Lateral thinking

I'm not a skinflint, but the price that some suppliers are charging for basic bags straps is completely ridiculous. One was selling two 'leather' straps for £14 plus postage......making an expensive addition. I do make matching handles , but sometimes a nice strap/handle can make all the difference, turning something basic into something special. I had checked out the local charity shops, but either the bags were grotty or pricey. There is an up-market charity shop in Chipping Sodbury, with designer bags at nearly designer prices, so I wasn't any closer to solving the dilemma and I had two bags just waiting for the finishing touch...






Then I happened upon some bags in the sale in a well known supermarket - absolutely awful, so you could see why they were reduced - but the handles were perfect - so perfect handles for £2 and two zips - what a bargain (well two bargains actually, 'cos I bought two) The girl on the check out gave me a really strange look - nothing new there!



Today, in another supermarket - belts reduced and actually buy one and get one free - so two lovely 'real leather' straps - the cost £1.50 - and I got the extra large ones!



So lateral thinking or what Mr S calls the Ikea syndrome, just because something is sold for one purpose it doesn't mean that you have to use for that - I remember that a while a ago we made a bedheads out of two shoe racks - and very chic they were too.

Brighton pebbles, not rock.....

We are having a week away to make up for the lost holiday at Christmas we had to cancel due to the adverse weather conditions.

Really Mr S needed to consult the Mass Observation Archive which is housed at the University of Sussex - as you never know how much will be useful so we booked a whole week, and then got through everything in one very long day. So now we have a few free days in which to relax and time to fulfil our annual tradition of throwing pebbles in the sea.

Know this sounds daft, and I can't remember when it started, but for years now, every Christmas we throw pebbles in memory of people no longer with us and for those who need a helping thought.

Besides the pebble throwing, as yesterday was sunny but cold and we 'walked' along the 'Lawns' in Hove and watched the sun coming through some clouds over the English Channel. Mr S misses the sea, being a Plymothian, and needs regular doses of ozone to get him through the year. But the ozone is just not the same here as it is on the Hoe in Plymouth - where the sea is more ocean than channel.

Spinning is on hold, but I am managing to get some of the Polworth fleece carded a job which seems to get put to the end of the queue at home when there is so much else to do, particularly now I am officially back working on my thesis. In this I have agreed with Mr S that I need to pace myself - before his surgery I had been working more or less 24/7, which was really silly, as I am registered part-time! As my friend E said I am very good at telling others not to over do things, while doing the exact opposite myself - so I now work most mornings and have the afternoon for other things - which should mean that I do not become a very 'dull girl'..

I have resolved...

...to never dye in lots of 100grams any more.

I have come to the conclusion that it might be fun to have lots of brightly spaced dyed rovings, but only dyeing 100grams is very shortsighted, for try as you might you can never exactly reproduce a spaced dyed roving - believe me I have tried as these two pics show it is nearly impossible with the vagaries of space dyeing to get a good match.















First dye of the colourway Make Believe

Second Dye of the colourway Make Believe - and this despite using the exact same amount of dyes in the same proportions - batch one is much greener than batch two which has come out with more pinky mauve than greens................

Why? Well the other day I was searching for some yarn to make a small shawlette - and despite the massive stash (according to Mr S that is) I found that I didn't have enough of any one colourway to make it - so hence the resolve.















So here is my first 200grams of Falkland - Holly Bush, it is in fact much darker than the pic shows, dark brown, berry red and, disappointingly not holly green. The green is more muted than I hoped for, but nevertheless it is 200 grams which is the important thing here.

Thought - will bigger dye batches mean that the 'massive' stash will take on mountainous proportions?

Survived

I have survived the snow and the 'big day' but the four days of 'Bank Holiday' are driving me slowly up the wall - spinning has been my salvation in the shape of 800 yards of laceweight yarn in the gorgeous colourway Victorian Velvet from Mandacrafts.















Now I have to choose the pattern - choices, choices there are so many lovely shawl patterns to choose from - I really can't make up my mind! But I think that it is going to be the Calais Shawl so all I have to do now is wait for the yarn to dry! Meanwhile I have been playing origami with fabric - great fun!
















And this is oddly named Lincoln's Platform

Roll on Sunday

I was listening to Radio 4 yesterday and the interviewer was asking various celebrities what they would be doing on the great day!!! One was bemoaning the fact that everyone (yes - really everyone) would be eating turkey and visiting families and how awful was that - but when questioned further he admitted that was exactly what he was going to be doing because that it what you have to do isn't it? Well actually no - you don't!

Thirteen years ago Mr S and I gave up on Christmas, after years of providing exactly the day described we said enough - we certainly weren't enjoying ourselves, and I'm not at all sure that the family (parents, in-laws etc) were really enjoying themselves either. So after years of wearing ourselves to a frazzle - shopping, cooking, calming frayed nerves and soothing over supposed insults - we quit and we have never regretted our decision.

We usually spend the day walking, preferably by the sea, or sitting quietly reading or crafting. Food is something simple and undemanding in the kitchen department with the only concession being a really good bottle (or two) of wine. Most years we have done this in our caravan far away from the maddening crowd, but it is increasingly harder to find that quiet spot as more and more people it seems are also getting away. One bright spot on today's horizon is that in less than 38 hours it will all be over for another year - if only it was just one day and not three months of hype.

This year we have heeded to the mantra 'is your journey really necessary' and stayed at home which will give us even more time for crafting - joy!















My first quilting project - following the instructions by Jenny at the Missouri Star Quilting Co















My Romney Shawl - from fleece to shawl - very satisfying!
















Another Piped Hobo Bag, but this one is still looking for a handle






















This is the first bobbin of 100 grams of Victorian Velvet - it is going to make the most gorgeous shawl

















Scrap Bag - literally made from scraps!

And finally my Secret Santa Raffle Prize (thanks Anji)


















Spinning Jenny!

5 Days to New year

Yes really - if you go by the solstice then Tuesday is the shortest day and on Wednesday the days start to get longer so hence me and Mr S celebrate. Likewise we are starting a new decade, not that the media agree with us! I just want things right - unlike the Japanese who are born aged one, we don't become one year old until we have lived a whole year - so no year nought we begin with one - so that means that a decade goes from one to ten and the next begins on eleven - easy.

It's like the greengrocer's apostrophe which drives me mad - I just long to have a red marker pen and change all those silly '''''. Try reading Lynne Truss' book Eats shoots and leaves it is hilarious and I just love it, if you want a chuckle then it is a good book to dip into. I suppose that most families have private jokes and names for places. When I was small my grandfather used to confuse me with the way he would pronounce place names - Barnstaple was one, he just placed the emphasis on different syllables - doesn't seem funny when you write it, but I was completely sold on his way of saying it and couldn't understand why people laughed.

One such place name has developed because of a road sign written thus:
DOWNEND MAJOR
Road Works
Commence here...........and so on.

Obviously the place Downend Major was undergoing road works - or was it? The best road sign, apart from the obvious Heavy Plant Crossing (is that an aspidistra?) was in a cul de sac:

Drive Slowly over Children Playing

I assume that there was a word missing - humps perhaps?

December rant

I hate December, not just because it has that over-rated of all dates the 25th, but because of the wet, the wind, the cold and most of all the gloom. It is the gloom that I hate the most, no sun just dark mornings and dark evenings and a grey day in between - uck.

I am not sure whether I really suffer from SAD, (Mr S says I suffer from him!!) but I certainly find it very hard to get going, and I feel out of sorts, not really depressed but not right. No motivation and a feeling of lethargy. What I would really like is to hibernate, wrapped up in a cosy nest somewhere until the clocks go forward.

That's another thing to rant about, why do we have change the clocks, mucks up my internal clock twice a year and makes not a lot of difference - well I suppose it might in the very north of Scotland, so let them change their clocks and leave us alone. I have spent time in France where they are on the proper time and I didn't see that it made much difference - nobody went on about it being terrible for children to go to school in the dark!!

Enough - think positive - I did finish all my November projects - socks, Shawl and bags - all done! Now I am just crafting for fun not becasue I have to get something finished by a certain date and this has certainly improved my mood (so Mr S says anyway) and I am feeling more relaxed and have started writing a chapter for my progression at the end of March.

Next week I have a meeting with my three supervisors to agree my aims - so that's a real positive.

But the biggest rant of all is over the proposed lifting of cap on student fees - I am so furious that I have written to my MP - never felt the urge before, but I am livid. I am not saying that further education should be totally free, but what about those who went to university in the 1980s and 90s on a grant - why don't they get asked to pay back? Well of course they are the people that vote, so the government can't upset them - or can they? If a university education means that you earn more then those people (Cameron, Clegg and Milliband and the like) should be paying now -that's what I feel and I make no apology - but enough of politics........

Tonight I am hoping to get a flyer so Mr S can make me an e-spinner - more of that later.....