yarnstorm

The new green goddess

How is it that it's quite easy to spot patterns in other people's tastes/habits/knitting choices and fail completely to recognise your own?

Like Picasso and his blue period, I seem to be entering a green one. I have just been buying some yarn ahead of schedule (ie there was no other reason to buy it apart from the fact that, like Everest, it was there) and now realise after the third splurge that it is all a variation of a green theme.

This is the Noro Cash Iroha shade 74 in a fab crunchy apple green for an Hourglass sweater in Last-Minute Knitted Gifts.

 

And not long before buying this I bought 14 balls of Rowan All Seasons Cotton shade 217 which is called Lime Leaf. I adore all things lime and this one is great - not too acid. Not sure what it's for yet - the Rowan All Seasons Cotton patterns are generally less than inspiring, and I'll probably use it as a substitute in somewhere else. I've knitted in this yarn before and it washes brilliantly and is easy on the needles.

The third lot is Rowan Handknit Cotton in shade 309 for a Jenny cardigan in Rowan 37 - with bright pink contrast edging and buttons. This is aptly called Celery and is a pale pastel green without being sickly. The photo does the colour no justice as it has come out looking grey.

OMG, I've just noticed another pattern emerging. I've written about all three yarns in terms of edibles. I've read very little Freud and now it may be too late to save myself.

We watched Lost in Translation last night. Now there's a good knitting film - and even features a fetching pale blue scarf which no doubt the lovely Scarlett J knitted herself if we are to believe all the celebrity gossip. Yeah, right. It's gentle and reasonably intelligent and the leads look different - I have a real problem with films like LA Confidential where everyone looks the same and I have no idea who is a goody or a baddy. And I do find Bill Murray attractive despite the bad complexion - I love his barely-there facial muscle twitching school of acting. And after The Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (which, as the youth of today would say, 'totally sucks') in the afternoon with Phoebe, it was a cinematic masterpiece.

Bags of fun

For the non-believers who may have thought I'd just photographed the same side twice (that's my own wicked conscience speaking) here's proof that I have now finished the main part of the bag. This bag is in danger of becoming an albatross piece of knitting so I decided last night to get cracking. I sewed up the seams, knitted and fitted the bottom (less rude than it sounds), had a large glass of rather splendid red wine and bunged the bag into the washing machine with some jeans as per the intsructions. I have never felted anything in my life except, of course, unintentionally, and was really pleased to see that my machine got the hang of it quite quickly. The size of the bag is still causing great mirth with my family, but I reckon a girl needs a bag big enough to hold all her nail varnishes when she goes on holiday.

I'm now felting a protoptype rose and the handles - but am still faintly discouraged by the idea of 21 leaves and another 11 roses...

Rapunzel and the Rabbit

The Barbie Rapunzels couldn't be saved by their hair this time. They had no option but to fling themselves from the battlements of their tower* onto Prince Action Man on the ground who had unfortunately been blinded already by two witches wielding red hair spray. A giant chocolate bunny was hopping by and gallantly tried to place himself between the Rapunzels and the ground, but had his head bitten off for his troubles. The witches lived happily ever after, but the Rabbit's days are numbered....

   

* aka Laughton Place near Lewes, courtesy of the Landmark Trust who rent out all kinds of fairy tale buildings, mostly in the UK.

If you can bear it, there are more photos in the 'Come into the garden, Maud' album.

What I did on holiday (in no more than 250 words)

This is the second side of the flower bag taking a well-earned rest in the Sussex sun this weekend. I did in fact complete this part of the bag so feel reasonably pleased with myself.

What I didn't realise I'd photographed are all the mutilated Barbies in the background. My two nice, well brought-up girls (12 & 9) took about 25 old Barbies with them plus three cans of red hair spray and then spent the holiday doing unspeakble things to them. This is included sky-diving from the roof top of the tower we stayed in and several meltings in the camp fire which was originally made in order to toast hot-cross buns. At least they all spent the whole time playing outside (no TV, no computer, not even a washing machine) and making fires and dangling dolls in the moat (yes, we had a proper filled moat). A very twenty-first century Blytonesque break.

Good enough to eat?

Just looking at these makes me feel nostalgic for the good old days (ha ha, about two years ago) I spent hunched over my Bernina sewing machine with my reels and reels of Madeira Sticku and boxes of beads. I haven't even got round to framing these. Maybe by posting them I'll shame myself into doing so. The one above satisfies my sweet tooth and the one below is part of my fantasy of an allotment style vegetable patch. The little silver object to the right of the pea pod is a slug.

I learned all I know about machine embroidery from the lovely linda miller who is simply the most brilliant machine embroiderer in the world!

A dirty magazine habit

It's getting bad when you know someone who buys an imported, and therefore expensive, magazine just because of the front cover. It's even worse when you are that person. I just loved these macaroons - the colours, the styling. The whole food photgraphy thing is worth any amount of fashion pages for me.

There is a perfectly good textile justification for this ridiculous behaviour (she says to her psychoanalyst). A while ago I had a long affair with machine embroidery and most of my pieces were on food, fruit & vegetable themes. I'm hoping that this will make me get the sewing machine out and start again. Making and eating the macaroons would be a pretty decent second best, though.

Not angry

I am now concerned that, ironically, I sound as angry as the angry knitters below! I'm not, I'm just disappointed with the Crafts' Council's missed opportunity. And who ever in British Hand Knitting Confederation came up with 1950s kill-it before-it's-even-started name of 'Knitter Natters' which is the approved term for Stitch & Bitch, needs to be charged with crimes against knitting and knitters and humour.

I finally managed a half-decent photo of the cupcake markers from amy but I still can't do close-ups properly. Now here's a little light relief.

 

And maybe the BHKC could do with some of Phoebe's happy cakes (decorated by her & her friends when she had a Red Nose Day party for Comic Relief).

At war with knitting

The Knit Bonanza day at the Crafts' Council was so overbooked they had to make two groups, which shows just how much interest there is in knitting at the moment. The day was part of the events to go with the current Knit 2 Together exhibition. I don't want to rant, but...

1) I always thought of knitting as a rather serene, benign occupation (OK, except when you are tired and have ballsed up). But the exhibition seems to focus on the sinister, uncanny and plain unpleasant. I can see why some people may feel that needles are aggressive - but surely it's more to do with the knitter's aggression than anything else.

2) Anger is a weird emotion to bring into knitting. But there were some angry knitters there, and they were going to communicate that anger whatever.

3) Reclaiming public space etc etc and notions of 'guerrilla knitting' are not going to make the place a better world for feminists. Just take a look at old black and white photos and you'll see plenty of women knitting in public spaces and they have done so for centuries. As for aggressive tactics, why do we need any more negative connotations with knitting?

4) Many of the pieces in the exibition were machine knitted. Call me reactionary, but surely the current mood with knitting is all about tactility, portability, knitting in groups which means a ball of yarn and some needles.

5) It's all been done before - without the anger and with a lot more wit. Most of the exhibition needed to be explained. Go to the Matisse and textiles one if you want to be able to immerse yourself in textiles without having to consult a guide so that you get the 'correct' interpretation.

The sandwiches were very good, though. But I'm going to give anything with Bonanza in its title a wide berth in future.

Low calorie treats

These arrived in the post yesterday from amyville. I even started a new sock in honour of the eagerly awaited stitch markers on Friday, at the Knit 2 Together Knit Bonanza Day at the Crafts' Council (of which more later, when I have worked out my thoughts on it). Let's just say that the word 'bonanza' makes my heart sink anyway.

A chicken laid a little egg for me

A Babs or Bunty egg in all its glory and perfection. The girls are working up to full production mode now, and we had accumulated quite a few eggs by yesterday, so Phoebe and I decided to make strawberry ice cream.

We do like Nigella here as she is a game gal when it comes to butter, cream and sugar, and her recipe calls for 10 egg yolks. That's a lorra lorra egg yolks as Cilla would say. The ice cream is fabulous, but now I've got to make an industrial size pavlova to use up all the whites. Ah, the agony.