Last post of the year

Paper-cutting

I've always fancied having a go at paper-cutting but thought it might be too fiddly for someone as clumsy as me. Then an email dropped into my inbox inviting me to join a 3 day course in a gallery a few miles from home. It's a quirky little gallery almost in the middle of nowhere and I came across it by accident when I was out running when it had just opened 10 years ago.

The Black Shed Gallery is part a small group of old farm buildings which have been converted into different business units. Kenton, the gallery owner and curator also runs a picture-framing business from the gallery.

Now for the paper-cutting.  The short course was taught by Ian Penney who, I found out, lives in a neighbouring village! His work is extraordinary so please click on his name to see some of his amazing work on his website. His current exhibition is entitled 'Galapagos' and features pieces inspired by the travels of Charles Darwin on the Beagle. You can see some examples on the Black Shed gallery page until February but I took a few photos of his other work:

Imagine how patient you have to be to cut out all those individual leaves

Just look at the writing.  He cut it so finely and neatly!

The shadows form part of the pattern in this charming piece

Well I just had to sign up to have go now didn't I!

Each session was 2 hours long and the time went in a flash because it was so absorbing. Ian taught us all the basic skills we'd need and then it was over to our own imaginations. I really liked the idea of some writing but felt it was too advanced for a complete beginner so decided on a Christmas theme complete with a rabbit (bunnies frequently make an appearance in my craft work).

Once we'd drawn our chosen design we had to copy it onto paper. I dithered between green and red, both Chritmassy colours, but settled on a jolly shade of red.

 

Then it was time to start cutting and that was really nerve-wracking at first. I couldn't stay right until the end of the final session so Ian went through the mounting process with me and gave me the necessary pins to do it myself (gulp!).

When I'd finished my first round of cutting I then went back and tidied it up a bit 'cos my hand had been rather wobbly and hesitant when I started it but I grew in confidence as time went by. I used my patchwork-cutting board which was perfect for the task. It did take a while to get used to the feel of the scalpel and I found it strange to begin with, especially as I have shaky hands.

So here is my Christmas bunny just waiting to be mounted in his frame. I'm quite pleased with him as a first attempt and I've already chosen some more paper to explore paper-cutting in more detail.

I nearly forgot Yoda!

Forgetful, I am.

I had an email from my running friend Kirsty, who's appeared on here many times and will definitely be making another appearance in 2020 as we have a cunning plan bubbling away until Summer! She wanted something to cheer up our lovely friend Gemma who was really down in the dumps and had lost her little Yoda keepsake.

"Could you crochet one for her?" asked Kirsty.

Well of course I could so I scoured the internet for a suitable pattern that wasn't too big and came across this free amigurumi pattern on Ravelry. Perfect I thought, and rummaged through my stash. I showed Kirsty many different colour choices and we settled on some leftover Rowan Cotton Glace.

Shelley decided I needed her guidance

She helped throughout the whole process!

I used some old beads as I didn't have any safety eyes. I didn't give him much hair as putting it across the back of his head made him look like a Monk so I went for some of his stuffing stitched on using Kid Silk Haze. I stuffed him with some old pillow filling.

Super-cute pattern, although fiddly in parts as you'd expect, and Gemma loves the end result. He went for his first adventure as soon as she received him.

He now sits on her dashboard and goes to marathons with her

Tempus Fugit (Part ii)

I have done very little knitting or crochet in the last few weeks as my hands are too sore and can't cope with both gardening and crafting.  Then I realised that it would soon be a friend's 100th marathon celebrations and I wasn't able to go so I wanted to make her something as a memento.  She's had an amazing journey to this point in her running life, pushing herself to the limit and churning out 10 marathons in 10 days last year (wow!) and although it's been really tough at times she battled through like the star that she is.

Lorraine in her 100 marathon club vest having just completed her 100th marathon seen here with her proud parents. 

The next day she gave her new vest its first marathon outing just to prove how awesome she is!

What to make her was an easy choice - a crochet star to celebrate her being a star herself!

But what colours should I choose?  I know she wears a lot of black and grey but didn't know what her favourite colours are so I emailed her boyfriend who hasn't yet been well-trained in these matters!  Bless him though, he went away, looked around her home and came back with "pink for bedlinen, orange, yellow, white for flowers" but said she doesn't have an "in general" favourite colour.  I chuckled.

So, happy, jolly colours it was then and I chose another of Heidi Bear's joyful creations.

You make 10 diamond shaped versions of the African Flower motif, 5 for each side, then sew them together.  

I joined the first side without blocking 'cos I was in rush but they were quite concave and I gave the motifs for the next side a light blocking with steam before joining.

The first side settled down nicely after a light steaming.

I changed the colours around for the second side.

This time I blocked them before joining.  To be honest it didn't really make any difference in the end.

I was doing this indoors on Saturday and it was baking hot.  Tilly decided to flop outside on the sunbed but I had to bring her in as she was getting overheated, silly girl!

The 2 sides were joined using double crochet (UK terms), leaving just one side of a diamond open.

Then I added the stuffing (not too full) and fiinished off.

I was going to fix a sparkly star to either side of the centre but thought they were too small.

So out came the button box for a rummage.  This old biscuit tin was my mums and I remember it being in her sewing cabinet when I was a child so goodness knows how old it is!

I couldn't find 2 buttons of the same colour that worked so I selected 2 slightly different ones.  I used a long needle to sew them in place, tightening the thread to produce a satisfying dimple in each side.

I then crocheted a short chain and threaded it through one of the star points, fastening it with a bow so she could remove it easily if she didn't want to hang it.  I think it's rather sweet and I hope she loves it.  I gave it to her boyfriend yesterday at the marathon so hope he remembers to give it to her.

After lunch I solved the problem of Tilly overheating…..

That's better, thanks mum!

.....which reminded me I haven't written about Mrs Duck!  I thought I'd written about it on here but realised I'd only written about it for a local Newsletter (with apologies for those of you who may not have read the Herdman Newsletter yet).  I've had to do a severe cull on the photos because there are absolutely loads of them.

Mrs Duck had been doing a recce on a place to lay her eggs for some time.  I'd seen her behind the garage, under the hedge, by the barn but her place of choice turned out to be one of the large pots at the front of the house right by the front door.

She started to redesign my planting by chucking out anything she didn't want (goodbye bedding plants!) and creating a nice cosy indent in which to lay her eggs.  She duly laid one egg each day and covered them with bits of the conifer she thought I had kindly planted for her use (bye bye poor brown conifer!).  

When she had laid 9 eggs she started to sit on them full-time.

She could only leave them for a short time each day or the eggs would get too cold so she carefully covered them with down plucked from her breast and some conifer (!) to keep them warm whilst she was away.

Each evening when she left them she popped around to the back door to let us know she needed some food so we gave her some mixed corn.  The drake always arrived to keep her company which was really sweet.

Then she'd have a drink and head down to the pond, accompanied by the drake, where she'd take a refreshing dip before flying back up to her brood.

Around that time the weather went crazy and it was unseasonably hot.  Really hot.  I noticed that she was looking rather distressed, opening and closing her beak as if to cool herself down.  Then she started shifting around and flapping her wings a bit and so I had a brainwave; the sun umbrella.

 

Happy duck!  At that stage she'd been siting on them for 7 days.

After she'd been sitting happily for 2.5 weeks I thought everything was OK (apparently they can sit for 2-3 weeks before the eggs hatch) and she'd changed the time she left the nest to morning instead of evening.  But then one morning, when she was away from the nest, I found 2 broken eggs on the driveway.  I hoped they weren't hers but I did worry that the Magpies had discovered her nest.  She seemed to be OK though so I didn't worry unduly.  Later that same day we came back home to find her flapping around in a distressed state.

When she saw us she quietened down and flew back onto her nest whereupon she started poking around in the nest then let out some loud rather distressing quacks and kept calling and calling as if to summon her mate.  After about 10 minutes of calling she gave up and flew off.

I went to look in the nest and confirmed the worst.  All the eggs were gone and I found their remnants scattered all over the garden.

It was is sad after all her care and hard work.  Poor Mrs Duck.

The next morning she came around for breakfast with the drake and for several weeks nothing much happened until a few days ago when I noticed she was searching around for another place to nest.  Maybe she'll be more successful this time........

Next will be our adventure at Firle Place which I mentioned in my previous post.

Now where was I?

Oh crikey, I've just checked back and the last marathon I wrote about was back in May and I've done 6 more since then. I'll keep the marathon updates to a minimum or this could be a very boring post. There was a flurry of them after things settled down a bit for us and I did chuckle when I told a friend yesterday that I'd "only" done 11 marathons so far this year - I may have lost the plot somewhat but I blame the company I keep 'cos I am a mere lightweight compared to some of them!

During my time out of the marathon scene I have of course started to hatch a plan for my next fund-raising venture for Alzheimer's Research UK to be completed whilst I'm still 60 years old but I can't announce it yet as I haven't quite got my head around the enormity of what I'm thinking about (well, having done 52 marathons in 52 weeks I can't just ask people to make donations if I say I'm going to run 2 or 3 marathons during my 60th year now can I?!!!!!).

First I think we need a bit of a crochet update so here's something I finished recently. It's the Lost in Time shawl by Johanna Lindhal. I chose it because it has a very easy and repetitive sequence of stitches/rows and was easily transportable for sitting around in hospital waiting rooms. I found a combination of a variety of newspapers, crosswords, several novels and crochet/knitting helped to while away the hours quite nicely.

I was really naughty though and didn't use yarn from my stash. In my defence, I blame Scheepjes for bringing out their 'Whirl' yarn cakes in some scrumptious colourways. I chose 'Melting Macaron' (767) because it matches the colours in one of my summer frocks.

I don't usually choose triangular shawl crochet patterns as they remind me to the gigantic crocheted things we all used to make in the 1970s to go with our maxi dresses (shudder!) but I ignored my prejudices and just got stuck in.

For the border I wanted a contrast and so used some off-white 4ply cotton yarn I had already. Some people have added tassels which I thought was a nice idea.

Vaughan Williams provided just the right length of wraps for my tassels

Then I just had to choose the number of wraps to get the right thickness of tassel (from left to right, 30, 50, 40). I settled on 50 as it looked more generous.

I liked the idea of embellishing them with beads and so hunted around for some in the right colour and size.

I experimented with both colour and placement....

....finally settling on this arrangement

Although I'm still not keen on triangular shawls I'm very pleased with how it came out and it looks fab with my dress (an end of sale bargain last year).

Now for a couple of marathons - Kent Circuit (116)

Yikes, this is going to stretch my memory for sure and I've had to go back to my 100 Club spreadsheet to remind me of them! I can't do all of them at once so I'll split them into a few posts.

First there was the Kent Circuit marathon. I've run this before several times when it was organised by a different Race Director and I did say I wouldn't do it when it was taken over by someone else simply because I don't like doing such short laps. Then Ruth (aka Plodding Hippo for whom I crocheted Happy the Hippo for her 300th marathon back in 2014) announced that it would be her 500th marathon and so I just had to enter it.

Me, Tinu & Ruth with Pam and Tim in the background

Look at Ruth's special number, a lovely touch. But why is she dressed like that? Aha, the Kent Circuit is in Gravesend where Pocahontas lived and died. She is buried in St. George's Church and there is a beautiful statue of her there. When there's a theme to a race people often dress up but as she was the only person who'd bothered she soon changed (next photo).

Ian, the former RD, presented her with a special vest in 100 club colours.

The masses gathering at the start. Can you spot me having a conversation with James right at the front? I soon left him there and headed off to find my place nearer the back!

The weather forecast was not good with thunder/lightning and rain forecast and we watched it rolling in during the first hour.

We got wet!

Chatting with Scotty

Although there were plenty of chums running and supporting I tried to remain focused and not stop to chat as when the rain abated the sun came out and it was HOT!

The lovely Dee was out there snapping away and said she kept trying to catch me under the word 'stunning', bless her. I certainly didn't feel remotely stunning in that heat and I slowed right down in the last few laps!

I finished in 5:12:24 which is my slowest time for the route but I just couldn't push on in that heat.

A nice Pocahontas themed medal

The event seemed to lack the fun we've always had there previously and the new organisers got quite a few negative complaints, especially as the aid stations didn't have adequate supplies of water for a while which is inexcusable on  a hot day. I doubt I'll go back there again even if they do stage another event (famous last words?!).

The next day I was due to run the Jeskyns Challenge but although I turned up and ran a few laps I didn't stay for marathon distance as Mike was a bit poorly and I wanted to get home. I just treated it as  a mid-distance training run with friends and then headed home.

Walking up an incline with Costas. he was picking my brains about a repair to his favourite woolly jumper (which reminds me I need to get on with it!)

I can't remember if I've shown photos of the fab tee shirts Traviss had designed to celebrate completing 52 marathons in 52 weeks so here they are:

Front

Back

They really are gorgeous and very comfy to wear and Ive worn mine more often than my 100 club vest!

The Kent 50 Challenge (117)

Next up was a 'challenge' event from Traviss and Rachel so it always going to be fun and well organised. As a 'challenge' event you could run one lap or as many as you liked within the time limit and I had hummed and haa'd about whether to do it as Mike had been under the weather during the week. Of course he said I should do it as I'd already pulled out of several other marathons but I found that I was just worrying about him all the time I was running.

Heading through the farmyard to the checkpoint (thanks for the photo Nunky Paul)

Each time I reached the checkpoint I eyed up the medals and I really, really loved the Viking Challenge ones, which you got for completing at least 1 lap, more than the one for 50 miles. Having passed marathon distance I gave Mike a ring to see how he was and although he said he was OK I could tell he was a bit down so that was it, I did one more lap and called it a day.

I finished in 5:53:40 after 28.6 miles so a nice gentle ultra marathon, my first as a 60 year old!

There are still more marathons to write about, plus craft stuff, but I think that's enough for now.