Flibbertygibbet

Naughty or nice

If someone you love has been very, very, nice, then you could send them here. Allegedly I have been very very nice, and so a friend treated me to a session here as a late birthday present (33's birthday has been the year that just keeps giving and giving...) It was utterly fabulous, and I'd love to live in the sort of world where I might indulge in the Weekly Groom on a weekly basis - would you get bored of being so pampered?  Well I guess I'd be happy to try it out for a couple of months and see...

If someone you love has been very very naughty, and in fact you're only just resisting harming them bodily, then send them to see Magicians and punish their mind instead.  The Time Out review captures it pretty well.  I thought it would be funny if not riotous, in fact it was tedious laced with a little offensiveness.  Certainly give me those two hours of my life back and let me take a slap at the director and the writers.

More worthy of your £8: The Future is Unwritten, Julien Temple's film about Joe Strummer, which was the Knitflicks movie this week. At one point I got very excited because a friend of mine popped up on screen, and I found out afterwards that he made a record with Strummer. I'd say it's definitely worth the popcorn though it could have been a little shorter.

We managed a quick trip to the SLFS afterwards and I was relatively restrained, though the woman there did say 'Oh you're back again!' and then I worked out that I've been in there three times in four weeks - but on one occasion, only buying for someone else.  Seriously! Thanks to everyone who's suggested hints for the cup sizes thing (I think I might have made up the thing about it only being A and B cups in the pattern but it doesn't go that much further) and Ruth is going to send me an article that I hope will help.  Also, while I am in the middle of throwing out lots of clutter, and some clothes, I am going to adapt Fliss's suggestion and use a shirt I already have as a base pattern for some experimentation.  I also spent some time yesterday sorting out my stash and frogging all the disastrous WIP garments, so the green cardi and the purple tank top.  I've cast on again for the cardi, using straights this time instead of a circular and already the tension looks better.

Everyone please cross fingers and send good vibes that something good job-wise comes from the squillion CVs I sent out last week.

Right, I've got a freelancing job to do.  And a mortage to sort out.  And a divorce settlement to chase.  And a shirt to make.  I may be some time.

And sideways

I am accepting that today is going to be a strange day where positions change and instead of forging ahead with things in my typical Aries fashion, there is going to be more deliberation, contemplation, planning and dodging side to side. In an almost Cancerian manner.

I believe I may have a fairy godfather who is helping on the flat side.  No more news than that at the moment but I feel I have someone on my side now.  It is very reassuring, as were all your good luck comments, thank you folks. 

I found out that the NYC hotel that XH has booked for me (I uncharacteristically demanded a room for two nights using his hotel reward points - people, he owes me) is not the most salubrious, however it is around the corner from my fave New York bagel place.  Hooray.

Purl keeps drawing me in. Apart from being fiendishly excited about visiting the shops,  especially as Denise is coming up for the day and we'll be going there together, I have also found out from Purl's blog that the Gee's Bend Quilting exhibition opens in Baltimore on the weekend that I'm visiting.  Denise says we can add it to our itinerary, double hooray!

Yesterday I bought a couple of new patterns, determined to use the fabrics in my stash, mainly Liberty prints, and I would like to try making some shirts or blouses.  I bought the Wendy pattern and I'm now dismayed to find that it gives measurements for A and B cups. Having been measured recently, I have found that I'm waaaaay further up the alphabet, and while I'm not complaining, I know lots of you have made this pattern.  Do you think it would be possible to adjust by um, five cup sizes?  Or should I just go with another pattern?

Sveden, you woz robbed

I had a long debrief with my mum this morning about the Eurovision.  We both agreed (as was the consensus last night when I watched it with P, F and C, that Ireland deserved to come last - oh the shame - and that Sweden was robbed.  Watch them and I challenge you to not walk around humming 'Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes' all day.

I went to the London group sewing Meet Up yesterday.  Zoe, who runs it, is great and we had a mutual bag envy thing going on - so we traded!  One of my Dirty Weekend bags in pink for this beauty:

It's lined with pink gingham, then the chihuahua is stencilled on to a vintage sheet and then she sewed clear vinyl over it.  It rocks!  And it will be perfect for carrying socks to the last days of Tuesday knitting group - as I'm hoping to start working soon, Foyles may be a luxury I have to relinquish soon.  I started socks at the Dove the other day, for my Dad's birthday, in a Lana Grossa colourway that I've now decided is too girly, so it's been removed off the needles to four safety pins and I'm going for something browner.  More Daddyish.

After the Dove, and before Eurovision, C and I went back to Flat W.  Did I mention my offer was accepted?  When we left the agent, I already had a good idea of C's views, as I'd overheard one side of her phone conversation in the car as I was making small talk with the agent, when her hubby was asking what she had thought... we got out of the car and I immediately said 'So you didn't like it then?'  She explained that firstly she didn't think it was well-finished, and pointed out many things I hadn't noticed, and I'd already seen a few, and then came out with the clincher:

"I don't think it's very you".

And that's the key, really, isn't it?  I'm not blank white walls, glossy white kitchen, windowless bathroom: hell, I'm not ground floor.  I am mismatched dining room chairs, cake stands and tea-sets, flowery cushions on squishy sofas with stuffing hanging out.* 

I think I have to admit that I'm slightly more chaos than order.  Perhaps I'd been veering towards a classic trap that women exiting a long-term relationship frequently fall prey to - it's the over-riding desire to get out, out quickly. And was tempted by the first place I saw, which ticked some boxes but had just as many cons and pros. As C said of it: 'that was a ready-meal kitchen'.  The ultimate insult.

So the mogs will have to get used to a balcony rather than the run of a couple of gardens - so goes it.  So I'll have to get my renovation hat (overalls?) on again.  So be it.  C and I are going to see Flat V together tomorrow evening if I can get an appointment, so she can use her x-reay vision on it.  I fear that by tomorrow I'll be seeing more with my heart than my head, the classic trap.  Ironically Flat W was totally a head decision - it just would have been the wrong one. 
Of course it all has to go well and then I'd have to get Flat V for the right price - having done my research, it's on for far, far too much. I walked around there again today, and it felt right. But no getting excited about new kitchens and rugs and lampshades until we get a few stages further on.  Then we can start on about movers and packing and freshly painted white walls.

*For what I aspire to, see the profile on Emily Chalmers in this month's Elle Decoration.  When I is growed up.

PS if you're in the swap, you should have had an email today with your partners' details...

My kind of day

Actually, it didn't start off so well.  I intended to go to the London Sewing meet up over in west London for an hour or so before retreating back east for a knitting afternoon.  Or crochet, in my case.  Before I left the house I pressed and turned under the hem on the Liberty silk dress from the last post, so that I could hem it at the meet up.  Left the house, jumped on the tube, got as far as Tower Hill, and thought:

"Shit.
Did I unplug the iron?"*

I called my neighbour to ask her to pop in but she was out ferrying a plethora of small children to social appointments, so I had to abort the mission and come home.  With an extra hour or so to kill I finally got around to making my Tie One On Apron for this month.  Both Jennifer and Anna were kind enough to send me some rickrack when I bemoaned its lack of availability here (in interesting colours and widths).  So here it is:

It's on Dolly and  pinned a little crooked but you get the idea, I'm pleased with it.  The theme was rickrack so it's around the bottom and peeping out from the pocket (because an apron without a pocket is pointless though on reflection the pocket doesn't actually have to be big enough to fit a cookbook in).  It's made from a thrifted pillowcase and some pink cotton from the stash.

Now I just need an excuse to do some baking.  Magnolia cupcakes and pistachio macaroons and cherry biscuits and oh god I better stop myself now.

Then it was off to Broadway Market, for pints of chips and more rippling, with   four very lovely ladies.   Just like Claire, right now I'm all about the crochet, and the rippling in particular.  It won't be ready to bring to the wedding next week, but that's ok.  At this stage I've started it twice,

and at now 45" (these are different colours so it's not that your computer screen needs adjusting, top is the first blanket and below is the current one).  I'm still not sure it's wide enough but I don't feel like starting it a third time. It might get a big border instead.  I've worked out that the ripples take up so much of the foundation chain that you've got to chain about a third more than you think you need.

So soon I'll have to start temping or working properly in a grown-up job, god forbid, but at the moment I'm making the most of the last days of my freedom.  That has also included a couple of cinema trips this week with Jen - and as she pointed out, we saw two Chinese films. 

Curse of the Golden Flower was great.  It's a little like Eastenders in fluoro colours, because it has all the intrigue, back-stabbing and general human misery of a soap but it's extravagantly beautiful.  It was slightly frustrating when the subtitles disappeared - literally at the dramatic climax - but we figured it out.  The costumes are divine.  It's relatively slow-moving but I was caught up in the sheer spectacle of it all.  What I know about Chinese history could fit on the head of a pin, but the film illuminated how tradition and a sense of order and propriety dominated then  - even when life is collapsing for all the main characters, as part of the Emperor's family - their lives were rigid, bound by strict codes and therefore when the emotions come to the fore in the film it's all the more powerful.

Which, in some ways, was similar to The Painted Veil. Someone (Ting?) volunteered that the title of the film alludes to people revealing their true selves. Yes, again the costumes (Kitty Fane's tea dresses - covet... fawn... and the parasols!!) were just fabulous, especially as I fancy myself in a cotton tea dress more than the Empress's huge robes.
I actually found it very moving - when the tide turns and the emotional current changes, it's very powerful.  So much so that I didn't mind Naomi Rubber Face Watts.  And yes, Edward Norton is stoic and dashing and just rather swoonsome. Go and see it.

So else got the Liberty 15% discount voucher (online, when they registered with the new site) that has no date, and no 'can only be used once' stipulation on it, and said 'hooray'?  Who has managed to use it?  I was pretty peeved that they wouldn't accept it the other day.  They seem to have omitted some of the terms and conditions on it but have just decided not to take it in the shop.  Doesn't seem fair really...

* yes

Busyness

I did say in my last post that I'd make a dress.

I just didn't make the one I thought I'd make.  Rather than the Liberty cotton from the other day, I realised I'd better get a move on with the dress for the wedding.  It's next week.

Can I just say (in my defence, m'lud) that it actually hangs better on me than on Dolly - I must adjust her padding.  I remembered that I don't have a zipper foot for my Janome, only for the Singer which is the workhorse, and frankly I don't want to put Liberty silk through it, just in case I foul it up. And also I bought a cream invisible zipper - which is invisible, indeed, in the body of the dress but the pull is visible at the top of the chocolate bodice, so I'll also have to look for a more suitable one in John Lewis along with a zipper foot.

The carpet blanket (which is going to require double my original quantity of wool, I reckon so I'll have to wait a bit to make that investment - will just work through what I have first) is coming along.

And I've got a mountain of cotton angora to make the wedding present throw.  I've got ten balls each of the lilac, lavender and pink, with a few random balls of purple, blue and light blue.   Now if I could only figure out the soft waves pattern... I've also been having problems with various hooks, metal and bamboo seem to work for me, but not plastic.  What's that?  A poor crafter blames her tools?

Knitting and fabric and SUNSHINE

Today was a rather nice day, all in all.  I just about made it to Knitflicks before the movie started, frantically texting Claire en route, as I was late, plus I didn't actually know where the cinema was either, but luckily it's just past the tube (and also past Electric Avenue "wooooaaah, we gonna walk down to -").  Anna was asking me what Knitflicks is about - basically once a month, the Ritzy in Brixton (just about) puts on a movie specifically for knitters and crafters where the lights are not quite dimmed.  So it's dark enough for the cinematic experience, but bright enough to see your work.  Well just about, at one point a friend, Adrienne, sitting behind me, did curse loudly and have to remove herself to fix a mistake outside in the light.  Another pal told me that her local cinema does something similar for mums and babies, with the lights keep up so little kids aren't too scared.  Or something. 

I have to admit, I was concentrating more on the work so I didn't watch the movie so much and it was such a shame because it was a stunning looking film, though even if I had been paying complete attention I don't reckon I've had understood it.  But it was worth it just for the odd glimpse of Cillian Murphy's beautiful blue eyes above the yarn. So I think Jen and I might have to go and watch it again as a card movie. Afterwards, following a sandwich and more crafting at chatting at the Ritzy, I headed over westwards to meet up with Jen and Loba.  Fabric was purchased.  Liberty tana lawn at 50% off.  I swear I'm making a dress tomorrow.

That's if I can put the crochet down for long enough.  For those of you who kindly asked after it, here's what I'm doing - draped over Shrimp.  It's because the first time I saw a crocheted blanket I really liked, it was on Green Kitchen back in September and later there was Bella Dia - and coincidentally Michelle had been inspired by a post of Jane's with a post about someone else's striped blanket... then Jane then was largely responsible for the ripple craze which I think came next.  Very complicated.  I liked the simplicity of this, plus it reminded me of a very seventies carpet in my parents' house. I need to get this one out of my system first.  When choosing the fabrics today I also went back to the first thing I'd spotted again and again, though eventually I did go for something else (it was also uncanny how all the fabrics I picked out were the more expensive ones. I've always had good taste.)  Loba is thinking of making her first quilt and it was interesting to see how my brain seems to work when it comes to choosing colours to go together.  There'll be more musings on sewing versus knitting in my little brain later. 

It has slightly scared me that Jane said she used 925g of yarn.  Oh no, wait a minute, I've just added it up and it turns out that I've bought 850g for this.  Ah ha.  That really scares me.  But I bought most of it at 15% off at the Liberty cardholder's evening, some with my measly £5 voucher. I'm using Rowan Pure Wool DK but for my next one (please, don't laugh - I've decided to make an afghan for a wedding present for a friend.  It was nearly going to be in Kidsilk Haze - until I tried crocheting with it, and thought better of it when memories of my past battles with this delightful fluffy devil's spawn came flooding back) I ordered a pile of cotton angora from ebay instead. I got 29 balls for £60 inc postage which isn't bad.  I'll try another couple of auctions tomorrow to see if I can add to that pile, and then that's going to be a ripple blanket, a proper one this time.

And I'll define what's "proper".

First class

All quiet on the kitchen front after the crochet class had ended. 

Front:  the instructions and the pink and yellow square - I learned how to change colours.  And it all makes a lot more sense.
Middle:  the Natalie Bray book that Caroline lent me, the prequel to mine. 
Back: all the washing up that the lovely Emma helped me with, before I ran off to the mystery dinner (which was here - utterly fabulous, with some surreal moments involving being caught royally in the act of gossiping but I can't disclose it here without getting my host in trouble).

There were eight of us learning - Branwyn, Helen, Rebecca, Caroline, Claire, Isabelle, Caroline and me.  I was slightly distracted by things like having to hem the dress to wear out last night so I'll be needing the refresher (remedial?) class but Emma is a wonderful teacher.

Then today we went off to East Dulwich, and sat in Helen's garden knitting, crocheting, cooing at baby Louis and just generally amusing the hell out of each other.  What a great day.

If you bake it...

...they will come.

The refreshments for tomorrow are almost done.  Some bread baking and buttercream frosting to come in the morning.  Ye better bring your sweet tooths (teeth?) with you.

The earlier part of tonight was spent with P, celebrating good things, good friends, good news and good times.  All good, really...

As usual of late, I have ridiculously overcommitted myself from tomorrow through Thursday.  God help me.  And my liver. Bring it on!

Lost Days

And a couple more lost days.  Snatches of conversation, words spoken in vino veritas keep reappearing in my mind like clouds scudding across the skies and then fading again - but it's not all doom and gloom, like it usually is when I remember wild things I've pronounced to the world whilst under the influence.  You'd think I'd be old enough to know better but apparently not.
Heart-stopping moments containing remembrances of 'Oh jaysus, did I really say that' aside, I'm mostly keeping myself very busy, working, doing more planning and plotting than is good for me, and spending a little cash on pretty fripperies like the buttons above, from the Ladybird lady at Broadway Market. 

And just to announce...as it's now April, I counted up all the emails and comments and used a random number generator to pick the winner of the shamrock pendant... it's Leigh.  Get in touch, my dear...

For the day that's in it

Happy St Patrick's Day!