The first intimation of trouble was when I finished off the central section that joins the left and right wings into an overall 'H' shape. The triangular roof supports at the two ends of the central section were part of the construction of the left and right wings so were already glued in place. But it turned out when I went to glue in the beam running along the peak of the central section, that the two end sections were sitting too high by about 3/8th of an inch or more which would have resulted in the central roof section being valley shaped. By that point I had wet glue in all the notches so I did some quick butchery on the notches of the end triangles so that I could drop the beam into place and let it dry.
Initially I thought it was due to the miscut notches that I had found earlier. As everything was now glued together, the only thing I could do was trace a profile off one of the correct middle sections, draw it onto the two end pieces, and hack them down to the new profile with a combination of cutting disks on my Dremel moto-tool, stanley knives and sanding. It looks terrible but will be hidden when the roof is finished.
So I thought everything was ok again and I moved on to gluing on the additional 'fingers' that stick out from the roof to support the curved eaves in chapters 95/96. Only my roof didn't look like the close-up pictures because the side sections of my left and right wings were also sitting proud of the roof triangular supports by about 1/4 inch. Depressingly, it was now clear in the photos in these chapters that the side sections should be flush with the roof triangular supports so that there is a smooth curve all the way from the peak of the roof down to the eave. I don't know how this happened. I sanded all the notches in both the side sections and the triangular supports so they fit easily together, and all four sat proud by the same amount so I thought they were meant to do that. The pictures were small in those earlier chapters so I didn't notice the difference. In retrospect I assume that either the notches were not in fact cut deep enough, or perhaps somehow I managed to consistently not close any of them all of the way. Bleah. I looked at the Italian blogger's pictures and initially her side pieces were also sitting too high, but later they have been sunk down to be flush. I can only assume she worked it out earlier and was able to break the side pieces free and get them to sit lower down.
As my side pieces were glued on with carpenter's glue that is stronger than the wood, I was a bit stuffed. So it was back to the workshop for more bodgery, hacking and sanding to cut the side sections down to be flush with the roof curve. This meant I also had to cut off the 'finger' that sticks out at either end of the side section and re-glue those on, trying to keep them level with the other protrusions. Needless to say they didn't want to glue on because of the tiny gluing surface. I glued in the additional finger struts to help brace the bodged ones, and then dripped hot glue down into all the crevices to help brace the whole thing. So the whole roof is a shredded mess of botched cuts, dried glue, splinters and hot glue drips. Yay me.
Moving on to the next step where you glue on the edging along the finger struts, which becomes the edge of the eaves, I've now discovered that none of the glued-back-on struts are in the right place so I am going to have to break/cut them off AGAIN. I should have skipped ahead to gluing on the edging pieces and used the edging pieces as a guide for where to glue on the broken struts - but I was too busy trying to plug the holes in the dyke. I am starting to feel like throwing the whole disaster out the window and giving the ryokan a nice flat roof instead. Grrrrrr. Just to make it additionally interesting, some of the edging pieces are too short and others are too long, so I am having to cut bits off the latter to splice into the former. Deep breath. Hobbies are fun. Hobbies are fun. Hobbies are fun.
On a more cheerful note, I spent some quality time yesterday at the Fenny Fiddlers Lace Day in Bletchley. Sadly this is the last one, their club having shrunk to the point where they feel they don't have the resources to put on a lace day. It's a shame because this is such a nice day, with a tombola, raffle, suppliers and on this day a fantastic sale of fabric in the afternoon. I don't know if it was someone's stash but there were tables covered in priced plastic bags of fabric pieces mostly £1 a bag, and fat quarters three for £1. As you can imagine, it was an absolute feeding frenzy for about 20 minutes as we mobbed the tables and grabbed things. I didn't have time to examine everything I grabbed in detail until I got home, but almost all of it is good quality patchwork cotton (there are couple of low quality Hobbycraft-type fat quarters mixed in). And look at my haul all for £14.50! (not the yarn).
There's a printed tablecloth panel, loads of FQs, two bags of big scraps, a bit of yardage, and a Baltimore Album book with a started applique project.
The yarn was a separate purchase from one of the suppliers 'The Spotted Sheep' from Leighton Buzzard who had some lovely yarns. This is a skein of Manos del Uruguay which I bought because it came with a free pattern for some cute fingerless mitts in star stitch.
On the day I was working on a small Bucks Point round motif I started last week, using a pattern I got on the secondhand table at the Rushden lace day. I also took my travelling lace pillow with the Bucks Point edging and worked on that for a while in the afternoon for a change.
I did not take my big Bucks Point Hexagonal Edging - because it's FINISHED!! I did the last of the joining last night. It's still pinned to the pillow so what you are looking at is the wrong side of the lace - the right side faces the pillow.
This is a close up of the join - can you see the little raised sausages? Those are the ends wrapped and knotted together to hide them on the reverse side. Hopefully when I turn the lace over, the join won't show much.
I've looked it up and I started pricking the pattern for this back in June 2017! I had thought I'd been working on it for a year but in fact it's been a year and eight months. The joining process alone took several hours. I have more sympathy now for the many lacemakers who finish projects and throw them in a drawer without hiding the ends. I would still like to attach this edging to fabric to turn it into a doiley but the next stage is to carefully remove all the pins from the edge without tugging/distorting any of the edge stitches which will take a while as well.
I didn't do any sewing this week apart from a few alterations, and now my Janome has gone off for a service so there is a gaping hole in my sewing table. I feel a bit bereft but if I want to sew something I could get my Featherweight out. I should get the Janome back next weekend, hopefully back to its old self. It had become a bit cantankerous the last few months.
I finished the decreases on the sleeve I am knitting for the Leaf Yoke Sweater and knit to the advised length then tried it on. The sleeve was skin tight and the bracelet length inappropriate for this heavier weight yarn. So I pulled the sleeve back AGAIN. I'm going to wear this yarn out. I pulled it back to about halfway through the decreases which seems to be a better width for my arm, and now I am just going to knit straight. I'm about elbow length now and I've tried it on and it feels a lot better on my arm. On the second Winterland mitten I am almost to the top of the chart now, so will be doing the ribbing soon.
The weather has turned to warm spring the last few days and the garden has suddenly geared up and taken off. Weeds are sprouting everywhere; snowdrops, crocuses and even a few daffodils are blooming, and new green shoots are starting to peep out of dead growth. So I spent some time yesterday hacking back dead stuff, clearing up dead leaves and pulling weeds, and there's still loads to do so I'm heading out to the garden again now. Nice to see the sun!
1 comment:
Your lace is wonderful! Looks like you got a nice haul of fabric. Any plans for it?
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