Week Nine - Good in Parts.

But mostly not so good. In theory I had a hair appointment on Tuesday, but in between me learning that my hairdresser was off sick and the time of the rebooked appointment, his sick leave turned into garden leave. I knew he was moving on, but I only had the address of his new salon, no phone number, so that meant an unscheduled visit into town to book another appointment, but with someone else because he doesn't start there till next month. 

I was not at my best for Uni on Wednesday, because I had had a couple of insomniac nights. It was a messy day, with some changes of schedule, of which I had only a vague grasp. I have realised that although the organisation is pretty good, there are lots of things that 3rd years are expected to know, because, after all, they've been around for two years already, haven't they? And if you haven't, finding the right person to ask can be a challenge... Plus the place runs on what Wensleydale, who has some experience of these things, calls 'art school time', which meant I drove home in the rush hour. 😬

 

Friday was the day for sorting out hairdressers, but we made the most of it by having lunch out, so that was a good day. Until, at the end of it I realised that:

1. The scarf I am knitting for Babybel is going to be long enough ☺️ but

2. This meant that the big buttonhole I made in it is in the wrong place 😞 so

3. I would have to unpick it 😞 and so

4. It wouldn't be finished in time for...

Yesterday's Very Important Birthday Party.  I'm pleased to say that Babybel was pleased with her present - a chest protector - but then she did know what she was getting because it had to be fitted.   But, unfortunately,  Babybel's family are having a hard time at the moment and fate had decided yesterday was the day to throw yet another helping of s**t at them. Unpleasant rather than serious, so far, but they have had such a rotten time over the last couple of years, the last thing they need is more nasty stuff happening to them.

Today had been put aside for resuming essay writing. Perhaps because it's not been a good week, I wasn't really in the mood, so when Google decided not to find me many useful sources, Word decided to be uncooperative (no change there) and Big Mac decided to have a go-slow, I decided to make a book. 

 

It is a fascinating structure, but it needs:

1. A large sheet of paper.

2. Careful measuring.

3. Careful cutting.

I managed one out of the three. I'll let you guess which one.

Here's hoping next week is better... I will resume the essay at Uni, where they have real books! 😊 and a computerised system for accessing journals which I have not yet plucked up courage to tackle. Wish me luck!

After my problems with Blogger last week, I am trying an app called BlogGo. Not very sophisticated, unless it has features I haven't found, but so far so good.

Week Seven

Well, the seminar is over. Was all the agonising worthwhile? Yes and no. As I anticipated, I had problems with the technology. It started when I couldn't log into the University site on the desk top. I could on the iPad, but not the desk top. That meant that, as I don't have Word on the iPad, I couldn't upload stuff from home, but had to email it to myself and then save it when I got to uni...

Of course, once I'd calmed down a bit and consulted my friend Google, I worked out what the problem was. Not because Google provided the answer, but because it did confirm what I'd suspected - it was a Yosemite problem. Or rather a Yosemite-Chrome problem. When I switched to using Safari as my browser, suddenly I could log in. 

Of course I didn't discover that until after the seminar...

The seminar itself was scary [only the second Powerpoint of my life] rigorous but helpful. It did reveal the major weakness in my “write the essay in order to plan the seminar” plan - if you get told to make major changes in your essay, a lot of what you've done is redundant. 😥

So, exhausted, I have put the essay on the back burner for the next week (“reading week”) and turned to other things

 

Like a book - my journal/diary sort of book is nearly full, so I've made another one. Its a simple case binding like all the others...

I have also finishing off stuff for the Visual Marks exhibition at Manor Farm - which starts on November 3rd. Be there or be square, as we used to say  in the - er - a few years ago. You don't have to pay the farm admission fee to get into the exhibition, although of course I strongly recommend going into the farm as well, especially if you nave small children to entertain.

 

 I've all but finished the 3 panels for the exhibition - just hanging hardware to add. I am also making a few brooches, and have got to the stage of adding a backing - a layer of felt and a border of satin stitch.

 

 The first one worked beautifully.

 The second didn't quite work as well.

 The third one is being a complete bugger. So much so that I am now sulking on the sofa with a cup of tea and an iPad.😣

 

 Some time later.

Problem eventually solved, when I realised that, having used high tech technology to make a neat straight stitch circle round the edge of the brooch, I didn't need to use the same technology to go over the edge with satin stitch. It worked OK with the bigger brooches, but not the smaller ones. So I just did satin stitch round them without the aid of the technology - which was a drawing pin and a bit of masking tape to hold it to the bed of the machine.

 

And there has been knitting. I suppose I will eventually get to the stage when I stop sampling and start knitting for real... 

 

 Next week is half term so it will be really peaceful 😏. We have already had our instructions for Monday: a creepy cruise is involved.   Little trains have been ordered for later in the week, but no mention has been made of Manor Farm😮!  I'll be surprised flabbergasted if we don't end up there. 

 

 

I didn't mean to disappear...

but week 4 was very busy, and week 5 🙀 has been no better.

I am beginning to realise that this course manages to combine being 'very flexi', as one member of staff said to me, with being very structured. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be stressful! For example, this semester we have to write an essay - in my case on 'outsider art '. Essay writing , for me, is not usually a problem, but, as preparation for the essay, we have to contribute to a seminar. I can see all sorts of good academic and pragmatic reasons for this, but, although I can talk for Britain, it has become a problem.  

Powerpoint of the essay plan? The plan is no problem, I've already making a mindmap, but I've only ever done one PowerPoint presentation, and that was years ago. 

Hand in an estimate of the number of words in my introduction, conclusion, etc? Haven't a clue, until I've written the essay. 

Hand in a 1000 word section from the 3500 word essay? Might as well write the essay! 

So that is what I'm doing. I'm writing the essay, in order to make a presentation, as preparation for writing the essay.  At least I'll get some feedback before I write the final draft! But - the essay is due at Christmas, the seminar at the end of the month. What seemed like a generous time allowance has become somewhat tight... 

I did take a day off from essay writing, and went up to Compton Verney to see the Folk Art exhibition there. Great exhibition, great venue, just wish it was about an hour nearer... However it provided lots of useful information for the essay, which was my main reason for going.

I have continued with my experimental knitting. This is a sample of 'cellular automaton' knitting, from Debbie New's book, and I think it has bark-like possibilities. It is due to meet the washing machine as soon as there is a suitable load to put it in with.

 

And this is the book of the fortnight. Another concertina book from painted brown paper which ended up vaguely tree-like. The cover is boring black, so I didn't show that.

 

 I'm typing this using IOS8’s predictive typing, and trying to get used to it. It's a bit unnerving when it guesses what I want to say several times in a row - which it just did. Even more unnerving is that it seems to have learned my common typos too...

Week Three

And I still don't feel I've really started. I think it is because the course is largely self-directed, and I'm not used to it! (Plus there have more of the appointments we had to put off over the summer - I now have new glasses and a new bank account. And there has been cycling on the TV. 🚵)

I have worked on some samples - at least one of these you've seen before. I gave up in the hand-knitted 4ply sample:

1. I didn't think it was realistic to knit several 3metre tubes in 4ply by hand, even in 2 years.

2. If I decide to go with fine yarns, the knitting machine makes more sense - if I can remember how to assemble and use it.

3. The samples I made with some scrappy ends of chunky yarns I found at uni are much more interesting anyway. I hope they will be even better when I've put them through the washing machine.

Does anyone know a good - and preferably cheap - source of chunky, neutral coloured coned yarns? The coarser and fuller of vegetable matter the better!

I also made a book. I've been Brushoing papers a lá Frances Pickering, and the results included some tree like forms, which I decided needed a book of their own. Which of course meant I had to paint some paper for the pages. 

Not many in there yet, but there has been some 🚴 going on.

And I have been working on my essay - making notes, producing an essay plan, and planning on going to a relevant (?) exhibition. 🎨

Of the outstanding tasks from BU (before uni) the shawl is finished, blocked and drying. (It's going to be a present, so just a snippet of the very simple border I decided was within my current capabilities. I have trees to knit!

I haven't blocked a shawl in ages: the last time I had a bigger spare bed to do it on, and I didn't have arthritis, but despite that I managed. I debated blocking it on the spare room floor, but that would have necessitated getting down on the floor, getting up again - and vaccing the floor first. 😱

Week 1: the journey begins

It has been a busy week, what with my first two days at Uni, two days grandparenting, 1 day fitting in all the boring appointments we had had to postpone because of the disruptions to our routine over the summer, and a weekend spent trying to sort out what I need for next week.

It has, however, been a very good week for sleeping.  I am tempting fate by saying this, but  the combination of having to get up at not quite silly o'clock most days of the week, plus long drives and a certain amount of uncertainty related stress, has (temporarily?) banished insomnia.

The down side is that I've been so tired that I haven't done much creative stuff, not even at Uni. I registered, got a parking permit, went to an introductory session, a lecture and a tutorial, sorted out and cleaned up my little corner of the art block, and panicked about what I was actually going to do. The tutorial, and sitting down and going through all my scrappy little notes of ideas, has helped with that. A bit.

Having told my tutor I was going to knit trees, I decided I'd better get started on a trial one.

Five hundred grammes of wool-cotton blend I happened to have lying about, a 4mm circular needle, and 100 stitches. In 5 hours I managed 10cm. At that stage  I was planning on 2 metre trees, which at that rate would take me 100 hours. Since then Wensleydale has found an old  3 metre carpet roll in the loft, and 3 metres looks good. Er - 150 hours.

This suggests that, assuming I don't change my mind completely, I need to

1. make the trees smaller

2. machine knit them

3. use a heavier weight yarn

4. or any combination of the above.

Of course, I gave away my last knitting machine and my associated books over the summer. I asked if there was one at Uni - no - but the next day they were offered two, and as I'd asked... Serendipity or what?

Before I can really get cracking with Uni knitting, I need to finish the knitting I started before I started before, plus the embroidery for the Visual Marks exhibition. I was hoping to crack on with the VM stuff this afternoon, but the soldering iron was playing up. I eventually realised that the tip was coming unscrewed. I managed to resist the temptation to rescrew it with my fingers, but waiting for it to cool down took a large chunk out of the afternoon. (As did watching the final stage of the Tour of Britain, but we won't talk about that...) However the last major piece is more than half done - I shall be glad when it is out of the way.

I also have a pair of strange socks on the needles. Strange, because they were going to be grey and blue, until I realised I didn't have enogh grey, so they became grey, blue and variegated.

The shawl is  on hold because I don't understand the instructions for the lace edging, and I need to find some I do understand.

No book of the week this week, I'm afraid. I had a couple of ideas, but no time. The closest I got was putting a cover on the educational year diary I had to buy - I can't be doing with the electronic versions, I need to be able to turn pages and add notes. The cover was definitely too naff for an art student, so I had to cover it with a bit of left-over Cas Holmes inspired fabric. 

While I was stationery buying I went into Staples to buy some paper for a ring binder - and came out with this. Plus planner pages (I decided to by-pass my own system), two sorts of paper, dividers etc. Fortunately I already had some of the big binding rings so I could expand it. Unfortunately this was before my NUS card arrived, so I didn't get the student discount. 

I like it because it is small, if not slim, (bit like its owner), I  can move pages around, and with the dividers I can, I hope, use it for almost everything without getting confused. I could probably have found a diary insert as well, but I don't think there's room. 

The excitement is building - or do I mean panic?

The highlight of the week was my visit to the Mature Students - our visit to Finkley Down on Friday, closely followed by the Mature Students' Welcome Event at Uni. Both were informative and well organised, but only one included tractors. The clincher, I'm sure you'll agree.

I have another, subject-based visit to Uni on Monday, when I hope to get a timetable, and some idea what I'm doing - although the latter may never happen.

Those were the highlights of what has been a busy if mostly uncreative week. Fortunately I've been participating in Myfanwy Hart's 'Createaday' which involves a series of short daily prompts, building up so that the results are greater than the sum of the parts. I've managed to make a book for it, and keep up with this week's prompts. That, together with a little shawl knitting and a bit of embroidery makes me feel I have achieved something.

Although part of me is panic stricken about what I've got myself into, part of me can't wait. We had fun with the little guys over the summmer, but I think we are all looking forward to settling into term time routines, despite someone not believing I'm going.

Granny: I'm going to school soon, just like you.

VHC: Noooooh!

Granny: Yes I am. It's a school for grownups called University.

VHC: Noooooh! Grownups don't go to school. School is for children.

So that settles it!

Living Dangerously.

In my extensive stash I have several rolls of something, bought from a floristry supplier who used to come to college. (She had lots of interesting things: I think she sold more to the embroiderers than she did to the florists.) 

When I bought it, I may have had some idea of what I was going to do with it, but I suspect I just liked the pretty colours. I used some when I was being repetitious last summer, and found out that you can iron it and cut it with a soldering iron: it is non-woven and holey, and from its texture, I suspect it of being lightweight Lutradur.

In an attempt to use it up, I decided to try printing on it. Dangerous! What if it melts? I didn't mention this possibility to Wensleydale, lest he suspect me of deliberately sabotaging the $^<%#>€}<\> HP all-in-one which I hate, in order to justify buying something else. (Would I do something like that? Of course not. Well, not so soon after buying a new car...)

I remembered I had bought Marion Barnett and Dijanne Cervaal's publication on Lutradur, and went and found it, more easily than I expected. From this I learned that:

1. In order not to choke the printer it is a good idea to back the finer stuff with freezer paper, 

2. As the ink tends to come off, it is a good idea to use a pre-coat. (Fortunately I had come across the remains of a bottle of clear Inkaid the other day, while looking for something else. I also found some PrintAbility, so I thought I'd try a comparison and use up some more stash.)

3. The Spunart website suggests only printing in black - just like all those transparencies I've been doing.

To cut a rambling story short:

1. Did I wreck the printer? No.

2. Did the prints come out OK? Yes.

3. Is it Lutradur? Who knows.

4. Which was better, Inkaid or PrintAbility? Who knows: I forgot to make a note of which was which. 

5. Will I do it again? Yes, but not with the Lutradurish material, as I would prefer white to the the pretty colours I have. So I have ordered some of the real stuff from Spunart. I'm thinking tranparencies over Lutradur. Whoops, stash extension.

6. Have I managed to use up significant amounts of the Lutradurish material, Inkaid, PrintAbility, or freezer paper? No, nothing but printer ink.

What did I learn?

1. Printing on draft mode worked fine.

2. The freezer paper looks great, but unfortunately it tends to smear, even when sprayed with fixative.

3. There are differences between the two pre-coats: one lets less ink through, sticks the Lutradurish material more firmly to the freezer paper, and makes the print stiffer but shinier (more on the back than the front). More experiments needed, with careful note taking.

On other fronts:

1. There has been some knitting - the boring but good for subtitle-reading body of the shawl before I get to the exciting but needing concentration lace border.

2. There has been some embroidery - the framework of my latest Visual Marks/Manor Farm piece. (The dots are where the first flowers will go.)

3. A couple of books. I added transparencies to the recycled card book I made a while ago, and made a quick index card book for the latest Daisy Yellow challenge. They should have been ATC’s, but I found these small index cards in a drawer, so decided to use them inste

4. We have had exciting outings, to Manor Farm again, by special request, and to the  Hythe Ferry, which we have only just discovered. If you wish to entertain a transport mad small person, it cannot be beat. Narrow gauge train ride? Yes, times two. Boat trip? Yes, times two. Huge ships to look at, which are loading and unloading cars, tractors and diggers? Yes, times two. An icecream while you watch the Isle of Wight catamaran sail in and out? Yes, but only one, unfortunately. Wensleydale suggested that next time - and I'm sure there will be a next time - we can make it nearly perfect by getting the bus between the ferry terminal and Southampton. Times two.

Next week should be marginally quieter as the little guys go back to school, but I have an invitation to the Mature Students' Welcome Event at Uni. It's beginning to get scary...

Another busy week.

So busy that although I know whose company we were in, I just had to check with Wensleydale what we did this week rather than last. We had a VIB (very important birthday) on Sunday, when the birthday boy received a variety of trains, construction vehicles and tractors. Bit of a theme there, you might think. 

Since then we have been to Basingstoke several times - more times in one week, I think, as I have been in the rest of my life. One was the result of a request to go to Milestones (more vehicles), two were in connection with a VEP (very expensive purchase) (another vehicle). We've managed with one car for all of this century, but the ageing of Honda number three (he had two predecessors) plus the demands of going down to Chichester three times a week, led to the purchase of Honda number 4. We are now feeling rather poorer, but at least we keep Honda in business. (Except that Honda 3 is 11 years old and we would have kept Honda 1 more than 7 years if he hadn't lost an argument with a truck. Fortunately he was the only one that got hurt.) (Honda 3 was sold when we decided we could manage with one car.)

We also went to Mottisfont, where we didn't see much of the children's illustrators exhibition, we were too busy climbing about in the new play area (big wooden things) and in the water play area.  (Get wet! Dam a stream! Get wet! Pump up water! Did I mention getting wet?) Strongly recommended to adventurous children of all ages, but do what we didn't (because we didn't know it was there) and take a towel and a change of clothes.

They loved the fish, too, both the real ones and these.

There has been some needlework. Socks have been finished 

and, for a change, and possibly a gift if it works out, a shawl has been started. Many, many times - I lost count after 8. It is not that it is a particularly difficult cast on, but last night I was tired, due to the stresses of driving back from Basingstoke in an unfamiliar car on the Friday before a bank holiday. Fortunately we know how to avoid the worst bit of the M3!

I had a few more goes this morning and eventually got it right, after I'd worked out that I needed to abandon my preconceptions that for a shawl you increase on every other row at two, or at most four, points. In this pattern there are 6 increase points but you don't increase at all of them every time. I think I've got my brain round it now.

And I have made a book. Instructions here.

It's a very small one, which is not quite perfect, due to some slips of the craft knife. The photos are 1" square. I'm pondering trying a slightly bigger version, but I have a feeling size isn't everything. 

And finally - the second Visual Marks/Manor Farm piece is nearly finished - just some leaves to add, plus framing it - always the worst bit!

Little to report.&nbsp;

This has not been a very productive week. We had some worrying news about a member of the family at the beginning of the week, which led to the little guys spending more time with us than usual. So far we have visited the perennial favourites, Manor Farm and the Lakeside Railway, and two new places, The Vyne and Winchester City Mill, which the VHC loved so much he went twice. That boy is going to be an engineer. 

Babybel elected to go to the Cathedral to light candles, and have a look round. Riding on the Park and Ride buses, and playing with granny and granddad's toys, went down pretty well too. 

The gaps in grand-parenting have been filled with boring stuff like shopping and getting hair cut, so I really didn't have much time or energy left for creative stuff. The VHC has a VI BIrthday coming up, so we are partying on Sunday, leaving today as the only day I could get into my workroom and get going

on a couple of books. I started with this one inspired by Daisy Yellow. It's not my usual style, but given my state of mind, I, for once, made some attempt at sticking to the guidelines.

And then, as usual, one thing led to another. A combination of ideas from the first book, and a failure to get iPhoto to print my acetates the size I wanted, led to this, which is more to my liking. I like the shadows too.

And there is another sock, plus half of one still on the needles.

We are likely to be doing extra grand-parenting until the little guys go back to school, so major creativity may have to wait until that scary moment when I go to University for the third time - although the second time was virtual, before anyone ever used that expression. Before that, we have a mature students' day next month: it will be interesting to see if any of them are more mature than me!

Holiday at Home

As I expected, it's been a busy week: Dorset on Monday, Hampshire on Tuesday, Buckinghamshire on Wednesday, and Berkshire/Oxfordshire on Friday. The National Trust membership cards got a thorough workout. 

Now there's cycling this weekend, (great women's race) so no chance of a quiet time. But the little guys are back from an exciting couple of weeks in France, so we should get back to normal on Monday. Well, what passes for normal around here. Mostly we enjoyed our holiday, but we had some glitches and some bad news, and it will be nice to get back to our routine.

Despite the gadding about, some needlework has been done.

So, here is the routine sock photo. It is an even more repulsive colour combination than the last pair, but I reckon if someone notices your socks, there's a fair chance they are grovelling at your feet, in which case the colour doesn't matter. And I'm at the age when warm feet matter more than style.

A snippet of my piece for the Visual Marks Christmas exhibition. One down, several more to go.

And this week's book. Despite the arrival of some more acetates, I felt like making a paper book, so here it is. Instructions here. I didn't have any suitable postcards, so I improvised with a cardboard mailer - now there's a surprise. I think I could probably include some acetates in the format (I like dos-a-dos books), so there may be another one next week. Watch this space.

<span style="font-size: medium; text-align: start;">Warning! Contains Nudity!</span>

We've been away for a few days in deepest Dorset. OK, it's not very far away, but it was nice to go to a good hotel, be cosseted and eat far too much for a couple of days. 

We went to see a giant. Although as W. said, he wasn't very prominent. I think he needs his chalk cleaning. However Cerne Abbas village was beautiful, with one of the prettiest paths to and from a car park I've ever trodden, a nice cafe and a lovely garden behind the church. 

We also visited Sherborne Abbey, which is beautiful, with a stunning altar cloth, fan vaulted to match the ceiling. I forgot to ask the friendly lady in charge of leaflets who made it (the cloth, not the ceiling) though I bet it was the Sarum Group - does anyone know? We also took in Sherborne Castle (no particularly striking textiles) and Montacute, home of the Goodhart Samplers. I much prefer earlier, non-cross-stitch samplers to later Victorian ones, so I was delighted to see a few of this wonderful collection on show, together with a couple of modern ones. 

And that led to a book purchase or two. I jibbed at £40 for a paperback copy at Montacute itself, even if it was for a good cause, but managed to find a secondhand hardback copy on line for half that. The other book was mentioned on a blog (I can't remember whose, sorry if it was yours) and was also second hand. I've got quite a pile of heavyweight reading building up on the coffee table.

Despite my best intentions, I didn't manage to get much needlework done while we were away. Too much eating in the evenings. I managed a few rows on the sock, but nothing else. However I finished them today - lots of knitting TV (very exciting cycling which the best men and women won), plus cold feet, hurried up their completion.

Since we got back I've made a start on my embroidery for the Manor Farm exhibition. Some design work and preparation, and four and a half couched lines. 

This week's book would have continued the acetate theme, if I'd had any acetates. However Alisa Golden posted the instructions for this, so I made that instead. For once I followed the instructions almost exactly, just making the pages slightly smaller so I could cut them out of one sheet of A3.

I was looking forward to a quiet week next week, but it is already shaping up to be busy. We have a week off from grandparenting and Wensleydale has an itinerary all planned...

  

Bits and Bobs

It's been another busy week, if sitting on the sofa watching bike racing can be described as being busy. It certainly gets the adrenaline flowing: I've discovered that, when your favourite rider removes himself from the race on the first day,  so you have no-one to will to win, willing somebody (anybody) to beat the one you don't want to win, is just as stressful. (It's the immature, sexist one I don't want to win, and so far I've been successful in getting him beaten.)

That isn't all we've done: yesterday we had a taster meal at the hotel where Cheese Major and his Senorita will be getting married next spring. It was delicious, but we could barely move afterwards!

I went to a Visual Marks meeting at Manor Farm (Babybel was dead jealous, especially when I told her about the baby donkey.) (I wouldn't have mentioned it if we hadn't already planned on going there when the school holidays start!)

We had a meeting there to prepare for our exhibition at the Farm over Christmas. (First, Wartime Farm, soon, Visual Marks. I don't think we will be required to dress up or operate antiquated machinery.)

I took a lot of photographs, and even made some drawings. OK, very basic ones, but fit for my purpose, designing organza appliqués. I want to get cracking on these because when term starts I don't think I'll have a lot of spare time!

I've also been working on another VM piece. Right back at the beginning we had a joint mark making session with a big piece of fabric and some thickened dyes. After some discussion we decided to divide it into nine pieces which we would embroider/quilt and reunite as a series of banners ( I think). I chose to hand embroider my piece, but it is closely woven fabric and very hard on the hands, so progress is slow.

I can't remember how far I had got by last weekend on these two, now known as TOPOKIED (the oddest pieces of knitting I've ever done). Further progress has been a bit slow, because:

a) they need more concentration than I've been able to give while watching adrenaline filled bike races, and

b) I've run out of steam.

So I started some simpler, race watching and subtitle-reading knitting. Another pair of socks. Not my favourite yarn, which is why it was still mouldering in my stash, but it won't show much inside shoes, and hand knit socks are definitely warmer and nicer than bought ones. Not that we need warm socks at the moment, but we will, we will.

There nearly wasn't a book of the week, but I came across a reference to 'acetate books' and that started me thinking.  I printed a tree photo on acetate and turned it into a very simple book. It was a bit bodged because I was in a hurry - the acetate is difficult to fold, and I made a mess of the central cut, but I think the result has possibilities. I love the way you get the printed image, the view through it, and reflections as well. I'm pondering on sewing the pages together to make it more obedient, but I'm not sure it's a good idea. I've stuck it back under my old Singer, a.k.a. the book press, in the hope of disciplining it a bit more before I decide.

Rest day tomorrow for the TDF, but not for us, it's a grandparenting day. Perhaps not as physically demanding as riding 200km, but it feels like it, at times.

An Exciting Week

in France, that is, not at Cheese Acres. Very little has been happening here. We have been busy - watching bike racing, looking after grandchildren, watching bike racing, delivering Visual Marks' competition entry to the National Needlework Archive, watching bike racing, watching our ballet girl and boy do ballet - oh, did I mention watching  bike racing?

Since bike racing demands almost as much attention as sub-titled detective series, I have continued with last week's weird knitting - which is getting weirder.  The ginormous sock is gaining some accretions, before it meets the washing machine, and the other turquoise tube is looking more and more like an aberrant windsock. I persuaded myself I did need some more needles, but they haven't helped much - I think this yarn, which is really machine knitting yarn, is just a b****r to hand knit. But 'it's only a sample'.

As is this. In theory this is a square bipyramid, but after it was stuffed and washed it turned into a rather nice ball. No idea what I'll do with it, but it was fun to make.

I snatched a few moments this morning for the books of the week, from here. They are quite small - you can cut two covers/pages from one sheet of A4 - so I used up some of my stash of lined paper for the pages. The card I used for the cover was a bit thin so I Bondawebbed another layer inside, which covered the wrong side of the stitch neatly. They are much firmer now, and slip nicely into the pockets of my sewing and knitting baskets.

Not much progress to report, then, and there won't be much more to report for the next two weeks. And I hear there may be cycling in the Commonwealth Games in August...

Better Late than Never

It has been a busy week. It was Eastleigh College exhibition last weekend - probably the last one I shall be involved in. What with putting up the exhibition, stewarding, and taking it down, I was in college three times in five days. It was nice to meet some friends, indulge in a little retail therapy, and admire other people's contributions, though.

The rest of the week has been beginnings and endings: to begin with the endings.

1. A pair of boot socks. Not elegant, but they make my inelegant wellies more comfortable, which is a Good Thing, and if you know why I capitalised that, you have probably read this.

2. The book of the week - perhaps a bit of a cheat because it's a needle book. It's big enough to take all my sewing needles, and fits into a pocket of the new basket, so I'm pleased with it. Plus it used up more stash, which is a Good Thing.

3. The Race for Life. Not finished by me, but by Babybel and her mum, in a time of 32 minutes, which isn't bad for a 6 year old. At least this year B. wasn't running with a broken arm, and she raised quite a lot of money for a good cause. Also a Good Thing.

4. Several knitting samples - holes, slits and bobbles, in plastic, string, raffia and fabric.  Perhaps Odd Things rather than Good Things.

To end with the beginnings.

1. Of course, the most important beginning in this house was the start of this year's Tour De France. Excellent pictures of one of our favourite parts of Yorkshire (a Good Thing), traumatic pictures of one of our favourite riders falling off in the final metres (a Bad Thing). It will not be the same without Cav. 

2. More sampling is in progress. I'm using stash to try out knitting a loooong cylinder, with every variation in the fabric I can think of. (The safety pins are so I can add a lump, bump or branch at a later date.) A Bizarre Thing?

3. This, which looks like an oversized sock knitted toe up, is destined to be felted. You may notice that there are only three needles in the photo.  It is on hold because I broke the fourth one, and despite owning enough needles to start a shop, I don't appear to have another set of 4mm double points. A Bad Thing.

4. So I have spent the afternoon watching the TDF while sorting my needle collection (only the circulars to go) in order to justify putting in an order for some double point versions of the pretty one in this photo. I justified the purchase of the pretty circular because you need humungous needles to knit scribble lace (the multicoloured bit in the bizarre sample) and trying to knit in the round with only 60 stitches on the only 12mm circular I owned was like wrestling with a recalcitrant snake. The pretty Knitpros are interchangeable, so I can add a short cable to big needles. A Good Thing.

And then I ordered some more because they are pretty, the points feel like silk, and interchangeable needles are so flexible! (OK, I already have a set of interchangeables, but the joints catch on the yarn and come undone when you don't want them to. And they are not humungous enough.)

After the sorting, I have a large bag of redundant single point needles looking for a home. (Nobody needs 8 pairs of 7mm single points - especially when she rarely knits flat. This is what happens when you inherit three knitters' stashes.) (I don't think I can justify buying some Knitpro single points, though.) This is a Good Thing in terms of stash reduction, especially if I can find a good home for them.

5. And finally, I have begun a little light heavy reading. Two books I fancied when they were first published, but couldn't justify buying - but now, well they are almost textbooks, aren't they? And I did get them second hand. And as, together they way nearly 5 kilos, I get a workout as well when I read them! Definitely a Good Thing.