tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15219180294294227822024-02-19T06:41:45.146+00:00Ginger LucyKnitting, baking, larking about in the city and all sorts of other anticsGinger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.comBlogger137125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-60657031270848317522010-05-13T22:44:00.003+01:002010-05-13T22:49:50.346+01:00Mass-ochism<div align="justify">Hello, and Christ on a bike, it’s been well over a year since I last blogged. What happened? I changed jobs at the very end of March 2009 to one that takes up far more of my time than I want it to – I can’t say it was wholly a mistake as the pay is good, but sadly I find there to be few other redeeming features. That extra pay did help with the other major event: my wedding in September 2009. It involved an incredible amount of preparation (I didn’t quite believe people when they warned me) but was, in all seriousness, the best day of my life, so most certainly worth it. And as well as the new job and new surname, I’ve been getting a lot more serious on the knitting and wildlife fronts. I’m sure if I can get back into blogging I’ll cover all of those, barring work, in a few detailed catch-up posts.<br /><br />For now, I should explain why, suddenly, on Thursday 13 May 2010, I am back.<br /><br />As I’m sure most readers will know, we’ve just had a general election in the UK, with a shiny new Prime Minister. I was following some political discussions on the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/groups/british-knitters">British Knitters group</a> on Ravelry, when someone mentioned the <a href="http://www.massobs.org.uk/index.htm">Mass Observation</a> social research project. Started in 1937, this seeks to create an archive of the experiences of the average British citizen, as a historical record of the populace. The sort of thing that we had to analyse in GCSE History, by the time I took it (at the time with much eye-rolling, but of great interest to me now). The original project ran until the 1950s, and was resurrected in 1981, the year of my birth. These days, participants are asked to write three pieces a year for the archive on their thoughts on specific issues, plus any other pieces they’d like to contribute. These are archived anonymously, catalogued by date and by topic, and available to researchers upon application to the University of Sussex. I am sure I could spend hours reading through the minutiae of people’s lives. I have, in fact, just ordered the <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nella-Lasts-War-Diaries-Housewife/dp/184668000X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273787222&sr=1-1">first book</a> of records by the prolific Nella Last, a housewife who kept very detailed records for Mass Observation through World War II and into peacetime, and I can’t wait for it to arrive.<br /><br />I would absolutely love to write for Mass Observation, but unfortunately they are currently only recruiting males aged 16-44 who live in the north of England. They might consider those who meet two out of three criteria, but since I only meet the age requirement, I’m not going to get in. Given my blogging performance, that might be a good thing… Happily, and also by the power of Ravelry, I was alerted to a one-off project for anyone to submit a 750-word diary entry for 12 May 2010. I believe the date was chosen to be an ordinary day, because that same date had been used for the same project in 1937 (the date of the coronation of George VI); I am probably going to order <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/May-Twelfth-Mass-Observation-Survey/dp/0571250459/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273787310&sr=1-9">that book</a> too. As it happened, given the rather drawn-out process of forming a coalition government over the last week, the entries might be a bit more political than the Mass Observation people had anticipated.<br /><br />Last night, after knitting, I sat down to write my diary, and, having done so, I realised that I had a ready-made blog entry – or at least half of one seeing as I suspect the above introduction might easily be as long. Longer, in fact, since I have a tendency to be verbose (perhaps that’s why I don’t keep up the blog – it takes too long to write all I want to say). My first draft of the diary entry came in at just under 1,000 words and still, in my mind, contained hardly anything. No details, no feelings. Cutting it down even further to meet the word limit pained me greatly. But having survived doing so, I might as well offer it up to any dear readers who might still be around.<br /><br />The style is, therefore, sparser than usual, and contains the required background information. We were asked to describe our day, including whether it was typical, and to include such details as who we met, what we ate, and the like.<br /><br />On that note, I will leave you with the entry itself below, and go and do some long-needed comment moderation since the spammers found this blog. I promise to be back soon!<br /><br />----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br />I am a 29-year-old female living in north London with my husband. I am an accountant specialising in corporate tax.<br /><br />Today was a typical Wednesday: work followed by my knitting group’s regular weekly meet-up.<br /><br />I first woke up at 7am, when the alarm went off for my husband to get up – he is due in his office earlier than I am due in mine, and he has usually left the house before I get out of bed at 8.15am. I value sleep more than a leisurely time getting ready, so I rush to shower, dress and do basic make-up – I don’t make much of an effort with that for the office. I never eat breakfast at home – I might buy something on my way into work but often, including today, I skip it entirely. This morning getting up was harder than normal because I’ve been suffering with a cold for the last few days, and kept myself awake coughing during the night. I’d had the last two days off work sick, since I’d completely lost my voice, so today was my first day back.<br /><br />My usual route into work is to take the bus down to the tube station. It is within walking distance but I am shamefully lazy. On arrival at the tube station I found the gates closed as one of the two lines it serves was disrupted and so the station was overcrowded. However we were let in reasonably soon, so that didn’t make me late for work. I have to change once on the tube, then there’s about a ten-minute walk to my office in the City.<br /><br />My work involves the preparation of tax returns for our UK companies, plus dealing with correspondence with the Revenue, sorting out tax payments, and fielding queries from the accounting teams in our business units. Nothing out of the ordinary happened today work-wise.<br /><br />I work in a team of five people, plus our boss who sits in her own office. We are quite sociable and chat whilst we work. Today’s main topic of conversation was of course the new coalition government, and in particular their tax plans. We will need to report to our board on the outcome of the replacement Budget that we have been told will be given soon, so that gave us an excuse to spend a lot of time surfing various news websites in search of any rumours. Plenty of tea was made, as always.<br /><br />For lunch I bought a freshly-prepared salad from a take-away place by our office, plus a soft drink and a chocolate-chip cookie for later, but sadly the cookie turned out to be not very nice so I didn’t finish it.<br /><br />At 5.45pm I left the office – this is unusually early for me, as I tend to stay until at least 6.30pm, often later. I am not paid overtime, but my contract says that I am required to work any additional hours needed to do my job. This is quite standard in financial services, but I do at least get a bonus (never enough!) once a year.<br /><br />Having exchanged e-mails during the day to arrange a venue, I headed across to west London to a crêperie to meet my knitting group. This was to be a new venue for us, and did not work out very well. We do not generally all turn up at the same time, so need a place where we are able to take over a table big enough for all of us for the whole evening. The crêperie was extremely busy and the waitresses could not let us do that, but luckily fewer people than normal came along. We admired each other’s knitting, ate crêpes and chatted about the election, books, films etc. I was knitting a plain triangular shawl, since this is easy to do whilst talking!<br /><br />We left the restaurant at 9pm. The tube disruption from earlier was still going on, so it took me longer than usual to get home. Coincidentally I arrived at my home station at the same time as my husband, who had been rock climbing with his friends, so we took the bus home together, arriving back at 10pm. We don’t have a television, so both spent some time reading and surfing the internet on our laptops, with the heating on as it is unusually cold for May. I wrote this diary entry at just past midnight, and will go to bed as soon as it is sent.</div>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-41718942353333988392009-03-11T23:43:00.002+00:002009-03-11T23:51:10.519+00:00Belt up<div align="justify">Last week I finally made it to a class at <a href="http://www.themakelounge.com/">The Make Lounge</a>, after basically everybody I know has been there multiple times without me. Can't think why I haven't before. It's even really close to where I live, and opposite the road where my most-local yarn shop <a href="http://www.loop.gb.com/">Loop</a> is. </div><div align="justify"><br />The Make Lounge is a tiny little studio devoted to interesting crafty classes, owned by the very friendly Jennifer, and has been open for nearly a year now. It's really bright and still cosy, and you get free wine, tea and biscuits with your class. </div><div align="justify"><br />The one I went to was on leather belt-making, so something I figured I could not do at home. The class was run by the very lovely Merle and there were about eight of us doing it. We were given a basic design to work with and allowed to choose dark or light brown leather (or a combo), plus metal hardware in the form of buckles or studs, in gold or silver, then away we went with all the fun stuff. It was quite hard work: cutting the leather (it was very thick), polishing down the edges, conditioning and buffing the surface to a shine, painting the edges with dye, deciding to bevel everything so more polishing, buffing and dyeing... Better than a gym workout for the upper arms. That was even before we moved onto the hole punching and riveting, with rubber mallets, tiny little anvils, and strange punching machinery. </div><div align="justify"><br />After all that, here's my attempt, modelled by me the next morning in the garden before work: </div><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312081471230378002" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmgiVUDkfuIArU3oX4zUgz0UGicizy4efKQ_DOWN8Zbk1gFeSpaOm6Pcnr-X8w0X3ZPJRzBS9yA72uNHN35rlyadGL0BQVruXorPqu0qaqgA1D37B4y7W7jrMk7vwZ755owN_KtynVC_mT/s320/belt1.JPG" border="0" /><br />I also tried to get some shots of round the back to show off the fact that the holes go all the way round for decorative purposes, but it's really hard to twist and take a photo without displaying hideous rolls of fat, so I gave up. This was the best I could do. </p><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312081477638932274" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif2oAVALDGXYxCFbaFIdcoswxYU1Fn80WvRkHucTSnfi0QxsAR6qk7o9_qZiJ4V5oynjSuE03EJ1a4noL7XDB70Zck8fmReUfTTDvlPRdIL4hEDVQRaaAwe-aZRYZS-SNnicCkcp_0Jvnb/s320/belt2.JPG" border="0" /><br />Towards the end of the class I decided to use my offcuts to make a matching wrist cuff. It worked perfectly but I probably annoyed the hell out of Jennifer by still being at it well after the supposed end time of the class when she wanted to close up and go home. If you're reading this, my apologies, and thank you for your forbearance. </p><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312081476132593538" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzsOdXJAdjp8OtLYy1PWGrNau85NH1EjsUUbtj7yx8nbdzqfOE0-N3jNZfy-kt-th0ETP0nD8FZNxpYNLOXHZ_HE1kJpdw7g4svq5HAZi_awRqsvJFTWJuZZkrr8TgnujB_HZOAgqtyFf3/s320/belt3.JPG" border="0" /><br />Jennifer took some photos of the class in progress, and I particularly like <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/meetpeople-makestuff/3327374395/">this one</a> for the colours of my turquoise nails and mustard dress against the leather. </p><p align="justify">Gail has done this class before and her belt, different to mine, is <a href="http://flibbertygibbet.typepad.co.uk/flibbertygibbet/2008/09/make-it.html">here</a>. </p><p align="justify">All in all not something I'll try at home, what with all the equipment needed, but a brilliant class and good value considering I got the belt and the cuff (and wine, had I wanted any). I'll definitely be going back!</p>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-69563489886798914992009-03-10T23:42:00.005+00:002009-03-11T00:04:05.366+00:00Proud to be...<div align="justify"><div align="justify">At the very end of February I had a great weekend "representing", one way or the other.</div><div align="justify"><br /></div><div align="justify">On the Saturday I met with a group of UK-based members of the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/groups/lazy-stupid-and-godless">Lazy, Stupid & Godless</a> (LSG or lsg if you want to live up to the lazy bit) group on Ravelry. The group was founded on 1 February 2008 - I am pleased to say I was there on day 1 - and so first birthday celebrations took place worldwide during February (taking the whole month Jack Daniels style). We lazily managed it on the last possible day.</div><div align="justify"><br />For those not members, the group was founded after an argument on the main boards of Ravelry about swearing. Two camps quickly became apparent - those who think that four-letter words show the user to be a stupid moron sitting around scratching their pubes and drooling (but funny how using asterisks makes it all OK, isn't it, hmm?), versus those who consider the judicious use of solid and venerable Anglo-Saxon words to be an augmentation of the vocabulary. And why the fuck not? You know which side I was on, of course. We agreed to pander to the delicate sensibilities of the objectors, refrain from swearing on the "Big 6", and decamped to our own group to be as filthy as we liked. It remains one of the most fun, supportive and kind groups on the whole internet, let alone Ravelry. These really are my kind of people.</div><div align="justify"><br /></div><div align="justify">We decided to meet up at <a href="http://www.prickyourfinger.com/">Prick Your Finger</a>, a yarn shop in Bethnal Green, east London, which is sufficiently quirky for such purposes. Additionally, LSG-member <a href="http://kirstyhall.co.uk/">Kirsty</a> was performing an art installation there anyway, so it worked out very well. We arrived in dribs and drabs over the course of a couple of hours, and took over the whole floor for a knit-in, whilst owner Rachael Matthews made us many cups of tea.</div><div align="justify"><br /></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311710310523714914" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhycLge-1zIaLkOI0e0BZQ9d1x9c6QyukGOWUxziPC8ripi9UPPaXF6fvhyxZahL6HOBL5yXXG7DSsLnIO8TQa-04ygbWEMyYIdeNkAjIDzHzunuJ4v9r0ZJZPfb4cAxpzaQ8A0ybZEL-Me/s320/pyf1.JPG" border="0" /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311710313137132770" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFi0vnCD9W_ZShPESoljTY8JC3npmdX09T9j-P3fY-lntQTq02DNAhHvVYbdt1Ca-MVO55BcE2NMjGUf38vLQ44n70PfG2A2Wmpy6mUoXB9EXtVo5-FSx4uehtiCi0hAn91JGOPl8PkzQR/s320/pyf3.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify">We watched Kirsty's Pin Ritual. Her pin-based art is amazing - here's a close-up of one of her hanging pieces:</div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311709679452294770" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhIATZfhNzCCzS3NoLD7pGvitN5d3TM5xlg5_xj5ntdh7I2_8UcWdUsQ2nVU8sipzPdIXRxMAd9xi9S_fBowSH13MDCQ4xTlN0fQG18f-06TEUmzSGwCRrlUNhkCeTfbYOKfcVMuOCDNmn/s320/pins2.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify">And the trail of pins she leaves wherever she goes (wear shoes):</div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311709673272640706" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGX-1V4j6v_0uU1lt2t4m7YZpHVzxu0hyphenhyphenjQ7qg9po-bLJEqsWDmGsgX8crT2RMcaI0WvjMx9mVsZKO3m6dflPGcZqlpIYKKNUTPM_RpQgAEga45vc8TroNl0PGozbaSn76Q3l4QqT7Qmtz/s320/pins1.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify">Some fab stuff from around the shop:</div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311709665759462066" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLKZH5zYIOIJVoa9rHKCUw9deneNKUoCipLcnE6K5OGIJqjQBS2A5tWohZGmlYR0ViwpIwYdrWft7esfEe2i90JeLWfvhK-VyQLBN_ETgxwqf23TRjD0IG8utpPw0Q9Ian7Z5kXMb85Sbc/s320/buttons.JPG" border="0" /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311709676058020674" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2b2gi-xmGMiDH328ghLkgTzjvki8ef1ZvEFxOJvDWPv0knJ1fUkKniJg627RxIK-JS0F6gnI6CNIAgUMdbD8gdszMMjv52RnfskoUhBh4MGAn3VND3QD1WCslE4OAFCCkzgAhjvm86cRR/s320/hedgehog.JPG" border="0" /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311709670864488082" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6TiCEOBqCQCskBX_NR7qIqO2LZSua16ms0GTkwlGTrLJ714t6KLwL3dlXlkcFgsGSst-mKtmaOCwNz6dRcDPUEKH7FHvO04s7spN-gzfYP92RX9b9T5kcu2ftj0X5R1DZKGOMWvrIn9iA/s320/chicks.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify">We then decamped to the nearby pub for pies, alcohol, ice-cream, knitting and good conversation - it is called The Camel but was re-christened <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameltoe">The Camel-Toe</a>:</div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311710306154379874" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOOL6YKIfmMdVQ2jQVrZmvzdg8pf6txmHBP8JSzP_AEsDaWzT2kAgj9_cp5bFkguSyjXIpEO2R8Dab7Q8eJCd4l9pVi6T6Sew-AQr7ahqXywkpJIoQNYK27AIKgHUVXe3oIJ6zAI1clZK4/s320/pub1.JPG" border="0" /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311710304932161170" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIa2OIlTlne_-zg78NNEEAMud2gWx1j6pSNfL4AdETU0C3JUWbhpgo0OccBc3ykgy4he6dnvbCFNocP_zwPt7FGgEiLgGITBX0dHtwpeM28CVcCPz35KIwvjqcDQqmZR5V-IgPCJzRg951/s320/pub2.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify">You're all awesome, twatweasels!<br /><br /></div><div align="justify">The next day I celebrated not my sweariness but my gingerness, at a photographic exhibition called <em>Root Ginger</em>, devoted to redheads. I'd seen something about this before but it was somewhere up north, Wolverhampton I think (yes, as far as I'm concerned that's north, way north), so I was thrilled to see it come to London.</div><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311711385505169266" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisyqJ6sZHpDIwycveuMdFeDz-nVLQO3HOWjcUiOxKKIb31VAhUyLg-qcTmAxQdqRdaOoTc6fPQ7w2pUyKLmErtc0ciqlnacHghcWsA_Mf7snO36mHG-XZNSrXl6bFq-fBgCjta8yKPZ4os/s320/sign.JPG" border="0" /><br />It was fairly small, and consisted of large close-up portraits of redheads, all taken against a white background as if a scientific study. I think they're beautiful, but then I would!<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311711382903673650" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJsQfIbqWki7AuwXiN6x33ILa2D-ZvSli_zMR-GxlzH-I0CdAlQ-GyDNwsX9s7CVRdNche1ij8wWHWqtO2jESKn9x0H6MUIO8XMBeoB8dFnq7QEvhSUecxK94b1fORRyFjWo1SqJZ5kzBU/s320/gallery.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify">There was also some video and printed interviews about the experiences of the participants with respect to having red hair - inevitably the bullying and teasing, the unthinking slights in folklore (the warning about tea-pouring and the threat of bearing ginger twins, the proverbially unwelcome "redheaded step-child", to name but two), but also the admiring comments from old ladies about children - that used to happen a lot to me too. What was particularly interesting was the number of gingers there. If I'd been manning the front desk, I'd have kept a tally of the redheaded visitors as a proportion of all visitors, and I bet it would have been far higher than the general population. Certainly there were plenty of us on the streets of Shoreditch, headed towards or away from the exhibition. I was able to direct a few people who looked lost, because their hair told me exactly what they were looking for.</div><br />Particularly nice to see were the number of ginger children there, and I say that as someone who would normally rather be anywhere but in a gallery full of kids. It is rather isolating - especially if you're the only one in the family like I was - and I thought it was great that they could see other people, celebrating their hair colour, particularly for the little boys who have a hard time of it. I like redheaded men but I know I'm in the minority there. I feel they're often forced to become extroverted to survive school, and to an extent that applies to us girls to in having to live up to our "fiesty" reputation. I'm not complaining, I love my hair as my screen-name suggests, and I wouldn't change it for the world. But it does get a little tiring when people casually say they'd hate to have a ginger child, or when my brother says on his Myspace page he'd do any member of <a href="http://www.girlsaloud.co.uk/noflash.php">Girls Aloud</a> except for the ginger one because gingers are minging, or even family holidays spent hiding miserably under an umbrella wearing SPF 50 total sun block whilst my quick-tanning family basked on the sand. So of course I loved the exhibition.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311711379115342530" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMwfxOsi3vctamAGlWLD5XFY9sieJOnak5Jg86xob0gsxBUEzdEIFFVV24FHStS7L5J4KMgd81ERhU-sSBE0iXcYo5AuIsTAuC1YS5gWC-ksoZzTfV78_LoiOfXqDnynNkP2Jw34Dud-IM/s320/backofthehead.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify">Lots of people were having their photo taken with the big sign, so I got the boyfriend to do it for me. It's not a great photo as I have my eyes shut, but it turns out I'm inadvertently mimicing the pose of the child on the programme.<br /></div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311711385663516994" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyGLb0oFm0cugIKFsk911mek_GNFkDOViEHwkrSacaDFT-lLAlc9OCyeNUD3HWinvMheVf-JCXyo2mvt99hpX1d3OplK_HXZoA7ct7LrJW6ahITPkN8yQyK8A0iq3l7MrVJnFnUVaedCaZ/s320/me&poster.JPG" border="0" /><br />Gingers rule!<br /></div>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-57347019555227429722009-03-02T23:13:00.006+00:002009-03-02T23:24:04.258+00:00Baba Marta<div align="justify">Last week a colleague asked me, out of the blue, "How long does it take for your wool to arrive?" I blinked in slight confusion. To which particular wool of the many stash enhancement packages that arrive at my desk, er, several times a week, could she be referring? Then I realised that to "normal" people, there could quite conceivably only be one type of wool and only one supplier. I'm sure I'd be equally surprised by the variety of things available for any one of a million different past-times.</div><div align="justify"><div align="justify"><br /></div><div align="justify">Anyway, some questioning revealed the rationale behind the question. This particular colleague is from Bulgaria, where there is a tradition of exchanging little red and white woolly things, called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martenitsa">Martenitsa</a>, on 1 March, which is a national holiday for the first day of spring. The ornaments placate Baba Marta, who is a crotchety old grandmother/witch - the archetypal crone. They are hung up or worn from 1 March until the owner first sees either a stork, a swallow, or a tree in bloom - if the latter, the ornaments should be tied to the tree (presumably this is not feasible with the stork or the swallow and therefore not required by tradition).</div><div align="justify"><br /></div><div align="justify">It is acceptable and common to purchase Martenitsa (although not for yourself, you have to exchange), but handmade is best. We therefore headed to <a href="http://www.johnlewis.co.uk/">John Lewis</a> for wool, beads and other supplies, then spent an enjoyable lunch hour creating the ornaments. </div><div align="justify"><br /> </div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308734084660543490" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJU_2zYlpbj2cz1ibV0KZqt0SOKDukCBFitFfxxTvlM87KnT1MpiGg0FnnyVo4VPN_z1I9woWl_C54RpIVOC9Vr8-VY1d35CVH0PG54mhmBKWhnclN2fNDAeg3NT7_6XPGRVeOo17kxd4i/s320/supplies.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify">Most of the Martenitsa are based on tassles, and the most traditional are little people, a man and a woman. For these, step 1 involves making a tassle:</div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308733699032385154" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjpcLmSzkWSfN8Bg1BsMHPlQbc19rbfZqDfjnogoM4KnP_p5m-IpLMsugqaOHdfRtnRhJ7gBADgJydnJG_wp-jtcufhMKk8vWQ2hyphenhyphenkLSRzVOGVa_30fV2qLJ6eJbJqAPG_6Zoik4xvZi-f/s320/step1.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify">And then binding it at various points to make a neck, waist and arms:</div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308733703791893650" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI-HAhQ8ewDYwEMCgIr3Hsk2iyZ7xLwrwAekdwYbOXaaceem05w2yboThe7zrB1Gn4RRe1FHhtcA1J3LpUAIPWbdp9_gj24eIV6gi0FN8YS9A4wv-GXMDglxE8k6kkibm63BzKUMQMujHo/s320/step2.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify">After some trimming, and the same process again in reverse colours, you have the couple:</div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308733698248635666" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtDhzVRchrttvWn76sJJn7YQewdVLgh_H4b9bU5Hwu_Iurc2TH3vdh-2miU9TgVddg1ML8_l5SXk-DOvxwOy4v78AfKJ27YYoSHtaiFCKvn84VMCtIVrpuq7kCoPaYOFDOMmUIPWOl_XA1/s320/people.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify">Other kinds of tassles and pom-poms are also fine. I made these in the rest of our session:</div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308734090028988802" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU86VgZoVAKiZIXZMHW34FUltSKuxpU9bxX-ZXzWQWCjbmuqhKzG_GMoAp8Uo5NfXa6THlwYGkF0knucB-c7-9GWN7VwnYGPTIs7YJ9O5fMTpRPmt-GrTC0PKaRwv3PRR_KFwjKClggJsP/s320/tassles.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify">Here are some examples of purchased ones, including friendship bracelets which are also popular:</div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308733686426788402" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgly6yJ2n0P0N-QbVjrBogAGC1Yx-Kq6Ef_P_-EWbu2BFhbTitr3FctQ_gk-MVfL5kik61-amGEbp4nUgImjE0V3Mewb8ozQ2_nGtQHV7bQPiCO993Tts449MYv0EpP04uV8zQzbDppHG00/s320/bought.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify">Mine are now hung up on my desk, awaiting the sighting of a tree (storks and swallows not being common in central London):</div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308733692828993858" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAeGff-zGt0kkTFSSp2p5s423RJwpouJ7TBJL4e04r0RBmnX2yYNIWL3VerPzSu2mMBZuZDNC_mbTb8sHUrL9TnxDFo2k328WT0xWv5JgbFqVYmn5oEW4tozkYC67rJN-anVByAeL220P1/s320/hungup.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify">My colleague also sent me a link to <a href="http://dariknews.bg/view_photo_topic.php?photo_topic_id=688&start=16">this news story</a> from a Bulgarian website, which shows the street markets in Sofia at which these things are sold. They are all rather more complex than my attempts - I did find the knitter in the one I've linked to most amusing (the others are worth a look too for novel things to do with wool). I admit I tried to steal the photo but the site wouldn't let me, boo.</div><br />Happy March, and let's hope it is nearly spring! </div>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-43763700689546192642009-02-24T21:17:00.002+00:002009-02-24T21:21:33.733+00:00Shriven<div align="justify">I hope you are all enjoying your pancakes today.</div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306476672115752354" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMedQ-RAAMHzB2WD2OVXgZbIdmz9RocEm17yJE3OV3dFntQt731kyMMlR_Ogm-n3NAobnIYDhKiNMoUelEbMXTAJc5G5rEO2zgHLcjafz6oxJzb944rr4ry5C_NZoa8M_SCQUDpj3l_5kj/s320/pancake1.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify">I always use <a href="http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/basic-pancakes-with-sugar-and-lemon,803,RC.html">Delia's recipe</a>, with very hot butter and a non-stick pan, and I'm pretty good at tossing them accurately (and more importantly, catching them).</div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306476674926274930" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiH_peTBswBfmSvjj7dBJr9PiExmTidWgsSbFBg727jDzlJw1uD8o7xIJBfcwD2VYcJGtUIIZyHHmD3D_vfMoJk63LjerSun95eI9DTp-jbkTeR382ka825CU_rM1v0IMURN6TUvQU6DsO/s320/pancake2.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify">Different fillings are nice, from time to time, but for me it really has to be the traditional lemon and sugar on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrove_tuesday">Shrove Tuesday</a>, even though the citrophobic boyfriend treats them like tangy yellow grenades.</div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306476678863888802" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi64MztQaR_tw_fsk0CZ3Yn4GVU9LmApyYYogil5aa9oiYSLOntkr6NVXiRwyHt_vq-KhFYJTZcgR3FpzKcdxvhcmTzi2xP3Vcf0IJGp6Qvt8HYfUa6bIJqpj_cu1xVR3lT9ZLiTG3Ycfa0/s320/pancake3.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div>Mmm...</div>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-71814208407490102009-02-23T21:08:00.006+00:002009-02-23T21:52:15.426+00:00Finito<div align="justify"><strong><em>Leyburn Socks</em></strong><br /><br />My Socks That Rock <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/leyburn-socks#">Leyburn</a> socks for the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/socks-that-rawk/453838">KAL</a> are finished! Done, done, done. And on time, even ahead of time, no less, seeing as the KAL runs until 31 March. That alone is an extraordinary achievement for me. </div><div align="justify"></div><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306103933958809346" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsdWaDIO5TzdeVREWlpD8c9eixc1GOJuUFE3-ArMFZudB9IGDrmNNrM-go9XzV6KKBLj_81zRf6YZcccVde76WfEiR36yk0hKvUhc5ydDcJZOm9DkEzVJbUNAcKtIF9fWSLkqUHg2LXnSb/s320/leyburn2.JPG" border="0" /> </p><p align="justify"><br />You might remember from <a href="http://gingerlucy.blogspot.com/2009/01/dullis-ville.html">before</a> that the socks had spontaneously generated a grey quilted lattice effect over a coloured background, on the foot. That didn't last on the legs, of course, due to the different stitch count and floats all the way round. It's still cool though. Looking at the socks (and other ones in this colourway on Ravelry) I think I would have disliked the pooling of these colours in a plain sock, but the Leyburn pattern breaks it up just enough. I think I need to be more careful in buying sock yarn as I have a few which are just too contrasty for me. At some point I'm going to convert some of my skein photos to greyscale to see if there's any way of telling by hue what I will and won't like. I have the KAL rules, in that we all had to pick a different colour of STR and this was the only one I had that hadn't been taken, for getting me to knit with it, otherwise it might have languished in my stash forever. Check out the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/leyburn-socks/people?status=&group=&photoless=0&search=kal">KAL projects</a> in all those STR colours, so much fun!<br /><br />Details: <a href="http://www.bluemoonfiberarts.com/">BMFA</a> STR mediumweight in "Tide Pool" on 2.75mm needles for a very tight fabric indeed. Pattern as written with short row toes and heels (and not many gaps actually) until the leg, where I only increased to 60 stitches not 72. They are a little hard to get on and off, but fit perfectly once on. I finished these off with a picot cuff as I just didn't fancy doing ribbing and wasn't sure it would work all that well with the busy pattern and pooling. I hadn't done a picot edge before but enjoyed the process, even though stitching down all the live stitches at the end was more time consuming than a regular cast off. I think here it gives a crown-like effect which goes with the regal quilting. </p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306103929872975122" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKQj-y1-AO6c8bdBkVJol7UmgSDMrM0G33D_ah4cTHHHtIA6jQQGQ-jtRw94ur-tvoR9T66QvyAu9Z8ZjAtwTITlbR-imwQf6yh6kHiL_T8W0QyZiNeo8feEOp1NR8ft_BrxkTNNYWk6b1/s320/leyburn1.JPG" border="0" /> <p align="justify"><br />There is one slightly amusing mistake in these, though not easy to spot. They were almost entirely knitted whilst watching the Joss Whedon sci-fi series <em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_(TV_series)">Firefly</a></em>, and then the follow-on film, <em>Serenity</em>, all on DVD. Not wishing to give the plot away, there is a particularly tragic moment towards the end of the film, and on reflection that has to correspond to the plain row I missed out of one pattern repeat near the top of the second sock, leading to one slightly shallower V. Proves I enjoyed the film, right?<br /><br />I will definitely make this pattern again and am pondering whether or not it would be possible to do the socks in black and the floats in another colour, but will have to figure out what I'd do across the soles to get the yarns back into the right places. Not a task for just now though. I have promised the boyfriend a pair of socks and so will be working with STR mediumweight again straight away, doing plain stocking stitch songs in man-size. Possibly dull, but I am going to challenge myself by learning to use two circulars instead of DPNs, just to see if I can. Vaguely considered trying magic loop but will have that as next on the list.<br /><br />I also have some other FOs but these are old, I just failed to do the finishing on them for ages, then failed to blog them.<br /><br /><strong><em>Oil Slick Triangular Shawl</em></strong><br /><br />From <a href="http://gingerlucy.blogspot.com/2008/07/play-miski-for-me.html">back in July</a>, oh, the shame. Worse still, I finished it back at the very start of November and then didn't do all the ends until some time in January. Never mind, I wear it around the house with pleasure now, although it's a bit rustic and bulky to wear out on the streets of London where I have to preserve my gritty urban cool. </p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306103939342072210" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6WtPfqEpkC6ToPCZIMC8_3R4ZvW6JccpVpdn0y8SbrXk6DRsUvbwPOUl_-mSy7LKjlxnAek1Y6JElU2TosO0Xe4gHJ61foNg86FA-UefAVE3uudqUD5PN5xvcXztQEpbeUB9Bns-hnFDY/s320/noro+shawl+1.JPG" border="0" /> <p align="justify"><br />It is huge. I can't measure it because my tape measure is AWOL, but it's wider than my armspan and that's meant to correspond to my height of 5'8". So about six feet. It's six balls of Noro Iro which were in the John Lewis sale in the summer. As far as I'm concerned, Noro = KNoto which is why there were so many bloody ends to avoid dealing with. The result is very snuggly though, and I love the striping. </p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306103945415450994" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYvrzVZ_QRfC2xQnh1RJ5XNAok-_VbQgLqsstZVppwwqoqDUkdVxbf3zDof7t5r6qtqinPRXj4oyLRsLOn3pg5BVeGOinTcBdUdkbOtRJuPE1uvz4xYt3sshyayN9UVLfGu6fjoeZIPnSW/s320/noro+shawl+2.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify">The pattern is my own, just garter stitch starting at the nape of the neck, then increasing in the middle and at the edges until I ran out of yarn and/or would have given my soul to be finished, on 7mm bamboo circular needles borrowed from <a href="http://knitterrooney.blogspot.com/">Ting</a>.</div><div align="justify"></div><p></p><p><div align="justify"><em><strong>Feather & Fan Silk Scarf</strong></em><br /><br />Worse still, I started this <a href="http://gingerlucy.blogspot.com/2008/06/knitting-update.html">back in June</a>, finished it not that much later, and again it sat waiting for weaving in until after Christmas. Sheesh. </div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306105567724816050" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV7bZskZE2jaEECyBYTdmmqJZtGQfqtfGjlct5tuKxVgagrLmXK4rpPYW89TU15uZ8AafxXe98F66s2kgvTVxgYWb4720sGRk32hAT_RYQMsN4cVfqjOrFTng4BJCOxmYPUyGiIbfsUTfi/s320/skein+queen+scarf+1.JPG" border="0" /> <p align="justify"><br />There are lots of photos of this one because I adore the combination of the ripples of the pattern stitch and the glowing orange and pink yarn. It's <a href="http://www.skeinqueen.co.uk/">Skein Queen</a> Kimono, a pure silk aran weight, in "Phoenix". I have subsequently bought the same stuff in another two colours for more of these, but nowhere near as vibrant.</p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306105574331805442" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyeXu0fMtgmuYMyebwdZFjBH63hhETTH2vylA3kR4sVwTy867Dw-ZSfAUjr_djtmksjrmtMBnk2U0ngsD-aC-2B7RiDQkk0sqzAmPC9YNvY0PM58pOvaDfiLx00MoF77fvMyjARusawuJY/s320/skein+queen+scarf+2.JPG" border="0" /> <p align="justify"><br />Again the pattern, such as it is, is my own. It's just feather and fan over 36 stitches, plus two stitches either side for a garter border. I got to use my favourite vintage 4.5mm Inox metal needles, which always make me happy in my knitting. </p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306105582201428514" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGYaAasqrDibGCtUk3OLNcOp3bBfY9pz5TnkLKiheyDOVjYHCOMWauadH7hMf69ntGt_YDymmAOY7DnMBNIrcTsvo2pxpz1tcmv0SFBI7UFHAMRiyz6iECx1h-SMaLRxbcHF-uYiTbitAw/s320/skein+queen+scarf+4.JPG" border="0" /> <p align="justify"><br />The yarn was wonderful to knit with although did shed pink, slightly fluffy silk strands all over me during the process, and it continues to do so now over my black coat. Must get the lint roller out. </p><div align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306105576034076434" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPLjQpcBXntLKPvLe1hU0hSRJbE0Y6SrBRFkoq-mHRj-gLv_KjbqogULPYLMe9Ku_UR98077tziydO14-wPzdO_qZcgUe3c433QtToPxMB-y8zSxdnNLOXTc5jFCh-Gf59z-d828Z1kHkE/s320/skein+queen+scarf+3.JPG" border="0" /><br />But I can forgive the prettiness anything.</div>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-8768563835589323922009-02-17T20:14:00.006+00:002009-02-17T20:34:17.573+00:00Battleship Potemkin<div align="justify">I don't like giving bad reviews. I feel horrible about it. Most of the time, I enjoy gigs, plays and restaurants, because I'm pretty easily pleased. The rest of the time, I just don't talk about them. However, this week I actually managed to have a restaurant experience so bad that I feel the need to write about it as a warning - as well as the mutiny we did, for my first time ever, stage at the restaurant. I doubt the Soviets would have approved of this as much as of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleship_Potemkin_uprising">actual uprising</a>. </div><br /><div align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303864965505753666" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 223px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtybIuA0VU15BwK-8Oo8Cun5NXeqPscubUsuiIPrDaZCO-693gtVsXrMcJOOYLGwVa_9j5RdX4DZrgG4QewCwqgtdGArSflLilHb_om62rq_zZK3KCrzi9SBMYPTjZay5xL4LOX2Cg9CVF/s320/Poster15.jpg" border="0" /><br />It all started so well, at <a href="http://www.potemkin.co.uk/">Potemkin</a>, a Russian restaurant in Clerkenwell, to celebrate a friend's birthday. The promise of 108 different types of vodka was alluring, and indeed proved to be true: </div><br /><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303863588730001826" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtbZPUHfAAE__Jqx-4Ev0Xn52ZF_PWEOKqjOl3rxK5QX8ipW0JD1_6OzwvR09z9Zd3FJ9XyIJ9bkdVlXBqlUMIa7Xi4UjBFznbSF1kpCE_j1sOMCmwESt41e3XKVrF_hOM-yogF6OzpfFb/s320/vodkamenu.JPG" border="0" /><br />Does that vodka menu look a bit odd to you? We were told that all their prices had gone up (in a recession? with a VAT cut?) and that a couple of the menus had been marked up with the new prices, but not all. Those of us without writing all over the menus would have to consult with others, or, er, guess what price we'd be charged. I'm not sure that's legal under <a href="http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/">Trading Standards</a>. Possibly a sign of things to come. </p><p align="justify">In essence, to make your party of a dozen celebrants happy enough to spend lots of money in your establishment, I would recommend that you, dear restaurant owner, do not: </p><ul><li><div align="justify">Agree a set menu over the phone when making the reservation then decide that only "a few" of us could actually have it;</div></li><li><div align="justify">Take half an hour to come and take our order;</div></li><li><div align="justify">Take another forty five minutes on top of that to bring our first drinks (if we hadn't seen the menu we would have lost faith in there being any vodka at all by this point, let alone 140 kinds);</div></li><li><div align="justify">Take even longer than that to bring our starters, whilst other tables around us arrived, ordered and pretty much got through three courses;</div></li><li><div align="justify">Ignore our repeated reminders that we had a set time to leave (which we delayed once for your convenience when it became clear even the starters weren't going to make it by then);</div></li><li><div align="justify">Despite our order being made first, sell out a main course dish to all the other tables so suddenly there was none left for us, especially if you only bother to mention this and ask for alternative choices about ten minutes before we really, really had to leave, thus demonstrating that the mains weren't even in the oven yet; and/or (but definitely not and)</div></li><li><div align="justify">Be extremely surly all the way through. </div></li></ul><div align="justify">We left. It was just too frustrating for words. Many jokes were made by us about queuing and the stereotypical food shortages... Anyway, we walked out, which I've never done before. It was a shame, because the starters were actually very good, but we had no hope whatsoever of getting the rest of our meal in time to do anything else that night, and we weren't even getting drunk in the process. </div><div align="justify"><br /></div><div align="justify">We ended up in, horrors, <a href="http://www.kfc.co.uk/">Kentucky Fried Chicken</a>. I don't think I'd been in one before. Actually, it wasn't too bad because the thing I ate bore some resemblance to an actual piece of chicken (although most certainly not free range) and certainly more edible than my place mat and cutlery at Potemkin. Best of all, it was in my hands about thirty seconds after I'd ordered. Magic! Demons!<br /></div><div align="justify"><br />Thus actually fed, where was this place we were in such a hurry to get to? Karaoke! More particularly, <a href="http://www.karaokebox.co.uk/">Karaoke Box</a> by Smithfield Market. This was awesome fun. I'm a terrible singer but I do know the words to an awful lot of songs, and I'm a complete exhibitionist who always wanted to be a rock star. Even stone-cold sober, it's difficult to get me to give up the microphone to save the eardrums of everybody else. Luckily Karaoke Box rent you your own private room to do this in so as not to inflict the likes of me on the rest of the punters (and additional benefits of your own computer with 8,000 and waitress service). Here's our gang giving it large to <em>Dancing Queen </em>in our little room: </div><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303863587659252370" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTSH8FjEND7j9veBMynHSCZlmiM9dnIgOul6tvDYKzSO0SwCaK5WJtvPKPu1n64fk-LY6v30QQj3zFIlrjDhFClrO6rstzwTzNbPkMMkSMYEiVp3wVabcIuEN5VsqtxvlRxzgOa3JqesDh/s320/kareoke.JPG" border="0" /><br />I had the dignity to sit that one out because I absolutely hate bloody Abba. What did I sing? Well, I rocked Depeche Mode's awesome <em>Personal Jesus</em>. That's a good one to chant along to, if you know the song well enough to avoid coming in at the wrong place.<br /></p><p><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DNrbiZoKQLU&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DNrbiZoKQLU&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p><p align="justify">We had a group mosh to Nirvana's <em>Smells Like Teen Spirit</em>, just like in my teenage clubbing days. At least I was wearing flat boots for all that hardcore bouncing. </p><p align="justify"><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kPQR-OsH0RQ&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/kPQR-OsH0RQ&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p><p align="justify">But the highlight of the night? The cod-Welsh singalong to Goldie Lookin' Chain's <em>Your Mother's Got A Penis</em>, which almost caused me to wet myself with laughter. </p><p align="justify"><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wAZTLVJSlNw&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wAZTLVJSlNw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p><p align="justify"><em>"Don't come back in huur!"</em> As the owners of Potemkin might say, and we won't.</p>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-12479195383372057752009-02-16T23:34:00.013+00:002009-02-17T20:41:31.981+00:00I'm not a pheasant plucker...<div align="justify"><em>...I'm the pheasant plucker's son. I'm only plucking pheasants 'til the pheasant plucker comes.</em></div><p></p><p><div align="justify"><em></em></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">For the rest of the tongue-twisting song, go <a href="http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~mentor01/song.htm">here</a>. I can't even <em>think </em>it without stumbling. Nor can I get it out of my head whenever I'm dealing with said birds. Or as Neil Young might say, "<em>Why do I keep plucking up?</em>" </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303563134709030082" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1FbVJX7BHt3aKRIljXXewtCRVWOqJNoA6wehfSfFlRgeI7mDqbvJeODdZWeHs27J6Jsla5308dQ7Asa0s_7ySZymwMV9wccKfHvVRCBf8iXNS3wJ7hrRSpQjuZkwXwFl_Yb_jUHgqbD-D/s320/pheasant4.JPG" border="0" /><br />I am not the hunting, shooting and fishing type. I, personally, don't see the attraction in spending a day out to kill an animal for "pleasure". However, many of my family and the boyfriend's family do enjoy that sort of thing. It is mildly hypocritical, because I am very much a carnivore, and feel that as such I should be willing to kill my own meat - and I am prepared to do that, if the situation demanded it, but I wouldn't do it for fun. That and the fact that I'm such a crap shot, I doubt I'd hit anything, or if I did, it wouldn't be clean and I would hate to cause suffering. </div><div align="justify"><br /></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303563140611895650" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2-Qg4veO_IQ_4Jp9BZgcwHHnA0m14YSZJNbU6rCuCuFQ6sRgXXbeY7nILYpYi81vWMWo4dXk3NyZXsUBV6fUqUI3EPEg0A9ZIiUssYnfQuyEMrG2qWHt3kgHomcl5JpBoDaUlzXQo5Vuo/s320/pheasant6.JPG" border="0" /><br /><p align="justify">On the other hand, I very much approve of pheasant shooting as a means to an end. Given I am going to eat meat (and I am, many people have tried and failed to convince me otherwise) I want the animal in question to have had a happy life and a swift and painless death. To me, a pheasant, bred and cosseted to a certain age by the likes of my great-uncle, then released into the guardianship and feeding of a gamekeeper for an untroubled, free-range life of pottering about in the English undergrowth, until a brief moment of being startled by a person with a stick crashing around the woods (and that's me doing the beating, on occasion), flying up and getting shot by any of the marksmen in-laws and dying instantly - well, that's a million times better than being a battery hen, surely? It has also been hypothesised that the only reason that so many tracts of deciduous woodland still exist here is that they are managed as pheasant territory and therefore worth more intact than razed for farmland or buildings. That provides valuable habitat for native bird species. </p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303563129370474594" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3U6f8O1I9DuqP8YfzZLySZ0VGr1XszWJhhD-KnaKmWVaQb3ZzRtbTty2_M7I2PruTesBlZatKiSAgVbBWXuvItgbe63k1KFBypTYN7n76vLlbEtYh8tRI0X1WnL6Bs6GkyscB6QzlxHIk/s320/pheasant2.JPG" border="0" /><br /><p align="justify">Finally, there's the whole ethos of being closer to one's food. I like to know where things have come from, and how they've been reared. I like to be told exactly when my food has been killed, and who by. When we visit the families, it's therefore not uncommon for me to be presented with a brace of pheasants for my own plucking enjoyment. </p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303561928871309874" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUzQaOmEffp5lVw6ke4eB2UaZhmnsFbbmqbq8MDwrQ2NnWCbd2Ys0-9MfqkBTHPXaYAiUD4D7APM-MAG_yFeKtafcbqdab2ZXWz5ZviiSamo1gSyaRjXPJG_DuP23VL-M_Jh4dySfoO-7V/s320/pheasant1.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify">Oh, and my great-grandmother would turn in her grave if she thought I couldn't do this, so I have to keep my hand in. </div><div align="justify"></div><br /><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303566472103907826" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcp5oAAlSYUV8Z6gVH0RG5BC5AS9slq0-cbQM-U2BmrPc6R_MhotwUHUGss8lYCqVUXEq8ymEwUWm6mnpz9Sjv2xFpONiAPzHuD_rj6o2YlXK7lQKe59tiU3QlIEH8oO3ElDK67XLoay1I/s320/pheasant3.JPG" border="0" /><br />I was going to fully document the plucking activities undertaken last weekend in my garden, and photographed it all as a kind of tutorial, but then when I sat down to edit them I realised that perhaps they were a bit too gory and I might run the risk of upsetting people, so I have only posted my close-ups of the stunning feathers of Mr Pheasant. Mrs Pheasant was lovely too, though not so striking in patterning, and this shot shows her soft grey-brown plumage next to his iridescence. </p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303563137969351218" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0FSElK5BVlwVB0_tFLWnW8f0oQrsL0qAbWAV2MVbnyuQK6eVqcSD_WXmKg0CBXFlBmrbYBI7K8qjeVxUPr81hSflsrAXMqQnj3hso4gBst99q5zB2aSEcuQhiZrn6cNgBM8FU6m_Mnlmg/s320/pheasant5.JPG" border="0" /><br /><p align="justify">Instead, I'll tell you about an entirely un-natural food experience during the week. This follows on quite nicely from our Vanilla trip. On Wednesday night, <a href="http://www.ratemycake.typepad.com/">Anna of the cakes</a> took me and the boyfriend to the <a href="http://www.danacentre.org.uk/">Dana Centre</a>, an offshoot of the <a href="http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/">Science Museum</a> in South Kensington, which hosts various interactive/popular science events for adults in the evenings. This one was on taste, and in particular how other senses can manipulate what we think we are tasting. There were some fascinating experiments. The first was to find out whether or not one is a "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster">supertaster</a>", someone with an intense perception of bitterness. This was done by each of us placing a small piece of filter paper impregnated with a chemical, PROP, on our tongues. Anna reacted with violent disgust, indicating that she is a supertaster. Me? I'm a "non-taster" - I could barely detect the mere hint of bitterness. Maybe this is why I like bitter drinks like campari - I simply don't taste the full hit. On the other hand, I don't like things like chili, coffee and grapefruit juice, which supertasters are supposed to dislike. Go figure.<br /><br />We then dyed our tongues blue with food dye and counted the papillae to be found within the area of a ring reinforcer. Witness possibly the most unflattering picture I will ever post on here:</p><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303560693226010882" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSVGXV0BONjft3EAWSwW2H569LLk8uTaYz5SS8Js9p2r7xY6n1vVmBh7J4vCzyZIZIk0FNohyXlM2YHgmrzog5nqZUmSvu5SWA5yWu-Kw-qww9zXuv5V6U1nTBHLxcxiKMsbkRgBVirrbs/s320/bluetongue.JPG" border="0" /><br />Then there were a set of vials of coloured, scented liquid - will the perceived aroma be altered by the visual cues? Yes - it was hard to recognise the green one as orange-scented or the red one as lemon.<br /></p><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303561920550553666" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ4QaFziPrdnqBPaghNm1nYwXdf6fNizqYkIFjeBTqOonB4cDLZA6KBp4rViclAlkNRvKR2gCtkiVDochkse4rshhZnQrl9TwCQRUn-GGAoC6iz6NBqsg-wBlRJpMY31VEWrHQkpnnM4T8/s320/vials.JPG" border="0" /><br />Water scented with banana odour, or not, and/or with added sugar. Sugar + banana scent = intense banana flavour because we are trained to think of banana as sweet. Just banana scent doesn't taste like banana, but sugar-water alone does if you've had the banana-sugar first. </p><br /><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303560681685304290" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8p3EG4JsOLEjXUMWscudzwPbp2h5do9xKKPgi5MGWS3y-q_F8CaijzO2y3gV8iNbK2rJWG8yFnjreqv_9gVxzDhJ54NF2UdK7Rc_RrHDvUz3KydQ4vC8U0bMFmuF-dF2nyCjNbTrG5j8w/s320/banana.JPG" border="0" /><br />Blue, ground up mush, very difficult to recognise as rice if you also wear a nose clip to remove taste, texture and colour cues. </p><br /><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303560689042924930" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZMA0SOCQt74ce-7NfcnSxgfn5f3URm1AfSrm8uBRyY6g2X670s-XZqQLj7cssC6pCk40-V8hrmaOTVoGx0zxvYSMnNaaPkzDROe-mi1fI9IkqTEjYsQWyzGQ8ROTF2zmkNfnI5aB4RLGm/s320/bluerice.JPG" border="0" /><br />The inevitable molecular gastronomy table: textural experiments of Thai chicken soup and a coffee/chili/orange combo mixed with agar and extruded into spaghetti. Ick.</p><br /><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303561913851463282" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifl3UzOShdl5jseOcVoCSkkx-CMPmYeDvL-2L8E3VY-Gx5Q95zxhVO2FgRVb1ZQZph2dbmI26g8w80fVOU5hDKH7tmyVOdlzxhVL0mUxrHd6-A5Air1AhAkj-Todzt-4BTeBQU6eQgX4Nc/s320/spaghetti.JPG" border="0" /><br />White wine dyed red, and sniffers initially identify "berry" and "chocolate" scents usually associated with red, which magically disappear when you tell them it's really white. Actually, I got that it was white straight away, hooray for my supersmell if not supertaste. </p><br /><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303561919291525090" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-jwGb2nIFWitkdmDZ16H7164de2L1Ygf0_z-M_phE_BNbvWTkR7PXpqQLKJjSUoeYMjn2TndTxH6i0GL6Copr1mFVIXH19GMU0-2wG-YZNimOp7Lhr9iEuFvADmUFD-iPQFZIlNNaAHas/s320/wine.JPG" border="0" /><br />We did get some normal food too whilst we were listening to the talks (I just liked the primary colours here). </p><br /><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303560694049027282" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcZqflZN9u4VNNr6RCGOzyrJE7JOFpTS9GRVblYFI6EpnolVhtLJHppFkR2xG8h8zaPvlmB9Xt4t6GUGIc5YZQQwWbzXFd7S8rLABQ9JEBPvifDU9HfgM6uliokx2m25qzBKj-zUOET7Ie/s320/chips.JPG" border="0" /><br />On the way out, we passed the beautiful, gothic <a href="http://www.nhm.ac.uk/">Natural History Museum</a> in the dark. One day I'll go back and photograph it properly, like this man was doing in the arched doorway. </p><br /><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303560697745434402" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpXoR3JWcspNgs0_H-1CRqHXHV0r4Cktzmh0rFzmpw8dTv8UgU8uUGCezkhxffeEgmb_WDR5pLgzjIRMEwy97BVAY33J865CHHmiu-B8U7YYcAsq6IJdQGl_KLZA-UcliM8Kmipt02mkHv/s320/nhm2.JPG" border="0" /><br />Back to the bog standard food for a bit now, I think.</p><p align="justify">Oh, and whilst we were off playing with taste, <a href="http://flibbertygibbet.typepad.co.uk/flibbertygibbet/2009/02/my-heart-beats-for.html">Gail</a> and Lotta were off playing with crafts at the Make Lounge's pre-Valentine's craft evening. I then had this sweet little Valentine's present in the post from Miss L. Thank you lovely!</p><br /><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303561920435390194" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMOEPw9dq6W7IFMo6C2pn45RS23Km6NYgBw7LlktK8KtU0ZKQMLHZ8SfoMLUrnU3LbNHiXRUdb-5RK0lo7SL-BMvBFoCI7I4dmyhfI92Qon7Xmd96ICvKEKmau6AxcSCnM1W-gPpbUoPPL/s320/valentine.JPG" border="0" /></p>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-71727693378252132812009-02-05T23:32:00.005+00:002009-02-06T00:21:30.871+00:00Vanilla Ice<div align="justify">The snow is clearing now, at least in London, so everything is drippy. Sleet is expected tonight which isn't half as much fun. There are a few more pictures from the last few days that I want to post while I'm still excited, mainly from a lunchtime hike that my colleagues and I decided to undertake around Hyde Park on Wednesday lunchtime. </div><br /><div align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299469717013144578" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgypYt-rMZpMxxB8luKpjgHDx0qEExFuqnB6yKnSZKPpAZ_iAn_KTo0IxjEr3AC8M0ZAZ3CmoQbBtYbphi74gpM8CuFYNmucs_GLoAOq4iSxDiWqdPsUy0BT2a9d_40oDb7E1xQt2jxE_jX/s320/hydepark1.JPG" border="0" /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299469728621962194" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6jHAHk_STMn1eFDe_QKrwtlKUbz5LpK0UF0XTVghk33_C70P23TZh-0OFQhx76XE7h8MOwsGSJqhFv7-ZUApZxW4TuTp26-OQ01mVE_nerpMdRVpiS0DTSRIVi6KU9NqDL8kpO3YHtp4p/s320/hydepark3.JPG" border="0" /><br />You wouldn't think that this was in the middle of a capital city, would you? </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299469721486090450" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHZF9MyAY95QXqjdW6uiZuTRNgXfONgJhUSEYZotS94A_LBz_buyzZGPU1aDysjkQXkgM7xMF_-H4eoqt9tUvO_M3nDKXKiir4_xb1q5ibHs0MjdirdkoXxMHx-mCY_qFKzN1X8t6F7b6H/s320/hydepark2.JPG" border="0" /><br />Hyde Park is full of web-footed residents who also leave tracks:</div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299469729965745090" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfGU9x05oBhPgwlSDb2ReVx9i_UcB7Vny2hTIpYN_7EpOZaCul7Y1BCfH5eI0pXOXJ-6pIenCafVFt47uhnUyww2htjM1CCheo_pz324bS2Kvf8tQdRYuttfAFwgLbvp6UlvxdU3zftocD/s320/hydeparkfootprints.JPG" border="0" /><br />I'm not sure if the "Danger Thin Ice" signs are new: </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299470456754404562" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSQuC_slf-1YFIp3BxGFMwCLDyQ9Fdu43qOaQyOjF_QJiqblyWjVlF5wxQLhMWlTiKjZUsrWXq2YucO_AlNdRlLhE0RKQFFMQUoWSNQubTKLL7Wptof0cCcnKPmRkqqFK-xhyphenhyphenBBuUlbslP/s320/thinice.JPG" border="0" /><br />I'd seen so many snowmen over the last few days that I thought I should build my own. However my impatient colleagues wouldn't wait so I had to be quick, and make a mini one. He's about six inches high, with twig arms and bark eyes and buttons: </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299470448125713970" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf391bP_SfOsrIW8CjI5JxFDVy_Dy9JD3Kf5Sumt7r99L6JToamYpIfG5MLha_kMQFeCEc9ATG9xKxMWWrWCUlgpylxNab9K6pc2Zb4uX37h7dDH52JLdVq3sXZ6s3NzXICkUyQh54TgfD/s320/littlesnowman1.JPG" border="0" /><br />And to show the scale, here he is in situ on top of a big rock: </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299470452987378226" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3KUvhnQ-0vx_rAjLuY3yTtgSkXqICaq0EzUeoHmFD0Ku8YpiVj1C-UTyPWuzc_-E01rNWsL7CdE5KQnY0D2rUIBnJnGhDlaxJ7uaGStsy8lVPlglKAQEdgcHM8xnji8BnwrD3juwj8T0w/s320/littlesnowman2.JPG" border="0" /><br />I bet he'll be gone faster than this, rather larger specimen (not of my creation): </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299469712826822930" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMFuZersrs0qEKes4ZE8vG9mDdowudOZ-TVkNLGH9lASzvE_L_68okg5D2Ky3r_4ZhJqTnnqi82Z5Hs0xBh-3nJvpvZblYgqQ04EmuXRIaMnMfDq3qu0BAdnB2acIMMEm5BlfZR69Xfpjq/s320/bigsnowman.JPG" border="0" /><br />Less fun were the streets of Mayfair, especially those around us where the footfall isn't high enough to force the melting. We had plenty of ice-rink-alikes around our way. Some had started to shatter into crunchy diamonds: </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299470448510593890" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjFkilu9T7X1K_Ku6RPN_66xc994W17mlns2VWrdfWu2qBAwoTfK3viQkYVoPDDL4bvsWPEidEVoTAxpLbJOJ0esHBSrZ0j3an9HRAhxQMV-iGEOaPk3PfoXr4wmlmzoa9ADZkqDmYJAoD/s320/ice.JPG" border="0" /><br />I believe in America (maybe certain states?) residents are required to shovel their own sidewalks outside of their homes and shops to keep them clear of ice. Not here. We merely complain that the government isn't doing enough about it. Even I, as a responsible citizen, wouldn't even think to go out and deal with the pavement outside my flat. I suppose if we all did... But no, we just all skid along and whinge some more. </div><div align="justify"><br />During all this, the boyfriend and I did brave the slippery streets to go out for dinner for our anniversary. We chose <a href="http://www.vanillalondon.co.uk/">Vanilla</a>, on Great Titchfield Street (the northern end), because it was one of the most highly user-rated restaurants on <a href="http://www.toptable.co.uk/venues/restaurants/?id=6232">toptable</a>. This seemed to be flatly contradictory to a rather amusing but very bad <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/eating_out/giles_coren/article2349517.ece">review</a> by Giles Coren. However, it turns out that the chef has changed, and with it the ethos, since Mr Coren's visit, so they are trying madly to shake off the bad reputation from their older reviews. Personally, with a change of chef and cooking style I'd have renamed the restaurant too to sever ties with the bad stuff, but perhaps I'm being too sensible here. </div><div align="justify"><br />So the "new" Vanilla is a tasting menu-only restaurant along the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_gastronomy">molecular gastronomy</a>" lines of <a href="http://www.fatduck.co.uk/">The Fat Duck</a> and <a href="http://www.elbulli.com/">El Bulli</a>. I've never dared to go to the former, and doubt I could get into the latter, because whilst I'm impressed by the concept, I'm not partial to snail porridge or cock's comb. Thankfully Vanilla do the strange textures and combinations but with relatively normal foodstuffs, and they have a vegetarian version, which is a requirement for the boyfriend. You can choose a four-, six- or ten-course menu - we went for six, but really it's more with the various canapes, amuse-bouches and the additional cheese course we tacked on and failed to finish, so replete were we. </div><div align="justify"><br />I took a couple of pictures, firstly of the entirely white bar (with pink and blue lighting) - note smooth floor as mentioned by Giles Coren: </div><div align="justify"></div><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299470460374464482" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0g9WDBiz1r5GDh9jK6OoXwq2Vzg-g1R-XADFkDhg-3hiNII3-QEt898LvqvgUH6D3g_2J1CoZ5LVFph5uqUOUemyQmYpo05_RMwjdGpfb9jcLGNsAUpEmN2mnfJmfYoTD1y9Fbr3CDiE1/s320/vanillabar.JPG" border="0" /><br />And the almost entirely black restaurant, which was very small indeed, maybe ten tables: </p><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299471092222181522" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJV_Qdx0Y63GRf7osjeSvFBcD5F2Xy9TTt1_S51t2rQmT6ki1aPvf6At3WwumbqyQvGTRtNCc8Y5FAffcsqCmaj51GvEAOO04SuDab4gFsONWhs16oh0LADKiA5ZrSSGJ_ZdKDH4Hl1EFH/s320/vanillarestaurant.JPG" border="0" /><br />I then stopped taking photos, because although the food certainly deserved photography, I did think it was a bit rude. Added to which, one of the few other diners in the tiny restaurant (most of the other tables, we were told, had cancelled due to the weather) was an incredibly loud Californian who regaled us all with tales of her various properties here and there, her separation from her husband who just can't "reach out" sufficiently, and her blog. Oh god, did we hear about her blog. Almost every sentence. She'd been to the restaurant before and has, apparently, blogged it in detail. I rapidly became embarrassed that I'd even considered writing anything about Vanilla, even having a blog at all, if it put me in the same category as her. Actually, it went through irritating and out the other side into hilarity - after all, we couldn't actually hold a conversation of our own above her discourse (neither could her companions) so we mainly listened and fell about with silent laughter. </p><p align="justify">However the food was too interesting not to talk about it, at least a little bit. As I said, this was all about textures. The meal kicks off with the presentation of a slate rectangle on which appear to be three stones, one shiny black and two matt grey pebbles. The black one is a real stone, very hot so that essential oils can be dripped on it at table to set the mood. The grey pebbles are actually new potatoes coated in an edible clay, to be picked up, dipped in aioli and seeds, then eaten clay and all. The shell is a bit like eating a potato-filled Smartie or M&M. Apparently the clay aids digestion, like the parrots at the clay lick we saw in Ecuador. Other weirdnesses followed, including: a mozzarella injected with cauliflower puree and then inflated to a huge, translucent, puffball-mushroom-like balloon; an egg poached at 64C for 45 minutes, at which temperature the white sets to a fine wibbliness but the yolk (with a higher setting temperature) does not, giving the perfect consistency; cod skin fried so delicately that it was like a faintly fishy poppadom; grapes soaked in soda water to explode with bubbles on the tongue between cheeses; and sauce poured into a vial of dry ice to bubble out and spill over the rest of the dessert, chilled right down. Everything tasted wonderful but the main focus was food as entertainment, and it genuinely was incredibly engaging and fun. Kudos too to the waiter who could answer all of our questions on exactly what everything was, and how, and why. </p><p align="justify">The most interesting bit? A very small flower bud presented between the fish and meat courses with the instructions to chew it as a palette cleanser. We were told to expect an unusual effect, and to be sure to chew on both sides of the mouth to make it even. Hmm. We dubiously tried it and, wow. The initial taste is astringently lemony, very strong. Your mouth first goes numb, then starts tingling - like a strong, rapid, cold fizziness, not hot like chili or mustard. Vast quantities of saliva are produced - I had to keep swallowing, much like (for me) when I'm about to vomit and have to swallow repeatedly, but without the nausea. The tingling takes about five minutes to wear off, after which your mouth really is completely clear, with no "recollection" of the previous course. It's bizarre. Clearly this flower bud contains some neurotoxic alkaloid as a defence mechanism. If I were a grazing animal, I wouldn't eat it again (I'm glad I did try it but not sure I'd want to repeat it). I'm sure the waiter said it was called a "Szechuan Berry" but I've searched for that and that seems to be a kind of peppercorn-like thing which isn't right at all. Very, very strange, whatever it was called. </p><p align="justify">After all that, we probably could have slid home on our distended bellies like penguins on the icy roads, but isn't it great that we have cabs for that kind of thing instead? </p>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-62602636174110089902009-02-02T18:04:00.002+00:002009-02-02T18:07:30.766+00:00Couldn't Resist<div align="justify">It's still snowing. At about 5.30pm I broke and just had to go and stick my face into that perfect round snowcake on the table outside, once I'd got the door open that is. Refreshing!</div><div align="justify"> </div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298262796587051906" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitCm1WVtUpm2t_-RIfY4nAmANjeRYumZnNhWocTfiI5Tk6-ovYsAbhY7JS4PcK72QE0suhFN2kxPWfwoE9vX4h7D6z6tmWgW6i4Q57TruXIs9b8gzaUNICN5bLQ4wOfWCcDctY-bZn37gE/s320/snow+face.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify">The round circles at the bottom? My boobs. No, I wasn't naked. They really are that big. </div><div align="justify"><br />Then I decided to take a flash photograph and freakiness occurred: </div><div align="justify"> </div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298262800828476322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid4_43Vho9zN6itDr9HiJgeNBb4vHWbnwCESAZml8I-EQtzYRCL5GYHjEE_9ek_dG7q3-QXzdQEug2i_PzqLIWDdMPs2DMjnGUrU1s9Nz5wFij3bfAvdND-48vOHTI0-sp1vYESqMgHnv8/s320/snow+face+flash.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify">My face in relief! It's like the Turin Shroud! Scary!</div>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-4611767455322587412009-02-02T10:31:00.007+00:002009-02-02T12:29:00.987+00:00Snow Day!<div align="justify">Overnight, London has had its heaviest snow fall in 18 years. Witness the scene outside my house this morning: </div><br /><div align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298146322620686850" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN1GhfifiKOr2_ez3ozqQEXiqk9v4UprVwTbw3hoylWeDDqGFIdrpy7gMAF2CTHDj0Snvj_f2-FMs-KjUkzd-hW4JnqsSuS1neds6m0P3AOoC-glOwWCtJZ9eOZjfR3wVpISme9zu7QYTq/s320/crouchhill.JPG" border="0" /><br />Therefore, everything has shut down. All buses have been suspended. Heathrow airport is shut. The status of the Tube is not great, as this screenshot shows (coloured lines on the map indicate the problems listed down the side):<br /><br /></div><div align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298146328981022018" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUCdQN95Cf99KcFVFUeaLCFGtLKLW5NRVj9PXVHOj5NbantqVDGDJUk1bYI3TYSpvnzmKYlszDpp6ck7yyrEuzpu_AE5pWpVI_K14jefy5p-PB-LXnQza8SkXxE8gr0jvwGiDHwEYyBcjx/s320/tfl.jpg" border="0" /><br />And actually that makes it seem better than it is because the Waterloo & City line is suspended too but for about five minutes stopped showing as such on the web.<br /><br />I'm therefore working from home - not necessarily just because I can't get in, as the one line that is still running is the Victoria line which would get me there, but also because our dilapiadated office has no working heating system and it was bad enough there at the start of January let alone today (no, this is not legal). Luckily I can log in from home, so I'm on the sofa with the spare duvet, a cup of tea and the heating on full.<br /><br />How much snow have we had? </div><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298146328981068610" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjassMo_IVIvy67Oa4-o-vB36K6WGTJIL4xSU2DQgEnh2BAlNieAXsphozsbiN4-r2gn0Qu1ILAlYUpuY1h6_qUfkc_ew2jwZeHk1mv2NOs-kUeHymJ7H4I5NqkQRm628LkT281uPpxsdgm/s320/table.JPG" border="0" /><br />It looks like a Christmas cake! That's about six inches I guess, maybe slightly more (the doors to the garden open outwards so I can't go out and measure). That is all it takes to bring London to a standstill - the intrepid boyfriend who loves his snowsports is walking in and he says there's hardly anyone getting in to work and he's already seen a couple of crashes amongst the cars actually on the roads. Overseas readers may find this amusing, but this is extreme weather for our little island, or at least the south of it. Whenever I hear about blizzards, heatwaves and hurricanes in other parts of the world, I am eternally grateful that being in a temperate climate really does mean that here. When I was living in New York in 2006 there was a record-breaking snow fall overnight on a Saturday of over two feet. Sunday's travel was a bit disrupted but volunteers were out shovelling and the city had big snowblowers to melt it (we'll ignore the environmental impact of that for now). By Monday morning they were reporting a five minute delay on the trains as <em>news</em>. Here that's a normal day's delay - we have no trains today. We're just not set up for this kind of thing, but then most of the time we don't have to be.<br /><br />It's pretty, anyway. This is the tree behind our garden that's had a blue plastic bag stuck in the branches for months: </div><div align="justify"></div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298146326873770130" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbMPJUW51hmGMfAHxyCle9tS4zWGVQeGIJROLDRc09uoHStButv7EYO1yTF1Wry4Aapp30An4H9khzTwiZX6tGGguFb9PFcmlUhaSEmF04Qe2OphdTgJohvxsCRy0hGRVc0jIVuTsGYCh9/s320/snowtree.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify">And the keyhole on our front door, with its own little dusting of flakes: </div><div align="justify"></div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298146322451002018" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh_vw__L5qXAE-xjRdSsF16XwcJzdImhS6-byyNyxDAASrRQVgM5gRInyMqZqaaNJCxLBDLM4zVzIOlG9keeM5jyPk0WNQDwogJCfQMOlVe2u6NvQsmdqW0Mft7xBNztE2VWnDjyqT1sI0/s320/keyhole.JPG" border="0" /><br />Hooray for snow!Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-33148614076954149332009-01-25T23:34:00.003+00:002009-01-26T08:31:56.717+00:00A very good week<div align="justify">I have been the recipient of an embarrassment of riches this week, both big and small. I can, finally, tell you about them here. Seeing as it's late on a Sunday night, I might split this up into the ones without pictures, and the ones with, for processing and posting tomorrow.</div><div align="justify"><br />On that basis, luckily the biggest news and the thing for which I was anxiously waiting in my last post has no photos. I have been offered a new job, which I am of a mind to accept. I enjoy my current job, but for the usual minor irritations and slight lack of challenge, but I've been told that they would promote me (overdue already) and give me a pay rise (so far below market rate it's not even funny) <em>but</em> they have no budget to do so. Therefore I have found myself a job which is a promotion and pays the market rate. Simple as that. Without meaning to be vulgar, it's a big enough pay differential that it will make a <em>huge</em> difference to the wedding and, basically, not starting out our married lives in debt. I can't say no to that, nor, actually, do I want to, because the job description and extra responsibilities appeal to me greatly. So, fingers crossed for an actual paper contract early this week, then a rather awkward conversation with my current boss towards the end. </div><div align="justify"><br />I am taking the risk here that my current employers do not know of and read this blog. I don't think they do. I'm extremely careful. Still, it's not as if the new job is going to be a secret for very much longer, which is great as I loathe the cloak-and-dagger nature of seeking alternative employment.</div><div align="justify"><br />I also admit to being slightly worried about changing jobs at all in this economy, giving up a pretty secure position for somewhere else where "last-in-first-out" may well be the formula in the even of redundancies, and every other company going into administration at the moment it seems. But hell, I was last into my current place, so that wouldn't be any better there. Also, with the job I do (and even more so with the specific new role) there's a need for me no matter how badly the company itself does... I'm therefore choosing to be brave and make the change, rather than putting up with things for a sense of security which is most likely false anyway.</div><div align="justify"><br />What else?</div><div align="justify"><br />Well, with the January detox regime my weight has finally dipped below a number which had seemingly been a bit of a barrier for a while. There's no real significance to it other than that it makes me feel like progress is being made. I haven't even been exercising that much, what with prepping for interviews, going to interviews, and endless calls with my recruitment consultant, so this has been from quasi-religious devotion to the diet alone. This makes me think it will be even better now I can get back down to the gym this week. </div><div align="justify"><br />The only breach of the diet so far, by the way, has been accepting cups of tea in various interviews, and then a sandwich when offered at the final one. I felt that the social conventions were pressing enough to abandon my dietary fads. After all, I'm not stupid enough to risk my career on wanting to refuse wheat and dairy products for a month. Otherwise, my sushi consumption has been through the roof which makes me a very happy bunny indeed.</div><div align="justify"><br />What else, what else...</div><div align="justify"><br />Finally the building work that our landlord has put off for months is being done. The flat is currently in disarray but at least they have found and fixed the root cause of the horrible fluffy mould that was eating our spare room so that's all to the good. My laptop is now all fixed up with a new, reliable hard drive and an extra gigabyte of memory whilst we were mucking around with its innards, so I am typing this on my new, whizzy set-up - this means for the first time I don't have to disable all of Vista's fancy graphical bells and whistles. I scored some <a href="http://www.rohrspatzundwollmeise.de/">Wollmeise</a> (that's yarn for the uninitiated, very covetable yarn) in this Friday's update, and plans are now afoot to head over to Germany in the spring to visit one of her market stalls for in-person shopping. I spent some quality time in person and on the phone with various lovely friends, some of whom I see all the time and some of whom I see all too rarely, though most of that stuff will go in the picture-driven post. And I have finally managed to secure a <a href="http://www.castlemania.co.uk/">bouncy castle</a> booking for the wedding, with the 2009 rates actually being lower than the 2008 ones for some strange reason.</div><div align="justify"><br />I hope that you are all having an equally fortuitous time of it, and if not, well, things can and will change, take it from me. </div>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-39471907290866888322009-01-20T22:01:00.006+00:002009-01-21T00:56:43.128+00:00Dulli's-ville<div align="justify">That title is a bit of a misnomer. Last night we went to see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_dulli">Greg Dulli</a>, ex-lead singer of the Afghan Whigs and currently of the Twilight Singers, in a collaboration he's doing at the moment with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Lanegan">Mark Lanegan</a>, ex-lead singer of Screaming Trees and occasionally of Queens of the Stone Age. These two are now writing together as <a href="http://theguttertwins.com/">The Gutter Twins</a>. I've been a fan of Greg Dulli's work for years, since buying <em>"1965"</em> by the Afghan Whigs back in 1998 on the strength of a review in <em>Q</em> magazine extolling its darky, gothy, highly sexual, New Orleans-inspired feel (I can't find the <em><a href="http://www.qformusic.com/">Q</a> </em>review online so <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/afghanwhigs/articles/story/5925477/somethin_hot">here's</a> the one from <em>Rolling Stone</em>). I introduced it to the boyfriend as soon as we got together and he bought me one of their other albums for Valentine's Day a couple of weeks later. Aaah. Mark Lanegan, however, was a bit of an unknown to me - for some reason I've never really listened to Screaming Trees - which is why I said we went to see Greg Dulli.<br /><br />It certainly wasn't dull. The two of them have very different voices: Mark Lanegan's is very deep, absolutely controlled, and with huge range; Greg Dulli's is more of a charged yelp across the high notes. Together, they work really well. It was a great concert, and I am now going to have to find a copy of their album together, and some of Mark's stuff. </div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293504511669970514" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWQWydfn0kynsdZ10UghawcimVuWuImGmJqHUFgmB7Zu9dzESnvboYJSpUyoo1Fx_qs54ImXYB7rj_2HU3hDkRiEx2JXZV6Hd_b9kRk-jrZ6ETRop4enW-v7CxYAzWmHDaU-2WqKkXqXWK/s320/band.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify">That photo isn't very good as they were strictly enforcing no flash photography. I'd never use flash in that situation anyway (in fact, hardly ever in any circumstances) as all you do is illuminate the head of the person in front of you and irritate everybody around, but the stewards were generally unhappy about anyone whipping out a camera. After what happened to Eddie Vedder <a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lNNP20w_dgQ">last year</a> (even the first few seconds should give you the idea), I'm not surprised bands are cracking down on this. But during the interval I got a slightly better photo of the venue, the stupendous <a href="http://www.unionchapel.org.uk/">Union Chapel</a> in Islington: </div><br /><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293504517094524754" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3xN8Nmyj2EPQmkr7aF6WO9u9Xb4y15LtreqYxiUMoiT20wgIn7rxXFa6SlRYLNELfKhww5e50TeIY1DjzOyfSIz2kSXsyfCpdz51-NEtiJov_tTjagHVtgXYC05wfcem577W295LClUSD/s320/church.JPG" border="0" /><br />It's even more stunning in person, when your eyes can pick out the octagonal chamber and old wooden pews by candlelight. <em>This</em> is what churches should be for.<br /><br />Other than that, life is in a state of flux... I won't say any more but I am waiting for news, something good, but it's boring to wait. I've been distracting myself with the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/socks-that-rawk/453838">Leyburn socks KAL</a>. Here they are: </p><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293504518107779586" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEMhFiCIXEFB8eO5T741YNqh-NlAz1YhhKVVwA4pYxXBlI5VkTk_dX1bYVc-hrtVKHw1rRgmdtOtAC-eDEoYt0Ae1HsXKDANCKRzPuHWJYbfQWdyGzmoaKqaPx-y27vCD8_e3PwBDULxs/s320/leyburnwip.JPG" border="0" /><br />The other foot is coming along too.<br /><br />I've also been amusing myself by spotting these signs around London which I'm sure the <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/groups/lazy-stupid-and-godless">lsg crew</a> on Ravelry will enjoy. Yes, yes, the company's actually called <a href="http://www.isgplc.com/Default.aspx?Culture=en-GB">ISG</a>, not LSG, but it looks that way with the oh-so-trendy mixed upper- and lower-case. </p><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293504525390641090" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAsLjCCZ1FJfDmL9Ye8H6R1CUJ3OVXZGyqYCBDzRH8tnX0enkBCg9ccePm57pxToCrYtGGcaiVBBgJH6C5TiTf4AFZdFxPQb9o3NEG9KQnbDicFGX9dO50sUR-EZeGFqpF26Ahyphenhyphenlh3vdQI/s320/lsg.JPG" border="0" /><br />Back to the pretty socks and a pile of DVDs...</p><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293504516162511490" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt1Z4CDywmdtrrUdP3FDPGPFh4SSjKJxZhcU6rwPHM8lwWPLIbnqLQy98PStc5-n31u2UnICdYLePwNQIi8otCqjub67pOIUfUsQgUOhmDz3QXNTgO3N11n7pCOMaqm-VJBfj6hbiizJUh/s320/leyburnlattice.JPG" border="0" /></p>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-77556768076649060762009-01-17T15:00:00.007+00:002009-01-17T16:04:18.792+00:00Swap Joy, even for Bees<div align="justify">My Rubberswap Redux swap package arrived today, hooray! It is from the fabulous <a href="http://iamlisabee.livejournal.com/">Lisa B</a> of <a href="http://lisabeedesigns.com/">Lisabeedesigns</a>. It actually arrived yesterday but the postie had to leave a card through the door. I wasn't sure if it would be ready for collection at the sorting office yet, but I couldn't wait, and it was a lovely, sunny morning (for a change) for the walk so I chanced it, and the knitting gods smiled upon me.<br /><br />Because it was sunny, with decent light for photography, I decided to open it in the garden with my camera. This was a mistake, as will become clear.<br /><br />First layer unwrapped - I thoroughly approve of recycling boxes, for both economical and environmental reasons, so you are a girl after my own heart, Lisa. I send most of my packages out in boxes from something else. <a href="http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/">Hotel Chocolat</a> are, incidentally, an excellent source of useful, small boxes for this type of thing. </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292278593463893042" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkCxGSsToUBBPjPwDX-FmA5HfIPqkLk563kcTbftvZeVGLV2ltCaKUHkrTFFgPoPs2fwti7sb71y5GCGSRTmjaynrz0o936IIY9PmS63myCNyYXySnlOWI9Lqhg4Cj4XHkjoyOx-OUKJNj/s320/box.JPG" border="0" /><br />Opening the box, I found a lovely note which I read with great excitement.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292279526067609218" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7TVGvXN4Xw_L9hw_gQQcvt6M0bt4CXky0MXmuKfSrzvuFXui9zDnmoxXJ9RFiW7Ameeh0Fbx-WTxTBkk-GeBdvim8Qw7WFQJjkfeEQuUJ01VVAe-CuUPwBX8KzeZTTaddZLS7MY4qNZvS/s320/open.JPG" border="0" /><br />Unfortunately, as I was doing so, a visitor arrived. A honeybee. Actually, I'm assuming it arrived, rather than being in the box already. This is Lisa<strong><em>bee</em></strong>designs, after all. I did even <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/ravelry-rubberneckers/420786/601-625#616">joke on the thread in RR</a> that my partner shouldn't send me a boxful of live bees because they are an illegal import at UK Customs because of nasty bee diseases... Surely not? No, I'm pretty sure I saw it land. It wandered over the tissue paper for a bit: </div><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292278590255390098" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhctDkbVr02TefiRiJUIx-V7N2dRoPz-wlT0157D0gXSn9itoPOPEL4HlN7djYKej44VFb4QXi-3L4O-dbSGXj4D4_xl7_ccdc2cXIebClXfMTtY5vY7pDe37VNSgHSPCJ8KCuPBdHUmTN7/s320/bee.JPG" border="0" /><br />Then disappeared into the depths of the box. Oh dear.<br /><br />I can't remember if I've mentioned it before, but I have a horrible phobia of wasps. I'm slightly more comfortable around honeybees, but I would hardly say I was keen on them. Worse still, by this point a furious buzzing was emanating from the box. I wasn't entirely happy about putting my hand in there. I whacked the box a couple of times with a stick, to try to frighten it out, but no bee emerged. Shit.<br /><br />Dilemma: leave the box until later, or proceed with opening? I didn't really want to leave it as I wouldn't have known whether or not the bee was still in there. The boyfriend, who used to work with honeybees and therefore has little fear of them, was off climbing so not around to save me, and anyway, how pathetic and girly would that be? Besides, all he would do to remove the bee would be to upend the box and steal my joy of unpacking it. I decided to be brave. I extracted the contents gingerly (ha) using the big scissors I'd had on hand for unwrapping to pick things up. </p><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292279516474061106" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBk0O583IvmdWtxIpHS9VoQVeBQ0qkx4Z4XMrZkA6RFZG2DnLJhsH3Wh7IjOWS3oIFmGqtd7v9XdlfWBOz51IWWtGFsR_e5KXu8cG9UflUXeFa6qkv2aMiYzSz7PLjSLn6Jh7dMBBM71H9/s320/layer2.JPG" border="0" /><br />On the top, a "Ravel Mix" CD burned by Lisa of music she thought I'd like, based on my Amazon wishlist. This is so cool, and shows such thoughtfulness that I really am humbled. </p><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292278600106090114" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdlhnSNEGHueZXQC2UlFyxhLF63CAE0nor_L19V_QMPf4aPfscx7EafCm75OeP0Oq8mtPkrLwWHD-0EJGV55tfKll7pBLOGPIC2bednh21M2__gsnW6vS8-uzo2PR6zogjbJqwQZT5KeOS/s320/cd.JPG" border="0" /><br />Pretty yarns! There's some yummy Andean Treasure baby alpaca from <a href="http://www.knitpicks.com/">Knitpicks</a>, always great to receive here in the UK. Then there are some truly gorgeous yarns from Lisa's local <a href="http://www.dancingleaffarm.com/index.html">Dancing Leaf Farm</a> in Maryland, beautiful! I am guessing from the website that the bigger one is Rhumba organic worsted-weight merino in the Briar Patch colourway, and the smaller one is Salsa DK-weight mohair/wool in Purple Passion. They are really, really nice. </p><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292279536283585986" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrPPrMqRqF5LiKRD9pqZSMtXnkX12YlLTAv00ZCQg0K-84kHTPD7NuIX6iyIwtDc5VEIYMYKtkWyVnb1hH1gzFxw_9kpe7D7Qq9TZsG5SNcQFndRpX9wgNCZ1k3M98ijB8F2QGOU_ULpsH/s320/yarn.JPG" border="0" /><br />On the food front, <a href="http://www.hardtimes.com/">Hard Times</a> Chili spice mix (mmm!) from Texas and <a href="http://www.lakechamplainchocolates.com/">Lake Champlain</a> Hazelnut Praline dark chocolate (double mmm!) from Vermont. These will go down very well indeed. </p><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292278600812926674" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitnEt5eRFt-1ppJngpcVUxBARJhXe5jLxLH27sIdqviDUhSpFCdUAqpzP8M8ALaeSp2jWO4Fs6CHBEjqacfKEkzN04nm-SaH3RaZo47ZdQhUDdL9_zKt2VxRBkoxFGIcZOEPsSfTUxQAua/s320/food.JPG" border="0" /><br />Cute little fingerpuppets of a girl and a chicken, lovely bamboo needles with pink balls on the end, and a beautiful notebook with birds on the front. You all know how much I like things with birds on the front. </p><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292279527484507586" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsA-gdEC5qeWB4qamjIlMmVIuzihWprt8QayOcRaytHQKUEEmi3IstP5KY9ulpubbiV6Lgu_j5oEsqkEOK6O-qs2Qr-t7KqZ1QpJ10fR94CeyeUNyMFfS45tX88tqvfTLHdemQVFrcYCCp/s320/otherstuff.JPG" border="0" /><br />Having removed most of the stuff, I discovered what the bee was after (crap photo as I was too scared to check the focus): </p><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292278595687892434" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqjZAMiZ3HAPekgT2DZrZABertBR_mWfLR7AeDfbYUJJf-_nDn6vYLi_eScai51vBntl6S1m_arPGa59dINArA5RA8iUrPbIMFv6SEDyC03JPb93612zbMO76ksy77n6s_RCfLkuZIA17N/s320/bee2.JPG" border="0" /><br />Gorgeous soap samples from <a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6046179">Alchemic Muse</a>, as I'd mentioned on my questionnaire that I'd like inspiration for my own soap-making. The bee had made, er, a bee-line for the Brier Rose-scented one. I think this is very telling on how proper essential oils (like Alchemic Muse use, and so do I) absolutely kick the arses of synthetic fragrance oils. The bee must have thought that summer was here, and it wanted it. <em>Really</em> wanted it. I did feel a bit sorry for the bee - it was quite groggy with the cold and lacking energy from no food all winter, and it must have thought that the wonderful rose scent meant nectar. And it's not as if <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeybee#Colony_Collapse">honeybees</a> are doing very well at the moment. However, this one wasn't going to survive long by waking up in January anyway. I eventually managed to shake it off onto the lawn so that I could get at my soap: </p><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292279532053639330" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigTmaN6O3JckDtPu2NJiPEATwbVfcScxje0rbP01PkrN15jZp1wUL06V0IoDhA_VXleXyauj8-E_E26fwYMVN1bbC6TlKot2x2EhUlgtK04yk10oRgkk0m_8b0ZRbOndqY-gS_DiVACmjx/s320/soap.JPG" border="0" /><br />Thank you so much Lisa, it's all bee-rilliant!</p>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-41609010569960948482009-01-14T22:26:00.009+00:002009-01-15T01:21:04.619+00:00Crash!<div align="justify">That most nightmare of technological scenarios befell me on Wednesday night: the hard drive error. I got home from WNK, hit the return key to wake my laptop from its slumbers, and... nothing. In fact, it switched itself off. Strange. Then it repeatedly tried to start up, never quite making it. I knew exactly what had happened, because the drive had thrown up error after error since I bought the thing, but I carried on regardless, and did I back up? Well, sort of, just not as regularly as I should have. So it was soon ascertained that I was the owner of a useless lump of plastic, metal and silicon, and potentially no longer the owner of quite a few photos and knitting patterns. Thankfully my dear knight in shining armour was stubborn enough to spend the next four days fiddling with components from <a href="http://www.maplin.co.uk/">Maplin</a> and software from off the internet, and eventually managed to read off the data, so nothing lost and not too much money spent in saving it. He's a genius. I now have to order a new hard drive to get my laptop up and running again, but at least my stuff is safe.</div><div align="justify"><br />So two New Year's Resolutions to add to the list:</div><ul><li><div align="justify">Back up, back up, back up, not less than every two weeks.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Get blogging on the stuff I thought I might have lost, and generally blog faster, so everything I want to keep is uploaded.</div></li></ul><div align="justify">The benefit of all of this was that I got some knitting done whilst I was bereft of the distractions of the internet.</div><div align="justify"><br />Firstly, the stripy "Blood & Bone" socks from my own hand-dyed yarn are finished! I am so pleased with them.</div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291282287768414738" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy8P_ojjWXC_ClHiqL9Dvc4bJiHPU8govibdsunrgNo1fyGaAItL5gYSy12uPbC3pSRpN9rW1DAB-m3PyB6ye5itv03pJMCS06PjSkCBZzH5k5L2H6oe1Yf4f5m989KGPX4MhyphenhyphenEZ08q8Fe/s320/socks1.JPG" border="0" /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291282312896556130" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdW_OwdYGCeP_zKvJ6bLF3p6fBw5DphylRnn4wakEr6LQte-lj-MIywoMJW1fDjZJOl41jDZboF8WQOBFfk-XqPaCDVcqfzr4AmZPOaETrtXG-sbAIfjNz-pPI153zW9ah7QwqBHgLKbVP/s320/socks2.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">As detailed <a href="http://gingerlucy.blogspot.com/2008/11/dyeing-art.html">here</a>, the yarn is <a href="http://www.knitpicks.com/KnittingA.aspx">Knitpicks</a> Bare for the striping sections, and <a href="http://www.theyarnyard.co.uk/">The Yarn Yard</a> Bonny for the contrast heel/toe/cuff, all dyed with Kool Aid. It's a toe-up stocking stitch sock, 64 stitches on 2.5mm needles for a UK size 6, with my usual toe, Sherman heel and 2x2 twisted rib cuff. I had loads of yarn left over, as they only used 51g (ie half) of the Knitpicks and 19g (less than half) of the Bonny. I could, and probably should, have made long boot socks, but I don't have the patience for the relentless knitting involved or the subtleties of calf shaping. The extra has therefore found a good home to be made into more socks.<br /><br />I asked the boyfriend to take the photos for me, on a break from IT repairs, as I was fed up with trying to take good photos of my own feet. Once we'd done the above "technical" photos, showing the contrast bits and construction, I thought we should dress them up a bit with my current favourite shiny black shoes, so it was into the garden to take advantage of the weak winter sun.</div><p align="center"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291282871050051762" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0IQtyMmp4WDGu5peTBPTZBKVJIRxEMQS_31R6jAVVQf-1ME3gxPyxdNWEO5MIkI7m9T_4glV9mvHlEJ2cVCS2edtPVFA3I48JkOJNeUpjzJQH239YyAjh-kVlQw1uITgjNsXCs7hxEAy1/s320/socks4.JPG" border="0" /></p><p align="center"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291282880956297138" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfnDf_jt5lzFO2MWQrPziVKrfw-sNa5hc9Kxw7Y4po7v9PVAdscAQu_e899f_uQySla1dEOYZWpy7sTQucn9XeFNriXupjXvZ2IDkz6sLqcI1Gcp_u9OUsvVKLX_apI3b6ZjiJaesVMak5/s320/socks6.JPG" border="0" /> </p><p align="center"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291282862714674242" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihPZd6iULj-nVGKpVjA4O6sd8XrZCSl3SBkhg8k4tvC_6HUuFAIcWivMR6FZjYwBx0O_G3uTYQAUbTn9yhqdCM1sHfUZ7Aowu_WlxHghk3aeWpC4Hbd0TFRpMxrY2ij_dIb9ZZ7pkglxcq/s320/socks3.JPG" border="0" /> </p><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291282877268463458" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHOjWKaw4HJt2Tc2txMY4BXybxnHpE-X632lVCg79DigYFQpL8ug6JTbaFCaEukuqnGubBh4JBEEwpjlmsv8bO5lPLqoPJQDTm-YEq1aiHQ95nBSA1v0k4d60bZeW9wEXZP2-3LnLVsdTD/s320/socks5.JPG" border="0" /><br />Thankfully none of our neighbours were around to see this silliness.</p><p align="justify">Having finished those, I moved onto a deadline job. Tomorrow is my father's 60th birthday and I thought he deserved a luxurious, warm hat for out on the golf course or when he's working on his motorbike. In my stash I had two skeins of bulky cashmere from <a href="http://www.schoolproducts.com/">School Products</a> in New York (the trip on which this was acquired is one of the things I nearly lost the photos of, and must blog soon) and that seemed perfect. It's black, but a fairly washed-out, flecky black. It is very soft and lovely. The hat itself is just a 4x2 rib, 72 stitches on 6mm needles, decreasing for the last few rounds. It took me two evenings, and was finished just in time to make the post down to Bournemouth. Seeing as the finish and immediate wrapping was late at night, I had no photographic help and had to do the traditional Myspace dirty mirror photos.</p><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291280135930710514" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5RLsJmlS7e1DQo2qi-rMEJsvnBGdUHsL5U_s38UeHprFcF31D1zxhVGvBI6c4RvMlgLDKjitO_GWXFf57a5jhJQTMxInVl7s9zUc8K2nzfRETUwlo8VARrXLR-rtat0FE3u1YhdWeUJ-6/s320/hat.JPG" border="0" /></p><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5291280149880596386" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 241px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilJaps3qSKwvIgSiXsT4lFVxeYaF_1xvqYERs4K2v_fVvWc60Px_KTrI9num0XciwP3n6SvPar781YefohOZLfy2RbggfAikWJkyZQLoJAo4FhyxhLe-98d9n29BQw_2cfkt41RiQgNv7q/s320/hat-closeup.JPG" border="0" /> </p><p align="justify">I sustained a small knitting injury from this as it seems, at that particular gauge, my left index fingernail hits my right first knuckle at every stitch. By two-thirds of the way through the hat, I was bleeding, and had to wear a plaster for the rest. I'm sure I've never had that before but will have to alter my technique if it starts to be a problem.<br /><br />That done, I can now start the Leyburn socks for the KAL from my last post, so will, in fact, go and do so now. </p><p align="justify">Remember, back up, people, back up!</p>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-21269172444892794772009-01-06T23:38:00.002+00:002009-01-07T00:13:55.242+00:00In with the New<div align="justify">So it's only taken me until the 6th to do the New Year's Resolutions...<br /><br />Well, not resolutions exactly, but I do have some plans for the year to come. Shall I split into crafty and non-crafty?<br /><br /><strong><i>Crafty</i></strong><br /><br />Firstly, I have to get my knitting productivity up. I have a stupid amount of yarn. I love it all, and don't intend to destash (or kid myself that I'm not buying any more), but I do need to get on with knitting it. For me, that means making sure I have a mindless project on the needles at all times, such as stocking stitch socks, so that I can knit whilst commuting or in the canteen at work, and if I get to a heel or some other bit that requires concentration, I have to make sure I do it that evening so I can continue. I think I should spend less time on Ravelry to achieve this. I'm just addicted to reading other people's knitting questions and/or drama.<br /><br />I have to finish a garment that is not socks or another kind of accessory. That KSH jumper would be a good start. I do also have the materials for a couple of other jumpers and it would be nice to do them - although this may be better achieved after the body shape changes that are mentioned below.<br /><br />I have to knit myself a wedding shawl. I have a pattern, <a href="http://mimknits.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=69&products_id=195"><i>Icarus</i></a>. I have yarn, undyed alpaca/silk/cashmere from <a href="http://www.bluefaced.com/">Bluefaced</a>. However, I've just realised that it's cobweb weight so that might be a mistake if I want to finish by September. I'm going to double strand it. To add to the confusion, I also have <a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=11101978">this</a> gorgeous rust-coloured silk laceweight from <a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5066487">Yarn Chef</a>, which would match the wedding colours perfectly. So perhaps I should do the shawl in that instead? I've pretty much decided to go ahead with the white one first, and if the pattern proves as easy and pleasurable as I'm hoping, I'm thinking about making the orange one too and deciding then.<br /><br />I've also joined an online KAL, on the Ravelry <a href="http://www.ravelry.com/groups/socks-that-rawk"><i>Socks That Rawk</i></a> group, after having had my attention drawn to it on <a href="http://turtlegirl76.com/2009/01/02/better-then-jewelry/">Turtlegirl's blog</a>. We, over 100 of us, are each taking a different colour of <a href="http://www.bluemoonfiberarts.com/newmoon/">STR</a> for one pattern, <a href="http://pepperknit.com/blog/archives/344">Leyburn</a>, and it will be interesting to see how it looks in all the different colours. Mine is Tide Pool in mediumweight and here it is, wound up:<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8KvpU5FiopEfP_opXL3UWQ0BdKBZrTysI2OYRf1ThJEAWcZOK8ysFIzFl_14epogUtPbssm2YCbpaGafBV-cQf1mJ9rhkBCD9eLlIEZ2WRFgsy72c1tdDjIRsSICfeT8esQ7rycbC27Rm/s320/tidepoolwound.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288332994366479266" /></div><br /><div align="justify">Even the boyfriend remarked that this was "pretty" when he saw me winding it, and he never notices yarn (except in terms of the volume of it entering the house, and he's pretty good-natured about that). I have only about an hour's more work to finish the stripy socks then I'll be casting on for the Leyburns.<br /><br />But...<i> drumroll please</i>... I have a new toy which could very easily derail all of the above, if I'm not careful. Ladies and gentlemen, please meet my <a href="http://www.winghamwoolwork.co.uk/eqp_spn_whl_krm_wheels.php">Kromski Sonata</a>:<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC1k87yT_yzsNWfUZM2PMmf9r18WIOnXolUjQLjPLQzrFUpklEpqWG9m2-oJrh1hvbloKYY1tsVS3X2ElEGO-NPXZPcX11yuaDDZJFhSVC4BY0fw1D3YYKdyiEP5pnuQE_RTn1sM8JRQgi/s320/kromskisonata.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288332978688823906" /></div><br /><div align="justify">Isn't it pretty? My dear parents bought it for me for Christmas (at my request, they're lovely but not psychic) and it is going to be a huge time suck. Should I name it, to give <a href="http://knitterrooney.blogspot.com/2008/02/have-wheel-will-travel.html">Ting's Ewan</a> a sibling? If so, I think it's a girl wheel, and I shall name her Magda because that's the Polish name with which I'm most familiar. Say hello to Magda, everybody. Let's hope she needs less of my time this year than a real baby.<br /><br />That's not even including any bead bouquet-making, baking, soap or needlefelting. Yikes!<br /><br /><strong><i>Non-Crafty</i></strong><br /><br />Now I know this is an entirely stereotypical response to getting married, but I do really need to lose some weight this year. Not that I think I'm fat, exactly, but I <i>am</i> three stone heavier than when we met (nearly seven years ago) and I'd rather be back to that for the Day of a Thousand Photographs, and ongoing, of course. In the autumn of last year I lost a stone by diligent attendance at the gym coupled with a food diary to make myself more aware of what I was eating - not denying myself anything at all, even chocolate, but pausing to think about whether I really wanted whatever I was about to eat, and if I didn't <i>really</i> want it, I didn't have it, or had less. It worked incredibly well, in a way that nothing really has before because I've never truly tried. Then I hurt my ankle and that was followed by a series of colds, so I was out of action during November and December. I haven't put much back on during the festive season though, and I've been down the gym at least every other day since just after Christmas. Go me!<br /><br />To kick-start things, during January I am doing the very restrictive detox diet I've done many times before, based on <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Detox-Yourself-Jane-Scrivner/dp/0749917660/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231286941&sr=8-2">this book</a>. I'm not a huge believer in the "detox" concept actually, but the principles cross over well to having a very healthy and calorie-restricted diet. So until a planned night out on 31 January, I am off alcohol, meat, dairy, wheat, sugar, caffeine... pretty much everything, leaving me to eat fish, rice, potatoes, soy, and all the fruit and vegetables I can stand. As I said, I've done it before and always had great results, just never coupled with an exercise regime to make it stick. I'm remarkably good at hyper-restrictive diets, with rules and a defined end date - I am not so good at trying to follow vague concepts such as "eat fewer Mars Bars". Also, this one still allows me to have my favourite food, sushi, so I cannot be unhappy. Five days in (started on 2 January so the hangover on New Year's Day could be dealt with appropriately with a fry-up) and I am not feeling the pinch yet.<br /><br />I find it critical to have the correct food available at all times, to avoid unwanted lapses, so we took a bracing walk over the cold hills of north London at the weekend to the farmers' market, and bought fruit with leaves and wormholes, like fruit from the tree should have, and beautiful, sleek, fresh fish from the Dorset coast.<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipoyWcvyLxdgH9xJRsjwTN2A9PSl5r_pKHHIDUFgy9UEpAFTyDNjvIkcOB1GuWN6XoC5fn0RxDR5EoO7tmFgFmhCbWIw7UyLFUP3bIhHizUtXVOBpUXFmRcFAkjwpl5VNbR04EjKN_D1qm/s320/farmersmarket.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288332970714479378" /></div><br /><div align="justify">Now doesn't that look better than refined sugar?<br /><br />Tying in with that, and mainly prompted by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Fearnley-Whittingstall">Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's</a> philosophies in <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/River-Cottage-Cookbook-Hugh-Fearnley-Whittingstall/dp/0007164092/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231286987&sr=1-1">this book</a>, and my desire to make my own yummy chutneys from <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Preserves-River-Cottage-Handbook-No-2/dp/0747595321/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231286987&sr=1-2">this book</a> (both from my grandma for Christmas), I am seriously considering trying to grow some vegetables in my garden this year. I have no idea if it'll work. There are some borders I can dig out and plant, and I'm just going to try with some courgettes and carrots to start with, but it would make me very pleased indeed. It's too cold to get started yet though.<br /><br />Oh, that's far too much bucolic idyll, isn't it? Back to gritty urban life. I leave you with a symbol of London, a graffiti'd Tube train as seen on the way to the New Year's Eve party we attended:<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_RekXMmGqLcDQZ445-SMqFN2yZqlMB7HzZ4LVl2CIHkdOmIU4bYgUXeD6ceI3qurUbAA2eMAc-vBz3RV85ehYddUnW0IeRz86nMPwYMifu7pwiACWH09XScjs6rVyogoybRx26avSpB6X/s320/sluttrain.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288332985012182562" /></div><br /><div align="justify">May all your 2009 endeavours be fruitful.<br /></div>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-35690080287631102362009-01-04T18:28:00.001+00:002009-01-04T18:52:34.151+00:00Christmas Crafting<div align="justify">Happy New Year! Christmas seems to be well and truly over; our tree is down and it's back to work tomorrow after a blissful two weeks off. Now everybody has received their gifts, I can give a run-down of the things I made, as there were a few of these.<br /><br /><i><strong>Knitting</strong></i><br /><br />Since last year's holiday knitting didn't go all that well (with a distinct lack of thanks from the recipients), I'd decided not to bother any more. After all, isn't it better to knit with no stress, no deadlines, for someone who'll appreciate the work that went into it, ie me? But then my aunt came to stay for the night some time in November and gushed so appreciatively over my various WIPs that I deemed her to be knit-worthy and decided to make her some socks. That and the fact that she has really small feet (UK size 2.5) so I was fairly confident of being able to finish socks in the time allowed. <a href="http://knitterrooney.blogspot.com/">Ting</a> is the same size so graciously supplied measurements and acted as in-progress tester.<br /><br />I chose the Floral Lace Anklet pattern from the Interweave <i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lace-Style-Pam-Allen-Budd/dp/1596680288/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231094464&sr=8-1">Lace Style</a></i> book, which is full of pretty patterns. I figured it would be nice to make her something really luxurious, and found some semi-solid pink cashmere/silk <a href="http://www.poshyarn.co.uk">Posh Yarn</a> in my stash (Eva 6-ply in Blithe). This is billed as a DK-weight yarn but I'm sure it's far heavier than that - on the 3mm needles I used it made an exceptionally thick and tight fabric. To compensate for the gauge and her little feet, I cut out two of the pattern repeats around, and more than that in terms of length - for example, the leg was meant to be six repeats for an ankle sock versus the five I did for a full-length sock for her, and the foot was meant to be about ten repeats to the toe, versus the five I did here again. This meant that despite these being my first lace socks, and my first top-down socks, they went really quickly. If I hadn't had to take a break for several days because my wrists hurt from wrestling the super-tight lace decreases in the gauge I was at, I'd have had them done in a week I'm sure.<br /><br />Here are the finished socks:<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpMibhJec0eMfWoa-h59QlxOeFJ_7pAkaPhQQIhhiglJKSAFXrk9Ra7E_gE4ws6iFY9b3wMCwGxQ07mBQMMYUDy8TBCXge2V4eGLZSzCly5OrcZ9Bh_WS_eb7ZLbRpirk7U1hZ2paUoqdo/s320/mandysocks.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287509861338243522" /></div><br /><div align="justify">I actually quite enjoyed the various elements of top-down construction, including the dreaded Kitchener stitch (which went very easily with <a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=I7jIzwO5Nv4">this video tutorial</a>) but I still think it's all a bit of a faff compared to toe-up. Why do a three-step process of heel flap, turn and gusset, if you can just do a short row or Sherman heel?<br /><br />I also immensely enjoyed the lace. I haven't done much of it, but every time I learn more about how to read my knitting, and how to fix without frogging. During the course of these, I had to drop down stitches on occasions to add missed increases and decreases, so I feel far more confident about doing bigger shawls now.<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXd66JvcD7aaT5tuc1ygmJ-F81ZTuU1QZys07eqkmA7sL_NPmpMblBwlNVL6OeT05_Zo4SqDUA9QDkxNI2Eo9A6tQKhNqNU3H4T_iWULotOlXNsi1E0_fUhCijU4t9ayWiqiRYHuCBhqA4/s320/mandysockscloseup.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287509870335289890" /></div><br /><div align="justify">Anyway, they were very well-received, and I had the chance to use the "Selfish" gift tags I have from <a href="http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=11959387">Knit</a>, which make the point by reading "<i>This project took hours of my precious time to make. You may now ooh and ahh and wear it every single day for the rest of your life</i>."<br /><br />I did also finish off (as in, sewing in the ends) on two WIPs which were otherwise finished a while ago. I managed to get these done on the morning when I was due to head down to Bournemouth for the holidays. May I present garter rib socks for me made from <a href="http://www.cherryyarn.com/">Cherry Tree Hill</a> Supersock DK in the Cherry Blossom colourway:<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVAlFpr4vGV_eHO9Pk5PCZBlRZuXe5jUk_W5EKZeS0By06rF3kXGAH2tNRUzq5DwAY0GvkkN6zYnd5b_Zs89y5iRWn8NY858J88V7NzGTAAWTWkO38iRwxl1rTFURj-N_0bXTC4A_WxuP8/s320/cherrytreehillsocks.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287509212066960722" /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbg1zdBsttyJ8qofzkr8GorjnaURz2363VS8ZmKatZHTIkZfB-kQG0_yntecv_ZwaFwaSEH3Fi0Y-3EOrHH9S-vISDUMVZSkLikCLFjy9kCIm9ppk0B990yfh8I9C0jf4m41-uG9VpD3Af/s320/cherrytreehillsockscloseup.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287509217884769234" /></div><div align="justify"><br />(Talking of DK weights, the CTH was about half the weight of the PY!)<br /><br /></div><div align="justify">And the <a href="http://pixiesparaphernalia.net/pixie-patterns/">Lucious Llama Lace</a> scarf in <a href="http://www.mirasolperu.com/">Mirasol</a> Miski, which has been very snuggly indeed over the last week or so:<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlBYSnfD4-zAKb7nhjMHLcCL6ZFXkGV1mJNDO9R8QXhNk2p6OcAN7aqjXbwWtkVTOnmmtA-8JrNk3FsoDJ3jAGjyU65dOh8PDvcv-FhTUqdUg9wSR-f1fsFye1NsMjoCFOFBKabO2jmp1v/s320/llamalace.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287509837222622626" /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdRYBNBHDYgfBscjJx93RX1hqEoZYBSDsP9CkxLtslRSfQ0YG0vaoPHJgc0DjmnMdiToGQITS8McZUnCL2fRmlwjYALk9oCDZ-7fAiU-Am9sa9d6v4vIlujafUuMuAj1AzhilJOn-3WqW6/s320/llamalacecloseup.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287509848767168498" /></div><br /><div align="justify">I also used the time off to get on with my stripy socks:<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLZ45agG89kpchfpUlsPo6FANJ7KiWi0f2IJ4FsX5Ll1S9NurM_6F0Fb14sQmmYagPEVmbKObCuPaXfCOwnHVzWisvsQFnxowO2useoDpSH8_OIMt1jayQ-tzC_cpav3Hd2pAz7nzGAwLQ/s320/stripysockswip.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287509879634922722" /></div><br /><div align="justify">And my <a href="http://www.knitrowan.com/">Kidsilk Haze</a> jumper:<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGnkRXp-6Li7s0Yk5PlHCB0y0-cGeM5Y3g-4WLG9ulW2LrmL8bSw4zUJTjrjqPh5fHv9iFIZdGTM3Da4-VZCe39XUjhDxT3kwEErSlSbNoy4vqkwuTCPN4h9-RC3o9-vZ3-bKeIH8MLjh-/s320/browniewip.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287509192088702082" /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0GQwTpUMb5n16bvFtt4vVASf5C2GkIR2N3bV0vLgf8peqQjojONYxwcr3XaYPgjE5Q3bS2cJjpdgCIHv7HRQKttZadYStTLhDNEYrIOH0btQkUCY9Z9ilUoNhJ2VlomddIn6PrOLYWcat/s320/browniewipcloseup.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287509205691821010" /></div><br /><div align="justify">Just one other knitting-related photo from the holidays:<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjegBloJzWis3H4a1O6pMjAshCMttrnPnyST9na306pt74n28OIEjXwLzaEaOLKpmIItixX-gTuUhAaq5Z-ZZsepZ36UdNTSTZOBQF8fU37f6K59tBf5wi3KA-o5nEM4pm-V1l6vcOEmymQ/s320/fibrecity.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287509227179614434" /></div><br /><div align="justify"><div align="justify">Sadly, I think they mean <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_fiber">fibre optics</a>.<br /></div></div><br /><strong><i>Needle Felting</i></strong><br /><br /><div align="justify">A new craft for me, this. I'd picked up some felting needles and merino tops from <a href="http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/9814/">The Handweaver's Studio</a> early last year, and a copy of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fleece-Dog-Nobuko-34/dp/184533289X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231094939&sr=1-1">Fleece Dog</a></i> some time before that. Then very recently one of my colleagues brought me back another very cute book of needle felted animals from her native Japan. It was time to give it a go, so I decided to see if I could make the lovely <a href="http://flibbertygibbet.typepad.co.uk/">Gail</a> small effigies of her own two kitties.<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">I didn't take any photos during the process, and I was subjected to plenty of "that'll never work" heckling from the boyfriend, but it did work! Here are the girls:<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiiZIUFXhwdzVOnPj8CckYPmFpivb5WNeymG0Rx6GB-iy02CpreW7A9_hgvBJoT3LCPkTgayTkDa8h23p-peKL-4JAnmXKSfpHw2mltHdxU1zRLaHk8CLkY52GtfhtbsW1DnrOvLtz2EXN/s320/blackcat.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287507943859880194" /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHNSopcQAh2OjJBI49YkXgwojcCZj-JMdBy0Z1xcscaSSj25kAkIiP5kP1EsK7eS0tXuUpnoG662udtvq97B7k3DgR8YKjEGgg6xmW8Ex-GtH1qoJEgW3xYr5WqXJwbui1vOp6lOFiiHpT/s320/black&whitecat.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287507931569723810" /></div><br /><div align="justify">They are based on pipe cleaner skeletons (big green fluffy novelty ones were all I could find locally so they had to do), covered with merino tops. The eyes are small green beads poked into the heads on U-shaped lengths of craft wire, and the whiskers are the more slippery beading wire pushed through the heads and clipped to the right length.<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEw4Gp7e4vcdj3yyAEomgYcS00KU_LEIMMcjX0NK9kj6c0WSKNEWIDirOIRrHFKsMjHE-WTefs54LJBwLjNC0qRJmkZqPMH4VrofkS0TbOfRmMJNxqsAkMVRJG6AozV53_Mc6JhzHAPKmD/s320/bothcats.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287507949868533986" /></div><br /><div align="justify">These were great fun to make and I will be doing various other little animals for myself at some point. I think certain members of the mustelid family might be pretty adorable (<a href="http://images.google.com/images?client=opera&rls=en&q=red+panda&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&um=1&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title">red panda</a>, <a href="http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&client=opera&rls=en&q=sea+otter&btnG=Search+Images">sea otter</a> and<a href="http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&client=opera&rls=en&q=zorilla&btnG=Search+Images"> zorilla</a> in particular).<br /></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong><i>Beading</i></strong><br /><br />It had been ages since I'd picked up a bead in earnest, certainly not since starting this blog, but I used to make quite a bit of jewellery and do have a bead stash. I needed to get back into it as I intend to create my bouquet out of <a href="http://crystallized.swarovski.com/Portal.Node/portal">Swarovski crystals</a>. I ended up making this keyring out of green and clear crystals, silver beads and white pearls, for Lotta:<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi90HwPrHsBexXgZF0gedmxvv6j1djmT3ekkAgugFHFRyFQH75nyBvVQhsjFr6o50-2Fd-d0Go7XqtyB6Un6_47HJYsBlgl9ZvcI7syemZ9u86kVGRIUYAtmERWBF_BZt9ABtnzTiao6ltr/s320/lottakeyring2.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287507963637462146" /></div><br /><div align="justify">Probably not the most practical keyring, but never mind!<br /><br />I also made some stuff for myself that evening, including this ring out of blue-green (technically "Indicolite") crystals, large dark grey-burgundy pearls, small white pearls and small silver beads, on one of the ring bases with a loop to attach things, as sold at the Swarovski shop on Great Marlborough Street:<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCujGrINWTQWdGfhUySjMsjZOzAGgfUBD4FeJxMf5r8dBsYsqWU5HzCa7jwx9Xn66bYqizA6As9jL5HQ-_PxM019IbCTdcuYjWjQEYNRmPV4GxqdwmPmE6jWDyZqHbLxp_SyVIqYlAgcF-/s320/myring.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5287508351133839218" /></div><br /><div align="justify"><div align="justify">I did really want to have the bunch more solid and able to stand up, but it seemed to be impossible to pack it that tightly whilst still being able to access the loop to attach things, so the stalks flop around and jangle as I move my hand. It's quite fun although distracting to wear whilst typing.<br /></div><br />That's it for the presents. My craft (and other) activities for 2009 will be in the next post.</div>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-29821107301854598702008-12-26T20:09:00.003+00:002008-12-26T20:26:38.117+00:00Post-Christmas Greetings<p align="justify">On Boxing Day evening, I hope this finds all of you slowly emerging from your gluttonous turkey-induced slumbers, dragging your way out of piles of wrapping paper, and wondering what the hell to do in this slightly boring bit of the year between Christmas and New Year. It's not quite time to be doing anything useful or indeed anything that would require resolutions, like tidying the house or hitting the gym; those are what January is for. No, what this period seems to be for is watching the telly.</p><p align="justify">As I don't do the evil television, instead I will make you a present of some knitting-related videos. Can you tell I just worked out how to embed YouTube videos in my post the other day?</p><p align="justify">Firstly, and this is the one I would really recommend watching, a knitted music video by French-Canadian pop duo <a href="http://www.myspace.com/tricotmachine">Tricot Machine</a>. Yes, the name of their band is "knitting machine" in French. Apart from that, the song, "<em>Les Peaux de Lièvres</em>" is ethereal and lovely. I am a complete sucker for French pop, and piano-driven songs, and this is both, and gorgeous. </p><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NO0-1GKXZEA&color1=" color2="0xcfcfcf&hl=" feature="player_embedded&fs=" width="425" height="344" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed><br /><p align="justify">Isn't that wonderful? Effectively a knitted flick book. You can see as the camera is zoomed out at the start and end there are numbers on the knitted sheets which are presumably frames, just over 700 of them. Amazing. Their other songs are pretty good and I may be using my Christmas Amazon voucher from the future in-laws for their album.</p><p align="justify">Much less pretty, but fun nevertheless, another music video made of knitting. "<em>Walkie Talkie Man</em>" by <a href="http://www.steriogram.com/">Steriogram</a>. It's probably a good thing that sound recording doesn't really involve that much yarn - the music would be all muffled.</p><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/E3GwQ3THw1I&hl=" fs="1" width="425" height="344" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed><br /><p align="justify">Not music, this one's an art installation. Forget holding yarn double, here Extreme Knitter <a href="http://racheljohn.co.uk/default.aspx">Rachel John</a> knits a mattress using 1,000 strands held together. The only points to this, presumably, being the ones at the ends of her needles.</p><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VVRfVEONxJQ&color1=" color2="0xcfcfcf&hl=" feature="player_embedded&fs=" width="425" height="344" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed><br /><p align="justify">More of a point here - hideously annoying background music, but this does use knitting (or rather unknitting) to make illustrate the potential effects of climate change rather well.</p><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/d6RcFZVD8AA&hl=" fs="1" width="425" height="344" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed><br /><p align="justify">You've probably already seen this a million times, but here are the <a href="http://www.masondixonknitting.com/">Mason-Dixon Knitters</a> with "<em>Pardon Me (I Didn't Knit That For You)</em>", which is pretty funny though I wouldn't expect a non-knitter to find that much amusement in it, or at least, not more than once.</p><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dUOgqefnt_I&hl=" fs="1" width="425" height="344" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed><br /><p align="justify">To wrap up, news of something I'm very excited about: there's a film coming out in February of <a href="http://www.neilgaiman.com/">Neil Gaiman's</a> "<em>Coraline</em>"! That in itself would be great (but scary), but even better, it's a 3D stop-motion animation (inherently cool) and has plenty of craft content. I mean, buttons for eyes and all... The trailer is <a href="http://www.coraline.com/?#/?page=theatre&subPage=0">here</a> on the film's <a href="http://www.coraline.com/">website</a> and certainly worth a look, but I shall embed here for you a short film about the person who made the incredible minature knitwear for the puppets.</p><p><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VT5MFdAB7fI&hl=" width="425" height="344" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" fs="1" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed><br /></p><p align="justify">Enjoy!<br /></p>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-46370236523437851202008-12-23T23:24:00.007+00:002008-12-26T20:29:45.307+00:00The Economics of Chutney<div align="justify">Greetings from down south, where I am already whiling away the holidays by spending too much time on the internet and eating too many mince pies.</div><div align="justify"></p><p></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Whilst at the hairdresser's this afternoon, I happened upon this piece in the Telegraph: <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/borisjohnson/3903164/Giving-chutney-for-Christmas-wont-help-Britain-out-of-recession.html">apparently our illustrious Mayor of London Boris is giving home-made gifts of chutney this year</a>.</div><div align="justify"></div></p><p><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">I would very much like to try Mr Johnson's chutney - I expect it is made to very high standards with quality ingredients, him being that sort of chap. It's also, in a small way, nice to know that my elected representative can turn his hand to such things. Perhaps by next year he'll have learned to knit?</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div></p><p><div align="justify">Interesting economic analysis and I did love the photo tag-line: <em>"Home-made chutney is not the answer."</em> What was the question?</div><div align="justify"></div>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-34595417838273965102008-12-22T12:22:00.003+00:002008-12-22T12:56:36.410+00:00Hark! The Herald An... Oh, Wait...<div align="justify">I don't believe in them, do I?<br /><br />For the last few days I have been suffering with yet another cold, like most of London. I have been puffy of eye, impacted of sinus and snotty of nose. My fellow commuters have been staring at me with horror lest I cough over them, almost as bad as if I'd been bleeding from my eyes with the <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/Spb/mnpages/dispages/ebola/qa.htm">Ebola virus</a>. I am, thankfully, better today, in time for the holidays.<br /><br />Unlike my nasal congestion, I have been trying not to be too snotty about religion at this most godly (well, for the majority religion of this country) time of year. My own opinions are very strongly atheist, but I do make an effort most of the time not to foist them on people. I honestly don't care what anyone else believes, as long as they don't try to convert me or give me no option but to do things religiously. As an aside, I randomly found out this weekend that it is former Conservative MP and generally orange person <a href="http://www.gylesbrandreth.net/">Gyles Brandreth</a> I have to thank for pushing forward the law to allow non-religious weddings in this country, during his time in office back in the '90s. Who'd have thought?<br /><br />I do reserve the right to be highly critical of religion in my own home, and on this blog, which I really see as an extension of my lounge. But I won't enter into a conversation with anyone about it in public, unless they start it. But then, who does, in England? We're all far too polite. I rarely assume anyone has any firm religious feelings anyway, unless they bring it up, and it certainly doesn't affect my opinion of them otherwise.<br /><br />However from time to time I will indulge myself by hanging out with the militant atheist crowd, which is how I found myself, armed with plenty of tissues, at <i><a href="http://www.thebloomsbury.com/event/run/1248">Eight Lessons and Carols for Godless People</a></i> on Thursday night at the Bloomsbury Theatre. This was billed as an alternative evening of celebration at this time of year where traditionally one would find oneself in church. Various comedians were billed, alongside the man who would be god if we had one, <a href="http://richarddawkins.net/">Professor Richard Dawkins</a>. Aside from that, I had no idea what to expect.<br /><br />The problem was, I don't think the organisers really knew either. What we ended up with was a three-hour-long variety show. Many, many comedians came on. All except the very famous ones got about a minute on stage. There were a couple of musical numbers, none of which were very good - one problem being that it's hard to sustain a musical comedic number for very long. The unfunny answer is to veer off into a whole other song ("<i>Centerfold</i>" by The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_J._Geils_Band">J. Geils Band</a> in one notable case) or keep trying to come up with more verses. This is why <a href="http://www.mitchbenn.com/">Mitch Benn</a> does it so well, he keeps them short and knows when to stop.<br /><br />Of the comedians, <a href="http://www.richardherring.com/">Richard Herring</a>,<a href="http://www.stewartlee.co.uk/"> Stewart Lee</a> and <a href="http://www.nataliehaynes.com/">Natalie Haynes</a> were all very funny. <a href="http://www.timminchin.com/">Tim Minchin</a> was awesome, as he always is. But I must register my strongest possible objection to <a href="http://www.rickygervais.com/">Ricky Gervais</a>. <i>The Office</i> was great, and I've heard<i> Extras</i> was pretty good, but as a stand-up? Appalling. Seriously offensive. Jokes about raping an old woman with Alzheimer's on the basis that no-one will believe her, and about a father wanking over his young daughter's report of being molested in a park, are unjustifiable and (better or worse depending on your viewpoint) not even funny. Seriously, the man is supposed to be a national treasure, taking British comedy to the world? If so, I hope they don't let him get up on stage, or our international reputation is ruined.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.simonsingh.net/">Simon Singh</a> and Richard Dawkins, of course, spoke brilliantly, but then they always do which is why we go to see them speak elsewhere for more than five minutes. The compere, <a href="http://www.myspace.com/robinince">Robin Ince</a>, was very funny, full of the kind of scientific jokes about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman">Richard Feynman</a> that I love, and attacks on evil bitch <a href="http://www.dickipedia.org/dick.php?title=Ann_Coulter">Ann Coulter</a> (yes, that's <i>Dick</i>ipedia, the encyclopaedia of <i>dicks</i>) but it was a bit ruined by hearing him on the radio yesterday using all the same jokes. It always disappoints me when I realise that comedians aren't making it all up on the spur of the moment just for me. I never buy comedy DVDs for that reason. Some of the other acts were OK, others were pretty terrible.<br /><br />The weird thing was, only a few of them were about Christmas/celebration/religion. Some were just nothing to do with it. There was even a fair bit of shoe-horning in of other "issues" - see the very funny rant on breeders with a sense of entitlement just for having babies, and a wholly unfunny (on purpose) discussion of access to AIDS medication in South Africa. Now, I agree fully with the points made in both of those, but not really what I was expecting.<br /><br />And there were no songs! It's not a carol service without a bit of a singalong. Looks like I'm going to have to hypocritically go along to midnight mass again this year.<br /><br />We were all issued with a free copy of <i><a href="http://newhumanist.org.uk/">New Humanist</a></i> magazine, which I hadn't heard of before and probably won't be buying again on the basis that it's too dull and worthy for words. On my way home, I happened to sit down on the bus next to an older lady also clutching a copy so we got to talking about the event (her opinion matched mine: too long, too hot in the theatre, about half of it good and half not). She then produced a card and strongly encouraged me to join the <a href="http://www.secularism.org.uk/">National Secular Society</a>. Uh, how is this different from a Jehovah's Witness trying to recruit me? Luckily conversation moved on to the air-time given to religion on Radio 4 (<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/thought/"><i>Thought for the Day</i></a>, I'm talking about you, because I don't want god with my cornflakes and news broadcasting) and then I escaped the bus.<br /><br />So for all of you celebrating one thing or another over the next few weeks, even if that's only getting some time off work and the opportunity to stuff yourself with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry's_Chocolate_Orange">Terry's Chocolate Orange</a>, I leave you with my little light-up USB Christmas tree from my cubicle at work:<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKdsuEwmcOjSIOrpThw-N4L3o70rDDvL4D7xTxALcMrtBM_RbNkDef9eMBivZhWknckCXn1BIPohkBV7y1iB_5YEjQnv9BIj5BtJIjQFaFP0KdJoLLYWsAv1-a-WatvCGGvUiGs5gZRJW0/s320/christmastree.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5282593123560040066" /></div><br /><div align="justify">MERRY WINTERVAL!<br /><i><br />(Off to my parents' place now for the festive season, so blogging will be limited.)<br /></i><br /></div>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-58107687528497698222008-12-20T23:10:00.004+00:002008-12-21T15:48:21.937+00:00Saponify!<div align="justify">That sounds like it should be a spell in Harry Potter, doesn't it? Wouldn't that be a good threat, to turn someone into a giant bar of soap with a wave of your wand? Technically, humans can be turned to soap, but only once dead - it's what happens if you undertake (ha ha) your decomposition in cold, wet ground out of the reach of oxygen. Your fat bits will turn into <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adipocere">adipocere</a> aka "grave wax".<br /><br />That's probably not the best way to start out a post about something that's meant to be nice, pretty, and hygienic, is it? But I couldn't resist, especially since having researched the above I have a new goal in life: to visit the <a href="http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2207">Mütter Museum</a> in Philadelphia to see not only The Soap Lady (a saponified corpse) but such other amazing attractions as The Big Colon! The Secret Tumor of Grover Cleveland! And a Freeze-Dried Cat!<br /><br />Sounds on a par with the fascinating but sadly private <a href="http://www.kcl.ac.uk/teares/gktvc/vc/gordon/">Gordon Museum</a>, which I was lucky enough to blag my way into whilst a student at <a href="http://www.kcl.ac.uk/">King's College London</a>. All the deformed foetuses in jars you could ever hope to see in one place, plus a great collection of stomachs as damaged by various poisons. I don't recall whether our soap-making friend sodium hydroxide was amongst them but I suspect it would have been.<br /><br />This is not how I envisaged this blog post going. I should really plan them out in advance. So without further ado, on to the soap...<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Nbeolk3WXxvQercRRqqeRUd5Cx9WW9qvgVeqd2tyXxwNjB7egE5xKK3m2ToG1YMI7q2RLn9G315HjR3kvVjtOzeEnWmGhiVQmiaOGFhjMGmSnqE4qzO56WhQmdNzS6CE_e6kyEBpFI4z/s320/TRAYS.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5282014971092653346" /></div><br /><div align="justify">As you can see from the trays above, I made a whole lot of soap at the end of November, after the <a href="http://gingerlucy.blogspot.com/2008/11/putting-that-education-to-use.html">initial post</a>. I wanted to have enough for general distribution to the knitting group (because fellow crafters know how to express appreciation for this sort of thing), to give to most of my friends and family in addition to regular Christmas presents (and therefore hopefully reduce actual expenditure on real presents), for swap packages, and, of course, to have enough for myself so that our household doesn't have to buy surfactants for personal use for most of 2009. I wanted to have plenty of variety to match scents to recipients, and, given the initial outlay on new pans, silicone bakeware, blenders and fats, I thought I may as well amortise the cost over as many bars as possible. It's all about the marginal cost, people. You can tell I'm an accountant, can't you?<br /><br />I therefore made six different kinds in the end, ranging from two loaf tins and then some of the first lavender batch, to only five little round ones of the orange batch at the end. I have a much better idea now of how ingredient volume translates to bars of soap, but I don't have that to an exact science yet. Here are the six:<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv9NcP0AjgJbWjD7YXPm5meYFOdhs2ZtmL-7OSNYjASrEs6DLsOUOlnGoHf-vjYBPR9zs1u0rKaGvylcR1vMCXx0Zaht1UHEjRWj_J3Ye_sj7rG3CYym8BHxtkXEcvFiy91DABBuDHMBS1/s320/allsoaps.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5282014346439929970" /></div><br /><div align="justify">I shall introduce you to each in turn, in the order in which I made them.<br /><br /><i>Lavender Soap</i><br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHK_DMvId5m91LysaP3YrdhwRnuOEYSfggYYXQM-vm2EwIGxStu0HumtCslj-g2sk9VdQPYZu9Atcd5twLt5aHy8JkWiAJ7Ybjj6YpSXtnqtrqgwsbfjKirqHYCndFGarhnlO9rAP2L4dt/s320/lavender.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5282014356315736370" /></div><br /><div align="justify">You've seen this one, back in November. I used the basic soap recipe from <i>The Soapmaker's Companion</i>, to the letter, being coconut, palm and olive oils, plus lavender essential oil, lavender flowers and alkanet root to colour it. The grooves you can see are from cutting it and sort of forcing some of the flowers down through the soft bar on the edge of the knife. Since doing all these six, I've been advised that I'd get better results by cutting with a fine wire like a guitar string. Wish I'd known that before! There's a soapmaking group on Ravelry which has been brilliant for this sort of thing.<br /><br />Anyway, the lavender soap lathers beautifully and looks very pretty. Lavender seems to be a very popular scent amongst my friends so it's good that I ended up with so much of it.<br /><br /><i>Floral Luxe Soap</i><br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwA1CAxxFB0v08oQVvfTQr7_jqvLBAfK6ZUozlO2xP5Rod9AQ5DCywRNYKzfE65ynpMeytGeTG6nmGxBdXiIB05IZHu2jlanHzUdleQlUYv-6V8UCv6Ag_1-7FeU5WYjWm1NkW3gqT5PjV/s320/floralluxesoap.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5282014346222100210" /></div><br /><div align="justify">This was the second batch I made. Exactly the same recipe as above, but with sweet almond oil added to the initial oil blend, and grated shea butter added at trace. Essential oils used were rose geranium, ylang ylang and bergamot - real rose being way too expensive. I added three whole rose buds to the bottom of each cupcake mold before pouring in the soap, and I'd hoped that they'd stay sunk so show on the top once turned out. Unfortunately they floated so they are on the bottom instead, and the above bar doesn't look all that special. They've also turned from pink to a more dried brown during the curing period, but still look OK.<br /><br />This stuff should be incredibly moisturising, but I haven't tried it myself yet.<br /><br /><i>Marine Biology Soap</i><br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi04cILOHlwR30WSUlY_3HoBTFJ5bhURNrpVPtWigrVdIkh6adnVwnYQ2O-I3YMIbAWe3tZHefXLzB6fYEAieZbm-X34Za88xEceaJ8jiUg_ysphoNKPATdDokqVcU77Szo6xLTc4Qc4ffR/s320/marinebiology.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5282014961895508978" /></div><br /><div align="justify">My darling's request - he is a biologist, aquatic in PhD subject, although freshwater rather than marine. This came about when he spotted the jar of chopped up <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fucus_vesiculosus">bladderwrack</a> whilst we were shopping for essential oils in <a href="http://www.nealsyardremedies.com/">Neal's Yard</a>, and he asked if I could incorporate them into a soap. Why not? We then went to <a href="http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/">Holland & Barrett</a> and bought <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirulina_(dietary_supplement)">spirulina</a>, which not only provides more microbial content but is the natural green colourant recommended in the books. He saw bags of sea salt and asked if we could throw them in. Sure. I then thought it smelled just a bit too oceanic to be a totally pleasant washing experience, so I added peppermint essential oil for the refreshing (rather than slightly damp) aspect of the sea. I also added avocado oil to the initial mix, because he loves avocados, and it's very moisturising.<br /><br />It is a bit of a rough diamond, this one. It looks exactly like he wanted - like something dried up and horrible on a rock on the beach. It drops lumps of salt everywhere because the crust is so thick it isn't all properly sealed by soap. It has weird black lumps of bladderwrack sticking out, and the green colouring is patchy, obviously due to some weird reaction of kelp, spirulina and lye. I can understand not wanting to use this. But having done so, it's brilliant! The lather is white, not green, the salt provides a nice exfoliating element if you use that side of it, and oh wow, it is just amazing on the skin. I was starting to get dry patches from the recent cold weather, and this has cleared them up wonderfully. Clean and soft, totally unlike a dead fish. So far, this is my favourite one to use in the shower. If no-one else wants it, then all the more for me.<br /><div align="justify"><br />By the way, some books extol the virtues of seaweed and spirulina as providing lots of vitamins in the soap. Other books say all that's tosh as any there would be denatured by the lye. I don't care, I just like the thought of having a shower with thousands of little creatures (each cell of the bladderwrack and each cell of the spirulina being a separate organism). There's no privacy with this soap!<br /></div><br /><i>Lemon & Ginger Scrub Soap</i><br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-f9ZPe03gDyTRBjN85ku6qacOvfoNL0mPtj2Y8w4ZZu5ChdX6UZoFm582B38Fop6CvyeyGBq1US8laWatSuBy0OB0O_Y1ynH9Oawty8KE45KOjxmtlfyDtrsg0jt7AHuVbXyZCP1CWJks/s320/lemon&gingerscrub.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5282014359488711666" /></div><br /><div align="justify">Two new things tried with this: animal fat and layering. Traditionally soap has been made with mutton or beef <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallow">tallow</a> (look for "sodium tallowate" in your soap ingredients) or other animal fats, so I thought I should give it a go even if I never did it again. Besides,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lard"> lard</a> is really cheap compared to all the rest of the stuff I've been using, and is actually in the supermarket rather than having to mail order. So this became the regular coconut, palm and olive oils, with added slightly bacon-smelling lardy goodness (seriously, it no longer smells of bacon, but there was a hint during the initial melting of the fat). I did half the quantity on a Saturday night and added only ginger essential oil to it before pouring into loaf tins. The next morning, I did the rest, adding lemon essential oil, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzoin_resin">benzoin</a> (a natural resin which helps to "fix" lemon scent into soap, as otherwise it's a bit ephemeral), poppy seeds and yellow <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_oxide">iron oxide</a> for colour. This is therefore the only batch I've made which is non-vegetarian and with "artificial" additives in the form of the colour.<br /><br />The problem with this is that I had enormous trouble cutting it on the Monday. It kept sticking and dragging on the knife, which would have been helped by the guitar wire trick above if I'd known. Unfortunately, the drag meant that for a lot of the bars the layers were pretty much pulled apart. I sort of squished them back together and most are fine although I suspect some will fall apart when used. There'll be two perfectly good bars, one lemon scrub and one ginger, but not quite the layering I had intended. I've been trying to only give out the ones that were best stuck together. Apparently (thanks Rav!) next time I could try only leaving an hour or so between layers (so the bottom one is only just solid enough), raking up the surface of the bottom one with a fork, or spritzing the surface of the bottom one with alcohol. All these should apparently improve adhesion.<br /><br /><i>Manly Wood Soap</i><br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiawn1DBGjzRUlqMG31oKAE-ydnRCYpXpC43sL3F92wwxA6ksS0q-xM-USjAD9U_J2Kwnovxf5P26MjsBiYQPPJvx0eEXjKKbdFHEWlYw_1cPisLiOrpmm03WVQy-qXkU1BoM-tvFfJaqAu/s320/manlywood.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5282014958894488130" /></div><br /><div align="justify">This was the boyfriend's initial request before he went off on the marine tangent, because he liked cedarwood when I was asking him to sniff essential oils. I decided to add sandalwood as well and fought the desire to call it the more smutty "Morning Wood".<br /><br />New thing: an attempt to make <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castile_soap">Castile soap</a>, which, like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marseille_soap">Marseille soap</a>, has a base of pure olive oil. Actually, some sources I've seen has it as just requiring a base of pure <i>vegetable</i> oils, in which case everything made already but the lemon and ginger qualifies, but regardless, I wanted a go at pure olive oil. This requires the addition of melted <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeswax">beeswax</a> into the oil, as otherwise it won't generate a hard bar. Otherwise, nothing else added. It is creamy-coloured, pure and lovely.<br /><br /><i>Orange Happiness Soap</i><br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQKnlMd5a86vGYzswlgAcACv_ga2UIm2j1PZVZBcEiP-nwiTYQkSxxAM_lWWlg7xK_n2jgNGXceEiKowhO1XEfrjjThEqWsSlHJ042kQv6UKeBkO4iKo3ukPmYGLSJcylRK2ELKdtyuQr9/s320/orangehappiness.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5282014966196553090" /></div><br /><div align="justify">In fact, stolen from the Manly Wood batch above, to indulge myself. During all the various sessions of essential oil choosing above, I realised what the true scent of happiness is: sweet orange. It just makes me feel better. I had to make a soap out of it, just for me.<br /><br />Seeing as I had some to hand, I grated in the zest of a couple of oranges, before adding the sweet orange essential oil. It is lovely and will cheer me up when I need it. There's not much of it so I'm afraid I'm guarding this jealously, though I may make more in future.<br /><br /><br />So having done all of the above, let it cure for the requisite four weeks, and tested it to make sure my skin wouldn't fall off and turn me into an exhibit at the Mütter or Gordon Museums, I needed to distrubute it. That would require wrapping in something at the very least, probably some labelling too. And we all know packaging is important, don't we?<br /><br />I may have taken this a bit too seriously. I went and bought some little brown luggage tabs and a rubber stamp kit. Observe my soap labels:<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh84CdYFXPIZv0JW-OJXUVQP43qw5bSkVG6Pf2uKkEZRViGoIiaRIktHlZLa36jQCoK_4_VZeaaLRa3nN5Cctbet3WWF6HToHPxY6TQrfxl87efNPqb9gsSC5j8Cr5Ytd6hnQht_d1nPtsH/s320/labels.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5282014358526515554" /></div><br /><div align="justify">Aren't they cool? I did do a batch of just "<i>Lucy's</i>" instead of "<i>Ginger Lucy's</i>" for use with those who don't know about the blog (eg colleagues, parents), but if you're reading this, you'll be seeing the labels above.<br /><div align="justify"><br />I then spent whole nights of my life wrapping each bar in colour-coded handmade paper (no, not by me, from <a href="http://www.paperchase.co.uk/">Paperchase</a>), writing the ingredients on the labels, and adding ribbons. One day I'm going to learn not to be such a bloody perfectionist.<br /></div><br />Here they are:<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaLgH6clJLewnyif2FVKNGvMmQ667ifbCbFhBNT1JyZtCGOkyKDrRyu10uNfBziQr7FfAe8F7p7jMTlO45Zja75m_Cn1cpBhB6P93h5YwsnjIXa7o2G2S0GdcT4XBm-4Stxifoj2Xv1ASa/s320/wrapped.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5282014976529702434" /></div><br /><div align="justify">So the knitters have them already, and I have a couple of overseas packages to go out although they won't arrive by Christmas. If anyone reading this wants one and isn't already aware they're getting one, do let me know and I'll happily send you a bar.<br /><br />My house smells like <a href="https://www.lush.co.uk/index.php">Lush</a>, my friends are dead impressed, and my skin is clean and lovely - <i>win</i>!</div>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-57043971690379738552008-12-19T21:34:00.007+00:002008-12-19T21:55:05.277+00:00A Little Birdie Told Me...<div align="justify">More birdies! These from the lovely knitters at the Wednesday Night Knitting (or WNK, snigger) Christmas Partay on, predictably, Wednesday Night at <a href="http://www.phamsushi.co.uk/">Pham Sushi</a> (mmm, crunchy tuna rolls are now in my favourite sushi list, along with <a href="http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/gear/af69/">these from ThinkGeek</a>).<br /><br />Lotta made us all pairs of über-cute little birds from fabric scraps and buttons, stuffed with lentils and lavender. So clever! Can't decide whether they should go into the underwear drawer for scent, or stay out on show. Here they are with some yummy-sounding ginger cordial from her too:<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc0NLTZfgSGT_vl9DUXfUw5lXUfXjzY1R255CTDQ4BpS7LEDI_eYBiQmSRwmlY9stiQwJE9mgifdkmSWuZZes3JyxZxeE290-nSA1UrasDRSifR7fTmBGlbENJmp-uWbT1WiZbqMbAUtKa/s320/lentilbirds.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5281618328917214386" /></div><br /><div align="justify">Generous sweetheart that she is, she also bought me this gorgeous necklace in the shape of a peacock feather. Not sure of the maker but they are at <a href="http://www.spitalfields.co.uk/">Spitalfields</a> apparently. Love love love it.<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi1_78xLdvLoz7q28ZK_EObxH7QmzETCMUgmTz7mhDDB6BIyrhd5l6RJwErdo8OVv6YOw0aW2PBtLEgkchjtsoBDguBQDwfHXs5To98ZwClvZ1kbkpku5R2FkcaRBOP0zya0Rw71Qwem0V/s320/necklace.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5281618333904535250" /></div><br /><div align="justify">She also made this card out of lilac and silver leather scraps:<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHyDRRtab0jw4bOejJF_3PwJMsptIVUCpXafKyj2UvWJELKQbQKyvCpwXG8ZLdsUtWlG9YWaer9kndCxnTNljJwIqlTx53MYBGcM5Bj1rAYvpuJvab4J8a3VAv8fZzEwvJsJtrimyH_tnA/s320/card.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5281618323394869106" /></div><br /><div align="justify">My WNK Secret Santa turned out to be <a href="http://flibbertygibbet.typepad.co.uk/">Gail</a>, and this is what she got me:<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiF6Rqtla_Lh4NytZze-r_egu-HV7G7ny4PUQTdKXY5D98O3FHTKcbbW-coytkA3rGL2ZMLiQjWrE_BQ60G4dWm9aboirudB-MSG4vd0Ou1ILbRvmg1uIphikdJcaSterNslxuMAS17EH5/s320/diary.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5281618325989562770" /></div><br /><div align="justify">A lovely diary with fab, almost Art Deco birds (see, I am crazy bird girl already), and posh chocolate. I especially like the shiny blue bull on this. I don't believe in astrology at all, but if I had to pick one of the signs to be, I'm quite glad I'm a Taurus because I really like cows. If I could choose to have one physical feature from an animal as some sort of weird hybrid or Egyptian god effect, I'd want to have big spreading horns like a <a href="http://images.google.com/images?client=opera&rls=en&q=highland+cow&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&um=1&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title">Highland cow</a>, which I could brandish for effect. When people annoyed me, I'd toss my head and snort. If I had them, I'd probably get a nose ring too to complete the look, as I've always thought that would be a cool piercing. My darling would prefer me to have a fluffy squirrel tail or twitchy llama ears, but perhaps that's TMI...<br /><br />Talking of which, my no-longer-Secret Santa gift to <a href="http://knitterrooney.blogspot.com/">Ting</a> was, in part, sheep stitchmarkers from <a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5072561">Yarnimals</a>, and at the same time I had to get myself a pair of squirrels. Here's an action shot of the "skwerls", as I like to call them, assisting with my nearly-finished Christmas knitting.<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Hm9RRbe3SWVLzc76qxeEGYbyLx9V_dZVPpUlwif_noX6peOk1yYMBUac7orfYB5jEbcrmoD8UtYg539UFrxFxStnt6B8zqbXOZqvp8oQzdfVs8gr-4rV89zzM-9kUYIrIjgFj4maRQZ_/s320/squirrels.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5281618843233042290" /></div><br /><div align="justify">Yes, that's a top-down sock, but the skwerls are making even gusset decreases bearable. Look at the cute white tummy! Love them!<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaqM_j3DDEKvW0psKYhVCnVo1bEwWa9FfekJ0sgYaJXoq1sSJ1QOsLmxrVWSOKw2rn_ZjG7EoYJSl6pci-g4KqOjO8cqr7gsXIiPXjtBSoWe4eUnXltfvTivhbUP-KriD2znAnlDQOc4p0/s320/redsquirrel.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5281618836678005794" /></div><br /><div align="justify">And finally, not animal-related but softer than a squirrel's belly fuzz, lovely wristwarmers from <a href="http://www.jadesapphire.com/">Jade Sapphire</a> Cashmere 8-Ply in Berries & Cream. Mmmmm... <a href="http://acechick.typepad.com/">Pauline</a> and Lotta enabled me on this in <a href="http://www.loop.gb.com/">Loop</a> about a week ago, not that I needed a great deal of persuasion - they didn't actively dissuade me is all.<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxliPl5TeufzxopVf84kEpmd2uxr7WX1fREynC9QIrs1bpPLlQqDQ5XB_hYDjKD5ToZ16m1CMc-YpHDX6hnla7wFQpsVlEBnBokE00EwZNZPGUH1qLLNZhmG49HKeWSaxdA9CDToELY6Kh/s320/jade+sapphire.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5281618316858211138" /></div><br /><div align="justify">They also suggested and helped pick the buttons. Took me much frogging to decide on what stitch pattern would best show off the yarn without eating too much yardage, and after all sorts of slip- and herringbone-stitch swatchs, it ended up being the seed-stitch that won out. Just like the sample in the shop. How boring of me.<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4XXY8rB5H4bAYdATPRNvTM0hI9e0_mLIIbes3EY6TRrJPAHkylJFPUMmdGylRQa6VB0oFsVBz9_JOYOpIYtYTc5pxF_G09yCDNf2DJykVTfKqbjC0whlsSUklhKXWpxpp1fMeN7YS9vje/s320/wristwarmers1.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5281619175587405538" /></div><br /><div align="justify">They are soft and lovely although I think they will pill like a bastard as soon as I dare to hold anything. I will love them regardless.<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlQesH87wBXGXO01Bse33dYcbluDGGZYgrU-cNXK-TV0XCsPgN_VGaQ-8OPvULz0j7VyJQxlgZmf64jd8qbGMzXDmnkmdXZ4Htsu5QOvz4_fH7pxVwKWqTUQSJzk2ZLc1stQz_sfsMuhgz/s320/wristwarmers2.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5281619180731682466" /></div><br /><div align="justify">Finally, anyone for tea?</div><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eELH0ivexKA&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eELH0ivexKA&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-37179580714007479882008-12-14T22:14:00.008+00:002008-12-15T01:50:47.036+00:00Book Club<div align="justify">I saw this meme on <a href="http://stashhaus.blogspot.com/2008/12/thank-goodnessive-read-at-least-six.html">Stash Haus' blog</a> earlier in the week and coincidentally on a couple of others on the same day, so I thought I should give it a go. I was a bookish child and so got a lot of reading of the classics done then; now it's limited to commuting but that does allow me to motor through at least one novel a week and so I have done rather better than the "average" six (I know!). The below is actually quite useful in identifying what I should be reading in 2009.<br /><br />Convention:<br /><br />1. Look at the list and highlight in <strong>bold</strong> those you have read.<br />2. <i>Italicise</i> those you intend to read.<br />3. Place * after the books you love - I did try to keep this to top five, but I think I've ended up with ten.<br />4. Post your list so we can try and track down these people who’ve only read six and force books upon them.<br /><br />The list:<br /><br /><div align="justify">1. <strong>Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen</strong> * (A girly choice of favourite, but I was an impressionable 14-year-old when Colin Firth was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_and_Prejudice_(1995_TV_serial)">getting his britches all wet</a> and it has stuck with me.)<br /></div>2. <strong>The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien</strong> (On an ill-fated holiday in France which we decided to share with another family, with whom we had nothing in common whatsoever. Thank god for Tolkein in that situation.)<br /><div align="justify">3. <strong>Jane Eyre</strong> <strong>- Charlotte Bronte</strong> (I remember failing to read this at school and still managing to make up the right answers for a test on it. But I've read it properly since.)<br /></div>4. <strong>Harry Potter series</strong><strong> - JK Rowling</strong><br />5. <strong>To Kill a Mockingbird</strong> <strong>- Harper Lee</strong><br />6. <strong>The Bible</strong> (From cover to cover, even. I just thought I should. I feel this means I can make an informed decision that it's utter bullshit.)<br />7. <strong>Wuthering Heights</strong><strong> - Emily Bronte</strong><br />8. <strong>Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell</strong> *<br />9. <strong>His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman</strong><br />10. <i>Great Expectations - Charles Dickens</i><br />11. <strong>Little Women - Louisa M Alcott</strong><br />12. <strong>Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy</strong> * (I adore how nasty Hardy is to his characters. Also, they're all set around where I'm from, in Wessex.)<br />13. <i>Catch 22 - Joseph Heller </i>(I've started this a couple of times. No idea why I haven't managed to finish it.)<br />14. <i>Complete Works of Shakespeare</i> (What, all of it? Seriously? Even the poetry? I've had a good stab but can't claim to have read the whole lot yet.)<br />15. <strong>Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier</strong><br />16. <strong>The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien</strong><br />17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks<br />18. <i>Catcher in the Rye - J D Salinger</i><br />19. <strong>The Time Traveller’s Wife</strong> - Audrey Niffenegger (Made me cry on a long flight to Bangkok, but then that may have been a side effect of being squished into a middle seat with no seat-back entertainment.)<br />20. <strong>Middlemarch - George Eliot</strong><br />21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell<br />22. <strong>The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald</strong><br />23. <i>Bleak House - Charles Dickens</i><br />24. <i>War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy</i> (One day...)<br />25. <strong>The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams</strong> * (My absolute favourite book(s) of all time.)<br />26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh<br />27. <i>Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky</i><br />28.<i> Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck</i><br />29. <strong>Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll<br /></strong>30. <strong>The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame</strong><br />31. <strong>Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy</strong><br />32. <i>David Copperfield - Charles Dickens</i><br />33. <strong>Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis</strong><br />34. <strong>Emma - Jane Austen</strong><br />35. <strong>Persuasion - Jane Austen</strong><br />36. <strong>T</strong><strong>he Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis</strong> (Why is this duplicating #33?)<br />37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini<br />38. <strong>Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres</strong> (Hated it, as it happens.)<br />39. <strong>Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden</strong><br />40. <strong>Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne</strong><br />41. <strong>Animal Farm - George Orwell</strong><br />42. <strong>The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown </strong>(And others by Mr Brown, I'm ashamed to admit.)<br />43. <strong>One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez</strong><br />44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving<br />45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins<br />46. <strong>Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery</strong><br />47. <strong>Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy</strong><br />48. <strong>The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood</strong> * (So good I had to re-read it last week. I love dystopias.)<br />49. <strong>Lord of the Flies - William Golding</strong><br />50.<strong> Atonement - Ian McEwan</strong><br />51. <strong>Life of Pi - Yann Martel</strong><br />52. Dune - Frank Herbert (This is a book? I have been forced by my darling to watch the film a couple of times.)<br />53. <strong>Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons</strong><br />54. <strong>Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen</strong><br />55. <i>A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth</i><br />56. <strong>The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon</strong><br />57. <i>A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens</i> (Ooh, shocker, what with all the knitting. Must correct over the hols I think.)<br />58. <strong>Brave New World - Aldous Huxley</strong> *<br />59. <strong>The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time</strong> <strong>- Mark Haddon</strong><br />60. <strong>Love In The Time Of Cholera</strong><strong> - Gabriel Garcia Marquez</strong><br />61. <strong>Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck</strong><br />62. <strong>Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov *</strong><br />63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt<br />64. <strong>The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold</strong><br />65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas<br />66.<i> On The Road - Jack Kerouac</i><br />67.<strong> Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy </strong>* (Even more harrowing than Tess above. Great.)<br />68. <strong>Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding</strong><br />69.<i> Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie</i><br />70. <i>Moby Dick - Herman Melville</i><br />71. <strong>Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens</strong><br />72. <strong>Dracula - Bram Stoker</strong><br />73. <strong>The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett</strong><br />74. <strong>Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson</strong><br />75. <i>Ulysses - James Joyce</i><br />76. <i>The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath</i><br />77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome<br />78. Germinal - Emile Zola<br />79. <strong>Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray</strong><br />80. Possession - AS Byatt<br />81. <strong>A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens</strong><br />82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell<br />83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker<br />84. <i>The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro</i><br />85. <strong>Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert</strong><br />86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry<br />87. <strong>Charlotte’s Web - EB White</strong><br />88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom<br />89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle<br />90.<strong> The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton</strong><br />91. <i>Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad</i><br />92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery<br />93. <strong>The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks</strong> *<br />94. <strong>Watership Down - Richard Adams </strong>* (Just wonderful.)<br />95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole<br />96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute<br />97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas<br />98. <strong>Hamlet - William Shakespeare</strong> (So is this in addition to having read The Complete Works? Do you have to read it twice?)<br />99. <strong>Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl</strong><br />100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo<br /><br /><div align="justify">I think that makes a round 60 I've read, so I am <i>ten times</i> better read than the general population. That makes me feel very smug indeed.<br /></div></div>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-18714851954206686412008-12-10T23:35:00.005+00:002008-12-10T23:56:17.600+00:00Oh FFS<div align="justify">Even the news services are in on it now...<br /><br />Firstly, the least annoying of the two and the most recent: <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/7774203.stm">this article</a> on the BBC News website yesterday. Apparently we must crochet or knit presents for everybody because homemade presents are the way to survive the financial downturn.<br /><br />Er, no. I mean, OK, the person who is advocating the cashmere wristwarmers is knitting from stash, so that's cost effective at least, but if you're the kind of person who already has a stash of cashmere yarn, you probably already know that making wristwarmers is an option and are either well on the way to finishing them or have rejected the idea. Anyone else? They're going to have a heart attack if they bound out to any of the London yarn shops in search of the required materials - if the price of the cashmere doesn't do them in, learning to knit on the recommended 2.5mm circs certainly will.<br /><br />And ha ha, yeah, crochet makes nice, practical gifts. Not sexy or wanted, practical. Oh dear.<br /><br /><div align="justify">That reminded me about the second item, something I meant to blog about last month but forgot: an article in <i>thelondonpaper</i> (non-Londoners: this is one of the free ones and you only get spaces in your titles if you're paying for them) which I saw on my way home and had saved to scan and post as a picture, but it seems you can cleverly read it online, and zoom in and everything. All together now, <i>ooooohhh, get you</i>!<br /></div><div align="justify"><br /><a href="http://thelondonepaper.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx">Go here</a> and have a read, then come back to me, if your head hasn't exploded. If the reader doesn't show the right page, you're looking for the 17 November 2008 issue, page 13.<br /><br />OK, deep breath.<br /><br /></div>I shall ignore the fact that this is written by the faintly annoying DJ <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Vaughan">Johnny Vaughan</a>.<br /><br /><div align="justify">Let's take the opening section by dear Johnny. Where do I start? So we're "Yappies" now: "young aged pensioners" because we like crafts. How patronising is that, both to those of us who are in their 20-30 year old category, and to actual pensioners, who, it seems, are the only people who are supposed to like crafts but for this recent turning of society on its head. We don't go out much, clearly. I should probably be watching TV right now, but, oh dear, I don't have one. If I'm feeling really really brave, I guess I could leave the safety of home (because crafts = agoraphobia?) and "venture out" to a "so called 'stitch and bitch'". It'd have to be at a "knitting nightspot [insert shriek of incredulity here]" and apparently there are loads of these! Funny, I've never seen one. We just go to bars and cafes like normal people but I guess we are just <i>even weirder</i> than the Yappies in the article and should be shunned and driven back to our acceptable special knitting venues, or preferably home, where it's nice and warm and safe, after all.<br /><br /></div>Then there's a whole heap of shit about cardigans and Pyrex. Oh please. When have people ever not worn cardigans? And Pyrex is fairly useful but I'm not excited about it as such. Silicone bakeware, maybe, but that would imply that I'm actually fairly cutting edge, and that wouldn't fit with the jam making, would it? (No, I haven't made jam, yet, but I've asked my grandma for <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Preserves-River-Cottage-Handbook-No-2/dp/0747595321/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228952784&sr=8-1">a book on it</a> for Christmas.)<br /><br />It's OK, though. Johnny says "there's no shame in it", so I won't kill myself over being outed.<br /><br />Then! Then there's the actual box about knitting itself. If anybody ever said to me anything about being "26 not 86", they'd feel the sharp end of my needle, I can tell you. And "the money I save" - ha! At least this person bucks the normal trend of knitting = cheap by admitting that this might not actually be true. "Yarns of wool"? Who says that?<br /><br /><div align="justify">I could live with all of that, you know, were it not for the last sentence here. She wants to convince her friends that her FOs are from a "pricey boutique". For the love of god,<i> why</i>? What's wrong with being proud that they're not from a fancy, expensive shop, being proud that you've made them yourself, showing off your unique and beautiful crafts? Wazz writes about this kind of thing far more eloquently <a href="http://needled.wordpress.com/2008/07/17/process/">over here</a> (in the context of the execrable <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Street_Porter">Janet Street-Porter</a>), whereas I can scarcely type for fury.<br /></div><br />I'd better go and have a fish finger sandwich for dinner, or else the modern world might frighten me so much that I can't sleep tonight.<br /><br />Happy Yapping.<br /><br /></div>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1521918029429422782.post-51588439548222908632008-12-09T22:36:00.003+00:002008-12-09T22:41:21.864+00:00Wool in the Wild<div align="justify">Just a couple of random photos to pass the time:<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEoHPAZWkTa_JuEapbHnrpabpmflumwPL9KAY-Z2V3dhIOVflEWke5v1qxyKmXpJi-eJeKr1_DL1YevTPNqmAtLt879JY7kk9RW02cNZyK78OKinDcRGXJmdO3uNiLaEc5mqyKwhXGx4SR/s320/benetton.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277923119138954594" /></div><br /><div align="justify"><a href="http://gingerlucy.blogspot.com/2008/09/bandwagon.html">Another</a> shop window with a knitting theme - here we have cones of yarn at <a href="http://www.benetton.com/portal/web/guest/home">Benetton</a>, I think, on the corner of Oxford Street and Regent Street. No apparent reason other than that it's cold and people might be encouraged to buy woolly things, I guess.<br /></div><br /><div align="center"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvAYd67nHFnF3WMZ_joMmAJ45c9B0oDcw1DoNH2hFLL8vOpMCot5pFwtM5tzlMHpEd93-GbTg5pAXX4yHocSeY3ddXxVirWXOhuXpaDQaPvBtU6BtOougoWKpPXDPng7WO5KfCemjYQ4vY/s320/laddered+jumper.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277923123103707090" /></div><br /><div align="justify">Startling knitwear seen in <a href="http://www.pingpongdimsum.com/">Ping Pong</a> on Great Marlborough Street, whilst unsuccessfully waiting for a table after the Liberty cardholder night. Thanks Mel for posing so that I could surreptitiously "take a photo of your hand".<br /><br />From your roving (ha ha) reporter.<br /><br /></div>Ginger Lucyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09569485832379380025noreply@blogger.com0