blog - natalie fergie

London

Natalie Fergie — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 22:45:21 +0000

The country mouse went to the big city at the weekend. You know, the BIG city.

And I'm afraid, on emerging from London Bridge station, next to this, I may have said "It's not very big, is it?" For this is The Shard. The thing which costs thirty quid if you want to go up it, and a hundred nicker if you haven't had the foresight to book in advance.

I could smell these Magnolia before I could see them. This was just part of a huge bush/shrub/climbing clump and the scent was just fabulous.

Many of the buildings in the area had hoists at the very top, overhanging the road, rather like Amsterdam. Clearly there is an industrial heritage. I wasn't aware that London had a particularly strong weaving tradition but since this is near the Thames, I am guessing that wool was transported up the water and processed here in some way.

I love this old property. Why are the shutters so many different colours?

Later in the weekend I saw poppies in the same palette.

More poppies were seen here...

And I took over a hundred photos, so the editing may take a little while.

Natalie

New front page

Natalie Fergie — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 08:53:37 +0000

We had no water yesterday, so I did other jobs, and made a start on designing the new website front page.

The main site address now takes you to a new, spiffy homepage where you can navigate all over the site and click on images in the gallery next to the Twitter feed.

What do you think? And are there any spelling mistakes?

Natalie

Sometimes the scales do lie

Natalie Fergie — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 23:41:26 +0000

I wonder how many women (and men) get out of bed in the morning, have a wee, and weigh themselves?

Before I step on the scales, there is always the potential that it's going to be A Good Day, because the numbers will be a little lower than they were yesterday. Numbers which are the same are acceptable (just), but a reduction in numbers is the sought after result. It means that I was "good" yesterday. That I had self control. Or perhaps, that I got away with it, whatever "it" was.

So I peer at the scales. I haven't put my glasses on and I have only the vaguest idea of what will be revealed. Not equipping my eyes with the requisite tools is a somewhat deluded mechanism for avoiding the truth. I can peer blearily at the numbers and pretend that they don't say what I think they say.

I have digital scales, so I flick the scale with a toe, nonchalantly, as though it doesn't matter in the slightest.

Holy ****!!!!

The big toe on my right foot weighs 156.3kg. For the non metric, my big toe weighs 24 stone 4 pounds.

How many capers, cauliflowers and cans of sardines did I eat yesterday?

I bravely assure myself that it must be a mistake, and I step onto the scales PROPERLY.

RACHIN' FASHIN" RICK RASHARDLEY!!!!

Two hundred and fourteen point three kilograms.

Thirty three stone and eleven pounds.

What the **** did I eat yesterday?

I step away from the scales and re-zero them. A sneaky White Magnum ice cream lolly and eleven almonds do not 214.3kg make. Not overnight. SURELY.

I repeat the whole process.

The answer is revealed. I have not been eating too many Walnut Whips.

I am OLD.

Filofax Winchester

Natalie Fergie — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 05:00:00 +0000

There are occasionally advantages to being a bit of a geek.

It means that when I came across this in a charity shop, looking a little battered around the edges, I tried hard to contain my excitement.

Not pristine, straight out of the box, unused and unloved - but a Filofax which has had a life.

I feel similarly about vintage sewing machines. They should have scratches where pins have been left in the fabric a little too long. The decals should be worn in front of the needle plate. These are the marks of engineering being put to good use, making curtains, 1970's bell-bottom jeans and summer frocks at the first hint of an April sunbeam. I feel a bit sad when things which are meant to be used are "kept for best".

It's the colour of dusty raspberries, not pink (thank goodness), not scarlet and not ruby claret.

The closure needs a little attention, and I'm not really sure how to fix this. A dab of clear nail varnish under the peeling cover? Or perhaps a tiny circle of fabric, gathered around the edge with strong silk and the thread carefully pulled tight?

So, I picked it up and peeked inside.

Here the leather is a little brighter, perhaps cranberry rather than raspberry.

I peered at the descriptor.

5/4

The sought after inch-and-a-quarter rings!

And so it came home with me. I haven't quite decided, but I think that it might become my Personal Filofax, as distinct from my Work Filofax. The one which I use for business is an A5, great for taking notes when I'm on the phone, planning the dye schedule, keeping colour recipes and calculating my next wholesale yarn order, but when I'm out at the weekend or travelling, I don't actually need all that work information with me, and I certainly don't need it when I'm on holiday. Until now I have been a One Life, One Filofax person with everything going in the A5; my "work" diary and year planner, plus the "personal" stuff, shopping lists, meal plans, Christmas and birthday ideas, travel research, knitting patterns, stuff to do with the garden and the car.

There is also the unavoidable truth that an A5 is Quite Big. All that lovely paper real estate needs a big binder to contain it.

I'm now wondering if a separate system would be both useful and healthy, clearly putting a line between working and time off. There are lots of blog posts out there about various set-ups, and YouTube is another good source of ideas. At the moment all I have is a 2013 diary, kindly offered by Susan, so I'm rather looking forward to adding to it and building a new "off duty" space for myself.

making monday, making progress

Natalie Fergie — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 13:45:41 +0000

It's slow work, this lace knitting lark. Between weed-killing the garden, going to see the new Star Trek film (not bad at all) and all the other mundane everyday things which need to be done, not much lace knitting has taken place.

There has been some tinking (well, a fair bit, if truth be told) and I have learned how to rescue a missed Yarn Over four rows down without uttering more than the mildest of curses. I had hoped to have this ready for Woolfest, but I am not sure I'll make it. Deadline knitting is not my forte.

I may have acquired a new-to-me Filofax too. Photos tomorrow.

Natalie

#52books 13

Natalie Fergie — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 17:00:00 +0000

My friend Rachel, who blogs about books and cake and knitting and jam at My Life in Knitwear recommended that I might enjoy Maggie O'Farrell's book, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, so I beetled off to the library only to find that my wee branch didn't have it in their collection. I have ordered it, but in the meantime I came home with her latest novel, Instructions for a Heatwave which is set in the drought ridden Summer of 1976. This was the year I left school, and I remember the fiendishly dry weather very well, there were ferocious forest fires in the Scottish Highlands where I was working at the time.

I enjoyed it. The characters struggled with the heat and the family revelations equally.

And my reserved copy of Esme Lennox is ready for collection, so I'll report back soon.

#52books - catching up

Natalie Fergie — Fri, 31 May 2013 16:26:28 +0000

I am behind with my book reports.

Three more have been read, and one is in progress.

India Knight: My Life on a Plate.

I am afraid this was a difficult book to read, the prose seemed a bit stilted and the story didn't flow. I actually gave up and then, since I was three-quarters of the way through, I decided that I should just knuckle down and finish it. Part of the problem was that I didn't like the main character who was rather vacuous, but I eventually realised that the main reason was that it was contemporary, but not up to date. The book was published in 2000, so written in 1999 or before and so many of the things we take for granted now did not exist then. Few mobile phones unless for business, for example.

This affected the way I viewed the characters. I kept thinking things like, "why doesn't she just ring to say she'll be late?" but of course she would not have been expected to have a mobile phone. It's interesting how a small change in technology affects the way we might read a book. Next time I will check the publication date on a novel before I start.

Denise Mina: Gods and Beasts

I have become a bit of a Denise Mina fan, and am accidentally reading them out of sequence because I'm borrowing from the library and it just depends what is on the shelves. I suggested to Gavin that he might like them and he replied that he would have to start with Book One.

Good book. I have two more Mina books (including Book One) on the shelves already, just waiting to be read.

Rachel Joyce: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

This was my holiday reading, and I really enjoyed it. Much midnight oil was burned.

So, that's books 9, 10 and 11, and I'm half way through book 12, of which more when I have finished it!

I'm only eight books behind...

Luxurious Lace Lovers

Natalie Fergie — Wed, 29 May 2013 13:46:24 +0000

This evening, at 18:00 BST, I will be launching a new monthly membership yarn society especially for those who love knitting with truly luxurious laceweight yarn.

Cashmere. Camel. Silk. Alpaca. And more.

These will be selected from the very best suppliers around the world, and will provide you with a real treat each month. This membership is all about the yarn. No patterns or stitch-markers this time, every penny is going on the most interesting and luxurious yarn bases I can find. The type of yarn will be different each time, and not repeated within a six month period. I will include 100g skeins with 600m, 800m, 1000m and 1200m, with most yarns falling within the 800m-1000m range.

Membership will be by Paypal Subscription, just like the Small Skein Society, and the sign up date is before the 9th of each month, with parcels being posted on or around the 22nd of that month.

Prices include First Class post.

£22 for UK members

£23 for Europe

£25 for the rest of the world.

Places are limited.

My own personal lace adventure continues. One more repeat for Chart B and I can move onto Chart C. Exciting times!

You can see that there is a complete absence of stitch-markers in the photo. I used them religiously until the second Chart B repeat, until I twigged that they were actually the cause of many of the mistakes. I missed Yarn Overs numerous times because I was too Busy manouevering (can't spell) a stitch-marker from one needle to the next. And because the repeats mostly begin and end with a Yarn Over it also meant the pesky things wriggled into the wrong position all the time so my purl row check counting was invariably wrong too.

I am knitting without a safety net, so to speak.

Making Monday - that lace thing

Natalie Fergie — Sun, 26 May 2013 19:31:19 +0000

You know how it is, all these gorgeous shawls on ravelry, all these clever people knitting them... so you think "I can do that, I knitted a Forest Canopy, I am a lace knitter".

Never mind the frogging, the cursing, the scissor episodes before and since. All are forgotten in the never ending search for a pattern.

Eventually, you find one which looks perfect, right motif size, right yarn gauge, and you even have the suggested size of needles on hand.

You cast on, having first sought expert advice on whether a provisional cast on is really needed, and what could be substituted. Your friend says a knitted cast on will do instead.

A knitted cast on.

Knitted how?

Thumb?

Longtail?

Some other method you will need to learn?

No, she means the old fashioned way which you haven't used in twenty five years.

You cast on.

You frog.

You cast on.

You frog again. There is no point in tinking a rectangle three stitches wide and thirteen rows long.

You crack it!

You knit the whole of the set up chart without a single error, and so, flushed with success, you embark on Chart B.

You get to the end of row one... and there are two stitches missing.

You tink and reknit. now there is one stitch missing.

You tink back the whole row, and the purl row.

You re-purl.

You re-knit. One stitch missing.

You tink back, and the purl row, AND the previous row, right back to the three knit stitches at the start.

You re-knit, re-purl, and re-knit.

There is STILL one sodding stitch missing.

You repeat the process, right back to the last row of Chart A. And there it is. the missing stitch, a YO after the first three stitches on the row.

And you feel two things. Utterly stupid, I mean A YARN OVER in the most obvious, easily identified place if you just used your eyes, for goodness sake.

But also rather proud, because you did not reach for the scissors and chop it up into tiny pieces.

Does this mean I am now A Grown Up Knitter?

If you blog for Making Monday please leave a link in the comments so i can visit, or if you just want to talk about your Making Adventures for this week in the comments, go right ahead.

holiday pics

Natalie Fergie — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:32:20 +0000

Gaudi at Park Guell

The seaside

Brompton heap at a coffee shop

View from the apartment five floors up

And the other direction, looking down to the sea

travelling tastes

Natalie Fergie — Wed, 15 May 2013 09:50:59 +0000

One of the great joys of travelling is visiting supermarkets. Yes, proper produce markets are full of evocative smells and colours, but an ordinary supermarket tells you more about the everyday, the mundane, the ordinary.

I found this, not in the jam department as might have been expected, but in the cheese section. Now this is, in an odd sort of way, fairly logical, since Membrillo is a sort of Quince Cheese. It's like a cross between something with a very soft set like apple jelly, and a sort of think marmalade without the peel. As a confirmed consumer of marmalade and cheese at the same time (and other habits regarded as odd, like cheddar and fruit cake), this seems the best way to eat it.

Barceloneta - teeny tiny apartments

Natalie Fergie — Fri, 10 May 2013 18:31:30 +0000

Barceloneta is one of the four districts in the Ciutat Vella (old city) area of Barcelona. The district was purpose built for the residents of Ribera who were ousted from their properties to make way for the construction of the Ciutadella in the 18th century. The whole area was designed in one major development phase, so the streets are quite uniform with all the flats being more or less identical.
So, if you take our rented apartment as typical, the staircase is accessed by a door from the street. The staircase is steep and narrow, much less than a metre wide. I would guess about 80cm, with the step treads being about 25 cm deep. The treads are narrow enough that if you go upstairs everything it OK, because your weight in in the front of your foot, but going down the stairs is much more tricky because you need to step with your feet at an angle to make sure you get enough "foot" on each step.
The stair runs up the side of each building (on the inside) and two flats are on each landing. These are parallel so if you have street A and street B with the access stair on street A, half the flats overlook street A and half overlook street B.
The buildings are tall. Most are six storeys with no lifts.
Each flat has three windows along one side of the building, most are full length pairs of glass doors so there is plenty of light. The apartments were built as very basic housing. Some are divided into three rooms, bedroom, kitchen and living room, with a tiny shower room. The apartment we are renting is open plan, and is the standard 30 square metres. The only way to get a bigger apartment would be to buy the one next door on the same landing and do some wall bashing.
I quite like the equality in this. As you walk around the streets and look up, it's evident that all the apartments ARE the same size. Some have broader balconies, but really, that's it. It's very compact housing in which everyone has the same space.

This is the one we are staying in.
www.barcelonacatalunya.cat/view-each/baluard-3rd-mediterraneo.html

And these are the others in the same building - I am pretty sure the owner bought the whole building to convert and rent out.
www.artsapartments.com/

On the ground floor, some of the properties are apartments and some are commercial, i have seen hairdressers, an ironmonger, several dress shops, a vet, and quite a few tiny restaurants (one in particular on our street has a queue out of the door every night), if I lived in this city I would be hunting down a wee 30 square metre workshop where I could dye yarn, have a little shop and I would be a very happy girl. Add an apartment above and... Well you get the idea.

The Bromptons survived the flight apart from what seems to be a bit of bashment to the front brakes of Gavin's bike which is causing some squeakage. We went out on them yesterday and headed north, polishing off a fairly effortless 12.5km in what seemed like no time at all. Barcelona has a great "promenade" alongside the beach with bike lanes, runners lanes and reasonable surfacing to cycle on.
Tomorrow we plan to head south in the same way.

Gavin's blogpost on the bikes is here.
www.fegrig.com

Natalie

Flood!

Natalie Fergie — Tue, 07 May 2013 20:50:56 +0000

This (and more) is not what you want to discover the day before you go on holiday.

We woke up to the sound of running water, cascading through the light fittings, the door frame, and down the walls.

HOT water.

We have a combi boiler, so a burst pipe made the boiler think a shower was in need of hot water and it duly delivered.

Cue emergency total power off (the fuse box is in this room) with a wooden stick. .

Cue ladders up to the attic to turn off the supply to the boiler.

Cue rapid phone call to our lovely plumbers who were here within 40 minutes on a Public Holiday.

Cue phone call to our insurance company.

Unfortunately we can't do anything else because we are now away on holiday until the end of next week.

Oh well.

Natalie

A linen jacket

Natalie Fergie — Sun, 05 May 2013 13:13:38 +0000

I'm about to go on holiday, and I have a very limited wardrobe. This is partly because I hate, HATE going clothes shopping, and partly because I labour under the belief that in a few weeks I will be slim and anything I buy won't fit. Deluded, really.

So my first task was to make a jacket. This is New Look 6153.

It's a straightforward pattern, designed to be made with a lining (which of course I omitted, because I wanted to make life easier, silly girl).

The lapels aren't too bad, perhaps a bit of undercollar roll through, but they are even and sit well.

The undercollar is cut on the bias, and the collar itself leads into a rather pretty fine dart which is hidden when the collar is worn normally, but shows when it's worn standing up.

I did a mock flat felled seam on the shoulders and down the centre back, I find this sits better than a pressed forward and overlocked seam which on a soft linen fabric has a tendency to not lie flat.

This is the inside, The front facings are overlocked to reduce bulk since I wasn't lining it and didn't want to hem it down.

So, was it a success?

Well it's meant as the soft of jacket which will tolerate being shoved in the overhead locker of a plane without complaining too much and I think it will work for this.

What would I do differently?

The collar sections, both upper and lower, are interfaced, and I think one layer would have been enough. In fact I think the interfacing all round is too heavy for the crumpled look I wanted.

It doesn't hang completely flat at the hem at the front and again, I think this is a too-heavy-interfacing issue. Also possibly due to the fact that I used an iron-one when a sew-in would have given a softer look.

The pattern has cuffs on the sleeves which I omitted in favour of rolling them up in a more casual style, I suspect they were due to get the interfacing treatment as well so I'm happy with this decision, the sleeves are deliberately cut too long to accommodate the rolling up.

Right, on to the T shirts now!

Natalie

Adding to the stash

Natalie Fergie — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:59:26 +0000

The sewing bug has bitten me again.

I went out with a list which read "Jacket. Top. Shorts or trousers. Shirt (maybe)."

This is 100% linen fabric, 2.5m for £7 per metre. It's a lovely old terracotta colour, like a weathered flowerpot and it has an interesting texture beyond the plainweave. So this is going to be my summer jacket, no buttons, simple shape, rolled up sleeves.

And this is Quite A Lot of cotton.

6.5 metres to be precise.

I want to make lightweight summer trousers, and also a simple top - not necessarily to wear together. And also a shirt. I mentioned to Gavin a while ago that I could make him a shirt and he wasn't keen (mainly because he thinks I should sew for myself first). But then he was watching Ann Rowley make her linen shirt on GBSB and was really interested in the whole process, so I have decided to just go for it.

The trousers will take 2.2m and the shirt 2.5m which is 4.7m. I decided to round it up to 6m so that I could make a longish top and make best use of all the cloth by fitting the smaller facings etc into the gaps. It turned out that there was 6.5m on the roll, so I got the half metre for free.

It was £8.99/m but I am sure that trousers, a shirt, and a top (or maybe even a dress if I am canny when I cut) from £54 worth of fabric is a pretty good prospect.

So, the whole lot is now it the washing machine pre-shrinking ready for me to cut out on Wednesday.

I also saw this and immediately thought of my friend Jude. It's PVC coated tablecloth fabric.

Also available as curtain yardage.

What every campervan needs!

Natalie

Coconut cookies

Natalie Fergie — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:21:33 +0000

Ever since we became a gluten free household back in January, the number of cake and bread type blog posts here has diminished. You could be forgiven for thinking that I have abandoned the whole baking thing entirely.

Not so, my friends.

Gluten free baking is different that's for sure, but I'm starting to get a bit more confident. We even had beef steak pie with a proper pastry crust this week which was not bad at all, though I say it myself. Bread is still a bit challenging, but cakes are quite manageable.

Last night I made these coconut cookies. Not really a bun, and not a cake, but not snappy like a biscuit.

It's a standard Victoria sponge cake recipe. Gluten free baking seems to need butter rather than margarine, and more eggs than you would normally use. I would have added one egg to a wheat flour recipe before, but these took two eggs.

So the mixture is Glutafin White Mix (a blend of rice and potato flour), butter, sugar, baking powder, vanilla, eggs and milk. Whisk like crazy. And then add quite a lot of desiccated coconut. Enough to make the mixture really thick.

Then put teaspoon sized dollops on a baking sheet and baked in a hot oven for eight minutes. Gluten free flour baking seems to brown very quickly so you really have to keep an eye (or a timer) on progress.

Not bad.

Not bad at all.

Shall I put the kettle on?

Natalie

#52books 8

Natalie Fergie — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:03:30 +0000

It's funny isn't it, how some books are just not what you expect?

This is quite unusual for me, I'm a fairly monogamous reader who starts at the beginning and keeps going until the end without hesitation, deviation or full blown giving up.

The top book in this pile is Balancing Acts by Zoe Fishman, from the library. I picked it up at the same time as a Yoga DVD, so there's a bit of a theme going on here. This is her website, with reviews. It's not a heavy read, the characters are likeable (apart from one fairly major "surely she won't do that" theme) and I enjoyed it.

Moving down the pile is the one I am reading at the moment (review soon) which is making me cross.

Then there is the book which I expected to like. I follow the author on Twitter, and she's entertaining and thought provoking. It's VERY unlike me to not finish a book, I can only think of one other in the last five years, but this tale is severely testing my patience. There isn't anyone to LIKE in it! I've read half so I have made a fair investment, and I'll let you know if I continue.

And finally there is Bill. He writes books to savour and I'm quite happy dipping in and out of this one from time to time.

So although it looks as though I'm not reading anything much, I am. It's just that I'm not FINISHING many!

If you have a book to recommend please let me know in the comments. I have a new shiny library card and I'm itching to use it.

Natalie

My (Great) Grandmother

Natalie Fergie — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:22:23 +0000

This is the next installment from my Mum.

My grandmother

Granny was born in 1866, in Newcastle upon Tyne, or thereabouts. She was called Mary Ann, or Molly. I think her mother died when she was born. She had an elder sister, Elizabeth, called Lizzie. The two orphaned girls were separated and brought up by different family members, but remained close. Later they both went south and Granny married James Hopps, who was an engineer. He was 21 years older than her. He was born in Sedgefield, educated at a dame school for one penny a week and, I was told, began his career as an apprentice working on the Stockton and Darlington Railway. My aunt once found a bridge on the what had been the railway with “J. Hopps 1860’ carved into it. He then worked at Armstrong’s Gunmakers in Newcastle. In 1871 he walked to London, part of a group who were agitating to have the nine hour working day reduced. In the south he married the daughter of the Secretary to the Amalgamated Engineering Union, and became the workshop manager of the Royal Indian Engineering College, at Englefield Green, which today is part of Brunel University. But his wife died young, and in 1904 my grandmother became his second wife. It is said that she went out for a walk with James and said ‘when I come back I will be engaged’ and she was. I don’t know how she, too, came to live in the south, but as they both came from the north-east there was probably a family or friendly connection. But it was a happy marriage. In 1910 he was away from home working in South Wales..

He wrote:

My bonnie darling,

...believe me I will aways return your love and caresses fortyfold or more, if you will accept them, and we will not contemplate any other form which cannot be repaid by me in that way. What do you say, eh? Ma Cherie!

With regard to my staying longer as suggested in your letter I have given the matter consideration and have decided . . . NOT to prolong my stay. but will come home tomorrow by Fishguard Express leaving Cardiff at 9.15 a.m. and may arrive at Egham at 1 o’clock. I shall be glad to see your gentle sweet face again, I assure you. The longer I have you with me the stronger my love grows for you and the longing to have your company is all-powerful with me. The time has seemed long since I saw my wifie and little ones and I will not willingly make it any longer.. . . You may possibly think this rather the letter of a lover than a husband but consider it as coming from both. I have written what I feel, there! and you must take me as I am, love and all. . . .

The ship may sail next Thursday or Friday at the latest. The Bridegroom of a few days was drowned in full view of his wife at Lynmouth on Wednesday. How inexpressibly sad! How thankful we ought to feel that we still have each other so rich in love in our little home. Loving kisses for Nora and Jean and a thousand kind thoughts for my darling . . .

That’s what it was like before email! He was sixty-five then. But he died five years later; he went to a funeral, caught a chill, and died soon after, pneumonia I suppose. So Granny was a widow until she died in 1948. I remember her best when in the Lightwater house, she spent her time either cooking, gardening, or most often seated at the treadle sewing machine beside the dining table, putting sheets sides-to-middles, or making pinafores for me. She had long brown hair, which never went grey, and wore it in a bun. She brushed it every day with a Mason Pearson brush and during the three years before she died was never known to wash it. I don’t think she believed in too much washing. I used to sit drawing at Grandad’s desk using the long cylindrical ruler, and making long woollen ropes on a Knitting Nancy. I specially liked the Catalogue of the Army and Navy stores, which was kept in the cupboard. It was full of pictures of tents, and Granny had a great book called Mrs Leach’s Fancy Work Basket, (1894) which Natalie has now, full of patterns for pincushions and strange advertisements for mail order goods. “Ladies, you will look neat in one of our dresses! The John Noble Cheviot Serge 7/6!“ “Knockabout frocks for girls 1/6d” , “Sanitary towels, the greatest invention of the age, at the cost of washing only!” and even more exciting “Mother Siegel’s Curative Syrup” which apparently cured anything. I did ask her why there were so many patterns for pincushions, and she said darkly, it was because women had nothing better to do in those days. She certainly had plenty to do. We used to spend hours picking blackberries in the paddock, and she was never idle. We toasted crumpets at the fire. She did have a surprising sense of humour: I remember once bringing home from school a magazine called the ‘Girls Crystal’ of which I was very proud, (well, magazines were pretty well non-existent during the war) and was scandalised to come across Granny reading it and LAUGHING like a drain at the silly stories I rook so seriously. Her favourite dinner was poached salmon and parsley sauce, though I doubt it was available too often.

When I stayed at Granny’s house I usually shared her bed, which was very big with a brass bedhead and foot, and a deep feather mattress which had to be pushed and pummelled every morning. It was amazingly comfy. The eiderdown had lots of little pink flowers on it: I used to pretend to pick the flowers in the morning. I must have driven her mad.

I was thirteen when she died, and living in London, but I missed her. Children didn’t go to funerals much then. She left me some money in her will, I don’t remember how much, but it went into my first bank account.

I don’t think she enjoyed childbearing much. When she was old whenever it was reported that someone was pregnant she would say “Oh, the poor thing!” Of course she had her first child at 40 and her second at 44 which was pretty old then, and they were both born at home. My mother always said that she (the eldest) was kept covered in vaseline and bedded in a drawer. The photographs of the family show Granny and Grandad looking very old indeed. It’s amazing that she would have been 54 when women got the vote at age 28, in 1918. I have no idea if she ever voted. I expect she was too busy.

Thanks to my mum for this post.

Natalie

PS The first post in this series is here.

Trakke

Natalie Fergie — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:15:37 +0000

Today I went to Glasgow. I needed to pick up the Choconnasticks for the SSS parcels, but also I had a very exciting email to say that my new bag was ready.

It's made in Glasgow by a company called Trakke. All the materials are British, from the steel buckles to the waxed cotton cloth made by a family firm in Dundee.

Alec, the founder and designer, is a Glasgow College of Art graduate who is committed to keeping things as local as possible.

This is the Bairn. It's the smallest they make, not the kind of bag you can chuck everything into and then add a small kitchen sink as well, but nonetheless it's quite big enough for what I need to carry.

It doesn't come with the yellow wooden toggles as standard, but I thought they would be useful so they added them for me.

Inside is a zipped pocket. Not full width, but big enough for my passport, tickets, or other important stuff.

And as you can see it will carry a book, iPad Mini (the normal iPad fits too), and my chunky A5 Filofax which has big 30mm rings.

It is also big enough to take my camera (4/3 Panasonic GF1) which is fairly solid, not a pocket camera.

Alec generously gave me permission to take some photos while I was there., and Rowan and James (who made my bag) carried on working.

This is the one most people wanted to see!

For the sewing geeks...

All in all, a really interesting visit, and after lots of bag-chat and yarn chat (yes, I showed him ravelry), I decided to take my Trakke Bairn out for Hot Choconnastick and cake.

Natalie

Decluttering

Natalie Fergie — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 10:48:02 +0000

Don't mind me, I'm just going to rabbit on a bit about getting rid of stuff because I need to get it out of my head. It may not make much sense but sometimes I blog for myself and this is one of those days.

I am attempting to declutter the office/workroom/packingroom/storeroom. This is not easy. It's full of valuable stuff I want to keep.

Children's finger paintings.

Cards from Parents' Night saying "This is my work I hope you like it."

My wedding flowers.

Antique ink bottles dug up from a former "heap" at the back of an old house.

A million receipts.

Catalogues for dyes, fibres, yarns, stationery.

Paper for the printer.

Cartridge paper, oil pastel paper, rough surfaced NOT paper for watercolours.

Ink pens, fountain pens, felt pens - the free giveaway ballpoint pens can go.

Pencils in every colour, and watercolour, and in HB, 2B, 4B, 6B.

Charcoal, oil pastels, watercolours in tubes and pans. Brushes.

Dress fabric. Quilt fabric. Outdoor fleece fabric. Batting. Buttons.

Dayglo yellow reflective strips for attaching to kids' jackets.

Plastic toggles for fixing rucksack buckles, velcro, cord.

Thread in every colour (except the one I need).

Sketchbooks, notebooks, old work diaries which must be kept for legal reasons.

Useful articles.

Books. Books. Books.

And of course this is all stored on or in furniture which is great in itself, but was never actually planned for the use to which it is being put. A HUGE table, well over two metres long and a metre wide with three drawers, each drawer a completely useless 5 cm deep. The lip on the table is rounded so I can't clamp my skeinwinder to it and have to do this on ANOTHER table. A six foot tall IKEA bookcase bought for someone to put a stereo on which is therefore far too deep to use for much else, and anyway, it wobbles. A perfectly nice pine chest of drawers which is tall and chunky and just becomes a dumping ground for "things which might be useful" and is not in itself much use because the drawers stick and the drawer bottoms are made from tongue and groove which separates every time you open them. A sofabed which is neither decent sofa nor comfortable bed but which is being kept in case we need an emergency bed for a guest.

The problem is that for as long as I can remember I have recycled. I tend not to buy new things when the old one still works even if it's wildly unsuitable. I feel enormous guilt about replacing household things which could "do another turn". And I know all to well that I am lucky. I am really, really lucky to have this stuff when there are people who have very little and that stops me from having a real chuck-it-all-out-and-start-again session.

Yes I could freecycle, or sell, or just take it to the Council recycling centre but it's making the decision to do it which is hard. And when it all works (after a fashion), is it ethical to replace it?

This is (as they say) a third world problem. And in my heart I know I should stop mithering, realise that I am very fortunate and just tidy up and make do... BUT my head is telling me that it's my workspace, and it's not functioning efficiently, and that it's stopping ME from doing things so really, it's time to let go of this old furniture and buy stuff which will let me get on with a task rather than preventing me from doing it.

The saying goes "don't sweat the small stuff" but in this case, it's not the small stuff which I'm troubled by, it's these hulking great bits of furniture which are getting in the way of me moving forward. Why do I feel so guilty about getting rid of them? Perhaps it's the waste, but I think it's also because I didn't actually choose any of them but they have somehow all ended up in my space!

Natalie