26 and a day

Aaaargh! I'm in my late twenties!!!!!!

I did have a wonderful birthday though and Colin the Caterpillar (the cake!) is now much diminished.

The denim cushion cover is all dried from its blocking and in answer to India's question it was about 4 and a half balls of Rowan Denim and it's both sides. The great thing about that pattern is that you just keep going round and round until you get to the size you want!

I have also cast on for my second sock - the picot edging is incredibly tricky to do on the train but I have succeeded and now I just need to repeat the pattern. It is lovely not to have to stripe match for once!

I did try to cast on my seaweed and shells scarf but I made a mistake int he third row and there wasn't enough of it to see where the mistake was - take 2 will begin shortly.

Listening to the latest Pointy sticks podcast raises the question - are we all from crafty families - is it genetic?

None of my family are quite as prolific as me but then they probably have more responsibilities/sense/lack of crazy. I'm a little hampered in trying to track it back as I've only really known my parents generation but my Daddy's Aunt knit (I remember the oh so special shade of dusky pink appearing in many cardigans and she definitely knit a few blue school cardies in her time!) and I wish I had been closer in age to her to be able to share the enjoyment.

My Granny could knit and it was she who first taught me (v bad straggly teddy scarf) and although I don't think she had much time for it herself, I do owe her my recollection of the basics when I picked up the needles many years later. Granny also laboriously encouraged me in embroidering blue daisies to napkins for my Mother's birthday - I must have been all of six at the time and I think bribes were involved!! Granny's main crafty outlet was her oil painting - she was very talented and each of her grandchildren have a painting she did - mine is of Magdalen College, Oxford, just up the road from my own college, Univ.

Coming down the generation (and skipping to the other side of the family) my mother knits a bit (if you're reading this Mum that's a hint to finish your blue sweater), has done some beautiful cross stich, makes clothes and soft furnishings and has been known to be very inventive with scary food colouring, icing and a christmas cake - neon poinsetta cake anyone!!
Mum claims to be constantly surprised by my creativity and I don't think she often sees how much of it comes from her, particularly as for the most part I am a real Daddy's girl and have a strong resemblance to my father physically and in the psyche, and she should. Being brought up in a crafty home where it was considered completely normal for leftover dressmaking scraps being squirrelled away and turning up as patchwork or dolls clothing gives you the freedom of expression and creativity to develop all sorts of ideas and I only hope that when I have kids I can give them the same sort of opportunity (as long as they keep their hands off my stash!!!)

Mum's twin is the quilter in the family and another aunt (this time by marriage) makes her own clothes.

Perhaps with all of this lineage it's not surprising that I paint, draw, stitch, sew, knit, papercraft and make cakes shaped like a sandcastle!