Balloons

My husband went to the balloon festival in Bristol on Saturday, these are some of his photo's. I love the one modeled on the film "Up". 

Not much to tell

It's summer or it was a fortnight ago, normal service has resumed and it's the rainy season again. For lots of reasons I've done little, the high spot was meeting up with two ladies from my weaving course at Linton's in Carlisle. We had a lovely lunch, a rummage in Truly Twisted yarns and I went to Stead McAlpine and bought some beautiful silk. 

I managed to thread up and use my new overlocker, which saying as I've never even used one before was quite an achievement I thought. I'm really impressed by it. I've woven some of the old warp that was laying on the loom, not as much as I wanted to, but it feels antisocial when there are people in the house so I've not done as much as I intended.

Truth be told I'm feeling a bit negative about things at the moment, it feels that everything I make has a glitch in it. I was going to make some hand dyed cushions to sell, I wanted to put in invisible zips, they go perfectly until the point where you change the foot to the zipper foot to finish off, I just can't get as close as the invisible zipper foot get to the zip teeth and it gapes slightly when you turn it the right way round. It's only a minor issue but it feels like a mountain. I want to crack it but the last one got unpicked umpteen times over 3 days and I ended up hand sewing it which is not really a solution.

On the plus side I've started knitting again, not that I ever really started, my mum tried to teach me when I was little but she used to get so frustrated with me that it wasn't worth the hassle. But being intrigued by all things woolly I couldn't resist altogether, so over the years I've taught myself odds and ends like casting on and off and cabling, I've never actually made anything as I find knitting patterns bewildering, however I have nearly finished a pair of mittens designed by Kate Davies, I'll post a picture when they're finished. I can heartily advise reading Kate's blog at http://katedaviesdesigns.com. Another blog I've been reading is by Gretal Parker, who's a felt artist and children's book illustrator http://allaroundus.blogspot.co.uk. Both blogs are wonderfully written, insightful, inspiring and beautifully illustrated with gorgeous photo's. Whilst on the subject of blogs I really like, this one is by a french lady who writes about her daily life, natural dyeing and creating https://cozymemories.squarespace.com/about1/

There are a few others I really enjoy, I'll try to add them to the blog, I'm not sure if I can do this on the ipad or if I have to go on the laptop which is soooo unwieldy.