A lot of luck.

A lot of luck is indeed what I appear to have had recently.

I have never really been a great one for entering competitions, and I definitely do not have a track record for winning them. The last competition I remember winning was when I must have been six or seven so (I’m not quite sure, though) and at primary school. The task that we had to complete to enter the competition was as follows: the outline of an egg-shape was drawn onto a piece of paper with a black marker by our teacher, and a piece of patterned wallpaper was cut and glued to fill half of this egg shape. Using colouring pencils, we had to copy the pattern of the wallpaper to fill in the other half of the egg shape. I now realise that this was quite a strange thing to do! However, at the time, it didn’t really seem it and was in fact rather fun, and to my surprise I won the competition! I do believe that my winnings comprised a chocolate Easter egg and perhaps a badge of some sort. And that was it for me in terms of luck for the past twenty years or thereabouts.

Well, I am happy to say that over the past few weeks I have had an amazing streak of luck! I have won no less than four online giveaways and competitions and I thought I would report on them all together.

First, in the Stitch and Bitch London newsletter there was a giveaway for one of the knitting kits which had recently been launched by Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant. I believe the basis of the kits is that they decided to spin the wool from the sheep on the farm from which they source their meat. It has been blended with Manx and Hebridean wool, organically dyed by the Natural Fibre company, and supplied along with some beautiful knitting needles made from a sustainable wood called subabul. The yarn is beautifully woolly and it feels to have the perfect balance between softness and durability. I do believe I will make a striped scarf, but we shall see.

Secondly, the very lovely and talented Lucy at {a-black-pepper} had a giveaway on her blog for a copy of her Coline pattern. I was so happy to receive this lovely design from Lucy – it really is beautiful and as soon as I saw the hat on her blog I decided that I would have to make one anyway, so I was very lucky to receive a free copy of the pattern. If you are a knitter and do not already read Lucy’s blog, you must go and check it out – she has started publishing patterns over the past year or so and they are amazing – textured and sculptural and quite lovely.

Next, Manilla Made (a brilliant UK-based craft blog which I only discovered very recently) had a giveaway for a £5 voucher towards a purchase at Boutiko, an amazing looking online shop with a focus on ethical goods, with things sourced from all over the world. I have not yet decided what to buy but I will be sure to report back!

The fourth and final thing that I won in my amazing streak of luck was an absolutely gorgeous letterpress calendar hand-made by Rachael of Pistachio Press. This is one of the most lovely things I have ever seen, I actually didn’t even dare take it out of its packet until this morning because it is just so gorgeous. The designs, inspired by vintage china, are letter-press printed on the most incredible tree-free cotton paper, the calendar is colourful and textured and just beautiful. I was so thrilled to win this because I have been admiring all of the lovely letterpress goods available on Etsy for a little while now, and wondering where to start. I will definitely be heading to Rachael’s Etsy store very soon – do go and check it out yourself too! I intend to show each month’s design on my blog as 2010 goes by, so watch this space. I just need to decide where to hang it….

Thank you so so much to all of the people who held the competitions and giveaways that I entered, winning things really does make me quite disproportionately happy

Let’s hope the luck carries on as I have to do my exams the week after next!

Yesterday was a day both fun and productive day, including revision and a photo shoot, followed by coffee with an old friend and drinks with a newer one. Today is going to be a good day too I think – when I sat down to drink my coffee this morning the light and the rain looked so beautiful and unusual through my window, I had to take a photo.

Good light always bodes well, I think. And rain viewed through a window is no bad thing.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating today!  I think this is the first year for a few that I have not celebrated Thanksgiving in one form or another, and I must say, I miss the pie.  (And the thankfulness… but oh, pumpkin pie…)

 

Spice-kissed Pumpkin Pie, photo copyright Heidi Swanson, 101cookbooks.com, click through for the recipe...doesn't it look great?

 

When I was at uni there were a lot of American students in my hall of residence and come Thanksgiving they made a big pinboard and people pinned on it the things that they were thankful for.  I had never heard of Thanksgiving, really, and sort of wondered what they were doing.  Would anyone *actually* participate in this strange ritual, I thought to myself.  Yes, yes they would.  It was soon covered in lots and lots of little pieces of paper – some nicely written and even illustrated, others scribbled with a biro onto a ripped-off corner of a page from a notebook; some rather deep and meaningful, and some for icecream or mascara.  I read the whole lot.  Since then I have had some lovely thanksgiving dinners at both American and Canadian celebrations and I have decided that I really like Thanksgiving and the way it encourages you to think of the positive things, little and large, serious and silly.  Sometimes it is the littlest thing that really turns your day around.  Also, there are no gifts, just lots and lots of food – amazing!

So, some random news and bits and bobs, with thankfulness in mind.

I really do love eBay – I bought and had delivered a new armchair for a quite ridiculous price and I am now the proud owner of the most comfortable chair in the world!  It’s true!  I can fit my whole self in the chair and it really is great.  I will try and remember to take a photo.  

An exciting development in the knitting world.  As a knitter I am in general very, very thankful for the existence of Elizabeth Zimmerman and all of her wit and wisdom.  ”Knit on with confidence and hope, through all crises”, she tells us.  A good plan.  I (unfortunately) put it into practice quite often.  I love the 2 books of hers that I own and they are so well written and fun to read – these are real books by a real writer, not just a how-to manual full of useful tips and tricks and clever ways to make life easier for yourself (although they are that too).  Anyway, the exciting EZ news is the fact that the pattern for her Green Sweater  has just been made available.  I even managed to snag one of the kits including the same wool as the original sweater was made in; this is very exciting news!  It was all very serendipitous because I had just sold some very boring preclinical textbooks on Amazon and I had enough from that for the sweater kit with only a few pennies to spare – it was meant to be!  The only foreseeable problem with the sweater is the sizing – the smallest size the sweater comes in is 38″ and I fear I may be rather drowned by it.  But I will figure it out; I am sure EZ would have wanted me to have a sweater which fitted me perfectly and I am also sure that her books will teach me how to get one.

I wasn’t very well for a few days so I couldn’t really cycle, but I am well now, and back in the saddle.  Double hurrah. I am very thankful for the good bicycle advice I have recently been gathering from Sheldon Brown.  If you own a bicycle and would like to know something about it, or do something to it, the chances are his wonderful site will help you out.  After reading this article on saddle height adjustment, I have recently put up the saddle on one of my bikes and the difference it has made to how easy it is to ride is incredible!  And, really, how could I not take the advice of somebody who calls upon William Blake to help explain the strategy you should use when raising your saddle?!  It is so much less effort now it’s a bit higher and it feels rather more natural now too.  Happy happy.   Sheldon Brown, anyway, seems like he was one of life’s good guys, apparently he used to receive hundreds of emails every day asking his advice on mechanics, and he would reply to them all, patiently and helpfully.  His website is an absolutely amazing wealth of information and I think it made him very happy to share all of his knowledge with the world.  Very sadly though, he had a rare form of multiple sclerosis, the primary progressive type where once it hits you, you don’t have flares and recovery periods… you just have it, and it keeps getting worse.  Anyway, I have been thinking quite a lot recently about health and all of the aspects thereof that we take for granted, and this little essay that Sheldon Brown wrote about the bright side of MS really made me smile.  How funny he was, and how cheery and focussed on the positive.  I can’t recommend his site highly enough if you have the remotest interest in learning how your bike actually works, but I for one have learnt about more than gear ratios from perusing his pages, and I’m very glad that I found out about him.

On a different note, all of this winter weather has me thinking wistful thoughts about curling up (in my new armchair no less! eek!) with a big cup of tea and a good book.  And I keep coming back to the rather attractive idea of re-reading the books that I enjoyed so much when I was little.  I shall write a post about some of them in due course, but in the meantime, one of the authors whose books I am sure many of us enjoyed greatly was Enid Blyton.  I just found out today that there was a BBC film made recently about her life, called Enid, with Helena Bonham Carter and Matthew MacFadyen, and available here on BBC iplayer (if you’re in the UK, at least; I don’t know if you can watch abroad).  I’ve downloaded it but not yet watched it, so I can’t recommend it personally, but I can’t wait to watch it when my exams are over! And if you would like to see it too then you have until Saturday to watch it online or download it from the BBC.  (Incidentally, isn’t iplayer marvellous? I am very thankful for that too!)

Of course, it’s not *just* the little things that can totally make your day – I’m also very thankful for all the usuals – friends and family near and far, my health and happiness, and all of life’s material comforts.  And hot chocolate.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lovely bicycles.

(with thanks to the author of Lovely Bicycle for quite clearly inspiring the title of this post, and for her fun and informative blog…)

“The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.”
- Iris Murdoch.

Yes indeed, she is right! I don’t know very much about Iris Murdoch at all, never having read any of her work, but ever since I read this quote I have had a mental note to find out more. I can certainly agree wholeheartedly with her message here.

A few weeks ago I was cycling to I can’t remember where, to do I can’t remember what, but I remember *very* clearly that I cycled right past a beautiful blue Pashley bicycle which was parked in Covent Garden. (When I say cycled right past, obviously I mean cycled right past, stopped, turned around, cycled right back again, gazed in wide-eyed admiration, and eventually sighed and moved on.) Pashley make some of the nicest bikes around and, remembering how happy I was when I found out that it was possible to own a bicycle which was just *worlds* apart from the ugly, clunky mountain bikes which I can barely get on and off that so many people ride, I thought it might be nice to post some pictures of the pretty Pashley bicycle and some others which I have had my eye on. I shall not be owning any of these very soon though, because I do in fact already have two bicycles. One is a Bobbin Bicycle, one of the first models they sold when they were just a very new business running from a little workshop in Clerkenwell, and you had to make an appointment to go down and try the different models out for size. My bike is longer available and Bobbin have opened a shop in Islington and grown as a business quite enormously (about which I am very happy because they were such lovely people), but mine is similar to this one (and is also depicted in the photo at the top of my blog!). I also have a Claud Butler Majestique mixte bike of which I don’t have a photo but is much more of a proper road bike (SO much lighter, and with more gears… useful for longer trips and when one is running late!). That one is older than I am and I am very, very fond of it. Anyway, by most rules of calculation, having two bikes I think that means I don’t need another one, but bicycles are rather like shoes or pairs of tights (my current obsession) ….or balls of yarn…. or second hand books or in fact, anything… in that you don’t actually have to *need* it to buy it, just as long as you really really really want it. And anyway, dreaming is free….

So, starting with the one I saw in Covent Garden, here are some very civilised conveyances….

Pashley Poppy (£395).

The cornflower blue is so beautiful in real life! It also comes in pink but I think that is a bit much…

 

Rivendell Betty Foy ($1000, and not available in the UK, but never mind, I love it anyway!)

Azor Oma, E665 from Velorution on Great Titchfield Street

 

Another Pashley! This is the Sonnet Bliss (£565); I think the cream and burgundy is such a good look.

 

Pashley Princess Sovereign (£465)

I think this is the original Pashley bike design, it is a 3 speed bike and there are quite a few in London. The racing green they come in is very traditional and just perfect. 

Bobbin Glorie (£420)
I love this green bike too!

Abici Gran Turismo Donna available from Cyclepoint (£695)

That’s the same Abici bike in a pretty cream colour.

Achielle Marie
(price not given, but I read about them on an American site and I think they are around $700 plus shipping).

So there we have it! Obviously all of these bikes are only really useful if you aren’t in a particular hurry, but since I am almost always far too early for everything, I don’t think having a slow bike is necessarily much of a disadvantage I love Dutch style bikes because they are so comfortable to ride, and feel so stable on the road. If your bike is blessed with a skirtguard, as most of these are, you can hop on in whatever you happen to be wearing at the time, too. I know also that bicycles, these included, always seem a bit expensive – although not *nearly* as expensive as some of the ‘designer’ road bikes you see all over the place. And, anyway, none of them costs as much as a season ticket on the underground, and it is an immeasurably more fun way to arrive!