This little piggy...

...was made for the lovely Fleur.

She found the china pig and asked me to turn him into a pincushion. We traded: pincushion pig for some of Fleur's lovely buttons. The barter economy is a marvellous thing.

Well, that was embarrassing...

So, way back when (October 17 last year, if we're going to be precise), I said:


...this WILL be the winter in which I make more clothes. I'm going to aim for one garment a month. Surely that's possible...


And that was the last I said on the matter. Actually, that was the last I said on this blog...

And I didn't make any clothes...

I did do a lot of other things, although almost all of them work-orientated. However, I'm not going to let my total failure to achieve almost my only non-work goal set me back any further than it already has. I'm going to wedge the most interesting bits of the last four months into a few posts and then, onwards and upwards...

It's a plan: you've got to start with a plan.

Before Christmas, Liberty ordered some more pincushions. Some of those that made the trip to the West End were...

The lovely Julie caught this rabbit for me to turn into a pincushion...

Sarah B, china-hunting supremo, found me a whole collection of shoes and boots...

Conjoined swans...

A present from Margate...

Hey, little donkey...

I have no idea what purpose this china basket originally served...

The great catch-up...

As one wanders the blogosphere, one encounters quite a few rather surprised entries that wonder where all the time went...

Well, I was on holiday for three weeks: yes indeedio, three whole weeks. (That was why I had to late-night sew: my summer clothes had mysteriously shrunk while in winter storage...) Himself and I took our 1979 VW camper to Norway and toddled gently around the Western Fjords, an expedition made significantly easier by the power steering fitted just before we left. Camper owners of the world, I thoroughly recommend the Litesteer system, even if you aren't planning on negotiating narrow, twisting roads that sport little in the way of crash barriers and a great deal in the way of vertiginous drops. And while there wasn't much traffic on the roads, a fair percentage of what there was was large and oncoming at surprisingly high speeds in the middle of a single-track road. Himself and I have an arrangement whereby I drive and he cooks, so 2000+ miles of lorry-dodging later, I have nerves of steel.

The fjord scenery is spectacular and the camping sites splendiferous; indeed, several of the shower rooms had underfloor heating, making them more luxurious than our bathroom at home... (Which reminds me of a postcard I once bought in Alabama that defined a US Southerner as someone whose standard of living improved when they went camping: I live in South London...) So, despite the novel experience of becoming overly excited about dual carriageways, and rather more snow than I had anticipated in May, we had an excellent holiday.

Lots of truly magnificent scenery...

Camper motored perfectly throughout...

Himself up to his ears in snow... (and looking rather dishevelled around the midriff, sorry about that...)

An end-of-the-world campsite, just us and a few oddities with the world whizzing by overhead: good showers here...

Uplifting view from the camper at a more isolated campsite...

We rented campsite cabins a couple of times; groovalicious curtains...

Found a yarn shop in Florø in the far west of the fjords...

I missed Elvis, but was mollified by a bulldog show judged by this wonderously bulldoggish English chap...

I took some lace-weight yarn (my fave at the moment), a circular needle and a crochet hook on holiday with the intention of experimenting. Having spent so much time making for books recently, it was very lovely to be doing something with no deadline. It's quite definitely a WIP, and I'm not convinced...

The start of something... not sure what...

But I like the way the knitting and the crochet work together...

And when I got back, Liberty had reordered pincushions, which is very gratifying...

Fab fish courtesy of Sarah, china-hunter extraordinaire...

Very charming clog from the lovely Julie... (I twiddled about in Photoshop trying to get the label to read the right way round, but my left/right idiot-thing defeated me: that affliction is particularly trying when driving a right-hand drive car abroad...)

Where's the kissy princess? How did I end up like this?

I hugely enjoyed doing some sewing for myself and am determined to do more (plus, three weeks of holiday have made A-line pinafores a logistical necessity: I think my behind is attempting world domination all by itself...) and a trip to Fabrics Galore (one of my very favourite shops, and now – so excitingly – with an online store) elicited this...

A pinafore with a plain red bodice and a long skirt made in this? Scarlet, I blame any dipping of my toes into the waters of Goth-dom on you...

And in other news, Lefty is doing well in the US Open.

The lovely Lefty, -3 at the end of day one.

I don't have Sky, so I rely on the Guardian for coverage: I think that even if you HATE golf (and I am led to believe that, astonishingly, some people do...), this is a very amusing column.

joining the party rather late...

Finally, having muttered about it for some time, I have got started with this blog. Seriously, the word 'blog' was a delayer for a while for me: such an ugly word. I briefly considered 'journal' – as found on some rather elegant blogs – but a journal is not what I hope to write here. What I do hope to do is record my creative efforts, share some of the practical knowledge that my job as an illustrated craft book editor has given me over the years, and join (and hopefully start) some interesting discussions. I'm aiming for a once-a-week post but I warn you, if I run out of brain I shall resort to cute pet photos: I have a good number of those...

A make to start with I think: for the last three years I have taken a stand at the very excellent Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace in October. I've met some fabulous people, sold lots of my makes, taught some classes, and generally thoroughly enjoyed myself. At the show in 2012 a buyer from Liberty of London saw my china pincushions, contacted me, and now some of those pincushions are on sale in the shop... 

A faun escaped to Liberty...

A quite extraordinary swan...

Lettuce-leaf-head grandma...

A present from Germany...

A Start-Rite pincushion...

A slightly blurry phone-photo of the assembled multitude on sale in Liberty...

And in front the display was a pile of my pincushions book...all very exciting indeed!
I went to visit the pincushions a week later, and some had gone! Be still my beating heart! I really was quite ridiculously excited by the whole thing. I mean, I've sold many pincushions myself, but here they were in a proper shop! And one of my favourite shops!
This has spurred me on to start thinking about new types of pincushions I could make, which I'll share as they transition from the imaginary to reality. That'll be soon, I hope...