Things I have done…

It's been a few days since I last posted which means I have to try and remember what on earth I have been up to and then hope that some of it is interesting enough to write about. Luckily I have had a week off, been to a local festival, had a birthday and completed some projects so there should be some material in there somewhere! So unlike my last post I can write about the things I have done, rather than the things I haven't. However I must start my mentioning that my birthday came and went without the completion of any of the projects I had planned to have done by then. This is because I was suffering from a severe case of 'everything I touch turns to crap' syndrome. I'm sure this happens to everyone from time to time, but it took me about a week to shake this bout. I tried to finish my envelope clutch, I gave up cos it was crap. I very carefully designed something similar, but smaller and simpler. It was crap. It looked fine on the inside but it wouldn't have closed and the card slots were about a millimetre too small. This all took about 3 days with nothing to show so I gave up on sewing to enjoy my birthday weekend. If I stopped sewing, things would stop being crap, right? Wrong. Saturday was the first day of Sweeps Festival and I had planned a nice relaxing day, shopping, having lunch then off to sit in the sun and drink beer followed by more beer in a pub garden. I went off shopping bought a new dress and some other bits and bobs and moseyed home, so far so good. The dress I was going to wear inexplicably looked crap on me, so I broke out the new one and was pleased. I started to do my hair and my straighteners stopped working. I decided not to get frustrated and leave them for a few minutes to cool off and try them again. Walking out of the room I caught my new dress on the door catch, there was a terrible ripping sound and I was stuck. I eventually extricated myself, had a good old swear and fired up the sewing machine. Dress fixed I discovered I had hoped too much for the straighteners which were buggered. I found an old set and got ready to leave the house. Despite it being a glorious day I thought ahead and grabbed a hoodie to wear for when it got cold later on and then promptly left that at the bus stop so that I could end the day at around midnight drunken and shivering, cursing my luck. Sunday started better, I was correctly attired and managed not to break anything. All was going swimmingly until we decided that we had better get something to eat and then Chris ate something which violently disagreed with him and we had to get home quick before there was a seismic bum event. On the plus side we were home in time for Supernatural. Monday was my actual birthday, my family came round and I scored a whole load of vouchers and cash plus a super cutting mat and rotary cutter combo which has proved invaluable for my small sewing project. Thanks mum! Then it was off to the pub again.

And there it would appear, my bad luck ran out because I have completed 2 projects! I tried the envelope clutch again and, while it could be a bit neater it is pretty cool and will be really useful for nights out (side pics). I also made an Estelle bag (below)for times when I need a larger bag with handles. Once again I could have done a slightly neater job, but I love it. Apart from a couple of fiddly bits it was really quick and easy to make and I can see a few more of these in my future. The instructions were a little hard to fathom on reading then through, but if you follow them step by step as you go all becomes clear. Now I want a matching wallet so I have a trio of skully accessories for all occasions. I love this How-to and think I will be trying it very shortly.

Thinks have also been going right on the getting fit front too. I had avoided getting on the Wii Fit for a while because my exercise has dropped off a bit recently as I have been really busy and I didn't want to know how much weight I had put back on. However I finally braved it and much to my surprise I had lost an entire 5lbs!!!!!! that puts the total loss so far as 1 stone 4 lbs, which is not too shabby. I do however need to get back in the pool and back out for some runs as the Race for Life is in less than 3 weeks. So far my Mum and I have raised over £100 and I want to be in tip top condition on race day. So all in all I have got quite a lot done since my last post. Good job!

Things I haven’t done

Yesterday I made a list, a very detailed and comprehensive list, of what I need to do each day in order to get my envelope clutch and matching bag finished by the weekend. Did I get any of it done last night? Hell no! I have nearly finished the leg on my second monkey sock though. Maybe tonight will be different though. Tonight there is very little on television, which may help. However Chris just texted me from home to tell me a parcel has arrived for me, the contents of which will most likely be a little distracting. Although I already have an mp3 player with a matching armband which I take running with me, I have found it a bit annoying to have the wire flapping around and the armband makes me sweaty. So when I saw that Sony have made a walkman which has all the gubbins attached to your ears and has no wires I had to have one right now. I have been waiting for days for it to arrive and now it's finally here!! Right I'm off to rework my 'things to do' list to incorporate all the stuff I didn't do yesterday and include putting music on my new walkman and going for a run to try it out.

 

High hopes

I have to say that Generation T is fast becoming my best buy of the year so far, yesterday I made the purple wonder to the side from a large men's T-shirt. I'm not convinced that many large men would actually have chosen to wear it in it's original state so I guess that makes it even more of an original. All in all it took me about an hour to make, and that includes the bath I took half way through! And yes, I did take that picture in a toilet cubicle. But the cubicle in question is at work and I wanted to demonstrate that I am actually wearing these things in public.

I have also nearly finished the Summer Blouse I was making from Weekend Sewing. By nearly finished I mean that it now has two sleeves, rather than the singular sleeve it had been sporting for over a week. I still need to shorten the sleeves, because I would prefer that my hands can actually protrude from them, sew the hem and partially close the placket because, unlike my hands, my boobies can currently be seen! So who knows, maybe there could be a work toilet picture of me finally wearing that one tomorrow. I am itching to get it finished so that I can move on to all the other projects I am desperate to get done this week. This coming weekend is a bit of a biggy and I want to be looking totally cool with all my individual things. This weekend is Sweeps Festival in Rochester, which is a bit of a strange affair with morris dancers and people dressed as chimney sweeps galore, but there is also a heck of a lot of ale to be drunk and all the gang will be there having a fine old time. It also happens to be my birthday too so I fully intend to have my finished envelope clutch at the ready to buy beer from and a lovely matching bag to go with it. Realistic? As long as I don't sleep it will be!

Knittingwise I am now on Monkey no. 2. No. 1 fits nicely and I am still loving the pattern so all is well. All of my other projects are lying fallow still and may stay that way for a while as I have had many requests for hats recently. I'm not sure it is really worth the effort given that we are finally enjoying some sunny weather, but Mark has been waiting over 2 years for his so maybe I'd best get on with that one at least! I'm thinking this (Ravelry link) in black and red stripes. I was going to design him something but I've never knitted a mens hat and I have such a tiny head myself that I couldn't really be sure if it was going to fit so I think I'll stick to a pattern on this one. Maybe I will take it to Sweeps at the weekend just to show him that I really am getting on with it finally. Ah that'll be the life. Knitting, tankard of ale and all my friends on a long weekend. Bliss!

Bo-o-ooring!

This is going to be a bit of a pointless post but I am currently sat on the enquiry desk at work and over the last 46 minutes I have been enquired of just twice. Both enquiries have been about paper. I have 74 minutes left (correct me if I am wrong) and I'm not confident that it is going to get any more interesting. I work in a university library, which is actually pretty cool and it has been really busy here just recently as dissertation deadlines etc have been looming. However, enquiry desk duty is the job we all groan at. Usually it is done by the subject librarians but when they are thin on the ground their assistants (e.g moi) get rota'd on. The purpose of the desk is to help students use the catalogue and electronic resources, the kind of in depth stuff that just holds up the queue at the main counter. Apparently no one needs any help with that stuff today. They just want to know how big A0 paper is. Apparently 'way huge' did not turn out to be an acceptable answer!

So what have I been up to then? Well apart from working and sewing and a teeny tiny bit of knitting, I have been mainly trying to keep up with being all healthy. I have finally managed to lose an entire stone but since then have been a bit too afraid to weigh myself again. I think hitting a milestone made me relax and I have lost motivation a bit, even though I really want to keep going. Easter saw me consuming a lot of chocolate so I've had to work to get back on track there and I totally have not stepped on my cross trainer for ages (it's in the same room as my sewing machine - go figure!). However, I found out about this challenge and immediately decided that it was something I could be motivated about. Push ups are not my strong point and I always curse people on exercise vids for making me do them so I've decided to try and overcome it. I completed Wk1 Day1 yesterday without too much difficulty and I don't hurt too much today so I'm definitely getting stronger. I also started the sit up programme yesterday as well. I did the initial test and crunched out 40 so I'm starting at Wk3 rather than at the beginning so I'm feeling quite smug about that. These programmes are particularly good as they specify a certain number of reps followed by a rest and so on. All I need to do now is quantify that in knitting terms. For example, 14 push ups followed by 1 round of sock, 12 push ups followed by 1 round of sock, much better than clock watching, sock watching!

Well after a sudden flurry of activity here on the enquiry desk, well someone actually asked me how to find a book and then I spend 20 minutes proof reading an essay (which is totally not a service offered bu the library but I figured I could spare the time) I now have only 10 minutes left, woohoo! After that I'm going to have a lovely cup of tea and daydream about going home in 2 hours!

Mad T-shirt lady

When people come a-visiting why is that you are never caught having a nice cup of tea in front of the TV or something nice and normal like that? On Saturday there were visitors (not visiting me I might add, which just makes it worse) and they arrived shortly after I had carpeted the entire living room with T-shirts. I then had to explain myself, which was simple enough but still made me look insane. I had just bought Generation-T by Megan Nikolay and was so inspired that I had to rush out and get as many cheapo T-shirts as I could find. I then laid them out all around the living room so I could decide which projects would suit each T-shirt. It was at this point I was caught looking like a mad T-shirt lady! However, undeterred I went on to complete one total disaster and one resounding success. My first attempt should have been very simple indeed, but due to me ignoring the little voice that was urging me to try on the t-shirt before decided where to cut I ended up standing in front of a looking like I had just been mauled by a lion. Clearly this was not the intention! I had been aiming for a cute heart shaped design made of horizontal slits but instead I just have a bit of a mess that will become strings and laces for future projects. All is not lost. Next up though was this:

I love it! The one is the book was worn on its own but I decided that I am really at the wrong end of my 20's for that to be dignified – even if I do manage to achieve a flat stomach any time soon.

On the knitting front, I am just about to start decreasing for the toe on my first Monkey sock. Even though I really haven't put much time in, when I do get going this has been flying off the needles. I've actually completely memorised the pattern, which is good because I keep forgetting to print it, which has helped but I really don't understand how this seems to be going faster than your average stockinette sock/ Must be quantum!

Thwarted again

Well my sewing machine has finally seen some significant action since I got the printer back online, but unbfortunately I don't have a lot to show for it, just a whole heap of half sewn fabric. I am once again thwarted at every turn. After all of that pattern cutting and sticking I was impressed that I ended up with a dress pattern that actually looked useable. However it was only a few minutes later that I discovered that one of my chosen fabrics was waythicker than I had realised and was completely unsuitable. Luckily I received a parcel full of fabric the next day so I was able to leave that on the back burner and move on. Nextup I decided to try the Summer Blouse from Weekend Sewing. I traced and cut out the pattern, cut out the fabric, finished the edges, put in bust darts,sewed the shoulders, attached the placket and cut the front....sew far sew good (arf arf!). Then I discovered I would need bias tape in order to proceed. As I'm sure you can guess from the tone of my post, I don't have any of that. I failed to read ahead or pay appropriate attention tho the 'you will need' section so that has been put aside. Next I tried this. Cut it all out, ironed on interfacing (I'm not even mentioning that I had to buy a new iron the other day!), made the card and not pockets only to dicover that the zip, which I have yet to purchase, gets sewn in at this early stage of the game and not towards the end. Put that aside. Moved on to some T-shirt recon. Got half way through that, got bored. Put it aside. On the plus side I have made three cushions, and by that I mean started and finished. This would be good except that I had planned to make 6. The three little ones seem to have gone missing, but they will be found and covered whether they like it or not. For the moment though here is a shot of the completed ones just so that I can prove that I have an FO amongst the huge pile of UFO's in my spare room.

Itty bitty bag

I spent last night in the sewing zone and I have to say that I am reasonably pleased with myself. The printer cartridge had arrived so I printed out the pattern for a dress I've had my eye on for a while and then set about trimming and sticking the whole 30 pages together. I got further than I thought I would before throwing the scissors down and declaring that I couldn't take any more. I'll put in another 10 minutes tonight and it should be done. I'm not planning on making the dress just yet but I want to lay the pieces on the fabric so I know how much I am going to use and then I can get those bits washed and I'll have an idea of what is left over. Genius, huh? After cutting and sticking fatigue set in I went and got on with the bag I started yesterday. I very nearly finished it but I had a total nightmare with the closing flap. I was being all clever and doing it differently than in the how to but every step of the way it went wrong! At the moment it is actually in the right place, as opposed to stuck between the bag and the lining where it started, but the intended button hole went really wrong so I am going to sew the button on the flap and just stick some Velcro on the other side. Not quite as refined as I had planned but it will do the job. After that I need to think about handles. I hadn't actually given any thought to this before hand, the bags in the how to don't have handles because they are quite small, mine is a bit bigger but I wasn't sure if it was going to be big enough to need them. Turns out it could really benefit from some handles so they are going to have to go on as a bit of an afterthought. I have an idea in my head of what to do, but after the disasters on the closing flap I think I'll keep it to myself in case it is really stupid. Miniature disasters aside I really like my little bag, the instructions were really easy to follow and I'm quite proud of myself actually. Now to decide what to sew next!