Day 15 - a day of much cleaning

Earlier this week a box arrived at the door, I saw it on the 1-day webiste and thought it'd be a really good idea; here it is:

Now, the reason I wanted it was this:

This is the dining room carpet; ick is probably the right word for this.  Now in the next year it should be replaced with vinyl planks, but in the meantime something needed to be done.  We can't do the new planks until EQC has assessed the house and we know what else needs to be done; that could be a bit yet, especially if it gets to the dollar value where Fletchers takes over.

This morning I unpacked the new beast and this is the same spot of carpet after cleaning:

Still not as clean as I'd like, but cleaner than I expected so I'm happy enough!   Once the carpet in there is replaced we'll still need it as eventually we'll be replacing the carpet in the lounge and the bedrooms.   They're worn through to the backing in some areas.

After I'd finished cleaning the floor I did the dining room chairs as well which look much better!   I also did the lawn and then went into the sewing room to get more done on that.  This is how it looked before I started cleaning:

at the moment it still looks like this, however I've cleaned out 7 drawers and refilled 5 of them.  I've also sorted through the top 3 baskets and have put more yarn away too.  Hoping to get more done tomorrow so I can work out where to put all the stuff that's currently on top of the table and sewing desk.

In other news, my Wollmeisse arrived from The Loopy Ewe; this is the reward for completing Camp Loopy a month or so back.   I'm really happy with it, there were a few skeins other people got that I hoped I wouldn't get, luckily mine is a lovely colour!

Day 14 - table, what table?

Today was supposed to be spent tidying the table in the sewing room, but I got sidetracked.   There was some Left for Dead 2 time on the Xbox; Thomas and I are doing quite well on that now.   The boys were off to swimming and 10-pin bowling so we could play R18 games safely.
I did get a little tidying done in that room, just not on the table; in fact I think there's more stuff on there now!   I've cleared out 7 drawers though and am planning on getting them sorted tomorrow.  At the moment I have 4 plastic bags, one with general sewing things, one with quilting specific stuff, one with general craft stuff which includes my needlefelting gear, my Dymo label maker and also my bejeweller.   The final one is crochet and knitting stuff; now that I have my needles mostly away this isn't too big.   I've got my straights in a needle roll I made a while back, my circulars either in a Della case or on the quilted holder I made last week.   I think I need to make 2 more rolls; one for crochet hooks and the other for my DPN's.  I might not use either very often, but I'd prefer to have them in one as it makes it easier to find what I need.
As well as those bags I also have a pile of scissors, I love my scissors.  I have 3 for cutting out including a pair of Ginghers that I've not yet used; my Kai are my favourite at the moment, but the Mundial are good for slippy fabrics as they have a slight serration.  I've also got several embroidery pairs too; plus some in my knitting bags.   Good tools are important; just as well really considering how many I have!

I've decided I'm going to cast on one more project for knitting too.  Wandering Cat Yarns is having a KAL for a project using her yarns or her patterns, the project can be anything, but must be gifted afterwards.  This is the perfect time for me to cast on for my Dalhousie Mitts.   The pattern is hers, and the yarn I've chosen is hers as well; I'm planning on making them for my Mum as I already have a pair of thicker fingerless mitts in a similar colour.   She has arthritis in her hands and I can see her getting a lot of use out of them next winter.
This is the picture from the original pattern:

and this is the yarn I'll be using:

I think this should work brilliantly and will be nice and cheery in the middle of winter.   I'm going to try and get them done for Christmas; I know Mum will appreciate my knitting simply as she liked the shawl I made for her a while ago.  She's even taken that to her craft group and shown it off where it was much admired.
Admittedly it's going into mid spring here, but that's ok; winter will come way too soon!

Day 13 - T shirt Tutorial as promised

First up you need a good fitted t-shirt pattern.  The one I have is from the first Ottobre Woman magazine, it's also available as a separate pattern from their Website (2nd from top on the RHS).   For me it's an excellent pattern with a good size range, different sleeve and neckline options as well.   Next time I might remember to add a touch more length, but otherwise it'll do me nicely.

Next choose your fabric; the fabric I'm using is a cotton/lycra blend with a dot print.  It has good recovery and the recommended amount of stretch; it's also fresh and summery.

My method doesn't come from the Ottobre mag or from Kwik Sew; it's just what I've ended up doing after following their instruction before now and choosing what worked best for me.

Now, in my machine arsenal I have a sewing machine (2 actually), an overlocker and a coverhem.   It is possible to sew with just the sewing machine, but I really do recommend an overlocker as well if you can manage it.   On this t-shirt I only used the sewing machine once.

First step for me is to turn up the hems.  I normally sew a 1"(2.5cm) hem but turn up 1 1/4" to ensure that my hem is properly caught on the wrong side.

This is my coverhem, she's a Janome CP1000.  I've threaded her up with normal polyester thread in the two needles and the looper is using woolly nylon; as you can see I've bypassed the tension disc for the nylon as otherwise it'll pull and the hem won't look good.  You may also be able to see I've used a permanent marker to mark the 1" mark on the machine as a guide.  I'm using the left and right needles, not the middle one; in fact I don't think I've ever used the middle one.  I start sewing at the beginning of the fabric, much as I do for sewing, but as there's no backstitch it's right on the edge; often I'll use a scrap from a previous project to start in the middle of just to get things going without bunching.

This is the finished hem on the back; as you can see with the woolly nylon being untensioned it's looking really flat and professional.  Once I've finished the first piece I then continue sewing the next piece.  I do this for front, back and both sleeves.  You can do this in the round, but I find it a pain to do and always seem to have problems with finishing the ends.

At the end I sew off onto a scrap piece of fabric, I then cut the threads between the t-shirt and the scrap.   I then leave the scrap under the foot for the next start.

My next step after separating all the pieces from eachother is to cut a piece of twill tape (you can use clear elastic if you prefer).  I cut it to the size of the shoulder seam; this lends stability so the shoulder won't stretch out of shape with wear.  Most RTW garments have this touch too.

Making sure the tape, front and back shoulder seam are even, and right sides together get ready to stitch.  You could pin it, but for such a short and straight seam I don't bother.  That and when using my overlocker the less pins the better.

Start overlocking.   If using your sewing machine for this you'll need to use the machine's overlocking stitch; or failing that stretch or zig-zag will also work.

Whoops, the twill tape moved towards the blades a bit here, however it will still do it's job and the fabric did not move so all is well.

Here you can see both shoulders are sewn and we're marking centre back and centre front with pins.   We will then match those pins and put the edges of the neckline together until we reach the side quarter marks; this is not the shoulder seams.  The back-neck is actually shorter than the front, so we want the exact halfway point.

see, pins together on top of eachother

and you can see as the fabric moves along the halfway point is onto the front, past the shoulder seam.  Mark this with a pin too.  Do the same on the other side; you now have 4 pins in your neckline dividing it into quarters.

Now it is time to get our neck facing ready.  Mine is cut from the same fabric as the t-shirt and is slightly smaller than the neckline on the main pattern.   I'm folding it in half with the short ends together, right sides facing eachother and this is where I use my sewing machine for the first time to sew a 1/4" seam.   This won't see any real stretch so I'm using straight stitch.   Can you see more permanent marker?   I love that stuff!  On this machine the marker is covered with clear nail varnish to stop it wearing off the enamel paint.

I am now folding the neck facing wrong sides together and putting the first pin at the seam; this is the centre back.  I will find the centre front by putting that pin on the left, folding it at that point and flattening it; the far right will be the centre front.

Now, just like on the t-shirt I'm putting those 2 pins one on top of the other and the far edges are the other 2 quarter marks.  Place a pin on each.

Here we are with 4 pins; doesn't look like much at the moment, but....

Now we match the pins on the binding to the pins on the garment; be very careful to make sure that your seam on the binding is matched to the centre back; I've done it wrong once and I don't recommend it unless you like undoing sewing; I don't, lol.

Here, I am sewing the binding to the neckline from the right side of the garment.   I start near the centre back, and as I go I stretch the binding slightly so it fits the neckline of the t-shirt.  You don't want to stretch the neckline as you'll end up with a wavy look; best to go slow on this.  Also make sure to remove pins before they get near the blade; use your fingers on that point as a temporary pin.   If a pin goes under the blade at best you'll blunt your blade; at worst you could injure yourself, or put out the timing on your machine.   Both are expensive to fix, and damage to either could be permanent; so instead lets just be careful.

Once I've finished the neckline I like to pull the overlocking tails through the seam to secure them.  I use a tool which is made from a knitting machine hook; this one is fairly fine.   The main one I use has a dowel handle, but I couldn't find it for this picture.   You can just thread them onto a darning needle and pull them through that way.

  If you wanted to you could use your coverhem to make the seam lie flat, but I've never found it to be a problem when I'm wearing them.   Now look at that, a nice smooth neckline all finished; that's the hardest bit over in my opinion.

Now for the sleeves; most patterns you'll find the sleeve will have 2 notches.  One for the shoulder seam placement and the other will be echoed on the main garment.   You can see here I'm pointing at them; if you don't match them the sleeve won't sit correctly.   Some patterns are drafted in such a way that the sleeve is the same both sides; Kwik Sew is one that does this; I find a sleeve like the one above tends to fit better.  Match those notches, and make sure you have right sides together.   If you find that your right sides are together but the notches are on opposite sides of the garment, then swap your sleeves to the other side; you've got the left sleeve on the right side of the garment, or vice-versa.

You can see here the 3 pins I use.  One at the side seam, one at the shoulder seam, and one at the notch.

Making sure your raw edges stay together and if need be slightly stretching to fit, carefully sew around the sleeve seam, removing pins before you get to them again; make sure all notches are in the right places.

There, nice smooth seam.   Best part, you're almost done!

For the side seam I don't pin at all, I match the 2 sleeve hems together, and overlock down the side, also matching the underarm seams together; the internal corner is the only tricky bit as you go around that underarm seam.  As you approach it, straighten the two edges, the fabric will form a bubble to the left,  but should be flat and go through the machine nicely at the edge.

Keep going, hold the bottom hems together, if need be put slight tension on to keep both sides even.   I do this right from the beginning so don't normally have any seam movement and my edges are more often than not even.  As you did for the neckline, pull the overlocking ends into the overlocking seams, and you're done!

Isn't it lovely?  It sits better on me, cos unlike Bonnie here I don't have gaps in my middle.  I think I might possibly have to use some batting to fix that problem.

I've started eating raw garlic; I apologise for any odour, but it's part of the campaign to get my bowel back on my side.  Garlic kills the bad guys, but leaves the good guys alone; I will still have to repopulate, but going by the reaction so far I think it's working, but although I'm going to the loo a few times it's still much better than the normal IBS version.   I figure that's my system chucking out the bugs that last nights half clove killed off.   Last night I swallowed half a clove in one piece with milk.   After a little research today I went looking for salsa and failed to find it; instead I'm using a dried tomato and parmesan dip (which is yummy!).  I've taken probably half of the garlic so far and I'm going to stop there as it was a big bit and I don't want to go too fast.

Day 12 - cat issue resolved (we hope)

After some research, a little asking on the Nappy Network forum and some searching for the best price we now have a Sureflap Cat Door on the way; not cheap at $257.50 including post, but that was the cheapest price we found and included the glass adaptor so we can fit it in the back door hole.   Just hope like heck it fits; the only other type of door I found needed a much smaller hole and also cost about $100 more, eep!
Tonight I'm hoping the cats will both stay inside; at the moment I don't know where Star is, but Ray is inside and we have a litter tray as well so if she needs to go she can.  The cat door is now locked both ways.

In other news I've done some tidying today; all the drawers that I use in our bedroom are now tidy; there's three bags in the car of clothes that are either going to the rag bin or else to the Salvation Army; including 2 handknits that I really don't like; so hopefully they can find a new and appreciative home.

I'm doing a touch of knitting on my Central Park Hoodie tonight; for the first time I'm trying out cabling without a cable needle.  I've seen other tutorials, but they all seemed to leave the second lot of stitches sitting out there and hoping they'd not unravel.  This to be honest scared the crap out of me!   Then the other day I saw this on Life on Laffer and it suddenly made perfect sense.   I've tried it and it works!

I also tried making my first dryer ball today; I was using Gotland wool and I was expecting it to felt really easily, but it had other ideas.   I've got it sort of felted, but at this point I'm thinking I might have to use my needle felting equipment instead, at least to get it started.

In other news my Merino is dry so I'm hoping to start getting it all ready to spin tomorrow once I've done work, groceries and my run.   Boys are still being pretty well behaved for the holidays so I have some hope I might actually get to do it.   Since I've got a mix of fibre I'm considering making batts on my drum carder; wish me luck!

That Damned Cat!

Not ours, though if we didn't have them we wouldn't be having the problems we are.
A while back we locked our cat door one way only (out) so our cats could get out but the other local greedy cats couldn't get in.   Recently though I've been catching wiffs of cat pee and wasn't sure where it was coming from.   Yesterday it became obvious from the moment I walked into the lounge that we'd had a visitor as the smell was really strong and I traced it to the bean bags.  Fabreeze didn't do much to move the smell so the next nice day I'll have to wash them with the hose outside.
Last night at 4am there was a cat fight in our laundry, when I went in they'd scarpered, but not before leaving 6 separate spray trails in that room!   I've cleaned it up, but we're going to have to lock the cat door completely and put a litter tray down for a wee bit as a short term solution.  The long term solution is going to be expensive; we're going to get a microchip activated cat door.   Just hoping that Ray can still get in as I think her chip has moved a wee bit.
One of the collar activated ones won't work as our kitties have never worn collars and since they spend a lot of time in trees I don't want to risk that; lost collars get expensive and tangled cats are not pleasant either.

Day 10 Blogtoberfest - not according to plan

I had planned some tidying, a tutorial and some removal of clothes I no longer wear.  Instead I ended up working a fair bit of the day and I'm finally succumbing to the cold that George has been sharing with us so lovingly.   I have had it sitting there for over a week now, but today it sat down properly and I'm coughing and sneezing.   I could say exercise caused it as I started the C25K today, but I'm pretty sure it's not that.
Never mind, I got the boys to try on shin pads this morning and we have one pair.  Waiting on a phone call to say the second pair is in store to pick up.
Thomas is booked in for the chiropracter tomorrow morning, I've been working on him for ages to try and get things aligned better so I don't have to keep working on his back; it's really, really tight!
The boys had a great day today, this afternoon they got Xbox time and both of them stayed really well behaved all day!  If I keep feeling like this there may well be more Xbox time tomorrow too; not what I'd intended, but illness is a good reason, right?

Day 10 Blogtoberfest - a t-shirt

There will be tutorial for this later, but I forgot to post last night and need to get this one done before I start work.

I used an Ottobre pattern, but I put it together using my own method which I find works well for me. 
Also my needle hanger is now up on the back of the door

Did I say how much I love this?

Day 9 blogtoberfest

No sewing today, just lots of washing, dishes and work, oh and spraying seaweed feed on my fruit trees.   I did turn the heel on Thomas' socks last night so it's just the leg to go. 

This is Opal sock yarn, and I'm using Vintage Purls basic sock pattern which works out perfectly for Thomas' size 10 hoofs.  I had originally planned on making him grey socks, but when I found the second half of the Opal ball I decided to go with this instead.   This means I have 3 things on the needles, but 4 showing on Rav.  The other 2 WIP's are the Beekeepers Quilt, my Central Park Hoodie with Viking Cables; the 4th item is not actually cast on yet; but it's a fairly basic jersey with a zip placket in some fire coloured yarn that Ian fell for in my stash.   I really should put it on the needles.

Tomorrow I have another appointment with my alternative practitioner for my IBS; hoping we might be able to go to monthly appointments soon, fortnightly is getting expensive.  It is helping though, despite the peppermint issue I've had much less problems since going on this course of herbs and psyllium.   The boys are going to Orana Park tomorrow with the Autism Society so they'll have a ball.  I'm hoping to get my t-shirt sewn tomorrow and maybe some tidying done in the sewing room and our room.   I need to clear out a drawer to put my workout gear in.

Day 8 - A finish line reached

I've finished my little mystery quilt; all I need now are 2 cuphooks to attach it to the back of the sewing room door and it'll be in use.

As you can probably tell it's for holding fixed circular needles and seems to work quite well.   I will post the tutorial, but not right now as it'll take a while to get all the photo's downsized and write the whole thing up.   Might have to see if I can set it up in word and then copy it over here.    Still got to write up my mitten pattern too.
I'm really happy with it, a couple of things that I could do better; a little more fabric above the snaps to make it easier to grasp them, and I'm sure there's an easier way to put the hanging sleeve on the back; but aside from that it's exactly what I need.

I'm going to get some work done now, slightly achey after all the snapping unfortunately, but I still have to get the work finished even if I ache.   My workout tomorrow morning should fix that anyway.   Going to spend the night killing zombies with my beloved once the boys are in bed.

Day 7 Blogtoberfest - of triangles and wool

Didn't hear about the trampoline mat today, so another weekend with no working tramp; poor Ian.   Also don't know if the Xbox is on its way or not, suspect not.

Been pretty busy again though.  We've taken down the bunks and the beds are in a temporary position; hopefully this weekend we'll get the other furniture out of the way and give the boys a bit more room; I have no idea where we'll put the furniture though.   Picked up two school desks and 2 chairs from school this morning, going free as all desks and chairs are being replaced.   One had mildew on the top from a spillage, but a spray of vinegar put paid to that; they still need a proper scrub, but they're not looking too bad.

Yesterday I got a wee bag of fibre in the letterbox, it wasn't mail, it was from our guild challenge for the Christmas lunch this year and Joanne had picked up a bag of it for me last Saturday.  Each bag included some fine raw merino, silk, cotton, romney and corriedale.    We have to spin/knit/crochet/felt/weave it into something for the display of work.   I can't spin raw Merino, so tonight I was washing it, staple by staple.    It's something I don't enjoy, but unfortunately there isn't much other choice seeing as Merino is prone to felting and I couldn't find my wee vege bags that I normally use.

They should be dry by sometime tomorrow and then they'll puff up and I can start planning what I'll do with them.

Also today I got some more work done on the mystery item.   I used this:

after I'd decided what colour snaps to use:

There were 3 colour choices; the one on the far left was a deep maroon, middle is dark brown and right is baby blue.   I ended up going with the dark brown as it looked nicer somehow.   All I've got to do now is work out the positions of the tabs, sew them in place and then put the male snaps on the backing; iron on the size tags and sew on the sleeve at the top so I can hang it on the wall.   I think it's going to look fantastic!

Day 6 Blogtoberfest

Been fairly busy today.  Got a new cord so I can shift my computer tower down to the bottom of the computer desk which will give me more space on the desk to make a mess.  Then I dropped into Riccarton Mall to hand in George's competition entry; hope he wins something it would make his day.   Seeing as I was there I dropped into Borders which was still open, they had some good specials on DVD's and kids books; $40 later I had a bunch of books to try out on George, a movie for Thomas (Gamer) and one for me (Secondhand Wedding).   I also picked up Jane Eyre for me, I've never read it and it was only $10 so worth looking at.

After I got home I finished cleaning my sewing machine and overlocker

all lint now removed and all oiled as well.  Then back to the quilting.
Here's the quilted item with the bindings applied

Now, my binding corners leave something to be desired; normally I'd make a continuous binding, but I didn't think of that till it was too late.  As a result the corners are a bodge job; but it works all the same.
And, for those of you still working out what it'll be, here's a clue:

Tomorrow I'll hopefully get the final bits on, including the sleeve at the back to hang it up with.

I'm also hoping to hear from the trampoline place tomorrow, please?  Ian's getting antsy and I think he needs some bouncing.   He turned back into a troll tonight, so hopefully some exercise will help get that out of him; he tried to throw George out of the top bunk tonight, literally!  He knows I'm not at all happy about that; and that I'm thinking of taking the bunks down; have to discuss that with Thomas first though.

Day 5 Blogtoberfest

Fairly quiet today in some ways; I didn't go out aside from the school run, and I got a reasonable amount of sewing done.

1st up I finished my trousers and they fit perfectly!   Hopefully they'll get too loose soon and I can take the side seams in.

Ignore the tummy, that's a combination of the IBS and a little extra padding.  My personal trainer says my tummy muscles are really strong though, so at least that's one good thing.   I think the IBS thing might be improving too, so have hopes the inflamation will improve too.

Once I finished the trousers I did my first ever free-motion quilting on my mystery item; here's a peek.  The photo is part of my tutorial shots so the pins are what I used to hold the layers together; not a hint as to the use it'll be put to.  

My free-motion quilting leaves a bit to be desired, my tension went AWOL on me; but after doing some reading on The Freemotion Quilting Project I've got a few new things to try, including not dropping the feed dogs, but instead placing the stitch length at 0.  I also spent the rest of my spending money at her quilting shop getting some quilting gloves and a teflon glider thing for the machine bed.  Unfortunately I can't afford the nifty wee table she uses, but this should help; and considering I have a king sized quilt that I'll be quilting once it's all pieced I'll need all the help I can get!  Even if I could afford the nifty table it's probably not worth it, much as I'd like to think my machine will last forever I have to keep in mind it's as old as I am, and if Mum wants it back I really do have to give it to her seeing as it's still hers.
One day I'll get a quilters machine with a bigger harp, and hopefully some alphabet fonts too....

Tomorrow I have to go out for a bit, I need to get a stereo to PC cable so I can shift our tower down to the section it belongs in on the computer desk.   I've also got to drop off a colouring competition entry form for George at the mall; he'd like to come, but I hate Riccarton Mall and if he's going it has to be either the weekend which is too busy or school holidays which is just as bad!   Not to mention that for either of them it would be just me with both boys as Thomas is busy each weekend till after the comp closes and working in the week.

School holidays start next week, you might have worked that out from the last comment I made.   There are some plans in place; the boys have 4 sessions with the Autism Society's holiday scheme going to places like Orana Park, swimming, ten-pin bowling, a llama park, horse riding and an adventure playground.   We also have to go out and get them both shin guards in the first week as they start soccer next term with a special needs group.  In the second week their grandmother is taking them for up to 3 days; it may be less, depends on how they behave, lol.  Ian's being a bit defiant of late, so it may not be the full 3 days; we'll see.

Day 4 Blogtoberfest

I did something against my principles today; normally I only buy natural fibre products, but today I got some polyester batting.   It was price based in part and also based on the fact that this item will never go on a bed, it'll be on the wall.
Here's a photo of the fabric and batting to tease you (grin)

Any thoughts on what I'm making?   I'll be taking photos as I go and if it works as I have planned there'll be a tutorial afterwards.

In other sewing news my trousers are almost done.  Just buttons to go on the waistband and the hems to do; they'll be finished tomorrow.   They fit perfectly, but no photo of them on till they're done.

Not the best photo, but you can see the contrast pocket flaps on the legs; loving those, the hip pockets have the same fabric as a hidden lining which is a touch that makes me smile.

Got to try out a new to us game on the Xbox today, Left 4 Dead 2; great fun with Thomas as a co-op game.  We'll have to buy our own copy I think, along with Gears of War 3 when we can afford it.   Oh, and the latest Harry Potter has a release date of November 16, so we'll be buying that too; I'll have the full series of HP movies then as well as all the books.  I'm actually reading the books again at the moment, lol.

New shoes arrived for the boys today from NZsale.co.nz; love that site!   They fit well, the only problem is that they are shoe lace ones and neither boy has mastered tying a bow yet.  I'm thinking I might have to get some of those no-tie shoelaces for them so that they can manage them at school. 

Day 3 Blogtoberfest

Got an email from my boss this morning, it's stocktake day.   There went my plans of sewing today; instead I spent the first couple of hours working, followed by a quick note take of which work I had in my cupboard to finish.  Then into work where I found a bustle of activity and a mild feeling of frenzy; not uncommon for stocktake.  I'll be back in tomorrow to get more work, but I've finished for today which is good.
Dropped the trampoline mat in for restitching; it's going to cost $62 (hope that's GST inclusive) and should be done by the end of the week; Ian will be pleased as he's been going out there and sitting on the frame, while looking mournfully at the empty bounce area.   Poor chap.

Our oven is now fixed; $260 later; ouch!   But still rather cheaper than a new one and it's a good oven despite being a bit older.   Also got an email from Tronix to say the old Xbox now has a new laser, is clean and is now playing games fine; $76 please.   That's actually a good price and means in a few days it should be back and we can play games that require a hard drive again.  Turns out the new one while advertised as having a 4gig hard drive does not in fact have a hard drive and won't download the expansion discs.

In other expensive news I've decided what phone I want as soon as I save the money

This is the LG Optimus One P500.   It's $349, but I should be able to get it for less on contract; it'll cost me $40 a month which is more than I currently pay, but as my current phone will stop working later next year I have to do something; and I want a smartphone!   GPS, decent camera which is always with you, calender, and a number of other bits and bobs will be very handy.

Hoping to get into the sewing room tomorrow after going to work, need to get some padded interfacing to make my wall-hung circular needle holder and it would be nice to finish my trousers and the t-shirt that's already cut out.

More gardening

No photo's today, but I now have 3 blueberry plants courtesy of Mum and Dad which are installed in their new positions.   Quite a few less weeds in the garden too, but a long way to go.
Got 3 lines of sewing done; the zip is almost in the trousers and I had planned on getting them finished, but there was a conspiracy against it happening I think.

Blogtoberfest - Oct 1

Wow, what a busy day today!   I've been gardening, a little spinning, some sewing and there may be a little knitting to come yet.

Out in the garden we've mowed the lawn and also removed and cleaned the trampoline mat as it needs restitching

Ian is a trifle unhappy about this; but as the stitching was starting to go on 2 rows, not just one it was no longer safe.   I'll be taking it in on Monday or Tuesday to be fixed.

Next I dug up some hostas and moved them to a new part of the garden where they can keep the weeds down.

This is their new area, here's hoping they can win the fight with the ivy; not sure how to kill that stuff.
In the area where the hostas were is now some heucheras; the new area gets no direct sunshine and we wanted something that will look nice against the concrete footings of the house; these look brilliant!

There's another of the lighter coloured ones to the left that you can't see.  It looks really good, and now that the hostas are out our rubbish bins can go right against the house which is much neater too.
After I'd done all that I investigated the vege patch and found this:

This is the first year our asparagus have produced something that actually looks like asparagus!   We can't eat them this year, but next spring we should be able to eat a few spears; yummy!

After I'd finished all of that I was pooped!   Did a little work and then decided to start spinning cotton again; my last foray into cotton was a disaster; but I figured it was time to try again.

Unfortunately the flash isn't brilliant; but although it's broken a few times it looks really good and I'm quite pleased.   The fibre is a pencil type roving and it's much easier to work with than the cotton sliver was.   I'm still planning on trying punis at some point though.

On the sewing front I've got to the point of inserting the zipper into my cords; unfortunately I don't have a zipper in the right colour or length so I'll have to pop out tomorrow and grab one from Spotlight (hate the place, but it's close and open on Sunday).  I'm really pleased with these so far, hope they fit!

That's the side leg pocket.  The same fabric is used on the main pocket facing as well; I like it as it makes them a bit different and they 'pop'!  Hope that I can get them finished tomorrow (and that they fit), things are a bit bloated of late thanks to the IBS.   Knowing my luck they'll fit now, I'll lose weight over summer and won't get to wear them next winter; mind you that wouldn't be all bad, lol.