Four Good Corners

Losing my blocking virginity

Kirsty — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:53:36 +0000

I have never blocked* a project before – “Tish!” thought I, “What a waste of my precious time.” I didn’t really see what difference blocking, which is just a bit of washing and stretching after all, could make to a finished piece. Having finished Clapotis, however, I just wasn’t happy with its scrunchiness and general lack of drape. “Oh crumbs!” thought I, “I spent weeks on that shawl and now it looks like a boring, tangled mess.” I grumbled a little more and then took deep breath and looked up the blocking process on t’interpipes. Submerging my precious handiwork in a bath of soapy water was fairly terrifying – what if it felts? What if the colour runs? What if it just dissolves in my hands? Thankfully, none of these things happened. Phewf. So I rolled the sodden shawl in a towel to drain out the water and then set to stretching and pinning. That bit took a while. After the first pinning, I measured the two ends and found a difference of 4cm in the width. Bums. So, I pinned it all again and re-measured. Then pinned it all again and re-measured. Then used a ruler to make sure my sides were straight (they weren’t). Eventually, all the sides were straight and it measured the same width all the way down, and now it’s sitting pinned to my rug, drying. The shawl already looks better. The dropped stitch ladders are straighter and the piece is now more rectangular. Looking at it, I already think that the drape is going to be much nicer and the stitches will lie flatter. Barring any disasters, I think that my first attempt at blocking was a success. I’m working on my very first lace project at the moment, which is looking amazing, but I’m guessing that a bit of blocking when it’s finished will make it even more spectacular.

* Blocking is the process of handwashing your finished project and then pinning it into shape to dry.

Wardrobe Refashion

Em — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 11:31:24 +0000

Back at the beginning of September I made a pledge via Wardrobe Refashion that I was really excited about:

“I, Em, pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of “new” manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 4 months. I pledge that i shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoted, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftiness brings! Signed Em.”

I am pleased to report that, bar some new boots (which I really needed and had been hunting charity shops for to no avail), I have managed to refrain from buying any new items of clothing. I have only managed to refashion/create two items of clothing so far, which I am disappointed with, as I would love to make more. However I am pleased with what I have made (although only one of them has so far made it out of the house!). You can see my first refashion here on the Wardrobe Refashion blog.

I am really enjoying this pledge, and it really makes you think more about reusing the clothes you have, and makes you look at clothes in charity shops in a different way – you start looking at shapes you like and working out how they were put together, or finding clothes in a fabric you like and wondering how you can alter them to make them fit. It’s great fun, I would really recommend it!

Wardrobe Refashion are actually accepting new pledges right now, so if you like the sound of it, why not make your own pledge? You can choose from a number of different timescales for your pledge (from 2 months to lifetime!) and the community is a great support and full of fabulous ideas! I think I will sign up again once I have finished my pledge (although maybe after the January sales – not sure I can resist those!) and hopefully will be able to get more involved with it next time.

Celebrity crafting

Kirsty — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:06:43 +0000

Kirstie Allsopp and her Homemade Home series have caused some debate on this blog – our more puritan crafters have seen it as a hollow gesture towards a current fad, whilst other bloggers think that exposure of traditional and new crafts and their practitioners is positive and should be welcomed. In the series, Kirstie showcases different artisans and craftspeople who can provide interesting alternatives to the identikit flat-pack homes that other style and property programmes seem to be shoving down our throats. The intention is good, but, as with any mass media product, it could lead the way to crafting as just another fad to be bought into on mass and discarded just as quickly. Let’s think positively, though. I believe that encouraging anyone to pick up knitting needles, a paintbrush, or any tool that enables them to create something unique and rewarding is great.

I would say that, though – I work for the publishing house that is publishing the book of the series next year. Not only that, but – as the very grainy photograph attests – I am part of the reason that my particular publishing house won the bid. I’ve gained a bit of a reputation at work for being crafty and when the lovely editor was pitching for the book, she asked me to make something that she could give to Kirstie. The results of which you can just about see in the picture. I crocheted a ‘book’ with a little house on the cover and the words Home Made Home. Both Kirstie and the editor loved it and every time Kirstie’s book is mentioned now, someone will say “That’s thanks to the book that Kirsty knitted”. In the beginning, I would say “actually, it’s crocheted” but I got so many blank looks – because it’s made of yarn and you knit with yarn, what is this crochet? – that now I just agree. Either way, it’s a nice feeling to know that something I made is so appreciated. I wonder if my ‘book’ will appear in Kirstie’s book…

Birthday orchid gone crazy!

Kirsty — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:41:27 +0000

Some lovely friends bought me an orchid for my birthday back at the beginning of July. I’ve never had much luck with orchids, as much as I love them, so I thought that I’d probably be able to keep it going for a few weeks before it withered away and died. Two months later, it’s gone from three flowers to twelve and looks pretty amazing. The first flowers are still strong and there are new buds breaking through, so I might have more flowers soon. I’m not doing anything special, just watering it once a week and leaving it be. I looked on the internet for more tips, but I got so confused with the different types of orchids that it didn’t really help – some orchids you’re supposed to keep constantly moist, some you’re supposed to let completely dry out before you water them again; as I have no idea what type of orchid I have, I’m not sure which of those instructions to follow, so I’m just going for the middle ground and it seems to be working. I’ll have to get some advice when the flowers eventually fade and I have to chop it back to re-grow, but for now I’ll just be happy with my pretty blooms.

Something other than a baby blanket

Kirsty — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 09:35:29 +0000

After a month long hunt for a wire coathanger (the dry cleaner down the road gave me one for free – how sweet!), I was finally able to finish this mobile yesterday – just in time to present it to my friends, who came over for dinner, despite their little boy being due in four days’ time. I think that I’d be scared to leave the house that close to my due date, but my friend is the most super relaxed mum-to-be that I’ve ever met. She even braved my fetadews (TM), which are those spicy little pepperdew peppers stuffed with feta cheese and roasted – nommy. Anywho, I’m getting off topic. I’ve made a baby blanket for nearly every baby that has come along in the past few years and I’ve gotten a tad bored of blankets. So, I decided to make a mobile, which was fun and quite easy. It also involved minimal knitting – a bonus, as I’ve really not been in a knitting mood lately. I’ve started socks, a scarf, and a cardigan and tossed them each aside in a fit of ennui. Now that the autumn weather is setting in, perhaps I’ll feel more woolly. As is probably quite obvious from the picture, all this mobile entailed was wrapping a bent wire coathanger in material strips and ribbon and dangling a knitted bird from the middle – simple! You could get as creative as you fancied, I guess, substituting the bird for something else, or adding more to the frame. I tried to keep it quite sweet and simple, which I think has worked. I’d like to make more, but I don’t think that I can keep pestering the dry cleaner for free coat hangers!

Jam today!

Peter — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:02:02 +0000

Last year, my partner and I discovered a load of paths in the north east of Edinburgh, close to where we live, on the path of old railway lines that ran into Leith Central station. This was about late July and we noticed lots of blackberries (brambles in Scotland and the north of England) ready to ripen.

A couple of weeks later we went back and picked a load and I made blackberry jam. I found the recipe by good ol’ google and followed the low sugar recipe from parkgateshrimp on this Good Housekeeping forum. The jam was lovely, but a bit runny as there wasn’t enough pectin in the sugar and fruit.

This year I thought I’d have another go. I picked 9lbs of brambles on Saturday (ended up covered in nettle stings and pricked everywhere). And on Sunday I invested in a jam thermometer, jam funnel and some preserving sugar set to work. I made 4 and-a-half kilos of jam and this time added cooking apples – including keeping the core and skins and chopping them up and putting them in a muslin which I left in the cooking jam to add yet more pectin. I was even hanging over the saucepans to make sure the jam reached 105 degrees Celsius. And it’s still runny!

Looks like I’ll be back on them paths next August to see if I can get the flippin’ jam to set…

Monster Cactus Alert!

Kirsty — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 15:37:09 +0000

I’m sorry, Frank, but I think that you may be a mutant. Not that there’s anything wrong with that – being of the red-haired persuasion myself, which is technically a mutated gene, I’m certainly not mutantist. I just can’t explain how bloody big you are any other way. Then again, I’ve never grown cacti before – maybe it’s that the other five are really, really small. I would have thought that plants that are a whole year old would be, well, bigger, than the five little cacti languishing around you, Frank, while you push ever skywards. Why, Frank, are you so much more ambitious than your sibling cacti seedlings? Why aren’t they spurred on by your example? You look like the kid who starts secondary school already two feet taller than all his classmates. I love you, Frank the cacti, but I can’t explain you.

Caccaccollo Crafts

Kirsty — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:49:32 +0000

Wending our way through the Sacred Valley from Cusco to Ollantaytambo, our guide made a stop at a local mountain community that was working with GAP – the men went off to carry crazy amounts of supplies along the Inca Trail, while the women stayed in the village to produce textiles, which GAP would bring their hikers to marvel over and possibly buy. The village of Caccaccollo is halfway up a mountain, connected to the world by a winding dirt track (that has become a road since GAP’s involvement). The women here raise the alpacas, spin and dye their wool and then make fabulous clothes, wall hangings, and toys, which are displayed in the village’s square. When I say ‘village square’, don’t be getting quaint notions of an English village green with a clock tower in the middle and well-kept herbaceous borders. This village square was a dirt area onto which several shacks faced, with alpacas tethered at various points and pre-school age children making mud pies. The women stood and sat at one end, spinning the yarn and exhibiting their wares.

The women of Caccaccollo spin the shorn alpaca wool into yarn using traditional drop spindles, making their work both portable and social. Noticing a child wandering out of eye range, one of the women handed her spindle to her neighbour and went to retrieve the little boy, plonking him down by the wool and taking up her spinning again. They chatted with our guide in Quechuan about their work.

There was a little hut to the side of the square for dying the yarns. The Caccaccollons (I’m not sure if this is the term, but it works for now!) use all natural dyes – plants gathered from the surrounding area and the cochineal beetle provide a whole range of colours; greens, yellows, reds, and purply greys. On its first use, the dye creates a rich, deep colour; the dye water is used repeatedly to achieve various shades. Ever conscious of water shortage, once the dye water can dye no longer, the water is recycled for cooking, washing, and feeding the animals.

The quality of the textiles was amazing and each piece was a little bit different. I really regret not having enough Sol on me to buy a wall hanging, especially as my husband, who hates wall hangings (”Rugs go on the floor, Kirsty, not on the wall” – silly boy!), was impressed enough to want one. It’s not like this is somewhere I can just pop back to, either…

Poems for weddings (or civil partnerships)

Peter — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:43:10 +0000

This is probably not technically craft, but… My flatmates got civil partnershipped back in May. I “did” the invites for them (they bought some card from a stationers, wrote an Excel spreadsheet with addresses, I did a design on Word, mail merged, printed and hey-presto) and they got some lovely tartan ribbon to go on them.

They also asked me to do a reading at the wedding, with 48 hours notice; they had to be vetted by the Registry Office beforehand, just in case I insulted any evangelical Christians who happened to be skulking about waiting to be deeply offended by any reference to “wedding” or “marriage”. Luckily, one of the corners came up trumps with a beautiful poem. On the day I almost blubbed my little eyes out reading in front of the assembled families. The respective mothers liked it so much they asked for copies of it. Et voila:

Basically two £1.99 picture frames from Poundstretcher, some card, printed copies of said poems and some of the leftover tartan ribbon. One Scottish version and one über Scottish version and a whole hour’s work. And hopefully the poet won’t mind me posting it here as well:

This poem was written by one of the other Corners here. It must not be quoted elsewhere without their express permission.

Time for a cactus update

Kirsty — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:25:00 +0000

It’s been a wee while since I updated you all on Frank’s progress (hold on, isn’t that how I started my last Frank post?) – being winter and all, he was staying boringly the same size. This last few weeks, though, it’s like he’s grown every day. I measure him in ’spikes’ and he’s up to 12 rows! I’m still not sure why he’s so much huger than his brother and sister cacti; the biggest behind Frank is languishing away at three rows of spikes. All my little cacti have taken a big Spring leap this month, though, so I think the ones that we have left are going to make it to proper grown-up cactihood, which is great after losing so many in the beginning. Simon wants to plant some more this Spring (though we’re edging towards Summer – woo!), so expect plenty more cacti updates…

Photo: Frank at 10 months, by ink & keys