I Ought to be Good

Back on the 9th January, I posted about a candle that bear bought me for Christmas. 

He'd bought it from an 'everything handmade' shop, the sort that I love exploring and that I mentally call 'knit your own rice type shops.' It gave a lovely glow, but the flame vanished surprisingly quickly. I think that there may have been an issue with the wick because there's around half a centimetre or a quarter of an inch of wax left at the bottom of the holder.

And he sent me the candle on the right from the same shop and I'm nervous to light it. There's just so much wax left from the first candle and the wick doesn't seem to go all the way down to the bottom of the second candle. 

(I really need to get better at taking pics)

I ought to do something intelligent with the wax. I should save it for lip balm, or running thread through to make sewing easier, or for putting on creaking hinges or sticking drawers. All I really want to do, though, is to get it out of my favourite tealight holder. That's going to be interesting. I'll feel dreadful if I just get rid of it, but I don't want to go to the effort of actually doing something with it. I'm willing to take any suggestions but I'm making no guarantees. 

I'm not sure what's going on with my writing blog, but that's also got a spike in numbers. It seems pretty random, so I don't expect anything, I'll just keep an eye on things. And on a similar note, I got a comment today on a post that I made on 15th May 2022 Magic Braised Burning Pot or buying a wide-necked thermos flask. This was a reasonable hit as they were asking a question about it, so I guess someone searched for answers and found me. I feel a little guilty as I couldn't give a sensible answer. I still feel it's the best named item that I've ever had in my kitchen, and it's great when I remember to use it to cook pasta in. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Ding Dong

Here is a picture of the sound box and wiring bits of our doorbell. It demonstrates that I need to not only get a more robust attitude to cleaning, but also that I need to decorate. 

After all, that's the wallpaper that was there when we moved in, in 1994. I think I bought that picture for DH in 1997 as part of a set of four and it's been in that place ever since. At least the clock is only a couple of years old.

Anyway, the reason that I took the pic is because, after over thirty years, the doorbell finally went wrong. It may have been the storm. The UK is currently suffering from Storm Chandra, which is causing havoc with heavy rain and strong winds. Because the wind is so stormy, we are actually getting rain hitting the front of our house, with some force. Normally the shape of the street funnels wind and rain past us instead of against the windows, so it's been unnerving. The rain driving against the doorbell outside may have been the final straw. 

We hadn't thought much about the doorbell since we moved in. It's incredibly loud and can be heard all over the house, which is impressive as it's brick walls and over four floors. It sounds like the beginning of a Victorian hymn and is usually ignored by anyone making a delivery. Today, around 10am, the doorbell rang. And rang. And rang. And rang. There was no-one there, and I couldn't get it to stop. And, as I said, it's loud. Poor DH, who was working two floors above, came down to try and stop it. He was already dealing with water coming through the ceiling (again, likely direction and force of wind and rain rather than missing roof tiles) and he didn't need this at all. I started looking for electricians as DH got up a ladder and tried to make it stop. 

The doorbell is wired in, so we've never bothered with it and just answered the door. This is the first time either of us had seen under the cover. So we were somewhat surprised when, after a prod from DH, it started playing Silent Night at what sounded like 140 decibels. It's been over thirty years and we didn't realise there was a playlist. We heard Starspangled Banner and Hurrah for Dixie which was surprising, followed by God Save the King, which felt a little disrespectful, followed by Jingle Bells. The neighbours were probably all out, but they otherwise would have heard me almost falling off my chair laughing when we reached Joy to the World. 

I managed to get hold of a very nice local electrician who came out, isolated the wire and pointed out the spaces where the batteries should have been. I'm not sure if it should have been wired in originally, and I've no idea who set the playlist to nineteenth century vaguely gothic, but after years of sterling service, it is finally out of commission. We have a Ring doorbell to fall back on, which we got after trouble with some former neighbours, and half the time no-one rings or even knocks, so it could be worse. I've been meaning to get the house re-wired for over ten years, and we can get it sorted out then. It's added to the list, along with the dining room floor and the leaking porch roof. 

I texted bear to let him know, as I thought he would see the humour, and he let me know that half the power sockets in the student kitchen weren't working. It sounds like there's a lot of it going around.

Writing stuff - the latest instalment of The Guest was posted on my blog yesterday here. And while I was looking for quotations about rain, I found this, and thought it worth sharing. 

Hugs and good health to all.

Always a Bright Side

I'm typing most of this one handed, I can knit maybe twenty stitches at a time and I'm not in the best of moods. But I can still click, and I found this. It's perfect for those who like cats and have at least a small fondness for eighties rock. The best part starts after 30 seconds.

I laughed and laughed and laughed. And I've found a whole new genre of YouTube videos that can waste my time. I'm off to watch 'ZZ Cat - Well Groomed Coat.' Again. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Has Anyone Seen My Marbles?

I have officially lost the plot, gone doolally and am away with the fairies. Yesterday I started getting a craving. It was the sort of craving you get during pregnancy or when you have a monthly need for chocolate. I was desperate - to cast on a triangle scarf. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if DH decided that I needed an intervention. But I really, really, really, wanted to knit a triangle scarf. As I'm reaching my sixties, I'm willing to blame it on hormones, or lack of them, and part of me was fascinated at why I should feel this. The rest of me decided to turn over my room in search of some yarn cakes that I bought when bear was tiny, or even before. I think I may have donated them, but my room looked like a hurricane had breezed through and I couldn't find them. Instead I spotted some double knitting that I'd stashed ready for a sweater. I grabbed the yarn and a 5mm circular needle (US size 8) which are bigger than the 4mm the yarn asked for but give a better drape with garter stitch. I settled down, leaned back and loaded up YouTube.

Not only am I losing my sanity to triangle scarves, but I seem to be losing any sort of brainpower as it took me an hour and a half to cast on and set up a shawl. I kept trying different videos to get them to make sense. I felt better after I got going, though, and it currently looks like this.

The yarn feels lovely, snuggly, warm, and soft and you can't get in any more as it was a Marriner brand and they went out of business. I've got enough for a sweater pattern.

But I'm making some mental calculations. The pattern I have asks for 500g, as it's quite plain. You can find it here, if you're interested, but I want to make it two inches longer than the pattern. There are two issues with this. I don't want to get carried away on the really snuggly shawl and not have enough for an equally snuggly sweater and I'm not sure about the length of the yarn. The yarn called for in the pattern is sold in balls that are 345m long, while the yarn that I've actually got is 290m per ball. I'm not saying the yarn is thicker than average, but it feels like it's eaten a lot of big dinners compared to standard double knitting. I may be forced to knit a swatch for the first time in years. 

And then there's the needle issue. If I knit to gauge, which I've always done in the past, I need a 4mm needle and the best one for the job is currently occupied with the multicoloured scarf in hurdle stitch that I only started a couple of days ago. So I need to finish the scarf and hat before I get carried away by the soft snuggly sweater which, when finished, will allow me to know whether I've got enough left for an amazing shawl. My track record for finishing things is not stellar, but at least this time I have an incentive. 

Not only am I concerned about my mental capacity, or lack of it, but I've done something interesting to my arm. When I told DH that I hurt my arm turning over in bed wrong, he stared at me, shook his head and told me, 'well, you will go taking risks.' I think I may have pulled a muscle of some sort, but I'm in a lot of pain, can't raise it above my head and I'm very restricted. Last time I had anything like this, it eased off eventually, but I cannot tell you how unimpressed I am at the whole business. After an evening losing all sense of proportion over a triangle shawl, I planned to go out today and find a quite corner and sit and knit. This has always helped my mental health. Unfortunately, my arm is so bad that I daren't risk driving. 

I made this on Canva yesterday. I can knit for short periods, and moving around is uncomfortable, but I may be able to get some writing done without excuses to be elsewhere. This is a good quotation to have in front of me.

In my case, action inspires me to new knitting projects. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Slightly Mindful

I've got a few more bits done today. It's all little stuff, but it's better than I have been. There's lots of fiddly bits that aren't worth writing about. However, some knitting has happened. 

Do you remember the scarf kit that with a pattern that called for one 150g ball of yarn where you knitted from both the inside and outside of the ball, switching every other row? And I ended up with two 100g balls and some sincere concerns. Here's the old pic. 

I thought that I'd try knitting with one ball being the 'inner end of yarn' and one ball being the 'outer end of yarn' and settled down to it, but then I realised - the pattern isn't reversible. The scarf had a right side and a wrong side.

I fail at fashion, and I could never be bothered trying to get the scarf tied so that it only showed the right side. As such, I refused to try knitting that dratted pattern. Instead I got a reversible stitch from a knitting book and used that. They called it hurdle stitch, and it's two rows of plain knit followed by two rows of knit one, purl one rib. I've done this much so far.

I wouldn't mind a sweater in that stitch, but I could never face the maths that I'd have to do to adapt a pattern. I don't think that I'll use both balls for it, though. I think that I'm just under half way through the first ball, and the scarf is already 28 inches or around 70cm. I may make a matching hat. If I did it again, I'd cast on more stitches, as it's six inches or fifteen centimetres wide, but it's not bad and I'm really enjoying the colour.

I got a phone call from bear. He sounds snowed under with work but I think that he's doing okay. 

Writing stuff - I nearly forgot about sharing this on Facebook, but the latest instalment on my blog of the Guest is here 

Hugs and good health to all.

Not Being Mindful

My word of the year was 'MINDFUL' and so far I have failed to use it. I don't even want to think about how many knitting projects I've started and how much I'm dithering about writing. Not to mention how I'm easily distracted. Examples include a YouTube video that claimed that it was ten minutes and three ingredients for a delicious and healthy soup. There were eleven ingredients, if you count salt and pepper as one, it took a good hour by my reckoning and there was a large portion of double cream. It looked like a pleasant version of leek and potato soup, which I'm including because I've not much else to share, but I doubt that I'd follow their method entirely. Apart from anything else, they used fresh bread for the croutons and everyone knows that stale bread is better and that croutons are great for using up leftovers, not the current loaf. 

I also bought some yarn from Aldi. I do not need any more yarn, not a thread, not the tiniest, flimsiest hank. I missed the best part of the sale, fortunately, and they didn't have the colours I wanted in the quantities I needed. I took a quick pick but I didn't want to get in the way of other shoppers.

There was a lot, though, and I still came away with 200g of brown yarn. It hasn't photographed well, but this is the best match of the colours.

I never wear brown. Not ever. I refuse to even consider it. But this just seemed to call to me. It reminded me of autumn leaves on a grey pavement and so I picked up enough for yet another scarf. To be fair, it will look great with the plain greys, blacks and blues that I have in my wardrobe. I have no idea when I'll knit it up, because I'm already booked up for the next decade. Once again, I failed at Mindful. 

Mind you, I've been all over the place today. I've managed to smash my pint Pyrex jug, which is a feat. Those things usually bounce but it ricocheted off a counter and the blast radius was epic. It took a while to be confident that I'd got all the pieces up. And then I dropped a full but open tub of gravy granules, which was just as much of a nuisance to clean up. I think my mind was elsewhere, though I've no idea where. 

My eyes are feeling a lot better, though I still plan to make an appointment with an optician. I think it's my sinuses playing up. It's just that time of year.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Eye Strain

I'm not sure if it's eye strain or a cold in my eye. It's not painfully sore, but it's not comfortable either so I'm going to be brief before going for a nap to rest it.

We went out on Saturday to feed the crows and we were generous. It's been so cold that we want to give a helping hand. I wish I could feed in the garden, but with so many rats being attracted, it's not really fair on the neighbours. I'm hoping to plant some pyrocantha or firethorn this year. They are supposed to have lots of small white flowers in spring and summer for bees and plenty of berries for the birds in winter. First, a pic of the car park when we were feeding crows 

It was one of those bright, cloudless, icy mornings and was very bracing. Pyracantha, if I've got it right, looks like this stock photo.

Image from WikiCommons, taken by Renhour48 who has kindly placed it in the public domain

The ones planted around the edges of supermarket carparks are incredibly prolific with flowers and berries, so hopefully that will support some wildlife. 

I took the car in today to get the tyres checked. They were all low on air, but they thought that it was a combination of the weather and that she wasn't getting driven much. I'll just have to give her some longer runs. She'll get some driving this week, anyway, as DH has to go into the office to work. It will feel very odd being on my own in the house as there's been someone around all the time for so long.

Writing stuff - I'm being a little careful with screens, so not so much is getting done. The latest post from The Guest is on my writing blog here. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

I Do Not Regret It

 

I'm going to be writing loads, which means no pics to share, so I thought that instead I would share some of my impulse buys, and you can see why I may have issues. I can't remember how much the box was above, but I know that it came cheap. However I regret nothing about it (apart from the extra plastic sewing needles). I have wanted some chenille for a scarf for a while, as I want a soft scarf and this feels marvellous. I do regret the cleaning book that turned up in the same delivery as it was absolutely useless. I'd hoped to add it to my roster but instead it's confusing, full of tiny print, and barely fit to use to line a bird cage. 

Bear got to his campus safely. I know that because I had a single text, but that's fine. I know that he'd let me know if there was a problem. I'm sure that a lot of people who read this can identify, but it feels just a little off balance that he's not here. I burned one of the candles that he bought me for Christmas.

He found it in a shop local to him and it was lovely, made with pure beeswax, but it burned down into a puddle and I'll have to chip it out of the tealight holder that I used to contain it. I love that he thought of me when he didn't have to, if you see what I mean. He bought it a while before Christmas and it was so thoughtful. 

In other news, one of us left the fridge door ajar some time yesterday. I'm throwing out the bacon because it felt room temperature to the touch, but the cheese and the butter should be fine. Currently the fridge contents are around seventy percent condiments with a strong carrot contingent which I keep forgetting about - which is why I need a dratted 'use up' list.

And the tyre pressure gauge keeps going off. I'm taking it to the garage, just in case, because our road is so dreadful that there could be a slow leak in one of the tyres. It's happened before. However, it's likely that it's just the cold weather. Normally I get a minor service at this time of year. With our car only doing town driving, and now ten years old and counting, I want to make sure that she keeps going for as long as possible. However we've only filled up with petrol three times since her major service in June and there's still half a tank left from the last top-up. She was off the road for most of June and July with the airbag recall, and I haven't even done much shopping. I need to get back to shopping in person so that I don't lose my driving skills. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Tesco Delivered

I was looking at quotations to cheer me up after bear left for university and found this. 

I couldn't resist having a play with Canva. 

I'm getting settled back at the good computer on the decent desk and I thought that there wouldn't be much to talk about. Then Tesco delivered and I had a bonus. DH prefers Heinz beans, so when I saw a deal for sixteen full sized tins for £11, when the 'price they use so they can call things a sale' is currently £1.40 per tin, with sixteen at that price costing £22.40, I committed. But they were out of stock of the 2x8pack that was the deal, so I got 6x4packs, or 24 full sized cans of Heinz beans for £11 - around 46p a tin. If I'd had the energy, I would have done a lap of celebration around the kitchen. Of course, they'll likely last until March, especially with the half cans I got for the individual meals, which were also on offer. I am stuffing my shelves.

The Three Rivers Homestead YouTube channel hosts a pantry challenge every year around this time. The challenge is to live out of the pantry for one, two or three months without going grocery shopping. This makes sense for the homestead channels who spend their summers preserving their hard work in their gardens and fields. It also wouldn't hurt me to thin out the cupboards. Instead, along with the baked bean mountain, I got six very large bottles of Tesco tomato ketchup. I have a habit of treating food as a ketchup delivery system, and there was a coupon for 15% off. Coupons that apply to Tesco's own brand stuff are rare and while 15% isn't as good as some deals, I'll take the opportunity. Mind you, the legislation that bans deals on processed food seems to have cancelled the 3for2 promotion on jars of sauce that normally runs in the autumn, which is something of a blow. 

Now that I'm back on the desk and getting the lists going again, I want to add a page for 'food that needs using' so I can't forget, for example, to use up the bits of polish sausage that bear left in the fridge, or the fat free yoghurts that are allegedly good for me, came today on the wings of a coupon and I am uneasily aware will slide to the back of my mind. It won't hurt to use Tesco to look up recipes for all the stuff that's in my cupboards. Which means that I ought to do an inventory of my cupboards after Christmas. Which I may or may not get to when I'm not writing.

And if all else fails, I've got wonderful inspiration from the Weary Wolf, who did a food challenge where he had baked beans for every meal for a week, three times a day! I'm not sure I'm up to that dedication, but it's a resource.

Hugs and good health to all

Paused

Bear goes back to university tomorrow. I'll admit to being worried. Snow is forecast over half the country and the English transit system has a habit of fainting at the first flake. There are exceptions, of course. Places like the Lake District and Dartmore know how to deal with snow, but the British Rail service can be touchy. I remember years ago when British Rail cancelled trains because there were leaves on the track. After some thought, machines were brought in to clear the tracks, but then trains were cancelled because it was the wrong sort of leaves on the track. I'll be fretting all day. 

I feel paused, waiting for things to happen. I've dotted around doing bits of this and that, but I can't settle. It's a fault in me. I can't get on with stuff if I'm waiting for things to happen. However, when I was looking for white cotton to mend DH's pocket, at least I found this. I am consciously looking for things that make me smile, and this is the result of another random eBay purchase. I think that I was going to use them as stitch markers, but they got shoved in a bag. I just love the jewel colours and seeing them brought joy. I don't know when I'll use them, but I doubt that I'll get rid of them.

They are so tiny that I added a pen to compare the size. 

Another thing that made me smile was the pics that I had for the fort that bear and I made seven years ago, when he had just started high school and the teacher sent home work to be done over Christmas - the sort of work that ends up dumped on the parent. 

I was glad to see the back of it. Mind you, I'm still proud of the water effect that we got by painting bubble wrap with blue poster paint.

Tomorrow I'll be worrying about bear, but I'll also be able to get on my computer, spread out my notes and notebooks and get cracking. And missing bear again. 

Hugs and good health to all.

The Decorations are Down

We've still got plenty of Christmas goodies, though less than usual. I guess they'll last maybe another week. Bear may take some biscuits away with him. I got a very boring PricePanda delivery today with lots of cooking foil and a book that will be a great present for a friend's little girl and it came in an amazing box again. Bear decided to take the train back to university. DH is working and I still haven't got the hang of motorways. Besides, the weather is iffy and, to be honest, I'm not sure how well our poor old car would do for several hundred miles at 70mph. Rather than him carrying back all the stuff he brought home, like his laptop and clothes, plus all the stuff he got, like sieves, scales and cooking trays, he's carrying some stuff and we're posting the rest. It makes logical sense, especially with a sturdy box like the one that held the PricePanda goodies. 

I was thinking about Kirsten's comment that she hadn't used eBay and wasn't sure that she should after my experience. To be honest, I can't recommend eBay with a clear conscience because it has lead to some dreadful impulse buys on my part. For example, I once bought a job lot of over a hundred second-hand men's ties. I'd seen someone had made a quilt from suffolk puffs that were made from old men's ties. I quite fancied doing that. I never got around to it, though. I did weave a bag out of strips cut from the ties, and I enjoyed making it. It was all in one piece on a piece of cardboard and it was relaxing to make, but I can't find the YouTube video anymore. 

I still use it to hold dryer balls. Then there was the time that I bought a job lot of broken jewellery for craft, and I did have some fun with that, though I ended up donating about half when I decided that I wasn't using it. But look what I got!

As an aside, I checked and there is a listing at time of typing that has 3.5kg or just over seven and a half pounds of broken costume jewellery for £22 including postage for those who like crafting. It makes far more sense to pick up much smaller lots, but I've never been known for my sense on eBay.

I don't think that I ever got a proper pic of the time I bought a job lot of handbags. It was one of those times when it all got away from me. I wanted one handbag, cheap. There was an inexpensive lot that didn't have many pics but included a small black bag that looked perfect and I got it for around £15, I think - certainly not more than £20 as I never bid much on eBay. When the parcel arrived, it was so crammed with bags that I couldn't lift it and the postman had to drag it to the door. I never got a full tally of the contents, as I unpacked it in front of father and he whisked a good few off for his lady friends at church. The bags that were left, however, lasted me years. 

It's a temptation to buy things for projects that I never get to, which is a real failing of mine. I've been resisting a bundle of rags for a while. Did you know that at time of typing you can buy 10kg of cleaning rags made from old clothes, like winceyette and flannel, in smallish squares, for £14.75 which includes postage? And did you know that there's a YouTube channel called HandyMumLin that has a huge playlist of patchwork sewing ideas that use small pieces of fabric like flannel? I've managed to stay strong so far, but it's touch and go sometimes. 

I'm not doing too bad at resisting eBay these days. Regrettably, I'm failing to resist Temu, which I treat with the same caution - I don't expect miracles and I don't spend a lot of money. I've had some wins and some fails, and I need to stay away.

I've consciously looked for something that made me smile today, and it was the memories of my erratic forays into eBay. There were wins, there were fails, but there was always a story. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Out of Sorts

If I was a cat, I think that I'd have my ears on backwards - you know, like a cat with their fur brushed the wrong way. I think it's the snow. I always feel sleepy when snow is forecast. It wasn't forecast for last night but I nodded off in the afternoon and then realised that we had been blessed with a scant quarter inch of snow.

I also feel ashamed, because I felt that Christmas wasn't brilliant and it wasn't exactly bad it's just that it wasn't brilliant. There were lots of moments that were flat when they had sparkled in previous years. For example, we got the pack of three joints of meat from Tesco. It's a pack of gammon, beef and turkey joints, all previously slow cooked and tender and all allegedly ready to feed four. Years ago, they amply fed us for a meal, but this year they barely stretched for the three of us. The stuffing that I was anticipating got subsituted for pigs in blankets at the delivery, but we already had sixty of the dratted things stowed away for bear. And the side dishes that I paid extra for were okay but not as good as they have been in the past. The portions were definitely smaller, which is a sign of the times. 

It's not like we had rows or sickness or accidents. We had some really good times, and managed to coax bear to watch Where Eagles Dare with us. DH and I adore the film, but bear has been resistant til now. He's not a fan of films or most tv shows, but he enjoyed it. He and DH had a wonderful time talking about uniforms and the placement of explosives. 

That unwarranted sense of dissatisfaction led to some poor judgement on eBay, and two of the consequences arrived today. 

The small grey balls of yarn are for a kit for a man's hat, which I thought would do well for my brother and I could use the pattern to do another for his partner. The pattern is okay, but the listing promised to include needles. The pattern calls for 4.5mm and 5mm needles. The kit only included 5mm needles.

They're 10 inches or 25cm long and I can't see 93 stitches in aran yarn fitting on them. And that's the problem. There's nothing wrong with it, deep down. I'm confident that the needles will come in useful in a different project and the yarn will work out, but I still feel a little grumpy. 

The multicoloured yarn is supposed to be for a scarf. The pattern calls for a 150g ball of yarn, but I have two lots of 100g. Then the pattern says that I have to take yarn from the outside and knit a couple of rows, then I have to take yarn from the centre of the ball and knit a couple more rows, then back to the first end of what presumably is a long strand of yarn, and I know that this is a recipe for one horrendous tangle. There will be ends everywhere, even if it's supposed to be the same ball of yarn. At least it only needs one size of needle. I could use one of the 100g balls for the 'end that starts on the outside of the ball' and the other 100g ball for the 'end that starts on the inside of the ball' but that would be making the best of things and at the moment I'm stuck in grumpy. 

Bear will be going back to university soon. He's spent most of today studying as he has an exam at 9am on the first day of term. I think he has far more reason to be grumpy, but he seems relaxed enough.

And I think that's why I'm unreasonably grumpy. When he was away, I was using his desk and I got so much writing stuff done. It wasn't just the series for Royal Road, but loads of background stuff and a lot of housewifery admin. It really helped me find my balance. Now he's home, I can't do that, but he's here and that's awesome. When he goes away, I'll be able to do so much more housework and writing, but he won't be here. I need to set up a second desk by the time he comes home for Easter.  

Writing stuff - my series The Guest is being put on substack. I apologise to everyone who is getting a gazillion notifications. It should calm down a little soon. The series is now in three separate places, with Substack trailing behind and the latest instalment on my blog here. 

Hopefully I'll lose the grumpy soon.

Hugs and good health to all.