Au revoir

We are going away on a trip that reads like something from The Before (Covid) Times. In preparation for this I had my hair done this morning and I think I've persuaded myself that that will be the last time I have it coloured. Time perhaps to let it go grey with grace. 

Anyway we are spending tonight on the ferry so that we don't have to get up at stupid o'clock to get to the other side of Orkney to catch it before it sails at 7.00 in the morning (check in an hour before and a 40 minute drive, I'm sure you can do the sums.).  Then Glasgow,  Leeds , Glasgow again,  Chambery in the French Alps then back to Glasgow and then Orkney again. Ten quite hectic days, although I hope there will be some fun in there too. Fingers crossed there will be some bloggable stuff in all of that, but in any case no more blog posts until after we're back which, weather permitting, will be 24th of the month. 

Would you believe it - some good telly at last!

We're well into autumn so it's competition telly time, which is generally good news for me. 

There was a weird thing recently called Dressing the Nation which purported to be looking for a new designer to join the team at M & S. This has to be a gimmick as I'm sure M & S are regularly overwhelmed by applications from people with the appropriate qualifications and relevant experience wanting to join them but it made for an entertaining programs. The putative designers all had quite = er - expansive personalities and some of the ideas they come up with even wearable. Although some weren't. It passed the time agreeably, sort of filled the gap left by Sewing Bee and was a short series. My favourite moments each episode were when they let what they assured us were 'genuine M & S customers' in, to comment on the clothes and made the designers sit and watch what appeared to be a  real time live feed of the customer reaction. 

As far as current offerings go I do not go near Strictly, whose delights escape me, although  I realise it's very popular. I am watching Bake Off, but with only half an eye as I've got bored with it and I don't like Alison Hammond as a presenter, or all the stupid double-entendres, or the dressing up at the start.  It doesn't seem quite so focussed on decoration this time around, thank goodness, but there's till time for that to turn around. 

Also on a culinary theme we are of course watching Masterchef the Professionals and I am still of course bemoaning the spoiling presence of Greg Wallace. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I have no idea what this man is doing anywhere near this program, he brings nothing to the party that Marcus  Wareing and Monica Galletti do not bring themselves - and more expertly wrapped at that. However there is a lot of enjoyment to be had from watching people who are very good at their job to start with getting even better,  even if, when faced with some delicious looking main the general refrain in this house is 'but where's the potato?'

Over on Sky Arts I have been celebrating the return of Portrait Artist of the Year. I am currently obsessing over whether the male judge, Tai Shan Schierenburg ( spelling?) has had a hair transplant or just adopted a rather drastic new hairstyle. His hair currently looks like the fuzz that used to adorn the head of the Action Man Toy when they stopped just painting on his hair and replaced it with some sort of fabric-y stuff. There is a bijou problemette with PAotY here in that the OH has a distressing habit of walking through the living room when it's on and saying things like 'None of them know how to paint' or 'That look nothing like the subject'. The latter comment is actually sometimes true, never better exemplified by the winner's portrait the year the prize was to pain Lenny Henry. The resulting picture looked nothing like Lenny Henry, If you didn't see it, Google Images is your friend here.  I would have defied even his mother to have recognised him from it. But that's not a common thing and I like watching how the different artists work, seeing which medium they choose and how they approach the task of producing a portrait. 

Moving away form competition TV tonight sees the return of Wolf Hall, or more accurately the start of the The Mirror and the Light, Hilary Mantels sequel to Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies. I'm currently trying to work out some time to finish my rewatch of Wolf Hall (one episode to go) before the new series starts this evening. 

In late summer I did find a few drama series to watch, courtesy of Amazon Prime/You Tube. On Amazon there was a very entertaining legal drama called Newton's Law; much input from the people who brought you Miss Fisher 's Murder Mysteries so that was a good start. Sadly there was only one season of Newton's Law but it was a fun watch. Another Oz drama I enjoyed was Winter, one series, one made for TV film, both very good I thought, if a bit grim - especially the film. On You Tube I called up a thing called The Brief, an old ITV drama starring Alan Davies. I had totally forgotten that I had ever watched it, in fact I had forgotten it altogether, but I came across a reference to it in an old letter from a friend - can you tell I've been doing some clearing out of Very Old Stuff that should probably Never Have Been Kept? I was intrigued by her sentence 'I too am watching The Brief, mainly like you for EP, unfortunately I was away for the episode with DJ and CV'. I was totally bamboozled by these initials so went off to IMBD to discover they referred to Edward Petherbridge, Dominic Jephcott and Christopher Villiers , three actors both she and I admired at the time. And after that discovery I had to see if I could find the program and remind myself abut it and there it was on You Tube. Again not very many episodes and more serious in tone  than Newton's Law, but it was a bit of a trip down Memory Lane. 

And now for a couple of small household chores before I settle down to lunch and the downfall of Anne Boleyn and Co. 

 

Another Sad(dish) Farewell

I said goodbye this week to my Rivendell socks. You can read all about why and how I knitted them in this blog post  . And see a bit more of the finished article. Not my happiest ever knitting experience. 

They looked lovely when done and I enjoyed wearing them, which is why I was sad to say goodbye to them, but the soles had felted, the rest was pilling, the colour was leaching out of the yarn .... basically in an overcrowded sock drawer they could no longer justify taking up space. If the pattern had been better written I would have knitted a replacement pair, but it isn't, and there's just no reason to put myself through all that pain again! 

Following on from an earlier post I succumbed yesterday and bought the JL Advent Calendar. Despite my doubts, I like the Parisian street scene and although I wouldn't describe the 'apartment' (where the games and activities are) as cosy - and to be fair the JL people themselves call it 'chic' - the colours are much more to my taste than last year's Edwardian Country House ones. So an improvement on that  already! 

Wool stats and projects for October

 This isn't pretty!

My quarterly clubs arrived and I went to the Glasgow Yarn festival and then there was the Australia themed sock yarn ... so the grand total in was 1250g. It was another unproductive month knitting wise as I only managed to finish three things. So wool out was only 243 g which means a net increase for October of 1007, and the reduction for the year is down to 6769. 

The projects I managed were 

the last of the baby cardigans from who knows when - still awaiting transport to the charity shop. 

Poppy's new blanket with the leftovers.

and this is a project for a Christmas swap. Since it was largely lace it gave me a lot of trouble but I managed in the end. It's a Victorian style muff and obviously I wouldn't knit one of those for just any random person but my swap partner is a regular attendee at Victorian/steam punk events so this seemed perfect. The yarn came from the cardigan kit that I disassembled, it was perfect, being the right weight for the pattern and also the right colours for my partner who loves autumnal shades. 

Not entirely sure why productivity was so low this month although going away didn't help, and I did a non knitting thing that took ages and isn't quite finished and there was something else that I had a lot of trouble with which I mostly knitted in October but doesn't count because I didn't finish it until yesterday. 

Numbers for November are looking a bit better so far, and I hope I might get more knitting done than I've managed recently. Certainly hope so! 

Advents

I know, we haven't got Bonfire Night over yet, how dare I mention something associated with Christmas? There again I had an e-mail from Jacquie Lawson last week saying their Advent Calendar is now on sale  so I'm assuming we can talk about them, even  if it is just November. 

I daresay I will get  the JL one although I had a few issues with it last year. At least this year they claim they have some new music, which is a great relief because they have been using the same few carols over and over for years now, and some of them I am very sick of. The calendars are fun and I do look forward to seeing what each day brings, but  occasionally I think I have  just got  a bit too used to them and no longer have quite the same joy in them that I did when the first few came out. The wonder is gone. And that is not the fault of the team at JL, it's a fault in me, because I've got  blase. That said the colour palette last year was horrible and I'm not particularly taken with the this years setting - 'a chic apartment in Paris'. 

We do already have four advent things in the house. One is the yarn advent that the OH traditionally buys for me for Christmas; this year it's from a dyer called The Yarn Artist themed on the paintings of Van Gogh and that's still in the box the postie brought it in. I'm not sure whether to open that day by day in December or leave it all until Christmas Day. The jury is out on that one.

Also yarn related is the weekly advent from Lay Family Yarn which I treated myself to. 

Four parcels, on the theme of Winter at the Christmas Market,  one for each week of December, and each one containing the yarn and pattern to make a project small enough (in theory) to be finished in a week. All I'm saying to that is -  It's December and Christmas is coming, who on earth is going to have the time to knit a project a week?? But I'll give it a go. 

Next up is this one 

the Bonne Maman Jam advent. Some may remember I got this one last year as a one off and I wasn't going to repeat it, mainly because it had 5 or 6 days when instead of a small jar of jam you got a little chintz bag filled with dust which was supposed to be tea. As far as tea goes, if it doesn't look and taste like a relative of Yorkshire Tea then I'm not inclined to call it tea at all, and I'm certainly  not venturing to pour boiling water on a set of crushed-almost-to-extinction leaves which aren't even admitting to what they are, and then drinking the stuff.  It seems I wasn't alone in my low opinion of the tea option, as this year we are promised 24 small jars of jam. Plus, by buying direct from the company,  we got a large jar of their chocolate spread  which we are already using. The OH seemed a little it unsure about this, it not being December and all, but as I pointed out there are 24 small jars behind 24 numbered cardboard doors for December. The big jar is therefore non month specific. 

And finally is one that has become a bit of a fixture recently and that's the Yankee Candle Advent Calendar. The one we have this year looks like this. 

There was much bigger one that was twice as expensive which I assume contains votives rather than tea lights. Anyway the past two years the TC advents have had 18 tea lights, which I have always thought was odd, and they just sat in the box waiting for you to choose which colour for today and with a generic list of five scents on the bottom the box with no indication of which colour which scent related to. This year they have upped their game. There are 24 tea lights and they are each concealed behind their own little cardboard door and there's a little infographic on the bottom of the box telling you the scent for each of the eight colours. I feel that personally  I could live without a Christmas Cookie scented candle but it is an American company and Americans do strange things where cookies are concerned; scent their candles, put the raw dough in ice cream etc etc And anyway, who knows? they might smell all spicy and lovely. 

So that's our advents for this year. Last year we were away for the first week of December for our Stockholm Christmas Markets trip and although that was lovely and I wouldn't have missed it, it meant playing catch up with a lot of the advent stuff whihc spoiled the fun a bit. This year we are planning to be at home for all of December so I should be able  to get into a routine of opening /marvelling/ eating/ lighting and knitting as each day begins. 

But before that, two birthdays, Bonfire Night, a trip to Leeds and the Alps, presents to buy and the cards to get written. After that though, it will all be relax relax relax. (Yeah, probably not that last bit!)

Happy Mail

 

I sometimes think I have not so much fallen off the No Yarn Purchases wagon, as hurled myself off it at high speed and with great enthusiasm. Witness the above.

What can I tell you? It's a special edition sock wool called The Colours of Australia. This means two things. It won't be around for ever ( because special edition) and I have to buy it ( because Australia ).

Fall about laughing if you will, but those three balls honestly represent some restraint (!), as the collection comprises six colourways and as you will see I have (so far) purchased only three; left to right, Daintree Forest, Kalgoorlie Gold Fields and Sacred Earth. The plan is to make myself a pair of socks from each ball and then pair the leftovers with some West Yorkshire Spinners leftovers in a  toning or contrasting  colour to make another pair for the OH. So good value moneywise, if a rather large commitment in time. I did also think I might try doing at least one pair toe up, a technique I have yet to master, but that might be a step too far with everything else that is going on just now. We'll see. 

Two Days Out

 

So although the trip south recently was basically so I could go to the Glasgow School of Yarn yarn festival we took the opportunity to drive over to Dundee to see the Kimono Exhibition at the V & A Dundee Museum as well. 

I didn't take any photos at either of these events, and the OH just took the one at Kimono, which is above. 

The exhibition itself was amazing. A lot of care had gone into selecting the images, both the large background ones and the smaller ones on the walls which illustrated the story of the development of the kimono over the years. Plus the garments themselves were spectacular. It's amazing that one garment should stay as a staple for so many hundreds of years, with nothing much changing bar the nature, method and placement of the decoration. It was a bit sad to see how the workmanship and detailed nature of the decoration decreased once Japan was opened to the west and alkaline dyes were imported from Europe. But it was interesting, as was the way the basic shape was plundered by designers in Europe too. I was still suffering a bit from Exhibition Knee but I made it round with just the one break - and there were plenty of chairs and benches for people to sit on and contemplate the beauty around them if you needed them.

After we had looked at all the kimonos we repaired to the cafe where we didn't stay, since it was overpriced and pretentious. We had a look in the shop which has to be the dullest museum shop I've ever seen, which is ridiculous when you think its supposed to be a museum of art and design. To be honest I'm not sure how well the whole plan was thought through. There was a lot of hype over the exterior design when it was first built, as it's in the shape of a ship, as a nod to Dundee's maritime heritage,  but inside there's not a lot of space and a lot of it is wasted. There were lots of rooms for the Kimono Exhibition and presumably that's where they always put the temporary exhibitions, but they didn't seem to have much of a permanent collection on show. It opened in 2015 and I can't  shake off an eerie feeling that it was designed in Westminster to be built as some sort of pre-referendum bribe-cum-sop. It's supposed to be 'Scotland's Design Museum' but I saw precious little design or indeed anything very Scottish except for some Dundee cakes and tea towels in the shop. Which was about as overpriced as the cafe. We won't be rushing back! 

The GSoY was also a bit of a disappointment actually. Several of the vendors I've come to rely on seeing there weren't vending there this year. Whether they decided not to bother, or whether they weren't selected to make room for new ones I don't know but I certainly missed them. Some of the people I go to see had very small or badly placed stalls and certainly Wee County Yarns were suffering from being stuck in  a very dark corner,. They had had to being in extra lights themselves on the Sunday after putting up with it on Saturday. Some of the people who were supposed to be vending weren't there, and it wasn't just the weather that had kept them away because they had been announced as vending but they didn't appear on the floor plan which must have been printed a while in advance. Several of the volunteers had no idea of the answers to the questions we had either. Also I do wish they would extend their refreshment 'offering' from just drinks and cakes to something a bit more substantial. If I'm there over lunchtime I don't just want cake. I mean, obviously I DO want cake, but not just cake.

That said, the friend I went with and I had a very nice late lunch in a small cafe not far away, that we just stumbled over,  and where the staff were fabulous and  there was plenty of choice food wise. And we did then wander off to John Lewis where my friend made a couple of purchases and we rounded off our day with coffee and blackcurrant and marscapone  cake in the cafe. And it was delicious! 

I think I'll be giving GSoY a miss next year though.