What Katie Did

Easy to resist!

Yesterday at MAKE we had a morning of colour and friendliness - I am in love with colour combinations!!

Jo laid this out for her bag, it actually makes my mouth water!!!!

We were learning how to make a seamless bag using a process called 'resist felting' hence the title of this post.

Blue was a popular choice

Jan selected a mixture of silk fibre, bits of this and that to incorperate into her design and Christine...

...more blues and bits of Wenslydale curly bits

Liz went for bootees, no photos sorry, and I chose some of my favourite purples and pinks to demonstrate.

Usually when I take a session like this one I don't complete anything for myself, it's more a question of demonstrating, but this time I managed to make this, I added the beads while it was still wet - I am so impatient!

I really am impatient - message to self - slow down a bit and enjoy the ride

This is the perfect size to hold my phone and glasses when I haven't got a pocket, though I have a feeling there are a lot more beads and sequins required.

driving home

Summer catch up

half term has come and gone and I am getting ready for the summer holiday workshops now, but just look at what we made from some tatty old jeans, some lace, buttons, bling and the wonderful stuff that is Bondaweb!

We did some sewing too, but the choosing and designing was the fun part

and when you trust children with ordinary equipment - with the right instructions of course - they manage everything just fine

with lovely results

transformation!

So, Summer is unfolding, workshops are booking at MAKE, not only for the kids either, I have invented some lovely summer evening workshops for the grownups - craft with a glass of wine and chocolate cake! Six to choose from too!

I sold the bath seat and the new one has arrived now. All ready for a sit and snooze in the sun!

Here was a bit of mad spontaneity on Monday evening

kd lang and the Siss Boom Bang on the last date of their UK tour, what an amazing voice that woman has.

I'll call back soon - promise.

Long Time No See

Forgive the silence and the lack of India postings.

It's been a long time hasn't it? Time to get back on the horse and start again.

India will have to wait. There are some interesting things to tell you about what Martha and I did there, but today it is May 22nd, the sun is shining, the swallows are nesting, there are baby ducklings on the lake and the sky is full of the sort of clouds I love - big white fluffy clouds in a blue blue sky. The blossom is fading on the apple trees. The evenings are light until bedtime and there is so much green outside. 

Today there was a workshop at MAKE with Mandy Pattullo and eight talented women, all inspired by Mandy's simple techniques to make their own Precious Memories. A wonderful day

great teaching

lunch at the Allendale Bakery next door, afternoon tea too

and some lovely women making wonderful unique pieces.

Thank you Mandy!

Many more things to tell, many. Not going to leave it so long to tell them though.

 

The Amazing Indian Adventure - part two - animals

Sorry! Real life getting in the way of recording the rest of this adventure. Here as promised is part two. Animals.

Dogs, Camels, Elephants, Donkeys, Oxen, Chipmunks, Goats

Have you got a dog? You look after it right? Take it for walks, feed it nice things, let it sit on your knee? Why wouldn't you? I wonder what Indian people think about our attitude to dogs? Everywhere we went we saw dogs, dogs and more dogs. All seemed to be related to the same two dogs and they were just hanging out.

asleep in the most unlikely places. But at night, judging by the barking and racket I heard from our hotel in the we small hours, they were all involved in complicated Dog Wars all night long, which left them knackered all day.

Dead dogs (not obviously actually dead, just dead to the world) I gave them a very wide berth - you wouldn't want this lot sitting on your knee.

When I saw my first camel cart I got very excited indeed, but then they were so commonplace, I got a bit blase about them and stopped pointing them out to Martha - ('look! look!' (vicious prod) 'camel cart!!')' she was glad about that I suspect.

Interesting to see the fancy clipping patterns the camels have, zig zags and flowers, spots and sunshines shaved into their hair. And they are just as disdainful as you would imagine them to be. 

Elephants are exactly as big as you remember them. They somehow seem a lot bigger when you see one striding down a very narrow city street (I am famous for cutting feet off photographs - but my excuse this time was shock! I really wasn't expecting this chap riding down the streets of Udiapur)

and look at that little bell - if you need that to alert you to the presence of the biggest land mammal on the planet then I suggest you're too late. What an entrance you can make on one of these things! Liking the elephants.

Donkeys - this list in no particular order

Little beasts of burden, working here with a group of women taking bricks and sand to a building site in the City Palace

practical - hay costs less than diesel, these guys can get nearer to the site than a dumper truck, and watching them for a while being loaded and then led to the site, they have a memory and obediently did exactly what was required of them. Good. Fertiliser too. Though I have to say that all the animals I am talking about here left their little gifts (or in the case of the ellie - not so little) liberally scattered about the place. So not quite so good after all.

Oxen. Martha and I were mostly in towns and cities, but we spent a couple of days in rural India. It was amazing to see the irrigation systems that haven't changed in centuries

Drive the oxen round and round, the wheel scoops water from the deep well, the little channels trickle the water to the little fields. Marvelous, easy, effective, slow but it works. Biblical.

Didn't expect the chipmunks everywhere - a very successful species and much prettier than rats. (I don't like rats, so I was pleased that I only saw two during the whole trip and that these guys were the rat equivalent, because I don't mind them at all - isn't that strange and stupid - they are exactly the same scavengers, but they have pretty tails and nice stripes. I wouldn't be taking pictures of rats any time soon)

Goats everywhere. Again, a bit Biblical

but I wasn't ready for the sight of a goat in a coat

The weather was about as warm as an English summer, but obviously not quite warm enough for the goats in this market in Delhi who were all sporting acrylic jumpers!

And then the sacred cows which I was expecting to see everywhere. And we did, in the general mix of cars, auto-rickshaws, cycle rickshaws, camel carts, buses and pedestrians clogging up the streets, there were the cows, wandering about, sleeping, eating scraps - right there in the middle of the cities

Every morning the carts loaded with vegetables would arrive in the markets and I would see a couple of carts laden with bunches of clover. It took me a while to realise that these were for the cows - someone would buy one for a few rupees and leave it for the cows and make merit - good karma - by so doing. 

but all that digested clover has to go somewhere - yes - it joins all the other stuff on the ground. 

And Linda - I didn't see one single cat while I was in India. I think the concept of animals as pets is a very western one!

Places next. Thanks for sticking with me!

The Amazing Indian Adventure part one

I'm home! What a lovely thing to be - after the colour, chaos and creativity of Rajasthan, the cold clear skies and my own warm bed are very welcome!

What an interesting month it has been - I have been thinking long and hard about how to blog about it - after the Big Train Adventure of three years ago with John, I wondered about giving India the same treatment? A chronological place by place account? But I am going to try it this way instead - and see if it works - 

People

Animals

Places

Textiles

saving the best till last - I'm going to offer you a four part journey with lots of pictures and I hope you will enjoy it!

here we go

The Amazing Indian Adventure Part One - People

Old Delhi - cycle rickshaw driver - anyone who can cart me around for 15 minutes or more deserves more than 50 rupees! (about 70p in UK) 

The Craft Museum in Delhi where the exhibits are guarded with great care and attention

The Puppet Makers of Jaipur - 250 families live in this shanty town on the outskirts of the city and make the traditional puppets that their families have been making for generations, the men carve the heads from mango wood and the women ...

...make the clothes while the children gather to have a look at us - these two white women - and see if they can squeeze a rupee or two out of us (no)

The Jaipur Kite Festival was held while we were there - a colourful affair with hundreds of small tissue paper kites and as much action on the ground

I wonder how you score points for Kite Flying? The winner is the Master Blaster with badges to show how great a kite flyer he is! (It must be a boy thing?)

Here are a gaggle of kids waiting for a bit of fun - Martha and I were in Ranakpur, the only time we stayed in the countryside. We went for a walk to a nearby lake when we attracted the attention of this bunch - especially the two bigger girls who came all the way with us because they suspected, quite rightly, that we might not be as good as them at running backwards at speed!

watch out Martha! a prickly bush! 

we had a lot of fun with these two

The little girl on the left is wearing her school uniform while the twirling girl had lots of necklaces and bangles and local dress. I really wondered about their lives and wished for the hundredth time that I could communicate more effectively with people.

I read William Dalrymple's book Nine Lives while I was there. The third story in the book tells of the tradition of dedicating one daughter in some families to prostitution in honour of a religious belief that this is the best way to serve the gods. This is not only an ancient tradition, it is happening right now all over Rajasthan, despite government attempts to reeducate families. After I read about this, I visited a project in Jaipur called Ladli where hundreds of children, mostly girls are given a home, an education and training as an alternative to the street lives they were living. This is going to be the charity the shop will support in 2011 - for £300 we can sponsor a teacher for a year. Makes sense to me. 

I'll put a donation thing on the shop site if I can work out how - or I'll just stick a box on the counter - I have some of their beaded things I can sell for them too.

This is the sweet girl who greeted me gave me a glass of chai and showed me round. She has lived in the project for 4 years. Her story would make you weep. Yes - I think MAKE can pay for her teacher this year.

Lets lift the mood a bit now with Deepak, the smiliest, happiest person I have met in many a year!

He runs the Gateway Cafe near the City Palace in Udaipur and we had many a friendly snack with his lovely company. They have a great coffee machine too - a rarity in India - at least the bits we were in, where Nescafe rules supreme. Although we were only in Udaipur 4 days, we ate with Deepak at some point on all of them and always received such a lovely welcome. 

I just missed photographing this sweetie with her arm tied to her leg, her father's attempt to stop her crawling into the traffic inches away from where he was carving soapstone. Childcare. 

And the last of this rambling People Post 

this bunch of boys off to their .....

I'm not sure if this is the best way to share this journey with you - but I'll stick with it - it has been lovely for me to remember some of the faces we saw and the stories we heard. It can only ever be a snapshot, a glimpse of the things we saw and did this January, I hope it is not too little?

One billion people in India. Amazing.

next time - Animals - if there are a billion people who knows how many animals there are?

Thanks for reading

2011 and a new year full of surprises

Well, I hope everyone said goodbye to their old year and hello to their new one in the way that works best for you. My New Year is getting off to a very exciting start as I prepare for this trip to India with Martha. I am ignoring the first signs of a cold as I simply cannot afford to be ill with such a journey only a couple of days away! Vitamin C and echinacea, followed by garlic and gallons of water. This Will Work!

Here is what I did on Christmas Day

The latest baby girl arrived at 10 past 8 on Christmas morning - just the thing to lift the spirits! She is wearing the very same baby yoda cardigan that I made for Nancy when she was born - another Jedi in the making! This little sweetie has no name yet. I am really grateful that she decided to come before I set off on my travels - I really didn't want to miss this one! Well done Holly and Christo - very seasonal names you'll agree! How about calling the baby Ivy? Carol? Mary? Hope not! She was beautifully born at home. So very well done everyone.

2011 is the year of pink, the rabbit, the year of forests ... but for me, I have designated 2011 the Year Of Friendship and here are the rules

1. make new friends wherever you go

2. heal freindships that need it

3. nurture your friends by any means you can

4. be a good friend - whatever that means

5. make up any rules you like now

It is quite easy. 

Take care

 

 

 

Back by popular request

I have restored my old header after being inundated by requests. So to please both people, here I am - back in the watercolour of me sitting in my shed, with my dog, knitting. Painted by the talented Rosie Villiers Stuart.

The worst December I can remember for snow and ice, so no surprise that the shop has suffered from a lack of customers. The ones who do brave the cold and put on their arctic gear, their snow spikes and rope up for safety when entering Allen Mill, have found a warm and cheery welcome at the Allendale Bakery Cafe and a shop full of unusual gifts and crafts at MAKE.

So with only a few days left to go crazy in the shops before we heave a sigh of relief and eat, wear, read and play with everything we have been frantically buying, I would be thrilled to see one or two of you.....

BREAKING NEWS... I will be swapping all the cold, snow, ice, dark and wintery gloom for some colour in January. Here is a clue.

(good clue eh?) which bit? 

where they do this

Rajasthan! 

There will be photos! I promise. Just like the time I went traveling with son John, this time, I am going with Martha, so instead of the Big Train Adventure, I think this one will be the Incredible Indian Odyssey! Or something like that.

To say I am excited doesn't convey 1% of it!

Imagine. 

In the meantime, keeping warm with a big velvet project 

and some help from the cat

 

Norma

This is my cat. She has had an interesting life and was right there at the start of this blog. And she's back! She spent the evening sitting on my knee purring! What do you know?

And Christy (comments) liked the old header on the blog - the watercolour of me in my shed - I think I do too - I could put it back - is everything getting a bit too pink round here?