This has been a very therapeutic week, making the most of the end of the year and the beginning of the new one before diving back into the inevitable maelstrom of the last phase of a capital project. I’ve spent many hours in my attic lair surrounded by piles of fabric, reading lots of books, dipping in and out of Grey’s Anatomy with Thing 1, and eating way too much of the Christmas cake.
The sewing hasn’t always been successful. Monday’s project – the Sewing Therapy Hanbok Skirt (a reversible pleated wrap skirt) turned into Tuesday’s project as well, when I unmade it, removed a third of the width and used the removed panel to add seven inches to the length. Floofy skirts that sit just below the knee are really not me, and this one made me feel like a Victorian tea table which I am sure was not the intention. I used a black pinstriped fabric that was perhaps too bulky for the style. I may make a summer version with something much lighter.
The written sewing instructions are sparse but useable, as the designer offers detailed video tutorials instead. As I discovered previously when making the Stitchless TV Bucket Coat, I don’t like video tutorials. Pausing and restarting and faffing about with laptops when I want to sew is a pain. Old style sewing patterns with all their nice clear illustrations and written instructions are much more me and a designer who offered both old-school and video would probably be very popular (definitely with me).
The second make was the Madswick Ginkgo Pinafore, a wrap dress (there may be a theme here) which can be worn several ways and which is a version of a black linen pinafore I use for layering when I am in need of extra pocketses. I used a king sized duvet cover for fabric, with a print of stars and fireflies so this will be for days when I require whimsical pocketses. This had good instructions although I cheated on the last step as burrito-ing the skirt panels felt unnecessarily complicated when a good stitch-in-the-ditch would do the job nicely.
I haven’t been able to do any sewing for ages so I also have a pile of unfinished quilting projects which I now have the space (and will find the time) to get to! The lair is going to be a productive place. I have also stocked up on biscuits.
Reading stuff
I’ve been indulging in a bit of nostalgia over Christmas, working my way through Joan Aiken’s wonderful Wolves of Willoughby Chase sequence, which is set in an alternative history where all those King Georges never made it to the throne. Following the adventures of Dido Twite and her friend Simon, it takes in wolves who’ve made it through the Channel Tunnel, dastardly Hanoverian plots, Arthurian legends, evil fake aunties and much more. When I started to re-collect these novels as an adult I was thrilled to discover that Aiken had filled in some of the gaps in Dido’s story and carried it on past the books I’d loved when younger. Pat Marriott’s dark, scratchy illustrations bring a sense of menace to the early novels, with their looming villains. I can feel a reread of the Dark is Rising sequence coming on afterwards.
I’ve also been learning about the history of footpaths in England and Wales with Jack Cornish’s The Lost Paths – long term readers will know that I love a long walk, and look forward to wandering down new footpaths when I’m out and about. This book looks at why and how many of our footpaths developed across time, what impact events like war and enclosure as well as natural events have on our access to the countryside, and why some paths just stop for no logical reason. It’s taken me ages to get through it (it’s not really a pick up and put down book) but having time off has hooked me right in.
Seeing in the New Year surrounded by the usual friends and family, ridiculous trivia quizzes and Jill retaining her cereal box game crown despite competition from the teens…
Meeting an excellent kitten (who I didn’t kidnap as Lulu would probably have eaten him)
Snuggling babies in the form of sleepy twins on Saturday morning
Frosty walks with friends and hounds
The final episode of Stranger Things, and yes I cried.
The Holdovers – a film recommended by a work colleague, which manages to look as if it was filmed in the 70s.
Thing 2 making dinner on Saturday night
Resolving not to make any resolutions I can’t keep
Tomorrow is back to work, although at least from home for the first couple of days to ease back in! Happy New Year all.
Kirsty x
What I’ve been reading:
The Stolen Lake/Limbo Lodge/The Cuckoo Tree/Dido and Pa – Joan Aiken
Strange Days – Violet Fenn
The Dead of Winter – Sarah Clegg
The Magus of Hay/Friends of the Dusk/All of a Winter’s Night – Phil Rickman (Audible)
There are moments where life is just too…. peopley. Last Sunday was one of those moments. It was the first weekend in what felt like months (it was months, to be fair) where I didn’t have to be anywhere, there were no plans afoot and no one required my presence. I’d booked the Monday off as Thing 1 had an appointment, I had some fabric from the Stitch show which needed to be turned into something, and my living room was not full of teenagers. I was going to cut out the fabric on the Saturday, do my ironing first thing on the Sunday and then spend the day making a new version of the Folkwear Basics jacket.
Readers, I do not need to tell you that man plans and god laughs. Oh yes, she does. Loud and long. By early evening on the Saturday I had managed to cut out the outer fabric and then one of the big girls turned up with GT2 and his daddy in tow, all of whom then slept on my living room floor so sewing was out of the question. So was the ironing. I was disgruntled and after kicking about for a bit I threw all my toys out of the pram and stomped off to Harlow to meet Miriam for a coffee. Harlow was equally peopley but none of them a) were asleep on my floor or b) required anything from me.
Work has been particularly paper-based recently, without opportunities to be creative (some months are like that). It’s been productive in terms of gettng projects started and thinking about chairs and signage and practical things, but sometimes I really need to get hands-on and create something substantial with an outcome I can see and feel. This was one of those times, but instead I drank hot chocolate at Geek Retreat and went food shopping in Lidl, where I resisted all middle-of-Lidl things (yay me!) but did get some rum and raisin ice cream. Rum and raisin is my favourite, and it’s surprisingly hard to get hold of.
The creativity had to wait until Monday – the one benefit to the clocks going back was the inability to sleep past 6am. The ironing was done by 9am, with the help of a couple of episodes of Northern Exposure, and I managed to cut out the lining pieces from a piece of deadstock fabric in sunny orange before taking Thing 1 to her appointment.
This jacket pattern comes together really quickly – the two lining pieces and the two outer pieces are stitched together down the centre back, the sides and sleeves are sewn before putting them together and bagging out through a sleeve. The sleeves are bound with a bias bind which I chose to turn fully to the inside with a deep hem. The whole thing is top-stitched and voila! One new jacket. It’s an oversized style which is great for layering over hoodies and jumpers, and I do love a layer.
I also made a bag with the leftover fabric – another quick make using the Robin & Birch Nori Kimono Bag pattern. I made the large size and omitted the central ties, mainly because I never use them on the smaller version I’ve made. The finished jacket and bag (I won’t use them together!) are really tactile thanks to the fluffy fringes, and they have a good weight to them. It also has big patch pockets. Of course.
I felt a lot better after an afternoon of making and a lot of rum and raisin ice cream.
Other things making me happy this week
Crocheting yet more tiny things that fit in small jars – a tiddly pud this time. It needs some work, and also some googly eyes.
Testing ideas for a charity event we’re taking part in in December – glowing lanterns. Now to tell my colleagues they’ll be helping me cut things out for the next few weeks…
Panic buying sweeties for trick or treating, and now we have to eat them as we only had two. Mmm, Drumstick lollies.
Making banana bread with Maltesers – I forgot to put the eggs in though but hopefully there were enough bananas to make up for it!
Hobbycraft with Miriam, her Thing 1 and my Thing 2. There were these notebooks…
Bara Brith in the oven – I have a new starter this week on my team and I haven’t baked this for a while. Even I can’t get this wrong.
Making a lot of crochet ‘pigs’ to go in blankets….
This week has been all about the crochet, bookended by two different markets. Last Sunday was Copped Hall’s Family Apple Day and yesterday was the London Welsh Centre’s Autumn Market.
Copped Hall events happen outside in a tree-lined avenue leading down towards the walled garden. Luckily we had sides for the gazebo this year and the weather was sunny if a bit chilly at times. It’s so lovely to see regular faces, though I need more Doctor Who things according to one customer!
They were two very different events – Copped Hall doesn’t charge a fee but asks for a suggested donation of 10% of your takings, whereas I felt a bit of impostor at the Welsh market surrounded by potters, award winning food producers and so on. Driftwood Designs had the stall on one side of me, and they have actual shops in Aberystwyth and Aberaeron (and a strong presence on my family’s Christmas trees).
On our other side was Badcubed, who makes the most amazing stained glass-style art using aluminium drinks cans (including commissions) and who was not above accosting passing people carrying interesting cans and asking them to bring them back when they’d finished. Thing 2 spotted someone with a beautiful cider can which turned out to be Hansh Cider from Llaethlliw near Aberaeron. The can is redesigned every time there’s a new addition to the family, adding dogs, small children and so on as the family grows.
Ben, Badcubed himself, is an ADHD-fuelled creative (his words), and never makes the same thing twice – all his pieces have names and stories. He gave Thing 2 a wave piece at the end of the day, a gorgeous heart shape created from Monster cans. She hugged it to her all the way home, and wouldn’t put it down until it had a safe place in the living room. Despite leaving Brecon at 4.30am to drive up to London in time for the event he was on full energy all day, chatting to all the people who were drawn to his stall – and there were a LOT.
My stall is more of a stealth attractor – people glance at it and then do a double take. Yesterday it was split into two sections: autumn and Christmas. I love watching people walk by as you can almost see the moment their brain tells them what they’ve seen …’huh, crochet…hang on, did I just see a crocheted jammy dodger/pea pod/sprout/chilli pepper??’ Yes, yes you did.
And now you’re coming back to have another look…and you’re going to need a bigger Christmas tree.
The nine pigs in blankets sold quite quickly, as did the little harvest mice and pickled pumpkins/ghosts and as fast as I could make a Chris Mouse it sold. I tested a mouse in a Christmas blanket too, and may make a few more of them as they’re very cute. Some people take ages to decide which pig or mouse they want to adopt as the faces are never quite the same! I wonder if I can do pickled sprouts for Christmas?
When I finally got a wander round later in the day I bought some Welsh Rum & Black Jam from Black Mountains Preserves, and some hot sauces from Chilli of the Valley as Thing 2 (my helper at both events) kept nagging me. This included Merthyrstershire Sauce as my Beloved is a big fan of Worcestershire Sauce, and making something Welsh can only improve it…
Mental notes from the event – more red Christmas jumpers, more pigs, more Chris Mouses, more peapods, more mini puddings, stop being lazy and embroider the house details on your toadstools, more barrel cacti….so much! And next year, go for the bigger table…
Another thing I really enjoy about these events is the conversations – I’m always crocheting behind the stall as I’m not very good at sitting still, and this opens up chats with other crafters, or people who want to learn, and people who whip their WIP (work in progress) out of their bag to show me. As with live interpretation, you become approachable when you’re doing something seen as ‘domestic’. Even if they don’t buy anything you’ve had a good natter about things you like.
The next stalls are December, but please do contact me if you want to order. Always happy to crochet.
Not the Central Line, which caused me no end of problems on Wednesday
A wander back to the new office from Exmouth Market – Clerkenwell is full of funny little streets and quirks. There are a lot of clocks about too, as the area used to have a lot of clock and watchmakers.
Crispy autumn things
Coffee with TT2 and GT2 after the Welsh market
Booking tickets for a night at Sadlers Wells East to see Ebony Scrooge with Things 1 and 2 in December – something to look forward to
Well, that’s it from me – I’m going to do NOTHING today*
Same time next week,
Kirsty x
*well, maybe some crochet….
What I’ve been reading
A Trick of the Light/Still Life/A Fatal Grace/The Cruellest Month – Louise Penny
MIdwinter of the Spirit/A Crown of Lights/The Cure of Souls – Phil Rickman (Audible)
Saturday was the annual pilgrimage to Ally Pally to worship at the altar of fabrics and yarn and crafty gadgets, also known (this year at least) as Knit and Stitch. Heather and I were joined by Tor, one of her colleagues, and we had a most excellent mooch around the exhibitions and graduate shows before heading into the danger zone of trader stands.
I love the graduate shows – this year I was very taken with two who were using stitch to encode messages into their work. One had been inspired by a visit with their (very proud) mum to Bletchley Park when they were nine, and another had created Braille embroidery. I’d definitely visit an exhibition about secret messages in embroidery! I wish I had the vision and talent to do this sort of thing.
There were also many beautiful embroidered birds at The Embroiderers Guild, and some interesting materials in use – upcycled building textiles, plastics which mimicked natural forms and some Korean goblins (‘dokkaebi’) inspired by found objects like lost hats and socks.
We spotted large gatherings of Bees (the sewing kind) including some of this year’s crop, and stroked a lot of fabric as we wandered up and down the aisles. I was very restrained, coming home with some fabric for a new version of the Folkwear Basics Jacket, an embroidery kit which is all French knots and a beautiful embroidered bird brooch. I rarely wear necklaces at work as often have a lanyard, so I usually wear brooches or badges instead. I probably didn’t need another one but I really liked it…
We took our own packed lunches as the food is always disappointing and overpriced at these things – there’s never anywhere to sit and what you end up with is the world’s most expensive meal deal. A well-deserved tea in the afternoon while being charmed by an adorably smily baby was quite reasonable, and then we made it home. The magic laundry fairy hadn’t managed to finish sorting the four clean loads stuffed into the trug on my bed but what can you do?
This beautiful tree on the way to the office in Islington
My cousin sending me pictures of toadstools from her early morning walks
Our third access panel meeting – we’re so lucky to have a generous group of people who are willing to share their experience and thoughts about our new Centre.
A personal best in the Cardiff Half last Sunday – 3 hours and 2 minutes on my Strava, and 3 hours 9 on the chip time. I really wanted to come in under 3 hours but I was very close! I was less impressed with the serious aches on Monday and Tuesday. The weather was great, and the crowd support all round the course was excellent. I was touched to see my lovely friend Jen at 13k, as no one ever comes out to see me! She even gave me a hug, despite the fact that I was a sweaty mess. My cousin Hev leapt out of the Rock Choir at mile 11 with another hug.
Ben and Jerry’s Minter Wonderland is back in the Co-op. It’s my favourite.
Today it’s Apple Day at Copped Hall, so Thing 2 and I will be manning my gazebo. She’s been making earrings with the content of my button tin and she’ll be selling them, while I’ll have my usual collection of crochet decorations and jewellery, including these googly-eyed sprouts.
…but we did manage to escape into the wilds for a walk along the Blavet at St Nicolas des Eaux (which turns out to be closed on Tuesdays). We saw lots of kingfishers, a giant fish leaping out of the water and the odd rain shower which caused us to put on and take off our waterproofs several times.
By Thursday we were able to head out for an early morning walk up to one of the locks and back, with a blowy trip to Larmor-Plage in the afternoon…
I’ve seen shooting stars in the dark skies, Eurofighters over Lorient and a coypu in a tree, eaten almost two whole truckles of Port Salut and many, many prawns.
Lots of birds of prey (BOPs) have been spotted, including hen harriers and buzzards. Owls and coypu have soundtracked the night, and bats have swooped and dipped around us.
The trip back was, of course, in glorious sunshine.
On Wednesday I attended – from the comfort of my living room – a session of the What Next? culture group. This is a wide-ranging, first-thing-in-the-morning, ‘free-to-access movement that brings together small and large organisations and freelancers to debate and shape arts & culture in the UK’. I don’t get to attend them very often as Wednesdays are usually my later-into-the-office days due to teenager wrangling responsibilities.
Anyway, this week’s was about the power and importance of reading to small children from a very early age. One of the speakers was the Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce who pledged at the start of his Laureateness (Laureacy?) to campaign to reduce reading inequality through the Reading Rights campaign. The first report has recently been published, calling on national and local leaders in early years, health, education and culture to come together and make reading a part of daily life for every child in the first seven years of life.
Mr C-B spoke about visiting the Babylab at Queen Mary’s in East London, where he watched in real time as a mother and baby were wired up to a brainwave thingy and the mother read a story to the baby on her knee. The act of being read to by a loved one visibly calmed the baby’s chaotic brain waves, their heart rate, and their breathing came into sync. He called it ‘love at a synaptic level’. From this mum’s point of view, too, there is nothing quite like the feeling of a warm, sleepy baby or toddler snuggling in for a story at the end of the day. I recognise, too, that the act of reading is also a privilege.
“If you’ve been read to, as a child, by someone who cares about you, you have been given an enormous invisible privilege. If you haven’t been given that privilege, then you’ve been left with an enormous mountain to climb.”
Frank Cottrell-Boyce
According to BookTrust’s research, 95% of families know that reading is really important but only 42% of children in lower-income families get a regular bedtime story. There are a whole lot of reasons for that – aside from parents possibly not having that experience themselves as a child, or lacking the confidence in their own reading skills to read a story ‘properly’ – but a key reason is that living in poverty or need is really, really hard. You spend time in meetings with benefits people. You spend time getting to places on public transport getting to meetings or the supermarket with the cheapest food, or on hold to government organisations, or sorting out housing, or working one or more minimum wage jobs, or worrying about your electric or gas or other bills. All this as well as caring for your small person…. the mental bandwidth this all takes up is enormous and things like bedtime stories aren’t always top of the list. Survival is.
Those of us who grew up with being read to nightly – and, with the benefit of younger siblings to listen in on later – for many years are lucky. I did the same with my own children – I was certainly still reading chapter books to my reluctant reader Thing 2 when she was eight or nine and Things 1 and 3 were listening in. M.M.Kaye’s The Ordinary Princess was a favourite, as was Jill Tomlinson’s The Owl Who Was Afraid Of The Dark which we took on holiday and I read a chapter a night to my three and my niece. Bedtime story time was one of the joys of being a parent, honestly, even when I was in the depths of PND and could barely function. It was a moment of peace and routine in what were some very hard days, but then books are my own go-to moment of sanity as an adult so this makes sense for me. Admittedly there were days when the fifth or sixth reading of the same book got a little wearing, but there we are.
Cottrell-Boyce also made the excellent point that children who aren’t read to at home then encounter books for the first time when they get to school and they’re suddenly being asked to sit down and decode things they have no experience of. Books become difficult and scary, and not something to be experienced as a joy: these children aren’t making the connection between the words in front of them and the pictures on the page because they don’t have the literacy capital to do so. He likened this experience of reading as being presented with a recipe to cook before you have ever experienced food – the pain without the pleasure, as it were. Illustrations are the first encounters with visual art that children have. Illustration – as I say a lot to people in my day job – is art with a job to do, it’s art that communicates.
The wonderful BookTrust are working with Cottrell-Boyce on this campaign. The BookStart scheme, which provides families with free books via health visitors and libraries, is the last man standing from the brilliant SureStart scheme that was one of the great successes of the New Labour government. Early Years provision has been steadily eroded over the last 14 years which has removed an enormous and incredibly important level of support from the people who desperately needed it. Increasing free childcare is all very well, (before someone says ‘but they’re doing this for parents’) but – in reality – that’s aimed at getting adults back into work and isn’t a benefit for the family. The other problem with increasing free childcare provision, of course, is that it’s not properly funded so early years settings are closing as they can’t actually afford to pay the staff to provide the care. That’s a rant for another day, however – another conversation this week was about the cost of childcare.
In our local Tesco’s they have a ‘free children’s books’ stand by the checkouts, which is brilliant – adult books are offered for a donation but for small people they are free. There are Little Free Libraries popping up in disused phone boxes and bus shelters and train stations. Libraries – thank the lord – are still free and anyone can use them, even if (like my local one) they’re only open two days a week. Librarians – a big shout out to this amazing bunch of people – still do free RhymeTime or Storytime sessions. But if people haven’t grown up with libraries as part of their lives they may not have the confidence to go in – like museums and galleries, there’s an ‘is this for me?’ barrier to get through. I’m not sure what the answer is, but this campaign might be a good start. I’m in a position to be part of the change as I start to plan what our Early Years and Families programme will look like when we open in 2026: there has always been a plan for regular storytime, sharing books and illustrations with our visitors, but now I can back it up with science and stuff. Hurray!
A catch up with Emma T on Friday, covering cats, small people, and what’s going on in the world of museum research. She’d been to Cardiff the weekend before to visit a mutual friend, and she also got to meet one of my force-of-nature cousins. Honestly, we are EVERYWHERE.
An afternoon at Copped Hall last Sunday, chasing around the GT2. I am out of practice at the toddler thing!
Salad. I like salad. A lot.
This Pangolin amigurumi – I love pangolins! They always look like they need to tell you something very important.
A happy commuter moment on Friday when I was crocheting on the tube, finishing off a little apple amigurumi. A family opposite me were off on a day trip and the little girl was very excited watching me give the apple a leaf and a mouth. When I’d finished it I gave her the apple and I think it made my day. They were off to Paddington Station to see the bear statue and then to see the Natural History Museum, so I extracted a solemn promise that she’d say hello to Paddington and give him a marmalade sandwich. ‘We’ve GOT marmalade sandwiches!’ she said in very serious tones. I hope they had a good day – I know I did after this joyful exchange.
The strawberries coming ripe in the garden in large quantities.
Meeting Oliver Jeffers, who wrote one of our all-time favourite bedtime stories. I probably should be a bit more chilled about these things by now but I’m not. I was very well behaved though.
Things I am withholding judgement on this week include Thing 2’s prom skirt which she had a very clear plan for and which I am making from duchesse satin with an embroidered tulle overskirt, and (of course) pockets. I may try and negotiate on the pockets and provide a matching wrist bag instead. She also wants a ‘train’ so no one can see her feet, despite the invention of shoes. I’m glad I fitted a tissue paper toile on her yesterday morning as the size we’d printed going on her measurements wasn’t big enough, so I could reprint at the next size up and do another fit check before cutting the fabric. I’ve bought from this designer before and have always had to contact her about missing instructions, or fabric quantities, and the instructions always assume a lot of prior knowledge so I wouldn’t buy from her as a beginner. The one moment of joy (for me, at least) is that she was hoping a pair of my glam and presumably now vintage heels would fit her but NO, they’re all too small. Actually – I’m also quite joyful that she bought the corset top and didn’t ask me to make that. She had a very clear idea about what she wanted to wear, and what colour, and of course she couldn’t find the perfect thing in the shops… this summer I will be teaching her to use a sewing pattern. It would have been more helpful if she’d stayed home with me so I could start sewing, but nooooooo…..that’s my day gone today then!
Things not making me happy this week include the doctor’s surgery. By Wednesday evening I had spent more than two hours on hold to the surgery just waiting to speak to the reception team. Phone call one had been in mid-May, where I’d asked for a prescription to be updated to reflect an increase in my medication prescribed by their out of hours doc. The surgery just reissued the existing prescription. Phone call two – Monday – repeated request. They texted me and said the prescription had been issued. Chemist says yes but it’s two separate prescriptions so you need to pay twice, phone the surgery again and ask for them to be issued as a single script. Phone call three – explain again that I don’t actually want to pay £20 for what’s basically one prescription, could they issue this as one script with the full dose on it. This apparently made sense to me and the receptionist, but not to the doctor whose response – not to me, of course – was that they don’t make 30mg pills. I discovered this in phone call four, which was where I channelled my inner Dad and explained that I was FINE taking a 20mg and a 10mg tablet at the same time but I’d rather not be charged twice. Yes, said the receptionist, I understand and it shouldn’t have taken this many phone calls. Phone call five after waiting for eight hours wasn’t answered after 1 hr 40 minutes even though surgery was open. Phone call six, the following morning, was with YET ANOTHER receptionist (how many do they have?) who was adamant that what I was asking couldn’t be done even though I’d been assured that it could by our amazing village pharmacist – who presumably knows what can and can’t be done with a prescription and who I’d phoned in sheer desperation. He offered to send a note to the surgery explaining the problem in case it helped. I asked to speak to a doctor, who phoned me back two hours later, and three minutes and three seconds later (including pleasantries) I had the prescription, it was sent to the chemist and was ready for me when I tumbled through their door four minutes before closing. It should not have been so hard….
So, I am fully medicated, and today I will be finishing the prom skirt (I hope!). Watch this space…
Kirsty x
What I’ve been reading:
Shadowlands – Matthew Green
Woodston – John Lewis-Stempel
Between the Stops – Sandi Toksvig
Ring the Hill – Tom Cox (Audible)
Greetings from Bury Park – Sarfraz Manzoor (Audible)
I think, if nothing else, the past fifty odd years of my life have proved that New Year’s resolutions are a bit of a waste of time, so having got that thinking out of the way I can get on with 2025 in my usual fashion – doing as I would be done by, trying not to eat too much cake, making a dent in the contents of the sheds and not being too lazy. This all seems doable. As I mentioned last week I have signed up to an event in March, so need to train for that – I love to walk but am essentially lazy so need a target to aim at. As Tan said about me in 2023, wind her up and point her in the right direction and she’ll just keep going.
Of course, there is still a lot of cake left but will try and ration my consumption….
This week was New Year’s Eve and as has become the tradition over the past ten years or so we spent it with our village gang of friends. Our plan was to go early, spend an hour or so and then come home when the grandbaby we were looking after for the night started getting grumpy. What we hadn’t reckoned with was Mason’s night owl habits – he was having a whale of a time dancing, playing with balloons, being cute at people, eating party food and so on. We eventually wrestled him back into the buggy at 1am, much to his disgust, and marched him home to bed.
I was on night duty with him, sleeping on the couch next to his travel cot, and I am clearly out of practice at this, since my lot are all in their teens – I woke at every snuffle and hiccup and by the time his mama rolled in at 8am with Thing 1 after they’d been out to a rave I was very ready for my bed! Mason, on the other hand, woke up at 6.30am, promptly stole my pillow and blanket while I was warming up some milk for him and went back to sleep leaving me no space at all. Needless to say I spent a lot of New Years Day in bed. Still, as I may have mentioned before, there is nothing quite as snuggly as an armful of warm sleepy baby – at least until your arm goes dead.
I don’t think Lulu is quite as fond of overnighting babies – she’s been quite mad this week, but she’s now got a new tower to play with. Toddlers are big fans of cats but the feeling is not mutual…
Apparently the Uniqlo round mini bag has been going viral recently for being lightweight, washable, handy for travel and being able (according to my sister) to fit an entire bottle of wine inside which I can see would be very useful. The social media reviews tend to talk about 500ml water bottles, but she has her priorities, OK?
The Uniqlo one comes in a quilted option, a corduroy option, as a lined version with a sporty strap, and in a whole variety of colours. Tan had bought the black version and kindly demonstrated the booze-holding capacity at the Christmas market in Ealing – I’d already been looking at the red version while shopping on Black Friday but hadn’t bought it as it wasn’t yellow. I like yellow when it comes to bags. When I was buying my parents’ Christmas presents I gave in to the red one as it was still on sale – obviously it still wasn’t yellow but I found a pattern on Etsy for a dupe and spent a couple of days between Christmas and New Year making a couple in different colours.
The pattern was easy to follow (all mistakes were my own, like getting one of the lining panels the wrong way up!) and the outcome was the same size as the Uniqlo original. This pattern has a zippy pocket on the inside which was surprisingly easy to install, two small side panel pockets and a main space which does – just about – fit the bottle of wine in the same way that the Uniqlo one does. All the fabric and zips came from my stash – a remnants bundle of waxed cotton provided the outer fabrics, and some quilting cotton featuring lucky cats and a comic book print from the V&A sample sale a couple of years ago came in handy for the lining.
I did need to buy the hardware as I wanted an adjustable strap but if you always wear your bags the same length you can make it without these bits. You could also make it without the zippy pocket if you were after a quick gift for someone. I happen to have a lot of waxed cotton so can see me making more of these (get your requests in now, people! I have various colours (not purple or teal, sorry M)). I tested it out on my commute on Thursday and it fits my phone, glasses case, earphone pouch easily but not my current portable project but that’s because I didn’t try and squash it in.
Things making me happy this week
The possibility of snow, though I fear I will be let down by Essex weather again
Siestas with warm cats as winter is finally biting (see point 1)
The microwavable boots I had for Christmas I had from the TTS (see point 2)
Quiet day in the office on Thursday where NO ONE was asking me to do stuff. I can be forgiven for being late to both Teams meetings, yes? What were all these other people doing working?
Putting Christmas away tidily till next year
Home made orange, cinnamon and cranberry bread in the bread maker
Finally mastering Yorkshire puddings
This isEngland – I didn’t pay any attention the first time round but am really enjoying it
Wallace and Grommit – Vengeance Most Fowl – No Parkin! on the Yorkshire border side made me laugh out loud
A rainbow of fat quarters for a quilting project just awaiting the purple shades before I can start planning
Quilting this nine-patch ready for backing. I *think* it’s a Riley Blake fabric but it may also be Moda. It’s got stars on and it was charm packs.
With any luck the lake will be frozen tomorrow so we can pretend we’re orcas or polar bears or something – a good ice swim always makes us feel like superwomen!
Kirsty x
What I’ve been reading:
High Five/Hot Six/Seven Up/Hard Eight/To The Nines – Janet Evanovich
BBC Dramatisations of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels (Audible)
A wide range of quilt books in search of inspiration!
This week has seen the return of the crafty mojo after my worst craft stall ever at Copped Hall on bank holiday weekend – I sold two pairs of earrings all day, which tends to make you wonder why you’re bothering. Even the two tiny dachshund puppies I made friends with didn’t quite make up for it…it’s surprising how much impact one off day can have!
I pulled myself together enough to put in my application for a stall at Epping Christmas Market and went back to crocheting chilli peppers on the tube in the hope that the next stall will be more successful. An Italian lady who bought a pair of chilli pepper earrings told me that in Italy chilli peppers are hung up to ward off stop people gossiping about you and to bring good luck, and who doesn’t need that? Perhaps I should start hanging them over the stall.
This year’s decorations will probably not include pigs in blankets unless people ask me really nicely, but there may well be cats as Thing 2 has decided that’s what’s missing from my stall after scrutinising everyone else at the event. There will also be mince pies and mice, and probably penguins. Let’s see where they get me….
I’ve also been making a couple of cross stitch gifts but can’t share them till they’ve been handed over, so you’ll just have to wait.
Tiny twins in Sprite hats. Aren’t they adorable? Just don’t ask me which is which
And tiny baby hats in multiples of two using yarn from the stash, for Arlo and Bohdi, who I finally got to cuddle last Sunday after taking Thing 2 to the cinema to see Despicable Me 4 (we loved it). They are so, so small and so laidback, which I’m quite sure won’t last once they find their voices. We were entranced by the way they mirror each other’s movements. Thing 3 was terrified when we first handed him a baby but got quite relaxed after a while, while proud Grandad was his usual baby expert self. We know he’s proud as he accosted all the neighbours when TT1 popped round last Saturday with the words ‘Grandchildren! Look!’ which is positively effusive for him.
During the evening crafting sessions I’ve been binging the excellent Slow Horses, starring Gary Oldman and the ridiculously elegant Kristin Scott Thomas. I’ve so loved the books and was assured that the series was just as good, and – for once – it is. Hopefully Apple TV’s adaptation of Carl Hiaasen’s Bad Monkey will be just as good – the soundtrack of Tom Petty covers is a good start, as is the casting of Vince Vaughn. We’ve also been watching Brassic, a Sky programme which is very ‘it’s him! from that!’ and extremely funny with it. The hims and thats in this case are Joseph Gilgun from Preacher, and Ryan Sampson from Plebs, both of which we enjoyed.
Other things making me happy this week:
Fountain pens. I have the urge to write letters to people just to write with one. I feel I should be that person, and live with the misguided hope that perhaps a beautiful pen with real ink would miraculously render my atrocious handwriting legible.
Six month health checks for Teddy and Bailey, who do not need to be wrangled into the cat basket at serious risk to my wellbeing, and who are both very doing very well. Lulu, on the other hand, requires a pincer movement, two people and ideally steel gauntlets, full armour and a welding mask. Even then you should have the first aid kit handy.
Washing machine insurance. Mine apparently requires a new drum, a new PCB (whatever one of those is), a new seal and a new front.
Early morning coffee with Amanda.
Impending autumn, with chillier mornings and not melting on the tube.
Visiting the new Islington Museum ‘People of Islington’ exhibition, celebrating local artists and makers. They have a section of elm pipe from the New River which I’m quite jealous of. I wonder if they’d miss it?
The rather elegant cat below, who I met on my way home from Islington Museum. He was waiting impatiently for someone to come home and let him in.
And that’s it from me for the week – next weekend you can find me at the British Library’s ‘Marvellous Me‘ Family Day with illustrator Beth Suzanna making paper portraits. This is the last of our pop-ups for the summer and we’ll be alongside a whole lot of other excellent organisations so do come on down.
Same time next week then!
Kirsty x
What I’ve been reading:
The Skeleton Road/Out of Bounds/Broken Ground – Val McDermid
Last Sunday was sunny and warm and as my living room was full of teenagers and I was feeling crafty, I retreated to the garden shelter with my coffee, fabric hexies, paper templates, a glue stick, a book and an excellent playlist on Spotify. I had a lovely morning sticking things to other things and making pretty patterns until I ran out of glue and had to wait for the Amazon man to arrive.
In the meantime, I delved into the shed and found a fat quarter bundle of Makower quilting cottons in red, cream and gold and with the aid of my trusty rotary cutter cut out some diamonds using these Clover templates, with the germ of an idea for some star decorations in my head. Thing 2 joined me after her friends had gone home, bringing her book, and kept me company in the sun. She also had a go at making some hexie flowers using some orphan hexies that weren’t quite what I wanted for my project. (You can see her project if you click through on the Instagram post below), and walked both the cats on their harnesses. It was a really lovely afternoon, peaceful and creative and exactly what you want summer Sundays to be like.
My hexies are destined to become the sleeves of a Liliana jacket, and the rest will be made of a wine-red twill cotton. I decided a whole patchwork jacket would be a bit much but if I do the sleeves in hexies and add patch pockets (of course) it should work well. I’m considering adding cuffs in the twill fabric as well, to tie it back together. You can see the rough sleeve layout below, with a fade from navy through purple into red. If it works it’ll be great, if not I’ll look like some mad hippy…let’s see what happens! I need to decide what to line the sleeves with – twill might be too heavy, but I may have some lining fabric in the right colour in the shed.
An inspirational conversation with some MA students I met at the RCA in July. I’d offered to have a coffee and a chat with them, as they’re interested in participatory arts practice, and the 45 minutes I’d scheduled turned into 90.
Day 2 of the play co-design project – this week we went to Holland Park and had a great time in the adventure playground. This week’s illustrator was Joey Yu, and we had some new families and repeat families. We are very much looking forward to the final session this week! Thing 2 joined me for the day as well.
An evening swim with two new converts on Thursday evening. Many ducks and much putting the world to rights.
Thing 1 started her first job at the local pub. I am hoping for some transferable cooking skills.
Making the Named patterns Kielo dress in a paprika coloured jersey fabric which is way outside my usual wardrobe colours. I look like a carrot.
I finally remembered to take a photo of my current portable project. I had a long conversation with a nice old lady on the tube who was very interested in what I was up to. I love the colours in this one!
Today I’ll be hanging out in my little gazebo at the Copped Hall Open Day, touting my wares and carrying on putting those hexies together. Hopefully people will buy stuff, but if not I’ll have had a nice afternoon in the sun!
Kirsty x
What I’ve been reading
The Darkest Domain – Val McDermid
Honeycomb – Joanne M. Harris (Audible)
The Covent Garden Ladies – Hallie Rubenhold
Stray Cat Blues – Ben Aaronovitch etc
1983 – Tom Cox
Tackle! – Jilly Cooper. I keep reading these in case she’s regained her touch. She hasn’t. Please stop, Jilly. For all our sakes.
This week I am feeling a little more human – thank you to all the lovely people who reached out to me after last week’s post via Facebook, WhatsApp and so on. It was much appreciated. Thanks also to my Dad, who told me to get on a plane next time and he’d pick me up at the airport for some time off from responsibility. The thought is very tempting, especially on evenings like Thursday when I got home from work at about 8.30 having been to a leaving do and no one had bothered to cook.
I had a couple of days off this week, with the intention of relaxing – it’s probably an indicator of how bad a state I was that it was a real effort to slow down and not feel as if I HAD to finish everything I started. In retrospect, a nine-patch quilt wasn’t the best choice of lazy project. It lends itself to chain piecing for the patches, strips and blocks so you work almost on autopilot. I decided when the blocks were pieced together that I’d make it Quilt-As-You-Go rather than continue in automatic mode which meant some slower focus on keeping my stitching the ditch neat. You can see the quilted blocks here., and Bailey inspecting my work.
So that was the weekend and Monday. My brain was still in overdrive, so when on Tuesday I got up, put my table up and caught myself going into autopilot I made the conscious decision to slow down. So I put the table away, picked up my book and decided to have a lazy day instead. And it was lovely! I had a lunchtime nap, watched some Doctor Who with Thing 2, read my book and later in the day I did some cross stitch and caught up with the temperature tracker which had been sadly neglected since the end of April.
I wasn’t completely sane by the time I went back to the office on Thursday but I was definitely feeling the benefit of some time out. The quilt isn’t finished, but that’s OK – it’s not going anywhere and will still be there when I’m ready to work on it.
Things making me happy this week
Thing 2 becoming hooked on Doctor Who and asking for it to be put on in the evenings. We have just come to the end of David Tennant and Matt Smith has landed.
Having an 18 year daughter – where did the time go?
Sunshine (until it got too hot)
Dinner with London sister and Cardiff cousins on Saturday night
Making it to Week 4 on the Couch to 5k. Five minutes of running doesn’t sound like a lot….
Making business card holders for my lovely business cards. With pocketses!
What Kirsty did next 