My kingdom for a plot

Its 7pm, I am tired and just want to eat chips in front of the tv. Why did I start this NaNoWriMo? Why is it that I can only ever seem to write the beginning of the story and not the middle or the end? Is it really only the third day? Argh! My plot has abandoned me.....

Later that evening...

Its 8.30 pm and I have somehow managed to get the wordcount goal of 1667 words done for the day. Not only that but it only took 58 minutes, and I was stuffing about updating my ipod at the same time. Ahhh, smug mode :-D

Puns with buns

The weekend was an almost-got-it-right weekend. I tried to make some bread rolls, unlike last time I tried this I actually got the dough to rise. However, I baked them too hot and ended up with little bullets of something that is hard on the outside and squashy on the inside (I was thinking a knight, but that's a little bit tasteless). So I tried to convince the dog to eat them and he gave me that unimpressed look he gives me whenever I try to get him to eat something strange and slightly inedible, like tomato or small pebbles. He looked at it then started scratching his bum (I was going to say buns, but it was a terrible pun). He is a hard food critic but honest. Next weekend I'll try baking them at a lower temperature.

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So I moved on to my quilt project I started last weekend. I learnt that although polar fleece is cheap, it is hard to sew straight. It moves around, a lot, while you are trying to stitch it. As you can see from my wonky block, its not all that straight. I figure I'll cut the wonky bits off later. I am kind of out of the instructions and into the wild making it up as I go territory. I am sure it will all work out fine.

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Being impatient I have put the twirly blocks (as I call them) with the ducky blocks to try to get an idea of how great it will be when I make another 11 twirly blocks. I am sure quilters must do this all the time in order to admire the work in progress... or perhaps they don't procrastinate like I do. Anyway, here is my procrastination, it is starting to look like the picture in the magazine...

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I also wanted to mention that as it is November 1st, I have started my first unofficial attempt at NaNoWriMo. I am also pleased to be able to smugly announce that I have achieved the daily word count goal of 1,667 words a day. Not bad, and I even have a plot planned this time. They say that's important in a novel. And, I won't even post the crap I write here so you don't have to be subjected to my terrible story writing. How lucky!

Something to do with IKEA throw rugs

A while ago I bought a patchwork magazine and wanted to make just about everything in it. Once of my favourites is this quilt called 'Just Ducky' (if you are interested, you can buy the pattern from designer Bonnie Sullivan). I am not sure why the picture is coming up sideways, but if you tilt your head you can see what I am attempting to make out of my cheap IKEA polar fleece throw rugs.

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Although this blanket is supposed to be made out of woolen fabric, I thought polar fleece would make an okay substitute. Its also cheep enough that I won't be too upset if I completely muck it up.
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This is the first time I have attempted applique, but it seems to be working out okay. All that time procrastinating by reading patchwork magazines seems to have paid off. So after cutting out all the shapes, I now almost have the first six of the ducks...

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There was a surprising amount of off cuts- which found their way to the dog to play dress-ups in...

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Word in the trees is...

News of the shredded wheat appears to have spread throughout the bird world. I wasn't sure why the little green bird had shown up since the biscuits aren't really suited to a little bird with a small pointy beak...




And this is why you should eat with your mouth closed...

Banana pants

I prefer to think I am getting old rather than acclimatising to the heat up here. I have begrudgingly given up and bought myself a pair of slippers to wear around the house on the cold floor. It is a chilly 21 degrees inside! I had planned on crocheting a pair of slippers, but I just couldn't wait that long, and besides I was having troubles getting two the same. So, going along with my decent into old age, I have even taken to wearing pyjamas. The horror!

A little while ago I bought some pyjama pants online and paid a small fortune (which I have later found is about right for adults pyjamas). Shortly after sleeping in them, they have turned themselves into a twisty licorice all-sort and started to fall apart. So,I finally got up the nerve and cut into one of the pieces of fabric I brought back with me from Sydney. Today I made (and finished) the first ever piece of clothing that I will probably be able to wear- Pyjama Pants!

TaDA!

I am quite proud of my sewing attempt. And because they are for sleeping in, I don't have to worry about anyone commenting on my lack of sewing skills (see the worlds ugliest skirt if you don't believe me). There was a scary moment there when I had to do some button holes (elastic is a little bit beyond me at the moment). Luckily with some phone support from my Nanna, I was whizzing up buttonholes all over a scrap piece of fabric. Too bad they weren't as good on the actual pants.

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Anyway, I am off to pack up my mess (not as bad as the crape incident) and bake some banana bread for the week...

Grannys and broomsticks

It was going to happen sooner or later- the photo post. I figure it makes up for the last post that I couldn't load anything on, thanks to the clouds interfering with the internet... he he he

This is my sample of broomstick lace. I wish crochet would show up on photos properly. It looks a lot better in real life than it does here. You can even see my thrifty metal pole that I used to make the big loopy bits...

This is the doomed granny square. I realised that the last 8 rows were smaller than the rest and it was probably caused by having one stitch instead of two between the little squares. So, through great big wobbly tears, I undid approximately 200m of crochet or around eight hours of work. I am now re-crocheting it with the one extra stitch. Why? Because I am a half-arsed perfectionist* and knew it would drive me mad every time I look at it. I have already re-done two and a half rows, and I am optimistic in getting the five and a half remaining rows done in the next few days...
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*the half-arsedness is due to not taking the time to get the proper yarn and hooks for this little project- the perfectionist bit is due to wanting every 2mm square to be perfectly spaced and even

Broomsticks and the art of being thrifty

The optimism of Friday was squashed by Sunday evening after the sewing machine never made it out of its cupboard. I did manage to try out a bit of broomstick lace after finding this handy tutorial while randomly bouncing around on youtube (Its just of a lady showing how to do broomstick lace nothing weird or scary or anything*).

This was all a bit exciting and I had to give it a go, although my broom is one of the modern ones with a hook on the end that would make the whole thing a bit nightmare-ish. I did find a metal pipe up the back of one of the cupboards. I think it was left here by the previous tenants, although I am not sure what it is for. Perhaps it was an alarm system where if left balanced precariously on the door handle it would make a hideous noise when it falls onto the tiles if anyone was to try to open the door. It would probably make a noise if someone walked past and coughed. Anyway whatever its original purpose, it makes a great 'really big knitting needle' and I was being thrifty and using the materials I had at hand. So using a fairly large pipe and a crochet hook, I was able to make up a sample of broomstick lace. I would put a photo of it here but the wireless internet here seems to be struggling, so I will have to post it some other time.

*This might seem like a strange comment, but I recently came across a story of a lady whose son was scared out of his mind after watching something benign, possibly something about elmo, on youtube that turned out to have a ghost jump out and scream or something. Apparently people do that for some reason, most likely because they are weird little people that think its funny to glue coins to the footpath and similar pranks...