After Amsterdam

I had *such* a lovely time! The people were really friendly and the weather wasn't so bad and I ate soooo much and saw some amazing things. I don't really know where to start so here is a random splurge of highlights.

Endless canals, bicycles and bridges.

Pondering life from the water on a canal tour.

Visiting the newly opened Tulip Museum.

Bags ancient to modern at the Bag Museum - this one is a sewing set and was about 5" high. So desirable.

Kitchy souvenirs.

AWESOME knitting shops. At Penelope Craft she could see I was having trouble deciding between colourways and offered me the use of her mac to look at my ravelry queue. Now that is someone who understands their customers.

Discovering some new filters on my camera that make it seem less gloomy and rainy than it was.

The Kattenkabinet (Cat Museum) with paintings by Picasso as well as more contemporary pieces.

And then there were the tulips.

I spent a morning at the Keukenhof Gardens and it was just incredible. Millions of the little buggers, which are my favourite flower.

They were arranged in every possible combination and there were hundreds of varieties.

I am so glad I went.

Plus a very nice woman took a picture of me standing in a giant clog.

If you happen to like tulips as much as I do then there are about 120 more photos of them here.

I've got lots more I could share but that's enough for now.

My knitting while I was away was mainly the ripple socks of doom. I talked about them in my last post. I'm about 2/3 done on the second sock and have run out of the contrast yarn and am about to run out of the main yarn too. I think I may just frog and give it up.

They're pretty ugly. So in lieu of those I started a free Drops pattern where you knit the sole of the socks first and the whole thing is done in garter stitch.

I rather like them and it makes a change from magic loop.

I leave you with two of my souvenirs. Someone on twitter thought these were actually wooden ones.

I assure you they're not. The second is rather more tasteful.

My littlest sister brought me back a smaller one of these after a visit to Amsterdam a few years ago which has sat ever since in my pen pot at work. These ones are for me at home. I'm now wishing I had bought 3 times as many but I'd run out of money. I guess I'll just have to go back again...

What Should You be Doing?

I got up and knew my task was to tidy up. So imagine my surprise when about 15 minutes later I found myself sewing a button onto the knitting bag I made a few weeks ago.

I finished doing that and thought "Right, this is it..." So I set myself to tidying and 15 minutes later had made a small notebook.

Wasn't my last post about keeping your mind on one thing at once? Amazing how clever your subconscious is (as well as completely neanderthally stupid at the same time).

The knitting bag will carry my revised ripple socks with me to Amsterdam (that's my hotel pool on the laptop in the photo above).

I say "revised" because I'd almost finished the first sock in just the greenish stuff when I realised I had enough wool for about 10% of the second sock. Cue ripping and striping. The notebook is because I am not good at 'the unknown' and so to stave off anxiety in Amsterdam have been carefully planning my trip. I remain flexible but at the same time I know exactly how to get from the station to my hotel and where I want to visit in each part of the city.

It is all recorded in my cunning little book - glitter card for the cover and plain purple for the inside. I used my longest straight stitch setting on my machine to create and binding. It's rather sweet - perhaps I'll start making some for presents or....etsy shop? You never know.

For those of you who sew fabric as well as notebooks, the Festival of Quilts tickets are on sale for Birmingham in August. I think this will be my fourth year and my third with Mater. I've even signed us both up to a workshop for right about the time your feet are hurting because you've walked round looking at so many jaw dropping quilts and then gone and splurged on the fabric you need to make at least three of them.

 

My photos from last year are here and I frequently flick through them for inspiration. It is a must for anyone who likes quilting or patchwork. 

One Thing at a Time

I've been doing this Mindfulness course at the London Buddhist Centre recently. I had expected it to be a bit tree huggy but actually it's very pragmatic. I'm only two weeks in but I already feel I've learnt a lot.

One of the key lessons so far is to limit how much your mind wonders. This keeps you in the now rather than letting you start to worry about what could be or over analyse what was. For me this is a massive effort. They have given us an mp3 download to do a guided meditation each day called a body-scan (not the same as a cat scan).

It guides you through your body, exploring how each part of you feels, and reminds you every now and again that if your mind has wondered off you just need to gently bring it back again. It's only 30 minutes but man, is it difficult. The clever thing is though that just by noticing your mind has wondered you're getting it right. It's not about relaxing it's initially about noticing how much your mind jumps about and then later it's about quietening the internal monologue that causes it to wonder. I think that's pretty clever.

The bodyscan is homework, but there are also two other things they have asked us to do. The first is to do one thing 'mindfully' every day. I tried making 'brushing my teeth' this mindful task.

Ha! Within seconds I realised that I never 'just' brush my teeth. In the morning I'm doing it while finding my shoes, keys, packing my bag, brushing my hair...in the evening I'm turning off lights, picking up clothes, getting undressed. That got me thinking about how often I do ever do just one thing. At the very least I'll be listening to music or an audio book while doing something like washing up or having a bath. For me - to watch TV without knitting in my hands is a waste of time. If I'm travelling I'm usually reading as well. So considering that perhaps it's no wonder my mind is always whirring away and finds it hard to be still.

The other task was to recognise a moment of pleasure every day. On Wednesday that was easy. I met up with my Dad and we went to an amazing restaurant called Ottolenghi. They have got recipes on the website and it is a deli as well as a restaurant. The moments of pleasure were multiple. Firstly seeing my Dad for the first time since christmas. Then the excellent conversation we had. But also my first mouthful of the aubergine and wild garlic dish.

I do adore aubergine and for a few seconds my mouth blissed out. Nom.

It's been a busy week both at work and home and I now have next week off. I feel amazingly ready for it. There is a funeral to go to on monday which naturally I am not looking forward to and then in quick succession I will be in Amsterdam by Tuesday lunchtime. I do have a note of various craft shops and will even have my laptop with me so there may be some blogging. It is due to rain the whole time I am there so expect soggy photos of tulips and canals.

Challah, playa!

I made Challah. For those not in the know it is a traditional jewish bread made with honey and it is really nice. It is another recipe from this book which is my all time favourite for bread.

It tastes very fresh and clean with just a hint of sweetness. Definitely best eaten fresh but then my handmade bread does tend to always be that way which I guess is normal enough as it has no preservatives in.

I got a new phone this week and while surfing the app store I came across Instagram. I know - everyone has this already but I hadn't gone there but have now finally given in.

I read a funny article about how its use is making all our photos look the same and really bad quality, but the filters do have a rather kitsch delight about them. So armed with my new phone and my messy hair I went off to Lewisham yesterday and got the rest of the fabric needed to finish my quilt.

The purple flowery fabric on the left is the backing. I spent ages looking for the perfect fabric and was just about to compromise on a cow skin print when I saw this one - and I love it! I have tacked the backing and the wadding to the front and it just remains to run a line of red zigzag around the central purple dots. Then the binding and it's done! Awesome.

Knitting is a difficult subject for me at the moment - I was happily making a pair of socks out of some leftover yarn when I realised I would only just have enough for one - never mind the second one. It has caused me to falter so rather than knitting this afternoon I decided to cut out more bunting.

This is my sister's wedding bunting. Yes, there is going to be a lot of it. It's a big room with a nasty ceiling I'm told. But it's no good. I'm going to have to go back to knitting soon. If only because I need to get a few projects ready for my trip to amsterdam in a week. What does one knit in amsterdam? Socks are just so portable but I always seem to be knitting them. Hmmm....thinks....

Nope. Got nothing.

The Arrow of Time

From darling wikipedia:

"Entropy is the only quantity in the physical sciences that seems to imply a particular direction of progress, sometimes called an arrow of time. As time progresses, the second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of an isolated system never decreases. Hence, from this perspective, entropy measurement is thought of as a kind of clock."

(Image borrowed from baban cat on Flickr)

Think of entropy as knitting. The total sum of knitting done never decreases. You might rip what you have knitted, but you've still knitted it. Therefore the total amount of knitting only ever increases. You can't unknit because to do so you would have to be able to go back in time. Therefore time only ever moves forward or, very possibly, occasionally stands still. But this would only happen if you ran out of yarn and that is why we have such large stashes - for the sake of universal continuity.

I've been thinking about time and life recently. There has been a bereavement. I won't say more than that but it has strongly affected me. At such times you remember past events and share those memories with others who are also affected. I was thinking about this when I saw a Barn Raising Quilt on Ravelry. It is one that uses up leftover sock yarn and it reminded me of my own sock yarn cardigan.

When I first started wearing it friends would point out sections knitted in yarn leftover from socks I had made them as presents. It also reminded me of socks I made for the one who has passed away many years ago when I had only recently started knitting them at all - back in the days of two needle socks with a short row heel and a seam up the side.

Recently I have been completing the front of a quilt I started way back in the summer of 2009.

Hundreds of tiny pieces of fabric, acquired over years and in some cases decades, stitched together and gradually built up into larger blocks. This week the larger blocks were finally joined into one big quilt front.

It's now had the strips added to top and bottom and awaits some wadding, backing and binding which I hope to get hold of this morning.

The arrow of time demands that, unless we have no stash, an end is followed by a beginning so I have been thinking about my next quilt and what might take place in the world and particularly in my own life while it is assembled. I will undoubtedly continue to acquire cloud photos - looking for the perfect inspiration for my cloud jumper.

I will also inevitably take more pictures of my Mum's cat.

And I will undoubtedly continue to acquire stash - if only for the reason that to run out risks violating entropy and then the Universe would surely cease to be.

Getting My Bake On

I've gone through a fit of baking. Olive and Mushroom Bread.You can get jars of antipasta mushrooms from the supermarket. They are really tasty and in olive oil which the recipe also calls for so two ingredients for the price of one.

Then slow cooked onion soup. A mix of spanish, red and shallots then just butter, flour, stock and seasoning. Delicious. Then tonight I am on Sticky Date Cake. The recipe I used to use has been taken down so I've used this one which seems to be more or less identical. I would strongly recommend it. The hardest part is not burning your tongue on the fruit syrup you make in the first stage while waiting for it to cool down.

In amongst all this I have been knitting and sewing. The knitting has been entirely on the 4-ply Camber Cardi I've been slogging away on since SkipNorth.

It's slow going but I do like how it is turning out. I've also been using something I purchased at SkipNorth. The recycled sari silk - but this sari silk was in strips instead of just threads and you can see two small balls of it left over from the 100g skein (it was about £4.50) to the left of the rotary cutter.

I saw this bag in Winghams (where I got the yarn).

I don't have quite as many fancy stitches on my sewing machine but...

My colours aren't as harmonious as the sample one but I rather like the arrangement.

I shall have to find some suitable lining for it. I'm also wondering about a button closure like a paper lunchbag type thing. Not sure...maybe.

To finish I just wanted to share a couple of things I've seen recently. You're going to wonder how I could resist this one. Especially with Halloween practically on the doorstep.

I should have looked more closely - but don't you get the impression each of those 'feathers' will be hemmed and nicely finished? So. Much. Time.

Then something to brighten any living room wall. Perhaps just to the right of the flying ducks.

I know - again you're thinking "£2.99? Tell me she didn't leave that behind in the shop?". But yes, I did. The dome protecting the furry cats was just a little too protuberant to meet my aesthetic requirements. I did consider getting it as a present for someone but I've just missed Mother's Day although....just imagining my Mother's face if I presented that to her as a present. Ha. Hahaha. Hahahahahahahahahahahahhaha. Ooo, oooo, stitch.

Not Easy Being Me

There I was, peacefully trying to take a picture of the WWE men, and a colleague started throwing things.

Then later - in the pub - hard at work - I was mocked.

Poor me.

These were all for my next illustrated story, following on from the one in my previous post, which will be entitled "WWE vs the Dinosaurs".

I've been tidying a bit at home with the idea in mind that I'll be doing some sewing again soon. I want to get back to my sister's wedding quilt and finish one of the ones I was making myself before I start anything new. I've also been more recently inspired by a chance visit to a shop called "Lovely and British" on Bermondsey Street which stocked jewellery by an artist called Tors Duce. Her website is here and her Flickr here and I borrow a photo from her flickr account merely to illustrate how beautiful her work is.

Isn't that divine? She had some simpler bracelets with buttons on too that were just beautiful.

It was another sunny day in WWEland

The boys awoke with the sun streaming through the window.

"Smell my armpit!" shouted Undertaker. John Cena did and seemed to go back to sleep again.

The yoga group decided to make the most of the sunshine and started their stretches outside.

CM Punk noticed his foot appeared to be pointing the wrong way. But he was a straight edge superstar so it was cool. They changed to do the greeting-the-sun routine.

Then they broke up into smaller groups to relax.

Once he had him alone Kane said to Undertaker "Dude. That whole armpit thing this morning was not good." Undertaker just stuck out his tongue in reply. Meanwhile Triple H hugged a daisy.

Not many people know this but HHH stands for "Hunter Hugs Herbs". Then it was time for wrestling practice. Shaun Michaels decided to go one on one with some purple cotton.

He was losing but the Heartbreak Kid didn't want to give up. Then Mr Kennedy challenged him to a Cone Match.

But Mr Wrestlemania didn't like the sound of that so he threw him off the cone and into some rare breed chunky wool.

Once they'd finished their workouts it was storytime. As the oldest, Shaun Michaels made himself comfortable on top of a hand knitted kauni cardigan and began to tell the story...

"Once upon a time, John Cena went to visit an alpaca farm..."

"...while his friends Shaun Michaels and and Triple H played in some fleece."

"I wonder how much I weigh?" said Shaun. "If only I could climb onto those scales I'd know." "Why don't you climb up that monkey puzzle tree and jump onto the scales from above?" suggested Triple H. (He wasn't called the cerebral assassin for nothing). So Shaun climbed up...

...and jumped down on to the scales.

"I don't weigh anything!" he cried. "Ha ha!" said Triple H from his rosebush.

And that was the end of the story. "Have you and Triple H always been friends?" the younger wrestlers asked Shaun. "Friends forever!" he replied.

(This is the first of two stories being published in the run up to Wrestlemania at the weekend. Did I say "Wrestlemania"? I meant WRESTLEMANIA!!!!!)