Photos of craft fair stuff.

The photographer daughter has gone to work, so I am taking photos with my kodak. The colours look washed out in some of these, red looks orange in some, but oh well. It is too hot and muggy to worry about it. :-)

children's hats

toddler hats

chokers and headbands. Pink tie ones available in orange and purple.

adult baggy beanies and sun hats

baby hats

bracelets and wristlets by Martine

scarves/ tie belts by Martine

toddler sun hats

Babe in a tie on headband. :-)

Fund raising fail and fun away from home

The craft stall I did at Celebrate was a big fail. The festival is much smaller than in previous years, and I was one of three commercial stalls there, if you don't include food. I should have done the Didsbury one, but I didn't know it was on until I had booked this one. Poop. Oh well, I made about £40 if you count the hats that home edders bought when they saw me preparing. So I have about 40 hats to sell, as well as things contributed by Martine, and some crocheted chokers and hair bands. At least it was fun making them. I am much better at crocheting, and giving things away, than I am at selling them. :-)

Other than that, we have been on holiday. Well, most of us. Al and me and 3 youngest went to Penrallt, which is a magical place. The sea is so fun and healing.

Me in the caravan

The man in a wetsuit

The Babe enjoying the sand.

The Babe in a canoe. I went out in this later. :-)

The Meister in a Kayak.

The Boy spent most of his time with guitar in hand, making music in the caravan, by the fire, up a tree, or just walking about randomly in the fields. But here he is, enjoying the beach.

This was a return to a family camp that we went to for several years before the older girls' activities started taking precedence. It was so nice to be back, even without the two oldest kids. I hope we get to go back next year. But very glad we went this year, as we can't afford to go any place else this summer. It was pretty fab!

Didn't get much knitting done though. Started some socks for the Meister, and managed to crochet her a nice summer hat, but all of that sand was not condusive to knitty things. :-)

Just a rant

I have been crocheting like a madwoman lately, in preparation for the stall I have booked. This morning I woke up and sat in my chair to continue with crocheting some hats while listening to the Today programme on Radio 4. I listen to Radio 4 pretty much constantly, and although I think John Humphries has become a caricature of his former self, and I sometimes avoid the news in the morning if I want to have a happy day, I still rate the programming as superior to the networks I grew up with in America.

But this morning was one of those mornings when I just shook my head in disbelief and got a bit more opinionated with every news story. So my opinions are coming out...

Firstly, there was a news story about Network Rail. Apparently their profits are up by about 10 %, while their efficiency is down by about the same. They are 'slimming down' and 'devolving' some areas of the running of the network, but the spokesmen was adamant that they are not being broken up. The 'slimming down' is because of a report which says that rail costs in Britain are about 30% more than they have to be, and regularly more than our European counterparts. When asked by the reporter if the problems were because of the separation of train companies and network companies, he dodged answering successfully...while I sat there thinking, "Of course it bloody is!"

Then came yet another story on the proposed changes to the NHS. Andrew Lansley and the Conservatives want to make significant changes to the NHS. One of the phrases we keep hearing is 'Increasing competition in order to improve services to patients." Of course, I do think that there could be some changes to the NHS that would increase efficiency and patient care, but these are not them. As GPs keep pointing out, if you allow them to contract private health care providers, then those private companies are going to opt for providing the most common and cost effective treatments. The 'cherry-picking' that we keep hearing about in the news. That is the business model.  That is how profit is made, and why shops selling jeans have lots of pairs with 32 and 34 inch waists, but fewer pairs (if any) that fit if you are a 26 or 44. It is supply and demand and pretty bloody basic. So why don't the Tories understand that?

But then I was angered that no connection was made between these two stories. National Rail was privatised by the last Conservative government, in order to "increase competition and improve services to travellers." my quotes Breaking things up in order that several private companies can attempt to generate profit by providing services is madness. Services are services and should not be run on any business model. Network Rail are struggling, (although not financially) rail companies have done away with services to remote areas that cannot generate profit and travellers are being left stranded. Even booking tickets is mad because there are 20 options. It can cost you £100 to get to London from Manchester. Myself and friends have shown up at railway stations with tickets for trains that don't exist!  What happens when these things are happening when people's health and lives are at risk? Competition does not improve services!

Then I log onto Yahoo to see a story about the privatisation of the Royal Mail.  (I missed yesterday's You and Yours which had an piece about it so must go and listen to that.) But all I can feel, again, is that the business model is the wrong model for the Royal Mail.

It seems to me that their are certain services that are necessary for a population to be productive and efficient and for things to run smoothly. These are 1) an efficient and integrated transport system, 2) an efficient and regular postal service 3) and an efficient and anti-discriminatory health service. 

All of these things run better when they do not run at full capacity,(which is necessary for maximum profit) and workers are not stressed, and resources are available to deal with emergencies, and employees can trust their managers to make decisions on what is best for them and their 'customer' rather than what is best for their shareholders.People need to be able to travel, to get to work, to visit family, to live their live. People need to communicate and be able to receive and send goods. People need to be healthy, and to be treated with respect within all of these area.

Any society (even the Prime Minister's Big Society) needs these services to be run by itself and managed by itself in order for it to be of service to itself. How simple is that?

Crochet and WOW! and lots of references to Martine

I am crocheting like a madwoman, trying to get lots of stuff for the stall I am doing at the Celebrate festival. Hats, headbands, choker necklaces, and hopefully a few little bags. I am getting very good at lots of different kinds of flowers. But I cannot seem to focus on much of anything else.

So I am distracting myself, by doing my favourite thing, looking at patterns on Ravelry.  Have come across this on somebody's blog and it is bloody wonderful. Attention any felters who are reading this (waving to Martine) but GO THERE NOW!

Here are some flowers...

Here is some lovely yarn, that Martine spun for me and was my 44th Birthday present!

And here is Martine, reading a pattern book with The Babe. :-)

Poetry?

So today is Allen Ginsburg's birthday. Apparently, he once said,
"Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does."

This is  so true. Which is why, most of the things I compose in my head, never actually get written down. When I was younger, I used to write poetry. I rarely showed it to anyone because I was young and full of hang ups and didn't want to make that private stuff public. Now I am older, I don't care so much about what anybody else thinks, but I am so busy living a grown up life, that I don't actually write much. I have always considered myself a writer, even if I was only writing for a degree, or for myself, or for the EO newsletter. But now I have these blogs and I don't do much with them. My head is still going all the time, but really,  I guess I am pretty content to just be, and live in my shrinking world.

Little world
little people
little thoughts
little deeds.
Big is good
big is fine
big is there
for another time.
Just a mother
just a wife
just a woman
just a life.

Lovely young things are a good reason to crochet.

I have booked a stall for the Celebrate festival in Whalley Range at which I will be selling my hats and things. So I am having fun writing up patterns and trying to size things. Hopefully I will get around to putting them on my patterns blog. I would like to get better at writing up patterns, so I can share a little crochet love, and encourage others to make their own lovely things. :-)

Here is the Babe in Hat and Dress. The hat is Paton's 100% cotton DK and is dominated by a split shell stitch, and the dress in RYC Cotton Jeans in Peacock Stitch which I found in a Pauline Turner book. Just made them up, and didn't write them down very well, so will have to try again. Oh well, at least there are nice photos.

The button band isn't perfect, so I will have to sort that out, but it works. And I had the perfect coloured buttons lurking in my sewing box. So all in all, pretty pleased. The Babe's outfit reminds me of the book we have My Mum and Dad Make me Laugh. It's the spots and stripes. :-)

Old Bag

So I have wanted to felt myself a bag for a long time, and watching all of Martine's posts about felt, finally motivated me.  I had some 100% wool from Dragon yarns, which I had bought years ago for doing re-enactment stuff. Some of it had been used to make Viking socks - naalbinding- and doing tablet weaving for belts and things.
So I had red, yellow, orange, green, and some dark blue from New Lanarkshire. I spent ages on Ravelry looking for patterns, and in the end I made one up. Also in the end, I decided to limit the colours, as all those squares were looking weird.
So I crocheted some circles in squares and crocheted them together and ended up with this.

After a couple of washes, it looks like this.

And I am quite happy with it. I would like to think I will get around to lining it, and adding a zip or poppers, but I think I know myself well enough to know that won't happen.