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!