Knitting Outdoors

I'd forgotten that I did an interview with Dr Kate Davies at the back end of 2009.

I thought it was going to appear in an email newsletter from Rowan so imagine my surprise when I bought magazine number 47 and flicked through its pages to see myself inside!!!

The article is entitled 'Knitting Outdoors" and talks about how knitting being a pursuit for indoors is a relatively modern idea.

There's a link to the Alzheimer's Research Trust's website and to my fund-raising page too so it's absolutely brilliant for the charity.

Thanks Kate!

Here I am sporting the shawl and mitts whilst hiding under my New York hat, so-called because I bought it many years ago on my first visit to New York City. It's purple fur fabric and it always makes me smile.

A Scarf, a Shawl and Some Snug hands

As Mike is busy working today I can't get him to take photos of me wearing them so I've just taken these interim snaps!

The shawl and matching mitts are Andrea's Shawl and Mitts by that talented designer Kirsten Kapur, except they aren't Andrea's, they're mine!

I'm going to add some purple amethyst chips and some green glass beads dotted along the bottom of the patterned areas for a bit of sparkle amongst the hairy mohair.

The purple yarn I've used has been sitting in my stash for years so it was about time I found a use for it. I finished them just in time to nip into London a couple of weeks ago and I wore them with my green cord jacket. I was very pleased with the admiring glances they elicited.


The scarf, which you can't see properly is one of my favourite stash-busting-using-up-bits type to which I have added some flowers I made using my old Crazy Daisy flower maker.

I left a generous length of yarn at each end of the scarf so that I could plait it into sections. Then I made some crocheted corkscrews of differing lengths and added them inbetween to get a luxurious effect. It will show up better when I get Mike to take a photo of me wearing it.

On the running front I've had to take this week off as my body feels as if it's realigning itself after the accident. I've done lots of stretching to help it but my neck, shoulder and right leg are still sore and stiff, plus I've got a dull ache in my lower back. I'm hoping that a session with a Physiotherapist will sort ti out for me. I was doing well with my marathon schedule before so I'm not going to panic - well not just yet!!!

Just when you think it's safe to feel content.....

Life comes and bites you on the backside. Quite literally as it happens.

Mike has been making good recovery, thanks in no small part to the skillfulness of Mary Massage Lady who usually inflicts pain and suffering on my tangled body in order to keep me running.

On Monday, he saw her again and he'd made such good progress that we decided to celebrate by taking a trip to a village nearby for some lunch and a wander round the shops.

It was a clear, bright and sunny day. Perfect for a little jaunt. We were happy and carefree.

I can't bring my self to write the full and horrific details of what happened on our journey, but we never reached our intended destination. Rather, we found ourselves exchanging details with a lady (who had been driving the car in front of us) and the driver of the HGV that smashed into the back of our beautiful car. Suffice to say that the driver of the HGV was driving too close to us and too fast to be able to stop when our car and the car in front braked to allow another vehicle to turn off the road.

Thankfully, no-one was injured too badly although I bore the full brunt of the crash as the HGV driver, realising he couldn't brake, tried to steer to the right of us and in so doing transferred the whole 10 tons weight of his vehicle onto the rear off-side of our vehicle when he hit us. I felt a massive shock through the whole of my body. Thankfully, Mike hardly felt a thing which is testament of the safety features of our car.

Our car is a write-off and is now sitting on our driveway looking so sad, just waiting to be taken away for scrap.

I am nursing a very sore pelvis, hip, leg and right arm. There won't be any running for me until I feel much better. Thankfully I had been running well beforehand so I'm hoping a short lay-off won't have too much impact on my schedule.

Hey ho, at least it was only the cars that were written off.

The Ripple Effect

Whilst the snow covered the ground, the whole of the UK ground to a halt and we didn't receive any post for nearly 10 days.

This meant that I didn't receive my yarn orders, which in turn meant I couldn't start my crochet project.

This, in turn, meant that I rummaged around in my stash for something else to crochet and found several mohair/wool yarns to mix in with my recent sale bargains and so a ripple stitch afghan began.

See, cause and effect!

I also cast on Andrea's Shawl Ravelry link using some lovely purple mohair with a view to mixing it up with some lime green mohair left over from the Modern Quilt Wrap.

On a serious note, several knitwear designers have pledged to give a % of their pattern sales to help the aid effort in Haiti. Check out their patterns on Ravelry.

The Wellcome Collection

On Thursday I had the honour of representing the Alzheimer's Research Trust at a lecture entitled Living with Dementia organised by the Wellcome Collection. It was part of a four part series on ageing.

The panel consisted of June Andrews Director (Dementia Services Development Centre, University of Stirling), Clive Ballard (Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases, King's College London), Fiona Phillips (TV broadcaster and journalist) and some unknown bod named Susie Hewer (Champion and carer, Alzheimer’s Research Trust)!!!! It was chaired by Claudia Hammond.

The stage is set. This was the calm before the storm.

When we went into the room I was quite shocked to see the room was full with no spare seats. Mike had managed to come with me even though he couldn't walk for long and it was reassuring to know he was in the audience.

GULP!

Here we have Liz Winder in the foreground who organised the event and was very helpful in our arrangements and Claudia Hammond to the right.








I'm amazed to see that June (left) and Fiona (right) seem to be listening to what I'm saying as I'm sure I must have been talking jibberish at this stage!

We each had a 10 minute slot to talk about our chosen subject. I was first to speak and naturally I told mum's story. Each time I tell it I add or subtract different things and I am always conscious that sometimes a painful memory will surface and I'll cry. I'd made some notes to try and focus myself so that didn't happen but it was still very draining. People have asked me why I am still campaigning 5 years after her death. Is it perhaps to keep her memory alive? No, it is simply because I was so horrified by the disease and the effect it had on her that I just have to try to raise awareness and raise money for research to put an end to this dreadful disease.

I hope I got the salient points across - I did notice a lot of people nodding in agreement on occasion which is always a good sign.

Next to speak was Clive who spoke very eloquently about dementia research. He wasn't remotely nerdy and was very easy to understand as he spoke in layman's terms.

Then it was Fiona who has had a great deal of experience of Alzheimer's as not only did her mother suffer from it (starting in her mid 50s) but her father is currently gripped by the disease. Last year she made a documentary about her father's condition entitled Mum, Dad, Alzheimer's & Me - My Story which was very well presented and gave an excellent insight into the reality of living with the disease. Last week she updated the story in a further documentary entitled My Family and Alzheimer's in which she was clearly angry at the lack of progress made in support for carers and funding for research. She is vociferous in her campaign to improve the situation and is using her celebrity status to excellent effect to shame the government into action You Go Girl!.


Last but certainly not least was June and what a charismatic speaker she was. She had the whole audience spellbound.

She gave practical suggestions on how to improve the lives of carers and suffers alike. One thing she said that really struck a chord with me was that people in dementia homes rarely have access to the outside world. As exposure to daylight affects our natural body rhythms of sleep and wakefulness, it explains why so many people with dementia do not sleep at night. It was so glaringly obvious when it's pointed out that I wondered how on earth I hadn't thought of it before.

A tireless campaigner, she has been instrumental in producing a marvellous leaflet entitled '10 Helpful Hints for Carers'.

After we had all done our speeches Claudia opened the floor to questions and the staff went around with a roving microphone. Several people said that it had helped to hear from us as it is very isolating being a carer as I know only too well. It was a fantastic audience with a great mix of age groups - the Wellcome Collection in situated right in the heart of University land so attracts many students.

The session ended after 1.5 hours and we adjourned to the bar so that people could chat to us in an informal setting. I was amazed that several people wanted to speak to me specifically. One young lady in particular had been very brave in speaking at the meeting. Her father, who is severely demented, has just gone into respite care for a week and she spoke about feeling guilty about feeling relieved that she had a break from caring for him. She thanked me for raising this (I suffered from terrible bouts of guilt when mum finally went into a nursing home) and I remembered how much I would have liked to hear somebody tell me that it was a natural feeling. I gave her my email address in case she needed to talk to someone who understands.

Another lady thanked me and told me about her mum, again severely demented but really very young. She organises musical sessions involving people with dementia (including her mum) and students from the Royal College of Music and she has said she'll let me know when they are having an event so I can go along and see what they are doing.

An interesting request came from a young lady who is writing a screen play in which there is a character suffering from dementia and she asked if she might write to me to check the details. Although it is not a central character, she wanted to make sure she got the details correct.

I also had a nice surprise when Tim from the Alzheimer's Research Trust came and introduced himself at the end. Although we've spoken on the phone many times, we had never actually met before and it's lovely to put a face to the voice at last!

Although this sort of event is emotionally draining, I also found it very uplifting to think that by speaking out I might have helped someone.

Before the session, Mike and I had a chance to explore some of the current exhibitions, the most striking of which was entitled 'Medicine Man'.

What an amazing collection, all concerning medicine and health - Henry Wellcome's paintings, masks, prints, photographs, metal instruments, artificial limbs, votive offerings, skeletons and much, much more.

It was fascinating and horrifying at the same time. There was a warning outside that the exhibition contained human remains so I was prepared. I found the Chinese torture chair quite shocking and the mummified body with its hands and feet bound really upset me.

I would love to go back and spend time there to learn more about Henry Wellcome who was obviously a very interesting man.

Be careful what you wish for.......

The whole country has been gripped by the bad weather. I've even just heard on the News that our area is now officially 'cut-off'!

It looks so pretty though when you're on the inside.






The horses are tucked up in their winter rugs and mostly shelter in their field shelters but I've just watched them walk down the field, have a good roll and a shake and then walk back up again. They looked so sweet.

Kizzy took a nifty mouthful of hay from the barrow before I could open the gate.

Esther just wanted me to stop taking photos and get on with feeding them!



We even have icicles dangling from the eaves. I walked up to the village shop earlier and the snow was about 8" deep then and it's been snowing heavily ever since. There were cars abandoned on the steep slope up to the shop and the only vehicles moving about were 4x4s and they were going very, very slowly.



Tinker was whingeing to go out all morning so we decided to grant him his wish and see how long he really wanted to stay out..................







...........that would be 6 steps forward...........then 6 steps back.................................










.................and snuggle down in Mike's cardigan for the rest of the day!

A Heron, a heron! My kingdom for a heron! (with apologies to Shakespeare)

I was just en-route to making a cup of tea before I went for a run when I saw something odd down by the oak tree. It's about 150' from the house and I couldn't make it out so I reached for the binoculars and low and behold it was the heron, sunning himself.

He looked absolutely magnificent and much larger than I had imagined. You can see hum better if you click on the photo and zoom in.

Later, as I cut across the fields on my way back from my run, I spotted him again but this time he was in with the horses, just sitting there: well, he was until he spotted me and then he took off so I just pointed the camera and clicked. He's the grey thing!

For my run today I headed out towards Salehurst and Robertsbridge along the footpaths as the lanes were rather slippery. We are blessed with a fantastic network of public footpaths and I use them whenever possible. It was a wonderful day for a cross-country run as it was sunny but cold and crisp. The ground was quite rutted and I had to be extra careful not to turn an ankle as I ran across the frozen fields. I spotted these beautiful pink catkins on the edge of a copse.

I love the sheep who are grazing our fields at the moment.

Their black stockings match their faces! As soon as I climbed into the field they came dashing towards me in the hope that I was bringing them their food. Sorry sheepies.

I've been playing around with some of the bargain yarn I bought recently. This is a crochet swatch for a Teva Durham design from Loop-d-Loop Crochet but I don't have a hook large enough to get the gauge at the moment. I like the stitch though.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Wishing everyone who pops along to read about my exploits a very happy and healthy 2010.





I took this first photo to catch the moon as she was setting as it was looking absolutely wonderful. There was a blue moon last night but we didn't get to see it as it was very cloudy.




By the time I'd fed the horses the snow clouds had swept across the valley and started to deposit their magical flakes.


After lunch it was time for the first run of the year and I took the camera with me in case I spotted anything of interest for Mike. This one is a view into the woods near Strawberry Hole.

This part of the lane often appears in paintings by local artists as the light is wonderful and the colour of the tree trunks is simply beautiful.

This is a view taken from Lordine Lane. I love the undulations of the land.

My run was most enjoyable and done just for fun - no distance in mind and no speedwork. I covered about 7 miles in all which is fine at this stage in my marathon schedule.

With 17 marathons and a Guinness World Record for 'The Longest Scarf Knitted Whilst Running a Mararthon' under my belt in the past 4 years you'd think that I'd probably have had enough. Wrong! 17 is such a silly number and 20 sounds much better so here's what I have planned - a treble of marathons on consecutive weekends.

However, as usual, there's a twist: I wanted to link in with the Alzheimer's Research Trust's 'Memories Matter' campaign and so I thought about my knitting exploits and realised there was an obvious link - crochet! You see, there is a crochet stitch called a 'treble' and I will be running 3 marathons. Even better, I will be creating a series of crochet chain links, in the way that our brains make connections that are sadly damaged by dementia. QED!

The marathons I will be running are the Brighton Marathon on 18th April, the Virgin London Marathon on 25th April where I will be attempting another Guinness World Record but this time for the 'Longest Crochet Chain whilst running a marathon' and the Three Forts Marathon (which is actually an ultra marathon of 27 miles) on 3rd May.

I might need to do some serious training for that lot!

Good-bye 2009 (and good riddance!)

I am, by nature, a glass half full person with a sunny nature who always looks on the bright side, but this year even I have had to work extra hard at staying positive! Suffice to say that 2009 has not been one of my favourite years and I will be glad to see the back of it.

There is so much catching up to do that this will be a long post!

First of all I have said good-bye to the rest of my team at work and each had to have their own knitted gift:


Slipper sox for Christian who has moved on to pastures as yet unknown.










The heart fingerless mitts (in an earlier post) for Annelyn, who hails from Holland, seen here on the right next to Carmen our long-term volunteer from Germany.








The sparkly, girly mitts for Carmen as they suit her perfectly.











The black and red mitts for Linda who wears those colours frequently.










We had some 'tasting days' where we offered samples of food and drink that are available to purchase in the shop. Carmen, Linda and Seb sneak in a tasting of mulled cider when they think I'm out of the way. Little tinkers - just as well it was nearly Christmas!





Angela's scarf:

I wanted to make a gift for Angela at work who has been very supportive this year and I decided to crochet a twirly scarf. I experimented with a basic shape.








Which turned into this when twirled. It's just double crochet and trebles, increasing the number of trebles on each row to form the twirls. No pattern needed.







Then it was just a case of choosing the colours. I had a lovely fuzzy novelty yarn, a sparkly black viscose, a nobbly white cotton and a grey mohair blend and they all worked together a treat to create this scarf.






Then there's my beloved Mike:


Mike's back has been painful, an on-going issue with a slipped disc, but after 6 weeks it had seemed to be getting better. Wrong! Suffice to say that it suddenly developed into sciatic pain so severe that no amount of painkillers would dull the pain and he was in absolute agony. It got worse and worse over the course of a few days and he eventually had to be hospitalised in an attempt to alleviate the pain. X-rays and MRI scans were done and finally the pain was brought under control and on Christmas Eve he was discharged so at least we had Christmas together. Although still in pain, we are now embarking upon a plan to get him walking again and hopefully strengthen his back so that surgery will not be necessary in the future.

Snow:




Whilst he was away we had snow. Both of us love snow and so I took some photos so that he wouldn't miss out.

Snow ponies taken from the bedroom window.



I love seeing this beech tree bedecked with snow.










In the winter we can see right across the land to the furthest field. Everywhere looks so beautiful.










Sale bargains:

In the midst of the traumas of the last couple weeks there was a moment of great personal pleasure - a yarn & fabric sale! Am I a bad wife that I had such a moment of sheer delight whilst my husband was in pain? If so then mea culpa! I managed to grab several bargains in the space of 15 minutes and will have plenty of new projects for 2010 as a result.

As we weren't sure if Mike would be out of hospital I decided to knit up some bed socks for him to make him feel special even though he was away from home. I snapped up some lovely soft Rowan kid merino and some soft and snuggly pure wool. It's just a basic pattern and it knitted up really quickly - he put them on as soon as I"d finished them and they are already firm favourites.























The variegated purple and green yarns are a mohair/alpaca/acrylic mix and I've got enough for a crochet project.





The Rowan Summer tweed was 25% off and I shall enjoy making this summer top which is knitted with a crochet trim.








This gorgeous fabric remnant will make a super evening dress for me as the colour is great with my hair. I think a simple shift dress, close fitting and just above the knee.








My scarf:


Then there's my scarf. A simple stripey affair using up bits and bobs from other projects but using my favourite colour - purple!

Last year I made loads of flowers using my loom in anticipation of this scarf but I simply couldn't get the effect I wanted by crocheting them together. I tried joining them side by side but they just looked like granny squares. I tried all sorts of different ways of joining them together but none of them gave me the effect I was looking for.

So, here's what I've been doing with it. I piled them all over the surface until I settled on a more subtle arrangement. Then I played around with the fringe. First of all I plaited the existing yarn ends and bound them using purple on one end and maroon on the other.

At the moment I am experimenting with adding extra fibres to add bulk and weight to it. Then I shall be experimenting with an edging as I had always intended to add a crochet edge to make it wider but so far I haven't found anything that I like. No more photos until I'm happy with the result!

Rush Matters at West Dean

I've been back to West Dean College for another course. I spent a week weaving willow a couple of years ago and have also attended courses on mosaic. This time it was rush weaving with Felicity Irons whose career I've been watching for many years now.

I first read about Felicity in the mid 1990s when she was featured in a magazine (I think it was Country Living). The reason she interested me was that she was reviving a dying craft; the art of rush weaving using our native Bulrush, Scirpus Lacustris, not to be confused with Reed Mace, Typha Latifolia which is often called bulrush in error. Since then I have read articles about her in newspapers and magazines including Gardens Illustrated so when I saw she was running a course at West Dean I couldn't wait to sign up!


She has her own company named Rush Matters where she and her team produce the most beautiful things woven from rush.


These beautiful slippers take her 10 hours each to make and so command a high price. As with anything handmade, it's the craftsmanship and time taken to make them that makes them so special.

She also does work for the National Trust and recently made a fabulous carpet for the dining room at Chartwell. Scroll through the photo gallery - it's the fourth one I think. She also makes beautiful fitted carpets and weaves lavender and other herbs into the rush to make it smell glorious.

Now before I start talking about the course I must show my bed complete with home-made 'monkey' socks to make me feel at home.

I didn't actually wear the socks, as it was so warm in my room, but I thought I'd do an arty-farty photo shot showing the fabric on the bedhead just for the sake of it!




This beautifully carved fireplace dominated the room. I had a marvellous view across the front of the grounds towards the forest. I'd taken my trail shoes with me as I remembered how wonderful it was to run up there first thing in the morning. I should mention that the weather had been vile all week, including for most of my journey where I could hardly see sometimes as the rain was coming down so hard.

So here we are in the studio with Felicity in the middle, Jetta (who was from Denmark) behind her and Andrea (who is studying at the college full-time) to her right. We also had one more student, Ellie, on our course but she's just out of shot. Ordinarily there would have been more students but this was excellent for us as we got much more attention!

Here is the rush, tied into what is known as a 'bolt' (just like fabric). It is the most wonderful colour in varying shades of green but dries eventually to shades of golden brown. It also has the most amazing smell.

In order to work the rush it needs to be moist which makes it supple but it doesn't require the soaking that willow needs, just a good spraying with water (rainwater is best). As the studio was very warm we found we had to keep spraying the rush to stop it drying out and becoming brittle.

Felicity had brought lots of samples to give us ideas of what to make but first of all we made a simple circular mat after our evening meal on the first night. It was really exciting to get stuck in straight away!

I had come to the course with a firm idea of what I wanted to make - a chunky oblong log basket using a 5 weave plait. Andrea also liked the idea of plaiting and so Felicity showed us both how to gather the rush together and do it.

Andrea tried it first and said she'd like to try a 9 strand plait. Thankfully, I was not as confident and just continued with my 5 strand. It wasn't long before a wail came from Andrea as she announced that perhaps a 9 strand was a tad ambitious!!! Felicity reminded us of this many times afterwards whenever we had ideas beyond our beginners' capabilities!

This is my plait soon after I'd started. After a couple of hours of plaiting I'd produced about 8 metres and my hands were really aching. It was at that moment that it dawned upon me that I might have quite a bit more plaiting to do in order to produce my log basket!

Later that day Andrea and I decided we'd had enough plaiting and would like to try something else and what interested us both was a bag made in what's known as a 'windmill' pattern. This too was never going to be a quick project and I think we were both quite relieved when it was time for afternoon tea so we could take a break.

The first thing Felicity showed us was how to make the basic pattern which is like a small parcel.

We trimmed our first attempts to make them look like Angel fish.

There was a lot of hard work to get this finished on time but I did manage it (with a bit of help from Felicity).

I made a simple handle of twisted Rush and Felicity showed me a clever way of whipping it together. I'm rather pleased with the result so far.

It just needs lining and perhaps a magnetic clasp to hold it together but I'll wait until I find just the right material before I line it.

I like the idea of a bright turquoise or purple silk to contrast against the dried Rush.









Jetta and Ellie had both done Rush weaving before and so had a clear idea of what they wanted to make.

Here's Jetta starting out on her hat. She's using a hat block and weaving around it. The Rush she is using has been chosen carefully to make sure it's a good colour and similar thickness and she was very neat in her work.

You can see how successful she was from this photo - it looks amazing!

She then went on to weave a bag around a block of wood, incorporating different coloured linen threads into the weave. It was very effective.

During our first day I discovered that Felicity is also a runner and we arranged to meet for a run each morning. I was somewhat nervous as she is much taller and more athletic looking than me but she was kind and slowed down to my plodding pace. It was nice to have company for a change as I usually run alone and only run with others during races.

As always we were spoiled with the wonderful meals at West Dean. Although I tried to show a modicum of self-control I failed miserably and came away feeling pounds heavier!

By the end of the course I'd sewn together 2 layers of plaits on the base of my basket. Even that took some concentration as I had to use a sail-makers needle and my first attempts looked dreadful!

On the last morning I made this sampler which I'd like to copy as a cushion cover and perhaps incorporate some yarn into the weave. It would also make an interesting table runner.

Needless to say, I purchased a bolt of rush and some tools as I was eager to continue exploring the medium. I have already plaited and sewn on 2 more levels of the log basket and think I will probably have to plait about 3 more rounds.

I love trying new crafts as it has really sparked my imagination for new projects. Felicity is an excellent and very patient teacher and I wouldn't hesitate to sign-up for one of her courses again if I get the opportunity.