This is a version of a facebook post I wrote a few days ago. Although it's not the normal theme of this blog I wanted to share this because it is important to me and because I think it offers an insight into how tiny things can become very important when someone you love has dementia. I went to see Mum today. For the first time in many weeks she was out of bed and seemed pleased to have a visitor. She chatted away - you can't make out much but it's generally a good sign. Then the staff brought... Continue reading

It was with some trepidation that I tuned into the BBC's Great British Sewing Bee. To be honest, although other TV forays into craft have raised the profile of the handmade, there has tended to be a tweeness factor. So there I was ready to produce a pragmatic, critical review and then it happened. I fell in love. No, not with Saville Row tailor Patrick Grant - that's the debonair chap in the centre - but with the sewing studio and the people in it. I wanted to be running between shelves of fabric and trimmings like a kid in... Continue reading

Recently I worked on a project that drew on my technical knitting skills and my knowledge of garment construction and pattern writing in new ways. I was put in touch with Elly Arif, an MA designer at the London College of Fashion preparing for her final show. Elly was creating a menswear collection that drew on ideas emerging from the London riots and concepts of hierarchy for which she wanted over-sized knitwear. The challenge was that she wanted the pieces to have distortions so that they could be draped, pulled and pieces of the garment overlap. The first thing on... Continue reading

Catching up on BBC Radio 4's Front Row programme I heard an interview with the American artist Chuck Close who currently has a show at London's White Cube gallery. As in this section of a self portrait, Close works in great detail building up is work section by section on a grid. A technique he says, in the interview, that may be at some level influenced by his crocheting grandmother. He talks about her building up a tablecloth motif by motif and how his work breaks things down in the same way. It is lovely to hear a fine artist... Continue reading

As it was my birthday this Monday, I made sure I planned the week to set aside some quality making time today. And as the sun came out, it became all about spring colour. This cuff of a fingerless mitt is a glorious daffodil yellow (yarn from Sparkleduck) which I've using to bring some brightness to a grey few weeks - and of course bright colours are a big fashion trend this spring. And adding the first contrast edging to my Pinion cardigan today made me smile - it's exactly as I hoped. The purple is used for the edge... Continue reading

...and thankfully no blood. This year I have said I will do three things with yarn I have never done before: knit socks (yes, it's true, I'm a sock virgin), crochet a lace shawl and steek. The most scary of these is steeking. Socks are just a different construction using the basics of knitting and I've crocheted lace motif's before - this will just be bigger. But taking the scissors to my knitting is hard to do. But a friend and I have decided on the Pinion cardigan by Christa Giles for our 6 nations challenge this year. This is... Continue reading

Because I've been a bit quiet on the blog of late (apart from this week) I haven't told you about Auntie B, demon knitter and proto-silver surfer. She's the sort of lady who has a massive collection of vintage aran patterns, has used the same DPNs almost constantly for 30 years and until recently was more interested in whether internet cafes had good scones rather than good bandwidth. But now she's discovering the joys of Ravelry, downloading patterns and meeting other knitters online Auntie B is the central character in my new column for Simply Knitting. And I made her... Continue reading

It's more than a year since Anke Holst and I started a knitting group in The Bull brew pub in Highgate, London. We'd never met before our first knit night - although we knew several people in common including my sister - but luckily we got on with each other and the venue. Since then we've met lots of lovely knitters, taught people to knit and made new friends - and more recently I was interviewed about Highgate Knitters in a feature on knitting groups in The Knitter. We meet every Tuesday evening from 7pm and the pub usually reserves... Continue reading

I finally made it to Unravel this year - the yarn festival at the Maltings in Farnham, Surrey. Saturday morning was bitterly cold which made it easier to spot other knitters emerging from the station - a fine array of woolly hats, scarves and gloves was the clue. And more knitting soon brightened our day with a yarnstorm of signs. The show had just opened when we arrived and there was still a queue but at least everyone was entertained by a few welcoming sheep like this one. I'd also planned to take pictures inside but it was so busy... Continue reading

Standing on a train platform the other day I could have been transported back to the 80s. To the right a poster for a Stallone movie, to the left a Schwarzenegger one. A new Bowie single out. Oh yes, and headlines about recession. But it was a very 21st century phenomenon that really made me think of the 80s – the podcast I was listening to featured Sir Christopher Frayling, former head of the Royal College of Art and author of On Craftsmanship towards a new Bauhaus, talking about the current devaluing of arts education – especially in relation to... Continue reading

If you are interested in art you might want to check out the exhibition below showcasing work by Leo Duff inspired by places as separate as Ireland and Korea. On the open studio days the artist will be on hand to tell you about the work from various projects over the past ten years including exhibitions in Ireland, Taiwan Korea and China. Continue reading

I'm in the process of some fashion history research because I am looking after a family heirloom. This beaded dress belonged to my great-aunt Dorothy who was both formidable and elegant. That's certainly my memory of her as an old lady and the pictures of her, my grandmother and their other sisters show some very well dressed young women during WW1 and the 1920s. Dorothy was an artist and jeweller who married a well off older man - as result she was a widow living in a large house with a maid and an unmarried sister or two for a... Continue reading

As the snow falls outside and I huddle with my laptop cursing the radiator that's picked today to stop working, am very happy to have been working on a few cold weather items. Admittedly some of these items may be going to my sister but right now I'm glad to have them here. Until now I haven't been much of a cowl fan but recently I've begun to see the point of something that doesn't unravel from my neck as I walk and which in some cases can double as a hood. In part it's because of my fascination with... Continue reading

Pictures of two lovely versions of my Barnett Park lace scarf design coincidently appeared last week as two people finished the pattern almost simultaneously. The first is by Anna aka OneHandKnits: I have to admit when I looked at the picture at first I thought "how pretty" and then only slowly realised it was my design. I'm not used to the things that were in my head being knitted by other people yet. She has kindly agreed that this picture can be added to the ravelry pattern page. Meanwhile Ginny who originally checked the pattern for me has had time... Continue reading

Did you know that doe to EU law changes, the information you find on a yarn label or ball band is being restricted? If you don't, then you haven't been talking to me at a knitting show, reading the Planet Handmade blog or in any other way been in communication over yarn lately. It's a topic that I've been researching a lot lately and one guaranteed to make me cross. In simple terms the EU has set out to make textile labelling clearer and end problems like a jumper being advertised as "wool" when it's 80% acrylic. As part of... Continue reading

I've just come across a new book that says a lot of what I’ve always said about craft skills – and my dressmaking, knitting, etc, pre-dates the latest DIY fashion trend by decades – they allow you to be individual. Having the skills to make your own piece of jewellery or customise a jacket doesn’t mean you have something that’s second best. Instead you have the latest look your way, garments that fit properly or the item you’ve only previously been able to imagine. That is very much the theme of Material World: The Modern Craft Bible by Perri Lewis.... Continue reading

One of the perks of pattern checking and tech editing is that you get close to some lovely knitwear and designs. In recent weeks I've been doing some work for Let's Knit magazine including the Emmeline hat by Kelly Menzies: In fact I liked that one so much I made my own right away because I had had the opportunity to try the sample on and seen how good it looked. It's a simple beret with a little slouch and I really liked the edge detail and the diamond pattern. It's also an excellent stashbuster. Then I've been working on... Continue reading

I've realised that since London 2012 the Penguin has been very quiet. Some of that was being happily exhausted when the Paralympics finished and having 1,000s of Games photographs to edit. Peacock versus Pistorius - the men's T44 100m final And a lot of it is down to being very busy with work - some of which I haven't been able to talk about, and a lot which involved writing articles and blog posts for my various professional roles. So this post will serve as an update list of what I've been up to - at least as much as... Continue reading

This summer I am one of a team of women crocheting the Mandelbrot set for the sake of art. It is not a bad gig. I sit in an armchair and for hours crochet a simple but meditative set of stitches. The mathmatical formula, the Mandelbrot set, has been converted into a set of crochet instuctions which we "babushkas" reproduce. Not me but you get the idea. As the artists, Where the Dogs Run, put it: "Boundaries of the void are defined through the process of crochet. The void, in this case, is that which is outside the boundaries of... Continue reading

Just because I've been in an Olympic bubble doesn't mean I stopped knitting. Instead, the needles have been touring the venues with me. I decided to attempt various Ravellenic Games challenges - knitting challenges for during the Games period - with an additional twist, one project was to be done during the period of the fencing competition when I was volunteering. Amazingly it is possible to complete a lace scarf travelling to and from a venue, in your breaks and the downtime I must have had at home at some point. Drum roll please... Once I emerged blinking into the... Continue reading

It seems that when it comes to the Olympics, I'm a sports junkie par excellence. I didn't think I was but then I found myself saying: "A spare ticket for handball - why not." Suddenly having never seen a sport before or having any idea of the rules didn't matter. I had a ticket, I could learn. So when I wasn't in the fencingtron I found myself at a variety of venues, quite often roaring my head off. There was the athletics, on a beautiful sunny August evening. There was decathon high jump... ...spectacular hurdling... ...and 80,000 people reacting as... Continue reading

There hasn't been much in the way of activity on this blog of late. One of the main reasons is this: This is the fencing arena for the London 2012 Olympics. Its coloured lights outlining the pistes drew comparisons to a certain sci-fi "classic". Becoming known to some as the "fencingtron". And certainly volunteering as a London 2012 gamesmaker does take you into a different world - one of long days, excitement and exhaustion in equal measures, one off experiences and lots of smiles. And I wouldn't have missed it for the world. In my case I was actually working... Continue reading