More fabric removal

With the red and green drawers waiting, I turned instead to a couple of upper drawers that probably wouldn't yield much fabric to send to the Bring & Buy, so this would be quick, yes?

Nooooo - there were many treasures to stroke and appreciate - and iron. The ironing board is my new best friend. 

In the "Silks" drawer were these -

 and some old silks from China -

 Those cloud patterns are great -

The back -

 The fabric has a stiff weft, and this is what it looks like when crumpled -

 What was it used for, in its day?

Backs and fronts of a couple more old pieces -

This sample of (modern) painted silk was impossible to photograph, but is gorgeous. I'm tempted to stretch it over a small canvas -

 These old silks have lovely selvedges and borders -

The silk drawer is ready to go back in place - it was lovely to dig round in it -

Another drawer had mostly papers (a job for another day) - and this -

 which had several of these on the other side -

 Was tension the reason it went no further? Or did I realise it wasn't such a good idea...

These fused plastic pieces are at least 15 years old ... what to do with them ... (any takers?) -

I couldn't resist doing just one more "easy" drawer, but this one proved more difficult. It had a lot of textiles with family resonances, including a bit of a blue and white printed linen tablecloth that I found in my mother's cleaning-rags box - it dates back to my early childhood and must have come with us from Germany.

And this dishrag the my mother not only knit but mended in three places; she was a frugal woman, making and mending, generous with her time and care -

 A gift from an American friend -

The impersonal handmades are also difficult to let go of - I value the skill and labour that went into making them, and hope they weren't produced under gruelling conditions -

 At the end of the morning, a little more has been bundled and bagged -

Walk in woollyness

After experiencing the delicious comfort of alpaca hiking socks, I have a yen to knit some woolly socks, and indeed my stash contains rather a lot of 4-ply.

Enough for half a dozen pairs in jolly colour combinations, you'd think.

But an imp is driving the sock idea round and round in my head. I've looked up techniques and methods - magic loop or double-pointed needles? Start at the toe or start at the top? Knit both socks at once?

So it was off to the nearest wool shop - Knit With Attitude in Stoke Newington, which involves a stroll through two parks and along streets lined with vivid autumnal trees, all very pleasant.

Then came decisions - 4ply or DK? hand-dyed? solids? And the small matter of the price point... can't have them all ...

And whatever happened to my plan to "use what you have"??

Xmas is fast a-coming, and like my mother before me I get pleasure from making, rather than buying, gifts, be they ever so humble. Quite possibly the first of the socks will be stepped out in by feet other than mine.

Here's a basic pattern on double-pointed needles for various sizes of feet, knit from the top down. This pattern has a little ribbing at the sides ... or I might rib throughout. Step by step tutorial about the basics of sock knitting; others are available!

Apron du jour

Thanks to Erika who sent this delight from Australia - those animals make me snort with incredulity (and joy!) and when unfolded it amply covers front, sides and most of the back of me.

Plus there's a large and useful front pocket, the pattern so carefully matched -- today in the "100 Drawings in a Day" course (at City Lit), that pocket held my phone/camera ... the course went at such a pace, there wasn't time to dig around in a bag for a camera, or hardly time to remember to take a photo! Which leaves one rather exhausted at the end of the day....

The chicken ... ah the chicken!!

Ladder of years

The book of that title, Ladder of Years, by Ann ...oh dear, the name will come in a moment... has the happiest memories for me - I was captivated by it, right from the "newspaper announcement" of the missing woman, with the description given by her husband: "Her eyes are blue, or maybe green" - well, it's easy to forget the colour of your wife's eyes! The book came along on a trip to Paris and at one point I sat in the square outside the hotel, early in the morning, reading it while Tony slept on, and on... perhaps he was taking his time to let me get on with the book?

So now I have the ladder - the much wanted stepladder - and as for the years, what difference does yet another birthday make? It's better to get older, than not!

A cautionary tale (included, by the manufacturer, with the stepladder): watch out for over reaching - and keep a grip on that ladder -

Ah, that's better -

Ann Tyler, of course! After reading this review, I need to reread the book. Literary subtexts can be elusive - the Lear story is the basis for A Thousand Acres too (by Jane Smiley), and I missed it there too.

Dishcloth!

Several years on the needles and finished this week the leftovers of yarn brought back from Canada years ago. Looks a lot like one of these, in a blog post from March 2008 -

       Favourite pattern             

This makes a dishcloth from 1.5 oz (45 g) of cotton, using 4mm needles.

Cast on 4.
Knit 2, yarn over needle, knit to end of row.
Repeat till you have 44 stitches.
Knit 1, knit 2 together, yarn over, knit 2 together, knit to end of row.
Repeat till you have 4 stitches.
Cast off.

Highlight of the week

Labels on blog posts

As a former indexer I like information to be organised. As an increasingly forgetful person, I need all the help I can get! So I'm putting this tip (thanks, Sandy) where I might be able to find it again - and in the hope it will help someone else.

As bloggers, we all know how useful labels (aka tags) can be. They are a way of gathering together all the posts on a topic, and of retrieving all those posts at once. The bonus on Blogger is that they appear with the oldest first, so if you've got a project that you've labelled with its name, you can see in the posts how it developed.

Everyone knows where the Search box is?

Which brings me to a little excursion on finding things on Blogger. I don't use labels for people's names unless they aren't mentioned in the post. If a word is IN a post, using the Search box (top left) will find it. If a word isn't in a post, but is a label, going to the list of labels in the sidebar, or in some blogs at the bottom of the page, you can find the relevant post that way.

Back to labels. One danger is using similar words for the same topic - eg, knits, knitting, knitwear, knitted - those will bring up four different sets of posts, rather than all of them at once. So instead of typing in a new label, use the "labels" option in the Post Settings and search for the relevant one .

or start typing and see what is offered -

How many labels should a post have? as many as it needs. Why might you want to find it again? give it that label.

What if you have some redundant labels? Here's Sandy's tip:

You can remove a label by selecting the post on your blog list page (Posts page). Then ticking the box. Then going up to the ‘label’ button which is in the same line as publish, revert to draft, and the dustbin. (This is how you also add new labels to previous posts when you realise they could have done with being labelled!) Scroll through the list to the label you want to remove from the selected post(s). When you select that, it will take the label away and inform you that it has been done.

Furniture in a book

Brilliant - you can sit on it or use it as a table (it comes with a top). I'm thinking "sketching stool" - so portable! It's close to reaching its target on Kickstarter.

What's all this then?

"Then" is when it was made - at least 20 years ago, as one of those exercises that help us get clarity on our life goals, or put things in perspective, or remind ourselves of what we'd like to get out of life.

How you do it is - take half a dozen magazines of various titles, and look through them for photos that appeal to you and tear out those pages. (You may want to discard the rest of the magazine immediately, lest it haunt your life as clutter.) Then glue "your" photos onto a big sheet of paper.

I found the exercise very ... clarifying. It brought what was important to me at the time, and what remains important to me now, though some small details have changed - the comfortable shoes now need to be somewhat stylish (and accommodate bunions - totally incompatible aims perhaps, but the search goes on), and that little black dress ... 20 years later and 20 lbs lighter, I'd rather wear little black jeans!

The minimal, hospitable rooms speak to an ongoing aspiration, but at the time had a deeper meaning - I was living in a shabby shared house and not happy with the situation, yet felt I was stuck there and could never afford my own place. But sometimes circumstances change; I don't remember exactly what happened, but being mugged outside my own gate certainly had something to do with it, and after a bit of hard negotiation I was out of there, moving 5 minutes down the road and into a very different life.

The dream-spaces are two dining rooms, or maybe three, at least one with a french door into the garden; a bathroom (with art on the wall!); and an airy library-gallery. Not to overlook the summerhouse/shed/studio in the garden.

Ah, garden ... flowering plants, and trees ... there are many in my dream-life. On the left is a paved courtyard garden with luscious clusters in great variety planted among the stones - a model for my own paved area out front, which is almost ready to plant (some dreams come true, but probably not quite as you imagined them).

Art supplies; birds; a fireplace. Keeping busy; observing nature; being warm.

Scenery - the sun breaking through clouds over gentle hills and long-cultivated valleys, how very English. The gloomier road beside the sea, and a snow scene elsewhere - these are about living in a place with seasons, and enjoying those seasons in their changeableness.

There's a painting of a family scene, but nothing about the importance of friends - that was an interesting omission but would definitely be there now. Maybe the fireworks - an explosion of joy - represent friendships and relationships?

To go with the many dining rooms, there are cakes. Cakes aren't quite so important to me now, but remain an important link with the past and my mother's effortless master-baker shining example, and her generous hospitality.

Last but not least - coffee, and an elegant coffee maker.

Usefully occupied in Amsterdam

Testing fire hoses

Dredging for bicycles

Filming an interview (two cameras running; it's all in the edit)

Mending the pavement

Milling about in the Rijksmuseum

Pre-concert drinks at the Concertgebouw (included in ticket price)

Being photographed among the 3D Night Watch 

Doing a little painting

Washing windows

Fishing on a windy day

Being lifted on board (some boats are so long they use bicycles to
get from end to end, but the cars are for use in port)

Tinkling the ivories in the foyer of the central library

Walking the dog

Exhibition-visiting (Marlene Dumas at the Stedelijk Museum)

Snoozing in the sun (or trying to)

Re-gilding bits of the Royal Barge - Tom van Loon was at the Maritime Museum for a week