Do or die

Warning: whinge alert

Today is not a good day.  I have a major muscle spasm in the muscles around my pelvic joint and the joint is inflamed.  And the doctor thinks I may have early stage arthritis in my hip.  I am 41.  These symptoms and this age do not go together.  Most of the time, I am busy ignoring my body, pretending that it's fine, but right now it's not and I need to just stop and rest awhile.  The doctor has told me to stay at home for a week.  Normally,  this would be the best present anyone could think to give me.  A work-free week in New York when we only have so many weeks left would be bliss in different circumstances.  But I know that I won't be able to make much of it.  And frankly, I am hacked off to the nth degree about that.  I should be out gallivanting and instead I am stuck at home.  Even the weather is not cooperating.  It is that beautiful time of year in New York when the air is clear and fresh but it's not cold.  And I am looking out at it feeling exceedingly sorry for myself.  Sniff.

So, I am faced with a choice.  I can either consume my way out of the debt crisis on Etsy/eBay/[insert favourite online shop here] or I can produce.

I choose produce.  (It's not as though I haven't done my bit for the economy already...)

So, what to do?

Well, you may remember that I stropped and sulked about the poor service I got at a wool shop back in February when I was in Australia, and which I wrote about here and here.  Never one to let go of a strop easily, this lovely wool has been consigned to a cupboard ever since. 

What a shame.  But no more.  I am finally going to have a go at making my own version of this lovely thing:

I had thought to crochet it.  But today, I dipped my toe in the waters of Ravelry and found what I think might be a knitted ripple scarf by Karin Boles here.  The pattern says its for a 'confident beginner'.   And I figure what I lack in confidence, I make up for in cussed determination. I've checked how to do YO, K1 on youtube, and it looks pretty straightforward.  We'll see. Wish me luck.

And if I need a change from that, there are always my granny squares to be getting on with...

Yes, it's been awhile since these put in an appearance.  (And you have been too nice to enquire as to why, thank you.)  You will remember that I made a rash promise here that I'd be sewing in the ends as I went along.  Well, that of course meant that I got a bit paralysed and didn't make another square.  (Is it only me that puts such obstacles in my way?).  Well, I've binned that idea in favour of just getting on with it.  I haven't made that many, but I figure if I'm at home for the week I might just see whether I can't churn out a square or two.  (Nothing if not ambitious...)

So, there you are.  Productivity as the cure for consumption.  Who knew?

Cx
PS: and no I do not need this lovely thing from here to do any of the above... :)

At it again

I have written before that my natural instinct is to looks to books as having the answers to everything.  I am busy decorating my little old lady house in my head (the finance and legal bods haven't registered the same sense or urgency), and I am accumulating a small collection of books to help me do this.  I love these books.  They confirm my view that it is cool to be rummaging through flea markets and craft fairs for that special something that speaks to me and will make our old lady house ours.  And they have such pretty pictures...

(if anyone knows where to get this picture of the Queen, I'd love to hear from you :)

This kitchen belongs to Aurelie Mathigot, the crochet queen, who seems to be able to make just about anything with a hook and yarn.

And I love this yellow collection where the grey slate is such a fab backdrop to the blossom and retro kitchen ware that you might not look at twice on its own.

I also crave the simplicity of this kitchen set up.  If and when we ever get this house, I'm planning on plain white cupboards to counter level and shelves on top.

I had vague impressions of this kind of collection for my own sideboard when I bought the Danish vase last week.  But the best thing about Decorate is that it has got me thinking about room plans.  So I have enrolled Mr. P to draw up rooms to scale and cut outs of our furniture so that I can literally play house.  A poor substitute for the real thing, but still...

I love this Ercol-style furniture, and have unearthed a fab nest of tables on John Lewis's website.  A girl can dream...

More cupboards with shelves overhead, this time from a house in Brooklyn...

And finally the clean lines of this house from Perfect English Cottages.

I know there are hundreds of websites out there with just this kind of inspirational content.  And I do look at them.  But to me, there's no substitute for settling down with a cup of tea or a glass or wine to lose myself in these pages.  I love the weight and feel of them, and how the content slowly reveals itself as I flick through.  And I usually have my ipad on hand to search on ebay or look up an idea if the inspiration hits me.  So hooray for books, I say.  It's also a little bit more than that.  In truth, I am having a shocker of a time at work at the moment and burying myself in these books, dreaming about my old lady house by the sea, is just the antidote I need.  If only the money and legal people could get their act together...

C.x

(A bit of a cheat, but...) Ta Dah!

Mr. P is in England at the moment, taking to an architect and builder about the old lady house. I had to stay here and work, which I'm feeling a bit peevish about even though I know we both didn't need to be there, and that gallivanting across the Atlantic every couple of weeks is all very well but we have to watch our pennies at the moment if we are going to have any money to spend once the house is bought.

And it's raining. And will keep raining for the next 5 days if the weather forecast is at all accurate. So to take my mind off my strop and the weather, I decided to do some crafting. (It was either that or endless episodes of Lie to Me...). I tried first to fix the iPad cover I started to make a few weeks back. All I achieved was to understand how to use my seam ripper. If anyone needs lessons in using this nifty little tool, I'm your woman. I can tell you that an empty flat is just the place for this exercise, because I had free reign to swear liberally and loudly all afternoon.

I eventually abandoned my efforts in favour of repeating an earlier success. If in doubt, stick to what you know...


So I made another bag. Smaller this time, because I had less material, and because I wanted it to be useful for my 8 year old niece.




I'd found this lovely fabric at Purl Soho when I made my first bag. It's so Springy and happy and has this lovely pattern on a deliciously slubby thick cotton...





Very Princess and the Pea... I decided to use grey thread which would blend with the darker colour way and provide contrast to the yellow fabric...


I realise this was a bit risky since my days of sewing in straight lines are obviously yet before me, but still... It has all the same feature as the first bag, with a magnetic snap for the outer pocket and two smaller pockets on the inside...






And, of course, it's reversible and washable.

Having made it once already, this came together pretty quickly and I'm chuffed to bits with it. I only hope my niece likes it too. Do you?

C.x
P.S. I realise I've been completely crap lately, not really crafting much, and not commenting on all your lovely blogs. But I am reading them all and planning lots of future projects, so please bear with me. There's just lots going on right now.

P.P.S. The quality of photos is appalling because Mr. P. went off to England with the cable that connects my SLR to the computer, so these were transferred using the Blogger App on my iPad, which clearly doesn't do photos.  Humph.

The dip

Wednesday today.  Over the hump of the week but still not Friday afternoon.  It's bitterly cold out and there's still no sign of Spring...

My crocus has bloomed though and the flat is filled with the scent of it...

... and I've bought myself these to brighten up the place...

I do love tulips, don't you?

But I have a touch of the mid-week blues (or maybe it's just that I'm feeling a little delicate after last night's celebration of my flat sale), so I thought I would evoke our holiday one last time by telling you about a little shop two doors town from A Coffee and a Yarn.

All Buttons Great and Small is an amazing little treasure trove.  They have everything.  Old lady buttons...

... and flowery buttons...

... mad multi-coloured buttons...

... and rather cool sea green ones...

... retro buttons...

... and even a button man (instructions for how to make him are on their website)

As I write, I realise that I've forgotten to photograph the stash of buttons that I bought - one of those days I'm afraid...  I have some ideas as to what I want to do with them (these lovely orange shiners came from there...)

 But you'll see the rest another time.

It really was a lovely shop.  Sydney-siders are lucky things living near all that craftiness.  Off now for a sip of wine to chase my mid-week blues away.  Nearly Friday.

C.x

Not quite slack Alice

You might be forgiven for thinking that this blog has lost its way somewhat in the last few weeks, and should really come clean with its intention to tell you little about my attempts at crafting and lots about my gallivanting and my capacity to drink coffee and shop.   But I have been a little less idle than that.  Really.

Remember this?

Well, now I have made these!

Nine whole squares!  Okay, so they probably wouldn't withstand too close an inspection from the crochet police, but I think they're pretty good.  A king size blanket is out of the question - I would have to give up work, or eating. or sleeping, or pretty much anything else and just crochet until I was 489 and still not finish it.  But I have a throw that I measured these against, and by my estimation I would need over 200 to reach that size.  Still very daunting.  But we'll see.  For now, I'm just going to concentrate on making a square when the mood takes me.  And if all I end up with is a cushion cover, then so be it.

I also felt spurred on by my knitting fit...

 ...to try my hand at something with two needles.  And I have made this:

Yes indeed.  It will be completely obvious what this is.  But just in case...

Still none the wiser?  Well. its supposed to be a coffee cosy.  The trouble is, I'm not sure I have any cups the right shape.  Here it is on a glass...

Yes, well...  I can claim no credit for the pattern.  I found it in a book that I'd bought for a friend, and came across the pattern as I was flicking through it.  It really is a lovely book.

Even if, perhaps, knitting is not its forte.  Or mine, come to that...

I got the lovely shiny buttons in a really fab shop that I need to blog about another time.  But now, we are getting on with it in the house of noknittedknickers.  We are washing...

... and determined to find some Spring on this grey, grey day...

There's a definite air of back to school.  Work tomorrow.

A lovely holiday, now over.

Hope you have a good week.

C.x