Sensational Stockholm

I started this post when we got back from Stockholm, which was, I'm ashamed to admit, well over a month ago! D and I had an amazing time and I just wanted to share with you some pictures from our week away and a list of things that I loved most about Stockholm. (In no particular order.)
1. Drinking cocktails at Erik's Gondolen
2. Ten Foot Flowers by Andy Warhol at Moderna Museet
3. Running entirely around Sodermalm
4. Dinner at Pet Sounds bar
5. The Stomatol toothpaste advert
6. Hotell Anno 1647
7. Buying wool at Litet Nystan
8. Drinks at the terrace bar above Bruno Arcade
9. Wandering the streets of Gamla Stan
10. Catching the ferry out to Skeppsholmen

Starting and Finishing

Sorry for the distinct lack of activity here over the last few months - there never seems to be quite enough time in the week and I don't know if I'm trying to cram too much in, but what with one thing and another, I've been a little bit busy. There are so many books that I want to read, so many places that I want to go, things to see and do, so many projects that I want to make and there's the garden too. If only there was an extra day in the week! I am trying to be disciplined and only read one book at a time, only have one project on the needles at a time, but starting and finishing have become a little blurred and I'm really just a bit rubbish at sticking to one thing at a time!

One thing that has been taking up quite a lot of time is the running that I've been doing. My dear friend Piney inspired me to sign up for a place on the Bupa Great South Run, a 10-mile road race around the city of Portsmouth, which I am now running on behalf of the charity that I volunteer for, Cruse Bereavement Care. It's definitely hard work and although I thought I wouldn't make it, I am now starting to feel a bit more confident about the forthcoming race. I think I might even be (... gasp ...) starting to enjoy running! My training schedule has involved an average of three runs every week and I'm now up to eight miles on my long runs, which takes me about an hour and a half. During the week, I have to limit myself to an hour and most of that will now be in the dark. (Can you see why I'm short on time.)

The garden continues to be wonderful and I have been finding winning ways with potatoes and discovered the joy of courgette carbonara and I'm really looking forward to the beetroot, leek and onion that are still to come out of the ground. Although absolutely beautiful, it is a little bit wild right now, but I have a few days holiday owing so I hope to be able to get everything ready for winter before it gets too wet and miserable. I have some seeds that I'd like to get in before the frosts and the weeds that have sprung up really need a good talking to! I've bought some bulbs for a bit of spring colour which will be something nice to look forward to.

On the needles, I have started (and actually finished) two baby dresses and my first ever pair of socks! One of my New Year's resolutions (aside from finishing things!) was to learn how to knit socks and when the lovely Heather at Born to Knit said she was going to be running a sock knitting workshop, I leapt at the chance. Seriously, what could be better than an entire day knitting - and learning something new at the same time? My idea of heaven. I have conquered the sock and can now turn a heel with confidence. I've even worn them on a wonderful trip to Stockholm, about which more anon...

Loveliness

I can't tell you what an amazing weekend I've just had! Admittedly, it had three days in it, which is a distinct advantage on your regular Saturday/Sunday two day event, but it was pretty brilliant regardless.

It all kicked off with outdoor drinks at the Magners stand in Wonderland on the Southbank with my very lovely sister before we watched Cantina. It is just about the most amazing show I've ever seen! It was part vaudeville, part circus, part magic show and altogether incredible. Some of the feats that the were staggering and there were times when the entire audience gasped in disbelief. The music was fantastic, the drama was sensational and we really did have an amazing time, I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like it and I would heartily recommend it if you're in London town. (Though, not if you have any under-eighteens with you!)

After a bit of a late night, Friday started with a leisurely lie-in, breakfast in bed and a bit of book - my favourite way to start the day. One of my New Year's resolutions for 2012 had been to learn how to knit socks and so I'd signed up for a day-long course at Born to Knit in Fisherton Mill. My resolution has been resolved (well, half) and my fear of turning a heel is no more! I can see how sock-knitting can become addictive and I've already been eyeing up some patterns on Ravelry. If only I could stick to one of my other New Year's resolutions which was to finish more projects... I did spend a certain amount of time on four needles and I have got one sock already completed. (Although there was a slightly tricky moment when I dropped a stitch watching Usain Bolt smash the Olympic record for the 100m sprint.) I have had to force myself to make a new resolution that I'm not to start the other sock until I have two finished and blocked baby dresses - let's see how I get on with that one, eh?!  

Saturday morning we were up (relatively) early for a jaunt to Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire to stroll around town and along the river, and to stay at the Henley Business School (D's alma mater and a very fine place to stay indeed). We started our weekend proper with a delicious lunch at Maison Blanc, followed by a mooch around the shops and afternoon tea at the Hotel du Vin. Back at the college we enjoyed relaxing in the grounds with our books before a lovely quiet drink in the bar and then a quick taxi ride back into town for dinner at The Little Angel just over the bridge in Berkshire. We've tried twice before to eat our dinner there and I have to say that the third time was a charm - dinner was delicious.


After a lovely moonlit walk across the river, we strayed back into the bar for some very glamorous cocktails. Simply heaven! What more could a girl want on a Saturday night? 

In the Garden

There have been many great things about this summer and although the weather hasn't been one of my favourites, it has been amazing for our new garden. I've just spent the best part of the afternoon out pottering; weeding and staking, encouraging and clipping - D and I even harvested our very first crop and enjoyed some simply stunning courgette and lemon pasta for our lunch. I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying being able to look over the garden and notice all the tiny little differences every day.

This time last year, our garden was completely unloved. Wild and full of weeds, it was an embarrassment. Now I am so proud of how beautiful it is and as I sit typing this, I can't help feeling a little bit proud of it. I couldn't have imagined that it could look like this, let alone be producing veggies for my lunch! I think, most of all, I'm looking forward to tucking into a steaming great bowl of potato dauphinoise. Mmmm! It's hard to resist the urge to dig up some spuds right now even though I know for sure that they're not actually ready yet!

Back in the house, and on the needles, I've started the first of two baby dresses for two friends that have recently had their third child - a bonny baby girl and for the lovely Juliet from work, who will having her first in no time at all. It's incredibly satisfying knitting for little people - whatever you're making grows so rapidly and the finished article always looks so cute!

The Joys of Spring

I don't know if it's because spring is in the air, but I've been feeling really creative lately and I can't seem to get enough of crafting. The week before last, it was my mum's birthday and I'd started a quilted cushion cover for her sometime in February. As is all too often the case with me, I'd started with enthusiasm and completed quite a lot of it, but then I'd totally run out of steam and the poor cushion cover lay in a heap on the back of the sofa until I was quilting against the clock. Now, I know that necessity is a great motivator, so I got up early on the Saturday before the actual birthday, edges the necessary bits of the quilt and sewed the sides together to create a rather lovely (if I say so myself) present for my very lovely mum.

I made the post and Mum loved her present and the crafting bug seems to have bitten. Since finishing the cushion cover, I've started another quilt, from a Hometown jelly roll by Sweetwater for Moda. I've never tried anything with a jelly roll before and wasn't quite sure where to start, but Emma from my new knitting group came to the rescue and kindly loaned me a copy of Jelly Roll Quilts by Pam and Nicky Lintott. It's a great book and shows clearly how to make the most of a jelly roll. I was really sceptical that you would get an entire quilt out of so little material, but having cut and pieced it's going to be a full sized quilt. I've really enjoyed having a day of cutting and sewing and I'm hoping that I should be able to get the whole thing finished in a matter of weeks, rather than the months and months and months that it took to make my first one!

On the needles, Olive is coming along really well and I'm already well past the bustline. I've also cast on a shrug from Ravelry by Katya Gorbacheva which is giving me the opportunity to use some beautiful vintage needles that have been languishing in a pen-pot on my desk. I've also started up the sock monster manufacturing again and have half a dozen sock-skins ready for sewing and stuffing. Busy, busy, busy!

Off the needles, D and I celebrated the birthday of a very special two-year-old with a delicious lunch at the True Lovers Knot pub near Blandford. We've also helped our local landlord and friend celebrate the opening of his new pub The Haunch of Venison. (He's still working on the website, so I'll post a link when it's up and running.)

Speaking of running, I've started that up again as well and am following a nice, gentle training programme, which I hope will help me feel fitter and more energetic - and full of the joys of spring!

Well, hello!

Sorry that I've been away for a while. I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I got out of the habit of blogging and it's taken me up until now to get my act together, find a little but more energy and enthusiasm and put fingers to keyboard!


So, what have I been up to? Pretty much the same as usual. I've done a
lot of crafting; mostly knitting but the odd bits of quilting, sewing, crochet, jewellery making and even the making of sock monsters. I've made two scarves, two hats, two scarflets, two pairs of fingerless mittens, a mug hug and I've cast on a lovely Olive Blouse with some wool which I swapped with Photographoe at a brilliant yarn swap.

I've also joined a second knitting group, which is based in my local pub and was lucky enough to find a book group that is made up of some really lovely people, meets right near where I get my train home from and reads children's books. Could they be any more perfect for me...? I don't think so!

I've carried on baking and made lots more delicious muffins. I've listened to lots of new music and fallen a little bit in love with Lana Del Ray. I've read some brilliant books and rediscovered the genius that is Thor Heyerdahl, adventurer and author of The Kon Tiki Expedition. I've also been taking lots of photos so here are some of the more recent ones that I've shared on Instagram.

I'm going to keep it brief, but will be back again soon. Happy Easter!
Nx

Taking it Easy...

After a good few weeks of being busy, busy, busy, this weekend has seen an incredibly welcome return to laziness! The last two days has been the longest time that D and I have both been at home without any visitors since we returned from our holiday in Italy in June!

Friday night started with a little tour around the Cathedral Close to admire Sean Henry's sculpture exhibition: Conflux: A Union of the Sacred and the Anonymous, a series of amazingly lifelike sculptures that are both around the close and in the cathedral itself. I could only see the outside figures as I had a date with D to try out a new pub that has recently opened just outside St Ann's Gate, The Lazy Cow. The bar itself was nice and lively, with a great atmosphere. I think it's probably the kind of place that would be nice for a long Sunday brunch. We didn't get much of a look at the menu, but I'm sure that we'll be back to try it out before too long.   

Saturday started with a quick trip on the train to Southampton. We needed to check out some wallpaper for our bedroom and after very thoughtful debate, we decided on a steel blue botanic rose print. It's quite big and bold and somewhat modern, whilst still feeling appropriate for our ramshackle old house. We just have to find the appropriate colour for the remaining three walls, but I'm hoping that it'll be one of those colours that you know is right, just as soon as you see it. At least that's the theory...

I also took the opportunity to spend the "towards crafty projects" birthday money that my parents sent me in June. Browsing through the selection in the haberdashers was a real treat and I finally settled on teh following prints from Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow collection. I'm planning on using the fabric to make the Sample Book quilt from Jane Brocket's The Gentle Art of Quilt-Making. It's going to be another long-term project, but I enjoyed making my first quilt so much that I'm itching to get started on a second.

The short journey home from Southampton was broken up with a very welcome stop at Mottisfont and Dunbridge for a tasty pint of cloudy cider at the Mill Arms and this afternoon has seen a trip out into the country to visit the newly re-opened Beckford Arms at Fonthill Gifford, near Tisbury. On the drive home D and I decided on our top five country pubs, all within 30 miles of Salisbury and here they are:

1. The Beckford Arms, Fonthill Gifford, Tisbury (great food, drink, accommodation and a lovely atmosphere)
2. The Mill Arms, Barley Hill, Dunbridge (great location close to Mottisfont Abbey, gorgeous beer garden) 
3. The Ship Inn, Burcombe (this is a regular go-to for delicious dinners and Sunday lunches)
4. The Spread Eagle, Stourton (just outside the grounds of Stourhead, the Spread Eagle does a wonderful line in afternoon teas in the summer and toasty fires on a cold day with Winter Pimms)
5. The Compasses Inn, Lower Chicksgrove (award-winningly good grub)

All five of them are absolutely wonderful and if you are ever at a loose end in Wiltshire (or Hampshire in the case of The Mill Arms) then you would be hard-pushed to find a nicer way of spending a couple of hours than visiting any of them. 

I'm rounding off the weekend with some homemade ginger biscuits and tea, listening to the new album from Bon Iver and reading Meg Rosoff's new book, There Is No Dog, which is as brilliant as it is funny.

And finally, on the needles, Bunting is growing before my very eyes. I need to get a move on to get him finished by my end of summer deadline, but with a good wind and a few more weekends at home, all will be fine!

Here comes the summer

What a lovely couple of weeks I've had. Work is great and I'm embarking on some wonderful projects and home is lovely. Last weekend was pretty cultural, and I got out and about with visits to the beautiful walled rose garden at Mottisfont Abbey, the brand new Constable & Salisbury exhibition at Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum and to the Made to Last exhibition which is being hosted in the cloisters of Salisbury Cathedral  as part of Salisbury International Arts Festival.

I took literally hundreds of flower photographs at Mottisfont, both on the Olympus PEN and the new Diana F+. The colours of the roses, and the foxgloves, and the clematis were all staggering, and in the warm sunlight, the flowers seemed to glow. This time of year is so precious, I want to try and capture every second, every glint of light and every shade of colour. If any of the film picture come out okay, I'll upload them when I next post here. Watch this space...

The festival is wonderful for the city of Salisbury with events and activities taking place at dozens of venues for a jam-packed fortnight. Sadly, I missed one of the opening events which was an aerial ballet by the Argentinian dance company, Voalà. It would have been great to see, but I had a prior engagement for some baby cuddles with the adorable Flora, which could not be missed for all the dancing in South America! The Made to Last exhibition was well worth the visit, with some really unusual modern sculptures in the quiet and contemplative setting of the cathedral cloisters. I posted a handful of pictures on instagram (which, yes, I am still smitten with) and here's one of my favourites. 

This weekend has been all about family and friends and, very importantly, music. D has always been an amazing musician, but a non-practising one until this weekend, when he re-emerged onto the scene with not one, but two, amazing acoustic sets at the local. He totally rocked and I am very proud of him! Special thanks to George and Sarah and to my mum and dad, who came along to support him on Friday and Sunday respectively.


Here are a couple more instagram pictures that I've taken in the last fortnight of the bunting celebrating the anniversary of the Festival of Britain at the Southbank Centre and the stunning alliums from outside Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum.

 

On the craft front, I am delighted to report that I have finally found just the right colour orange for Bunting. It was pretty tricky and I needed the help of the lovely knitting departments of both Liberty and John Lewis (frankly, visiting any knitting department is no hardship) but I am there. I've also started Bunting in earnest and have rediscovered the lost art of french knitting thanks to this superb tutorial from Donna Vokes. My parents moved house two weeks ago and my mum discovered an old french knitting dolly, made from a wooden cotton reel with four teeny tiny nails hammered into the top. It turns out that I had completely forgotten how to create icord with a dolly, but now I've started again, there's no holding me back!

Coraline is still growing. I did get to the yoke, but then decided that I would actually prefer a longer line cardigan, so I'm adding an additional
couple of inches, which means fourteen more (very long) rows of stocking stitch. Gah!

The good news, though, is that my quilt is almost, almost finished. The pieces have been pieced, the sandwich quilted and all I need now is some dark brown cotton to match the ribbon that I am planning to use as a border. I can hardly wait to be snuggled up on the sofa, on a chilly autumn afternoon with a good book and a cup of tea, all wrapped up in my own hand-made quilt. I just have to resist the urge to make a matching blanket from Jane Brocket's The Gentle Art of Knitting, which I finally received this week. No new projects until I've finished something! (Let's see how long that lasts...)

It's been a while...

The last four weeks have just flown by - I've been so busy at work and at home that I've found it hard to find the time to sit quietly with my laptop and get a few words down. However, I have had time to keep crafting. (Phew!) Coraline is coming on steadily and I hope to hit the complicated yoke smocking in a couple of weeks time. It's slow-going, and repetitive, just now, but it is about to get interesting and when it's all blocked and I can wear it, I know it will all be worth it!

Aside from knitting, I've been spending a fair amount of time beavering away on my big quilting project. Over the last four weeks, I've cut out all of the pieces (all 252 of them!) and I've started to put them together together. It was great fun playing with the different coloured pieces, spreading them all out on the floor in my den to see what went well where and to check that nothing looked out of place. That there weren't too many repeats or blocks of similar colours too close to each other.

Following the instructions from Jane Brocket's Gentle Art of Quilting I labelled each square-to-be before machine-sewing the four strips of each square together, then patiently ironing every single seam flat. I swear, I did more ironing in the last four days than I've done in the last four years! I've now sewn the squares into rows, and once I have sewn those rows into one giant piece, I shall begin hand-quilting in earnest. I've just run out of cotton (and bank holidays) so I shall have to wait until next weekend before I can finish off the front. 

It's lovely to see something come from nothing; to create something so large from scraps of material. Although I'm a long way from finishing this particular project, I'm enjoying it so much that I'm already imagining what my next quilt will look like! Since my last post, I visited The American Museum in Claverton, near Bath, which has the most inspirational collections of handmade quilts. They had them all in one room in gigantic poster sleeves and I only wish that I could have had the place to myself so that I could really have studied them in detail. I did buy some beautiful fat quarters, none of which are actually in this quilt, but they will be in something lovely before too long, I'm sure!

I've also treated myself to a very exciting new camera. The Diana+ is a lomographic camera - and isn't she the most beautiful camera you've ever seen? I've only had one roll of film developed so far and I wouldn't say that I was particularly proud of any of the pictures (especially as I'd bought the wrong speed film!) but it's a start and I'm going to have lots of fun with analogue photos. I love the unpredictability of shooting with a film camera and I love the nostalgic warmth of the end results. Here's a link to the Ten Golden Rules of Lomography - whatever you take your photos with - these are all lessons well-learned!

This move to lo-fi has done absolutely nothing to dampen my enthusiasm for Instagram! I've made the bold move of having some of my snaps printed out on 5" x 5" matt paper by the lovely folk at Photo.com. Some of the images aren't quite hi-res enough to be blown up to that size, but somehow, when you're looking at them in the pages of a gorgeous album it doesn't matter in the slightest.

Keeping Busy

I've had a pretty busy month, so sorry for the lack of posts. Knitting has taken up a fair amount of my free time, especially as my dear friend Jenny is getting ready to have a baby (the bump is affectionately known as Bobbin) and I've been crafting away to make something ready for when she arrives. The knitters from work joined together to make this really lovely blanket for her. The pattern is from Stephany Lein's YARRRRN! blog and Jenny E, Suzie, Claire, Maya, Chiara, Alyssa and Gemma all chipped in to make an incredibly personal gift for Bobbin. Jenny E, Gemma and I had great fun choosing particularly Jenny-esque colours. Wool was handed out just before Christmas and the knitting started in earnest. Squares started coming in a couple of weeks ago and with a bit of patience, a lot of needlework, a long, long chain of double crochet and the magic of blocking, a baby blanket was born.

Bobbin is going to be a very well dressed little girl as she already has a beautiful nautical jumper and gorgeous baby jeans knitted by her mum, a stunning pinafore dress knitted by Jenny E and a little red asymmetrical cardigan from me! I think that the dress, the jumper and the cardigan will form Bobbin's going home outfit. She'll be the best-dressed baby that day, and pretty toasty too! I can't wait to see the photos and I can't wait to meet her even more! We gave her a pretty good send off from work last week and I'll really miss her over the coming months. Big hugs go out to Jenny and good luck for the big day.

My Kaffe Fassett Patchwork book that Mum and Dad bought me for Christmas finally arrived and I have at last been able to start on my first quilting project. I'm using the fat quarters that I received and a pair of jeans that David has kindly donated to craft to make a quilted cushion cover. It's early days yet, but I'm rather looking forward to having something to show you as the project to share...

Off the needles, I've had a trip up to Scotland to stay with Angie, Robin and Joe and we had a wonderful time. Angie and I even managed a girls' night out at the movies to see The King's English at Dundee Contemporary Arts. I had just discovered the Instagram app for the iPhone so spent a fair amount of time snapping away and posting my pics!

Edinburgh Castle in the Dusk

Woodpile at the Pillars of Hercules

Flowers in the Guest Room

Up In the Clouds

I've been reading some absolutely cracking books this month, including You Against Me by Jenny Downham, Mrs Miniver by Jan Struthers, Life: an Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. 


My favourite book by a very long way, however, has been Being Billy by Phil Earle. Being Billy is an incredible book. It is a work of honesty and sensitivity. Rarely have I cared quite so much about a protagonist as he struggles to come to terms with the life that he must lead. Being Billy has integrity, it is moving and heartfelt and above all, it's a brilliant read. I was lucky enough to be invited to Phil's book launch at Waterstone's Piccadilly in January and it was wonderful to help him celebrate and catch up with so very many old friends. Phil's working on his next book; please do visit his website for more news, reviews and more.