Month: November 2022

Charlie, Quinn and Queenie, and a hot Christmas Craft Fair!

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I thought I would just share with you a little update of some of the crafting projects I mentioned in my previous post. I have been very busy getting everything done for this week, in between my increasingly hectic social life 😉

It is so lovely to have so many things to do and people to spend time with, I really never expected this when I came here. I thought I would be mainly in my new craft space making, and instead I am out so many evenings with new friends.

First to be finished was the Luna rabbit, who I named Charlie. This was a commission from one of the people who entered the ‘guess the name’ earlier on this year. She had requested a rabbit for her grandson in neutral colours so I made one out of linen again and made him a winter and a summer outfit, all from charity shop clothes in my stash.

I was very pleased with the way that the formal shirt turned out, it was very fiddly but well worth it. I am very happy with my neat top stitching, that is getting so much better. It helps to have such a lovely new machine.

I finished the reindeer last weekend, they are probably the cutest things that I have ever knitted, look at that little face!

The draw for the reindeer took place yesterday, I sold some of the names earlier this week to friends at my knitting and sewing groups and the rest at the Christmas Craft Fair that was organised to support the local foodbank charity.

All of the names were sold and the winning choice was Quinn and Queenie. They have gone off to their new homes today. This raised 100 euros for the charity and we raised a lot more with the tombola and other stalls.

All of the patterns for the reindeer and clothes are from Little Cotton Rabbits. The reindeer pattern is a free supplement to the fox pattern, I knitted two of those last year for Ellen and Sarah and you just adjust the placement of the ears and add antlers and speckles.

The Christmas dress and jumper are both from the seasonal pattern sets and the spare dress from the textured dress set of patterns. I particularly loved making the textured dress as it looks so lovely and the yarn knits up beautifully.

The craft fair was held outside the charity shop on a rather hot day yesterday, it has been unseasonably warm here and it was about 24 degrees yesterday so I was glad that I was in the shade. Many of my friends had their crafting for sale. I bought this gorgeous mandala dream catcher for my bedroom from Gale.

Gale also had lots of other dreamcatchers and key rings, she is going to teach us some macrame at knitting group at some point.

These cute little Christmas puddings with chocolates in were made by Mary who had lots of other versions on her stall.

Tracy and Isla had a beautiful selection of knitted and crocheted toys and clothes.

I bought one of Edith’s gorgeous candle holders last year and this year bought some of her crochet pot holders that match my kitchen.

Lynne and Linda were manning the donations stall.

I also bought these amazing hand embroidered silk handkerchiefs from Vivien, who selling them on behalf of a friend. They are so delicate and I plan to turn them into some gorgeous outfits for the Barbie dolls. I am going to spend a little bit of time in my atelier over the next few weeks getting back to Barbie haute couture.

I have also been cycling, the sky was so clear this week and the views across to the mountains have been wonderful.

My latest knitting project is Rainbow Rascals from Dollytime on Etsy. The picture below is from her website.

I love the bright colours of these dolls and have previously knitted her little snowmen. They are a very easy knit as the legs, head and body are all knitted as one piece and that includes the stripy jumper. I am looking forward to making some cute skirts to go with them. I’m not sure where these will go as they might just be kept until next year for Christmas boxes for the local charities.

I have about 6 weeks now until I go off on further travels so am looking forward to lots of lovely adventures on my bike and knitting and stitching on the sofa! I hope that you are all having a lovely time whatever you are doing. Have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Dressing Fancy

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As you may know by now I love a good costume and nothing makes my little heart happier than going to events where others feel the same. Whether it is Steampunk, Medieval or just a chance to dress up in something, I love the sense of freedom it gives you, and the creativity that people display in what they chose to wear.

I think it is interesting that most of my friends still enjoy what we might consider pursuits that are for children, not adults. They love dressing up, fantasy games, board games, model making and painting, and costumed dance and drama. I think these are very vital for our mental health, they keep us in touch with our carefree inner child, and they give us the opportunity to spend time with like minded people.

I have been updating my podcast list on my tablet as I have been doing lots of machine sewing recently and I love to listen to podcasts or watch sewing vlogs while I do that. Two of my favourite are on the history of Fashion, called Dressed, and one about fancy dress, called Dress Fancy. They are both well worth a listen. I have just discovered two recent episodes on the history of lace on the Dressed one so will be listening to those soon.

One of the things I love about Spain is the opportunity to dress up at the many fiestas here. I love all of them, whether it is Moors and Christians, the traditional dress at religious parades and the many different ones celebrating local events. The Benidorm one that I went to this week started some 40 years ago as an extra day after a 3 day festival honouring local saints. One of the bars offered free food and drink for anyone dressed up that day and it grew from there. It is estimated that 30,000 people come for the fiesta which makes it the largest fancy dress party in Europe, perfect for me!

I went with one of the local coach companies and met some friends there. As they were doing Steampunk I bought an outfit from England. This worked well and I got lots of compliments on my hat, although the temperature did get up to 29 degrees so may have to think of something cooler for next year 😉

What was wonderful to see was the many groups who had come with a theme, it was so crowded that I didn’t get chance to get pictures of everyone but there were many crews from Top Gun, Wizard of Oz characters, plus many Elvises, a few Rod Stewarts and at least one Freddie Mercury.

The 1960s was a popular theme as well with some brilliant outfits like this silver one.

Disney is always a popular choice and this Malificent was magnificent.

Henry 8th was there, with just the one wife, a beautifully dressed Anne Boleyn.

As I was leaving the main area I bumped into B1 and B2 from the children’s video series Bananas in Pyjamas. My children loved this when they were little.

These cleaning ladies were wonderful, even down to the cigarettes hanging out of their mouths.

The gnomes had excellent patchwork waistcoats on.

These Morris dancers spent a lot of time doing performances for the crowds.

This couple must have spent hours on their amazing Avatar face painting.

I think one of my very favourites was the three girl bikers, loved their sequinned helmets!

Many of the groups had a travel theme, there were ships captains, airline pilots and a group of stewardesses dancing in front of the bar we were at.

It was just absolutely brilliant to see everyone dancing and enjoying themselves, all the more precious after the last couple of years, when at times I think we all thought we would never be allowed near more than 5 other humans again!

I ended the afternoon with a trip down to the beach for some food and a cool off and watched the sun go down so I was able to take some arty shots there.

A really lovely day out. I have had a very sociable week this week and so am going to have a very quiet one next week. After today the reindeers will be completed, the rabbit has already been delivered, so my next post will be sharing those pictures.

I have signed up for a couple more Future Learn courses as my Mary Queen of Scots one ends this coming week, and my online History of Canals one ends the week after so wanted to have something else to keep the brain active. Oh and I have finally got my guitar, courtesy of my aunt, I did my first lesson today.

I played guitar whilst at primary school and loved it so this was another of my things I wanted to do in retirement. I am just using some apps and You Tube videos at the moment but enjoyed getting back to it this morning.

I will be finishing off the Christmas ornaments for family this coming week as my stitching project and have a new knitting project to share with you in the next post. I hope you are having a lovely time whatever you are doing, have a great weekend, have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

Fan-tastic time

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Apologies for the awful pun but could not resist! We had a lovely day this Wednesday with the fan workshop and then a meal out with the sewing group. I am so lucky to have met such a wonderful group of very talented people and love meeting up with them every week.

The workshop was led by Vivien who has embroidered 70 fans herself and runs a lace stitching group every week at her home. I don’t think I am going to have time to do this regularly but loved learning the little bit that we did this week. It will probably take a while for the project to be finished as I have to do all of the others first but it is just the sort of quiet and intricate stitching that I love.

The motifs we made are to be glued on to a fan, I chose a white one but there were many others available.

There were various flower motifs to choose from, that Vivien had already drawn onto the orange backing fabric. The tulle is then basted on top.

Since I wear a lot of purple, and fans are an essential item here in the summer I chose purple thread for my contrast colour.

This type of lace is called needle run lace and there are many different regional variations of it.

The stitching involves a running stitch through the holes in the tulle to start with and then going back and oversewing each line to secure it as we will eventually cut around each motif. You then fill in the larger areas of the motif with your choice of filling stitch. The pictures below show Debbie hard at work on her blue flower.

Mary did hers in black, this will be put on a white fan.

There were some other fans that members of Vivien’s lace group have been working on, this one is Linda’s.

This is Claudia’s showing use of more than one colour. Some of the filling stitches are very similar to those used in blackwork.

These will be attached to fan fames, rather than stuck on to ready made fans. They are such amazing work, the result of many, many hours of stitching.

I wasn’t able to find many resources on this type of lace but did find this useful website. There are so many different varieties of lace and I love seeing them on my museum visits. Lace is something that is often found in portraits as well. I have been doing more research recently for the novel that I am writing, based partly at Hardwick Hall. This is one of my favourite portraits, of Queen Elizabeth 1st. Lace was very popular in Tudor times for the wonderful ruffs.

I am also writing about Mary, Queen of Scots, as she spent a lot of time with Bess of Hardwick during her captivity doing needlepoint embroidery.

As well as a course on the history of canals I am also doing a course about Mary, run by a fantastic organisation called Futurelearn. I have done lots of their history courses and they are really good. There are some beautiful pictures in this course. They have lots of interesting free courses and I have also done their creative writing ones which have been very helpful with my novel. I feel like I have got to keep the old brain from turning to mush now I no longer have to think for a living!

Cycling has been going well, another 25km ride on Sunday, I stopped off at the beach for a paddle half way through as it was very hot!

It is actually raining now, we have had some very impressive thunder and lightening this morning but normal weather service will be resumed tomorrow and we will be back to 23 degrees. Next week I am going on a coach trip to a fancy dress fiesta, so will be taking lots of pictures of the costumes there for you to admire. I do love a good fiesta 😉

Hope you have all had a nice week and have a lovely weekend ahead. Have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.

The importance of dress

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Ahead of this week’s lace workshop I thought that I would share with you a recent visit to Bankfield Museum in Halifax. I have visited the museum three times before and it is always a wonderful place to explore. Two of the visits have included displays about Anne Lister, now more well known through the TV series ‘Gentleman Jack’, but also for her travels and her diaries.

I first became interested in her as a traveller and I posted about that visit here. At the time there was not a link to her clothing as this was prior to the first series, but a couple of years ago we went back and saw some of the costumes from the first series. The museum is only small but as well as the changing exhibitions it has a fantastic costume gallery and holds the largest collection of textiles outside the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

The exhibition this time was of costume from the second TV series. It was also supported by an exhibition of garments from the same period from the museum collection so it was fascinating to see what the costume production team had done with the recreations. The pictures below are from the museum’s collection from that era.

It was particularly amazing to see the very tiny shoes!

I also love the fact that they still have pattern books from that time. Halifax has always been a centre of textile production which is why the museum has such an extensive collection.

These pictures show the costumes from the second series, each costume is also accompanied by a shot from the series so that you can see it in context.

They are absolutely stunning and so detailed in their execution. This below is one of Anne’s outfits and the braid detail on the jacket is beautiful.

The accompanying outfit in this picture was worn by her wife Ann, I have tried to do braid like that on clothing and it is incredibly difficult!

I love the black organza blouse in this red evening gown above.

There is such beautiful smocking on Ann’s artist’s shirt above in the middle picture.

The bottom row of pictures above show dressing gowns and nightshirts, I would love the one on the left, so pretty!

I was particularly fascinated by these reproduction hats with lots of lace.

I think the lace on this one above was made by the same method that we will be using this coming week, of stitching onto tulle, rather than bobbin or woven lace but am not sure.

One of the things that Anne is remembered for is her ‘masculine ways’, she dressed in male clothing, married a woman, (although this was not legally recognised), ran a business and travelled extensively, often to places that were not usually visited at that time, such as Russia. She actually died in Georgia while on that trip in 1840 and her wife had her body brought back to the UK.

For me Anne is a very great inspiration. Not just because she chose to dress the way that she did, but because she was not afraid to express herself, and her desires. Looking at her story one may think that we have come a long way from the days where it was not acceptable to marry and live your life as you wanted, but there is still a long way to go, even for people who are not fighting prejudice.

There are the everyday concerns of women about travelling on their own, even about walking home on their own. As you know this summer I have been travelling on my own around the UK and met many women who are also on their own. People have told me that I am very brave to do this but I just feel that I am following in the footsteps of all the other great women who have gone off exploring. Realistically not very much is going to happen to me at a Caravan and Camping Club site in the Peak District is it 😉

I have also joined a Facebook group that supports women who may not feel comfortable travelling alone, by holding meet ups and offering a space for advice and help with practical things. Many of the members have lost partners, who previously did the driving and maintenance, or are now feeling lonely and don’t want to camp by themselves. It is wonderful to have that support, both online and in person and I am looking forward to meeting up with more of them next summer.

I may now be able to wear what we want without causing concern, I can wear trousers anywhere I want, or have my hair short and display many ‘masculine ways’. However many women across the world can’t do without fear of reprisal. Equally men often face prejudice for wanting to wear what may be considered as ‘feminine attire’. That is why I love the Steampunk community so much as you see such wonderful expressions of dress such as this stunning outfit.

What we wear is not just about keeping warm, or displaying our social status and our ability to afford the fine lace and hand stitched garments of the 1800s. It is about who we are, and who we want to be and here’s hoping for a future where no-one feels that they can’t express themselves the way that they want to. That is before we all end up wearing silver jumpsuits as my 12 year old self was sure was going to happen by the year 2000!

That is why museums are so important as they give us the chance to see things that make us question the way that we live now. I hope that everyone that goes to see the costumes thinks about this aspect as well as admiring the skill of the many talented people who made them.

As well as the workshop this week I am looking forward to another cycle ride, I have been doing between 25 and 30 km each ride which is amazing to me considering the state of my health before I retired. It is so lovely to get out into the countryside and go down to the sea. It is still around 25 degrees each day here, although the nights are a little cooler now so I will soon be using my outdoor firepit 🙂 Although it has sometimes been a bit cloudy here it is clearing up and so the lovely sunsets are back, just look at these colours!

I have been very productive craft wise as well, I will finish the Luna rabbit today and hopefully also the Christmas dress for the reindeer. So I should be able to share some finishes of those soon. I hope that you are all having a nice weekend, have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.