It's good to be car booting again .....

Yesterday was The Vintage Bazaar in Hartley Wintney. There were wonderful things on sale and it was a challenge to remember that I was there to sell and not to buy. The next one at this venue is 21st September so put this date in your diaries!

Next weekend, on 5th May, it's Shepton Flea Market which was a good excuse (as if one were needed) to go booting today .....

The most wonderful thing about it is that you never know what you're going to find .....

... and you never find the same thing twice .....

Here we have a potential St George and his dragons.  I am puzzled why anyone would go to such trouble to create this wonderful figure and then not give him a face.  An idea for an episode of Dr Who perhaps?

To Bee or not to Bee ...

Tuesday is the final of the BBC's Great British Sewing Bee.  I am already in my mourning weeds and hoping that sewing, like cooking, is about to become a minor national obsession.

I can forsee an epidemic of programmes dedicated to the needle and its art:  Come Tack With Me; Masterstitcher; The Great British Dressmaker.  Celebrity judges will appear and choose the contestants whom they want to go onto the live shows on the basis of blind top-stitching competitions.  There will be live auditions in front of a studio audience to find the sewer with the cross-stitch factor.  There will be books, dvds, magazines! 

On Saturday 27th April The Vintage Bazaar is once again in Hartley Wintney and I have been busy painting the unprepared items I found hibernating at the back of the garage.  But I also found time for some knitting and believe that I have created what the world has been waiting for - a knitted cherub!

I have to say that they are not completely anatomically correct, but they do have tummy buttons and bottoms ....

"You are old, Father William," the young man said, "And your hair has become very white; And yet you incessantly stand on your head – Do you think, at your age, it is right?

I have just renewed my car insurance - with Saga.  I have only one thing to say to that .....

"In my youth," Father William replied to his son,
"I feared it might injure the brain;
But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again."

"You are old," said the youth, "as I mentioned before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door --
Pray, what is the reason for that?"

"In my youth," said the sage, as he shook his grey locks,
"I kept all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment -- one shilling a box --
Allow me to sell you a couple?"

"You are old," said the youth, "and your jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak --
Pray, how did you manage to do it?"

"In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life."

"You are old," said the youth, "one would hardly suppose
That your eye was as steady as ever;
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose --
What made you so awfully clever?"

"I have answered three questions, and that is enough,"
Said his father. "Don't give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
Be off, or I'll kick you down stairs."

Lewis Carroll

Word Association Knitting .....

Last weekend my thought process went something along the lines of warmer weather - watery sun - green shoots - spring! - blossom ....

- March hares ....

I have been trying for a long time to knit a chicken.  I have knitted them from the tail forward, from the beak backwards, from the feet up, in one piece, in two pieces, with a gusset and without.  It has been something of an obsession and I am unable to decide why it has been so difficult to arrive at a version which pleases me. I haven't had the problem with any of the other birds I've knitted.  Here is the latest idea ( tail forwards, one piece, seperate legs!) with the Easter chicks from few years ago.

Speaking of obsessions, Northern Man's ipad addiction is becoming worse and has spread to include a mini ipad and an iphone.  These devices talk to each other and share information;  what is saved on one, is saved on all.  He thinks this is a wonder of modern technology but I think it's verging on Terminator territory.  I don't want my machines talking to each other;  imagine if the Yeti began to chat to the dishwasher, washing machine or dyson.  They'd share stories about my incompetence and slatternly habits, the way I cut corners, don't vacumn under the furniture or scrape the plates.  They'd begin to laugh about me behind my back, lose respect, refuse to carry out my instructions.  There's nothing worse than an uppity dishwasher ....

Living the Dream ...

Not so long ago, in a women's magazine found not so far away, I read about the modern-day myth of the 'capsule wardrobe'.  I have long attempted to recreate this ideal spending far too much money on the quest and still,  when I am asked to travel for a week taking only hand baggage,  I find that nothing I have matches.  Many of you will ask why I bother to try and the answer to this is Northern Man.  Northern Man likes to be first off the plane, at the front of the queue for passport control, through customs and at the car rental desk before the back row in economy have even thought about unbuckling their seatbelts.  He hates waiting and loathes queuing so he believes that hand baggage will quicken the passage through and out of an airport.  This is true but it doesn't solve the problem I have of not wanting to live in one pair of jeans for a week. From all of this, you will have guessed that we have been travelling again so I expect no sympathy from you for my unresolved struggle with my packing problem.    Here are some of the highlights ...

We stopped in Saint Augustine (pronounced as in langoustine), Florida and came across the delightful Dow Museum of Historic Houses which has been created by the simple conceit of enclosing an entire block of the town and opening its 'historic' houses to the public.  If I sound a  little snide about this it is because some of the houses in the museum were actually built after 1845, which is when our house dates from!  But, the reason I am mentioning the museum is not the buildings but the grounds, which had been turned into a retreat of shady nooks and quiet courtyards filled with moss covered trees, fountains and statues...

Some of the houses are furnished ....

I loved this shadow box with its arrangement of wool flowers.  I've been searching in vain for instructions to make flowers like this from wool.

We travelled on to the gracious city of Savannah with its squares and streets filled with huge live oaks draped in Spanish moss (it ain't Spanish and it ain't moss) .....

Beautiful buildings everywhere .....

Little bits of fun ....

And movie history ....

This is where Forrest Gump sat to say 'my momma always said life was like a box of chocolates'.

And then to glorious Charleston where every turn you make opens up another delightful view.  Charleston single houses are narrow and deep with one end turned to the street.  They are one room wide and have verandas running the length of the house to catch the breeze on hot summer days.  The verandas are known as piazzas and, as well as providing outdoor living space, they shade the windows of the house from the afternoon sun.  But, and here's the fun bit, many of the houses have front doors which open onto to the piazza, not the house itself.

From the front ...

..

... and from behind.

Some of the plots have been subdivided which leads to an interesting numbering of houses ....

So, as you can see, there was lots for me to see and explore while Northern Man played golf with the locals ......

Oh, the weather outside is frightful ....

So, it was an excellent opportunity yesterday to sort out stock for Shepton Mallet Flea Market which is on next Sunday.  It also gives me the chance to show you what I've bought over the last two months, although pickings have been thin so don't get too excited!

Lovely vintage chenille and velvet tablecloths (from Chiswick car boot sale)

Barbola-style candlesticks and powder bowl (Malvern Flea Market)

Carved wooden god .....

and - most appropriately for the current weather - a model polar bear wrapped up warm in a rabbit skin coat.

As you can see in the picture with the blue candlesticks, I've been having fun kniting flowers and making them into garlands.  I wired them together,  added artificial leaves and covered over the resultant mess with florist's tape.  It came out quite well so I did another one - little white roses - and then ....

....  knitted a bunch of larger roses.  Who cares if it goes on snowing when there's so much to do .....

They said there'll be snow at Christmas They said there'll be peace on Earth But instead, it just kept on raining .....

One of the things I would normally have done during a two week school break was lots of walking.  But, because of the inclement weather, the fields around us became shallow lakes and the paths were turned to mire so I spent most of the time indoors and did a lot of knitting.  When we were in Rome last autumn we bought these little chocolate dragee bunches of flowers as gifts ....

... and they got me thinking.

As I wander round car boot sales I often buy things knowing that one day I will use them for something.  Then they sit in a box waiting patiently for inspiration to strike.  Well, a quick search through the pile of things that time forgot in the garage produced these ....

..... which I bought years ago.  I used a lot of them to decorate garlands but these were left over.  I beheaded them ....

..... and added knitted roses which are a redesigned version of Lesley Stanfield's rose from 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet. 

And then, of course, I got to thinking that I could make my own bunches just using wire and artificial leaves ....

I knew those odd bits would come in useful one day ....