Dashing to Dorset

My husband is working on a film in Dorset at the moment so this weekend as he just had Sunday off, I went to visit him. We stayed at an amazing B&B in Burton Bradstock - a little village on the coast. I've stayed in a few B&Bs before but I wasn't quite prepared for this one!

The house was built in 1902 during the Arts & Crafts movement - the interior was so sympathetic and tasteful. Stupidly I didn't take any photos of the house but this is their website - Norburton Hall. It was such a lovely treat!

I did manage to take photos of the coastline - which is Jurassic. Wow, you couldn't look at a rock without seeing ammonites and fossils. They were everywhere.

I love the texture and the layers. Knowing that they were millions of years old certainly gets you thinking too!

Lovely to see Ivan, lovely trip away.

Where can I find Bernard's Watch?

I've been so busy doing other things lately that I have rather neglected my loom. It reminds me every time I walk past it by looking empty and bereft of even a warp.

So what have I got to show for my elapse? Not a lot!! I just seem to be working all the time or walking the dog - maybe it's because the days are getting shorter now and it always takes me a while to adjust to the dark evenings.

So last night I made a new warp - it's meant to be a surprise although I have no idea how to keep it away from the intended recipient - considering he's going to see it as soon as he walks into the room!!

My solution is to find Bernard's Watch. What on earth is she on about now? Bernard's Watch was a kids TV program where a little boy called Bernard had a magic pocket watch. If he clicked a button on it, time would stop. Everyone except Bernard and whoever he was holding hands with at the time would stop literally in their tracks, making it quite amusing because the actors had to stop dead when they were running or whatever and you would normally see the more precariously balanced ones wobbling about.

So Bernard and his little friends were free to go and do whatever they wanted or needed to do - usually some scheme that would involve a frantic rush in the normal world but which could be achieved at a leisurely pace with the watch.

If I had the magic watch I could pause time, finish my weaving in time for Ivan's return tomorrow and of course release everyone to carry on with what they were doing.

Ever since I saw that program I have thought about what an indispensable item that watch was. Hey ho.

Image by Bottletop Design Ltd

Goodwood Revival

On Saturday we went with a couple of friends to Goodwood Revival which is a classic car racing event in Sussex in the south of England. We've been going every year for several years now and it's guaranteed that we will have a brilliant day!

For those who haven't heard of it, it's a classic car race weekend that celebrates car racing between 1948 and 1966 when Goodwood Racecourse was in its prime. All the cars are of the era and are all picked by the organisers for the event because they are extra special examples and so on. Plus (and this is the best bit for me) most people who attend dress up in the clothes of the era! Of course it covers quite a range of styles - post war 40s, military, 50s and 60s.

It's just an amazing spectacle and people put so much effort into looking the part - everyone uses their imagination. There are special acts too like the Dad's Army guys (some of them are the spitting image of the TV characters) and policemen, spies, taxi driver girls.

If you haven't been but get the chance to go, then go! Here are some photos....

You'd definitely see in the dark on that scooter!

My 50s dress bought on eBay that was originally from a shop in New York.

Hubby Ivan looking rather dashing!

Sarah and Craig enjoying the local beer.

Dad's Army!

A jewellery interlude

So my weaving has been rudely interrupted by my wandering mind...which rested on my jewellery projects. I finally picked up my jewellery stuff from my parents house where it's been out of sight, out of mind and I can feel myself getting carried away.

Here are photos of some necklaces I made a while ago which I've just been reunited with.

This is the last one I made and is my favourite. I actually made it for my mum for Christmas but I think it's a bit heavy and extreme for her! It's made of red coral - ethically sourced I'm led to believe - and it's really very long. The white beads are sparkly and give it a bit of a glam edge. The big sticks of coral remind me of chillis!

This is a little neat necklace that I often wear when I go to visit clients - it's business-y enough to wear with a shirt but the glass gold beads brighten suits up a treat. Again I used the red coral pieces to punctuate it.

I wear this one most. It's large turquoise pendants all the way roumd with coral chips and sparkly beads. Looks nice with a white dress or shirt but again is very heavy! Also because the coral circles all the way round, it scratches your neck and I usually end up getting frustrated and take it off half way through the day!

I also collected boxes and boxes of stones, findings and all the paraphanalia that goes with it. Ivan might be coming home to a big mess of beads all over the bed and floor........

Hmm... I feel a new project coming on

These three spools of cotton have been staring at me for the past few weeks. I quite fancy weaving a dog tooth table runner for my dining table - albeit the table is in storage at the other end of the country.

I'm supposed to be doing things like painting the house at weekends but all work and no play make Lottie a dull girl. So we shall see...

Cheerful autumn scarf

Last week I took a week off work and as we weren't able to go on holiday I decided it would be the perfect opportunity to play with my new toy and get lots of weaving done. Of course, things don't always turn out how you imagine but I did manage to squeeze in a short scarf project. Short in both senses - the turnaround and the length of the finished article itself!

A little while ago I bought 3 balls of quite coarse knitting wool. I find that whenever I spot a lovely wool in a knitting shop they don't tend to have quite enough in stock of the one I want but it was so cheerful that I decided to buy it anyway.

I used one and a half balls on a warp:

In the absence of my warping board (it's in storage) I had to improvise and used the loom to make the cross and positioned my bench at the other side of the room to wrap it around. Quite why I ended up making it virtually on the floor I don't know as it involved a lot of crawling from one end of the room to the other.

I then used the remaining wool on the weft. I decided on a waffle pattern in the end as I wanted to see how well the coarse wool would make the 3D texture compared to cotton. You can kind of see the effect while it's still on the loom:

Here's the finished piece - quite short but fab colours for autumn! Not convinced the waffle effect turned out well but the fabric does have a nice texture and I guess it would be warmer than if it had been a flat texture. I'm so pleased with my new loom - it's so fast in comparison to the table loom I used before. I'm constantly amazed at how much I can achieve in one sitting.

Finished alpaca scarf

A couple of weeks ago I finished the test scarf project that I started and here are the pics. It uses a beautiful soft alpaca wool - cream colour in the warp and a blue weft. The blue reminds me of a hotel on the south Cornish coast - they have a very similar colour dotted around. It's such a smart fresh colour.

The pattern is a sort of windmill shape which you can see quite well on this photo on the loom...

...and below you can see it clearly on the close-up too although in real life you need to kind of let your eyes go out of focus to spot the pattern.

Here's a final pic of the finished article and one of Margot modelling it.

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out - at least I understand the loom an awful lot better now! Although I did make a mistake on the threading and of course it's replicated throughout the whole scarf. Still, on to the next project!