Who altered the clocks?

Yesterday I went to Unravel which is held at The Maltings in Farnham - the building itself is worth a visit, but yesterday it was all about woolly things - knitting and all that! Not Wonderwool, but then it doesn't set out to compete!

Much cosier and very very inspiring - lots of ideas which have been going round and round in my head, so much so that I have lost a whole morning going over and pondering ideas - so when I looked at the clock, thinking that it was about 10.30ish I was amazed to find that it was 11.45 and I hadn't even showered...........

One of the great things I found and discussed with the seller was weaving sticks - I had heard talk of them, but had never actually gone into the idea in any great detail - but it struck me that this would be ideal for our demonstrations - something that children could easily cope with and which wouldn't break!
















And I also bought a wheel - not for me - for the group! An Ashford Traditional - right price and in good condition, so now we don't have to worry about our wheels at shows when people want to have a go! It is quite old, but Ashfords go on for ever - no problem about getting parts for a proven design - the only changes they have made over the years are cosmetic!
















Came with a lazy kate and four bobbins - so that can't be bad - now if I could just find those lost hours................. they must be around here somewhere!

Gone Shopping..........

After all the hard work last weekend we decided we needed at treat - so Mr S went to a Model Railway Exhibition and I went shopping - seems very fair to me!

Not that I need an excuse to go shopping, but ever since the North Somerset Arts Week inMay last year I have been meaning to take my grandfather's projector and films done to the Curzon Cinema in Clevedon. The projector had been stored under our bed ever since we move to Chez Sassy, nearly seven years ago (so not an overused item!) and the officials of Curzon Collection had seemed interested in seeing what I had - so Sunday I took it down and low and behold it is quite rare, not one that they had in their collection and produced in 1935 - they were over the moon and I was happy for them to become the projectors's custodians - plus when they have given it a good going over and been through the films and other stuff, we shall have a private showing - sounds very posh!

Then I went to one my favourite shops - The Spinning Weal for a chat and a little shopping! Sarah had just taken delivery of some Lauren Burch fabric and I just couldn't resist
















Doesn't look all that much - but I did get eight yards (no metres but I still think in yards) and some panels.

Also this week I obtained some lovely fabric inspired by Ginger Jar lids - seen here in one of my newly lined baskets



When I saw this I was hooked - a LIzzie Bag perhaps? Now I am off to catch up on some knitting I mis-counted the rows and had to unpick 1200 stitches - sob!

Two Days Later.................

On Sunday morning my study looked like this















Over the last couple of months I had been considering the state of my study - well it doesn't do to rush things now - does it? Mr S had been very patience with me, as my stash or sable (stash acquired beyond life expectancy!) was fast encroaching into the sitting room with no real method or space. At the end of last year I had made a half-hearted attempt at sorting things out - squeezing/doubling books on shelves to make room for more storage - but things came to a head with my new sewing cabinet - I had to make room for another cupboard and things were becoming rather a squeeze.......

I had to decide - lecture notes and books or stash which was more important - that was the question and I finally came down in favour of stash. So Sunday morning I threw away years of lecture notes and copies of journal articles that had been packed away under our bed - it was very hard and took much longer than it should because I kept stopping to read something that caught my eye - but they all went into the great big shredder at the local tip - very sad and the end of an era!

Into the space created I have put all (well nearly all there are a few that I am going to sell) my text books packed neatly in boxes under the bed (my theory on under bed spaces is that unless filled up they just become dust traps and have to be cleaned - filling up the space stops both!) By late afternoon the relocation of my books complete - the shelves were nearly bare!















The transformation continued on Monday and by Monday evening I had a fully stocked 'studio'
















With a place for everything and everything in its place, well that won't last long as I am notoriously untidy, but I have started with the best of intentions!

I still have fibre, yarn and stuff elsewhere (neatly hidden), but what this exercise has shown me is that my stash is VERY, VERY SMALL! Minuscule in fact and so SMALL and NOWHERE near enough for the sort of life expectancy that I intend to have! This means shopping. yes I must go shopping - very soon!

Oh - next week we start on Mr S's space - that is going to be a real challenge!!!!

Cracked it!

I have a passion for shawls, in every shape and size! I find the patterns challenging, a graph of symbols which gradually transfers in yarn to a beautiful design. The more complicated the better and I am happy to place beads but don't like to go overboard, but nupps that is another story. Most pattern books explain that a nupp is created by working five or more stitches (k1,yo,k1,yo,k1,yo,k1,yo) from one in the first row and on the return row you have to knit/purl together stitches made so that you are back to the one stitch that you started with. Sounds easy, but you have to make the stitches quite loose, or you can't get you needle in all seven loops to knit them together and it is quite easy to miss one of the loops making a mess. So I look for tutorials - this one on Youtube uses a crochet hook, but try as I might I can't make a nupp using this method, back to square one and avoiding patterns with nupps and this has limited the patterns that I have been able to do. Then a while back I was faced with nupps in a mystery shawl KAL and I had bought into this, so the accountant in me forced me to re-consider nupps - and I have finally cracked it - and it is really easy - so simple that I am cross that I didn't think of this method before





and here a pic of the shawl I am making at the moment - with lots and lots of nupps

Life in chez sassy

Despite the bitter weather life in chez sassy has been steaming along - work on the new website is really getting somewhere at last! I can really understand why firms charge so much for this service! There are so many things to remember and each action has a bearing on what was already done and what there still is to do. It definitely isn't just taking a pic and posting it on the site. All pictures have to be a certain size and a certain format - so each and every photo has to be re sized and saved... That might not seem very much, but multiply that by say 50-60 photos and it isn't a five minute job. Descriptions - well I started writing each one as I posted the picture - am I stupid or what? One whole day was taken up with descriptions and tagging - yes a whole day and I am still making alterations as I think of possible tags or a better way of describing.

In the midst of all this technology I took possession of my new sewing cabinet or 'the work station' as I like to call it. No more does Mr S have to lug my sewing machine onto the breakfast bar - all I have to do is open the doors and top and hey presto up pops the machine, and the really nice thing is now I have a good view of the garden when stitching
















And when I have finished it just disapears - magic?
















And just to prove how efficient the new set-up is here is a bag I made. ( just couldn't resist the cute cats on this material )





























Inspiration for this bag came from the little chinese dumplings or dim sum, tiny parcels with delicious fillings, or in case of the bag you can fill it with your latest project (available soon!)