Bit of everything

I have baked.

I have glued.

I have sewn.

And I have put things in jars and then put a pin cushion on top plus some ribbon.

Been pretty active really.

I also went to an Elderly Lady Tea Party yesterday. I was advised it would be drinking gin from teacups but I'm more of a sherry woman myself. I haven't got a picture of what I was wearing but I did snap these three on the sofa.

Kind of gives you the idea. I freaking *adore* fancy dress parties but never seem to get invited to them so this was awesome.

Awesome Boobs

I let my chest speak for itself.

But seriously, the bag. Yippeee!

Tape handle duly added.

It was a bit of a bodge but has worked out pretty well. I've been using it the last two days and am very happy with it.

I'll definitely be making more for xmas presents.

The Cranford KAL continues very well. I am now a whole Cranford in.

Really hard to get the colours to look right.

I have a massage booked tonight. I think I've waxed lyrical about them before but themassagerooms.com come to your house and let you choose duration, type and areas of focus then, in an unusual twist, give you a menu of young women to choose from. I have duly chosen and a blond slovenian will be here shortly. All sounds horribly sordid while being blissfully wonderful. Scented candles ho!

Oh ok, just one more picture of the bag then....

Nom. 

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!