I Need a New Carpet

When I say that a new carpet is a good idea, I'm not exaggerating. The carpet you see in the background is desperately in need of a vacuum, a clean and a respectful disposal. It was here when we moved in in 1994 and I don't think it was that new then. 

First pic - I finished my shawl! I shall definitely be putting it around my shoulders as we go into the cooler weather.

I put the big scissors in for scale. I suppose I could have made it larger, but I think it will be good as an extra layer over the shoulders and back and the stitches were starting to bunch up on the needles. 

The second pics, well, I lapsed into a 'I can just...' moment. If you remember, I have a chest of drawers and I would quite like a runner on it. 

I bought some fabric but it frayed like crazy and was really tricky to sew as a double hem as the fabric was quite robust. 

It's stout upholstery material and it frays like a demon so a single hem seemed out of the question. I thought that I could do one of those self binding thingies (like this one here) with a thin backing. I wouldn't have to worry too much about enclosing the fray monster and it wasn't like it was going to be washed a lot. I imagine that it would be good for an occasional swish in cool or cold water but if it got stained or seriously dirty then the fabric was completely inexpensive so I could replace easily enough. So I went on Temu and bought some fake satin stuff at a low price along with some iron on fusible interfacing to give the thing a little body underneath the fruit bowls. This was not a good idea.

I found the fabric on Temu at something like £1.50 for half a metre, so I bought three pieces, thinking that would be more than enough. When I've bought fabric by the metre from anywhere else it's come in a continuous piece. This did not come in a continuous piece. It came as three separate pieces. The pieces are not wide enough.

This is the fabric that turned up.

The black satin type stuff isn't bad for £1.50 per half metre, but a metre and a half would have been better than three lots of half a metre. I think I am going to have to rethink my options.

This is after the issue with the car. Yesterday I took the car to have the 'tyre light' checked out. One tyre was low on pressure but they weren't sure if there was a slow puncture. They reset everything and told me to keep an eye on things (and didn't charge me for that). However the lovely man said that when he brought the car around he felt that the steering was off. I was not happy about that, as my car has been running 'out of character'. This may sound a strange thing to say, but the steering has felt a little soft (I wondered if I had been imagining it) and she's been running faster than normal. I was joking to myself that after one tank of Shell petrol my little citroen thought she was a Ferrari. I arranged to take her in on Friday and then picked up bear. On the way home, bear turned to me and confirmed that the engine was making a funny noise. It isn't a knocking or grinding, but it's definitely off. I really hope that it isn't expensive. 

Writing stuff - I've been doing a lot behind the scenes but nothing to share today. On Hazardous to Your Sanity there was a post yesterday here about marketing a book, which is interesting if you're a writer. Today's is a bit more spicy about choices of men's underwear, so you can have a rummage if you want to. 

Hugs and good health to all.