Mojo, mojo, wherefore art thou, knitting mojo?

Late last night whilst circumnavigating the internet, I stumbled across a whole new archipelago of stitching inspiration, which I shall name The Embroidery Blogs Islands. For those interested, you can find a lot of them through Feeling Stitchy. I started a little something today, which you can see a sneaky peek of above.

I bumped into someone I hadn't seen in a while in the street today, and he asked me 'How's the knitting going?'. Suddenly I felt rather shifty, and replied 'Uh... fine. But look at this embroidery I have in my bag!' The truth is that I just haven't felt the urge to knit recently. This has been a most peculiar experience, as normally my brain resembles a speed-dating service between patterns and yarns, trying to match up a large number of both, and my fingers usually have to knit ever faster to keep pace with its voracious demands. I suspect this lack of mojo may be the result of knitting a whole lot of stocking stitch in black yarn. While I love the way my Audrey in Unst is shaping up, I must confess that I am really looking forward to finishing it. The potential for free-styling with embroidery is a welcome relief from the rather dreary certainty that I can't even pretend to have finished with one half-sleeve and one sleeve cap done. It is also quite exciting to be able to veer off in a different direction, using a different colour, without the need to resort to the dreaded intarsia.

Do you have a craft you use to have a little holiday from another craft? Do you have any tips for coaxing my poor mojo back in from the cold? I'd love to hear from you on the subject!

Turquoise and Tripod: daily outfit #4

How close shall I stand to this thing? This close?

Hmm... no, I want to be able to see my outfit, not the individual pores on my face. How about this?

Sigh. Clearly this tripod thing is going to take a little bit of getting used to. If you can make me out amid the 'arty' blur, I am wearing:

Hat: Rose Red Beret, my own work

Cardigan: Liesl, my own work

Dress: Urban Outfitters

Tights: Marks and Spencer

Shoes: Office

My cousin gave me this necklace several years ago, to wear to be her bridesmaid. The stone is a black opal, and I was and am entranced by it. I remember being mystified by the popularity of diamonds, which in my fourteen-year-old opinion could not hope to compete with the fire and intensity of the opal's shifting colours.

I had always thought that opals were supposed to be unlucky, but after a few minutes of serious, interwebz-based research I have discovered that this is in fact a fairly recent superstition, which seems to date from the publication in 1829 of Walter Scott's Anne of Geierstein. Hermione, one of the characters in the book, wears a beautiful and mysterious opal talisman, which she guards carefully. One day, a drop of holy water splashes onto it; 'the opal... shot out a brilliant spark like a failing star, and became the instant afterwards lightless and colourless as a common pebble', while its wearer is reduced to 'a handful of light grey ashes, like such as might have been produced by burning fine paper.' I have just dabbed a cautious drop of water onto mine, and am pleased to report no fatal consequences.

Rainy Day Blues

I would have shown you an outfit today had I and it not got absolutely drenched walking to and from the library. Instead I am going to have a soothing bath with this:

... and this:

Coraline down a lane: daily outfit #3

Blouse: Uniqlo

Cardigan: Coraline, my own work

Belt: Topshop

Skirt: Radio Days vintage shop, Lower Marsh, London SE1

Shoes: Office vintage

Looking at myself squinting into the afternoon sunlight, I'm still not entirely sure about this outfit - is it a little too busy? It was an attempt to pick on some of the many delectable colours in this skirt (close-up below). I made Coraline a little on the cropped side, which makes it the ideal partner to anything high-waisted. This cardigan is a bit of an autumnal winner, warm yet lightweight.

I am so in love with the print of this skirt, in particular those little outlined, uncoloured flowers, hinting perhaps at a forgetful botanist wandering off for a cup of tea from a thermos and leaving this sketch unfinished.

A Harrow(ing) Graveyard Experience

As a Hallowe'en special, here are some photos from a recent visit to the graveyard of St Mary's in Harrow on the Hill.

The cold sunlight reached through the trees and streaked the grass.

As we descended the hill, the ground was satisfyingly crunchy with fallen leaves.

Perhaps the young Byron mused on these matters from his favourite spot while a pupil at nearby Harrow school. This was here, on the Peachy stone, which is at the top of the hill, and offers an impressive panorama. Byron's young daughter Allegra is buried somewhere in the churchyard, in an unmarked grave.

Many of the gravestones have sadly been erased by time and weather, but this splendidly gruesome Victorian poem is still proudly visible.

It reads:

To the memory of

THOMAS PORT

SON OF JOHN PORT OF BURTON UPON TRENT IN THE COUNTRY OF STAFFORD, HAT MANUFACTURER, WHO NEAR THIS TOWN HAD BOTH HIS LEGS SEVERED FROM HIS BODY BY THE RAILWAY TRAIN. WITH GREATEST FORTITUDE HE BORE A SECOND AMPUTATION BY THE SURGEONS, AND DIED FROM LOSS OF BLOOD, AUGUST 7TH 1838, AGED 33 YEARS.

Bright rose the morn, and vig'rous rose poor Port.

Gay on the train, he used his wonted sport.

Ere noon arrived his mangled form they bore,

With pain distorted and o'erwhelmed with gore

When evening came to close the fatal day,

A mutilated corpse the sufferer lay.

 No one can 'o'oerwhelm with gore' quite like the Victorians. Happy Hallowe'en!

Coco Belle Cupcakes

Remember a little while ago I was bemoaning the dearth of nice places to have coffee in Cambridge? Yesterday I discovered the Coco Belle Cake Company, a little cafe which is an oasis of cupcake calm next to the Grafton Centre. Cambridge already has its fair share of traditional bakeries and tea shops, such as Fitzbillies, and Auntie's, both popular with tourist keen to tuck into a sticky slice of England.

Coco Belle satisfies a slightly different confectionary need. Though the cupcake is a less indigenous species than the Chelsea bun, the owners of this bakery have not attempted to transform this nook of Burleigh Street into a shrine to fifties Americana. The warm pine furniture (including a dresser!) encourage you to linger and enjoy your cake with cup of tea or coffee. I did wonder whether perhaps the colour of the walls was a sly nod to the well-spring of cupcake frenzy, the Magnolia Bakery in New York, but perhaps that's reading a little bit too much into things.

The cupcakes must be among the most photogenic of baked goods, and these ones lived up to their appearance in deliciousness. They were also very reasonably priced, at only £1.85 a cake. I do have two titchy quibbles, firstly that I wish their selection were more seasonally inspired. They had a very subtle take on Hallowe'en, with chocolate spiders on their chocolate cupcakes; while I can respect the choice to spurn the violent oranges and blacks that adorn most cakes at this time of year, surely a compromise might have been achieved by a sophisticated pumpkin, or autumnal spice cupcake?

The second gripe is not so much aimed at the proprietor of Coco Belle, but at whoever it is on the local council who made the decision that what the tiny centre of Cambridge really needed was five branches of Starbucks and several more of Neros and Costa. I would love to see a more proactive policy whereby interesting, independent businesses like this are encouraged into the centre rather than forced into the periphery. It is places like Coco Belle which make Cambridge different and special, and I wish they were supported as such. A monster branch of Primark is soon to open a few doors up from the cafe, so I hope it might benefit from the increased passing trade. If you live in or are passing through Cambridge, I would heartily recommend a visit to this cute little place.

Snow White in action: daily outfit #2

Jumper: Snow White, my own work

Liberty tana lawn Shirt: Cacharel

Bag: Miu Miu

Skirt: Paul Smith

Boots: Dune

Yikes, I didn't quite realise I was so swathed in designer - that was not intentional. I bought the skirt about five years ago with the money I made working crazy hours in an unpleasant shop in the run-up to Christmas; it is one of the things I love most in my wardrobe. The surprise lining still makes me smile, and I often rearrange the outer layer in crossing my legs to give 'accidental' glimpses. A lot of people I have flaunted my lining at (ahem) say I should wear the skirt inside out, but I prefer to keep its exuberance selfishly guarded.

One of the reasons behind this series of outfits was to 'road-test' my knitwear, and see how it holds up to different situations. I always wonder that about how much wear the handmade garments I read about on people's blogs get: something might look stunning for one artfully staged photoshoot, but then lose out to less stellar items  in the daily search for something to wear.

I must admit that I was a little apprehensive about Snow White in this respect. The neckline is so striking, but does not look its best with anything strappy or t-shirt-y, in my experience. After a lot of experimentation I have decided that I like it best with a shirt underneath, preferably this shirt, with its juicy Liberty print (Edenham, B, for any curious sewists). To my mind it matches both the crisp, tailored detail and the hint of feminine prettiness of the knit (and it hides the bra straps!).

I had planned to post about an outing I made today to Cambridge's newest (and only) cupcake cafe, but the image uploader seems to be as sleepy as I am, so I shall save that for another day. Oh, and I may make a Flickr set of these outfits, at the kind suggestion of a commenter, but that may take me a little while to get round to!