Essential things

 High on the list of essential things I take for granted would be my decent desktop PC with lots of memory and connected to fibre broadband. I am used to quickly whizzing my way to any website, carrying out lightning searches, easily looking things up, watching videos etc.  And then suddenly my PC doesn't want to do any of those things, and I realise how much I took it for granted and how much I depend on it. I don't know what's wrong, I have wasted many hours scanning for malware, cleaning the PC with CCleaner, googling for solutions (which is hard to do when your internet doesn't want to work) and trying resets on alphabet soup functions like Winsock, DNS flush, ipconfig etc etc.  The other two users in the house (one on wifi, one on an ethernet cable same as me) are having no troubles at all, so it's something in my pc.  The errors I am generally getting (DNS probe launched, unable to reach site, timed out, ERR something) all seem to point to an issue around DNS or ip addresses but it appears to be beyond my ability to fix. It's incredibly frustrating to have to borrow DH's laptop just to access the bank statement or to join my weekly zoom call with my bobbin lace friends. It even hesitated to let me access my own blog, so hopefully I will be able to upload this post.

Having the week in Cyprus and a few other days where I didn't do any handsewing means that I am falling behind on the Australian BOM quilt blocks.  I am still trudging away on Month 9, and Month 10 arrived a few days ago. I am striving not to feel pressured.  The background embroidery on Month 9 is done, and I'm now stitching the three spools of lace that will be appliqued onto the block.

Before we went away, I had been prototyping a version of a vinyl zip pouch that Facebook was trying to sell me a template kit to make.  It looked intriguing and as they helpfully showed a picture of the template shape, I had a go at designing my own version.  When we got back, I it sewed up  using some cheap Aldi FQs (always useful for making something you aren't sure is going to work) and some free vinyl from a reclaimed duvet package.  It's turned out alright, slightly wonky but now I know how to do it better next time if I want to make more.

This week I've been attempting to sew a lightweight backpack from ripstop nylon, a new fabric for me.  The travel daypack I took to Cyprus was so old that its lining kept shedding red scraps onto the contents and onto me.  I wasn't able to find a daypack online with a configuration I liked, and then I found this Youtube video on sewing a school backpack which made it look doable.  I ordered some ripstop nylon and looked online for tips on how to sew it (during one of the intermittent periods where my PC was admitting the internet did in fact exist): #70 sharp needle, longer stitch length, polyester thread, clips or tape instead of pins.  My machine is dealing with the slippery fabric better than I thought it might.  So far I've completed the side/top/bottom loop (and I added water bottle pockets), a hacked pocket to make the pocket taller and with an added second zipped pocket, and I attached the pocket to the front of the bag along with a leather patch.  I can't do a lot more because the webbing I ordered for the straps 10 days ago still hasn't despatched despite the website promising 24 hour despatch time, I am chasing that up with them.  The bag isn't perfect but it is my first go.  I think it would be easier to sew in a heavier Cordura-type bag fabric but then that would be more expensive so it's good to try out the pattern first in something cheaper.

 I've been knitting away on the red cotton baby jacket that I started on the holiday, I've done the fronts, back and one sleeve and have started the second sleeve.  I forgot to take a picture and my PC is being so awkward about uploading photos at all that I will have to wait for next week.

I made another card with my Brother Scan N Cut using a commercial svg file from Scrapchick. I found I had to change the blade because it wasn't cutting cleanly, after blunting it on an attempt to cut out 2mm greyboard for an upcoming cartonnage workshop I will be attending next month. I was also having problems with my mat not being sticky enough so today I have applied Pinflair Temporary Stencil Glue to make it sticky again. I got there in the end although it's not perfect.

Yesterday we spent four hours at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham attending an enormous camping and caravanning show. It was sold out so quite crowded and busy, with lots of queues to go in to vehicles one at a time for social distancing. Dealing with all the crowds and noise and glaring lights was exhausting but we got what we went for (two more comfortable folding chairs and a better folding table than the cheap ones we bought 15 years ago) and saw lots of cool vehicles and gadgets.  We had the pleasure of inspecting several other caravans in the same weight class /price band as our own, and deciding that ours is nicer than all of them. There was even a British seaside area including a traditional Helter Skelter (like a lighthouse but with a slide coming down around the outside) which I had a go on because I'd never been on one before. I regretted it deeply after getting bumped all the way down, acquiring a friction burn on the sleeve of my cardigan, and being dumped off the end over a drop of six inches which literally gave me whiplash and may have re-broken the tailbone I broke a few years ago - DH of course was videoing some of it and laughing at me.  As I lurched painfully to my feet, the little boy who'd gone ahead of me enquired "was it fun?", "NO!!" I responded, limping away, DH still laughing at me.

The garden is suddenly full of snowdrops and crocuses, with the primroses making a valiant effort to fight back against the slugs.  Spring is coming!

Well the PC has been fighting me all the way on this post, not wanting to upload photos etc., but I am about to press 'publish' - fingers crossed!

Winter sun

 In a deviation from our normal programming, we flew to Paphos in Cyprus for a week of winter sun recently. Right up until we were sitting on the plane, I didn't really think we were going, because there had been so many hoops to jump through: pre-departure testing and certificates, having to get an entry pass for Cyprus, getting up at 3am to travel to Luton airport then finding out the M1 was closed so we had to travel entirely by secondary roads, would the pre-purchased car park work, would we have the right paperwork to check in, etc. etc.  As you can likely tell, I am a worrier and tend to obsess a bit about these sorts of things.  I had also hard-copy printed all our certificates and paperwork for reassurance while feeling like a dinosaur.  But I felt like a vindicated and validated dinosaur watching the yoof holding up the queue for 10 minutes scrolling through their phones trying to find their various certificates, or in Cyprus getting put to one side because their phone had run out of charge so they couldn't show their entry certificate, or even on the return journey hearing the woman at the next desk who had no idea she needed to complete the UK Passenger Locator Form to get back into the country (although how she managed that I don't know since Easyjet had sent me daily texts and emails about all the paperwork to the point of being annoying).

Anyway, we made it there and enjoyed a very chilled week of blue skies, moderate sunshine (highs of 16C but the warm sun made it shorts weather all week for DH), far too much good food, and lots of strolling and investigating the various archeological sites in Paphos.  To DH's disappointment, Paphos is fully anglicised: all the signs are in English, English menus, almost everyone speaks fluent English, there was even an English tearoom that we visited a few times. Apparently it is a prime destination for English expats as well as UK holidaymakers. But it made it very easy, and we also had a coach trip one day into the interior to see a bit more of the authentic Cyprus.  

In terms of COVID, everything was much stricter and better managed in Cyprus.  Masks are mandatory in any indoor public space (including hotels and shops), you have to show your entry certificate (which confirms your vaccination status) or a vaccination certificate to get into any larger shop, restaurant or mall; our hotel greeted us at the restaurant with sanitiser every meal and there were disposable plastic gloves for handling buffet utensils; even our bus tour required full masks all day and a vaccination certificate.  DH and I are doing daily tests since our return just in case - but so far reassuring negative.

In terms of textiles and needlework, I didn't see very much around where we went.  I made the mistake of going into one 'traditional embroidery' shop in Paphos town, which rapidly turned into a hostage situation as the insistent shopkeeper showed me a succession of hideous Made in China machine-embroidered table cloths with crudely crocheted borders.  I had to buy a Christmas doiley just to get out of there.

There is a type of traditional Cyprus weaving using coloured threads and floats to create motifs.  I saw a much-damaged traditional loom in our hotel being used as interior decor, and also another loom at the Paphos Ethnographic Museum where I took this picture of a traditional cloth.  But you didn't seem to be able to buy any examples in any of the souvenir shops.

Much more interesting was a traditional tourist shop in the village of Omodos, where this lady was creating needlelace mats using a single needle and a thicker cotton thread. I looked this up when I got home and it may have been Pipilla Lace, although her examples were more simplistic. She was trying to explain to me when she saw that I was genuinely interested, but unfortunately she didn't speak English and my Greek is non-existent.

I bought a small mat from her for 5 euros, and a tatted lavender sachet also for 5 euros.  I'm not sure if she made the tatting or not, but I wanted to give something back for her patient demonstration and letting me take photos.

All the souvenir shops in Paphos that we went into featured the most appalling tat, so I ended up only buying a few coasters: one in fused glass from a gift shop in the old town, and two emulating Ottoman tile designs. Between the pandemic and it being off-season, a lot of shops and restaurants were closed and the town was pretty quiet.  It was too cold to swim in either the sea or the outdoor unheated pools at our hotel, but we enjoyed the indoor heated pool several times and sitting out on the sunny terrace on a lounger.

So not a lot of crafting going on this week, although I did start knitting a garter stitch baby jacket on the plane in red cotton yarn.  When I got back, waiting in the post were two sewing-themed USB sticks that I bought on Amazon after seeing them on a papercrafting Youtube video. I'm going to use one of them for transferring designs upstairs to my Brother ScanNCut.

Since getting home, I've finished off the Hinterland linen dress.  It turned out fairly well, and should be a nice comfy dress or tunic-over-leggings once the weather warms up a bit.  I will make the bust darts a bit shorter if I ever make it again. This is sewn in an Eco-washed linen I bought from Fabric Godmother, using the Hinterland pattern (modified) from Sew Liberated. It has two comfy side pockets and I added a purely decorative double breast pocket.  I had to modify the bust dart placement as I am short-waisted and wide-waisted, and do a full bicep adjustment to the sleeves. I also shortened the skirt. Because it was linen, I sewed all the seams as either felled seams or French seams apart from the armhole which I overlocked.

And now we are home, where the big news is that DS has found a flat he wants to move into with his girlfriend next month.  If it all goes ahead, we will become belated empty nesters in April.  I'm excited for him but obviously sad at the same time.  We've been so lucky to have him home during the pandemic and to know he is safe.  Plus he has been sharing the cooking with me which has been brilliant, I'm not looking forward to returning to being a fulltime chef. The house will seem very quiet without him particularly when DH is working in his attic space.  This will however free up our dining room so I could potentially set my quilting frame up and tackle my mountain of quilt tops. We'll see.  It needs to be done but it is my least favourite part of the quilting process.

Why does February seem longer than any other month?

 The cold damp weather continues, the weather is often gloomy, and the month drags on. I generally like to get out each day for a walk of at least a mile, but lately I really don't feel like going out although I still make myself do it most days.  And the leisure centre keeps cancelling the Aquafit class so I haven't gotten to many of those either.  I have tried a few introductory Pilates classes on Youtube, which has me struggling with pitiful attempts at micro-pushups - where did my upper arm muscles get to, has anyone seen them?

So even though my sewing room is very cold this time of year, it still seems like a nice retreat to be in.  I cut out the linen fabric for the linen Hinterland dress and was relieved to find I had enough fabric with some left over.  I've sewn the upper bodice and finished the neckline, and am currently working on the 3/4-length sleeves.  This is my first garment constructed with felled seams, which are the folded seams like you see on blue jeans.  They cover up the fraying raw edges of the linen and give additional strength.

In the evenings, I've been embroidering the Month 9 instalment of the Australian BOM - this month's theme is Broderie Anglaise and cutwork.  The appliques are fused on but you embroider around them to make them look like embroidered linen doileys. When they are all done then I will press them from the back which will flatten the stitching to make it look more even.

I tried out a cut file for an organiser box, measuring about 5 1/2 inches by 7, on my Brother Scan n Cut.  I thought it would be a quick project but it actually took me almost three hours!  It's because each component was too big to cut twice from a single sheet of card, so you end up putting 14 sheets of cardstock through the cutting machine.  The box is obviously not hugely robust, being only made from thin cardstock, but the walls and base are double lined so it's reasonably sturdy. I'm using it to gather together and hold all my lacemaking pincushions and pins.  If I made it again, I would shrink it down in size so that I can cut it out of fewer sheets of cardstock.

This week's downsizing was to go through two boxes of DS's old baby clothes and school/cub scout outfits.  The baby clothes in particular made me a bit teary, with lots of 'do you remember?'. I had mainly kept things that I, or others including some now passed, had made for him.  For example, I made this little outfit of a denim waistcoat and a buttoned shirt cut down from one of DH's shirts. I can remember how much love I poured into the things I sewed and knit for him, even if they weren't very expertly made. And how lovely it was to see him wearing them. Like the very stained t-shirt embellished with a cross-stitched 'Spot the dog', and a tiny sweatshirt with a homemade 'Thomas the Tank engine' applique on the chest.

Anyway, having discarded the obviously wrecked garments, and washing some others, I had put the remainder on the donation pile for charity. But then I had second thoughts and took back the above set plus a few other things made by relatives - just in case DS ever has children.  It doesn't seem very likely, he's adamant that he doesn't want any, but perhaps his girlfriend (or the universe) will have other ideas...  I'll keep them by just in case.

Signs of spring

 I was out in the garden on a few days this week, sprinkling bone meal over all the beds, and I was pleased to see clumps of snowdrops already blooming and many more in bud.  I split the clumps up while they were 'in the green' a few years ago which was really successful, so there are a lot more now. The magnolia tree has fat buds growing, and even the spring-flowering cherry tree is covered in small buds.  A few primroses are fighting the good fight against the slugs as well. It's nice because it reminds us that in only a handful of weeks it will be spring again.

I spent several hours this week finishing off Month 8 of the Australian BOM. It seemed to take a long time to complete this month, I think because there were two blocks instead of one.  Block 9 showed up the day before I finished so I am already onto the next one.

I finally completed weaving in all the ends on my Bucks Point butterfly mat and it is completely done.  Due to my brain glitch with the gimp threads while working it, the back is not as tidy as it should be, but 'done is better than perfect'. I have added it to the lace collection underneath the protective glass top on my dressing table.

In the sewing room, this week I finished off the Christmas wall hanging that I started at Christmas when I cut out the fabric fusible appliques using my Brother Scan N Cut.  This is a pattern called 'Winter Glow' from Today's Quilter magazine.  The machine made it fairly quick to cut out all the appliques, but of course then you've still got to do all the work of applique (raw-edge in this case) and quilting, so the hanging had been sitting around until I finished my Wreath quilt.  In the original they quilted with embroidery floss French knots, but I tried out a snowflake stitch on my machine.  Consulting the manual, I learned how to program my machine to stitch one snowflake then lock off the stitching.  So I stitched snowflakes scattered across the background, after stitching around the motifs. It makes a cute wall hanging for display next year.

Then I started working on a casual linen dress, based on the Hinterland pattern which I found on a website called Sew Liberated. I was previously going to make the Ella Harp work dress but after downloading the free pattern and making a toile before Christmas, I found that even the size large was far too small.  The first toile I made from the Hinterland pattern also revealed some issues, starting with the bust dart placement which was all wrong.  I tried moving the dart properly, based on Youtube videos, which made it worse, so I recut the toile and just winged it to get the dart into a better place for my body.  The shoulders and neckline went through a similar cycle of attempted correction making it worse, then back to the original pattern where I combined the upper size 14 with the lower size 16 to achieve a bodice that fits a lot better.  Then I added the sleeves to the toile, which were too tight, so I went back to Youtube to learn how to do a full bicep adjustment.  Having now sewn the stupid bodice about 8 times, I feel like I should at least have a dress by now.  But I think I'm ready now to actually cut the linen fabric out, which is eco-linen from Fabric Godmother in a colourway called 'lavender' which is actually more of a dusty rose.

I've been playing a bit more with my Brother Scan N Cut. I found a teacup shape in the basic shapes, and practiced flipping it and mirroring it, then welding it to the original shape, to create a hinged teacup card in a couple of sizes.  Fun.  DH has enquired what I am going to do with them. Which is fair, as I don't write many actual letters in this electronic age.  I do wonder sometimes when watching cardmakers on Youtube churning out cards, what they do with them all (if they aren't sellers). I wonder if their families get a bit tired of being bombarded with new card experiments.

Some downsizing wins this week: a patchwork ceramic bowl I never used went off to a new home and the almost-finished big cross stitch sampler I rescued from a charity shop was re-homed with a grateful stitcher.  Twenty balls of yarn and a antique framed print sold on ebay.  I have so much yarn to move on, I used to shop the half-price sales in London at John Lewis and Liberty's when I worked down there, and bought a lot of Rowan cotton in particular.  I have since found that knitting in cotton really hurts my hands and that cotton garments tend to be quite heavy, so that all needs to go.  Baby steps.

Have you had a good week?