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!