Blue suede handbag

I am in love with my new blue suede handbag which my mum gave me for my birthday. Isn’t it pretty? It even has a pocket in contrasting brown suede. I think she probably bought it from OneForty in Cranleigh.

Computers

During the past week I’ve had real trouble with my laptop. It has managed to corrupt all sorts of Windows files and I now can’t use the computer except in safe mode which is a pain because the computer basically doesn’t do very much at all while in safe mode. There’s now nothing I can do except format the drive and reinstall Windows.

I, like many, rely on my computer for work – I work in software so it’s especially critical that I have a PC that works! Luckily in a moment of perhaps sixth sense I migrated to a new PC a few weeks ago so I’ve not lost anything but it has caused real frustration because the issue with the computer has basically got the better of me.

Anyway, my point is for anyone out there reading this, whatever you do, back up your data!

That’s all I have to say. Except that I might now go and open a window and expel the laptop out of it.

A lovely day…and it ain’t over yet!

Today is my birthday and I’m feeling very fortunate because lots of people have been wishing me happy birthday, even some of my customers in far flung places who I’ve never even met. I met my lovely friend Francesca for lunch and she gave me a bunch of whopper sunflowers and later I’m cooking dinner for my parents and Ivan.

In fact Ivan set the smoke alarm off this morning at 5.45am by lighting candles on a cake right underneath the smoke detector and when one goes off, the other two chirp in as well! Talk about a dawn chorus!

Family

Yesterday we surprised my auntie with a family lunch for her 60th birthday. I only have a little family. Here’s a pic of me with my Granddad who is 86 this year and not doing too badly – he plays bowls these days and still does his own garden. A few years ago he taught himself to play the guitar and started touring pubs with a folk band. He also plays chess competitively and used to be a keen golfer. He’s pretty eccentric and as sharp as a button.

Little forgotten blog

Hello readers, it’s been some time! Yes I’ve been busy over the last month and rather neglected my little loom and blog, but the loom is used to that now. Hopefully I can put it all right…

I finished my wall hanging – I actually finished it the day after I wrote about it which was the end of May, I think. It has turned out quite nicely but I can’t help thinking that it works better as a rug which is probably why it’s called rug wool!

(Oops just spotted some wrong threads in that photo!)  

It’s predominantly dark navy so when I held it up to the white wall (they’re all white) it appears even darker. It needs a very strong directional light on it to highlight the colours because it contains really bright colours in the weft but the dark warp makes them hard to see under daylight. What it really needs is a nice strong halogen bulb on it but our house, conforming to Building Regs, only has feeble low energy ones. Anyway I rather like the injections of colour, you suddenly see a flash of shrimp or red or olive but then you move your head and it’s gone again. As cool as this is, it also has the effect of making it pretty difficult to photograph!

So I finished it but haven’t yet got it hung up. Basically I don’t know now where to hang it so I’m going to leave it a while and mull it over. It seems to have settled on the floor in front of a sliding door, so maybe that’s where it will stay!

I have to say, I do like the Axminster wool which I used on both the warp and weft. You may remember that I had a panic that it wouldn’t be strong enough on the warp because you can break it…and it turned out fine, no broken threads. So thank you to Charlotte, Benita and Dorothy for your reassurance.

In fact, I liked using it so much that I ordered a great big cone of it in ecru – you can probably see my thinking there! I have decided to see if I can use the full width of the loom which I have never done before and see if I can’t make a rug using clasped weft again but this time in more distinct diagonals. So don’t be surprised if you soon see a photo of the dog sitting on the navy one and the ecru one hanging on the wall!