I have created this blog to share my interest in all forms of stitching, quilting, sewing, knitting, medieval re-enactment and costume making – particularly my love of historical embroidery. I also love travelling,especially when it also involves any of my other interests.
Apologies if you are bored of the Marrakesh pics – if so skip this post. This one is devoted to the amazing places we visited. I was lucky enough to visit the Alhambra in Granada a few years ago which is the most amazing place if you like Islamic art and architecture so it was wonderful to go to Morocco to see more.
We visited the Saadian Tombs on our first day which date from the 1600s I think – members of the Saadian ruling family and their staff are buried here in wonderfully decorated chambers and gardens – full of cats sunning themselves!
The hall of twelve pillars Amazing carved ceiling and plasterwork arch
The buildings in Marrakesh are mainly terracotta coloured which contrasts so well with the blue skyThe minaret of the mosque next to the tomb - this was a good orientation point as it was very near our hotel - helped us not get lost in the Kasbah!
On the second day we went out to La Menara which is a man-made lake with a summer palace and olive grove gardens – the best place to view the Atlas mountains and we had a great view of them as it had been raining the day before so all the dust had settled.
Look at that for a view - beautiful snow capped Atlas mountains!
We then walked all the way back to the main square past the Koutoubia mosque – another good marker to let us know where we were and a beautiful building.
The minaret of the Koutoubia mosque
Later in the week we visited the Madrassa Ben Youssef. This is an old Islamic college which was extended in the 1600s – it reminded me so much of the Alhambra palace. The wealth of detail and the standard of the workmanship are amazing – all the more so when you think that it has survived the last 400 years. Awe inspiring!
We are off to Worcester this weekend to see my sister whose birthday it was last weekend – Happy Birthday Jacky – and to see Ellie.It has been a very busy week here but a very nice one – there has been sunshine (yes in Yorkshire!) and I even managed to get out in the garden and do a bit of clearing up and pruning for a couple of hours on Tuesday – a miracle.
I am making good progress with the wardrobe for the little bear I have made – am half way through the third dress for her so will hopefully be able to post those finishes soon – meant to take pics of what I had done so far today but forgot before it got dark!
I am also starting on a new stitching project on Monday – seems ages since I did any stitching but was inspired by a fabric purchase at the weekend to buy this chart that I have had my eye on for some time. JBW Designs do some lovely charts and I am thinking of treating myself to their Christmas pudding one to stitch for my tree for this Xmas.
As expected we had a wonderful time in Marrakesh – it was warm and sunny most of the time (which made the return to Yorkshire snow all the more surprising) , exciting and interesting as well as (according to Jake) a bit terrifying – he accorded that label to a couple of bits such as getting lost in the Souks (well you have to don’t you!) and the menu prices at one of the posh hotels we visited whilst sampling the glamorous side of the city.
I wanted to stay somewhere which would give us a real flavour of Marrakesh rather than one of the impersonal big hotels and found this bargain though Hotelopia. It cost us £28 per double room including bed and breakfast which was brilliant value considering the luxury we got. The place is called Riad Schanez – from the outside in the little street at the bottom of the Kasbah it looks nothing special .
The street where we stayed ‘Derb Tadla’
But inside was wonderful – this impressed Jake no end! It was a textile lovers’ paradise and me and Mum spent lots of time taking pics of the furnishings like sad tourists!
Will update again later with more pics – no time now as have to get tea done!
I had hoped to have pics of a completed bear to show you but though I have been hard at work on her today she is not quite ready. I have sewn together all body parts (the head has turned out very well thankfully!) but I think the arms are too big. So I have left it for tonight as I will have to take them off then unravel an inch or so which needs much concentration.
I do hope that you have had a lovely weekend – I have after a very busy week at work. I travelled to Leeds on Friday for work and wandered around a bit after – with camera this time – as I had some things I wanted to do.
Leeds is a very beautiful city with some amazing architecture – particularly the ironwork in the arcades and the terracotta buildings. The picture below shows the lovely roof of the Leeds City Market which is well worth a visit for a real old traditional market.
The market roof - not a very bright day but it does let a lot of light in
While I was wandering round I found this lovely fabric in the remnants bin of one of the stalls – looks very much like blackwork so it had to come home to be part of my stash!
Only £2.50 for a metre - bargain!
I also bought these very cute cupcake cases ….
Am thinking choc chip and strawberry maybe....
Then wandered through Victoria Quarter where all the very expensive shop are – Harvey Nichols, Vivienne Westwood etc.
Another beautiful glass roofThe top of the arcade has a wonderful orange motif all along it
The shops in this arcade have the most wonderful window displays like this one from The White Company.
Look at this for cute!
One of the reasons for wandering was to go and visit the University of Leeds Textile Archive (ULITA) which I have been meaning to do for a while now. My inspiration for going this week was that they had a small Embroiderers’ Guild exhibition from the Leeds branch on – unfortunately I was not able to take any pics but there was some nice stitching there. As well as that exhibition there was a selection of the Textile Archives on display with the theme of Natural Fibres.
You can go and look at the thousands of things they have in archive via this link and find info on visiting the collection at the ULITA Wiki – I hope that they do not mind that I have used a couple of pics from there to show you what sort of things they have.
A blackwork bag An embroidered purse
My favourite pics in their digital archive come from the Louisa Pesel Collection. Louisa was the first President of the Embroiderers’ Guild and collected embroidery from around the world. There are some lovely examples here.
Will probably not be posting again for a while (unless I make great progress on the bear in the next couple of days) as we are off on a holiday (hurrah!) at the end of the week. My Mum arrives from Spain tomorrow and we are off later in the week to Marrakesh! I am very excited – have been reading my guide book and am really, really looking forward to seeing the wonderful architecture, gardens and markets – I may feel the need to purchase textiles – you just never know!
Sorry but could not resist the post title – am getting on very well with the components of the bear – not got a finished item yet but here are the parts.
Well it looks a bit like a bear ....... with a strange shaped head!
I am about half way through the gorgeous little dress and have decided that making small knitted animals may well become addictive. Am planning to make another dress to go with this bear and then I remembered that many moons ago when obviously my enthusiasm for buying knitting books far outweighed my prowess in actually knitting anything I bought this book.
Too cute!
The book Knitted Bears by Claire Garland contains patterns for bears but more importantly clothing for said animals – who could resist this dress …..
A little frilly knitted dress
and these are just the cutest little shoes ……..
Little baby bear boots!
A very, very long time ago I knitted and stitched a wardrobe for Barbie (they were great pieces to do – took no time at all) which Ellie really loved. So I may well have to devote some time to toy production – especially since we have more snow here this week which severely lessens my enthusiasm for being in the garden!
Look at these little faces – don’t you just love them all?
They all look so cute!
I have also today just got my Valentine exchange pice from Maggee in the USA. Look at the detail on this wonderful heart ornie.
Such neat stitching
It is now hanging on my conservatory door and looks so pretty. It is stitched on 32 count Bone Lugana and I think the design is called Tugtika from HDF. Anyway it is very, very pretty and thank you very much Maggee.
Maggee's heart ornament
Have today finished stitching a gift which I will be able to reveal next week and have been finishing off another scissor keep – pics of that will have to be posted at some time in the future when I have given it to the recipient.
Hope that you are having a happy time with textiles – thanks for visiting!
I have just been and checked the ASOE web site and was delighted to find that my Valentine exchange for Maggee in the USA has been delivered – very good considering I posted it on the 29th Jan.
The front of the ornament - stitched on evenweave with DMC thread, seed beads and heart ribbon
The pattern was an old one that I have had in my pattern collection since the late 1990s from a cross stitch mag and was originally designed as an Xmas ornie in red and green.
One of my usual little charms on the back - love this gingham - reminds me of primary school summer dresses!
Maggee really likes pink so I decided to stitch it in pink and green and try out a new finish with this little bordered cushion with the pink gingham. The little charm was from my stash – not certain where I got it from – may have been my LNS some time ago.
It was very simple to finish and generally quite a good stitch – not very quick as there is a lot of evenweave to be covered with the check background and it is very tiny! However I interspersed this project with knitting to give my old eyes a rest!
I am pleased that Maggee likes it and eagerly await getting my ornie from her.
I am having a lovely Sunday doing lots of things that I have been meaning to do for ages like back up all my camera pics and little bits of domesticity that are not too taxing. It is at the moment a lovely sunny Sunday so they may even be a chance for gardening later (once I am out of my dressing gown – do not want to scare the neighbours!).
I love Sundays during the winter months – we are so rarely here during the summer due to all our events so it is lovely to be inside all warm and cosy with the prospect of knitting and DVDs later on this afternoon (hmm ….. Little House on the Prairie or Tudors Season 3 – decisions, decisions…..). I cast on for the head of the teddy I am making last night and so far so good so may be able to show you an item that looks like a bear later in the week!
I do love being at home even though I love travelling. I am lucky enough to live in a very nice house – the kitchen is especially lovely so I though I would share some pictures of it with you so you can see the hub of my domestic creativity. I love looking at pics of other people’s houses on blogs (satisfies my inner curiosity!) so thought you might like to see some of mine. I have to say this niceness is very little to do with me – the whole thing was remodelled by the previous owner and was one of the main reasons I bought this house.
It is an old house – about 100 years old and is a stone built terrace that looks very traditional from the outside. It has all the original features in the hall and lounge which I love and you will have seen pics of the lovely fireplace, mantel and hall if you have looked at my Xmas decoration pictures. But then you go though to the back of the house and see the kitchen.
Very much a TV cooks kitchen where I can pretend to be Nigella and Delia!
The only thing that I did when I moved in was to paint the central unit and the back wall red as I felt it needed a bit more colour and add some pics . This is what used to be the old dining room of the house – the old kitchen is now a utility room and a conservatory was built on to be a dining room.
You walk through from the kitchen into here
The dining room is my creative space for large projects and sewing and is one of my favourite places to be as it has a lovely view of the garden – my cat Blackberry also likes being in here – in the above pic you can see him sitting in his favourite place on the left hand windowsill above the radiator watching the birds!
The kitchen looks very funky from the dining room.
The island unit which is also a breakfast bar
The black marble worktop on this unit is great for cooking as I have loads of space to work and good for pastry as it is always cool but a bit of a nightmare to keep clean – it shows every mark! The pictures on the wall at the back are of the New York skyline in the 1920s which is particularly significant to the story of moving into this house.
I like to decorate my rooms in themes and the look of the kitchen immediately suggested New York loft apartment to me when I came and did the viewing. That in itself was significant as I was off to New York the following day with some friends from the medieval group on a hen weekend. I had been trying to move house for some time and had put in two offers on other houses which had fallen through due to not being able to sell ours in time.
This property I spotted when we were on the way out one day – being in the next road along from where we used to live – so I arranged a viewing the evening before I was due to leave. I really loved it so ended up ringing the estate agents the very next day before I flew to New York and putting in an offer. A very tense 3 months followed where I thought I had lost the house for various reasons and we ended up temporarily homeless for a week as we had to move out of the old one before we could move into this! However it all worked out very well in the end.
When we first moved here four years ago I didn’t have a much time for cooking as I do now due to the general busyness of work and family life. However my job role has changed and I am now no longer out in the evenings and with just me and Jake here the housework is reduced so I am very much enjoying the time to use the kitchen outside of parties and special occasions.
I have just bought a new spice rack as I am doing so much more cooking – previously they were all in a cupboard and it took ages to find things but now everything is at hand!
Space for 16 jars and it revolves ...... how useful
So that this post is not all about the house I shall now share some more stitching. I thought I had finished putting up pics of the gifts I made for Xmas then realised that I had not posted those of the jar decorations I made. My brother’s partner, Amanda, makes the most fantastic jams and chutney so I gave her and Ben, my brother, a jar of my Nigella’s Chilli Jam each for Xmas alongside their other pressies and also decided to make her some little decorated bands for jam jars.
Aida bands of different widths with cross stitched blackberries and raspberries
The patterns came from one of my very old Cross Stitch mags and these were a great quick stitch. I bought the aida band at the Harrogate Show. Ellie also stitched one as well for Amanda but unfortunately I do not have a pic of that.
Well thank you once again for visiting and hope that you had a happy Sunday!
We have had a lovely day today – three of my friends from my medieval group came to do some embroidery and we had a very nice time, researching, chatting and stitching – oh and having very nice food including spice cake – forgot to take a pic of that before we ate it!
Here are Kerry and Lynn deciding on which projects to work on.
Knew all those books would come in handy
Tracey looking very studious.
It's the glasses sweetie - make you look very serious!
Kerry and Lynn decided to do goldwork and Tracey needlepoint. This was Kerry’s first attempt at goldwork and she decided to do a little flower – a borage – in couched thread on a white silk background.
First step was to trace the flower outline onto the silk then couch the threadKerry with her goldwork - look at the lovely sunshine we had!
She did a brilliant job and by the end of the day had completed all of the couching and beads – she just has the silk shading on the petals to do.
The couched and beaded flower
Lynn did two projects – the first was based on a Bess of Hardwick piece – this is the outline of a goldwork project.
Goldwork design with initials
The second was a flower motif taken from one of the books which Lynn is couching onto red silk.
The part completed flower
Tracey’s piece is a complex picture of herself and her husband drawn onto linen and stitched using tent stitch. This is her progress so far …
A huge project to complete here !
We had a lovely time and hope to arrange another day soon to do some blackwork.
I will leave you with some pics of the girls all dressed up in kit at our events.
Lynn, Jane, Kerry and Ellie at Bolsover Castle
Tracey and her lovely husband Pete - aka Lord and Lady Percy at Cosmeston Medieval Village
Do hope you have had a nice weekend – thanks for visiting.
Two very good things have happened this week. Firstly there has been sun – real sun in Yorkshire and blue sky! January is nearly over (hurrah) and I nearly got into the garden for a tidy up this week – though by the time I had finished the work I needed to do it had clouded over and started raining but hey there was sun and this is the light at the end of the tunnel.
Of course I know by posting this that we will have a very cold wet weekend but I am hopeful that Spring is on its way. My honeysuckle has buds on and the poor garden looks like it is recovering from the cold. Have lots of frost damage to sort and tidying up to do but it is looking lots better.
The other good thing is that I have learnt to crochet (sort of!) helped by Arianwen at Knit and Natter this week. On Tuesday I had a trip to Leeds for work so decided to treat myself to a crafty mag and saw this in the news agents –
Look at that cute cupcake!
It came with lovely silky wool and a hook and promised simple instructions – well it did have pictures but wasn’t entirely sure so read the mag on the train and then Arianwen demonstrated and I can now just about do chain stitch and double crochet – just don’t look too closely at the neatness of the small sample below –
Look at all that pretty wool for making flowers
Will work on this in the odd moments in between finishing the teddy and bag – bag is more or less done, just the stitching up to do so will be casting on for teddy this weekend.
Am going to have a very lovely weekend as tomorrow I am running an embroidery workshop for the girls from my medieval group. They are coming to spend the day and we will be doing a project each – probably goldwork – that we can all take to shows this year and work on so that the public can see us in action. Have just been sorting through my stash and my (quite extensive!) library of reference books. We shall have a lovely day stitching and I will take pics of their projects for you.
I have just completed and posted my Valentine Exchange pice for ASOE – a new finish for me but obviously can’t post till Maggee in the US has received it.
While in Leeds on Tuesday I indulged in a tiny bit of retail therapy and went to a fab bead shop that is located in Thornton’s Arcade in Leeds city centre. Yum Yum beads have got a wonderful selection – I was very good though and only treated myself to these little sleigh charms.
Little charms for the 2010 ornies
These are perfect for the design that I found the other day for my Xmas ornies for the my friends here in Yorkshire and they were half price! I usually start ornie stitching early in the year as they are great little projects to take away on holiday or on the many re-enactment train journeys we do.
I will leave you with a better pic of the Noro beret – taking pics has been a challenge this week as I have been out early and back late and it has been so dark! Roll on the lighter days and warmer weather! Next weekend we are going to a local festival, Imbolc in Marsden, that celebrates the end of winter with a fire festival so that will be fun.
The moss stitch Noro wool beret showing the beautiful colour variations
Thank you once again for visiting and I hope you have a lovely weekend.
You may remember that I made Ellie a hat (from a Ravelry pattern) and wristwarmers set for Xmas. The hat looks like this –
Ellie's little pixie hat - pattern from Ravelry
I was very pleased with it as it has a bit of a lace effect round the bottom which involved some yarn forwards which I had not done before. There were some mistakes but they don’t seem to show.
As you know I want to improve my knitting techniques so I ordered myself a new book from Amazon which arrived last week – this was on my wish list for Xmas but the kids obviously think I have enough knitting books and ignored the suggestion so I treated myself.
I decided as the first project to do a little flower to go on Ellie’s hat – she chose the wool and a simple poppy design (I did attempt another design but got very confused on row one so had to abandon that!). And I finished it last night (though am going to add some little seed beads to it tonight to give it a sparkle).
The original pattern and my flowerA close up showing the colour and stitches better
It was a very simple pattern only involving garter stitch and some increases. Ellie has now pinned it on her hat and has gone off to town with a friend in it this afternoon (she has been home from Uni this week as her term has not started again yet).
Ellie and her lovely hat!
Last night I taught Ellie to knit -she has been to Knit and Natter a few times with me recently and enjoyed herself so she has started a scarf in the same wool to match her hat and wristwarmers. We will being doing some more knitting and stitching tonight – am very excited that the new season of 24 is starting tonight – as it is on a Sunday I should be able to see all of the episodes and hopefully will not miss any by being away at re-enactment. This week I have to crack on and finish a cross stitch for a Valentine’s Exchange through ASOE which has to be posted by the 2nd Feb.
I thought I would also share with you some more of the Xmas knitting that I did – this is finished scarf in Noro Silk Garden that I blogged about sometime ago as a WIP. This was a present for my Nana.
Scarf in Noro Silk Garden wool
I also made this for my Mum out of the most gorgeous Maggie’s Knits Mist Slub yarn that I bought from Woolly Minded and Beady Eyed. This is made using moss stitch though you can’t really tell but it does give it a bit more texture. The yarn is expensive but lovely and silky to touch.
Evening scarf Close up showing the texture
I also knitted a scarf for my aunt from the lovely ladder or ribbon yarn called Zip. I don’t have a good pic of her wearing it but it was a very simple design that someone at Knit and Knatter told me about.
The pretty Zip ribbon yarn
All you do is knit in garter stitch – casting on about 30 stitches on large needles – I used 6mm – knit the ball, cast off and then sew the two ends together making a twist with the knitting before you do so. This makes a very pretty cowl scarf which is lovely as an evening scarf and I have got a couple more balls to make some more of these later in the year.
Just a note on the links I put in to my posts – these are purely for info on what the yarn/ books that I are use are like and where you can get them from. I am not paid or sponsored by any of the companies I link to and most of the yarn I buy is from my LYS – Woolly Minded and Beady Eyed in Westbourne Road, Huddersfield. I am however conscious that lots of my readers are a long way from Yorkshire so won’t be able to get their stuff from the lovely Helen who runs the shop so I am linking to give you alternative sources.
I have also been discovering some new blogs. One that I would like to share with you today is by a very talented women who goes to my Knit and Natter group. She is someone I knew by sight from years ago as our children went to the same Primary school and I often used to see her in the playground. Her name is Arianwen and her blog is called The Silver Spider Presents. She does the most amazingly complex patterns including lots of lace work and I am in awe of her talent – she also has three kids who are younger than mine so I am amazed at how prolific she is as well! Do go and visit and say hi.
Well it is still raining here – though luckily no snow – so any thoughts of a quick garden tidy up have been banished. It is looking really battered because of all the snow but I will have to wait for some less soggy weather so that I can give it a good fettle.
I will leave you with another lovely pic of Spain. This is again from Pablo’s (icu 202 Canon’s) Flickr collection and is of the tower on the salt flats (salinas) just down the road from La Marina at Santa Pola. The salt flats have been there since Roman times and salt is still collected – mainly for use on roads (so they have been busy recently!)
The salt flats are home to lots of birds, most notably the flamingos who come to eat the food that makes them turn pink and are surrounded by mountains which reflect beautifully in them. You pass them on the way to the airport and they are one of my favourite things in Spain.
A beautiful image of sky and sea
Thank you very much for visiting – see you again soon!
I have finished my hat! I am very pleased as I am not a fast knitter and had not expected to finish but I just have and am sitting wearing it as I type (sad I know but it is lovely).
I sometimes struggle to find hats that suit me having very curly hair (naturally so which I know I am very lucky to have) and have avoided hat wearing generally. But it has been so cold recently that I have decided I really need one and it is now ready for the predicted snow this week.
We have had a very lovely weekend – Ellie arrived home from Uni on Friday – she is staying for 10 days until her term starts again. We have made lots of soup (same recipes as last weekend) and done some baking and I have knitted lots!
On Sat we made Nigella’s recipe for Yule Log again from her Christmas book – we did this at Xmas and it was lovely but a bit rich so this time we just made it into a Swiss Roll with pink buttercream (courtesy of Ellie) and a batch of fairy buns which we decorated with some left over Winnie the Pooh sugar motifs that I had in the cupboard. I love making this recipe – used to do it all the time as a teenager when we called it the ‘fatless whisked sponge’. It is quite good for you, only having eggs and sugar in it with no flour or fat so quite healthy (without Nigella’s frosting!)
Swiss Roll and cup cakes
I started the hat at knitting on Friday. I used Noro wool to match my scarf and used the Seed (Moss) Stitch Beret pattern from a book already in my library – The Knitter’s Bible-Knitted Accessories by Claire Crompton. As you know I love Moss stitch and this looked like the right sort of slouchy beret to suit me.
The pattern illustrationMy progress by this morning
And it is now complete – forgive the quality of these pics – I have taken them in the hall and the light is not good – will have to get some daylight pics. A la Crazy Aunt Purl have used the tried and tested technique of photographing yourself in a mirror while wearing said item ……
Me with beret ..... and camera
I really like the way that the Noro wool has striped – it looks even better on a circular pattern than on a scarf. It was a very, very easy pattern to knit with the decreasing very easy to do – and fast.
Another shot to show the stripes
I rather like this pic as well – despite the fuzziness – it looks like I am in Paris in a very old movie – maybe a romance or one of those old wartime movies where I am part of the resistance!
These thoughts have obviously been inspired by the fact that my knitting last night was accompanied by no less than 6 episodes (back to back courtesy of the Yesterday Channel) of Wartime Kitchen and Garden – fabulous stuff – Ruth Mott was boiling pig’s heads and canning tomatoes like there was no tomorrow. A perfect way to spend a Saturday night!
I do hope you have had a lovely weekend – thanks for visiting.
