Flibbertygibbet

The moment of truth

I really thought I'd be able to join my friend at Loop today, where Erika Knight was doing a signing of her new book.  I need to exchange some yarn, so thought 'Yes, definitely, I'll be there. Of course I'll have all the housework done in time."

The moment of truth?

When I rushed decorating this cake (made to take to our friends' house tomorrow) and turned the delicate chocolate shavings into chocolate icing, as the cake was nowhere near cool enough.  And that was with about half the tidying done.  So I decided that perhaps a little less haste was in order.

Mind you, I still think it's going to taste good.  And tomorrow I'll be buying a small bar of Green &  Blacks to redecorate.

And then I do think that these look much prettier - however, I'm not convinced that they're cooked!  This may just be culinary paranoia.  But if presentation is everything, then these will win the battle.  However I'm pretty sure the cake is going to win the war.

Time Poor

When I first started to freelance, I was cash rich, time poor.
When the work temporarily dried up, I was cash poor and time rich.
Now that the work has resumed after the drought, which I filled with crafting and 1,329 new commitments, I am both cash poor and time poor (they pay late).

Ever so slightly frantic at the moment, and just about sick to death of plumbers - and tradesmen in general - who do a crappy job and then run off, usually making things worse than they were in the first place.  Oh well, karma will get you every time, I guess. 

Currently I'm proofreading a sex book, a sort of 'how-to'.  Luckily I know the other person who's proofing so we are comparing notes ("I don't think page 48 is right, do you...? I mean, if he's holding her there, then how could he possible get his hand/leg/[other body part as applicable] under there, and still stay on the chair?")

Here's a glimpse of what's keeping me busy when I'm not "working".

My first quilt for a little boy - it's about 90% quilted and then has to be handbound.

1 1/4 gauntlet gloves done - everyone at knitting group will be so relieved when these are finished and I'm no longer ripping back, looking puzzled, asking for advice.  A long tedious story, but the rib is 4-ply and the glove part is dk.  With some creative eyelets in between to take it from 70 to 38 stitches. But it worked!

And here's a picture of the lovely surprise I got from the lovely, thoughtful Caroline.  I had mentioned that I was trying to find somewhere that sold the Clover embroidery patterns - and when she found them online, not only did she send me the web address, but also this hysterical card, and the flower pattern too!  Caroline, you are an angel.  I can't wait to try them out!

BTW the caption on the card says: "Manhood," thought Dickie, "is a very serious business".  I mean, the jumper isn't that bad, really - but oh, the knitted balaclava, with the natty little coordinating button. Does the polo neck roll up, perhaps, to be a full face mask? And as he is supposedly a figher pilot, with the plane in the background, or is he just taking the dog across the airfield for a walk, with that lead in his hand?  I also love the judicious colourization which has not only been applied to the paper under his arm, to make it look like the Financial Times, but also to his cheeks, giving him the appearance of a rather girlish blush or having been a bit too liberal with the Benetint.  Ah, just too much to ponder...

BTW, sorry not to have replied to comments etc lately - as I said, it's been a bit mad.  But please keep commenting!!  It's so lovely to see, and I promise I'll catch up...

PS D - yes, MissMouse again...

What was I thinking...

Actually, I was thinking that I've always wanted to do this and this is the first year in goodness knows how long I'm not working full time.

 

So in November I will be...

• finishing Lucy's gloves
• making Denise's crochet hook roll and my knitting needle holder
• continuing The Artist's Way
• freelancing - there's a job sitting on the table waiting for me right now
• finishing the commissioned quilt (90% quilted, needs to be bound) and making a couple of spares
• making stock for, and launching my website and market stall (I say that so glibly!)
• knitting that lace scarf for my mum's birthday
• considering knitting socks for my husband's birthday but kind of hoping that sanity prevails on that one

and writing a 50,000 word novel while also going about normal life.  So expect a lot of blogging about shredded nerves, ripped rows, stiff fingers and a Jupiter sized sense of achievement if I achieve even the half of it. There are many ways of thinking about how to go about writing 50k words in thirty days - and without the benefit of the Thanksgiving holiday, which of course applies to most of the US-based Nanoers.  Some participants snowflake their novels, others research historical periods or rely on the forums at Nano to provide help.  It turns out that my method is much like last year's - I have some random Post-its and the vaguest of concepts, the twist at the end and some vague ideas of historical period.  I have also given up the idea of getting this published - some might say that this a bit defeatist before starting but actually it's quite liberating.  For one, I know how difficult it is to get published and writing solely to get published is a highway to failure.  And it also makes it harder to follow one of Anne Lamott's best pieces of advice - write a shitty first draft.  My only goal is to finish, even if it's 50k of utter rubbish.  I will use any method to do so, which will include random time travel for the characters, monologues, characters reciting their shopping lists, and subplots about anything from fireworks to Pocahontas to EU directives on appropriate shapes for bananas.  Don't worry, I won't be asking anyone to read it!

At knitting group this morning I had a rather lovely phone call - it turns out that when I was at Origin,  I filled in a form - perhaps a questionnaire - and I've won a pair of tickets for the next major Craft Council exhibition, Collect in February.  Hurray!

It's noticably colder here today.  Or perhaps it's just because we haven't had the heating on at all yet.  Not that we can as the bodgy job that the plumber did on the new radiators upstairs in the bedroom came unstuck on Saturday in a DIY nightmare.  I suppose we should just be grateful that we hadn't decorated downstairs yet, and just live with the big stain that now resides on the sitting room ceiling (well, that's what we will be doing). So I'm sitting here like a little grandmother with a rug over my knees.  Oh well, I'm doing my bit for energy saving week. 

PS  can anyone tell me how I save the Nano participant icon on to my server so I can put it in my sidebar???

How-to, why-to

I've been supremely lucky to have not one, not two, but three fabulous books fall through the letterbox this week. 



The Crafter's Companion - Tips, tales and patterns from a community of creative minds
by Anna Torborg (Ed)
Snowbooks, Oct 2006, Paperback 9781905005178.  RRP £14.99

Many of you in the online world will have already heard about this, as it's a compendium of the work of seventeen of the most inspired and creative bloggers out there, from all over the world.  As well as patterns for selected projects, there's details of inspiration and thoughts on why these women create.  It does seems that most people came from crafty families and supportive environments:

I remember being four-years-old, waking up one morning to a toasted bagel and my father setting up a blank t-shirt and several bottles of fabric paint on the kitchen table for my sister and I.  He told me to do whatever I wanted to the shirt, to write my name on it, perhaps.  To decorate it.  I don't know why he chose that particular activity on that particular morning, but I remember thinking what a wonderful way to start the day
- Katey Nicosia

That made me wonder about my own childhood. I didn't exactly have art with breakfast but I was taught to sew, knit and patchwork in school.  My mum knits, my father made amazing wedding cakes in his career as a baker.  Neither would claim to be artists because they are too modest, though both are enormously supportive of my current crazy endeavours which is lovely. 

There are certainly a few projects in the Crafter's Companion that I'll be interpreting after a fashion - as Anna says

A skilled craftperson may be able to reproduce each of these projects exactly, but a creative one won't be able to resist adding her own twist.

and I think this is very true.  While basic patterns in the book will be useful to me, I've realised that it's been a while since I used one.  I like getting tips on construction etc but it's getting to the stage that for accessories and housewares I'm making my own patterns, like I used to when I was a kid. The value of The Crafter's Companion isn't so much a 'how-to' as a 'why-to' book and is very timely, tapping into the vast networks of creative encouragement that exists out there in cyberspace now, which I think most of us have benefitted from.  This book is a little glimpse into the studios, the imaginations and the works of some very talented crafters, related in a sympathetically designed and illustrated book, which is wonderfully colourful to boot.

Of course, it's kind of preaching to the converted, but that's ok.  I like the fact that seeing it as a book legitimises all our blogging efforts - mostly in domestic settings - because I'm one of those diehards who perseveres in believing that there's something powerful and somewhat magical about paper products, if you will  - this in no way diminshes my almost-shameful in its intensity admiration of the internet, of course. 

I'm sure you know someone who will delight in this - if you're reading this, I suspect you've almost certainly got your own copy on order already.

By Hand - The Use of Craft in Contemporary Art
by Shu Hung and Joseph Magliaro (Eds)
Princeton Architectural Press, November 2006, Hardcover 9781568986104.  RRP £20.00

And then this stunning book is about what happens when craft officially grows up, a sophisticated, elegant look at how successful artists incorporate traditional crafts into their very modern work.  It's not about art versus craft versus design (that old chestnut) but acknowledges knitting, sewing, lace-making, embroidery as equally valid techiques for creating. Interesting to know some of them have also encountered resistance:

I have been knitting on and off for most of my life - my mother taught me when I was a girl and I knitted on and off until my early twenties, when I started to really concentrate on it along with sewing and other needlework...secretly I was knitting and making embroideries that I considered art, but I didn't feel confident showing them to anyone.  The first time I did show a former professor, he laughed at me.  Then I saw an exhibition of works by Elaine Reichek at New York University's Grey Arts Gallery. It was a revelation!
- Robyn Love

Robyn Love uses handknitting in her exterior installations (though there aren't many pictures on her site, and not as gloriously shot as in the book) which are only put in place for a matter of hours - when you think how long they must take to complete, they have an extremely limited time in the sun.  I loved Kent Hendricksen's blackly comic embroideries and Dave Cole's Bullet Proof Sweater - knit from 3,540 linear feet of Kevlar thread.  Rachel Cole's Claws and Yeti Foot Wallpaper - you just have to see it.

In this technological age, using hand embroidery is extravagantly inefficient in terms of time and labour.  So I end up with an object whose only value is the work that's been put into it
- Karen Reimer

I believe there's resurgence in people believing that this sort of work has value.

Refreshingly, there's no sense of 'oh gosh, isn't it cutesy/kitschy to be knitting' or any sense of superiority or indeed inferiority in this well 'curated' selection, of both male and female artists.  The layout is spare and enticing, the photography is clear, effective.  In summary, I think you need both of these books on your shelf to compliment each other.

Blackstock's Collections - The Drawings of an Artistic Savant
by Gregory L. Blackstock
Princeton Architectural Press, September 2006, Paperback 9781568985794.  RRP £12.00

As I knew he would, my husband loved this - as I did.  Blackstock is an artistic savant who worked as a potwasher in a Seattle restaurant for twenty-five years, and during that time he learned twelve languages from his coworkers because he has a gift for languages which is as profound as his skill at drawing.  He has been called 'an anthropologist of the everyday' as his meticulously drawn lists range from art supplies to the Great American Wasps.  He draws from memory though he also researches his subjects extensively to ensure that they are comprehensive.  Also beautifully produced,  a very attractive book and, dare I say it, ideal as a 'Dad present' come December.

I meant to add that my photography skills aren't up to recreating the beautiful images, plus I was wondering if there would be copyright issues.  So go to this page on Amazon and you can search inside the book to see some of the pages.  I defy you not to click it straight through to your online cart.

P.S. I lost this post halfway through and had to recreate it - please let me know if anything isn't clear after it's been patched together and re-edited...

Super Swaps

Look at this BEAUTIFUL brooch from Caroline, as part of a little swap we did.  It also came with some beautiful FQs which are just visible in the background - how generous and thoughtful!  It was a lovely surprise when I came back to an empty house, missing an away-at-work husband and all the family back at home.

Also received my final two ATCs from one of my Swap-Bot swaps - on major arcana tarot cards.  Both of The Magician which is perfectly apt. There have been a couple of exciting developments chez Flib, and I'll be revealing more in the next few weeks - or in the next few eeeks, as I mistakenly typed a moment ago. 

The Knitting and Stitching show at Ally Pally turned out to be more of a social occasion for me than anything else - at knitting group yesterday someone was decrying the fact that there was too many sewing and non-yarn stands there.  Then I was asked what I bought and announced that I'd carried away some funky fat quarters and semi-precious beads and nary a skein.  The most popular stands as voted by our group were Cherry Tree Hill, Sublime from Sirdar and the Colinette sock yarn.

And just freshly liberated from the post sorting office - two fabulous new books all the way from Amerikay.  I'll be posting about them later this week once they've had the time and appreciation they deserve, and the drool has been wiped clean from the pages.

Right, off to move on the new twinkle in my eye into becoming a WIP.  It's a fabric day so that gives me permission to ignore the washing up for a few hours.  At least that's what I'm telling myself.

I've been away...

...meeting this cheeky little lady.  Isn't she just gorgeous??  Dusty is my mum's new obsession pet.  Dad says Dusty is Mum's dog to cover himself when she's being bold.  It was incredibly difficult to get a good photo of her, as she's a bundle of puppy-tastic energy and literally bounces off the walls. 

I came home to find lots of lovely things in the post for me, pressies!  More on those later...

Spudnik

These little creatures are occasionally spotted lurking on the bus shelter roof at various points along the 277 bus route to Islington.  This is the most elaborate one so far, and the only one I've photographed reasonably successfully.  Why [are they there] [would you do this]?  To make people like me smile, I guess.

Progress

Here's what I've been up to.  If you're waiting for a swap item or a competition prize from me, then look away now!

Fingerless mittens - a birthday gift.  She loved them, hurrah!  And her sister has very generously commissioned a pair.

These are for Danielle, who I promised something useful for crafting. There are a couple of other things to go along with them, a pincushion and a needle book.

For Caroline, in a little swap we're doing.  Her blog is called Dolliedaydream so I thought of these Dolly Mixtures stitch markers.  (are these sweets uniquely British?)

And some for me, with the leftover clay.  The little bag matches my pincushion and needlebook.  Hmmm, is this turning into an obsession?

For Penni.

And earrings for me.  I didn't have time to make a new outfit for Thursday night so these had to do.  The round sequin is gold, though it looks silver in this photo.

Origin-al thought

A very pleasant morning yesterday was spent meandering around Origin (the hangover wasn't so much fun, but it was worth it for a great meal here the previous evening, complete with the thrillette of seeing Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall) and I'm feeling completely inspired.  Once the housework is done tomorrow, there's a whole list of crafting and creating waiting for me. 

Here are the people whose work I adored:

Janet Bolton - whimsical fabric collage, and I would love to take one of her classes.

Adele Thurstan - ceramics, with almost Victorian scenes juxtaposed with contemporary images.

Alison Willoughby - wearable works of art, and Alison herself was so friendly, explaining the process of making her stunning gold leaf skirt.  She said the woman who bought it chose it to go with a gold handbag she'd already bought.  Perhaps that's the way to do, accessorise with clothing rather than the other way around.

Jenni Wilson - incredibly cute, and clever - not the kind of thing I'd actually wear myself, perhaps with the exception of these as a pendant or brooch but I appreciate the concepts, they indeed made me smile.

Linda Miller - when I asked her what sort of dog this is, which features in many of her beautiful embroidered pictures, I was wondering if it was a miniature bull terrier, much beloved in our household and she said that it wasn't.  Rather it's the made-up dog she'd ideally like, but says that the embriodered one is lower maintenance.

The Bookery - a book in a bag.  A bit daft but sweet.  The sort of impractical thing that I rather love.

Melanie Tomlinson - she makes automata.  How incredibly cool is that?  As well as pretty butterflies, which are my own personal girls-in-white-dresses-with-blue-satin-sashes at the moment.

Julie Haslam - domestic bliss indeed,  which comes from the reassurance of personal culinary traditions and history, based on her grandmother's recipe book and reinterpreted as stylish textiles.

Sarah Grove - her jugs and vases are divine and might even have been my favourite things in the entire show.

Johanna Basford - stunning wallpaper and prints.  Lizzie Allen's wallpaper was fabulous too (her website is still under construction).

Grainne Morton - I've long been a fan.  Absolutely inspirational. One of those "I want to be her when I grow up" moments when you see those treasures in real life - I certainly want to make things like that. 

Ruth Singer - a wonderful maker who also has a great blog  which I've been reading for ages.  It was lovely to meet Ruth in person, I just hope she doesn't think I'm too stalkerish for bounding up to her like a labrador. 

Cathy Miles - I loved her sense of humour and coveted the 'Stu' on his postbox, fabulous stuff.  Another favourite from the show. 

After sheltering from the rain afterwards I made my way to Cooksons in Hatton Garden and bought some new tools for jewellery making so that I can cut out some new silver pieces tomorrow.  I like Cooksons for two reasons - they have no minimum order amount, and more importantly, they are really friendly and helpful.  You can also order over the net. 

Today I visited Loop again - twice in a week, it's like an addiction, and this is with Ally Pally on next week.  Although they had a customer there who'd been in yesterday - he was buying sock yarn and was wearing the most amazing socks he'd knitted himself.  He's been knitting for forty-three years, his grandmother taught him when he was five. There was a discussion about knitting needles - I always thought that the brightly coloured needles in my great-aunt's knitting roll were made of plastic - it turns out they are casein. Milk protein.  As the sock knitter said 'as eco as you can get'.

Afraid of my own shadow

Yes, sometimes I am timid.  I might hide behind an excuse to dodge a social occasion.  I don't ask the question that might make me look a little loony.  I cheer others but can't motivate for myself.*

I scurry off like a little mouse.

But recently, the mouse has begun to roar.  Well, certainly to squeak a little louder and bustle on her own behalf.  I've been detailing it all here so I won't go into it again, but when I was out for my morning run (week four, going well!) I realised that I am, in fact, still afraid of my own shadow.  Because as it loomed long before me, burned on to the pavement by the eight o'clock sun, I had a chilling realisation that matched the goosepimples that had risen on my arms as I pounded along the path under the tree cover -

MY BUM IS ENORMOUS!

Folks, maybe it was foreshortening, or a trick of the light, or my own skewed perspective but my tiny little football head on my rugby ball body was like a thimble on the moon.  I am now terrified of my shadow.  And determined to keep up the running.  And strangely (for me) motivated rather than downhearted.

Lots of crafty stuff on the way, most of it will be given away as gifts but I guess I can't post photos until it's all been received.  Which would mean I'd have to finish it, and post it.  I need to do some blanket stitch, button attaching, shrink plasticing, varnishing, assembling, some fastner removal and reattachment and some wire work and then photography, of course.  And as I also made up quite a few of those words, perhaps some work on my vocabulary too.



* a - bad hair day. There's a tall order social occasion looming so I'm having my hair done before it [another thing I dislike intensely but now's not the time to explain that one] so I'll look presentable. b - I really want to ask the local mounted police, who ride past here about six times a day, where the horses are stabled because I'm curious, but can't bring myself to do it in case they think I am up to no good.  Yeah, I look like such a crim. c - well I think most of us are good at that.  But participating in swaps has made me think that some of my creations are no worse than others, in some cases they're equally good, and of course there are lots of others who are infinitely more talented but that's ok too.