Some finishes

Bit late posting for last week, I blame DS for getting me started on a new and fiendishly difficult video game (Dark Souls 3) so I forgot to post last night while I struggled with the tutorial (DS had to help in the end).

Some finishes this past week:

Here's a picture of the finished machine knit Christmas Stocking that I blogged about last week, which looks less disproportionate now that it is blocked but I still feel like it should be fatter and shorter.

And this is a machine knit Tuck Stitch Baby Blanket that I tackled after finishing the stocking. It's not lying entirely flat because the edges want to curl even though I've wet blocked the blanket and lightly steamed it.  There is a fine line between edges lying flat and actually 'killing' the acrylic with steam so it goes all floppy and I didn't want to risk it.  This pattern is billed as a 'quick easy charity knit' but was actually a bit of a marathon, almost 600 rows on 198 needles using the patterning mechanism which gives the machine carriage a lot of resistance.  So it was more like a full upper body workout.  Conscious of having torn a muscle in my chest while machine knitting many years ago, I did the knitting in two bouts with a good rest in between, and I did some of it standing up so I could use my legs to help with pushing the carriage. It went fairly well apart from the cone of acrylic having two knots in it which I didn't notice in time before they knitted into the fabric.

I finished stitching the needlepoint scissor keep and turned it into a fridge magnet as planned.  I found the final seam on the roof quite fiddly and I'm still not entirely happy with it, but I've decided to live with it. This will probably join the companion thatched cottage I stitched several years ago which lives with my collection of house-shaped fridge magnets.

On Saturday I stayed home for a Lace Day - I was meant to go out to a Lace Day but the weather wasn't great and I felt tired and anti-social.  So I stayed home and had a lace day on my own in the study watching YouTube videos while I laced and drank lots of tea.  I did another chunk on my Floral Bucks edging and then when that got too depressing because I don't really know what I'm doing, I switched over to the Bucks Point motif that I started a few months ago and not only finished it off and joined it up, but even sewed it onto the costume jewellery brooch that I bought to go with it.  It doesn't look too bad.  I might wear it to my next Lace outing even though it's a bit on the big side.

I cut out and stitched another 6.5 inch block for the 30s Sampler. My Janome does seem to be behaving itself better although still not what it once was.

Last weekend I started applying the black card covering to the roof of my Japanese dollshouse, after first sculpting down all the bumps of my bodged roof supports using a Dremel rotary tool.  The card went on much more easily than I expected.  I knew my roof supports weren't very even thanks to the problems I had with assembly, but the card was stiff enough that I could use it as an indicator for which supports needed propping up with additional bits of wood glued on.  I also added a few extra supports in the middle of the long front and back eaves for extra strength, and reinforced the valleys from underneath or above with extra strips of card.

Then I opened up several chapters' worth of shingles.  Disappointingly, I have the same problems as the other two bloggers.  At least two-thirds of the shingle strips (which are made out of some kind of resin) are warped, some of them quite badly.  As there is no practical way to clamp the shingles to the roof card once you are away from the eave area, this is a big problem. 

I tried weighing them down under heavy books/weights for a day or two which helped somewhat but did not cure the problem.  Also, some strips are not the same size as the others, just slightly longer with the ridges slightly farther apart.  I suppose it is going to add to the hand-laid tile look but it is also just storing up problems for the future by creating uneven edges.   Trying to clamp the roof is quite frustrating.  The first few rows can be clamped directly to the eaves.  The next few rows after that can be clamped by virtue of clamping a stick to the eaves that extends onto those rows.  But further up the roof there is no way to directly clamp.  I’ve experimented with suspending a heavy weight (an iron mallet hung by a wire) to press the tiles down, which is partially successful but not entirely due to the shingle strips being tapered rather than all one thickness.  The whole thing is annoying because if the shingle strips were identical and all flat, then shingling the roof would be a fairly quick job.

I’ve had to park the project for the next few days because I’ve run out of glue.  I prefer to use UHU glue, which is a universal adhesive that dries clear.  It used to work better back in the day when it had nasty solvents in it, but it is still fairly effective for applications where you want a strong grab on something that can’t easily be clamped. At the same time, it stays repositionable for a while and is not so strong that you can’t pry something off if you change your mind. And the new formulation is fairly fume free. Unfortunately it is getting harder and harder to find UHU glue.  Few High Street stores stock it now and neither does Hobbycraft. Our stationers shop used to have a few tubes but now  that shop closed down. I tried several places over the weekend including two DIY shops without success and in the end I’ve had to order it off Amazon for delivery later in the week.  As a substitute I tried an equivalent product made by Gorilla Glue but didn’t like it at all.  It smells strongly of solvents, dispenses with difficulty as almost a gel so also doesn’t spread well, and the promised strong contact grab in two minutes does not materialise even after waiting five minutes.   It’s also messier. I’m already resigned to having to paint the roof once installed because the tiles are not all the same shade of black, so it’s not the end of the world to get some glue marks on them first. 

 This week I’ve finally made a start on the crocheted afghan kit I bought at Black Sheep Wool last summer.  I’m not much of a crocheter and normal metal hooks hurt my hands, but now I have a set of the nice ergonomic hooks with the rubbery handles.  The yarn is all Stylecraft acrylic, and the afghan is basically a giant granny square with each round in a different colour. To get started I watched several Youtube videos on how to crochet granny squares, with many variances between them and also with my instructions, on how to go on, how to weave in ends etc.  I am going forward with a starting chain of five, clusters of trebles separated by one stitch along each row, two stitches between the clusters on a corner, and finishing with two trebles then slip stitching into the third loop of the starting chain.  I’m worried that with my amateur tension, my square is going to go wonky.  So far it is lying flat but the edges are starting to look a bit frilly.  It is fun changing colours each round, but my elbow is hurting a little from the unfamiliar repetitive movement.

The replacement smaller kissclasp purse frame arrived and I sewed on the fabric body that I made over the Easter weekend out of the Japanese quilting book and using some of the fabric I bought in Japan.  The fit is much better in this smaller 12.5cm frame apart from the sides of the body were too deep for the frame, so I had to slipstitch those closed to prevent gaps.  I guess the moral of this story is don’t make your purse body before you have the frame – although in my case I thought I did have the right frame.  I’m tempted to make another purse to fit the larger frame I started out with, as there are also Youtube videos on how to draft your own pattern to fit a frame.

The garden is just bursting into life at the moment, with visible changes from day to day.  We’ve finally had some rain which has really made a difference.  I’m particularly pleased that several of the bearded irises I had to move to the back garden two years ago, after some vandal tore off all the flowers in our front garden, have thrown up flower spikes this year for the first time since the move. The one year old climbing rose on our new pergola has obligingly produced multiple side shoots from the stems I have been training so we will hopefully get a good show this year.  We had some lovely blossom on our little edible cherry tree and apple tree but the big storm last week got rid of most of that. We've already got cornflowers blooming, and borage, and some other perennials I can't remember the name of.  The tulips and daffs are pretty much over now so I emptied out the pots I planted back in the autumn, but rescued some daffs to replant in the border. Is your garden looking nice?

Going back to school (at my age, eeek!)

Ever since we got back from Japan, I have been dithering about whether to give up on my Japanese language studying.  No sooner have I decided 'yes, definitely giving up' than I start to waver and think about how much time I've put in so far and the small victories along the way.  I don't think self study was very successful for me because it's too tempting to procrastinate plus it's harder to find opportunities to use the language.  My memory is very selective these days about what it wants to store and if the information isn't somehow a priority, it doesn't make the cut. I had a bit of a google and discovered a university offering evening courses with a new term starting soon.  I've signed up, despite worrying that I am far too old to be back in the classroom (probably with a bunch of twenty-year-olds as well...).  I am telling myself that I've already covered all the topics on my own which will compensate for my slower learning speed.  This will be make or break: 10 weeks to see if I do want to keep on with it, or if I am definitely giving up.  10 weeks with less time to do crafts though.

The first part of this week I had no sewing machine set up so I dug out a little kit I bought on our first trip to Japan.  This is one of those 'easy tuck patchwork' kits where you tuck fabric into lines cut into foam.  I bought two of these kits and made the one with the thatch houses last year.  This one is really cute, and only about 6 inches wide.

It's the long Easter holiday here in the UK, and with my day off I have scored a five day weekend - result!  As DS was going to be away for part of it visiting his girlfriend, we planned ahead to spend as much time on hobbies and relaxing as possible, even laying in ready meals for supper so nobody had to cook.  Here we are on day 3, Sunday, and although it's been fun, I haven't got as much done as I optimistically thought.  Although we have wasted time on going out to lunch yesterday and having a cream tea in the garden today... :)

• my Janome sewing machine came back, but only temporarily as they've ordered a part so it will need to go back AGAIN in a month to have that fitted.  I haven't tried it yet but hopefully otherwise it is better. Meanwhile I've been using my Featherweight for the first time since I did all the maintenance on it, it seems to be working fine and it's so cute!

• I spent several hours sewing a snap purse from one of my Japanese books and using some of my Japanese fabrics, only to fall at the last hurdle when I discovered it was too small to sew into the metal snap frame I had.  I've ordered a smaller frame but it won't come until next week now.  I combined a shape from the book, with an applique pattern from another larger bag in the same book, and on the reverse panel I used a piece of cross stitch I bought a few years ago at a jumble sale. It was really lovely to feel I had several hours to just sew without interruptions.  Normally I can't because either I actually get interrupted, or I interrupt myself to go and do chores. I also cut out another block for the 30s sampler.

• I did a bit more work on my floral bucks lace sample, making a start on the next repeat. So I can look back at the hash I made of the first repeat and try to do better. I also finished the pattern for the little brooch design I am making, so just need to do the joining on that one now.

• I actually used one of my knitting machines!  I had a free pattern from online to knit a Christmas stocking so had a go at that.  Some of the motions felt familiar and others were rediscoveries like 'oh yeah, that happens'.  While I was knitting, I tried to decide if I was enjoying myself but I wasn't really.  Partly because based on bitter experience, I was constantly stressed that something would go wrong.  I felt like I had to monitor all the stitches like a hawk to rescue stitches dropping on the end (several times), moving the weights up (which is supposed to prevent the stitches dropping on the end), monitoring the yarn feed for tangles (I was re-using some prewound balls from a long ago project), etc. etc.  So no, it isn't restful like hand knitting.  I suppose with practice I would re-gain confidence and it wouldn't be as stressful.  Also the stocking has come out absolutely enormous, it would fit Hagrid,, it didn't look nearly so big in the picture but I guess it was deceptive.  I used a random fair isle card which, as it turns out, has some longer floats which means the stocking wouldn't be suitable for use as a stocking without a fabric lining to stop things catching on the floats.  I've spent some time sewing it up anyway, but still need to darn in the ends and block it before I take a photo.

• I finished stitching my needlepoint house and seamed it up then stuffed it.  It's actually been seamed and unseamed a few times because I struggled with the three-legged cross stitch recommended to close up the seams, and also found there was far too much canvas left over to get a neat result on the roof.  So I need to unpick the roof now and try trimming and clipping the canvas before another attempt.

• Although I do not class it as a hobby, more like a necessary chore to achieve a desired end, I have done a lot of gardening this weekend as well.  We made a trip to a garden centre on Friday and picked up a bunch of plants to replace the ones that didn't make it through the winter, so I've been planting those up, watering, weeding etc.  The garden is growing visibly overnight now, and just over the last few days both the apple and edible cherry tree have blossomed, they are so pretty.  On Friday we also planted a little weeping cherry tree into a new hole in our lawn, which I ordered when we got back from holiday as I was so inspired by the sakura blossom we saw in Japan.  Two of the branches were cracked - not sure whether it happened in transit or when I was wrestling it out of the ridiculous 12 foot high box - so I've splinted them with bracing and duct tape in the hopes they will knit back together.

DH took a couple of photos for me of my Lacy fingerless mitts that I finished a while back.  I like them but it annoys me slightly that the lace pattern is off centre on my large hands.  If I ever knit them again (unlikely, I rarely repeat projects) I would add a few more stitches between the lace pattern and the thumb gusset to help centre the pattern.

Today we made our biannual trip to the Lamport Hall antiques fair.  It was lovely to stroll around in the sun since it's often rains most years at Easter.  The fair is usually a bit same-y, with the same dealers in the same places selling the same stuff (sometimes literally, I picked up a picture last time that I had looked at probably five times until she finally gave up and dropped the price, I guess she got tired of hauling it back and forth to fairs). But this time there seemed to be quite a few new dealers, and old ones were missing. I wonder what caused the shake up? New rents perhaps, or new management? Anyway, it was good for us and we found several bargains.  I got five nice lace bobbins for only £10; a pair of brass roosters; a 6 cup/saucer tea set with matching cake plate, milk jug and sugar bowl; a few other things and DH bought a book.  We used the new tea set for our cream tea.

Happy Easter! I hope the Easter bunny brought you chocolate and that you've been enjoying some sunshine too.

Blah blah Japan blah blah blah...

Actually I hope that's not what my blog is sounding like!

Today we took my Janome sewing machine on a return trip to the service shop because the visit in February did not cure any of the problems.  On my day off I pieced two more blocks for the 30s Sampler Quilt and the machine was not behaving well at all.  I phoned up to discuss and they are going to have another go at no additional charge. But it means no Janome for another week :(  But I should get it back for sewing over Easter weekend and in the meantime I can use my Featherweight.

I've been working away on my Sanquhar glove this week and have completed up to the fingers and done two of those now.  It's still a bit big but as it is in Jamieson's pure wool, I can give it a slight felting when I wet block which should help.

I've also done a bit more stitching on my tiny needlepoint house.  It's suppose to be a scissor keep but the previous one I stitched, I turned into a fridge magnet by slipping a magnet into the 3-D structure before I stuffed it. I might do that again because I just find scissor keeps annoying.

Dollshouse haul from Japan

Of course when I was in Japan, I kept my eyes open for miniatures that might be suitable for my Japanese dollshouse but didn't have a lot of luck.  Although the Japanese love miniature things, actual dollshouses don't seem to be very common.  I checked out the craft sections in several bookstores and there was usually several books on making miniature food, but I only saw one book on dollshouse scenes.  Gift shops, combini and souvenir stores typically have cute miniature toys or key fobs but not in a suitable scale. Some shops had the Chinese kits for room boxes that you can get through Amazon in the UK.

We hit up the big win on the first day, with a visit to TYA Kitchen, a dollshouse shop in a northern suburb of Tokyo. The owner is famous for his stainless steel kitchen miniatures and regularly visits the Chicago International miniatures show to trade. I had bookmarked the address in Googlemaps in advance, so it was relatively easy to find.

I had a friendly welcome from the owner who speaks some English, and his wife who I don't think spoke any English. The shop is relatively small but absolutely crammed with the most amazing room box displays, many of them highly detailed kitchens and restaurants showing off his amazing work.  Photography is normally not allowed but he kindly allowed me to take some pictures.

The singer on the stage moves about and really sings,

while the television in the foreground is showing actual moving images.

A sushi restaurant, including a 'boat' table floating in a 

pool filled with miniature seafood.

But the most amazing thing  was when DH pointed out to me a replica of my Japanese dollshouse that I am building from the De Agostini kits!  I hadn't even noticed it because I was so busy looking at everything else, lol. I had enough Japanese to be able to say that I was building the same house, which is when he revealed that he was the original designer and that house was the prototype!!  When I looked at it properly I realised it is probably the one that was photographed for my kit instructions. What an unbelievable coincidence.  I always thought that a real Japanese person must have been involved in designing the house because of all the authentic details which go far beyond the usual superficial nod to a period.

So I took lots of pictures of the prototype and was able to buy some items to go inside.  I think all of his stock is 1/12th scale, whereas the Japanese house is 1:20, but I found several items which I think will work anyway.  I also found a mold to make really small sushi, as it turns out his daughter Asami makes amazing miniature food.  Apart from all of his work on display in the room boxes, I didn't see a lot of 'loose' stock by him but I did buy a modern saucepan to go in one of my bigger houses. He had some lovely baskets which will work well in my kitchen, and I picked up another Japanese style kettle and a little porcelain serving spoon.  I found a lasercut wood kit for a 1/12th screen which I will find a home for, perhaps in my Art Nouveau roombox.

And he had several Japanese miniatures books including this one on making miniature food which features work by his daughter.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable visit, I wish I could have communicated better. I'd love to go back to the Chicago show again to see his stock on display.

Also in the photo above is a set of wooden dishes I found in a antiques and bric-a-brac store, again 1/12th scale but I can use as bowls and cauldrons for my house.  The package of green is from a model store we found for DH, and holds three 'cloud pruned' trees intended for railways which will go into my house's garden eventually.

When we were on the island of Shikoku, we visited the Ryozenji Temple. As it is #1 on the 88-temple pilgrimage route, it has a shop selling various supplies to pilgrims like white tabards, staffs, conical hats etc.  In the annexe there was a little display of resin or plastic miniature scenes set in plastic cubes, with a sign in English saying '9 available'.  I couldn't see them on display so I sounded out the name in Japanese and went into the main shop to ask where they were.  The woman looked confused, then light dawned and she asked a colleague.  Then she asked me in Japanese to wait a minute and took off out the door and literally ran across the courtyard to another building.  After several minutes she came back and asked me to wait some more, and then finally a man appeared and walked over holding a box.  The box turned out to be dusty and decrepit and inside were several of these little miniature scenes, with all their boxes looking pretty dusty and battered as well (one of the ones I bought was actually mouldy inside!).  So I kind of think I was the first person to ask about these scenes for a long time! Anyway, they only had about six different ones and I chose the three that I liked best. I took the plastic cubes off for the photograph. There is a garden scene, a temple scene and an interior, and each one is about two inches square.

Some time later, in a gift shop in the Dogo Onsen area in Matsuyama, I succumbed to one of the Chinese kits - this one is to build a Japanese street stand selling tea.

Apart from that I picked up a few more tiny lucky cats, and some nice washi papers and postcards that I might be able to use for interior decoration.

I was delighted to see many real-life examples of period features included in my Japanese dollshouse kit.  We saw many stair-cupboards and even got to use this one to climb to the second floor in a historic house.

The carved fish hanging over a firepit was also a regular sight in the historical houses, and I actually got to see one in action when we dined in a traditional Japanese inn, or ryokan. The waitress brought a kettle of hotpot and adjusted the height it would hang over the coals of the firepit by lifting the fish, raising the iron rod up into the bamboo hanger, then lowering the fish again which acted as a brake.

DH wandering past another fish /firepit in an old samurai house.

The traditional cooker just like the one in my house

Antique cupboard with sliding panels, just like the ones in my kit.

So I took loads of reference photos in old houses and museums which hopefully will help with finishing details for my house.  I also took pictures of Japanese garden features and typical scenes to help me when I do the garden.

Oh, and capsule toy machines are a big thing in Japan, with some 'shops' in malls being nothing but dozens of these machines stacked up. Basically you put in coins from 100 yen (c. 70p) up to 500 yen (£3.50), turn the dial, and a plastic capsule pops out.  Inside will be a random toy from the selection pictured on the machine.  Most of them are anime characters or cutesy toys (I saw several featuring fabric costume hats to put on your cat), but there are also ones that vend components for complicated scenes.  They can be very cute but you are basically gambling that you won't get duplicates.  I wasted about £12 trying to get a perfect 1/12th scale sewing machine out of one vending thing but had to give up in the end after ending up with four things I didn't want, two of them duplicates.  But when I had a go at another machine vending the three components to make a miniature Dogo Onsen (the oldest and famous wooden bathhouse said to be the inspiration behind the bath house in the Studio Ghibli film 'Spirited Away'), I managed to get all three in just three goes, much to DH's amazement as he was gloomily predicting three duplicates.

This picture is missing the tiny white heron which should be on the highest tower as I had completely overlooked it in the packaging. Luckily DH asked where it was so I went back and looked and found it.

I haven't actually touched my Japanese dollshouse since coming back but I'm hoping to get back to work on the roof over the Easter weekend.

Normal business resumes

I'm a bit late posting this week (last week really) because I was busy all weekend on a bobbin lace weekend.

Japan is already starting to feel like it was a while ago.  I survived the first week back at work, albeit in a bit of a brain fog on the first Monday. I went to machine knitting club on Thursday night which was well worthwhile as they were giving away dozens of patterns and pattern booklets, so several of those came back home with me.  I am hoping to actually dust off one of my knitting machines on the long Easter weekend and have a go at something small.

Friday night I joined the bobbin lace weekend, where I was working again on the Floral Bucks Point edging that I started in September.  As it's my first attempt, it is full of errors and eyesores but it is actually lace and I haven't felt like giving up.  I can see a visible improvement in what I did over the weekend compared to what I did in September although I am still making loads of errors.  It's a much more freeform lace than doing geometric bucks point, so you have to learn by encountering different situations and trying solutions to see what they look like (generally not great in my case but I'm getting better).

Sunday finished in mid afternoon so I had time when I got home to sew myself a new camera pouch/bag for the point and shoot we took to Japan, because the bag I made for the previous camera was a bit small for this new one.  I looked around online until I saw one on Pinterest that looked fairly simple, then drafted a pattern using scrap fabric.  I cut two pieces from singlesided Bosal foam and fused the foam to some of the linen weight fabric I bought in Japan.  I finished the edges with normal quilting weight cotton.  It felt nice to be sewing again. I like the cats, they're cute without being cutesy.

I bought a good collection of textiles in Japan.  We hit Nippori fabric town on the first full day, and I got to spend more time there this time round.  There are so many great fabrics but most of the places only do 1 metre minimum cuts so the bulk and weight soon adds up when you are conscious of getting it into a suitcase. So I couldn't go mad. I picked up several character fabrics in a linen weight thinking of making bags and pouches, and a lace print on blue which has already been made into a cover cloth for my lace pillow.  The Liberty print at the bottom left is a lightweight jersey destined to be a t-shirt. I subsequently happened upon several more fabric or textile shops in various shopping malls, and even some gift shops on Shikoku were selling bags of scrap fabric.  After picking up two quilting books in BookOff (a big secondhand book chain), I purposely started trying to buy the subdued taupe palette that is so characteristic of Japanese quilting, and some indigo print scraps.

These are the two books.  I can't read much Japanese but their quilting books are full of diagrams and measurements (and inspiration).

Another tempting textile you see everywhere are little fabric bags, generally intended for putting gifts into as the Japanese are big into gift giving.  Sometimes they are meant as little bags to be carried with summer kimono.  Naturally they all look like knitting bags to a knitter, so several of those came home with me as well (some for gifts).

We saw loads of  shops selling textiles for the home, such as wall hangings, pretty towels in many sizes and fabrics, wrapping cloths, table linens, door curtains etc.  All very tempting.  I bought a few wall hangings but without the scroll fittings at the top and bottom, to keep them more portable.  I don't know if I will make my own scrolls or incorporate these into quilted wall hangings.

 This is a door curtain which is now decorating the top of our ensuite door frame, hanging from a length of bamboo.

This is a wrapping cloth, or furoshiki.  These come in different sizes and all kinds of gorgeous prints, and can be ingeniously folded or tied to carry or cover all shapes of items.  I bought two fittings to go with mine: hoop handles and a strap, but I need to learn how to tie it still.

And of course there were the gorgeous kimono shops which I didn't even dare go into, as they didn't look like places that would welcome gawping foreigners who weren't going to buy.

But I did go into a few secondhand kimono shops, and in one I picked up a kimono jacket because I liked the patchwork effect. I think this is called a haori and is worn over a kimono.  I'm going to give it a wash and see what it looks like with work trousers. It's not cotton, it has a bit of texture to the fabric, not sure if it is polyester or perhaps a silk blend.

I had my own textiles with me as I was knitting on the red and white Sanquhar glove on the plane and on train rides, and I also brought a little needlepoint scissor keeper to work on as well for a change.  A couple of our shinkansen (bullet train) rides were three hours so it was pleasant to have some crafts to work on while we watched the scenery whizz by.