Crochet Heaven

Well happy Easter!

As you can see, I've been a busy bee. It was lovely to visit Greenwich and see all the quirky buildings and the independent shops on the high street. Greenwich is of course steeped in history, what with the Royal Observatory, Planetarium and Cutty Sark all within spitting distance of each other. 'Cutty Sark' was once a Scottish term meaning short dress apparently, hence the scantily clad lady poised at the front of the boat. Bijou and with a village feel, I couldn't help wondering how we have allowed the rest of the UK to be blighted by chain store fever with the same coffee shops, clothes shops, pubs, restaurants and supermarkets in most of our towns and cities. Ok, so I do shop in many of these stores but I am always cheered by the sight of an indie store.

Here's my stack of crochet squares and a quick snap of the lovely colours I've chosen for the blanket I'm making. Next week I will be popping over to meet fellow blogger Anna from Anna's Creative Corner over on the other side of London. I very much look forward to catching up with her and marvelling at some of her latest luscious knitting projects.

Greenwich Me Time

Hello, hello! Just a few photographs from Greenwich, south London where we spent this afternoon and evening.

Seafood lunch including fresh crab

Canary Wharf by night

Party boat on the River Thames

The O2 Arena at night

Nest in Crouch End, Glasto... and my New Camera

Purely by accident I just came across Amy from Nest's responses to my recent crafty Q&A and here they are! I'm with you on Glasto Amy, but it's not returning until 2013 so that's plenty of time to buy some new wellies and a tent in preparation!

Still in my final year of school, I first made my way across the country to the legendary Glastonbury music festival 21 years ago. In January, I decided I was due another visit so have decided to try for tickets again for next year. I sincerely hope the magic's still there, as a young teenager, visiting Glastonbury was the highlight of my summer and I was in my element there, enjoying my favourite bands performing live on an outside stage and meandering through the fields gazing at the exotic food and second-hand clothing stalls and watching the circus of colourful characters who passed before me.  I am definitely regressing to my teenhood these days, I don't want to get any older than I am now, just gradually younger instead!

Tonight, with tape measure in hand, I will be sizing up my reclaimed black footstool to establish just how much fabric I'll need to re-cover it. As Amy reliably informs me, the Nest team will shortly be ordering a bijou collection of lovely fabrics for their Crouch End knitting shop. I'm sure that they will not disappoint! I'll also be playing around with my new Nikon Coolpix camera. Thanks to Anna and Josephine who kindly suggested some other quality point and shoots but I decided to stick with the Coolpix. So far I've been impressed with the visual quality of the video feature but haven't established whether I can adjust the volume on it or whether it's fixed at one level. The picture quality is ok, I'm not bowled over, but as I've only taken about 10 snaps, the jury is still out on that one. Will keep you posted!

Commuter Crochet Challenge

How can I put my new crochet skills to the test by better using my already packed diary of living and working? I came up with the idea of the Commuter Crochet Challenge yesterday and thought I'd have a go and see just how many crochet squares I can make travelling to and from work on a packed London commuter train this week. Bear in mind that usually on the morning train I often only get a seat for half or less of my 30 minute journey. It's a tough call!

Where did I get such divine inspiration? Well, a few weeks ago I heard about a man who finds a space on his commuter train each morning and embarks on a full yoga workout. That would be impressive to watch wouldn't it? I'd love to have seen him, I'm sure his fellow commuters have been equally inspired, slash, bemused. Compared to that, hooking a few crochet squares should be a cinch! Realistically as its pretty much standing room only, I think I'll only manage one or two crochet granny squares but here goes anyway...

Night at the Museum

Yesterday I was scouring London's famous Victoria & Albert (V & A) museum looking for 'knitspiration' with my old school friend Catherine. Probably my favourite museum in London, the V & A is jam-packed with art, ceramics and jewellery from around the world and also occasionally hosts must-see fashion exhibitions.

The jewellery-through-the-ages space capsule room and neon Japanese kimonos provided some interest but, alas, there was not a stitch of knitwear in sight! Unfortunately our visit didn't coincide with a touring fashion exhibition so sadly the only crafty curiosities to catch my eye were some jumbo crochet hooks and spools of shredded T-shirt yarn for crocheting in the gift shop. These reels of candy coloured cotton loveliness presented me with pleasing visions of a chunky handmade textured top in pastel colours for the spring...

In summary, the V & A is great museum if you're an art and craft enthusiast, but to get the best out of your trip you'd be well advised to plan your visit around the programme of touring exhibitions.

Gotta Love Croydon

For years, Croydon in south London has been the subject of much ridicule. Despite incubating the talent of two world famous supermodels in the '90s, and hosting an efficient transport interchange and an IKEA superstore; the densely populated metropolis is more widely associated with featureless concrete commercial buildings and teen mums. To its credit and to my surprise, I discovered today that Croydon has a crochet square named after it! And here it is, papped nonchalantly on its creator's fair laminate flooring. Gotta love Croydon.

Mustering all my patience and courage, I plan to have a stab at a similar afghan granny square soon. Will keep you posted.

Before I go, here's a snap of mum's hat. It turned out lovely, don't you think? She's more of an old skool knitter so I don't think her pattern came from cyberspace. However, I'm sure if readers were keen to replicate it, someone is bound to have added a similar pattern to Ravelry's patterns section.

Knitting and Stitching Show 2011

My first post for Blogtoberfest! I enjoyed a fabulous day with mum at the Knitting and Stitching Show today. I bought some pretty butterfly stitch counters from the good people at Nest, as well as some Chanel style multi fibre yarn and appliqué shapes. Textile exhibits in the gallery area proved to be both unexpected and inspired.