so this is a 'week' 'end'

so after two months of glorious free time at home on full pay (yes I realise I am incredibly lucky), the long holiday has come to an end.  My homeworking equipment showed up on Thursday and I spent Friday setting it up, jumping through the various security hoops to get logged in (camera and mike still not working though), filing time cards for two months of missed time sheets, cleaning out email, and reading through documentation on all the changes since I've been out of the loop. I even took part in an MS Teams team meeting (I could hear them but I could only communicate via chat). It felt very unwelcome and I was quite depressed Friday morning.  Having a second set of PC equipment (keyboard, two more monitors etc.) is also completely in the way although I've managed to tidy most of it off to one side onto a spare table so I can use my desk out of work hours.

For the first time in weeks, the fact that it is the weekend actually means something again.  And Monday I will have to start doing actual work - I'm hoping it's like riding a bicycle because not only is my mind a blank, my happily-early-retired brain just doesn't want to take work seriously at all because it feels like something I was done with a long time ago.  My equipment has been set up to only function on wifi, which was the final straw for our router (already supporting DH and DS by wifi) and started causing problems for them.  I've complained to my manager to see if I can get reconfigured to use an ethernet cable since I'm sitting three feet from the router.  DS and DH were not only there first, they both make way more money than me so I don't feel I should have priority just because I'm sitting closer to the router.

I made a couple more blocks for the Today's Quilter Janet Clare Block of the Month from the latest issue, then went back to working on my Giggleswick Mill quilt.  I've moved on to working on the centre and have started by appliquing a circle of bias tape, printing out 36 hexagons onto light card and glueing fussy-cut fabric motifs onto each one, and now I'm appliqueing the hexagons around the bias circle.  The centre will be filled with a broderie perse arrangement of flowers and leaves.  I have the right fabric but in the wrong colourway, so I think I am going to have to do fusible applique so that none of the incorrect red background colour shows.  If I try to do it as needleturn applique, it would be very difficult to avoid a red 'halo' effect around some of the thinner stems etc.

I finished the left front for my Hey Teach cardigan and am about halfway through the right front now.

I followed along with a needletatting demonstration on Facebook and afterwards had a go myself to produce a little motif.  I'm getting better at needletatting, but still incredibly slow and sometimes things twist that shouldn't have.  You could make several of these motifs and join them into a mat, but I don't think I will.

It hasn't rained for weeks so I am having to spend time watering the garden every few days to keep things alive.  I've given up on the lawn so it is already yellowing.  Yesterday I spent a fair bit of time bodging together a stand for the bonsai trees.  Yes, both trees are still alive from the course I took in October, although I can't say they are thriving.  They've been living on a low garden wall where they are attacked almost daily by blackbirds picking at their moss and dirt, and I wanted to get them up higher so they are more out of the way and easier to view.  We just used stuff we had on hand, so I did a bit of rough measuring and cut up some bits of old pallet we had in the shed.  DH helped with the cutting after my arm started getting tired and also sanded down the rough wood a bit. I have painted the resulting frankenstein bench a dark grey with Cuprinol stain left over from building the gazebo several years ago which tones down some of the hideousness. The result is reasonably sturdy and doesn't look too bad now it's set up.  It should last a few years. Probably longer than the trees.

I tackled the 'Rona hair mess by picking up some brown hair dye at Sainsbury's last time I went shopping.  After the 48hr allergy test, I gave it my best shot.  I stopped dyeing my own hair years ago because the dye went everywhere - after I found some on the ceiling of the bathroom I gave it up and started having it done at the salon.  This time I tried really hard but still managed to trash my dressing gown, two towels, permanently stain the bathroom floor and get a fair bit on various bathroom fixtures which wiped off ok.  The resulting dye job looks ok, it's not a very flattering shade of brown for my skin tone but at least my hair is all one colour now instead of a mess of red, pink and grey. So I'm not wincing so much when I look in the mirror in the morning. DH asked me to cut his hair so I had a go with my secondbest sewing scissors and it hasn't come out too badly, a lot tidier anyway.  DS won't let me near his mop of hair. How's your 'Rona hairdo?

Some roses from the garden

'Rona Hair

I skyped with an old school friend in British Columbia a few days ago, and the moment she saw my video feed appear, she opened with "ha, you've got 'Rona Hair'.  Yes, yes I do.  A nice British person probably would have tactfully ignored my growing patch of grey/white hair against a background of straggly half-dyed/half-natural tufts but with typical west coast Canadian directness, she went right there.  British people have this perception of how polite Canadians are - I don't think they meet many west coasters.  I am increasingly despairing of my morning appearance in the mirror - I'm tempted to try dyeing my hair myself if I can find a product I'm not allergic to. It doesn't look like hairdressers will re-open here until July at the earliest.

In other unwelcome news, my manager has informed me that I will get my homeworking equipment this coming week.  He seemed to expect that I would be thrilled by this development - I somehow managed to contain my enthusiasm.  I suggested that I had perhaps forgotten completely how to do my job, he thought this was a great joke and assured me that all the teething problems with the system have now been ironed out and I'll be fine.  Sigh. I know I'm incredibly lucky to have been paid to do nothing for several weeks, but I think my brain has segued easily into 'retirement mode' and work just seems like a very long time ago.

The red overlocker threads I ordered turned up, and I was able to finish my attempt at a sun dress.  It fits pretty well but is perhaps a bit heavyweight as it is made out of quilting cotton.  Still, compared to my usual results at dressmaking, it's turned out fairly well.  I've ordered some more fabric to try sewing a different version.

Now that the dress is finished, I can get back to quilting: the next issue of Today's Quilter has arrived with two more BOM blocks to sew, and there is still the quilt on my design wall.

The next instalment of my Sew Darn Sweet subscription box turned up, once again with some cute fabrics.  This time there are simple patterns for a sewing wallet, a pouch to hold the supplied thread snips, and a face mask (of course).  The Fabric is from Makower's Stitch in Time collection which I like and already had some from so glad to get more, and some printed sayings from Benartex My Happy Place collection.  I'm enjoying getting this treat in the post.

Other than the dress, I've continued to knit on my Hey Teach cardigan, stitch my cross-stitch sampler, dabble with needletatting and have done a bit of bobbin lace.  The little dollshouse mini kit isn't going very well, the pieces don't fit together very well and it isn't holding my interest.

I'm having to water the garden every few days as it hasn't rained for ages.  Unfortunately it has been extremely windy the last few days, which has shredded the brief glory of the paeonies and destroyed a lot of rose blooms which might otherwise have hung around for a while.  The garden is littered with rose petals.  But before that happened, I did take a few pictures of the rose hanging down romantically from the pergola.

A taste of freedom

Lockdown regulations were partially relaxed this past week, with much confusion and contradiction between politicians.  But there seems to be general agreement that you are now allowed to drive as far away from your home within England as you like, but without staying overnight. So today we headed down to Hampshire on a two-hour drive to check on the vulnerable in-laws.  Having given them strict instructions in advance (no hugging, no cups of tea etc.) we entered through their back garden gate and sat six feet away from them on the folding chairs we had brought from home and had a lovely catch up for an hour.  And then we drove two hours home (snacking in the car on food we had brought with us).  We are now both exhausted (DS is fine, he slept there and back) from the unaccustomed activity, especially DH who hasn't driven more than 15 minutes in a week for a couple of months.  I have to say it felt deeply wrong to be heading out of town, like I was being naughty and would be caught out soon by the authorities.  But there were a surprising number of cars on the road, and service stations appear to be open at least for toilets, and I didn't see any police or roadblocks. The in-laws, who have been shut in for several weeks longer than we have, were thrilled to bits to see us in person.  I took my Let's Bake quilt to show her in person, she really liked it.

The gift I posted last week has now been received so I can put some pictures on the blog.  This was a printed panel by Janet Clare for Moda featuring her characters Freya and Friends, and makes up into a delightful little cottage pillow which opens up to show the room interior. It comes with three figures, a dog, two toys, as well as a tea set, food and bedding.  There were a lot of pieces to sew up over a couple of day, but it was quite charming and I enjoyed seeing it come together.

I found out about the panel some months ago when it was already discontinued, so I put a search on eBay and eventually an unopened one came up for sale.  I thought it would be a nice treat for the daughter of a knitting friend stuck at home during lockdown, and her mother reports that she loves it and that it has really cheered her up.  She sent several pictures of a delighted little girl, which is really lovely to see.

This week my main project has been trying to sew myself a sun dress.  It's not finished yet because I have sent away for some red overlocker thread to do the skirt which hasn't arrived yet, hopefully  it will come tomorrow.  As I have mentioned before, I'm not much good at making clothes but I'm trying really hard to do a good job this time.  This is the fabric and trim.  I've got the bodice done and it looks ok and seems to fit.

This week I finished the fabric centre for my Bucks point hexagon doiley.  It's come out fairly well.  The doiley is lying nice and flat and the hemstitching is reasonably even.  The fabric has relaxed to fit the opening resulting in a few wrinkles in this fine fabric but they aren't as obvious in person as they are in the picture.  It took ages to do, I an see why so many lacemakers just put their finished lace in a drawer and never turn it into anything. Mine has gone underneath the glass top of my dressing table where it is safe and I can see it every day.

In knitting I finished the back for my Hey Teach cardigan re-knit.  I wet blocked it to check my gauge which isn't too bad, slightly loose which is typical for me.  I'm not happy with the armhole on the right where it's really obvious that I switched from lace to plain knitting once I had decreased to less than a full repeat.  I should have tried harder to make a substitute decrease for the remaining stitches.  I'm doing it better on the fronts, I may go back and re-knit the upper back afterwards. You can see the cat isn't impressed with my efforts.

I've made a good start on the next cross stitch house in my sampler.  I also took a little cross stitch motif a friend had posted me, wrapped it around a button and hot glued a magnet on the back to make a little needleminder which is fun.

My manager thinks I will be issued a laptop before the end of the month, so it is increasingly looking like I may have to remember how to do my job soon.  It literally feels like something I used to do years ago and have only the vaguest memories of. I'm not looking forward to it at all, I've gotten very used to my low-stress days and my new routine.

Several roses have started blooming in our garden now, this is the one on our pergola which is a David Austin rose called Madame Caroline Testout.  I haven't done a very good job training it onto the pergola despite making an effort, there are roses lower down then a big patch of bare stems topped by a vigorous toupee effect on top. Not sure what to do to fix this for better coverage, any advice greatly appreciated.

75% chance of failure due to mush brain

I think the lockdown is affecting my brain.  I am slowly sewing my 204 half-square triangles into four panels for the Giggleswick Mill quilt. Each square has four possible orientations so I have a 25% chance guaranteed of getting it right.  The two side panels were straightforward: 14 rows of three blocks each.  I laid the stacks on my ironing surface in order, sewed each row, then sewed the rows into a panel. The top and bottom horizontal rows are three rows of 20 triangles each (60 altogether in each panel), with three columns being orientated differently to the remaining 17 columns (so that they match  the side panels). 

I set off confidently, partly on autopilot, I have sewn many stacks of blocks together before this.  After sewing 20 or so, I suddenly realised that I had just been blindly adding the next square without looking at the orientation properly and it was all a jumble.  Unpicking number one.

Much smarter now, and congratulating myself on remembering that the last three columns are orientated differently, I sewed together 51 squares into the three rows.  Then I looked at the picture in the book and realised it should have been the first three columns in a different orientation, and there was now no way to re-orientate my 51 squares.  Unpicking number two (which took much longer and included accidentally ripping one square so badly that I had to replace it).

I now proceeded very carefully, and even pinned an HST upside down on my pincushion so that I could check the orientation of each square before seaming it right sides together with the previous square.  I sewed together about 27 squares, then discovered that while I had the top row correctly orientated, I had managed to not only reverse the next two rows, but had even managed to twist some of the blocks in those rows. More unpicking. By now I feel like a cretin.  And each time I unpicked I had to be careful to get the squares back into their correctly ordered stacks, and the squares were getting more stretched. 

Propping the book picture directly in front of my sewing machine, and holding each square in turn to compare it to the book AND the preceding square, I slowly managed to sew all 60 squares correctly, then into a panel.  Sigh.  I used to be good at this. And I still have the fourth panel of 60 to sew.

The saying 'use it or lose it' is thrown around a lot and I think that's what is happening: my brain is turning to mush through lack of daily challenges like navigating a commute or dealing with work issues.

I forgot to blog a knitting finish from a few weeks ago, which is the mini-skeins hearts hat.  I have now added a pompom.  I'm still trying to decide if I want to knit wristers to match.

I finished the first of the nine cross stitch houses and have started on the adjoining one. And I needle tatted a little star. I'm still having trouble with the tension on the needle tatting, it just seems to be coming out floppier than shuttle tatting and therefore harder to get sizes of rings and chains to match properly.  The first pic is just after finishing, floppy and wobbly.

 The second pic is after giving it a squirt of starch and ironing it dry.

I can't decide if I like needle tatting or not. It definitely seems easier in concept than shuttle tatting, but I'm not very happy with my results so far, I guess I need more practice.

I spent a few days this week sewing together a gift made from a printed panel, which I posted on Thursday.  I was surprised at how much I enjoyed my trip to the post office, my first since the lockdown, It felt like such a normal thing to do and I even enjoyed eyeing up the stationery and giftware while standing in the socially-distanced queue. Will hopefully post some blog photos next week.  And I've started another Chinese dollshouse kit - this one makes a cute little house that fits inside a glass globe.

My procrastinating job this week has been to learn how to do three-cornered stitch to create a hexagonal centre for the Bucks Lace doiley that I made last year.  After practicing on some scrap fabric, I have carefully stitched a hexagon with a finished edge using some fine hankerchief cotton which hopefully will turn out to be the correct size.  It's drying at the moment after a little wash.  If it is the right size then I will sew the lace edging onto it.  If it is too small then I will have to try again.

The garden is looking really nice now with several things in flower. I wandered around with the camera and snapped some shots.

Yesterday was VE Day with scaled down celebrations. We really enjoyed a documentary on Channel 5 called 'VE Day: The Lost Films' which included several home cinefilms shot by amateurs at the time, some of them using colour film.  Somehow seeing it in colour just made it seem so relevant and real, with people just like you or I enjoying parties and street dances. It won't be like that when the lockdown is lifted, people will still be scared about infection.  The PM is supposed to make an announcement tomorrow about relaxing slightly some of the restrictions, I am interested to see by how much. It feels too early for any widescale relaxation and I'm not expecting mine or DS's offices to re-open, for example.

I'm going to venture out the shops again tomorrow as we are running low on food, hopefully it won't be too busy and I can keep well away from other shoppers (although there is always one isn't there who is completely oblivious).  Hope you are managing to keep stocked up.

Lockdown week does-the-number-really-matter

I'm giving up counting lockdown weeks now that it's looking like a long term situation, it seems a bit pointless now that it is becoming the norm rather than a temporary aberration. Some poll on the BBC site I think showed that a healthy percentage of people would fear leaving their home even if lockdown is lifted.  During my utterly pointless annual appraisal by telephone with my manager this week, he suggested that hypothetically I may be allowed to work from home in the long term to avoid public transport, perhaps only travelling into the office occasionally. Which is good news because I really don't fancy being shut up in a train carriage with the general and possibly infected public, it's bad enough during cold and flu season.

No real change here this week, apart from I have felt I am starting to lose energy and motivation and have been drifting through some of my days.

Last week I started pulling fabrics for a new quilt which is from the book Primarily Quilts 2 by Di Ford that I've had on my project list for a while.   Last year I bought a bunch of her Giggleswick Mill fabric line to go with the book, so I pulled that out to see what I had, and what I could make from the book.  I put it all up on my design wall and subtracted things and added other fabrics from my stash, and chose this pattern to make.

  Now I've started cutting the border fabrics and I've made  204 2.5 inch finished HSTs for the background using paper grids I printed on my printer using old Triangulations PDF software. Each sheet makes 12 triangles and I have made up 17 sheets using an assortment of background and coloured fabrics. Love these historic prints. Sure glad I have a design wall to lay them out on.

During my pointless appraisal telephone call, I put him on speakerphone and finished off my Japanese needlework bag while he was waffling on.  It made it much easier to contribute inane remarks ("Oh yes, I feel very settled into my new team, everyone is so welcoming!") while concentrating on my stitching.  I completed the little pincushion and the pocket, and sewed on their snaps so it's all finished now.  I muted my mic to take some blog photos when it was done.

In an effort to perk myself up, I ventured into the dollshouse room for the first time in months.  First of all I had to clear months of clutter build up off the desk, then as I still couldn't face working on the interior of the Japanese house, I pulled out a cheap Chinese vignette kit that I think I won in a tombola.  The instructions were rubbish, and the materials just jumbled into ziploc bags with no labels.  I puzzled my way through it but felt so out of practice and ham-fisted: getting glue in unwanted places, dropping things, mis-cutting etc.  Just as well I didn't touch the Japanese house.  Anyway, I added in various papers and things from my stash and it doesn't look too bad. Obviously not in scale but sort of cute.  I couldn't get the polyester tablecloth from the kit to drape properly and the 'gloves' are naff, but it was a good warm up exercise.

The job this week from my Procrastination List was going through boxes of paperwork I've been hoarding for decades.  Why do we do that?  In the first box, I'd still got school essays I wrote when I was 16 and 17, and some university papers.  I looked through them, obviously kept because I was proud of them and got good marks, and it was like some complete (much smarter) stranger had written them.  Plus the paper is severely yellowed and the typeface (I had to type essays as my handwriting was terrible and still is) has faded so they aren't even very legible. With some reluctance I have binned them as I can see no value in keeping them any longer, they don't mean much to the person I am now and would mean nothing to anyone else. I also had several school yearbooks (a big thing in North America but I don't think in the UK as DH didn't know what they were) from my distant past.  Apart from the pictures of myself, and a few people that I remember (one of whom I am still friends with), they are books full of pictures of strangers with awful hairstyles (remember the 70s?).  After looking through them, I scanned in the pages with my picture for posterity and binned the physical annuals. I've now got a big envelope of school reports to look through ("... must strive for neater work,...") and decide what to do with.

I've done a bit more needletatting this week but the thread was too soft so it wasn't working and I've cut it free and binned it.  I've excavated some firmer thread from my old shuttle tatting stash and will try again.  I've done a bit more cross stitch and I have finally started re-knitting 'Hey Teach', a free online pattern that I first knit 10 years ago in Rowan Summer Tweed which gradually stretched out so much that it became enormous and I had to give it away.  Ever since I have been meaning to knit it again because it's a cute summer cardi so now I've made a start.

The garden is looking very green and lush after several days of rain.  I managed to snag two sets of hanging basket assortments from Aldi so have planted up a couple of pots for the summer from those using old compost. The weeds are growing like topsy so have done a round pulling up all the ones I can spot.  So far the grass seed is not doing anything but I think it takes a couple of weeks before it sprouts?  At least the birds haven't eaten it (yet).  Our irises are blooming now and looking lovely and there are lots of fat buds on the roses and the clematis promising delights to come.