Of guns and crochet

Inspired by Andrea's post showing a bizarre crochet wedding dress here, I thought I would share with you a piece of crochet madness I came across recently:


Crochet guns.  Yes indeed.  I can't decide whether it's a crafty retort to Sarah Palin or the very opposite.  Either way, I think it might be a hook too far.

At the more sublime end of the spectrum, I am coveting this...

at the moment from The White Company.  (I seem to do a lot of coveting on this blog.  But not entirely convinced that's all bad.)

C.x

The dip

Wednesday today.  Over the hump of the week but still not Friday afternoon.  It's bitterly cold out and there's still no sign of Spring...

My crocus has bloomed though and the flat is filled with the scent of it...

... and I've bought myself these to brighten up the place...

I do love tulips, don't you?

But I have a touch of the mid-week blues (or maybe it's just that I'm feeling a little delicate after last night's celebration of my flat sale), so I thought I would evoke our holiday one last time by telling you about a little shop two doors town from A Coffee and a Yarn.

All Buttons Great and Small is an amazing little treasure trove.  They have everything.  Old lady buttons...

... and flowery buttons...

... mad multi-coloured buttons...

... and rather cool sea green ones...

... retro buttons...

... and even a button man (instructions for how to make him are on their website)

As I write, I realise that I've forgotten to photograph the stash of buttons that I bought - one of those days I'm afraid...  I have some ideas as to what I want to do with them (these lovely orange shiners came from there...)

 But you'll see the rest another time.

It really was a lovely shop.  Sydney-siders are lucky things living near all that craftiness.  Off now for a sip of wine to chase my mid-week blues away.  Nearly Friday.

C.x

Red letter day

Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a girl who lived in a big city.  She wasn't very happy in the city, despite her big job and her little pots of gold that her big job brought her.  Everyone around her was Settling Down, so she decided she needed a Place of Her Own.  A safe place that she could retreat to when it all got too much.  She bought such a place, a place looking out on to trees and sky.  She loved this place.

But after a time, when she'd thought and thought about things, she was brave enough to venture forth from her safe place into the wide world.  She allowed other people to come and live in this place instead.  She travelled and had adventures.  From time to time she would return to her safe place to make sure it was still there if she needed it.  And then one day, she came to visit the safe place, and the sight of other people's things, their pictures on the walls, their cups in her cupboards, made the girl realise that she had left the safe place for good.  She still owned the place, but it wasn't hers anymore.  And then she thought  that maybe she might not need it after all.

Time passed.  The girl met a boy, and they had adventures together in other places.  She took the boy to see her safe place and he loved it.  But somehow she couldn't see them being there together.  So she decided to let go of her safe place for good.  After much to and fro, and lots of this and that, she has passed the safe place onto someone else.  Today, she is home free.

And she knows just where she wants to put the pot of gold she was given in exchange.  A place by the sea.  Not balmy and warm, but bracing and exhilarating.  Where the trees and the sky give way to waves and weather.  She and the boy will live happily ever after there.  She knows it.

C.x

Not quite slack Alice

You might be forgiven for thinking that this blog has lost its way somewhat in the last few weeks, and should really come clean with its intention to tell you little about my attempts at crafting and lots about my gallivanting and my capacity to drink coffee and shop.   But I have been a little less idle than that.  Really.

Remember this?

Well, now I have made these!

Nine whole squares!  Okay, so they probably wouldn't withstand too close an inspection from the crochet police, but I think they're pretty good.  A king size blanket is out of the question - I would have to give up work, or eating. or sleeping, or pretty much anything else and just crochet until I was 489 and still not finish it.  But I have a throw that I measured these against, and by my estimation I would need over 200 to reach that size.  Still very daunting.  But we'll see.  For now, I'm just going to concentrate on making a square when the mood takes me.  And if all I end up with is a cushion cover, then so be it.

I also felt spurred on by my knitting fit...

 ...to try my hand at something with two needles.  And I have made this:

Yes indeed.  It will be completely obvious what this is.  But just in case...

Still none the wiser?  Well. its supposed to be a coffee cosy.  The trouble is, I'm not sure I have any cups the right shape.  Here it is on a glass...

Yes, well...  I can claim no credit for the pattern.  I found it in a book that I'd bought for a friend, and came across the pattern as I was flicking through it.  It really is a lovely book.

Even if, perhaps, knitting is not its forte.  Or mine, come to that...

I got the lovely shiny buttons in a really fab shop that I need to blog about another time.  But now, we are getting on with it in the house of noknittedknickers.  We are washing...

... and determined to find some Spring on this grey, grey day...

There's a definite air of back to school.  Work tomorrow.

A lovely holiday, now over.

Hope you have a good week.

C.x

Cloth

I was asked about one of the photos from my sampler:



and whether that was the interior of my house. I so wish that were true! It comes from Cloth Fabric in Sydney - an amazing shop where the owner works with local artists to create textiles in a traditional way.



I could have bought everything in this shop...



...the wallpaper, those paintings...



...those cushions, that vase...



...that lovely, lovely lamp...



...all those delicious ornaments...



...all of it, really...

Instead I had to content myself with some small fabric off cuts:








(sorry, that could have done with a good iron before I took the photo, but you get the gist.)

And, inspired by the use of so much hemp (or perhaps in another rush of blood to the head), I decided that a couple of coffee sacks might be just the ticket, so I begged these for free from a Sydney coffee shop:







(again, iron entirely absent...)

I have an idea for the Cloth fabrics but more of that another time. No idea what I'll do with the coffee sacks. Cushion cover? Lampshade? All suggestions welcome.

In another life, my house will be full of Cloth.

C.x
PS I need some help. I love the "you might also like..." links at the end of each post on lots of other blogs, but I've just tried to find out how to do it in mine and just can't. (it's 5.30am and I am stupid with jet lag) Can anyone point me in the right direction? I thought it might be "links to old blogs" but I've already got that on the right hand side. Any ideas? Thanks in advance. C.

PPS So, I figured it out (sort of). After struggling a bit more with it, I went onto the blogger help forum and simply typed "you might also like" and it led me to a free and ad-free widget download that does the business.  Still haven't figured out how to customise the selection of the three old post referrals, but it's a start. C.

Cheery stripes

I'm more of a circles than stripes person (more of that another time), but our amazing holiday is coming to an end (suspect you'll be hearing about Australia for a little while yet), so I wanted to post about something very Summery to prolong the holiday feeling.


Deck chairs! Nothing says sunshine to me more than an old fashioned deck chair. And next to the Townhall in Sydney, there are deck chairs for use by the public when the sun and the city gets too much.






How cool is that!

And while I'm at it, I thought I'd show you this lovely fabric from a shop there selling French flea Market type stuff called Ici et La (wish I'd taken more photos in there, but sometimes I get a little shy of asking.)





And all of this reminds me of a lovely day Mr P and I spent in Lyme Regis last Summer where these couple of deck chairs seemed so quintessentially English...


When we left New York three weeks ago, the weather was like this:


It's been so lovely being in the sunshine of Summer in February and I've been reading wistfully about all the Spring loveliness in Europe on everyone's blogs. So I'm really hoping that when we get home Spring will have remembered to come to New York too.

And if you have a hankering after a deck chair, or even just some fabric, then check out this website. The colour injection alone will make it worth the visit.

Off to catch my flight now.

C.x

February sampler

I've been blogging for about 6 weeks now, and from the beginning I've loved the sampler pages of photographs on other blogs such as at 1/4 of an inch, or by Sue at The Quince Tree.  So I thought I'd have a go myself.  What do you reckon?

Thanks so much to Sue for pointing me in the right directions by sending me here.

Expect more of these soon.  (Can't promise I can wait another month...)

C.x