New haberdashery shop in Oxford

I was so thrilled a week or so ago to receive an email from the lovely Jo of Darn it and Stitch letting me know that she would shortly be opening a haberdashery shop in Oxford which, despite its size and the fact that it appears to be packed to the gills with crafty people, has been woefully lacking in that department for a good many years. You may remember the lovely vintage buttons that I bought from Jo's stall at the Gloucester Green craft market back in November. Well, the shop has even more vintage buttons and trimmings, notions, zips, yarn, thread, knitting needles, you name it. In fact Jo even has a wish-list at the counter so you can suggest new items you'd like to see in the shop!



[vintage buttons]



[trimmings, buttons, and elastics]



[gorgeous hand-made brooches]



[sweet spotty buttons]



[yummy ribbons]

It was perfect timing for me. I scored a bright pink zip for my Vogue/Amy Butler skirt and these two fabulous brooches by Bee Ferrari as birthday gifts.



Do pop along and see Jo - her shop is a crafter's dream and there's more (fabrics and classes) to come!

Fleece Day 2010

Saturday was Fleece Day for the Oxford Guild of Weavers, Spinners, and Dyers at Stanton St. John. This was kind of a guild open day with demonstrations, fleece and yarn to buy, and lots of cake (which I totally failed to take any pictures of).



[Oxford Downs fleece]

I arrived early with Megan just as Kate and the other dyers were setting up the dyeing tent for demonstrations.



It was fascinating to see Megan's dyeing process. I've seen and worked with lots of the finished product so I was so interested to see how she gets those lovely results.







There were lots of lovely items on the sales tables. This hand felted alpaca cushion found its way home with me (after some dithering) as a house warming gift to myself. I can't tell you how soft it it. Not only is the cover made from felted alpaca but it's stuffed with alpaca fibre too.



Between eating cake and watching Megan and Kate's dyeing demos I got on with some spinning, answered questions, and taught three people to spin (or at least gave them a go on my wheel).



It turns out that Clare (from Bluestockings) is a natural. Megan and I will be continuing her fibre education/corruption by pushing a spindle and fibre on her in the very near future - I think we have another convert to the dark side.

Housekeeping

Woah! there is loads to blog about this weekend but I'll start off with a few housekeeping items.

Firstly, due to popular demand (alright, my parents and Felix) we have some shots of the new furniture.

I love our new dining table. It's solid, it's a lovely colour (natural oak), and most importantly it's rectangular. We've been eating, working, and crafting (well I have) at a ridiculously wobbly oval table for the past three years and I for one am loving the corners. I know you're not meant to put your elbows on the table at mealtimes but it's nice to have the room should you want to.



And we have all of four chairs which means that I can have up to three people (assuming the boyfriend is out) round to dinner.

Then we have the TV unit (also in oak) which has a very hi-tech hole at the back for all the cables to snake out of and a little cupboard at the front for remotes and current DVDs and that.



And finally we have the dresser which will contain our new crockery when we get it but at the moment is just standing there and looking pretty.



One of the nice things about the new furniture is that it provides a lovely backdrop for photos for this blog. You're going to see a lot of knitting and sewing on a background of oak, starting with this baby quilt which has been nearly two years in the making. A lot of friends', colleagues', and relations' babies have arrived since I started piecing this one together.



The fabric for the top was bought as a bundle of fat quarters from The Quilt Room at the 2009 Festival of Quilts, it's backed with a piece of the same light blue as one of those fat quarters, and the binding is the Amy Butler Daisy Chain fabric I used for my Barcelona/Cabo hybrid dress.

The main reason it took so long was that I decided to do all the quilting by hand and in the shape of the large flowers that featured in one of the fabrics (and that I started off by quilting with really tiny stitches).



Won't make that mistake again.



Does look nice though.

Our new(ish) home

The boyfriend and I are finally homeowners! After nearly nine years of renting we own our own place. And the lovely thing is we don't even have to move as we've bought the flat that we've been renting for the past three years.

I would have really liked to illustrate this post with a picture of house-shaped custard creams but couldn't find a house-shaped cookie cutter in town this evening so it'll have to wait until the house-warming (yes, I'll be having another house-warming). Instead of baking I'm sitting at our new table, by the balcony, watching France vs. Mexico, listening to the sound of birdsong mingled with the vuvuzelas, and drinking a glass of M&S's finest to celebrate.

Dress rehearsal

That's what a muslin is really.



It's not quite finished. It needs a zip and the hem needs slip stitching but it's done enough for me to check the fit (like all proper model shots it's pinned in the back).

It's been a good evening for sewing. After putting the muslin together I put in some more work on the baby quilt that's been hanging around for about 2 years - there are just the two short edges to finish slip stitching and then it's done.

A present from Liberty

I love how when you buy something from Liberty it comes wrapped like a gift!



I went in there to buy some fabric for the skirt pattern I picked up at John Lewis. I was actually trying to find the same pattern which Felix made a couple of weeks ago (yes, I'm a skirt stalker) and I really thought I had until I checked the pattern number a couple of minutes ago (hers is V8424 not V8560). Still I really like this one and think it will look fabulous in this fabric which (although you can't tell it from this photo) is pink on pink rather than pink on red.



I'm making skirt B (shorter and with no contrast hem). I've got as far as cutting out all the pieces for the muslin and sewing together the pieces for the front and back yokes. I'm making the muslin out of leftover blackout curtain lining from Laurie's room at my parent's house which sounds frightfully like a tip from a late 'forties guide to making more of your clothing ration - "you can make a smart skirt from old blackout curtains".

A ship in a bottle

I love the latest exhibit on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square. Nelson's Ship in a Bottle looked fabulous in the sunshine yesterday and you couldn't have a more appropriate location for it. It's the closest Lord Nelson's been to his ship in 200 years.

A pocketful of posies

So of course I gave in and bought a skein of the delicious* handpainted yarn being sold by Debbie of Skein Queen in Reading last week.

The Mongolian cashmere and alpaca/silk blends were off limit due to "the Rules"** but fortunately Debbie's "Blissful" sock yarn uses a bfl base from UK sheep so I was in the clear.

And it's so pretty!



The colourway is Ring a Ring o' Roses (love the name) and it's the colour of tea roses and fresh green leaves.

Now I just need to search out a suitably dainty lace sock pattern to match the yarn.

* and talking of delicious it turns out that Debbie was also responsible for the amazing coconut and lime cake that I had a slice of.

** For the last year I've only bought yarn and fibre that has been produced in the UK from British sheep breeds.

Production line

Devil's Food cupcakes baked by the boyfriend (with some help from me) to take into work tomorrow.



Lily's scones (from Domestic Goddess) baked by me (with no help from the boyfriend) for this event in Reading tomorrow. I hope everyone's hungry!

Bursting out all over

How excited am I at the return of Springwatch!

I've even been doing a bit of Springwatching myself. I took these photos of damselflies at the edge of the lake at Aldenham Country Park on Sunday.

We noticed quite a few damselfly nymphs crawling out of the water whilst we were having our lunch and quite a few new emerged adults too, clinging to the concrete dam whilst waiting for their new wings to harden up.



There were also empty nymph skins just left lying where their former owners had crawled out of them.



And then I spotted this one guy with a little split across his back. I waited a few minutes and saw something absolutely miraculous.



You can't get anything more brand new than this and it's absolutely perfect, down to the tiny legs which have emerged from the legs of the nymph like fingers from a glove and just compare the milky eyes of this insect with the eyes of the slightly older damselfly above. Amazing.

One thing at a time

The other weekend I was mulling over what project I should start next, maybe a Coraline or Manu in Jamieson and Smith or a new spinning project (I bought a braid of Shetland in the Bay of Fires colourway from Megan at the last OGWSD meeting) when I suddenly realised I was feeling rather panicky, like my knitting work-load (knitting work-load!?) had become too much for me. Time to take a step back. Just because I'm involved in three biggish projects at work there's no need to replicate the situation in my crafting. This is my hobby after all, it's meant to be fun, and relaxing.

So for a little while I'm just going to be working on one project at a time - either until the current backlog of WIPs has been worked through or things calm down at work (whichever comes first!).



This does have its drawbacks of course. Not all knitting is suitable for all times and places. Making these tiny twisted stitch cables whilst simlutaneously trying to stop the chart falling off my lap isn't the easiest thing to do on the bus and I had to rip back two and a half rounds yesterday after omitting to make two sets of "KFBF"s (knit into the front, back, and front of the stitch in order to make two extra stitches) whilst knitting at the pub. Can't think why I forgot to put those in!



I do appreciate that this single minded concentration on one project at a time will make for rather boring viewing on the blog but fret not - it really can't last!

Brioctopus

I came home from a lovely evening out and dinner to find the boyfriend struggling with his second baking disaster in a week.



Whereas the first attempt resembled a small boulder in weight, texture (and taste) this looked more like a many-legged creature clinging desperately onto its exoskeleton. Indeed, as I type the boyfriend is trying to hack it out of its non-stick shell whilst simultaneously swearing off ever baking again!

Too hot to blog

But not too hot to stomp up to the "highest little castle in the Cotswolds" on Saturday and definitely not too hot to go swimming in Port Meadow on Sunday. Knitting has been going on and I'll tell you all about it - once it's cooled down a bit.

Flaming red Monkeys

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A. from Winter Knitty 2006
Needles: 2.5mm
Yarn: Wellington sock yarn from The Thylacine
Ravelled: here



Love love love these socks!

Just wow!

Have you guys seen this sweater? I love the concept, the oversized cabled cuffs, the loopy i cord hem, and just the overall fabulousness of it. Looks pretty cosy too, doesn't it?

Making it all better

Excuse the language but it has been a hell of a week. Entirely my own fault but I managed to book myself onto a two day course during a week in which I was more than ordinarily busy with my day job. So I have been making it all better by ...

• painting my nails to match my current knitting project (yes, they're now bright red to match Megan's Redgum sock yarn)
  
• knitting said project
  
• buying a scoop of G&D's vanilla icecream with chocolate sauce on the way home
  
• putting a good squirt of Bulgari on each wrist
  
• phoning a friend for a chat
  
• making and eating a mushroom risotto with blue cheese (everything tastes better if you put Stilton on it)
  
• drinking a couple of glasses of Sauvignon Blanc
  
• making Nigella Lawson's banana bread from Domestic Goddess (minus the rum, raisins, and walnuts) for tomorrow's guild meeting
  
• watching four episodes of the West Wing season 4 back to back on the laptop whilst making risotto and banana bread - the Nick and Dave show is pretty entertaining but it doesn't come close to Bartlett for America - we bought our breadbox because it could hold a loaf from our breadmaker but it's also the only spare flat surface in the kitchen on which to rest the laptop
  
  Safe to say I'm feeling pretty good right now.

Five alarm Monkeys

The heart wants what the heart wants. When Megan brought along a bag of her yarn to the pub last week I immediately seized on this skein of Wellington sock yarn in the Redgum colourway and when it came time to knit it up although I considered a number of lovely sock patterns (Baudelaire, Vampire Boyfriend, Baroque) I kept coming back to the idea of a pair of bright red Monkeys.



Trust me, this photo does not do this red justice. I love how the variegation produced patches of colour rather than stripes and I can't wait to finish sock #2 so I can wear them.

What's on?

My needles:



Beginnings of a mitten in hand-dyed yarn with a butterfly pattern for the Oxford Guild of Weavers, Spinners, and Dyers butterflies and moths challenge for Fleece Day next month. I overdyed some oatmeal coloured Bluefaced Leicester with supercook food colouring using cream of tartar as a mordant.



Also a Revontuli stashbuster shawlette using one ball of raspberry Jaeger Matchmaker merino and some leftover Artist's Palette Sweet Feet sock yarn. I was thinking whilst walking to Sticks'n'String in Reading last week that I needed a chevron shawl pattern to use up some of my sock yarn odds and ends and then as soon as I arrived I saw someone knitting this, perfect! I've just got one repeat to go on this one, then I might start another with the rest of my oddballs.

The stove:



Very exciting looking mushroom stock and sliced chestnut mushrooms for risotto for tonight's dinner. I'm cooking my first recipe from my new MasterChef cookbook. I'm not doing the truffled brie, alas. Even if I could afford truffles I don't know where I'd find them round Woodstock on a Bank Holiday Monday.

The ball-winder:



Handspun light grey Welsh fibre from Wingham Woolwork bought at Woolfest last summer. I've spun this at an aran/chunky weight. It should do nicely for the next four panels on my handspun British breeds log cabin blanket.

My nails:



I love it when my nails coordinate with my knitting.

And finally the TV: it's been an all-day Buffy-fest round here (with a short excursion out to the park for scone and tea).

Camera clearout

Inspired by Felix's recent post here are a few shots from this weekend and last weekend.



Knee socks knit from Megan's (The Thylacine) Wellington sock yarn in the colourway Scarpantoni. You've got to love a sock yarn with enough yardage to get a pair of knee socks from a single skein.



Black tulips harvested from the pot on the balcony in order to clear out some space to plant new bedding plants on Saturday. It's hardly Jane Brockett's "tulip triangle" but these are very classy. I'm going to make a lot more effort with the balcony this summer - I really want to be able to see a bit of colour when I look out of the window.



The Knights of Royal England at Blenheim Palace on Saturday.