The Bath Crafting Cranny

A little secret for Avon residents...

An Italian gourmet deli food-shop is just under our noses... I was lucky enough to discover it last year when I started my job close by. It trades under 'La Bottega' (Unit 6, Brassmill Enterprise Centre, Bath, BA1 3JN, 01225 317044, map here). Lots of cheeses, meats, olives, wines, pastas, rice, oils: the list goes on. And - at Christmas - they sell the most delicious and best-value Panettone you'll see this side of the Alps.

A beady eye is needed to find it though: there is a shop sign above the door but, other than that, it just looks like a warehouse...

It's raining - hurray!

It's not often that I'm gleeful on a rainy day - but today is different!

Aside from the fact that my allotment is dying of thirst, I now have one of these...isn't she beautiful! I've been avidly searching for a bucket hat that isn't designed with a golfer in mind for months and then I discovered Orla Kiely... Now I can breathe a sigh of relief. Good old eBay.

Best Buy of 2006

What was the best, most life-altering thing you brought last year? Is it very sad that mine is lots and lots of holes joined together with string? It's small enough to scrunch into my pocket when empty, doesn't give you sore hands even when rammed full, carrys lots and (the best bit) leaves your home and the environs plastic-bag free. Admittedly, 2 little old ladies were chuckling at them the other day (oh, the irony) but I hold my stringy neck up high.

Pretty (&) ethical

Yippeee! Gabriella Knight has her new Spring/Summer collection out! Not only is it gorgeous but, I am reliably informed, she works in the Bath area. So we can look pretty and be supporting local business!

Buttons

What is it about buttons and beads that make our eyes go funny? For all intents and purposes, they are just blobs of wood, resin or glass. I blame my addition on marbles. If you're hooked on swapping spherical glass, with paper strips inside, at the age of four what can you expect later in life? Evolution in action. Sigh. An expensive habit, this.

Jessie's Button Box is far, far superior than mine...but I did manage to incorporate a little of her collection into mine own a couple of weeks ago. 50 years from now we might be equal...

P.S., but the best thing: I discovered some fossilized walrus-tooth buttons. Talk about combining your favourite things!

Shawl compromise

I am a paradoxical lace knitter, I'm afraid. The patterns are so lovely to knit and the creations are gorgeous to gaze at...but the idea of wearing a shawl? Well, as much as I love Jane Austen, I just can't bring myself to don one. Anyway, even if they didn't seem so olde worlde, they just look bad on me. I haven't yet developed that art of sweeping them casually around the shoulders.

So, I end up loving the knitting of them but am never sure what to do with the end-results...  But this garment? I love it and I'll wear it! I've got this lovely wool to play with: Hand Maiden's Sea Silk. Eunny's knitted it beautifully, with some alterations. (It's just a shame it's too hot to wear it for months! Hey-ho.)

Hurray!

Get Knitted is now stocking Amy Butler fabrics! Now we can pop over to Bristol and stroke them before we take the plunge and buy! It's so much nicer to buy things in a shop than squinting at a computer screen, isn't it?

Yum!

Look what Sue's found! Mmmmm - the mouth waters.

AND as an added bonus, anyone who buys enough yarn to make 'Annabelle' can have the pattern for free. Hurray! (Just email them when you're placing your order and they'll send you a copy.)

(I really wish they showed a little of each of the yarns knitted up though - my eyes go all funny when I try and imagine what they'll look like as socks!)

What a difference a day makes...

I was lent a lovely wee book by a colleague (thanks Sally!) called 'Traditional Knitting' by the Good Housekeeping Institute from the glorious 1980s. It's got some fabulous stitches in there: Christmas trees, viking boats, llamas, seaweed, turtle tracks...

I liked the look of the strawberry stitch and thought I'd have a bash...but halfway through I was regretting my choice: it had a bobbly, yuk, organic feel about it. I felt like I was knitting intestines. Bleugh.

  But, persevere I did. I took Eunny's blocking advice and glumly finished the work, sticking in the pins with extra force.

And, then, in the morning look what was waiting for me:

Mmmm! The recipient is to be a supervisor of my Zoology project all those years ago at Edinburgh Uni (which initiated my future fascination in pesky trilobites): and, if you squint a little, can you also see a mass of trilobites in this pattern? Ah, the Knitting Gods were smiling.