New Books

I always enjoy a day out in Leamington Spa and I nearly always come back with new books. This is owing to two exciting shops: Presto Music, an independent, proper music shop and The Craft Works. This, as you can probably guess, is a craft only version of the discount chain The Works.

I did particularly well recently and thought you might like to see what I got. Music first, because I always go to the music shop first.

I got two new violin books. The duets are to give me something a bit more 'normal' to try as I've only played Bartok duets so far which, although fun, are something of a challenge. The new book has eight duets from eighteenth century - right up my street. I also got a new book of violin studies, 'More Technique Takes Off' (to follow on from 'Technique Takes Off' naturally). I only had one more study to work on in the first book so I thought I'd be on to this new one soon ... turns out they saved up lots of hard stuff and crammed it all in the last piece - trills, vibrato, tricky timing. I may be a while.

The piano book is Burgmuller's famous set of piano studies. I never did studies when I learnt the piano so didn't know about these until my violin teacher recommended them. They're lovely little pieces, easy to sight read but hard to play really well.

I also got a recorder book (well, we wouldn't want the recorders to feel left out, would we?). A Baroque Anthology for descant recorders which I plan to play on my tenor recorder. Baroque is best. One day, I'm going to make myself a badge with that on. Also, one with 'Music for a while shall all your cares beguile' (from a Purcell song, in case you wondered).

So, that's the new music books. Now for the craft books.

All three of them have lovely covers and, I don't care what anyone says, I do like a book to have a pretty cover. Let's have a closer look at them, one by one.

'Beautiful Stitches' by Susan Bates is full of simple, freestyle embroidery designs. Animals, flowers, gardens - there's something for everyone. I love old-fashioned country scenes, the sort of thing featured in my old Stitchcraft magazines so this was one of my favourites ...

I was rather taken with the seed packet designs too ...

I have a lot of nasturtiums in my garden but, at the moment, they're more leaf than flower.

I think they're pretending to be lily pads.

This one features several of my favourite things: gardens, tea (although that should be a cup and saucer, not a mug) and, of course, knitting.

DMC colours are given for all the designs in the book or you could just use whatever shades you have, a bit like colouring in with thread.

This next book is the one I'm most excited about.

Sew Flower Quilts & Gifts by Atsuko Matsuyama is just gorgeous. What is it about Japanese quilting books that makes them so stylish? The designs are always appealing and full of the most perfect details. It is possible to use Japanese quilting books even if you don't read Japanese as they normally include diagrams and measurements but this one is in English.

What shall I show you? How about this picnic lunch set and beautiful little bag? Just look at those flowers ... and the lace edging .. and the patchwork strap ...

There are four little seasonal wall hangings too; here are the ones for autumn and winter...

I love all the little details in this sewing kit ...

You can never have too many sewing kits, especially if they're as pretty as this one.

Most of the projects in the book are small but there is one big sampler quilt. 

I just love the fabrics this designer uses - lots of bright pastels, typical of the 1930s. This is one of those books where I could happily make every single project.

The last of the craft books is a bit different as it's all about making flowers out of fabric.

At first I thought the cover was the best part of Fabric Blooms by Megan Hunt but then I found her felt flowers.

Felt, bright colours, buttons? Some of my favourite things. How about this for a fantastic bouquet - the bridesmaids would be fighting each other to catch this one.

You could use these flowers as a starting point for your own designs; they'd make lovely decorations for cards too. 

Now I would never wear this sort of thing (because, frankly, I'd look ridiculous in it) but aren't these felt flowers beautiful?

I don't know when I'll find time to make something from one of these new craft books but who cares? In the meantime, I can enjoy browsing through them; craft books are some of the best comfort reads I know.

Making Progress

Slowly but surely I'm ticking things off my never-ending to do list. First of all, for all my knitting followers, there's this ...

I know it doesn't look very exciting but that red file contains all the patterns for this year's big Christmas series. Yes, it's finally finished - knitted, photographed, written, proofread (oh the proofreading, it took me five hours and several cups of tea) - and printed out for posterity.

I do hope you'll like it. As I keep saying, it's a much simpler pattern than in previous years so I'm worried that it will be a disappointment. Still, simple means easier knitting so that's a bonus. Speaking of which, I'm also making good progress with various Christmas presents I'm making but of course I can't show them on here now or it will spoil the surprise.

I still have to finish the patterns for the big KAL I've got planned for next year. I've written the first drafts but I'm struggling with the photos. If I can get those sorted, I'm hoping to announce this series in the middle of November with details of materials (and a special discount offer) but the first pattern won't be published until January.

So, what else have I been making progress with? I spent quite a lot of time last week cleaning and sorting the kitchen and scullery. I may not be house proud (just as well really) but even I know it's time to clean the floor when your feet start to stick to it. That led to a turn out of all the cupboards and a mass migration of china.

I love collecting bits and bobs of nice china from antique and charity shops - a cup and saucer here, a jug there  - but didn't have anywhere to keep them. So they were piled up around all the everyday stuff in the kitchen cupboards which made getting a plate out a chancy business. I do however have a big built-in cupboard in my bedroom. The house is more than a hundred years old and this is one of the original cupboards. It's less than a foot deep and would originally have been used for clothes (which just goes to show how many fewer clothes the Victorians had). Anyway, Paul the builder kindly filled the cupboard with shelves to take all that homeless china.

This is about half the cupboard. It's not a very good picture but I had to lie on the bed to take it and then the camera kept wobbling. Anyway you get the general idea. Now the china has somewhere to live and I can get things out of the kitchen cupboards without risking an avalanche of broken crockery.

Progress is also being made with the violin. I've been learning for a year now and I still love it. It's very hard work and frustrating at times but I can now play actual music, more or less in tune. This is what's on my stand at the moment ...

... an interesting mixture of Harry Potter, Baroque and some pieces from Michael Rose's Sketchbook For Violin There are six pieces in this book, all of them lovely but each calling for a different bow technique. The Harry Potter music has some tricky combinations of notes and the Baroque is difficult but wonderful. The fact that I'm not doing music exams this time round means I can play all sorts of music, just for fun.

One of the reasons I'm planning to cut down on the amount of work I do next year is to give myself more time for music. As well as the violin, I'd like to play my piano and recorder more and then there's the clarinet which has been neglected for decades. I wonder if I could even play it still? 

I'm also looking forward to designing more small patterns after working on so many big series this year. In the last couple of weeks I've been trying the new Stylecraft Batik Elements yarn. This is a DK weight variegated yarn and it's lovely and soft - nice to work with. With a couple of 50 g balls I knitted a textured cowl which I'm calling 'Elemental'.

I enjoyed working on this. The wavy ripples are fun to knit and surprisingly easy; six out of the eight pattern rows are either knit or purl so you only have to really pay attention for the other two. If you'd like to knit one of these, the pattern is here Elemental. The colour I used is called Bismuth; I'm tempted to knit another one in Krypton which is a lovely green.

I've also finished the knitted mini quilt for November. We're nearly at the end of this series of patterns now which I must admit will be a bit of a relief for me. I've come to the conclusion that deadlines don't really suit me. I am enjoying seeing everyone's little quilts on my Ravelry group though; I'm particularly looking forward to seeing the ones that are being turned into blankets. Would you like to see all the quilts so far?

January - June

...

July - October

I don't know which is my favourite; it tends to be whichever I've just finished designing. I do like the snowman, but then there's the little Sunbonnet Sue with the umbrella and the pencils ... and all those flowers ... what do you think? Have you got a favourite?

This Week ...

... I've re-learnt how to tat. Tatting is a way of making lace with a series of knots, using a shuttle and your fingers. I taught myself how to tat years ago, using this little booklet by Rosemarie Peel. I see you can still buy it for £1; with that, a ball of thread and a shuttle you're all ready to go. I was inspired to have another go at tatting by this book.

New Tatting by Tomoko Morimoto is full of lovely colour pictures and the instructions for each technique are well illustrated and explained. So far, all I've made are some little flowers like those on the cover - mine are the two at the top of the picture - but I'm going to try the Christmas Rose design next.

This week ...

... I've been working on my Tunisian Crochet blanket.

This is worked round and round, one colour at a time and, as you only have six or seven stitches on your hook, you can use an ordinary crochet hook. Shades of my Ten Stitch Blankets here. I found the instructions for this technique online (it's called Tunisian Entrelac in the round by the way). It was ages ago and I can't remember the site I used but there's a good Free Craftsy Tutorial by Kathryn Vercillo.

While I'm on the subject of Tunisian Crochet, I've just ordered a Double Ended Crochet Hook from Purplelinda Crafts. I've got a digital copy of 101 Double-Ended Hook Stitches by Deborah Levyhamburg and I've been wanting to play with this technique for ages. I was given some money for Easter and this is what I've bought with it (thank-you Janet). According to my daughter, choosing a crochet hook over all the chocolate available at the moment is very sad.

This week ...

... I've been knitting lots more little squares for my rug.

Only 40 to go - whatever possessed me to start knitting a rug?

This week ...

... I've been working on two big pattern collections, one for Christmas and the other for 2018. This is the Christmas one ...

... well, you didn't really expect me to show you any more than that, did you? I've also been planning a new knitted blanket using Stylecraft Special DK.

I have knitted so many samples, trying out different colour combinations and I'm still not sure which ones to use. I spent hours this morning, laying them all out and squinting at them. There are times when being very short sighted is useful and judging colours is one of those times. For those of you with better sight than mine I can recommend looking backwards through binoculars - jarring colours will jump out at you.

And finally this week ...

... I've been enjoying wrestling with my first Bach piece on the violin.

It looks simple but there's so much to it I keep losing track of the time when I'm practising. I love Bach. This naturally led me to search out some more Bach to play on the piano.

This one's not so simple but oh, so beautiful. Here is someone playing it much better than I can ...

This is Tzvi Erez playing the Adagio from Bach's Piano Concerto in F Minor. I hope you enjoy it.

A Lullaby

I've been learning to play the violin for four months now and I'm loving it. It's a very difficult instrument to learn but there's nothing like the resonant music you get from a stringed instrument, especially one that you play so close to your ear. I think the violin is the instrument that sounds most like the voice; I seem to remember hearing a radio programme about concert parties in the First World War which said that it was the violin that most soldiers wanted to hear. Violin music can sound like singing and it can sound like crying - that's got to make it pretty special.

Needless to say, my violin playing might make you cry but not because it's beautiful. Learning to play in tune is one of the hardest things to do (that and the bowing, using muscles you didn't know you had, relaxing your hands while still keeping control ...). I put off learning for years because I didn't think my musical ear would be good enough. It turns out that learning actually trains your ear so I needn't have worried.

I am now able to attempt simple tunes which is very exciting. I may not be able to play them properly but they do sound lovely when my teacher plays them so that gives me something to aim for. The first piece that I really worked on and loved was the  Brahms Lullaby.

Now you may be wondering why there's a doll in the picture. Meet Tiny Tears, my much loved doll. I saw the television adverts for her when she first came out in the 1960s and really wanted her. On Christmas morning I opened a big box to find, not only Tiny Tears, but also lots of clothes for her and even a carrycot - all made by my Mum.

I don't remember many specific presents from when I was little and this is the only one I can still remember unwrapping so that tells you how special this doll was. Anyway, back to the music ... Tiny Tears was advertised with a special song to the tune of the Brahms Lullaby.

                                                        'Tiny Tears, Tiny Tears, 

                                                         You're my very own baby,

                                                         Mummy's here, Tiny Tears, 

                                                         Singing you a lullaby'.

So, before I even learnt to read music, let alone play it, this was my first introduction to classical music. Now my doll sits patiently listening as I try to play her lullaby.