Annie teaches Sue to Cable without a Cable Needle

I am so lucky to have met a cyberpal today: Annie Modesitt has shown me (and some other really lovely ladies) how to do the twist without extra equipment. She is such a fun and effective teacher that we all acquired some very useful skills and in an extremely friendly atmosphere. Thanks so much, Annie, for sharing so much with us.

Update

I'm still not too well: an infection with cellulitis on the end of my nose wrote off much of the past weekend. Happily it is now resolving but my gut doesn't like the antibiotics and I've been somewhat over-purged of late. GP recommends Imodium and natural yoghurt, so that's what I'm currently taking in addition to everything else.

I'm hoping to venture out this afternoon. I'd hoped to attend Annie Modesitt's classes at Fyberspates this past weekend and had to revise those plans as the journey would have been too much for my very depleted energy levels. However, I managed to get a place on the afternoon class she's running today at Get Knitted (up the road in Bristol), so I'll be thrilled to meet her at last. I've been following her blog for ages and she's a charismatic and inspirational knitting designer.

This outing will hopefully also allow me to pick the necessarymaterials up for my next knitting project, as I finished my Barcelona (my Mona Strickt) socks last evening. They are pictured in the photos accompanying this post. I'm thinking of knitting Glampyre's new pattern, Mirth, which looks to be a very wearable shawl, as well as an interesting knit. I'm not yet sure which weight I'll decide to make, but that means that the options are many and exciting.

I'm going to try out an on-line class shortly too, on http://stefaniejapel.ning.com/. I'm very excited about this means of delivering classes. I hope to take the one on recycling t-shirts into yarn, due to start next month. Should be fun.

The reality at the moment is that I'm spending most of every day in bed, doing very little, because I'm so run down post-flu. I hope to be sufficiently recovered in ten days' time to spend a day learning how to extract indigo dye from woad and other plants at the University of Bristol's Botanic Garden - a belated birthday present from my family. So it's keep on with the resting up. At least fixing a meal last evening was survivable without any new ailments occuring!

Time flies....

In the past month I've spent a wonderful fortnight in Austria and then a less joyful period doing battle with Swine Flu and Tamiflu, so it's not been a very productive time in terms of things to show. DH had to rush off to Istanbul to see his mother, who had managed to start a week's holiday there with a fall and a broken hip, no fun when you're 87, and he took my Lady of the Forest shawl with him as a gift for her - so I'll be making that again, for me, before too long. I knew it would be well received and it was my way of sending a hug as I couldn't give her one in person. I've felt very cheated by this illness, as it meant I missed both Festival of Quilts and Fibrefest, with opportunities to meet friends real and virtual, as well as doing a bit of shopping...

However, I've been doing a lot of thinking about where I'm coming from, creatively, and I hope that soon I'll be able to leap from my sick bed and start putting some of these thoughts into action.

I've just come across an excellent quote in my latest companion book, "The Mermaid's Child" by Jo Baker:

"He that would see marvels, it behoves him sometimes to wend out of his way."
- Sir John Mandeville, Mandeville's Travels.

So here's to plenty of off-road wending in the near future!

Summer Retreat at Urchfont

I recently spent five days at Urchfont, with thirteen friends who are teachers and practitioners of textile art in many of its forms. It was a brilliant time. We had no domestic demands or duties to distract us so could concentrate on developing our ideas, cementing our friendships and learning from one another.

Here are Gill and Penny busy at their workstations.

While Nita, Liz, Sara and Dorothy catch up in their different ways.

Dorothy kindly modelled a protoype t-shirt I'd made for me to evaluate.

While Sal dyed this fabric in glorious autumnal shades, and we developed it into a reversible top - with either a waistband or


a cowl neckline. Would you have guessed it began life as a tube of car-wash cloth?! Of course, Sal could make just about anything look elegant!

Finished Knitting the Lady of the Forest

But the blocking awaits, so here is just a litte taste of its lovely indigo silkiness.

Dyeing the Blues

Tiggy Rawling ran an absolutely brilliant weekend workshop at Wimbourne's Walford Mill and I was one of six lucky participants.

We were exploring both shibori techniques and indigo dyeing, and thankifully the weather was just warm enough to make this feasible. We were accomodated in a huge gazebo behind the craft gallery, thus enjoying fresh air and providing entertainment to visitors to the mill and to the excellent bistro there (which served me delicious crab salads for my lunch on both days).

On the right, above, are two pole-wrapped pieces while the lefthand sample is the traditional woodgrain pattern.

On the right above is the Japanese Larch pattern, worked freehand rather than to pre-marked patterns.

This piece of cotton velvet was concertina-pleated and then held firmly with a twist in the dye vat. This photo shows it during the process of oxidisation - the gorgeous greens disappear and gradually turn blue, can be seen below.

I loved using indigo, and plan to make up a vat at home later this week so I can do some more dyeing.

A bit of patchwork

 

I made this quiltlet (about A2 sized) for our village curate, who wanted something like as part of a story to be told at a christening. I enjoyed it and really must do more patchwork soon.