Flibbertygibbet

Two of my favourite things

Flock paper and antlered deer.  Does it get much better than this?  Not in my little world.  I love!

After Renegade Craft last year I alluded to buying something else for the flat - the stencil.  I cut it out of  Paperchase flock paper and then went back for mock snakeskin to go behind it. The parts that I cut out may reappear later.

These prints came from this year's RC in San Francisco.  The bottom one is hung quite low - but it's the perfect height when you look across whilst curled up on the sofa. 

Last weekend I rearranged the studio.  To make room for writing which has naturally led to procrastination and displacement crafting.  Um, it's almost a win-win I guess.

Now the never-going-to-tilt-like-it-should table is accessible from both sides to facilitate cutting.  Cutting of what, you may ask...

Crapotis

Finished the first clapotis that's for me.

It's knitted in Blue Sky Alpaca Silk in a pretty plum colour.  Though I found the yarn quite splitty.

You know how when you get towards the end, you drop two stitches per row; and it's not quite so much of a novelty or gratification to be unweaving those ladders, and so you're a little more blase about it.

And so you do this.

 

Bugger.

Lucy has suggested some fixes.  Duplicating stitches, frogging.  Scary.

Typepad, I hate you.

I hate you beyond words.

You know what they say - it's called a break-up because it's broken.  Well I think it might be time for a divorce.  I've more or less given up blogging because every time I try to write a post, I lose an hour's time - like tonight when yet again it hung and then I had to refresh to get the page back to the compose interface.  This has been happening every time I've tried to post for the last two months, more or less which is why I never update here any more.  It's slow and clunky and editing is horrendous.

I am failing to see the point of paying for a service which is so far from reasonable expectations so I think it might be time to shut this blog down.  Has anyone successfully transferred their posts out of typepad to another service? Or do I just start over?

ANY advice?  Or virtual gin? Mwah mwah x

PS not being able to comment - my bad.  Fixed now.

Whatcha been up to?

Culture with Abi

I didn't say 'high culture' as of course 'high camp' is more normally associated with the Wizard.   The production  has attracted a little controversy,  and I can't say I disagree with a lot of the criticisms but yes, the dog is great and more seriously it's worth going for the music alone which is utterly spellbinding.

Baking cupcakes with friends.  Finding Laura Marling's marrow and being bemused at and amused by Les Savy Favs at Field Day.  Sadly missing other lovely people's social occasions, from knitting operas to engagement parties.  Doing London Walks with my uncle and old colleagues, catching up on gossip - gossip was quality; walk was sadly not as interesting as previous outings. Plotting my first quilt for me; and starting to think about baby presents for the entire kindergarten class that's arriving Nov-Jan.  Eating really well and doing a ton of exercise.  Intending to blog more.  Preparing to buy lots of things from here for my new pursuit this autumn. Being excited about my new local, a resurrected pub which looks very promising.  Planning for Green Man.  Obsessively checking the weather forecast to see whether I need these.  Probably  more useful than ruby slippers.

Being made {{extremely happy}} by:

Thank you so much Kirsty, you immensely talented woman.

And by Dan Hillier:

 

And life goes on

Wow, how long has it been.  Had a ton of stuff written that Typepad kept eating but it all seems to be going a bit faster now so perhaps I'll try again.

Work is mental, busy all the time and doing a lot of overtime.  It is all in a good cause, I hope, more later on that. 

What have I been doing apart from working...well what else happened in SF.  After leaving Renegade Craft, I walked around by the coastal path, around to this iconic site.  By the time I got there it was dusk.

I happened on a small tented city and it was only after I spoke to a work colleague the following week that I found out what the Avon Walk was all about, though I'd seen scores of women, mostly dressed in shades of pink, trundling around various parts of the city.  I assumed it was a fun run - well, only if you call 26 miles on the Saturday and 13 miles on the Sunday 'fun'.  Mind you once upon a time I probably would have.

I was lucky enough to find a cab to bring me back to the city and rather than go my usual thing of no-fuss supper, I asked the concierge for a recommendation for somewhere wonderful to eat.  She directed me to Boulevard, a restaurant which preceded and survived the dot.com boom and bust, which is right across the street from the hotel. San Francisco is such a foodie town that apparently it's not uncommon for people to dine alone and I thought, yes, why not.  I was really glad I did because it was fabulous and the chef's counter is the best seat in the house.  Apart from causing severe menu envy 'Ooh I wish I'd ordered that'...

Sunday was another day of exploring.  Breakfast right on to a local vintage store where I bought some pretty scarves.  I walked around the Mission district and bought some presents, then lots of window-shopping.  In the evening I walked up the City Lights bookshop and bought Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen though I never got around to starting it.  Eventually it was back to the hotel to sit on the knitting couch and toil away at another few rows of the Clapotis - not that it's a chore, as finally it's one for me.

Our company runs a shuttle up to the office which I took the next day. We passed by Noe Knits and I wish I'd made a trip there because the neighbourhood looked really cool.  One more morning at work, an eleven hour flight back, and a fortnight to start sleeping right again... It was fab-u-lous! I want to go again!