Spring Sprung

The trees are bearing boughs of blossom, chicks are chirruping outside my window, and I have been experiencing a flowering or rebirth of interest in things stitchy. I went through something of a creative dry spell, and it was difficult to keep up a craft blog while I wasn't making anything to post about. There's nothing like a real, pressing need to do some work on my PhD to  make me engage in a variety of displacement activities, from knitting, to running, to putting together outlandish outfits, to emptying my penny jar (it contained £1.58). 

The weather was truly glorious today, so I dug out some crumpled summer clothes and took myself off on a promenade to soak up the Cambridge. I found my sandal-ed feet inexorably drawn to this fine fabric shop, where I managed to resist the temptation to buy, but did daydreams about handmade sun-dresses. I'd dearly love finally to befriend my sewing machine... perhaps this will be the summer of sewing.

Swingeing Cuts

Thank you so much to everyone who commented on my last post - it's really great to know that I have some readers who sew: I may well be calling on your expertise in future! Last night, I cut out the pieces for a blouse whilst listening to the party leaders debate on Radio 4. I am so very much in love with this Liberty print fabric - it reminds me of a favourite party dress I had when I was about seven. I was more than a little nervous about hacking it up... I'll be sure to keep you posted on my progress.

London

Felix's thoughtful podcast got me thinking about the colours that make up an urban landscape, so I decided to try and record bits of London that interested me as I was through there this weekend. I don't think I was entirely successful in my endeavour: despite spending a fair amount of time there over the past few years, I do not feel I have a grasp on London as a whole, rather than as a disjointed series of experiences. Still, this was a most interesting exercise.

My London starts and finishes with the gloomy dome of King's Cross, and the glare of the light on the Cambridge Express. That ectoplasmic blob in the photo on the left is a man running for my train.

Sometimes I can't help but be a massive tourist - ooh, neon! Ooh, policeman!

I stayed away from yarn shops; I was sorely tempted by the intoxicating range of Liberty fabrics and buttons, but managed to resist.

 

I saw some extraordinary false eyelashes....

 ... and the people who wear them.

I saw this sign, from a shop in Wembley, which I think speaks for itself.

Although I do not appear to have succeeded in my mission to distil the city down to its component colours, I do bear love London.