Flibbertygibbet

The Butcher's Wife

Last night as I was walking home after the market, trundling my wheelie bag and laden down with my fold-up chair, rucksack of bits and bobs etc, I was jolted back to reality on a dark London street by a cheery 'Hello!' from a cyclist who had just pulled up alongside me.  After 0.37 seconds I thought 'Who the, what the...' and stomped onwards, as I find ignoring loons, certainly in the first instance, is always the way to go.  That, or start quoting song lyrics at them in a whispery voice so that they think you're the crazy one (Best daytime bet is Coldplay 'Look at the stars, see how they shine for you...')  Then he thought to remove his ski mask and I realised it was the butcher.

About a year ago I discovered a local halal butchers and at first thought it was great, but recently I decided the hygiene wasn't quite what it had been, since they did a refit and moved everything around it seems much more disorganised, ironically, so I haven't been visiting so much.  One of the butchers in there always gave me great chat, or as much as he could with his basic knowledge English outside of meat terminology.  And that was who I met last night. 

He was incredibly friendly, to the point I started meaningfully metioning my husband a lot.  He asked me what I'd been doing that day, and I replied that I'd been at a market - the limitations of his English became clearer when he got over-excited at that stage, gesturing at my luggage and thinking I'd said I'd been to Marrakech. (I wish.)  After a couple of minutes when he started to say something about coming to visit me at the market, I gave him the cheery 'Well, lovely to see you, must be off now, see you in the shop some day!'  and left.  Occasionally glancing over my shoulder to make sure he wasn't behind me. 

Is it London that does this to a person - a big city makes you crave anonymity and engenders suspicion of what may just have been friendliness?  I have always liked being able to hide away whilst in the thick of things in London and perhaps that's not such a good thing, too much Ivanna B Alone.  That is something I will have to work on, I think.  Meeting crafty people, through this blog and knitting group has been great and I'm making a totally new circle of friends in addition to old friends which has been a godsend these last few months.  I still think I'm going to be cooking more vegetarian options.

Speaking of meeting people, another bloggy pal came by the stall yesterday, JeanieB is her posting name.  It was so lovely to get a big smile from her, and to spend a few minutes chatting about knitting corsages the size of dinner plates - to say nothing of her nine year cross stitch project -  especially as yesterday was another quiet day in terms of footfall, though sales were better.  I sent her off down Marylebone High Street (the other shop I was trying to remember was VV Rouleaux, hope you made it in there for a browse!) and have to say now that I'm not responsible for any damage caused  to her bank balance.

Though I'm not affiliated with them in any way, and can't say anything about their delivery service, I can recommend A Place in the Fridge's bananas.  They are a London based organic fruit and veg box company who have a stall at the market.  I was presented with a wee mixed bag when we were all packing up last night (in the dark again, still no lighting this week - mutter mutter) and so far it's all been delicious.   Also to be recommended are Keith Daniel chocolates, should  you come across them.  Particularly the cinnamon ones, yum...

Though my fingers were extremely cold yesterday, I did get some knitting done.  Here's a little preview...

Right, I'm off to Camden on a Flibbertygibbet's Parlour research trip.  Part of me just wants to stay indoors, to do some crafting but that's not the whole of it.  The howling wind and rain this morning were combining to create a licence to avoid the world for another day.  It wasn't easy to get out of bed, but we can't be having that sort of carry on.  Plus the sun is shining brightly and you have to make the most of those days, of all days.  So out we go...

Chocolate Martinis

Denise is indeed correct.  Chocolate Martinis are quite wonderful.  So are Apple and Cinnamon Martinis, and Pear and Ginger Martinis, at this place...

However, I have decided to skip on to the next stage which is Sod It, Get On With It, It's Time to Start the Diet [Tomorrow]. 

My textbooks for the next month.  I got as far as Week 8 of TAW so I'm going to resume and then get into YBYY with a group of online friends.  It was great to see the parents, lots of straight talking and there are things to attend to now in the short term which will help 2007 to be my BBY.

Here's what I spent today doing:

Two of the dozen pairs of earrings I made today, from sequins, bugle beads, Swarovksi crystals, iolites, silver chain and antique beads.  Little light-catchers for the party season.  They're actually quite delicate wee things - the bowl of the martini glass is about two inches high, just little liquer glasses.  Perfect for miniature chocolate martinis!  Only kidding...probably...

Hiding away...

My crafting companion - also hiding away

Yes, I've been hiding and things have been rollercoastering, as is to be expected.  But there have also been a few unexpected things. 

I had a very minor lottery win - about £70, which was just about the same amount I'd spent on materials earlier that day, hurrah!

The second market day wasn't great either - heavy showers meant the dismal footfall of last week was decreased further, plus the organisers started to put the lighting up at about 4.00pm - just in time for packing up.  I think that because there are no sides or back to the canopies the products don't stand out so well, which was made worse by the lack of lighting.  Though my visual merchandising skills grow each week, you still have to be able to dismantle things and move them out of the rain, as yesterday...plus as it's all handmade, I don't have tons and tons of stuff to display. But it does get better every week.  I've been offered another stall at a Christmas market which I'm going to do, details to follow, and may do one day at Camden market.  Apparently if you make your own stuff you get priority.  Must get a sign for 'Flibbertygibbet's Parlour'.  Also a couple talked to me for a long time about a bed-sized quilt for their little girl, which would be a really big commission.  I do hope they get back in touch with me.  I'm determined to press on with it until Christmas and have also started to properly research a connected business proposal that has been at the back of my mind for a long time.

Big conversations chez Flib this morning.  STBXH (Soon To Be Ex-Husband - hereafter XH) is going away for the New Year and I can't say I blame him.  I joked that if I could find a residential embroidery course I'd be gone too.  Does anyone know of any workshop type courses over the new year, in the UK?  Do let me know if you do, for any sort of crafting. Distraction would be great.  Lots of practical things to think about, such as who's going to mind the mogs over Christmas, as if they go to XH's mother they wouldn't be back until the middle of January and I'd miss them too much.

Lots more ideas for things for the shop, wristlets (which Emilia Fox was looking at on Saturday, but I didn't get the chance to talk to her as another woman was chatting away about what I was knitting - still the same scarf for Mum - and then her friend called her away to look at the organic vegetables, dammit) which are made out of some of the famous Ethel stash, and finished with either pearl snaps or vintage buttons - probably vintage buttons for the rest of them, actually.  There are a couple of things which are still under wraps for another few days, but if they work out the way I'm hoping I'll be very excited. 

And in the spirit of our friends across the pond this week, things I'm thankful for:

Alphabet friends - C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K  who've all been great this week.

Scissor Sisters - going to see them tonight, and as most of the second album seems to be about break-ups  - or at least that's the way I'm hearing it - it will be good to sing along.

Parents - coming to see me next week. Better finish the scarf.  Mum's birthday is on Tuesday.

Bags of fun

Lots of crafty goodness happened yesterday.  It's mostly for the stall next week, but will also post them on my other website

Shoe bags!  This is a small one, for pumps or flats.

For your Manolos, Jimmy Choos, Emma Hopes... longer and sewn into two separate pockets to avoid them damaging each other.  The trim goes around the back too. 

Another shoe bag - pretty slippers.  Again sewn into two pockets.

And these are my 'Dirty Weekend' laundry bags - no more stuffing your dainties into a crappy plastic bag when you're packing to come home. Both these and the shoe bags are approximately 30cm x 44cm so big enough but not too big.

I just love these novelty fabrics, mostly ordered from the US.  There's a gap in the market here, I tell you...

I forgot to wish him a happy birthday this morning.  Whoops.  I feel really mean now.  It may be me unconsciously acting on my [hopping mad] grandmother's earlier outburst of 'I hope she doesn't even wish him a happy birthday'...

Such loveliness!

Hmmm.  Is loveliness a real word?  The spellchecker reckons it is, but what does it know.  It doesn't recognise apostrophes normally so I don't have 100% faith in it.

So the loveliness refers to the most amazing package... from the lovely Denise (who doesn't have a blog...yet) and its fantabulous contents, a wonderful afghan in Neapolitan icecream colours, which she made to cheer me up. It worked!  Denise and I met years ago when we were the two sensible ones in a house full of eejits in Dublin.  We used to take it in turns, on school nights, to go down and scream at the ne'erdowells to turn the music down because 'some of us have work in the mornings' i.e. not you crowd of scroungers.  Then she fell hook line and sinker for her lovely American man, who came over to assist on her PhD project (yeah, she's dead clever as well as incredibly creative and generally lovely - if I didn't like her so much I'd hate her) and ran off to Amerikay.  She is epitome of thoughfulness, this woman - look at the stamps, even!  I snuggled up underneath it on the sofa last night after my first market day, and promptly fell asleep.

Yes, I was exhausted.  I honestly thought, during the day yesterday, that my feet might never be warm again.  This is partly because I am more than a little doolally at the moment, as we all know, and so I dressed myself in a couple of tshirts and a little wrap around cardi, my favourite impractical silver scarf, and my coat.  Dear god, I even had those little shortie socks on. Hello, I was asking for an early Christmas present of pneumonia.  I kitted myself out like it was September and I was planning on doing robust exercise all day, instead of standing still - which I did apart from when I was jumping up and down trying to get the feeling back in my feet -  in a bitter November wind for six hours.

So the market was an experience.  I was worried I wouldn't sell anything at all, but I did 'break the duck' and sold a couple of things.  Part of the problem was that I didn't have enough stock (on the teensy weensy round garden table that was provided) to make people stop and look, that will be remedied for next week.  I need more cards, and more photos of the quilts in progress.  More bags, less jewellery as there was tons of jewellery there, though mostly imported rather than handmade.  I am still encouraged to continue. 

Another very good thing was that I got to meet Caroline of Dolliedaydream, which was lovely!  So good to put names and faces together.  Must post some photos soon of the new quilt with the daisies fabric that Caroline sent, it's so sweet.

Ok, off to cut out more bags... a hive of industry it will be.  Now must just also bang out 20,000 words so that my Nano word count gets up to date, hah! 

The Nano postcard also came from Denise - she 'won' Nano last year, writing 50k words in a month, and will probably do it again this year - genius, I tell you.

 

Open the door

Lots of lovely things!  Inspiring me - even if making me a little more nervous about the market stall.

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Find this great bangle here, it's by Liana Kabel

You know, I can't quite see what these would be useful for, really.  Definitely a Want more than a Need.  But that's ok.

That doesn't stop me from ADORING them. 

Cupcakes, bunnies, mini knitted stockings for Christmas - genius.  Could anyone who could look at that bunny in slippers without smilling? It's impossible.

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These are part of a lovely blog, beautiful creations, for a wonderful cause.

Lend a paw

"Of course, happy to help. Let me just hold this yarn for you.  Eh?  Whassat?  You never actually wanted me to dig my claws in and hold on for dear life? What - you want it back? Um... no.  I don't think so. Back off.  Or Fred gets it."

Winter WIPs

As you can see in the sidebar, the word count is falling a little bit behind (I need to write an average of 1667 words per day to crack the Nano nut and should be at 10,000 by the end of the day today) so this is going to be pretty brief. 

Rowan felted tweed, and Rowan Tapestry.  A fun scarf for Mum's birthday at the end of the month (I've temporarily given up on the Louisa Harding lace one, I don't have the concentration at the moment.  Knitting is something for relaxation right now, so nothing too taxing, thank you) because you can never have too many thin scarves.  Or something like that.

I finally made it to the swimming pool again yesterday, and used the spa there for the first time - surprisingly impressive for a local leisure centre. But also discovered that I seem to have done something to my foot, which may have been inflicted during a trip up the canal to Islington on Saturday en route to Loop.  My husband was in rather a stompy mood, so we hoofed it up there.  Loop was manic as it usually is at the weekends, my husband was intrigued by the demographics - mostly yummy mummies and twenty-something couples.  I can't talk, I've recently jumped back on the knitting bandwagon myself.  It was summed up by a little boy of about three, who was being trundled about the shop in one of those 4WD all-terrain-but-mostly-used-for-popping-to-Carluccios buggies, who looked up from his rather low vantage point at the shelves and cubbyholes which overflow with yarn and accouterments, and simply said
"We like this shop."
Indeed.

Other sidebar items:  my decorations for the Christmas ornament swap on Swap-bot.  Meet Fred.  (Fred?  Fred and Ginger, geddit?)  His mouth may need to be reworked. I think he looks a little like he has a nervous, toothy smile.  But maybe that's because he's about to be stuffed in a Jiffy bag and sent who knows where....

Century

There's a hell of a lot going on at Flib HQ so no posting recently.  You may have noticed.

As the sidebar shows, the Nano word count is coming on nicely for the first few days but it's not like I can become complacent.  In fact even at 49,500, should I get that far, writer's block could hit.  However, I've decided to officially change the title of the project - in my case it's NaBaNoWriMo - National Bad Novel Writing Month.  It's all about word count, baby, so it's quantity not quality all the way.  At the end of this month, I want to able to loudly proclaim "I wrote a novel in thirty days!"  Who ever said it had to be a good one?

I finished the "Words, Words, Words" ATCs for the next swap, three different ones.  And it's not actually concave, my camera did a wierd fisheye thing.  I'm pleased with the way they all turned out - will need to brush up on my calligraphy skills I think, but it's been about sixteen years so it's better than I expected. Never really got to grips with copperplate nibs anyway.

Also 92.3% done (approximately) are the charcoal gauntlet gloves.  The second one has to be sewn - which will take at least an hour if the first one is anything to go by, but then again it was done while chatting during Stitchcraft at the British Library - perhaps I could have been a little quicker. 

My grandmother was talking to a friend of hers about me making quilts and such and her friend Ethel told her that she had an attic full of fabric, and asked would I like any?  Um... yes please!  She got her son to come over and retrieve one of the bags from the attic. So thanks to Ethel, my grandmother and my own fabulous mum, a package arrived this week.  A package containing 10lbs of crepe de chine, silk, linen and woollen fabrics. I believe that Ethel's husband must have been a salesman, or was definitely in the trade as the package was comprised of sample lots - a main fabric, with between three and eight coordinating fabrics tacked to it.  Not really suitable for quilts I think, but perfect for bags and accessories.

Which will be appearing here...

Cabbages and Frocks Market at Marylebone High Street (the Baker St end, opposite Calmia and Conran).  I'll be bringing my quilts, accessories and jewellery, so if any of you blog readers will be in London please do come and say hello!  I'll be there on Saturday 18th November, Saturday 25th November and Saturday 2nd December.

And although it's taken me a while to get here, especially with the recent lack of communication - it's my 100th post today.  Hurray!

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.