This Old House

I live in a very old house. Knowledgeable folk suggest it dates from about 1720. This old house has very old doors, and these old doors create some mighty drafts.

As the purpose of this blog is to help me remember what I spend my caged minutes on, I would like to wax lyrical about door curtains. Since I got my sewing machine 2 years ago, I have managed to make 5 door curtains to help keep the house snug and warm in the winter. It's a very ordinary pass time, but one with practical purpose and benefits that I see and feel every day, so I feel I should be justifiably proud of these door curtains.

Most of the door curtains are made from old window curtains. Inevitably they are too short, so I have to join them, which I do with a kind of decorative pleat. It is a big heavy job, especially as I line some with a second layer of curtain material, and in one case an old wool blanket. Here is my favourite fabric that I have used for a door curtain. I estimate it takes 3 hours from start to finish to make a door curtain, so in all that accounts for 900 caged minutes spent on this little enterprise.

I couldn't finish without a poem about curtains... (this blog is also rekindling my love of poetry). This is by William Cowper:

Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast,
Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round,
And, while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn
Throws up a steamy column, and the cups,
That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each,
So let us welcome peaceful ev'ning in.

Where did you get that hat?

Goodkharmabunny loaned me her knifty knitter, and it all went fuzzy from then on. It's not sophisticated, it's not difficult, but it is fun (and very quick!). The knifty knitter is a round loom. You wind the yarn into a double layer of "stitches", pull the bottom one over the top and away you go.

A hat craze struck. There were not enough caged minutes in a day! It started with a very special hat for my 4 year old. He loves bright colours, chose the yarn himself, and even helped me make the pom-pom. The tassel was supposed to be part of an "either or" conversation, but he insisted on both! On the day it was completed he wore it from 8:00am until bedtime!

Then things started to become serious!!

There were hats for girls... (oh no, that pink thing again!)







There were hats for football fans... (guess the team?)





And other members of the family did not escape either ... (does making one for myself make this craze seem any the less desperate?). The knifty knitter has now been returned, but no prizes for guessing what Father Christmas will be bringing to me and mine this year!

To finish off, I have to say that when I was thinking of a title for this post, I came across this quote from my poetic hero Louis MacNeice (see "about this blog") "Sit on your arse for fifty years and hang your hat on a pension". I'm not sure a cottage industry based on kniftily knitted hats would do much to fund my pension, but it is a thought!

Handbags and Glad Rags

Last night a new handbag was born. I have to admit I have rather a thing for handbags. This one is the first I have made, and I am rather pleased with the results.

The body is knitted on a "nifty knitter" round loom using Elle Plume (purple rhapsody), it is lined using some pink satin, and the handle is woven on weaving sticks from some linen yarn (hand dyed by goodkharmabunny).

Obviously my previous comment about not working with pinks was a great piece of self delusion!

It is a very tense moment when you make your first post to your first blog! Given the stated purpose of this blog, I feel as though I should post something about a completed item, something from the past, something I have actually DONE! However, I have no photos (yet) of any of those things, and so I shall start this blog with my current piece of inspiration.

This is a photo that I took at Jersey zoo, and then modified in PhotoShop (my first go at doing such a thing). It was originally flamingos, and I hope that the essence remains, and that it has been overlayed with some of the characteristics of Dali's floppy watches. This is now the starting point for a textile collage that I want to do. A challenge as I don't usually work with pinks!