Heatherwick at the V&A

June was a great month (despite the weather doing its best to spoil it all). What with a trip to London to see the Queen (and I did - ok from the rooftops - but still it was the Queen) and a front row seat when the Dalai Lama came to speak in Dundee, it was a fun and interesting month.

Whilst in London, apart from seeing the Queen I also visited Kew Gardens and the V&A.

At the V&A I went to see the British Design 1948 to 2012 and the Thomas Heatherwick exhibitions. I loved elements of the British Design exhibition and the Heatherwick was just amazing. 

Perhaps before Friday night's Olympic Opening Ceremony, many people might not have heard of Thomas Heatherwick outside the design world, but after his glorious Olympic cauldron rose up in the Olympic Stadium on Friday night many more will recognise his name.  Here's another article from the Design Council about the cauldron with some beautiful photos. 

Many of the reviews of the Heatherwick exhibit suggest that the space is too small and cluttered to do justice to his work, but I liked the busy and dynamic approach which you felt might be much like being inside his mind as he worked. 

His designs include the British Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo 2010, which was called the Seed Cathedral, exhibiting seeds from the seed bank at Kew Gardens in long glass tubes that also created the walls of the building. He has also designed the new double decker London Routemaster bus including all the interiors and the East Beach Cafe at Littlehampton. From the large scale to the small, I bought his book, 600 pages, called Making, which provides commentary and beautiful photographs of every project his studio has designed and I must admit that I thought his Christmas cards were truly amazing.

Here's an interesting article about the man behind the Olympic cauldron. 

Story Clouds

I haven't made a baby blankie in a long time......I just didn't feel like it. Perhaps I was lacking inspiration, perhaps I was distracted by other past-times. 

But just recently Heidi sent me the sweetest message about the baby blankies that I made for her 2 children Sam and Sophie (thank you Heidi). They were themed - one Little Red Riding Hood and the other The 3 Little Pigs.

Heidi said that she had given them to the children to play with recently and that they had loved to tell the stories on the blankies......or clouds as they called them. I hope that Heidi doesn't mind, but I love the idea of creating story clouds.......so if anyone can suggest a story for me to tell I will make a new "cloud"!

The Three Little Pigs

Red Riding Hood 1

Rapunzel

Little Red Riding Hood (in progress)

Woolfest 2012

I took an impromptu 400 mile, round-trip, drive to the Lake District yesterday with my friend Andrea so we could visit Woolfest 2012. It was a last minute decision that involved a 6am start and a 3.5 hour drive in the pouring rain (this is looking like being the wettest June in the UK since records began over 100 years ago) with some areas of the UK (like the NW of England where we were heading) who had a month's worth of rain in 24 hours on Friday. 

But it was fun! We spent about 4 hours perusing all the stalls, learning about different breeds of sheep and buying wool!

Common themes in 2012:

Beautiful fibre.

 Amazing hand-dyed yarn in rainbows of colour.

Giant wooden buttons - that toggle was about the size of my hand.

Giant knitting on enormous needles, with super thick yarn.

There were also some amazing completed items, like this crocheted blanket and a picture of Klimt's The Kiss.

I manage to maintain some degree of control and not buy everything I saw, but I did manage to enhance my stash somewhat:

Beautiful hand-dyed 4-ply to make some cowls, from Eden Cottage Yarns, some hand dyed aran from Kate Davies, along with one of her newly released patterns, called Sheep Carousel - a tea cosy cover made to look like a carousel with sheep on it and 2 skeins of sadly discontinued Noro Blossom to make a seaweed scarf. 

50p balls of 100% wool in great colours, ready to knit another Debbie Bliss Farm.

A lovely cone of linen to make a scarf or shawl.....400g for £6 - a bargain, from Texere Yarns.

We stopped at Ikea in Edinburgh for swedish meatballs on the way home.....oh and at Waitrose to buy some of my favourite yoghurt......

London - Diamond Jubilee Weekend

I am just back from a long weekend in London. 

It was planned last September when my friend Karen managed to make a booking to stay a night in A Room for London - a project created as part of the Cultural Olympiad by Living Architecture and Art Angel - a small, exclusive architect designed space, perched high on the roof of the SouthBank Centre overlooking the Thames. Inspired by Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness the building was shaped like and named after the small river boat that sailed up the Congo in his book, the Roi de Belges. 

It would have been an amazing enough night but Karen had, unbeknown to us at the time, managed to book the one day/night when the Thames was going to be more than just its usual self. The day when the Queen's Diamond Jubilee pageant was going to sail down the river, 1000 boats to celebrate 60 years on the throne. A sight not seen for over 350 years. 

Whilst the weather was typically British i.e. cold and rainy......just mention the word barbecue and within 30 minutes the weather is bound to have changed.....it was still an amazing view! Can you see Big Ben and the London Eye in the background. Looking the other way was the National Theatre and St Paul's Cathedral and of course in front of us for over 2 hours were boats of every shape and size!

The Gloriana - made especially for the occasion powered by a team of rowers which included Sir Stephen Redgrave (British Olympian who won gold medals at 5 consecutive Olympic Games in rowing) and Sir Matthew Pinsent (another British Olympian who won goldmedals for rowing in 4 consecutive Olypmics) and Afghan/Iraqi war veterans. 

Some of the hundred or sow rowing boats, canoes, dragon boats and gondolas that made up the pageant.

Boats manned by Sea Cadets - 55 of them!

Some of the 700 "little ships" that took part in the evacuation of British soldiers from the beaches at Dunkirk in 1940. 

RNLI lifeboats from across the years.

The Queen's boat!

More to follow.

Crafty Bath

There are lovely shops in Bath, many of them independent stores which mean that it is not just your usual high street experience. Amongst those stores are some lovely and highly recommended crafty shops!

Country Threads Patchwork - on a small lane in the centre of Bath is this large quilt shop with a great selection of quilt fabrics and haberdashery. The owner was very friendly and helpful and it's definitely worth stopping by. I bought some fabric from the Cool Britannia range and some British inspired ribbons......

I am not sure who manufactures the ribbon but  I couldn't resist the rows of soldiers in their bearskins and the "Made in Britain" ribbon which I plan to use in my handmade knitted goods!

Just along the road from the quilt shop is Bath's local yarn store, suitably named "Wool". It has a lovely collection of yarn including Rowan, Debbie Bliss, Fyberspates, Louisa Harding, Rooster and Rico. I bought a new Rowan baby book called Little Rowan with some really cute 4-ply baby patterns. My only question, is will I ever have the patience to knit something other than socks in 4-ply.....

Then there was The Makery, a shop and a studio where you can take part in a wide range of classes - from making bunting to making knickers, from lamp-shade making to book-binding, from embroidery to knitting. I bought the cutest little stamp that I will use to decorate my gift-tags on handmade goodies!

Bath

I've been away a couple of times in the last 10 days - first of all on a girls weekend to Bath in SW England - the beautiful, classical Georgian city oft mentioned in Jane Austen novels and home to Roman baths, a modern day hot spa, Georgian architecture, great shopping and eating. 

At any given time over the weekend there were between 3 and 9 of us, with 6 staying in the apartment we rented which was on Crescent Lane directly behind the Royal Crescent.

We chatted, laughed, boy did we laugh, some of us knitted, we ate, we wandered the shops, we visited the spa, the Fashion Museum and the Georgian House Museum, all whilst trying to dodge the rain!

Here we are at dinner to celebrate Karen's birthday in a gastro pub called The Chequers - highly recommended - the desserts especially! And for all you Americans who love history - it has apparently been a pub since 1776!

This was my enormous fish and chips - the chips were hiding underneath the fish and below is my apple dessert - it was a lovely combination of apple sorbet, an apply crisp, an apple bavarois, a creamy panacotta and a perfectly tiny little toffee apple. Yum! The chocolate plate looked just as amazing!

On Saturday we ate in Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant in the centre of Bath - this is one of the sharing plates below! I had tagliolini with wild rabbit ragu which was delicious.

This is Pulteney Bridge, one of the few bridges in the world with shops on it. Completed in 1773 it was designed by Robert Adam, a Scottish architect, one of the best known of his day. Pulteney Bridge is one of his best known works, but is has been much altered since his original work due to floods, road alterations etc. 

The Royal Crescent was built between 1767 and 1774 and consists of 30 homes built in a crescent of Georgian style. 

At Number 1 Royal Crescent you can visit, as we did, a museum that creates a wonderful picture of Georgian life, with it's interesting facts related to water closets, a lack of washing, beasties in hair wigs and eyebrows made from the fur of mice caught in traps - yes our forebears were delightful!

At the Fashion Museum you can see fashion through the ages and try on corsets and crinolines! That gave us some of our biggest laughs of the weekend! 

We visited the Thermae Spa - a modern day spa built to celebrate the Millennium where you can enjoy Britain's only natural thermal spa with a soak in the open air roof pool with its views over Bath, or try out the scented aroma steam rooms, the waterfall shower and the Minerva spa with its lazy river and hot tub. Add to that a cafe with great cake and you find a lovely way to spend a lazy afternoon.

Another fun afternoon was spent playing crazy golf in Victoria Park - it had been a long time!

All in all a fun weekend! Thanks for all the laughs girls!

Sorry the photos are a little dull - weather was grey and wet virtually all weekend!

Another Farm Shop

After visiting Ardross Farm Shop near Pittenweem I was quite smitten with the whole farm shop idea. Ardross is not just a farm shop, it's a true diversification for a farmer keen to ensure 21st century success. It sells local produce and artisan products from small scale producers all over the UK.  It has beer, wine, the best steak pie and sticky toffee pudding and beautiful veg.

So after the success of shopping at Ardross, it was time to try out another "farm" shop. This one is called Balgove Larder and is on the road to St Andrews from Dundee. This one also has a cafe/restaurant alongside lots of great produce - veg, meat, deli, beer. I can't give you a review of the cafe as the queue was long and I was too impatient to wait - but if the queue was anything to go by.......

I bought fresh soda bread, a lovely bread roll made with rocket and stilton in the dough which was beautiful warmed and spread with butter and some gourmet popcorn.

I don't know why I didn't think of there being different varieties of popcorn before.....but now I know better. ZaraMama Gourmet popcorn comes in 11 varieties with fancy names such as Midnight Blue, Ruby Red, Blue Seas and Creamy Crunch, each with their own flavour. Can't wait to try this healthy little snack!

Upcycled

I went for a little wander in Kit and Caboodle the last time I was in Newburgh for knitting group. It's a cute little shop that sells a mixture of vintage, upcycled and hand crafted goods. 

This time I bought a chair for my spare room......it must have been the geographer in me that attracted me to it.

I also got new bedding.....it came from Marks and Spencer and I love the village pattern - I have towels to match for my bathroom.

Talking of bathrooms, I've painted the lower half, it is no longer mustard, now it is dark grey. It's still a pretty ugly bathroom but it has to look better than this.....mustard is never a good look for a bathroom!

Pittenweem Weekend

Wonderful spring weather - blue skies and mild, apart from the wind.....can't be completely perfect - this is Scotland of course...for a lovely weekend in Pittenweem with my parents and brother.

The tides were high (and of course they were low) and kids were being kids.....

We walked along the front, we had crepes at The Cocoa Tree, we went to the Botanic Gardens in St Andrews, walked on the West Sands in St Andrews and ate at the Westport. We knitted (well my mum and I), we did jigsaws and ate lots! 

We visited the lovely Ardross Farm Shop between St Monans and Elie on the coast road which is definitely worth a visit. They sell their own meat, stocks and gravies, desserts and vegetables alongside products from other local/British farms or small artisan producers. This includes an array of jams, cheeses, juices, cake decorating supplies, beer from the St Andrews Brewery..... we had their steak pie which was amazing, a lamb stew and sticky toffee pudding. It's just as well it's not closer to home or I might be a lot poorer!

Latest Woollie

I was in Pittenweem for the weekend with my family. My parents had my cousin's house for a week so I joined them for 3 nights. It meant I got to visit the new knitting shop in Pittenweem, called The Woolly Brew - a cute little space with a nice selection of yarn. It has a good choice of price ranges - from Rico (beautifully soft polyamide/acrylic for babies - DK and aran); Jamieson of Shetland's beautiful 100% wool offerings, some Noro, great sock yarns (my mum and I both bought the same Lang sock wool)....here's my purchases!

And on a relaxing weekend there was plenty time to knit - here's my latest project - sock number 1 - perhaps there will be sock number 2 sometime shortly after sock number 1. The yarn is beautiful, pity I can't remember what it is or where I bought it.

So along with the pink house on the harbour, the Cocoa Tree chocolate shop/cafe and the Pittenweem Arts Festival, there is another reason to pay a visit to Pittenweem.