Vintage at Goodwood

We went to the Vintage at Goodwood festival last friday. Unfortunately it rained, a lot, so there was lots of sheltering and drying out with intermittent browsing and bopping. Luckily for us we knew the guys at the Silver Rocketeer Cocktail Lounge, newly refurbished and looking classy and chilled. The rain and poor light meant that I didn't get many usable pics, and I'm gutted that I can't show you the Rocketeer's shiny Spartan Mansion.

The festival had a very relaxed party atmosphere, loads of vintage vehicles on show (including a few Airstreams), an auction on the Sunday, vintage clothing and furniture stores, performance tents and stages. Friday had a reggae flavour on the Soul Stage. I enjoyed a bop to The Beat and later to The Wailers, great bands and a really happy crowd.

Hopefully this was the first of a new annual festival, but with better weather. Who would have thought The Buzzcocks would ever be considered vintage? I guess nostalgia can take hold of any of us!

Eyes Open

During a day of chores and errands the supermarket car park presented this jewel. Some days it's a relief to realise my eyes are open and to catch a little bit of natural sparkle on a rainy day.


I never find the right bag. I assume there is one bag for every day, but I'm wrong. Sometimes I just need a little bag that will simply hold my point-and-shoot camera and the car keys, for those times when we hop out of the car to check out a bit of neolithic resilience, or the sun on the hay bales, or a rainy leaf! So I'm making one. I'm trying to make it quite tight and supportive, so I'm using cotton and double crochet (in English terms that is). The work feels a bit stiff, it doesn't glide like wool so I'm not really getting into a satisfying rhythm. And I'm making it up as I go along. How tricky can it be?


Getting up early has its rewards. Our Airstream is parked in a lovely wooded site this week. So we get dripped on long after the rain has stopped, sunlight is dappled, and there are acorns. Doesn't it already feel like summer is winding down? Or is it just here in the woods?

It's A Knitted Slug!

I had a go at knitted Amigurumi for the first time. There's a lot of it out there on the crafting websites and I didn't really get it until now. Wiki says it is the "art" of crocheted or knitted stuffed toys, typically animals and "inanimate objects endowed with anthropomorphic features". Now that's what's been missing from my knitting projects. And naturally it originates in Japan.

I've seen lots of funny little crocheted animals, some more recognisable than others, and then there's the craze for knitted cup cakes. All very clever but I couldn't really see the point. It was all a bit too pretty and cute for me.

And then I found a pattern for a knitted slug! Now that's more like it. Find this and other bugs and pesky creatures at cheezombie on Etsy.

I had to concentrate. It's not a project for doing on autopilot whilst watching an episode of Wallander in Swedish. It was so much fun. I learned new shaping techniques. This one was one of cheezombie's flat-knit patterns, most are on circular needles.


What next? I like the idea of a family of slugs, and their gnat pattern is ugly-cute. Or what about Eddie Lizzard? Or the Lobstah?