So that was 2016

How are you? Recovered from New Years Eve? Grab a hot brew and a comfy seat, this is a long-ish post! 

2016 was an interesting year to say the least. On the global scale there were a few major political changes (need I say more?) and various people are no longer with us. 

On a much more minor level it has been a year of discovery for me. 

My resolutions for 2016 were:

• Be more organised
• Start a blog
• Do more creative things
• Learn to crochet
• Learn to knit
• Knit a sock
• Do better in my degree
• Sit for five minutes everyday and think of three things that you're grateful for

A bit varied and ambitious considering 'learn to knit' was next to 'knit a sock'! So how did it go? 

Be more organised

I'm definitely more organised now than I have ever been. I actually have a written down schedule and a colour coded task list. However the amount of that list that gets done is a tad variable. Throughout the year I've read a lot of productivity blogs which have helped enormously such as bakadesuyo.com which sends weekly articles on productivity, changing habits and changing your mental attitude. I hope to continue this trend but be more pro-active rather than feeling I have achieved something simply by writing it in a list, colour-coded or otherwise!

Start a blog

I have started a blog but I'd love to eke out some time to actually post here regularly. As will be  mentioned below, my degree has been a dominant feature for the past three years and the next 18 months but with improving organisation I aim to have a more balanced life this year. Lets see how that goes! I haven't really decided the main theme of this blog and I'm looking forward to exploring that this year.

Do more creative things/ learn to crochet/ learn to knit

I've tried a drop spindle, weaving, screen printing, lino cuts, embroidery, crochet and knitting in 2016. It has been amazing! Admittedly a lot of these have only been tried once, put down and looked at longingly while revising for yet another exam. But, I have learnt the basics of crochet and knitting which has been an absolute highlight of this year. My crochet skills are still basic but this will be changing this year which I will discuss in 2017 goals either below or in another post. I have also discovered the joy of yarn and craft events in the UK. I was a volunteer for the Great London Yarn Crawl and met some wonderful yarny people. 

Knit a sock!

Tied in with creativity and knitting is learning how to knit a sock. I managed to sneak this into the last few weeks of last year and after much swearing, grumps and puzzled looks I have conquered the gusset, heel turn and heel. Although I'm sure it will feel less conquered when I try the second sock and I haven't tried a toe yet! You can see my progress so far on my instagram: charlotte_and_harvey

Embracing gratitude

Sitting still for five minutes was surprisingly hard. I always have a list in my mind that I need to complete every day and it can be difficult to just sit. Sit. And not move. And not think about anything but gratitude. And not start doing anything else. Its worth it. Please try it if you have time. It is so nice to flick through my little book of lists and timetables and deadlines and find a daily gratitude list which reminds me how lucky I am in my life even on the days that certainly didn't feel lucky. 

Degree highs and lows

And finally, my degree. I can't remember if I have mentioned but I am in my 4th year of a 5 year medical degree. All being well, I shall be a fully qualified doctor in around 18 months (fingers and toes crossed!). It has been an uphill struggle, mainly because I stupidly didn't thinking when I started that maybe, just maybe, medicine is quite hard! 2016 was my best year when I was in third year and I achieved my best grades so far. Then came fourth year. Long hours, lots of content to learn and the surprise event of my organised dissertation suddenly not happening. Twice. On the positive side, I now have a fairly stable dissertation opportunity which is certainly something I am immensely grateful for everyday. 

Well thats a long post from me! I hope you had a hot drink to get you through it. I'm going to post again this week with my 2017 aims/ goals/ themes and I would love to hear what yours are whether its creative, exercise or for life in general!

Have a wonderful first week of 2017 - C and H x

Winter has come

I woke up this morning to the lawn covered in frost. With the fields across the road beckoning, I grabbed my camera and a warm woolly hat and headed out.

Although it was only 8.30, the frost had already begun to melt as the sun hit the trees. 

I'm not a regular photographer but even I appreciated the shards of sunlight piercing through the canopy above and landing on the ice and leaves and berries.

  

And the frost lined leaves.

Walking out into the main park, the normally vibrant green grass had been muted and sparkled.

  

The individual stalks reminded me of sugared angelica with the ice as the sugar. 

The perfect start to a rare day off. Have a wonderful week everyone :) 

Embroidery and the Great London Yarn Crawl

It's been a busy few weeks! It's my fourth week back at university and getting used to early mornings and commuting in the sardine cans known as the London Underground. The lectures have been very variable but really interesting. Needless to say, term time means less time for creativity so my knitted bunny has slowwly appeared with only one leg to go now and a bit of sewing together. One of my goals this academic year is to create a better work-life balance between revision and everything else. Fingers crossed. One website that has really helped me with this through learning how to organise my life better is bakadesuyo.com. It has great articles on being organised, formulating routines and prioritising the important things in life. It may not be relevant for everyone but it's been a great help so far.

On the creative side - I have been going to some great events. The first one was an embroidery refreshers afternoon with the London Craft Club.

Based in the back of a food and wares market, a small group of us gathered around a table covered in a rainbow of embroidery thread. We spent the first hour on colour theory, which is basically how to match colours for a project so it doesn't look like they've been chosen in the dark. It's a surprisingly interesting topic and after the class I have really begun to notice colour combinations used in advertising and patterns in Ravelry.

After that we got onto the pretty stuff. Embroidery! I think I went into sensory overload when I was told to pick just three colours out of the multitude on the table. Looking around the table at the others, I knew I wasn't alone. Sonia who was leading the class helped direct us to different shades of the colours we had chosen to make even more vibrant or pastel based groups. We then learnt how to place the fabric in the embroidery hoop and a few basic stitches. I've recently started following Sarah K Benning on Instagram so I drew a small cactus for my sample piece.

I'll post a finished photo so you can see how the rest of the cactus went :)

Then, very excitingly, I was a volunteer last Saturday at the Great London Yarn Crawl 2016 which was organized by the lovely ladies from Yarn In The City. It was so much fun! There were 12 teams of varying sizes all of whom went to three or four yarn shops around London. As a newbie volunteer I was given an easy route around three gorgeous shops in East London: Knit with Attitude, Fabrications and Wild and Woolly.

I started the Crawl at a little cafe in Stoke Newington called Chumleys so I had a central place for the yarn crawlers to meet up. All the tables were old school desks with the lifting lids and the walls were covered in posters. Not cheap but really good food for breakfast including bacon and pancakes covered in syrup. Yum! I had eight lovely women in my group all of whom were very keen knitters. As a beginner it was wonderful to be surrounded by experienced knitters who were more than happy to share their knowledge and hints and tips.

Each shop was very individual and really welcoming. Knit with Attitude was a mix of yarn, jewelllery and a few other items. From what I could understand the shop is shared between a few people which gave a mix of different mediums. As someone interested in just about everything and anything this was a great way to browse. I bought two skeins of 4 ply ‘scrumptious’ by Fyberspates in Charcoal (grey) and Oyster (pale gold).

Next stop was Fabrications based in Broadway Market. The owner, Barley, has been in Broadway Market for quite a while now and a lot of her products are based around her passion for up cycling and preventing waste. I particularly liked her cushions made from the inner tubing of bicycle tyres.  She very kindly let us sit and eat our lunch in the downstairs class space and made us tea. Thanks Barley! Fabrications run workshops in sewing and knitting which vary from beginner classes to different ways to upcycle clothing and other materials.

The wall of yarn at Wild and Woolly

Our final stop was Wild and Woolly. We arrived to find fresh tea and coffee and cake and biscuits made by Anna who owns the shop. It was lashing with rain by this point and we had ages between this shop visit and the after party. Was this a problem? Not at all - Anna invited us to sit and knit and natter for as long as we wanted and kept us topped up with hot drinks. She also gave us free reign over her ball winder which provided many minutes of fun. I wound my new skein I bought from Anna from The Wool Kitchen in Ziggy, it's amazing how different yarns can look in skein and ball form.

Image from Wild and Woolly

 

A fantastic day with lovely people and lots of yarny goodness! I cannot wait for next year with faces new and old and more importantly new shops to visit!

Shop links

knitwithattitude.com/shop/

www.fabrications1.co.uk

www.wildandwoollyshop.co.uk/

Podcasts this week

Hey Sister Podcast

The Grocery Girls

A Playful Day

Meanderings

Summer in England is a precarious thing. There is no guarantee of sunshine or nice weather and when there is, the parks are filled with us pale Brits baring as much skin as possible to try and rake in some vitamin D and that mythical thing - a sun tan. 

On the plus side it does mean we are immensely grateful for any sun we do get and also get to complain about the weather however it turns out, combining this nations two favourite past times - talking about the weather and having a little grumble. We love it!  

Personally, I have loved this summer. Its had the right mix of heat and cooler days enabling me to balance my indoor hobbies with my outdoor hobbies without feeling guilty about missing the sun. 

So what's been happening this week?

Well, I started my first ever knitting project:

So far I have a head and a body made. Two ears, two arms and two legs to go! This particular pattern even has 'easy' in the title which helped push me into actually trying a knitting pattern. Having never gone beyond a few rows of stocking stitch I thought it was time to take the plunge! So far this has been a really easy project as the pattern only uses knit, purl, kfb (knit into the front and back of a stitch) and k2tog (knit two together) and therefore is a gentle introduction into increases and decreases as well as pattern reading. I will post a photo once its done! For anyone interested, the pattern is from Let's Knit magazine, Issue 107 (July) and is Val Pierce's Easy Bunny. I've chosen slightly bolder colours than the original and as long as it doesn't look like Frankenstein's creation when its done, it will be coming to Cornwall with me to give to one of my little cousins. 

If you're a newbie knitter like myself, this is one to try.

I started making the crochet virus shawl, again great for beginner crocheters. However, I was called away halfway through a row and lost my place. So that has been frogged and will be started again once the bunny is finished. Its a great shawl to make as it looks really pretty and has a manageable pattern. Woolpedia.de have created some fantastic videos that take you through the shawl row by row in a really straightforward way. Just YouTube it or its also available on Ravelry. 

In an attempt to get rid of all the acrylic yarn that has somehow gradually appeared in my yarn stash, I have been experimenting with different techniques in rigid heddle loom weaving. Rigid heddle looms are very affordable and provide an easy way to try weaving without having to invest too much money. I currently have an 8 inch Ashford SampleIt loom, which is tiny but enables me to learn basic weaving without storage issues. If I could go back in time though, I think I would have bought a larger loom instead as the SampleIt loom is quite great to start with but is then limited in what you can make with it.  

                                          

As you can see the selvedges are a little wonky but I'm so happy I've learnt a few new techniques! The very top is a type of lace work, then I have Danish medallions, 2/2 twill with and without a line of plain weave between the rows and an attempt at pick up stick techniques on the bottom. Using pick up sticks was a little bit fiddly as I had to change them so often even for a simple pattern but I think the end result is worth it :)

                                

And finally, non craft related but I tried a new recipe this week - Thai prawn curry. Delicious! Preparation took about 15 minutes and cooking about the same. Easy to make and soooo tasty! You can find the recipe here. 

That's all for now! I will leave you with one more picture of Harvey enjoying the sun and his favourite drink.  

                                       

Have a great weekend! And feel free to share any of your current works in progress (WIPs), I would love to hear about them :)

Charlotte & Harvey x

P.S. Feel free to follow me on Twitter @parfitt_cm and Instagram @charlotte_and_harvey

Fibre East 2016

First of all, I just want to say what a fantastic time I had at Fibre East this year. I have never been before but it is definitely going on my list of events to visit every year. I decided to take my mum along as she loves creativity but hasn’t discovered the joy of fibre just yet. Fibre East is based in Bedfordshire, a short taxi or bus ride from Flitwick station which is easily accessible from London. It is based in a beautiful school with large grounds providing perfect outside space to take a break from yarn overload.

The event was split into separate areas, each named after a breed of sheep – Jacob, Leicester, Romney, Shetland, Cotswold and Herdwick. As I wandered around, it was lovely to see happy yarnfolk milling about with lots of yarny goodness in their bags. Each section was full to brimming with stunning yarn from pastels to glittery to variegated colourways of every possible combination. Interspersed between the skeins were spinning wheels, looms and bundles of fluff and multiple other kits and tools. I don’t think I have ever seen so many spinning wheels in one place in my life! And the casual ease with which they were used was awe inspiring. 

My first stop on my pre-planned tour was Shetland, an area specifically for guilds. If you’re not in a guild, I would definitely recommend joining one. If you want to know why guilds are a good idea, let me describe my journey into ‘Shetland’. Within seconds of entering the front door, my mum was whisked off by a lady to try rag rugging while I was enticed to by the North Herts Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers (WSD) to try the shiny 8 shaft loom sitting on their nearest table. I think they may have noticed me staring at it longingly haha. I was shown how to move the shafts to create various pattern wefts and then completed one repeat of a pattern I forgot to ask the name of, I think it had rosepath mentioned in it somewhere. I was then pulled away by mum to watch a machine knitting demonstration by the Guild of Machine Knitters. Their shiny machine created rows and rows of stitches with such speed! Far more elegant than the machine sitting forlornly in my home. Like the WSD Guild, I was provided lots of advice, not only freely given but also with a true passion for the subject. It has also helped solve the mystery of why my knitting machine doesn’t work which was a huge relief. Each guild member had a badge with their Ravelry username on it so you can find like minds on the website. After their summer breaks, I am planning to visit a WSD guild and the machine knitting guild so I can further my very basic knowledge. After another chat with the Bedfordshire Guild of WSD, Mum and I headed out the door to the rest of the show and lots of yarn!

http://spincityshop.com/

 Amidst the sea of skeins and balls of yarn, I spotted the above sign. Great advertising for the stall and also wonderfully creative. Just below this were a mother and daughter duo who were teaching spinning on a spindle and spinning wheel to show how the lovely fluff could be used from their stall. Have to admit I was a bit mesmerised by all the colours and how casually they chatted to customers while spinning.

Its difficult to describe quite how much there was to see. Each section of Fibre East was full of different products and I think there was something for everyone. For me as a beginner spinner and weaver, it was great to have an event that didn’t have such a heavy emphasis on knitting and crochet as there are plenty of shows out there for those already.  

http://www.purlescence.co.uk/

During our wander around I of course had to buy a few things…. Each purchase came from one of the many independent small businesses on show.

Grendel Yarn from Hooligan Yarns

Grendels CV, http://www.hooliganyarns.com/

The above yarn came from a tiny smallholding based in Nottinghamshire run by a lady called Di. Each ball from Hooligan Yarns is spun from a single sheep and comes with a card introducing you to that sheep and their personality. My yarn was from Grendel, a very handsome sheep and this direct knowledge of the origin of the yarn will make the end project that I make from it very special. Also, while I was browsing and choosing what to buy, Di’s mum taught mine the basics of knitting and she’s been doing a little bit every day since. It is this gesture and that of the next stallholder that made the day special and gave the event such a welcoming feel. It also shows you never know where or how your creative journey might begin.

My next purchase was a pretty turquoise drop spindle that came with two types of fluff to spin. 

http://www.wildcraft.co.uk/

From Wild Craft, the spindle is light and with a little practice, easy to use. Noticing my interest in their stall, I was given a free lesson in how to use it and how to pull out the fluff into yarn using a method called Park and Draft. After a good ten minutes of learning, I happily purchased a spindle and can’t wait to get started with it and see what I can make.

All in all, Fibre East was a fantastic experience and I cannot wait to attend next year. As I gain confidence in my new hobbies, I am looking forward to visiting more and more events like this around the UK with my next planned event being the Great London Yarn Crawl in September (http://www.yarninthecity.com/glyc-2016). More on that soon!