Lockdown week 3 - the eternal now

The days are blending into one another as I continue to enjoy my unexpected 'practice' retirement, helped by the unseasonably warm weather - it was up to 26 degrees C in parts of the UK yesterday.  We've had some very relaxing sits out in the garden with the recirculating fountain trickling, it's so much quieter than it would normally be with reduced traffic volume and fewer people.  As it's the Easter weekend, the whole family is on holiday for four days so we are all able to pursue our various hobbies.  Obviously the world news is dire, and I'm putting off the next grocery shop for as long as possible, but inside our house we are fortunate to be doing alright and staying healthy.  I'm still not able to work, apart from having  to do a few online training modules, so I am enjoying lots of craft time and studying Japanese. At the point I don't feel like ever going back to work but I suppose if I want to keep getting paid, it's on the cards eventually.

This week I finished the jelly roll hexagon quilt top, creating a layout like a segment of a Grandmother's Flower Garden pattern so as to work with the three colour values of solid / mid-solid and background.  It doesn't look anything like the quilt in the magazine which used a much more solid  coloured jelly roll.  It's also come out smaller than the already-small magazine quilt for some reason - only 56" wide so it's a small single, or a lap robe.  I went through my entire fabric stash looking for something that would work as a border to make it bigger but came up empty. Anyway, I've added it to the collection awaiting future frame quilting.

I finished stitching the second pinafore dress for my felt doll, which has more of a denim look. This pic shows the bag I made last week as well.

I'm on a sewing kick the last month or so, perhaps it's a subconscious stress coping mechanism.  The elastic arrived in the post so I finished the waistband of the kimono pyjama trousers so they are wearable now.  The order also included some coloured cord to replace the frayed ties on the secondhand short kimono jacket I bought in Japan (previously blogged after the trip) so it is finally wearable now.  In fact I tackled a few clothing alterations that have been hanging around the sewing room for so long that I had forgotten why they were there:  fixing the waistband of a skirt, replacing a closure on some trousers etc.

After finishing the hexagon top, I had a look at my list of stashed projects and selected a Japanese book of accessories by Masako Wakayama, featuring her American Country fabric line.  A while ago I found the accompanying panel and a couple of matching fabrics at the Fabric Guild near Leicester so I got those out and pulled a bunch of toning fabrics from my stash.  My first project was using part of the panel to make this round-bottomed bucket bag, which was quite fun to do and suprisingly effective.  I might make a few more as I have several other panels sitting around waiting to be used up.

In knitting, I finished the Rowan Felted Tweed hat.  I finished it once and decided it was too short for my big head, so I pulled out the crown and knit it one repeat taller.  It fits quite well now.  I like the colours but the fabric feels a bit thin, it wouldn't be warm enough for really cold weather.

I've also finished the mini-skein hearts hat but I'm still darning the ends in on that one and I think it may need a pompom or tassel.  I've got plenty of the mini-skeins left so I may knit some matching wristers.

I forgot to blog last week that I had done the end of term exams for my Japanese class online:  we submitted the reading and writing tests by email and I did the speaking test with the teacher using Zoom (like Skype).  And I've passed!  I received the certificate by email from the university, so I'm just waiting for my actual test results to see what I got right/wrong.

We've been enjoying our own mini-display of sakura or cherry blossom, because the ornamental cherry we planted last spring on our return from Japan has really been putting on a show.  It has come out gradually over a couple of weeks and now all the stems are adorned with pink pompoms. The warm dry weather is perfect for it.  Even DH admits that it was worth digging up the lawn for (something he grumbled about at the time because he says it makes it harder to mow).

Hope you're doing okay in the lockdown and staying well.  We'll find out next week how much longer it's going to be, but early indications are that it could be until at least the end of May.  Not only will I have completely forgotten how to do my job by that point, I think my tolerance for spending my day shut inside a too-hot office surrounded by mildly annoying people while carrying out repetitive work under the supervision of an unsympathetic manager is going to be pretty minimal.