A Stitch In Time

Short and Sweet

New Buttons:

To add to my stash:

Which is sitting on my latest W.I.P.:

feed me

We found this great animation via Emily's blog. Annie, Eliza and I are addicted to it!

De*Lurking

Well my week was good but not entirely sweet.

I did spend Saturday sewing and finished a skirt.
Here's a close-up of one of the pockets:



The size of that bird's beak is bothering me. I used the same stitch and colour to run around the hem and side seams too.

And I ushered for Red Road at the cinema which was an incredibly good film. Fairly harrowing and quite shockingly explicit for a Sunday afternoon, but ultimately an honest, engaging, thought provoking experience.

And it would have been an almost perfect week but my good friend's cat, Thomas had to be put to sleep. He was a fab cat with so much character, one of those cats who could take or leave you, depending on his mood; and the thinnest, straightest, most rigid tail I've ever seen.

Good Times

Well, I have just had the best week! It was sooo good I don't know where to start. Here's a list of my highlights:

1.Seeing Josie Long at Norwich Arts Centre. She's a comedian, the most endearing, kind-hearted, inventive, whimsical, home-made comic you're ever likely to see. It was heart-warming entertainment. Go and see her, your life will be better for it. Really.



One of the warm-up acts (I'm not bitter), asked the audience if anyone kept a blog, it went like this:

me (with hand half up, not wishing to be seen): 'yes'
rest of the audience: silence
crosby: 'really, you keep a blog, what's it called?'
me (in v. quiet voice): 'here i am'
crosby (in much louder voice, he was holding a mic, don't you know): 'what?'
me (slightly louder): 'here i am'
crosby (waving tentatively, in small nervy voice, which perfectly replicates my own): 'Ohhh: here i am, over here, on the Internet, little me, over here!'
audience: much laughter

I think I may have slightly messed up that part of his set, which was based on the premise that bloggers generally don't like to make themselves known to roomfuls of people. Which is true.

2. Spending a day with my friend, Marilyn, learning how to use a knitting machine. She has a stand at the Country Living Spring Fair, and needs some help making up her designs. Spending a day in warm, adult company, learning something new, in a creative environment, was a blissful change. (and i got paid: what heavenly employment!)

3. Going to the virtual tea party yesterday at Risa's. Making new friends around the world. I know how sad this sounds to people who haven't yet leapt into the parallel blogging universe, but it was the best fun! And a big, big thank you to everyone who posted a comment on yesterday's post, what a buzz! Eliza will be overcome when I tell her about it.

The children are with their dad this weekend, so I am sewing today and off to usher at the cinema tomorrow. Could this be the best week ever?!

Looking Lovely

Sometimes my two little chimpanzees really wind me up. So today I came up with a new threat which seems to be really effective for keeping them in line. I showed Annie this picture from my latest charity shop bargain book find:



I told her that I would stay up all night making the outfit on the left for myself and take her to school wearing it in the morning.  She looked so horror stricken and has been angelic ever since. I have several other photos bookmarked, should the need arise!

...And in with the new!

Here are a few of the lovely, lovely things I received for Christmas, which go a long way towards filling the bleak, barren hole left by the removal of our Christmas decorations:




The violin used to be my mother's and so is immeasurably precious. It has a lovely tone; really warm, mellow and deep. I just have to learn how  to play it...

I also received a beautiful book called 'the art of knitting'. It's a couple of years old, so skip ahead if you've already got/seen it. The book's full of the most amazing photography:

It's unlike any knitting book I've ever seen; if you're in the market for an inspirational coffee table book, I heartily recommend it!

Out with the old...

I love a New Year. I like to go into it feeling complete about the previous year and ready for the new. So here are all the Christmas presents I made or bought and photographed, and wanted to show before Christmas but couldn't:



I posted about this earlier and promised to show the final results before the big day but I didn't finish it until Christmas eve...

Here's a bag I made for a friend, inspired by Lisa Congdon's entry in A Crafter's Companion.

And that led onto this bag which I made for my Mum:



My favourite purchases for people included this beautiful (but seemingly impossible to photograph accurately) painting by Amy Ruppel:



It's so much lovelier in real life. Check out her blog for better images of her gorgeous work.
And finally, I bought this for Annie which is a little piece of retro heaven!




I'm not entirely sure it works properly. It stitches fine but I don't know how to secure the ends as it just sews chain stitch with one thread and doesn't leave a long enough end to finish by hand. One tug of the end and the whole chain falls apart, something which Annie, at six years old, finds quite hard to handle without resorting to much wailing and beating of the chest!

Next time I'll complete my final clear-out with pictures of some of the most lovely things I received!