Knit and Stitch Show 2011

It’s taken me a while to getting around to writing this post, mainly because I’ve been full of ideas and crafting every spare minute! The Knit and Stitch Show at Ally Pally was great as ever this year, with exhibits by a range of textile artists and new graduates, as well as lots of purchasing opportunities. I even met a couple of new twitter friends. I was lucky enough to go with my Mum, who was feeling generous in the run up to my birthday and christmas, so I did rather well!

On the artist front, I was amazed by a beautiful piece of sculptural work by Jean Bennett which reminded me of Rodin’s Gates of Hell. Mum treated me to a glass tile by Anna Krystyna Casey which had knitted wire embedded in it. It was nice to see a new take on metalwork in glass and her page is worth a look. I was also rather taken by some Faerie Mound Stumpwork pieces by Fleur Oakes. I have been thinking about faux taxidermy and bell jars for some time and have an idea brewing around making a crochet/embroidery terrarium. The problem as always is where to put the finished article as we are running out of art space at home! There was also a show of tradition African beadwork that has given me an idea for a choker.

Purchasing wise, I came away with arms full of yarn, books and fabric. I am currently working on a Fyberspates Scrumptious Cardigan in a beautiful DK yarn 45% silk 55% merino. It looks and feels as luxurious as it sounds! I also purchased lace weight Madelinetosh prairie in two colourways, destined to become a Jared Flood Rock Island shawl. The Black Sheep were selling bulk quantities of yarn at unbelievable discounts, so I bagged myself some Noro Silk Garden and Rowan Chunky Alpaca. Now to convince M that I will look good in a chunky gold sweater. One of my favourite acquisitions of the day was Little Red in the City by Ysolda Teague. Unlike other pattern books, it has up to 15 sizes for each pattern (!) and the bulk of the book is a general guide on knitting garments that will fit well. I’m hoping to gain some confidence in this area as it is not my strong point, and buying enough yarn for a whole jumper is quite an investment to take risks with.

Fabric-wise I was very excited when I saw the fabric for this bustle skirt at Clothkits. Do you remember the Viewmaster toys with the discs that loaded into them? The discs printed on the skirt cover everything from a new life on Mars to making a tomato aspic salad. Here it is made up. I made the waist too big really, but with a long top it looks good and gives a longer bustle. Overall I am very happy with it.

As you can see, lots of ideas floating around and not a lot of time to work on them all now that I’m back at work. I know it’s only October, but a handmade Christmas takes time too, and I’m in the thick of presents, cards and planning decorations. The cooking starts soon with Stir up sunday! Here are a few other bits I’ve created over the past couple of months. The tea set and cake are for our goddaughter, and are being presented in a picnic hamper with bags of sweeties.

Last up, we are really fortunate in Dorchester to have a Pharaoh exhibition visiting from the British Museum at our very own Dorset County Museum. We were proud to be invited along to the official opening and have both been blown away by some of the exhibits. I was particularly taken by a gold ornament from an ointment bottle due to its beauty, historical significance, age and the intricate craftsmanship. I would encourage any of you who are down this way to pay a visit. I have also booked up with a friend for a faience ceramic workshop to make some beads in January. Here we are enjoying some vino with our friend Liz.

Eurovision 2011

It’s that time again! I think we are probably in the minority in being big fans of Eurovision and seem to have forged a tradition with a couple of friends to have a small party to celebrate each year. The last few years we have tried to theme our gatherings on the host country, so last night for Germany I was wearing red black and gold, and eating salami, sauerkraut and pretzels amongst other things washed down with wheat beer. Possibly a bit too much wheat beer using this mornings headache as a guide! I happened on a great honey and mustard dip to serve with cocktail sausages and vegetable crudités – 2tbsp mayonnaise, 1tbsp honey and 1tbsp Dijon mustard. It got a thumbs up all round here so give it a go.

I’ve managed to not even mention the music yet. We had actual money on Denmark to win. If only I’d put my £2 on Azerbaijan at 200/1. With such a dull song we were bemused to say the least. There was also a disappointing lack of gimmicks and unnecessary key changes in the final last night. I had a soft spot for the Jedward song, even if their performance of it was terrible. Less said about Blue the better, but it was a huge improvement on our recent offerings and good to see us in the top half of the leaderboard again. Others amongst us thought that Moldova were robbed. I didn’t.

Now back to the main business of knitting. As a thank you gift for taking photos for our friends’ civil partnership, I was given some money for yarn and indulged in some Wollmeise Lace Garn in two shades of green. I ran a strand each of teal green and pesto green together and knitted Niobe from French Girl Knits by Kristeen Griffin-Grimes. It was a bit fiddly starting the sleeves with a quite open lace pattern in fingering yarn on 8mm DPNs, but once it got going this was a really quick knit and a lovely fit with minimum shaping. I really like the raglan shoulders on me and will bear this in mind when selecting future patterns for sweaters

Having got the bug for lace knitting, I thought I’d like to have a go at a more traditional pattern for a tablecloth. I have bought a book originally printed in the 1950’s and am going to knit up a lace pattern using 4-ply rather than crochet thread. The main reason for this was I thought it would be easier as a relative beginner in lace and it is very difficult to find appropriate quantities of crochet thread in colour. The introduction to the book made me laugh as is was very particular that patterns should ONLY be knitted in WHITE COTTON or LINEN if you must, as to do otherwise would NOT be TRADITIONAL! I will revel in my delinquency whilst tackling this one!

I have also just finished another pair of socks from Knitted Socks East and West, this time ‘Tatami’ in Misti Alpaca Handpaint sock yarn, colourway ‘Blood Lines’. The colourway does not quite have the same impact as ‘Birds in Paradise’ I used for my Lacy Baktus scarf, but I am happy with them overall.

I have found a pattern for some socks with a great stitch that I think will really show off the misti handpaint well. I have decided to use the left over ‘Birds in Paradise’ to adapt the pattern and make a pair of cuffs. They will then go with my Lacy Baktus and woolly fascinator I made for the civil partnership.

Plenty there to keep me busy!

Ikebana socks!

Finally, I have finished by Ikebana socks from ‘Knitted Socks East and West’ by Judy Sumner. I used a gorgeous merino silk blend hand-dyed yarn from Easyknits. This yarn has been great to work with and you can really see and feel the silk in it. When I bought this book, this was the pair of socks I wanted, all other socks have been working towards these beauties! Yay!

That is all.

Market Days

It's been another busy week in the Norris household, and we have been continuing to enjoy the festival summer season. First up, for the bank holiday weekend the French market is in town. M and I both have a love of all preserved meats and we have stocked up as you can see below. Parma ham, chorizo, and various sausages. Who could pass up the oppertunity to try kangaroo sausage? The meats and smoked garlic are making our kitchen smell divine! We also treated ourselves to fresh goats cheeses, bread, olives, and artichokes.

To celebrate this culinary haul, we had a gorgeously smug lunch with fruit and veg entirely home grown. Rocket, melon and radish salad with your parma ham? Oh, yes! I opened a bottle of 2001 Cairanne bought when I was a house officer eight years ago and it set off the food brilliantly. It's a hard life!

My mum is staying this week which is really nice, and yesterday we had a day out in Bridport for the Open Studios weekend. They also had a Vintage Market with mainly furniture and had a lovely time mentally rearranging and redecorating the house to accommodate the pieces for sale. In the studios I discovered one artist in particular called Paul Blow. He is an illustrator working predominantly for magazines and I was instantly struck by his work. I'm definately going to keep an eye on his work and aim to invest in piece one day. I had to rein M in a bit and remind him we didn't have any room for another vintage electric fire... We were really excited to find a set of rare Woolworths 'Homemaker' 1950s crockery at the market, which we snapped up in a blink. Amazingly the lady had had them for a while and having trouble selling them as a complete set. Annoying she sold a singular teacup and saucer from the set, but it's still the largest collection I've seen for sale. Most of the pieces are the early Ridgeway prints.

We already have some Jessie Tait 'Quite Contrary' ceramics from Midwinter, also from the 1950's. I can see a collection growing here! I am embracing the era by watching Mad Men as I put this blog together.

On the sock knitting front, I have finished my latest pair as a gift for Christmas. Another design from 'Knitted Socks, East and West', this time using 'Casbah' by Hand Maiden. They were lovely to knit and I'm very happy with the end product. Next project is a cable tank top from Easy Knits.

I made use of the buttons I bought at Goodwood on this high street cardigan. I was really pleased with the result - they match better than I could have hoped for and instantly made it something special.

Last weekend, my sister and her husband came to stay, and we had a lovely walk around Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens. I bought a Taipei Silk plant (with flowers as pictured below) for my patch at the allotment. I'm trying to record all my flowers here so that I have half a chance of remembering what they all are.

I don't tend to talk about my family and friends on this blog, but my Grandma died this week. This is for her.

Vintage at Goodwood 2010

Yesterday the long awaited Vintage at Goodwood was finally upon us. It was great. We started the day meeting up with friends who live near the site, and made our way to the festival ground about noon. Having obsessed about not forgetting the tickets, placing them ready in my bag from the night before, an ill thought out plan to photograph them before leaving home resulted in them remaining in our dining room all day. Bum. Luckily the nice people on the gate were able to check our booking and let us in without paying again. Phew! As someone who prides herself on time keeping and organisation skills, I took this failure rather hard. There was plenty to distract me from procrastinating too much though. The all important outfit was finished in the nick of time, as I completed my socks for the event the night before. They are another Japanese inspired Judy Sumner design, and I've made them here with a silk/merino blend from Malabrigo in colourway Redwood Bark.

As has become a tradition now, here is a photo of the goodies I came home with. Very restrained for me. There were hundreds of Vintage stalls with lots of lovely things, but I had promised only to buy if I saw something I felt I couldn't live without. I tried on a couple of things but they didn't fit. Probably for the best... The souvenir brochure was a hardback annual, enduring evidence of the thought that went into the whole event. Design heavy, nothing was remotely ugly or out of place all day.

Even the wristbands were cool. Holographic vintage watches, no less.

Here I am, relieved to have been let in despite not having the tickets with me (phew again) in my self-crafted, vintage inspired get-up. Very thoughful of them to produce the brochure to match I thought.

M was looking rather dapper too, although not vintage (maybe just 25 years early?). The great thing was that enough people dressed up to make it special, but there were enough of us in 'civvies' not to feel left out or awkward.

I'm not sure if you can discerne it from this photo, but Martyn collects pin badges for the strap of his satchel. He politely declined my offer to buy him this gem... (My sister and I had the 'vintage' edition of 'Happy Families' these were mounted on. Does that make us old?)

Some revellers really committed to the look. Only mobile phones betrayed the fact that all was not as it seemed.

We spotted curator Wayne Hemmingway a couple of times during the day...

The centrepiece of the festival was a pop-up main street. It was like walking in a pop-up book of our youth, and was ambitious to say the least. Complete with a pub, art cafe, cinema, many shops and even an Indian take-away. All as expected looked beautiful. Is this the most glam Oxfam shop you've ever seen? Mary Queen of Shops - eat your heart out!

John Lewis has never looked better. It was lovely to see lots of people getting involved, learning to knit, crochet and sew.

Another highlight for me was a sewing school run by a company that shaped my childhood wardrobe (and now my adult one), Clothkits. I was keen on a new fabric made for them by Mini Moderns, but even I couldn't justify nearly £30 a metre having had half the year off work so far. It was designed for a skirt kit, and given that I have nearly 15 skirts at the moment, I was wanting to make a dress with it. One day maybe.

Whilst in Clothkits, I came across this lovely knitting/sewing box. Is this the coolest knitting box ever?

The answer came just seconds later. No, this one is. Red wins every time when you're me.

A little further along in the day, I found something else to grab my geeky attention. As a seasoned fan of all things Scrabble, a vintage travel set was rather exciting. Unfortunately they were props for her stall and not for sale. She smilingly told me they were quite hard to come by. I couldn't help but notice she had two. Now that's just rude! I did however admire her partners' jewellery made with broken watch pieces and scrap charms. There is one on the right edge of this photo.

The DeLonghi art cafe was bedecked fittingly, and M blended in rather well.

Airstream buses were very popular throughout the site for stall holders, 'glampers', and there was one particularly fine example up for auction.

The Chap magazine staged it's very own Olympiad at the festival this year. Cucumber sandwich discus, Hop, Skip and G&T and the Pipeathlon featured. The Pipeathlon required the brave chaps to keep a pipe lit whilst sauntering for 10 yards, cycling 10 yards, and travelling the last 10 without his feet touching the ground. Being carried by friends and the classic 'wheelbarrow' were employed in the round we were witness to.

Next up we have the Bad Art Studio, which was hilarious.

Check out this politically ill-advised gem...

Alongside the Bad Art was the Bad Taste Disco.

(In my best Jim Bowen voice) And here's what you could have won!

This Meccano scultpure was growing throughout the weekend...

...and the Rollerdisco was a big hit!

Even Banksy made a contribution.

We headed over to the main stage to see Martha and the Vandellas. IT WAS FAB!!!

Under sufferance, M joined me to see Swing Out Sister. I'm not sure how familiar the rest of the world is with their work, but my sister and I spent many an hour singing along to their first album thanks to our parents.

Here is a selection of other low res pictures from the day.

Until next time! x