I wish I was on the Arctic tern's migratory route...

..no, I haven't diversified into a wildlife blog. The Arctic terns above are on show at The Lighthouse in Glasgow from Oct 5-28. Apart from looking cute, they were knitted to reflect on the plight of the migratory birds affected by our environmental meddlings and climate change.
The exhibition is part of Luminate Scotland, which is Scotland's creative ageing festival, celebrating creativity as we age. And let's face it, we're all ageing - wish this was a nationwide initiative.

Ooh, I'm inspired

Embroidery is in fashion - it's official. As if we needed telling ;-)
But Inge Jacobsen's work makes the point in a different way. She has stitched through the glossy covers of fashion magazines including Vogue.
She describes this as 'intervening', saying: 'My practice is about intervening into found images through embroidery, cutting, and collaging. The images I use are mostly from women’s fashion magazines, pornographic images, and newspapers.
'My main concern as an artist is how one responds to the mass of imagery in the world. I am particularly interested in exploring the different contexts in which photography can be used. I like to stray from the conventional perceptions of what photography can and can’t be.
'With the over saturation of images, my practice seeks to intervene in this overwhelming consumption from the mass produced and alter it to create something unique.'
I absolutely adore this idea of taking something 'out there' and mass-produced and altering it, or upcycling it, to make something new and individual.

See Inge Jacobsen's website here

Allez les bleus!

Olympic fever has hit the MI! household: tonight we're off to see the women's basketball semi-final at the North Greenwich Arena. We're not massive basketball fans; in fact, neither of us has seen a game live before. But these are the only tickets we could get via the slightly-less-than-impressive Olympics tickets website.
As it's France v USA, we're obviously supporting our near neighbours. I don't have a French flag to hand so I've created a little tricouleur necklace.
Take one torque neck ring, cut lengths of blue, white and red ribbon. Fold over torque and stitch in place. I think it looks so good I may be doing it again with different colours...

Made for me...

There's a little flare of happiness that comes from seeing items that you use every day being handmade. And here are two that were handmade for me by friends. Here's my crocheted iPhone cover, made for me by Janey, who knits and crochets (and clog-dances) like a goddess.

And down below is my Kindle cover, made for me by Kirsten, who's a mistress of precision and dispenser of sound advice. I turned it inside out - but the stitching is so neat you'd hardly notice...

Turn a tin can into a tealight lantern

Save a can from the recycling bin! Making a tealight lantern is so easy. (And as you can see, getting it to look good in a night-time photo is not.)

How to make an upcycled tin-can lantern
Peel the label off the can, give it a good rinse (unless the aroma of barbecued tomatoes is your idea of al fresco ambience).
Fill the can with water and stand upright in the freezer until the water is frozen.
Take a bradawl (classic approach; I used a big screw) and, with a hammer, bang a pattern of holes through the side of the tin. The ice is there to absorb the impact so that the can doesn't squash when you try to knock a hole in it. Top tip if you use a big screw: wear gloves or wrap the non-pointy end in a cloth because it gets quite sore on the fingers.
Add two holes opposite each other near the top so that you can thread through a length of wire to hang the lantern. Drop in the tealight and light it.
Job done. Light up the night.

I learnt to crochet!

Well, perhaps that's exaggerating a little... I went on a one-day course at wonderful West Dean college in Sussex. Our tutor, Lucinda Guy, is the author of the book I used when I last tried to learn: Kids Learn to Crochet - yes, it's good to know your level!
She went from the basics: tying a slipknot to cast on, all the way through to double treble.
Strangely, I had most difficulty with the simpler things: like the slipknot - I hadn't realised I was using a granny knot, which doesn't work as well. But by the time we started with the trebles it clicked.
As I drove home I was itching to get started: so I did. With Lucinda's takeaway instructions I struck while the hook was hot and started crocheting a double treble border for the knitted squares blanket I made some time ago.
My goal is to get on to granny squares by the end of the year...

Sewing a simple skirt

This pattern is described as the simplest-ever skirt, in the book it appears in: Sewing Made Simple by Tessa Evelegh.
I wouldn't quite go that far; I've sewn some skirts that were simpler: one front piece, one back piece, sew the seams, hem in a piece of elastic at the top... However, it does look far more complicated than it is. It's a bias-cut drawstring-waist skirt. I love the waistband, which is a wide ribbon threaded through with narrower ribbon. In sewing this, I had a little mishap. I pinned the double layer of ribbon around the waist of the skirt, then I machined it... and found that it wasn't quite long enough, although it had been when pinned on. So my 'learning from experience' tip for this pattern is not to cut the end of the ribbon until you've sewn it on. Once you pull the ribbon drawstring though, the gap is closed between the two ends of the waistband piece of ribbon, so my error is not noticeable.