Flibbertygibbet

Words, words, words

I needed a laugh this morning and found this in my inbox.  Enjoy (as much as I did, which translates to honking with laughter over my Special K) x

Mensa asked its members to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. The 2005 winners are:

• Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
• Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.
• Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
• Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
• Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
• Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high
• Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
• Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
• Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
• Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
• Karmageddon: It's when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, and then the Earth explodes and it's a serious bummer.
• Decafalon (n.): The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
• Glibido: All talk and no action.
• Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
• Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
• Caterpallor (n.): The colour you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.

It's tea-time!

Actually it's a little past elevenses - or is it almost lunch?  I got up late, my circadian rhythms are all out.  The postman came with a HUGE box, which contained these precious goodies - hurrah, my first swap has been a success!

Lost and found

Just lost a long post - ack, it was dull!  Here's what I've been up to, in pictures as much as in words. 

Is the hat supposed to have the pixiesque acorn top?  No.  I considered either sewing it in, or attaching pompoms to it.  Both options are still on the table. And both are unlikely, let's be honest.  I'm just happy I knit something-that-isn't-a-scarf.

Is this the same glove as before?  No, and yes there are two. Now, I'm not saying that they actually match (whoops, missed a couple of lines out of the pattern so one has eyelets and the other one doesn't!) but there may be some sort of embellishment on the way.  As someone pointed out yesterday at SNB, they are certainly unique now (even being distinct from each other) and I liked that perspective.

The pincushions are pressies and there are quite a few more WIPs at an advanced stage. Right now though I must reluctantly return to some work that pays some bills - or at least buys my ticket for the Knitting Show at Ally Pally.  So will get on with things, and hope to resume our regular schedule of programming soon x

Vice Versa - I want what you've got...

Some time ago, in a quaintly musty bookshop in Devon, I picked up this:

It's old school, proper dressmaking and teaches you about the components of tailoring (and should I ever feel the need to make my own lingerie, I am now fully theoretically equipped)  I put it aside for a while as I am crafting more than dressmaking at the moment though that is about to change. 

On the back it lists a companion volume called Dress Pattern Designing - The Basics of Principle and Fit and I thought 'Wow, I would love to get my hands on a copy of that...' I was reading through Caroline's lovely blog and lo and behold... on the 25th July she posted about having found the first volume and looking for the second!  Small small world, I guess...

* with a bit more research I've found that these books are still in print which is incredible.  I think they are on the fourth edition now...

Glovely stuff

Ah, after only a little solicitation of cyber-karma, two phone calls to Mother, and staying up to a ridiculously late hour, I have completed [the knitting part]{of one half of} my first Not-A-Scarf Knitting Project!  I wasn't sure what most of the instructions meant but I figured it out.  After a LOT of ripping.  I also didn't count the rows in the rib so well so I think it's longer than it should be, but that's ok as long as I match the next one.  The cast off is little tight, I will make it looser for the left mitt.  Just have to do the second one, sew them up, and put the ribbon through... but when I say that it makes it sound like a lot!  Today I have to complete a freelance job that's hanging over my head so that I can get back to knitting...

Inexplicably my feet were really cold last night when i was curled up on the sofa.  Then the mog came and placed her little paws on my iceblocks and warmed them up.  Awwwww. 

K2, P2, R2 or 3 rows

Thank god for the kindness of almost strangers - well, ok, not strangers exactly, it's not like I randomly approached people on the street asking for knitting advice.  I went to a knitting group in town yesterday, having legged it to John Lewis beforehand and splurged on some Louisa Harding yarn and her accessories book - and I'm making the garden mittens, to satisfy my urge for wristwarmers.  I was asking advice in John Lewis and said 'I'm a beginner, I'm making gloves' - meaning sleeveless gloves, gauntlets, and the woman's well-plucked eyebrows shot up into her hairline before she regained her JL composure, and I corrected myself.  I suppose that a novice knitter starting with gloves is the equivalent of a novice runner setting off on the marathon des sables. What delicious yarn, and patterns - ok, admittedly I had a bit of trouble following the directions (started off with the wrong sized needles etc) but everyone at the knitting group was friendly and helpful.  Particularly faced with silly questions, such as 'how do I go from K2 to P2?  Ok, I realise that it's not that difficult - but that's once someone has shown you how.  I also realised that some of my favourite bloggers were actually part of the group which was amazing, but I thought that perhaps it would be a little bit stalkerish to get too excited about that. Perhaps I'll confess my adoration later...

I then spent the rest of the day, pretty much, clicking and clacking.  And I still only have this to show for it?

I keep screwing it up because it emerges that I have the concentration span of an amnesiac mayfly.  I have knit about 20 rows and ripped about 432.  But  I'm really enjoying it, bizarrely enough.  Leslie, please send good knitting vibes, I need a little [lot] of your skill. I echo what Leslie said about knitting with beautiful yarn - it's like the first skirt I started to make, I never completed because I used cheap material and knew that I would never actually wear it.  But Louisa Harding's range is gorgeous - just look at what's going to be used for the trim...

It's gratifying to keep plugging away at it.  Not my usual style, at all, this perseverance lark, but I believe it just might be worth it.

Edit ** Bekka, thank you so much for the comment - I rang my mother in the end, (ah, bless mammies!) and realised that what I had done was incorrectly read (yo, K2tog, K1) 12 times as (yo, K2tog, k1) 1 time, (K2tog, K1) 11 times... which is why I only had 3 stitches left at the end!  Then I interpreted 'work three rows' wrongly as repeat the previous row three times and lo and behold, it grew exponentially for a while... but I may have the hang of it now.  Just not making any promises - and bizarrely, still enjoying it!

You've got to feel like Dancin'

So what arrived in the post this morning...

The new limited edition Scissor Sisters CD!  It has a cute box that open like lift doors, and all the lyrics, and a poster, and oh yeah, IT ROCKS!   God, I want to be Ana Matronic.  We saw them at Benicassim, they were stupendous.  Showmanship and kitsch, you have to love it.

Getting lost

I had a great day (already!) today.  I got lost.

After doing my first set of morning pages, and trying my first (loud sound!!) online yoga tutorial, I walked to Stratford to visit the Theatre Royal as part of the annual Open House event.  I've always meant to go and I'm pleased that I managed to make to at least one this time (I chose to go to one local one rather than tear around London). The theatre has a very strong community remit and I'm tempted to go back to the free comedy night that they run each week.  One of the corridors was lined with Joan LIttlewood's obits.  What an inspiration.  The Beeb's obituary casually mentions that she

dragged herself from the poverty of South London to RADA on a scholarship. But she soon left, walked to Manchester and entered repertory theatre there.

She walked? That's a hundred miles away. A former colleague said:

"To know Joan is to be attacked by Joan, but the fact is she is a wonder. A ragamuffin, a nuisance, but a wonder."

I think that's quite an epitaph.  Quite a commendable one.

A vintage poster; the stage from the upper circle; detail of the stage decoration from one of the boxes; one of the illustrations from "Cartoon Corridor". 

Rather than walking home along the main road, I decided to turn off.  I had been trying to find my way around the Bow Backs and the noticed the Greenway which is part of the Capital Ring and headed down there.  I got a little lost while still knowing that I wasn't too far from home, found all manner of flora and fauna, and derelict buildings interspersed with fabulous studio space on Fish Island.  I was heading toward the Old Ford Lock, just realised when I got there that in fact it wasn't the place I thought it would be.  But I found my way home. 

How to get my life in order

I mentioned recently that I am making moves towards 'getting my life in order' and Pixie (jokingly..?) asked if that involved giving up blogging. Nah, unlikely.  Setting some goals and getting some routine is the way to go.

I'm sure it's not just me who sometimes feels like this: that I'm not doing enough, not prioritising, not achieving anything.  It's not so much a case of keeping up with the Joneses, as with myself.  I read other lovely blogs and think 'I wish I could express myself so captivatingly/that I was as creative/that I knew these creative giants in person' and now I realise what I'm actually saying, or indeed what I'm hiding.  That I'm not confident about writing for public consumption - and then I remember I have a blog. Who know how many people read it, but it's out there.  Creativity is as creativity does - and it's just as important to 'have a go' - create a WIP, a muslin, a first draft - as to ultimately get it right.  Much as persevering, finishing, frogging and ripping, and editing is. I'm experimenting, designing more, gaining a little more confidence. Knowing these people - well it would be interesting to have more people in my life who get excited about paper stock, Liberty cottons, sheet silver.  I just need to be brave enough to look for them, without feeling like Bertha No Mates, or a stalker.  They are out there.  (I know you are).

That's a lengthy preamble to the fact that I identify all these things, and have the best of intentions, only the very best.  But I am a typical Aries in some things, like jumping into new things but losing interest after a short while.   Especially when I can never do things by half, so it's lose weight, run another marathon, be more creative, blog frequently, don't just blog about what I did but about what I made, set up my company, sell my stuff, retrain. All of it, and now.  But I'm giving myself until the end of this year, and taking each day as it comes.  There are some mindblowing events and possibilities which could unfold between now and November, some of which are less than pleasant and I have not a ounce of influence over any of them - but all are potentially life-changing.  But isn't that what I am setting out to do? Change my life?  Might as well attempt to participate and change it the way I'd like - rather than just letting it happen to me.  It's funny how all the HUGE things that are careering across my path at the moment are not terrifying me, rather they are presenting themselves as opportunities. Maybe I'm braver than I thought. x

For B's birthday

Now I'm not normally one for kids' birthday parties, but in this case the birthday girl is a darling, as is her mum. And it's a first birthday so while there may be some crying and little people crawling underfoot, it's not a trip to Wacky World or Whizzy Kids or any other 'fun' 'filled' 'amusement' 'park'.  It's at mum's restaurant where the hospitality is always exemplary, warm and thoughtful.

Her presssie is finished, in the nick of time.  It's got quite a few imperfections, the binding is a bit crooked, it's a bit lumpy bumpy, though the label isn't quite as wonky as it appears in the photo.  But I think she'll like it.  (mother and daughter!)