Life's Selvedge

Selvedge (also Selvage)

Definition - noun
1.  an edge produced on woven fabric during manufacture that prevents it from unravelling. 
2.   Geology a zone of altered rock, especially volcanic glass, at the edge of a rock mass.

Despite having an O'Level in Geography (and boy do I age myself with that qualification), personally the only definition I'm interested in is (1).

Things have been really busy, barely manageable busy, and my sewing time has been a big, fat zero.

This is no good for me.

I need to do creative stuff, it's part of the very fabric of my being, the selvedge that stops me unravelling. 

But time has been really short and I'm rubbish at sewing in short bursts - I know the '15 minutes a day' method works for some people but not for me - I've just about gathered my wits and decided what I'm going to make in that time!

So I needed a fall back, something I could happily pick up in 5 minutes windows of opportunity.

Guess what I decided to do first ... knitting.  This is what I planned to make:


Fab isn't it? 
This pattern is available free at www.skiffvintageknittingpatterns.co.uk

 

Big mistake, I'm a pants knitter.  Don't get me wrong, I can cast on like a good 'un, knit and purl, cast off, sew up neatly, even cable.  My tension's fine too.  I can't do that clever kind of flicking the wool over thing like a proper knitter, I have to hold both needles in one hand and use the other to wind the yarn around - it's not elegant but it works. "What's the problem?" you ask - and it seems like a reasonable question.  Well, I can't fix it when I make a mistake - and I make plenty. Seriously, I know it's gone wrong but have no idea how to go about putting it right.  In crochet I can 'see' it but knitting stitches look like scribble to me.  Here is a real example ...

I love to make homemade gifts.  I have, over the years, knitted things for my kids.  They understand this means I love them bigger than the whole world - there is no bigger deal, unconditional love.  Knitting is torture for me.  2 years ago I decided to make my boy a scarf because he's at Uni in a very cold, damp place.  Week before Christmas I was in bed with 'flu - I needed to finish it so I struggled on.  I dropped a stitch and it started to run - I had absolutely no idea how to fix it and was desperate because my only option was to unravel the lot and start again!  There was crying (I did have 'flu so it was not my finest hour!). 

My daughter took it and drove to my Best Friend's house (20 mile round trip) so that she could fix it and then brought it back for me to finish.  True story.

So that is why my current knitting project looks like this:

Yep, I unravelled it!  But let me tell you the cast on and 20 rows
of rib were perfect - if only I hadn't started the pattern all would have been fine!

It's not going to beat me, I am totally determined to crack this knitting business but, in my current fragile state I was pushing my luck.  And, perhaps more importantly, my Best Friend is in Egypt on holiday so it wasn't practical to take it to her for fixing!

So, I've gone back to an early, crafty love and I am cross-stitching.  It is just the ticket, soothing my mind.  This is a gift I am making for my brother Yoda and his partner:

The Princess Bride in cross-stitch - genius!

My whole family are PB fans - don't quote from the film unless you're prepared to endure 10 minutes of scene re-enactments!  You can find the pattern here http://www.etsy.com/people/weelittlestitches

I came across the patterns on Jo's blog (www.sewmuchchoice.wordpress.com) - I was lucky enough to be paired with Jo during the IHOP nautical swap earlier in the year.

If you are a geek (or have a geek in the family) then you have to check out the rest of Jacqueline's cross-stitch patterns - suffice to say what you see here is the tip of the iceberg for me, I am beavering away trying to make some super secret Christmas gifts for my family.  I mean who doesn't need Doctor Who (all 11 of them) and his Tardis in the medium of cross-stitch?

Oh, and if you fancy making something super brilliant (Star Wars cross-stitch anybody?), then I've found a really great UK supplier of threads here - I bought DMC threads for half the price I could buy them anywhere else.

P and I are going away for a week, we fly on Thursday - I am so looking forward to the break.  It got a bit 'iffy', we thought we weren't going to be able to get away because of family stuff going on but now it's all organised.  We're off to Lanzarote for a week (neither of us has been before) and my wonderful OH booked a hotel right next to a bi-weekly craft market - good job we've got a generous luggage allowance!  I figure cross-stitch might not be ideal for the 'plane so I've sorted out some wool and a scarf pattern to crochet - perfect, I can practically do that in my sleep.

Finally (I will stop rambling eventually), I happened upon Barbara's blog, I have no idea how I haven't come across it before.  She is wonderful - I have literally gone back to the beginning and read every single post - I have laughed aloud, sat and nodded in agreement, and shed the odd tear.  If you don't follow her blog already I would recommend it wholeheartedly.

x

This photo is unrelated to anything in this post but is Ernie, my DD's new kitten -
he is a little pickle and I am entirely unable to craft when he is around because he is into everything!
 Elmo's nose is entirely out of joint :)

 

Ups and Downs

I have a start date for my new job, I finish in my current role on the 23rd definitely an 'up', new laptop bag to celebrate! :)

However things have been really busy/fraught with family stuff and my crafting mojo went AWOL again, look at my poor 'nearly finished skirt ... :(

If anybody has any suggestions about how you get your parents to understand you're a grown up with a life and family of your own (ie you can't drop everything and host a gathering of family and strangers at 24 hours notice mid week and give them all a bed for the night) I'd be glad to hear them! And I've tried the direct approach of "I have a life and family ...etc"! Deep breaths! Finally settled on 'No' - it's not gone down well :(




So I thought about dropping out of a sewalong altogether but then bingo! Creative synapses fired up and I'm back in the game! It might be a car crash but I'm rolling! Totally outside my comfort zone, no co-ordinating and pre-planning (OCD - what OCD?). Total stashbuster, I'm even using up leftover thread and bobbins, they're not even matching - woo hoo! Look at me flying by the seat of my pants! :D

I have found a use for them, totally worth saving :)




And finally, totally gratuitous photo of Elmo, I think she's feeling the cold ...

I'll be back with my finished project, be it a success or a failure!

X

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Giving, receiving & letting go

Firstly, PixieSam and Meg the Grand could you please both email me your postal addresses as I have some little parcels to send to you both. My email address is jacq.coldwell@yahoo.co.uk. Thank you :)



Secondly, look what I got in the post this weekend, a lovely surprise when I got home from Wales, taking my boy back to Uni and visiting my Mum on her birthday:

Thank you Sam, Elmo was very impressed, she appears from nowhere if ever you unwrap something! I am currently working on my winter sewing plan trying to match fabric with patterns, I'm really looking forward to incorporating these bits and pieces. Watch this space, I'm trying very hard to be realistic about what I can achieve.

Thirdly, I've undertaken scientific research over consecutive years and can categorically conclude it does not get easier to take my boy to Uni and come away without him. He's a grown man and entirely capable - I apparently am not! If you passed a weepy woman on the M4/M25 on Sunday it was me, and it wasn't just the traffic that reduced me to tears :)

There's no 'fourthly', bet you're relieved!

:)

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"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?"

This feels a bit odd, having wittered away at myself for a few weeks, I won some buttons and there are people out there actually reading this stuff. My son is highly amused by my struggle with this taking the irritatingly logical "that's actually what blogging is for, Mum" approach. I was just writing my lists, pushing myself along with projects and figuring out how to actually upload things! Having had visitors I would have liked to get a post out, in lieu of a cup of tea and a piece of cake, but it's been a bit of a manic week and I've not managed it. So, if you're not already bored rigid ... Hi, I'm genuinely really pleased to meet you. Thank you so much for your comments, I'll try not to talk rubbish.

The real frustration of this week has been I've not managed to do anything crafty - not a stitch, not a card, not even a row of the crocheted blanket that is long overdue. I promised to teach H to crochet before she goes on holiday, so that she's got some little washcloth projects to practice on - I haven't even managed to do that. It's making me very grumpy. And I'm not sleeping well at all. Does this happen to anyone else?

The worst of it is, I know I need to do something creative (I use this term loosely, some of my endeavours are a bit more 'miss' than 'hit'), entirely different from what I do at work. I had a bit of a bumpy time earlier in the year, nothing major, more potholes than craters. I know I need to make time to do the things I love but at the first sign of a busy period at work I forgot everything I'd learnt - skipped lunch, worked long hours, brought stuff home. So now I'm grumpy and annoyed with myself.

I do feel guilty about the time my hobbies take up. I get so much support from my family - P cooks dinner so that I can finish the skirt I've decided I have to wear the next day, my son helped me wrestle Doris into shape, my daughter bought me a fabric and button covered notebook for special lists. So there's no pressure from them, it's all self-inflicted. This is why I need a good talking to. A wise lady told me to treat myself as I would a friend - I think I just need a bit more practice!

So, this weekend I'm putting some time aside on Sunday - definite crafting going to happen. And Elmo and I need to go through this little lot...

Sadly not mine, they all belong to H's grandma who has said I can have a good look through and even borrow some if I want to make them. There are some brilliantly quirky patterns, I'll upload photos. There are also some I am absolutely going to make. I'm trying to figure out how much it is reasonable to grade a pattern up or down - sadly I think some of them might be too big a difference for me to try.


And I think I'm going to have to take part in this crochet along over at Little Woollie. Have you seen her creations? Amazing. I don't actually need another WIP but my daughter put an order in for this blanket some months ago. It needs to be double bed size and I decided it was an autumn/winter project, it would have been too hot even in the abbreviated summer we've had. I even have the yarn - so no excuses.

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Tilly's Picnic Blanket Skirt

Hurray, I finally made a version (OK, pretty much direct copy) of Tilly's Picnic Blanket skirt.

I wanted to make it with checked fabric and this is the only one in my stash, fabric choice decision easily made.

I don't know why the waist looks wonky in the photo, it isn't. I have a total aversion to having my photo taken, am always the one behind the camera. This is the aspect of sewing and joining in that has actually been a real issue for me, but I want to catalogue what I've made and am trying to just deal with it. So we could have had another go but my boy knew I'd want to get it over and done with!

The star of the show is Elmo, she always turns up for a photo and constantly gets in on the crafty action.

Goodness the garden is a mess, it's even worse in real life, must stop crafting and do a bit of weeding.

I really enjoyed making this, quick and easy. I just followed Tilly's tutorial, I know some people did the hem and buttonholes in a different order, but it wasn't necessary with the gingham. I will do some things differently when I make my next one but that's because I'm a novice, not a reflection of Tilly's instructions.

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