bunty bunny

A quick new baby gift I've finished just in time. This pattern is from Debi Birkin's website. Top marks to anyone who identifies the album cover back drop!

salty fudge

I often get a craving for sweet and salty treats. I love peanut butter cupcakes, salty buttery sugery popcorn, sea salt chocolates, salted caramel chocolate mousse.... I could go on. I found this recipe for sea salt fudge on a great blog called Cooking the Books. After licking the pan out I needed to lay down for a bit. Certainly not for everyday consumption!

drawing fluid screen print

Here's a practice print from the course I did in screen printing a while back at the Print Block. I drew directly on the screen with drawing fluid. I actually prefer the drawing on the screen (top) to the actual print (bottom), which came out rather clunky. There are not really any grey areas with drawing fluid, and I was a little over zealous with the paintbrush.

bowls drying

Been rather busy lately making stock for an upcoming showcase at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park shop.

failed miserably

A few weeks ago I was asked by a fellow knitter on Ravelry whether I would like to be a test knitter for a pattern she was shortly to publish. The top looked cute, and being for a small baby I didn't think it would take me long, so I accepted. Several weeks and many impatient emails later I finally finished it, long after it was actually published. The poor girl couldn't wait for me any longer. (Luckily I was not the only tester).

Anyway, it's a lovely top and will be quite versatile weather wise. Made for a friend who is due to have her first baby next month. If you are interested in knitting it yourself it's called Kira's Hooded Vest by Yumiko Sakurai.

Off The Page

I was rather excited and suprised to discover recently that my small and humble home town of Whitstable would be hosting the UK's first ever literary festival devoted to music criticism. Off The Page.

The show was opened last night by the wonderful Robert Wyatt, who played and discussed (in a typically meandering, going-off-on-tangents kind of way) five of his favourite music tracks. Particularly interesting as he talked about his childhood in Canterbury and the weekends he spent feeding coins into jukeboxes in Whitstable cafes in order to watch girls dance.

Another highlight of the weekend was an enthusiastic talk by Dave Tompkins on the history of the vocoder, which began life as a Second World War device to scramble the transatlantic conversations between Churchill and Roosevelt, (with the UK vocoder operated from the basement of Selfridges department store.) It was subsequently employed as a more creative instrument in film, tv and music, particularly hip hop. Here Dave is on Youtube talking about his favourite vocoder records.

It's been a bit tricky trying to see everything we wanted to, what with juggling Betty between us and her Aunty Joanne, and the organisers constantly changing the running order with very little notice. I think tomorrow we'll see what Betty makes of the 'performance lecture on the art of listening'. I'm hoping it will be loud enough to drown out her babbling.

at last! the lace ribbon scarf

In hindsight, it probably wasn't such a good idea to start this project shortly after having a baby. There are many mistakes and it has taken over a year to complete, with an intensive and focused effort to get the last two feet done. I'm so pleased with it though!

The yarn is Lacey Lamb by Jade Sapphire, in mustard. It goes on and on. The ball is never ending! And It comes in a wonderful range of colours. I would like a ball of each please! The pattern I found on knitty.com via Ravelry.

Every girl needs mustard accessories!