Is it only the second week at uni?

I think I'm beginning to settle into my new routine, although you might not think it when I show you what I've achieved! 

The books of the week are not hand-made, but instead a hand-picked selection for my essay. 🙀 (Plus one about knitting.)

I think all of us mature new textile students were panicking about the essay, but the staff have been very helpful. The general advice we were given was:

1. to pick a topic which was relevant to our studio practice - 

this is my studio practice so far - 

2. if possible, to include works of art we'd seen in real life

3. to keep it simple.

I'd been thinking of something like 'trees in art' but decided that was possibly a little too large a subject for 3,500 words, so I'd narrowed it down to Graham Sutherland's trees - plus, after watching the excellent Mr. Graham-Dixon last week on the subject, a dash of Paul Nash. Not that I've seen many Sutherland trees, but we did potter over to Basingstoke last week to catch the Artists' Rifles exhibition there, which included several Nashes, both John and Paul - though not many trees. 

However my tutor suggested, that, as I want to explore disability issues, I consider looking at outsider art. I wasn't too keen on the idea to begin with, but when I thought about it, it grew on me. I saw some examples by Judith Scott, Ray Materson and Arthur Bispo Do Rosário, at an exhibition at Compton Verney some years ago, so that met criterion 2. They were all textile artists, which sort of met criterion 1, and the fact that they were all institutionalised but for different reasons suggested an essay structure, which helped with criterion 3. Plus there seems to be a lot about them on Google. 😺 

You can tell I've downloaded IOS8, can't you? Don't worry, the novelty will wear off pretty soon... In fact, after I discovered I can no longer use my favourite editing app, iPhoto (that is the iPad iPhoto, not the Mac iPhoto which is >,^*}#]#<>*^) the novelty wore off very quickly.😿 

But I digress. This week I got into Uni for one and a half of my planned two and a half days. Wednesdays look as if they are going to be pretty busy with lectures and tutorials, which means I've got to focus for the other one and a half days on the things I can't do at home - like relearning machine knitting. I was going to have a go on Friday but starting research for the essay took over. University libraries have changed a tad since I was last in one, and I had fun exploring. 😻

I have managed to finish my strange socks, and I have resisted starting another pair, as my studio practice makes excellent subtitle knitting.

I've been procrastinating about finishing the shawl, as I've been so tired that reminding myself how to add a lace edging, (which I do know how to do) has been quite beyond me. The upside of the tiredness is that I am still sleeping well, and I will tackle the shawl this evening as, apart from the excellent Mr. Graham-Dixon, there isn't much I fancy on TV.

The big piece for Visual Marks was also been on hold as I hadn't had time to heat up the soldering iron. I did that today and cut out 66 petals, before having another look at the flowers I'm using for inspiration and realising they don't have heart shaped  petals. Tough, they do now...👹

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. 

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!

<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.

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.

  

Back to Basics

After last week's maundering, back to needlework - although none of it is very exciting. 

There's a sock and a half. I'm expecting to get a bit further up the other leg during 'Inspector Montalbano' tonight. Or, as I think of it, 'Midsomer Murders with Mafiosi'. They are supposed to be wellie socks but it's been so cold here I may end up waering them around the house.

There are three little books. (One of them is stitched, so it's needlework.) I had to miss the practical session of Visual Marks the other week, but yesterday I got round to the challenge, which was to make a concertina book with pockets. Making little books is like eating Pringles, so I recycled some brown paper and made three. They all have pockets, just that some of them are more secretive than others.

And, returning to the subject of organisation, I invested in a new sewing basket. I'm not a fan of those fancy ones with flaps and compartments, and for a while I've been using a small shopping basket, which I think came as a gift with tea and biscuits in it. But it really was too small, and kept tipping over, so Google came to the rescue and I bought a bigger one.

Life is never simple. I hadn't realised quite how big it was. Things were going to get lost in the bottom. I decided to make a lining, with pockets, to keep the contents under control. There must be some suitable fabric in my stash...

Life is never simple. I realised I was going to need quite a big piece of fabric, but most of my bigger pieces were too big - dress or skirt lengths, which I am keeping in case I decide I want to dressmake again, unlikely as that is. If they weren't too big they were the wrong colour - too bright, too hand dyed or too dark - the wrong weight - too thick or too thin. 

I finally found a piece of coarse Broderie Anglaise I'd bought because it was cheap but never used because it looked it. But life is never simple. It was white and just didn't look right. I really wanted a nice light blue. Fortunately, it's cotton, so I bought some dye. 

That was the easy bit. Life is never simple, but I'll spare you all the tribulations of actually making the lining, nor will I show you close-ups of the stitching. After frequent unpicking, muttering and cursing, it is finished. And I am amazed how much I can get into it, including the varied notebooks I wittered on about last week and. those essential needlework tools, pliers and a screw driver, and it still looks half empty. I could undoubtedly get my hammer in there too, but I think that might be a step too far.

Life is never simple. I like my sewing accessories to match, and the bits and bobs I'd made for the smaller basket didn't go with the pale blue - you can see in the photo that that orange needle boob cushion has got to go. (I wonder if I can find a blue handled screw driver?)

The little plastic canvas box for oddments I made years ago was the wrong colour, and it had never been big enough, and making another one would use up most of my stash of plastic canvas and several hanks of my vintage tapestry wool, and this year is all about using up stash... 

So, I have made a bigger box, which you can see in the photo, and I'm working on a sort of matching (because I used up most of the lighter blue tapestry wool on the box) plastic canvas needle book, which may or may not replace the orange needle boob.

Procrastinating about getting back to my tree knitting? Me?

On organisation: more than you wanted to know. Probably.

I was reading my last ever subscription copy of Quilting Arts a couple of days ago. (It and I seem to be moving in opposite directions these days - one of us likes representational, naturalistic art quilts, and one of us doesn't much. If you feel the same, I recommend 'Fiber Art Now' which is much more wide ranging and goes from strength to strength.)

But I digress. When I first glanced at QA, I found one interesting article - on Melinda Lin's organza pieces - but then I realised that Lynn Krawzyck's item, which is superficially about making a little pouch, contains some good suggestions about organisation. She distinguishes between two types of creative ideas, which she calls 'Fun' and 'Big Goals': she says fun ideas are necessary to stretch our creativity, but big goals are the more involved, artistically important, and goal oriented ideas. She gives criteria for picking your big goals, and describes how she uses index cards to break down big goals into smaller steps, and prioritise organise, and monitor the steps.

For some reason I can't remember, I have a lot of small pink index cards (plus a few blue ones). I had been thinking of using them for ICAD, but they are really too small and too pink. Krawzyck's idea seemed a better use, especially as I will need to be more focussed when I become a university student again.

Krawzyck uses pouches to hold her cards, but I remembered seeing an index card 'book' - you can guess the rest. Some scrap card, a recycled painting, Bondaweb, double sided tape, some elastic and two book rings, and I have two books. The worst bit was punching the holes, and I was very relieved when I realised I didn't have to do them all at once.

While I was making the books I was pondering on my love of organisational techniques - nicking adapting other people's, and developing my own. And now, for my benefit (clarifying my ideas) more than yours, you are going to suffer a diatribe on the subject, so you may wish to switch off now, or at least scroll down to this week's obligatory textile content.*

I am not always organised, but I can be if I need to be. I had to be at work - young people's progress, and part of the college's finances depended on it. I was reliant on other people keeping good records, so I had to develop systems that were simple for others to use, and which allowed me, and others, to extract the relevant information easily. Other people, including auditors, told me I succeeded.

One of the things I learned at work was that if something isn't staring them in the face, preferably leaping out and biting them, people will miss it. (Like the auditor who told me that a student's assessment record was missing, when the top piece of paper in the file was headed 'Assessment Record'. It wasn't the type we usually used, so he missed it.)

When I started the Foundation Degree, on a couple of occasions I lost marks because the marker thought I hadn't done something when I had. I got all bureaucratic and made some forms, to record things like time management and planning. I don't suppose anyone ever read them through, but they were bright green, clearly labelled and collated, so they were hard to miss, and my marks improved. Plus I knew where I was with my work, and what I needed to do to keep to schedule.

Of course once I finished the FDA I stopped all that, but I still keep records - of ideas, of what I've done, what I could do, and what I want to do, of materials and techniques I've used, etc. etc. etc. For a long time this was mostly scribbled notes in sketchbooks, printouts in folders, and lists on scrappy bits of paper, but it just wasn't organised enough for me. So over the last year or so, long before I thought of going back to Uni, I've begun to try to sort it out.

A few months ago I discovered Bullet Journalling. I don't use it to the extent that its creator seems to - although I might if I was still working. Nor do I use the recommended Moleskin notebooks with squared paper - I did track some down in Paperchase but jibbed at the price. Guess what, I make my own with squared file paper. (The squared paper really is better, I've tried lined and it's not as good.) 

I use the technique in a monthly journal, where I summarise what I've done and what I want to do, in real and textile lives. I use it in two disposable notebooks, substitutes for the scrappy bits of paper. I have one upstairs and one downstairs. In those I record ideas from books, and flashes of inspiration (!). And I also use the technique in themed sketchbooks, where I collate relevant ideas from the notebooks at the back of the sketchbook. Notes on the techniques and materials I've used also go in the sketchbook, on the relevant pages.

The system does involve quite a lot of rewriting, when I transfer uncompleted activities from one month to another, or from the notebooks to the sketchbook, but I like that because it makes me evaluate the ideas or activities and weed out the dross.

I've recently discovered 'Sticky', an iDevice app which sticks virtual Post-It notes in virtual notebooks. I like it because I can make notes when I'm web surfing, when I have my phone, but not my upstairs/downstairs notebooks. I can add hyperlinks, websites, or photos from the Camera Roll, and, I realised this week, I can use the camera phone within the app to add photos direct. I can save notebooks as images, which means I can print them and add them to the sketch book.. I like it so much I paid for an upgrade to allow unlimited notebooks.

 

I realised that I had folders and scrapbooks full of printouts and images, which I never looked at. Now I save articles to Pocket (where I do occasionally look at them) and images into a digital journal on the desktop (where I don't look at them).

But the gap in this system, which I was unaware of until I came across Lynn Krawcyck's article, was that I didn't have a system for planning and monitoring Works In Progress. Possibly because since I finished the FDA I haven't really had any serious WIPs to plan and monitor.  I do make To Do lists, far too long and on scrappy bits of paper that get lost. (The aforementioned green forms had a space for a To Do list, never longer than three items and carefully monitored.) As I see major WIPs in my future, I also see a need for a structured system for their planning. I have no idea if task management will be on the marking criteria at Uni - I rather suspect not - but, as I think I have made clear, I like having structured organisational methods - plus an excuse reason to make books...

Don't be fooled into thinking that I am one of those people who is completely organised, and lives in a neat and tidy house. I am not. Neither my house nor my workroom is tidy. I have too much stuff in too small a space and although I try to keep it under control, in the throes of creation everything comes out and ends up draped and dropped everywhere. It does get put back again when I've finished - and the next lot comes out. Nor am I so organised that I keep records of what fabrics, yarns and threads I have. That would require a major audit, plus keeping on top of what I import - although recently there has probably been net emigration, rather than immigration, of books and materials from Cheese Acres - a lot has gone to charity shops and the National Needlework Archive at Greenham. I've still got too much though. 

If you are still reading, what do you think? Do you share my need for bureaucracy or do you think I'm completely nuts? Do you have any organisational tips to share?

*Obligatory textile content.

After my last post, I pulled back the too long sock, and started again. It may still look too long, but I have tried it on and it is OK. The ribbing pulls it in, so it looks long and thin, but on my foot it is short and fat. Just like the rest of me, really.

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!

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!

When I realised...

it was Sunday (I'm always hazy about what day it is between our 'work' on Mondays and Thursdays) I found myself wondering where the week went. And then I realised it went into 3 days with the little guys (albeit shorter days than usual) and three evenings of recovering from 3 days with the little guys. Still, we had fun - an Easter egg hunt at Mottisfont in the rain, the 'spin tower' + a return trip on the Gosport ferry, also in the rain, and, for old times sake, the ducky place in sunshine. (For those not in the know, the Gosport Ferry is Portsmouth's answer to the Staten Island Ferry - just smaller, quicker and with more historical but slightly less spectacular views.  I'd say 'cheaper' as well, but I strongly suspect it isn't.)

OK, that's only 3 days out of 7, but other, mostly less interesting but less tiring grown up activities have got in the way of textiles as well.

So I have only made slow progress on the Visual Marks challenge - although the pressure eased a little when I realised that I can't go to the meeting next Tuesday, due to extra little guy minding. 

Not sure about thad odd bit on the right, the primary purpose of which is to cover up some fraying fabric. I think it will have to come out.

And I still haven't worked out how to get some felt into it, as per the criteria.

The weekly book was an insomniac quicky (which sounds a bit like something completely different, but for that you need two insomniacs...). A variation on the 'instant book', it is mostly 'here's one I made earlier' - pre-painted card, an unsuccessful screen print from last week, and a bit of glue. I think it needs some stitch, which might have been better done before I stuck on the cover, but it was 2 a.m. And if I'd measured it properly the pages would not have been bigger than the cover. I could trim one side, but if I'd trimmed the central fold the whole thing would have fallen apart, hence the extra fold in the fold.   

Today was meant to be spent fulfilling a promise I made before Christmas, when I gave the little guys' mum and dad some redundant cushions. As they didn't match their decor, I promised to make some cushion covers for them, but it didn't happen. Fortunately, as it happened, as they have now redecorated and aubergine cushion covers would no longer do.

On Friday I discovered, somewhat to my surprise, that if you go to the right place it is still cheaper to make cushions covers than to buy them. And you don't end up with redundant cushion pads because shop bought covers always seem to come with pads these days. 

I haven't made cushion covers for a while and I thought I could whip up four plain ones today. (I remember how long City and Guilds cushions take, but that involves designing, and costing time and money, and embroidering, and rememebring to do something fancy on the back as well because your tutor will always look at the back and fail you if you haven't...)

I can hear the hollow laughter of experienced cushion makers from here.

I managed one. Partly because I changed my mind part way through, and partly because it was my first experience of using continuous zips (why did no one tell me how wonderful they are, even if they only come in the wrong colour?) and I had to Google them. But mostly because it takes longer than I thought it did. 

And I'm not sure the little guys' dad will like it anyway, so it is probably better to take this one as a sample and get his opinion before I go any further.

My knitting has been more satisfactory. I discovered another advantage to the random stripes pattern - apart from using up oddments of wool, and it not mattering if you miscount the rows in a stripe. If you think you are in danger of running out of the cuff, heel and toe colour (it has been known) you can make the random stripes a little less random so you use more of the other colour. And you would never have known if I hadn't told you.  

Of course you have to be the sort of person who doesn't mind wearing non-matching socks, but I figure anyone who spots that they don't match will only do so because they are grovelling at my feet, when it won't matter.