Bye bye Bernina...

Today was a sad day: I said goodbye to the sewing machine I've had for over half my life. It was a Bernina model from the 50s or 60s, which I inherited when I moved into the flat of some friends. Back then I had been traumatised about using a sewing machine by our domestic science teacher, who regularly made pupils cry. Whatever day of the week we had needlework, I had a migraine that evening!

My then boyfriend, luckily, hadn't been similarly traumatised, knew how to use a machine, and taught me. And until I got my lovely new machine, as a Christmas present from my current partner, everything I've ever sewn was made on my old Bernina. It was quite limited; despite knobs to the contrary, it could only sew forwards in a straight line. It weighed a ton too. But how many things do you own for half your life?

There I was, embroidering in the V&A...

At the weekend I went to the Power of Making exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. You've got plenty of time to see it: it finishes on January 2 2012.
Guest curator Daniel Charny defines the urge to make things like this: "For many people, making is critical for survival. For others, it is a chosen vocation: a way of thinking, inventing and innovating. And for some it is simply a delight to be able to shape a material and say ‘I made that’. The power of making is that it fulfils each of these human needs and desires."
The last one does it for me: the simple act of creating something that didn't exist before.

Exhibits include a gorilla hand-twisted from wire coat-hangers, a crocheted bear (life size) and a ceramic eye patch - lots of fascinating things to gaze upon...

Ele Carpenter was hosting an Embroidered Digital Commons workshop. She's two-thirds of the way through this project - a year to go! The project's aim is to 'stitch a concise lexicon of/for the digital commons. The term being embroidered, in short phrases, at the V&A was 'vector'. As Ele explains: "The term 'Vector' seems appropriate for an exhibition where the vectors of objects and ideas connect and touch, porting through different sites and zones."
I took over a hoop with the last phrase of the paragraph, which had been written on the fabric by a young boy earlier. He'd only managed to stitch the first two words, so I finished it off for him. Quite a surreal experience, feeling like a museum exhibit myself, as visitors paused to watch us at work. It was a bit of a rush job towards the end...

Nice Iceland

One of the (many, many) wonderful things about Iceland is the attitude to traditional crafts like knitting (ordinary people going about their ordinary everyday business wearing the traditional Icelandic jumper, or lopapeysa), and sewing: check this pic of a woman embroidering on the 5,000-kronur note

I also saw a couple of examples of yarn art in Reykjavik (and if anyone speaks Icelandic or knows what they mean, I'd be grateful for a translation/explanation)



If you fancy knitting your own lopapeysa, you can find free patterns at the Nordic Store. And if you're off to Iceland, one of the best places to buy one is the Handknitting Association of Iceland, with a shop in the street Skólavörðustígur in Reykjavik ("scowl-a-fore-thust-ee-goor"). There are lots of other funky shops selling handmade stuff on this street, and in Laugavegur round the corner

Baking and taking cake

On Friday I'm finally making it to an outdoor film screening. As well as an unfeasibly large pile of warm clothes, I'm baking and taking a blackberry crumble cake to enjoy with my oldest friend and her daughters. Like many of my baking sessions, this will involve going a bit freestyle. Although I haven't been making cakes for very long, I'm confident enough in my cooking to alter recipes to suit me.
The recipe I used is based on one from Hedgewizard's diary blog. I think I've made it before with apples as described, but now it's customised. Now I just have to avoid eating it before Friday...

How to make elderflower champagne - free fizz!

If you like elderflower cordial, you'll love elderflower 'champagne'. What's not to love: it's (almost) free fizz - and I'm a big fizz fan.

How to make elderflower champagne 
Pick five or six elderflower heads, preferably on a sunny day. Choose elder trees that aren't on a busy road, and avoid flowers lower down that may be contaminated by the urine of dogs, foxes, or even humans... Pick off any insects etc before using. Don't run the flowers under the tap or you'll wash the natural yeasts off.
Pour 20 litres of cold water into a plastic bucket of at least 25 litres capacity. Stir in 1kg of ordinary sugar until dissolved. Drop in the flower heads and stir to submerge. Add the zest and juice of two lemons and 4tbsp white wine vinegar. Stir to mix, then lay a clean teatowel over the bucket and leave for 24 hrs, stirring occasionally.
After 24 hours, pour the liquid through a sieve to remove the detritus, then pour though a funnel into a collection of two-litre plastic bottles (bought for 17p each, full of water, from a well-known supermarket). Leave the bottles for at least two weeks. They'll become more rigid as the fermenting causes carbon dioxide to build up, and you can unscrew the top a little (carefully!) to release some of the pressure.
After two weeks you can drink it, and it'll be around 3% alcohol, depending on how your fermentation went. It slips down very easily, and is particularly delicious with gin - probably best not to drive to be on the safe side...

Stone love

I take after my dad in that I love to interfere with the natural positions of stones, piling them up, standing them on end, balancing them on top of each other, or other items.
I'd love to call it 'land art' but I think that might be a little grand for my efforts.
I'm a big fan of Andy Goldsworthy, and I like the idea that you're changing the landscape for someone else to discover.

Left: stone circle by the river near Machynlleth, Wales. We stayed in a yurt here and it was a magical trip: close to nature, mindblowing reiki and peace and quiet.

Stone circle of a different kind on the beach in Southwold, Suffolk. Mr MI! was fishing and I amused myself. (I like to go fishing but not that day.)

Stone and wood combined on the beach in Rhodes, Greece. From this angle, it resembled a woman looking out to sea

Customise a T-shirt: ribbon collar and cuffs

I'll come clean: I love ribbon. I hoard it. I spend lunchtimes gazingat it in VV Rouleaux, Liberty and MacCulloch & Wallis. And now and then, I actually make something with it. I took a basic navy V-neck T-shirt from Uniqlo, and sewed on some toning striped ribbon from Jane Means around the cuffs and the collar. I started sewing on the ribbon at work, carried on with it on the train home, and finished it off at home. The T-shirt has been uplifted into a whole new fashion class and best of all, it's unique.