Two pink bags

I haven't done any sewing since Christmas, and I've missed it.  Over a couple of evenings this week I sewed two bags.  What I had forgotten was how quick sewing is compared to knitting, and how deeply satisfying it is to create something from nothing and end up with an item which solves a problem.  Both these bags were made to solve problems.

O's old ballet bag was looking a little childish suddenly, and it was awkward for her to carry into class because it had a drawstring rather than handles. 

She really wanted a stylish tote bag like everyone else has.  I was very happy to make her one and asked her to pick out fabrics.  Despite declaring that she isn't into pink at all any more, she chose two eyewateringly bright pink fabrics for the bag.  I think she likes to keep me on my toes. 

O's new ballet bag - extra pink

I whipped up this tote bag for her in an evening, and she loves it.  At ballet this week she sauntered off into class with her new bag slung over her shoulder, looking very pleased with herself.  All the other 9 year olds in her class were exclaiming over the deliciousness of the cherry, polka dot and gingham fabrics, which pleased her even more.  She can be sure that no one else will ever have a ballet bag quite like this one.

O's new ballet bag - everything still gets stuffed inside any old how

The second bag was made for a friend's 12 year old daughter.  S didn't want her small bedroom cramped with a big washing basket, so her mum asked me to make her a drawstring laundry bag which could hang on the back of her door instead.  S picked out the fabric for her laundry bag, and also chose pink - but in much more muted colours than my 9 year old.  Like me, S's mum also thought her daughter didn't like anything pink, but was proved wrong.  I think maybe all girls like to keep their mums on their toes.

Embroidering a label

Laundry bag label

I embroidered a label for the bag, and was delighted to find a little steam iron image amongst my vast collection of embroidery transfers from Sublime Stitching.  I really love this bag, and the fabric S chose.  I think it would be a nice idea to have one of these myself to pack into my suitcase when I go away, and keep dirty washing separate from clean clothes.

S's laundry bag - to hang behind her bedroom door

I hope S likes it as much as I do - I have a feeling she will.  I know her mum will just be delighted to get those dirty clothes off the floor and tidied away.  What is it with girls and discarded clothes?

O's bedroom this morning - with discarded bath towel, pyjamas and tops flung around.

The Track Cycling World Cup - 10 things

The crowd in the Olympic Velodrome

• We went to the Olympic Velodrome last weekend, to watch Day 3 of the official test event - the Track Cycling World Cup.
• We got to the Velodrome at 8am and left at 4:30pm.  It was so exciting I could have happily stayed there for twice as long.



G and C - still cheering on Team GB after eight hours in the velodrome

• The commentator was delightfully partisan:

"In lane 1 is Mr AB from Russia. In lane 2 is Mr CD from Mexico.  In lane 3 is Mr EF from Australia.  AND IN LANE 4, REPRESENTING GREAT BRITAIN, IS THE WORLD CHAMPION, THE WORLD RECORD HOLDER AND THE FOUR TIMES GOLD-MEDAL-WINNING REIGNING OLYMPIC CHAMPION...SIR.CHRIS.HOY!"

• Everybody screamed, shouted and stamped their feet when the commentator said that. 



Bottoms and bikes - lining up to start the keirin. Can you spot Chris Hoy?

• By the end of the day I had lost my voice.
• Velodromes are heated to 28 degrees C on race days to give optimum speed to the riders.



The countries' pens in the middle of the track

• Watching all the countries' support teams in the pens in the centre of the track proved almost as entertaining as the races.  The Dutch had at least 4 technicians per rider and had brought their own coffee machine into the pens - very classy.
• The thighs on the Greek male cyclists were of absolutely epic proportions.
• One of my tweets made it up onto the big screen in the stadium.  My 12 year old said patronisingly that he was most impressed that I knew how to tweet from my phone.


My tweet on the big screen - "well done, Mum"

• The track has a resident joiner, who was ushered out onto the track, clutching his toolkit, to inspect the wood and make necessary repairs each time there was a crash.

~~~~~~~~~~

This coming weekend we are heading back to the Olympic Park to watch Tom Daly in action in the Aquatics Centre test event, the Diving World Cup.  Tickets will be going on sale soon for more Olympic test events - you can find details here.

Flowers - paper and real

I bought myself some daffodils from the supermarket, but until they come out I am enjoying this paper and twig bouquet made by O and her friend F last week.

They were inspired by this excellent and inspiring papercraft book of F's - I am planning on getting O her own copy very soon, and writing an update to my post in January about art and craft books for older children and teenagers.  Stay tuned!

Time off

Half-term reading for C

Time off is always welcome - and time off from school is particularly appreciated around here, even though school itself is generally enjoyed.  This past week the children were off school for half term, and G took a week off work as well, so we all had a week off at home together which felt very special.

We crammed our week with Good Things:

• a family trip to Kew Gardens with cousins, uncle and aunt.  With the aid of a toppled snowman, C was taller than both Uncle and Dad for the first time.



G, C and Uncle M

• a family trip to Cambridge to see the newest member of the family, and another uncle and aunt.  O took approximately 200 photos of her smallest cousin.



Baby A's perfect little hand

• a birthday for G
• a trip to the other side of London to celebrate a milestone birthday for G's father



O reading and C listening to his iPod on the tube

• a long walk through the forest with old friends
• a day chilling out with more old friends, some computer games, and knitting for the Mums


Slow but steady progress on my shawl

• a day at the Olympic Park to watch the Track Cycling World Cup at the velodrome



Cheering on Team GB at the velodrome

Everyone's back at school and work today, and I miss them.  I am tidying, and cleaning, and setting the house back to normal.  It feels too quiet, but I go back to noticing - and appreciating - the small things. 

I spent a happy half hour in the garden this morning, chatting to the hens as I cleaned out their eglu and inspecting the progress of the buds and bulbs.  While we've been having time off with family and friends over half-term, the plants in the garden have been hard at work.  Spring is so nearly here.

Snowdrops

Clematis bud

Drumming

Snare drum, gleaming in the sunshine

With the move from Ironman training to mere marathon training, G finds that he has time on his hands these days to rediscover old hobbies.  Given how intolerant I am of his love of music which consists entirely of repetitive beats and no melody, it is perhaps a little surprising that I love listening to his drumming so much.  But I do.  As long as I have know him, he has been drumming.  He was a shocking 45 minutes late for our second date, but when he eventually showed up he had drum sticks poking out of his coat pocket and was full of enthusiasm for a new technique he'd just learned at his drum lesson - he was so engaging and interesting on the subject of drum beats that I forgave his (happily uncharacteristic) tardiness and we went on to have a third date.

I think proper hobbies are the ones that you can't help but doing, and the ones which you return to again and again during your life.   G first had drum lessons as a teenager, and when we first moved in together, in our early twenties, the drum kit came too and he played regularly. 

Moving the drums into our new flat in 1998

When the children were little there wasn't much spare time for drumming; we let them loose on the bongos, while the rest of the kit was packed away.

O, aged 2, with bongos

C, aged about 10 months, with bongos

But the love of drumming is always there for G, and can be slotted into family life surprisingly easily these days.  You don't need a full drum kit permanently set up in a spare (soundproofed) room to play the drums.  You can even enjoy your hobby of drumming whilst living in a terraced house in the middle of London - and we've even managed to stay friendly with the neighbours.  Like all good hobbies, there are plenty of opportunities to purchase drumming gadgets, and there is a wide array of gadgets to make drums quieter and less invasive.

There are practise pads to hit instead of drums - I find these particularly lovely to listen to, as they give off a gentle tippety-tap sound.

Snare drumming in the sunshine

There's also some beautiful blue gel which can be stuck onto the drum skin to lessen the resonance and calm things down a little.

G just has his snare drum out these days - but you can learn and perfect almost all the basic drum techniques you will ever need with just a snare drum, a couple of sticks and some quality practise time.  G has some wonderful snare technique books, from the 1930s to the 1950s, which he is working through. 

Progressive Syncopation - first published 1958

Stick Control - first published 1935

Advanced Techniques - first published 1948

I find the names of the different drum patterns he practises enchanting, and delightfully onomatopeic: paradiddles, flams, ratamacues, rolls (and then there are flamadiddles, rolls into ratamacues and all sorts of other tongue-twisting combinations).

It is the soundtrack of our weekends these days, and I find it very soothing to hear the syncopated taps and rattles coming from our bedroom or the sitting room as I potter around the house keeping busy in my own way - cooking or reading or knitting.

New things

Short hair

Yesterday was full of new things:

• a new haircut (I had a whopping 25cm cut off),
• a new mustard-yellow hat,
• and a new little niece. 

All these things are making me very happy indeed.

Mustard-yellow hat

Snowflake pie

It snowed copiously last night.  Which meant that the children were out of the house and chucking snowballs around before breakfast.  They came back in briefly, bolted down some toast while their gloves dried on the radiator, and then disappeared back into the streets and parks of East London to make more snowballs.

Snow wasn't going to stop G from going for a long training run either.  A two hour fifteen minute run through Epping Forest was scheduled and he saw no reason why having to hop through snowdrifts or skid on the ice should stop him.  So he disappeared into the white stuff after breakfast too, wearing all kinds of peculiar technical running gear, designed to keep out the cold.

Home alone, I put on the coffee, switched on the radio and settled down in the kitchen to make a pie while I caught up on The Archers omnibus, Denise Lewis on Desert Island Discs and the latest episode of The Unbelievable Truth.  I love the Radio 4 schedules on a Sunday morning.

My pie had a warm, wintry, simple filling of carrot, potato, celery, onion and corned beef in it, bound together with some herbs and a good squirt of ketchup.  It is one of my favourite recipes from The Hairy Bikers Perfect Pies.  I decorated it with snowflakes and every last scrap of it was eaten up.  It's tiring work being out in the snow.

A day out

Trains are a good way to come home after a day out, because you can stare out of the window and think.  With me on the train late this afternoon were teenagers heading for an evening out, mothers heading home with snuggly toddlers, young men carrying guitars, and weary workers, with supermarket carrier bags hooked over their arms, leaning against the doors.

I wondered about their days and reflected on my own: chatting, listening, sharing, laughing, eating, comparing and relaxing with friends.  We had planned to spend the day crafting, but in the end spent more time eating cake and drinking tea and coffee than knitting.  You know they're good friends when you're too busy laughing to knit more than a row of shawl.

But it was such a productive day in other ways.  I came home with ideas for new things to try, support for the things I am doing right now, and a liberating new technique that will completely revolutionise the way I finish my knitting.

Many thanks to my friends:

• Little Cotton Rabbits
• ...the sight of morning...
• Domesticali
• Dotty Cookie
• Quilt While You're Ahead
• Silverpebble

And especially Dragonfly, for organising us all.

Crunch

I do love coleslaw - but I only realised this a few years ago, after making it myself for the first time.  Shop-bought coleslaw is not to my taste at all: sickly mayonnaise, raw onion and tasteless carrots are the things I complain about most.  But homemade coleslaw is a whole other thing entirely.  Crunchy, fresh, light, full of flavour - it's an energising, satisfying thing to eat - not a weird, creamy garnish to be pushed to the side of your plate.

The key to a coleslaw which I will enjoy eating lies in the dressing.  I knew I didn't want plain mayonnaise, so I experimented with various other dressings - some with mayonnaise and some without.  I eventually settled on a blend of yogurt and mayonnaise, sharpened with cider vinegar and spiced up with a great deal of black pepper.

I love mayonnaise made by the French brand, Maille.  I particularly like this one, flavoured with a subtle hint of mustard.  I bring back several jars of it whenever I go to France, but they sell it in Waitrose too.

I don't like raw onion in coleslaw either - its flavour overwhelms everything else.  A finely sliced spring onion can be a nice addition, although is not essential.  The two key ingredients you need are cabbage and carrots.  I like coleslaw made with any cabbage - red, green or white are all good, although red cabbage does tend to bleed its colour a little and make the coleslaw a pale shade of pinky-purple.  This is not really a bad thing, mind you. 

In its simplest form the coleslaw I make is a quarter of a cabbage, sliced very finely, two fat carrots, peeled and grated, and a spoonful of dressing.  This can be put together for supper or lunch at very short notice - I usually have all the ingredients I need in my fridge.

But coleslaw can be fancified too.  Today I made a cheese and grape version, which was wildly successful.

The List Writer's Crunchy Cheese & Grape Coleslaw

For enough to feed a family of four, you will need:

• a quarter of a large green cabbage, cored and finely sliced
• 2 fat carrots, peeled and coarsely grated
• 50g mature cheddar cheese, coarsely grated
• a small bunch of seedless green grapes, sliced into quarters
• dressing to taste

For the dressing, mix together in a little bowl:

• 1 tablespoon of good mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons of natural yogurt
• 1/2 a tablespoon of cider vinegar
• lots of freshly ground black pepper

Put all the coleslaw ingredients together in a large bowl and mix together with the dressing  - a spoonful at a time until it looks right to you.  Use your judgement here - you may like your coleslaw more or less creamy than I do.  Any leftover dressing, or coleslaw, will keep in the fridge for several days.

Good things to add to simple coleslaw (in place of the grated cheese and grapes above):

• cheddar cheese and diced apple (I find if you grate the apple into the coleslaw the whole thing becomes watery and sour - dicing the apple is a much better idea)
• toasted sunflower seeds and sultanas
• sliced radishes and chopped roasted peanuts
• chopped walnuts (serve this walnut coleslaw with sourdough bread and slices of parma ham - completely delicious)
• a finely sliced spring onion

We eat our coleslaw with all sorts of things:

• cheese on toast
• jacket potatoes
• sandwiches
• peppery cumberland sausages
• a good pork pie from the local butcher

And once every few weeks, when I am feeling in need of a little lunchtime indulgence, I walk up the road to our local Pakistani cafe, buy one of their VERY spicy lamb samosas, and come home and eat it with a big pile of cooling, homemade coleslaw on the side.  It's a crunchy, spicy, flavoursome feast fit for a queen (or king).

I looked away...and when I came back it was nearly the end of winter

Today we start the last month of winter, and as if by magic it feels as though spring is nearly here.  Every year the lengthening of the days takes me completely by surprise.  I look out of the window one late afternoon at the beginning of February, and realise that it is still light outside.  When did that happen?

The view from the sitting room window - 5pm today

It makes me a little sad, because I love winter very much.  I feel more alive and energised in winter, and I drive G mad by flinging open windows, wittering on about how wonderful it is to feel the bracing wind on your cheeks, and enthusing about knitting and woollen garments.

Spring leaf cowl

I have added another winter woollen to my collection today.  This green leaf cowl is the perfect end-of-winter-start-of-spring item.  The glorious acid green reminds me of new spring shoots, and it has an abstract pattern of leaves winding up it.  It was a very quick knit - and should you wish, you can see the full geeky details on Ravelry here.

But my goodness, it's cold enough here in London to need to add woollen things to your neck both indoors and outdoors.

This is me at about 10 o'clock this morning, burrowing into my new cowl to try and stay warm.  By lunchtime I'd added a shawl, a hat, some armwarmers and two pairs of socks to my outfit. I looked like Mrs Tiggywinkle, so I gave in, turned the central heating on and removed a couple of layers.

The days are getting a little longer, but the temperatures are still thoroughly wintry.  This makes me very happy - winter still has a while to go after all.  Now that the cowl is finished I'm turning my knitting attentions back to the sock yarn shawl, which is now so big that it takes me over twenty minutes to knit a row.  I am wondering if it will be ready for its first wear in winter or spring?