The English Armchair Abroad

Crazy Batts

2009-11-29T12:00:37+01:00

When I first told my son that I wanted to make some crazy batts he just laughed and said he was looking at one. I suppose that was inevitable for a teenager but to be fair he didn't have the first idea of what I was really talking. The fact is that after a year of spinning wool I have decided to become a little more adventurous. I have already told you of the wonderful Lexi Boeger book "Intertwined" and I still dream of one day designing yarn along those lines. Not sure what I'd knit with it but I'd think of something.

I thought I would post a series of photos on how I made my crazy batts. I'm not sure that they qualify as crazy batts actually but for me that'll do for now!

I should start by saying that the merino wool was bought from a supplier in the UK and is the softest I've ever felt (although I believe it does come softer). It was a 500gs job lot, they select the colours which are bin ends from their "best selling colours". I realise that taste is completely personal and subject to all sorts of things but I have to admit that there isn't a single colour here which I would want to buy for a jumper or even a hat. Blending was clearly required.

Clearly I had to do something so, first I divided them into short strips and added a bit of fun glitz:

Next I put them onto the drum carder:

And ran it all through twice to make these lovely fluffy batts:

The singles spun up with lots of colour changes:

But once I had plyed them they were a little more demure:

And finally the finished skein looking really quite nice!

There's approximately 110 metres there of approximately DK weight yarn. Enough for a hat, or perhaps a pair of gloves? We'll see!

French Bergere

2009-11-28T10:44:21+01:00

It is always a pleasure (relief perhaps?) to find new clients especially when they come out of the blue.

A few months ago we had dinner with some friends and met a lady who lived not far from us. She had visited our house a few years ago when we hosted a theatre company for two nights (that was amazing) and when I said I was an upholsterer she asked for my card.

A little while later I quoted her for four chairs, two Bergeres and two Empires style and before I knew it I was collecting the Bergeres.

Bergeres are different to other chairs for various reasons. The seats are unsprung and in fact are basically flat apart from the lip at the front which keeps the cushion in place (incidentally - in the picture below the cushions look enormous; they're not.) The seat is worked quickly and easily which is lucky because the back and inside arms make life more complicated! The fabric on the inside comes all the way around. It is joined in two places - the arms to the back, you can just about see the joins in the last photo - and it has to be shaped over the edge roll and also pulled down to form the shape of the back. They are fiddly and take time and patience. I nicknamed these chairs the adolescents because every time I thought I had them sorted they presented me with another problem. Still, they were done on time and I was pleased with them.

Max and I delivered them last night to a very happy client who has told me to clear the decks in January when I can start work on the next two. That's the sort of client I like!

October's job

2009-11-28T09:58:17+01:00

Work has not been as plentiful as I would like this year. I had some at the beginning of the year and then it just evaporated until this little French chair came along. It belongs to a friend of mine and had been stored at the back of a barn for years. The back was very broken and the fabric faded away to almost nothing. The panel in the middle is a handworked tapestry and in fact the back of it still had its lovely original colour, and look how the mossy green used to be a turquoise colour:

This is the chair as I received it - you can just about see the cracks on the back frame.

It's been transformed into this...

Yes, it does look a little lopsided at the back. This is because the back was completely broken and my wonderful carpenter had to reconstruct it. He did the most amazing job and used as much of the original wood as he could - the lopsided part originally came from further round the frame. There's also a slight variation of colour on the back frame as I then had to bring the new wood up to the same colour as the old wood and then bring it back up to a lovely polished finish. I have to admit that the whole time I was fixing the fabric (the suede side of leather) to the back I was terrified the wood would split again. It is now in a bedroom where it can be admired but not over used. The client is a happy lady as the chair belonged to her mother and is very old.

My Etsy Shop - Gifts for Christmas

2009-10-15T19:43:44+02:00

I have finally got round to putting some more things in my Etsy shop. I will do some more wool soon but in the meantime you will find Gifts for Christmas: Key holders, notice boards and hand knit lace work. Do have a look and if you want to ask me about anything don't hesitate. Postage in particular will need clarification as it's very difficult to work out until the item is wrapped and I'm standing in the post office, but I always reimburse if I have over charged.

Do you want to play?

2009-09-30T10:44:02+02:00

Bear with me. I feel like rambling a bit today.

Many years ago now, when our youngest was about four, a friend came for supper. She's a lovely lady, a fair bit older than us and a dwarf. She works with children as a story teller and is therefore well used to children. When he was four she and Ralph were just about the same size and when she arrived Ralph simply assumed that she had come to play with him and invited her to play with his train set. I was a little embarassed and not sure what to say but this lady was totally at ease and spent a few minutes explaining that although she was his size she was in fact here as Mummy's friend and not to play with him. Ralph listened patiently to the explanation, nodded and then took her hand and tried to pull her off the chair into the playroom; he simply didn't believe her. At this point I intervened and pointed him towards his supper - distraction tactics!

Ralph's reaction, she told me, was typical of children his age and not at all something to worry or be embarassed about. In other words, she switched from explaining things to Ralph to putting me at ease - she really is one of the most remarkable women I know. She also told me of other reactions she has had to deal with, including one child (who I know and who is part of the most together and loving family I know) who thought that she had never grown because she was naughty as a child. He was terrified and it took a long time and a lot of patience and explanation from his parents before he dared go into the same room as her.

Apparently animals are the same. You may recall that earlier in the year we lost our wonderful dog, Titch. To cut a long story short we now have a Bearded Collie puppy bitch called Tipsy (we were going to call her Titbit but her French breeder explained that said with a French accent it would cause a lot of discomfort to any man with a complex and might get us into trouble!) who is a delight and a bit of a tomboy. She arrived here in early August about two weeks after our latest batch of chicks were born. For simplicities sake our young chicks live in a coop outside the kitchen until they are old enough to join the big ones at the other end of the garden.

The other dogs are very good with all the chickens and to begin with Tipsy just ignored the small ones and didn't go near the big ones. She grew, the chicks grew, they all became a bit more daring. The other day Max went outside and I heard a lot of cross words aimed at Tipsy: he'd found her sitting on one of the chicks and was ticking her off. She looked most hurt but the chick ran off to find his brothers and sisters completely unharmed.

The other day I was in the room next to the kitchen when I saw the chicks all hop into the kitchen (the door is always open in this fine weather and I'd forgotten to put fence up) and start eating the dogs' food. This involves the chicks sitting on the edge of the bowls and pecking away. Tipsy came in and watched them for a while. I felt as though I was reading her mind. She showed no aggression whatsoever but started dancing up and down, just as she does when she wants to play with Tosca or Tickle (the other two dogs). The chicks had no fear and ignored her completely. Suddenly Tipsy heard me move and in she came, looking at me as if to say: "I just don't get it. They eat my food, they wander around my play area, but they won't play with me." I am quite certain that when she was found sitting on a chick, for Tipsy it was just playtime.