Airstreams Inspire

'Palm Springs Airstream' by Leah Giberson

One of my favourite shops on Etsy is Leah Giberson's. Many of her paintings are of Airstreams and other cool trailers, as well as iconic houses and objects. Her style, which saturates the image with colour while pairing back extraneous detail, is really suited to her trailer, suburban and urban structures, and pool-side subjects. In this one she has captured the sunlight so well, you almost need to squint to look at it. On her website she describes her subjects as ordinary. I find them anything but. I love urban and suburban images. We have known for some time that we will not be returning to live in the city, but urban landscapes are as much a part of my experience and inspiration as any pastoral scene.

Swoony Loveliness Overload

'covered stool with hezlein' from whereyourheartis on Flickr

Is that just the right amount of heart-meltyness? Try not to stroke the screen. My new crush on granny square blankets has led me to this pic. Loads more inspiration and ingrained obsessiveness can be found on F*ck Yeah Granny Square. So far my squares are coming out quite loud so I was thinking of contrasting that with some pale neutral shades such as a light stone or dove grey. It should work, especially with our aluminium walls here in the Airstream.  Some similar ideas can be seen on this page on Apartment Therapy.

On My Radio

vintage 70s transistor radio from Wayside Flower on Etsy

A recent trip to the supermarket was transformed when the music on my radio was of an unexpectedly top quality. The husky welsh tones of Cerys Matthews, standing in on Radio 2, introduced this outrageously good selection: a 13 year old Michael Jackson singing the Bill Withers song - Ain't No Sunshine, James Blake covering Joni Mitchel's - A Case of You, and The Rolling Stones' inimitable - Gimme Sunshine.

This is music to make you feel something, to make you swoon. Cerys also usually has her own show on BBC Radio 6 Music. My life has been considerably enhanced since I realised I could listen to digital radio through our television. Instead of being spoon-fed somnambulising mush I can start the day with Shaun Keaveny who respects his listeners enough to treat them to Public Image Limited, Radiohead, Stevie Wonder (and I don't mean Ebony and Ivory). He chats clumsily about the universe with Professor Brian Cox most Fridays, and finishes the week with a poem written and performed by stand-up satirist, Murray Lachlan Young. You won't get any X-Lobotomy-Factor porridge here. Instead of anaesthetising the nation, 6 Music stirs and awakens.

Commenting on a trivial news item about the changing of rules on the wearing of fascintators at Ascot this year, Shaun's take was that a fascinator isn't really a hat, "... more like an emerging idea, or a mood." Profound genius, and all during breakfast.

Soothing

Is there anything better than strolling along a sandy beach at the water's edge on a sweltering day? It soothes the soul, and allows the brain to have a word with itself. I indulged in that sensation when we stopped on the Belgian coast before heading back to dear old Blighty. We were so dedicated to tracing the British coastline during our first two years in the Airstream, so I'm flummoxed that we have rarely dipped or paddled since.

Highlight of our first trip across the pond with the Airstream? Making lovely new friends, by far. We were overwhelmed by the hospitality of Dutch Airstreamers, Axel and Annieta, who let us stay in their 'yard' for so long that I virtually lost track of time. In fact, we met a lot of really friendly people while we were away. And spending time in Drenthe was incredibly pleasant. I think the far away horizon has a profoundly settling effect on my state of mind.

Where are we now? Not telling; we're lying low and prepping for Rockhill Rendezvous, the next UKAirstreamers' Gathering which is only three weeks away! But we are 'back home', and it's raining.

Inspiring Travel Writing

I have done a fair bit of reading during the summer so far, but the most inspiring by far has been this little Penguin travel book, part of their Great Journeys series. Adventures in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird is a collection of letters by the adventurous traveller to her sister. But this is letter writing which I am convinced is no longer practised. Her letters read like prose, and her descriptions are beautifully evocative.

In 1873 Isabella Bird travelled alone to Colorado, encountering rough and wild characters, grizzly bears and stunning, but often inhospitable landscapes.

She is told, "There's nothing Western folk admire so much as pluck in a woman..." and she is shown respect by the most lawless of settlers. Plus, she knitted! "- my usual resource under discouraging circumstances."

Little Tin Hut Shop

My Little Tin Hut online shop is open and ready to welcome curious visitors, and those in need of some essential frivolity. Let's face it, who isn't? Click here to go directly to the shop.

So far there is a collection of my Sock Critters, each with their quirks of character and all in need of good homes. Tea cosies will be added soon, and other little projects that I'm working on at the moment. All made and photographed in, and dispatched from an Airstream! Brilliant!

The shop is located on Etsy, which most crafty people will know about. For those who don't, it is a venue for all things handmade and vintage. The variety of artists and crafters is astounding, the quality is high and they are based all around the world. I find it inspiring just browsing the other shops. And even though I only started to list my items on Tuesday and Wednesday, I've already been receiving lovely messages of encouragement from other sellers, and had individual Sock Critters and my shop added to people's 'Favorites' (American spelling since it's an American site, all you pedants!). It's quite overwhelming. I don't know what I expected really. Now I need to dive in and find out how to interact with the Etsy community.

There was lots of helpful advice on Etsy about setting up a shop, as well as blog posts from other sellers. Even though I'm just little ol' me making stuff in an Airstream, I looked around a load of shops where I thought people were doing some really good quality work, or fun and quirky, and where they were presenting themselves very attractively and effectively and tried, with my limited facilities, to emulate what I thought was working well.

Naturally I've had lots of help and advice with the computery stuff from my technical support team of one, Pete. Taught me everything I know (about computers anyway).

Watch this space for updates and news of new additions to the Little Tin Hut, as well as more random bloggy ramblings.

Sunlight and Sweet Melancholy

As I write we are being pelted with windswept tree branches. Nothing too big thankfully, more like large twigs. Sandwiched between a succession of grey and windy days there was a sunny one. I was ready with the tripod and a roll of white wallpaper and my trusty and versatile Canon Ixus. Oh, and a piece of string to suspend the paper from the paper towel-holder. My mission: To photograph my sock creatures.

The sun shone obligingly onto the extending kitchen worktop, but it does move around and sink low very quickly. So the clock (if I had one) was ticking. Sock monsters are not very co-operative either. I had to scour the trailer for discreet objects that could hide behind the critters and hold them up, things like small paint pots and paperclips.

Normally, while I potter I am more than content with having Huey Morgan in the background and his 'if it's cool he'll play it' style radio show on BBC Radio 6 Music. But while I got absorbed in my task I felt I needed an album to unfold around me. I downloaded Nina Nastasia's 2010 release, Outlaster.

I played it all the way through, and then immediately had to play the whole album again. I knew this wasn't really going to be background music since I have often been sucked into her second album, The Blackened Air, and wallowed in its delicate darkness. Outlaster is a more deliciously lush offering. There are moments where you find that you have simply stopped what you were doing and are listening, really listening. It is not just the unpretentious clarity of her voice, or the compelling lyrics. There is her gently meticulous guitar playing and the strings that swoop and scrape in raw, rough-edged, folky gusts.

Nina Nastasia's rare gift of a voice is an intimate, winged presence that is able to either freeze or melt your heart; that can powerfully soar and twist, or brush ultra-gently against you, suddenly summoning goose bumps. Mojo commented on its ability to "suck the air out of the room"
Fat Cat Records 

If you embrace melancholia and cheer in unsentimental equal measure then this might be your cup of tea, but listen alone, because if anyone talks over this music it would be hard to forgive.

Still Cosy After All These Years

This tea cosy inspired me to knit. Just look at it. Isn't it perfect? Clearly made from brightly-coloured scraps jumbled together, it is the word 'jolly' manifest in wool. It used to belong to Pete's grandmother and it brought a bit of crazy colour to our neutral-hued home for a few years before being put into storage at the beginning of our Airstream travels. We weren't going to have a teapot, taking up space and payload (weight allowance). Well that soon changed. Tea and coffee are important to me and they have to be made properly - brewed and infused rather than scalded and wrung out!

We recently had a bit of a sort through of our stored possessions and this little cosy came to light again. It has been brought aboard, even though I had just made a new one. A bit restrained in colour perhaps, but in keeping with the Airstream's interior.

My own grandmother showed me how to make cosies, carrying the yarn across the back and keeping the tension. She was a speed knitter. She used to make some dodgy things though, like ladies in crinoline dress toilet roll holders, and lacy tissue box covers. All of these unnecessary disguises would be in whatever garish wool she had stashed. Every time my parents redecorated the bathroom a new crinny lady would be produced, whereupon ( yes that is a real word, heathens) it would be hidden out of sight until she visited and it was ceremoniously placed on the toilet cistern, as if that was where it always lived. More grateful recipients were, hopefully, the charities to whom she donated her wares to raise money.

Anyway, I shall be making good use of one or other of these cosies today. Pete has gone to Wembley to see the NFL game and I will be indulging in a new knitting project, lots of tea and biccies and repeats of Sherlock Holmes and Poirot. More about the project later. I'll just say that it's a pair of hand warmers with a cable stitch. Hand warmers? Like gloves, but without fingers. I was assured by the enthusiastically helpful woman in the wool shop that there's nothing to a cable stitch, much less complicated than it looks. We shall see. Now, time for a brew.

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.

Still Hooked

The shawl is progressing, slowly. Although each row is one loop shorter than the previous one, I'm not feeling it yet. I am happy with the trellis stitch though.


The pattern is from Sirdar but I have substituted the shiny, synthetic yarn they recommend with a merino from Debbie Bliss. It has a little bit of stretchiness in it so I'm hoping I'm not going to end up with a massive, distorted, shapeless thing.

This might be a bit naff, but here goes anyway. While I was deciding what my next crochet project should be I saw Jennifer Aniston in some film or other and she was nonchalantly and stylishly sporting what looked like a crocheted shawl. It was open and light enough to be draped a couple of times around her slender neck. Consulting my copy of the Compendium of Crochet Techniques I guessed the stitch was trellis or similar. We can't always choose where we find inspiration, can we?

And why do I need a pattern for such a simple garment? Well I'm a novice and I needed the guidance for the shaping involved. It's all a learning process.