Retro Flamingo Fabric

Barkcloth Hawaii Fabrics

On the UKAirstreamers forum a member has posted photographs of their newly-finished interior. Coveting their fabric led me to a bit of a surf and I ended up on the lusciously retro  Barkcloth Hawaii website. This flamingo print just ticks every box for cool vintage trailer style. It's got the ubiquitous flamingo and just enough of those squiggly and starbursty motifs to give the look without being overly kitsch. Although it does come in a range of colours, so if this is too timid, you could go for a pink or turquoise background.

Enticement

We drove to Malvern for a walk up a big hill. It rained, so we had some tea and cake and a heart-racing look around the delicious Knitting Parlour. There was a warm glow within as we ooh-ed and aah-ed at the window. Inside it smelt of new wool and wood. They had quality yarns in irresistible colours. There were some crazy textured yarns too, like the giant one that you knit with your forearms instead of needles.

Pete bought this soft as angels' breath alpaca-cotton blend. I exercised restraint. Well... I have to use up a lot more of my stash before I can get carried away again. It's not easy though, when your senses are being gently teased like that. But they have a website here if it turns out I neeeeeed more yarn.

Smile

Today's colour is grey. It is raining, the distant Cumbrian fells are completely obscured by clouds, so our view is dominated by electricity pylons and traffic on a busy 'A' road. To cheer myself up I am wearing this button. I bought it yesterday in a wonderful shop in Ambleside, filled with colourful quirkiness and called Detail.

Shopping For The Crafty Nomad

As we move around I am getting used to finding my craft supplies in a variety of places, from gorgeous little independent shops and old fashioned and fusty little places, to haberdashery departments in well-known stores and monster-sized craft warehouses.

Ideally I love to go to the little, characterful shops first. Everyone knows that our high streets are at risk of becoming identically dull, lined with the same old chains. I can confirm this, having scoured many of the nation's high streets in two and a half years of the nomadic lifestyle. Many of them are functional at best, a boring waste of time and shoe leather at worst. So we need to frequent and support the independent and the individual when we find it.

On the other hand, I can get excited by the seemingly endless choice in a large store. I'm the same with bookshops. Sometimes I know exactly what I want and I know a small bookstore will do everything in their power to get it for me. On other occasions I have stumbled across something delightful and unexpected whilst moseying around a large temple to all things bookish.

But variety is key. We used to live in a town in the Lake District. There were about twenty shops selling walking gear and waterproofs but there was no haberdashers, and we had to drive forty miles to buy new underwear. And when we got there, we were in Carlisle, or The Pit Of Despair, as I tend to call it. One of our first stops on our Airstreaming odyssey was Bath. What a contrast. I thought I'd transcended this mortal plane and been reborn in a more heavenly realm.

Luscious Temptation

We found a lovely fabric shop in Cambridge, Cally Co. It reminded me of a cake shop, filled with luscious temptation.

Occasionally, but not often enough on our travels, we come across a french-style patisserie which will have confections of the lightest, aerated meringue and macaroon. Have you seen those pink and pistachio macaroons? I always have to have one, not only because they are divinely light but chewy and a bit gooey in the middle. I have to have one because that type of frivolously colourful and pointless confectionery is such a rarity that it might just be my last chance to indulge in that way for a very long time. Scones and fruit cake have their place, but so do mille feuille and macaroons.

So, back to the scrummy Cally Co, I found it just as delicious as a posh cake shop. You know when you want to touch everything? We bought some polka dot, dove grey PVC to use as an outdoor table cloth. We have been looking out for just the right one. Some are too dull, some are too madly patterned. Dove grey seems just right with our silver table and grey chairs.

We also had a jolly chat with the two lovely women in the shop. When we described our nomadic living arrangements I knew I wouldn't need to explain what an Airstream is, and I was right. I'm going to try to go back to that yummy shop before we leave the area. There must be something else I need.

The Accidental Collector

I used to think that the world was divided into collectors and non-collectors. I also thought that I was part of the latter group. I was wrong.

I didn't wake up one day to find myself fascinated by stamps or Lord of the Rings miniatures but I do now have a stash. This is a legal kind of stash. It includes wool in as many colours as I can find, and lately a selection of buttons has been growing in a box of many compartments. And when you live in an Airstream the size of the stash soon reaches its limit. Some clothes had to go.


Most of these things are there just in case, just in case a future project demands them.

I was once the same way with stationery. I loved a good stationery shop. When I lived in London I could be tempted into an irresistible one in the Leicester Square area. It was like walking into a dream-like sweet shop. Everything was arranged in colours: gorgeous, edible, tropical fruit colours. It was impossible to browse and leave without purchasing at least a gel pen in bright orange, or some handmade cards to have 'just in case'.


Bead shops and wool shops can enchant me equally. I'm like a magpie, stimulated by colour as well as sparkles. Time and currency can melt away in these places.

Recently we relinquished quantities of both in the amazing Mandy Wools in Wells in Somerset. This shop fits the 'Alladin's cave' cliche very snuggly. They have all kinds of yarns, in all the colours. I like a shop you can get lost in.