Rose did this weaving all by herself on the loom that we got her for Christmas. Big plans afoot for tomorrow's project.
This took me two days and that not a lot of days
Tomorrow I am going to do a fluffy blanket for Nanlove Rose
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Rose's first weaving
Tomorrow I am going to do a fluffy blanket for Nanlove Rose
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Post script to Blog Surfing
I take it back, I actually went to downshifting-path to simplicity and felt very comfy. Interesting read and good recipies.
Blog surfing
Spent the last few days wandering around blogger, lurking is the word I believe. Reading other blogs and seeing what is the shape of things.There are some very large, very impressive blogs out there with a community already attached it seems. It also appears quite cliquey and strangely intimidating for such a chatty place. Rather like walking into a room full of strangers that all know each other already. That coupled with the fact that I have no web manners at all, completely no awareness of 'netiquette' and have in the past, annoyed people severely in various chatrooms, leads me to the conclusion that this tiny, wee blog is just the right size for me.
Just read that through and it sounds a bit pathetic really. Like the party bore whom everyone avoids or worse, that sad little creature collecting the used glasses and doing the washing up as an excuse to hide in the kitchen. But well in the rare party that I actually attend, that sad little creature is usually me.
And so I will not walk into the room full of strangers but stay in this little corner of cyberspace muttering to myself and nursing my drink. Being brittle and trying not to cry.
Other than that I have had the desperate task of trying to get this house into some semblance of order and it is just not working. The sitting room is tidy, but as for the rest... yuk. So many toys, so little space.
Oh and I've started spinning once more just for fun rather than for the Christmas projects. I'm on laceweight shetland just for me to wind down. I have no plan in mind for it and I cannot or rather will not knit or crochet such difficult stuff, but my mum hasn't knitted fine stuff for some time so she can add it to her stash and it will free up 400gms of space in mine. Huzzah!
Just read that through and it sounds a bit pathetic really. Like the party bore whom everyone avoids or worse, that sad little creature collecting the used glasses and doing the washing up as an excuse to hide in the kitchen. But well in the rare party that I actually attend, that sad little creature is usually me.
And so I will not walk into the room full of strangers but stay in this little corner of cyberspace muttering to myself and nursing my drink. Being brittle and trying not to cry.
Other than that I have had the desperate task of trying to get this house into some semblance of order and it is just not working. The sitting room is tidy, but as for the rest... yuk. So many toys, so little space.
Oh and I've started spinning once more just for fun rather than for the Christmas projects. I'm on laceweight shetland just for me to wind down. I have no plan in mind for it and I cannot or rather will not knit or crochet such difficult stuff, but my mum hasn't knitted fine stuff for some time so she can add it to her stash and it will free up 400gms of space in mine. Huzzah!
Friday, December 29, 2006
Party! Party! Party!
I look forward to parties like werewolves look forward to a day trip to a silver mine.
28th December Craig y Nos Castle, Church on the Move's Christmas do: buffet, entertainment and dancing to follow.
Oh Lord
Parties are brimful of opportunities to say the wrong thing, to make an ass of oneself, to drink too much, to see lovely young women and remember that when I was their age I neither enjoyed that time nor appreciated what freedom it gave me or knew how fabulous I looked in that red crushed velvet.
And all the while V, my beautiful, gregarious aquarius with a leo moon, is roaming around the room charming people, helping to set up the mixing desk for the band, chatting, laughing, being wonderfully outrageously entertaining - he will sing later and bring the house down - and all this on nothing stronger than tap water.
So I know that I will spend the evening scrunched in a corner, bristles up, back arched and whiskers quivering, hissing unspeakable fear and loathing toward everyone.
OR
I could get a few drinks inside me and relax a bit.
So I hit the tia maria and ice (jolly nice it was too) and circulated, dropping hello, how are you, did you have a nice Christmas, yes very quiet, yes the kids enjoyed themselves, must go and see how James is doing, see you later. And before you know it I've done everyone in the room and can go back to the bar for another drink, so that's how I spent my evening and between that and wandering to the ladies to check that my eyeliner had not slipped nor my lipstick bled (makeup is anathema to me) I was kept quite busy. So by the third tia maria I was starting to enjoy myself and by the fifth I was on the dance floor with V looking pretty good apparently.
So I made a few discoveries that night
1. I can drink tia maria all evening and not get hammered
2. Parties are not as bad as I think they are provided I can do point 1
3. A black velvet column on a thity four year old is rather better than that red crushed velvet confection on a seventeen year old for any number of reasons. One of which is that the seventeen year old had not yet discovered tia maria.
28th December Craig y Nos Castle, Church on the Move's Christmas do: buffet, entertainment and dancing to follow.
Oh Lord
Parties are brimful of opportunities to say the wrong thing, to make an ass of oneself, to drink too much, to see lovely young women and remember that when I was their age I neither enjoyed that time nor appreciated what freedom it gave me or knew how fabulous I looked in that red crushed velvet.
And all the while V, my beautiful, gregarious aquarius with a leo moon, is roaming around the room charming people, helping to set up the mixing desk for the band, chatting, laughing, being wonderfully outrageously entertaining - he will sing later and bring the house down - and all this on nothing stronger than tap water.
So I know that I will spend the evening scrunched in a corner, bristles up, back arched and whiskers quivering, hissing unspeakable fear and loathing toward everyone.
OR
I could get a few drinks inside me and relax a bit.
So I hit the tia maria and ice (jolly nice it was too) and circulated, dropping hello, how are you, did you have a nice Christmas, yes very quiet, yes the kids enjoyed themselves, must go and see how James is doing, see you later. And before you know it I've done everyone in the room and can go back to the bar for another drink, so that's how I spent my evening and between that and wandering to the ladies to check that my eyeliner had not slipped nor my lipstick bled (makeup is anathema to me) I was kept quite busy. So by the third tia maria I was starting to enjoy myself and by the fifth I was on the dance floor with V looking pretty good apparently.
So I made a few discoveries that night
1. I can drink tia maria all evening and not get hammered
2. Parties are not as bad as I think they are provided I can do point 1
3. A black velvet column on a thity four year old is rather better than that red crushed velvet confection on a seventeen year old for any number of reasons. One of which is that the seventeen year old had not yet discovered tia maria.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Christmas Eve
I remember one Christmas morning, the winter's light and a distant choir, the peal of a bell and that Christmas tree smell and eyes full of tinsel and fire
This is my favourite day of the year. In the same way that I prefer wrapped presents to unwrapped ones. I love the anticipation, the gleeful excitement that whispers through me every so often like a remembered scent of childhood. I love the hush of early morning and the peace that comes with the night when the kids are in bed and it's just me and my beloved husband, a glass of something nice and the firelight glinting on the decorations.
My store cuboard is full to bursting, I have lots of good things to eat, my children are warm, healthy and have the gifts that they wanted: ludo and a hair& make up doll. They have rather more besides but its nice to give them something they ask for as well as stuff that you know they will like.
I have so much to be thankful for.
Thanks for peace in this land, for people and places that help, for men and women that will walk through fire for strangers, for plenty in our shops and even though there is much that is wrong about this country I give thanks for the many things that are right
I wish you a hopeful Christmas
I wish you a brave New Year
All anguish pain and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Morriston hospital
Walking down the hill away from my test, it was about 8:30 am and the sun just rising over Swansea mountain. The frost was thick and the nurses, doctors and porters coming off night shift had to scrape their cars clear before making for home. It was very cold and I felt very peaceful in the rose light of a winters morning.
On my way back to the car I passed Ty Olwen, the hospice for kids with cancer. There was a chapel there and through the stained glass I could see the alter covered with Christingle candles. Far too many. I thought of those parents who are helpless observers of the battle that goes on in their childrens bodies and I gave heartfelt thanks that we are well, healthy, strong and have a health service for those that are not.
On my way back to the car I passed Ty Olwen, the hospice for kids with cancer. There was a chapel there and through the stained glass I could see the alter covered with Christingle candles. Far too many. I thought of those parents who are helpless observers of the battle that goes on in their childrens bodies and I gave heartfelt thanks that we are well, healthy, strong and have a health service for those that are not.
Monday, December 18, 2006
Sunday Times Rant
I was reading the Sunday Times last night and throughly enjoying other peoples world view. I don't see many strangers and I definately don't talk to them so it is pleasant to read the papers because it feels like a converation of sorts with the additional benefit that you can turn the page if things get boring which even I in my monumental rudeness would be loath to do in the middle of a face to face conversation.
Anyway, there I was reading all about peoples impression of the world today. Rosie Millard on modern mistresses and Giles Hattersley going on about the eco terrorism of the coke barons - do you know that to produce 1kg of cocaine one uses 200kg of very bad pesticides etc and the terrible ensuing effect on the environment. So now Mr H has given up coke on moral grounds and is now attempting to convert others in his social circle to his point of view. Poor thing was having a terrible struggle with it too.
Then I went to bed - only to wake up as soon as my head touched the pillow because in my mind's eye I saw a cartoon very much in the Punch genre of the middle classes up on a chair holding her skirts up and shrieking at several rats that lay in wait around her. One was the social underclass, one was eco terrorism, one was a coke baron etc. I wish I could draw, I'd send it in and few others beside.
These people seem to have a horror of so much and they seem so surprised at it all. They mourn the death of the possesive apostrophe as the symbol of all that is wrong with this nation's education and don't seem to realise that it was their 1970's right on, liberal minded, middle class, nanny mentality parents, dreaming up reading schemes that failed to teach reading, removing corporal punishment which effectively emasculated discipline in the classroom and eventually introduced league tables that so stressed out teachers that they now concentrate on tests rather than fostering a love of learning and the subject in question.
And on top of all of this they utterly fail [split infinitive - I know] to realise that none of this is new. There they are littered with degrees ( earned one might add when a university education actually meant something and wasn't the raddled whore that it is today, stripped of its worth and dignity and forced to work the gutters for the Thatcherite/Blairite mutant product that is our political system). They almost all live within spitting distance of some darn fine art galleries, so why don't they toddle off down to one and have a look at Hogarth, or if that's too much trouble read some Dickens and paddle for a bit in the cesspool of the Victorian rookeries. It is insane that they do not understand that the terrifing mob underclass have always been with us from the plebians of Rome to the spectral hoodies of today. And whereas at one time the unwashed mass might join the army or navy in search of three meals a day and all the grog it could sink and become cannon fodder as the price, now they litter our prisons coming out to face the same appalling future that their forefathers did. There is no solution barring a mass revival that traditionally tidied up the underclass. Roll out a new improved Salvation army asap.
Sorry for the rant but I needed to get it off my chest and it's not as if any of this is new either. Back to cooking, felt and spinning tomorrow.
Anyway, there I was reading all about peoples impression of the world today. Rosie Millard on modern mistresses and Giles Hattersley going on about the eco terrorism of the coke barons - do you know that to produce 1kg of cocaine one uses 200kg of very bad pesticides etc and the terrible ensuing effect on the environment. So now Mr H has given up coke on moral grounds and is now attempting to convert others in his social circle to his point of view. Poor thing was having a terrible struggle with it too.
Then I went to bed - only to wake up as soon as my head touched the pillow because in my mind's eye I saw a cartoon very much in the Punch genre of the middle classes up on a chair holding her skirts up and shrieking at several rats that lay in wait around her. One was the social underclass, one was eco terrorism, one was a coke baron etc. I wish I could draw, I'd send it in and few others beside.
These people seem to have a horror of so much and they seem so surprised at it all. They mourn the death of the possesive apostrophe as the symbol of all that is wrong with this nation's education and don't seem to realise that it was their 1970's right on, liberal minded, middle class, nanny mentality parents, dreaming up reading schemes that failed to teach reading, removing corporal punishment which effectively emasculated discipline in the classroom and eventually introduced league tables that so stressed out teachers that they now concentrate on tests rather than fostering a love of learning and the subject in question.
And on top of all of this they utterly fail [split infinitive - I know] to realise that none of this is new. There they are littered with degrees ( earned one might add when a university education actually meant something and wasn't the raddled whore that it is today, stripped of its worth and dignity and forced to work the gutters for the Thatcherite/Blairite mutant product that is our political system). They almost all live within spitting distance of some darn fine art galleries, so why don't they toddle off down to one and have a look at Hogarth, or if that's too much trouble read some Dickens and paddle for a bit in the cesspool of the Victorian rookeries. It is insane that they do not understand that the terrifing mob underclass have always been with us from the plebians of Rome to the spectral hoodies of today. And whereas at one time the unwashed mass might join the army or navy in search of three meals a day and all the grog it could sink and become cannon fodder as the price, now they litter our prisons coming out to face the same appalling future that their forefathers did. There is no solution barring a mass revival that traditionally tidied up the underclass. Roll out a new improved Salvation army asap.
Sorry for the rant but I needed to get it off my chest and it's not as if any of this is new either. Back to cooking, felt and spinning tomorrow.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Sabbath bread and Stollen
Last meeting of the year in church today because of all the hassle with getting the hall over the Christmas season. So John preached a good one about gifts and what you might want isn't necessarily what you might get etc and getting to know Jesus as one of the best gifts we can recieve.
Then we had a bring a plate faith lunch and it was really good to have some fellowship time with the rest of the church 'cos normally I'm hurtling out at the end in an attempt to get my kids to bed after a busy evening meeting ready for school the next day.
I brought the sabbath bread that we normally have on the Friday evening meetings and as a kind of Christmassy effort I also made some stollen which is an aquired taste but if you like marzipan and not many do, it is worth the effort.
Anyway, here is the recipe for Sabbath Bread
Half a large packet of plain flour (I think that is 500gms but not sure)
1 sachet of dried yeast
salt 1 teaspn
1 tablespoon olive oil
10 fl oz milk warmed
2 medium eggs beaten
3 tablespns honey
Plonk the dry ingredients in a very large bowl, glass for preference as it holds the warmth. Add the oil, honey, eggs and milk and mix together, first with a fork and then with your hands. Knead it for about five or ten minutes whilst praying for the church especially the children. The texture should change from sticky to pliable silkiness.
Then cover it with a tea towel and leave it in a warm place for about an hour and a half until it has doubled in size. See the need for a large bowl!
Split the dough into three roughly equal pieces, roll into a long sausage, about the same width as well ... a sausage and then holding one end, plait the three sausages together in memory of the trinity.
Place on a lightly oiled baking tray and brush the loaf with some milk.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 C for 30 mins until it is toasty golden.
Stollen is very similar. I use the recipe and method outlined above but before adding the wet to the dry add chopped glace cherries, candied peel and chopped dried apricots in the proportions that you fancy but about 2 oz all told and knead in.
Then after its risen pat it out to a rectangle about (30 cm by 15cm) on a floured surface then take 250g of marzipan and roll into a sausage and place in centre of the dough and roll it round, seal with milk thne place on oiled baking tray, brush with milk and bake in preheated oven for 30 - 35 mins.
Stollen is best eaten fresh and warm but it is good the next day if you toast it.
Then we had a bring a plate faith lunch and it was really good to have some fellowship time with the rest of the church 'cos normally I'm hurtling out at the end in an attempt to get my kids to bed after a busy evening meeting ready for school the next day.
I brought the sabbath bread that we normally have on the Friday evening meetings and as a kind of Christmassy effort I also made some stollen which is an aquired taste but if you like marzipan and not many do, it is worth the effort.
Anyway, here is the recipe for Sabbath Bread
Half a large packet of plain flour (I think that is 500gms but not sure)
1 sachet of dried yeast
salt 1 teaspn
1 tablespoon olive oil
10 fl oz milk warmed
2 medium eggs beaten
3 tablespns honey
Plonk the dry ingredients in a very large bowl, glass for preference as it holds the warmth. Add the oil, honey, eggs and milk and mix together, first with a fork and then with your hands. Knead it for about five or ten minutes whilst praying for the church especially the children. The texture should change from sticky to pliable silkiness.
Then cover it with a tea towel and leave it in a warm place for about an hour and a half until it has doubled in size. See the need for a large bowl!
Split the dough into three roughly equal pieces, roll into a long sausage, about the same width as well ... a sausage and then holding one end, plait the three sausages together in memory of the trinity.
Place on a lightly oiled baking tray and brush the loaf with some milk.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 C for 30 mins until it is toasty golden.
Stollen is very similar. I use the recipe and method outlined above but before adding the wet to the dry add chopped glace cherries, candied peel and chopped dried apricots in the proportions that you fancy but about 2 oz all told and knead in.
Then after its risen pat it out to a rectangle about (30 cm by 15cm) on a floured surface then take 250g of marzipan and roll into a sausage and place in centre of the dough and roll it round, seal with milk thne place on oiled baking tray, brush with milk and bake in preheated oven for 30 - 35 mins.
Stollen is best eaten fresh and warm but it is good the next day if you toast it.
Friday, December 15, 2006
Chocolate making
I reckon I'm just about felted out. I've done Mrs J's mittens and they were a bugger to do if I'm honest. The camel down just would not felt so I hade to needlefelt white wool in patches behind it all so all told its a bit of a potch really. That said it doesn't look bad at all and the things after a bit of bother have held together well. Lily got hold of them when I wasn't looking and they stood up to her well so they cant be that badly made. But right now I don't think I could face making another pair today so Stephs "seascape" mitts will have to wait.
So now all the chores are done and I'm blogged up I am going to move onto the cooked goods to give for Christmas. The cranberry sauce is easy to do and can be done in under an hour leaving me free to do something else in the mean time.
So I want to do raspberry ripples, lemon creams, rum and raisen nuggets and brandy soaked cherries. I wouldn't mind a go at blueberry truffles either but I don't have any white chocolate yet. I'll have to wait until V gets back from shopping with his mum.
Rose had another bout with earache last night so yet another disturbed night for me and a day off school for her. So we are curled up watching the old BBC version of the Chronicles of Narnia right now as I have eventually become fed up of The Santa Clause and although I ordered The Snowman yonks ago with Amazon it still hasn't turned up yet.
So, time to stop talking and get shifting. I have a clean and tidy kitchen to mess up. Have at it!
So now all the chores are done and I'm blogged up I am going to move onto the cooked goods to give for Christmas. The cranberry sauce is easy to do and can be done in under an hour leaving me free to do something else in the mean time.
So I want to do raspberry ripples, lemon creams, rum and raisen nuggets and brandy soaked cherries. I wouldn't mind a go at blueberry truffles either but I don't have any white chocolate yet. I'll have to wait until V gets back from shopping with his mum.
Rose had another bout with earache last night so yet another disturbed night for me and a day off school for her. So we are curled up watching the old BBC version of the Chronicles of Narnia right now as I have eventually become fed up of The Santa Clause and although I ordered The Snowman yonks ago with Amazon it still hasn't turned up yet.
So, time to stop talking and get shifting. I have a clean and tidy kitchen to mess up. Have at it!
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Flowers, felt and faulty cat flaps
Lets see, what have I done today?
Usual work, the morning is a blur so it must have been dull.
This afternoon I worked up five pieces of felt, some of which are just too lovely to cut. Marge gave me some Jacobs fleece in the summer and I promised myself that I would felt it. Well, six months later, here it is with jags of orange, green and red fizzing through it along with a whisper of heather tri lobal fibre to give it a lift. I can never resist a bit of sparkle.
This photo was added 31st Dec and it is in fact a scrap of said felt left over from the hat that I made out of it for Nick for Christmas
The pieces I made today were all meant to be plain as the palm halves of the patterened stuff I made a few days ago, but I only made one of those, all the others are lit up with silks or some uncarded mohair locks in "sea scape" from Winghams. These are destined for Steph eventually or I might give her the whole piece of the turquoise and cerise with spangly yarn felted through it... She'd like either.
The only problem now is that I have run out of feltable fibre. I don't think Winghams will be able to deliver stuff this close to Christmas and the guild have finished meeting until January. So if I want anything else now I'm going to have to see if Sharon has any fibre that she would like to sell. Or I could just make do with what I've got.
Went to see Rose's school play tonight, a retelling of the Mexican legend of the ponsettia. Rose was a mexican child and had a little dance to do. This time next year Eden and Lily will be in it. This time three years ago, they were the same size as your average kitten and living in an incubator. Time goes on square wheels sometimes.
So I have to go and fix the cat flap, Eden broke it this evening with a brush and Zac can no longer use it safely and it is blowing a gale into the house through the gap. After that I really must get the arms of V's jumper under control.
Nos da my lovlies
This afternoon I worked up five pieces of felt, some of which are just too lovely to cut. Marge gave me some Jacobs fleece in the summer and I promised myself that I would felt it. Well, six months later, here it is with jags of orange, green and red fizzing through it along with a whisper of heather tri lobal fibre to give it a lift. I can never resist a bit of sparkle.
This photo was added 31st Dec and it is in fact a scrap of said felt left over from the hat that I made out of it for Nick for ChristmasThe pieces I made today were all meant to be plain as the palm halves of the patterened stuff I made a few days ago, but I only made one of those, all the others are lit up with silks or some uncarded mohair locks in "sea scape" from Winghams. These are destined for Steph eventually or I might give her the whole piece of the turquoise and cerise with spangly yarn felted through it... She'd like either.
The only problem now is that I have run out of feltable fibre. I don't think Winghams will be able to deliver stuff this close to Christmas and the guild have finished meeting until January. So if I want anything else now I'm going to have to see if Sharon has any fibre that she would like to sell. Or I could just make do with what I've got.
Went to see Rose's school play tonight, a retelling of the Mexican legend of the ponsettia. Rose was a mexican child and had a little dance to do. This time next year Eden and Lily will be in it. This time three years ago, they were the same size as your average kitten and living in an incubator. Time goes on square wheels sometimes.
So I have to go and fix the cat flap, Eden broke it this evening with a brush and Zac can no longer use it safely and it is blowing a gale into the house through the gap. After that I really must get the arms of V's jumper under control.
Nos da my lovlies
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Less than two weeks to go
The days are slipping by me fast, people are asking me 'All set for Christmas?' and I am surprising myself as to how unset I am. I can't quite seem to enter into my usual enthusiasm. Mind you, my kids are driving me nuts and I haven't had a decent nights sleep in months so I'm not surprised I'm frazzed. I suppose Christmas will land on top off me as it generally does on the 22nd or there abouts. And yet we have lots of lovely things to do at this season, several parties and meals out etc.
There's even a couple of fancy dress do's and I haven't been to one of those since I was a kid.
I'm off as the Snow Queen, yard and a half of white velvet, some silver spangles, a little bit of tinsel (of course) and away to go. I don't even have to sew the thing, Which is good because crafty as I am, I sew like a bear.
Made some more felt today and I think my beginners luck has run out. More likely I knew I had a bit to do and rushed the job. Eden was determined to help and tipped the soapy water everywhere. Still, Mrs J's mitts are on their way. Botany sliver base overlaid with camel down, a little mulberry silk and a few dots of yak down. If felt could be tofifee sweets then this is it.
There's even a couple of fancy dress do's and I haven't been to one of those since I was a kid.
I'm off as the Snow Queen, yard and a half of white velvet, some silver spangles, a little bit of tinsel (of course) and away to go. I don't even have to sew the thing, Which is good because crafty as I am, I sew like a bear.
Made some more felt today and I think my beginners luck has run out. More likely I knew I had a bit to do and rushed the job. Eden was determined to help and tipped the soapy water everywhere. Still, Mrs J's mitts are on their way. Botany sliver base overlaid with camel down, a little mulberry silk and a few dots of yak down. If felt could be tofifee sweets then this is it.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Take a Butchers
Guild Christmas meal tonight instead of the usual monthly meet. We went to the Butchers Arms in Alltwen and it was very good indeed. Huge servings, rather too large perhaps, hardly anyone finished.
Perhaps it is a sad thing to say or not but the finest thing about it was the sauce on the Christmas pudding. I've always made mine like a custard, thickened with cornflour but in this one there was no trace of thickeners at all, egg nor flour and the texture was amazing.
Anyway, just as I was rhapsodizing about it out from the kitchen came this enormous chef (always a good sign in my opinion) and he went to get a well earned drink at the bar. So I thought why not, he can't possibly mind an admiring comment and he can only decline to share his recipie with me, so I went up to him and asked him how he made the sauce and it tuns out it is the most simple of stuff, all the best things are I think.The felted stocking that I made for the chairman's challenge (like a secret santa but with home made items) went down and okay and I got in return Isobel's beautiful conical 3d knitted Christmas tree made from homespun and dyed with woad and indigo, beaded and wrapped with gold braid for tinsel.
Isobel's Tree (mine now!)That little stocking of mine was easily the most simple thing made there, but these are craftswomen, not just dabblers such as I. However, I don't think I let myself down. Far better than the mutant fairy that I made as my first attempt. I put so much effort into it too and it looks purely awful. It is hanging up on the wall but only because I worked so hard on it. I don't think it will make it out for next year. Poor thing.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
The Little House That Christmas Taste Forgot
Decorated the tree last night and the rest of the place. Spent hours at it and we're still not done yet. And there was a terrible conflict in my soul - tinsel or no tinsel?
I love tinsel, I even love the sound of the word and I really love jewels colours, glitz and glitter of the most kitsch kind but I also love the spare, clean, white washed, gingham ribbon and gingerbread look. And they don't go together in the same room, or even the same house.
So after many digs by V about decorating woes I tried my best to get the house tastefully decorated. The tree has white lights, not a scrap of glitter, just some pretty red beads and lovely straw decorations with a few rustic small toys that I bought in Cowbridge a few years ago and never used because they didn't go with the kitschy lovely trash that is usually stacked up in my Christmas den.
Anyway, somehow - search me, some coloured fairy lights got in under the fence and before you know it tinsel has wrapped itself around the bannisters and draped around the pictures and lamps.
So there is our tree, a lone example of decorating purity amongst the flashing, glittering tinsellatted heap that is our house at Christmas.
I'm putting foil ceiling decorations up later. Is there no end to V's torture. Yes... roll on January 6th.
I love tinsel, I even love the sound of the word and I really love jewels colours, glitz and glitter of the most kitsch kind but I also love the spare, clean, white washed, gingham ribbon and gingerbread look. And they don't go together in the same room, or even the same house.
So after many digs by V about decorating woes I tried my best to get the house tastefully decorated. The tree has white lights, not a scrap of glitter, just some pretty red beads and lovely straw decorations with a few rustic small toys that I bought in Cowbridge a few years ago and never used because they didn't go with the kitschy lovely trash that is usually stacked up in my Christmas den.
Anyway, somehow - search me, some coloured fairy lights got in under the fence and before you know it tinsel has wrapped itself around the bannisters and draped around the pictures and lamps.
So there is our tree, a lone example of decorating purity amongst the flashing, glittering tinsellatted heap that is our house at Christmas.
I'm putting foil ceiling decorations up later. Is there no end to V's torture. Yes... roll on January 6th.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Silky mitts
I wonder if felting is taking over from spinning as the hobby of choice. It is certainly quicker to produce a working garment and it is meditative in its way. The design possibilities are limited only by one's imagination and its no harder to do than making bread.
Take for example the mitts that I made whilst in Ffald y Brenin. Done in an afternoon! and they are sooo snazzy with the streaks of silk and angelina fizzing through them. Okay, V postulated that they looked like alien varicose veins but to normal brains they definately look snazzy...possibly marbled if you wanted to look at it like that but to say veins would be just too cruel.
My mum loves them. They were made for Rose's teacher but I've since realised that Mrs J is more your stone and ecru kind of girl and these are firework colours all through. So they may end up as the girls Cristmas present to Nanna and Mrs J will get another set made from Jacob's fleece. Poor me - more felting to do, and I've still to do V's sleeves.
Take for example the mitts that I made whilst in Ffald y Brenin. Done in an afternoon! and they are sooo snazzy with the streaks of silk and angelina fizzing through them. Okay, V postulated that they looked like alien varicose veins but to normal brains they definately look snazzy...possibly marbled if you wanted to look at it like that but to say veins would be just too cruel.
My mum loves them. They were made for Rose's teacher but I've since realised that Mrs J is more your stone and ecru kind of girl and these are firework colours all through. So they may end up as the girls Cristmas present to Nanna and Mrs J will get another set made from Jacob's fleece. Poor me - more felting to do, and I've still to do V's sleeves.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Insomnia blues
Is there anything more annoying than being awake when you know that you should be asleep? To watch that precious time that you could be using recharging desperately low batteries slipping away from you, knowing that your kids aren't going to cut you any slack later on even if you are dying quietly into your cornflakes. I can't even hoover or put things away because that will disturb the house and all I have to do is lie there in bed waiting for the memories of all the crass and blundering things that I have lately done to come out from under the shadows and gnaw on my mind until I could take it no longer and decided to write about all this to take my mind off it.
There is logic in there somewhere but I'm not sure where.
The wind is mewling down the chimney, the rain is lashing down and it is cold in my lounge despite a thick dressing gown and a nice warm laptop on me. Its as good as a hot water bottle this. Even Zac is snoring beside me, curled up on his pillow, boneless as only a sleeping cat can be.
We are off to Ffald Y Brenin to... today. A retreat in the Preseli mountains. I could describe it, it is certainly pleasing in design and aethetics, quite Country Living in the simplest way, all whitewashed walls and oak beams but mere words do not do justice to this place so I will suffice to say that although I have not travelled as widely as some, I have done my share and seen some wondrous places but I have never walked in peace like there is in that valley. There is no sound there but the wind and the cry of red kites and the silence drapes over the place like a silk scarf. It passes understanding and I could do with some of it right now.
There is logic in there somewhere but I'm not sure where.
The wind is mewling down the chimney, the rain is lashing down and it is cold in my lounge despite a thick dressing gown and a nice warm laptop on me. Its as good as a hot water bottle this. Even Zac is snoring beside me, curled up on his pillow, boneless as only a sleeping cat can be.
We are off to Ffald Y Brenin to... today. A retreat in the Preseli mountains. I could describe it, it is certainly pleasing in design and aethetics, quite Country Living in the simplest way, all whitewashed walls and oak beams but mere words do not do justice to this place so I will suffice to say that although I have not travelled as widely as some, I have done my share and seen some wondrous places but I have never walked in peace like there is in that valley. There is no sound there but the wind and the cry of red kites and the silence drapes over the place like a silk scarf. It passes understanding and I could do with some of it right now.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Posh cot blanket
Hiya
Yesterday saw me doing the largest felt project I've done yet. My gosh, I can't believe it was so easy. I did a cot cover for V's expectant cousin form the cashmere and wool that the kids did their best to ruin. I had to recard the lot - thankfully I've borrowed a drum carder from the Guild, but still it took me about an hour. Then when I tried to spin it I realised that the yarn would be too fine for me to work comfortably and I don't have anywhere near the time for fine spinning anyway, not this close to Christmas. But I had promised them something lovely in cashmere for their new daughter and so it must be.
Now previously I've only made saucer felt, you know the stuff you can make in a saucer and there is nothing to it because you can see it form right under your hands. There's no calico, no bubble wrap, just rubber gloves and a bit of energy. But I thought - well, I'm not going to spin it and it's just going to sit in my stash making me feel guilty well into 2008 or I can give it a go for wet felting and it can only go two ways. And fortunately it worked out just fine. It has no holes and indeed is of quite uniform thickness. One might almost suppose that I knew what I was doing!
Carded it up 30/70 cashmere and finest merino into batts off the machine, laid it out on the dining table, criss cross, bish bash bosh, jazzed it up with some space dyed tussah silk in "rosebasket" by winghams in streaks and circles
and wrapped the whole lot in an old sheet and bubble wrap. I must say that bubble wrap really kept the heat in really well and it made the felting go a lot easier too.
I was pleased that it didn't felt to the sheet too badly and after a little remilling it smoothed down nicely again. I am really pleased with it especially considering that I am a complete beginner at this. And it feels so soft and warm. Mind, it has fabulous fibres in it. There is no way I could have afforded to buy a handmade cot blanket in such materials in a store or a craft market. I guess that is the fun of being time rich rather than cash rich.
I will post a picture of it in a few days, that is to say, V will when his break starts cos for the life of me I cannot get the hang of that darned camera. So expect a wave of pics to roll across this blog starting tomorrow...
or tomorrow...
or tomorrow.
(pics added 30th December!)
And while he's doing that I'll be making a start on the batt of lilac and pink wool and silk that I got from Hereford qute soon.
Yesterday saw me doing the largest felt project I've done yet. My gosh, I can't believe it was so easy. I did a cot cover for V's expectant cousin form the cashmere and wool that the kids did their best to ruin. I had to recard the lot - thankfully I've borrowed a drum carder from the Guild, but still it took me about an hour. Then when I tried to spin it I realised that the yarn would be too fine for me to work comfortably and I don't have anywhere near the time for fine spinning anyway, not this close to Christmas. But I had promised them something lovely in cashmere for their new daughter and so it must be.
Now previously I've only made saucer felt, you know the stuff you can make in a saucer and there is nothing to it because you can see it form right under your hands. There's no calico, no bubble wrap, just rubber gloves and a bit of energy. But I thought - well, I'm not going to spin it and it's just going to sit in my stash making me feel guilty well into 2008 or I can give it a go for wet felting and it can only go two ways. And fortunately it worked out just fine. It has no holes and indeed is of quite uniform thickness. One might almost suppose that I knew what I was doing!
Carded it up 30/70 cashmere and finest merino into batts off the machine, laid it out on the dining table, criss cross, bish bash bosh, jazzed it up with some space dyed tussah silk in "rosebasket" by winghams in streaks and circles
and wrapped the whole lot in an old sheet and bubble wrap. I must say that bubble wrap really kept the heat in really well and it made the felting go a lot easier too.
I was pleased that it didn't felt to the sheet too badly and after a little remilling it smoothed down nicely again. I am really pleased with it especially considering that I am a complete beginner at this. And it feels so soft and warm. Mind, it has fabulous fibres in it. There is no way I could have afforded to buy a handmade cot blanket in such materials in a store or a craft market. I guess that is the fun of being time rich rather than cash rich.
I will post a picture of it in a few days, that is to say, V will when his break starts cos for the life of me I cannot get the hang of that darned camera. So expect a wave of pics to roll across this blog starting tomorrow...
or tomorrow...
or tomorrow.
(pics added 30th December!)
And while he's doing that I'll be making a start on the batt of lilac and pink wool and silk that I got from Hereford qute soon.
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