It's been a quietish day. I've got a few bits done, but I've had one of those 'don't drive or try anything complicated like walking' headaches which I think is because I kept forgetting to make a drink. I was definitely out of it for a bit but at least I recovered in time to watch the first in the new season of The Great British Sewing Bee. I very much enjoyed the sewing bee, but it looked like they were starting off with some really hard stuff. They were using patterns with pleats and gathers and my very limited experience says that they can be tricky to get straight and even if you're pushed for time. Still, some of the finished garments were stunning.
I've spent a lot of the day trying to work out how to go forward with some writing stuff, so I've not had much to take pics of, but I did a little knitting and the blanket is growing nicely. I'm loving how the colours work out.
And I've identified more yarn that I can get rid of, including this.
It's a lovely soft cotton feel acrylic, and I'm a sucker for blues, and I'd no doubt enjoy turning it into a couple of baby blankets, but I don't know if or when thtat would happen. I'm absolutely getting rid of blacks and navy blues. I don't need the eye strain!
I've mostly recovered from watching England play Wales in the Euros. For those who don't follow sport, it's the European international tournament for Women's football (aka soccer). It's the first time that Wales women's team have made the international tournament and England won last time so it was unsurprising that the result was 6-1. Of course, growing up in England, speaking English and with a very English father, I still have a tie to the Welsh roots of my mother's family and it's no wonder that drink was taken last night.
I've used a lot of pictures from Unsplash over the years. They have both free pictures and pictures that need payment, and I've taken ruthless advantage of the free pictures. I was feeling a little guilty and wondered if any of the pics that I've taken would be of good enough quality. I'm not saying that I think that my pics are any good, but they may be useful and it feels only right that I give something back. I've loaded these up so far.
I don't think that they'll get much use, especially as I don't think that I did a good job on the key words, but I hope that there's some use in them somewhere. I was somewhat surprised to see that they were accepted. I guess my phone takes pictures of the right sort after all. I think that I'll have a rummage through my old pics and see if there are any others that are worth sharing. They'll be dim in the company of some of the glorious pics on there, especially the pics of art from museums, but it's something.
I ended up with two deliveries today. Because the Morrisons order was due at 9.30, the cut off for amending the order last night was 5.20pm. Obviously the men in my life didn't tell me that they wanted some extras on the order until 7pm, and it was stuff that they genuinely enjoy, so the Tesco order that was due later in the week, and which could be amended up to 11.46pm, was brought forward. The Tesco delivery drivers are all sweethearts and this one didn't even blink when he was unloading ten tubes of Texas Barbecue Pringles.
Bear has been awesome, putting away groceries, washing up without being asked, and generally being helpful. DH is a darling. I'm really happy to work around them.
I'm so tired now that I'm making a lot of mistakes as I'm writing, so I hope that this all makes sense.
Writing stuff - a short story is here. I suspect that it's a start to something, but I've no idea what.
I don't want to talk about England v France. Tonight was better.
There have been a few issues with the chillies. Something has been at them and their leaves are absolutely lacy.
I picked the chillies, pruned off the worst affected bits and sprayed it generously with soapy water. Washing the gunk off the windowsill was completely yeurk. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it keeps going.
I'm frustrated about the car. I've had the formal 'Stop Driving' notice so I can really only drive to get it fixed. I keep expecting it to explode like a special effect which is somewhat implausible, but I'm feeling quite frustrated. I have a delivery saver plan so I could get a Tesco delivery every day without charge if I wanted to - if I met the £50 minimum. If I don't meet the £50 minimum, there's a £5 surcharge. Right now, to keep up with fresh stuff and bits, it would suit me to get a delivery three times a week, although there's workarounds. I'm well stocked on candles, tinned food, dried pulses, rice, pasta etc etc so I don't really want to add more just to bump the total up.
Fortunately, there's always bear. All being well, and not tempting fate, he'll be away for university in the autumn so I can start picking up bits for him while bringing my total up to the mark. Today it was a rather nice single person frying pan which was a decent weight and non-stick. I couldn't get him to give me an opinion, as in his view a pan is just a pan, so I imagine that I'll be doing a lot of the thinking part of it. I've got a lot of Tesco vouchers, so I'm not worried about stretching too much. To be fair, he could take most of what he needs from home rather than buy it new, but I'll give him choices.
Writing stuff - yesterday I posted the last instalment of the White Hart here. Today I posted a quick note about it here.
In a previous post I listed the priorities for my knitting. I can't believe that I was so deluded to think that I'd stick to that! That list has gone completely out of the window.
Anyway I'm still feeling under the weather, but at least I've been knitting (although not with any sensible priorities). When I thought that the balls were 50g rather than 200g (the North American system for using how many yards/metres in a ball is so much better, especially with weird yarn), I bought rather a lot for scarves and this means that I hope to have a blanket for when my brother and his partner come back from their holidays. I've done this so far...
And I adore the colours. There's a genuinely non zero chance that I'll keep it for myself. The pic with the flash doesn't do it justice. The colours are a wonderfully glacial and, as with all hand knits, it's surprisingly warm.
I think I've had a virus and I'm coming out of it. I've been flattened, and I'm still fairly flat, but I'm more or less ticking over. I've absolutely neglected the plants, though, and some have died so I'll have to play catch up.
This is a little annoying as I won't be able to take the garden waste to the tip for the next few weeks. We're not allowed to put garden waste in our normal bins though I may be able to request a 'pick up' of garden waste from the council. I can't take it to the tip because I drive a Citroen C3 and there is a worldwide recall of airbags on Citroen C3s. I read an article today on the BBC that said it was risky to keep driving it. I'd been making a few short runs (nearly passed out in Aldi, which was mortifying) but I told bear last night that I wasn't fit to drive and I'm quite glad that I did. He had to take the bus to his pub quiz, but was fine. However I can't take stuff to the tip if the car isn't safe to drive.
Bear is being awesome and has already cleared a lot of the garden, leaving a mound of cuttings and weeds that I can't get to the tip. Darn it to heck.
It keeps coming back to not being able to drive because the halogen oven has given up. There's an unnerving crackle when I turn it on and a weird smell. It's around four years old and has been used most days, sometimes for more than one meal, and if I remember correctly it cost something like £34. It doesn't owe a penny and I'm going to miss it as it made the best baked potatoes. I can't take it to the tip until the car's sorted out. We've decided against replacing it and plan to use the airfryer instead, but we'll need to move the airfryer. We haven't been using it that much, which is perhaps just as well, as the only place it has fit has a cupboard over it and when I used it last night, the bottom of the cupboard got red hot. We're going to have to rearrange the kitchen and it's a great opportunity to get rid of a load of junk and check for out of date packets and tins in the back of shelves or to make a decision and donate food that's otherwise fit but that we'll never use. Which I won't be able to take to the tip or food bank because of the car issue. Some expired stuff will fit in the normal wheelie bin for the usual collection, but if I'm getting rid of a lot, it's going to be an issue.
I've not been doing much, but I've managed some knitting and now that the football is on, I hope to reduce my stash. I've finished the scarves for my brother and his partner.
Though I may do a couple of others for them, depending on what I find in my stash. I started knitting the blanket that needed to have three strands held together, and I was fed up by the end of the second row. It didn't help that it started with dark grey and it was giving me eye strain. I've made a decision - I'm going to get rid of all the dark grey, black and navy yarn in my stash, including the yarn that I used to start the dark blue scarf. There's around 2 kilos of this in total, at a minimum, and I need to either throw it away, donate it or sell it. Of course, without the dratted car I can't drive to the tip, the post office (if it's sold) or a charity shop.
In fact, I've decided that I'm going to be ruthless with the stash. I'm going to get rid of everything that isn't part of a project that I think that I'll enjoy or isn't DK that could be used for knitting for sailors. I'm also reluctantly parting with any idea of me doing any sewing. I'd quite like to do some, but it isn't going to happen. I'd rather spend my time with the knitting. This means that the fabric, notions and a lot of the tools need to be tossed/donated/sold whenever I can use the car.
The car is booked in to have the airbags refitted on 29th July. I believe that I'll be doing several hundred miles in the few days after that!
Writing stuff - I published another instalment of the White Hart last week here.
I'm just passing through as it's too hot to breathe. Of course, when I say that it's too hot, we are talking about 30C or 86F. For many of you reading this, that's sweater weather. Meanwhile there is actually a weather warning out about the heat. Amateur weather forecasters are having fits about thunder and hail, most of which seems to be destined to miss us which is a shame as I love a good thunderstorm. One commentator has even muttered about a tornado which is sort of implausible. There are a lot of tornados in UK. They're not usually that big, but they're still there. The Met Office (government weather office) have a video on it.
Small but comparitively frequent. Yes, people from places like the USA can snigger at this as well.
Anyway it's still too hot to be reasonable. Houses like mine are designed to keep in the heat, to garner every crumb of warmth and lock it into the rooms. This is an absolute blessing for nine months of the year and can even be a bonus during summer if it's a colder one. It is not currently a blessing.
Yesterday, because I love the men, I baked a cake. However, did I mention the heat was getting to me? I added ingredients in the wrong order, I'm fairly sure that I should have whisked instead of beaten and I suspect that I added at least twice the amount of vanilla in the recipe. It sank like the Titanic.
The men had some last night and said it was great. I had some tonight and it really wasn't. I may try the recipe again if I can find the whisk, but I'll aim for a better reading of instructions. I may make Cherie's microwave chocolate cake tomorrow.
I finished my brother's/brother's partner's scarf.
It came out at roughly 60 inches long (152cm) and 10 inches wide (25cm). It's interesting as the pattern from Mission for Seafarers has 200g of DK yarn, cast on 40 stitches, plain knit until you run out of yarn, and stipulates no wider than 10 inches and no longer than 60 inches and the scarves so far have come in at around that size. This is random yarn from Temu.
I thought it was in 50g balls, possibly aran weight and bought four to make a scarf, casting on 36 stitches and using 6mm needles. The above scarf took one ball. I checked back and I think I may have made something of an error. The package was described as 80% wool, 20% acrylic and when I looked further, it recommended a 4mm needle, but I think that would have made the fabric far too dense and stiff for a scarf. As I was looking further I saw that it was described as '200g, 2 pieces' which I would normally take to mean two balls of 100g each. Upon reflection, though, I think it was two lots of 200g. I bought it in two colours to allow them to negotiate over who wanted what colour, and because, as I said, I thought they were 50g balls, I think I may have ended up with over a kilo of yarn. I'm far from convinced that it would knit as DK, though, as I used 6mm needles and it's turned out fine. I've started a second scarf in that colour, which will still leave me with 400g left over which may end up as scarves for the Salvation Army.
This leaves me with the other colour.
I love this colourway. And the scarf is wonderfully light and soft and warm. I absolutely could make a blanket, using the same needles and casting on four times the number of stitches. I don't think that it would take long to knit up, either and I would adore a blanket from this. But I wanted to give more than one colour to my brother/his partner and if I try and make a blanket out of the leftover yarn of both colours, I think that it would look awful. I'm considering my options and I can postpone the decision as tomorrow I'm knitting for sailors as it's Sunday and it will take a while to knit up the scarf.
The weather should break tomorrow, son fingers crossed that I'll have more to talk about.
We had a splendid Father's Day here. Bear and DH ended up playing a video game late into the night. It was lovely to see. As it was Sunday, and I try to knit for sailors on Sundays, and as the blue scarf was finished, I started another hat.
I did so much because it was just so wonderful, all of us hanging out together, all being calm and relaxed. Then I had an horrific night, followed by a tough day, and today wasn't brilliant either. I haven't watered anything in the garden so I'm hoping that there's something to save when I manage to get out there. By the way, as I find sitting in the car and knitting while it rains, I find it ironic that it's been the driest spring in 100 years, according to some sources, certainly around here, and when it has rained, it's been overnight.
When I dug out the hat, I thought I'd share what I've started calling my 'Knit To Go Bag'. It's one of those things that I've sort of slipped into having. Big projects, like sweaters and blankets, generally stay in the house these days. However if I'm out feeding the crows with DH or hanging around waiting for bear, I like to have something smallish to knit. And when I've gone to get the car serviced, I'll sometimes take a blanket or sweater in a big bag for life and add in the 'knit to go bag'. The contents currently look like this.
That's the scarf for my brother/his partner
The hat as above and a piece of paper with the pattern, from when my laptop and the printer were still on speaking terms.
My necklight, as I'm often knitting in the dark while waiting for bear.
An extremely inexpensive set of interchangeable needles that aren't brilliant but fine for grabbing and going, together with things like scissors, wool needles, stitch markers, point covers, a tape measure, stitch holders etc.
I bought this big box of stitch markers quite a few years ago and I'm impressed with myself that I haven't lost so many yet.
I didn't take a pic of the wet wipes or green biro that are also in there, but I have a notebook that must be around 20 years old and still going - mainly because not only do I sometimes lose it, but I rarely pick patterns that need me to count rows.
And a roll of pretty bags for either using for rubbish when I've been hanging around in the car eating snacks but also I like to keep my yarn in bags to stop it getting dusty or dirty, especially in the car.
I kept this kit in a small, overflowing reusable bag but recently upgraded to a cheap bag with a zip closure so that I no long worry about it tipping up and yarn and needles rolling everywhere.
I've also bunged in stuff like bottles of water, extra yarn, and a book to read at times. It means that if I decide to go out, I have something that I can just grab, dump in the car and get out. I thoroughly recommend it.
Bear had an exam today and he felt it went well. He has two tomorrow, which is tough, so I'm keeping everything crossed for him.
