KnitWit

Exploring

When I returned from my holiday, I decided that exploring my local patch was a top priority and I have been busy keeping a mental list of suitable South East London Adventures. Over the bank holiday I had a perfect long weekend pottering around and ticking a few things off my list.

I started off at The Deptford Project. In an old railway yard, it is a cafe in a 1960s converted train carriage. Apparently the site was London's first suburban railway station dating from 1836 but now it is part of a larger regeneration plan for the area with a small craft market (and I think it will also get an art gallery in the future).

I was expecting it to be über-trendy and not really my scene but I thought the train cafe was simply fabulous, I absolutely loved it. The whole place was bright and shiny with lovely airy interior and decking area with palm trees, and a toilet in a shed that was homage to Elvis! But it was the interior that I loved most; there were locally made lampshades, tea cups used as sugar bowls, brown sauce in unlabelled bottles and amazing seats.

The stools had different messages that were cheekily inviting people to sit down and the sofa was kitschly covered in collaged tea towels. I would love to try this at home if I discover a sofa on freecycle and have a surfeit of tea towels.

Its really worth a visit if you are in the area, the breakfasts were really tasty (but they also do really good cakes and salads) and they source ingredients locally with their own free-range chickens and sustainable coffee. They have recently launched a new craft market (they are on the look out for more stallholders) and they are using the space for different projects, when we visited it was local city farm including piglets and pygmy goats. (I do love a goat, I spent a lot of time at Woolfest this year making friends with them.)

Also on our travels we visited Arch materials (next to the Arch Gallery) which was a lovely shop selling all manner of oil pastels and art paper. 

Next stop was The Laban Centre for contemporary dance, which was designed by the same people as the Tate Modern/Bankside power station renovation. It is a lovely building which I had long admired from the train, so it was nice to see in person. I have earmarked the cafe as a spot for a future trip, as it looked like it was doing a roaring trade in soup and sandwiches. I particularly liked the geometric grassy hillocks outside.

We then walked into Greenwich (checking out local libraries, swimming pools and cycling shops) and then walked back up Royal Hill where discovered some excellent local shops. Royal Hill is home to the Greenwich Union pub (the tap of the local Meantime brewery), which serves excellent fruit beers. However I also discovered a row of shops I'd never noticed before including florists, cheese shop, butchers and fishmongers. The Creaky Shed, the fantastically named greengrocers had the most fantastic display outside and I'll definitely be cycling down here to buy food from them in the future.

Finally, we had an afternoon cuppa at the Royal Teas which is small but vibrant. (Apparently there has been some recent controversy so they can't serve the vegetarian food they used to.) Good stop for tea and cake with community noticeboard and the papers. The bird clock, in particular, caught my eye — I think it is a decal with clock face overlaid.

It was really nice discovering how Deptford and Greenwich linked together and find new places that are close to my house. The Royal Teas and Creaky Shed were also members of the wedge card which reminded me that I should join up to support local shops and traders.

The Fourth Plinth

*Warning! Contains gratuitous Archers segue*

After work I went to Trafalgar Square to see Marian Cinnamond on the Plinth. Antony Gormley's Fourth Plinth project has been running for a week but is set to run for 100 days (until October time) and will feature 2,500 people over this time period. Tonight seemed to be knitting night because although plinthers had been randomly chosen, two knitters were featuring and Iknit had organised a knit around the Plinth.

I have to confess that I am slightly obsessed with the idea of the Plinth - I love the social aspect to it and I have found myself quite frequently wondering who is on it at various moments. I'm loving the range of the different things people are choosing to do, like raise awareness of a particular organisation, cooking food or having a tea break. I'm very jealous that one of my co-workers has a space on the Plinth although he is having no truck with my attempts of trying to teach him to knit. There is still time to knit a flower for Anne Makepeace going up on the Plinth on Sunday 26th July so I might just have to be content my doing that!

(And as I can't keep The Archers out of any discussion of the Plinth, I did think that although the contest for the Ambridge Plinth did start off in an inspired fashion with Jill Archer baking bread at height, the culmination on Sunday of Gormley opening the fete and Joe Grundy as the Angel of Ambridge was a tad disappointing I feel).

Anyway, we trundled along and knitted and got some slightly strange looks but had a lovely time nevertheless. Marian knitted with aplomb and also drank tea out of cup & saucer which was fab. Hurrah for knitters! 

Liz and Felix were there with Brenda Dayne. It was very nice to meet Brenda (despite not being an avid Cast On fan) and we somehow got on to a discussion about strawbale building. I have a secret desire to build a strawbale house and Brenda shares my enthusiasm.  As she is currently living in Wales and being active in searching for land I suspect she might be in a better position to make it a reality some time soon but nevertheless it was a lovely discussion. 

For strawbale inspiration, for people interested:
- North Kesteven District Council in Lincolnshire is the first local authority in the UK to use straw bales to construct social housing which I think is very exciting.
- Ben Law's amazing and beeeeutiful woodland house in Grand Designs can be seen here.  (It always makes me cry this episode)

(Liz and Brenda working it for the camera!)

We also had a discussion on knitting community and my militant public knitter views were exposed. (If it is possible to be such a thing) I have always felt strongly that knitting has a social role and I have always loved the way that with knitting, discussions across a wide range of topics (from personal, political & technical questions) intersect with projects and conversations almost seen knitted into the fabric of the knitting. I did get quite indignant when a local cafe owner argued that the knitting group would be better suited to a community centre rather than a busy, public cafe. For me, I love the reclamation of knitting from a largely private, domestic sphere and drafty community halls where it is too easy to ignore,to be a more visible social activity and it was nice to be able to celebrate this on a sunny evening in Trafalgar Square.

A-sides, besides and seasides

There's been a lot going on over the last few months — two weddings of people very dear to me, a holiday to my most favourite place, a new job, a new flat and a fest of wool. Much excitement and lots of time spent with some of my most favourite people. But also lots of changes to digest and some much needed time out.

I've read some books, done a modest amount of knitting, walked, paddled and eaten some tasty food. I'm sure lots of stories will feature here over the next couple of weeks while I find my feet but for now I shall leave you with a photo and a few of the things that I have been enjoying over the past few months...

- David Attenborough's Life Stories - Lovely short histories of animals and plants, I loved the one about sloths particularly.
- My new flat (more on that story later...) and becoming a regular London bus knitter!
- Florence and the Machine - my latest band crush, listen to Rabbit Heart loud and the drums sound so good (Raise it up!)
- River Cottage Spring - I still *heart* Hugh and they had a evening where they had to make food for the cafe using leftovers which I thought was just so good.
- Landshare, which I think is a really inspiring way of linking communities together through the sharing of land and growing of food.

Birthdays, Boats, Candles & Cakes

 

It was my birthday last week and I had a thoroughly lovely time. I tend to like staggering the celebrations and this year was  no exception.  I started on Wednesday evening with dinner at Waccaha after managing to leave my new hat in the pub. (It has since been reclaimed thankfully!)

Celebrations on the day included being treated to a lovely breakfast in Chapters in Blackheath, going by boat (!) from Greenwich to Embankment which is something I have wanted to do for ages. Inside it is a bit like a coach so I insisted we sat outside.

Then onwards to the Natural History Museum to see the Darwin Big Idea exhibition and giggling at John Hegley at Arts Admin. Poetry about guillemots seems very apt on my birthday – I am determined to find a video online to post of it. (My incredibly bad limerick did triumph in the poetry competition) Peppermint tea and hummingbird bakery cakes ended the day nicely.

Still prolonging the birthday joy, I had drinks in the pub on Friday where I was spectacularly late (even by my shoddy timekeeping standards) and continued celebrations on Saturday by going to an Anti-Valentine’s Massacre where my friend Catherine launched her new EP and then to an evening of bawdy songs with Bellowhead. (This including dressing in drag, men in makeup, a burlesque dancer and some of the rudest songs I have ever heard. You can check out photos here to get a favour of the evening.

Back in Oxford on Sunday, I had a lovely lunch at The Black Boy in (old) Headington with my family, which I can thoroughly recommend, lovely food and really nice atmosphere, with beautiful roses, pressies and lovely conversation. Finished up with fruit cake and candles and singing. Perfect birthday long weeked.

Reclaim the (Snowy) Streets

I should caveat this post by saying, I don’t like snow. Its cold, wet and EVERYTHING breaks and I really don’t like being cold & wet however pretty it is.

“Its going to snow on Monday”, J said, “Humph” said I.

When I got up yesterday morning, I looked out my window to see a sprinkling of snow – bah! I thought, no problems getting to work. If the bus doesn’t arrive, I’ll come home. I bustled around making tea, grumbling at the girl reading the shipping forecast who I thought was rubbish. She put punctuation in ALL the wrong places! And while I forgive a lot of things, the shipping forecast is sacred.

However, as we got inside the M25 the snow looked quite deep but still pretty. Then then my team at work started calling saying they couldn’t come in to work from places like Fulham and Baker Street. “Really?” I said, “no buses, no tubes, that’s a bit strange” and sat tight.

J called “South Eastern Trains website has broken and I’m going to work by boat”, a little extreme I thought.

Bus slowed to snails pace, ho hum, I started to regret not having any knitting with me. 

8.30 am – my boss calls, “Don’t bother coming in, its really deep in London and you don’t want to be stranded”, “I’m at Marble Arch…” I replied and still I ventured on.

Finally I arrived at Victoria, very deep snow had drifted across pavements, train station closed. Behold the snowy wonderland – roads empty of traffic, a strange muffled sound and people passing each other smiling. It was a like a strange parallel universe where everywhere was blissfully empty to tramp about. I did get slightly wet feet, apparently my boots need fixing. My legwarmers however rocked.

9am. Got to work and I was the only person in my department of about 70 people. Everyone I called is snowed in, and I decided that I didn’t want to get stranded so decided to pick work up and get back on a bus before they stopped running too. I think three cheers should be given for Oxford Express bus drivers who managed so well with the horrible conditions and also all the men who were shovelling snow and ice and gritting pavements as fast as they could.

But, I may have got sidetracked with my camera on the way back to the bus. Look Big Ben, icicles, snow, hurrah!  

Coming back was fun – I saw some lovely snowy countryside with red kites circling looking for food. And now, feeling stoic and smug I’m writing some marketing plans, wrapped in a blanket and wearing my newly finished selbu modern hat.

And I have to admit it was quite fun even though I don’t like snow, usually.

More of my snowy pictures can be found in my flickr set here.

2008: Pick of the Year in Laraland

Having watched, listened and read various reviews of the year and being a fan of pick of the week, this is my pick of 2008.

Gig of the Year –Tough call but I think for me Lisa Hannigan @ Smith Square was  a late entry in this category. She was simply amazing, completely blew me away and did great covers of Tom Thumb's Blues, Lady is a Tramp and Free Until They Cut Me Down.

Strong contenders:
- Radiohead at Malahide Castle in Dublin, they came on underneath a rainbow and it was the first time I had ever seen them live.
- Spiers and Boden at Union Chapel. First time heard whole of Vagabond performed and thought it was pretty special.

Top albums of 2008: I couldn't narrow it down to just one but these for me were favourites this year.

- Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever ago.  It really grew on me, I thought it was dull at first.
-Lisa Hannigan – Sea Sew. Lovely lovely lovely and the CD case features knitting and embroidery. Very happy.
- Pete & the Pirates – Little Death. For sheer indiepop joy that has me jumping around.
- Spiers and Boden – Vagabond.  My favourite folk album to date features pirates, outlaws and all manner of vagrants.
- The Mummers: Tale To Tell. Fairytale gothic songs that soar and swoop all over the place with overtones of marching bands or fairground rides. I loved Raissa’s voice when i was a young teenybopper and she supported Suede at several gigs. And they rehearse in a treehouse - what is there not to like?!  

Book of the Year: - The Amateur Marriage – Anne Tyler.
Although I have to say that 2008 is one of my all time lows for reading. I seemed to read quite a few books that were either trashy or I was really underwhelmed by. Reading more (and better) books  is definitely on the list for 2009.

Film of the Year: - Sex in the City. 
I don’t think there is anything else to say. I loved it. All of it. Apart from the dead bird thing on her head in the wedding scene. (Why would anyone want a blue parrot stuck on your hair?)

Best political moment of the year: - Internationally: Obama winning in US. (Obviously)
- Domestically: 24 weeks Abortion limit defended (although frankly I think it is shocking it was ever seriously threatened) and sales of free range chicken going through the roof after last year’s big food fight programmes and Hellman’s mayo using free range eggs. 
Check out the f-word's UK top ten feminist moments of 2008 which is also well worth a read.

Worst political moment of the year: Boris – what was London thinking? Bah.  Incredibly depressing.

Craft achievements of the year: Overall I was a lot more productive than in the past with more finished objects...

I made my first garment (s) including (slightly odd) socks and my cardigan which is gorgeous and I wear a lot. I also completed by first sewing FO and finally finished the effing cushion. I knitted in the dark for the first time and hunted for treasure on worldwide knitting in public day with Kirsty and Alice. I finally got round to trying out fairisle which I love (still to blog), actually made soda bread rather than just talking about it, got into making muffins,  made some shrinkie-dink pins, reacquainted myself with letraset, experimented with more felting  and managed to spread some knitterly love with the bluestockings’ blanket for Felix.

Phew! I often feel not very productive and while there is a lot more that could be done, I don’t think that is bad all in all.

Favourite FO: Fabric bead Necklace. I love it. Everytime I wear it, I like how it looks and I get constant compliments on it. I’m hoping to make more in 2009 with slightly different fabrics. I’m thinking of making one with smaller beads to use up fabric scraps.

Largest knitting disaster: There has been a few, the slippers as a starting point, discovering that puppies and wool don’t mix has resulted in some interesting results.

Most ambitious project: Having talked myself down from the ledge of wanting to knit my director’s chair covers, I think this gong goes to the Having Hope socks – never having cabled and knitted from the toe up, I see now that this was quite an ambitious second pair of socks. All was well, if not slow until the cuff when I have spectacularly mucked up the cuff,  it is now frogged to the heel and I need to work out quite how to sort out the wreckage.

UFOs not touched in 2008: Witterings – it makes me look ridiculous, I might finish it and give it away, never has anything been so disappointing. Minisweater,  so little to do I can’t be bothered it seems, and the peg bag of death.

Blogtastic moments of the Year: Messy Tuesdays Love – I have loved all the variations that have sprung up on this theme and how different people have revelled in exposing the messier side of life.

Exicting new blog discoveries: This year I massively expanded the list of blogs I read by using the magical google reader. Although it seems a bit mean to highlight just a few but the following have become staple reads in 2008: Needled, Polkadotmocha, Other Stories, Dogged, Flint Knits, Yarnmonster, SixOneSeven, A Shrill Carmel & A Tiny Plot.

Doing this round up of the year reminded me about so much I haven't blogged or recorded but it also made me really appreciate all the comments and emails I have recieved from people stopping by here.Thanks for taking the time to read here and respond to my various ramblings and here's to a great 2009!

A more productive weekend

Thank you for all your lovely comments about the car – it helped lots while I do battle with insurance companies and feel still a bit whiplashed. This weekend was a much better experience.

On Friday I went to the Globe for the first time to see Timon of Athens. The play was really quite strange but I thought the Globe was breathtaking as a performance space and I really enjoyed being able to see theatre for £5 on a friday night. However it did strike me as slightly strange that the production used quite a lot of special effects including use of bungees and dry ice, felt slightly at odds with the space.

Saturday evening was spent at Jamie's Italian, the new Jamie Oliver restaurant in Oxford. It was splendid - lovely food, the house wine was organic in apparently eco-tetrapak (!) and the music was 90s indiemusic - Sneaker Pimps, Primal Scream. J was particularly impressed with the waitresses using PDAs to take the orders like a good geek boy.  We both liked the wall behind our table which was covered in the aged frames - the photo is a bit grainy because J took it on his Iphone and I'm shamelessly plundering it. We then went to the Old Bookbinders to drink less nice wine but it is such a lovely pub and its in a part of town I don't usually drink in.

Sunday afternoon was spent at Katie's teaparty catching up with the lovely knitters and eating good cake.

Felix arrived on monday armed with Yorkshire tea and stories of Italian adventures. We did in the course of the evening manage to put most of my wardrobe into bags for charity shops. Like Felix I have been overhauling my wardrobe over the past year. My office is quite smart and has made me realise how old and battered some of my clothes actually look. I had managed to buy some smarter clothes but failed to actually get rid of items - it is my compulsive hoarder tendencies kicking in again. As we put clothes into bin liners it became apparent I have a lot of clothes for well over ten years, pre-university in some cases, and there are only so many clothes for doing rugged exercise and gardening in (considering I don't have a garden!) so it will be interesting to see how I get on with a much reduced amount of clothes. Some t-shirts became dusters and quite a few jumpers are in a craft pile to make into new things... Watch this space!  So all in all a very good weekend for recharging batteries and getting ready for autumn.