Sarahmade

Knitting the London skyline has probably been done before but this one takes the form of an Oyster card wallet and it is knitted in the finest merino wool (to keep your oyster card warm).

This is one of the products I am developing to launch an etsy store next year so it is not available yet. I am just working out how quickly I can make it and how much I should charge for it.

Big Ben needs work, as does St Pauls but I’m pretty pleased with the Gherkin.

Please comment if you are interested in being notified when these become available. There may also be a range of other London landmark knitted wallets. Let me know if there are any particular scenes you would like to see.

Thanks to Tom for the knitted skyline idea.

I have never been very lucky in the world of competitions. Once I won a book which they never actually sent me and then I won tickets to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde park on the warmest, rainiest winter day ever so we didn’t go. So I was very very pleased to win a corker of a competition with apartfromtherest.com. They asked for people to submit a holiday photo to their facebook group so I submitted a photo of the best view I have ever seen. It was one of those views that really does just take your breath away and you just have to stand and stare.

If you get a chance, go to the Lofoten Islands in Arctic Norway. The light is amazing, although best go mid-summer for this kind of light. The light won’t be amazing at the moment as there probably is no light – except Northern lights of course – so go anytime. It’s amazing.

So I submitted this photo and I won this, an iPod touch. It’s not something I would have bought but is something that I think will enhance my life. I am enjoying exploring the world of apps and so far I like the spirit level, the bird song identifier and I particularly like the interactive Lonely Planet guides.

I don’t think it’s going to turn me into a gaming freak. I can’t seem to find any games I fancy (any recommendations?). One of the things I have most enjoyed about getting this iPod is designing and knitting a cover for it. I am thinking it might need one for each season.

*

I have lived in London for almost exactly three years now. We only really ever thought it would be two and then perhaps Scotland would be next but the excitement of living here has caught us and we are now hopefully buying a flat. Living in London can be quite intense without you really realising it. Everything is fast, everyone is motivated and there is lots and lots of achievement. You live like that too which is exciting and stimulating and you get a lot done but every so often you see a photo of the countryside or hear of how someone else lives and you unexpectedly get knocked off course and yearn to sit on a hill and look at the view of the sea and just for an hour or so not consume anything.

Yesterday was one of those days. An old colleague from Bristol posted photos of his Autumnal swim in a Cornish rock pool, including the walk through the valley from his home to the beach. It turns out he moved to Cornwall on a whim and now works at the YHA at Lands End. I was so jealous. I wanted to be in Cornwall swimming in the rock pools in October rather than in a flat in Brixton. I then spent the afternoon looking of ways to get to Cornwall and of places to stay. Turns out it’s actually pretty difficult going there for a weekend from London, too far and too expensive without a car.

Then Tom showed me the beautiful houses of Under the Thatch and it opened up a whole new world of possibility. I am thinking of a January/February birthday break and Pont Esgobon looks like it could be the one for me. This photo of toasting crumpets on the wood burning stove from Emma Bradshaw really sold it to me. Luckily I don’t have to wait that long to get some cottage action as I am off to Stroud this weekend with Kate for some knitting and country views.

In the mean time I spent part of my lunchtime today in Cleaver Square, Kennington, one of the earliest formal squares to be laid out in South London (1783 ish). I sat on a sunny bench, listened to Radio 3 and looked at the trees and I didn’t consume anything for about 20 minutes. That will have to do for now.

* Me being remote in Arctic Norway

There is no need to mourn the loss of polaroid anymore. Via the power of the Poladroid you can now see your holiday snaps as polaroids without having to carry the camera with you. I fear my Sunday might disappear playing with this.

Can you work out what it is? Full story in the captions here. More to follow on my Arctic adventure.

I spent the morning at Cotswold Woollen Weavers which I think might have been made for me. They specialise in beautiful woven fabrics, stone carving and they also have a museum. The best thing about them is the bundles of offcuts which vary in price from £3.50 to £8.

I bought some muted wool, some herringbone weave and some beautiful silk. I am going to make a patchwork blanket with the wool (left) and I think the red herringbone (bottom) will be perfect for the Christmas decorations I have in mind for the family heirloom this year. There is so much potential in this pile.

I have finally found out who made these incredible images. I first saw them on the wall of a small bakery in Riviere du Loup in Quebec. The woman said they were from a language teaching book and she used them when she was a child to learn English. They are by Albert Filteau and Charles Villeneuve and the children in the book are called John and Mary. I have had some postcards made (for personal use) of the nicest ones.

The scans are courtesy of Pierrette’s picasa album.

An increase in craft activity over the last few months has led to growing amounts of piles and bags of stuff around the flat. A pile for craft club, one for printing, one for knitting. I started getting stressed when the piles merged and I couldn’t find anything so I decided to spend some time organising and colour coding. It went well, apart from the extended periods of trance like states looking at storage solutions on ebay. More on that later (if I win).

Two boxes, one for wool and one for all the other bits.

My new cotton and embroidery thread tin.

Button jars.

My material stack.

An old laundry bag tailored to hold my scraps of material.

The finished organised trunk.

I dream of a craft room but this is it for now.

My blog is over five years old. I was just reading the posts from April 2004 and things really haven’t changed much.

I had a very special birthday this year, not due to me being a special age but due to me getting some very special treatment. It was a surprise trip. I didn’t know where we were going up to the point Tom walked me down the platform at Euston to the last carriage of the Caledonian sleeper train to Fort William. When we got in the cabin I found our luggage which had been deposited in the left luggage the night before, along with a tailor made mini bar and a leaflet describing the weekend activities.

It was one of the most amazing weekends I have ever had. The weather was perfect with full sun and snowy scenery the whole weekend. We had cable car action, walks, drives, lovely food, monuments and castles.

Here are my photos and here are Tom’s photos. I won’t bother giving a full account of the weekend because Tom’s promotional leaflet (pdf) does the job.

It was also good to know that the anticipation reached facebook. Here is just a bit of the response to my live updates in the lead up to getting on the train.

Sarah …waiting to see what happens on Lexington St

Sarah Have been deposited at AMT at Euston station with tea. Told to listen to ipod so can’t hear. Tom disappeared to don’t know where.

There were 51 comments to this update and here are the edited highlights – note most of these people have never met.

Jenny at 20:44 on 06 February
I’m on the edge of my seat/bed……

Jenny at 20:45 on 06 February
Do you think you’re going to Northampton?

Rosemary at 20:46 on 06 February
oooh how exciting!

Penny at 20:47 on 06 February
How exciting!!

Susan at 20:47 on 06 February
Oooh it’s so exciting – only tea though, where’s the champagne? What’s AMT?

Nicola at 20:54 on 06 February
Hurry up, Tom!

Susan at 20:57 on 06 February
This is too exciting for words!

Jenny at 20:58 on 06 February
Maybe Tom’s gone to Inverness and Sarah is going to Northampton!

Susan at 21:03 on 06 February
It’s almost getting too late for Inverness – unless they are just getting on the train, but I think that’s the favourite

Nicola at 21:06 on 06 February
I hope it’s not Watford Junction…

Jenny at 21:12 on 06 February
Hope she lets us know before the train gets to Inverness, we’ll be here all night! Sing song anyone?

There followed lots of discussion on songs about trains and Thomas the Tank Engine in particular

Thanks Tom!

If you are in London I can thoroughly recommend the Introduction to Printmaking course at the Mary Ward Centre. It covers the basics in quite a small workshop but I think this allowed me to see what could be achieved at home without fancy antique presses at my disposal.

(Apologies for the dodgy photography.)

Monoprint

I couldn’t make the first lesson so I don’t actually know what I missed out on but in the second lesson we tackled monoprinting. I was a little bit scared by this method. At first I felt it was more like painting than printing and I didn’t much enjoy making the plate but actually I was quite pleased with the end result. The brief was to find a mono photograph to copy as a monoprint. As I wasn’t there for the first lesson I missed this so had to scratch around looking for images in the classroom and these speed skaters spoke to me for some reason. Although I liked the end result I wouldn’t necessarily pursue this method. For me the essence of printing is being able to reproduce an image and obviously monoprinting is a mono print. This print went missing after the lesson and I didn’t find it again until the final evening when I found it framed on the wall. It had been there for the duration of my course which I was rather pleased with.

Polyprinting

Essentially using a polystyrene sheet to make a printing block. Apparently the polystyrene used to package pizzas is ideal if you can’t find them to buy in an art shop. The brief was to bring in lots of different objects to make marks in polystyrene so it could have been screwdrivers, beads, coins, pencils etc. Anything that would make a mark. I loved it. It was very immediate and I loved the way you could easily cut the poly to make jigsaws so you could ink up different blocks and then fit them all together before printing on the paper. You use quite a light weight paper and just place it on the block and rub over the top with anything flat. Putting it through a press would destroy the block. You can get about ten prints out of each block before it starts to disintegrate.

I made two blocks in the first session of the Tate Modern and the National Theatre. Both brilliantly easy to reconstruct in print. I then also revisited it a couple of times before the end of the course, once when I made my set of Highlands cards to say thanks to Tom for my lovely birthday weekend, and then in the final session when I recreated more London Landmarks – the Gherkin and St Paul’s. If you get a chance to sketch the Gherkin in polystyrene, do it, it’s very satisfactory.

Linoprinting

I think this is my ultimate form of printing. I have tried it in the past but I have never got amazing results. I learnt so much just in one session about how to cut the block and how to print. Iron your lino – that is my key tip. Our homework before this session was to pick an image that was roughly 50% black and 50% white to get some good contrasting sections. I picked an image from the 1930s of an London underground station. We then had to sketch some ideas and start cutting. I found myself without really realising it working in the style of the Grosvenor School of printers. I only realised when my teacher said that really reminds me of Sybil Andrews of the Grosvenor school of printers (or something like that). I had seen some of their work in an exhibition on holiday last year and I have a calendar next to my desk so it has obviously been more of an influence than I realised.

We spent three weeks on lino and I started off with a one colour Victoria line blue print. I then cut into the block to make a second colour plate and printed on top with Bakerloo brown. Again this wasn’t a conscious decision, they just happened to be available but they are the two underground lines I use the most. I must say I am not that into the two colour jobs. It’s not just because I didn’t manage to get the registration right but I just think the one colour prints are the ones I would display on my wall.

Drypoint

Sort of like a poor relation to etching but much less faff so I liked it. The first week was drypoint in cardboard. I did a bit of a roman statue which was ok but I didn’t get his eye right. On the second week we used a metal plate and I decided that this technique was perfect to illustrate contours so I painstakingly drew the contours of the landscape around Fort William. Very roughly. We also used a technique called chine colle where you basically make a collage on the print so you add paper to the plate and back it with bookbinding glue before putting it through the press. I quite liked the result of the old looking print with the new OS colour map.

Collagraph

Making the plate is definitely more fun than printing and I will definitely be keeping the plates (top photo) rather than the prints I made from them. Actually no I will keep the prints but I will turn them over and display the nice blind embossed side rather than the muddy ink mess on the other side. I won’t be pursuing this technique. The plate is made by making a collage from stuff and basically pouring pva glue on it. The plate above is after inking and I decided not to clean it and keep it like that.

So you will definitely be seeing some more lino and polyprinting from me in the future, once I have worked through my to do list.

I am feeling very inspired at the moment. Almost over-inspired which is not that great because I need to focus and bring a little bit of order to all the crafts I want to tackle. I have ideas buzzing around my head but I feel like I need to do a little housekeeping and write a list of all the projects I want to do in the immediate future. Here is an expanded to do list:

Write about my printmaking course

My printmaking course was my Christmas present from Tom and it was a twelve week introduction to the key areas of printmaking. I want to see what I learnt and think about ways I can carry it on at home, before the evening class side of my brain gets taken up by the Creative Textiles course I am starting at the end of April. I also need to edition all my prints and find a place to store them.

Clear out my material trunk

I have an old wicker trunk devoted to my material stash and my sewing machine. There is quite a lot of rubbish in there, stuff I have bought on a whim and will never use. I would like to give it a good clear out so there is always room to put my sewing machine back in after I use it. I have bags of scraps which I do use occasionally so I want to find a way to separate them from the rest. My wool is also stored in there so I need to find a good wool receptacle as I might be using that more with the new course. Perhaps clear boxes in the trunk might work well? While I am at it I will replace the broken hinges.

Finish making Jack’s present

Top secret. Can’t write about it here but it is going to be felt. He is only two and obviously won’t read this but his parents might.

Make more clothes

Going some way to help the material trunk sort out I want to use some lovely cream and brown material I bought a year ago to make a skirt. At the time I used a pattern to try and make the skirt but I just couldn’t work out how to do it. I have never been so frustrated by craft project ever and therefore haven’t approached clothes making for a year. Yesterday I got a burst of inspiration and confidence and used an existing skirt to make a template and then a skirt from some red cord I had in the trunk. I was pretty pleased with myself and have realised that the possibilities of copying existing clothes are (almost) endless.

Make a merit badge

Another slightly top secret project. Can’t tell you what it is for but it will be a little embroidered patch in the style of the old Brownies patches. My new love = embroidery.

Build a craft library

There is a world of information about crafts out there and I want to collect it. I have got shelves of books that I never read so I’m going to begin the process of taking those to charity and collecting some useful craft reference books. I have a few to add to the library already like my pride and joy win on ebay – Lino Cutting and printing by Claude Flight.

That will do for now.

We did a bit of gardening today and I made my first ever window box wigwam for the sweet peas. Hopefully I will be able to have nice sweet pea flower displays throughout the summer, if I train them well enough.

I am going to make these lovely eggs but I need ideas for things I can use as the pattern. I will use leaves etc like the picture here but I’d like to try other things. So far I have thought of cutting letters and shapes from acetate…but what else?

I lost my library card and when I went to get a new one they didn’t just give me a standard card but they gave me this keyring version too. It’s one of the most useful things ever. Unlike my keyring thermometer which only ever gives me the temperature of my pocket (usually about 31 degrees).

I have started counting my life.

Any suggestions for things I can chart?

I have been thinking about print a lot lately. I couldn’t not really because of my job and because of my printmaking course but also outside of this I have been going back to basics and thinking about typewriters. My mum found her old one in the attic and I am going to clean it up and give it a new ribbon. I have visions of it sitting on a desk in my future craft room but at the moment I had to smuggle it into the flat (we don’t have room for a typewriter) and it is stored by my side of the bed.

Today I took one step back from primitive print and thought again about writing. This is because I found the beautiful fountain pen that Tim and Katy gave me at their wedding (I wrote all of their invitations). I also found some brown ink so I combined the two and started writing. This afternoon I started to transcribe a letter that my Grampy Whitmore sent to Nanny Whitmore on 23 December 1942 while he was in the army in North Africa. Next week I am going to be searching the regimental archives at work to see if I can find out where they were exactly.

Writing out love letters is a lovely way to spend an afternoon…. “My Own Sweetheart…”