Strange creatures

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All the little things

Things to be thankful for number three: There are only two and a half days left of the longest ever term and so far we have all survived. Just about… Ok, maybe not the longest ever, somebody was telling me the other day that they used to have three terms instead of four so they had thirteen week terms sometimes, so doubly thankful that it wasn’t as long as that.

This week I have mostly been making little bits and pieces and putting off doing boring grey sleeves. The sleeves are making slow but steady progress but are not really photo worthy yet (there is only two thirds of one sleeve so it isn’t very exciting). The little bits and pieces are mostly for the small people’s camp blankets. They have been accumulating badges from Wales and here which have been sitting in my sewing box for months so I thought I should really do something with them. I said I would make them their name out of crochet and sew it on and then some bright spark asked if they could have semaphore instead or maritime flags so that their name was in code and I got a bit carried away and said they could have their name at the top, the flags down one side and the semaphore down the other side but thankfully he said that wasn’t what he meant and could he have his name in code and use all the alphabets together. So this is what we came up with between us. You can have some points if you can work out what the slightly wonky animals are too. I made up the semaphore men and the flag patterns, (that O was a real nuisance to get right!) the letters and the bird were from Moogly and the green creature was from here.

I was feeling brave or possibly foolhardy at the weekend and even taught Small to use the sewing machine to sew his Welsh scarf on to the blanket, he had a practice on one of the Man in the Shed’s hankies and decided he was a bit crooked so when we did the scarf I did the steering and he did the pedal. I still have all my fingers so he has been declared semi-competent at sewing-machining, he just needs to learn how to thread a needle and to practice his steering.

He was pretty good with the seam ripper too so his next job is to cut all the badges off his old Beaver uniform so that we can put those on as well.

Also on the subject of Scouts, slightly wonky animals and little things are a couple of woggles. We made wolf woggles at a Joey fun day (but I did a mouse one because I like to be awkward) out of leather, goggly eyes and permanent marker.  Mine was very wonky and it was bugging me so when I got home I cleaned off the pen with nail polish remover and did it again. I have more different colour pens at home too. It still looks a bit wonky but less so. I think the ears still need to be bigger and the goggly eyes make it look a bit shocked but it’s good enough. Well, I thought it was until I got mistaken for Possum!

My friend Rosella liked it and said she ought to have a rosella one so I had a go at crocheting one for her. Hers is a bit wonky too but good enough. Here is a picture of a real rosella for people who don’t know what they look like. I did do another one first where I used two strands of yarn together which meant I could blend the colours together a bit better where it changes by swapping one strand over a couple of stitches before the other one and I think it was a better shape too but it was too big for a woggle and I would have gone insane sewing all the ends in, this one had far too many as it was!

The other little things I have been making are bookmarks, when we were looking up animal patterns I found Supergurumi and was immediately faced with demands for multiple squashed animal bookmarks. The small people have got one each so far which is keeping them happy for now but I am very tempted to make some more just because the idea of them tickles me. I was brought up on Cicely Mary Barker’s flower fairies and later on had a copy of ‘Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book’ which is very funny (although it’s a bit rude – definitely not a children’s book, they are very naughty fairies…) and the squished animals reminded me of those, I have always had a fairly dark sense of humour starting with Roald Dahl and then Lemony Snicket and I can sing most of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd and most of Tom Lehrer’s songs without batting an eyelid at the lyrics. Anyway, here are a fox and a gecko to be going on with, they don’t seem to be faring any the worse for all their squishedness.

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A swift report from the abyss

Sorry. I have been atrociously bad at writing any posts recently. I realised as well that I showed you lots of started things and didn’t write anything when they were finished. It has been a busy couple of months.

The treasure chest got finished, complete with added sea creatures by Small and Tiny inside.

Tiny Clanger got finished in time for the birthday and finally got to meet Small Clanger.

The Man in the Shed tidied his shed.

The aquilegias and all the colour in the garden came and went and I forgot to take a picture, now it is a green jungle again.

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I unraveled a cardigan which I knitted for my mum when I was less good at knitting and re-knitted it into a vest which I made up as I went along, was much better and I completely failed to take a photo of.

The Man in the Shed finished the bathroom so I can have a bath again. Hurrah!

I painted a backdrop of a cottage for a thing where it has to sometimes belong to the seven dwarves and sometimes to the three bears – spot the difference (and the mouse, don’t look Grandma!).

I rescued a swift with a damaged wing which has been passed on to the vets who might have a better idea what to do with it than me.

I started making a Sophie’s Universe blanket which I haven’t got a picture of yet. It’s a gorgeous free pattern which is available online and is really easy to follow as it has loads of photos. I’ve been printing the version without pictures but I did wonder whether it wouldn’t save some paper to follow it off a screen. That said it is not the thing I have printed recently that has used the most paper. But that’s another story, never mind, anyway, I paused in making Sophie’s Universe when I realised that the nursery teacher is about to pop and last time she was pregnant I made her a baby blanket and there are only a few of weeks left of term to make something. So I got on with it.

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It is blocking, it is pinned to the bed (which was the only sensible (debatable) place big enough to put it) with nearly six hundred pins to open up the lace edges which now means that a) I know I have well over six hundred pins (I thought I would run out when I started and there are more than half left) b) I have to keep the cats off it until it is dry (it is white and they are black) c) I have to get it dry before bedtime or explain to the Man in the Shed why the bed is slightly damp and d) I have to get nearly six hundred pins out of the bed before bedtime or explain to the Man in the Shed why the bed is slightly prickly…

 

UPDATE: 1303, 24 Jun 2015.

Slightly red faced update – despite having a maths degree I forgot to divide by two – * chain 3, cast off two, repeat from * gives half as many loops as stitches so there are nearly three hundred pins rather than nearly six hundred. But why let accuracy get in the way of a good story? Which is the principle employed, or so I am led to believe, by several of my forebears, well three of them anyway. Who’s been sleeping in my porridge…

A view from the shed

Before you start, this is not by your normal correspondent.

I have been meaning to write about a couple of things that have been made in the shed. Like most of the things in the shed, those best intentions never got past the design stage, but not today.

Like many young people, I had a set of Scalextric when I was small. As a teenager, it got a bit bigger with some that was left over from a school fair. A job lot on e-bay added a further wedge and a closing down sale at a local shop extended the car collection. All of this sat in several boxes for many years. The last time it came out was in 2006 and then it did not really work because a) we tried to build too big a track and b) it had not been used for about fifteen years and hence needed some TLC. It went back in the boxes and life went on.

Small saw the piles of boxes a while ago and asked several times if we could get out the electric cars. Well, could a dad refuse such an offer? No, so last week I made a simple layout which used the best bits of the track. After a little bit of fettling of the track, the new cars from the last purchase some years ago worked spectacularly well. The only real problem was that the track got in the way of the chairs from the dining table and some friends were coming to dinner (the maths tutoring would just have to work round it, but dinner would be a bit more awkward) and this meant it got “tidied away” (put in a pile in the corner) yesterday.

During the week, I had tried using the old F1 cars and the Mini Clubmans but the rubber on their tyres had dried out and had no grip. I found a dedicated bunch who supply tyres and brushes to revitalise the cars and I also ordered some of the pads to clean up the track.

One of the other items that I have from childhood is a book entitled “101 Circuits for Scalextric Drivers“. Small and Tiny looked through it today declaring “wow” for all of the layouts and they settled on one that they wanted me to build (SCX.1278 if you have the book). With a bit of modification for the fact that, while I have a lot of track, the only curve types are the same radius and hence where the layout wanted four bends with smaller radius, I had to improvise. We managed and got a layout that looked about right and had the advantage that it fitted at the end of the room, mostly out of the way of the dining table.

The kids helped out (surprisingly well) with cleaning the track. Their enthusiasm waned eventually but was rekindled a bit later when Small was asked to go and tidy up his Lego… We had a new layout and it worked quite well.

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That is all very fine, I hear you say, but what about making stuff in the shed? Well, some spare brush components, a new layout and thoughts of Lego. Surely there must be an opportunity to join the two toys up. I pottered for a bit to put together a very basic chassis and then disappeared to the shed to come up with a way of interfacing a brush unit with standard Lego pieces. I could always cut and drill things, but that would not be in the spirit of Lego, would it? In the end, the only extra that was needed was a washer to retain the spigot in the Lego brick that had a hole for a Technics joiner.

IMG_2993IMG_2994I used the 12v Lego motor which, in hindsight, has two drawbacks. 1) It has nowhere near enough torque so it is more of a tractor than a race car and 2) the orientation of the terminals on the motor mean that it travels the opposite direction round the track to a conventional Scalextric car. Ah well, I had fun doing it and seeing Small’s face light up when he saw a Lego car running round the track was worth several hours work. The picture below is a link to a short video if you want to see it in action.

While I have been working out how to use WordPress, someone else has been getting closer to finishing off a Clanger that has been in the making for some years and really should get finished in time for Tiny’s birthday this year, so here is the obligatory picture of some knitting which is required as a fee for me getting my hands on the keyboard.

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In which there is woollies, decorating and long division

I am still putting off showing you stuff that I made for Christmas. It wouldn’t take very long but the thought of actually working out where the few photos are that I remembered to take and trying to think of something to write about them has sent me scurrying off to do the gloss paint which is what I was putting off the week before (the queen of procrastination, remember?). This week I have mostly been dangling over the bannisters with a paint brush (don’t tell my mother, she’ll have forty fits) like some sort of trapeze act with added mess. (It’s ok, Mum, I’ve done all the high bits now.)

Before the guilt about not writing anything and the decorating set in I finished this jumper and have mostly been wearing it ever since (except for the parts when I was painting). I have been very pleased to have it this week as it is lovely and warm. I should have taken a picture of it before I wore it though  – it is going bobbly already.

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I nearly stuck to the pattern (also, chronic tweaker) – I added in a bit of shaping at the waist and a few short rows above and below the yoke to raise the back slightly and lower the front; it should be one of those that doesn’t have a front or back but I don’t like having a tickly neck. The yoke is a bit interesting, it’s got a few purl stitches thrown in here and there so it is a tad lumpy. I haven’t decided whether I like it yet or whether it just looks inside out but it is very warm so I think I’ll live with it.IMG_2762

I also seem to have produced a few body parts for another wee critter, this is as far as it’s got. It reminds me of the Griffle from Puddle Lane at the moment.

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I have run out of decorating for the time being and the only reason I am writing this is that I am really supposed to be working out how to do long division. I have somehow survived thirty one  years and a month or so on this planet and a maths degree without ever knowing how to do long division properly and I should really work out how to do it before I try to explain it to someone else…

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A bad case of startitis

Startitis is a recognised condition in knitters (and other people like that) who start loads of projects all at once. I had some vouchers for Christmas and I am really itching to make a nice brown cardi with some wool that has been out of stock since the middle of December so instead this week I have started a crocheted goblin, started a different jumper that isn’t a brown cardi, finished a goblin and I still have two pairs of socks on the needles from about October.

Here is the goblin. The pattern says his name is George and normally I like thinking of my own names for things but he does look like a George to me. He is going to play merry havoc with my obsessively alphabetical books when I am not looking. I really like his belly button and his curly ears. What a strange thing to say…

The jumper is a top down one (top down jumpers are great because you can try them on as you go.) called Kjerstin (which is a free pattern). 

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And here are the socks looking thoroughly unfinished:

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I’m supposed to be sanding the skirting boards, can you tell?

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A garden for my Grandad

Every time I see my Grandad he asks what I am growing and how the garden is so I thought I would put up some pictures here for him to see what is going on. (I expect a couple of other nosy parkers might like to have a look too!)

I’ve managed not to kill the sweet peas you gave me in the autumn despite ignoring them all winter in the greenhouse, they are just starting to flower and I’ve got a little bunch of them in a rather nice jug in my kitchen (the photo of it is not in my kitchen but that is where they are now).IMG_0971

I found some seeds the other day which I had been saving to plant at about half past May and when I found them again I realised most of them said you should plant them in April, so I threw them all in and they are sprouting already to make up for being late.

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There are some purple dwarf beans (Small chose those), some runners that I saved from last year, some red cabbages and multicoloured courgettes hiding at the back, some tomatoes that need to go into the grow bags, some bonsai tomatoes that desperately need to go in bigger pots and to a new home (does anybody want some small tomato plants?) and some miscellaneous flowers that I can’t remember what they are now (Small chose those as well). There’s some broccoli off to the side where you can’t see it that is going outside tomorrow and some morning glories and sunflowers lurking in the corner next to the lemon tree (also invisible) which produced two lemons this year.

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This is the organised bit of the garden which has garlic, red and white onions, Duke of Yorks (or should that be Dukes of York?), Charlottes, some miserable slug eaten beetroot, far too many parsnips and some carrots (hopefully if they start growing sometime soon).

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This is the jungle, the wisteria is holding up the back wall, there is a damson (looking a little swamped) and some lupins and foxgloves somewhere in there which I put in last year and seem to have survived, the rest is mostly aquilegias which I have never planted any of (oh, no, wait I lie, I planted some yellow ones over the other side but not any of these ones) in shades of bluey-purple, purpley-purple, pinky-purple, purpley-pink, pale pink and white. They grow everywhere and I love them because of the colours – every now and then they jumble themselves up for no reason and at the moment there is a very dark purple one, almost black like an aubergine, which has pale yellow edges on the bell and then there is one white one which is so beautiful it shouldn’t be called white – if you look a bit closer it is extremely pale yellow, the next time it looks just pink, the next time the palest blue- it is almost pearlescent, the colour of princesses’ wedding dresses in fairy tales or maybe fairies’ pyjamas. And they just grow there with no help.

This one’s not an aquilegia, I can’t remember what it is. It could be a geum that I planted last year.

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This one is a ridiculous poppy that I don’t understand how it works. I mean how did all that stuff fit into that bud? Who has the job of folding up all the petals like butterflies’ wings crammed in a chrysalis?

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Speaking of chrysalises, Kit (short for Christopher the Chrysalis but really that just sounds silly) is starting to look a bit brown so either he is going rotten or he is going to hatch soon…