The Turtle Moves

Fisherman's Friend

Hello!

I knitted a whole jersey!! Don't get too excited - it was 1/12th scale.   I decided that Bill (doll's house friend of Milly who is proprietress of my main doll's house) needed a friend to go fishing with when he was at his beach house. I had a spare doll in the drawer because years ago when the original Bill's head came off due to enthusiastic conversations with my eldest Gorgeous Grand-daughter I had to find a replacement. This spare, called Darren, turned out to be a real Essex boy so was not fit for my purpose at that time. However, I got him out of the drawer the other day and took a razor blade to his stupid Jedward-style quiff of hair. Honestly, cutting doll's hair - am I 62 or 6? - then I stuck the shaved off bits of hair evenly over his head so he now looks more short-back-and-sides. Then I reckoned he needed a chunky jersey to wear instead of the bum-freezer brown cotton jacket he had on. So - I turned to my stash of old cones of very fine wool left over from my mother's FairIsle knitting days. Armed with navy 3-ply wool and a pair of size 13 (old UK size, about 2.5 mm I think) knitting needles I cast on 23 stitches. I was going to follow an old pattern of mum's for an Action Man jersey (my son's Action Man had an assortment of mighty fine knitted garments back in the '70s!)  but even with finer wool and smaller needles it was going to be too big, so I made it up as I went along. I did it in moss stitch as I reckoned that would give it a good chunky look, and when it got  long enough to reach up to under the doll's armpits I started decreasing. Knit 2 together at each end of the row, but only on every other row, until there are 13 stitches left, then cast off 2 stiches, knit and purl (keeping to your moss stitch) the next 9, slip the last 2 over to your right-hand needle so you can cast them off on your way back along. These will be the shoulders. Knit and purl up the 9 stitches for as many rows as you want the neck to be and then cast off. Do the front the same way. For the sleeves I cast on 13 stitches and when they were long enough to reach from wrist to armpit I did the decreasing thing in exactly the same way as for the front and back, so the slope angles and lengths match - isn't geometry a wonderful thing? You go right down to 1 stitch at the top of the sleeve, cut the wool and fasten off. Then sew the bits together. I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with my invention. Now he doesn't look like a Darren any more, but my lovely husband reckoned he still looked like a cabin-boy, so his name is Bob. (pronounced with an exaggerated plosive on the last B for all you Blackadder fans out there)

Gone Fishing

Hello again!

Amongst some other accessories for the doll's house beach hut featured in my last blog, I purchased a twelfth scale fishing rod. Well! It was, to say the least, tatty. (It had plastic pearl beads to hold the line glued onto a stick with a yellow plastic bit to represent the hand grip and a bit of painted dowel glued on as a reel).  My Dear Husband, who has done a bit of angling in his time, was Black Affronted dear readers. So he set about making a sea-fishing rod for my doll's house peeps to use from their lovely boat. First he shaved a piece of bamboo to as fine a taper as he could and then I did a couple of cork-coloured Fimo hand-grips. He twisted some of my bead-making copper wire into eyelets for the line to run through and bound them to the rod. Then that was varnished lightly. Then a reel was fashioned from the "thin" halves of two press-stud fasteners (my idea, I'm proud to say - inspired, no?) and glued on. The line is made of sewing thread for the first half of its length then changes to fine nylon line. It is brought back down the rod and the copper hook on the end is hooked back into the reel, because no self-respecting angler would leave his hook dangling. (Oo-er Missus) I hope you can see it clearly enough in the picture. That willingness to get side-tracked by something completely inconsequential (in the eyes of the "real world") and take infinite pains to get it as right as possible is one of the Very Best Qualities that my lovely husband has. Over the years it has meant that such things as children's birthday treasure-hunts and easter-egg hunts were planned and executed with the sort of detail that made them really good fun - and memorable, too.

Perhaps you can also see that the boat has now got a name - Minerva (thanks for your suggestion, Ardbeg D-H) - highly appropriate to have the goddess of music and crafts watching over you. Also in the picture are some teeny-tiny shells. They are real shells! We took our delightful grandchildren for a last day on the beach before the start of school last week and went to Tentsmuir, which just happens to be a wonderful place to find little baby Tellins and Cockles. If there's one thing I like better than an excuse to play with Fimo, it's an excuse to beach-comb. What a happy day!

You may also be able to see on the porch of the beach-hut, behind the railings, a couple of pots of flowers. These are the first miniature plants I've made, but I intend to keep experimenting, and will let you know how I get on.

The children are now back at school - Summer starts and finishes earlier up here in Scotland than down South - but the Edinburgh Festival is still going on, so we have visited that glorious city a few times over the last couple of weeks. First, we had a wonderful get-together of friends and family for Very Silly Games in the Queen's Park. (That's where Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat are for those of you who don't know Edinburgh) Lunch was provided by the Foodies Festival. Mmmm.

We also saw a couple of Book Festival and Fringe things at various times and caught up with old University friends for excellent natters and laughs. We saw Neil Gaiman at the Book Festival being interviewed by Audrey Niffenegger.

Unfortunately, although she's a very good and interesting writer, she's a bit tentative as an interviewer so it took a wee while for the session to get going, but once the fabulous Mr Gaiman hit his stride everything was just dandy. He deconstructed Hansel and Gretel: the witch was crazed from protein-deprivation and a sugar rush; Hansel was fattenable; Gretel was smart. He enthused about the making of his episode of Dr Who, and told us that he'd been in London last week recording a voice-over for it. Could that be a special bit for the DVD perhaps? Lovely man.

We were in Edinburgh again yesterday and had a guided tour of the hidden gardens of the Royal Mile. Fascinating - I urge you when next you're in Edinburgh to pop down the little closes between the buildings in the Old Town and just see what you find.

 

Dunbar's Close.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

White Horse Close

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then went to hear A L Kennedy's session at the Book Festival. Her interviewer/interlocutor was Jamie Jauncey, and he is just what you need at such a time - confident, relaxed, friendly and knowledgeable - a safe pair of hands to catch the session if it falters. Which of course it didn't, this being the pin-sharp Alison Kennedy. Her new book is set in the world of psychics, magicians and other smoke-and-mirrors merchants and of course she researched it thoroughly before setting out. The fact that she regards Derren Brown as a very intelligent and nice man makes me think I ought to check him out.

When we emerged from Charlotte Square the city was glowing in evening sunlight. The Castle was at its impressive best

 

 

 

 

 

and the buildings at the other end of George Street were looking down on us pretty spectacularly too.

 

The Creel Thing

Hello again. I'm afraid I have been seriously side-tracked by Doll's House Stuff this past couple of weeks. If you remember, back when I first tried needle-felting, I made some twelfth-scale dogs for my doll's house and others. So you already know that I'm slightly daft, and spend my time in worrying ways.

  Well, just lately I decided that the miniature people in my life needed a holiday, so I finally got around to putting together the beach hut kit I've had sitting in a cupboard for a year. After getting the boring stuff out of the way (painting the walls, putting the thing together, persuading my dear husband to make reinforcing struts for the roof so it can be lifted on and off safely) it is at last time for the FUN STUFF - making accessories. Oh how I love an excuse to play with Fimo! First of all, though, I made this lobster creel. A little piece of Balsa wood for the base, two hoops of willow from my garden, a bit of fiddly micro-macrame and voila! What do you think? If you want to know the scale, the pretend green glass fishing float in the foreground is an ordinary small glass marble. The lovely rowing boat in the background was made by a splendid chap at forgetmenot miniatures. I will paint a name on her prow just as soon as I decide on one. Next thing to make will be some flowers to put in tubs on the verandah of the beach hut. I'll let you know how it goes.

In other news, the cherry tree that seeded itself in our garden has finally grown big enough to have a huge crop of cherries this year. And they taste as good as they look.

We're picking them and eating them as fast as we can, but I guess the blackbirds will get a share as well. It seems only fair, as it was probably a blackbird that planted the cherry stone in the first place.