One of my personal bugbears is textile product description – particularly as concerns the word “wool.” Most of my clothes purchases are made online these days, and it really annoys me to be looking at what I assume to be a nice wool dress, only to discover that it is, in fact, 100% viscose. Take…
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wool 0%
gurning, kippers, and colour
For the record, I have had two really ‘bad’ days this week, during which I’ve been unable to do much because of fatigue. (Will it ever just fook off?) At times when brain and body refuse to do anything strenous, knitting and the BBC can often save me from getting too crotchety. But it is…
Read Moresadnesses
I’ve been so saddened and appalled by the story that has been unfolding in your comments that I couldn’t sleep last night. Emma writes that “it is generally understood that you have to have two or three goes at the DLA to get what you are entitled to,” and indeed, from what you have all…
Read Morelimbo
Now, I don’t want to moan, but this space is somewhere where I like to be honest about my experience of recovery, so, to be frank, things are a bit rubbish at the moment. 1. We’d planned a short break this week on Barra and Harris, but one of Calmac’s ferries broke down; they cancelled…
Read Morestitched up
Though I love the Gainsborough films, Tony Richardson’s Tom Jones and Michael Winterbottom’s A Cock and Bull Story, I am not generally a fan of contemporary cinematic takes on eighteenth- and nineteenth century literature. This is probably because of what I do: a generation of students who have grown up with the unshakeable idea that…
Read MoreAmbridge
Warning! this post may seem both tedious and incomprehensible to anyone who is not an Archers fan . . . I arrived home from work yesterday to find that a thrilling package had turned up in the post. On opening the envelope, the mere words “Ambridge DK and chunky,” were enough to send me into…
Read Moreouting
It has been a very frustrating week. I’ve not been up to anything much, and have been unable to go outdoors. Tom decided to cheer me up with a non-taxing outing, and we drove to Hawick. I love to walk in the Borders, but when one cannot walk, pootling around in the car will do…
Read Moreproperty
(Scavenging for minerals among the hazardous electronic waste at a dump in Accra. Image © Times Online) Having recently replaced the mac I work on at home, I needed to get rid of my old one. This machine was five years old, had been repaired several times, and was becoming rather unreliable. I didn’t want…
Read Moreprocess
Needled reviews: The F-Word. Tuesdays, 9pm, Channel 4 Richard Sennett, The Craftsman (Allen Lane, 2008) Don’t get me wrong, I do not like The F-Word, but it is worth watching it occasionally for a few cheap laughs. You know the bit I mean: when Gordon tells you how to make his pea and lettuce soup…
Read Moremiscellany
The postie has been bringing me a right bag of treats lately. Here’s a selection. Big thanks to Lara, Felix, Jesse, Annushka, and Philippa! The top pic shows some absolutely delicious Oxford Kitchen Yarn’s sock yarn in the plum colourway. The colour (which is not quite true in the photo) has a precise and very…
Read Moreself-referential
The best thing about this intermewebnet thingy is, for me, it’s debates and exchanges. When I posted a review of Jane Brocket’s Gentle Art of Domesticity a couple of months ago, I was bowled away by the comments I received and the lively debate that the book engendered. There were several comments from individuals who…
Read MoreThe domestic in drag
needled reviews: Nigella Express, BBC2, Mondays, 8.30pm Jane Brocket, The Gentle Art of Domesticity (Hodder & Stoughton, 2007) Despite my best efforts to avoid it, last night I encountered Nigella Express. It was much more diverting than I’d assumed. Indeed, Mr B and I spent the programme in a state of near hysteria. How we…
Read Morecorners and cables
It is perhaps hard to make the case for place mats and oven mits as exciting projects, but I experienced their mild excitement this weekend. Having acquired Denyse Schmidt Quilts largely on the grounds of Ashley’s gorgeous scarves I decided it was time to attempt something small-scale involving piecing and binding. First I made a…
Read Moredomiknitrix: (not quite) eating my words
Two knitting books turned up yesterday: Jennifer Stafford’s DominKNITrix and Wendy Keele’s Poems of Color: Knitting in the Bohus Tradition. I spent a most enjoyable evening with them both (more on the Bohus book later). Now, I am suspicious, as you know, of Stafford. I really didn’t warm to her when interviewed, couldn’t see the…
Read MoreStyling Meaning
I have been struck recently by how little the recent wave of ‘ironic’ knitting or knitters really have to say. Some of these people really seem depressingly incapable of thinking about the politics of their craft, or of explaining the meaning of what they are doing in any terms other than it being, um, quite…
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KDD & Co 