Oh, look - it's some knitting!

It feels like forever since I last blogged about knitting! So here's my current work-in-progress - a razorshell lace scarf in the same wool I made a hat in last winter, so I will be matching!  I did one of these scarves a few years ago - it was one of my early attempts at lace and it took me f-o-r-e-v-e-r, partly because it used 4-ply (this one's in aran), and partly because I hadn't done a lot of lace knitting and although it's a simple pattern I had to concentrate. It shows how much of knitting is just down to practice and becoming familiar with a technique, because the latest scarf seems amazingly easy compared with the old one. I can pretty much knit it without paying attention and if I do go blank for a moment it's easy to 'read' what I should be doing. So it's very nearly mindless knitting that I can do while watching telly - currently we are watching Bones which we managed never to see while it was on (yep, we missed 12 whole seasons).

Anyway, enough knitting - look what Miss M sewed! The Great British Sewing Bee is back and Miss M felt inspired by it, so she sat down and made a needle-case yesterday!

Isn't it fab?

She's very proud of it because it's the first time she's sewn with 'actual fabric' rather than 'tea-towels and old curtains'. She's made a few things using tea-towels as the fabric (her swimming-bag for example) and I gave her the lining from an old pair of curtains to mess around with and practice her 'driving' on the sewing-machine. I should really do that myself - I'm not very good at sewing curves on a sewing machine!

Floral

I got the sewing-machine out again today. It had been lurking under its bin-bag cover (I really must get/make a proper cover for it) and the longer I left it the more I worried that it would revert to its non-functioning state or that I'd lose what little sewing ability I'd gained.

But today the sun shone (unconnected, but engendering a feeling of positivity - or perhaps recklessness) so I got the machine out, dragged the iron and ironing board out of their sabbatical and made another skirt. Actually the worst bit was cutting it out. I get really anxious about that. I had to use pages of the Scotsman sellotaped together to make a template as I knew I wouldn't be able to cut out a rectangle without something to provide right-angles. But once I got it cut out more or less rectangularly it all went quite well. I had to do a bit of arithmetic because the instructions are in inches and I don't do inches.  Nor does my tape-measure, more to the point. I've taken note of the metric equivalents for the various seam allowances and hems so that next time I won't have to frown and scratch my head. Oh, and I spent quite a long time squinting at the floral pattern trying to work out if the design had an obvious right/wrong way up. It doesn't seem to, which is quite clever really. It's quite reassuring that the things that slowed me down weren't the actual sewing.

The sewing-machine was behaving fairly well - some of the thread was bunching slightly at the start and coming through a bit green, so I suspect the innards need a clean again, but there were no major problems. And Miss M likes the end result, which is the main thing. And I got to take a picture of the finished skirt in the evening sunshine, which is always nice!

I am Oz, the Bright and Colourful

I seem to have acquired a small and very bright, floral fabric stash - soon to be skirts for Miss M.  And maybe a cushion cover. And I've even got matching threads. Dear me, that seems suspiciously like being organised.

Out in the garden, into which the sun shone again today, things are also bright and floral. These tulips are a bit garish really (red and white stripey) but they do brighten things up.

We're all settling back into routine again after the kids' school holiday (two blissful weeks of not rushing in the morning!) but it doesn't take long to get back to normal. This term has several interruptions - public holidays, in-service days, sports day and so on - so it tends to fly by. The kids are having their school photos taken tomorrow so my little scruffbags are having to wear actual shirts and ties rather than their usual casual polo shirts. They are not happy about this and to be fair, last year's pictures were a bit pants so I'm not sure why I'm bothering. Mindless optimism probably. Maybe this is the year they'll look like themselves and not like newly-promoted Chief Inspectors or Conservative party candidates.  They only get class photos in Primary One and Primary Seven so they're just individual or sibling photos this year. Maybe I should get them to pull silly faces. They'd look more like themselves if they did. Oh, the temptation!

Ta-da!

 Ta-da! 

(For those who saw the original picture, I've changed it because Miss M says she looks 'ridiculous' in it - she doesn't of course but as she's old enough to care, I've cropped it)

Today I made a skirt for Miss M. With hems and everything. And a French seam in fact. Urgh, I've got a thumping headache here so I might be a little incoherent, but here's the gist. I'm following in the footsteps of Marianne of Ladybird Diaries who has made several for her own Miss M and swears they are easy.  I'm following the same instructions she used, which are the Easy-Peasy Skirts tutorial from Punkin Patterns.  I did more ironing today than I've done all year (I'm not big on ironing) - in fact I spent more time on the ironing than on the sewing which for once went like a dream. Miss M claims she cast 'reparo' on the sewing-machine last night, which was helpful - also I cleaned the guts of the sewing-machine out again. Getting quite quick at that now!

I don't remember ironing in the sewing class at school. Maybe they didn't trust us with hot metal. I certainly wouldn't have trusted us. But pressing everything does seem to make the fabric so much more manageable, so I'm feeling more confident with this sewing lark. 

Very fortunately Miss M seems to really like her new skirt and would like me to make more for her. Last summer I had a real problem getting her a lightweight skirt for the summer - no such problem this year!

Disaster and triumph (may be slight exaggeration)

Why do weird things not happen when My Beloved is in the house?  On Monday the cabinet that encases the boiler just fell off the wall. Out of the blue. Very fortunately it just sort of flipped out away from the wall so the boiler wasn't damaged and neither was the microwave that sits underneath it. In fact the only thing actually broken was one of the cat bowls but it was a cheapy plastic thing so was easily replaced for the unprincely sum of 79p. And even more fortunately neither the kids nor the cats (nor me for that matter) were in the kitchen at the time. I was up in the bathroom trying to get the shower curtain pole back up because it had just fallen down. Honestly, in any other part of the world I'd have suspected an earthquake but it's about as seismically active here as a teabag.

Monday was a bit chaotic generally, it has to be said - I had an exercise class in the morning, then Miss M had her ballet class in the late afternoon, then a gymnastics class after tea, so it was a bit of a running around day.  On the upside, the weather was sunny and bright and both the kids and the cats got out into the fresh air a lot, and I got a tonne of washing done and out on the line.

The garden is starting to look more springlike:

And yesterday (also sunny) we discovered that there are masses of tadpoles in our tiny pond. I'd been about to clear some of the green sludge out of the pond when I noticed all the black wriggly things.

The camera sees many more details than my eyes did!  Now I'm wondering if I should try and clear some of the green sludge out to give the tadpoles some space or if they need it to lurk in or eat. All I remember about tadpoles from the tadpole tank in our classroom when I was in Primary Three is that they'll eat each other given half a chance. Bleurgh. However I am delighted that our tiny pond has been deemed worthy of spawning in, so good luck to them. I'll just not look too closely.

In the interests of staving off holiday boredom I got some marbling inks off ebay (yes, I actually planned ahead!) and Miss M and her friend had a go at marbling yesterday. I think the results are beautiful - why have we not done this before?

Not sure what to do with them - maybe cut out shapes and stick them up on the pinboard?

The latest episode in my further adventures in sewing is that I have made a small drawstring bag which is now a lavender bag (I made a small pouch for the lavender to go inside the bag otherwise with just a drawstring there would be lavender everywhere) and I'm just trying to pluck up enough courage to start Miss M's skirt. I've washed and ironed the fabric, now I just have to stop over-thinking it and just have a go.

The kids are out for a bit with their Grandad tomorrow so my plan is to try to start the skirt then. How hard can it be?  (Don't answer that)

A Celebratory Woohoo!

I did it! I sewed a thing! To put this in context, this the first machine-sewn item I have finished since about 1984* so I do not care that it's a mere pincushion - I look at that and see Achievement!

I do really need to practise steering though. I was halfway through sewing it when I suddenly recalled the denim pencil-case I made in first-year that got smaller and smaller until it ended up a make-up bag because pencils wouldn't fit in it. Looking back on it I made quite a few things in sewing at school - pincushion, wonky pencil-case, small red quilted purse, and then a skirt in second year.  All long lost, yet I have several things I made in woodwork - guess which I preferred?

Oh well, I'll practise. Fortunately I have plenty of that pink gingham kicking around and also an old thin cotton curtain so I can just spend a few days practising steering.  Maybe it'd help if I made vroooom-vroooom noises like the boys in my sewing-class at school did.

As to what the problem with the sewing-machine was... well, I'm not sure. I was extra careful threading up, especially round the tension discs - you seem to need to give the thread quite a good yank round that bit on our machine - but I also replaced the needle so it might just have been that. In my nauseating Pollyanna-ish moments I think it was quite good I was having issues with the sewing-machine because I've learned quite a bit, but on the other hand there were moments of extreme frustration and quite a bit of muttered swearing. And some-not so-muttered swearing.

But the best bit about my outstanding pincushion cheevos is that I managed this before the final of The Great British Sewing Bee, which is on tonight. Now I can nod knowledgeably at the screen and think 'yes, I too have sewed a thing'. Maybe I should make a pincushion with a peplum next. And French seams.



*Aaargh, just realised that's thirty years!

I spoke too soon.

Inspired by Marianne of Ladybird Diaries, who made a skirt for her Miss M, I thought I'd have go at making a very simple skirt for my own Miss M. But as I'm rather rusty with the sewing machine I thought I'd better do something even more basic first, so today I started to make a pincushion. All has not gone well. The sewing machine has regressed to its previous state of recalcitrance. I have been googling and watching youtube videos on how to solve my problem, and cleaning out the guts of the machine again, using a spoon as a screwdriver again (those screws on the needle plate are bloomin' awkward things, aren't they?) but there has been no miracle cure this time. The top thread just keeps snapping. Yes, I've tried altering the tension. I've tried everything, even threats.

I think there should be a special episode of The Great British Sewing Bee, for people like me. 'You have one and a half hours to thread your sewing machine and sew a wonky hem 15cm long. The judges will be looking for creative use of bad language and the ability to thread and rethread and rethread and rethread and rethread your machine without resorting to tears or a chainsaw.'  I think I've been extraordinarily patient.

I've ordered better quality thread because what I was using was from a cheap set from Lidl, that up until now I have mostly used for handsewing name labels on the kids clothes. It is supposed to be suitable for use in sewing machines though. And it's what I used a few weeks ago when the sewing machine miraculously worked, but I'm not thinking about that just now.  I'm thinking serene thoughts about otters.

Serene. Oh yes.

Sewing Bee

I'm hooked on the Great British Sewing Bee. I cannot sew. Well, I can hand-sew a bit but patterns and sewing machines are arcane arts beyond the ken of peeriemoots.  Despite my own ineptitude I can appreciate the work of those who can sew.  I would like to be able to sew basic things though. The last time I tried to use the sewing machine was, ahem, two and a half years ago. Since then nobody had used the machine until the other day when My Beloved needed to make a fabric cover for an anchor chain. And no I'm not kidding - it's a motorbike-related thing.

Anyway, the machine which had refused to work for me in August 2011 refused to work for him the other day. Ha! It's not just me! He did however suggest that the problem was probably that it was full of fluff and needed cleaning out. Ah, I never thought of that. So today I googled 'cleaning fluff out of sewing machine' and found some useful advice. Armed with a screwdriver, a teaspoon, a vacuum cleaner and several kids paintbrushes I tackled the infernal machine and cleaned a quite astonishing amount of fluff out of it. And then I threaded it up with different colours of thread so I could see which thread was going wrong if it went wrong.

And then I tried it out.

And it works! Huzzah!

Incidentally My Beloved was gobsmacked that I had cleaned the fluff out of the machine.

'Did you find the instructions then?'
'No, I googled it.'
'...'

Awestruck seems the right word. I don't know why he was so surprised.

Last day of the summer holidays

I usually try to something fun and interesting on the last day of the school holidays, but we've done so many fun and interesting things this year that we had a lazy last day instead. Miss M was happy spending most of the day playing with her best friend over the road and the Boy was happy just pottering around, bouncing on the trampoline or playing on the Wii (actually alternating between them).   This afternoon the Boy and I decided to go for a walk and see what stage the brambles are at. The answer is, developing and green (bottom left of the photo). The bees were loving the flowers though.

 We found some nice raspberries too.

And also, by careful listening and even more careful looking, a grasshopper. Actually several grasshoppers but this was the one that was most willing to be photographed. I do also have several pictures of empty leaves, vacated a nano-second previously.

This evening has been spent watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 2) and sewing name labels onto school clothes. I'm pretty useless at proper sewing but I find small amounts of hand-sewing quite therapeutic. Most years I sew a couple of labels on, then resort to biro on the washing instruction tags for the rest, lazy as I am. But this year I've done loads! Yay me :-D.

Why don't my clothes have cute flower buttons on them?

Mixed Challenge

It's hard to believe that last Friday we were out sledging. Since then we've returned to classic wet and windy, though with icy rain as an added wintry touch.

Talking of classic wet and windy, Tuesday was Up Helly Aa and as new tradition dictates I went over to my brother's to watch the webcast of the procession. It was a little laggy but nonetheless enjoyable. It was clearly a pretty wild night weatherwise (and in every other sense come to think of it) in Lerwick so as next-best-thing options go watching the webcast from Glasgow was a pretty good next best thing.

But never mind the weather, I'm indoors now and talking about the Mixed Challenge. The Mixed Challenge is a thing on a Ravelry forum that I peruse and the idea was that in the month of January we'd do try to meet four challenges:

• Finish a WIP (work-in-progess) - anything lingering that is crafty
• Photograph an outside flower
• Write a letter
• Cook something from a new to you recipe

Just small challenges but to quote the originator of this month's challenge 'The idea is to get you to try something you might not think of doing, but nothing too extreme.' Which seems a very good idea to me! Especially in January when as I've mentioned before I tend to feel a bit Januaryish and in need of things to motivate me.

So finishing a work-in-progress first. I liked that this wasn't necessarily a knitting thing, though obviously I always have things on the needles that need to be finished at some point.  I managed several with this challenge. I finished the circle socks that were hanging over from December.

I started and finished the Fair Isle hat for C's baby - so not a work-in-progress as such but I'm pleased with having had quick project that didn't languish on the needles. And I also started and finished a jam jar cosy, if that's the right name for such an object:

I'd bought a cheap bunch of daffodils the other day and all my vases (all my vases, I sound like Mr Collins - 'I should say all her vases, for she has several!') were either too tall or too narrow-necked. So I used a jam-jar and thought I'd knit a sleeve for it to pretty it up a bit. I've seen this done in crochet but my crochet is not up to it, so garter stitch stripes it was.



I also finished sewing some little felt hearts I'd been making last winter, and now they're hanging up on my calendar looking colourful.

'Photograph an outside flower' was always going to be a tricky one in Scotland in January.  At the start of the month there were still a few of the dyer's chamomile flowers clinging on looking more than a bit sad:

But other than that there was very little. There were some small blue flowers on a plant in my garden - the name escapes me and as it's blowing a hoolie and chucking it down out there I'm not going out to check the label - but I couldn't get a picture in focus. So I cheated and took one of the daffs from the kitchen outside and took a picture of it in the snow, purely because it looked pretty!

The new recipe challenge was an excellent one as I rarely cook from recipes and have a rather stagnant repertoire of Things I Cook. Nice things, but the repertoire could do with expanding. So after much browsing I chose the Fruity Lamb Tagine from the BBC Good Food website, made it and blogged about it last week (in the post 'Things and Stuff' - I'd link but it's only two posts ago so that seems a bit silly). It was very weird browning the lamb and knowing I wasn't going to have anything minty with it - I'm obviously such a creature of habit that the smell of lamb immediately makes me want mint!  Pavlov's cook..   But it was really delicious, it will be added to the repertoire and I'm so glad I had the Mixed Challenge to push me into cooking something new!

My only fail was in the 'writing a letter' challenge. I could do it today, though I've no idea who I would write to, but I've got a cold and to be honest I'm planning on going back to bed for a bit while my jeans dry on the radiator (soaked from the knee down - clammy, lovely..) before getting the kids from school.  And although I haven't written a letter I did have an excellent result from having written a letter in December. With several of my older relatives I put a letter and a photo of the kids in with the Christmas card. A few days ago I had a 'phone call out of the blue from one of these relatives to say thank you for the card and the pictures. Jean is an older cousin of my mum's, in her eighties, and she sends birthday cards without fail to everybody in the family.  I haven't actually seen her for decades, but I send her Christmas and birthday cards and try to let her know what we're up to and so on, and she rang up to say how much she liked the picture of the kids.  It's easy to stay in touch electronically with my contemporaries and in fact with quite a lot of the older generation, but it's good to be reminded that not everyone's online or chooses to be online and that a letter in the post is a nice thing for anyone to get.

I'm intrigued to see what February's challenge will be. I'm guessing not bungee jumping. Hope not anyway, I'm forbidden to in case my retinas detach - you know like I was planning to go bungee jumping.. *rolls eyes*  I leave the insane adrenaline junkie stuff to my brother and, slightly worryingly, to my daughter who seems to take after her uncle rather than sensible people like her parents.

going out and doing things

The kids and I went to Edinburgh yesterday - we met up with my mum and dad who came down for the day, and my cousin, his wife and their kids who were on holiday in the Borders and came up for the day. It was the great convergence! The kids had never met their second cousins before but they all seemed to hit it off - that's them playing in Princes Street Gardens.

We went for a coffee and a trip to the loos at the Scottish National Gallery and I rescued someone who'd got stuck in a toilet - my good deed for the day. Miss Mouse got trapped in a loo at the swimming-pool a couple of weeks ago so opening doors from the outside with a 5p coin was fresh in my mind - useful! I really must go to Edinburgh by myself one day (or without the kids at least) and have a mooch around the gallery. I haven't been there properly for years. The last time was for the Turner exhibition they have each January and that was probably about ten years ago.

It was a beautiful bright day, but absolutely baltic. I'd planned ahead and we were wearing multiple layers. I've been Cold In Edinburgh too many times! I was there once with a friend who had a badly scarred hand from a car accident the previous year and his scars actually turned properly blue with the cold which was a bit alarming.

Princes Street Gardens was looking very pretty yesterday. Gorgeous daffs, of course! And more blossom than I've seen so far on the west coast. We had a brilliant time - it was so good to catch up with family, especially so many at once! Our family are all quite scattered, so it doesn't happen often.

Here's a couple of pictures from today. Do you like the knitted egg thingies? Not sure they should be called egg cosies when there are creme eggs inside! Mum and Dad brought them down for the kids - somebody they know had made them. Aren't they cheery? Especially next to the daffodils. Yeah, I know, I'm daffodil-obsessed..

Here's Miss Mouse with her Easter basket kit, tackling blanket stitch and doing very well actually. It always surprises me when she proves to be quite dextrous, I suppose because she's my youngest, my 'baby', but she's quite a capable little thing really.

hearts and stars

I made a heart yesterday. I'm not sure if it's a very small pin-cushion or if I'll attach a ribbon and hang it up somewhere (Miss Mouse has her eye on it - she wants it to be a pillow for her teddy, but it's really too small for that). The idea was to brighten up miserable January with a bit of colour, and I thought a few hearts in cheery colours might do the trick!

It was cold and clear on Sunday night so the Boy and I went out into the garden to look at the stars. We didn't have a hope of seeing the aurora as the glow of Glasgow is to the north of us, but we did get a good view of Orion and I was pretty pleased with myself for finding Cassiopeia. And as he was interested, yesterday I showed the Boy various aurora pictures online - some cracking ones on the Shetland News report and Paula Moss Photography. When I was a kid I used to find the northern lights a bit creepy - I remember standing at our door once watching it then having the urge to run back inside. It does look a bit like a dodgy special effect in a film I suppose! I do kick myself a bit now, that I lived in a place with reasonably dark skies (though the flare-stack at the oil terminal did affect that) and more opportunity for aurora-watching than most places in Britain, yet I didn't stand still, watch and make a point of remembering these moments. Especially when so many of my friends now I'm on the mainland say that they'd love to see an aurora. There's nothing like being irrationally irritated with your former self!

Fa-la-la-la

You'll have gathered, I suppose, from the brevity of my last post that Thursday is a busy day for me. Yesterday was even more hectic than usual because there was a school disco in the evening. The school carpark was pretty icy when we left (before the end - Miss Mouse was up past her bedtime and had hit the Wall, metaphorically speaking) but it had started raining so I thought it was getting warmer. So I was bit surprised when I opened the curtains this morning to see the White Stuff again!

That would be my Optimistic Hollyhock

As the rest of the family appear to be asleep I shall enjoy this moment of solitude and witter on for a bit. The other day I was singing while driving (my best time to sing) and found that I was singing 'O Come All Ye Faithful' and I still knew a whole chunk of it despite not having been to a carol service since leaving school. I was three verses in before I had a blank - amazing the stuff that sticks. And I got to thinking about Christmas carols - I do like a good carol. They don't mean anything to me in a religious sense, I'm an atheist, but I do like to sing and they're crackin' tunes (well, some of them are). And then there's the emotional connotations of memories of childhood, singing carols at school, the build-up to the Christmas holidays, the barely suppressed excitement and so on. They're all mixed in with that.

I'd never have said as a child that 'O Come All Ye Faithful' was a cheery song, but now it's one of my favourites, perhaps because it's combined in my mind with really glorious Renaissance art - 'sing choirs of angels, sing in exultation' and in my head it's the inside of the dome of Florence Cathedral, mixed up with the puffy-eyed, sturdy angels of the northern Renaissance and their brightly-coloured wings, with a heft dose of Giotto thrown in for good measure.

A very weird Christmas carol is We Three Kings - it seems to start out quite jaunty (perhaps with the alternative childish lyrics running through my head - '..one in a taxi, one in a car/One on a scooter pipping his hooter..'), but as it goes on it just gets more and more plodding and grim and depressing until you get to 'Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying', you can't help but feel that perhaps the myrrh wasn't the best idea, and even 'Star of wonder, star of night' can't get it going again. It's plodding out there with the Little Donkey for company, on the dusty road...

The Holly and the Ivy is a great one - bucketloads of pagan symbolism, lots of colour, mad rhymes, cheery tune. Can't go wrong with that!

The First Nowell's another good one. I've never really understood 'on a cold winter's night that was so deep' though - deep? It does hint at primary school poetry - 'Quick! We need something that rhymes with sheep! Deep! That'll do!' And that for me is part of its charm.

And of course While Shepherds Washed Their Socks.. we sang that so often at school that I struggle to remember the real words - it's such a vivid image! It's another one I imagine in a Renaissance style - shepherds on the hillside; a wooden tub, half-barrel most likely; blazing stars in the sky; couple of rainbow-winged angels hovering with a washboard between them; and some rather elegant hand-knitted socks. And the sheep have wandered off. Sheep do that.

One we sang at school a few times was called something like 'Now Light One Thousand Christmas Lights' which as far as I can work out from five minutes googling is originally a Swedish song (the title seems to vary according to the translation). It was quite a nice tune and made a change from the very familar 'Away in a Manger' and the like, which is why it stuck in my head I suppose.

Enough wittering - wanna see a flock of owls? Well, three, in a tree:


This was taken yesterday. Today the tree is all frosty. The red and burgundy one is for one of Miss Mouse's teachers (she has two), the red and yellow one is for the Boy's teacher and the blue and brown one is for us. I'm halfway through the one for Miss Mouse's other teacher. It's all very soothing. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy handsewing, especially with felt as there's no hemming or Fear of Fraying.

Oh dear, I just yawned, hit a key at random and thought I'd lost this post. And the cat has reached his chewing the cables time of evening (it's a hint to feed him) so I'd better stop there!

Ta-daa!

Sickeningly proud of this!

Zesty

Mmmmmmmmmmm, nice citrussy smells. I've been drying orange, lemon and lime slices today. Among other things.

I've also done a lot of washing-up, finished another owl and made a hot-water bottle cover for the Boy out of his old fleece dressing-gown. The photographs I took of the hot-water bottle cover came out a bit rubbish so I'll take few more tomorrow and show them off in tomorrow's post because I am inordinately proud of how well it turned out! The Boy likes it and Miss Mouse has already complained that I didn't do one for her too, but the Boy was making do with a pillowcase for a hot-water bottle cover while Miss Mouse has a perfectly good knitted cover made by my mum years ago - probably when I was a student actually.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the dried citrus slices - I saw a picture somewhere of a kind of wreath made out of dried orange slices but I don't think I have enough. Perhaps with large beads for spacers. I have some from my old beaded car-seat cover, though I'd need to paint them. Hmm. Or maybe I could make paper beads..

Reasons To Be Cheerful

What I was going to say for my first Reason was that, looking on the bright side, at least Hurricane Bawbag got rid of the last of the snow. And then this happened:


This week has been All About The Weather. But it is December after all.

So reasons reasons reasons..

1) Pottering around and crafting - sewing owls, doing a bit of knitting and making stuff with paper. This has been taking my mind off the stress of shopping centres in December. There's nothing quite like a panic attack in Primark is there?

2) The positive side of shopping centres in December is meeting up with my friend L for coffee and chocolate and orange tart (*drool*) and a mooch around the shops.

3) Sleep. I love sleep. I don't get nearly enough of it. I love my bed. I love cold nights with snow falling outside, a book and a hot-water-bottle. I love falling asleep with a cat curled up next to my feet. The cats used to be barred from our room - we even put a lock on the door because they could shove it open, but now that they've stopped pouncing on feet at random times in the night and just curl up purring we've decided to let them in if they want. They seem happier.
I came home from the dreaded shopping centre today with much-needed new pyjamas and some brushed cotton trousers which are described as 'loungewear'. So pyjama bottoms for people who don't usually wear pjs. They're a sort of pastel tartan and not deeply flattering for those of us blessed with curves, but so warm and comfortable. Yay for winter!

owl

It was an unexpected day with the kids as the schools were all closed due to high winds/scarey weather forecasts. So, going a bit stir crazy again....

On the other hand, I finally had the chance to finish the owl, make a Bambi casserole and start another owl (very nearly finished it too - much quicker this time round).

Folowing on, from a conversation with my brother yesterday - how do you spell the thing owls are supposed to say but actually don't? Tu-whit tu-whoo? The more you think about the more your mind goes blank (cue spooky music). Or perhaps that's just me and my brother.

somebody designs boot tread patterns

That was today's odd thought. Somebody has to sit down and design the tread of boots and shoes. And tyres I suppose, though I imagine that has slightly less to do with interesting patterns and bit more to do with function.

Imagine them meeting the Queen - 'And what do you do?' 'I design boot tread patterns Ma'am' 'That must be very interesting' (actually this may be King Thistle).

Someone designs the patterns on upholstery for trains and buses (coaches) too. And curtains-round-beds in hospitals (this was a thing that struck me when I was drugged up to the eyeballs* and floating round the ceiling after giving birth to Miss Mouse). Well, whoever they are, I praise them, bringing abstract patterns and odd colour combinations to the world.

Right, so, today. Yeah, more of the white stuff.

the 'school run'

The cats didn't know whether to go in or out, so settled for both, at frequent intervals of course. I did this and that (mostly opening and shutting doors for the cats, come to think of it), and had a go at sewing. Just hand-sewing - I still haven't figured out the accursed sewing machine yet. Wanna see? I had a ridiculous amount of fun playing with the the possibilities for the eyes:

'paranoid'

'exasperated'

But I'll just do eyes-forward for this one I think. I'm looking forward to the embroidery bit. I don't think it'll turn out as good as the ones in the book or the ones Andamento made but so far it's easier than I expected. Quite absorbing. I do need good light though. Ooh, just realised it's Monday (d'oh, need more sleep) so this is a Making Monday post!

* only co-codamol actually but it made me reeeeally spaaaced ooout.

Making (A Mess) Monday 2

Ah. Well.

I was Not Great at sewing at school. I got by, but I most certainly was not a natural and I was convinced that sewing-machines hated me. Since then I've mostly avoided them, but I'd really love to able to make things - cushion-covers, that kind of thing. So naturally I decided today, Making Monday, was the day to re-acquaint myself with the sewing-machine. Well Miss Mouse/the cats and the Boy were distracted by Scalextric and the Wii respectively so it was a good opportunity.


This is my husband's machine - he used it a lot in our re-enactment days, while I stuck to handsewing. I can't remember what he used it for last, most likely something motorbike-related, but it was fairly recently and it's been sitting underneath the dining-table for a month or two.

What surpised me as I tried to thread it was how much I remembered. I got it slightly wrong and had to Google it but mostly it was right. I don't actually remember using a sewing-machine between the day I dropped sewing at school (1984!) and today so I'm quite pleased about that! Then I realised the needle was bent and had to be replaced - managed that. Then the bit holding the bobbin in fell out and I figured out how to put that back in.. eventually. I even got as far as actually doing a bit of sewing, but all I got was tangled threads and a row of holes. It was just like being at school again!


I've been googling for answers. I think the upper thread is snapping but I can't work out why. I did noticed it had seemed to get tangled down by the bobbin at least once. Maybe that's the problem.

So I've sewn nothing, but I've enjoyed tinkering, googling, and watching Youtube idiot's guides to sewing. And as sewing isn't really possible while watching television (I'm choosing A Town Called Eureka over riot news coverage) I've been doing a bit of comfort knitting. Since I enjoyed making a couple of squares for the Ursula's Donegal Blanket (pictures of the finished objects, two blankets, here - no idea which are my squares though), I've decided that for those times that I need fairly mindless soothing knitting I'll use up my stash making blanket squares and eventually I'll have a blanket. So Square One:

While writing this post I paused to feed the cats and managed to splash cat-food all over the place (Opticat salmon & crab in gravy is very runny, just so you know..) so I smell of cat-food. How lovely. On that revolting note I'll finish for the night.