May you live in interesting times

'May you live in interesting times' is supposed to be a Chinese phrase that sounds like well-wishing but is actually a curse.  I have similar mixed feelings after receiving a phone call from my boss this morning to inform me that enough people have quit from my redundancy pool that the rest of us get to keep our jobs.

Obviously it is a relief to not have to look for a new job, and to know that I will continue to receive my salary.  On the other hand, I was feeling very stressed last week as it began to look increasingly likely that I would be staying.  Going, while kicking off a whole new journey, was at least simple. Staying, on the other hand, means adapting to a huge amount of change in a job that I'm not that keen on in the first place. The team will be moving to a new part of the building which alarmingly is adjacent to the most senior bigwigs, I'll be losing team mates and gaining new ones, I'm going to have more work and some of it is rather scary. My boss said bracingly that I'll "get more exposure".  I'm quite happy being unexposed, thank you very much - I much prefer a quiet life staying as anonymous as possible. I'm not good with change.

Lace Day

Saturday was the Lace Day that I was rather nervous about attending, but it turned out to be lovely.  Everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming. There were about 40 or so ladies there, and as well as doing bobbin lace there were lots of other crafts in evidence as well: cross stitch, crochet, knitting, even some English paper piecing.  I worked on a third Torchon lace bookmark and finished it, and then had a go at a new sample (which all went wrong so I've had to start over now). I talked to lots of ladies and looked at what they were doing, and there was even homemade cake in the afternoon.  There was also a sales stall and I picked up 14 pairs of nice wooden bobbins at .50p each which was a bargain and means I can replace almost all of my plastic bobbins now.  They announced some more lace days later in the year so I will plan to go to a few of those. It was really helpful to mingle with people who know what they are doing when I am just a beginner.

Above is m-i-l's bookmark which I posted to her on the weekend.

Above is the third bookmark I made at the Lace Day.  Still making mistakes

even on my third go however.

Garden

We've continued to plug away at the garden.  On the weekend we transferred over the grass from the new path to the old path, and laboriously levelled out the dirt in the central circle and the new path.  After tamping it down, we spread over the hardcore that we had dug out of the old path.  The gravel which is the final surface is being delivered on Saturday morning so by then we need to be ready to spread it. We need to set up the edging and pin down the weedproof fabric first.

You can also see in the picture that lots of things are blooming or growing leaves, even trees that were moved, The re-located lawn pieces are still alive, although I've been having to water every few nights with all this hot dry weather we've been having.

We went to a church's plant sale on the weekend that I found advertised online.  We were able to get about 10 medium sized plants and two trays of annuals for just £21, and I've planted them out to fill some of the bare patches around the garden.

Other crafts

This week I started knitting the miniature Aran sweater that will be appliqued to the blank square I knitted last week, for the GAA Afghan.  This is the body and then the sleeves are knit separately.

I'm still plugging away at the Battle of Five Armies MKAL final clue.  There are now hundreds of stitches and I've had to switch up to my longest 150cm cable.  During one TV episode I can only knit about four rows but it's straightforward knitting.

Commuter knitting is still the second Basketweave sock - I've turned the heel and am decreasing the gusset.

I finally blocked the rest of my Cabled Cardigan and I've started sewing it up.  I couldn't remember which pieces I had blocked, and spent about 10 minutes comparing knitting trying to work it out. The sleeve still attached to the yarn ball obviously hadn't been blocked, but I had to look on this blog in the end to discover which pieces I HAD blocked. I suppose if you can't tell the difference then it isn't that crucial...

On the sewing front, I've stitched in more of the lining to my Rowan Denim knitted bag.  I also made the first sleep eye visor.  I traced around my old worn out visor for the pattern, and lined it with black felt to block the light. The inside is a sort of minky-like fabric from a dressing gown.  The visor is comfortable to wear but the fleece inside makes it fairly warm.  So I am planning to make another one in cooler fabrics in case I need to wear one in summer.

Next weekend is a Bank Holiday (long) weekend here in the UK, so something to look forward to.  We will be spreading gravel on Saturday, but hope to get to some historic houses and gardens if the weather is nice.