Holidays, exhibitions, hats and knitting!

me at the top of snowdon!

The last week or so has been pretty hectic/awesome! I went away for a few days which was fun, I climbed Snowdon which was rather exciting (then later that following evening a storm came and destroyed our tent leaving us in well, a puddle and with very little sleep!) the tent business cut our trip shorter than expected as we were meant to be going on to Devon to meet some friends - I ended up spending most of the following days curled up sleeping!

photo by the wonderful camilla

photo by the wonderful camilla

Camillas amazing art raffle is up and running from now until September 11th! Want a chance to win one of my embroideries? all the details can be found here! and a shot of all the donations - here!

The knitting machine is up and running which is quite exciting.

I've started working on a new cardigan - it's a bit of an experiment as it's my own pattern. (it is actually much wider it's just curled in itself here!)

I'm still working on the hat project. This is a plain knit hat that isn't going to have any fixed panels. The inspiration was this so I believe when I had it over it's gonna have some headline-esque addition. It's a bit of a work in progress still deliberating if it needs a bigger brim/wire etc. I don't think I mentioned it before but the hats are for Martine Rose who makes wonderful menswear - particularly shirts. It's been exciting as I've been up to her studio a few times and caught a glimpse of her upcoming collection - wonderful!

brim down!

brim up!

I also started my new job this week! I now have a full-time day job! I'm still unsure as to how it's going to effect my creative practise but only time will tell! I've managed to come home and knit 2 evenings in a row now though which is a good start (and yesterday I even went out picking berries) I'm really excited about the job though - I'm a graduate trainee teacher - I'm working in a sixth form college full-time and they are also training me part-time! I'm going to be teaching in textiles and also, applied arts. It feels like the start of something good!

Things I'm currently enjoying:
- Emily Barletta's new embroideries
- belle and boo tape (I wish I had a use for beautiful tape)
- This jumper
- This video (watch it! watch it!)
- This interview (written by a friend of mine!)

amazing charity shop finds...

Me and Matt wandered around Dorking yesterday and I made some fantastic finds in the charity shop, a knitting machine and a whole load of old patterns and I even got change from my tenner! The knitting machine is fairly basic but it appears to have all it's parts and rather helpfully still has the original instruction booklet. Todays task:make it work!

cardigans, hats, etc

I finished my cardigan! This is probably the biggest (well except the giant plane) thing I've knitted. Maybe biggest is the wrong word. Anyway I found great satisfaction in knitting a functional item - it was really nice to be able to put it on and think wow! I made it! I think I've fallen in love with the idea of knitting all my own cardigans.

Ah! A little flashback to my embroideries! My dear friend and partner in crime, Camilla is embarking on a whole new adventure, in which will shall move even more geographically apart! In order to help raise some funds for this new adventure Camilla is going to be holding an art raffle - I've donated these two pieces. There's lots of other wonderful people donating too and all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is get yourself a raffle ticket! Keep on eye on Camilla's blog for more details! EDIT: the facebook page for the raffle

(left) uterus in green with beaded details, (right) clitoris in green with metallic threads

I'm currently pretty excited as I've just gotten involved with a new project. It is fashion based and if all goes well they may actually be on the catwalk for LFW which is pretty crazy. Anyway this is literally my first steps towards the designs. For inspiration I was given a reference image and this image included a beer can hat. I had never come across them before! Anyway this is my first attempt at one. I've used some cardboard (this isn't what will be used) but just to get an idea of shape. I've knitted a brim rather than crochet as I want to combine a bit of knitting really as it's my own preference when making! I'm really enjoying how it's going so far...

Please excuse this photo including me but I had to show the crazy height of the hat which I don't think is really that apparent in the previous shot. That said it was a bit of accident and probably something that I will be adjusting. I think a more prominent brim may be in order also.

I was a bit nervous about mentioning this on here but it is what I'm going to be doing for the next couple of weeks so I probably won't have too much else to be thinking about!

Things I'm currently enjoying:
- Cathy Cullis' acorns
- Drawings by Lisa Grue
- This video - it's got fabrications in it!
- new work by Julia Pott (aw! the houses!)
- the colour of this yarn by ms gusset

drink, shop, do!

my planes at the christmas cooler back in december

Well, it may look a little different as Kristie&Coralie have revamped the drink, shop & do and rather excitingly they invited my planes, owls and ducks to grace the walls once again. I'm not sure how they are to be displayed but I'm looking forward to seeing them as I loved the way the displayed them back in December with them flying down the wall! They officially open their doors tonight at 6pm so if your in the London area, more specifically, Kings Cross - do pop in! The front part of the shop looks just like the stripes on the website - it looks fantastic!

I will not be going to the opening as I'm going camping again... this is a little bit of a pattern for me when it's summer and I have little else to do! I went out on my bike today hampton court-weybridge it was lovely! Enjoying my last few weeks before starting work! (and trying to squeeze as much fun, friends, knitting and drawing in as possible!)

Things I'm currently enjoying:
-poppytalk's back to school 2010 lookbook
- especially bag's by scabby robot
- you should go to this tate late if your free tomorrow, because I can't
- this exhibtion at the fashion&textile museum was amazing
- vampire weekend
- that I'm about to leave to have dinner with some friends this evening

one day

I'm back from camping! the weather didn't hold out for that long, and I had to come back for my very last day working at the picture framers/the farnborough airshow. I can't believe that in less than a month I'll be starting my new job I feel like days like today will be few and far between when that comes about...

putting together photos to send off for things, I was also fixing the backs of a few pieces that are going to be on display in London soon.

Finally sewing up some socks I knitted


Then being inspired to start making some plans in my sketchbook for some knitted items, I'm hoping to start these soon and have a few pieces for a craft show I'm doing in November

Going for a swim with matthew (it's the school holidays now so he's off, yay!) then going to feed the ducks


Having my nails done, not that I have this done, well ever. My sister is a hairdresser and recently she's done some beauty based training and needed a test bunny for gel nails. Apparently they will last for 3 weeks and won't chip. I'm not really a fan of you know, painting my nails but I guess non chipping is good? fun times!

An old knitting pattern I found at my nans, hopefully I'll look just as stylish...

as this is what I'm doing this evening, more knitting! (I did some of this, this morning too!) Just what's left of this sleeve and I shall have a cardigan! Yay!

Also I changed my blog so it's hosted on my domain so now when you head over to www.claireplatt.com you'll come right back here! Hope it's all still working for followers etc!

Things I'm currently enjoying:
-no doubt writing new music
-the outdoor swimming society
- this pillow - cute!
- that I'm going to this exhibition and this one tomorrow

be back soon...

me in croatia + more pictures from random trips

I'm off camping for an unknown number of days (weather permitting mostly), although probably not so many as to warrant washing a backpack worth of clothes as above! This was after about 3 weeks of backpacking round europe, when we got to croatia and camped in someones garden.... have a nice week all!

little houses

This morning I decided to start sketching some new ideas. I've been photographing different houses for a while now,a new interest I guess. I'm excited my idea (there's a tiny terrible sketch in the top right of one of the drawings above) is to kind of combine houses/planes. Perhaps the houses will be a little more functional though, 3d maybe, could have a double use as doorstops or something along those lines. I feel as though I'm getting somewhere with all the thoughts in my head suddenly. I think it was the combination of new designers/the shows I went to see/ getting away for a few days. Lots of fresh inspiration and a push I guess to start working on things! I really loved drawing this morning though, it felt really good.

Things I'm currently enjoying:
-using you tube to get an ideas about how to make rugs
- porcelain artwork by ashleyg
- anna haworths photos of aircraft
- this song
- this video of a p-38 at an airshow in May! Awesome!
- the fact my sister just arrived to cut my hair! woo!