Lies, and life in perspective.

I lied to my daughter last night. We were doing this silly personality test on Facebook, and she admitted that she was preoccupied with worries about bad things happening. I reassured her that life was not full of bad things. A few e-mails down the list I found a message that told me that a good friend's teenage son had been killed in an accident over the weekend. To say that you are stunned or horrified by such news is a meaningless expression. My thoughts have been going round and round on the news ever since. We have not seen the family regularly for some years but the children grew up spending time with hers at EO gatherings all over the country. I went up in the loft this morning to see if I had a photograph I could post. The last ones in the album were from a gathering at Manorbier Youth Hostel, shots of the grown-ups chatting over breakfast, the kids playing Magic and sleeping in heaps in the games room (I did find my favourite photo of Rose Darling after we had done her hair up in little plaits, she is looking all grumpy at being photographed.) Beverley is in one of them so I know they were there but there was not one of her son.

I did not know Alexander hardly at all but I mourn for Beverley's loss, a more lovely, kind and supportive friend it would be hard to find. I called this morning and she told me all about the policewoman at the hospital who lied because she didn't know what to say, the stream of tearful teenage girls arriving at her door and her angry ex-husband unable to just be a parent and support her without bringing conflict into the situation. She is planning a woodland burial, no black and some suitably unconventional music choices. He had apparently being discussing funeral plans recently with a friend, in the way that only real teenagers can, to laugh in the face of death and affirm their immortality.

So life is put a little into true perspective today. It feels more precious. It reminds you that ordinary life can be altered in a moment and will never be the same again.

Ozzy and felting failure (ish)

Lewis and Rachel went home this morning, and took Ozzy with them, but I thought I should add a picture of him for posterity. He looks a bit like a miniature dinosaur in this photo. He has been fun to have around, very fond of sitting on people's heads and making a dash for the back of the sofa.

So things calmed down a bit after they left (they had spent the morning playing Rock Band on the Xbox) and we finished off the birthday cake for breakfast. Yesterday a nice little piece of fabric arrived, it is pink/blue shot chiffon, so I wanted to do another nuno experiment. I laid it out, damped it, wrapped it up in bubble wrap and rolled it for half an hour and the fibres did seem to be bonding with the fabric, but then when I did the 'shocking' things took a wrong turn. Basically the fibres were more keen on bonding with each other than with the fabric. It could be that I did not put enough roving on it. It is bonded with the fabric but only just. What I have ended up with is a kind of cobwebby effect very fine over the surface of the chiffon (click the photo and you can see it more clearly) but the fibres have not gathered the fabric at all except around the edge and even there they are only very loosely connected and it just looks a bit tatty.
So I hope it is a case of learning something from my experiments. I may try using more roving and rolling for much longer to see if I can get a better effect. Or maybe buy some real silk. Just as an aside, if you have a piece of fabric and do not know what it is made of, take a small piece and put a lit match to it, if it burns to ash then it is a natural fibre like cotton or silk, but if it melts and forms little lumps of plastic then it is man-made fibre.

Birthday

Yesterday was Lewis' 21st birthday. It does make me feel a bit old but whatever...

This is Tish, M, Lewis, Rachel (Lewis' girlfriend), Jacob and me. Excuse the scruffy looking house behind us, we did take a nice one by the bushes but the sun was too bright and everyone was squinting too much. I don't get all my kids together in one place very often. We went out for dinner and came home for cake, though I had half of Jacob's creme brulee as well as my own so felt too sick to have any. The kids all sat out in the garden chatting till late. I like having grown-up children, I like the fact they have reached the age where they can hang out together without coming to blows:-)

Today I took them down for the open day at Hartpury college, where they just got to play with the animals for a couple of hours. Then we went over to an excellent reptile shop near Newent, called Rainforest Reptiles; it seems to be becoming an all consuming interest, especially for Lewis.

... I take it all back, they have just been having a water fight in the garden after Lewis found an old water gun in the garage ... but then he has cooked dinner.

First Nuno felt

I bought myself a 5 metre length of muslin from ebay, it seemed a cheaper way to experiment than with silk, though I am guessing that the overall effect is not so good, but then I can also have a go at dyeing some lengths. This piece started out about 150cm by 30cm (approximately). I was going to take a photo of it all laid out but forgot, then when I tried to unroll the damp package it threatened to fall apart so I didn't risk it. So I laid an outline in undyed roving, mainly to give it some shape and then added a stripe down the centre with shades of blue and green. I am thinking I put too much on, as the tutorial on Working with felt said to scatter a very fine layer (sorry, you can only access the instructions if you are a member I think). So, basically the instructions are:

1. add fine layer of roving to your background fabric
2. damp it down with a spray bottle, warm soapy water (not hot)
3. smooth over with bubble wrap to ensure it is just damp all over
4. roll it up with bubble wrap
5. roll 200 times, turn and roll 200 times the other way (I probably did more than this, took about half an hour ... very dull, have some music on or something.)
6. check to see if bits of roving have migrated through the fabric (using a dark colour helped here cos you could see it quite obviously), if not then roll some more
7. part way through I decided to fold over the fluffy bits all around the edge, I had been thinking of just leaving them raggy but was glad I did as it forms a nice neat edging.
8. when you think the roving is pretty well attached (give it a little tug, it should not all come away from the fabric) put the whole thing in a sink of hot water and swish gently.
9. squeeze out and rub with some soap
10. whack off the floor (or table or whatever) 10 times
11. rinse in hot again, squeeze again, soap again and whack again
12. it will shrink down pretty fast doing this so stretch it out each time to see how it is coming along, and continue until you have the desired effect or until you get bored
13. rinse in cold water and hang to dry

Now I really like the 'top' side with the coloured design on it but i think that the idea is to show off the other side that gets this interesting puckered effect, caused by the wool fibres migrating through the fabric and shrinking around it. I certainly can see what the interest is because there is an endless variety of effects you could achieve depending on what fabric you used and how you arrange the roving.

Also made a small felt cover for the camera. It was supposed to be for Dunk's new camera but came out a bit too wide so will use it for the old one which is slightly more chunky. (I really like the colours on this but fear it may be a little too psychedelic for him:-)

Lizard Cake

For a tutorial on how to make a Lizard Cake please visit here (updated 07/03/12)

It's okay to put it up now cos Lewis won't see it, and I am particularly pleased with how he looks:-)

jobs done...

The fun of this (how sad am I) is that I can add little things I do to the list just for the fun of ticking them off:

• get new watch strap for Tish
• buy new colour cartridge for the printer

So I did the bathroom ceiling and the fridge freezer, walked to the post office and got the car tax, then made a strap, buttons and loops for the green bag I made yesterday but then have spent much of the afternoon browsing the photographs of people's projects on the 'Working with Felt' site, but it is time well spent as it is very inspirational.

Oh yes, forgot to add the most important job:

• make birthday cake

And I finished off sewing together the green bag:

Jobs for the week

Ok, last time I had a week off I wrote myself a list of things I wanted to get done ... and I found it an excellent way of not wasting the week browsing on ebay, which I could very easily do.

(this is in no particular order)

• make list! (I like a few quick things so I can tick them off to encourage myself)
• bathroom ceiling mould needs cleaning (nasty neck aching job ... we really need a dehumidifier)
• defrost and clean fridge freezer (two days after doing this last time someone left the door ajar and re-frosted the freezer)
• try and finish rug for Lewis (not likely, only about 1/3 done) and probably pop to yarn shop in Shipston as I am not sure I have enough wool to finish it anyway.
• wash sofa covers (but need a nice dry day so I can hang them out)
• do some more duvet covers (depending on stash of fabric)
• go to pet shop for food for the reptiles
• clean house (but probably not till Thursday, the cat has stopped molting but is tracking vegetation in from the garden attached to her incredibly long fluff.) (did clean very thoroughly last week, even M and Jacob's rooms got done, so will be a quick hoover round.) (apparently that is "moulting" as was my first instinct, damn that google american dictionary.)
• kitchen floor (may persuade Tish to do this:-)
• mow back lawn
• more felt
• return knitting book to library
• maybe (big maybe) get some of the stuff listed on ebay that is sitting in a bag in the corner of our bedroom (but only so I can claim all the mess belongs to Dunk)
• write to landlord about rotten garage roof
• wash car (or maybe take to carwash)
• pay car tax ... very important!
• more felt:-)

My son Lewis and his girlfriend Rachel are coming to visit on Thursday for the weekend; it is his 21st birthday on Friday and we are all going out to dinner. They are bringing Ozzy (or 'Trogdor' as Jacob insists on calling him) the Water Dragon. And then everyone is going out to the Open Day at Hartpury on Saturday.

So, a busy week.