The conversation is drying up

I've been meeting in two regular online groups, one for lace and one for sewing, and it is noticeable that there is less chitchat every week.  Because nobody has any news.  Nobody is doing anything, we've already covered endless grounds of whether or not masks do any good, our various approaches to decontaminating goods entering the house, how elderly relatives are coping, the latest out of date food find at the back of the cupboard... and nobody is going anywhere, or meeting anyone -  so there really isn't much to say anymore other than 'keeping well?'.  The shops re-open tomorrow, so I suppose there might be more to talk about next weekend although most of the lace group have to remain isolated due to their age/medical conditions. I understand that as a nation we have to make some attempt to get back in business before the economy collapses but it sure doesn't feel safe to go out willy-nilly shopping for trivial items.

Speaking of which, I went out to a local medium-sized DIY shop to get a replacement door latch for our dining room door which has been driving us crazy by refusing to stay shut.  I felt reasonably safe because I knew they were only letting in a few people at a time, had a partial one-way system, and plexiglass around the till operator.  But while I was looking at the latches in one aisle, this older couple wandered down my aisle right behind me.  I had nowhere to go, I pressed up against the display and desperately said "Please can you stay six feet away?" because they were making no attempt to even keep to the other side.  And the old woman told me to 'shut up'!  And her husband asked her what she'd said, she told him 'I told her to shut up'.  Honestly, some people are just asking to get infected, and at their age they are in the vulnerable category .  I had to retreat to the end of the aisle and wait for them to finish their perusal of spray paint before they wandered on.  Her strong perfume lingered behind her, perhaps it's antibacterial.

Another work week - I am coping by taking long lunches which breaks up the day.  The weather has turned summery again so we've been able to eat out in the garden.  Craft time this week has been mostly about the cartonnage project which has been going fine but is incredibly time-consuming - and meanwhile I can't start any new sewing project because the cartonnage is taking up all my cutting area.  But finally it's almost finished.  I just need to glue it onto its little plinth, and glue felt on the bottom surfaces of the plinth and the little lid box.  I'm quite pleased with it.  There are many less-than-perfect spots where I was learning how to fold the fabric over curved edges neatly etc, but for a first attempt I think it's not too bad.  This is classed as an intermediate project on their website I discovered.  I should be able to completely finish it today.

Once the mess is cleared away, I am back to working on the central square of my Giggleswick Mill Quilt.  I finished appliqueing the little pentagon rosettes, although I now realise that mine are placed closer to the corners than the quilt in the book.  I'm cutting out motifs that will be trimmed and fused to create the border.  The small amount of fabric I had left looks like swiss cheese with all the holes cut out.  I have another fabric from a different designer which is quite similar so I might take some floral motifs from that as well. Each one of the motifs needs to go on to Steam-a-seam Light fusible web and then have the red background trimmed away.

I've plugged on with the Chinese house-in-a-globe kit. I'm not thrilled with it, it's all a bit crude and out of scale, and doesn't fit together very well.  But it is starting to look a bit cute nonetheless.  The house is largely finished now, I just need to wire up the lights and then start constructing the snowy exterior scene inside the globe.

On the Hey Teach cardigan knitting project, I've finished both fronts and two sleeves, so I've returned to the back and unravelled it to the armhole to have another go at the lace shaping on the back.  I knit about two inches and then realised I hadn't started in the right place so the lace pattern was mucked up, so I've had to pull it back again.  I'm certainly getting my knitting time in with this yarn.  I don't mind, it's nice to knit with and there's no rush. Once the back is fixed then I can knit the bands.

DH and I were talking about the relaxation of lockdown and whether we would be doing anything differently.  There isn't anything either of us have been missing particularly, apart from just being able to go out to somewhere different and relax with a bit of antiquing or a cup of tea in a cafe.  We've been lucky to have DS with us this whole time, and we don't normally see the in-laws that often anyway.  Thanks to our habitual hobby stashing, we all have plenty of occupations to be getting on with.  I have always tended to stash other things as well such as toiletries so we are only just starting to run out of things.  We're all fairly introverted so don't tend to go out much.  I guess I do miss going to craft shows and I'm sad my two craft holidays to the French quilt show and the Estonia lace week got cancelled.  We tried to get ourselves interested in maybe driving out somewhere for a change, but when you get there there will still be many shut shops, and even just getting lunch could expose you to the virus. It doesn't seem worth it.  I think we are pretty entrenched in our bunker/rut still.

I had a lovely note this week from a Canadian reader who sounds a lot like me in sharing a lot of the same interests.  She told me about her various hobbies and finished with "This rather long note is to say, thank you for blogging! Your weekly update is something I look forward too after moving and losing touch with former quilting buddies."  Which made me really happy.  I'm always a bit amazed that anyone reads this weekly text-heavy multi-hobby update apart from a few real-life friends who use it to keep in touch with what I'm up to.   She also has a 24-inch 8 harness loom which I'm a bit jealous of.  I have flirted with looms at the Fibre East show and watched some Youtube videos and a Craftsy class about weaving with yarn.  I love the mechanics of craft equipment designed to do a specific thing really well. But I don't think I would use a loom enough to justify having one, it would end up like my neglected knitting machines. Anyway, Hi from the UK!

Stay safe and carry on crafting.