Another year by...

My birthday's been and gone but it was FUN! Ahhh, friends know me so well....
Marie (my niece) raided Thornton's for little bags of chocolate sweets and posted them off to me, Susan gave me posh Montezuma's chocolate and the lovely vintage trug with old terracotta plant pots, other kind friends the wartime cookery book, the Chocolate Fund money box, a girlie tool set and more. Hugh spoiled me too, including a 3 CD set of music from the movies which I am enjoying.
I already mentioned the yarns I bought last month. well, here's proof I have started the stripey sweater (only frogged once when I realised it was going to be a LOT too big). The yarn balls are all my scraps of blue faced leicester and pale yellow tapestry yarns dyed in various combinations with food colouring and knotted together! At least some of it is going to be a slightly mad teacosy I think.
I bought myself a present - this print from the talented Hermitage- she has such a delicious colour sense that I have resisted long enough. Besides, I love grids, colours, alphabets and most of the items illustrating the individual letters so it was obviously meant to be.

Wet Windy Wet Windy Wet....

March rolls into April and there's no sign of improvement in the weather - odd half days when it is quite pleasant, then it all just dissolves in the rain....
Last weekend Hugh and I went to three new exhibitions by Borders artists in Hawick Museum - [i] photographs taken along St Cuthbert's Way (100km walk from the Scottish Borders to the Northumberland coast) by David Taylor - lovely crisp images which capture the quiet beauty of our countryside, [ii] new pastels by Sandy Milligan - this delightfully unassuming gentleman has a stunning way with pastels, producing incredible detail in whatever subject matter he turns his hand to. I had not seen any of his work with boats and harbour scenes before and was very impressed, and [iii] Land Escapes, a big exhibition of work in various media by Siobhan O'Hehir. First time I had seen her almost abstract interpretations of landscapes and I really liked them.

From the museum we had a quick jaunt up to the Hub to catch the end of a Continental Market - too late for fresh cooked paellas and fancy breads but still time to succumb to a tempting offer of French cheeses. We over-indulged (I am a sucker for labels...) and have been eating rather cheesily ever since (including a very up-market Cauliflower Cheese one night!)

As for textiles - it's been another month of hats. I've been quietly knitting beanies from some commercial double knitting in various colours combined with stripes in various of my handspuns - I have stopped now, honest. The ones above are Nos 4-7. But my little passion for simple knitting continues so I am making myself a big stripey sweater using extravagant Noro yarn combined with cheap-as-chips pure organic wool yarn spun on the old mill machinery at New Lanark. It will take me a while since I don't knit more than a couple of evenings in a week but I may post w.i.p. shots. Apart from that I have dyed a couple more yarns for the shop.

On Sunday we had a good Woolgathering in the village hall. I proved quite incapable of getting the fire going but Anne's Girl Guide training came to the rescue and then we all warmed up. Lots of knitting going on this time, with a little fine stitchery by Anne and Lorraine. Janice sold a few yarn bargains from her stash, Anne some fabric for quilting and I sold eggs!

Madder by the Minute!

Now that I have written the title, I discover I am terribly pleased with myself as not only am I mad (as in cross), I have been natural dyeing with madder (and others too). Sadly, that's as smart as I have managed for weeks.

Anyhow, apart from grumping about having a tooth out last week and the seemingly perpetual ache from that (it DID not want to come out but I will spare you the details...) I am now grumping about the Building Control Section of Scottish Borders Council who have changed their minds and want us to amend our plans again for the cottage. Whatever the outcome (and we are investigating how we can appeal against their decision), we will effectively lose any chance of having the cottage ready to let this season at all. It's enough to send me looking for the sloe gin!

In between sulks I have had some fun dyeing these sportweight yarns with natural dyes, for sale on The Border Tart, and also dyed wool tops for spinners and felters. The new puppy Midge has been helping with garden clearing. This involves returning to the house from every trip to the garden with another little treasure in her teeth - from gravel to sticks, leaves, dried grass, mud, hen poo - hmmm, life in the country, eh?!

Looking forward to a post-Easter Woolgathering at the end of the month - always a great opportunity to indulge in lots of textile talk of one sort or another. Then maybe it really will be Spring.

Mad March Days

Amulree, Perthshire

Time for a catch-up - weeks have flown by at Shambles Chateau. H and I were in Perthshire for five minutes and Edinburgh for two days. The weather was variable so we got good and soaked in the city, pushed about by the wind whistling down those beautiful classical crescents and wide cobbled streets. Clocked up three exhibitions of one sort or another - the SILVER exhibition at the National Museum of Scotalnd was really impressive and very educational. The modern SILVER FOR THE STARS silverware made for some of our Scottish celebrities was fantastic - this link is to the teapot made for Billy Connolly.

I also took the opportunity to check out the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize 2007 finalists' work in jewellery which was on display in the posh new part of the Museum. Hugh was deeply unimpressed and stood by the window overlooking the Courts, watching the innocent and the less innocent wandering in for their hearings.

After an abortive attempt to see The Bucket List on a big screen (Hugh forgot his glasses, but don't say I told you) we wandered back along Queen Street and called in at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and viewed the amazing talent of the artists who submitted work to the BP Portrait Award 2007 .

So, that was the culture bit. I also managed a visit to the newly opened K1 Yarns boutique by the Grassmarket (they have seats for bored partners/children) and succumbed to a hank of sock yarn from oldmaidenaunt which I have no intention of knitting personally, and a lovely turned wooden crochet hook which I have put to use (picking up dropped stitches in the hat below!).

These bits of nonsense are a beanie for Hugh, two egg cosies made from felted handknit socks that had worn out beyond re-re-darning, and one from some hand dyed yarn. The egg cups are IKEA's - I think someone in the buying dept got carried away as there were thousands remaindered and they will do fine for the holiday cottage.

A Grand Day Out

Blustery weather continues though no more power interruptions, thankfully. Textiles and card making work to the fore (more of the latter in a future post, I hope). Planning permission granted for the works needed on the cottage but still awaiting building warrant before we can start the destruction/construction stuff. My estimate of completion by mid summer is still manageable......

Much more interesting was the Woolgathering last weekend. Great turn out - lots of different textile crafts represented and new stuff on show. Janet had been making bags from Hinnigan's delicious tweedy fabrics, Lorraine was working on a great patchwork, Anke and her daughter Hannah were weaving (in the pic they had both run out of oomph - Hannah's weaving is visible in front of her (she's lost in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) and Anke had moved her big table loom out of the way to set about her knitting. Helen and Liz and Anne were knitting, Diana was spinning, Rona knitting, Amanda contemplated her needlework project, in much the same way as I contemplated my spinning. Linda did knit, then frogged her sock completely and sold the yarn to Lorraine! Janice did her most hated job of sewing up a jacket she had finished knitting.

Lots of shared ideas and looking at new textiley books and magazines, lots and lots of purchases and swaps of yarn and other essentials, and quite a bit of coffee drinking and cake eating. Another good bit for me was doing a swap with Anke - willow shoots in exchange for some of her home reared bacon and sausages!

As you can see, the village hall was looking a bit shambolic. Hugh and I and several other hall stalwarts had spent a few hours on Saturday stripping out fifty years of accumulated rubbish - the loft was sadly not full of treasure but of abandoned kitchen units, desiccated papers, rags and woodworm. The resultant junk was piled in the main hall so we had only half of it free to use on Sunday.

Winter Warmers

Textile Therapy

Wool Gathering coming up on Sunday 3rd - It's going to be a lovely gathering as there are old faces and new coming along for the day to spin and stitch and knit and sew. Everyone's welcome.

Well we've had more snow and ice and wind and rain. The occasional dry hour or two but nothing that makes you feel like staying out there for long. Ash is oblivious to any weather except sleet so she certainly sees no reason for curtailed exercise. However, the arrival of a new puppy at the end of February will soon sort her exercise requirements..... retribution time!
Sadly for my ever-expanding waistline, winter weather plus a new big kitchen equals an excuse to bake and yup, here are the tamarillos again! Two of them were combined with apple and dates into mini muffins. There were lots more muffins but they were less photogenic...
The shop has been updated with the completed baby socks and my kantha bags so do drop by for a closer look sometime. Here's a heffalump one gracing one of my treasures - the little rush seated Arts and Crafts type chair with the wavy back which was my great aunt's.

New Year New Directions

Happy 2008!

At last we are back online - only been three weeks but it felt worse. Spent part of yesterday bringing the Border Tart into 2008 though I realise I have not photographed my finished kantha bags so that I can get them into the shop too.

My little still life on the windowsill has gourds grown by Tricia plus tamarillos she brought for me - grown in Berwickshire by Lady Swinton, no less, mother of actress Tilda Swinton. (Many years ago I remember Tilda's brother coming round to play with my little brother and my mother making biscuits for them - they ate them ALL so she made more for him to take home ---aaahhh!) . In the big glass jar is a wonderful temari ball made by the talented PG. They are all resting on a handwoven striped mat which I picked up at the flea/antiques fair held in Kelso last weekend

The next WOOLGATHERING is on February 3rd - The theme is NEW so any yarn/tip/stitch/ project that's new to you, bring it along and spread the word! I am sure we should manage to rustle up a bit to swap/sell/share too - I have had another clear out so I can promise a weird collection of bits that you really NEED!

Details - Sunday 3rd February at Southdean Village Hall in Chesters

from 10.30am to 3.30pm - coffee and cake always on the go

but bring your lunch and £5 towards the cost of the hall hire

I have been working on a few things for the house - mainly pillows/cushions as our lovely new kitchen table is built for giants.... each chair needs a cushion or two. We have a rather eclectic collection now, created from scraps and saved bits and pieces. Two of the cushions are from dishtowels too pretty to use for that purpose, one is from a pair of Hugh' cast off combat trousers...you get the idea. The lovely cockerel dishtowel was a present from a kind friend this Christmas. The ones below that are for the living room - the right hand one is made from bits of blanket, felted stripey socks which bit the dust and a couple of pieces of samples that I wove at college a hundred years ago. The left one is from the wee fabric remnants that I bought at Hinnigan's in Selkirk in December. The tamarillos make another guest appearance...

Sock knitting in progress but this is the best I can manage - strictly two needles and titchy size only. I made five pairs and sold them in little boxes at the Christmas Fayre. I still had a few ends of balls left, thanks to Janice, so I've been knitting and TV viewing or, better still, listening to some of the books on CD which Hugh gave me. Imagine, in this stylish tin there are 45 CDs, covering 10 classics. So far I have listened to the six which make up Pride and Prejudice but there's everything from Great Expectations to Middlemarch and Frankenstein to look forward to. I mean, yeah, I'd love to read them for myself but realistically having a good actor read them to me means I can be doing something and 'reading'.

Winter Chills

Hugh and I have both succumbed to colds which is lousy timing with so much to do. At least we should be clear of them by Christmas, though. Lots of work has been going on in the kitchen next door - as in ripping the old one out and fitting a new one - mainly done by Hugh with the aid of the plumber and the electrician (who just happens to have a lovely chocolate lab called Muddy and to have a penchant for Hugh's paintings....say no more). A new kitchen SO POSH, by the way, it has an extra sink for handwashing so we can keep the Environmental Health officer happy and be allowed to sell food we cook in there. My tablet and preserves plus Hugh's bread will become legitimate once the EHO says OK and once we have done our Food Hygiene courses. Flipping bureaucratic nonsense but rules is rules, I guess. Meantime, we need to move next door for good in the coming week so we can spruce this house up for some visitors arriving at the weekend.

Looking forward to a festive rest - after the Christmas Eve carol service at our wee kirk then mince pies and mulled wine at the hall, of course. Well, you would expect nothing less of village life by now!

Other stuff? Well, I braved the frosty garden to take pics of the fancified waistcoat, then decided that the indoor pics were better. Herewith the back and a detail from one of the fronts - the colours in it are truer. And I have been washing and preparing and spinning fleece for a commission which ought to be done by Christmas. One of those jobs that I regretted taking on the minute I'd said it - wet fleece - winter - coughs and sneezes - ho hum, soon be done.

The Festive Fayre is next...

I'm stitching and baking in readiness for the Festive Fayre we are holding at Southdean Village Hall on Saturday (24th November) . There will be stalls with jewellery and cards and hand drawn prints as well as The Border Tart, and Linda's famous (in these parts) mulled wine, and Reindeer Hoopla, plus a bran tub for the younger visitors, Christmas trees and wee wooden deer, handmade wreaths, no doubt a raffle and probably a bottle stall and all this excitement washed down with coffee and shortbread (oh, and more mulled wine...) - what better way to spend a late November afternoon?

All things bright and beautiful

Hello! I am just back from a lovely day at the Federation Show where lots of wonderful women (and a few discerning men) came and bought up the supplies I had taken along. So there are thousands more beads in the Borders, heaps of Christmas card making kits, reels of cotton and metallic threads, fibres for spinning and felting, all getting tucked into stashes! The array of talent at the Show was amazing - you would not believe how many skilled crafters and bakers and knitters and stitchers there are out there, mainly hiding their lights under bushels (or whatever!).

Back in breezy Chesters, the shop is restocked with shiny new things for Christmas and beyond. Do have a look and let me know what you think. Postage is free anywhere on orders under £10.00 from now on, and there are lucky bags of goodies on offer too.

Bargain Basement Productions Present...

Rainbow's End

Been gazing rather wistfully at the talents of others online tonight - always a sucker for signs, I am pleased to have found the Keep Calm Gallery, where you can purchase the above, among other delights.

And wonder knitter Maureen has been busy stocking up for the Christmas rush at Monkey & Sofia - these penguins and crocs are lovely but check out the kangaroo and giraffe too!

Dottie is a limited edition print from Thing of Beauty - an online shop whose home is also in the Scottish Borders.

This wonderful painting which I covet is from the talented artist Sue Hoppe, also known as Arty Farty

Woolly Thoughts

Creativity presently extends to moving furniture round and winding myself up to make some curtains, though there have been forays into jelly making with this year's feeble apple crop, and seeing how much brandy one mixing bowl of mincemeat can absorb...

The spinning wheel was dusted off for the Crafternoon Tea and is back in easy reach - so why have I not sat down at it since? I think I need to schedule in a whole day of 'making things'. With that in mind, I am pleased to say there is another Woolgathering on the way - I reckon 28th October is near enough the actual date to give it a Halloween theme, and Anne has suggested we bring UFOs along. Of course that presents another dilemma - do I take the unfinished kantha work, the unfinished baby sock or the wheel with the beautiful dyed tops I bought at Woolfest?

The invitations have gone out to all previous participants but if you want to know more and would like to come along just shout - I can guarantee that the only level of skill to be publicly judged at such an event is your capacity for coffee and cake.

Woolly Wallpaper and more

Isn't this a delicious image? You need to check out the lovely work of Mrs Hello Yarn. She even offers this and other yarn shots for you to use as wallpaper - check out the skulls! And her Blog is full of great knits and useful information too. Oh, and while I am at it - do you know about Marilyn at the Toy Workshop? Another great site, with delightful free downloads, wonderful for kids of all ages....
My life is destructive rather than creative again at the moment - barrowfuls of prunings in the garden, stripping glue off a laminate floor, pulling off wallpaper, so I may just shout about others' blogs for a while. Have had a plea from 'tricia at Teddies for Tragedies, though - 500 teddies are going off to Roumania but they don't have anywhere near enough bags for them - have a look at the site if you can and stitch a few simple bags.

Jute, Jam and Journeying

Been off in the glorious Perthshire countryside for a week with Hugh. We stayed in the little village of Kirkmichael which allowed us to explore in lots of different directions. Most days we clocked up a good few miles walking, split into two or maybe three outings. The village is situated on The Cateran Trail - a 64 mile circular walking route 'in the footsteps of the marauding clans and cattle thieves of the Highlands' and all the footpath signs have dinky little red hearts on them - not quite the image you associate with marauding cattle thieves but easy to spot!

On Wednesday we drove to Dundee where we played tourist. Dundee is of course known for jute, jam and jounalism. Jam because the countryside surrounding Dundee is gently sloping quality growing ground for soft fruit. There are acres of poly tunnels and fleece-protected strawberries and raspberries everywhere you look. Journalism - Dundee is home to D C Thomson, publishers since 1905, with over 200 million newspapers and magazines each year. Jute is your lesson for today.

First we explored Her Majesty's Frigate Unicorn, built in the Royal Naval Dockyard at Chatham in 1824. Although she did not put to sea in wartime, she was in constant service in the Royal Navy till 1968. It was fascinating exploring below deck, and deeper and deeper below water level to where a poor ship's carpenter would have had to run round a tiny gantry over the open hold, plugging holes in the hull whenever cannonballs found their target. And what about the fact that traditionally the deck where the officers had their qaurters was painted red so that the blood did not show up so much as the wounded were laid out?

Then we visited Verdant Works .

Verdant Works was built in 1833 for a merchant and flax spinner. By 1864 it had 70 power looms and 500 people were employed there. In 1991 the Dundee Heritage Trust purchased the derelict site and set about restoring the jute mill as a working museum. Jute is obtained from two varieties of plant native to Bangladesh (Bengal as was). In 1820 the first twenty bales of jute were unloaded at Dundee docks. The city was already an important weaving and whaling centre. So the local workforce could weave and they had access to whale oil which was needed to soften the raw jute fibre and make it workable. The enterprising merchant community was quick to see the possibilities. During the 19th and early 20th centuries jute was indispensable - its uses included sacking, ropes, boot linings, aprons, carpets, tents, roofing felts, sand bags, sailcloth, scrims, tapestries, horse covers, cattle bedding, electric cables and even parachutes. It was cheap, durable and very versatile. Between 1841 and 1901 the population of the city tripled. By then 50,000 people were employed in the mills and Dundee was the jute capital of the world. Most of the workers were women and children (cheaper to employ), working conditions were appalling and accidents common. The workers lived in overcrowded squalor and the mill owners got richer and richer (sound familiar?) However, the Jute Barons did spend some of their riches on parks and libraries, swimming pools and theatres and dance halls, so that the workers' brief leisure time was varied and enjoyable.

The death knell of the industry was the growing competition from India itself. The Indian jute industry was established by Dundee's own engineers and mill managers who were lured out by higher wages and a better standard of living. Dundee held its own through two world wars but the advent of polypropylene finally killed off the Scottish jute business.

OK, history lesson over (cribbed from the guide book, I admit). Hugh and I paid our money and took the tour - first into the accounts department and the manager's office, then a little history section and straight into see the process for ourselves. Batching and softening, carding, drawing, roving, spinning, spool winding, beaming, weaving and finishing. Wonderful words, I love 'em, they remind me of my time at textile college (any fellow students reading this, do not snort with derision, it's unbecoming...) We had a real live guide all to ourselves who explained the process and ran each of the machines in turn, and gave me wee samples to take away and cherish. The final pics here show two from a series of lovely little models illustrating the uses of jute.

Fancy that!

I've been having fun, and blunting sewing machine needles, making these new cards which are heading for the shop. They are paper based with ribbons and silks and yarns and a few glitzy bits and are suitable for all sorts of people and occasions, in my humble opinion!

New kids on the block

Some of these new faces have arrived in the shop - Floyd and Maximilian and Horace. The next step is to introduce some new items in the stationery department but first I have to continue with re-decorating and more scheming and planning on the house front.

While clearing out the endless stuff of generations of family I came across a book I made for a major wedding anniversary for my parents - I've scanned a couple of the pages for you to see my designs. Must try the plum butter this year.