You know you're getting older when...

DS reminded me today that his girlfriend has invited him to a friend's wedding this summer. He's never been to a wedding so I was briefly mentioning a few things to think about, like appropriate clothing, when I realised that I can't remember when I last went to a wedding.  I have been to several funerals over the years as the previous generation passes onwards, but I honestly can't think of the last time I went to a wedding.  I think it might be as long ago as the early 90s when a friend got married in France and we went over there for the ceremony. Not surprising I guess, since our age group are now all in their 50s.  Although a 57-year-old friend at work is getting married soon for the third time so I guess it's never too late. Don't know her well enough to get invited to that wedding though!

Continuing the theme of being old and staid, we've had a nice bank holiday weekend (yes, another one) with visits to antique shops yesterday in Olney, and today to some lovely open gardens in the very pretty village of Newnham, near Daventry, open under the National Garden Scheme for charity.  I've just come in from planting out some Lady's Mantle and Sweet Williams that I picked up at the plant sale there for a very reasonable £2 per medium sized pot.

Wonderfully done full-size hobbit door that someone had installed into 

a wall supporting a raised terrace next to their driveway.

Because why not?

beautiful stairs made from recycled decorative bricks

Lovely gothic cottage with a garden full of lupins

I saw many nice things in the antique shops but actually came home with some relatively modern things: a beautiful cross stitch and embroidered sampler dated 2010 with a South Africa framer's mark on the back, and a hanky with a tatted border.  I don't like the way the sampler has been framed, the mat board colour isn't great and they've floated the mat with spacers between it and the linen which creates odd shadows.  I might take the frame apart and see if I can improve it.  Or perhaps get a mat in a different colour cut for it.  We also found a plain but sweet round tea tray with two metal handles and I had a dig around in my box of vintage doilies to find a nice ecru crochet doiley that fits perfectly.

In another shop in Olney called My Little Vintage (full of treasures) I saw a wonderful collaged box being used to display a needlefelted robin.  The box itself was not for sale but was full of wonderful vintage cotton reels, buttons and needle packets.  I would love to make something like it for myself. I have sometimes seen vintage reels for sale at antique shops, now that I want to buy some I will probably never see any again...

I've decided against randomly buying a sewing machine sight unseen, so will wait until we can visit a showroom with a lot of machines to try.  I've got the Janome back again so there's no real rush now that I've decided not to go for the 8200QCP sale which ends 3 June.

I finished another needleturn applique block, a Dahlia, for the 30s Sampler Quilt. 

I'm a bit excited because now I only have three large (12 inch) applique blocks to complete and all the blocks for the top will be done.  I've started the first one which is a classic wreath. I like doing needleturn applique but it is quite slow, and getting everything ready for stitching is a bit of a faff.

I finished the Roses teacosy that I was working on last week.  I did seven red roses and one pink rose (not visible in this picture).  I'm happy with how it's turned out and it has already had a trip out to the garden to keep my teapot warm while I was doing some knitting.

I've done a bit more on the red and white Sanqhuar glove and am just about to take the thumb gusset stitches off onto some waste yarn.  I've also done a bit more on the Floral Bucks edging sample.

You will have noticed I haven't been mentioning the roof of doom from the Japanese dollshouse much lately.  That's because putting the shingles on is the most boring and tedious job which at the same time is soul destroying because the shingle strips themselves are so variable and the shingle ridges aren't lining up.  It's a very slow process of heating the resin strips with a hairdryer until they will bend without breaking, then bending them to fit the roof curve and letting them cool down, then cutting and sanding them to fit which is a trial and error process that can have 4-5 iterations, then finally gluing that one strip on so that I can start all over again with the next strip. So basically between the wonky alignment, glue blobs and glue strings, and resin dust everywhere, the roof looks like cr*p.  Both the other bloggers gave everything a coat of black acrylic paint at the end to tie all the varying shingle colours together into one roof so I will have to do that as well.  Also the instructions, which for most of the build have been copious to the point of being ridiculous, have suddenly dried right up and even miss out steps. I guess they weren't making any more money at the end of the part-work series so why bother.  So it is a bit of guesswork to decide what needs to be done before other things get done.  If you can't tell, I'm not enjoying the process but it's going okay and I am slowly progressing. I like how the wood trim on the gables has turned out, I improved on the inserts that came with the kit and added a plastic beaded trim which I painted to match the wood.

In between doing the above and boring things like going to work, I have wasted a stupid amount of time playing one of my son's video games, Dark Souls 3.  I'm pretty rubbish at video games due to ageing reflexes and an inability to understand the simplest statistics,  but I have enjoyed struggling through some open world games like Skyrim or doing the Lara Croft reboot. Dark Souls is in a different league and is known for being very difficult (and no 'easy' mode either which is what I normally go for as I would rather explore than fight). I think I'm persevering partly to entertain DS (typical commentary: "That's right!! You somersault him to death, yah!") and partly because I don't want to give up.  I expect I will have to give up anyway at some point because even DS is finding the higher levels difficult and he is a far superior player. I can't help thinking how much further along some of my craft projects would be if I had instead put that time into them instead...

Decluttering the wallpaper

We had an outing today to Emmaus Carlton Village, an enterprise which helps and retrains homeless people, and teaches them how to repair things. It's a nice weekend destination as they have a huge secondhand shop selling refurbished donated goods, everything from books to furniture to haberdashery.  There's a cafe, and today even a small car boot sale was on.  Last night when I was thinking about the planned outing, I realised that this was an opportunity to donate some of our own clutter. In particular, the clutter which gets stored for so long that it becomes invisible, like wallpaper, but isn't suitable for passing to a normal charity shop.  So we filled the car up with the air conditioner unit we bought for our last too-hot house (still good but not used in years), the hair straighteners and hot brush from when I had long hair, multiple gardening books, an enamel sink from when we put in a new kitchen, the like-new battery charger from when we had a camping trailer, etc. etc.  It felt really good to pass stuff on to a good cause while creating more space and I wonder why we didn't do it years ago.

However yesterday I was contrarily acquiring more stuff to bring into the house, at the Makit Lace, Quilting and Needlework fair in Peterborough.  It was in a new venue this year, at the Kingsgate Conference Centre. In some ways it was better: a recently built venue, parking right in front of the entrance, nice big lobby, nice toilets etc.  But it's on the wrong side of Peterborough for us so a longer drive, the fair was awkwardly split over two unconnected rooms, and the lighting in the larger room was the kind I hate: dim with lots of glaring spots, which tires my eyes and gives me a headache.   I was hoping to look at the sewing machine I had my eye on (Janome 8200QCP) but the one trader with sewing machines didn't stock that one.  None of the Janome dealers near me stock that machine so I'm trying to decide if I should just take a punt and buy one on spec online (but then be stuck with it if I don't like it). It's a lot of money to risk.  My own Janome has gone back to the shop for a third visit to have a part fitted so I'm without it for another week, but I can use the Featherweight if I want to piece anything.

I had a good look around the Makit fair but didn't get too much:  some Perle 8 threads in different colours, a pretty flowered thimble by Prym, some pliers out of the £1 box, a vintage table cloth and hand towel and a lovely bobbin painted by Margaret Wall in a Clarice Cliff design. It was hard to photograph the bobbin as it is so slender and it's round, so I've made a rubbish montage to show the various sides.

On the way there, I crocheted a few more rows onto my crochet afghan.  Eliminating the chain 1 between treble clusters seems to have done the trick and the afghan is lying much flatter now.  I'm just about back to where I ripped out.  It's slow going because I find crocheting hurts my wrist if I do it for too long so I can only do a few rows at a time.

Also slow going is the Misty Meadows Shawl  I started last week.  I am not enjoying knitting with the West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply, it feels thin and a bit scratchy and it is splitty to knit with.   As previously said, the pattern is pretty rubbish.  I didn't like the feeble transition between the moss stitch and trellis section so I ripped back the trellis and inserted a garter row which helps. I'm hoping that when this yarn is washed, it is going to bloom and soften a bit. I do like the colours.

Much more fun is a little teacosy I am improvising based on a pattern I found in one of the charity shop magazines.  Theirs is for a larger teapot, I'm making mine to fit a small teapot.  I've got the green base completed but now I am crocheting red roses to fill up the crown.

I finished up the rest of the sets of  three-inch blocks for my 30s Sampler Quilt and have moved on to the final batch of block patterns which are all applique.   I've made a Dresden Fan and am just finishing a Dresden Plate (which I am sewing a yo-yo onto as a centre). After that I think there are another three larger applique blocks and then I can start assembling the quilt top!

Is it summer yet?

After a spell of chilly wet windy weather, it's finally warmed up this weekend. We've decided to risk excavating the shed and have put out the garden furniture, bird baths etc. and have taken the cover off the fountain.  One would hope there are no more frosts coming.  I've also planted up the hanging manger/basket with some of the plants I got at the sale last week and a geranium that survived from last year's basket.  The garden is positively rampant, including the weeds which I yank out whenever I notice them.  The roses are all budding as are the clematis and we've got tiny pears and cherries growing on the respective trees.

I finished the machine knit tam that I blogged about last week.  I have a big head so while the band of this fits me, the brim is too shallow to sit comfortably.  If I make it again then I will add another 12 stitches or so to the brim section. I think the whirl effect from the variegated sock yarn is kind of cool.  It's blocked over a dinner plate.

Total fail by UHU customer services whom I emailed last Friday with my concerns about the oddly packaged glue I bought on Amazon.  Despite their web contact form promising a 48 hour turnaround, and chasing them up directly by email on Thursday, I've had no response whatsoever.  So I did some searching in Google Images yesterday and eventually tracked down my product on the Portuguese UHU page.  The packaging matches so I guess it is legit.  No idea why it is so much cheaper than the UK version.  So I started using it last night on my Japanese dollshouse roof and it seems to be the real deal.  I'm just about to the point where I will need to start cutting tile strips to fit into all the diagonal roof valleys which should be fun (not).

While I was futilely waiting to hear from UHU, I finished up the stair cupboard that I started some time ago.  I had a lot of trouble with the assembly of this one, but once it was together I 'aged' it with some acrylic paints to look more like the ones we saw in Japan, then applied three coats of varnish for a nice sheen.

This is the cupboard in situ.  You can't see in this picture but you may remember I had installed a fake loft hatch in the ceiling in that corner to provide a destination for the stairs to go to.

I've sewed eleven little 3.5 inch pinwheel blocks for the 30s sampler quilt - I'm on the smaller end of the decreasing block size instructions so I think next are some 3.5 inch bird in the air blocks and 3.5 inch bowtie blocks.

I eventually realised that I was not crocheting an afghan, I was actually crocheting a giant bowl shaped object.  I googled online about wonky granny squares and apparently this is quite a common problem caused mostly by tension issues, whereby the circumference of each row is greater than it should be, resulting in more and more fullness around the sides as the bowl-effect increases.

So I ripped out several rows back to where it was lying relatively flat, and now I am re-doing the rows but leaving out the Ch1 between clusters of trebles to eliminate some of the extra width.  I'll try that for a few rows and see how it is looking.  Another solution suggested online is to crochet each row with alternate sides of the afghan facing, to combat the natural tendency to 'cup'.

I've done some more work on the Floral Bucks Sample of bobbin lace, although it's a bit discouraging because I don't really know what I'm doing.  I went to a Lace Day yesterday so,as a change of pace, I wound bobbins to start a Torchon Fan Bracelet.  I wanted to use my travel lace pillow, which still has my ongoing Bucks Point edging on its roller.  So on my day off, I made a second roller pillow using the same method of pool noodle + felt + cover.  I didn't have any more of the high quality wool felt so this roller isn't quite as firm but it's still perfectly useable and it came out the right size to fit in the travel pillow.  So I could just lift out the Bucks Point edging project and wrap it in a towel, and slot in the second roller to make a start on the bracelet.  It's in blue thread and has beads added to it for decoration, quite a change of pace after all the delicate white Bucks.

I think I may have to get a new sewing machine.  Although mine has been sewing better since it had its double service, it still isn't great.  When piecing quilt blocks, it is still stuffing fabric down the needleplate occasionally and getting hung up at seam junctions, neither of which it used to do.  And last weekend I cut out the same t-shirt pattern I used before from the Liberty-style jersey that I bought in Tokyo.  The neckline and hems are finished with a twin-needle stitch which usually goes fine.  This time the machine did not want to play at all on the neckline, it was skipping stitches terribly no matter what I tried. I kept ripping out and trying again, and in the end I had to fake-stitch one line of the twin-needling with a normal needle (which of course came out wobbly and doesn't look great).  I gave up and left it overnight and the next day it behaved better on the sleeve and body hems.  So annoying.  Other than that, the t-shirt is fine and I've worn it to work already. The jersey isn't quite as soft and drapey as the first shirt I made but I love the print.

I'm thinking of getting another Janome, possibly the Horizon 8200QCP which is on sale nationally at the moment.  It has an 11-inch arm space.  I've tried Brother and Husqvarna in the past and haven't like them and I can't afford a Bernina.  I know Juki is popular in America but I'm not familiar with them.  My frame quilting machine is a straight stitch Pfaff which seems well built but I'm not familiar with their models for quilting, and there seem to be several online complaints about long-term reliability of computer-parts. There's a lace fair next weekend that will have a couple of dealers demonstrating models so I'll see what they have.

I've made a start on a new shawl using some West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4-ply wool/acrylic blend and the pattern Misty Meadows from their Floral Collection.  The instructions seemed so odd that I looked it up on Ravelry to find several people complaining about how badly written they are.  I also found some errata on the WYS site.  So we'll see how it goes.  It looks nice in the picture, a mixture of textured stitch patterns including moss stitch, lace, cables etc.

Not much to report

After all the finishes posted last week, I have been somewhat resting on my laurels this week.  I had three late nights because of my Japanese class and machine knitting club so apart from some knitting on the train, not much crafting.   I've been knitting on my second red and white Sanquar glove and have just finished the cuff portion.  The first one is done now apart from darning ends in and blocking.  This week I had a lucky find of almost a year's worth of 'Knitting' magazine at a charity shop near my station - they only wanted £2.40 for it which I upgraded to £3 because I felt guilty.  So I've been enjoying reading through those and tearing out patterns I might use one day.

I've added more rows to my granny square crochet afghan while we were visiting the in-laws today but it is growing only slowly. Even DS looked at it and said I had a long way to go before it became a blanket. 

I've sewn another 6.5 inch block for my 30s Sampler quilt. It came out exactly the right size but with two of the points cut off on the piecing - I decided to take the win. I've also shortened some cropped jeggings that annoyed me all last summer by not fitting my manly calves very well, hopefully I will get some wear out of them this summer.

I had a go at machine knitting a tam from this video by Diana Sullivan but after three false starts, have still not got going on it.  It seems deceptively simple but in fact I've had a lot of trouble with stitches dropping off for various reasons (mainly operator error) so at the moment all's I have produced is a ribbed band.  M-i-l has decided that she has given up machine knitting so has given all her stuff to me, which is currently sitting in the living room waiting for me to go through it and decide what I want to keep and then the rest will go to charity. Perhaps there will be some easy patterns there for me to try.

Nothing on the Japanese dollshouse this week because I was waiting for the glue I ordered on Amazon to show up, and now that it is here I strongly suspect it is a knock off and not the authentic product so I haven't started using it yet.  I've queried it with UHU by email but probably won't hear back until next week, if it is a knock off then I will ask for my money back and complain to Amazon.

We went to a village plant sale we've done well at in the past, and picked up 10 assorted plants for the garden.  Very few of the plants are labelled - I picked up what I thought was cotoneaster but then had to put it back when someone told their neighbour it was Berberis and I realised they were right.  So I've got some mystery fuschias and petunias for our hanging basket, and some mystery geraniums for the shady spot under the apple tree.   But as our whole garden is a pottage of bargain plants, plants rescued from the 'sick plant' shelf at the garden centre, self seeded plants and inherited plants, a few more colours will just add to what I like to view as a cottage garden look :)

It's another bank holiday weekend here in the UK - love this time of year with all the short weeks.  More typically it is raining off and on.  We might go to a boot sale tomorrow morning but not if it is wet.  Because we need more stuff (not).  Enjoy your weekend!