My ‘baby’ turned 17 this week.
I am totally allowed to be a little sentimental…
My ‘baby’ turned 17 this week.
I am totally allowed to be a little sentimental…
This fresh off the needle little gem is the Martina Cardigan by ‘We are knitters’, and you can find the kit here. It comes complete with instructions, gorgeous wool and optional knitting needles. (btw I knitted a size S).
With easy to follow instructions and clever construction, this is a great project for adventurous beginners or if you are in need of mindless tv knitting that asks for minimum counting. It requires size 8mm needles which means that even for a slow knitter like me it only takes two hockey matches to finish one sleeve and knit a 1/3 or the other one, just to give you an idea. Obviously I’m not playing hockey while I knit, I’m spectating… Although I heard of a lady that knitted a chunky scarf whilst running the London Marathon. Impressive coordination.
Sewing it together was super speedy too, a quick google search to reming me how to sew two piece in garter stitch and one peaky blinder episode later I had a cardigan, to tell you the truth sewing in the loose ends took longer because that is the most odious job EVER (after vacuuming and dusting)… but I made myself do it whilst tonight dinner bubbled away and required keeping an eye on.
So drum roll and ta daaaaaah….
It is kind of crazy still knitting and wearing chunky cardigan in spring (hello? weather? do you hear me? get a hold of yourself and play ball!! we’re all fed up with winter! geesh..), but I couldn’t finish this at a better time.
I’m so over dark colours, I’m so tired and bored of wearing black and grey… this might still be wool… but at least it’s white!
I couldn’t find the tripod to take better pictures so these will have to do. (I was told it was in No1’s bedroom… but… it’s a bit of a jungle and I wasn’t afraid I’d never make it back out again).
You get the idea, it’s a simple open cardigan, slightly a-line in shape, garter stitch, long narrow sleeves that balance the body shape. Pretty much perfect.
There is one HUGE mistake however, and I’m in two mind about fixing it or not because it would mean unstitching and unravelling… so I’ll see how I feel about it when I wear it for a while. (No I’m not saying where it is, don’t even ask).
If you’re looking for a way back into knitting (Ali? talking to you…) this is a good project, if you’re looking for a new beach jumper (Emma?) this is soft and cozy…
I’m still knotting. There’s something meditative in the repetition of the movements, in the soft feel of the rope through the fingers that is quite addictive, in seeing the pattern develop slowly in front of you.
I’ve bought a cheap adjustable clothes rail and some very scary butchers’ hooks and the whole set up is much better than in my previous attempt. I can lift or lower the rail as the project gets longer and work standing up or sitting down; my shoulders get sore but I think it’s because it require a position they’re not used to. I can feel them getting slowly stronger.
Working with such long pieces of cord is no joke. I was wrangling 26 pieces each 5m long and let me tell you … there were time the knotting was not intentional!
I’ve learnt new knots and new techniques and ironically the simpler ones are the ones that give me more trouble… I spent more than 20 minutes on the simples of knots (the first one in the book) the other day only to realise it was my left-handedness that was the problem. The trick I believe is to empty one’s mind from any preconceived idea of ‘how it looks’ and just follow the instructions, copy the pictures etc. until the light goes on in hour brain. Then you’re there.
For me it’s a bit like knitting the heel in a sock…. no idea what’s going on but it works and if you follow the instructions you get a heel… don’t ask any questions, don’t try to understand.
Just do it.
… why would these knot twist by themselves for example? They just do. They really do.
The ‘fringing’ part took absolute ages and I’m still not too happy… any suggestions are extremely welcome. If I wet the cord… would it stop trying to re-twist itself?
Ta dahhhh…
I want to make more. I want to knot more
It’s going to be hanging basket of some kind, or one of those hanging plant holder thingies..
But no owls. Absolutely non owls.
PS as per last time I used the book written by these lovely ladies, click on this link.
We like March, his shoes are purple (by Emily Dickinson)
We like March, his shoes are purple,
He is new and high;
Makes he mud for dog and peddler,
Makes he forest dry;
Knows the adder’s tongue his coming,
And begets her spot.
Stands the sun so close and mighty
That our minds are hot.
News is he of all the others;
Bold it were to die
With the blue-birds buccaneering
On his British sky.
… a bit of that…
I can’t remember last time I saw snow falling in March, perhaps when in New England during the nannying days, ahem 29 years ago… (depressing thought). It’s beautiful though, so so beautiful, and we have food and heating and warm coffee so what’s not to like? Also, right now everybody else is still asleep and I can sit at the kitchen table in the peace and quiet, watching snow flakes falling and ramble on at leisure.
Here’s Lilli the ferocious beast looking very guilty because she knows her belly is covered in snowballs and she’s about to make a mess in the house.
Let’s see… what happened in the last few weeks I haven’t told you about…
A lot of driving around. To and from hockey games, airport, seeing friends. If I’m not in a hurry I like to set my sat nav system to ‘shortest’ route rather than ‘fastest’ and invariably I end up driving through gorgeous country lanes I would never explore otherwise. I seriously recommend it.
I made a quick foray to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford to meet up with Ali for lunch and I must say I was very impressed with it. It’s a small but beautifully formed museum, filled with collections of varied, high quality, interesting pieces. I managed to catch the exhibition of Michelangelo’s sketches (he was Italian… let’s use the Italian spelling of his name please)… oh my! the dude really knew how to hold a pencil!
The photos I took were utter rubbish, so here are some others from my stroll through the place,
check out the wrapping on this mummy (AD130-140)… a perfect log cabin.
I took this ‘shoe’ photo for the boys. It belonged to the executioner of Charles I and I though it was amazing on so many levels: comfort/executioner/blood/nails etc. Of course my darlings were completely underwhelmed and I like to blame the raging teenage hormones rather than the parenting they’ve been subjected to…
In regards to ‘lost’ items this winter has been pretty bad…
Hey, do you know Tom Hanks is copying me (… ahem…)? check out his Insta feed: tomhanks.
Mother’s day came and went, unmentioned around here, however this is my favourite ‘quote’
Yesterday whilst my poor two older boys played hockey in the snow and subzero temperature (‘field hockey’… not ice hockey… although…) I spent two hours in the car knitting and wrapped in wool. I had the perfect parking space by the side of the pitch and watched and knitted and watched and knitted.. For a split second the cloud parted and we had sun… I was told that it made absolutely no difference on the outside temperature…
Garter stitch is the ultimate stitch for watching sports at the same time. I’m currently on the last sleeve of the ‘martina cardigan’ by ‘weareknitters‘. Fast knit and clever construction. Given the current weather I can’t wait to finish it.
The household is waking up, so I’ll leave you with this food for thought:
Have a happy Sunday everybody.
ok… this week’s song is a day late… but topical given the decisively ‘non- tropical’ weather this weekend…
Don’t you love those old movies? Perfect for a cold Saturday…
Stay warm.
Yesterday I took a day off from ‘mum-things’ to do ‘me-things’ and attended a ‘Hush‘ clothing lunch in Bath with a friend.
(We may or may not have popped into Anthropologie (sales!!!)… it depends if Mr M is reading this or not… Anthro? noooo not me… why, would I? Geesh.. or YEAH SALES! deep green jumpsuit and white blazer.. yeah, bring on summer)…
So anyway, Hush. Nice clothes. Good prices and good quality. I’ve purchased a couple of dresses and leggings through the years and the classic style keeps them going for years. All the new Spring range was there to be stroked and admired which is very useful, internet shopping is fine, but don’t you just prefer ‘touching things’?
They also give us a glass of bubbles and a delicious lunch and macaroons.
Hey, they had me at the bubbles…
So anyway, I thought I might just pick my favourites out of the collection. First let me say that the collection is full of gorgeous pastel items as well… I’m just not a pastel colour person but if you are, do check the website and feast your eyes.
Favourite dress: Farah midi dress £75
Nice flowing material, sleeves (you know…bingo wings…), pockets (essential), great length … what’s not to like?
Favourite skirt: Marina skirt £65
Black (classic), layered (interesting), good length, dress it up, dress it down, pretty much perfect.
Favourite tops (can’t decide):
Tabitha top £55… girlie and happy
Kensington shirt £49… one word: daisies
Favourite jacket: Audrey Jacket £85
Audrey Hepburn does Chanel.
Favourite denim item:
Denim Pencil skirt £55
raw hem (modern), pencil length (shout out to the cool 70s), soft…
Now the only thing we need is some actual good weather not more of the forecasted snow.
Did I mention they gave us macaroons?
“Regeneration” by Pat Barker.
Why oh why did I wait so long to read this book? I can only say it’s because at the time it was published its popularity had put me off; or maybe it’s because I’m not too keen on ‘war’ books. Growing up mum had force fed me with the sad novels of Eric Marie Remarque which she loved (for a person who’s always happy she likes remarkably sad books!) and therefore I stayed away from the subject for years. (Side note, ‘nothing new on the western front’ is a really good book. Just not a laugh a minute type novel).
But this is different. It’s not a long book, there are no long description of battles, and of course the war is ever present like the air the characters breath, but it’s all about the psychological effects of the war.
And it doesn’t pull any punches. It’s harsh in places and tender in others. It’s as human and as inhuman as war is.
One of my favourite quote which I had to jot down is this one:
“…Somehow if she’d know the worst parts, she couldn’t have gone on being a haven for him…Men said they didn’t tell their women about France because they didn’t want to worry them. but it was more than that. He needed her ignorance to hide in. Yet, at the same time, he wanted to know and be known as deeply as possible. And the two desires were irreconcilable….”
So sad.
I read criticism about her choice of characters – real people, a psychologist and a poet – and that she seems to have just taken ownership of them and stripped them of their own words/personality… I don’t know anything about them at all, but I thought that in the book they do come alive and ‘speak’ with their own individual voices. The doctor and the patient. The ‘state’ and the soldier. Honour and dishonour, friendship and love, moral duty v social duty, is war justified, can it ever by justified, is it ok to say ‘enough’, is that treason, how to cope, how to heal, is it morally acceptable to put together broken men only to send them back knowing they’ll be broken up again?
Hard hitting.
The reference to the war (we’re talking First World War) are more harrowing and more shocking that I’d ever imagined.
A very good read.
A good reminder. (A warning?)
2018 Mr Hanckock and the mermaid
2017 – Magari domain resto (Lorenzo Maroni)
2016 – Upstream (Mary Oliver)
2015 –
2014 – Annihilation (Jeff VanderMeer)
2013 – Careless people (Sarah Churchwell)
2012 – Wonder
2011 – The Paris Wife (Paula McLain)
2010 – Salar the Salmon (Henry Williamson)
2009 – Let the great world spin (Colum McCann)
2008 – The White Tiger (Aravind Adiga)
2007 – Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Barbara Kingsolver)
2006
2005 – Never let me go (Kazuo Ishiguro)
2004 – The Sunday Philosophy Club (Alexander McCall Smith)
2003
2002 – Everything is illuminated (Jonathan Safran Foer)
2001 – American Gods (Nail Gainman)
2000 – Coram Boy (Jamila Gavin)
1999
1998
1997 – Paradise (Toni Morrison)
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991- Regeneration (Pat Barker)
1990
1989 – The Joy luck club (Amy Tan)
1988
1987 – Norwegian Wood (Haruki Murakami)
1986
1985 – Always Coming Home (Ursula Le Guin)
1984
1983
1982
1981 – The colour purple (Alice Walker)
1980 –
1979 – Sophie’s Choice (William Styron)
1978 – Beauty: a retelling of the story of Beauty and the Beast (R McGinley
1977 – A morbid taste for Bones (Ellis Peters)
1976
1975
1974
1973
1972
1971
1970
There is nothing that sends my heart racing like finding some really interesting/beautiful/old piece of fabric… I find them practically irresistible. It would be easy to blame my hoarding tendency but the truth is that I love old things and I love fabric and when the two universes collide, well… it’s hard to turn and was away.
On my travels last week I stumbled upon this delightful hexagon blocks, all basted and sewn together by hand with tiny stitches so regular and precise I’m quite ashamed thinking about my paper piecing in the making.
The fabric is so wonderful too I might have squeeled with joy.
I always think these pieces speak to me and call my name, I assure you they want to be rescued and cared for and admired and then we get to the old dilemma of what to do with them of what to do with them. They’re dirty, there’s no denying that so should I wash them and remove the ‘old patina’ which is what I love and use them for some sewing project or other.. should I just preserve them as they are and maybe frame them?
I am really struggling to decide the right course of action. It feels a little silly to simply keeping them in a box, but am I ruining them if I use them?
The backing paper used in one of the pieces appears to be a handwritten something… a letter perhaps. I love how the ink that must have been black is now a faded dark brown… and the calligraphy… so elegant. It’s a shame they don’t teach calligraphy at school anymore… you should see the way No 3 writes… chicken feet printing…
What if I can recompose the letter a little? wouldn’t it be fun? I could frame that, no?
Preservation or conservation? Upcycling? Washing? not washing?
Aaaargghhhh.
Last Sunday was the first time I got to spend Mothering Sunday with my mum in 28 years. Isn’t it crazy?
To make it special I had booked a tour of Highclere Castle in Berkshire – the home of ‘Downton Abbey – for the two of us; mom is a huge Downton fan, she watches every episode in Italian first and then in English to learn the language. Move over Maggie Smith…
You’re not allowed to take photos inside the home but let me tell you… if you get the chance to visit (and you need to book well in advance) … do go. It’s absolutely fabulous, the guides are knowledgeable and the house full of gorgeous furniture and decor.
Fun fact: Downton Abbey was not the first show to be filmed here, others include: “Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves”, “Eyes Wide Shut”, “The Secret Garden”, “Jeeves and Wooster” and parts of “Inspector Morse”.
The parking is at the end of a beautiful meandering drive and when you finally see the house it’s like WOW! Sadly there was no Mr Carson welcoming by the door…
After the interior tour we were free to wonder in the magnificent garden designed by Capability Brown (the famous landscape architect, love his ‘name’… his real name was actually Lancelot which is just as extraordinary, don’t you think?). Before he got the job the garden was in a French style with grids of flower beds and no trees, he got rid of all that and returned it to an almost natural English landscape except it was one that had been carefully planned. Clever man, it’s beautiful.
The house too got this final look in the 1840s, before that went through a lot of transformations…
and you can see on the back it’s still very much like an Elizabethan manor. The Bath stone cladding and the tower were very much a later addition.
Such a ‘familiar’ view… don’t you think?
After we popped in the Yew Tree for a delicious lunch.
Such a lovely day, which was made even more special by the thoughtful cards and gifts from my boys…
Apparently I’m ‘soupa’. Are you? And No 3 even wrote a poem for me:
“Roses are red, violets are blue, I love all your food but especially your stew”
while you're ahead... 