Adding Some Texture to My Life

My own cotton
mobile cover in
basketweave stitch

I've been concentrating on containers lately - starting with mobile device holders ie phones, tablets, that sort of thing. They have become vehicles for my practice runs in preparation for Improver Level courses coming up this year.

Indeed, I've just come back - tired but happy - from teaching a 2-nighter in Textures which, due to the enthusiasm and competence of my six lovely learners, far outran its scope!

Yes we covered a load of textures such as bobbles, puffs and popcorns, ribs round the post and working into the back loop. We also looked at what happens when you use a big hook on a fine yarn.

Yet my voracious students clearly were keen to get the best out of their Denman experience and ploughed into my extension activities (more round the post stitches - waffles, basketweave, cabling) and 3D flowers such as the trumpeted narcissus and the wrap-around rose. 

Two students' handiwork

Student handiwork

Six WI members at Denman College
on the Textures Course Feb 14

They even had their first foray into Tunisian simple stitch, and tried out a touch of surface crochet.

But finally, and most satisfyingly, there was time for each of them to pick a pattern and embed their newly found pattern and schematic reading skills.

So by Sunday morning we had stars and roses and leaves appearing, a lace block, and two lacy edgings, as well as some colourful fans.

Also showing that weekend, was a workshop on doll-making which I really fancied doing myself (I used to make them years ago but have allowed my skills to fall into disuse). It inspired me to think again about crocheting one, and I duly got started as soon as I was home again in front of recorded episodes of Salamander (nothing Swedish on at the mo so Belgian will have to do!) Thus, little Schmink (that's her name, I've decided) is fairly rapidly taking shaped under my hook as I write.

Currently she has a face on the front of her head and the back (I didn't like my first attempt!) The tarty, mean-looking one will disappear under a mane of pink, to leave a sweeter, wider-eyed character dominant.

And once I've cleared my compulsion to create Schmink, I'll return to containers and finish off the rather fabulous (though I do say so myself!) big brown hat box I'm halfway through - covered, as it is, in flowers and birds. I'll need to write a pattern for that bird soon and then make another one to test the pattern. It's hard to make myself do it though because all I want to do is CROCHET!

QUICK POST SCRIPT HERE

I've sold a sweater design to INSIDE CROCHET since I last blogged!!! It's BILLED to appear in the March edition (out at the end of February 14) Made from Tunisian Cable and Rib. Goodness it was a challenge to write the pattern.

Selfy in the sweater

A Nother Night in Tunisia

Tunisian Crochet. We, here in the UK say TYOONIZZYAN. That's sounds right to us. That's the correct way of saying it OF COURSE :) 

But I've been watching the Dora Ohrenstein video put out by Interweave. Yes, I finally succumbed to the advertising and I'm jolly glad I did. The genuinely delightful Dora comes from that OTHER place (voice now dropping to a whisper -you know - lower than a whisper- 'across the pond' - sharp intake of breath!) (return to normal pitch) anyway, WHATEVER: the upshot is I've made the radical decision to take advice from someone who calls it 'Tooneezhun'. 

Tunisian Simple Stitch

Actually it hadn't occurred to me to say it any other way and was a bit of a shock. Used to it now. But you know I should have realised because of Ella Fitzgerald singing 'a night in tooneezhia'. I'm not sure I'd even put tyoo and tyoo together there either! I never stopped to wonder which mystical, romantic, ACTUAL geographic location hosted the wonderful-sounding 'Tooneezha'.
Well there we have it - yet another crochet difference between us and our talented cousins in the colony.

I've dabbled before, but until now have always been 'called away' by some new-to-me conventional crochet technique or stitch pattern that I absolutely had to try, NOW, so although I do have a few samples of this, that and the other in my overflowing swatch box, the Tunisian Technique hadn't QUITE grabbed me by the throat and strangled me.... YET. But (also in Ella's words) I'm beginning to see the light! Dora has shown me The Way. One of my issues was the infamous Tunisian curl - off-putting but fixable through wet blocking - but my main problem was the compactness of the work. No drape. Too limited. But, now Dora has demonstrated that both these things occurred because I was using the same hook - yarnweight ratio as in conventional crochet and I didn't ought to have been. In Tunisian Crochet you use a hook at least two sizes bigger than you would normally. Simple piece of advice, but crucial.

 And now.... well, (understated chuckle) I'm flying! She's solved my bout of purl stitch cackhanditis, properly explained the knit stitch that I was only getting right on a random  basis, and instilled a fever of excitement that's turned me into a high performance swatch machine. 

The justification for all this 'study'? (Ha ha yes, 'study', I like that!) I've only gone and offered the WI college a course in Beginners Tunisian. I don't know yet if they'll book me but I do know I'd better be ready!
And I'm going to offer my own independent one anyway, as soon as I feel I've made enough booboos and solved them to feel ready enough to help others when they go wrong too.

I'm making my BIGGEST blanket so far and I've incorporated some Tunisian Simple Stitch in it (got to have sample products to show!).

Combining with conventional to create a
new take on the crochet square

In the meantime, and on the more conventional front, I've made some socks and a bottle cover (and a lovely mandala) as part of my work with my Tuesday ladies. I'm also trying to write a third article. It's ground somewhat a halt though. Need to jump back in there, and soon.... tomorrow. Yes, definitely tomorrow...

Happiness in a Hook

A busy diary



l to r: Diana, Marta, Bethan and Jo - the Tuesday Night Ladies

My Tuesday Night Ladies have settled in to a regular routine now - which is MARVELLOUS! They come to my house - which, of course, I don't have to pay a hire fee for - and every meeting is like a house warming party. What IS it about this lovely activity that spreads so much hilarity and general good feeling? It's really quite amazing. We fell upon a pattern for something called a mandala in the latest, newest crochet magazine 'Simply Crochet', and all followed it together. We got through about half of it, what with all the story sharing and general merriment as well, and we will do the rest in our next session.

The Simply Crochet Mandala -
to be completed soon

In the meantime, I did my first Improvers, 2-night course at Denman College at the weekend. It was as spiritually edifying and delightful as ever with yet another marvellous bunch of students and fascinating, friendly  fellow tutors. My teaching room was in the main house this time, due to a flood in the designated workshop in the teaching centre. It was a piece of good luck for us really as there can be few crochet workshops as elegant and magnificent as ours was this weekend. I mean it had a full-blown chandelier for goodness' sake!

One of my students brought up something which is becoming increasingly of interest to me and that is: The Invisibility of the Older Woman. It's something I've heard discussed before. I first heard it mentioned when, at 36, I went to Spain on a Flamenco holiday. My fellow student/tourists were almost all quite a bit older than I was. It was brought to my attention a little earlier than might have been, that society isn't very good at giving air space to older women - waiters and bar staff overlook us, that sort of thing. But going to Denman is like changing the filter on a lens and suddenly having access to a quite breathtaking,  rich source of inspiration; of rapier wit, of heart-stopping life stories, of megalithic talents and skills, of productiveness, of strength and resilience in the face of adversity and of positive, nurturing, go-getting, joie-de-vivre. Younger women ARE joining Wi groups up and down the country, of course they are, yet still, it cannot be denied that the AVERAGE age of your AVERAGE Denman student on any given course, IS, come one you can't argue, somewhat, well, a highish number anyway. But, my goodness, if you come away NOT wanting to be a part of that lot, you must be utterly devoid of aspiration.



My second published article

Speaking of amazing ladies, by the way, true to my word I have managed to publish my second article, about Flora Klickmann - now long gone editor of the Girls Own Paper. As part of the article I made up a product from one of her crochet patterns, which I adapted into 'Inside Crochet' house style and included, along with a photo, of course, of the little baby jacket. The garment itself is now to go on display in the Teaching Centre at Denman. Look out too, in the July edition (out at the end of June) for my Beginners Baby Blanket pattern - my first DESIGN to be published.

Fruition of plans is always SO gratifying, don't you think? (Mwah ha ha ha ha ha).

Out Crocheting: Back Soon

Denman College, the educational arm of the
National Federation of Women's Institutes
17th February 2013

The Tutors' Lounge at Denman
(Nugent Harris Room)

It’s February already and I now have TWO more courses at the WI’s Denman College under my belt - clearly I got something right last October! And all that despite having the worst EVER cold, and, of course, being a complete Denman newby to boot.

But this time, I knew how to get there, I knew where my room was, I understood the key system and the dining room and the bar. I could work the visualiser and the plasma screen and the room configuration was already laid out the way I liked it. This time I established more of a relationship with the other tutors, and sat at the tutors’ table in the dining room and retired to the tutors’ drawing room for coffee to discuss tutory things.

 

The Grandfather clock
in the Tutors' Lounge

Lesson time on the
Long Course

And of course I benefited from my teaching experience at Denman last time. My two-night Beginners session on 11th-13th February, though quite pacey in many ways, was still relaxed and laid back in most.

And there was time. Time to reflect, time to rest, time to sleep and time to chat. Denman has a wonderful environment, and one is working amongst people who are all having a marvellous time, learning something new, and having a break from their normal lives. It’s safe and secure and supportive. It was also funny, very funny at times, entertaining, thought-provoking and, in full measure, inspiring, inspirational.

 

Three sessions of three hours at this
Taster Weekend. This was the
first and smallest group I had.

The February Fair Maids

 

I returned two days later to teach at Denman’s New Wave Taster weekend - three three-hour beginners sessions with three different groups - a quite different format with its own set of challenges. In fact by the end of Saturday’s second session, my fellow tutor Louise Brooks (who was running the Make a Fascinator course across the way) and I both had taken on a kind of zombified, haunted stare by the time we emerged from our respective workshops in the teaching centre and toddled back past the cheery border full of February Fair Maids to the Denman Dining Room at the main house.
We’d recovered by Sunday morning though, and agreed that it had been huge fun and we’d do it again like a shot.


Handmade bear, made by my
mum, Julie Rankin, showing off
his Cable Crochet sweater (by me).

___________________________________________________

In the meantime I’ve been making baby things for pregnant friends. A little jacket here and little hat there. I’ve begun a major sample of filet crochet that uses lacets, intended for submission to the Diploma panel (long neglected) and I have decided, ultimately, I might see if Denman would like it on a wall somewhere. The thought of that will keep me at it I think. I’ve also made a few flowers, and hats, gloves and necksnugglers AND, (fanfare) finally mastered crocheted cables!  Oh yes - too busy crocheting to blog!

 





Down at Denman, up at Ally Pally and Looping the Loop!

The main event since I last blogged has been teaching at Denman College. For those not in the know, this is the college of the Women's Institute, and very highly regarded it is too.
I can't tell you the caché I have appreciated through this association! But much more to the point, it was an EXCEEDINGLY enjoyable thing to do - despite the fact that I developed a cold the day before and felt really rotten as I drove to Marcham from London the previous afternoon. I wish I'd been just a trifle more assertive and asked someone to photograph ME in my teaching position at the 'visualiser' on the day. But come to think of it, perhaps my red nose and watery eyes wouldn't have come out too peachy on camera, so perhaps it was better that way!

In the photo above you can see the Plasma screen switched to the visualiser, which is only showing a pile of yarn and the table top of course, because the hands that, more often than not, appeared in the frame were, at the time, employed behind the camera. Here you will see some of the students hard at work. They were a very friendly and warm bunch and it was a joy to meet them all. I was particularly honoured (and I hope she won't mind me mentioning it here) to welcome TV interior designer Linda Barker into our midst, and she is sitting in the foreground to the right.

I also used the Plasma screen to show my PowerPoint slides, and although their preparation proved time consuming and effort-filled, I was jolly pleased I had done them. Printouts served well as reminder handouts of the day, which I do hope made my students feel they'd got some value for money!

The main college building is a beautiful old mansion that was once owned by Lady Denman, and the teaching rooms are in an extremely pleasant and well-equipped separate block, with all the mod cons - as you may have already gathered. I stayed overnight the night before, which was a life-saver, since I wasn't feeling 100%, and I was very well fed throughout my stay.

Other Matters

I also went to the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace with my friend Jan and we thoroughly wore ourselves out trawling up and down the many, many aisles, sampling the beauties of yarns and yarn-based products. There I bought a ball of Alpaca yarn from Alpaca Select and have since made myself some fingerless gloves. I shall be producing some more of these as Christmas Presents. The yarn is lovely to work with. The pattern comes from the September 2012 edition of Inside Crochet magazine (the one before the one with my article in it!). They're called 'Pumpkin Mitts'.

This month I finally made it up to Islington to visit Loop Yarns - something I've been meaning to do ever since I bought Sue Cropper's Loop Vintage Crochet book. The shop was NOT a disappointment: two floors of sumptuous yarnosity. AND I met Sue Cropper! I asked her why I couldn't buy a copy of Inside Crochet in her shop (OK I wanted to draw attention to my recent journalistic success!) and she enlightened me about the recent history of the magazine. Its previous publishers, it seems, let a lot of people down (I rather gather this is putting it mildly, but she didn't give me any real details), with the consequence that, though it is now no longer under their auspices, and actually LOOKS quite a lot different, she still refuses to have anything to do with it!! What a shame. All I can say about that is that I do hope they can overcome this soon, and it may prove difficult, because I have noticed that I haven't been able to buy a single copy from any shop I've been in.

But ANYWAY, I have my own relationship with Claire Montgomerie, the lovely editor of the beleagured magazine, and I still intend to attempt a second contribution to it. I am working on it currently, in fact. An article about another female magazine editor, one now long since gone, but  a continuing inspiration. More soon.......

Back in the armchair now

Boiled Wool bag

My mermaid at Ilfracombe Harbour











Our sandcastle on Aberdovey beach.










Emily Joyce wearing one
of her own creations
and working away at the
next. I interviewed her
for my article. This was
taken in Canvas & Cream
in Forest Hill.

Well, where did the summer go, eh?

What have I been doing? 



Broomstick stole

Urban Granny

A student of mine at the Sydenham
Gardens Mental Health Resource Centre

Apart from quite a bit of teaching and some writing, I've been trying to FINISH some projects for most of it actually. The WIPs were taking over my home (Works in Progress). 

 

So to that end I completed some felted bags I'd been harbouring for long months - but actually they all need lining now. 

Kids crocheting in my summer holiday
sessions at a youth club in Downham.

I also started (sorry I couldn't help myself) a broomstick lace Stole in duck egg blue aran weight cotton (dribble dribble), oh and I also started (no, I really am sorry but I just HAD to) a ruck sack style bag for myself, made out of granny squares but with a kind of 'urban' colour scheme. It's looking good but it, too, will need lining. I'm still creating a flap that will attach to some buckle straps. No what did I do with those buckles I bought?

A happy student of
mine at the Flower
in Two hours
session at Alhambra
Homes and Gardens

In the mean time I've made a lot of sandcastles and sculptures and eaten rather too much cake. So, much of September's attention has been taken by my focus on Weight Watchers online. ( I've lost a stone so that can't be bad).

But for me, the biggest and BEST piece of news is that I have had an article published in a crochet magazine. Inside Crochet - October 2012. I am really, REALLY chuffed, and am starting to think about what else I could scribble about in the same vein, now I've reached that milestone.

Getting a little crochet action!

Well, since my last blog things have hotted up considerably!

Small bag made from string and plastic
carrier bags cut into strips. Handle still
to come.

I have been contacted by the Environmental Division of the Lewisham Borough Council and invited to carry out a series of workshops for children during the summer holidays. They want me to show them how to make bags out of recycled plastic carrier bags. So I’ve been working it out and making my own, planning the workshops and generally thinking about how best to approach the challenge. Interesting. The bags are looking good too, after a couple of false starts. Haven’t quite finished anything but am beginning to feel reasonably confident that we can make something satisfactory out of the idea. I’ve also been down to the House of Curtains in Sydenham and bought out their entire supply of 6mm hooks and some other sizes besides!

These hooks came in very handy, as it turned out, for my free Flower in an Hour session at the Sydenham Arts Festival this July. We weren’t expecting many, maybe 4 or 5 if we were lucky and I got myself positioned on the night, in the back room at Alhambra Homes and Gardens, where I normally teach my beginners sessions, and before Alhambra’s owner, Rebecca Leathlean and I knew where we were,  numbers had grown completely out of hand!

I, completely daunted and gobsmacked, began the lesson with people LINING the room, sitting on the tables, barely able to see me, while Rebecca turned more away at the door of the shop! . Well, we managed, somehow, to make half a flower in the hour and some didn’t really get that done. I  came away feeling not so good, as though I had let them down somehow. I’d only got one pair of scissors and I couldn’t help everyone as much as they needed. It was  a shame.

Flower in an hour workshop TAKE 2! July 2012

Anyway, Rebecca organised an overflow session and the following week, four of those turned away the first time turned up again. This time I had slightly re-thought, AND we’d given them potentially a bit more than an hour, AND I plunged in like an express train, racing through each learning point with barely a breath in between. But you know what? In about an hour and a quarter, they each learned how to slip knot, slip stitch, chain, double crochet, half treble crochet and treble, as well as how to change colour and fasten off, and - miracle of miracles - EVERYONE had made a passable flower And what’s more, they had all also learned how to read a pattern!!!!! I can’t tell you the satisfaction I derived from that unexpected and unscheduled session. And I’m pretty sure my students were pleased with their achievements too!

These new formats for classes haven’t been the only crochet-based activity using my energies of late. Weeks ago I submitted an article to a crochet magazine with only the weeniest hope that they’d be interested and for a very long time I heard nothing back whatsoever, but then, pretty much out of the blue it seemed, they came back showing interest! They want more though. More substance, more quotations, more genuine content. I’m delighted, if daunted. I’ve got my work cut out to do it, but do it I intend. I’ve so far officially interviewed one  of my fascinating ex-students, who is, as it turns out the mother of a child at my son Gabriel’s school, (also called Gabriel!) . She had come to me as an experienced embroiderer wantingto add to her craftskill base and found herself quite out of her comfort zone. In fact she's a multi-talented individual, an actress of some repute, with a great interest in the calming and focussing effects of crocheting and creating that have directly helped her in her work and life. We walked round Dulwich Park one morning after school drop off and talked nineteen to the dozen. My notes from the encounter are still burning a hole in my notebook. I desperately want to get on and start further research and writing but I do find that in the evenings I’m pretty shattered and my head’s buzzing. I need to switch off from it all. Well, I’m hoping for some quality time with my laptop tomorrow before the events of the last week of term and then the school holidays begin in earnest, because after that it’s pretty much a roller coaster calendar until September.

But I never stop crocheting in all the gaps of course - I'm making two bags simultaneously at present, one super chunky, the other super fine. Both looking good - I'll keep you posted!