Sewing frenzy

I've had a sudden urge to sew again, after having a prolonged knitting period. I love dresses, and wanted to find a pattern for a simple, slightly-fitted dress.

I had some black fleece material that I bought ages ago and never did anything with, so yesterday I traced the pattern and cut out the fleece. Unfortunately I didn't have enough material for the arms so I'll have to buy more fleece next week, but I'm hoping to sew what I have together today then add the arrms later. I'm hoping to make further dresses in cord and possibly tweed.

It's the Edinburgh International Book Festival here at the moment. On Monday I went to see AL Kennedy; on Wednesday Hagos and I went to see Alasdair Gray; and last night I saw Denise Mina.

I much prefer Alasdair Gray's fition, and I went to the event knowing it was based on an essay he'd written last year, "Settlers and Colonists." I thought he explained the point, succinctly, within his first answer, however it was dragged out by the Chair and by some audience members later too. Anyway, he is incredible fun and the part I enjoyed most was when he read a section from a work-in-progress of his translation of Dante's Inferno. His rhythm and scanning and various other poetic devices were fantastic. 

We met our friends Rik and Jenny and baby Bramble before the Alasdair Gray reading and Rik gave us the marrow on the right from his allotment. I thought I had to photograph it next to my own courgette for scale. They are small but tasty!

Tomorrow we're off to The Peebles Poultry Show. Much excitement about that.

Hagos is currently supposed to be in Beirut doing a gig, but it was cancelled two days before travel due to the singer injuring her back. I had finally come to terms with him going to Beirut, but I was looking forward to him coming home again. Having read both John McCarthy's and Brian Keenan's accounts of being held hostage there I felt very uneasy about H going. I kept an eye on the Foreign Office's advice to travellers and wasn't sure a gig fitted into the category of 'essential travel only'. Hm. I felt slightly better when the location was moved from Baalbek to Beirut (for security reasons) but, anyway, it took me only a moment to adjust to it being cancelled.

Next post will hopefully include lots of jumper news/progress.