Clone me please....

... as I never seem to have time to do things.

Somehow I find the time to spend too much time being distracted by lurking on Ravelry

Whenever I mention it as a resource to others I ask them not to blame me if they get to spend too much time on it.

I use it as a means of keeping up with friends, and it couldn't be bettered for that.

We had a steep learning curve at the Art Room as we started running our sessions in the much larger premises in January. We are making a name for ourselves, and enjoying the process, but it would be wonderful if we could make enough money to sustain ourselves and then pay ourselves some wages.

This card was made for me by a 5 year old who attended a couple of sessions back in the spring.

Alongside my voluntary work for the Art Room, I did the usual monthly sessions for CamTAD now taking place in the Salvation Army hall here in Long Eaton.

As usual I went to some of the stitching shows.

Art Room commitments meant that I had to miss out on a couple this year.

Some of them were a bit quieter this autumn, but it meant that I had time to teach crochet in depth.

I have been crocheting more anyway recently.

Thanks to the prominent exhibit of the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef at the shows at the NEC, Ally Pally and Harrogate we had several people wanting to learn.

In September I had to get a new phone, and all these pictures were taken on it.

I keep forgetting that I always have a camera on me, and miss out on some shots.

I had the presence of mind to take this picture walking home from the station one day. Had I been at the Art Room that afternoon I would have missed it as it would have been behind me as I cycled home.

We did find some time to do some other things, and this was one of the sparklers we took along to a Bonfire Night party with friends in Derby.

Later on in November we had a week long trip to Poland.

This was the vaulted brick ceiling in a textile mill that has just been converted into ms2 (art gallery) as part of Manufaktura.

My camera was still in my bag in the cloakroom, but this gives a bit of the atmosphere.

Minutes after leaving the gallery we were drinking hot chocolate at Wedel . I can't think why I failed to take a picture at the time. Maybe I was too busy drinking it!

Alongside all this I did some knitting, but failed to photograph most of it. These are fingerless mittens for the other Mary knitted with more of the sock yarn I dyed for her alternating with mohair.

Some months ago ...

... I intended to show this, my fantastic (and still pretty much untouched) haul from the Hush Hush Handspun Hootenany, which I received from Lisa in August. The yarn in front is partway to being a scarf for me, although I might re-do it yet. The rest (fibre and Kool-Aid) is waiting for me to have some time at home, which might come when the Art Room is closed over Christmas.


... and then this, evidence of the fun we had at the Long Eaton Art Room for Diwali. We hosted the event for Erewash Borough Council. In previous years this was at Long Eaton Town Hall, and we went along with clay and completed diyas for painting. This time we stayed put, and about 130 people came to us. I broke out the fluorescent paints and we let the visitors have some fun. This was one result. There were also dance workshops and a performance courtesy of Surtal Arts.
... and then this: Bob visiting the UK from Canada. Back in the '70s I worked in the library at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario. For some of that time Bob was my boss. He retired last year, and with his wife Nancy recently travelled in Europe ending up in London. They arrived on a Saturday from Glasgow and were free on the Sunday. Ian and I took the train down to London, and showed them around a little. This grainy photo was taken with my new mobile phone, before I learnt all the settings for different lighting situations. We had supper together at St Pancras station and you can see an arriving Eurostar train in the background. It was good to see him again. Hard to believe that I left Brock in '77.

And now for a little knitting content! This was just playing with the phone settings. I wanted to see how well it would let me assess the negative version of the colour I was knitting. Looks like I still need to play with it a bit. More about the knitting shows etc. another time.