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If you're like me, you brace yourself before you look at any photos you're in. Usually, I find I look more out of proportion/more disheveled/more badly made up than I thought I did as I said "cheese". Then I wince and press delete.
But I'm quite proud of a pic that MyTarpit took of me in Berlin.
I think that my makeup's just peachy and, well, if I say so, I look quite perky. And as for the size of my waist? For once, I'm happy with it in proportion to the size of my face.
Happy Days.
I wanted to give a friend and her loving girlfriend a present to mark their civil partnership.
Now if you want a challenge, try buying a card to send for such an occasion in a province where until a few years' ago they still chained up the playground swings on a Sunday as children playing would be a sin.
Ain't gonna happen!
And then I thought of my favourite Chinese saying.
It's said that when you are born, a red ribbon is tied to your ankle. At the other end of that ribbon is your true love. Throughout your life, this ribbon will shorted until you meet, lip to lip.
So I dyed up and spun this yarn for them, so that they can crochet matching corsages or a cushion, or whatever they choose.
The yarn has:
Wool for warmth,
Silk for luxury,
Banana for exoticism,
Blood red for health,
Deep red for passion,
Gold for prosperity,
Angelina for sparkle and laughter,
And sari ribbon of course.
I wish them a long and happy life together.
....my angioedema decided that I needed a few bed days....and when Ange decides that I need to lie down, I lie down.
As a consequence, I've let a few people down. I HATE doing that. In my heart I'm never a slacker, but in my body, well, I have no choice but to fail.
But hey, I've progressed to the sofa!
So here's a delve into what else I've been up to over International Crochet Month (and a bit before)!
I've been snuggling up in 1 of 3, yes 3, beautiful present swaps I received from the lovely Ina of Tante Sophie in NYC. (Isn't she just such a stunning lady?).
There's this gorgeous scarflet, which is like a warm cloud around my neck.
A cowl-come skater slouch that's been keeping my hub toasty.
And the softest cowl that I've been wearing around my house to keep out the chills. Don't be fooled by my bad pic, it looks wonderful on.
I think that I came off best in this swap.... as in return all I did was make her a jumbo skein of navy and white, irregular candy-stripe, as these are her fave things. I of course forgot to photograph it before I sent it, but you can see it here.
And I kept a little skein for reference.
I also found myself spinning up what turned out to be 'Blue Moustache' yarn.
So called because there was lots of prancing about with one of my blended batts one night.
It just HAD to be for JohnK, another US fibre artist I'm pleased to have visit my inbox. If you don't know this 'funny uncle' then drop by and see just why this yarn was always destined for him.
So what else?
Well..... The lovely Kathleen Greco sent me a copy of her Jelly Yarn book. Haven't tried this weird and wonderful yarn yet? The stuff above glows in the dark you know! Get some here.
And I've been battling with giant balls of my own plastic bag yarn for another project. It's so quick using my method (see the you tube link on top left of blog), but I really wish it was more pleasant to work with. Nothing can beat a bit of fleece for me.
I'm an old-fashioned Dorset girl, ooo-arrr.
A few weekends ago, whilst left to my own devices, I went hell for leather on my dye box, drum carder and spinning wheel. It was almost obscene. In one weekend...
I chased away the grey clouds with some aquamarine...
fed my need for acid limes and vibrant purples.....
dyed up reds, pinks and oranges for my friends and people I wanted to thank.......
crashed ocean colours into seaside sedums....
captured the beach's tumbling pebbles' soft hues in my roving......
contrasted them with our Northern sky....
and woodland stumps...
analysed the strange lichens that grow under a bridge's rusty handrail.....
went hippy dippy and tried out all my new Landscape dyes.......
made my mouth water with boiled-sweet acids....
celebrated my love of spring bluebells....
spun emeralds...
and some of those soft rovings.....
be still my heart....
It's a happening.
The urban art giveaway artist, and gorgeous husband, MyTarpit, is off to Berlin for the German version of I am 8 bit.
The neurotitian site is here giving you the low down on the major-cool Berlin two day art walk.
Who's there?
Featuring a massive, all-enveloping installation by acclaimed artist
Jude Buffum, and accompanied by original doodles by some of the most
prolific character designers in animation and comics (including
Emmy-winners Jorge R. Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua, Gabe Swarr, Jim
Mahfood, MyTarPit and others), it's an exhibit within an exhibit.
Why am I telling you this?
Because being the wife of MyTarPit, it was only a matter of time before my fibre-activist fingers began fiddling with his free street art.
He recently screenprinted up some fabulous pieces and, whilst he was printing, I encouraged him to slip in a few fabrics.
These resulting one-off pieces will be laced with ribbon to lamposts, echoing a basque-wearing songstress in a smokey 1940's Berlin nightclub.
If you're in Berlin next week, you can score one - if you're brave enought to leave a lady lampost naked in such chilly temperatures, that is!
Dare you undress?
There are a few days left to enter the St Patrick's Day Celebration competition over on Ravelry.
Knit or crochet something 'Irish' themed (you may have something you've already made that's appropriate), upload your pic and you could win a massive hall.
I've donated just one of the prizes, but there's an embarrassing amount to win.
This is the 'Northern Irish Landscape' yarn that I donated.
It’s a blend of all the colours that I saw on my beach walk the other
day; blues of the sky, browns of the earth, rust of metal, mossy grass,
greys of petrified wood and slate, you get the idea.
It’s merino,
blue-faced leicester, texel, banana, silk, silk waste and a few other
bits for good measure. The skein is about 180g in weight.
Go on, you still have time to enter...
Sunday's favourite thing?
Well, let me give you a bit of explanation first.
I married a Norn Irish boy, I'm English, we are both from the United Kingdom, but the country that he grew up in and the one that I grew up in are very, very different places. Many of the customs of this province, in which I now live, are alien to me.
And yet it is a gift from my mother-in-law, nearly 5 years after I moved over, that has made me feel most at home.
It is the table from her mother's sewing machine; my husband's maternal grandmother - a woman whom he never met.
Grandma Alice was a stitcher in a factory here, her husband bought
her a sewing machine and she dearly loved it. When she died, the
machine was left to her daughters, who equally love it, and I am
honoured to say, that a few weeks ago, my husband's mother gifted it to
me.
Due to woodworm, the woodwork had to be removed, but I had a piece of marble that fits it perfectly, if not that prettily.
Why does it feel so right? Well, my father was a sewing machine engineer (amongst other things) and I grew up surrounded by sewing machines in various states of repair. There is something very homely about the old Singers and I love them.
I have never felt so rooted here as when I sit in my studio at this treadle table. When the weather is finer I plan to repaint it and gild it.
But for now, it signifies the beautiful thing that is having my husband's parents as my parents-in-law and reminds me of my long-passed father.
xx
OK, so it's my own fault. It's late, I've been at the Guild all day learning the history of spinning wheels and how to spin on a great wheel (to a fibre nerd like me this is VERY exciting).
So this entry is typed with my eyes out on stalks.
But to the matter in hand. Another of my fave things.
Miniature in abundance
- as demonstrated in our garden
House leeks; perfectly formed and repetitive in pattern.
The little jewel-coloured fish in our pond. There's Darryl, Darryl, other Darryl, his sister Darryl and their offspring Darryl and Darryl. It makes things easier.....
Snowdrops - this variety is actually called Inga - obviously named by a botanist with taste. And that's a miniature Buddha head that I sculpted behind it, all under our tree fern. Clashing cultures, moi?
And finally the gorgeous miniature narcissus that I planted just outside my studio window. They herald spring, especially when the blue of the grape hyacinths (which are late this year) come up to join them.
See you tomorrow.
Wow - this 'week of favourite things' is meant to be a fun blogging exercise; listing stuff I love..... but instead, I'm racing headlong into the horrible truth....
After years of living a minimalist, white lifestyle, with few possessions, I seem to have hit the phase of my life where I turn into my mother, kleptomania sets in, everything that doesn't move I wallpaper with mad patterns and hang upon said paper more mirrors than are strictly necessary.
Yes, it took this exercise to realise that I LOVE mad, ornate wallpaper and even madder mirrors.
My living room paper is the same linen, but in 3 different colours (just the pink and brown here - the other is aqua).
This vintage 70's paper adorns my bathroom wall.
On which I hang vintage bevel-edge mirrors.
9 of them - in a tiny little room...
And then there's my dining room wallpaper.
On which I hang, yep, you guessed it, more mirrors - sunburst this time.
And in my studio? Well, it's awaiting decoration at the mo (I have 2
rolls of vintage 60's wallpaper still in their wrap for this).
But
yeah, true to form, there's a myriad of mad mirrors multiplying in
there, too.
And another thing I have realised through this post, despite all those mirrors, my mother never had a reflection......
Luckily I do! [sigh of relief]
Lady beachcomber that I am, I love picking up Mother Nature's little gifts of texture and colour.
So many of her combinations inspire my yarns and fibre mixtures.
The warm honeyed tones of a dried piece of kelp root beside a bleached sea potato and a sage-green urchin, ummmmmmm yum.
The slatey greys of a stone overwhelmed with soft, whipped-cream casts.
The soft, silky greens blending into pinky yellows on a piece of driftwood with a deep, rotted brown.
The bronzey, metallic charring of firewood against sugar-coated pebbles
The sprinklings of natural white deposits bursting on synthetic colours.
Warm hues of orangey, pinky, browny, reds melding into creamy, greys and green.
Zingy lime against white and brick.
And I love these things more because they almost turn my rather frightening cataract into a gently helpful blending tool. My right-eye sight may be getting fuzzier by the week, but look what it does to the beautiful colour combos in my pocket.....
