204: unexpected water hazards

Yesterday I accidentally went on a nearly-13km walk. I’d woken up at 6am and been unable to go back to sleep, so once I’d had a cup of coffee and had a bit of a read and since it wasn’t raining I decided I’d go for a bit of a wander in search of inspiration. My plan, such as it was, was to head to the farm to say good morning to the baby cows, turn around at 2.5km, pick up some milk and be back for breakfast. Yup, that sounds pretty straightforward, I hear you say. Baby cows, milk, breakfast.

Well, once I’d said good morning to the baby cows and arrived at the 2.5km point, I was feeling full of the joys of spring, as you do when the sun is shining, the bushes are full of robins and blue tits and there’s a good playlist on Spotify (a lot of glam rock, as it goes.). 10k felt doable, so I kept going into Toot Hill and turned down towards the wonderfully Hobbitish-named Clatterford End.

This is a lane that I’ve been down before, but always turned round at 5km as I don’t really know where it goes. Clatterford End isn’t really a place at all. So – and I can pinpoint this as the moment it all got out of hand – I looked at the map. Just a little Google, I thought, to see where the road goes. I might see some interesting things to put in my sketchbook at the end of the day, at the very least, and I might find some new footpaths to explore when swamp season is over in Essex. We’ve had so much rain recently that the clay is saturated and the footpaths are running water, so offroading was very definitely not in my plan.

Well, it turned out that if I carried on down this lane and turned left I would end up going in a big circle back to Toot Hill and it probably wouldn’t be much more than 10k. So I carried on. It was all going well- I even knew where I was which, as it happened, was a bit of a blessing. My mental map of the area had just connected a few dots….and then there was a flood, So deep it had an abandoned car on one of the banks. I could not go over it. I could not go under it, and I damn sure wasn’t going through it.

Offroad it was then. You can see from the map that there’s a weird loop-the-loop. This is where I opened the Ordnance Survey app, found a route back to the road which would take me past the flood, only to find that the footpath was blocked by brambles and more water. So I resigned myself to a trek along the Essex Way and it was exactly as swampy, sticky, slippy and slurpy as I expected it to be in early February. I muttered and grumbled and slipped and slid slowly back through to Toot Hill, glaring at small streams and puddles and passing dogwalkers, said hello to the baby cows again and stomped back up the hill. I remembered the milk though, and treated myself to a hot bath followed by tomato soup and a Spanish hot chocolate. And a nap.

I did get to draw my day, and was quite inspired by some road signs mostly as I didn’t feel brave enough to try sketching the baby cows. I did try the cherry blossom from the garden, and noted down my soundtrack and a lyric from one of my favourite songs. Saturday is clean sheets day, so that was marked too, and I took a leaf out of Bob Ross’s book and turned my mistake into a bird. I enjoyed playing with pencils and markers and colours, and I’m quite pleased with how it turned out.

Also this week…

Last Sunday the entire clan visited Get To know Animals, a relatively new mini-zoo and animal experience centre just outside Epping. It was an interesting experience – Thing 2 ended up traumatised by seeing two ring-neck parakeets attacking a quail in the bird enclosure. Grandthing 1 handled a rabbit called Gandalf that was almost as big as he was, and Thing 3 was given a ferret experience as a birthday present from his big sisters. He and my Beloved were rolling around the floor with them.

Thing 2 loves a ferret, and feels I should love them too. Actual conversation:

Thing 2: You should hold the ferret, mum

Me: No thank you

Thing 2: No no, hold the ferret, he’s really furry

Me: I do not want to hold a ferret, thank you.

Thing 2: <puts ferret on me>

Ferret: <sinks fangs into my chin>

Me: OOOWWWWWW

I liked the flirty alligator though and I’d happily adopt a cloud rat or take home a tortoise or two.

Alligator side-eye
Tortoises!

Thing 3 and I had a great night out seeing the RSC’s My Neighbor Totoro at the Barbican for his birthday treat – no photos are allowed, but I can say it was absolutely magical: the special effects for the Totoros, soot sprites and the Catbus were so cleverly done, and we had an amazing evening. It was his first theatre experience and it’ll be hard to beat. Thing 2 made him an amazing birthday cake.

Also…

  • Coffee and a good catch-up with an ex-Museum of London colleague
  • Taking part in a Careers Day at a school in East Ham
  • An inspiring meeting with the wonderful Parent House in Islington
  • Coffee with a friend at the King’s Head
  • Getting up to date with this year’s cross stitch temperature tracker

And that’s it for me – it’s been a pretty busy week, in and out of London and wrestling with the Central Line every day (ugh), but that does mean I have done a lot of crochet on the leafy scarf!

Same time next week then!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Over Sea, Under Stone/The Dark is Rising/Greenwitch – Susan Cooper (Audible)

The Fever of the World/The House of Susan Lulham/The Cold Calling – Phil Rickman

Draw your Day – Samantha Dion Baker.

203: a wander through the realms of imagination

This week my team and I headed to the British Library to see the Fantasy: Realms of Imagination exhibition before it closes later this month. As I may have mentioned once or twice over the course of this blog, I love a bit of SF/F, so I was very excited about seeing this show.

Entering the space through a sparkling, fairy-lit forest portal (I knew it was going to be good) and avoiding the first hazard in the shape of a couple of school groups, we were immediately immersed in the very beginnings of fantasy through ‘Fairy and Folk Tales’. Highlights for me were glorious Arthur Rackham illustrations, a 1918 ‘Ancient Mappe of Fairyland’ by Bernard Sleigh and an earpiece playing Steeleye Span’s Thomas the Rhymer. It’s easy to dismiss fairy tales – especially if you grew up with the later, heavily sanitised Ladybird ‘Read it Yourself’ versions - but the original stories as written down by people like the Brothers Grimm were, well…. grim. One of my favourite childhood books, Alan Garner’s The Owl Service, was featured here along with a plate from the service which inspired it.

‘Epics and Quests’ was the second section, and of the things I liked about this exhibition was that it delved far deeper than the the European traditional forms of fantasy and ‘sword’n’sorcery’ tropes. Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke appeared here, along with more of my all-time favourites in the shape of The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper, T.H.White’s The Sword in the Stone, Tolkien in book and film (Gandalf’s staff!), and Warhammer. Tove Jansson’s illustrations for the Swedish translation of The Hobbit were included, with a rather trollish Gollum facing off with a behatted Bilbo Baggins. Apparently her depiction of Gollum caused Tolkien to amend his description to include the word ‘small’ in future editions! Dungeons and Dragons also popped up here, Livingstone and Jackson’s Fighting Fantasy series, and a marked up script for Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I refrained from quoting large swathes of the film, as I’d like my team not to think I’m a complete geek. Ha.

Section three covered ‘Weird and Uncanny’ – Valentina and I had great fun in the interactive wibbly wobbly space where you appeared as if by magic and went all swirly. Here there was also a game called Fallen London, a text-based RPG set in a London stolen by bats. Of course! Philippa Pearce’s Tom’s Midnight Garden was included, along with Neil Gaiman discussing The Sandman and the power of being a writer. H.P Lovecraft’s Cthulhu (that’s hard to spell) featured, and the board game A Study in Emerald based on a Neil Gaiman story.

Section four, ‘Portals and Worlds’, explored the alternative realities built by fantasy writers and artists. Here was Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Map, and a whole lot of schoolchildren building their own worlds with the help of a gallery educator. We had to step over them to see Elphaba’s costume from Wicked, as they were worldbuilding all over the floor. I felt there were some gaps - not enough urban fantasy which, given the quality of work in this genre over the last 30 years or so by people like Charles de Lint and Ben Aaronovitch, felt like a real missed opportunity. Finally there were some Live Action Role Play costumes including a spectacular dryad.

It was inevitable that I was going to leave the exhibition with a reading list! Uprooted by Naomi Novik and Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia are the ones that caught my imagination.

I was quite disappointed to reach the end of the exhibition, which came far too quickly. The exhibition design was atmospheric, and managed to stay away from the whimsical in the main. It finishes later this month so get in quick!

Other things making me happy this week:

  • Mooch round the market with Miriam
  • A D&D game where I got to call down a lightning storm and be all Dr Strange
  • A birthday trip for Thing 3 on Saturday night to see My Neighbour Totoro at the Barbican, which I’ll write about next week
  • Starting a new scarf as my portable project, using this pattern. I had to adapt it as working into slip stitches all the time would be a nightmare. This is using a Stylecraft DK yarn that I bought in a sale a while ago.
  • Good progress on the temperature stitch for the year – I’m still not ready to start the books but the shelves are nearly done!

Now I must get up and make a banana cake….

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Friends of the Dusk/All of a Winter’s Night/The Fever of the World – Phil Rickman

The Chalice – Phil Rickman (Audible)

Over Sea, Under Stone– Susan Cooper (Audible)

Map Addict – Mike Parker

Draw Your Day – Samantha Dion Baker

202: my body is in the chair but my mind could be anywhere

On a trip up to Upper Street in Islington this week I was secretly quite excited to spot the estate agent Hotblack Desiato, whose name(s) were borrowed by Douglas Adams for the frontman of his fictitious rock band Disaster Area in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, book two of the The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy. I’ve seen it before, of course, as I find myself frequently at that end of Islington for work at the moment, but it never fails to make me smile and I will always associate it with Ford Prefect. I wonder how many houses they have sold to Adams fans?

H2G2 – as it’s affectionately known – was probably one of my earliest introductions to SF/F, as my Dad had the original trilogy up on the top level of his bookshelf along with Anthony and Asimov (it was a very well-organised bookshelf, which filled an alcove in our living room and he made it to measure using wooden dowels and things. It was also very full). I still love it (though not the final Eoin Colfer addition, that’s bloody awful), although some of the other SF/F I was reading at the time is now a little dated, especially some of the sword and sorcery and Robert Heinlein, who was a very odd chap.

Places that appear in much loved books have such a hold on the imagination that sometimes I am afraid to visit them in case they don’t live up to it. I have read so much about Los Angeles, Chicago and New Orleans (OK, in crime novels, but still) that if they didn’t have the noir of my imagination I’d be very disappointed. I blame an American Studies module called ‘Images of the City in the American Mind’ for this – one of Sara Paretsky’s V.I Warshawski novels was on the reading list, featuring a wintry Chicago as a looming backdrop. The equivalent American Gothic course failed to capture my imagination in the same way, for some reason: Moby Dick, meh.

Similarly, I’d love to go to San Francisco after reading Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City (thank you Amanda for introducing me to these) but only in the 1970s and 80s. 1930s Berlin as lived by Christopher Isherwood in Goodbye to Berlin (the one Cabaret was based on) is also on my time-travel bucket list. The magical France of Joanne Harris’s Chocolat series, Charles De Lint’s Newford, Tony Hillerman’s Navajo country – all these places have physical presence in my mind. I need a TARDIS or a bridge to Terabithia or something.

Even places I know well are enhanced by that fictional overlay, especially if what you’re reading is a little bit atmospheric and magical. Right now I’m re-re-re-reading Phil Rickman‘s Merrily Watkins series, set around the Welsh border country where we grew up and featuring a Diocesan exorcist. Drawing occasionally from local folklore (black hounds, apples and more which you can also read about in Ella Mary Leather’s Folklore of Herefordshire) and more modern aspects of Herefordshire (the SAS), along with aspects of police procedurals and mysteries, I recommend them frequently. Especially to people who also grew up there and understand just how weird it can be at times. His standalones are also good, with enough recurring characters across them all to build a believable world – Glastonbury, the border again, and a mossy bit of Manchester. (Phil, if you’re reading, can you crack on with the next Merrily please and thank you? At some point I’m going to run out again.) The TV adaptation of the first couple of books was dire, unfortunately, despite the presence of Anna Maxwell Martin as Merrily. The novels are grounded enough to be believable - as Phil himself says,

The aim here has been to keep it all as real and authentic as possible while allowing subtle elements of the uncanny to creep in, just as they often do in real-life. If I find I’ve written something I can’t believe could happen or be perceived to have happened, it has to be drastically re-written, or it has to go.

Phil Rickman, in A Letter from Ledwardine

There’s probably a link here to my other reading pile of pyschogeography books – Ian Sinclair, Tim Moore, and other people armed with an A-Z and handy with a pen. London fascinates me in fact and in fiction and – unlike many of the places listed above – is easily accessed.

This week my team and I are having our monthly meeting at the British Library to see their Fantasy: Realms of Imagination exhibition, and the Malorie Blackman one if we have time.

Other things making me happy this week

  • An early morning walk through to Toot Hill on Saturday – chilly and sunny and it’s baby cow season already
  • Early coffee with Amanda in London
  • Late afternoon coffee with Cath in Epping
  • Making a personalised toadstool for Miriam’s birthday in her favourite colours
  • Lots of cross stitch and crochet
  • A really good nap (or ‘quality time with Lulu’, as she usually joins me for these siestas)
  • A Museums Association training course on Wellbeing at Work.

And that’s it for me for the week – I have some reading to do, you know.

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

To Dream of the Dead/The Secrets of Pain/The Magus of Hay – Phil Rickman

The Chalice – Phil Rickman (Audible)

201: baby it’s cold outside

Well, this week has been a refreshing blast of actual winter cold between Storm Henk disappearing and Storm Isha landing. Short of snow, gorgeous cold sunshine is my favourite sort of wintry weather, with frosty mornings and ice on puddles to crack. We drove back across from Brittany to Calais on Monday, with Tan delivering a running temperature commentary as we went - zero degrees was the high point. As I’m doing both highs and lows on the temperature stitch this year I should be able to show contrasts in a way that I haven’t before. 

The needle minder felt appropriate for this pattern!

This year’s tracker is the ‘Goth Stitch-a-Long Temperature Cabinet‘, by GrandmaBeWildin. As you can probably guess from the title, it’s a little less of a colour explosion than the last couple of years though for consistency I am going to use the same thread range for the temperatures. I’ve chose a printed aida fabric again, this time a parchmenty colour which reminds me of old library books. The cabinet is underway (only 4500 black stitches to go!) so hopefully by the end of the month I’ll be ready to start tracking. This year it’s a ‘book’ for every day in the high temperature, with a band that shows the low.

Of course this lovely cold snap also meant that Redricks Lake was frozen, with ice a good three inches thick. Yesterday’s dippers had fun with mallets breaking enough of a hole for people to dip, and despite the rise in temperatures today we still got to dip with the ‘bergs. It was our coldest dip yet at just one degree, so we were in for about three minutes before running for our robes and a hot chocolate!

Note the northern tans….

Other things making me happy this week

  • Tea and cake with my gang of ladies, with the best china. Plans were laid for an alternative village WI which doesn’t meet on a weekday afternoon and which has interesting speakers.
  • The Brothers Sun on Netflix – Michelle Yeoh on top form
  • Restocking my supply of Surf-fizz at Carrefour
  • Lots of reading. Lots.
  • Breakfast meeting at Bench to start planning National Illustration Day 2024
  • Getting on top of the paperwork!
  • Meeting the Education Committee at Copped Hall Trust to talk about their schools programme

And now it’s time for a quick nap before the Things start demanding feeding…

Same time next week?

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading

The Prayer of the Night Shepherd/The Smile of a Ghost/The Remains of an Altar/The Fabric of Sin – Phil Rickman

The Last Devil to Die – Richard Osman (Audible)

The Chalice – Phil Rickman (Audible)

200: surprise!

Here we are at post number 200, which is quite a lot and probably I should look back at the last 200 weeks and be all marvelly at what I’ve achieved. 200 posts is what I have achieved, despite Covid, labyrinthitis, new jobs, children, and general life happening all at the same time. Thanks to all of you who have been with me since the beginning (hello Mum, hello Dad, hello Fi), and to everyone else who’s dipped into my ramblings, roamings and adventures with the sewing machine.

Anyway, this week I am coming at you from a cold but sunny Brittany, where London sister and brother-in-law and I rocked up on Friday evening to surprise my mum for her significant birthday. I can’t tell you how old she is as she may make me sleep in the garden. Dad had managed to keep the secret, even sneakily making up the beds, hiding the extra baguettes in his office and putting the fizz on ice without Mum noticing.

A snowy coffee
Winter fun in Le Shuttle terminal

Having left Ealing at 6am for a morning Eurotunnel crossing, we made good time across a snowy Normandy and a not-snowy Brittany – spotting the dozens of birds of prey, deer and trees full of mistletoe (at least while I wasn’t snoozing) and only running into a bit of traffic on the Rennes rocade where a combination of roadworks and rush hour conspired against us. At 7.10 Tan dropped me off at the bottom of the drive so Mum wouldn’t hear the car, and clutching the magazine featuring Irish sister Steph* I knocked on the door. Dad had apparently delayed their dinner as long as possible, so when the door went he said he hadn’t finished and made mum get up. She opened the door and stood and looked at me for about 30 seconds in total silence while her brain processed the fact that the daughter who was supposed to be in Essex was on her doorstep. And then I told her I’d hitched a lift with Tan and Darren…there were tears and hugs and much joy, as well as cursing Dad for being a sneaky so-and-so**.

On Friday Tan, Darren and I went for a walk along the Blavet to see if we could spot a coypu in the lagoon. We didn’t spot a coypu but we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a kingfisher, a heron, a kestrel, any number of ducks, a buzzard and a cormorant in its favourite tree. It’s a canalised river which flows through to Lorient, and the towpath is popular for walking and running. Last winter we did a 10 miler along there with a total ascent of about 3 metres, which tells you how flat it is!

One of the great mysteries of French life is when the polite passing greeting changes from ‘bonjour‘ to ‘bonsoir‘ – if you open with bonsoir, you can guarantee that they’ll come back at you with bonjour, so mostly we’ve given up and just start there. Yesterday’s walk was no different. On the outward stretch we bonjoured away merrily until we’d almost reached our turnaround point. Tan bonjoured a French gentleman who responded with ‘Non! Bonsoir! Nuit est arrive!‘. When we met him again close to his turnround point in Pont-Augan, I bonsoired him….to which is his response was ‘trop bonsoir!’. Er, what…. had we bonsoired him too many times? Was it too evening, in which case was there a third option of ‘bonne nuit‘? Duolingo – or, indeed, Mr Morgan French (to distinguish him from any other Mr Morgans at the school)- never covered this clearly tricky aspect of the language. Is it some secret French thing designed to catch out the tourists? Answers on a carte postale to the usual address, s’il vous plait.

We are here till Monday, when we’ll make the marathon trek back across to Calais. By then I confidently expect to be approximately 75% baguette.

*Women’s Weekly, since you ask, in a feature all about her live interpretation business, Time Steps. Steph had promised to send her a copy….

**censored, for the delicate ears of my readership

Other things making me happy this week

  • A great meeting with Little Angel Theatre about where we could work together
  • Kicking off a new project with our illustrator Alaa Alsaraji and Holborn Community Association’s Digital Arts Club
  • A swim with Sue and Rachel – the temperatures are heading downwards to extreme sports levels again!
  • Getting organised for this year’s temperature tracker and starting a new Hydrangea blanket as well as mounting last year’s.

Same time next week, mes amis

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Midwinter of the Spirit/A Crown of Lights/The Cure of Souls/The Lamp of the Wicked – Phil Rickman

The Last Devil to Die– Richard Osman (Audible)

Map Addict– Mike Parker

199: there’s a map for that

I picked up book called Map Addict in a charity shop a few weeks ago, by a chap called Mike Parker who apparently does all sorts of stuff on radio and telly about maps. I hadn’t heard of him, as he’s not doing it on Absolute Classic Rock, and I can’t bring myself to commit to Radio 4 quite yet. He may not still be doing it, I don’t know – I checked with my beloved who listens to R4 in his van, but he hadn’t heard of him either. Anyway, this book is described as ‘a tale of obsession, fudge and the Ordnance Survey’ and while I haven’t come across the fudge yet I am enjoying the story of the Ordnance Survey, and associated things like the politics around the prime meridian, the A-Z and the tube map.

Perhaps surprisingly for someone with no sense of direction, I love a map. I am building up my own little collection of OS maps, although sister Tan will tell you that me possessing a map is not the same as me being able to locate myself or, indeed, anything else. She has an excellent sense of direction, whereas I can’t find myself on a circular route unless we start at the beginning. Heck, who am I kidding? I can’t find myself in a large Sainsburys. I have found the OS map app very handy in the last year or so, as it has a little arrow that shows me where I am and which direction to go next. I love walking around my local area (aka ‘the flyblown wasteland’ as Tan refers to Essex) and take mental notes of footpath signs to explore when I’m rambling. If I can locate those on my paper maps when I get home I can plot out a rough route, and just hope I can follow it…

Google Maps is more of a challenge, however. On the rare (usually only once per driver) occasions I was handed a map and asked to navigate in those exciting pre-SatNav days, I discovered that the only way I can make sense of them is to hold them in the direction of travel. If you try this with Google Maps the phone autorotates and so it can take me three or four attempts to make the little blue arrow go down the right road. As for TfL directions which say things like ‘continue down Acacia Avenue for 500m’, well – this is fine when you’ve just got off a bus, but less so when you’ve exited a tube station from several levels underground and have no idea which way that is. External meetings in my new role were an adventure for the first couple of months as it was always hit or miss whether I could navigate back – my mental map of Farringdon is a bit better now, fortunately! I had the same problem when I started at Docklands, as Canary Wharf was very disorienting and the museum wasn’t very well known. After a few months I start building up my mental map, and I try and take different routes around the area to embed it.

As a form of illustration and source of information, though, maps fascinate me. When my Dad would occasionally have an interview in other parts of the UK – like England! – I loved to look up places around it and find funny village names on the map (Piddletrenthide, anyone?). I like the OS maps for finding little curiosities like archaeological sites – even if there’s nothing to see there now, I like knowing that something was there once. The London Underground map is a work of art, and colleagues have been known to use me as a travel planner (although not for walking routes), and I can spend hours falling down the rabbithole of sites like Bombsight (sadly not working at the moment), Layers of London and the Booth Maps, making links between modern and old London.. Maps in fantasy novels enchant me, and I’ll be making a trip with my team to the British Library’s current exhibition Fantasy: Realms of Imagination later this month.

Anyway, Mike Parker’s book is great – if you, like me, enjoy finding out how places like Greenwich became the centre of navigation (to annoy the French, apparently), and whose brilliant idea it was to triangulate the whole of the UK and what happens when bits fall into the sea, then I recommend this book as an entertaining and informative read. I’ve just ordered his book on the history of public footpaths, too, and added a few more to the wishlist.

Other things making me happy this week:

  • New Year’s Eve with friends
  • New Year’s Day swim with several of the same friends
  • A mooch round the market with Miriam (and a new jumper)
  • Early morning hot chocolate with Amanda
  • Finishing the Temperature Supernova and deciding on this year’s tracker
  • Finishing my very snuggly cardigan using The Maker’s Atelier Raw-edged coat pattern, and binding my Double Down Dress
  • Seeing my sister’s company featured in Woman’s Weekly magazine this week
  • Not the flipping rain though, no. Or tube strikes when I have to get to work. Not them either.

See you next week!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Map Addict – Mike Parker

December/Wine of Angels/Midwinter of the Spirit – Phil Rickman

The Man Who Died Twice/The Last Devil to Die – Richard Osman (Audible)

198: we’re going to need a bigger wardrobe

Traditionally this should be a round-up of all the things I have achieved since making my new year’s resolutions last year, but since I didn’t make any (see here) you get a round up of the last week instead.

In between things like Christmas and visiting the Timeshare Teenagers and being made to go to Westfield by Thing 2, I have managed to steal some time with the sewing machine making use of the great piles of fabric lurking in my house. One of the contracts that my Beloved’s firm manages is a clothing manufacturer who have a range of brands, and once they discovered that I make ‘stuff’, they send their samples and end of rolls home with him rather than to landfill. Some of it (anything with animal print, for example) gets passed on to a lady down the road who also makes stuff, and what she can’t use gets passed on to the secondary school that her grandson and the Things attend. I’ve been using some of the larger pieces to experiment with some new patterns this week.

The first piece was the Stitchless TV Sculptural Bucket Coat – I think I saw it in an Instagram post and loved the shape of it so thought I’d give it a go. This was the first time I have used a video tutorial to make something from a pattern, and it doesn’t really work for my learning style. I prefer a written pattern with diagrams that I can skim through before I start, and while I could watch the video through in the same way, I don’t want to sit through a half hour video before I start sewing. My first choice of fabric was a medium weight quilted stretch but whichever way I laid out the pieces there wasn’t quite enough and I didn’t have anything of a similar weight to colour-block with. However, while finding this out I discovered a digital print stretchy crepey something-or-other from the same source. There wasn’t quite enough of that one either but in another box I found a scrap of purple scuba which was just enough for the sleeves and the collar. I didn’t find my interfacing, however, which would have been useful.

The collar had to be pieced and is a total dog’s dinner as I didn’t follow the instructions properly (the video tutorial was not helpful here, it needs to be better ordered – or I need to watch it through first), and I sort of made up the finishing as it was all going on too long. I love the shape and the giant pockets that are formed by the seams, and if anyone ever asks me to a wedding I could see me making another. I really would rather have written instructions though and probably won’t make anything else from this company.

Next up was a couple of tops using my favourite Centerfield Raglan Tee by Greenstyle Patterns – the last set of these I made are looking a bit battered now as they’re my go-to for working at home and weekends. I used a plain black jersey for the sleeves and neckband, and for the front and back panels I chose a space invaders print that I picked up at the Knitting and Stitching show last spring, and a galaxy print that was going to be knickers but it was just too nice to hide (and once you’re over a certain age people get worried when you show them your new pants). These come together so quickly, especially with an overlocker and when you can’t be bothered to hem them. I hate hemming stretch fabric so I just overlocked the edges in black and called it a design feature.

I did find an alternative project for the quilted stretch fabric – Little Ragamuffin Patterns’ Doubledown Day Dress, which I’ve made before using a Moomin print, the assassin hood and thumbhole cuffs option. This time I went for sleeveless, as I only had enough fabric for one sleeve, and in the longest length. Again, this comes together really quickly with an overlocker. The fabric is a pain to cut but sews up quite well. I plan to wear it layered over a long sleeve tee. The neck still needs finishing and I may bind the armholes and hem as well, but it’s swishy and squishy and will be good for cold days.

After finishing the Hydrangea blanket last week I decided to make a scarf using the leftover yarns – following the same colour pattern but using the C2C method. Usually this makes a square but it can be turned into a rectangle with a little tweaking, and who doesn’t need another scarf at this time of year? It’s wide enough to double as a wrap in chilly meetings, too.

I have one more pattern cut out and ready to sew – in a lightweight merino blend fabric, also from the clothing manufacturer. The pattern is The Maker’s Atelier Unlined Raw Edged Coat which was an advent giveaway from The Fold Line. I like things that don’t require hemming! This will be more of a ‘shacket’ than a coat as the fabric isn’t windproof. So that’ll be my job for today….

Other things making me happy this week

  • A chilly swim with Sue and Jill yesterday, followed by a bacon roll and hot chocolate
  • Carols on the Green in Epping on Christmas Eve
  • Walk and coffee with Jill and Miriam
  • A lovely Christmas Day with my little family and some excellent presents
  • An equally lovely Boxing Day with the Timeshare Teenagers, and Grandthings 1 and 2
  • Turkey soup, once the ostrich had been dismembered

And now I have some sewing to do and breakfast to eat, so I will see you next week!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Man in the Moss/Curfew(Crybbe)/Candlenight – Phil Rickman

Lost Christmas – David Logan (Audible)

Map Addict – Mike Parker

The Man Who Died Twice – Richard Osman (Audible)

197: a child’s Christmas in Wales

The build up to Christmas this year has been thoroughly miserable, weatherwise, and lemon juice is being rubbed into the papercut by my Facebook memories showing me snow photos from recent years. The torrential rain is bringing back memories of childhood Christmasses in Wales when the festive season was marked by the man from the council turning up with the gift of sandbags in case of flooding from the brooks that bounded our road. There were a few pub evenings when someone would come in and tell us we’d better get home before the road went under!

We’ve recently moved offices in our building from a ground floor that felt like a basement, tucked away at the back of the building, to the attic space with skylights. The rain, thunder and howling gales we’ve experienced this week have been hammering on these little windows and reminding me once more of my Welsh childhood…this time, though, summer holidays in caravans when you’re only separated from the weather (or tapdancing gulls) by a thin metal skin. Those days meant a trip to a town rather than the beach, and I was 40 by the time I discovered Fishguard didn’t exist in a permanent monsoon microclimate. Other rainy day destinations included Devil’s Bridge, Aberystwyth, or the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth where the coffee was made of dandelions or something – my dad was horrified.

Rain = learning, by this logic, so the new office makes me quite happy even though it’s a very long way up. The stairs are quite open, too (all 73 of them) and it took me a week to get past the cognitive dissonance caused by the very steep drop to the left of the door which told my mind was going to fall. It’s perfectly safe, but my heart skipped a beat every time I opened the door as I’m not very good with heights. The new office is cosier, and we share it with a small theatre company who have their own Welsh person.

I am now off until the New Year and have plans – such plans! – involving various craft kits, some fabulous fabric and a whole lot of naps.

Things making me happy this week

  • A good wander through the fields with Sue and the Bella-dog
  • Coffees with Heather and Miriam
  • A girly night in with Amanda, watching a Doctor Who Christmas special and then Weekend at Bernie’s
  • Finishing the crochet blanket I started two years ago (at least!) – see above!
  • Making more toadstools (all of which have gone to new homes) and giving in to the urge to add a door and window to one

The thing making me sad this week

Thirty-something years ago, in a pub called the Nag’s Head in Monmouth, an ex-boyfriend of mine introduced me to a bloke called Nigel. A few years older than me, he’d been in sixth form when I started at the local comp, so I’d seen him around but never spoken to him. We bonded over music (especially Mr Springsteen and a range of classic rock), books (shout out to Terry Pratchett) and shared a dry (at times I’d go so far as to say arid… desiccated, even) sense of humour alongside a horror of misplaced apostrophes. If I’d had a big brother, I would have liked him to be like Nigel, up to and including the ability to take me down several pegs when I’m taking myself too seriously. I know not everyone appreciated that about him, particularly his habit of saying the things that needed to be said on Monmouth’s local Facebook pages and his total inability to suffer fools gladly. He loved diving, and was delighted with the crocheted nudibranches I sent him instead of a Christmas card. He appreciated good cheese, good rum and bad puns.

Last year he did a round with cancer and we thought he’d kicked its arse. We’d planned an evening out in ‘that there London’ in October for his birthday this year but he’d been in hospital and was on antibiotics for an infection. It turned out that the bastard cancer had made an aggressive comeback. Two weeks ago he told me his prognosis wasn’t great, and – typically – that he wasn’t going to be starting any long box sets on TV. I offered any assistance that he and Caroline needed, although I drew the line at crocheting a giant life-sized Nigel as that was just weird. He laughed.

Caroline phoned me this week to say he was receiving end of life care, as he’d gone downhill very quickly. I woke up to a message from her on Saturday morning to say he had gone. It hit me in the evening when I saw a cartoon about fancy Christmas cheese that on any other day I would have sent straight to him. I will miss him terribly. 

All I can say is that wherever he’s ended up, they’d better make damn sure the apostrophes are in the right place and to put him in charge of the music, otherwise they’ll never hear the end of it.

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

The Drowning Pool – Syd Moore

Hogfather – Terry Pratchett (Audible)

Lost Christmas – David Logan (Audible)

Sharon, Tracy and the Rest – Keith Waterhouse

The Dark is Rising – Susan Cooper (BBC World Service adaptation)

Past Lying – Val McDermid

196: you were wearing your red jumper

My writing today is accompanied by the sounds of gunfire and torpedo explosions, as despite it being only nine days till Christmas my beloved still insists on watching normal films and Vikings for the umpteenth time – this evening’s choice being U-571, featuring Matthew McConaughey (yay!) and a submarine (meh). I know he has seen this before, as I have seen it before and this is not a film I would ever have watched by choice, despite the presence of the delicious Mr McC. He claimed when I pointed this out that he has definitely never seen it before and that I must be thinking of another film. He has form in this area: I call it his Father Dougal brain, after an episode of Father Ted where Ted is attempting to remind Dougal of a day in the local town where they witnessed a car chase, a bank robbery and other such exciting things. Dougal has no memory of the day until Ted says, ‘You were wearing your red jumper!’

With 22 minutes to go, 90 minutes into the film, my Beloved has just said, “is this the one where they drop a torpedo on someone’s legs?” as recollection dawns. Yes dear, you were wearing your red jumper.

While he claims not to recall the many films he has watched, and therefore can watch them again a seemingly infinite number of times, he has decided he has seen The Muppets’ Christmas Carol too many times. Ditto Elf, Scrooged and other such classic Yuletide films, although not Home Alone, which gets right on my nerves and I suspect they actually left Kevin behind on purpose as he’s so bloody annoying.

The number of times you have watched them is not the point of Christmas movies, I feel: they are part of the festive tradition, the background to the season, and make you feel all Christmassy and warm and fuzzy: a classic being It’s a Wonderful Life. Bankruptcy? Throwing yourself into a freezing torrent? Being terminally frustrated by the unfairness of your life? No one understanding you? Evil big business type person? Truly, it has it all.

And Miracle on 34th Street? Sectioning Kris Kringle? Rampant commercialism? Sceptical small child? Bitter divorcee mother? Court case threatening the very existence of Christmas? Again, it has it all. The 1947 version is obviously the best, but the Dickie Attenborough version will do in a pinch.

Better people than I have probably written reams on the morals behind these stories, using words like redemption, faith and suchlike, but for me they’re an integral part of the time of year. In a similar vein is Lost Christmas, which was a BBC production in 2011 based on David Logan’s book. Starring Suzy Eddie Izzard, this was a gorgeous magical fairy tale that’s hardly ever repeated and isn’t available through the usual streaming services or on DVD. The audiobook is next up on my list, once Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather is wrapped up.

Similarly, Christmas music is part of December*: I love Noddy shouting ‘It’s CHRISTMAAAASSSS’ and Jona Lewie stopping the cavalry, Steeleye Span burbling along in Latin and Mike Oldfield’s In Dulce Jubilo can make me feel Christmassy in July. The Darkness and their glam bells, Annie Lennox and Al Green putting a little love into our hearts, The Dropkick Murphys ode to family get-togethers, Bruce checking that the E-Street Band are on the nice list, Darlene Love begging her baby to come home for Christmas, Greg Lake’s miserable classic, Chris de Burgh getting all spacey, Elton stepping into Christmas, Joni wishing for a river to skate away on, Earth Kitt imploring Santa for diamonds, and Bing and David getting all twee. I love them all**. A friend sent me some digital equivalents of Christmas mixtapes a few years ago and they’re now required listening after December 1st, and I can even tolerate East 17 and Coldplay once or twice.

*not John Lennon or Paul McCartney’s offerings though. Or Cliff Richard. Drivel.

**Justin Bieber and Mariah Carey are deleted on sight. Dreadful.

Other things making me happy this week

  • A morning at an Islington primary school with Grace Holliday, one of our illustrator-educators, with a ‘Meet the Illustrator’ session rearranged from National Illustration week.
  • Crochet toadstools from a pattern by Haekelkeks
  • Catching up to October on the temperature supernova
  • An early morning walk
  • Pretty sparkly nails and a morning out with hot chocolate and catching up
  • Being proud of No 1 Timeshare Teenager speaking out about the stigma of food banks

What this all translates to is that I’ve passed from resignation to acceptance and into anticipation… I should probably do some shopping, and remember to get the turkey out to defrost on Thursday. The cake and I have finished the rum, so the marzipan can go on mid week ready for icing. It’s nearly CHRISSSSTMMMAAAASSSSS!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading

Jeeves and the Yuletide Spirit – P.G.Wodehouse

Misplaced Magic – Jessica Dodge

Mrs Pooter’s Diary/Sharon, Tracy and the Rest – Keith Waterhouse

A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens (Audible)

Hogfather – Terry Pratchett (Audible)

The London Seance Society – Sarah Penner

Witch Hunt – Syd Moore

195: giving up the ghost (of Christmas present)

Well, that’s it. I am now resigned to the fact that it’s December and Christmas is inevitable. The work Christmas lunch is done (at The Wilmington, and very good it was too) along with the office Secret Santa, my Christmas cake is finally made and drinking all the rum, and I have even managed to do some shopping. The turkey is in the freezer, which is a relief on several levels – not least the one where it fits in the drawer – along with literally dozens of chipolatas for pigs in blankets, no less than seven boxes of stuffing for some reason, and the tin of Quality Street is stashed with strict injunctions against even looking at it before the big day.

Having missed stir-up Sunday and the chance to use my usual Mary Berry recipe, this year I’ve tried a no-soak recipe from Good Housekeeping and will just have to drink any rum that hasn’t got time to go in the cake. Oh dear, how sad. Ah well, etc etc. Pass the Coca-cola.

The theme for Secret Santa this year was decorations, and it was so lovely to be given something handmade in the shape of the adorable Moomintroll and Moominmamma you see below. One of the downsides of being a ‘maker’ yourself (“you mean, apart from all the paraphernalia required, the need for two sheds and the fact that the dining table is constantly under a pile of fabric?” – My Beloved) is that people often don’t feel they can give you something they have made so opening the package with these Moomins was such a treat. I can’t wait to put them on the tree later today, hung well out of the reach of the furry predators.

The downside of the week has been watching various members of the team topple like germ-laden dominoes as Covid and other seasonal plagues make their presence felt once again, like the Ghosts of Christmasses Past*. Please Santa, if I’m due for round 4 of the Covid-gift-that-keeps-on-giving, could it wait till the end of the week and be over by Christmas please – or at least until I’ve got the last of the school sessions out of the way! Also, this time round I could do without the associated ear problems that have topped and tailed the last rounds.

*Yes, I’m listening to A Christmas Carol again. Read by Hugh Grant, this was a freebie from Audible a couple of years ago, My Beloved is off at Copped Hall walled garden for his weekly stint as a volunteer today, so I shall also be watching the Muppet version while the tree goes up – he doesn’t love it like I do. Scrooged is also on the watchlist.

Other things making me happy this week

  • Crocheting things that have nothing to do with Christmas
  • Having a weekend with time to do things
  • Working with lovely people
  • A peaceful mooch round the charity shops of Epping
  • Pretty Christmas lights

I must now go and do useful things with my day – especially some baking as Thing 2 has been demanding banana bread for several days, going so far as to check the cupboards for missing ingredients and writing them on the shopping list. Let no one say I can’t take a hint! There’s also Christmas Welshcakes on the cards, as I haven’t made any for ages.

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Bimbo/Mrs Pooter’s Diary/The Collected Letters of a Nobody – Keith Waterhouse

Bernard Who? – Bernard Cribbins

A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens (Audible)