Run Byrne Run

Something really weird happened this morning. This is an illustration of what happened.

See? Weird. Weeks ago I bought some trainers. A week or so after that I downloaded the free NHS "Couch to 5k" podcast. Then many weeks went past. Then this morning I woke up shortly after 6 and thought "Right, time to go running." I'm worried it might be dementia. Or the menopause or something. Anyway, I made it through day 1 week 1 and no I didn't feel better afterwards. I felt sweaty. And no that's not the same thing.

Having got the insanity out of my system I went off to Kew to visit Tikki Patchwork.

Now there's a lovely shop and easy walking distance from the tube station. Not big but with every space used well to display lovely fabrics and accoutrements. You see I am planning another quilt. NOT a handsewn one or paper-pieced. Something with rectangles which are machine sewn and rotary cut. The Make Lounge has some fabrics but this place was a little Aladdin's cave with a couple of hundred 100% cottons to choose from. On this occasion I was only there to look but when have I ever only window shopped? My haul was modest.

The tape measure ribbon/cotton tape is for the handle of the metal frame bag I made a few weeks ago. It's going to be ideal so I shall put that together this weekend.

I made my cat-to-be a toy this week. I've been meaning to try one of these for ages and thought it might work as a christmas tree decoration with the right fabric. So I got a load of small scraps for a try-out and here you are.

I am sure the cat will tear it apart in about 30 seconds but then they'll probably enjoy it so I don't mind. And it would work on a tree except the pentagons need to be smaller. So now we know.

Lastly the Cranford-a-long has been going well. I have just divided for the thumb on my first one - although this is a shot from earlier.

The colours are very hard to photograph but it is neither so garish or gothic as it looks. Plus it is certainly knitting up quickly. I've made a couple of mods which I'll write up on Rav.

Cranford-A-Long Day 1

 

A while ago I donated a blogpost to p/hop asking "What Mittens Would the A-Team Wear?". At the time I suggested Cranfords for Face. Now all these months later I am finally knitting a pair! But not for him - oh no. These babies are for me.

It's not too late to join the knit-a-long. There is a thread on Ravelry for all those taking part. And you can get the pattern from the p/hop site in return for a heart-hugging donation.

Making a Mess Monday

I have been making this quilt since 22nd March 2010. It's been a labour of not exactly love - more grim determination. I have now assembled all the bits and am ready to move to the quilting stage. EXCEPT...all the paper pieces need to be untacked and taken out.

There are literally thousands. This is not a quick job.

I remember talking to someone about the Kaffe Fassett knitting exhibition that had been on in the V&A years ago. They had talked about wanting to be able to see the inside of the intarsia and fairisle garments to see how the 'wrong side' had been handled. Then there is Kate who has a unique turn of phrase and talks about the "naughty" or "private" side (technical term) of her knitting. Quilts of course have exactly the same thing.

At the Festival of Quilts I had to physically restrain my mater from lifting up the quilt edges to look at the backs, despite the "DO NOT TOUCH" signs in every language and all handmade hanging from every available post.

It's natural to want to see what people have done where they weren't expecting it to show. Possibly this is why people (in general, not me) like reality shows.

So having to remove each of these paper hexagons individually, every one having been hand sewn by myself in the first place, has given me quite a lot of time to contemplate the naughty side.

Still another couple of hundred to go....things may get naughtier.

STOP PRESS

I have the landlord's permission to get a cat.

Source: None via Alex on Pinterest

I have to pay extra deposit but I had expected that.

Source: lickystickypickyme.tumblr.com via Alex on Pinterest

I am so excited. 

Source: flickr.com via Alex on Pinterest

It won't be til after I get back holiday but then....

Source: flickr.com via Alex on Pinterest

Countdown to kitty....

Walking in the Rain

It was raining on Tuesday night so I decided to do a Gene Kelly and walk down to the river and get the boat home. It would have taken about half an hour to reach the pier if I had gone direct but I meandered and took twice as long. And I took photos. But only on my phone, so don't judge the quality.

 

It always amazes me the variety of architecture, textures, atmospheres you can find so close together in London.

Making Monday

A little bit of making...

I've been meaning to make machine embroidered bookmarks since I did a Make Lounge workshop on it last year. Or was it this year? Doesn't really matter. I woke up early yesterday and cut these out before I left. The afternoon saw them finished.

I tried stitching patterns and following the outline of the fabric design, but ended up liking the writing best. The others were still quite sweet though.

I used some of the liberty fabrics PurlPower gave me in a swap. The one above is one of them. So pretty! I need to keep some of the others hidden for christmas. But then one more won't hurt.

I do like machine embroidery. Like a lot of things I had always meant to try it but lacked the courage/knowledge to just go for it. The worry was that I'd break my sewing machine by doing it wrong. That's why the workshop was so useful - as with the metal purse frame one. It showed me how and now I'm not worried. It's really very easy, your machine won't break and you just need the right foot for your machine. It's going to be so handy for when I start quilting my patchwork quilt - if I ever finish it that is.

Meandering

I love living by the Thames.

Not right by it of course. One is not a gabillionaire. But within 2 mins walk. The sunset yesterday was really lovely - eighties blues and yellows faded to blues and greys such as The Guggenheim is made of.

This morning I went to a really awful boot fair in Rotherhithe and on the way back meandered along a bit of the Thames Path I had not been on before. It was the bit after the Hilton on the south side as you make your way towards the City. There was a lovely pebbly beach along most of it.

There were juvenile seagulls poking around which blended into the pebbles beautifully. It was very peaceful but also made me feel sad - quite a few couples walking with prams. If I hadn't left Pooch and we'd carried on trying for a baby it would probably have been born by now. Left me feeling a bit like this guy.

Bleh.

I came home, had a nap, and got a jump on tomorrow's Making Monday aka YarnYard's blog thing. I can't really do 'making mondays' since I have to do 'working mondays' so I think it's ok to cheat. Teaser:

Can you tell what it is yet?

Cranford-A-Long

I am hosting a Cranford Mitt-a-long on Ravelry. Hoorah! The Cranford Mitts were one of the first p/hop patterns and have now been knitted almost 500 times.

The more the merrier so come along to Ravelry and join in! 

Craft Catch Up

Iza bin busy.

Pooch was very much your Star Wars aficionado. He had an impressive knowledge of the planets, species, languages, abilities and so on of the characters. Therefore when I left him one of the things I told myself was that never again would I watch any of the films or use any Star Wars references. Oh how naive was I? It is impossible to go for more than a few days without someone quoting from it somehow (just today CM Punk - yeah you know who I mean - said he would only respond to tweets that were star wars links and within seconds had 100's of "it's a trap" replies) and so I have given in and just now, when thinking of how to start this entry, found myself thinking in a Jar Jar Binks voice. The shame.

But I have been busy so enough beating myself over the head with an R2D2 plushy. I actually made some of this stuff quite a while ago but other stuff like, oh yeah, getting divorced, interrupted me from posting it.

I made a series of these back in july - because who doesn't make xmas decos in a heatwave? I got the idea from Pinterest and had a rummage in the bargain bin of a second-hand place on Charing Cross Road. Cue a copy of Adam Bede with half a cover that no one was ever going to love again.

Normally nothing would persuade me to take scissors to book but as it was already beyond repair...and they do look rather sweet. Tutorial here.

When I did my Make Lounge workshop I bought a lampshade kit in the shop. You can do a workshop on how to make them which I assume is a bit more complicated than "open kit, assemble" but I figured the kit was enough for me and at Festival of Quilts I found the perfect fabric.

Here it is in detail:

I am thinking of getting some more and making a skirt. Of course that would involve me remembering which stand it was from. Er....

While coughing it out on the sofa the last few days I've managed to start and finish a christmas present which I can't blog, and also tried out the Kanzashi maker I got at the weekend. Let me say immediately that in no way does this gadget replace Sister Diane's book, which is awesome. But it does make the whole thing amazingly simple if you just want to produce one size, one shape petals out of thin cotton.

I made the two murky green ones on the right of the picture in about 40 mins including cutting out the fabric. I am going to add buttons to the centres and then glue them back to back with a loop of ribbon in between as a xmas deco (murky green fabric has gold holly pattern printed on it).

Keeping with the 'glue' theme I have had the fabric cut out and half assembled for another metal frame bag (such as I made at Make Lounge) since the day after the workshop. Thing is, it was a frame I had had for ages and been meaning to try and it wasn't the same shape/size as the ones I had patterns for and so...well...all I'll say is it's best not to use a fabric with a horizontal stripe on a first solo attempt.

Tad wonky. Not to be put off though this frame was a doubler and so I now have a purse within a bag resting on my dinky dining table as the glue dries.

Well what other lining fabric was I going to have used? Just need to decide on the handle/strap.

I find being ill very frustrating as it means I suddenly have the time to do extra crafting but the inclination and necessary brain power are inevitably missing. I've ended up working to near completion on my ripple blanket, which now resembles a toxic rainbow double bed-spread.

It is now just 4 rows and a tidy-up away from being finished. Having had a temperature though it wasn't great having the blanket on my lap as I hooked so I looked for a knit project to get on with. Alas - brain could not come to any conclusion and it is only now as I have started to feel slightly more human that I have decided on the fall-away cardigan although I am no nearer deciding whether to go for dark brown alpaca from a past SkipNorth swap or purple wool from a distant trip to France.

Being ill and living alone without even a cat called Smackdown is a recipe for loneliness. The only person I spoke to yesterday was the plumber who called in to give a quote for a new shower (the previous one having exploded the week after the washing machine flooded the kitchen but the week before the hoover caught fire). We had met once before when he isolated the exploding shower so I could turn the water back on. 

"Hello" he said. 

"Hello" I said. 

"I can't kiss you because I've got a cold" he explained. 

"Fair enough" I replied. 

Oooo, it's just started raining. Got to go....