At last ... some signs of spring

We've had almost three inches of rain here so far this dreary month with more due tomorrow and summer still seems far too far off (despite my optimistic daily remark that "the days are getting longer"). But our walk in a gap between today's rain did at least offer some hope of spring. The birds were singing loudly flirtly with one another and the snowdrops are now at last in full flower.







The next sign of spring should come soon too. We go to visit a small flock of mostly Jacobs sheep and bumped into the shepherd today (first time we've ever met him in all our years of going to see them) and he said that the first sheep has given birth to twins (though she's now been moved elsewhere so we didn't get to see them). Sadly one of the Jacobs has died so we're down to 6 ewes and the ram - until the lambs arrive. Pics to follow in a week or two.

A little bright spot

In parallel with needing to wear reading glasses more and more, I'm also finding that I need brighter lights to read, write my diary or sew. But our lounge can be quite dark, so I've decided to bring together two of my best-ever bargains and now have a very comfy bright area for when I feel the need to be productive.



The chair represents the best £10 I've ever spent at a car boot sale. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it - it's very comfortable, pleasing to look at and is small enough to move around the house depending on where it's needed. It's a Parker Knoll (design: Froxfield - they've been making it for ever) and my Mum also loved it so much that I found her one in cream upholstery fabric in a lighter wood - hers therefore looks completely different but is just as lovely.

The lamp is by a fancy Italian lighting firm and cost £5 in Marks & Spencer's sale a few years ago - it still has the original price sticker of £185 underneath. I can't quite fathom why anyone would ever contemplate paying that much but it is a very good lamp and definitely worth more than a fiver.

While I was rearranging things, the TechnoMage was busy making 2.5 jars of pickled jalapeños as we couldn't resist buying a big bagful for a pound from an East Ham market stall last week.


It's the first time we'd ever tried actual pickling (as opposed to making chutneys) and they look quite promising.

33 years on

As today is the 33rd anniversary of me starting the brown and green cushion cover, I forced myself to spend a bit of time yesterday doing some while watching telly(and drinking Margaritas made using Sunday's leftover mixer that we had we bought as part of our now-annual Valentine's Day treat, when we spend £50 on food and drink in the upmarket supermarket Waitrose. The idea came about 18 months ago when we spent the same amount on 2 very mediocre pizzas, 1 very mediocre starter, 1 very mediocre dessert, a bottle of very average wine and possibly a coffee in Covent Garden and mused about how much better we could do for the same money, even if we indulged ourselves by going to Waitrose rather than our regular supermarkets!)

I'm embarrased by how little I've done on the cushion cover since digging out the project in December. Don't know why I'm quite so hostile towards it - or perhaps I do. I suppose it's because:
a) it is very repetitive and predictable - no scope for decision-making on the spur of the moment;
b) it uses a limited set of colours;
c) it's on 18hpi canvas, which is harder on the eyes than the 14hpi I've been tending to use (though it's actually good quality canvas so good from that point of view);
d) while I'm really a very numerate person, I seem to be absolutely incapable of counting up to nine for this! The result is that I'm forever doing the wrong number of stitches or making them at at the wrong angle so I have to unpick them.

I must make myself persevere if only to stop it hanging over me.....New challenge - to have it finished within 33 years and 33 days of starting - that's 21st March.

Second little sampler finished

I picked a few more stitches from the Stitch Dictionary to complete the second of the little test pieces. As with the earlier ones, some were fiddly and irritating while others were easy and pleasing.



From the bottom left:
Jade and grey - "Chevron" - easy and one that would be versatile as it would look very different depending on the single or mixture of colours used;
Yellowy - "Encroaching gobelin" - didn't really like doing this as it was fiddly to find the holes under the first stitches and also the bottom row ended up looking wrong as no stitches "encroached" into it;
Lilac - "Jacquard" - I like the texture and it was OK to do, even though the edges with their stitches of different lengths are a bit of a fiddle. I initially thought I was doing it wrong, as the longer stitches look much bigger when they are only bounded on one side - but as soon as you do the adjoining smaller stitch the size looks right. Would certainly use again.
Aqua - "Scottish Diamond" - this looks really nice from a distance, whereas close up it's more obvious where the tension in the cushiony satin stitchy bits aren't of identical tension! I suppose I'll get better with practice....
Jade and pink - "Scottish" - too tiny for me to enjoy doing on this 18hpi canvas, but would probably be better with bigger holes.
Coral - "Mosaic" - looks like little cross stitches and perhaps better suited than cross stitches for this fine-holed canvas. OK for small areas.

Little samplers

Camera is temporarily back in service, thanks to a paperclip!

I've been picking some of the stitches from the (very good) Stitch Dictionary book by Lucinda Ganderton that I bought recently for a bargain £3.99 from the Book People and trying them out on small areas.



It's made me realise that even some easy stitches are very irritating to do so I'll make a note as a reminder about which I should avoid on larger projects...



First sampler, from the bottom left:
Beige - "Double brick" - easy and I like the finished effect
Purply - "Tent" - boring to use all one colour even on a small area like this (about 1 inch x 1.25 inches), but a good tough finish. In future would add another colour or shade in any block.
Blue and coral - "Hungarian" - easy and I like it.
Dark Green - "Byzantine" - described as easy but I found it quite irritating and difficult as I kept miscounting or struggling to find the right hole. Will probably avoid this one.
Pink and aqua - "Long and short brick" - easy but the long stitches are quite long and might catch if used on something like a specs case that would be in among keys etc in a bag.
Pale green - "Reversed sloping gobelin" - I really like this - gives a bit of extra interest to a plain area.
Maroon - "Double twill" - OK, think the texture would show up better in a pale colour. Bit fiddly to fill in the edges where there isn't room for a full stitch.
Purple and lilac - "Chequer" - I quite like this for small areas but wouldn't contemplate it for anything big.
Yellow - "Upright cross" - I hated doing this, and it doesn't look like a cross. It was a very squashed stitch to do.
Greyey colour - 2 rows of tent stitch - if this becomes a specs case, I figured it would give a tough edge.



Second sampler from top left:
Yellow - "Brick filling" - OK to do, looks quite nice but best suited to small areas I think.
Grey - "Basket filling" - It was a bit of a fiddle to do, with some of the ends of stitches being underneath the adjoining ones that run in the opposite direction - not one I'd make much use of I think.
Blue and light green - "Straight Milanese" - easy, and looks quite jolly. One to use again.
Beige/Maroon/Coral - "Diamond" flanked by "Single twill" - easy and probably useful for borders.
Purply - "Parisian" - I really like the effect of this - probably my favourite "discovery" of this exercise so far. The long stitches are fairly long but don't look too vulnerable to catching on things. Would be good for filling quite big areas - indeed the book describes it as being for textured fillings and large background areas.
Green - "Scottish" (with diagonal stitches still to be filled in). The squares to fill in look very small, so I think this will be quite fiddly!

Now what shall I pick next for this sampler? I wondered about the one called knitting that looks quite easy - but knowing my lack of knitting prowess I think I'd be bound to make a mess of it!

Starting to catch up.....

I've neglected this and the needlepoint, along with lots of other things during a busy January but am now starting to catch my breath and am back again (helped by the fact that I'm looking for displacement activities as I'm not enthusiastic about the main work ahead of me today). I couldn't quite face getting back into finishing the 1977 cushion straightaway so am making a specs case using a dozen or so different colours and stitches as a sampler - practice for a cushion cover along similar lines.

I would take a photo, but my camera is broken - the shutter button popped off - and I don't have another camera with me here today. I managed to find the shutter button and the spring, but there is apparently a teensy clip too. I've bought the spare parts for a fiver from ebay (Sony in the US won't sell to the UK and the UK site doesn't show spare parts) and have found a very helpful description of the repair (a common fault on the H5 apparently) at Darntootysam.com....but it looks rather scary and I'm not sure whether we've got the courage or not so will get a price from a local repairer before deciding. Luckily the resident Technomage has just bought a similar (but 2.5 years more modern) superzoom camera, a Canon SX20 IS, so we won't be camera-less even if mine ends up in a zillion pieces.