Men at work

To be more precise, it’s one man, working hard to get this little blog transferred to it’s own domain.

So if things are a wee bit hinky over the next few days, please bear with us him.

At times like this I’m very glad I’ve got my own one man tech support team.

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Topsy Turvey

Well, it’s been a mad old week or two here.  The Husband arrived home from work about 10 days ago with wine and no job.  His company had imploded and made him redundant.

Thankfully he’s very skilled at what he does and his market sector is buoyant so we are not remotely phased by this.  We spent the first night drinking the wine and toasting all the reasons this was a great thing to happen and the opportunities it opens up for us.

Obviously, I’m making the most of having him home and ‘we’ have made a start on the renovations.  The first thing ‘we’ have to do is lift all the floors.

I cannot tell you how much mess tiled floors make when they come up.  There is dust EVERYWHERE. But, the tiles were cracked and ready to be replaced so this rewire is a blessing in disguise.  I hasten to add that I had nothing to do with any of this.  It’s all The Husband and Pa SIL.  I’ve just been supplying tea, sandwiches and cake!

The hallway floor was lifted last week

They have been working like Trojan’s to get this done.  The kitchen will be completely cleared this week and then there’s only the living room to do.  I say ‘only’ as it’s laminate not tile BUT there are 7 floor-to-ceiling bookcases to pack up and remove before we can get to the floor.

I let him have the weekend off!  It was his birthday yesterday, after all.  We had a wonderful day with family and cake, but I was a little shabby from far too much red wine on Saturday night, so forgot to take photos.  I did, however, finish the Sweater of Doom just in time, and he absolutely loves it.  So, I’ll get photos of it this week and share.

Right, I’m off to toile a Lekela pattern for myself.

My wardrobe is decidedly bare and I need some tops.  I’m hoping to get the first one done this week.  Fingers crossed!

Work in progress

The problem with making progress on projects is that there is nothing really to show for it.

Larry is becoming known as the Sweater of Doom in these parts. I am Beyond Bored with knitting this simply because I’ve already knit this yarn before. Knitting it again is Tedious (yes…with a capital T!).

The Sweater of Doom…it really just looks like a pile of knitted fabric at the moment.

Thankfully, I finished the first sleeve last night, and the second sleeve will seem less Tedious because I’ve got the row count written down, so I just need to crack on and tick off those rows as quickly as possible.  I’m waiting in today for a courier so I’m planning to make use of the time by watching Marple box sets and picking up that second sleeve.

I do have an added incentive at the moment.  Not only does The Husband sit next to me on the sofa each evening making sad eyes and muttering about wanting to wear the damned thing before the good weather finally arrives; but I also didn’t have enough yarn.

*grits teeth to refrain from uttering stream of invective and expletives*

As this yarn is now discontinued (of course) tracking it down could have been tricky, but the lovely folks at McA have some in stock and sent me 3 balls, aaaaannnnd are holding another 3 for a few weeks, just in case.  I suspect I may need one more of them for the neck.  We shall see.

We are also making progress in a project I’m calling “Shabby to Chic”.  Our house hasn’t been decorated since before the kids came home.  With 2 adults, 2 kids and a large dog, the place is starting to look more than a little bit worn around the edges.  And the middle.  And all points in-between.

The need for a complete rewire has created the impetus to do a complete top down spruce up.  The sewing loft is to be ripped out, remodelled and turned into our bedroom.  Our bedroom will become The Boy’s.  His bedroom will become my new sewing room…eventually.  Just as blasted Ikea are withdrawing their fabulous Expedit range.  What possessed them?

This is a huge project that will take a good couple of years to finish, I think, but at the end of it we will have replaced all windows and external doors, rewired the place with many more socket outlets and more usefully placed light switches, and will be using all the space in the house more efficiently.  Oh and the hideous porch at the front of the house that has plagued me for years WILL  finally be replaced.

Most importantly (far more important than the risk of the electrics frying us all in our beds) I will have a new sewing room.  With storage!  And good daylight!

Until then though I’m sewing on the kitchen table.  I do not like this at all.  I realise I’ve been completely spoiled with the Sewing Loft (however shabby and disorganised), but I’ve got my eye on the prize and a sewing project on the go (in between meals, homework and painting projects that the kids insist on).

Thread Theory Jedediah Pants

Yep…I’m making the Mr the pair of trousers I promised him a couple of years ago. Or maybe 6 years ago.

I’m not counting.

I’m sure he is.

These are the Thread Theory Jedediah Pants and so far I’m really impressed. Printing and taping the PDF was a breeze.  Great tiling.  It bodes well, I hope, for the sewing.

Self-hosting…a call for help

Last year I bought the Pendle Stitches domain name.  And it has languished ever since.  Which seems a bit mean, frankly. But I’m cautious about hosting services, as this is a completely Brave New World to little old technophobe me.

And then I realised.  Lots of you guys have .com domains and might be able to give me some advise/recommendations regarding service providers.

Can you?

I’d be very grateful.

As would my lonely .com!

The pinkest Barbie cake in the world ever!

This cake has everything going on…pink! Barbie! Jelly Tots!

To the adult eye this is a travesty of a birthday cake.

To a certain six year old girl it was, and I quote, “the most beautiful cake in the world”.

I’ll take that compliment.

PS:  Please don’t adjust your screens…it really is that pink!  And do try to stop laughing!

PPS:  Don’t try this at home!  It’s a bear of a cake to make. This was my second load of cake batter – the first exploded all over the oven!  16 eggs later and it doesn’t even taste that good.

PPPS:  My opinion counts for naught.  Button loved this cake and that’s all I care about! ;-D

The road to wellness

Otherwise known as sitting on your derrière drinking tea and not doing much else!

Chorley – fashion capital of the North!

I do realise I’m very lucky that my recurring lurgies are nothing more than militant bugs taking advantage of my overly stressed immune system.  There are a bajillionty worse things that could be happening. But it was nice to wake this morning for the first time in months and not feel all sorts of off colour. Tired…yes. Sick…no.  Thank you Biostrath, Serrapeptase and Probiotics!

My initial reaction is to get stuck in to some enormous project, but I’m being sensible taking things slowly.  At the moment it’s all about the slow.  Pootling around the house, restoring order after the Christmas chaos.  Sitting and knitting and watching movies. Heavens…I’m even making time to read books as well as blogs. The odd half hour, heavily scaled, CrossFit workout.

I did NOT do this whole workout!

Don’t get me wrong.  I have a mountain of fabric begging to be sewn, and miles of yarn to knit.  The house is in need of a full makeover.  There’s plenty to be done, and that’s not including the ideas that are slowly percolating in my brain.

But…lots of the fabric is already in storage ready for the construction work in the loft.  And the loft is such a mess at the moment that until we pack it up fully there’s not going to be a great deal of sewing going on.

The house makeover can’t begin until the rewire is done.  That’s probably going to be March so I just need to squint at the shabbiness and dream of decorating.

And the ideas…we’ll they just need to bubble a little more and see what pops to the top.

So, whilst I’m enjoying the slow I’m knitting the first project of the year.

The Husband lost a whole load of weight last year which meant that this much loved jacket didn’t fit him any more.

Whitfield Jacket by Anne Hanson

I’m not fond of re-knitting yarn, but he loved this so much I begrudgingly happily agreed to reuse it, as long as I could do a different garment.

He agreed.

I’m knitting Larry, a free pattern from Berrocco.

It’s a super simple knit which is just about perfect for my attention span at the moment.  It’s very reminiscent of Brooklyn Tweed’s Cobblestone, but Larry is knitted in pieces and seamed, whereas Cobblestone is knitted in the round.

I’m also working on a small sewing project for Button.

sneak peek

This one has to be finished in time for a certain little lady’s birthday on Sunday, so I’ll be able to show you the finished project next week.

Until then…have a lovely weekend.  Keep dry and warm (if you’re in the northern hemisphere) and cool (if you’re south).  And, if you can, kick back and relax.

See ya, 2013…mind the door doesn’t hit you on the ass on the way out!

Au revoir, 2013.

Can’t say I’m sorry to see the back of you.  You’ve been a bit of a “meh” kind of year and I’m really throwing down the gauntlet to 2014 to be less of a pain in the butt.

December just passed me by in a blur.  After needing to replace both our cars with some urgency, the dishwasher, microwave and house all decided to blow their top too.  The white goods have been replaced…the house needs a full rewire.  We’re not talking about that at the moment!

I made it to Christmas day with sanity almost intact but feeling decidedly under the weather.  We had a quiet but delightful day (although I’ve sworn I’m never cooking a full Christmas turkey dinner ever again), and I awoke on Boxing Day to find myself completely floored by the bug that I’d been fighting since the last lot of antibiotics finished.  It was a completely different kind of bug (thankfully no coughing this time) but still pretty awful.

I knew I should have asked Santa for a stronger immune system! 😉

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So, at the moment I have nothing to share with you except my heartfelt wishes that you had a wonderful Christmas, that you and your loved ones are hale and hearty, and that you have fun things planned for 2014.

I’m going to take a breath, get the kids back to school next week and see if inspiration strikes.  I haven’t sewn or knitted a stitch since Christmas Eve when I finished The Husband’s red socks just in the nick of time.  

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However, I can’t let this post pass without a shout out to Ma, who celebrated her 70th birthday with us on New Year’s Eve.

Happy Birthday, Ma! We love you.

Felty

Way back in the summer I promised the local library that I’d do a “talk” at their December coffee morning on some, at that point undecided but definitely sewing related, subject.

It was months and months until December at that point and so, obviously, I forgot all about it until a few weeks ago when they reminded me.

Oops.

Cut to this evening.  Although I’d planned that I’d talk the ladies through making some very simple felt Christmas decorations, and I’d collected together all the materials I’d need, I’d not actually done anything with them.

More oops!

So I’ve been drawing simple shapes, cutting some of them out and packing a small box to take with me tomorrow.

This stocking, however, is for another project altogether.

One of The Husband’s colleagues is, Jude, a craft blogger who is knitting up a storm, making little stockings, which she is planning to fill with chocolate and sell for charity. All monies raised will be sent to The NIHR / WT Children’s Clinical Research Facility and the AT Society.

Both the stockings and the photo are Jude’s

When she asked me if I’d be willing to help out a little, of course I said yes. And promptly volunteered Ma as well!

Ma immediately set the needles clacking and whipped up a bagful of these little lovelies in no time flat:

I, on the other hand, am characteristically tardy, but will, on my return from the library tomorrow, crack on and get my contribution done.

With such good causes at stake I really need not to let the side down.

Girls who read

I came across this brilliant video on Clothes Make the Girl and just had to share it with you.

Watch it…you’ll see why!

That was the week that was

Time flies when you’re having fun!  Rather than just drop off the face of the earth – or more so than I have done recently – I thought I’d post a quick catch-all catch-up of what’s going on here.  And then hopefully I can do some more detailed posts when I’ve caught my breath!

• Last Wednesday was our wedding anniversary so the Mr and I cooked dinner together…he did the steaks, I did the pudding.  Sticky toffee pudding to be precise. Because he loves it.  And because I love him.  And because we had it for pudding on our wedding day. It was astonishingly delicious!

• However it certainly wasn’t as delicious as the dinner we had on Saturday at Northcote.  OMG!    And I had a wine flight as well (The Husband fell on his sword and drove!).  A glass of perfectly matched wine for each course.  And Martinis!  The best dirty Martinis I’ve ever had.

• I made a skirt for Friday. From remnants of my wedding dress. I didn’t get photos on Friday, but I will, I promise.

• This week I don’t have a car as we sold both our cars at the weekend but only replaced The Husband’s. We didn’t think that through! 😉  It’s very odd not having the luxury of just jumping in the car to go wherever whenever (and I do know how lucky I am to have my own car), but it’s also quite lovely just to walk the kids to school and then come home and stay home. Today I’ve been doing chores, but tomorrow I’m planning to put my kitchen blind on the table and start sewing that.

• In knitting news I’m making good progress on the second of these mitts.  I’m hoping to finish that this week and send them back to Liz who is going to sew in the ends before I knit up the thumbs. I cannot tell you how grateful I am not to have to sew in all those ends!

Now…if only I could get some time in daylight to take pictures to share with you!