More nothingness

Another chunk of time spent sitting in the hospital today, none of it wasted though. The latest pair of boot socks finished, toes Kitchener stitched and ends woven in.

A new pair cast on, cuff ribbing done and 3 pattern repeats knitted. I am using the broken rib from the Blueberry waffle socks again, it is the SO,s choice. He says it is soft and stretchy without going baggy.

My poor W had a mixed bag of news today, the schegren syndrome has started to affect his hands. The ray of hope is that there is some radical treatment that can be tried. My fingers will be crossed, I can think of very little more devastating than losing the use of my hands.

I told you all that my Christmas Eve cast on was nearly finished, well it was. I had a few rows left on the sleeves and then the front  and neck bands to do and I ran out of yarn. My own fault, I knitted the body and the sleeves longer and never once did it occur to me that I may run out, I had an extra 100 grams after all. Yardage!!! I did not check  it DUH, Rookie error.Guess I wont be making that mistake again in a hurry.

I bought a full pack of this on a promotion from Debs wool shop months ago, maybe a year or more.

Gutted, I bit the bullet and launched a search on the net. WOO HOOI not only found the yarn in the right colour BUT  it was the same dye lot !!!!! How lucky was that.

I was prepared to cut the waist ribbing off and use that yarn to finish the sleeves. Then I would have used a complimentary colour for all the ribbing. All that time saved. Cue happy dance.

I got my yarn from The Knitting Network, a company that I had never come across.
They have a good array of yarns and patterns, in particular some vintage classics that I will be paying close attention to.

I will get cracking on finishing up my cardigan as I have the yarn ready to knit 2  Andi Satterlund  patterns.

It is time to 'fess up here, while I was madly looking to see if a stray ball  of my yarn had hidden itself in the rest of the yarn stash, I found 3, Yes 3, sweater quantities of Aran weight yarn. I had forgotten all about it but once discovered I remembered ordering it a looong while ago. Needless to say that will be featuring on my Make 9 list of yarny things.

I have been watching Tina from the Simply Stitching Podcast showing her 333 wardrobe plan. I had to go and check my wardrobe out and realised that I don't use 33 items of clothing in 3 months. Then I thought aha, what about hats and scarves. I have a box of hats and scarves on the shelf in the hall and grab them at random every time I leave the house.
Tomorrow I will be removing all but 2 of each and washing the rest. Then I will have a recount.

On that note I am leaving you as it is almost time to walk the dogs. 

                       TTFN                                              Pam

Much ado about Nothing

With apologies to the Bard, I feel that today has been all hustle and bustle with very little to show for it. I got the dogs out early as it is hospital day for W and he had an earlyish appointment. On the way home he likes to stop and have a mooch round Tesco and some days we do Home Bargains as well. 

I did pick up a few bargains, sausage meat at half price all tucked away in the freezer. Extra thick double cream, to go with chocolate, nut and ginger pudding for the SO tonight and for a Stilton sauce tomorrow. I was going to buy some shoulder steaks to pan fry and have the sauce with but there was a lovely shoulder joint much cheaper and twice the size so scooped that up as well. On getting it home it will make 3 meals and some crunchy crackling, not a healthy treat but hey ho.

There were parsnips and carrots reduced so some of those are now in the fridge, that was just the job as I used all the root veg this morning. I peeled and diced it along with an onion and 5 cloves of garlic, tossed it in a teaspoon of oil with salt and pepper and gave it 15 minutes in a hot oven, my combi oven is great for these little jobs. The into the slow cooker with some veg stock, a tin of plum tomatoes and dried herbs, a good shake of liquid smoke and lid on for the rest of the day on the low setting.
To go with it I have pulled some herb, cheese and olive scones from the freezer, I made 2 trays full a while back and tucked them away.

While I was at it I replaced the ironing board so I can resume the Make 9 on Friday. I have another hospital trip with W tomorrow and that just takes up all of my sewing time. I do get the bonus of guilt free daytime knitting though, the SO will soon be getting another pair of boot socks. I like to have socks or a hat to work on as I can chatter away with the other patients and their drivers, just like today they often run late. We had a lively session today and around 7 of us completed a crossword. The couple sitting next to me had lived in Suffolk for a few years and new my home village and Diss the town that I lived in for many years.
We were in complete agreement that Cromer is a "windy ole hole" but that the town is a gem.

The SO has just cleaned and threaded the overlocker/serger with white thread so I am all set to start the dress.

I have just time for a cuppa before braving the elements with the dogs, there were a few flakes of snow last night but it came to nothing. I feel for those who were dumped on last night I saw it on the weather report this morning.

                         TTFN                                                 Pam

1 down, and a BOGOF

Hollyburn is finished and I love her. I still have not decided whether to add more of the bright fabric or not.

No photo yet but I found a smaller piece of blue fabric that was left from an old project and squeezed a skirt from it. I used the Delphine pattern from Tilly and the Buttons book, there will be a new book fairly soon so I will be having a look at that.

Once again I had to have a very narrow waistband, I quite like that as I do not need to interface, and I used a blue fabric to add inseam pockets.

That little blue bag on the floor is full of crushed walnut shell and it stops the door from banging into the wall.

 I have plans to replace it with something prettier but not one of those white and metal proper thingies, far too boring. I will possibly make an Owl in some bright fabrics. That will give me a reason to use my die cutting machine, it has sat unused and neglected for over 3 years!! 

Bad Pam, but it was a surprise gift, more of a shock really. It is a Big Shot Plus and I could not justify buying patchwork dies as I have a collection of rulers and templates.

Any how, I just wanted to keep you all updated and now it is time to walk Rufus, then I will be finishing off the Delphine before having a tidy up. I will need to get white thread back onto the overlocker/serger before starting the dress that is cut out, AND I completely forgot about the lining so it will be some white cotton lawn that is on top of the stack.

                   TTFN                                                Pam

PS. I found a new podcast to watch, Gaga Knits. She is from South Wales and is on a learning curve. It is knitting, crochet and sewing with a bit of Mary Berry and some lovely shots of her gorgeous little dog. Number 2 has just been posted and both episodes are worth paying a visit to.

Oopsadaisy, a near disaster.

I was in the sewing room, yesterday evening, wrestling with the printer. It just refused to print one page of a download. When I stepped back and the ironing board collapsed upon me.

It is a write off, dead, kaput, a bit like the Parrot sketch from Monty Python.

I am not too concerned as it was getting on a bit    but   resting on it were 1, the overlocker. 2, the laptop. 3, my pile of patterns and fabrics from yesterdays post.

Luckily the S O was with me and leaped to the rescue, I removed the offending board and he launched the salvage mission.

All is well, so far. He is at this very moment threading up the overlocker (with the grey thread for my skirt) and then will try it out. Fingers crossed that it all works, I can overlock on the big Janome but it is not as good as the real thing.

I cannot find a grey zip, I know that there are at least 3 somewhere, that will be over that rainbow! I refuse to buy another, apart from the cost I would have to drive out to Carmarthen and then not be certain of getting the right colour.

So in the interests of time and cash economy I will use black, as i use the lapped insertion method it will not show (although a bright red one that shows might be cool).

I will have to get a replacement board but that can wait till Wednesday when I do the hospital run. The ironing basket is empty and I can use a small table top board for the seam pressing in the mean time.

I am off now to take Rufus for a delayed walk, rain prevented the normal time but it has stopped now.

               TTFN                                                 Pam

Hip Hip Hooray, it is working like a dream as opposed to a nightmare!!

Planning, erratically.

2018 make nine, that,s all very well but Which Nine?

I am trying, some would say very trying, and I have pulled some fabrics and patterns from the stash. I have even cut 2 projects out.
1.

First up is an old favourite, my tried and trusted Hollyburn skirt. I have made many versions of this and hacked it into a dress pattern 3 times (and will be doing so again).

The cord was deep stash and bought for cushions that never got made, I just had enough to get the main pattern pieces. The waistband is half the given pattern width and the pockets are some Christmas fabric. I just love the bright colours and the print is small enough that it doesn't scream Christmas, I may add a band of it to the hem or sew a strip onto the skirt about 3" above the hem. 

2.

This is a new pattern, part of my "half price haul" from Hobbycraft.

The fabric is also deep stash and I will be lining this dress as it is quite lightweight. 

Like the Hollyburn this is cut out, I just need to decide on the lining.

Any suggestions will be gratefully received, I usually use a cotton lawn but read somewhere that polycotton is good.

3.

I have had this fabric for over a year, it is a cotton jersey and I went completely crazy and ordered metres of it. (I got click happy)

I can not remember where the pattern came from, possibly a freebee from a sewing mag. I quite like a wrap dress and this will be my first jersey sewing adventure (cue my word of the year Explore).

4. & 5.

This pattern was also a half price bargain and will be made up in this cotton, if I like it I hope to get one out of the lilac print above.

6.

The last of my half price patterns along with the deepest stash fabric that I have. I can not remember where and when this was purchased, which is shameful as it is lovely. This will probably be lined or I might make a full length slip to wear with it.

7.

I love this vibrant print and it will become a top, probably the Grainline Hemlock Tee. I still have to print this pattern off and then try to stick it all together. I am not a lover of PDF patterns but am willing to make an exception for this.

8.

The same applies to this print, I bought oodles of it and have used it as accents in various makes. It is high time that it stood alone as another Hemlock tee.

9.

This is another deep stash fabric, I am reasonably certain that I bought it from The Fabric Guild in the first year that I moved to Wales. I am not sure what it will become as it is in 2 pieces, a little blip in my ordering process.

I now need to decide on the yarny list. I have almost finished my Christmas Eve cast on cardigan and once the last button has been sewn on (first I need to buy them) I will compile that list. There are 2 patterns that I need to print off and then it will be a stash diving exercise to marry yarn with pattern. I will be buying one more sweater quantity of yarn but that is for Francesca (one lot has landed) and I will share them at the same time.

I am now in serious need of tea and I have 2 cakes to make before lunch.

               TTFN                                                Pam

P.S. Just popped back to say that it is taking an age for replies to comments to get published. It was so bad at one time that I gave up altogether. It has gone down from 5 minutes each to about 1 minute. Is anyone else having this issue or am I just lucky? 

I painted ........

and lived to tell the tale. I am not a good painter. I can cut in with a steady hand all day with no trouble but ask me to paint a wall and Oh Dear. I did persevere today and painted the kitchen, the SO was very kind and made no comment. In fairness it was a small space and I was using magnolia on magnolia, it will suffice, fingers crossed. Then I moved out into the little front garden, this had turned into a weedy, bramble infested patch. It is now weed free and I plan on raking it over tomorrow morning, if it was warmer I have several spare plants that could go in. Never mind, as the estate agents say "it is a blank canvas" well almost, there is a well established Acer and a magnificent Pieris.

The SO has a little bit of wood to finish off tomorrow and I will clean all the windows and polish the door furniture (love that expression).

Some body called today and expressed an interest in renting it, we passed their details onto the owner.

I have given the sewing room a bit of a blitz, fabric has been pulled ready to iron, next week my make 9 will commence. I am waiting for yarn to arrive and then I will show you my planned makes.

For now, all I can concentrate on is dinner, chicken and ham pie, the last of a batch made in August, mashed white and sweet potato mix with carrots, peas and calabrese. There is a mango and blueberry crumble for pudding or cheese and biscuits.

That,s it, I am off to the kitchen to "sling hash" as one of my American friends calls it.


                             TTFN                                     Pam

P.S. I had a comment, containing a link from an anonymous source I never publish such comments, I just label them as spam.

No Paint Today

Not from me at least, the SO has been slapping it on like a demon. I have been scraping a wall down ready to be primed and then painted. Then I stripped the kitchen out and had a wonderful time, up to my arm pits with sugar soap, degreaser and general purpose cleaner. The extractor fan was so thick with grease that it peeled off in long strips, sweet.

Anyway the worst is behind us, some masking tape to be applied tomorrow and then it will be time to tackle the woodwork. 

I managed to get the ribbing done on the sleeves and 4 rows of stocking stitch before the siren call of my bed was too loud to be ignored any more.

I added another 500 steps to my walk this morning and (Ben willing) will add another 500 this afternoon, in 20 minutes in fact.

I better get my tea drunk and get Ben into his coat, it is still bitterly cold here but mercifully dry.

                     TTFN                                   Pam