Where have I gone?

I just thought I'd write a quick note to apologise for dropping off the face of the blogosphere. A period of personal upheaval coupled with a few secret and quite possibly Christmas-related projects has meant I haven't really had much to blog about recently. I do hope some of you will stick with me, as I should have lots of content to share soon. In the meantime, I hope you are having happy and crafty times, and I offer this night-time shot of my college chapel by way of apology for my disappearance.

Audrey: Black is the New Black

At long last, may I present to you Audrey in Unst, which I am wearing here with a vintage hand-sewn dress I snaffled for a paltry 15 Euros in Madrid this summer.

This straightforward cardigan took me an embarrassingly long time to knit. I'm not sure whether to ascribe this to the black yarn, the acres of stocking stitch, or my general lack of mojo. Anyway, she's finished now, and I delight in her every aspect, from the deep, inky colour, to the twisted rib, to the lace bib...

... to the vintage glass buttons I got from Loop ages ago, which have been patiently waiting in my button house for the right project. Incidentally, I bungled the positioning of the top buttonhole, so just sewed the button on in the right place and added a snap fastening behind it.

I think it will be an awfully long time before I knit anything black again. I Magic Loop-ed both sleeves at once, which had the advantage of using up every scrap of yarn, and the disadvantage of making me feel like I would be knitting till the end of time. There is, however, no denying how useful a black cardigan can be - since I finished this it has been practically surgically attached to me. I hope that is just the right level of effortless glamour for a latter-day breakfast date at Tiffany's.

Cutting the Cord

I love trimming the yarn ends in a new piece of knitwear. Audrey in Unst had the longest gestation period of anything I have knitted, so this ceremonial snipping was especially sweet. I plan on wearing it today, and I shall endeavour to rattle off a few frames, and write it up properly.

Balls (or 'how I broke my favourite knitting toy')

Can you spot the difference between these two ball-winders? I'll give you a clue: the one on the right works, and the one on the left is totally fecked. It took a fatal tumble from its abode on top of my wardrobe, and no amount of pleading or super glue could reattach that handle. Its amputation is perhaps clearer in this photo:

For me, a ball-winder is one of those vital pieces of technology that I don't know how I got by without. It makes the difference between laboriously hand-wound balls of yarn that snaggle up as you knit from them, and elegant, centre-pull yarn cakes that take a fraction of the time to create. Do you have a piece of crafty kit you can't imagine living without? Is there something you long to find beneath the Christmas tree? If anyone was struggling for Christmas/birthday presents for me, I lust after a swift to make the yarn winding process even, well, swifter. Oh, and a sewing machine...

I should soon be able to wind up some stash treasure, as I am a gnat's breath away from finishing my Audrey in Unst cardigan. Just fancy, there may soon be some actual knitting content on this blog! I am also planning a post on achieving a good fit with knitted garments, following on from an interesting comment from Zoe, so if there is anything you'd especially like me to cover, or any tips you would like to share on this subject, do feel free to leave a comment.

Anniversary Embroidery

I can now reveal the embroidery I gave you a peek at a while ago; I think it is fairly self-explanatory! I stitched it on chambray, and made the hoop into its frame with the help of some fabric glue and this purl bee tutorial. This is pretty much my first attempt at embroidery, and will definitely not be the last. As I believe I already mentioned, I relished so many aspects of the process, from designing the image to choosing colours and stitches.

I got to see some truly amazing professional needlework and garment design this weekend as part of Brit Chic, which we went to see at the Gate Picturehouse in Notting Hill. The film was a fantastic patchwork of  archive footage from the British Film Institute. Every one of the snippets was interesting, though I found especially inspiring the sight of  several women clustered around a frame stitching hundreds of microscopic beads into a leaf pattern for the 'apron' of a 50s couture gown. The cinema itself was the perfect setting for the film, with velvet love seats nestling under a deep burgundy coffered ceiling heavy with Edwardian plasterwork.

It was a most delightful anniversary, and I hope that this piece of embroidery might serve as a reminder of it.

Acceptable in the 80s

We have been having a succession of dreary, drizzly days here. Fortunately, I have a secret weapon to ward off rainy day blues...

I went through a phase of collecting 80s girls annuals - Patches, Blue Jeans, Jackie. They are packed with endearing photo love stories, dreamy pin-ups, entertaining quizzes, and ideas for inventive things to do on a rainy day...

There are some cracking suggestions here: 'Crawl everywhere! Everyone'll think you've gone mad!'; 'Put on your youngest-looking clothes and go to a children's matinee. Join in the jokes and eat plenty of ice-cream'; 'Clean the inside of your bedroom window and watch the outside being cleaned for you by the rain'. I decided to brighten up my rainy day by following one of the last injunctions: 'Give yourself a rainbow face, 'cos you often see a rainbow when it rains!' - here is the result.

My third and final play this term, which opens next Tuesday, is set in the 80s. I have gleefully taken this as an excuse to seek out films like Sixteen Candles, to hunt through charity shops for shoulder-padded chic, and to experiment with make-up. Elsewhere in the annual, Patches '86 advocates such classic combinations as orange and pink for eyelids, so I decided to try it out. The above photo does not quite convey how much make-up I had on - I felt like the widow Twanky, and yet I appear positively subdued in contrast to this audacious party look:

It's difficult to know where to start - the jaundiced stripe above her cheek bone, the darkened brows... The thing that most attracted me to this image, though, was the slightly wonky phalanx of stars marching across her forehead. It reminds me of a look I attempted to create for myself when I was about 13, that involved a similar line of jewels carefully Pritt Stick-ed to my visage.

Bad Blog Karma

I had a rather peculiar experience yesterday. I returned to a place I had blogged about - I am not going to name them, because I do still wish to lend them my support despite the following story. I went in by myself, intending quietly to read through a script. Instead, a lady I presume to be the owner confronted me: 'Are you Giulia? The one whose blog we've been hearing so much about?'. It transpired that, while she was, on the whole, happy with what I had written she was not happy at all with my photographs. Some confusion arose around this point: she said I really should have asked before taking any; I replied that I had. I offered to take the photos down anyway if she liked; she said that I could keep them up.

She was concerned about copyright, and the fact that once something is on the internet it is difficult to control how it is used. I'd be most interested to hear from people who are more legally minded than I, but I was under the impression that I own the copyright to all images on my site. While it would be possible for someone to copy one without my knowledge or permission, this is equally true for any website, including this company's official one. I have so far resisted putting up an explicit statement about the copyright of my content, but I am now considering it and, again, I would love to hear from anyone who knows more about this than I do. I must admit I was also a little upset from a personal point of view, as I have really been working on taking better photos recently, and wasn't sure whether she was implying that she didn't think those I took were good enough to represent her business.

This has been my first experience of being recognised by someone I don't already know because of my blog, and, as you may have gathered, it was not an entirely positive one. The on-line craft community is such a supportive one that perhaps it has made me a little naive about the rest of the big, scary internet. I guess I am most surprised in this case as I had originally gone out of my way to support the company in question; I will think more carefully about doing that in the future.

I do hope it doesn't seem petty to relate all this, but I was somewhat nonplussed by the whole experience, and thought maybe the best way to get it out of my system would be to write it down. How do you go about blogging about places you like (or, for that matter, don't like)? Have you ever been recognised because of your blog? I'd love to hear other people's stories, especially happy ones!