A week in the wind

Is it really August? Really and truly? After a week spent in Cornwall under grey skies and in freezing gales I'm not at all sure that it isn't actually March.

Ah well, the scenery certainly makes up for it
And the pretty fishing villages

It's just such a shame that it wasn't good weather for ice cream and lazing around.

Slow moving summer

The progress on the new ripple blanket has been slow to say the least. Some days I can only manage a stitch or two before I lose interest and revert to blobbing on the sofa. It is too warm to be using wool - it sticks to my hot hands and makes me itch. If it wasn't for the need to see the rainbow complete I would have no desire to crochet at all.


There is also a lack of urgency about this project compared my other monster ripple blanket. Maybe because I understand now that it is also about the making - I don't feel the frenzy to get it finished like I have in the past. It is an object that will be around for a long time. There is no need to get my knickers in a twist over it.

I have six more colours to go before I am back to the beginning. The yellows, oranges and reds that lead back into the bright coral pink I began with. As I thought I would be, I am so much happier with this arrangement - there is no escaping my obsessive compulsive colour ordering disorder!

An apology and an explanation

I know, I've been really lax, but in my defence we have had the in-laws here (hello!) and I've been busy working on the most enormous project that has taken me the entire year (although not every minute of every day - that would be insane!). Last September I mentioned to a teacher at the middle one's school that I thought it would be a lovely idea for there to be a feltmaking project that all the children could contribute to. After a bit of backwards and forwards chatting, we decided that each child (there are 270 of them!) would make a piece of felt and they would all be sewn together into a banner for the school hall. I offered my time, and away we went.

What started as a small idea became a monumental task, teaching children (aged 4 - 7) the basics of feltmaking, and encouraging them to rub a little harder, bash it a little harder, keep going, the meaner you are to the felt the better it is (they liked that one!). After three terms of this all the pieces needed to be trimmed and sewn into banners, which took about another two weeks.

Finally, this week, it went up on the wall in the school hall - just in time for the end of term, and it looks fantastic. The children are so proud of their work, and I am so proud of all of them. There were times when I felt that if I had to teach one more child to make felt I would scream, but (like childbirth) the bad memories are fading.


Although, when the reception teacher asked me to teach feltmaking to the new intake of children in september it all suddenly came flooding back!

Look what we've been eating

The theme for my Day2day this week was food. It was tempting to just take a picture of my supper every evening, but that would have been a cop-out. Instead I looked for things to photograph that wouldn't normally be noticed - those insignificant little moments of snacking or food preparation.

We even had some decent weather early in the week so I had a chance to photograph outdoors for the first time in goodness knows how long.

I'm sorry, but I just can't

I've tried, goodness knows I've tried. This isn't my first attempt. Those who know me from last year's Etsy retreat will have seen it all before. I just can't. mix. colours. Randomness makes me anxious; I can't relax without harmony - it is all just too distressing.


I got all the way through one set of colours (17 stripes!) with an increasing sense of the wrongness of it all, and then I had to rip it all out. There was nothing else I could do. The idea of spending the best part of a year (judging by my previous ripple marathon) making something that I just couldn't stand the sight of was too much for me. It had to go. The middle one helped with the frogging - she really loved seeing how the stitches came apart: "it's like magic Mummy!".
Then, I put the colours in a more harmonious order, and I have to agree - it is like magic!

Close up on the week

I've joined a new flickr group founded by the magnificent Abi. Called day2day, it's purpose is to find the beauty in the ordinary, and learn about your camera at the same time. This week I have been concentrating on using my new macro lens, and photographing from my collection of thread and yarn. I have really enjoyed playing with light, as well as experimenting with depth of field. Next week food, I think.

Summertime, and the cooking is easy

My favourite salad for my favourite time of year. So easy and quick to put together, even with the obligatory child helper.


Very little cooking and a little light opening of tins. Perfect.

Drum roll please...

I pulled a name out of a hat last night while in the Etsy UK friday night chat. Regular readers among you may recognise the hat from the last time I did this.


And the winner is.....


The wonderful Kezzaroo - goodies in the post to you.

Thanks for all the lovely comments everyone, I wish you could all have won.

And now I am one

I missed my blogiversary by a few days this week. It was on the 17th May, but I've been so busy with:

1. crafting
2. children
   
3. arsing around

that I forgot all about it. Oops.

As is traditional at these times, I will be holding a giveaway. Simply leave me a comment before the end of the day on Friday 23 May (midnight GMT) and I'll do the put-all-the-names-in-a-hat-and-pull-one-out thing. Just to make sure that this fulfills my need for external validation, tell me your favourite thing I have blogged about. The (possibly lucky, depending on your perspective) winner will get a little handmade something in the post.


And in case you don't believe me, here is proof of number 1 on the above list. A half-knitted clapotis. See - it's not all about the arsing around!

Where does the time go?

Number One was eight this week. I can't quite believe it - looking back it feels like 10 minutes since she was born. Apart from my grey hairs and wrinkles that is.

We took some friends to the cinema and then came home for a party tea (complete with cake she had decorated herself - where does she get that from I wonder!). The weather was perfect - just 4 days after the garden had been under 3 inches of snow they all ate ice cream outside.

Happy birthday my love.