Claire's blog

Ashmolean Museum - Oxford

These pictures are only a fraction of what was on display at the Museum.  During the time we were there - four hours or so - I managed to take just over 150 photos - and there's so much I've missed.

Mum and I are determined to make a return visit to Oxford and the Ashmolean as soon as is feasibly possible.  Despite the fact that it bucketed down whilst we were there.

I can't get the descriptions to marry up with the photos so I've numbered them to match the position of each picture.

2) Here we all are - happy campers at the far end of the cafe (they were worried we'd lower the tone I think)  with wool, samples and course work all over the table interspersed with tea cups.  It was a wonderful meeting - I know Loraine was slightly overwhelmed by the number of eager students - but I think it was brilliant.  I know that both Mum and I were eager to get home so that we could get started again - with our enthusiasm re-kindled and ideas abounding.

4) I saw a flat back lorry in front of me on the way to work the other day, and the protective fence thing behind the cab had three bars across with four holes in each bar - and this pot's decoration reminded me of that.  As the lorry was black and white, the pattern was quite dramatic and I am trying to think of a way to incorporate it into my stripe patterns - can I have a few bobbles or something like that please Loraine?

5) This so reminds me of my teenage daughter on being asked to get out of her pit and do some work  :)

6) So many of these pictures suffer from the low lighting, no flash requirement and being behind glass - but I think you can still get an idea of how amazing the items are.  This is stump work - but very exaggerated.  Too ornate for my taste but still a wonderful example of the kind of work that used to be done at home.


7) Scraps of material samples were laid out on a very large, glass covered table.


8) The frog purse - Loraine has a picture of this as well, but I love it - I am planning to make something similar for Christmas presents.


9) Back of a violin or viola they all look the same to me.  There were many musical instruments on display and I did take several photos but this was the best of them.


10) Large stone with Celtic symbols all over it.


11) Those knitted gloves - aren't they fantastic?

12) Carved ivory sewing chest next to the gloves.  I know there is an ethical distaste for items carved from ivory but it is still a very beautiful item.

A brief observation

I stopped in Hythe today, to look at a knitted longline coat on a dummy in the window of a charity shop.  Although the colours were a wee bit gungy for my taste, it was impossible not to admire the workmanship in it.  The coat had been knitted in shades of green fairisle.  But the best bit was that the creator had then slightly felted it and used the wrong side of the knitting as the right side.  The evenness of the floats was amazing and looking at the construction of it, I think it was knitted in the the round, steeked and fringed as there was a fringe all the way up either side of the front opening and round the neckline.  Thinking about it now, I wish I'd bought it - if it's still there next time I go into town I might just do that.  Simply because of the complexity of it.

Colour is complicated

It's only when you start to think about it in detail and with regards to complementary and analogous and colour theory and wheels that you suddenly realise that colour can be so complicated.  So when you're sitting there agonising over which colours go well and look good perhaps you should just throw the whole lot in a heap and see which ones look the business?  Maybe I'm agonising too much and should have more confidence in my ability to choose well.

I received in the post today, Color By Kristin - which despite the bad spelling  :)  is a very good book.  She isn't afraid to use bright colours in her knitting and nearly everything in the book is knitted in the round and steeked.  There's a jacket in there, that I absolutely love - and I'm so tempted to go through my stash and see if I can scrape together enough yarn to make my own version.

She uses wool/mohair mixes but most of my stash, I have to admit, is more likely to be Acrylic.  I do have some wool skeins and some silk and mohair, but not enough to make a jacket for me.

Anyway big question to all of you lovely people - I'm currently knitting Alex a dinosaur jacket out of Freedom Spirit which is going to be felted once finished but before it's sewn up.  How do I stop the edges of the pieces from rolling over in the machine and felting to themselves?  Any help with this one would be much appreciated as the yarn has cost me the best part of £25 and I really don't want to ruin it at the last stage. 

Always look on the bright side of life ... da da, da da da da da da da da

I've been feeling very sorry for myself since last Thursday morning.  Actually last Wednesday evening to be precise.  The story starts at work Wednesday watching the most incredible snow blizzards I've ever seen through the windows - in-between processing benefit claims.  Now our international sisters (and brothers) especially in America, will probably be thinking - well that happens all the time here.  But for us, in the very South-East of England, snow blizzards are .... well non-existent.  Until recently.  So a bizarre and unusual event indeed.

So all day long we had these blizzards and gradually we were getting something like 5 inches of snow building up.  It was powdery and drifting badly as well.  Come five o'clock and colleagues who had left previously were phoning in to say get out of there quick as the ice and snow is making the roads increasing impassable.  So I left a five to find my car under it's impressive cap of snow.  Having located said car and verified that it was indeed mine I set to with my hopelessly inadequate scraper to remove some of the drift off it.  My other half, meantime, had given up waiting for me at the college where he works just down the road and round the corner, and walked round to the council.  Good thing he did. 

Now normally it takes 20 minutes tops to get home - it took three hours most of which was spent within a stones throw of the council buildings stuck in the traffic.  To make matters more interesting, the radio sheepishly informed us that the roads had not been gritted !!!!   What Kent County Council caught napping???  Again and again and again ...  So we'd sit there for ten minutes, someone would get fed up and turn round and we'd all shuffle forward.  But while we were waiting our tyres froze to the road, so when we moved off the car jerked and skidded with the effort - adds to the fun I suppose although when you're trying to avoid sideswiping a very expensive looking Jaguar that someone has inconsiderately left parked at the side of the road, it tends to redefine fun  :)

Then I managed to flag down an army officer on a pushbike who told me that nothing was coming up or down the hill as a bus had skidded sidewards and blocked it.  So we had to turn round, go down a slightly more lethally icy side road and find another route home. 

Now the problem with Folkestone is that which ever way you go to get out you have to go up or down a steep hill as some clown decided to build the place in a valley by the sea.  So we shuffled through the roads skidding and ricocheting off the kerbs, until we found a hill to go down.  No one was coming up - they were trying but getting nowhere.  We went down one car at a time, braking gently and crossing everything in the hopes that we'd get down at least the correct way up.  Several vehicles had already overturned in other parts of the county.

Suffice to say we did make it down in one piece, and actually facing the right way, which I considered to be a bonus under the circumstances.  The rest of the journey took three quarters of an hour and was made with a visibility of pretty much nothing - good job I know the route so well  :)

Thursday morning I woke with the mother of all sore throats and aching shoulders and arms which I put down to stress from the previous evenings gentle drive in the country.  But it didn't go away, and it got worse.  Then my temperature soared and I spent the next two days in bed trying to get a doctor to come and see me.  But they will only come out if you're elderly or terminally ill.  I told them I was feeling elderly but apparently that doesn't count.  So eventually I managed to drag myself to the nearest out of hours GP who diagnosed Tonsillitis, upper respiratory tract infection and infected glands - and then gave me some antibiotics.  So I'm taking these and the temperatures have evened themselves out.  I no longer feel like I'm constantly swallowing a box.  But now I've got a cough you could clean drains with - and everytime I lie down - I cough .....  and cough and cough and cough ... until I sit up again - which is slightly disturbing my sleep.  So now what?

Problem is I'm diabetic, so I can't just go out and buy myself a cough medicine which will help me to sleep.  Way things are going, I'd better take my pillows to work with me on Thursday  :)  But I'm going to see my GP later on this morning so hopefully she will give me something strong enough to knock an elephant out - then maybe I'll get an hour or so sleep tonight  :)

Oh dear that is really feeling sorry for myself isn't it?  But at least I'm still able to knit - in-between coughing fits.  So I'm better off than our poorly sisters with poorly hands - get well soon you lot.  I read somewhere that knitting is considered to be excellent therapy so that's all the excuse you need.

Anyway I think I've felt sorry for myself enough now - and there's two nice packages of yarn and fibre samples from Fibreholics to drool over. 

Offline for a while

We are moving on Saturday 19 December and because the previous tenants haven't cancelled their phoneline with another company, BT have said that we're going to be offline until early January  :(  So please don't think I've left the planet  :)

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Sample Boxes

There's an online group called fibreholics at www.thefibreholics.co.uk who are a group of spinners and dyers.   I don't know how many of you know about PhatFibres - the American etsy shop which have limited boxes of samples of different yarns and fibres produced by small companies and individuals.  If you are lucky enough to get one of their boxes - I have, but you have to be on the ball as soon as the sale starts - you receive this box full of usable samples of fibres and yarns.

Well fibreholics is a UK based version of the same thing although slightly better organised I think.  You can buy a large box or a small box of 20g samples of yarn and/or fibres produced by the members in the group.  Boxes are either yarn or fibres - but there is nothing stopping you from buying one of each which is what I have just done.  Again it's a limited offer and if they're out of stock you have to wait until the next round.

The point about this is that you receive these samples - 20g enough to make a small item - potentially very useful for C&G sampling, but you also get discounts and coupons in the mailing for the member businesses.  So if you want to try something a little luxurious but don't want to fork out a lot of money in case it isn't suitable - this is ideal.

I have had a Phat Fibre box from America but of course all the coupons etc are for American shops which is not really ideal for someone in the UK.  Having a UK based group doing the same thing is perfect.  And feeds the need  :)

Cheerio M1 and welcome M2.

Well M1 is packed up and posted and M2 arrived this morning full of oodles of exciting things to do and learn.  The book that Loraine mentions in it, The Colour Eye, although out of print, can be bought through Amazon for 2p plus P&P which probably brings it nearer to £4 but still worth it I think.

I've loved every inch of M1, even if I haven't been able to give it as much time as I wanted, and I am really fired up and ready to go with colour theory.  Loraine, that huge bag of yarns, is that for colour wrapping?  This is where the Bazaar magazine - which I must say I find bizarre, will come in useful for the colour matching and inspiration.

Shows how bad I am, I quickly glanced through the module this morning before we went into town, and as I was making my way to the sorting office to pick up a parcel, I noticed a woman in front of me who was wearing a striped top.  Oatmeal base with turquoise, peach, green and black well spaced stripes.  And I found myself analysing it.

My local art shop doesn't supply Berol paint - he was rather off about it - so I'm off to trawl the Internet.

Somebody's pinched September ....

I closed my eyes for a minute and September is all but gone !!!   I'm actually having to think about Christmas knits now.  So I decided to knit my brother a traditional Aran, using a marled grey yarn.  You wouldn't believe the kerfuffle I have had trying to find just the right shade of marl.  Gave up in the end and settled for a flecked grey yarn from Ebay, which is suitable for the purpose and I think will make a nice sweater for him.  He's a little old fashioned, my brother, so wild and wonderful colours are out.  He likes cables ???  OK, cables it is then.  Says a lot that the pattern I'm using is from my bootfair book on traditional sweaters.

Anyway, my help question is - I can't think of more than three yarn finishes for my wool study.  Boucle, crepe and slubbed.  Can anyone drop me a few more please?  I'd be really grateful.

I've recently joined a knit along on Ravelry - the Sheknits bag KAL #2.  I've got my yarn, Cascade 220 and Alpaca - yummy - in black, red, grey and marled, and now I'm ready for the first clue, which should be emailed on Wednesday.  Can't wait.  The bag will be knitted from parts of the pattern sent to us weekly, for six or seven weeks and then felted.  Once it's finished I'll post a photo.

I'm also on the list for Debbie Abrahams blanket KAL - watch this space.

Day 5 and ....

Drusillas Animal Park in Sussex - sort of inbetween Eastbourne and Brighton.

We ummed and arred about driving this far, but it was so worth it. We even managed to get there fairly uneventfully for us. Didn't get lost or break down.

Drusillas is perfect if your children are under 12 I think. Huge amounts of things for them and adults to explore and interact with. The zoo is very cleverly laid out so that visitors are channeled through the exhibits towards the play areas and cafes at the end.

Animal Spotting books were handed out, and the idea was as you saw each animal you found the corresponding stamping station and stamped your book with a big red tick. The last thing in the book was Thomas the Tank Engine and you got a sticker for that once you'd had a ride. And that's what I forgot to mention as probably the main attraction of the zoo for its younger visitors - a passenger sized Thomas the Tank Engine along with Annie and Clarabelle his carriages (plus one more carriage) Much to Alex's delight the Fat Controller was there to personally oversee the loading and unloading of passengers.

The animals at the zoo are mainly small mammals, farm animals and birds. From cows, goats and pigs to marmosets of all shapes and sizes, lemurs, meerkats, flamingos, owls, Penguins, a Serval and so on. I've already managed to forget the names of most of the animals there but they were all cute. And Llamas - don't forget the Llamas.

Probably my favourite animal though, was the tiny baby Meerkat tottering along looking as though if he slowed down his oversized head would topple him over. For such a tiny animal though, he had a fair turn of speed although I'm not convinced he was in full control of his legs. I think he just aimed himself at where he hoped to end up at.

One of the Meerkats had us in stitches as he'd obviously decided that the top of the infra-red lamp was the best and most comfortable place to be.

I've got a fair few, actually 148, photos of today but not a lot of the animal ones are all that good as I was shooting through glass most of the time and the reflections tend to blur the shots. I did manage to get a reasonable shot of the Fennec Fox with his huge ears - spot the difference. Now one of these cute Foxes is in actual fact Alex in disguise and the other one is the real Fennec Fox. Have you spotted which is which yet? There were loads of these photo sets around the zoo and I think they made for a much more special experience for the young visitors.

The zoo did have several shops dotted around, and I managed to restrict my spending to a Drusillas Park cuddly Penguin for Amber and Alex's name made up of alphabet cards with various Thomas the Tank Engine characters on for Alex. Unfortunately the one thing that blew that completely out of the water was the dedicated Thomas shop at the end !!!!! Needless to say the old plastic had to come out for that one.

We left the park round about 3.30pm and headed off to look for the Long Man as I'd seen a brown sign pointing to him not far from the zoo on the way in.

After grabbing the above photo of him, we decided to explore the lane we were in and quite by accident came upon some lovely tea gardens offering cream teas. Well we couldn't very well ignore that could we? So at 4pm we had tea in a Victorian garden - with the wasps.

There was a little gift shop at the tea gardens, and I bought myself an old fashioned wasp trap - we get loads of the little buggers in our kitchen. It's basically a glass rounded jar with a dimpled base with a hole in it. The idea is that you smear jam around the rim of the lower hole, the wasps fly in and become trapped. Not sure what stops them from flying out again, but it works - so I'll give it a try.

After tea we pootled off back to the A259 through Eastbourne - well round Eastbourne - we're not that daft - and past Pevensey to pick up the A27 back towards Hastings. We then proceeded to spend 2 hours stuck in traffic jams which melted away suddenly with no indication of what had caused them !!! Don't you hate it when that happens. Where do all the cars go? Is there some sort of genteel black hole that scoops up all the cars in front of you, when it somehow senses you have reached the end of your tether and are about to hotwire the carhorn to the brake peddle? Does a hole open up and swallow them all? Or are they some form of hallucination created by the local tourist board in order to persuade you to pull over and spend even more money at the local Beefeater? That's what we did in the end, and despite the beefburgers and fries at lunch and the cream tea at 4 we still found room for Rump Steak and chips (OH) and minted lamb with dauphinoise potatoes for me - which was delicious. That, with added drinks and sausages and chips for Alex who at that time was hyper from the jam he'd scoffed at the cream tea, cost us £41. So an expensive day it was although, as far as I'm concerned, totally justifiable.

Anyway that's it for this year. We're planning the odd away day at weekends for the rest of the summer and beginning of the Autumn, but nothing on the scale of this last week. Which I am sure is probably very good news to our bank accounts.

Row, row, row your boat gently down the canal ...

Today, we both decided we needed a rest day as the last three days of frenetic up-ing and downing have reduced us both to whimpering wrecks.

However, in the true tradition of our family on holiday, we didn't just doss around at home all day. For lunch we toddled off to Pizza Hut in Ashford to partake of their all you can eat buffet - which probably would have been better if the icecream machine hadn't conked out.

Ivan packed away 11 pieces of pizza with me coming in second at 6, Amber at 4 (she's slacking) and Alex at 2 and a cup full of sweeties from the defunct icecream machine. (Ok, ok I did have profiteroles as well)

The plan after that was to come back to Hythe and visit the Royal Military Canal whereon flocks of ducks have learned that Alex can bomb them with bread extremely accurately.

But this time I had a cunning plan (Milord) and Ivan found himself in the driving seat (so to speak) of a rowing boat whilst Alex and I pursued the ducks on their own ground or water.

What you need to know here is that Ivan hasn't rowed for probably 30 odd years and the last time was in a canoe. So we spent a lot of the time spinning gently round, to the amusement of onlookers on the bank. We proceeded up the canal in a series of zigzags and collisions with the bank, the bridges, other boats, reeds and tree branches. The only reason we didn't mow down the ducks and swans is that they were obviously very used to inept humans bumbling around and skillfully kept out of harms way whilst staying near enough to field any food that accidentally found it's way into the water.

Further down the canal a lone Cormorant posed on the bank for photos from his adoring public before diving into the water and proceeding to keep ahead of us at all times despite Ivan's frantic efforts to catch him up.