LITTLE HUT OF HORRORS.

SOPHIE HORTON'S SITE SPECIFIC TEXTILES.

Sophie Horton makes site specific textiles and drawings. The top picture is 'Live Wire' and below is 'Tender /Affectionate. " We love her work and recommend her website http://sh.jc-la.co.uk  and she will be at the Schwartz Gallery, this Saturday 12-5pm as part of a show called "Trace" which runs from 3-26th October 2008, Fridays-Sundays 12-5pm.

SMOKE....

The Pump House Gallery in Battersea Park is about to launch a show, simply entitled 'Smoke'. 

It runs from Sunday 5th October- 14th December, with a Smoke Fayre on Saturday 8th november from 12-4pm, where Prick Your Finger invite you to help us spin smokey fluff from smokey angora rabbits and knit smokey forms. Whilst knitting, you could have smokey eye make up done, talk to the men who service the fire engines, and marvel at magicians making things disappear in a puff of smoke. 

It's free, and the gentlemen can smoke outside.

For more information go to www.wandsworth.gov.uk

FIXING THE HOLES.

Darning artists Celia Pym and Michael Swaine are coming to the rescue next week at Prick Your Finger. Autumn is here and our knitwear needs fixing.

Celia, is arriving on Tuesday 7th to fix the jumper pictured above, and we shall be darning with her all week. 

Michael Swaine is coming to stay on Saturday 11th. Michael is coming from San Fransisco, especially to fix our holes. You can meet him at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace, starting next Thursday.  PYF has a darning service all year round, but we do recommend popping in sometime next week if you want a lesson.

FLEUR HITS THE GOBLIN'S MARKET.

We were sad to take down Miss Fleur Oakes's show to-day. This corset was about Christina Rossetti's 'Goblin's Market'. 

Morning and evening

Maids heard the goblins cry:

"Come buy our orchard fruits, 

Come buy, come buy:

Apples and quinces,

Lemons and oranges,

Plump un pecked cherries-

Melons and raspberries,

Bloom-down-cheeked peaches,

Swart-headed mulberries,

Wild free-born cranberries,

Crab-apples, dewberries,

Pine-apples, blackberries,

Apricots, strawberries--

All ripe together

In summer weather--

Morns that pass by,

Fair eves that fly;

Come buy, come buy;

Our grapes fresh from the vine,

Pomegramates full and fine,

Dates and sharp bullaces,

Rare pears and greengages,

Damsons and bilberries,

Taste them and try:

Currants and gooseberries,

Figs to fill your mouth,

Citrons from the south,

Sweet tongue and sound to eye,

Come buy, come buy."

Evening by evening

Among brookside rushes,

Laura bowed her head to hear, 

Lizzie veiled her blushes:

Crouching close together, 

In the cooling weather,

With clasping arms and cautioning lips,

With tingling cheeks and finger-tips,

"Lie-close," Laura said,

Pricking up her golden head:

We must not look at Goblin men,

We must not buy their fruits:

Who knows upon what soil they fed

Their hungry thirsty roots?"

"Come buy," call the goblins

hobbling down the glen.

"O! cried Lizzie, Laura, Laura,

You should not peep at goblin men."

Lizzie covered up her eyes

Covered close lest they should look;

Laura reared her glossy head,

And whispered like the restless brook:

"Look Lizzie, look, Lizzie,

Down the glen tramp little men.

One hauls a basket,

One bears a plate,

One lugs a golden dish

Of many pounds of weight.

How fair the vine must grow

Who's grapes are so luscious;

How warm the wiond must blow

Through those fruit bushes."

"No," said Lizzie "no, no, no;

Their offers should not charm us,

Their evil gifts would harm us."

She thrust a dimples finger

In each ear, shut her eyes and ran:

Curious Laura chose to linger

Wondering at each merchant man.

One had a cat's face,

One a whisked tail,

One tramped at a rat's pace,

One crawled like a snail,

One like a wombat prowled obtuse and furry,

One like a ratel tumbled hurry-scurry.

Lizzie heard a voice like a voice of doves

Cooing all together:

They sounded kind and full of loves

In the pleasent weather.

Laura stretched her gleaming neck

Like a rush-imbedded swan,

Like a lilly from the beck,

Like a moonlit poplar branch,

Like a vessel at the launch

When its last restraint is gone.

Backwards up the mossy glen,

Turned and trooped the goblin men,

With their shrill repeated cry, 

"Come buy, come buy."

When they reached where Laura was

They stood stock still upon the moss, 

Learing at each other

Brother with queer brother;

Signalling at each other,

Brother with sly brother.

One set his basket down,

One reared his plate;

One began to weave a crown

Of trendrils, leaves, and rough nuts brown

(men sell not such in any town);

One heaved the golden weight

Of dish and fruit to offer her:

"Come buy, come buy," was still their cry.

Laura stared but did not stir,

Longed but had no money:

The whisk-tailed merchant bade her taste

In tones as smooth as honey,

the cat-faced purr'd

The rat-paced spoke a word

Of welcome, and the snail-paced even was heard;

One parrot-voiced and jolly

Cried "Pretty Goblin" still for "Pretty Polly";

One whistled like a bird.

But sweet tooth Laura spoke in haste:

"Good folk, I have no coin;

To take were to purloin:

I have no copper in my purse,

I have no silver either,

And all my gold is on the furze

That shakes in windy weather

above the rusty heather."

"You have much gold upon your head,"

They answered altogether:

"Buy from us with a golden curl."

She clipped a precious golden lock,

She dropped a tear more rare than a pearl,

Then sucked their fruit globes fair or red:

Sweeter than honey from the rock,

Stronger than men-rejoicing wine,

Clearer than water flowed that juice;

she never tasted such before,

how should it cloy with length of use?

The sucked and sucked and sucked the more,

Fruits which that unknown orchard bore,

She sucked until her lips were sore;

Then flung the emptied rinds away,

But gathered up one kernal stone,

And knew not it was night or day

As she turned home alone.

Lizzie met her at the gate

Full of wise upbraidings:

"Dear, you should not stay so late,

Twilight is not good for maidens;

Should not loiter in the glen

In the haunts of goblin men.

Do you not remember Jeanie,

How she met them in the moonlight,

took their gifts both choice and many,

Ate their fruits and wore their flowers

Plucked from bowers

Where summer ripens at all hours?

But ever in the moonlight

She pined and pined away;

Sought them by night and day,

Found them no more, but dwindled and grew gray;

Then fell with the first snow,

While to this day no grass will grow

Where she lies low:

I planted daisies there a year ago

That never blow.

You should not loiter so."

"Nay hush," said Laura.

"Nay hush, my sister:

I ate and ate my fill,

Yet my mouth waters still;

To-morrow night I will,

Buy more,"and kissed her.

"Have done with sorrow:

I'll bring you plums tomorrow

fresh on their mother twigs

Cherries worth getting;

you cannot think what figs

My teeth have met in,

What melons, icy-cold

Plied on a dish of gold

Too huge for me to hold,

What peaches with a velvet nap,

Pellucid grapes without one seed:

Odorous indeed must be the mead

Whereon they grow, and pure wave they drink,

With lillies at the brink,

And sugar sweet their sap."

Golden head by golden head, 

Like two pigeons in one nest

Folded in each others wings, 

They lay down, in curtained bed:

Like two blossoms on one stem,

Like two flakes of new-fallen snow,

Like two wands of ivory

Tipped with gold for awful kings.

Moon and stars beamed in at them,

Wind sang to them lullaby,

Lumbering owls forbore to fly,

Not a bat flapped to and fro

Round their rest:

Cheek to cheek and breast to breast

Locked together in one nest.

Early in the morning.......

and I suggest you follow this link, because I'm having to type this out, and I have to open the shop now..... http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/crossetti-goblin.htm

ISN'T IT GOOD, HAND PAINTED WOOD?

.... I've been a bit slow on the blog recently, because it's taking a while to paint the back room planks. 

... And it's not just planks, we been doing up the whole of  back of the shop, so our classes will be more comfortable and it feels, well, warmer! The base coat on the floor is Dulux Light Buff and the grain lines are middle brown. I sang The Beatles Norwiegan Wood a lot.... it's a wonderful song.  The walls are chalk white paneled doors again, and it's all very cosy, and ready for visitors! Hooray! See you soon x

ACCIDENTS HAPPEN.

I hate to make you cringe on a beautiful morning like this, but we have been shocked to hear of a knitting related accident, which must be prevented from happening again.

One of our regular customers, the lovely Miss T, who always has a pair of socks on the go, managed to fall on a 4mm sock pin which went right through her foot. Miss T will be OK, and is just about able to walk, but has endured a huge amount of pain, caused by her favourite hobby.

We wish Miss T a speedy recovery, and hope that she isn't put off knitting.

PLEASE! We urge you all to get tougher slippers, and keep your pins safe.

Knitted first aid sign by Sue Russel