This is apparently what our new sofa looked like before it left the manufacturer. So fabulous to see it with the cone legs at last. It looks even better than I thought it would. Ameer and his team have done an incredible job.
It should be delivered next week, so then we get to see it in situ and sit in it. Can’t wait!
I’m sorry and I’m enjoying life in the US more than I ever thought I would, but from a design perspective I still wish I was living in the UK, there’s so much fabulous stuff coming out of there.
A case in point are these spectacular ‘River Mirrors’ by British artist and designer Caryn Moberly {via The Art of C}.
Each River Mirror is created from beautiful pieces of burred elm and resemble water flowing between the natural banks of a river. Caryn uses the natural undulating shape of the tree to form the ‘river banks’, and so no two mirrors are the same.
I find the choice of wood particularly poignant – as a very young child I lived close to a stand of magnificent elm trees and remember feeling quite overwhelmed by their height and majesty. It pains me somewhat that, due to Dutch Elm Disease, it is unlikely that my daughter will ever see a mature elm tree in all its glory.
I’ve just finished knitting a cardigan for me – the first garment I’ve knitted for myself in about twenty years – of which more anon when I’ve taken some pictures.
In the meantime, though. I decided that I really ought to focus more on finishing off my Interminable Blanket, as I’m getting so bored of having it hanging around. I’ve been gently knitting up squares in the background – I’ve decided to make it 5×4 squares instead of the original 4×4 in order to make it a bit more practical – and recently decided to bite the bullet and start sewing them together.
The first order of business is blocking – washing the squares and pinning them out to stretch them. I wish I’d done this a bit sooner, as it is so inspiring when a screwed up bundle like this,
turns into lovely smooth even flat squares like these
I then took my courage in both hands and started sewing. Sewing and me have developed a hate/hate relationship over the years, so I was by no means convinced that I’d be able to come up with a neat enough seam, given that the seams on this project are pretty visible. But after several false starts and lots of undoing and redoing I’ve come up with some seams that look pretty good to me.
Here’s the first row of five blocks all sewn together
And here’s a close up of the stitching
I’m hoping that the edges will unfurl again as I sew the strips of blocks together and add the lace edging, though the whole thing will probably need another blocking when it’s done.
All the way through this I’ve not been sure that I’d be able to sew it together well which I realise now has been somewhat demotivating. The knowledge that I can actually do it AND make it look good AND that the process isn’t even painful has made me set to like a thing possessed. I’m hoping to have this finished this month, only about five and a half years after I started it. I do wish I liked the colour more though.
Fun whimsy or a little bit sick?
Apparently Paris Hilton has been Tweeting about the house she’s had built for her enormous collection of chihuahuas.
The house is 300 sq. ft and two storeys, and features a clay-tile roof with copper gutters, intricate ceiling mouldings and a black crystal chandelier hanging in the bedroom complete with a closet and central air conditioning. It was designed by Paris’s interior designer Faye Resnick and is apparently furnished with faux designer doggie products from such design world luminaries as Jimmy Chew, Pawda, Sniffany & Co. and Chewy Vuitton. Oh and it has a price tag of $350,000.
Am I alone in thinking that in this day and age, this is just a tad inappropriate? I just hope those dogs like candyfloss pink.
Somebody on Ravelry suggested putting all the yarn for your work-in progress projects for the month into a separate bowl or basket. This month I’m attempting to finish my Interminable Blanket (I’ve started sewing it up, yippee!) and my Lacy Wrap and for my quick and easy portable knitting I’m treating myself to a new pair of orange socks.
Dawn Bassett of Seattle-based LiT Shades makes bespoke lampshades for any room in the house, using designer fabrics such as Marimekko, or custom letterpress printing.
Until 7th August Dawn is running a competition on her blog where you can win your very own custom couture lampshade. All you need to do is send in a picture of a lamp in need of a revamp and Dawn will pick one to crown with its own special bespoke shade.
I mention this by way of a public service announcement because I love my readers, though I don’t particularly want any of you to enter as I’ve just entered my own sadly neglected Ebay lucite lamp. Anyway, if you must, full details of how to enter are here.
A lamp in need of a vamp.
Just a quick reminder for Seattle-based peeps that the first ever summer Urban Craft Uprising is taking place tomorrow and Sunday at the Seattle Center.
I got to a UCU a couple of years back when I first arrived in Seattle and found it to be a charming mishmash of the homespun, the bizarre and the fabulous. Included in the fabulous this time round will be Dave Sheely Designs and the Cakespy herself.
One thing I have been able to do a lot of recently is knit.
Part of the reason for my recent knitting obsession is that it is the perfect hobby to combine with looking after a four year old. The Minx has got to the stage where I can take her to the wading pool or playground without having to be too attentive, but I still need something to stop myself internally combusting through boredom. Knitting is perfect as, unlike a book, I can keep one eye out for the Minx, chat with friends and pick it up and put it down when I need to.
Here are a couple of small finished projects, and I’m also just finishing up a cardigan, the first garment I’ve knitted for myself since I was at college, of which more anon.
My Gaia Shoulder Hug.
The lace wrap I began in Portland is still less than half way completed, mostly because it requires a lot of focused attention and is not the right sort of knitting for playground duty. But in the meantime I have finished my Noro wrap. I realise that this might not be to everyone’s taste, but I like it a lot. Not that I’ve had any chance to wear it in the recent Seattle heatwave.
Note to self: Next time you pose pretentiously for photos it might be a good idea to wear a bit of makeup.
Secondly I knit a quick pair of yoga socks for my friend Laurie who is training to be a yoga teacher. These were quick and fast and cute and I may need to make some for myself, if I ever manage to go to yoga regularly that is.
Project details as ever on my Ravelry page. Do come and be my friend.
Oh I’ve have been a very naughty blogger recently. I’ve been struggling a bit keeping all the balls in the air while the Minx has been on summer vacation and to top it all Seattle has been having a mini-heatwave this summer culminating in a record-breaking temperature of 103 degrees yesterday (that’s 39.5 degrees in real money) .
I realise this is nothing compared with what many people elsewhere in the US go through, but you have to remember that most places in Seattle, including our house, don’t have air conditioning. So we’ve been getting through it with a combination of cool baths, evening swims in the lakes, sleeping in our new tent on the roofdeck, moaning about the weather and generally finding it difficult to achieve anything.
There’s some potentially exciting stuff going on in the background though, of which more later, and I’m intending to relaunch the blog somewhat when the Minx goes into full-time education starting in September! I’m such a bad mother, but I really cannot wait…
In the meantime, here are some pictures I took of the lavender festival in Sequim on the Olympic Peninsula. Sequim (pronounced ‘Squim’) is in the rainshadow of the Olympic Mountains and has a uniquely dry micro-climate for these parts, which is apparently very similar to that of Provence and has become the centre of a burgeoning lavender production area.
Just saving these pics of a metallic Alexander Wang cardigan (available here from Shopbop) as inspiration.
I love it, and its top down raglan construction is not dissimilar to a cardigan I’m currently working on. I’m wondering if I could adapt my current pattern to become something like this, maybe knit with this silk and stainless steel yarn. Of course I could knit it out of spun gold and it still wouldn’t reach the $495 price tag for the original.
