Tuesday Ten

I'm back on the bandwagon with Artsyville - this week, things I collect.

1. Yarn. Last stash count (May 2012) suggested 55km but I have knitted some and bought some since then....

2. Buttons. I have a really thing for glass buttons, especially black glass buttons.

3. Other knitting paraphernalia - stitch markers and project bags; vintage stitch holders (the metal ones that look a bit discoloured with age are my favourites).

4. Boden dresses. I wince sometimes when I leave the house and realise I am in head to toe Boden, since all my coats and most of my dresses came from there. But it flatters my figure and I love their colours and the dresses are always long enough and never see-through, which is more than can be said for some other clothing emporiums.

5. Pens. Not really on purpose - this is more of a hoarding thing. If I find a pen that is nice to write with then I will buy many of them in case I lose it. Of course, when I own many of them, I never lose them. I am thinking about splashing out on a very lovely fountain pen when I get my first royalties cheque (a nice pen for a writer, type thing). I blame Elizabeth.

6. Brooches. I like to trawl around charity shops for old ones, and I have a fairly new obsession with Lea Stein acetate brooches. It started with the ladybird but it's grown much bigger than that now. I think it's the magical combination of bright colour and deco styling that has me smitten.

7. Red and white polka dot stuff. It has moved past obsession into actual fabric of my being. I dressed my bridesmaids in this print. I try to tone it down and keep it just to kitchen stuff now.

8. Things with a Union Jack motif. This was a new one last year, when everywhere was Union Jacks for the Jubilee and Olympics. I do like the colour combination and I like to feel patriotic. I have a good collection of tins and a nice Emma Bridgwater shopping bag which are probably my favourites.

9. Tea party peripherals. Mostly cake stands, but also tea cups and , if I had room, teapots. But I only have one of these. It is red and white spots and matches my favourite tea cups, and one of my cake stands (see point 7).

10. Looking around at all the other things that make up the jumble of my possessions, it ties somewhere between perfume, knitting magazines and Lush products. I probably have about equal quantities of each. Knitting magazines are the only growing concern among those three, though; I live in fear of not buying one and then finding a pattern I want to knit in it, many years later, when it's out of print. This is an irrational fear, I know, in this digital age.