Poetic Perspective

A nice walk was had last week around a village called Hawkley. The church roof is very distinctive and looks slightly skewed, like an optical illusion. I forgot my camera, but found this picture on flickr. The owner, Luptonn, very kindly gave permission for me to borrow his photograph and post it here.

Each diamond shaped segment looks as if it's a completely different size to the next segment along, as if the panels don't actually belong on the same roof. You can't see the four individual quarters on this picture, but you can sense something slightly off balance about the architecture, and a lack of symmetry which compels you to keep looking up.

The time on the clock is somewhat ironic, as we discovered on our walk that there's a memorial to a WW1 poet (Edward Thomas) up above the valley. The path was too muddy to risk the detour so I had a look at some of his poems when we got home. This one was short, but poignant.

In Memoriam

The flowers left thick at nightfall in the wood
This Eastertide call into mind the men,
Now far from home, who, with their sweethearts, should
Have gathered them and will do never again.

Patternless Plankton

This is Sheldon Plankton, the evil and diminutive enemy of Mr Crabs. If you don't watch Spongebob Squarepants then shame on you.

There isn't a pattern for this as I made it up on the fly, and it kind of worked apart from the uneven antennae. The arms are missing because it was "claimed" before I had a chance to sew them on. Once the small one takes things as his own, it's very difficult to persuade him to let me finish them. Sheldon currently resides in the kitchen, inside a tagine. He's no doubt hatching some kind of devilish plot as I speak. Involving preserved lemons, I suspect.

If anyone is interested I'll try and remember what I did and write a pattern. The chances of this happening are low, however, as I can barely remember what I did yesterday, let alone a few months ago. It was worked in a chunky, seagreen aran mix that I found in the remnant basket of my local craft shop, and I probably used a 4.0mm hook.

Told you I was useless at remembering things.

Pooh Sticks

You take them all the way up the A34, show them the sights, drag them around the Ashmoleon to look at Egyptian Mummies (what small boy doesn't like Egyptian mummies?) but when it comes down to it, all your average 5 year old wants to do on a day out in Oxford is play Pooh Sticks with his friend.

More Circular Things

This time a nautilus. It's supposed to be a knitting pattern, but the thought of grappling with four double pointed needles was too horrific to consider for even a moment. Converting the original pattern to crochet was not difficult. Just do everything it says, but with a hook instead of the pointy things. It is working ok so far, but I worry about the face and tentacles which will have to appear at some point. However - it's quite definitely a shell, and it's coiled, and it looks like it's supposed to. I should stop at this point and leave it as an "unfinished project" to avoid future disappointment.

The original knitting pattern was featured in knitty.com and is by Beth Skwarecki. If you have a penchant for the pointy needled craft, then you can find the pattern here. One of my Ravelry friends found it. So thank you, Clare.

Fair Circular

We don't do the Court Circular down here. It's the Fair Season in rural Hants. There was a near decapitation during the welly throwing event, but it wasn't fatal and thus didn't merit the appearance of Inspector Barnaby. There were tractors, though, and boys do love their tractors.

One of the fearsome machines was named after the cat, which was a bonus.