Weeks 15 and 15a

Weeks 15 and 15a

Sorry to go AWOL, I've been a bit busy.

To begin at the beginning. Week 15 turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. The lecture we were expecting was cancelled, but as the essay really was finished, printed, bound and ready to hand in, I couldn't take advantage of the extra time for last minute revisions. So I handed it in, both paper and electronic versions (that was the challenging bit), drank coffee, and grabbed a quick tutorial/feedback on the crits. I found it demoralising at the time, but when I'd calmed down a bit, got a good night's sleep, and reread the comments, they weren't too bad. I am less sure of what I'm doing than I was a month ago, but I think the staff would think that was a good thing...

By that time, however, we were bracing ourselves for The Visit. It was Mr & Mrs Cheese Minor's 10th wedding anniversary, and they celebrated with a couple of nights in Berlin. Which meant that the little guys celebrated by coming to stay with us.

I'd spotted that Winchester City Mill, which is one of the VHC's favourite places, was having a milling day, so we went to have a look. This might not have been a good idea on the Sunday before Christmas, but the local buses  were remarkably quiet, unlike the park and ride. We bought  flour at the mill, and made bread the next day, before heading to Mottisfont for their Nutcracker trail. 

As we expected, the little guys loved the trail, especially the automata - and the ice cream (!) in the outdoor cafe. (Wensleydale and I opted for tea and cake.)

And on the third day, we headed for the Winchester Science Centre. Unfortunately their Christmas show in the Plantetarium had finished, but the little guys were quite happy with the usual one, plus plenty of time to explore the science exhibits. The cafe is good too - some of the best sandwiches I've had, and very generously filled.

You may be surprised to see no mention of Manor Farm in this itinerary. We had planned a visit, but Babybel didn't want to go!

After the little guys went home we needed time to recover, so we were glad to have no more social engagements till the 26th, when Babybel ran her first Boxing Day race with her mum and dad - 3 km in 20 minutes 'without stopping'! She wasn't first, but she wasn't last either, and she was so proud of herself!

The quiet time allowed plenty of time for sampling trees/hands/branches. (Second left is the beginning of a branch, whatever you think it looks like!) I've also been researching some artists recommended by my tutor, who seems to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of contemporary art. 

I also made some Christmas ornaments. I came across this lovely idea too late for this year, but I worked out if I started straight away and made two ornaments a month, we could have our own Advent Bough next year.  So next year the fortnightly ornament will replace the weekly book - I just hope it doesn't fizzle out like the books did. This is the last book, a variation on the palm leaf book I made earlier. 

 

For the ornaments, I chose a colour scheme of red, rust, yellow, dark blue and cream - which is not a good idea when you want to make Christmas trees like this. As it turned out, I didn't have enough suitable green buttons, and barely enough cream ones, which is why my tree is an odd shape. I have a lot of buttons, but I was surprised how many of them were shank buttons, which wouldn't work.

I made a couple more ornaments, as you can see, from ideas here and here. My intention is that they will all be different, more or less.

We have a few more quiet days now until New Years Eve when the soon-to-be Spanish branch of the family ( that is, soon-to-be family, they are already Spanish...) are coming over for a few days. Then we hit the ground running again when term starts again. Must get more rest!

Week Ten: Coming to Conclusions

Well, sort of. 

The scarf for Babybel did get finished, and was delivered the day after her birthday. She was nicely greatful, and wore it for school. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo.

This vessel/branch is finished, and blocking on the end of a carpet tube. Except that it didn't shrink as much as I'd hoped, so it will have to visit the washing machine again. I had intended that the ribs would twist round - but as you can see, they didn't. However,  I will not be knitting it again.

This bit of playing around finding  trees on a used colour catcher is finished. It was intended  to go in a sketchbook, but Wensleydale has decided it should be framed. So maybe that isn't finished either.

We had a tutorial on Wednesday and I was instructed to stop farting around with samples and start a trial tree. Well, not quite in those words, but that was the gist. I've done some research into how to hold it up - anyone know where I can buy that tubing they bury cables in? - and I would have started knitting after I'd finished the brown thing, honest, but I can't find the wool. I think it may be in the car, which is in the garage, but I'm too lazy to go and look. So I'm making a s****e, just as a stopgap.

The essay isn't finished either, but it is a lot closer to being finished than it was before the weekend - so close to completion that I am experiencing a great sense of relief. I have no idea if it is any good, but my ambition is restricted to getting it finished and handed in on time. 

So, a better week than last week: let's hope the improvement continues.

 

 

 

 

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.

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.

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.

  

This week has been like the curate's egg...

 parts of it were excellent.

The worst bits were, worst to least worst;

1. Getting a (fortunately mild and brief) stomach bug.

2. This sock - designed to fill out and warm up my recently acquired yellow wellies, but too long in the foot. I think this wool is a bit of my hand dyeing - whoever did it, the dye comes off on my hands. Hope it will be better when washed.

3. The book of the week - a roughly similar design to last week's, but involving duck tape rather than gummed brown paper. Duck tape is very good at sticking to things - fingers, scissors, itself... This, plus the slightly different design and my innate clumsiness, produced a less than satisfactory outcome, somewhat rectified by neatening it drastically with a Stanley knife.

The good, but exhausting, part of the week was extra grandparenting duties. Fun, but hard work. Which meant that my 5 hours a night, insomnia busting, sleep deprivation only happened on a couple of nights. Believe me, I have not been insomniac this week.

The excellent bit was also the scariest. Ever since I finished the Foundation Degree, I've been thinking about trying to convert it into a full honours degree. My fellow FDA graduate, C, mentioned that she had applied to Chichester University to do the third year of their BA in Fine Art. My first reaction was that I couldn't possibly do that, but the more I thought about it, the better idea it seemed.

So, I applied, I had an interview on Tuesday, and I was lucky enough to be offered a place. It's part time, so it will take two years, but won't interfere with the grandparenting. Of course, now I'm torn between excited anticipation and sheer terror... Me, an art student? 

To finish off the day, on the way back from Chichester we went into Uppark, (I'm ashamed to say we've never been before) to get some lunch, and discovered there was an exhibition of contemporary art in the house. So we ate sandwiches in the sunshine, then admired the art and the house and came home. Another night when insomnia did not strike!

Little things

The little guys had the week off school, so that although we had a day off grandparent duty on Monday, on Thursday we looked after them all day - exhausting, but fun. Babybel (who is definitely not a little thing any more, she is growing like a sunflower) had a hospital appointment in the morning, which precluded any long trips. (Not a serious problem, just what in my day was called a lazy eye, which has improved enormously.)  

The hospital is conveniently close to the ducky place, so we went there to feed waterbirds and ourselves, followed by a trip to Finkley Down, which is conveniently close to Daddy's new work-place, so we could meet daddy after work, and admire the big trucks arriving, much to the VHC's delight.

Given that we had Monday off, I don't have much to show you - a bit of knitting and three books of the week. That may sound impressive, but two of them are very simple - we realised on Thursday that paper and pencils would fill in the time spent waiting for daddy, so granny has found a small pencil case and made two little pamphlets, all to be kept in the car for future use. 

The other book was a bit more complicated. Earlier in the week I came across a few A5 sheets of hand made paper I don't remember buying, and decided to use them for a book. 

I didn't want to fold the paper, so decided on a stab binding. I vaguely remembered seeing instructions for such a binding with a fold over cover, but couldn't find them in my numerous books. I finally found them in Shereen La Plantz's 'Cover to Cover', found and cut some suitable card for the cover, punched the 72 holes required, selected some unsuitable fibre for the binding, tracked down a needle with an eye big enough to take the unsuitable fibre, (not easy) and sewed up the book. 

It doesn't look much from the outside, but the unsuitable fibre looks OK when you open the cover.

Odd bits of knitting have also taken place. In some cases very odd, like this experiment in felted shibori, which is about to get some beads. (Yes, I know what it looks like.)

I won't tell you what Wensleydale said this looked like, but I pointed out to him that:

a) it is far too big and 

b) it would not be fit for purpose because of the holes. 

In theory it is another 2ply vessel, but longer and destined for more determined felting.

And finally, I decided the previously knit vessels need a bit of colour. The little one was dipped in Quink, the bigger one in something called Prout's Ink, another forgotten purchase, which managed to be both very glutinous and very drippy at the same time. And it smells like the brown shibori looks. Not recommended, even though I like the result.

I nearly forgot. One thing this week was 'really big', as the VHC would say. Winchester Discovery Centre is showing Grayson Perry's 'Walthamstow Tapestry', so we pottered out to see it. Very impressive - it fills the entire wall of the gallery. I especially loved the colour, the patterns, and the birds and flowers, apparently inspired by batiks. And the 'birth' and 'death' sections involve quilts - there's a man who knows his textiles. 

Trees, knitting and a book.

Last week, after I'd made the pasta machine collagraph prints, I got out the Gelli plate and made tree prints with the stencils I'd cut from my tree drawing. Or are they landscapes?

Here's one I made earlier, in both orientations. Can't make up my mind. Whichever, I definitely prefer Gelli to pasta.

And here are a few more trees, in various stages of completion. OK, the bottom two (random cables, with and without i-cord), aren't very tree like, but they could be with a bit of work. I keep getting ideas for treeish things to knit, but I felt like a break from knitting (apart from  the VHC's scarf, of course), to add some four sided stitch to one of the Gelli prints (top right).

An hours good cycling on TV most nights this week has enabled me to make good progress on the scarf, despite spotting an error the other night and having to pull half of it out. W. said that the VHC wouldn't notice, but I would, even if it is mistake stitch rib. Babybel was very pleased with her scarf, so I hope the little one likes his 'boo' one.

I also managed to finish off the Contemporary Textile Workshop lace book. I was going to line it with Vilene, but I realised that it was stiff enough on its own, so it's lined with a bit of an interesting print I found in the cupboard.

I'm going to put the better pasta prints in it later, but first I have to wait for the Markal I put on the cover to cure a bit, otherwise I'll end up with blue hands. Again. Just call me Cheshire Smurf.

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It"s been a tiring week.

There's been knitting - a scarf finished, a scarf started (the VHC made it clear that he wanted a scarf too - 'a boo one'), some trees, and a small experimental vessel. It's 2" tall, and the same diameter, and I think it's cute! Useless, but cute.

There was the Contemporary Textiles Workshop, wherein we did things with lace. We made collagraph plates to use with pasta machines (as you do) and printed them...

and some of us made book covers. You can see what a good collection I have of not very nice lace. 

The cover looks a bit better painted, but is a bit bright for my taste. I think Markals might be called for.

And some book of the week making. Not, as you might expect, using the book cover I made in CTW (I'm waiting for the paint to dry.) Not using the Visual Marks challenge cover, which is still awaiting assembly. Instead I came across these, and adapted them slightly to use up an old file envelope and some of the lined paper we seem to have infinite supplies of. (Can you spot the deliberate mistake?) The photographs are a bit misleading, it is more mauve than purple.

It has become my 'to do' list. I'm already onto the third page.

That all may not look much, but I feel knackered (I suspect I am going down with a cold). 

I also made an unexpected discovery. About 25 years ago, when we moved into this house, long before I started using computers, I bought some printed address labels.  And then they disappeared. After a desultory search, I assumed I'd thrown the envelope away by mistake and hand wrote everything.

This week the drawer under the envelope drawer, in which I'd put them, stopped closing properly. Eventually I got the grabber - a sort of opposable thumb and finger on a stick - in order to poke around behind it. (The drawers are difficult to take out and require girding of loins, stiffening of sinews and summoning of blood.) 

There were a lot of envelopes down there, some greetings cards, an application form for a car licence - and my address labels.

We have been talking about downsizing, so they were bound to reappear. Mind you, we have been talking about downsizing for years...

Is it a bird?

Is it a plane? Is it an Easter egg? No, it's a Visual Marks challenge, as set by me, so I have no-one else to blame. It is the 16" oval collage, including lace and felt, inspired by the sea, and sea green in colour. I've got in everything except the 16", although you may not agree that it is 'sea green'. My choice was based on a 'sea green' T-shirt in a Cotton Traders catalogue, and what I had in the stash.

The 16" (ish) will come when I turn it into an A4 book, A3 paper being 16.5" long. It was going to be this week's book of the week, until it became clear it wasn't - it was harder than I expected to apply the ovalish bit of 'collage'. Hence the cord, which will serve, I hope, to hide the infelicitous edges.

What I learned from this:

No matter how carefully I preplan my crazy patchwork, it won't be the right size.

Cutting out a perfect oval is difficult impossible.

Even a Bernina doesn't like sewing 2 layers of cotton, 1 of felt and 1 of silk velvet.

Silk velvet is beautiful and evil.

So that meant thinking up plan B. Fortunately a bit of paper with something not unlike this on it fell out of a pile of print outs. I'm not sure where it came from, possibly here, but the original was much neater than mine. 

What I learned from this:

Ironing envelopes with windows in them is not a good idea.

I needed more envelopes than I expected.

Measure twice, cut once. (You would think I would know this by now.)

Cut the landscape pieces very slightly narrower than the accordion.

There was a good reason why I hadn't used up that bit of double sided sticky tape which came in a packet labelled glue dots - and it wasn't just because it wasn't glue dots.

Left over scraps of card with holes punched out of them will find a use eventually.

It is very easy to photograph books upside down without realising. 

The purple socks were the biggest success of the week, and despite my anxiety I didn't run out of the darker purple. You may wonder if I am becoming buried in socks, but my shop-bought ones continue to wear out (another two went this week), and I have given some to other people. Which leads me to:-

What I learned from this:

Do not show  nearly-completed purple socks to a purple loving granddaughter. She will covet them, and in exchange for being told they are too big, she will ask demand make it clear that she will be seriously displeased if I do not immediately make something for her. 

Fortunately this will be a scarf. No, it's not scarf weather,but she wants a scarf. A purple one - (good, I have a lot of odd balls of purple in my stash).

Until, on the way to Manor Farm, I go with her to Hobbycraft, for purely altruistic reasons (her daddy wants some glass paint)  when she decides she wants pink, which I do not have in my stash.

It is still possible to persuade her that the £££ per ball stuff will not work but the cheap pink acrylic will - although I suspect this will not last. (Lest you think I am a cheapskate - and I am - she is certain to lose this scarf fairly quickly.)

There are several nice free patterns on Ravelry but if you choose this one, cast on a few more stitches than it says - the pattern suggested 18, I cast on 30 and I think I may pull it back and make it a bit wider - and work a couple of extra rows of bobbles while I'm at it.

After the scarf debacle, while the sun shone, I didn't make hay, but I did do some big drawings of trees. Sort of. One is three blind contour drawings of different trees on the same piece of paper, the others were tracings of two different tree shadows on the same piece of paper.

What I learned from this:

Multiple blind contours work best if there is lots of contrast between the different media - which I didn't have.

Shadows move quickly, even if it isn't very windy.

My aged joints are not keen on sitting/kneeling on the ground to draw on A1 sheets of paper.

When you are tracing shadows the only cloud in an otherwise cloudless sky will move across the sun.

Despite all this, tracing shadows is fun and I got some interesting patterns.

What I haven't learned worked out is what to do next with them.

More mistakes learning opportunities next week!

An easy week?

We thought we were going to have an easy week, because we had the day off from child care on Monday. We took the opportunity to go down to Stourhead, walk round the garden, and buy some cheese. (If you got to Stourhead, do go into the farm shop - 30+ varieties of West Country cheese and lots of other goodies.)

The weather wasn't brilliant, but the spring flowers made up for it, although it was sad to see the effects the storms had had on some of the trees.

Tuesday was errands, Wednesday and Thursday were child care (we didn't really have a day off, it just moved - though it was shorter than usual) so it was Friday before I got down to anything serious in the workroom.

Like book making. Five 'books of the week' plus last week's. I used my drawings from Dionne Swift's course, and every variation of the boustrephodon book I could find - some of them twice.  Some of those pages are quite inspiring!

Yesterday I hauled out the screen and tried screen printing from the long neglected bit of net with lace and stitch on it. With very little success, as you can see. The right side resolutely refused to print. The best one was when I printed with nothing under the screen, to use up the paint.

I meant to try using the net with the Gelli plate today, but my arthritis is playing up at the moment, so I decided to spend the afternoon on the sofa with my knitting. But then, when I tried to sort out the photos for this post, iPhoto, on what the VHC calls the high-pad, kept crashing, which meant I had to bite the bullet and deal with the excess of photos I have had on it. Which meant facing up to iPhoto on Big Mac, a far greater challenge. In theory, I save my photos on Big Mac, which has a much bigger memory, and then delete them from the high-pad. In theory I do it every week. In practice - I don't. And because I haven't done it for ages, I couldn't remember what I'd saved and what I hadn't.

But, after an hour or two of muttering and cursing, I have a whole 4.8GB available. Luxury!

Despite this trauma, the accursed fraternal socks have been completed, with only a small striping error, easily corrected, on the second one, and I have started a second pair, same basic idea, just finer yarn and more stitches. (But why do I keep picking colours which are difficult to distinguish in artifial light?)

I have also done a little more on 'Full Fathom Five' for Visual Marks. 

Next week is the Easter holidays, which means we get to spend more time with the VHC and Babybel.  Trips to Mottisfont and 'Spin Tower' are planned, after which more sofa recovery time will be necessary, assuming the technology will let me...

Where was I?

As I remember, bracing myself for the invasion of the little guys. But before that, I went to another session of the Contemporary Textiles Workshop, which was not what quite what I was expecting. We had been told to bring sticks and wire, so I was anticipating 3D constructions of a type I've done before. 

We started with a communal mark making activity on paper, similar to those we've done at Visual Marks. We picked a mark and made it repeatedly on each sheet of paper, using a variety of media. The papers were torn up, and we all got 4 pieces to inspire us in working on a series ('a series is more than two') of 3D pieces. Which had to fit into a cup.

The marks included circles, spirals, leaf and tree like marks, and my split circle with a line through it which has developed from my initials. The difficulty was, of course, moving from 2D to 3D, but in my bedtime reading I'd come across some designs made with what I can only describe as overgrown quilling, in circular frames. Inspired by the circle and spirals I decided to use torn paper strips to make short tubes (now what does that remind me of?), but in a square frame because it was easier to do. I measured the tutor's rather large cup to make sure it would fit. It will, provided I don't get too enthusiastic about making it reach the bottom. Or much beyond the lip, really...

One thing led to another and before long I had two frames. The contents of the second were made from some mono-printed fabric with spirals on it, although as I gathered it you can't see them. However the graininess of the print resembles some of the marks.

I have since made another frame, with added buttons. Circles again. The colour scheme is pretty repetitive for me, too. I have a mad ambition to make 9 in total, and fit them in an outer frame, hence the pile of recycled and painted sushi chopsticks, (which were not the sticks I'd taken and which are now not going to become another piano hinge book). I think things may drift a little from the original inspiration, however...

Everything went onto the back burner, of course, while the little guys were here. The new sleeping arrangements were given their seal of approval - to the extent that we had to go upstairs every couple of hours to look at 'my new Thomas bed'. It was the first thing mummy and daddy were shown when they came to collect the pair. Babybel assured me that the horse blanket was exactly what she had wanted when she asked me to make her one, so that was a success too.

Since Sunday, however, things have not been so successful. The latest pair of socks has been frogged as I realised that there was just not enough wool to make two. I started a pair of mittens/hand warmers (depending on wool consumption) but the first one has also been frogged because I realised that my stitch count was off, and I needed a bigger size.

And my plans to make another 6 framed 3D constructions were put on one side when I got caught up in a major workroom re-organisation. Since last autumn I have been slowly working through all the books in my workroom, deciding which ones to keep, and which to get rid of. (Local charity shops will be receiving several bags of books.)

I wasn't intending to tackle the shelf full of sketchbooks after I had finished all the proper books*and I can't remember now how I got started, but once I had, I had to finish. Most of what I used to call 'sketchbooks' pre C&G, were just scrapbooks, and my tastes have clearly changed since then, so the majority of those have gone in the recycling. (One of the few advantages of having used glue stick is that it was very easy to remove the few images I did want to keep.)

I have preserved almost all of the proper 'sketchbooks' - not that there are many 'sketches' in them, mostly cut paper, prints etc. I was pleased by how interesting I found the pre- and post-degree ones - and surprised by how uninspiring the degree ones were - perhaps a reflection of my lack of confidence about what I was doing? 

After I'd sorted the sketchbooks, I had to rearrange all the other books. Good exercise with floor to ceiling shelves. But I now have much less junk on the work surface - all my works in progress in their cat litter trays are neatly stacked on some of the emptied shelves. It won't stay neat for long - and 'neat' is, of course, a relative term...

Apart from the sorting and unknitting, not much creative has happened, although I did find time one insomniac night to make a series of books of the week, using the inspirational papers from CTW. 

And we managed some gallery visits. We had a day off from grandchild minding on Monday, so went down to Walford Mill to see the Cabinets of Curiosities exhibition - some good stuff. And on Wednesday between Wensleydale's haircut and my birthday lunch, we went to the Discovery Centre to see 'Hidden' - massive photographs of people like Hilda of Whitby and Tom Paine, and events like the Peasants' Revolt and the Swing Riots. No, photography wasn't invented then, but Red Saunders has recreated them on a large and dramatic scale. The accompanying video was well worth looking at, too.

Now I've written all that lot, I wonder why I feel I haven't done much?

*well, those in the workroom - there are a few more in the spare bedroom, which will get the treatment soon.