've been tagged by Wibbo, so here goes:

The Rules

Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1. What I was doing 10 years ago:

Living in a student room at Essex University, where I was immersed in a Master's Degree which had the most off-putting title: MA Literature (Women Writing). I was also busy getting divorced, but managed to keep my sanity by regularly hopping on buses/trains to Essex coastal towns. I'd just discovered a rather wonderful yarn shop in Clacton (Bowen & Wallace; they've no web page but were at 72 Pier Avenue and were staffed by real enthusiasts). I'd also just purchased a lovely wicker hamper which was rapidly filling up with stash.

2. What 5 things are on on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

Hmm, well, there are things I probably should have done today (rounded up papers for tax return; laundry; tidied living room; sorted through toppling tower of books to decide which ones could go off to Oxfam/Amnesty and planted the runner bean plants a neighbour has given us). BUT both Graham and his daughter are writing to deadlines at the moment (L is finishing her PhD diss on animals in Southern African Fiction; G is working on a paper for a forthcoming conference on Geoffrey Hill) so I decided that the best thing to do was to go out for the day. So here are 5 things that I actually did do today: travelled though the fens by bus (Stagecoach services 12 and 9); paid my first-ever visit to Ely Museum; paid my umpteenth visit to Ely Cathedral (where I got to hear the most amazing recital in the Lady Chapel...more of that in another post); treated myself to ribbons and buttons; cooked a lentil, vegetable and potato bake.

3. Snacks I enjoy:

Twiglets, blueberry yoghurt raisins, crystallised ginger, oatcakes with peanut butter or with cheddar cheese and chutney; dark choc.

4. Things I would do if I was a billionaire:

Travel the UK and then world (picking up as many knitting, crochet and spinning tips as possible, not to mention a truly global stash) and fund education projects for women all over the world.

5. Places I have lived:

Liverpool (until I was almost 4 years old); King's Lynn (for the rest of my childhood); Manchester (utterly disastrous stab at a degree in Medieval Studies); Bromsgrove (living at my aunt and uncle's for a year, whilst doing a secretarial diploma...I failed most of that, as well!); New Malden (London commuting days); St Albans (whilst there I actually managed to get a degree from the University of Hertfordshire); Wivenhoe (got that MA!) and a couple of locations on the outskirts of Cambridge (Where I started, but abandoned, aPhD). (Hmm, this appears to have turned into "places where I have studied!")

Well, that was the easy bit. Now I've got to think of people to tag. Trouble is, I think lots of people have done this meme already, but I'm going to suggest Siret; Susie; Lyndsay-Jane; Linda and Heather...

UK Swap (Round 2 questionnaire)

2008-05-23T17:26:00.010Z

I've decided to take part in Round 2 of the UK Swap, so here's the questionnaire...

Part One: Crafting
Do you knit, crochet, or both? both
What do you like to make? quick things, quirky things
Do you have a favourite project? Anything featuring lots of colour and simple crochet stitches. I can cheerfully crochet dozens of corages, pots to felt in the washing machine and ripple stitch scarves.
Do you have a favourite type of fiber or brand of yarn? Noro
Do you have a least favourite type of yarn? Not really, but I don't use much acrylic or fun fur these days!
Do you do any other crafts? I'm learning to spin on my wheel, and I adore acid dyeing yarn. Can also be found turning wool tops into wet felt
Do you knit in public? If so where do you like knitting and what is your "portable" project? Just try and stop me! I go for simple crochet projects (see question re favoruite projects)
What do you carry your "portable" knitting in? A rather excellent small tote bag that a friend got for me at a yarn store in the US
Are there any knitting gifts (book, toy, yarn, item, tool) that you have been lusting over? Nothing leaps to mind at the moment!

Part Two: Your Favourites
What is your favourite colour? Greens of the olivey/khaki/lime/citrus kind.
What is your least favourite colour? Don't have one, but don't really like anything too insipid.
What scents/smells do you like? anything woody, citrusy or mossy and natural scents like rose, geranium and lavender
What don’t you like? that dewberry scent the body shop used to do, yuk, too sweet
How do you like to pamper yourself? (bubble bath, hand creams, massage, manicure)
Decidedly low maintenance, but do enjoy cruelty- free products like Faith in nature bubble bath (seaweed,mmm) and neals yard Cocoa Butter body cream.
What goodies to you like to eat? (chocolate, biscuits, sweets,crisps etc)
Dark choc, cherries, crystallised ginger; blueberry yoghurt coated-raisins; twiglets; those thin strips of dried fruit you can get in health shops.
Do you prefer tea or coffee while you knit? Any particular kind? Totally abhor coffee (yuk); don't mind green tea with lemon; like almost all herb teas (though not so keen on peppermint, unless it is fresh from our garden! Spoiled, or what?) Have also discovered that cider and G&Ts (NB not at the same time as each other) are good accompaniments...
Do you listen to/watch anything while you knit? (TVshow-Along, movies, music, podcasts, audiobooks)Radio 3, Radio 4, music (world, folk, classical), ER (but it really isn't the same without Dr Kovac!)

Part Three: About you, Living & Past-times
If you were a specific kind of yarn, which brand and kind of yarn would you be (and why)? Noro Kureyon: uneven, bit prickly in places, may unravel once in a while, but full of subtle, yet striking colours and inspiration; relaxes beautifully after a soak in bubbles. Am aiming to grow up into Noro Silk Garden: all the aforementioned features but just a little bit sparklier and tougher!
Where do you live in the UK? (General idea not address)East Anglia
Have you always lived here, or did you grow up somewhere else? Grew up 40 miles from where I am now, but spent a couple of decades in other places in between
What is your favourite place in the UK? Torn between Yorkshire and Norfolk. Prefer countryside to towns.
If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go? Most of my desired locations are North and/or East
What other hobbies do you have? Walking, picnics, reading, folklore, natural history, history, travelling through the UK by public transport .

Part Four: The Theme
Walking through woodland in August: cool, but with shafts of sunlight coming in; fabulous colours and textures (I'd slipped over in the mud just a couple of minutes before taking this); a river babbling off to the side (the fabulously named Murk Esk!) and the sound of a steam train leaving Grosmont station (we were in the North York Moors, on the outward leg of a round trip from Grosmont to Beck Hole and back again). Note the hyperbolic crochet potential of the bracket fungus and all those gorgeous shades of green.

Final Part:
Any allergies/preferences (fiber-wise or treat-wise)? I love surprises and I like tracking down my upstream pals at the earliest opportunity...
Anything we missed that you’d like your partner to know? I don't think so!

coral in the capital

2008-05-12T19:31:00.007Z

On Tuesday I took my completed coral reef contributions

and those of fellow KTog members to the Royal Festival Hall and was stunned by the size, range, variety and beauty of things that were being brought in from all over the country. But guess who was so busy being awed by giant crocheted anemone with a central flower made of dozens of non-applicator tampons that she forgot to take photos. (Rhetorical question, you know the answer...) Thank heavens that Yvonne, who went a couple of hours later, was more organised!

Whilst in London, I managed to pay my first-ever visit to I Knit London. And I'm smitten. I was a model of restraint leaving only with a book on spinning, 2 balls of Wensleydale Longwool (DK) and one of those infamous disappearing crochet hooks (of which you have heard far too much this evening). But I'll be back to buy more soon.