Transformations

 I spent several hours this week transforming the mud patch in front of the house, to improve the appearance.  It used to be scraggly lawn when we moved in, but it doesn't get much sun. Even planting it with shade grass seed didn't help much.  Planting the hedge to keep the teenage gangs off our our front wall cut off the last of the sunshine and triggered the complete demise of the grass.  Leaving us with an unattractive mud patch:

I'd been thinking about what to do with it for some time, but had to wait until the scaffolding was down.  With help from online inspiration, I headed out with the small spade on Monday afternoon and started excavating a new path. DH helped dig out the rest of the path after work (although we had to work around some tree roots), and I put down some weed suppressing membrane left over from when we did the back garden path several years ago. We lined the path with random bricks we had lying around. DH helped me spread some homemade compost onto the remaining mud, then I dug it over to create a new planting bed.  I've planted it up with various ferns, ivy, evergreens, vinca and begonia that I have stolen from other parts of the garden. So eventually those should all grow and cover the bed (if they survive the winter). We covered the membrane with some  horticultural grit, and brought around some random stone slabs and pavers we had stashed.  So the only thing we've actually had to buy was bags of blue slate to finish the path.  It's still looking a bit raw but it's hugely better than it was.  Once the plants grow, they will hide the wobbly bricks better.  I need to trim down the membrane so you can't see it.

Another transformation this week was to turn a folding table into a portable ironing surface.  Several ladies bring bigger versions of these to the retreat I went to, it's such a good idea because it creates an L-shape working area and frees up space on your main table.  I bought a cheap wooden table off Amazon and beefed its understructure up a bit with additional bracing, but it is a bit wobbly compared to their more robust versions.  The added larger top is a bit of old dining table from the in-laws, covered with a couple of layers of wool wadding and some canvas, and screwed onto the original table. I sized the top so that I can iron a complete FQ or yardage folded in half.

A big finish this week is my Aran jumper, the very old knitting UFO that I found when I tidied up my knitting room.  I bought the pattern and yarn back in the early 90s when I couldn't even knit properly, it's supposed to be patterned all over but I eventually realised that would make me look like the Goodyear blimp.  At some point over the years, I ripped out my initial bodged attempt at the front, and re-knit the front then added a machine-knit plain back before running out of yarn.  When I tidied up the knitting room, I found a cone of a cream Aran yarn which isn't exactly the same colour but it's close.  So I've hand-knit two sleeves and finished the neckline off and it's done!  It was a nice fit but I am blocking it on my nifty Shetland jumper frame which will change the shape slightly, hopefully for the better. One interesting feature is that I have run a cable down the top centre of the sleeve and put my decreases on either side of that, instead of under the arm.  A video I watched on Youtube suggests that this helps a dropshoulder jumper fit better.

Another finish this week was the Lace Scarf that was my travel project on various holidays over the past year, because the chart was only four lines high which made it easy to memorise. It's knit in fingering weight wool. I attempted to block it over a cardboard stretcher the way I learned on my course at Shetland Wool Week but it wasn't entirely successful - my temporary lacing on the sides wasn't very even and has led to some rippling.  The lace has really opened up though.

In sewing this week, I've been ignoring my sewing panel wallhanging in favour of piecing more blocks for the Paducah embroidered blocks quilt, but I also wanted to make an Open Wide Pouch sometimes known as a Magic Pouch.  It's a box-pouch which opens up flat into a fabric tray, to hold for example makeup or tools.  There are a lot of video tutorials on Youtube for these, I picked one and sewed a first attempt which was a bit of a disaster as it turned out the measurements were both wrong, and wrongly converted between inches/cm.  Some of the commenters referenced another video as being much better, and it was - so that's what I ended up using. I used a couple of Aldi FQs and purposely didn't put any stabiliser in - I want to use this for travelling so I wanted to keep the bulk down. So my version is a bit floppy.  I will use it in hotels to corral my possessions in the bathroom, then I can zip it up during the day when the housekeeping might come in.

These pictures are strangely washed out, I think the sun was shining into my camera lens

A local place was doing a Halloween-themed afternoon tea and could do it gluten free, so we headed over on DH's lunch hour this week to treat ourselves.  It was quite fun! Tasty as well.

I don't think I am going to do anything for Halloween this year - in past years I have done a lot of decorating, carved a pumpkin, got in lots of sweets etc. But last year we only had a handful of trick or treaters and neither of us have an office to take the leftovers treats to any longer (DH works from home), and I just don't feel like I've got the energy to decorate this year - so I'm taking a year off. We will go dark on Halloween eve and ignore the doorbell if it rings, but it shouldn't because the unwritten rule is to only visit houses that are decorated.

Happy Halloween if you are celebrating though!