the fourth corner and a new year

In Scotland the first and truest spring-clean takes place in December, when it is incumbent upon us all to get the dirt of the old year out of our houses before welcoming the new year in. Now I am genetically deficient in housekeeping instincts and for most of the year live in an absolute guddle, but in the week after Christmas I just can’t stop myself from Throwing Things Out. There is nothing quite as satisfying as getting to the bottom of twelve months’ worth of accumulated domestic detritus, especially when you get to switch on the shredder and pulp that redundant paper mountain. I am pleased to report that by the time the bells rang at midnight there was not so much as a postage stamp out of place chez Booker.

Which means I am — for a few minutes at least — unashamed to introduce the fourth (north-east) corner of my studio:

It was never intended as a storage corner, but has lately risen to the challenge with the help of Homebase and IKEA. I have been delighted to notice that when other weavers post pictures of their workspace they often have the very same plastic bucket storage facility courtesy of our Swedish friends. I really must get some labels for mine: they are fairly well organised individually — one for pastels, paints and crayons, one for coloured paper and card and so on — but I can never remember which one is where and it generally takes me two or three attempts to locate the one I am looking for. Practice, in this case, makes no difference at all. There is a little bit of yarn here too, mainly skeins of silk and hemp, although this is more of a Blue Peter corner, dedicated to sketchbooks and collage a.k.a. “design” (but sadly no sticky-back plastic).

The wicker basket in the foreground is a new addition as of yesterday. Rudely evicted from its former home inside the dresser, it is now residing in a place where it Cannot Be Ignored. Or that is the intention. It is home to all sorts of things that have never quite achieved their destiny, but I am determined that in this new year I will move some of them closer to fulfilment. Either that or they will get very dusty and I will have to put them back in the dresser for 2009…

I am guilty of shirking the smallest tasks. This bag, for instance,

which I made for the beach from some handwoven cloth and a bit of denim. It is a lovely big bag which I did use quite a bit but then I yanked at it and a button came off. I could just have sewn the button back on, right? The trouble is that I feel guilty for having skimped on the original project by not lining it (see in the top corner there?) and I’ve been putting off the button repair until I deal with the lining.

Incidentally, this was an experiment in shadow weave which didn’t work, but I love the result. I had made a shadow weave scarf in purples and black, loved the undulating threading (from A weaver’s book of 8-shaft patterns) and thought I would try it again in subtle shades of blue. Far too subtle for the shadow weave, as it turned out. Instead I used a thick cotton weft and treadled these arches. The warp of the fabric runs around the bag, the weft up and down.  The gorgeous blue buttons were purchased at Woolfest but I am afraid I can’t remember who was selling them.

Back to the basket, which also contains these bookmarks:

which only need to be washed, pressed and cut apart. How hard is that, really?

There are all sorts of things in there, which is a sad reflection on my ability to finish the things I start. And now I have my shibori samples too:

but at least they are relatively new and are not to be consigned to the basket just yet. No, they will probably live in plain view on the table, at least until they are obscured by the rising tide of 2008’s creations. I can’t wait!