What Katie Did

Some Unlikely Meetings

Yesterday was a good day. It was Owen's last day as a sixteen year old. We went to Newcastle.

Its a fabulous city. Here you see the iconic bridge, the new Millennium Bridge in the background with the Baltic beside it and the Sage on the Gateshead side of the Tyne.
We went to the Sage, that huge glass slug of a concert hall, to see a pair of old labour party heros, but first we met Lara and friends. Owen got to meet Nancy! Look, she's holding his finger!

This is the first time he's ever held such a tiny baby.

The other unlikely meeting was with Tony and Roy

Here they are signing CDs after a wonderful show - 'The Writing on the Wall' a relaxed, informative, humourous look at our social history, with Tony Benn never short of anecdotes and Roy Bailey full of songs to illustrate his words. The sat in a pair of armchairs with a thermos of tea and Tony Benn's pipe puffing away. It was a bit like being in their sitting room but with a few hundred other people!

So now my youngest child is 17. Oh dear.

Just in case you think this blog is not about knitting, here are John's gloves. I started making them for Christmas but he's only just got them. Sorry John!

Finally, the finished mat!

I got sidetracked by the mammoth decorating project but here is the end result of all your design decisions
(fanfare here)

Number the large squares from 1-9 from  the top left and left to right

1. Sarah
2. Zoe
3. Julie
4. Islay
5. Angel
6. Melissa
7. Brenda
8. My Mum
9. Martha

I made a few decisions along the way, reversing a colour choice if it was too similar to the square beside it, or sometimes changing a colour altogether, I took out Brenda's pinky choice background as it looked too pale in the finished thing - though the orange I replaced it with is a bit too bold maybe?

The edges were suggested by

1. Sheila
2. Annie
3. Wendy
4. Geoff
5. Vick
6. and me.

I chose the location of each edge colour to best suit the mat. I also chose to leave yellow out altogether (thanks Carolyn). It certainly dominates the other mat, and I thought this one looked OK without. Nice to have a 'yellow-free' mat!.

Now it needs cutting from the frame, pressing with a steam iron a bit and backing with some wild fabric. A ring pull from a tin of beans and its ready! But for what?

Thank you THANK YOU to all the people who suggested colours and shapes. I have never made anything that I had only partial control over like this and it was very interesting. Quite liberating to give up some of the decisions while retaining overall control. It was also very lovely to know so many people had an interest in the outcome. It felt very supportive.

I will credit you all as participants when I write the label for the back!