Umbrella Falling Rain (used under CC license)

Ah, those April Showers. They’re still going, and frankly, at the moment it’s more like a May Deluge. It seems a time for staying in, reading books and blogs, knitting, baking and snuggling up. Here are a few things that I wanted to share with you to help along your own rainy weekends.

I have a question for my British readers. Do you wish that you could attend one of those American knitting retreats that other bloggers and podcasters talk about going to? Do you want to learn all the new skills and hang out with all the really cool kids?

To me, the North American retreats and camps sound as exciting and alluring as going on summer camp did when I was a teenager.* It’s unlikely that I’ll be able to go to one any time soon, due to the financials, and we all know what happened a couple of years ago when one was attempted in Scotland. But help is at hand. Fret not, British peeps, for the excellent Kim Werker has had ace ideas for how to host your own ‘poor man’s’ version at home.

Do you need a recipe for the weekend? Maybe for your knitting retreat? I’ve been making Nigella’s courgette cake from How to be a Domestic Goddess into muffins. I use exactly the same recipe, except to double the amount of raisins, add some walnuts if I have some handy and to ice them with normal icing sugar made up with lime juice rather than water. I don’t go in for putting cream cheese in the middle either. They don’t need it.

For those who like to listen while you knit, have you noticed that Knitmore Girls podcast is back? Jasmin has had her baby girl, Genevieve, and they’re back on a fortnightly basis until the summer when they’ll be going weekly once more.

Lastly, did you see the google doodle last week – the one where you could unzip the page? It was in honour of Gideon Sundback and his (sort of) invention of the Hookless No 2, the zip that is now ubiquitous in our clothing and interiors. The always excellent textile history blog, Worn Through, has a fascinating (and very funny) article on the history of the zip that is well worth a read.

I hope that it doesn’t rain on you too much this weekend, especially not if you’re camping.

*For those not in the UK, we don’t really go in for summer camps, apart from the odd week in a tent in the midst of a soggy field at Girl Guide camp (or Scout camp if you were a boy).

©2012 Ingrid Murnane Investigates.... All Rights Reserved.

©2012 Ingrid Murnane Investigates.... All Rights Reserved.

The Geotaggers' World Atlas #2: London by Eric Fischer (Used under CC license)

I recently came across a beautiful and fascinating set of images on Flickr. They are maps, compiled by Eric Fischer from the metadata of geotagged images on Flickr and Picasa.  The set is called The Geotaggers’ World Atlas and is a fascinating thing to behold. All the maps are to the same scale (a square measuring 15 miles on each side, and comprise many of the world’s capitals and larger cities. They reminded me at first sight, of the human blood system, or nerve paths leading out from a central brainstem. But don’t let that put you off… go look!

©2012 Ingrid Murnane Investigates.... All Rights Reserved.

Reading Round About a Pound a Week (excellent), How to Knit a Love Song (cheesy), a lot of stuff about 1930s architecture (geeky), The Knitter and lots of Ideal Home magazines (both from now and the 20s/30s)

Eating home made fajitas (best accompanied by board games), courgette muffins, toad in the hole and tons of purple sprouting brocolli from the garden.

Watching Brick by Brick (fascinating architectural history), New Girl (just ace), The Apprentice, and You’re Fired (is anyone else with sky+ amused that it reads in the listings as ‘The Apprentice: Yo’?)

Visiting Alice Kettle and Jules Findley’s exhibition Loss at Chichester Cathedral, Aspex Gallery in Portsmouth (for the art and for the tea and cake alike) and lots of 1930s houses.

Knitting a super Jaywalker sock (what a great pattern! I’m afraid its twin will have to wait though.) I’ve also cast on for a Deco cardigan in a lovely moss green, and am working on a hat.

Making lists and project plans. I’ve also mended a fair few shoes, bags and a catnip mouse that was an unfortunate casualty of war.

Listening to a great soundtrack of Imelda May, Hugh Laurie and Catatonia. My podcast playlist has included lots of The Moth and TED, some Cast-On, some Craftypod, and (hurrah, she’s back) Never Not Knitting.

How about you?

©2012 Ingrid Murnane Investigates.... All Rights Reserved.

Ah, who am I to complain? It’s a working and research day instead! Just have to dodge the heavy showers on the way there and back.

No time for train knitting on the way to work today, though. Instead, I’m reading feminist and Fabian, Maud Pember Reeves’, ‘Round About a Pound a Week‘. Originally printed in 1913, it really is a fascinating and at times quite shocking insight into the lives of respectable working class London families living on or around Lambeth Walk who survived on approximately 20 shillings a week. Particularly making a study of poverty and infant mortality, it was influential in making high level changes and argued for prenatual nutrition, child benefit and school dinners amongst other things.

From what I have read so far (around half), it is as important a book now as it was a century ago. In addition, and probably quite contrary to what you may think, I have found it compulsive reading which is easily digested, rather than being a dry sociological research tract. If you can get yourself a copy, it is well worth a read and will really make you think in today’s consumer-driven society.

©2012 Ingrid Murnane Investigates.... All Rights Reserved.