GREEEEN!!!

Ok so i have this problem.... well used to have a problem....

My lecturer at uni banned me from the colour green... and by that i mean every time it was mentioned about colour in uni it was "and no green" while she looked at me... this was a problem cos i LOVE the colour green, but it also wasn't a problem because well, fashion has so many other colours available!! but yes, no green!!

well today she was perusing over my work as lecturers do, and i was getting on with it, and because i included green in a colour experiment that i did she was like "this is nice" and then said i need to explore it further, and said that I'm allowed green again!! WOOP!

but to be honest, slate/light greys go REALLY well with certain shades of greens... so its happy times for me cos i get to make something using green! although i suppose i have to be careful and get it right this time! hahahaha!!

and to celebrate my new found freedom for the colour green this post will be green (hopefully if i can get this thing to work- I'm not that technologically minded)

Stone Soup

OK so i LOVE this folk story... there's like a million versions and Ive heard a couple... but this one is as close to the ones Ive heard as i can find without me having to type it all out myself cos I'm lazy like that =D

STONE SOUP

Once upon a time, there was a lone traveller making his way across a long journey. He had come from far away, and had recently braved the hills. Tired and weary from his trek, he searched for a place to rest and maybe get a bite to eat. 

 The traveller came across a village, and began visiting each house to maybe find a kind soul who would be willing to share some food, as he had done previously on his journey. He was astonished to find that not one house was willing, or able to provide him with any food. 

 "There's very little food left in the entire village." said one villager. "I'm sorry, but I can't help you." 

 Quickly seeing that the entire village had very little food, the traveller had an idea. At the center of the village was a large pot. Underneath the pot, the traveller started a fire. He filled the pot with water, and let it warm up. 

By now, curiosity had reached the villagers, and they began to crowd around the cauldron.

"What are you doing, good sir?" asked one of the townspeople.

"I've decided I'm going to make some soup. Stone soup. There shall be enough for everyone," replied the traveller.

"Stone Soup? Why, I've never heard of that!"

The traveller reached into his pocket, and pulled out a large, ordinary looking stone. He held it over the steaming pot of water, and dropped it in. The villagers watched with curiosity while the traveller stirred the large pot.

"Mmmmm. This stone soup smells delightful! Except, there was one time, I had Stone Soup with carrots. It was superb."

One of the villagers hurried off to his house, and returned to the crowd with a bushel of carrots. He asked the traveller if they were good enough to use with the soup.

"Absolutely! Drop them in, my good friend."

The traveller tasted the soup while the village watched.

"Ahhh, yes. Yes, it's coming along quite nicely. Except..."

"Yes? Yes?" said someone from the crowd.

"I once had Stone Soup, with carrots as well as cabbage. It was fit for a king!"

And at once, two heads of cabbage were donated to the soup. Eventually, so it went with potatoes, mushrooms, celery, corn, and various types of herbs and spices.

By the time the water was close to boiling, the soup had turned into quite a feast. Everyone was excited, as was the traveller.

"This Stone Soup may be the best I've had yet. Except..."

"Yes? Yes?" was asked again.

"It would not be a complete Stone Soup without a bit of salt beef."

Without hesitation, the village butcher provided a large quantity of salt beef, and dumped it into the soup. It was finally ready, and the entire village was able to eat their fill.

By the time the pot was drained, all that remained was the traveller's stone. He pulled it out, and put it back into his pocket. The villagers, so impressed with the soup, offered to buy the stone from the traveller. He refused to sell it, however, but did ask to stay in the village for a night. They were happy to comply, and the next day, he continued his journey. 

http://everything2.com/title/Stone+Soup

Little bit addicted?

So, i don't actually have anything to post up about really, but i cant NOT post something... its bizarre... i think i might just become a bit addicted to this blogging business you know... anywho, since there's nothing major to report since i haven't finished my sock yet, ill leave it at that =D

Christmas comes early.... and even i enjoy it this time

So, were nearing the festive season... and all the Christmas stuff is starting to fill the shops... well, as much as i HATE Christmas before mid November, today it arrived early in the form of a brand new shiny lovely over locker!!

now me and my family, mostly me - because I'm the one who's interested in it - have been talking about getting me an over locker for about 3 years on and off, but then different things have always presented themselves as more pressing/appropriate at times such as birthdays and Christmases and things... but this year my dad agreed to pay half of the cost as my Christmas present, and i decided to buy one because i have a final collection to make this year, and i can see myself sewing garments at all times of the day.... so Mr over locker is a very welcome addition to my creative life =D

It also means that i can finish a couple of projects I've been meaning to finish because they would fair better with over locked seams...

SOCKS!!

Having to do a knitting project for my fashion course, i learnt that actually while i hate knitting when i HAVE to do it, it does work its way into your system... and i missed doing it! probably because when i was knitting it was a case of myself, a friend and her mum all sat round knitting... now my friends mum is a right old knitting machine! its amazing how much that woman can knit in the space it takes me to do one row, but then again she has been knitting since forever ago, so she would be good!

my friend and myself however, not as adept and the old yarn jitsu... however by the end of it i think we did quite well! between us we pumped out around 30 different knit samples in roughly 4 days... it was AMAZING knitting!! hahahaha.... however all that knit does pose a problem, you get bored! by the end of a sample knit session your like "OK... so wheres the clothes?" hence the socks!

So one of my friends who is a proper yarn ninja gave me a sock pattern... and here is the results, its not yet finished, cos i haven't got round to it just yet... but for a couple of days knitting, i don't think I've done too badly... Working in the round is different from what I'm used to, and i now have 3 sets of sock needles, i bought myself some metal ones at 5mm... but when i started with them they were far to bulky for me/the yarn i was using... so i gave up

i then got myself some 3mm metal ones, and these were cool... and i started on these, knitted about 3 rows of the ribbing  with them....

I then went to a brand spanking new wool shop in bath! if anyone doesn't know where it is, its in the street behind Marks and Spencer up past KFC, its a bit tucked away but its really cool in there and the woman was lovely! I found this shop because one of my lecturers mentioned it and i thought id go check it out... its really lovely in there and the woman i spoke to was eager to help and answer questions, without following me around the shop and watching my every move... any who... in this shop i found myself some 3mm knitpro multi coloured birch wood needles... £6.50 later, not only had i supported a shop that was just over a week old, i may have opened the doorway to the world that is sock knitting.

So, here is the ribbing and the cuff, I've chosen to do a 4 stitch ribbing... it started and ended with 4 stitches in the round though, meaning i have a section of 8 stitches as a solid thing... this is a bit annoying because it doesn't match the rest of the ribbing... however is great cos it means i know where the start of my round is =D

Knitting the heel flap, you basically work this piece out of the cuff, knitting as you would normally, its very straight forward, although i did find myself knitting until 3am because i simply had to finish the whole section, and i was only 10 rows of knitting away...

 so, i managed to turn the heel OK... apparently this is the worst bit? i found it rather straight forward if I'm honest... and its SO cool, i actually managed to knit a 90 degree turn... considering I've only ever done flat stuff... i was impressed with myself.

Picking up the instep... another really straight forward part of the socks... it was a bit fiddley having so many stitches on short needles... but it went OK...

Can you see that v shape?? the bottom line is where you pick up the instep... and the other one is where you reduce for the instep... which i found SO confusing... mainly because i knitted it wrong the first time round... i reduced 2 stitches every row, when your supposed to reduce on a row, then knit a row... it was a pain to undo those 5 rows... but i got it done in the end...


And that's as far as my socks go for the moment, I'm knitting the foot section at the moment... and then its reducing the toe shaping which looks a challenge on the destruction's I'm following... Update to follow soon hopefully... =)

Weaving mostly...

OK so I've totally neglected this blog!! hahaha.... well, in the time since my last post I've managed to spend the best part of a month solidly camping, move back to uni, learn to knit socks, get the stuff to make mead (need to get a pan big enough to actually do it) and plenty of other not so exciting things....

One of the things that prompted me to make a blog is because i started weaving fabric a couple of days before the time i made this... and i thought to myself "this process would make a really cool blog" because i was doing all sorts of crazy things like wood work and such... needless to say i completely forgot to take photos (that's what happens when i just get on with it haha) BUT have just taken photos of the final product...

 So this is the box my loom lives in, i got given this loom by my old textiles teacher... being one never to say no to free and interesting stuffs =D so, i made various bits of the things you can see myself, because "fashion student" really means "jack of all trades" and "improvises where possible as much as possible"

 These are the shuttles... there what you wrap your weft thread round as your weaving... they didn't take all that long to make to be honest.

 This is the shed stick... its one of the most useful things in the world this little bit of wood... i use it to lift up one set of the warp threads when weaving... meaning its easier to pass the shuttle through, and easier to lift alternate threads because i leave it in at the back of the Warp threads when I'm weaving...

 These are the beater, threader thingy, and the heddle... i made the beater, its basically a longer wider version of my shed stick. the heddle takes AGES! to thread... i know there's some technical lingo what refers to threading it- sleying your reed i think- but possibly not.

 closer image of the useful that is Mr threader... SUCH a time saver!

 Closer image of the heddle... apparently its best to weave with 4 or even 8 of them to get the more intricate patterns... i only have the one however...

 the sides of my loom, i had in in the plain wood for about a week, then i got bored of it... i had to personalise it... and this is what i came up with, i have a thing for Celtic knots.... Still haven't decided on a name for it yet though, i think a loom does need a name!

 This is my first full bit of weaving on my loom! i went for a tartan inspired pattern, which was a bit of a challenge... you can see the other half where i folded it at the top, it doesn't curve like that really, that would totally ruin the whole neat edges thing i was aiming for! haha

Full picture of the weaving... it measures about a metre i think... and its 17cm at its widest point, it ended at 12.5 cm... and most of it is 12.5... it just took a little while to sort my tension at the edges and stuff out, i learnt a lot doing this bit of weaving, i thoroughly enjoyed it as well, I'm hoping to get more done at some point but my degree work kinda stops me, considering i found myself setting up the loom between about 10am - 1pm, and then weaving from 1.30pm Wednesday until 5/6am on the Thursday morning, and even then i only stopped because it was the sensible thing to do as i had to leave my friends house! hahaha! we got a bit weave crazy! But i think once i get a spare few days ill do a bit more weaving, cos its really good fun!