Where...

did all the knitters go?

As soon as I could escape work I headed to Liberty's for the first day of their sale. In previous years I've needed sharp pointy elbows, walking stick and shin pads to get near the yarn department.

Tonight I could walk around, sit and browse patterns, pull out all the yarn etc and no one was in my way! On second thoughts - why am I moaning! I stayed within my budget and came away with some bargains that I'm happy with.

The loot includes a pack of Damask in a bright pink/purple; a pack of Bamboo Tape in a lilac and a full pack of Kidsilk Haze in Violet. A few pattern books also came home but I was very restrained for me.

Deja Vu

Many years ago when knitting was just something that I did in the evenings (sic) Matt and I would spend our weekends on a heath or beach flying kites. They were fun times often fuelled by alcohol but this was counteracted by the beneficial effects of fresh air and exercise!

Matt loved flying his Rev kites and his heroes were The Decorators. What these guys could do with a kite was awesome. Last weekend we ventured out onto Blackheath and there they were!

We found other familiar faces how could 5 years have gone buy without us seeing the Sky Bums and then we see then twice in 8 days. What was really fun was talking to one friend about a mutual friend who lives in Belgium - and then only a few minutes later spotting the same Belgian flying in front of us! We really must get out more after all knitting is portable!

Today I had the fun of a trip to Birmingham for a conference, always a pleasure and this time I had my camera so was able to take a photo of one of my favourite landmarks - I'm sure she has a proper title but my local friends refer to her as the Floozie in the Jacuzzi.

Some knitting was managed on the train journey but not as much as I'd anticipated thanks to the overcrowding. I'm waiting for another skein of yarn for the Woodland Shawl so started something easy, new and quick growing just for the satisfaction of seeing 2 inches progress in 30 minutes - thank heavens for 12mm addies and the yarn has been in my stash for less than a week - thanks Adrienne!

UK Reef

Today was the first day of the Hyperbolic Crochet Reef exhibition at the Hayward Gallery and the Royal Festival Hall.



The work was stunning

lots more photos to see on my Flickr account.

I bet those of you who contributed will now be playing "spot my work" I know I was!

The Hayward exhibition was calm and refined - the one in the RFH had passers by stopping in their tracks, coming in to take a look etc. One of the exhibits fascinated a small child whist I was there she kept patting the top of a certain anenome whilst her father looked embarrassed!

If you get the chance do go and see it, even better - why not take part in some of the workshops or Crochet Jam!

Into the Woodland

I'm loving working with the Manos Silk/Wool and this pattern is a joy to work with - I'd got it memorised by the end of the first repeat! I'm now more than halfway so should be on target to meet the deadline for this one!



This week has been gentler on us, I've found knitting time and Matt has been catching up on his sleep. The local paper came out yesterday and had a write up about the coroner's inquest and we have heard that the local council have received the letter from the Coroner that he had promised to write about the lack of provision of street crossings on the road where Matt's Mum died. Let's hope something is done so that no-one else has to go through this.

Two down

The house is sold - I just gave a garage full of boxes to work through to decide what to keep.

Today was the Coroners Court where the verdict was accidental death. It is also 9 months since Mydi was knocked over crossing the road.

That just leaves the criminal case where the defendant has pleaded not guilty so we now wait until September for the trial.

On the knitting front the Woodland stole is now up to the 9th repeat and I'm still enjoying it.

Tag

I've been tagged by Wibbo!

The Rules:

Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1. What I was doing 10 years ago:

Pretty much the same as now - working with young offenders and spending every spare moment knitting!

2. What 5 things are on on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

Find clothes for work; buy food and coffee; send invoice for work done earlier this year; pay bills and give Matt a hug! Not necessarily in that order.....

3. Snacks I enjoy:

marmite sandwiches; dried apricots; cashew nuts; cereal and milk; sliced tomatoes, black pepper and salad cream

4. Things I would do if I was a billionaire:

Ensure that my family were provided for; continue to support the Charities that I'm already committed to but in a more pro-active way; support interventions that would stop youth on youth crime; on a self-indulgent note I'd like somewhere to call my own textile studio where I could house my stash!

5. Places I have lived:

Sheffield, Ollerton, Sheffield, Newcastle, London

I'm tagging no-one as I'm so far behind with blog reading I don't know who has already done this!

A trifle pre-occupied

Thanks to everyone for the hugs - real and virtual!

Life continues to throw us curveballs but we are learning to ride with them!

The next few days promise to be stressful, Tuesday should see the start of the court case; Wednesday the sale of the house and Thursday the Coroner's Court - all of which we are expected to fit around the demands of the day jobs - thank goodness for flexitime working.

So in preparation for what is to come we escaped for the weekend and visited my family and finally got to meet Olivia. Uncle Matt had his hands full keeping up with the girls

Alix took to the role of photographer's assistant like a duck to water and gave Matt a guided tour of the garden getting him to take photos of her favourite flowers.

I spent time talking to Mum and all my sisters (first time we were all together for 3 years) and as usual at family gatherings a lot of the time was spent in the kitchen preparing mountains of food - due to a wide number of allergies there is very little that we can all eat so meals tend to resemble elaborate buffets!

I did find some time to start this

it's the Woodland Shawl using Manos silk and wool - lovely yarn to work with and an easily memorised pattern which made for good motorway knitting.

On a more serious note, thanks to the wonderful work of HEMS and the skill of the staff at the Royal London Hospital there was some welcome news to quietly celebrate what is a promising start to what will be a long road to recovery.

Thoughts

The week started on an up note with me feeling envigorated by the weekend in Rutland. My head was buzzing with creative ideas, my fingers were flying over the needles and crochet hook. There are a couple of virtually finished objects waiting to have the ends sewn in and photos taken.

Things started to slide on Tuesday when the Court proceedings were postponed for the driver that hit Matt's Mum. The Court had granted an adjournment in advance but did not think to tell the police, the victim liaison officer or the family who all turned up at Court expecting to begin yet another stage in the grieving process. The sale of her house has also been delayed for no explicable reason.

The day job continues to provoke thought on how we can tackle the youth on youth violence (13 killings in London so far this year) and how to help members of the team cope with the overwhelming sense of bereavement and loss we are feeling in both our personal and professional lives. Watching the TV news on Saturday I saw the father of one of the boys speaking and realised that yet again this was someone I came into contact with on a regular basis - I just didn't know his name!

Other news from within the family has made me yet again appreciate the work of the London Air Ambulance service and the skill of the medical staff.

Looking back through old diaries and notes I see that the dates 13- 23 May have been difficult ones for the past six years at least - perhaps next year I'll just hibernate until they are over

A weekend in the country

Last weekend I escaped from the heat of London and ended up in rural Rutland for a wonderful weekend.

Not a weekend of leisure but one of KCG meetings; planning for AGM's; report and business plan writing. Sounds boring - the reality was that we worked hard but in one of the most beautiful settings I've ever experienced. The house and hospitality were faultless and the gardens took my breath away.

There was plenty of places to hide

a walk around the village found some of my favourite flowers - I have a soft spot for bluebells ever since living near a bluebell wood as a child

The local churchyard had me thinking of cable patterns

and the sun went to our heads

Day and Night

The lace project may some day end up as this shawl

I say some day as I chose the Arabian Nights version and the colour is very dark, beautiful but dark and my eyes will only be able to cope with knitting it in daylight. The wool feels beautiful, it was a pleasure to wind and there was only one small knot. Threading the beads has been an experience - someone advised me to go the crochet hook route - that is what I've planned to do but even then you need to thread 1600 beads for the beaded fringe!

I think this will become my "Saturday morning project" - the one I do when the sun is up, the world is quiet and I can concentrate.

The night projects will continue to be items for the Hyperbolic Crochet Reef - here's some of my work:

and some of the other wonderful items already donated

The south Bank Centre is launching a Monday evening crochet group from mid-June to run alongside the exhibition and June 21st there's a Crochet Jam that sounds fun!

This and That

I'd planned to post some of my yarn purchases from Wonderwool, then I changed my mind and planned to post pictures of my hyperbolic crochet that I took along to the South Bank tonight. Whilst I was there I took yet more photos of other peoples contributions to the UK Reef - it will be stunning...

so where are the photos? In limbo between the ibook and Flickr, for some reason they are not talking to each other today.

The weekend was spent tidying the garage and continuing to empty my MIL's house ready for sale. The yarn is now all along one side of the garage and needs sorting - I'm saving that for a day when I feel brave as there are 13 sacks of odd-balls plus a few crates. I'm hoping I'll find some buried treasure as I go through them. There is more yarn indoors that also needs sorting not to mention the books, patterns and needles so why did I feel the need to start something new this weekend.

I started by hand winding a skein of 1800 yds of laceweight ( I couldn't find the swift!) that took most of my free time on Saturday and then on Monday I made a start on threading the beads - all 2500+ of them. I'm exhausted after all that preparation so It's now gone back into it's bag until I can face the thought of minute charts!

Wonderwool Wales

Just what the Dr ordered - a civilized weekend in Mid- Wales!

We drove through miles of beautiful countryside, and whilst I spent 2 days at the show Matt got to visit family and spend an afternoon at the Red Kite feeding centre. He has some fantastic photos

I got to meet friends from all over the UK, Europe and Australia; learnt to use my drop spindle and how to ply the yarn I produced; found some new food sources; worked on the crochet reef; and I have some great souvenirs!

I'll just whisper a few of my purchases...

baby camel/silk
cashmere/ silk
wensleydale
baby alpaca
ebony circulars
a drop spindle
merino/tencel tops
mohair tops

and here is one of my favourite show characters