The Domestic Soundscape

This weekend Mark and I set off to explore another 30-mile section of the Walk 2012 project, this time exploring various trails between Putney Bridge and Guildford. I am sure Mark will write in more detail about the route on his blog, but in the meantime I thought I’d share with you a selection of creatures (real, imaginery and metaphorical) that we spotted this weekend.

Horses – or evidence of horses; spotted near Putney Bridge, by Beverley Brook.

Laughing/Green woodpecker – this is my favourite bird as I absolutely love its giggly sound. Please forgive the detestably pixelated qualities of the digital zoom and the failure of the photograph to convey the woodpecker’s lovely, undulating flight path; it was very magical to see this bird on Richmond Common…

…where we also saw these fine Red Deer.

Much later on in the proceedings, Mark found a Feasel with its very own road-sign…

…and then we slept in a Holiday Inn, which was situated at the end of Felix Lane in Shepperton.

The next morning, striding out into the fresh sunshine and readying ourselves for a 16 mile or so tramp along the Thames and then the River Wey, we found a stern-looking Swan…

…and some sort of Goose-Yoga convention.

Beside the start of the Wey Navigations, I found a Bear with a map.

It is rumoured that a monkey accompanied us on our travels also…

…and we were greeted at lunchtime by a very friendly Badger, whose regal visage always occurs in the same place as good, Hall & Woodhouse Ales.

Joy of all joys, we spotted an enterprising Barn Owl out hunting early in the afternoon as we neared Guildford; Mark got a better picture of it than I did but you can just about make it out in this shot.

When we got home I found a lovely fox on Kate’s blog, and went in search of Liz’s post about the Barn Owl that I remembered. The title of Liz’s blog post is ‘Magical’ and that’s how it feels to see the real creatures we saw.

In my mind, even made-up-animals like feasels and bears become magical totems when you go on a journey; they make for good story-telling when you’re cold or your feet hurt, and they are a good reminder of all the living things that share the places where we go.

I have a *thing* for Meerkats. From bouncing on the sofa excitedly at any appearance by Aleksandr Orlov on the TV to insisting on watching every annoyingly-voice-overed episode of Meerkat Manor, I cannot get enough of these animals and their behaviour. I readily sought out and absorbed Tim Clutton-Brock‘s book on the subject of Meerkat studies, and loved David Attenborough’s observations on Meerkats in The Life of Mammals. Although I essentially love the creaturefulness of Meerkats, their animal-ness and existence in the wild, there is something about Meerkats that also makes us inclined to anthropomorphize their lives and activities, rather like we do with cats… or indeed in my case, sometimes Monkeys.

As well as loving Meerkats, I also have a *thing* for knitted characters and their online adventures. I thoroughly enjoyed, for instance, the Adventures of Elijah when Ysolda published the Elijah pattern and set up the contest on her blog. And who can forget the ridiculousness of my entry to Teeny Project Runway when Mason Dixon Knitting set that up? You are never too old to play.

A talented knitter who has picked up on our collective affection/daftness re: Meerkats, is Heather AKA Niftyknits who knits characterful Meerkats in all sorts of guises and costumes for her Etsy shop. Working fulltime as a maker, she often receives tweets and emails suggesting new Meerkat characters and requesting custom orders and is currently working on an EMO Meerkat, complete with nose-piercing, black hoodie, and floppy quiff.

Yesterday, I drove to Hailsham to the Old Loom Mill, to interview her about her amazing creations and to pick up the mascot that she has created for our forthcoming season on The Hub.

Here is Heather, with Meerkat, who is yet to be named. I’m still not sure yet whether or not the Meerkat is a boy or a girl!

The idea of a Meerkat Mascot for our show came about after the joys of Cyber Zombie during last season. Everyone so enjoyed the whole process of having a mascot and taking it on adventures, that we were keen to do it again this season. Somehow in one of our casual post-show conversations, the topic turned to Meerkats and then to the idea of having a knitted one this season… I started to look for information on knitted meerkats and found Heather’s site; the massive range of characterful creatures there was so inspiring that I emailed Heather and asked if she would sponsor our shoestring-budget production (none of us get paid to make The Hub) to the tune of one fine Meerkat and, very happily for Team Hub, she has!

THANK YOU SO MUCH from all at THE HUB…

Meerkat in the wool at the Old Loom Mill.

As with Cyber Zombie, the Meerkat will spend a week with each member of The Hub team, and we will all take it in turns to chronicle his/her adventures.

Luckily, I think the Meerkat likes tea.

We are snowed in like so many others across the UK right now, so the Meerkat is spending his first week with me. I suspect it will be a very knitterly week for us; we enjoyed exploring the Old Loom Mill together yesterday, in any case. And wool is an excellent insulator against the freezing cold!

Here is the Meerkat with a ball of walnut-dyed Shetland in shade ‘Meerkat’ that I passed on to Heather*.

When the Meerkat was on this piece of fabric I found myself wondering if it would be possible to make a felted burrow…

Many, many thanks to Heather and her husband for braving the cold and coming out to talk to me about the economics of knitting things, the joy of Meerkats and the generosity of the online crafting community! It was superb to meet you and I hope that you enjoy watching the adventures of this little Meerkat unfolding…

You can hear my interview with Heather on BBC Oxford on 95.2FM this coming Sunday evening; I’ll check the times with Scott as it doesn’t seem to be on the schedule page at the moment… If you don’t get BBC Oxford, it should be up on the iPlayer soon enough; check The Hub page for updates.

Some links:

The Meerkat and the Doormouse by The Guillemots

A beautiful post on playing and animals, by Soule Mama

*Yes, Meerkats and Feasels are the same colour in my knitting world…

I am not sure when Mark started calling me Feasel* or when I started calling Mark Bear, but time has consolidated the myth of Feasel & the Bear into several drawings, many little stories, and finally, a piece of knitwear.

Exhibit # 1 – a drawing by me

Exhibit # 2 – a drawing by Mark

Exhibit # 3 – an item of knitwear

This is Mark’s Christmas Present from this year – a Feasel & Bear hat – knit according to the excellent Turn a Square pattern by Jared Flood, and fully lined with what is essentially a second hat knit inside the first. Before I digress into my tiny niggles with this project (lining a little small, purl turning row tends to roll back in under itself etc.) let us swiftly move on to a discussion of the lovely brown shades in which it is knit.

The yarn is 100% shetland in DK weight, purchased from my trusty go-to source for UK yarns, Blacker Designs. Originally oatmeal in shade, various experiments in soaking times and dyeing with black walnuts produced these distinctly feaselish and bearlike shades.

I hope this photo shows off the lovely, chocolatey, semi-solid nature of the dark brown; I am so happy with this colour! The mid-brown shade was created by using the same dark brown dyebath, but by leaving the yarn in it for a much shorter time. The almost white colour is the natural, oatmealy colour of the shetland fleece from which this lovely wool originally came.

I would like to develop this colourwork a bit more; the walnuts are abundant enough that I could dye in large batches next year, and I would like to even out the motifs so my Bears are less ‘blocky’ and my Feasels more ‘prancing.’ In the meantime, I think Mark likes his Christmas present, and that is the main thing.

There is more Christmas knitting to blog, as well as the rest of the walk where these FO photos were taken, but today I am preparing for a trip Southwards to meet with Heather of niftyknits to discuss knitted meerkats and editing my first I SPY/I HEAR radio feature for The Hub.

I hope you all have had the most amazing New Year and Christmas; I have been loving reading everyone else’s festive blog-posts and am excited about what 2010 will bring! I hope you are too, and that you have some silliness of your own – like Feasels & Bears – to make you laugh in these very cold days!

*a feasel is a mythical creature which is created by mixing Felix with Weasel.

Specs:

Pattern design: Jared Flood’s Turn a Square hat patten, but with my own fairisle motifs and a double-lining idea, taken from Quanah’s Double-knitted hat tutorial
Yarn: DK in 100% Shetland in Oatmeal colourway and purchased at Blacker Designs
Needles: 4.5mm
Ravelled: here