Recording travel memories

 I've spent a fair amount of time each day this week, working on my Norway travel journal.  Although I still haven't made my mind up on what is the best way to record my trip memories.  While I am actually travelling, I keep a little digital journal of what I did each day, with photos, and share it with DH so he can see what I've been up to.  When I get home, I have various choices of what to do with that journal.  I feel like I need to make some sort of written record as my memory really isn't that great, and a few years later the details of a trip become very fuzzy unless I have a written record and some photos to trigger my memory. And I want a printed option as I know to my cost that digital documents are ephemeral and depend entirely on your storage medium not failing or your cloud provider not going out of business. So I've tried various options: printing the journal 'as is' in a photo book (easy but expensive particularly for longer trips); summarising each day's options into a scrapbook with photos I print and ephemera (fun to look through, but lacking details); or lightly editing the journal then pasting it into a scrapbook along with photos I print myself.  The last is what I am doing for Norway, it is satisfying to create but each day of the trip is taking me about an hour or more to add to the scrapbook so it isn't a fast process.

I did finish quilting the Gail Pan embroidered blocks wallhanging on my quilt frame.  These photos are straight off the frame.  Normally I wash quilts to set the stitches and fluff up the wadding, but I'm a bit worried about colour fastness with this quilt which has a strongly coloured border and backing, and a number of different DMC embroidery thread colours.  I think I may just steam it instead. Although there are a number of imperfections (stitching in the ditch on a frame is hard), I am fairly pleased with how it has come out and the quilting density is relatively even so it is hanging fairly well.

I've been playing with the Norwegian backstrap band weaving  with the help of a book by H Torgenrud and of course Youtube videos.  The book advised an initial warp of 3 yards, which I am somewhat regretting as it makes it a bit unmanageable when you are still learning and having to get up and down a lot to make adjustments and fetch things you forgot.  I'm also finding it a bit hard on my weak back - you have to sit fairly upright and sway a bit backwards and forwards as you weave and beat down the fell line.  But it is fun, it's like magic seeing the warp-faced pattern emerging, solely created by the initial warp colours - the weft only shows on the edges. It's sort of easy, and difficult, at the same time. My first several inches are all over the park in terms of width and evenness but I am getting the hang of it now and achieving a more consistent and narrower width.  One item I had to make almost immediately was a band lock - the wooden gadget that secures the end of the band to your waist so you can have tension on the warp threads.  I started out with just a plastic clip but it kept slipping.  You can buy band locks online but they are like £24 so I had a rummage in the basement to find some bolts and a couple of pieces of hardwood to drill holes into, and it's working great. Ideally you would have a hook-topped bolt but our local DIY store didn't have them and Amazon wants you to buy them in packs, so I improvised instead.  You can see my 3D printed heddle and shuttle in the photo.  It's a very portable set up, so in theory you could take it with you anywhere that you can secure the other end to something solid.  It would be much easier with a shorter warp though.  If I got better at it, I could take it when we go off in our caravan next summer.

I finished stitching my sashiko spools panel and it is currently drying - a cold water rinse made the stamped lines disappear like magic (to my relief). Once it is dry, then I can measure it and calculate the sizes for the pieced spool blocks that I want to surround it with, to turn it into a wallhanging. Or a table cloth.

Our young relative is arriving next weekend, so the cleaning and decluttering continues. DH shredded a whole box of paperwork from his parents but I asked for some of the more vintage pieces of paper (with old style typing on them, or old style certificates) which I will potentially use for junk journalling.  DH drove me to a craft destash sale in Burton Latimer where I was able to pick up some very cheap plastic storage boxes which hopefully will help me sort out my journalling corner which currently looks like a bomb went off in a stationery store.  (I was strong and resisted coming home with anything else other than some cheap Bosal stabiliser and a little pack of bag hardware). We've decided to just shut the attic door and pretend that floor of the house doesn't exist when my relative comes - it would just be too big a job to try to sort all my stuff out.  I don't know how I am ever going to downsize to a more manageable new house.  I need to go through my large collection of knitting books in the attic this winter and downsize that.