Ginger Knits UK

I was surprised to see that visitors to London's galleries and museums are down as the National Portrait Gallery (NPG), cited as having the largest drop in numbers, was busy when I visited earlier in the week. The busiest part was the Portrait Award exhibition and while the pieces were technically brilliant only a few grabbed my attention. People often get hung up on art, what should they like, what's the correct way to talk about it. I say ignore all that and look with an open mind. If something takes your fancy, great, if it doesn't, move on. Someone else will like it. If you can't make it to the NPG you can see all the entries online . Here are a couple I like. I'm not going to say anything about them. It's up to you what you think about them. If they intrigue you there's more info on the gallery website. Patchwork   by Paula Wilson  © Paula Wilson The New Religion   by Conor Walton  © Conor Walton It is disheartening to see visitor...

Last weekend friends came down from Gateshead for a weekend in London. It's great when people come and stay as we get to be tourists in our own city and visit things we haven't been to before. My sort of new years resolution this year is to see more of London, I've got in to a bit of a rut going to the same galleries and museums, which are great but it's good to try new things. I know South Bank pretty well but am not that familiar with what's east of London Bridge. Our friends had managed to get free tickets to the Design Museum so we started off there on Saturday morning. The Design Museum is very white and minimal and this white and minimalness was exacerbated by John Pawson exhibition which was on. Alex, Anitha and I are all quite messy so didn't really appreciate the clean white lines and interiors with no personalisation though Stewart is a neat freak and really enjoyed himself. There was a mock up of one of the monastery rooms Pawson had designed ( Cis...

A few weeks ago I went on a weaving course in the wildlife garden of the Natural History Museum in London. The weather was miserable but we were nice and cosy in a shed at the back of the garden, with tea and biscuits and wildlife outside the window (a cheeky robin and an even cheekier squirrel). The course was run by Caroline Ware who is the wildlife garden manager. We began with an overview of dyeing with natural dyes, including the effects different mordants achieve. While my garden is too small to grow woad and other dye plants I do use onions all the time as was taken with the warm brown colour the skins produce. Caroline also talked about sheep breeds and the different types of fleece they produce and had a few samples for us to fondle, some of which we would be using later. We then set up the peg loom which is one of those things which is straightforward when you know how. We used undyed fleece as well as fleece dyed with natural dyes to make chair covers. I had a go at carding...