Small may be beautiful but its not legal in some places

Great article in The New Statesman about provincial authorities
insisting that clothes are made in bigger sizes.

Discuss.

People don't really change do they?

Look what I have just found lurking in a bag from over 20 years ago! Knitted squares, one of them unfinished which is amusing as I believe the pattern came from a fragment of some knitting in a museum.
As far as I can remember, all but two of the squares are from Richard Rutt, then Bishop of Leicester's, HISTORY OF HANDKNITTING. I may have found the two eagles in a book of heraldic symbols and plonked them onto squared paper, I can't really remember. The date with names and a date is Steve and me and the date we were married, all those millions of years ago.
And finally... the face / mask is a newspaper advert for headache pills!!! I was messing about with bits and pieces even then. Not yet freeform but definitely not just knitting endless pullovers in stocking stitch. Maybe I should buy some more fawn, maroon and grey-y green cheapo yarn and finish the blanket and maybe include some sanquhar patterns.

Two days to go

Till we're off to Cornwall - yippee!

Black Leather Spinner

When I happened to remark that my spinning wheel needed repairing, someone down in the West Country was afraid I had been mistreating it. Don't panic! With the aid of piece from a black leather belt I'm able to spin again. Hope I haven't forgotten how.

New IT Diploma for 14-19 year olds

Take a look at the item on the New Statesman website item on a future IT diploma for young people. Here we are all merrily blogging away and we haven't the faintest idea how the html, style sheets, templates etc. are working away behind the scenes. I just had about four attempts to make the words "IT diploma" appear as a link and I'm using the compose mode which is supposed to make all this techy stuff easy. As you can see I'm also having trouble getting my text and images where I want them to be, usually resorting to hitting the space bar a few hundred times. Now what I need is a back to basics course for old has-beens like me.

Laced CROCHET light table by Marcel Wanders (2001)

What do you get when you cross traditional crochet with a modern material like epoxy resin? This stunning crochet light table by Marcel Wanders.

Organic shawl continues to grow . . . .

You didn't know it was a shawl? Neither did I. It just started to evolve into one.


I took it out into the garden to photograph it and a robin found it all very interesting.

It's freezing cold here although it has been a bright, sunny, happy day. I have the organishawl draped around my neck and shoulders and it is very comforting - I can see, or do I mean feel, why scarves are sometimes called comforters. The organishawl doesn't want to grow at the moment. Are your creations like that? Do they co-operate sometimes and at other times behave in a very truculant way?

Listening to Frankenstein by Anthony and the Johnsons

on my headphones again and again and again. As he sings his voice cuts into me cleanly and sharply, painful and pleasureable at the same time. I am not in my body but slipping away into nothingness. If I was depressed this could be music to commit suicide to, instead it neutralises and numbs. The music numbs and yet it hurts to listen. I can’t breathe….

"it just growed..." or The Joys of Freeform

I had this piece of knitting that was unravelling top and bottom at a rate of knots... I hadn't had a fix of FREEFORM for a while and so.... it happened!
If you are feeling stressed out and unloved and overworked and fed up...
grab a whole load of needles and hooks and bundles and scraps and cones and balls of fibrey stuff and just let it all go....
There's nothing like it. Just make sure it doesn't take over your life or possess your soul. I had a narrow escape once but that's another story...