What Katie Did

student life

It takes less time to fly from Newcastle to Bristol than it takes to drive from the airport to our house. How mad is that?
I had a really lovely time with my daughter. She has such a well balanced life it seems - with friends, her theology course, work in Sainsbury's and the little pub over the road from the student house where she lives, boyfriend David, cooking, reading, being Martha.

We did cafes.

and played scrabble

David came up with some very inventive uses for all those o's - including a type of lava which sounded entirely plausible.

We met up with Graham and went to the Seaside! Here is the pier at Cleaveden on a grey rainy day

and the fabulous Clifton Suspension Bridge

And we shopped

Bristol has nice shops. We ate really well

I finished this sock

though now I have to cast on and make it all over again - I do find that the most boring part of making socks - having to make the second one, and here I sound like an expert, this is only the third sock I have ever knitted, unless you count the tiny ones I made for Cala

I took my little wooden needles in my hand baggage, but didn't have the nerve to knit on the flight. It would hardly have been worth it as the captain announced our descent just as I had got comfortable!

Thank you Martha for a really lovely weekend. Nothing bad happened because I went away, unless you count Geoff having to go and see Mission Impossible Three with Owen.

packing to go to Bristol

I have decided to go and visit Martha in Bristol. It really is very easy. You just press the buttons and before you know it you have a flight booked. I can't wait!! Friday!
I am wondering if Easyjet will let me knit? I may have to phone? The sock needles are wooden and about 5 inches long but still very pointy. And in reality, I will only be flying for about 55 minutes so I think I may be able to manage not to knit for 55 minutes. But does anyone know?

I finished the zebra socks and they are very disappointingly not like zebra, but , as Geoff has decided - bar code. So here are my bar code socks

and I love them and wear them all the time.

I am knitting more socks because I always thought they were really hard and now I find that they are not. This is a wonderful revelation to me. I will take my latest sock to knitting today. Hooray for knitting!

Two of my three children have exams today, Owen has started his GCSE's and as I write this he is sitting in the huge exam hall eight miles away, and this afternoon, Martha will be doing the same thing in Bristol. So happy thoughts to them. John is blissfully unaware in some remote bit of South Africa on his Outward Bound Gap Year. And the next plane we get on will be in July to visit HIM!

Happy Alan's Birthday

Today is my brother's birthday so my parents came to visit me? But they are going to see him in a couple of weeks and that is a journey that needs a bit more planning!

We had a love time today. Dad has made a window box for my shed and brought it and the plants to fill it.

Here we all are reflected in the window with the new box behind the wonderful tulips. They are at their best just now but when they are finished, the plants in the box will be well established and ready to take over! (We are going to paint it the same as the shed) I am so looking forward to looking out at it when I am making things! THANK YOU DAD!

We phoned to say 'Happy Birthday' and here is your birthday cake Alan.

4 oz currants, 4 oz raisins, 4 oz sultanas

8 oz butter, 4 oz brown sugar, 3 oz chopped dates, 2 oz chopped prunes, 3 oz chopped apricots, 2 oz sunflower seeds, 2 oz chopped nuts (you've got pecans) half a pint of orange juice, 4 oz apricot jam

melt everything together in a pan and simmer for one minute.
then add

8 oz self raising wholemeal flour, 1 teaspoon each of ginger, mixed spice and cinnamon, three eggs and 2 tablespoons of brandy.

mix the whole lot together and pour it into a well greased and lined 8/9 inch tin. bake for about 50 minutes at 160'C

This is now in a tin in the back of Dad's car and will be on it's way to France in less than two weeks, by which time it should be nicely matured. Sing the birthday song if you want to - but enjoy it with my love!

We've had a lovely time and the weekend is only half done! And I haven't mentioned the jumble sale, the trip to the quilt shop and the garden centre and lunch out. All very lovely! Always time to sit with the paper and a patchwork magazine though.

Taking Matters Further

Today was one of those heavenly days that only come along once in a while. For a start, it was raining, so there was no guilt about having to be in the garden. And then, I didn't have to drive for miles for the fun, because the fun came to me! Ali and Rachel contacted all the people who have been on courses with them and invited them to spend the day making mats together. This post is going to be very pictorial!

First Maureen showed us the rugs she has collected over the years this one is a stair rug - the red bits at each side show where the stair rods would  have been - a real labour of love!

I love this tiger.

and this sheep!

Maureen collects rugs from all over - auction sales and antique shops an the like.

Ali and Rachel work at a variety of things including some work at the hospital in Newcastle in the waiting room of the Caner Treatment Clinics. Here they make mats with people waiting for treatments - like this one - a part of a panel that will be in one of the corridors. All sorts of people join in, or just sit and remember the stories of the mats their mothers used to make.  This one is really beautiful - fishes that will have another panel alongside it in paler colours.

We had food, like you do at these lovely events.

and many different styles of mats. I love that about crafts of all sorts - give people a form and they take the basics and interpret it in so many amazing ways.

This one (below) is Hayley's first ever mat! her second is well on it's way - a joint project with her whole family including 90 year old aunt.

The one below is from Tania. her mats represent the daily struggle of creating meals and clean clothing for her family. This may sound grim, but Tania is far from grim. I think that she likes to represent this stuff in mats so she can stop worrying about it and get on with enjoying life! This is another wonderful things about days like this one - you get to meet all sorts of lovely people!

Tania's washing line in progress - those are socks on the folded over bit at the top.

Alison's mat is going to be fantastic - inspired by her recent trip to Morocco - it is going to be so colourful

These three are very beautiful - stones that are a set of three - here Ali is trimming them and they will sit in the frames and hang in some very lucky person's house! Very subtle - you can just see the edge of my mat frame - very unsubtle.

so I might as well show you mine now - as a complete contrast to Ali's

These  are more of my obsession with colour - small squares inspired by Keith Haring and Tania, I found Fiona Rutherford on Google and I see what you mean about her work - though I think I am a long way from that kind of style!

and finally, but by no means leastly - Ann, who is making a cover for her footstool. This is going to look lovely - I especially like things edged in black like that, though I wouldn't be able to resist using wilder colours!

So - a lots of photos tonight.

Not too many I hope - are you still with me?
I have such lovely matting friends!

Tomorrow is Mat Day!

Looking forward to Saturday, we have a mat making day in the offing, with Ali and Rachel and many other people who love to make hooky and proggy mats.
There will be photos!

Today it has rained and the garden looks well for it. My lovely Martha found me some dishcloth cotton so I can make more of these lovely cloths for presents. I hope you all noticed that this is my first attempt at linking - if it works (and it was very easy) I'll be linking to all sorts.

I'm off to get ready for Matting!

Sock Knitting

What a fabulous afternoon! Janet came with her sock knitting machine, many of the Hexham Knitting Group turned up with plates of delicious food and we had a fine old time.

This is the machine - a British built thing of great age - the one you can see on the left of the picture is a Canadian one - a bit more flimsy according to Janet - but still very handy.
This is a picture of the ribber being hooked up.

then Janet whizzes away for hardly any time at all to knit the leg.

then she does a bit of cleverness with the needles to knit short rows to turn the heel, more straight for the foot then some more short rows for the toe to be grafted together at the end. 

Here it is on Ruth's foot. It was like magic.

Having vowed to buy NO YARN until some of my stash has been used up, I ended up with this which will knit up like zebra. We all had such a fun time we decided to have a Hand Knitting Sock Afternoon soon so I may find someone to help me knit some zebra socks with this. In the meantime, I have asked Janet to make some machine socks for me, I have much more chance of getting something wearable from her than from my efforts!

I have such lovely knitting friends.

Babysitting

This week, I got to babysit for Cala. She is about 18 months old now and I was her midwife. She was the reason I started knitting again - a good midwife sits in the background during labour and keeps out of the way and knitting is a very useful activity while you are waiting for events to unfold. Hers was a delicious birth and she is growing each day into a wonderful little person due to her lovely parents. This was my first babysitting gig and we had a good time.

She has very small feet.

Knitting was lovely too - Charlie has finished George's pullover and Dorothy has made another marvel for Angus

And we are all eagerly awaiting Saturday, when the Sock Knitting Lady is coming to demonstrate her Knitting Machine for us! Pictures of that - I promise.

For Martha

Here is a post for my dear daughter Martha. Life in Northumberland continues to unfold as the weather improves and the garden responds. This Bank Holiday Weekend has been a mixture of gardening, sewing and seeing friends. The gardening is more 'slash and burn' hawthorn management. I remember being taught about 'slash and burn' in the Amazon (35 years ago) and thinking how dramatic it sounded. It is very dramatic and I think the hawthorn is winning.

The sewing  is making use of the bright colours in the quilt I am half way through. I have used some of it for some hand stitching. Martha, have you any idea what these squares will be  made into?
Think about it. On Saturday, I walked into the woods with my camping chair and Poppy, a bag full of sewing, needle and thread and had a blissful two hours in the sun.

Pops enjoyed it too!

Here is Thea not wanting her picture taken. When you are three you think you can close your eyes and the picture won't work.

Sorry Thea - it did.

So Martha, we had fun, ate well - Caroline came too, watched some good TV - that episode of Spooks was amazing, had a laugh, bought a scented rose called 'The Rambling Rector' and generally had a good time.

Photos of the patchwork as it evolves.