I Knit Weekender

Last Friday Alice and I got the train into London, and the bus to Victoria, to meet my Grandma and go to the I Knit weekender. Alice's favourite part of the whole day was the bus ride (which took in Oxford Street - lots of stops, lots of people). This is how she spent almost the whole ride -

Her conversation isn't great anyway, I tell myself - and at least I got to admire her lovely cardigan (not hand knitted, I'm afraid - from Zara. Not that I usually buy her stuff in Zara, you understand. This was just too nice not to.)

The I Knit weekender itself was in a really interesting venue, The Royal Horticultural Halls and Conference Centre, which was super Art Deco and had an unusual clock -

The Weekender was full of lovely, chatty, people, and gorgeous yarn. We were especially taken with the Illusion Knitting stall. I can't quite believe I'm considering it when I haven't finished the Blanket of Doom yet, but they have an ace pattern for a baby blanket with a teddy bear on it that I would really like to try! Who do I love enough, is the question....

This is my purchase for the day - two skeins of Araucania Toconao in a fabulous purple colour, bought from the Woolfish stall. Yummy. It is so soft and smooth! I have balled it up, and have plans already for it.

I could have bought a lot more, if I hadn't looked at my budget just the day before (boo hoo). There were so many gorgeous colours on display, it was sometimes hard to know where to look.

The only disappointment of the day was that the I Knit design competition, whose entries were supposed to be exhibited at the Weekender, was not in evidence. I wasn't expecting my pattern to win a prize, or anything, but I was looking forward to seeing it on display (as was my Grandma, who had kindly tested it for me). Not sure what happened there.

Overall we had a nice day out, but a bit more information would have been nice.

"Tile" Series - Inspiration and Results

I have just finished the third pendant in my "Tile" series, and as they have all turned out quite differently, despite the same origin, it started me thinking about 'inspiration'. What things inspire you? These pendants were inspired by a couple of things.

First was the exhortation of my first jewellery tutor to think very carefully about what shapes to make my jewellery, and where in the silver to draw the design - because silver is expensive and you want to waste as little as possible!

Second was the beauty of some of the Islamic tiles in the Jameel Gallery at the V&A - and the clever way they fitted together different shapes. The photo above here is from a beautiful house in Fez, Morocco, which shows the intricacy of the tiling and also the shapes that inspired the pendants below:

This is silver and blue enamel, the latest pendant completed and my first attempt at enamelling. I am pleased with how the blue reflects some of the colours in the original tiles I looked at.

This pendant is silver set with an amethyst - the amethyst is a lovely purple colour that really catches the light.

This was my first pendant completed, and the simplest of the three - nonetheless, the sawn out design I think is very effective. It kind of reminds me of a flower, despite being very linear.

What kind of things inspire you?

Architects Build Small Spaces Exhibition

A quick disclaimer - I used to work at the V&A, and still do occasionally in the Learning and Interpretation department. I am doing some research on this exhibition, but was not involved in its creation in any way.

I was at the V&A today, going round the 1:1 Architects Build Small Spaces exhibition. I thought it was awesome. Further and proper information is available here
http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/architecture/smallspaces/index.html


Essentially, though, it is 7 structures that have been built around the museum, that you get to go in and explore - for free!

Here are some photos of two of them for you to see a little bit of the variety. They are made from all kinds of material - plaster in the case of this first one from the Cast Courts, wood in the case of the second one from the Medieval and Renaissance Gallery, as well as plexiglass, metal, and tree trunks. There is one full of books, which is very lovely but hard to photograph effectively.

I always like to visit the V&A, but I think this is really something special. It's on until the end of August too - perfect holiday fare if you can't quite face the thought of the dinosaurs across the road again!