Last weekend I had the good fortune to visit "Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination" at The British Library. What an incredible exhibition. 150 beautifully illustrated and written manuscripts on display for us to be absorbed by. We didn't read the information before going in, so failed to realise that there were 150 of them to look at - we probably took an hour looking at the first 15 before looking beyond the next manuscript and realising the extent yet to be seen. Definitely the kind of exhibition to take your time over, and to be absorbed by, and also to think a bit about what these manuscripts have survived - 500 years of fires, wars etc.

The British Library have put images from some of the manuscripts into Facebook albums and whilst they are good to look at and study the detail of, they look so very flat and ordinary when compared to the real thing - no matter how good the photographer is, it's very hard to get gold to shimmer in a still image.

On Monday, Richard spotted the BBC Four series Illuminations: The Private Life of Kings which provided to be an excellent resource of post-exhibition information, although I did find myself saying "Ohh, yes, I remember that one" quite a lot.

All in all, definitely one to try and get to.

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via thisiscolossal.com (Spotted via flipboard picks)

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Weaving project #10 was another bookmark, and another bookmark gift.  This one for a friend who is currently studying to be a teacher, and who has recently been writing an essay on Maths and on patterns. It seemed appropriate, somehow, to make her a woven, pattern based, bookmark.  I started off considering this, and this, as they seemed very primary school maths, but in the end I decided on this slightly more sophisticated pattern.

My friend is vegan, which complicated things somewhat, as the most successful of my previous projects have involved wool, which is, obviously, animal based. Fortunately, as part of my yarn identification programme (or, lets buy lots of cheap yarn from Kemps and see what I like and what I don't) I had a selection of acrylic or cotton based yarns. The cotton based ones I discarded as I'd found them too splitty when I did weaving projects #5 and #6, which left me with a handful of acrylic options. I ended up using a Stylecraft Special DK (in Raspberry Marl) warp, and a Jarol Supersoft DK (in white) weft thread - both much thicker than I'd usually use which has left it a bit heftier than normal. However, also being thicker, it took a fairly short time to make up - in the order of 2 hours - which was handy as this was a bit of a last minute gift idea.

Overall, quite happy with the end result. I think DK is a bit too heavy for a bookmark normally, but might well get experimented with a bit more on something a bit bigger as it certainly holds the pattern together well. This was also the first time I really had a very pale weft over a dark warp - and I quite like the effect of the colour from the warp peaking through. Again, I think another experiement of light weft might be in the pipeline (fortunately my yarn pile has some options for me to work through!). 

Weaving Project #11 isn't going to be a bookmark for a change! Watch this space.

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via inspire.2ia.pl

Beautifully prepared and evocative imagery

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via mymodernmet.com

These look wonderful, the texture, the folds, they look so, erm, like paper
The blog has some nice history pieces

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via thisiscolossal.com

A friend sent me the link to this on Monday, and I've spent quite a while thinking about it. It is so clever, I have no idea how anyone can visualise this kind of thing.

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Today I finally had the opportunity to do something that had been on my todo list for a while - move the collection of SQL Server Helper Scripts and the Kindle annotations to text file applescript I wrote into a proper repository. I hope that it will make it easier for other people to make changes and enhance the scripts rather than having to email me updates/leave me comments on requirements etc.

I chose github as it seemed to be the most frequently used repository amongst my colleagues and friends, and because I haven't really used git much before so thought it would be a good way to get some exposure to it (and so far a combination of the help text provided and a husband who knows his way about git seems to be working).

I'm going to spend a little time going back through the various blog posts to try and get the links all hooked up to the right place, but as with everything else around here, there are no guarantees I'll catch them all.

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via brainpickings.org

From actual bookmarks to photographs, ticket stubs, lists, scribbled recipes, children’s drawings, birth certificates, four-leaf-clovers, unsent love letters, and countless other funny, heartbreaking, and odd ephemera, this scrapbook of Popek’s most intriguing finds opens a rare window into the private lives of anonymous strangers through snippets of their life stories.

Something about this really appeals. Recording the stuff found inside books, against the books, and then letting the books go on their merry journey onwards to have new bookmarks left in them.

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via news.nationalgeographic.com

I remember reading a book about the polar expeditions as a little girl and I've always been a bit fascinated by the bravery, the adventure and the sheer toughness. I read Apsley Cherry-Garrard's "The Worst journey in the World" quite a few years ago and still found the story incredible as an adult.

The photos that the National Geographic have posted as part of the 100 years anniversary are delightful and well worth a browse.

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I'd spotted a draft at handweaving.net that I thought would work well as a bookmark. When I made project #8 I transcribed the pattern on to squared paper, and as that worked well I thought I'd try that again. And I'm glad I did as I'd neglected to realise that as I was only using 16 warp threads (2 x plain for the edges, 2 x 6 for the patterned bit, 2 x plain for the edges again), and the draft was a 6 warp repeater, then I needed to get everything lined up perfectly in the plan so that I could make the most of the pattern. So, I had another attempt as can be seen from the page below and got it right this time.

This draft repeats on a 6 warp, 12 weft pattern, and this made it take quite a lot of concentration and I felt I needed to be quite alert to do it, so no weaving whilst watching the tv or anything. And little chance of remembering the pattern - I had to keep referring to my plan. The photo below shows progress at 4 repetitions and it was, to my eyes anyway, starting to look pretty good.

It feels like this has taken quite a long time to finish, partially because I've been distracted making granny squares and partially because I felt it needed concentration. However, having just checked through my notes, it is only 2 weeks since I warped the loom, so it isn't really that long. January seems to have been a long month already.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with. I need to think of a good back-of-bookmark solution though, as it never feels completely finished off when it's a wool based bookmark as the thread ends aren't as inconspicous as they were with the thinner threads.

And, just so I remember, the warp was Debbie Bliss eco baby and the weft was Rowan pure wool 4 ply, both bought from nearby C&H Fabrics. 

So, the edges still aren't completely straight, but they're definitely heading in the right direction. The tension is pretty consistent along all the bookmark which again is an improvement. So all in all, still progress in the right direction.  And most importantly I still really like the pattern. I am finding the handweaving.net site to be an amazing time sink as I plot and plan future adventures. As I mentioned in my granny square post, I've got a load of different yarns that I can try out for weavability so maybe project #10 should be similar to the sampler I did a while ago where I just try out loads of different yarns to separate the good from the bad and just accept the fact that it'll feel like a bit of a waste of time/yarn but that it's all good practice and learning opportunities.

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Last time I blogged about granny squares I'd made 5 of them. I've now made 15 in total. I've found them to be very easy things to make whilst watching the tv, or whilst on a train last weekend.

The first set I made, were made with some lovely Amy Butler by Rowan DK yarn that I'd found at C&H Fabrics in their sale. Although this was in the sale, it wasn't cheap enough that making lots and lots of granny squares wasn't going to hurt eventually. So, I followed a friend's advice and headed over to the Kemps Wool Shop site. I know very little about yarns yet, so experimenting with different materials and textures is part of the learning process - especially for the weaving side of things where splitty yarn makes consistency of weft almost impossible to achive. I decided that as the first batch were done using DK, the rest should be too, so I basically searched for any yarns under £2 that were DK, and that no 2 brand/style combinations could be the same.  This resulted in me ordering 10 balls of yarn (a mixture of 50g and 100g) which turned up on Friday. 

I've now used all but two of them, and my experience has ranged from hate (Sirdar Bonus DK in sunflower yellow - used for squares 11 and 12) to love (Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo in Paintbox pink - used in square 13 - which I found a joy to work with) with a lot of the others being somewhere in between. I still really like the Amy Butler by Rowan ones too, but they're a pretty expensive way to produce Granny Squares. I may give some of them a try out on the picture-frame loom as well to see how they perform in a weaving context.

My plan is to make a blanket out of these squares, it'll be an oddly sized blanket as I have a specific use for it in mind, but it'll be a blanket none the less. I've spotted patterns for quite a lot of variations on the granny square theme, so I'll be trying some of them out as I progress in my learnings.

Just to finish, here's a photo of my favourite one to date.

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via mymodernmet.com

These are stunning, and incredibly detailed. I just wish there was something to indicate the scale of them

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via mymodernmet.com

Wow! Just wow! Watch the video too

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When I wrote about my Christmas crafting I mentioned that I'd made a batch of flower loom flowers. My plan was to make a small, 3 flowered, posey for my Mum to brighten her room up. When I got to start planning to put these together I decided that I'd get some ribbon to put around the "stalks". And then I thought a bit harder, and decided that I'd weave a wrapping for the stalk instead. So that's what I did. Using a different coloured version of the same cotton I used for weaving project #1 I made a 6 warp width strip which I ended up hemming - and got it to be a lot straighter and more even than the first attempt - so again, progress has been made. Here it is on the loom:

and here it is, barely visible, but wrapped around the stem of the flowers

Realistically, ribbon would probably have worked better, but I'm really pleased to be able to take something to my Mum which is entirely made my me as I'm sure she'd appreciate that.

After attaching the flowers to my scarf a couple of weeks ago, I'd been wondering about the possibility of making a scarf entirely out of flowers. I'd spotted these instructions on how to join flowers together and set out to make a 3 x 3 square as an experiment. 

As you can see, that is a 2 x 2 square of woven flowers. I decided I wanted my flowers to be attached by more than just one petal, and so each flower is attached to any other flower by 3 of the back petals. So, the top left flower has 3 rear petals attached to its right hand neighbour, and 3 attached to its neighbour down below. I found this really fiddly, and frustrating and there was a lot of swearing and general grumpiness. That is why I decided to stick with a 2 x 2 square. Again, though, a good lesson in try something small before embarking on a larger project - if I'd been out and bought the yarn for a scarf's worth of flowers, I'd have been pretty cross with myself.

Towards the end of last year, I'd tracked down a local lady who did private crochet tuition, and learning to crochet was something I wanted to do as it was something my Mum could do, and therefore I thought I should be able to. I made an appointment, but ill health prevented me from going and seeing her. I rearranged my lesson for last week, and ended up spending 2 and a half hours with Joanne as she patiently taught me the basics. Consequently, the last week has seen me making granny square after granny square - 5 in total so far. 3 following these instructions, and 2 incorporating flower loom flowers following these instructions. Here they are with the right hand one being #1 (my first attempt that took 2 evenings and a lot of unravelling), through to #5 (which took a little over an hour) at the left. They haven't been blocked yet or anything.

There are photos of them all individually too in my Granny Square set at flickr. My Mum made a couple of blankets using this design - not squares, just continuous circuits - and so my very simple aim of being able to do what my Mum could do is met. I'm going to be on the lookout for easy and simple projects that I can do to build on these starting blocks in the near future - so if you have suggestions, let me know.

Finally weaving project #9 is on the go - it's another bookmark, but is more complicated than the last one in that it is a repeating 6 warp x 12 weft design and so I need to concentrate on it to make sure I know which weft I'm working on at any one time and so isn't a "in front of the tv" project. I do think that it's starting to look pretty good (after 3 repetitons) and that, again, I'm liking the reverse of the bookmark just as much as the front. No photos until it's completed though.

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I figured that as I had a spare small flower, and some odds and ends of yarn, I could make a 2012 picture from them. So, I hope you have a happy 2012!

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Some time last year I gained a thick, grey scarf, which whilst incredibly warm, was somewhat dull. On the train on the way back from my visit to see Mum, I started making the flowers for it and all that was left was attaching them. Turns out the flowers were the easy bit. 

This was the starting point, the freshly laundered scarf.

I attached the first 3 flowers, and laid it flat, and was reasonably pleased with the positioning.

But, when I picked the scarf up, the larger flowers flopped over. I attempted to attach some of the left hand flower's petals, but wasn't pleased with my attempt, although it did work better than the untouched flower at bottom right. The middle smaller flower looked just fine.

I contemplated removing all the flowers and reworking using all smaller flowers, but I was encouraged by my advisor to persist, and give it another go. This I did yesterday, and did a much more planned approach (using pins and everything!) and am happier with the results. They're still not perfect, but they're good enough I think. So, here they are with all 6 sewn on, laying flat.

And here they are hanging vertically. There is still some general floppiness, but I didn't want to catch all the petals and make them really flat or too neat - some of their charm, to me, is the slightly scruffy, fluffy nature of them. So, it is a bit of a compromise, and I can always catch a few more up over time if I feel like it.

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Whilst visiting Richard's folks in Margate, I had some time to craft a few things (in order of them starting):

Weaving Project #6 - a sampler

I decided to put the maximum number of warp threads I could onto my picture frame loom (33 as it turns out) and just try out a few things. I started off doing sets of 6 weft rows in pink, interlaced with 2 weft rows in blue.

The bottom section is just plain weave. Then second section is over 2 and under 1. The third section is a plain weave with a diamond. The fourth section is the inverse of the second section - under 2 over 1. The fifth section is over 2 and under 2.

For the main, middle section, I attempted to follow my first proper draft, and as it was an 8 warp pattern, I used plain weave on the edges, and left a warp thread visible to use as a frame. The draft I followed was this one from the fantastic Handweaving.net

Then I repeated the first 5 sections in reverse before finishing off both ends using hemstitching.

I learnt a few things during this:

1. Not all yarns are created even - the pink yarn (as with the blues in project #5) split very easily and make it really difficult to get any form of consistency
2. It is important to leave a good amount of overlap when joining weft threads together - there is a bit of a gap at the back
3. Drafts aren't too hard to follow - although I did have to transcribe it onto paper to be able to follow it properly and scribble notes as I went
4. For neatness/consistency, it would make more sense for me to start hemstitching at the bottom right, and start at the top left - that way I'm doing the same stitches
5. I need think about tension consistency all of the time (although it isn't as bad in real life as this picture makes it look)
6. Making things for the sake of making them isn't very satisfying - I need to find projects to use my creations

Flower loom flower bookmark

A friend bought me a lovely book for Christmas, and despite having made 2 bookmarks as presents (#3, #5) for other people, I didn't have one myself. As the loom was still being used for Weaving Project #6, I decided to knock up a bookmark using the flower loom and a simple chain stitched "stalk"

It is a simple creation - just 4 rounds of duck egg blue on the smaller of the pins on my bloom loom with a long tail left at the beginning, and at the end, and the centre stitched in the darker blue.  The two tails were then just chained together (I can't crochet yet, so although messy, this is a major achievement)

Flower loom flowers

Flower loom flowers are quite addictive. They're very simple, and don't take much time to make - 20 - 30 minutes each depending on the complexity. And yet they look quite good. These are going to make a posey for my Mum. A friend has sent me lots of other ideas for things I can do with these flowers too, so there will be more of these being created. There was an additional one created, but it was gifted to my Mother-In-Law.

Weaving Project #7 - a bookmark

This project was properly planned from start to finish - I looked through HandWeaving.net to select a draft that didn't look too complicated, and then worked out the number of warps I'd need (a multiple of 3 plus 2 on either side as a "margin"). The yellow thread is the same style of thread as that used in Project #6 but it works fine as a warp and doesn't split in the same way. I used some green wool I picked up a while ago as the weft and found it much easier, and more consistent to work with resulting in pretty straight edges. I now need to work out how to determine whether a yarn will work or not without standing in a shop and twisting it around.

This is the first weaving project since #3 that I can say I'm actually happy with. The yarn worked well, the pattern was easy to follow, and I enjoyed making it. Even the fringe bits are much more even than my previous attempts (don't ever let me cut your hair though - chances are that you'll end up with much less hair than you planned)

I like the reverse just as much.

The only problem I have is that I mainly use my kindle for reading, so don't actually need a lot of bookmarks. However, more bookmarks will be being created as they're a great size to experiment with, and only take about 3 hours to weave.

I'm hoping to find some time over the rest of the holiday period to craft a few more bits and bobs, but thought that this was a big enough blog post already!

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