... quite contrary

Simplicity ... is what I am aiming for

2009-10-23T17:27:00.007+01:00

The Secret Pal 14 exchange came to an end on September 30th.
This is not the best picture, but here is my final parcel from Heather , which I picked up a couple of weeks ago.
As usual it took me ages to be at home with enough daylight to take a picture.
(Now I see it on the screen it looks rather too dark.)

What I can tell you, is that once again Heather came up trumps for me.
She excelled herself with this parcel, sending me Noro Silk Garden sock yarn, Black Eyed Susan seeds for the garden, the "Simplicity" soap of my title and the most perfect purple "Velvet bilberry" Jitterbug sock yarn.

She must know just how much I need to simplify my life, maybe using this soap will have the required effect!

While my parcel was languishing in our local sorting office I was at Ally Pally for the Knitting and Stitching show.
I stopped and looked at the Jitterbug yarn, and decided against buying it then.
Somehow this seems most apt.

The UKHKA stand is now called "Knit1 - pass it on".
We had a good day in a quieter position than in previous years.
Not so many school and college groups found us, maybe fewer were visiting.
As a result it was easier to teach those who did find us.
I even managed to demystify cabling for one knitter.

Meanwhile, Keila has been my downstream pal in SP14.
Throughout the exchange I found it hard not to let on to my identity, and had the utmost fun spoiling her.

I just realised ...

2009-09-29T23:12:00.006+01:00

... that I started blogging on 29 September 2005.

Can it really be that long ago?

Looking back ... little did I know then how things would change for me.

I certainly wouldn't have believed that I'd be part of the team running a community arts centre.

At that point I just thought that I'd jump on the bandwagon, and use blogging to keep a rough type of diary.

Together with my tattered travel sketchbook that was started in 1999, it gives a bit of a hint as to what I have been up to.

Optimistically, I intend to spend tomorrow getting on with a few projects other than the Art Room.But as you see here, the garden and yarn pull equally.

There is a bucket of reconstituted porcelain ready for me to play with. These were made about the time I started blogging when I had so much more time to myself.

And how about the spinning projects? It is going to be a complicated day, isn't it?

Then there is the backlog of laundry that has built up as we were away in Scotland last week.

So don't be surprised to see sliced pears acting as inspiration for all sorts of activities. I might even try to dry some.

Finally, I made sense of my camera ...

2009-09-18T00:14:00.005+01:00

... and can now reveal my latest parcel from my secret pal. Thank you so much - you got it all just right!And here we have: a fantastic project bag in bright colours, just my style!
Some fibres in a bright jewel greeny blue; some mysterious seeds (they came unlabelled) that I don't immediately recognise; and the most exquisite fine mohair yarn.

All this came recently, but I haven't been at home in daylight hours much recently, and then the camera batteries were flat!!

Excuses! Excuses, I know, but all true.

Meanwhile we popped over to Lincoln for the AIA conference, and took a side trip to Gainsborough where we saw this lovely passion flower creeping out from under the metal hoarding of a building site.

In Lincoln itself I was tempted by the texture carved into this stone plinth. It looks as though it would be really easy to translate this into crochet.

These are the latest socks off the needles: I now have a sneeking suspicion that the bright red wool element might not be machine washable, so their first wash was by hand. I will have to try felting a bit of the leftover yarn before I next want to wash them.

Recently ....

2009-09-08T20:00:00.009+01:00

... we visited Derby College that has built a new campus around the Roundhouse and other railway buildings near Derby station.There are new link buildings with the most amazing glass: blue on the inside,

whilst red on the outside.We have also had a few brief outings, including one to Manchester.

There are great opportunities for opportunist thieves in Manchester railway stations. It looks as though they are rostered along with railway staff and members of the emergency services to remove abandoned luggage from railway platforms! This jacket is in the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. We were there to see the Beyer Garratt locomotive centenary display, but this caught my eye; downy seedheads arranged on a fine mesh of thread. I've no idea who made it, but it has great impact.

I also visited Lincoln for the displays and trade fair at the end of the Association of Guilds of WSD summer school.

Walking back down to the station I saw this rangoli near the cathedral. I didn't have time to stop to talk to the man who was still adding names to the design. Doesn't this look fantastic!

The Art Room meanwhile, has a sign up, new windows are going in and we are slowly finding where things have ended up after the move.

And those promised images of sock knitting are still on my camera and the batteries need charging before I can download them. Pictures of my second parcel from my secret pal are there too. I should be able to share them with you in the next few days.

Slipping into bad habits ....

2009-08-28T20:57:00.003+01:00

... once more.

Having joined up to this round of Secret Pal, I'd had the intention to keep up with blogging.
But for the first time in a year I've succumbed to my usual virus, despite not having the time to feel unwell.
Good news - voice loss 1.5 days
Bad news - earache 8 days now

Best news - we are not open on Monday, so I get a weekend despite working tomorrow.

Knitting news - I have just finished another pair of socks in a mix of yarns.
Half Regia cotton/half some unlabelled sock wool - pics to follow.
Latest pair started in bamboo/wool - one row of each.

Secret Pal goodies again

2009-08-03T22:52:00.005+01:00

When I can I spend a lot of time in the garden. This weekend, amazingly, my one day at home coincided with good weather. All week we had showers of rain, often heavy. Leaving work on Saturday afternoon I got drenched cycling home, so wasn't expecting such luck on Sunday.

But before I get too involved in talking about planting out items, here are the goodies from the first part of SP14: butterflies for the garden, beautifully dyed silk hankies and the handcream to smooth my digits before embarking on the spinning. Thank you, Secret Pal. When I get a couple of other spinning projects out of the way, I will spend some time removing all those gardening roughnesses with salt and oil, as I know that sik hankies are best treated with care. I already tried out the handcream, and it is just right to use before spinning silk and fine wool.And now for the creative bit in the garden. A while ago I found some old carrot seed and planted it in modules in the greenhouse. I have been rather lazy about keeping it watered and yet it survived. For about a week it has needed to be moved on. We never seem to get on well with carrots as our soil is full of gravel from the River Trent in whose floodplain we live. These carrots having survived my general neglect have now had lots of care lavished on them. I found some mature compost and assiduously sieved out all the stones and bits of branches. This has then had more compost and sand mixed in with it, and been put in a growing bag that held early potatoes until last month. Tonight they have perked up, so we may yet get a decent crop.
As you can see, the butterflies felt right at home on our patio. This pot has just developed by serendipity. Originally it held some golden hops and nasturtiums. Several years on it has self-seeded plants some of which I cannot yet identify. But as they all work well together it hasn't been disturbed. We frequently find plants creeping in, possibly brought in by birds. Only the fern in this pot has its parentage in our garden. We are still waiting to see what the other shrubs turn out to be.

Monday - carpet; Tuesday - desks; Wednesday - internet ....

2009-07-26T12:41:00.004+01:00

... and so on. The move has been made, and we have an office set up as well as the studio.

Wednesday night saw the hanging of art work in the entrance hallway, and much tidying up.

On Thursday we opened an exhibition we are hosting for the next week, "Art at the HeART of Wellbeing".

Many of the artists were present, and since then several other visitors have trickled in to view the work.

We followed up the exhibition private view with an opening event for the Art Room from 14.00 - 19.00. Many people we know dropped by to see the new studio.

This hasn't left much time for knitting or crochet. I finished off knitting a sample of handspun and instantly gave it away to a friend, so no pics there.

Yesterday I was out in the garden trying to tame some of the geraniums, and came across these other flowers, some of which were a complete surprise. We have plenty of grasses scattered wherever they feel like growing:We have no memory of planting gladioli, so this was unexpected. It is really a magenta/purple colour. My phone has given it a much bluer tinge, and I was too lazy to go into the house to fetch a camera..

I haven't looked this up in gardening books, so can't tell what it is. I know that I planted it about 3 years ago, it disappeared, and has now decided to make its presence known.This hollyhock comes from seed given to us by Sylvi from her garden in the Czech Republic.

Art Room move

2009-07-14T19:39:00.006+01:00

I've been a bit quiet here for the past while, and all because we have been moving the Art Room to a new venue.

We have been in business now for a little over 3 years, and our rate of expansion has been phenomenal.

When we moved into larger premises in 2007/8, we knew that it was only until July of this year.

It gave us a chance to work on a larger scale, and that proved to work well for us.

The decision as to where we would be after our lease ran out has weighed heavily on us.

It has been a bit of a cliffhanger, as our preferred premises were not available when we had expected them to be.

We only found out late last Wednesday that we could move in this last weekend.

We had to be out of our premises by yesterday morning.

So we didn't have to do a two-way move via temporary storage.

Now we are moved, and frantically trying to set up for next Monday when we will reopen to the public.

The builders also had no access until this week, so we will be working alongside them.

The good news is that our new landlords walked through with the builders yesterday, and the builders wasted no time, and started this morning.

We have long days ahead of us to get everything in place.

We won't have a telephone line in until Thursday.

So in some ways it has been quiet, as unless people know our mobile numbers we cannot be contacted.

I have been too tired to think much about the Secret Pal 14 exchange, which just started.

I am looking forward to taking part, having missed out on the last couple of exchanges.

But please bear with me for a few days until we are sorted out at the studio.

I did manage some spinning last week when very much stressed.

Some of it was sampling a fantastic alpaca silk mix in "Think Pink" that I bought from Krafty Koala at the end of UK Ravelry Day in Coventry.

I have also started on spinning some fibres bought from Skein Queen at about the same time.

This may be a long term project, and just possibly the recipient may read this, so no more hints.

And now a reminder that I do knit sometimes. Here is a quick snap taken with my mobile phone one evening when fetching the washing in (hence the bluish colour). Ian had hung a load of my socks together, making a burst of colour.

This is one view from bed early in the morning, which may inspire some wire or porcelain - fine spider tracery highlighted by sunlight.

And the little bit of wire knitting I did on my way over to Coventry for UK Ravelry Day - purple wire with gold thread, worn pinned through a piece of porcelain I had fashioned, but that broke in firing. Now (when I get time) I need to make some porcelain with larger holes so that I can pin things on more easily.

Secret pal 14 questionnaire

2009-07-09T00:55:00.000+01:00

UK Ravelry Day looms ...

2009-06-03T23:15:00.004+01:00

... and I still don't have a Ravelry badge!

After attending the Ravelry gathering at Get Knitted back in January '08 I meant to work out how to get one.

So I am hoping to meet some Ravellers, hitherto only known electronically, in Coventry on Saturday.

One day soon I may even get round to a bit of a catch-up on life. My phone and camera have been busy recording aspects of both daily life and our occasional travels.

So far the travels have mostly been linked to IRSE visits with Ian.

We managed to add a few days proper holiday to visits to Poznan (Poland) last November, Vienna in February and the convention last week in Madrid.

The smaller technical visits are good, as I get to go along and see the signalling installations/factories etc.

The convention is so big that they run a separate guest programme. Last week there were about 90 of us guests. We got bussed around, often to the same places as the delegates who went by train.

One of the highlights was travelling from Madrid to Zaragoza on the new AVE service. We had a special train, and got a chance to be in the cab whilst travelling at 300 km/hour.

Zaragoza itself was fairly hot, and our tour of the city was all too brief.

From a distance we saw the remains of last year's Expo with Zaha Hadid's bridge making a striking contrast to the new Delicias station.

Many of the Expo pavilions appeared to be in stages of demolition. We were whisked by in our coach on our way to the city centre where we visited the Basilica del Pilar and the Aljafera.

Lots more to tell later about these trips, and now for a gratuitous picture taken in Nottingham earlier this year.

This balloon had only partially escaped the bustle of the city!

1129767 ... a very important number!

2009-05-23T09:49:00.004+01:00

Yesterday we heard from the Charity Commission that Long Eaton Art Room has been registered as a charity.
This will make it easier to apply for funding.

Lots more work to do, but we are on our way.

This weekend some of our artists are taking part in derbyshire open arts putting Long Eaton on the artistic map.
Do drop in to see their work!

Goodies from "The Knitter"

2009-02-18T23:26:00.005Z

After some thought, I bought the first copy of "The Knitter".

I had read several comments from other knitters, and couldn't tell whether I'd like it or not.

On finding a copy in my WHSmith, I leafed through it and thought there was just enough to warrant the purchase.

The only time I remember knitting a garment to a pattern with the designated brand of yarn was back in 1963. Since then I usually only look for schematics or stitch patterns to act as guidelines for items I design to knit.

So the majority of knitting magazines leave me bored. So often they have cluttered layouts disguising the fact that they contain little of interest to me.

This magazine had some interesting information about designers, yarn and tools.

AND they tantalised me with a text message draw for a goody bag.

I hummed and hawed, and approximately 24 hours before the deadline texted in. I had just put more money on my phone, and it didn't seem to be too much of an extravagance. (My equivalent of buying a lottery ticket, but probably with better odds I thought).

I gave it no more thought until last Monday when I emerged from a meeting in a venue without mobile reception to find a voicemail message.

Standing at a bus stop on a busy road it took me 3 attempts to make sense of the call. Then my bus came and I had to give up on hopes of making the return call.

At Matlock station just as my train was about to depart I found out that I had "won" all this:

So unbelievable! What are the odds on winning this?

After a bit of argy bargy (as the delivery company only had my home address) it was delivered to me at the Art Room, and I am slowly exploring my good fortune.

Clone me please....

2008-12-31T17:47:00.004Z

... 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 ...

2008-12-07T18:21:00.008Z

... 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.

It's way too long ago ...

2008-10-29T08:53:00.003Z

... since I last posted here.

All the usual excuses are ready, but it is mostly due to lack of time.

I've no excuse now, as the phone I got in September has a camera, so I can now snap those images I so wanted to capture.
That doesn't mean that I will remember to do so!

More soon!

HHHH questionnaire

2008-07-03T23:24:00.003+01:00

1. How long have you been spinning? What skill level do you consider yourself?
I'm probably only intermediate, as I rarely have time to spin. I have had a wheel since the mid '80's.

2. What kinds of yarn do you create (singles/2-ply/3-ply/art yarn)?
It all depends on the fibre, and wished-for end product. I usually ply my yarns to 2 or 3 ply.

3. What do you spin with (spindle/wheel/both)?
I have an Ashford double drive, and a couple of spindles, but use the wheel more often.

4. What are your favourite fibres to spin with? Anything you don't like?
I love Gotland fleece, particularly the greyer the colour.
I also like blends of wool with silk, and plant fibres.
I don't like artificial fibres, but have been know to use a tiny amount of sparkly stuff at times.

5. Who are your favourite crack dealers fibre sources (etsy or otherwise)?
Here in the UK there are so many (Wingham Wools, Scottish Fibres, Crafty Notions - for the Falklands wool etc.)
I love the fibres on Susan's Spinning Bunny on eBay, and like the look of the merino/tencel mixes especially in a bright colour like Poppy.
I haven't begun to explore etsy properly yet.

6. What kind of fibre do you want to try?
Some of the fleeces not available in the UK, also any merino/silk/tencel mix.

7. Is there any techniques you would like to learn?
I need to get happy using a spindle

8. Do you dye fibre? If not, would you like to learn?
I often dye fibres, or I dye yarn that I have spun.

9. Do you have fibre prep tools (and like to use them) or would you prefer ready to spin fibre?
I have carders, and am happy to prepare fibres.

10. What do you do with your handspun? What projects have you completed?
I knit, or ocasionally crochet with the resultant yarn.
It usually ends up as clothing for myself or friends.

11. Are you in need of any spinning gadgets (WPI Gauge, threading hook, etc)?
I have both of those, but would love a very lightweight spindle.

12. What colours "fall into your shopping basket"? Any colours you just can't stand?
I love purples and bright jewel colours (everything tends to lighten up and dull down when spun), and avoid pastels and pale colours.

13. What is on your wheel/spindle right now?
A wool/silk mix in rusts that I am spinning up for a friend.

14. What other crafts/hobbies do you have?
I knit, garden, make ceramics using porcelain clay ....

15. Other than crafts, what are you passionate about?
Gardening

16. Do you have an online wishlist?
No

17. Is there anything that you collect?
Fine silk yarn and fabric, seed beads, other fine threads in natural fibres that might be knitted or used in embroidery

18. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What magazine subscriptions do you have?
I would love to get my hands on a Japanese Hamanaka 2.00/3.00 mm double ended crochet hook.
I subscribe to Selvedge

19. When is your birthday?
June 12th, so just missed it!

20. What book or movie character do you most resemble in personality?
No idea, I've never thought about it

21. What is the climate like where you live around this time (need to know for careful shipments of anything meltable)?
Summer, which means warm, sometimes hot, but no need for restrictions.

22. Tell us one weird fact about yourself!
I remembered this sign-up just in time, on June 30th. I usually miss out on signing up for exchanges.
I'm probably late filling this in!

FavouritesFavourite painting/picture(link):
One that influenced me years back is Paolo Ucello's "Rout of San Romano", with its rocking horse like figures.
We learnt about it in art lessons at school, and could see it at the National Gallery.

Candy:
Dark chocolate with at least 70% + cocoa content

Food:
Blackcurrants, spinach, Stilton ( but not all together)

Drink:
Water, green tea, red wine

Movie(s):
Nowadays, anything with subtitles so that I can make sense of it.

TV Show(s):
Dr Who, Grand Designs, coverage of Glastonbury, Six Feet Under ...

Book(s):
Usually detective stories, but it must break down into short parts as I rarely get to read until I'm in bed and drifting off to sleep.

Guilty Pleasure(s): Laceweight wool/silk knitting yarn in purples

An away day, then a day in the garden

2008-06-15T23:14:00.005+01:00

A Saturday away from the Art Room. Finally, a day to enjoy on my own.

I woke early, but was too lazy to rush for the first train to London.

So I took the next one, arriving at St. Pancras round about 09.30.

Took the tube to East Putney, then strolled along to Stash only to find that I was 1/2 hour early. On the previous occasion that I tried to visit, a couple of years ago during a break in a conference, I arrived just after it closed on the Saturday and could only peer in through the window.

I went into the cemetery park behind the store to relax and wait for it to open.
There I came across Jackie and her dog "Lady".
We had a good chat, and I failed to get any more crocheting done.

I am using some handspun wool/silk mix using a complicated pattern, and am only on the third repeat having started it a month ago, so haven't memorised it yet.

At 11.00, I went to the store and found Nic was in, but teaching a sock class. I looked around, and it was so good to handle yarns I had only heard about. Although I see some at the shows, it isn't a relaxing environment to take stock of them then.

I ended up teaching Nathalie a slip stitch that I use a lot.

This is the only image I could find just now. (I must make a good sample and photograph it.)
I first found this stitch in a Swiss pattern book in 1971/2, and have only seen it a couple of times since, always in German publications.
It is great for colour mixing, and makes a warm fabric.

My lunch was a muesli bar from Mei's place a few doors down from Stash.

Leaving Putney I took the train to Waterloo and hunted down "I knit London".

Instinct should have taken me straight there, but I got a bit confused by the apparent number of sides that the station has. I arrived to find a small crowd that included Sue.
It soon got busy as people returned from the WWKIP treasure hunt they had run earlier in the day.

I did my best to browse the shelves, but gave up as it was hard to see them for the people. It was good to see that they have some Habu yarns.

Moving on, I loitered briefly in the Leake Street tunnel under the station. Crowds of people were there looking at what is left of the "Cans Festival" (stencilled art) held at the end of May.

This was just a brief interlude on my way to the Hayward Gallery to see the hyperbolic reef . This left a short while to visit the Royal Festival Hall for the British part of the reef, before heading back to St. Pancras and home.

There are too many inspiring parts to these reefs. What a pity that I had no camera with me.

Today I stayed at home, did laundry, re-found part of the path around the lawn and made bread. In the course of the day I cut back many hardy geraniums, and took samples of the flowers into the house in a shallow bowl. I could do with many more days like these!
This close-up shows one that grows under the back door step. The petals never open out, and the colour is such a deep pink.

April 30th is often a memorable day....

2008-05-11T13:14:00.006+01:00

... and this year was no exception.

Twice in my life, it was the final day of a contract at work, and both times brought about major changes to what I was doing.

In 1972, I finished working a winter season in the dining room of the Hotel Hohe Promenade in Arosa, Switzerland.

The next day I travelled down from the mountains, and encountered a change from late winter straight to late spring.

In 1977, I worked my last day as supervisor of the circulation department in the library at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario.

The following day I started to pack up my apartment ready for taking a ship home later in the month.

This year I took part in a day workshop on freeform with Prudence Mapstone.

Eleven of us gathered at Pauline's house for a day of fun.

Having remembered to take my camera along, I did document the day a little .

But most of the time we were busy with needles and hooks.

We started off looking at some garments Prudence had brought over with her.

Ildi modelled this coat to great effect.

By lunchtime we had all started knitting and crocheting, but were reluctant to pause for long.

Those of us working in the dining room came out to the larger group in the conservatory to see what they had made so far.

Towards four we put all our pieces together to give an idea of how a garment could be pieced. Once on the table it seemed to amount to very little.

Prudence pointed out just how she would join such disparate pieces together.
The pieces are set out on the full size pattern pieces for the garment before being sewn together.

As we prepared to leave, Prudence modelled some more garments, but I was so busy looking that I failed to take more than this one picture.

This shawl is long and narrow, leaving the arms free to move freely whilst adding warmth to the body.

During the day there were many "April showers" including some hail, but apart from the dimming of the daylight and some noisy sound effects we weren't bothered by it.

Before going, I had checked out when I had first come across freeform. It was in 1991 when I attended a workshop with James Walters and Sylvia Cosh. Since then I have used scrumbling ocasionally, but never to make a complete garment.

p.s. My voice is back! I've had it back for a week now. This time around I was without it for 6 weeks.

Silenced for too long

2008-04-03T17:08:00.002+01:00

Silence is fun, but not when it is forced on me.
Yes, I have the first cold of this winter, and as in the past few years it has killed my voice off.
Today is day 9, and I am trying not to put myself in the situation where I have to talk.

This is a bit hard, as I need to be at the Art Room doing things all the time.

In fact being at the Art Room is the norm now.
I did creep away for a couple of days to be at the stitching shows at the NEC and Olympia during the last couple of weeks.

This week we celebrated our 2nd birthday on Tuesday (April 1st).
We had our Have-A-Go-Day on Sunday, and it went well.

Quite a few new people came down to see us, which was good.
The next couple of weeks are the school holidays here in Derbyshire, and we will be running a series of kids workshops.
I will stay on the non workshop side of the barrier coping with all other comers.

Must head off now to walk back to run the evening session.
It is pretty warm, and I can go along the canal towpath knowing that I will be getting a lift back home when we close at 9.

More catching up soon, I promise.

A cool start

2008-02-20T23:56:00.004Z

Yesterday we woke up to find that the whole landscape had been gently frosted overnight.

This was the view from the bedroom when I got up.

With any luck, this being about the third hard frost in a week will have killed off all those lurking diseases in the soil.

The view out on to the road was almost as exciting. Not only the cars but the road surface had suffered. My Tuesday morning walk to catch the train into Nottingham was a bit slower than usual, and I just missed my train. Later on, at lunchtime my ten minute cycle ride to the Art Room was fairly comfortable, but I began to wish that I had taken a hat. The canal has partly frozen over, and there were a group of uncomfortable looking ducks trying to work out why they could stand on the water.

It is half-term holiday time again, and we are running a series of children's workshops. We have divided the studio, and I am staying on the adult's side as we are running the normal open studio sessions too. So far, so good but it still makes for a tiring day whether you are actively with the children or not.

This morning it was brighter with little visible frost, but the water for the birds was frozen solid. A robin was on the bird table looking very picturesque, but had gone before I could fetch a camera.

Famous for a few minutes, today!!

2008-02-07T17:20:00.000Z

Last week, I heard that I had been nominated for a Derby Evening Telegraph Community Champions award.
First of all there was the telephone interview, then the press photographer, then today at about 11.20, a live 2 minute slot on BBC Radio Derby together with the other Mary.

From checking the DET website just now, I assume that the piece is in the paper tonight.
so, if you are interested in a slightly exaggerated bit about the Long Eaton Art Room, check out this!
The photo shows me and the other Mary in the compact storage.
I am on the right of the picture.

Beaded wire jewellery workshop at Long Eaton Art Room this Sunday

2008-02-01T20:36:00.001Z

Here is a final reminder that we are running a beaded wire jewellery workshop this Sunday, February 3rd.

Josie Jenkins and I will be showing ways that wire can be combined with beads, either crocheted or knitted to make jewellery.

It will be held in the new (and much more spacious) premises of Long Eaton Art Room.
For those of you who have visited us before, it is at the bottom end of Leopold Street, about 200 yards further down the road to the left of the (closed) gate into the park.

The workshop will run from 10.00 - 16.00, and will cost £25.00.

Tea and coffee will be available all day, but please bring your own lunch.

Please ring 0115 946 1661 or check out our website for more details:
www.leartroom.co.uk

A great start to the year

2008-01-06T17:25:00.000Z

Actually, this was really last year, but who's counting?

A parcel arrived from Emma in France on New Year's Eve just as we were leaving for a day visit to London.

Although I opened it late that evening, I didn't have a chance to really enjoy it until New Year's Day.

In it was the most fantastic set of bags for my knitting, and some lovely Phildar yarn.

Emma has been busy sewing, and knowing my weakness for purple has made me a reversible tote bag, and a small project bag.

This photo hardly shows the Phildar lambswool 51 yarn, which is in the Clematite 0204 colour.

The colour is a subtle variation on purples. I might need to brighten it up with something else.

We had a great day in London, visiting Ian's brother and his family. After lunch at their home, we all travelled in to Charing Cross by train, and walked over to the South Bank. This was at 18.00, so the crowds hadn't started for the fireworks later on.

We all had supper at Tas Pide near the Globe, and then went our separate ways for trains home.

Later Ian and I watched the London fireworks on the TV.

Wednesday saw me travelling down to Luton to meet up with the knitters at the Whitehouse. Jenn was my spoiler in the latest round of Secret Pal, and she has set up a regular Wednesday lunchtime knitting meet up in the centre of Luton. It was lovely to meet with Jenn, Martina and Lizzie. We had a chance to swap some ideas about knitting, crochet and spinning.

Thursday saw me back at the Art Room for some of the back scenes work associated with our move. (I managed to get the old premises vacated and vacuumed on Dec 28th.)

As we hadn't been in properly since Dec 21st, it was cold at 5 C.

I wore long underwear and worked in my jacket to start sorting out all the stuff carried over from the stockroom. some had been put in the compact storage as it was brought down the road. More of it had just been placed on the nearest bit of floor in the new unit.

Much of this 3 day rearrangement meant taking everything off the shelving so that I could adjust the spacing, and then replacing it in the order I think will work for us.

Now all I need to do is list the location of everything.

This won't be such a hard task, as I had already listed most of it at the old unit.

By the third day I was quite comfortable without the jacket.

That was such a change from shivering on the Thursday.

Tomorrow morning we open to the public for the first time this year.

We have changed our opening hours, and will be open from 09.00 - 12.00, 13.00 - 16.00 Mon to Sat.

Wednesday and Thursday evenings we will also be open from 18.00 - 21.00.

At least now we have a landline and internet access in the Art Room, so are much more approachable.

We are busy planning a varied programme for the year, check the website for more information.

Exchanges

2007-12-24T13:02:00.000Z

Suddenly it is nearly the end of the year, and here is a little about a couple of exchanges I have taken part in.

I can now reveal my downstream pal in SP11. Despite releasing the parcel into the Christmas post, the final reveal has happened. Gisela lives in northern Germany, near the border with the Netherlands. Rather like Jenn did for me, I managed to find exactly the yarn that Gisela had looked at. We even went to the same shop about a month apart, and picked out the same items. I didn't know that she had been there.

The Online Guild has had a stash exchange in December. I received this fantastic parcel from Doreen in Wales. The box has been tied with paper string in two shades.Inside the box is a selection of fibres, yarns and fabric, mostly indigo dyed.

Accompanying it is a list of the items with information about how they have been dyed.

Some items were dyed with fresh leaves (home-grown) of Japanese indigo (Polygonum Tinctoria).

This surely is much more satisfying than the selection boxes containing chocolates that we were given as children. It will certainly last much longer.

And then there is the other exchange that has taken up so much of my time lately. Here in Long Eaton, the Art Room has been moving into much larger premises. We have the opportunity to expand, and to provide more opportunities for local artists whatever their experience. For the first time we will be able to make all our equipment available, without having to constantly shift things around. Of course it will mean more work, but mostly it will be FUN!!
I want a couple of days at home, then to get back in there to organize all the items that have just been moved into the new premises. All of this must happen before a private party on 6th January, and we open to the public again on 7th January 2008.

I've been at home during daylight hours!!

2007-12-11T19:00:00.000Z

And now you can see the tremendous bounty I received from my upstream Secret Pal, Jenn.

The parcel came towards the end of November, but I was never home for long enough to take photos.

So, here we have an overview of the contents, which were all wrapped beautifully in tissue paper.

And now for a few close-ups: Firstly some pretty notelets and "The Friday Night Knitting Club". All I need is a bit of time to read!Secondly, the sweetest Santa I have seen in ages. I forgot to take a close-up of the seasonal teatowels.And lastly, some yarn. I really think that Jenn is a mind reader. I had just been at Harrogate, and at the last minute bought two skeins of this lovely laceweight alpaca. I wasn't sure whether to get two or three. Along with it is a skein of Araucania Ranco Multi ina fantastic blue mix. Just a few days earlier I had been disappointed not to win one of these on eBay.Now I must get on with making up a second bed in our guest room, as tonight we have two friends staying with us.