Scrap: a cheap date with the kids

I've been meaning to go to this place for ages. It's a warehouse full of scrap - paper bits, oddments of cloth, bags of wool, buttons, art materials, glass, tiles, wood, cds, dolls heads, dried flowers, and on and on. And it's called Scrap. It's a not-for-profit organisation which takes donations, runs classes, gives workshops, supports teachers and sells scrap. Heaven for the children.

We bought all this stuff - a bag full.

Emilia's estimate of cost $100. Actual cost $7 and two of those were for the bag.

The best worsted shop in town

Wool. Yarn. Hanks. Skeins. I have found a beautiful wool shop not far from my home. I love yarn. In fact I think I love hanks of yarn unwound and unknitted more than any garment you can make. I still remember a display of hand-dyed yarn hanging outside a shop in Roussillon in Provence which I walked past as a teenager on holiday. Purples and reds and blues against the red red stone of the walls.

In Imagiknit you see this.

I could spend all day there just looking. Somehow buying a tiny fraction to take home and make into something is always a little disappointing afterwards. Rather like visiting a stationery shop - that gorgeous blank notebook won't turn you into Charlotte Bronte or Ted Hughes. And that hank of yarn looks so much lovelier hanging there amongst the others than it will as a pair of socks.

Oh Bloggery!

Sometimes I get a bit of blogger's block. Since last week, it's been a lack of time rather than a lack of ideas. But I find that once I've had long enough to think about what I'm going to write, i.e. a few days, it just doesn't seem pressing or interesting any more. I am going to resist this feeling however, and carry on regardless. So in the next few posts, a few recipes I tackled over Christmas mostly plus a bit of smuggery. What shall we start with? Okay. The smuggery. I'm feeling rather pleased with myself because I made these in the weeks before Christmas.



Aren't they lovely? In case you're wondering, they are napkin rings, which I like and we didn't have. And I've just rediscovered bead weaving, something I haven't done for at least 30 years. I like bead weaving because it is easy to do but impressive to the onlooker - a bit like baking bread - and just right for someone like me who can be creative but always lacks something in the finishing.