Small things I made

ack in June, whilst there was no gardening or knitting to speak of, I did manage to find half an hour to make these lanterns and decorations for our winter honeysuckle. The strange bits of dangly ceramic were bought in a charity shop for not very much. Not sure what they were originally, but I fashioned some largish hooks out of heavy gauge wire and now they sit in the tree. While I was at it, I finally got round to adding handles to our old jars so they could hang in the tree too. Not exactly glamourous, but pretty enough at dusk.

f course the reason everything was so quiet was that all my energy was going into producing another thing entirely. That thing I made was my thesis. It was finally printed on Friday, bound on Monday and submitted on Tuesday. I'd like to think aspects of it were aesthetically pleasing, but a fair-isle sweater or well maintained veg-patch it is not. This is the start of a strange new world for me to be without it.

Weekend in review...

It starts here:

he crocus lawn at the entrance to Hampstead Heath, on the way to the Parliament Hill farmer's market. There's snow drops too, but once the crocus kick in you can never see them. It does this every year - a crocus display to rival Kew. It's a shame it wasn't a sunny day to make the photo even more spectacular. Sunday morning arrived with the discovery that our freezer was broken and defrosted. For some reason this brought us great merriment (and a GIANT vat of chilli to use up the thawed mince). Sunday morning also involved a trip to the 'recycling centre' (aka 'the tip') to do some, well, recycling - thrilling, I know - but I did score these (for free!!):

aka - Eastern European Basket, £32.

ur own crocus lawn is coming on apace, it's pretty much peaking at this very moment. I think Dan and I have liked this even more than we thought we would. It's sort of, unexpectedly great. We didn't get that many bulbs, but they're all putting up multiple flowers. This might have been down to the extra cold winter, as crocus displays everywhere seem good.

he veggie patch is starting to look purposeful too - helped by spades and forks here admittedly. Dan laid a new path so you can actually reach the four quarters without becoming a gymnast. Weeding later in the season is a possibility now. Sowed carrots, parsnips and radish's and a second batch of peas (the first are hardening off a little before going in the patch.)

View from the veggie patch in the early Sunday Evening (imagine blackbirds singing)

he evening culminated in dinner from the giant vat of chilli and a quick dash on the bikes over to the Roundhouse to watch Grizzly Bear. The Bear were great, even played 'deep blue sea' which made Dan and I very happy indeed. The event was slightly tinged by being surrounded by psycho girls, culminating in one of them dumping a pint over a guy before running off - his crime was being tall. But the stage lights were pretty enough to be distracting - like jars of fireflies

It's a Pleasure to Shop at JACKS'

Some recent knitting related ebay purchases have been making me smile to myself recently. First up, this is not a mini beehive made by perfectly colour co-ordinated bees. It is in fact a bakelite wool holder made by Patons to match their old Beehive line of yarn.

It even has a needle gauge in the bottom...

I have a couple of Patons Beehive DK vintage patterns I picked up in a charity shop yonks ago and I now feel compelled to knit them from my wool holder immediatly.

The second item was somewhat larger and a lot heavier... an umbrella swift, featuring a cast iron base.

I bought this somewhat on a whim, it has to be said. I was a little embarrassed that I'd bought such a big, heavy contraption, but I will also admit I fell rapidly in love with it. First of all it arrived coated in cobwebs and tied up with this old paper ribbon (which I kept).

Then, when I opened it out for the first time, I was confused. I'd read up on swifts while I was waiting for this one to be delivered and they seemed to involve lifting up from the bottom and securing. This had no such method to hold the expansion of the arms, I was confused. So I started cleaning it up, eradicating the cobwebs and making a couple of minor repairs (it was pretty old). As I attended to the grime it became obvious it was no ordinary swift, or at least not shop bought. It became obvious quickly that it was handmade, and then when I was looking at the base, it clicked.

This was a reduce, reuse, recycle at it's best - resourcefulness the old fashioned way. The swift had been a standard lamp in a former life. The central pole had been sawn off at the base and a brass metal rod inserted through the bottom and secured. The top and bottom cogs that hold the arms in place had been carved from the same central pole, but from a bulbous decorative section that probably held the light fitting. The swift moves easily on it's metal rod, but the heavy nature of the cast iron base and the arm holder at the top meant that it was designed to rely on gravity alone...

When you looped the skein around the arms and let the top of the swift drop, the yarn held the arms in place naturally. No securing necessary. As it twirls around it creaks gently with it's age. As a wound my first skein into a ball an entire romance formed in my mind based on this swift....

A farmer short on time in harvest season, had no time (or patience) to help his wife wind her skeins. This familiar duty, with arms held apart, had become irksome. She, on the other hand, was trying to get a jump on the winter chills approaching - the two feelings were not compatible. One night the farmer stayed out late in the workshop, he'd seen a contraption in a fancy department store in town (It's a Pleasure to shop at JACKS') that would solve this problem. He had in his hands an old standard lamp from the days of gas. They had electric lights now and this lamp had no further use. Measuring, sawing, carving the swift began to take shape. The farmer loved his wife, despite his lack of desire to help with wool winding, so he finished it with care. He added a decorative finial on top, and matching elongations to the uprights of the swift. Sanded the edges. Stained the wood pieces and coated with varnish. He presented the swift to his wife somewhat sheepishly, but she was over joyed.

As she wound the first balls from the swift she planned a jumper in her minds eye. That first jumper went to the farmer to keep him warm through winter, with a few extra details in the neat finishes and seams - made with love. The farmer didn't appreciate these details consciously, but the jumper was exceedingly warm, and kept out the wind in an unparalleled fashion. He wore it every day of winter, every winter, for the rest of his days - with only a little wear that needed darning in the elbows...

small items of domesticity squeezed from the week

So over the course of the week, despite really having no time for this sort of shenanigans whatsoever I have managed to squeeze out a few bits of crafty goodness.

It started with  making a birthday cake as a gift to a joint birthday party last Saturday. A simple chocolate sponge with vanilla butter icing. This was so successful however, that in a effort to lift spirits at home a little I immediately had to make a batch of similar fairy cakes on the Sunday. I was chuffed to bits with how these came out. Super soft and fluffy in the middle with just the right amount of pale green icing on top.

Please excuse the grill pan which doubles up as my cooling rack. And I had to eat that one before the photo was taken because it was all deformed and ugly. Honest.

During the week I started my second pair of cycle socks, this time in light blue. And for some reason, after an afternoon spent in the vegetable patch yesterday I decided to break out the headband. It's the remains of a shirt color of an old liberty shirt I picked in a charity shop some time ago that have been sat on top of my dresser for a year a least. Last night I bound the rough edge with some vintage bias binding I've always had in a lovely sage green, added an elastic grip across the opening and embroidered over some of the flowers with odd buttons from a rapidly dwindling stash and silver thread. I have to say I rather like it. The silver thread just seems to lift it slightly out of being just a scrap of cloth which is what I often wear in my hair.

New things

The tartan dress was bought from a charity shop on my local high street. £4.99. It's handmade from medium weight woven wool tartan - the seeming is beautiful and it fits perfectly. One of those occasions when the item in question calls out as soon as you step over the threshold, demanding to be taken home and loved.

The bag was from sini&sanna on Etsy. It's also fantastically well made with the double virtue of being big enough to dump my daily life in - laptop, lunch box, paper work, knitting. It's actually a very fine cord though you can't tell that in this picture. The deep tones with that streak of yellow and turquoise  buckle just gives it that slightly clashing colour combination I love.

Finally my white cycling socks. These are actually finished now, not quite so well made perhaps, but they do the job I designed them for. As you might be able to tell from the picture they're toe up socks based on the Universal toe-up sock formula on Knitty incorporating a fairly simple lace feather/chevron pattern and knit in 4ply 100% cotton. The reason why both were being knit at the same time was simple - a very limited supply of yarn. They were going to be short socks so that wasn't a problem but I did have to knit them simultaneously to make sure I got socks the same length. Unfortunately the  lace pattern I chose doesn't actually stretch that well so they're slightly baggy and also a little difficult to get on... but this is only my second pair of socks ever and the first in cotton, so you live and learn.