Monday, January 13, 2020

It has been more of a work day than a fun day for me.

I started off the day with some cleaning. The new outlet for my vacuum allows me to reach corners that I couldn’t before so I got a little carried away. I scrubbed out the bathrooms and cleaned up the kitchen floor, as well as taking care of a load of laundry. I may do another load tonight.

It has been snowing off and on all day today. It is a dry snow and until mid-afternoon it wasn’t sticking to the sidewalks or the road but there is an accumulation building now. The roads still look clear but they are predicting snow all night so the morning may be tricky. I thought briefly about going out for the Hall mail but decided not to bother – if I’m snowed in tomorrow too bad. I did have some Hall work to do this morning and by the time it was done it was afternoon.

After a late lunch I got some projects ready for the bee tomorrow – just in case I go. I’m working on a quilt as you go, without sashing, so I needed to review my video tutorial one more time. I still have a lot of the blocks left to quilt but, hopefully, by the end of the day tomorrow I should have enough blocks finished to attempt putting a row together. I hadn’t counted on the fact that the blocks all require hand stitching on the back; I think that will be a lot more work than sewing down a binding which will still have to be done.

After that was packed I cut out a new project for our “At Home Retreat” this weekend. The Thursday group will be sewing together over the weekend. I’m responsible for one day of meals so I hope I can get to the store tomorrow to pick up ingredients.

And to add to the “not so much fun” I realized that I am going to have to do some reverse stitching on the Princess. Not a lot, but enough that it will delay the finish for at least a week. Sorry Kathryn!

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Whenever I work a knitting or crochet pattern with yarn not necessarily recommended in the pattern I’m always concerned that I’ll have enough yarn, or if I need to make it smaller than the pattern, will it look odd. I finished another shawl last night and although it wasn’t the yarn called for in the pattern I got bored with it so finished it off with one ball and a bit left over. I’m working on a scarf with that now.

When I’m baking (not often), particularly if it is on the spur of the moment, I’m often looking for substitutes for ingredients I don’t have. I’ve learned that cocoa and butter can replace bar chocolate, milk can be soured if needed (because who keeps sour milk in their fridge), and most other uncommon ingredients can be replaced with something more common. I even have a conversion chart for changing “regular” recipes into a crock pot version.

I’ve been dealing with copyright issues for the Hall and it makes me remember that you used to be able to say if you changed a stitch in a pattern you weren’t actually breaking the copyright laws. I think it is a good thing that has change.

As I put the last stitches into the Princess and the Pea I’m having to make some adjustments. Somewhere near the middle I missed a row so I have to make that up (and I mean make it up) now that I’m at the bottom. In some of the last rows some of the colours have more stitches than they should which means some of the other rows have to have less. I made a decision early on that I wouldn’t be unstitching anything so I knew there would be adjustments.

As these last stitches go in I’m hopeful that the bedpost and bed railing meet on the same line. If they don’t, they can be adjusted.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

After two forecasts of snow overnight we have still managed to avoid anything on the ground. However the next “winter weather warning” for us is unseasonably cold temperatures. They’re saying it might get down to -10. With that in mind I thought there was probably something I had to do to keep the outdoor taps and hoses from freezing and breaking. I checked with Pat and he told me where the shut-offs were. I was able to get one of them turned off but my arm wasn’t long enough to reach the second one.

When I called Pat and told him the problem he said we could probably just leave it and hope for the best. But my northern experience kicked in and I said I’d turn on the water in that tap and the water running through the hose should keep the tap from freezing. We’ll see.

I finished the curtains before lunch. I think they are even in length. If not, I’m going to blame Rick for hanging the rod crooked! I had a nice FaceTime visit with Taylor this morning. I saw on my computer that I had missed two calls from her. When I called her back she said she had called by accident; I told her I welcomed accidental calls.

I’ve spent some time on and off this afternoon working on cross stitch. I’ve had a few phone calls regarding the Guild and the Hall that needed to be attended to. I’ll go back and do a bit more now and then knit for the evening.

Friday, January 10, 2020

I finally got down to sewing Taylor’s curtains. It isn’t that curtains are hard – just straight seams and all done on the sewing machine.

As Christy says, Taylor is going through her “lumberjack” phase and she wanted the curtains to be red and black plaid. It took some research but I found exactly what I wanted from the quilt store in Duck Lake. I tried my best to match the fabric on the seams – some spots are better than others but I can live with it. The curtains will have some gathers on each side so the seams can be hidden if it really shows.

I have one more seam to sew on both the left and the right side. My next challenge is going to be to get each side the same length.