January 2017

A typography walk

January is a good time to try something new. It was completely unplanned, but this weekend I’ve managed to try two new things – pretty good going!

The first was a new magazine, Breathe, which jumped off the shelf and into my hand whilst browsing the magazine rack in a supermarket on Saturday morning.

I am a bit of a magazine addict. The Simple Things is one of my favourites, and probably the only one that I get every month without fail. I tend to gravitate away from the traditional ‘women’s lifestyle’ magazines – you know the kind that are full of make-up tips and fashion spreads – those aren’t really my thing. To be honest I’ve been feeling a bit fed up with homes and interiors magazines lately too – they always seem to have the same spreads of all white houses. Magazines like The Simple Things which mix features that I actually want to read, recipes, craft and travel items are much more my cup of tea these days. Breathe seems to be after this pattern, and I’ll be looking out for it from now on. I haven’t had a chance to read much of it yet, but it looks really good, with lovely photography, interesting features and ideas for things to do.

So, buying Breathe led me to try my second new thing of the weekend as one of the short features in this issue suggested a typography walk as something fun to do. This is exactly what it sounds like – grab your camera, head out side and find and snap as many interesting examples of typography and signs as you can. I love to take photos and I do like interesting signage and typography, so this seemed perfect. So, when S and I headed out for lunch today I brought along my camera. I wasn’t really expecting to find much just in our local area, but I found about 10 good examples of typography within a short distance of our flat.

This was really good fun (well to me it is anyway!), and I think is a great way to be a little more observant of your everyday surroundings, including the kinds of places you see week after week and don’t pay much attention to.

Stay cosy x

Little hexies

One of my tasks for the New Year were to go through and organise my yarn stash. A truly herculean task involving pulling out several different boxes and bags of yarn that I have stashed in random different places around the flat – under the bed, on top of the wardrobe, in the living room. I really have way to much already to be buying it as often as I do!

I always start the New Year with a stash-busting resolution and then fall of the wagon by February. I suspect that this year will be no different, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t try! So, my stash re-organisation was in aid of this years busting effort. Also I was inspired by some lovely blankets I saw in Green Letter Day’s Instagram feed over the holidays and suddenly felt an urge to use my own odds and ends of things like Madeline Tosh yarn.

I decided that maybe I could help myself to be more efficient in my use of said stash if I had things organised by weight. That way, I could easily pull out a box that contained all the bits and pieces of, for example, DK weight, and see exactly what, and how much I had that I could potentially combine together in to some sort of project.

So off I went hauling boxes into the living room, empyting the contents out and sorting. Fortunately S was off paiting a wall elsewhere in the flat at the time, so didn’t witness the full magnitude of the stash spread out on the floor. I think I might have been in serious trouble if he had!

Anyways, I am part way through turning all this gorgeous scrummy yarn into a cushion cover made of little 2 round hexagons stitched together. I think it may take a while, especially as it’s now been displaced while I have a temporary burst of enthusiam for returning to my second version of Joji Locatelli’s Boxy sweater. I don’t think I have a shown a completed picture of my first Boxy, which I finished ages ago in October, and made from Madeline Tosh Merino Light in Log Cabin. This second version is a sea-green version, made in Fyberspates Vivacious 4 ply, and I plan to make the sleeves 3/4 length rather than half for extra cosiness. Maybe I will get to showing the progress on this next time.

Happy Sunday all.