Month: February 2012

New curtains

New Curtains

I can’t claim that I made these, but they’re a good example of a simple modification. The only curtains we could find in the right colour for the kitchen had tab tops, and it wasn’t possible to get the curtain pole off the wall (without making a great deal of mess!) in order to slot the curtains into place.

All I needed to do was buy enough curtain tape (at a grand total of 26p a metre!) to go across the width of each curtain, snip off the tabs, and sew the tape into place. They’re now hanging from the existing rings and letting a lovely turquoise light into my kitchen.

A Message from Neil Gaiman

Message from Neil Gaiman

Which reminds me, I must get on with editing all of my photos!

Vaguely Victorian: Part Two

Victorian-ish outfit

Here you go – for those who were wondering, this is what the vaguely Victorian outfit looked like at the end of a long day, in a lovely Victorian staircase hall.

Contrary to a few people’s concerns, I did not boil to death with so many layers of clothes on. The skirt was quite heavy, but the bustle was so comfortable I kept forgetting I was wearing it and trying to squeeze through spaces that were impossible to negotiate with such an enormous bottom!

At the end of the day I also learned that it is possible to run for the bus in a corset and bustle – although I wouldn’t recommend it! In fact it’s not the ideal outfit for bus travel generally. You can’t get upstairs, for a start, and I was a bit worried that the driver would ask me to buy two tickets for taking up so much room!

I must admit that, without the complicated underpinnings, I’d actually quite happily wear this outfit (or something very similar) to work on any old not-particularly-Victorian day.

Vaguely Victorian

I’ve been asked to work an extra day this week to help out with a school visit, for which I may have heard myself ask my boss “would you like me to come in dressed as a Victorian?”. The session goes with the Victorian part of our building, Palmer House, which was designed by Waterhouse (of Natural History Museum and Reading Town Hall fame) and built in 1880-82.

Paul, bless him, has managed to rein me in from “I NEED TO MAKE A COMPLETE PERIOD-CORRECT VICTORIAN OUTFIT BY TUESDAY” to “please can we have a look in your wardrobe first”.

Victorian-ish outfit

However, I may have used “dressing up as a Victorian for work” as an excuse to buy a corset. I chose a black brocade one which was on the “corset of the day” offer for £25. It ended up costing me almost £40 by the time I’d paid vat and extra for super-fast shipping, but I still call that a bargain. It’s not expertly made, but it’s no worse than any Vollers corset I’ve owned in the past, and it gives a “Victorian enough” shape under all those layers, so I’m happy with that.

The website was a bit weird – I kept finding other people’s things added to my shopping cart and at one point it kept telling me that I was logged in as somebody else, which made me very nervous about giving them my credit card details. But I placed my order at five to three on Friday, 3pm being the cut off for next day delivery, expecting it to arrive on Monday. The postman knocked on the door at 9:30 on Saturday morning, with my corset! So that was extremely impressive. (He also brought my lingerie-sewing book which I thought had got lost in the trans-atlantic post, so hooray for that too!)

Victorian-ish outfit

I posted on Facebook about making a Victorian outfit in a hurry, and Chris from Progress Theatre offered to lend me a bustle pad from their wardrobe. I replaced the worn-out elastic with cotton tape, and I think it’ll make quite an acceptable late-Victorian silhouette.

Victorian-ish outfit

Next I added my lilac petticoat, for volume, and a plain white vest to cover up the black dress and corset. I went for black foundation layers because I’d originally intended to wear a black blouse, but the two I thought might be suitable turned out to have inappropriate sleeves.

Victorian-ish outfit

Here’s a side view with the bustle. Is my bum going to look big in this? 😉

Victorian-ish outfit

Next layer: the ivory lawn pintucked blouse that I usually wear for being a rural Edwardian when I’m out with the clog dancers.

Victorian-ish outfit

I spent all day making this skirt, but unfortunately velvet doesn’t photograph at all well in poor light so I can’t show it to you properly. It’s Simplicity 2207, the same as my red and black stripy one.

Victorian-ish outfit

And for the finishing touches: a black wool man’s dress waistcoat, a length of black ribbon, and a marcasite brooch in the shape of an owl. I wear this waistcoat to work quite often, usually with the owl on the lapel.

Victorian-ish outfit

I must admit that I’m not completely convinced by the bustle, even though it’s much smaller with the weight of the velvet skirt on the top. I was looking at photographs of Victorian teachers and the more I see the less I’m convinced that a bustle, even a small one, was worn underneath everyday workwear.

I’ll try the whole outfit on together, and hopefully I’ll be able to get some better photos while I’m at work tomorrow. I can’t do much about my extremely un-Victorian hair and glasses, sadly, but I think this is not too bad, considering I had almost all of it lurking in my wardrobe already!

Feathers and Fur

Feathers & Fur
Peregrine

I haven’t taken any bird photos for a while… but today was Paul’s birthday trip, which was a visit to Feathers and Fur, a local falconry centre. It’s a tiny place, inside a garden centre, and a friend had told us about a Groupon offer on their Hands On falconry sessions.

Feathers & Fur
Willow, barn owl

We were incredibly lucky to have the entire two hour session to ourselves, and even though it’s apparently not the right time of year for falconry (the birds should be out hunting and getting fat), everyone behaved beautifully.

Sadie was really friendly and taught us lots of things about the birds, their environment, and how she raises and looks after them. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and we laughed for most of the session. It turns out that watching a barn own swallow his lunch whole is somewhat inelegant, but absolutely hilarious!

Feathers & Fur
Kestrel

I used the 70mm macro lens this time, and I’m really pleased with the photos I managed to take. I went for portraits rather than action pictures (Paul has some gorgeous ones of the owls in flight), and am thrilled with the detail on the image below. The snow made the light a bit weird and I was worried about the photos being over-exposed, so I dropped the ISO down to 400. I think that was a mistake, as some of the images are darker than I’d like, but I definitely had a higher success rate than I have in the past!

Feathers & Fur
Billie Jean, eagle owl

You can see the rest of my photos over on Flickr. If you’re feeling sensitive, one of them’s a bit gruesome (the aforementioned barn owl lunch), but hey, everybody needs to eat.

We’ll definitely be going back and booking another session – probably a dedicated photography one next time. Sadie took some great shots with Paul’s camera, and understands how to position you to get the pictures you want. Although it’s always nice to have the opportunity to have the birds fly to you, so another session like the one we had today would be great.

(Note to self: No, you can’t have a barn owl. Really.)

Peachy Shawls

Tulips Shawlette

Now that these shawls are finally finished and have reached their recipients, I can safely show them to you all!

The Tulips Shawlette, above, is by Anniken Allis, and the pattern’s in Issue 36 of The Knitter. The moment I saw it, I reached for the first 4-ply yarn I could find in my stash, and started knitting. It was quite a while before I realised that I had no earthly use for a peach lace shawl, but I was enjoying knitting it so much that I didn’t really care. Eventually it occurred to me that it would look lovely on Paul’s grandmother, and it became her Christmas gift.

The yarn is Rowan Cashcotton 4-ply, now discontinued. I usually prefer not to work with cotton because it hurts my hands, but this is soft and lovely. Unfortunately the angora does shed – working with this on my lap made me wonder whether Bond villains need shares in lint rollers, to get rid of all the fluffy white hairs.

Tulips Shawlette

I hadn’t knitted any lace quite as complicated as this before, feather & fan being about my limit. But the two designs fitted together really well (being an 8-row and a 16-row repeat) and the pattern was written out as well as charted. I followed the written instructions for the most part, because I find a row of text easier to keep in my head than a row of symbols. I used a lot of sticky notes to mark my place, and it took me a long time to really understand how the pattern worked.

Tulips Shawlette

I did use the charts for the edging pattern, mostly because I couldn’t seem to get the written instructions to repeat properly. I’m not terribly keen on the edging, it doesn’t seem very definite, somehow. But I do like the shawl as a whole, and I feel a bit braver about working from charts now.

Peach Wall of Shawl

Because the Tulips pattern required a lot of concentration, I wanted another project to work on that was much simpler. I also wanted something that could also work as a lap blanket. This one is Wall of Shawl, by Martina Patricia Munroe. I think this design looks much more interesting in a handspun or multi-coloured yarn, but I thought it would be nice to make a “matching” gift for each of Paul’s grandmothers, and I was really enjoying working with the Cashcotton.

In fact, I was enjoying it right up until I came to knit the edging. That yo row (the decorative holes near the bottom) doubles the stitch count, at which point I thought my head might explode with boredom. I didn’t count the stitches on the final row, because I didn’t want to know!

The only thing I don’t like about this shawl is the way that the edge curls up. It’s a natural feature of stocking stitch, so there’s not much I could have done to prevent it. The pattern suggests knitting the ruffle about 3” long, which probably helps, but I was running out of time and patience. I could also have cast off on the wrong side, which would have turned the edging inwards, rather than out. But the shawl itself is a lovely size, and the fabric drapes beautifully.

I still don’t have any real need for a peach lace shawl, but I have quite a lot of this yarn left, and The Knitter seems to be going through a phase of showing me lots of lovely patterns that I really must knit as soon as I possibly can! I’m resisting the urge at the moment though, while I knit my fifth Clapotis – a nice simple one in Rowan Silky Tweed. After that, perhaps I’ll cast on for something a little bit more complicated.

A couple of scarves

Loopy Cowl

I think this is the last project I finished in 2011. I started knitting it on Christmas Day, having been asked by my mother-in-law to bring a pair of 5mm needles to dinner with me. Somewhat confused, all became clear when I opened my gifts to find two balls of Rowan Felted Tweed and two books of knitting patterns!

This is Loopy Cowl by Rachel Proudman. It’s made up of eight strands which aren’t i-cord, they’re simply knit flat and allowed to curl up on themselves. All the strands are seamed together, then the seams are covered by another strand. I think you’re supposed to wear it with the seams at the back, but I quite like it at the side like this. Even better with a blingy brooch pinned to it, I think.

You need two balls of Felted Tweed because you’re knitting with two strands held together, although you only use around 70g of yarn. Not quite enough to risk buying only one ball, but enough left over (hopefully) to make a pair of matching gloves, or perhaps a little hat.

Moss Stitch Scarf

This enormous beast is the biggest scarf I’ve ever made, and also one of the quickest. Knitted in Rowan Big Wool and Noro Blossom on 15mm needles, I finished it in two evenings and it’s more than two and a half metres long!

Should you happen to need a pattern for a giant moss stitch scarf, I’ve added it to the tutorials section. Perfect for the silly snowy weather we’ve got going on at the moment.

Crafty King Alfred

King Alfred Paper Puppet

Have I mentioned lately that I love my job? I run the Toddler Time sessions at the Museum of English Rural Life (every Friday during term time, 10-11 & 1-2), and part of that is to come up with an activity every week – preferably one that’s linked to the museum’s collections in some way.

This is a sneak preview of Friday’s activity – a paper puppet of King Alfred to colour in and cut out. You fasten all the pieces together with split pins, in case you were wondering. One of the highlights of the museum is a six foot straw sculpture of the king in question, so I thought it would be nice to make a little something in his honour.

I drew a quick pencil sketch, and had planned to recreate it in Illustrator. But the scanner won’t speak to my computer, I couldn’t get a photograph that was clear enough to be useful, and so I decided to go back and do things the old fashioned way. I traced my sketch onto a new piece of paper, drew over it with two different thicknesses of pen, and rubbed out the pencil lines. On Friday I’ll fit all the pieces onto A5 paper, then use the photocopier to enlarge it onto A4 card.

Sometimes it’s so much easier to do things the old fashioned way!

[edit] If you’d like to see some of the puppets that the toddlers made, I took some photos. Can you tell which is the one I made myself?

End of the Line…

Gifts from the cast & crew

Saturday January 28th was the last day of Neverwhere at Progress Theatre. We saw the final performance, which was followed by a party. Louise and I were given mugs and cards from the cast, as a thank you for working on the costumes. The gorgeous rats were knitted by Kate – one for every member of the cast and crew!

Neverwhere get-out

The theatre bar stayed open until 2am, and a mere eight hours later most of the cast and crew were back (in varying states of sobriety!) for the Great Dismantling. Anything that was too covered in fake blood to be retrievable was simply chucked in the bin. Most of the costumes were re-homed in the theatre’s wardrobe, and the dressing rooms ended up even cleaner than before we’d started!

The set though… watching it being torn apart was heartbreaking. Some of the elements have been kept – the metal stairs, the handrail, and all the ladders have been stored until they can be used again. But every single roof tile, every brick, every platform… it all had to go so that the next production (Art, by Yasmin Reza) can get into the theatre and start building their own set and rehearsing in the space.

I have something in the region of three hundred photos to edit, so I can show you what I’ve been so busy with these past few months! Since before Christmas I’ve been saying “never again”… but seeing it all come together was so amazing that I might have volunteered to at least consider helping out with the summer Shakespeare production, Henry IV Part 1. You can keep the “I Told You So”s to yourselves, thank you!