Last chapter - Bringing up to date

Have also been dyeing. I am taking part in a round robin on a yahoo group I belong to. The first two pictures are fabric that came to me space dyed. I struggled for weeks about what to do with it. I eventually decided - form expereince with my own pieces that a second space dye was in order to enrich the piece. The photos are not good - they just do NOT capture the colours etc. You just have to trust me that the results are gorgeous:) The fabric has been sent on it's way for the next layer.



The above lot are dyeing a rainbow - with my niece - don't they look gorgeous deep colours. They are wet in the pics above. However, I believe I may have got the short straw with the fabric - everything has come out relatively pale - and I believe the fabric may have been polycotton - but sold as pure cotton for dyeing. Got it mail order - lots of it!

Unfortunately I don't have time at the moment to try a test of dyeing a variety of other cottons I have and including this percale - to see what the result might be. I know of no other way to know whether the fabric has any polyester in it.

Disappointing to say the least. I do like pale colours - but for this exercise ie. dyeing metres and metres for a course I'm doing in October - this is far from a good result. Also a huge waste of dye - cos obviously it washed out!!!!!

Anyhow - most recently. Yesterday my sis and I visited the yummy yarn store 'Stash Yarns' in Upper Richmond Road - Putney. We went - cos I hadn't been yet - and also cos I will be an aunty again soon - 5 weeks time ish - and an aunt for the 4th time. My sis wanted some dk yarn for a friend to knit her some baby things. i don't have time at the moment - for anything other than a pair of booties or socks. i am behind with a few things including one very special project for someone else.

Anyhow sis bought some mission falls cotton - which is really nice - in pure white and also some rooster almerino in a lovely soft greenish blue. Also a mixed yarn hank to knit a scarf for herself in yummy shades of green.

Me - I got some sock yarn - a german one and a fleece artist one, a copy of interweave knits funky mag - knit scene, and one of those knitting row/stitch counters I keep meaning to buy... I tried to use an old one that fits on the end of the needle the other night - horrible nasty little thing...

Good to finally meet the two ladies in the shop and also to find an old friend sitting there - Jan and I met at Ally Pally last year. Good to catch up again.

We had a few bits to do in Putney - and as we were walking to the bus stop I asked if sis minded if we popped into the Sewing Room - a sewing shop in Lacy Road. I wanted to talk to the lady there about software for my new machine. I had understood correctly that the software is more or less compatible - the restriction is that it must be able to save designs in the file format that suits your machine. This is good - we had a long chat - she gave me some brochures - but it will have to wait a while - as it will be a bit costly - and as it doesn't work on Mac I will need a basic laptop for it.

Also they have some yarn in the shop - they have some adrafil and some gorgeous fine alpaca from garnstudio. Yes that's the other yarn in the pic that hasn't yet been explained. I spent ages last night on the net looking through the garnstudio website for the free patterns. You buy your yarn and all the patterns are free - downloadable from the website. What a great idea.


Clarence is the sleepy puss cat. It never fails to amaze me where cats will sleep:) She is my sister's family cat and now 16 years old - bless her.


Well that's enough to be getting on with - more or less up to date. Must go and iron and pack now - YUK!!!!! And TRY AGAIN - to get hold of someone at BA who can tell me if I can currently take my knitting on the plane...

Bringing up to date Chapter 2

Attended Festival of Quilts in mid August. Friends had entries - the only one of which I managed to get a decent picture of was Pam's wrap. Beautifully machine embroidered and beaded.

Leslie Morgan (picture) and Claire Benn of Committed to Cloth (where I attend a class one day a month) were there with the 'virtual studio' - which really is a fab idea. I also got to see one of the fused quilts made by Melody Johnson - whose blog Fibermania - is a must for me each day - I don't manage very well to keep up with all the blogs I'd like to keep up with. This quilt (pic is a closeup) is one of the Matchstick Moon quilts - I adore her sense and use of colour.

I stayed over at one of the hotels at NEC. Nice hotel - but prices for food were a disgrace! I travel a lot on business and have never experienced such high prices for room service meals. But at NEC you are more or less stuck with no options really. The alternative to travel back each day into Birmingham. Did that during the Sewing for Pleasure show back in April - but with the trains etc being almost every weekend 'up the creek' because of engineering works - that becomes almost impossible.

Aside from the food prices it was lovel to stay over and then be able to go along again the next day.

To bring things up to date

I'm off again this week for some intensive iron and steel business workshops for work - to China. I'm told that someone from our Australian office is also organising some touristy stuff fof the weekend that we're there - we might be off to the Great Wall of China. Also need to do more shopping:) I have requests for some pearls and knitting bags - and will be acquiring more of those cute little pin cushions with all the little people round the edge - I would like a couple more - for my different types of pins and one or two people I know would like one too.

I will be away for almost two weeks and want to have this more or less up to date
before then.



I have been to the British Museum - with my friend - who came to stay for a few days back in early August. We love the great Court - and also looked properly at the Parthenon exhibits - which are quite phenomenal.



love folds and pleats - like fortuny work - and have adored the pictures by Burne-Jones - whose pictures are often of garments with goreous folds etc. So I took some close up pics at the BM of the sculptures - as they might be useful for artwork development at some stage.

We also visited the Globe theatre in Southwark - and did the tour which was great.