Flibbertygibbet

To one and all...

...a very happy holiday season to you and your loved ones.  I may be taking a bit of a blogging break to get some things sorted out, head straightened out, hopefully. 

Thank you all for visiting, please come by again soon - and don't forget to send me your snailmail address and other details if you're signed up for the January Swap, which is still steaming ahead.

And thank you all for thoughtful comments, funny emails, enormous support (both online and in person), beautiful gifts, blush-enducing compliments, rousing encouragement and lots of laughter since I started this little blog.  Hope all your dreams come true in 2007!

Flib x

Oh knitting gurus, where are yooooo

Ok, despite all the help Pauline gave me today, I'm still doing something wrong.  I'm going to blithely knit on with the second sock to see if I can work out what I've done wrong on the first one (we couldn't figure it out at knitting group, and the woman I got the yarn/pattern from said 'oh yeah, it's full of mistakes')

Pick up for instep
Pick up and knit 17 stitches down side of heel flap, K34 sts from cuff, pick up and knit 17 sts up side of heel flap, k10 - 88 sts, ending at marker.

I followed that and seemed to be going ok, as in at the end I had 10 stitches to knit - hurrah!  Except it adds up to 78 st on the needles, not 88.  The woman said there might be mistakes in the pattern but I'm not sure how to now progress with the shaping of the instep.  Gaarrgghhh.

Anyone got any suggestions?

So would you strip in January?

So here's the plan ladies (not being sexist, the boys are obviously welcome...) 

• Sign-ups for the inagural fabric swap are open now*, and to join in you need to email me, boutique {at] flibbertygibbet <dot> [co] <dot> {uk} or use the 'Email me' button above, with the following details:
  - your (real!) name
  - your postal address
  - your email address
  - your blog if you have one and would like your swap partners to be able to check it out to see what you're into, and I'll put a list of the participants up here too
• Sign-ups will close on the 5th of January, assuming that all the spots haven't already been filled before that - I'm keeping it to a small number of participants for the first time

• For this swap, you will send THREE co-ordinating STRIPS of 100% cotton fabric to 2 SWAP PARTNERS.  The strips should be 4 inches/ 10 centimetres wide, and the length of the fabric from selvedge to selvedge which will be approximately 42-44 inches, or 107-112 centimetres long.

• You'll receive your swap partners' postal addresses and contact details by the 7th January and you should send your packages off by the 19th January.  If you haven't received both your packages by January 31st, let me know!

The idea is that with the six strips of fabric you'll have at the end will have enough to make approx 10 blocks for a quilt, of the sort that I make anyway,  which you could mix with a neutral fabric, or  make a log cabin cushion cover or perhaps a patchwork purse, there's lots of inspiration here, here, here and here, here and here.  Do please suggest more in the comments.

I'll be setting up a Flickr group to show pics too, so you can show what you sent, what you got, what you made... hurrah!

 

FAQs:
*I'll add your name in if you already added a comment to the last post about the swap, but you will need to send me your postal address, and make sure I have the correct email address that you wish to use.  Oh, and your real name, in some cases!

- This is an international swap, so your partners could be from anywhere -  please don't sign up if you are not able to post internationally.

- Do feel free to copy the picture above - if it works - and put it on your blog if you're taking part.

- I specified 100% cotton as that's what most quilting fabrics are, and you should be able to find cotton relatively easily even at this time of year.  There are lots of online resources, plus you can convince yourself the only reason you're popping to the Liberty sale is for your swap partner... you might also have some fabrics in your stash that would work.

- Have a think about the size of the repeat of the pattern - will it only work as a 10cm strip, or could it be cut in half, for example.   BTW If you're able to rotary cut the fabrics so they are even, all the better.  Well, as long as they're not too narrow, any method will be fine!

- Ideally fabrics should be prewashed, but let your partner know whether they are or not

- If you're going to be late sending your packages, please let me and your swap partner know asap. 

- Though I doubt it will be necessary, if you'd consider being an angel, i.e. sending out one extra package if someone is let down, please let me know - Iooking for one on each continent apart from Europe which I'll take care of :-)

- And finally I'm sure I'll be editing this a million times with things I've forgotten...

How can something so wrong feel so right?

All I want to do today is knit.  A bit a like all Alicia wanted to do the other day was bake. (I admit I stopped reading her blog for a while - because I think I was flat out jealous of how wonderful it is, I realised.  I have stopped being so silly.)

I should be starting on the freelancing job, I'm getting to it.  It's such a gorgeous day, there's a little voice saying 'Actually what you should do is get outside and enjoy the sunshine.'

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that right about now would be prime consumer bonanza time at Camden market.  Very possibly, but I am at home on the couch.  I had a lot of thinking time yesterday, and came to some conclusions.

1. I was right to leave the market yesterday morning. Yes, I did let that silly cow get to me, but overall I don't think I would have been the sunniest person yesterday and who buys anything from a miserable old baggage? 
2. I was right to come home and try to make some more stock to take to Camden.  I was also right to stop. I realised that what I was doing was panicking and trying to make things that weren't really me, to desperately try to take advantage of the fact that's it's the run up to Christmas and many people are in the midst of that seasonal buying frenzy.  Because my heart wasn't it, things weren't quite working out the way that I wanted them to.  So I stopped.
3. I've been putting too much pressure on the my little business, trying to make one thing work and I need to be more realistic.  All I'm doing at the moment is eroding my own confidence.

So I made these, for an order for a friend.  A trio of vintage fabric wristlets, or 'Candy Bags' for her nieces for Christmas.  Grosgrain ribbon handles and pearl snaps.  I ironed the fabric and lining to interfacing, and put them right sides together with the ribbon sandwiched between and trapped on the inside. Sewed around the edges, leaving a gap to turn it out and then slip-stitched the gap closed.  Hammered the pearl fasteners on, the slip-stitched the edges of the bag together. 

I also made these, which I'm calling 'My Pod Bags' .  Yes, a little Nano just fits inside.  Or of course it could be for other things too - make up essentials maybe.  Only if you're very low maintenance. I was getting all obsessed about making loads to sell at Camden and then... stopped.  But I have plans to refine the design and also make "boys" ones, with freezer paper stencils on the woollen Ethel fabric.

And here's the knitting.  As the socks are for XH for Christmas, and he's going to be here all this week before leaving on Friday night, I had to tell him as otherwise there's no chance I'd get them done in time if I was trying to do them in secret, so I was able to knit them last night as we watched tv. Or he watched and I listened.  (I should just retire to the kitchen with the radio or some podcasts).

Wow.  Look at the difference.  I wasn't quite getting the hang of knitting in the round on the first one, and hey, I'll admit it, I've always had a problem with rib because I don't concentrate enough.  Hence the first one is just - solid... happily the second one has more of a rib feel to it... um...

I didn't say it was a consistent rib.  I just caved and bought another set of dpns so that I could try to get both of them to the heel flap stage and take them to knitting (with the pattern!) this week and plead for help.  I know that Jane uses the same pattern and she kindly said that the first socks she knitted weren't quite a 100% success. I'm just not sure that I believe her.

Will try to post more crafty stuff and less 'I'm losing my mind' whingeing stuff soon.  Plus there's going to be more news on the Fabric Swap. Hooray!

Mad as hell and twice as ugly

Well that's a lesson learned.

The conversation with the market organiser, two weeks ago, (just after the tornado market, in fact, on the 7th) went something like this:

Flib:    So I'd like to book one more day, the 16th of December.

MO:     Right, so you want to book the 9th and 16th...

Flib:    No, not the 9th, I told you last week I couldn't do the 9th.  Just the 16th.

MO:     Oh right, right, right [trails off, obviously fascinated by something outside the window, or hitching up her socks, or anything but running her business]

Flib:    And I wanted to ask you about a better rate [Flib's been told by other market traders that due to the complete lack of organisation - and lighting - all the other traders have negotiated a discount]

MO:     Ooh, well, um, the thing is we have to bring everything in, the canopies, the generator, the lighting... [Thinking - yeah, but not the footfall but what do I care about that...]

Flib:   I've had three weeks of trading where it's been dark from 3pm and there hasn't been any lighting. [Thinking - if this is such an unsuitable location, they why use it?]

MO:    Well I suppose I could give you £10 off for each week there wasn't any lighting.

Flib:  Thank you, I appreciate that. [Pitiful sense of inappropriate gratitude preventing Flib from thinking too deeply about whether she should be bothering with this market again]

MO:   So what are you going to do, send me a cheque or pay me on the day?

Flib:  Well I guess I'll pay you on the day [Thinking she'll deduct another tenner if she's piddling about in darkness again come half past three]

MO:  Fine, see you then.

So I get there this morning, and you can probably guess what happened... my friend Keith the Chocolate man, mentioned "the email we got last night" and the alarm bells started to go off.
MO wrote down my booking on the wind with her imaginary paintbrush and went off to La La land for the afternoon.

I decided I would be firm and stand my ground.  Surely relaying the conversation to MO would jog her mind?

NO.

Firstly she said 'But you didn't turn up last week,' and I pointed out that I was never supposed to be there on the 9th. But what really pissed me off was when she told me that 'any proper business person would have sent an email and a cheque'. Meaning that I should have emailed her.  Yes, if you are dealing with someone like MO, then that's probably true.  And there's my lesson learned. She was incredibly rude and that just made me think - why the hell give her any more of my incredibly hard earned cash?  Also during the previous markets she had been going on about this being the big day in the run up to Christmas:

PARTY DAY!! SAT 16 DECEMBER WITH  D.J. BIG ED,  Free Moroccan Tea, Wine & Food Tasting, Chocolate and Marshmallow fountain

Eh, yeah. Here's hoping it will be ok in the dark, as the lighting probably won't work again.  I had thought 'yeah, sounds great,' and was also really pleased that it was featured on Daily Candy, a very cool listings site/mail-out, as the thing to do this weekend.  And then was not entirely surprised but exasperated to find out this morning that MO expected the stallholders to chip in to pay for all this entertainment.  Funny how she forgot to mention this in the preceeding month as she talked it up.

So I'm almost over it all now, having spat it out at all of you - and I'm giving myself a kick in the pants and I'm going to go to Camden Market tomorrow. It's actually a little cheaper for a pitch, and even though it was scary as a customer, I'm going to go and chance it.  I don't think I'll do any more markets after Christmas but I'm giving it one last chance. 

Dear god, wish me luck.  I'm really beginning to think that the universe is trying to tell me something.

What do you think?

I've been considering setting up a swap - just a simple one, for starters.  The idea is that you send your swap partner/s three coordinating strips of 100% cotton fabric,  3in x 42/44in (44in being the entire width of the fabric, most cotton and quilting material seems to come that wide) which can be used to make a block for a small Rail Fence quilt,or a Log Cabin pillow, perhaps.  Or whatever other crafty project you might like, of course.

So my questions are:

1. Do you think it's a good idea, in principle?
2. Should I do it as a private swap on Swap-bot, i.e. I've got to supply the password to anyone who is interested and contacts me, or put it on there as a public one? (anyone got any tales to tell about being a Swap Bot coordinator?)
3. How many people would you be happy sending to - 1, 2 or 3?
4. I reckoned 3in wasn't too much of anyone's stash to part with - is it wide enough though?

Please do let me know what you think, I'd really appreciate your feedback - thanks girls!

Field Day

Yesterday was a great day. Firstly off to knitting group, where we had our Secret Santa swap. Lets just say that I am a very lucky girl...

Handknitted by the very talented Adrienne, I received a beautiful Mulberry silk scarf.  Snuggly soft, gorgeous colours, incredibly worked.  It's a little lighter than the photo shows.

I’d brought the sock to get some help with short row shaping – and forgot the pattern.  No matter, I’d also brought the yarn for the Louisa Harding mittens which were being knitted up as a potential Christmas gift for someone – but forgot the size 4 needles which I needed to switch to at the end of the rib.  So not the most successful knitting morning.

At noon we headed off on our little field trip, suggested by Jen.  After a couple of unsuccessful attempts to catch the 14 bus (the first one taking us only one stop from Tottenham Court Road to Centrepoint, as the idiot driver neglected to mention that we were almost at the terminus) Pauline, Adrienne, Jen, Caroline and I went off to South Kensington, to Christies.

What fun!  The staff were all charming (really really posh, but very sweet) and didn't bat an eyelid at our little gang traipsing in to the viewing for the 20th Century Textiles Sale.  They loaned us a catalog, let us wander around, answered endless questions, were intrigued by the fact we all know each other through knitting, and (mindblowingly for myself and Pauline) allowed us to take photographs!  Go and look at her blog to see the civil war quilt.

I adored these.
A PAIR OF LATE 19TH CENTURY PATCHWORK COVERLETS
comprising a child's coverlet of various printed cotton hexagonal patches,--44 x 31in. (112 x 79cm); and a smaller doll coverlet of the same fabrics,--12 x 15in. (30.5 x 38cm) (2)



The slightly squished hexagons measure about an inch across, and there are hundreds upon hundreds of them, all put together with the tiniest whip stitches.  No doubt some of those scraps are from favourite dresses, original recycling.  It's amazing how bright the colours are, and how daring the patterns - like the 'green fried egg' one in the middle photo.

Adrienne was particularly interested in a job lot of lacemaking paraphenalia and two sewing boxes, and she noticed that one had a secret drawer. 

Haven't you always dreamed of finding a proper secret in a real secret drawer?

As soon as I took it out and saw the inscription, 'Will', engraved on the front, I knew what it was. A mourning locket, which I think became popular in Victorian times.  Inside it contains a picture of Will, and a lock of his hair as a token of remembrance.  The woman at Christies was as suprised as we were.  It made me think - why was this hidden away, secreted in a sewing box?  Perhaps it was an unrequited love, or one that was snatched away too early, as he looks quite young to me. 

After all this excitement we had to make for the V&A and its fabulous cafe downstairs - I hope Pauline took photos as I know my little camera and my photographic ability wouldn't do it justice.  Well fed, we had to make a detour to the shop which has such fun presents, then went upstairs to the the newly opened textiles room and marvelled at lace, fabrics and silk weaving.  A grand day out, indeed.

And now, two hours later than intended, I must get to quilting! I got as far as pinning last night...

Now I realise

that this is why I want to learn to crochet. Or rather how I want to learn.  I'm also inspired by the beautiful afghan that Denise sent me, but it will be quite a while before I could even think about attempting something like that.

I'm talking about a vintage blanket, there was something similar on yarnstorm I thought but can't find it now.  You can find the 'Vintage Vertical Stripe Crocheted Blanket Pattern' on Bella Dia. I don't want to steal her photo, so you'll have to go over there and look.

But if you are the aforementioned Denise, then look away now!  Go on, hop it, missus! This is the crochet hook roll which I made for her.  I hope it's not too psychedelic, with the Kaffe Fassett fabric.  It has a ribbon trim which was sent to me from Pakistan, the flowery background is from a thrifted pillowcase, the top material on the fold over section came from the lovely Caroline, and the pocket for the tools is the aforementioned KF. Now I just need to get it to the post office...

You can all come out now...

...the whingeing has stopped.  Firstly, thank you so much to all of you who sent cyber hugs, emails, and offers of sewing machines (thank you Claire!) On pain of sounding like an Evening Standard journo,

THANK GOD FOR LOCAL SHOPS!

I had a phone call just after lunch to say that it wasn't as serious as feared and the machine was ready for collection, and popped the five minutes down the road to get it.  That turned into a free tutorial on how to use the automatic button hole, and basically they were incredibly helpful.  I think I may still go down the route of buying an industrial machine from them, but now it's not so urgent, plus I can use my domestic machine for the occasional bit of overlocking etc so I don't need to buy two machines.  All together now - hurrah! [Flib finally gathers up the last of toys she chucked out of the playpen on Saturday]  So the quilt top is done...

Next I'm showing a WIP and some souvenirs...

The WIP part is my first attempt at simple freezer paper stencilling.  There will definitely be more to come!  I've got lots of samples of this wool weight fabric in various colours, again thanks to Ethel, and I want to stencil images and symbols on it for purses. 

The souvenir part is the badges from The Reindeer's crackers, from Saturday night.  You walk in through a car park off Brick Lane, looks a little grim, and when you emerge upstairs it's a masterful concoction of glittery pink stars, blue lit pine trees and blurrily efficient waiting staff.  I was among the first three of our party to arrive and we decided to start with cocktails - the Reindeer Martini was Ketel Citroen vodka with elderflower, presented in a champagne coupe and decorated with redcurrants.  All very festive.  All very eye-wateringly elderflowerish.  The senior barman noticed the look on my face as my eyes rolled back in my head from the overwhelmingly 'cordial' effect - as in it tasted like it should be diluted with a pint of water, rather than making for a genial experience.   A second shot of vodka, proferred by senior barman, improved it no end.

You know, after two of those, I really shouldn't have noticed what the food was like.  But I went against my first instinct when ordering (dear god, when will I learn) and chose the steak rather than the risotto.  The waiter had called it 'a gud steak' in his lovely Scottish acccent.  Yeeeeeeeees, but only if you have a penchant for boot leather.  Ideally I like my steak blue or perhaps rare (I only order steak somewhere I assume it will be a prime piece of meat, basically) and to be on the safe side ordered it medium rare.  And then sent it back to be cooked more.  You know that old joke about 'How did you find the steak?' 'Oh I looked under the peas and there it was' - in this case they hid the dauphinoise potatoes under the steak because they were carbonised. By dessert I had given up hope but did try the chocolate and raspberry cake which had an alarmingly sharp fruit tang which was almost metallic. 

Next up was the cabaret.  I had hoped the (sound alert!!) Puppini Sisters were doing our show, but they'd been on earlier for the 4.30 show.  We were treated to Kiki and Herb. Eh.  It just wasn't a patch on the cabaret at Pigalle, say, but part of the problem may have been that there was just a little too much of Kiki and Herb.  Diluted, as part of a bill, they may have worked better.

All in all, we came to the conclusion that yes, it was worth going. It was an experience.  They got away with murder on the food.  But it was still worth it, simply for the sheer spectacle and the triumph of style over substance.  But that's ok as it's all disappearing after twenty-three days, the entire substance of it will be dismantled and removed, it's a pop-up restaurant.  Because remember, kids:  The Reindeer is not for life.  It's just for Christmas.

It never rains...

Sewing machine is very ill.  As am I, as a result.  The man at the local machine shop was very sweet because he could see I was on the point of getting upset - literally, sewing has been keeping me sane.  It turns out that the industry's definition of a domestic machine is that it's used for 30 hours A YEAR.  He doesn't quite know what it is yet, there are a couple of things that it could be which might not be too serious in terms of getting it fixed, but whatever the diagnosis, it will take some time to fix it .  That leaves me fairly ****** with lots of things cut out which need to be sewn up for next week - and more seriously, two quilts on order.  I've done the strip piecing for one* but it has to be cut and the top assembled, for Monday week and I'm not sure about the date for the second one.  He is going to open it up on Monday and give me a free estimate and then he's given me some recommendations for solutions - like a domestic but heavy duty overlocker along with an industrial flatbed machine.  I have to think about whether it's worth sinking more money into the business etc etc and whether I can justify spending £400.  Well, I can't but where do you stop?  Business seemed to be just picking up.

Last night I finally finished this dress:

- when I'd first made it, the zip didn't sit correctly when basted so I decided the bodice needed to be ripped and resewn.  That was back in July.  But now it's ready to wear tonight.

This is a bag that was supposed to be for stock. It's yet more Ethel fabric, which had the metallic spots and I quilted it to interfacing using metallic gold thread.  It's now a wristlet.  I've got ridiculous gold glitter shoes to top it all off.  Or bottom it all off. There was supposed to be sequinned shrug to go with it, but lack of sewing machine scuppers that one.

The sartorial efforts are because we're going here tonight. I am very excited about it, but the dress isn't quite ready and it turns out that I'm crap at hemming, XH missed his flight and will be back late and therefore stroppy, and I've found out that various friends are having huge arguments about how they are reacting to our separation.  One person feels that all his friends should be on his side, essentially, from what I can make out and has had a huge go at someone who's actually been a superb support to me.  Of course I am not supposed to know about any of this.  The accuser is the only person who XH confided in during the counselling and the others are anywhere from nonplussed as he hasn't spoken to them to really pissed off with him and how he's not handling it.  I want to run away and hide in a hole. 

Sorry, this is a huge whinge.  But that's just the way today/this week/2006 has been. 

* plus now I'm losing confidence in it and thinking that the striped fabric is a mistake and I should have played it safe with another flowery one instead - but the client liked the tomboy fairy one which is 'pink but not too pink'...