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A Lick of Paint

18 February, 2014 / Katy / 2 Comments

Just a quick update on my plan chest project.

I know I said I wasn’t going to mess about with it, but the more I got to tightening joints and replacing drawer pulls the more it became obvious that the whole thing needed a bit of work.

In fact, there are sections of woodwork that are almost entirely made of wood putty, but you can’t quite tell (unless you’ve a good eye for fingerprints).

I painted it Bone China Blue (because we had heaps of it left and it makes me ineffably happy).

I have a few shelves still to put up and possibly a bookcase to find but I’m really starting to feel at home in my wee Hovel.

So…what do you like to read?

14 February, 2014 / Katy / 1 Comment

As you may remember, Google Reader departed this Earth 1 July, 2013, so like a teenager whose first proto-relationship has ended when someone leaves home, I set out to find a replacement.

At the time I was unaware that this search would take me seven months and quite a bit of tears and swearing.

Because my love life has always been rather straightforward, I thought you’d like to hear the trials and tribulations of my feed reader dating adventures instead.

Feedly – First up was the one everyone said was made for me. Feedly is attractively presented (if a little more trendy than I might ordinarily go for), has great hair and even seemed to get on with my collection of blogs.

Soon, however, it became apparent that there might be some communication issues. Feedly expected me to memorise an obtuse collection of swipes, wipes and keyboard shortcuts in order to see everything in my reader. If I got things wrong, there would be a huffy ‘Are you sure?’ and then a slightly over-dramatic removal of all the unread posts. Sometimes these posts would reappear months later, but you just never knew.

I stayed longer than I should, I can see that now, but I really thought we could make it work.

Digg – Rather rugged in an ordinarily attractive sort of a way. Seemed friendly enough, tried to be interested in the things I was interested in, but lost interest about halfway through.

Insisted, rather oddly, that every date should start with a bunch of people I’d never heard of coming along and telling me about their lives, even if I specifically requested that I’d just like it to be about the two of us.

Newsvibe – Achingly hip and minimalist, perhaps with a touch of the Northern Quarter? The sort who would carry around a selection of gadgets with no visible means of operation and let you borrow them just to be able to point out how they ought to be used.

On the whole we got on well, but everything had to be just a little too elegant and complicated. For instance, in one astonishingly infuriating quirk the scroll button can only be revealed while the mouse is not hovering over the space soon to occupied by the scroll bar. A bit like Whack-a-Mole crossed with trying to get into a club so hip it doesn’t yet exist. It was never going to last.

Finally, and out of desperation, I tried the dreadfully named Bloglovin. To be honest, this one feels less like a date and more like saying ‘To Hell with romance, let’s just stay home and watch films and eat embarrassing amounts of popcorn.’

I’m not expected to be cool enough to understand symbols or swipes (the buttons have proper words on them), if I want to see some posts but I’m not feeling social enough to see them all, that’s ok. I can even let Bloglovin (…shudder) tell my mates about my new blog posts via Twitter.

Now that I’ve found a feed reader that I can just be friends with I have plenty more headspace for getting on with the important things of life, like worrying whether I’m supporting my local greengrocer and the Farmer’s Market equally, or composing stinging diatribes against whatever foolishness comes out of people in government on Radio 4.

If it all goes wrong, I promise I’ll tell you all about it while snivelling into a tub of chocolate ice cream.

Here we are – Exhibition

11 February, 2014 / Katy / 2 Comments

I’m going to be taking part in an exhibition on the 28th February at the Little Ox Gallery in Candlemaker Row.

There will be a group of us who have all received old survey maps which were found in a plan chest when it arrived at the gallery.

I’m quite excited about the opportunity to get involved in a group show, although I’m a little behind where I wanted to be at this point!

Updates will appear as they occur…

New Furniture

7 February, 2014 / Katy / 3 Comments

LYM and I have a bit of a furniture habit. While our compatriots were out buying drinks, going to gigs or updating their wardrobes, we would stray towards the antique shops and charity shops in search of interesting furniture.

Now that I’m trying to get The Hovel back into shape, I was thinking about ways to make a work table. I knew I wanted to stand up to work, and I’ve always quite fancied a plan chest, but I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to find one I could afford.

As luck would have it, when our defenses were down after paying for our kitchen, we decided to soothe our souls with a quick swing by an antiques barn.

Amongst the things I want but don’t yet have a demonstrable need for we found this!

It’s a bit beat up, but it’s solid wood and it has about 17 shades of institutional paint in different places which makes me very happy.

Unfortunately, my favourite shade is going to end up hidden against the wall, but here is photographic proof of its existance.

I think I’m going to change the handles and label holders to something a little more interesting and some of the moulding needs replacing or repairing, but I’m really happy with it!

I’ll show you it again when it’s all repaired. At the moment it’s living dead in the middle of our bay window as a way to encourage its speedy refurbishment and relocation.

Drip, Drip, Drip

4 February, 2014 / Katy / 4 Comments

I have trouble with large purchases, if you consider large to be above £20.

I can quite happily fritter away £100 in £5 and £10 increments – but to spend it all at once… I usually bottle it and walk away. (That explains the healthy cheese collection in the fridge and the rather woeful state of my wardrobe.)

Huit organic denim – made in Cardigan

For instance, I’ve had my eye on a (possibly the only ones manufactured in the world at the moment) pair of 100% cotton, non-stretch, vaguely fashionable jeans which are not made by children.

But they cost more than £20 (as well they should do), so I have patched and mended my one remaining pair of jeans until they are more patch than jean and the patches have holes.

Serendipitously, I read a blog post by John Willshire from smithery.co discussing not only the Hiut jeans I’ve had my eyes on but also the idea of allowing both the producer and consumer to benefit from a more gradual transfer of money and goods.

Sometimes I ponder similar ideas at craft fairs when I’m placed across from stalls selling things that can be impulse purchased. Would browsers who are interested in my work and say ‘I’ll keep you in mind when the baby comes.’ put down a deposit and pay in installments?

Photocraft do something similar for their online photography courses aimed at small businesses and the Arts Council England run Own Art, a scheme to allow people to purchase contemporary art (by living artists) interest-free over 10 months, so it must have some traction.

What do you think? Would you be more likely to commission a piece if you could pay a deposit at a craft fair and follow it up afterwards? What’s your impulse purchase limit?

U+273F

31 January, 2014 / Katy / 1 Comment

Here’s a first for me, a commission in Unicode!

The Lovely Young Man is a computer scientist and introduces me to all sorts of charming people who solve problems about information and toil down the data mines. When they’re not pushing back the boundaries of human knowledge, they come and commission embroideries…

I always love to play with the distinction between the digital and the handmade, so I’m particularly pleased at how this one turned out.

Apparently I have a very consistent way of making my stitches, it wasn’t until I turned one of the canvases over that I realised that the back was almost as pleasing as the front!

A Little Cooler

28 January, 2014 / Katy / 0 Comments

A little education is a funny thing…once you learn something it can be very hard to un-learn it.

Once you’ve been shown that there is a colour difference between daylight, incandescent and fluorescent lights, not only does it allow you to take better photos, it also starts to play on your mind in other situations.

My wee Hovel is a box room and I have to rely on artificial light in there. For most of the time it’s not a problem, it’s a standing-room only kind of a place and I do all my stitching in other places about the house, but sometimes it’s really good to be able to stand back and look at a work in progress.

I made myself a little display area but I was noticing that the light was working against me. So I thought I’d try a daylight bulb and see how it worked.

I really like it, but it’s taken a bit of getting used to. Especially if the front room light is on, the colour contrast is pretty marked. But it definitely makes it easier to see colours accurately. (I can’t show you what I’m working on just yet, sorry!)

A Making

21 January, 2014 / Katy / 0 Comments

I came across Hollie McNish when a friend posted a poem of hers on Facebook about breastfeeding

Since then, I’ve been keeping an eye out for her work and I’m hooked!

I have a slightly unresolved relationship with poetry, on the one hand it ticks all of the boxes under Things I Like About Language – precision, rhythm, mouthfeel and cadence. On the other hand, I sometimes find it’s too self-conscious and I don’t tend to search it out as reading material.

But now that I think about it, it may be like my mother’s infamous coriander/cilantro difficulty* and a change of intellectual bias is all it takes.

If you’re not a fan of receiving information by video, here is a chance to read one of Hollie’s poems yourself.

*She likes coriander but not cilantro.

Is your thread colourfast?

17 January, 2014 / Katy / 1 Comment

I’ve been sewing a long time, and I consider myself fairly au fait with the trials and tribulations which can occur while wielding a needle and thread (having experienced them all at least three times before learning better).

But I did find myself rather aghast when the dark blue thread on a recent piece bled and I had to do the whole thing again!

Changes in the chemicals used to dye thread means that water soluble dyes are more common (good for the environment) and the dyes can bleed or run into surrounding areas while they’re being washed (bad for the stitcher).

So profit from my experience, and before you set off an a grand embroidery adventure try this test.

Snip off a short length of thread, dampen it and place on some white kitchen towel to dry. If there is a stain, you can either set the entire skein of thread or adjust your washing techniques accordingly.

You set the colour by soaking the skein in salt water and then rinsing in lots of cold water until it runs clear. (Various methods include adding the salt to boiling water and letting it cool or adding two tablespoons each of salt and white vinegar to cool water.) Allow the skein to air dry and then use as normal. (Don’t get too cocky once you’ve set your skein, it can still run if you use hot water or steam!)

A few caveats – just because one section of a skein doesn’t run doesn’t mean another part won’t. In general, the deeper and more saturated the colour, the more likely it is to run. Reds, dark blues, dark purples and black are ones to watch out for. Use the test as an indication and then balance the hassle of setting the skein against the frustration of having the thread run.

Wash your piece in cold water with pH balanced detergent (I throw a little salt and vinegar in, just in case) and rinse. If you do get a run, keep rinsing – you can also run an ice cube on the affected part to help remove the stain.

If you don’t have to wash your piece, don’t! You can also mist it with cold water before pressing for a happy medium.

Have you ever had a problem with running thread dyes? Any fabulous solutions?