Thursday 30 June 2011

Saturday's Sit and Knit

I was looking forward to my sit and knit session at the village market, no selling pressure just time to knit and chat and it was great fun.
Pam made me a very lovely sign and I took a selection of wool, needles and a few books with patterns for squares as inspiration though we were only knitting simple garter stitch on the day.
This was probably the last village fair as the support from local people has been poor and it was very quiet on Saturday. This a great shame as the event offers a good community get together with local stalls, children's corner, tombola, a cafe, cookery demonstration and all in a good cause, this one was raising funds for Cancer Research. I already had a few squares on the needles in case people wanted to pick them up and just knit a row or two but some of my beginners actually wanted to learn cast on first. My star pupil was 10 year old Amy who had already visited the face painting department, she did a great job, so good to see young people showing an interest. I had quite a few experienced knitters, including some of the stall holders who sat and made whilst selling and people who took their knitting with them while they walked round the fair. We didn't produce enough squares for a blanket on the day but I'll keep making them and a few locals who took away needles and wool to keep going have delivered squares to my house and taken more supplies. There was also talk about starting a village Stitch and Bitch group, I'm all for that. As a bonus one of the stall holders pulled out late on Friday so I was asked to take some socks to put on a shared stall, on my behalf Lesley and Nan sold about £50 worth for me.

Sunday 26 June 2011

Garden inspiration

In the week Mr FF and I travelled down to Penrith, he for meetings me for a trip out. We spent some time at the lovely Larch Cottage Nurseries, a place that used to be a regular coffee stop for us until we discovered the delights of a proper truckers cafe that we've been using for the last few years. Anyway we decided to renew our acquaintance, the place had changed quite a lot since our last visit and was as ever absolutely delightful.It really is an inspirational place, full of little secret areas, lots of statuary, this massive fountain made me smile, plants, pots and a lovely cafe where we sat looking out on to the immaculately kept landscaped grounds. Mr FF took a liking to the alligator/crocodile you can see peeking round the end of the bridge till I told him it was almost £3,000. I did quite a lot of sighing and wishing my own garden was more to this standard, though when I got home I was pleased to realise that it is very interesting and well stocked, just not so many ornaments. Even better stocked now because I had a good rummage in the bargain bucket and got all these plants for 50p each.

Wednesday 22 June 2011

Knitting now

I'm pleased I'm not the only one who doesn't like seaming up their knitting, Kate at Haunted Yarns posted recently in a similar vein. I finished knitting Jake from Rowan Junior by Kim Hargreaves a while ago but left the pieces lying around which I produced another pair of socks before tackling the stitching, which is quite disgraceful really as it's such a small garment.I used Sirdar Juicy DK colour Denim rather than the All Seasons Cotton recommended so there was some adjustment to make but it's turned out fine. I enjoyed the pattern very much, the 80% bamboo 20% cotton yarn is soft and silky, quite splity and tended to unravel when I was sewing but I'd definitely use it again.
The jumper is on it's way down to Yorkshire for Daniel who was born a couple of weeks ago, a new brother for Phoebe my adorable virtual niece, actually no relation at all. Phoebe is already a wearer of my hand knits, in fact last time she came to visit she asked me to teach her to knit and I sent her home with large wooden needles and some wool. I believe she's still practising though has her hands rather full at the moment. I had nice note back from Mum when I emailed to say I had a jumper for Daniel that I wanted to put on my blog and asking permission to include a photo of the baby. I quote Thank you so much for knitting for him - your knitting is just divine - I have kept Phoebe's little crossover cardi you knitted her as a baby - it's in her Keepsake box, it's just exquisite. That is so rewarding, I'm delighted the family like my knitting, but really my achievement is nothing compared to these two gorgeous children.

Thursday 16 June 2011

Plain speaking not

I've been trying all week to take some decent photographs of the adult woodpecker and the fledgling that have been visiting the feeders. The adult usually arrives first, calls the little one over and proceeds to pop food into it's beak. Since this is the best I could do here are pictures of my herbaceous border that they are able to admire from the feeding station.
I was reading this morning on Yarnstorm's post that Jane cannot stand the expression 'going forward' and she gives a link to an article in The Independent that includes 100 banned cliches, going forward being top of the list. I too detest these inane phrases having spent many years working in occupational psychology where they are rife, 'touch base' was top of my hate list. So I was a bit surprised today when I went to tell Mr FF that I thought the baby bird had finally grasped the idea of feeding itself, the little one is 'peck enabled' I said, where the hell did that come from.

Saturday 11 June 2011

Home from the fair

I don't know why I get so over excited about selling my knitting, I just do and now I'm home from the craft fair I am tired and emotional, well maybe not too much of the latter but still a bit wound up. The craft fair was open from 11 am till 4 pm, the longest event I've ever done and gosh it really did feel long though I managed quite a bit of knitting whilst sitting behind my stall. Nothing really happened until around 1, I sold about £60 worth of work in total which was fine and bought some delicious home made soaps from another stallholder and a necklace from Lesley, who had the table next to me and was great company.
As I mentioned the craft fair was part of a weekend music festival, quite a few of the stalls were music related and the front of the large function room was used for an open mic event where anyone could get up to sing and play. I wasn't looking forward to this but it was surprisingly good in parts, helped to pass the time and probably brought more people in. Then there was a song writing competition where musicians were able to perform their own pieces. This absolutely blew me away, such beautiful moving songs, it was a privilege to be in the midst of such creative people. I already have great admiration for makers but this was a timely reminder that writers are wonderful crafters too. I'm quite pleased I don't have any more sales planned though I am running a Sit and Knit event at our village market in a couple of weeks where I hope beginners and experienced knitters will help to produce squares for a charity blanket. Tonight I plan to chill out with a ready meal, a glass of wine and maybe some knitting that isn't destined to be sold.

Monday 6 June 2011

Knitting now

I haven't blogged about my knitting lately, not because I haven't been doing any I've done lots but it's all a bit samey. I have a stall at a craft fair on Saturday, this is part of a local music festival and a bit of a new venture for me as previously I've only sold at our village market. This coming fair seems a bit more serious, for a start it's a much longer event, practically all day, apart from Lesley of Silver Raindrops Jewellery I won't know anyone and I'm not convinced June is the best time for selling socks.Here's my bag of items ready to go. As well as lots of plain socks in various sizes and colours I also have a few scarves and I've made a variety of fingerless gloves simply because I was asked for these at my last sale. These are my own invention, simply a tube of 64 stitches, with a small thumb. I'll make a few more pairs before the weekend and that's me ready for business. As I said it's all a bit dull but once the sale is over I have a new baby to knit for, a blanket to make for the village show and the socks I'm wearing today have developed a hole but I hope there might be a pair left over for me on Saturday.