A taste of freedom

Lockdown regulations were partially relaxed this past week, with much confusion and contradiction between politicians.  But there seems to be general agreement that you are now allowed to drive as far away from your home within England as you like, but without staying overnight. So today we headed down to Hampshire on a two-hour drive to check on the vulnerable in-laws.  Having given them strict instructions in advance (no hugging, no cups of tea etc.) we entered through their back garden gate and sat six feet away from them on the folding chairs we had brought from home and had a lovely catch up for an hour.  And then we drove two hours home (snacking in the car on food we had brought with us).  We are now both exhausted (DS is fine, he slept there and back) from the unaccustomed activity, especially DH who hasn't driven more than 15 minutes in a week for a couple of months.  I have to say it felt deeply wrong to be heading out of town, like I was being naughty and would be caught out soon by the authorities.  But there were a surprising number of cars on the road, and service stations appear to be open at least for toilets, and I didn't see any police or roadblocks. The in-laws, who have been shut in for several weeks longer than we have, were thrilled to bits to see us in person.  I took my Let's Bake quilt to show her in person, she really liked it.

The gift I posted last week has now been received so I can put some pictures on the blog.  This was a printed panel by Janet Clare for Moda featuring her characters Freya and Friends, and makes up into a delightful little cottage pillow which opens up to show the room interior. It comes with three figures, a dog, two toys, as well as a tea set, food and bedding.  There were a lot of pieces to sew up over a couple of day, but it was quite charming and I enjoyed seeing it come together.

I found out about the panel some months ago when it was already discontinued, so I put a search on eBay and eventually an unopened one came up for sale.  I thought it would be a nice treat for the daughter of a knitting friend stuck at home during lockdown, and her mother reports that she loves it and that it has really cheered her up.  She sent several pictures of a delighted little girl, which is really lovely to see.

This week my main project has been trying to sew myself a sun dress.  It's not finished yet because I have sent away for some red overlocker thread to do the skirt which hasn't arrived yet, hopefully  it will come tomorrow.  As I have mentioned before, I'm not much good at making clothes but I'm trying really hard to do a good job this time.  This is the fabric and trim.  I've got the bodice done and it looks ok and seems to fit.

This week I finished the fabric centre for my Bucks point hexagon doiley.  It's come out fairly well.  The doiley is lying nice and flat and the hemstitching is reasonably even.  The fabric has relaxed to fit the opening resulting in a few wrinkles in this fine fabric but they aren't as obvious in person as they are in the picture.  It took ages to do, I an see why so many lacemakers just put their finished lace in a drawer and never turn it into anything. Mine has gone underneath the glass top of my dressing table where it is safe and I can see it every day.

In knitting I finished the back for my Hey Teach cardigan re-knit.  I wet blocked it to check my gauge which isn't too bad, slightly loose which is typical for me.  I'm not happy with the armhole on the right where it's really obvious that I switched from lace to plain knitting once I had decreased to less than a full repeat.  I should have tried harder to make a substitute decrease for the remaining stitches.  I'm doing it better on the fronts, I may go back and re-knit the upper back afterwards. You can see the cat isn't impressed with my efforts.

I've made a good start on the next cross stitch house in my sampler.  I also took a little cross stitch motif a friend had posted me, wrapped it around a button and hot glued a magnet on the back to make a little needleminder which is fun.

My manager thinks I will be issued a laptop before the end of the month, so it is increasingly looking like I may have to remember how to do my job soon.  It literally feels like something I used to do years ago and have only the vaguest memories of. I'm not looking forward to it at all, I've gotten very used to my low-stress days and my new routine.

Several roses have started blooming in our garden now, this is the one on our pergola which is a David Austin rose called Madame Caroline Testout.  I haven't done a very good job training it onto the pergola despite making an effort, there are roses lower down then a big patch of bare stems topped by a vigorous toupee effect on top. Not sure what to do to fix this for better coverage, any advice greatly appreciated.