The Simple Things Magazine- I've been published!

How terribly exciting. Issue 14 of The Simple Things magazine is out at the moment and if you turn to pages 50-53 you'll see an article wot I wrote. It's nothing about textiles, wool or London (for a change) but is all about fruit. Bet you weren't expecting that, were you?

Get your magnifying glass out. In the bottom left hand corner is my name... in print!

Karim Habibi of Keepers Nursery in Kent was the willing interviewee and keen exponent of traditional British orchard fruit varieties. And all those stunning photos of quinces, medlars and obscure yet delicious apple varieties?

So much fruit. So many ways to cook and eat them. Just where to begin?

Nope. Not mine. Pfffff! I'm just not that good (yet). They're all Karim's and it's fantastic that they're out there for all the world - well, the 50,000-odd readers of The Simple Things and 30-odd followers of TWIHM - to see.

I must admit as fun as this blogging malarky is, what with the immediacy of instant publication into the blogosphere and the creative flexibility the medium affords...

... it's totally and utterly thrilling to see one's work in print.

Hard copy.

All 1,400 words of it.

Just waiting for some researcher of the future to stumble across and interpolate through some sort of bonkers postmodernist / psychoanalytical / semiotic (delete where applicable) framework.

And after last year's 2 sentence effort it's reassuring to know that I've contributed just a tiny bit more to that awesome collection in the British Library.

Time for another Morris Dance of delight with a medlar tart to follow. Huzzah!

(Image: The Simple Things & Zoë F. Willis)

Baby Hat

A small baby hat. A lot of dedications.

I think it's time for a small, knitted baby hat.

I know there are one or two of these lurking about the internet but to my mind there aren't enough. So here's another one.

This is also a very special baby hat. Aside from the fact it's made of lovely, soft (and machine washable. Such an important consideration for all mothers) merino wool and has a bow on top, it's almost weighed down with dedications.

Can you dedicate a bit of knittery to people or events? I say, why on earth not. The world is littered with statues and blue plaques dedicated to marvellous and great individuals. And then there's The Mamas and The Papas' song of course.

Thus let there be dedicatory knittery.

In this instance, there are three dedications:

1. To the baby in question, by now a newish arrival in the world with personality, opinions and ready, always ready, for cuddles.

"But what of the fact," I hear you cry, "that 'tis AUGUST. High summer. What possible need could an infant have of woolly milinery at this time of year? You'll do the child damage with all that insulation"

To which I respond; "Jolly good thing it's an antipodean baby. It's bloomin' freezing in the Southern Hemisphere at the moment. Huzzah for insulation!".

2. To the baby's mother who is awesomeness and strength personified. The woolly-hatted bairn is blessed to have this particular mummy.

3. To mothers in general. We should launch a campaign to dedicate all the hand-made knittery in all the world to mothers. Most of the time we're too busy chasing after, caring for and loving our progeny, ensuring they'll turn out to be respectable and decent members of our society, to blow our own trumpets of fabulousness. 

Said progeny are too busy being children - fair enough. It's an exciting world to discover - to regularly blow a trumpet for our fabulousness.

And the rest of the humanity is too busy doing rest-of-humanity stuff to dwell on how fantastic we are, never mind finding a trumpet of fabulousness much less blowing it for us.

Therefore this small, knitted baby hat is a start. The small, knitted baby hat of fabulousness for an antipodean baby, her wonderful mother and mothers everywhere.

It's better than a trumpet anyway. It's cute, quiet and machine washable.

(Image: Zoë F. Willis)

London Perfect - Just where have I been of late?

Apologies, people. I've been super busy with writing... a couple of printed article thingies but mostly writing of the London, travel variety rather than the crafty stuff. If you've missed my dubious similes, ambitious tetracolons, tentative flirtations with zeugma and a startling use of a vernacular more associated with a Girls' Own Annual circa 1926 than a blogger in 2013 then you'd best start reading the London Perfect Blog more regularly.

http://www.londonperfect.com/blog/

My most recent post was about Royal Ascot and hats. And there are lots of pretty pictures. What's not to enjoy? If you like jewellery I managed to wangle an interview with an up and coming designer called Ciara Bowles and my colleague Laura of Ciao Amalfi! got a ceramicist - Linda Bloomfield - to join the party. 

Some of the striking earrings and jewellery of Ciara Bowles

I suppose the output of these two count as 'design' rather than 'craft' but hey ho, do enjoy reading about them. Maybe there's some inspiration in there for future projects. At the very least the pictures are totally Pinable.

In the meantime I promise future posts on TWHIM about exciting things like When Amigurumi goes Wrong and Cabling: A Bobbleless Bobble Hat Three Years in the Making. But for now, if you just don't fancy any London-based witterings and NEED craftiness then have a look at this marvellous knitting video.

It's from Susan Crowe's hilarious Damn, Knit and Blast It blog (one of my favourites) and the film is just charming.

Oh, how I wish I could knit whilst talking rather than going cross eyed and sticking my tongue out in manic concentration when doing anything more complex than knit, purl, knit, purl...

(Images: Nathan Parton, Ciara Bowles)
(Video: via Damn, Knit and Blast It)