Don't Touch

Dunk and I went out over the bank holiday to the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield after I saw a review of the Sheila Hicks exhibition. While it was worth the trip, I am left bemused by artists who create works where texture is an important feature, only to find that you cannot touch anything.

They were huge and visually striking but nothing that was particularly thought provoking, that I tend to feel is important in art. It is work that raises questions about the lines between art and craft. There were many small weavings that were nothing special, and I have seem similar and more interesting things on Etsy. We then stepped to the next gallery to find, naturally, Barbara Hepworth,

and Henry Moore,

who also tend to suffer from the 'no touching' instruction, because both artists create forms which just beg to be touched.

But my favourite artwork was this one, by Ithel Colquhoun. The sign next to it informed me that it was snuck into an exhibition in Bradford in 1943 under the title 'Tree anatomy', and nobody questioned its presence:

Meanwhile in Japan, Monkey was at a gallery too, but no vaginas there:

Stay safe. Be kind. Look closely, things are not always what they first appear.

(Found art, at Leeds station, tentatively entitled, 'Squashed squirrel')

lockdown yarn shopping

Yes, I know those are books. I bought some books too. Brian Bilston's, who's poem I shared the other day, book arrived, and is already a delight. In the introduction he makes this interesting point about the difficulty of poetry writing: "Secondly, to demonstrate my poetic versatility, some of them do not rhyme. These poems were harder to write as I had to select words from a much larger pool. It has been estimated that there are over one million words in the English language, and so hand-picking each word to go into a poem has proved to be something of a Herculean labour." Also arrived are 'Sillicide' by Cynan Jones, reviewed in the Guardian and bought because he came to the lit festival years ago, and 'Mrs Death Misses Death' by Salena Godden (who also came to the lit festival), that I bought to share with Julie (hi Jules) because I think she will love it.

Yarn buying during lockdown is not such a multi-sensory experience as it used to be. While online yarn shopping is ok, nothing beats the pleasure of browsing and stroking all the lovely yarn, and buying something just because it is indescribably soft. I have started a blanket for the sprog but Julie and I are going to knit 'Gaudi' (ravelry link) as a joint project so am hunting for something delightful to use. This Fyberspates Scrumptious wool/silk is the current favourite, with possibly some 'I played Fortnite With Bill Gates!!!!' from Countess Ablaze.

Am planning a tree watching project, taking regular photos of this lovely tree in the Moss Side Community Park at the end of our street. It gave me much pleasure over last year watching the changes as I rode home from work each day and so I decided to document it this year.

Stay safe. Be kind. See you tomorrow.

All the yarn

Today we took a trip to Yarndale and looked at, and stroked, all the yarn. It took us many, many hours. We admired the needle felting, cooed over the angora bunny, sniffed the unwashed fleece and were complemented on our knitted garments. Then we had some tea. Then we stroked more yarn. There was much debate over whether baby yak or baby alpaca is softer. Opinion remains divided on the subject. We tried to keep track of the stands we planned to return to after our perusal of the entire show, but things never work out as planned. 


I bought some Angus gradient yarn from WooSheeps, to make a Nori dress:

And some Silk Cloud recycled sari silk yarn from La La With Love:

Many, many fabulous yarn shops are out there, and this was a wonderful way to find some new ones, often people spinning and dying their own, here are some that we visited: midwinter yarns, FeltStudioUK, Cat and Sparrow, Pook GB, Tall Yarns (who also do wonderful linen clothing), Blacker Yarns, Fig Tree Yarns, Easyknits, Whistlebare, Injabulo (handwoven baskets and bowls from recycled wire).

Meanwhile back at home projects have been coming along, some more speedily than others.

My Lost in Time shawl is finally making progress, having stalled due to bad stitch counting:

I knit a 'Five Hour Baby Cardigan' in about five hours, and a little hat in about two. These are for a colleague at work who is expecting a baby later this year:

And Claire's grannie square blanket has been completed and dispatched. I was completely thrilled with how beautiful it is; it was meant to be a birthday present but I couldn't wait to give it to her. 

Puzzles and Profiteroles

After about two months we are finally getting a regular supply of tomatoes ... when I say regular I mean I am eating one every time I pass through the porch, sometimes we have as many as four or five ripe at the same time. But they are delicious, you can taste that they are home grown.

While Dunk is away the mice will play, and we really know how to live it up in our house; the girls and I have passed the week living on takeaway food and doing a puzzle while watching a marathon of all eight Harry Potter films. 

The Fight Between Carnival and Lent by Pieter Bruegel the Elder:

There have been some minor indulgences, yesterday I conjured up some profiteroles. I used the choux pastry recipe in my very ancient Marks and Spencer cookery book, but Delia's instructions are pretty much identical. 

And we also took a much anticipated trip to Countess Ablaze, a new yarn shop and dye studio that opened a while ago in the Northern Quarter. They dye all their own yarn and fibre for spinning. This one is for a scarf/cowl to go with my turkish coat:

This one is for Monkey, possibly socks, and Tish has plans, and yarn, for an octopus hat.

Sewing, Knitting, Spanish and Morality - a catchup post

I feel like I have not posted much recently. Life has escaped me, mainly, if I am honest, because of too much Words With Friends. But on the plus side my brain has still been working hard. I have been doing another Coursera course on 'The Moralities of Everyday Life' with Paul Bloom (see an interesting Ted talk by him here). It has looked at the hows and whys of the moral choices and decisions that human beings make, whether there is such a thing as moral absolutes, the impact of different cultures on morality. It has all been very interesting. A few choice articles that we were sent to read:

• Steven Pinker on The Moral Instinct
• The Case Against Empathy by Paul Bloom
• Frans De Waal on Morals Without God
• Unbelievable Stories about Apathy and Altruism from Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
• The Brain in Trial by David Eagleman (or how responsible are we for our actions?)

I have also been learning Spanish with Duolingo in preparation for a grand adventure that I am taking with my mum in a couple of months; 'Yo no como queso' being my most useful phrase so far, but I am hoping to master more important stuff by the time we are due to head off into the rainforest.

This lovely jumper for the Monkey has been taking a while, it was started just after Christmas. The pattern is called Elfe, though it will be adapted to have long sleeves and it is knitted in green Admiral and variegated orange/red Zauberball both from Schoppel. 

I got a nice lump sum in my wages the other week after Royal Mail and the CWU finally agreed last year's pay deal and we got our back dated pay increase, so I treated myself to a selection of Rowan Colourspun, Sublime Tussah Silk and Luxurious Tweed:

which will hopefully become something like this (Bute from Rowan 52 magazine), though I am going to make it a sweater not a cardigan. Having enjoyed my forays into cabling I thought a bit of fairisle would be a good challenge:

In other news we have started a 'Monkey Fund' to raise money for the Monkey's fees for next year (Year of the Monkey). I have already made nearly £100 selling Sylvanians, Playmobil and clothing on Ebay. My collection of duvet covers, which will go up in an Etsy shop as soon as I get organised, have been listed as well but not sold yet. You can see the entire selection here. 

I also made a couple of batiked cotton shopping bags that will also go up on Etsy and have plans for all sorts of other crafty stuff. Add to that we now have a deadline for finishing the Beekeeper Quilt, it's about 97 hexipuffs and counting. It's going to be a busy few months.

Bikes and yarn

I came home from work yesterday to find a hole in the side of my bike tyre so this morning Dunk and I popped round to the bike shop. As we stood for a moment in the shop a man with two children asked about getting his son's puncture mended, the shop man told them it would be Wednesday before it could be done, so then they left and I was a little bemused that no one suggested to them they could buy a puncture repair kit and do the job themselves perfectly easily and then the boy could go out biking the same day. Now I realise the shop wants to make money but surely getting someone interested in using their bike and being able to do basic maintenance could mean more for them in terms of long term customers. What is the world coming to, why are people so unable to imagine doing something as everyday as mending a puncture ... why when we were kids we spent many a happy afternoon bending all mum's best spoons getting tyres off our bikes:-) Anyhow we went home and I spent an hour or two messing about with spanners (and tyre levers, to save the cutlery) and getting dirty, and now I have a nice shiny bike with new tyres.

In between the knitting I picked up some shetland roving from BabyLongLegs called 'summer berries' that Tish bought at Ravday. It had been part used, to make dreadlocks I think, but I found it in my stash and I have spun the rest, about 75g into a lovely multi-shaded yarn in deep reds and purples.

Where have all the fleeces gone:-)

Driving to a farm between Evenlode and Broadwell the other day I had to cross a field full of naked sheep ... and all I could think was, "I wonder what they did with the fleeces and where can I get hold of some."

Tish was going to ask at college what happened to the fleeces from the farm flock (they run a working farm at the college) since they are bred for meat, but unfortunately it is her last day today so I think that avenue is closing. I really want to try some larger more 'ruggish' experiments but don't want to spend a lot of money on prepared roving when I am not sure how it might turn out.

Also I had been thinking of doing a 'day at work' post with random photographs of stuff I come across during my round. I took this lovely early morning view of the allotments that I walk around each morning ... and then it was a really hectic day and I did not get around to anything else. Although they erected an ugly metal fence around the far side you can see in the foreground of the photo the beautiful proper laid hedge that was redone last year.