Flibbertygibbet

Luscious London weekend

At Adrienne's yarn swap, I delivered a baby blanket to the mini Pirate.  Total cutie-patootie. Another one went in the post but can't show pictures until it's delivered.  Also, um, forgot to take pics of the other thing that went in the package.  Doh.



At 8:00am on Sunday morning, here is where I was swimming.  I heart London Fields Lido.  Particularly in the sunshine.



Off to Columbia Road, for Climbing French bean plants. Not for me.  I can kill green things with a mere glance.

I fell in love with a print which had to come home with me. Will show you tomorrow.

There's a new shop there... it will be dangerous.  Even more dangerous than the cupcake shop just to give you a sense of perspective:



A light shaft illuminating the fabrics that were screaming "Take us home!! You waaant us!"  I was good. I won't be next time.



Walked home through the park.



Went to Wilton's Music Hall last night to hear the Kreutzer Quarter.  It was amazing.  Atmospheric building and fabulous playing.  Even a peasant like me could hear that.  Walked home still in daylight through the park afterwards. A perfect weekend.

Wollmeise - I get it. I got it. Also - other stuff.

Well, where have I been?  Away! And now you're going to hear about it allllllllllllll in one fell swoop.  Perhaps pop off and make a cuppa now.  I've been a busy bee.  On yarn tourism trips. Writing and reading and knitting and crafting and getting fit and healthy. I'm in a very happy place right now.  Yay! That's mainly because I've been subtly changing things around in my work life to get some of that elusive 'balance' stuff.  That means not taking shit at work essentially and now that I have wrangled my conscience around so that it is now acceptable [to me] to do my contractual hours, work hard and then bugger off, life is better. Much better. Plus writing every day makes my life make so much more sense.  As does shedding the fat suit I'd been wearing for quite a while - am halfway there and feeling very bouncy.  It's all very very good.

First, some housekeeping!  Thank you to everyone who ran a Race for Life, who cheered on runners, and who supported the iKnit team on our particular night.  With Gift Aid we raised almost £5,000! The little thank you gift of some lovely EasyKnits yarn (plus a gift voucher for his site - I'm loving the new Skinny Semi Solids) goes to.... Monica! Please send me your address so I can send on the goodies.

What else have I been up to?

Writing.  About to embark on this in June. Those of you who know me IRL, I'll be allowed out again in July, with a couple of exceptions!

Crafting: 

• Knitting: The Misti socks are still on the go, almost at the toes on both.  Also working on an Ysolda Teague pattern for the Ariel Scarf (she is an AMAZING designer and check out her blog at the moment for details of tons of fun places to visit along the Eastern seaboard) though doing it wrap sized in Malabrigo lace - oh, the softness! It's the sort of thing that you touch and immediately want to draw to your cheek because it's gossamer-like.  Never mind that it will take a while to finish.  It will  be worth it.  And will also require considerable blocking.  Also - it's working!  It's only simple lace but it's a milestone for me.
  
  
• Two baby quilts about to be delivered so no pics yet. 
• Some quick-fix steampunk jewellery for White Mischief with the lovely Lotusen
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Also with Lotusen, there was a trip to the Secret Liberty Fabric Shop, which I rather thought I'd blogged but it just shows that the dementia is rearing its ugly head again.  I made this skirt from the stash however, using Sew What skirts and the front darts, are, I have to say, perfect.  Though as it turns out I have a natural bustle the back ones a bit freaky.  Should have spaced them out more. No, you're not seeing it, you just get a shot of the front:
  
  
  
  Stored up for summer dresses are the following fabrics:
  
  
  And finally, relating to the title of the post, I now get Wollmeise.  I remember Klozknitz brandishing some at me in a most excited manner at the last I Knit Day, which she'd just scored from the lovely Yarnissima, and me thinking 'Oh yes, that's nice dear'.  Ah, the innocence of it all.
  
  Quite a while ago, GingerLucy mooted a trip to Germany to visit a handcraft market. That's right folks, a trip to another country to look at wood-carvings. Or something like that. With us being the way we are, we all immediately said 'Sounds lovely. Have you looked into flights? When are we off?'
  
  The real reason for heading to Sindelfingen was the pursuit and trapping of the elusive Wool Tit - or Wollmeise.  Lucy's organisation was impeccable, coordinating us all on the London end, plus she managed to liaise with a local Raveller, the wonderful Doris.  Doris was a powerhouse of a woman whose main mission in life seems to be to share the Wollmeise joy.  She was like the German Tourist board personified - she suggested hotels, collected us from the airport, booked dinner for the first evening, gave us a guided tour of Stuttgart, took us in search of spargel (sidenote: I've never known a vegetable to be so controversial and such a source or national pride - with England, Germany and Holland all claiming right now to be producing the world's best asparagus) and also acted as official translator.  She made the trip so easy!  She was also acting as a yarn Samaritan - mainly buying at the market for other people. 
  
  For those of you still think 'eh? Yarn? Whassat? Whassa fuss alabout?' the Wollmeise's shop updates are sporadic and deliberately unannounced - because the volume of traffic so frequently causes the server to crash and therefore it's notoriously difficult to 'catch' an update and purchase anything from her - especially for anyone outside Europe as her updates generally happen in the wee hours of EST.  That's why there was also two other couples in our party - from Chicago and Calgary.  Intercontinental yarn tourism, which was great because as well as them being super-nice, they make us seem less crazy! (B&E - you've already been across the pond for yarn... London's Calling for September....)
  
  We arrived early the first day.
  
  We'd been told to. 
  
  We gawped. 
  
  Oh the beauty!  Her dyeing process results in an unheard of vibrancy for the sort of base yarns she uses, plus she has scrupulous quality control and is extremely exacting about what she offers for sale. I didn't really understand the names, what was rare and therefore sought-after and good for trading, or the bases, come to it. I just understood The Pretty.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  See, we weren't alone. I can say I didn't know anyone in the shot above.  Mind you by then we'd purchased as much as we could probably carry and were sated for the day. 
  
  I'm lying, of course.  Next stop on the yarntinerary was a trip to the Opal Factory shop.  Although the shot below looks like Lucy is running into the shop, we were actually quite relaxed at this point having already secured the day's* score. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  After that we headed into Stuttgart to drop off Lotusen who was off to an important birthday celebration and a even more important gift delivery, which happily coincided with our trip. Later that evening we found a bar in which to watch the Eurovision which I'll totally own up to as my idea (ok, one point - the amazing Dita Von Teese doing a Debbie McGee during Germany's entry and they only scored 12 points... WTF??  Also generally we felt collectively that Germany woz robbed.)
  
  Sunday dawned and what happened - oh yes, Groundhog Day. *We did it all again. Well, there was always the possibility of different stuff... oh hell, we just wanted to go back.  Twice.  That day.  In my defence, m'lud, all of the stuff from the second trip that day was gifts for others. Not just pressies for me.
  
  

See that face?  That's after the second - ok third, technically - purchase. That's the face of happy, and it's not just from yarn.  It's always a good sign when you wake in the morning to find that your stomach muscles are still sore from laughing so hard for so long the previous night.  Finding that those whose company you generally very much enjoy also make perfect travelling companions is a gift. Where are we going next?

Just a quick one to say...

Apparently some folks tried to enter the draw and found they couldn't leave a comment. So if you'd like to be included, please either leave a comment or send me an email to boutique [at] flibbertygibbet [dot] co {uk} with the subject 'Race for Life Draw' and I'll add you in. I saw that some people left donations on the JustGiving site (thanks!) but I don't have any way of retrieving your details from there unfortunately so please let me know who you are so I can include you :-)

Draw will take place on Wednesday!

Foot forward

And one foot back.  So while I've been away (or not posting anyway) I've been doing the following:

• feet - chasing podiatrist appointments, attempting to be disciplined about wearing my orthotics, dreaming of not wearing fugly shoes for the rest of my days - pah
  
• a strict health regime - ultra low cal/low carb diet with 5+ exercise sessions a week to lose weight and ease the pressure on the feet.  Also remembering that this week is Tash's anniversary and it's partly a testament to her that I decided a while back that I wanted to make changes in my life.  Oddly after the first couple of weeks on this diet I don't seem to be losing weight any more but my clothes fit very differently (ie the big ones are way too big - so wearing a very odd selection of outfits right now) and so will stick with it for a little longer
  
• crafting!  I just can't show you any of it because either I didn't take pics or the goodies haven't been sent off yet.  Well, I guess I can show the Misti socks that are on the needles at the moment, it's my new favourite yarn:
   
• And nesting - chucking stuff out and haphazardly hanging pictures and tidying for visitors who are coming this week
  
  
  Probably have lots more to tell but other stuff is also making my mind a bit cloudy at the moment and I'm sure I'm forgetting news.  Importantly, Wednesday is the Race For Life  - please do leave a comment on the previous posts if you want to be included in the draw, and make sure that you leave an email address so I can contact you!  And don't forget to go over and check out Helen's draw too!
  

How you all doing?

I'm in the midst of Script Frenzy (anyone else doing it?) and also on a big health kick.  These things are keeping me busy.  So how are you out there? I'll return with news and photos in May, undoubtedly.  There's a lot of other fun stuff going on too.

Drop a comment on the last post if you want a chance to win the lovely squooshy pink yarn and also pop over to visit Helen's giveaway!

Baby steps

You might remember that I had grand hopes for doing some fundraising running this year.  These haven't totally faded but I've had some technical issues - with my feet. I'm going to take myself to the doc this week to get it sorted. 

So lets start off with baby steps, which will still be plenty of effort - the I Knit Ravelry Group are putting a team together for the Race for Life on the 6th of May and the sponsorship page is here . 'Race' is a fairly elastic description of the event as I personally expect to be sauntering with perhaps a short burst of plodding towards the finish line if all goes well. Whilst knitting. This will be interesting.  Ooh, what should I knit? I know what I'll be knitting with - see below... and with whom, hopefully if she gets let out to play early enough...

I think it's going to be really good fun and it will be great to do something with knitters to support knitterly friends who've been affected by cancer. If you fancy joining in, coming along on the day, joining us in the pub afterwards (that's part of the plan, right??) or adding some cash to the total, then please do!

As a little incentive to encourage you to mosey on over to the fundraising page, I'm doing a little pink giveaway.  **Leave a comment to enter**.

The main attraction is a skein of super squooshy lovely sock yarn - produced by the very talented Jon at EasyKnits and he has very generously thrown in a £10 gift voucher for the winner too! In theory I'll be knitting socks on the course using the skein I bought for myself. 

I'll do the draw after the race on the 6th of May. Should my sewing machine recover soon (mutter mutter growl) there will also be a non-knitterly something. In pink, natch. 

Trinkets

Keeping yourself busy is the best way to keep your mind off things, preferably in good company.  We headed to the Make Lounge yesterday for a wire wrapped jewellery course, with the lovely Merle who also taught the belt class.  After an en-route conversation about what constitutes personal style and how it evolves, and how to avoid style ruts, we were amused that we ended up making items that each of us would have picked off the shelves in a shop with 'Oh that's the perfect present for her'.  Although I wanted to steal Abi's too.  Hopefully she'll blog it soon.

I started with a pendant.

It went through a few incarnations before I was happy with it. That is, until I'd pretty much completely remade it. That's unlike me, I don't usually go back and do over but I'm glad I did.  It's blingy and swingy and pretty and shiny.

Most of the participants apart from myself and Abi made bracelets with multiple beads wired on every link.  Maybe we just were slower than everyone! I went for an uncharacteristically minimalist look.

This is on the go again. The first crocheted blanket which I realise to my shame is from April 07??  It has a drunken wobble to it, though I don't think I was drinking when I started it.  It's tapering in so badly it'll end up as a triangle. I'll figure out what to do with it later.  Also working on a couple of quilts - I'm more wary of tackling them when I'm tired as I tend to make mistakes that are more difficult to correct.  Also not as cosy to work on as this is - snuggled under it, on the couch.

Bellatrix toes

And the rest of them.

I love the Misti Alpaca yarn.  It's squooshy and lovely.  These are my first completed pair of patterned socks though looking at the sole, I kind of wish I'd used this yarn for  stocking stitch socks because I love the colours on the plain part. Also I should really learn about things like gauge or alternatively remember to switch to smaller needles at appropriate points as they are a little loose in the foot. They'll make fine bedsocks though.

I've been having a frankly crappy time recently - couple of people I trusted have let me down badly on some rather crucial issues and these have come to a head after many months.  I think I've worked through what to do and there's still the slimmest of chances for one very major issue to be resolved according to the original plan though I've already resigned myself to that being the remotest of possibilities.  The upside is that once one door closes you get to decide which other one to go through. Maybe wearing new socks.

This one does qualify...

So here's version 2 of the Very Posh Laundry Bag, all from stash.  Modifications?  I changed the handles to make them less wide - though the boxiness of the last one is quite appealing, the handles are a little wider than I need and so you just end up with lots of fabric bunched up in your hand. 



The bag is symmetrical, it's the photographer that's a little wonky again.  It's made with more Liberty stash and cotton sheeting. 



The one has a ribbon closure so socks don't escape on the tube on the way home.



And some of the precious Tinsel Trading stash ribbon (yes, stash!) to bind the bottom.

This one was so much quicker to do as I didn't muck up the side seams on it, necessitating ripping and restitching like the first one. Now just one more, and that will do it I think... probably...

Stash-busting - yeah, that's what it is

I'm going to the gym pretty frequently at the moment (the more I go the cheaper it gets through our work health insurance; it's making me feel a million times better including helping my back and posture; and as I'm already committed to paying for it each month it's like economising.  Almost.) I rented a permanent locker there so that I no longer get a second daily workout from schlepping all my gear back and forth so that kind of impacts the economising theory, but still.  I decided to make some bags to carry home laundry etc, rather than taking plastic bags from the gym all the time, and so trotted off to John Lewis for some fabric.  Cos you know, it's not like there's anything that I could possibly use here.  The idea was to get pure cotton so that I could chuck the bag in the wash with everything else.  I got some very cute Amy Butler and some chambray to mix with prints.

Then I saw something on Twitter about Liberty fabric and thought 'Duh.' 

As it's not like there isn't some of that around the house.  Yards of it hidden in various places in the craft room.  I have a selection of half metres of prints which proved irresistible in various sales, but I never had the right project for them until now - I'd originally planned to use them for quilting and then reconsidered putting the Tana Lawn with heavier weight cotton.

I used some plain cotton for the lining and some of the by-now ubiquitous Tikki binding (which Tiina cut for me on the day of the quilting class before Christmas.

The pattern was from this Japanese craft book and I'll definitely try more - both patterns from the book and more bags.  Next one will likely be a modified version of this one so that it's less boxy.  Oh, the possibilities...

PS thanks for the sweet emails and comments - the ex-mole is looking grand really.  Just waiting to get the all clear letter and putting the Vitamin E on it...