shake it up şekerim

Blimey... it is along time since I last watched eurovision - but I have to say it was a proud moment on Saturday night when the UK gave Türkiye - on iki - leaving Kenan Doğulu's Shake It Up Shekerim ranking fourth overall. Anyhow nothing to report on my cable project - it is getting longer but I have given it up for a while. Work is keeping me far to busy and there are sooo many shopping opportunities. So on a sweet note here are some soaps I spotted in Kanyon

my first cable project.... ?!?!?!?!?!?

I am knitting this. It is called CLYDE. It is in the RY winter classics, book 6. I am using soft tweed in Kingfisher, number 9, colourway. It is 56% wool, 20% viscose, 14% polymide, 10% silk. I bought the yarn and pattern at the January sales at Liberty of London.

THE PATTERN IS WRONG! ? !



Look! The picture above clearly shows that the pattern is symmetrical from the central front rib. The cables clearly mirror each other forming a circular pattern just below the chest and at the neck line, as the cables lie flat and echo the v neck. I googled to see if any fellow knitters have spotted the difference (this knitter has made a good job of their CLYDE, but it doesn't look like the photo).

This is my first project using cables, I have followed the pattern just over the first set of cables but it was obvious my project is NOT going to look like the lovely garment pictured in the book if I carry on following the pattern ;-( Here is the pattern...





As I see it the bottom cables, that I have coloured pink, should be slipped to the back as instructed by the pattern - but the bottom cables marked in blue should be slipped to the front, not to the back as the pattern instructs. Then the top cables that I have marked in pink, again as instructed by the pattern should be slipped to the front - but the ones marked in blue should be slipped to the back otherwise it won't be symmetrical.

This is so frustrating - but at least I have only passed the first set of cables - My plan is to rip this back to the first cable - agghhh and as this is moss stitch it is going to be real fiddle to put the stitches back on the needles.

I am a bit hesitant at changing pattern elements - but I am sure I am right to do so in this instant. I would greatly appreciate any comments on this one....

salut là-bas petit fella

Here is baby Gabriel modeling the pixie hat I made for him. Gabriel is living in France with his lovely mum and dad - hope you are all well :-) Hope the title translates OK? My French is rubbish.

turkish
baby - bebek
little - biraz
mother - anne
father - baba
family - aile

Support the William Morris Gallery

The William Morris Gallery is located in Walthamstow, London E17 and is under threat of closure.

This post is dedicated to the community of Walthamstow Forest art lovers everywhere who appreciate the politics and craft of William Morris and observe the right of access to public collections of siginificant cultural value and beauty :-)



Designer, Craftsman, Writer and Socialist William Morris was born at Elm House, Walthamstow, on 24th March 1834. He died, 'having done more work than most ten men', at Hammersmith on 3rd October 1896.

The WILLIAM MORRIS GALLERY, opened by Prime Minister Clement Attlee in 1950, is the only public museum devoted to England's best known and most versatile designer. The Gallery is located at Walthamstow in Morris's family home from 1848 to 1856, the former Water House, a substantial Georgian dwelling of about 1750 which is set in its own extensive grounds (now Lloyd Park).

The Gallery's internationally important collections illustrate William Morris's life, work and influence. There are permanent displays of printed, woven and embroidered fabrics, rugs, carpets, wallpapers, furniture, stained glass and painted tiles designed by Morris himself and by Edward Burne-Jones, Philip Webb, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown and others who together founded the firm of Morris, Marshall, Company in 1861.

Please follow this link to sign the online petition.

craft in the media

A spring post dedicated to recent stuff in the press/tv/print featuring craft>

one - bir     8<--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Extreme Crafts 25 May - 8 August 2007
Siuolaikinio meno centras / Contemporary Art Centre
Vokieciu 2, LT-01130 Vilnius, Lithuania

Curated by Catherine Hemelryk & Jennie Syson
Call for participants/submissions

Extreme Crafts is an international exhibition project held in Vilnius. We
are looking for contributions for a part of the show called the Rogues
Gallery. We're looking for the weird and the wonderful, the inventive, the
amusing, the twisted, the political, the subversive and whatever is being
made at the fringes of the fringes. The project opens in May 2007.

To contribute or for more information get in touch by email:
jennie@hinterlandprojects.com

two - iki        8<--------------------------------------------------------------------------

CRAFT CORNER DEATHMATCH
A new programme on Style network.  Anyone seen it?  It sounds pretty
awful...  Who is Jason Jones?

three - üç     8<----------------------------------------------------------------------------  

DIY ARTS AND CRAFTS NIGHTS - Just popping out for a swift paint
An article in The London Paper about social crafting activities in London.
featuring:

HungaMunga We want people who think they can't make art to make art

PaintJam offers you a rare chance to release the artist in you

CraftNight hosted at the Notting Hill Arts Club 
Cutting edge music combined with the childhood thrill of making 
something all by yourself. And then taking it proudly home.

four - dört     8<----------------------------------------------------------------------------    

THE CRAFTER CULTURE HANDBOOK - by Amy Spencer 
A cool new book I bought recently tho I have hardly had chance to look
though it  ;-(

five - beş      8<----------------------------------------------------------------------------   

OLD FRIENDS OF HAND AND FEET - socks and gloves
An article on knitting in the February edition of Turkish Airlines in-flight
magazine.

In Anatolian culture, socks and gloves are a virtual lexicon of knitting
motifs, each one with its own distinct meaning.

the final cut  8<----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just in time >

The sun is shining, but it is pretty cold outside - just as well I finished my hat on Friday! I wore it yesterday and it kept me cosy warm :-D I am really pleased with the colour. I have nearly a whole skein left but not sure what to do with it! Any ideas?

Next up... I want to give Clara a go - this is another hat from Hip Knit Hats. I have spotted a fo on CatKnitz - it is certainly my fav pattern out of the entire book- but alas I will have to go shopping as I don't have the required needles - what a pity. Great excuse me thinks.

Turkish words for today are:
merhaba - hello
selam! - hi
hava - weather
ilkbahar - spring
güneşli - sunny
gün - day
Şubat - February

Until I learn the rules I will be sticking to words for now rather than sentences.

I love red pink blue white...

...wow I am so in love with this yarn - these are so my colours. I spotted the yarn first on imaybeknittingaranchhouse - just look at those fab socks, a very well chosen pattern - AND then when I looked up yarntini on pureknits the yarn came up super BIG in a window - those guys know how to tempt a weak willed customer. Oh boy - it has been 4 weeks since I went yarn stroking/shopping.


My Turkish words today are:
kirmizi - red
pembe - pink
mavi - blue
beyaz - white

şapka - violet seed wip

Tomorrow will be the start of my third week in Türkiye. The language is a challenge but I am progressing, slowly. When I do try my new lingo 'skills' out around the city my efforts have been much appreciated, so this is spurring me on. So from now on to help increase my vocabulary I will add at least two new Turkish words to my posts. I can't guarantee the translations will be correct mind you, or that I can pronounce them properly and would like to encourage anyone out there to correct me. First up...

menekşe tohum - violet seed
şapka - hat



There hasn't been much time for knitting since I arrived, but this weekend I finally started my Violet Seed hat from Cathy Carron's Hip Knit Hats. I am using ggh, aspen chunky weight, merino/acyrlic 50/50 mix, colourway 23. My gorgeous blue, 8mm Crystal Palace daisy needles were bought a few months back. I adore the colour of these and would love to be buy the whole yummy set- çok güzel :-)

London > Istanbul

I am now safely installed in my new pad in Istanbul.
I have a pretty impressive view from my little balcony.





Any how this is a knitting blog so here comes the knitting bit.... I was knitting in London right to the last minute, busy finishing a baby pixie hat for a friends baby boy, Gabriel who lives in France with mummy and daddy. I took inspiration from this beautiful example from castoncastoff. I don't have a finished pic but I will ask mummy to send me one soon. So at the mo please be content with a WIP photo.

a sad note....

Sadly my grandad passed away on Thursday 25th Janaury. Grandad Cyril (though his first name was actually albert) died at 88. He lived in Cheshire all his life. He was a strong, hard-working man who made his living from the land. For the last twenty five years of his life he lived in good health in the village where my parents live. Grandad was quite a character and he will be sadly missed.

I postponed my flight to Istanbul for a week to be with my family and attend the funeral. I will now fly to Turkey tomorrow(sunday).

the nuisance tagger

I feel a bit of a nuisance tagging fellow blogsters, but I have been very polite and hope the 'tagged' will reciprocate - but if you are reading this please feel free to reply 'not today missus!'

5 new meme things not mentioned on your blog...
slippedstitch
misocrafty
castoncastoff

the rules, take em or leave em...
1. someone tags you,
2. you post five things about yourself that you haven’t already mentioned on your blog,
3. you tag people you’d like to know more about.

6 weird things...
sadieandlance
brownpants
impressionknits

take em or leave um...
THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

double tagged

blimey I have been tagged twice

1) cfknits, the one and only princess of purple has tagged me for 6 weird things about me
2) sadieandlance tagged me yesterday for 5 things meme

first up WEIRDNESS:
1 - cheese with holes in it gives me the shivers - I start thinking about magnified skin cells yuck - even thinking about it makes me feel sick! stop stop stop....
2 - I have a tendency to look at digital displays just as they turn to 33 minutes past - no joke, I had a phase of waking up in the middle of the night just as my alarm clock turned to 3.33am - spooky! The clock now faces the wall at night so I can't see it - weird weird weird.....
3 - I collect the printed patterns from the inside of envelopes - its not a compulsive disorder!
4 - I lovvvveeeee stationery and have a stash of well kept note pads just waiting to be used - but I can never decide which one to use.
5 - I don't like baked beans - everyone else seems to so it must be weird!
6 - my younger brother is forever telling me I am weird (he is a cheeky blighter) my sisters wedding for example, he was convinced I had based my outfit on Mary Poppins.

second up MEME
1 - cakes - things tend to go wrong when I bake cakes - oh the stories my family could tell you!
2 - patience - I don't have any
3 - I haven't started my BIG project yet, though I do have the yarn ready and waiting but have been looking around for something else to knit with it - I am just not convinced by the retro jacket, this jacket looks much more like my style.
4 - I am moving to Istanbul, Turkey for 6 months on Saturday.
5 - I should have gone bed ages ago....

night night... I will blog my tags tomorrow...

Replenishing sewing stash 2007

It's sale time again and I just can't pass by those bargains on the high street.
From the top:
1) Liberty of London; wool-silk in mustard - most expensive of my sale purchases - but well worth it - I have plans to use this to make a fabric scarf complemented by the fabric donated by my mum, see below.
2) Liberty of London; Tana Lawn cotton - I already have the really cute red watering-can motif and just had to have it in navy and turquoise too.
3) John Lewis, Oxford Street, London; pure silk; nearly bought this in the summer but resisted, glad I did as I purchased 2.5m at half price!
4) Liberty of London; Tana Lawn.
5) Liberty of London; Tana Lawn; pencils pencil everywhere - how could I resist this - it will make a fab shirt.
6) donation from my mum's stash; mum made a dress out of this when she was a teenager, I have about 1 m sq and plan to make a fabric scarf.
7) Liberty of London; stretch jersey; how cute is this and I have 2 metres, yipee, summer t -shirt or pyjama top perhaps.

Unfortunately I don't have individual names for the designs - I thought I might find references on the internet for Tana Lawn from Liberty, but no luck, I will have to go back to Liberty to check.

A family of scarves

During a couple of trips to Cheshire at Christmas to see my family my mum and dad had the opportunity to chart the progess of my GEDIFRA scarf kint on the diagonal. I finally finished it on new years day, it has come out quite nicely and the GEDIFRA holds it's shape really well and keeps me toasty warm ;-) though to be honest it really isn't that cold here considering it's January.



My dad has always been immensely proud of his knitting skills, although there is actually only one piece of evidence. This has been carefully stored away longside one of my mums' childhood knits. So first up, here is my dad's little green and yellow number. My dad thinks he was about nine when he knit this at school. His mum, my late nanny Beat (Beatrice) I knew for her sewing skills, and I am sure she must have helped my dad with the equally spaced stripes.



My mum's piece of school knitting is proof that she has always been keen on football. Her scarf carries the colours of Manchester City FC that she mum supported as a child, though now her team of passion is the infamous Manchester United. My nanny Vera, my mum's mother has over the years knit me loads of scarves, hats and cardies, but none in football colours I should add. Nan only recently gave up knitting and in fact I rescued a number of her needles from various plant pots around the house. Just under half of my knitting needles have been gleaned from my nan.



My mum and dad are far to busy to take up knitting again now, though I will make it my mission to find a way to test their crafty knitting skills sometime during the year.

Happy New Year

Hello, I am back again. I have been busy over the last few months... more on that soon... but I have been making stuff... honest...

I crafted a couple Christmas presents for my niece... not as many as I would have liked to, but my plans are a little unrealistic at times. Santa brought my niece a lovely pink kitchen, complete with a singing kettle and bubbling pots... so of course every little cook should have a frilly apron and matching oven gloves.





I really enjoyed making the oven gloves, they are so cute. I made the pattern up for both the apron and gloves as I went along. The gloves were my first go at quilting, I would like to do some more quilting projects as I really like the firmness it gives to the fabric. A plan for cushions I think.

This year I visited IKEA for Christmas present inspiration and couldn't resist these fishy finger puppets - I made a little bag for my niece to keep her fishy friends in, the red starfish has a piece of velcro at the centre so that you can stick a crab or mini jaws to it if you like.





more blogging coming soon, I promise...

Bunnie production line

I haven't blogged for ages - reason: I am on a mission to finish my feather and fan scarf... yes I am still working on it, and fending off RSI. Having complained about rsi I thought I would do a bit of research on the subject and I found, via knitsmith some helpful excercises.

In spite of my current scarf obsession I made time today to start my wee wonderfuls. Here is a little sneak preview of my production line. My plan is to make three bunnies and four bears. I will keep one for myself, but the rest will be for little people.




Before I blog-off I would liek to mention a fab site I have discovered called print & pattern. There is some gorgeous stuff to look at here and loads of fab links to follow.

feather and fan scarf - wip

Misty Garden Scarf - pattern by Jo Sharp from scarfSTYLE edited by Pam Allen of interweave. Yarn: Jo Sharp Rare Comfort Kid Mohair Infusion - but I am using Iced Tea rather than the recommended colourway - reason? simple, because there was on offer at get knitted for this colour way. I am knitting it up on my turquoise swallow plastic needles [made from a natural organic protein polymer - skimmed milk apparently]. I tried metal and bamboo needles first, but I found the yarn worked much better with my swallow 5mm and more importantly the yarn was visible! I started the scarf one and a half weeks ago. I am about to finish my second ball of Fusion and the piece currently measures 89 cm. One more ball to go - until I never knit with mohair again! Cast on Cast off made a lovely black feather and fan scarf in Rowan cotton wool. I have seen a number of item using feather and fan online recently - but I guess that is because I can now recognise the pattern; Willow striped wrist warmers (14) and matching Willow scarf (13) on Collinette from instance. By the way the crochet throw that the scarf is pictured on was made by my partners mum - if only I was that clever!

wee wonderfuls

How exciting, my wee wonderfuls put-together book No.1 arrived this week...

I traced around the patterns this weekend for all three characters; kitty, bear and bunny. I can't wait to choose which fabrics in my stash to use for the body sections, I already have a few ideas, but I couldn't resist going to Walthamstow market this weekend to stock up on some ginger coloured cotton twill and pink gingham. I have plans to make at least four wee wonderfuls for various friends little ones... and just look at the wee wonderfuls put-together book No.1 flickrpool...

saturday market bags.

...catching up on my summer production...
I started my Saturday market bags in July and finished both in early August just before my summer holiday to Alghero, Sardinia.

The blue one: Rowan: all seasons cotton: jazz
The pink one: Rowan: cotton rope: cyclamen

The bags were really useful over my holiday, both serving well as beach towel bags. I found the cotton rope was much more robust than the all seasons, thus the pink bag kept it's shape much better than the blue. I used the pink bag more often, especially in the evening to carry my camera, purse, sunglasses etc with me - which was great as the lovely cyclamen colourway matched my holiday birki flip-flops, the shell embroidery on my new beach towel and my campari and soda ;-)






PLEASE NOTE ALTERATIONS TO MARKET BAG PATTERN

I used exactly 3 balls of cotton rope - but I did make a couple of minor
alterations to the pattern...

- I knit the shoulder straps to 23 cm which was much shorter than than
the pattern - so in total my strap is 46cm in length.   This was just
right to sit on my shoulder and hang at waist height - but you can't
sling it over your body (if you do make the same alterations as me but
want a longer strap you will probably end up using 4 balls)

-  my straps are 8 stitches wide rather than 6

-  I repeated a couple of extra rows of k, p at the top of the bag making
the band slightly wider

jess hutch flickr pool

In August Craftapalooza contacted me via Flickr inviting me to add my Jess Hutch photos to a Jess Hutch flickr group she had created. So if you need a Jess Hutch fix take a look... there are loads of gorgeous squareys in the pool and I would stay at home to knit one tomorrow, if that is I could get my hands on the pattern. Unfortuantley Jess is right out of patterns and from what I hear isn't planning to reprint either. HELP!!! I need squarey in my life.

Here is a picture of my little niece with my last Jess Hutch critter, Kev.