Down the rabbit hole....

Story of my life.... start one thing, remember another thing.  While looking for the other thing, discover a different, more interesting thing, which requires more things.  Repeat ad infinitum.

So.  With a renewed enthusiasm for my languishing miniature projects I set up my desk this morning to continue dressing some little dolls for La Mignonette.  Making umpteen sets of silk underwear and socks is very boring, compared to the delights of the actual costumes, so I tend to do them in batches. 

During a lull in knicker construction I thought I'd just have a look in my drawer of undressed dolls to see if I had a pair which would work as a Cinderella and Prince Charming and at the back of said drawer I came across these....

Back in the mists of time I made some of these dolls with holes in their hands and feet with the notion of making string puppets and marionettes.  I didn't make many because they were a bally nightmare... so many of the limbs cracked while putting tiny holes through the leather hard porcelain, or pinged off during soft cleaning, but these made it through the tortuous process.

Of course, after they'd been fired, china painted and strung, I put them in this tray in a drawer and promptly forgot all about them.  

Rediscovering them this morning I thought I'd make up a few to hang in La Mignonette then promptly remembered why they'd been languishing in a drawer for decades.  The control bar mechanism is fiendishly difficult to make in miniature.  

Now, I know what you're thinking.  Sandra, don't talk rubbish.  It's literally two bits of wood in a cross shape, with strings hanging off.  But hear me out.  It may LOOK simple, but it most definitely is not.  

First off.... the wood must be in scale with the doll.  Too thick and it would look ridiculous.  And making tiny holes for the 'strings' in thin, narrow wood is fraught with difficulty, similar to that of making tiny holes in the hands and feet of the porcelain dolls.

Then there's the string.  I have very fine thread which I use for sewing delicate silk costumes but it's too fine for the holes in the puppet's limbs.  Nylon jewellery thread might work but it doesn't 'flow' in very short lengths. I'll have to experiment and see what works.

If I can think through a solution for all of that, I also need to fashion a hook to hang the puppet up.

I can vaguely remember grappling with all the challenges when I first made the puppet dolls, and consigning them to the back of the drawer as I couldn't come up with something perfectly to scale which worked effectively.

See, this is what happens to me. All. The. Time.

So, once again, I've put the puppets aside.  Not back in the drawer where they'll likely languish for another 10 years... but ON MY DESK in my line of vision where they will taunt me with my ineffectual faffing over working out the control bar until I finally crack a workable solution.

Watch this space....

And just like that.....

 ....WHAM!

After four major heatwaves, and barely any rain to speak of for months, September has called an abrupt halt to summer and torrential rain is currently throwing itself at my craft room windows.  In normal times there is usually a gradual segue from summer to autumn, with a mix of warm, sunny days, interspersed with cooler, misty ones.  Here in the UK we don't tend to get the same spectrum of leaf colour seen in the likes of New England, or Canada and there's even less chance of any autumnal blaze this year, as we've had high winds ripping still green leaves from the trees.

Still.... autumn isn't all bad.  Yes, so it's damp and mushy.  No crisp piles of crunchy leaves to jump through here.  They're quickly soaked and form thick, slippery layers reminiscent of a soggy millefeuille pastry.  Yes, the days are shortening and dark evenings are just around the corner.  Yes, it feels like aeons till spring...

BUT.  It is traditionally the time of year when projects which have languished over the summer months are unearthed, dusted off and reviewed with a critical eye.  Long time readers will be well acquainted with my modus operandii of starting new projects with great enthusiasm, which normally lasts till the next project grabs my attention.   

This chart accurately represents my technique...

In my craft room I am never any further than a few feet away from an unfinished project. Every drawer, cupboard,  shelf and storage box contains at least one...sometimes many. 

When I retired, I threw myself into all the crafts I'd never really had time for before...dressmaking, jewellery making, crochet.  Liberation from the relative tyranny of having to constantly come up with new ideas for miniatures felt simultaneously intoxicating and emancipating and I embraced my new found freedom with zeal.

Fast forward 17 months and I'm overhauling my project list.  I have many unfinished miniature projects, not least my lovely French doll shop, to which I added a third storey two years ago.  I can go for months without opening it up and looking inside but I know there are lots of odds and ends to finish off, not least populating the ground floor shop with a minimum of 20 little dolls.  I have a box of little undressed dolls, all in their underwear, patiently awaiting costuming and wigging.  Back in the summer I even made a batch of pleated silk ribbons with a view to making a start.  Of course that hasn't happened and the silk ribbons are currently sitting accusingly in a box right behind my chair.  So in view of the extremely inclement weather, I'm sorting through my ideas boards on Pinterest and selecting costumes I'd like to recreate in micro miniature.  I'm going to set myself a target of dressing two little dolls a week, which is eminently achievable... you heard it here first. 🤣

I'm also dusting off my La Mignonette notebook, where I'd written down lists of 'Stuff Still To Do' which runs to several pages. 

My wet and windy weekend in prospect is looking up already.....

HOTH....

For all the non-crocheters out there (seriously though, what are you even doing with your life?)  HOTH is short for Hot Off The Hook.

Behold... it's finally finished!

I feel that this should be accompanied by some sort of fanfare... in the absence of trumpets a kazoo would suffice.

I finished the final stitch in the border late last night and did a few victory laps round the lounge by way of celebration.

This time last year, I barely knew one end of a hook from the other, and had never crocheted anything, other than a few very wonky chains as a teenager then promptly gave it up as a bad job.

Is it riddled with mistakes? Absolutely! Are all the stitch counts correct? No way! Was there constant wailing and gnashing of teeth? You betcha!

However, to the untrained eye I think it looks pretty damn good, even if I say so myself. I've just sat gazing at it, remembering all the times I couldn't count to eight. The bamboozlement of those beetles. The frustration of those fans. All of which drove me demented at first.

Then the weird sorcery of Row 12, which, quite frankly, knocked all the other rows into a cocked hat for its sheer audacity and ambition.

Then came my battle with dodecahedron shaped triangles, and boomerang shaped corners.

It didn't end there... when all the elements were completed, I opted to join it diagonally. I don't know what I was thinking. It was like assembling a three-dimensional geometric puzzle, upside down and back to front.

Six months of my life, and if I'd employed a swear jar from the get go I'd have enough in it to retire to the Bahamas.

Anyway.....I'm going to take a few days to recover my equilibrium then start on a new crochet project. And THIS TIME I'm going to sort out a swear jar from the very start.

Sandra's Spring Collection....

My long-trailed Mignonette Doll Presentation Box Kit is now available!  Full details and photos can be found in this PDF file, along with several other goodies.

View the full PDF file HERE

Hooked on crochet....

I’m now on the home stretch on my second ever crochet project,  a Janie Crow Persian Tiles blanket in the wonderfully colourful Easter Jewels colourway.  I’ve finished all the octagons (YES OCTAGONS!) and the squares and have just a few of the triangles to go, before I can sew it together and add the border. 

I laid it out on the floor to see what it looks like so far....

Hmmm….OK, so maybe not totally on the home straight but at least I’ve finished the octagons and they only took 6 months and aged me 10 years.   Also maybe jumping straight from a simple granny square blanket to an objectively batshit crazily complicated pattern wasn’t such a bright idea. However, I’ve stuck at it and the end is finally in sight.  At this point in my crochet career, I feel I can legitimately share my experience on the subject, so here goes…..

YouTube tutorials are the way to go.  Most creators produce tutorials to accompany their patterns and these are invaluable, especially to novice crocheters.  I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve rewatched tricky sections from my current project until it makes sense.  Eventually I can manage with just the pattern and I find that my grasp of new stitches is much improved.

Hooks - When I first learnt to crochet I bought a set of generic hooks from Amazon.  The handles felt sort of tacky and really hurt my hand after a while.  The head constantly split the yarn.  But the worst thing… the very worst thing was the yarn squeak, screech and shudder.  I constantly washed my hands and cleaned the shaft of the hook, to no avail.  The squeaks continued.  However, following extensive research,  I spent an unconscionable amount of money on a single Clover Amour hook.   You know that thing in films, when the heroine prevails and the clouds part to reveal a sunlit sky and choirs of angels sing Hallelujah?  It was just like that.  Soooooo smooth, no squeaking, no split yarn, no hand strain.   OK, so they cost the equivalent of the GNP of an emergent nation but in my unbiased view they’re 100% worth it.

Terminology - For any craft or skill, the novice must learn the language. I was already fluent in knitting and naively assumed that crochet would be in the same linguistic family…. like French and Italian.  How wrong was I?  It was more like the difference between binary code and Azerbaijani.  It doesn’t help that there are two versions… UK and US.  Two countries divided by a common language.  I have to say I much prefer UK notation, which makes more sense.  This means that if I’m using a pattern written in US I have to painstakingly convert it into UK.  Luckily though, I’ve discovered Crochet Translate, which is very similar to Google Translate but much better.

HA!  Only joking. No such wonder exists, although for the life of me I can’t imagine why.    However, for those of us who are linguistically challenged, there is a nifty alternative.  The crochet chart, which is a series of lines, dashes and squiggles, which makes even less sense than the written word.  I honestly have no clue about these.

Moving swiftly on….

Counting. Apparently this is vital in crochet.  Crochet stitches are sneaky little buggers and very easy to loose track of.  You can go ‘old school’ and use a notepad and pencil, or high-ish tech and use a nifty wee ring counter which slips over your finger. Of course you have to remember to press the button after each stitch or row, which is often the downfall of novice crocheters. *cough*

However, whichever method you use,  when you're halfway through a lengthy count I can guarantee that someone will talk to you, maybe ask you if you've put the bin down, or where's the TV remote. despite being warned to stfu please be quiet from the get go. In this case I would plead justifiable homicide.

Yarn.  Thus far I’ve only used Stylecraft Special DK, which is readily available in all corners of the globe in a veritable cornucopia of colours.  120 all told!  If you ask me that’s way too many colours but what do I know. Other yarns are available, both synthetic and natural from cheap and cheerful to eye-wateringly expensive.  If you keep goats, sheep, alpacas or angoras you will have access to many different types.

If you have yarn, it follows that you will need storage.  This is a whole sub-section of crochetingness and Pinterest is awash with all manner of stylish, innovative storage solutions, from the common or garden organza bag, through vacuum seal bags, to bespoke wall-to-wall cubbies.  My thought is that the really committed crocheter should have access to a multi-dimensional portal, similar to a Black Hole, which could hold your entire stash.  This is clearly the holy grail of yarn storage and I shall never be persuaded otherwise.

WIP.  I was wholly ignorant of this until a fellow hooker enlightened me.  It stands for WorkS  In Progress.  Notice, WORKS…. PLURAL.  Apparently, no hooker worth her salt ever has just one project on the go.  What are you even thinking?!  Starting a solitary piece and seeing it all the way through to the end without repetition, hesitation or deviation?!?  That’s just downright crazy stuff. 

I’m an outlier here, because I prefer to work on one project at time.  There are several reasons for this.

1.      I’ve graduated to a more difficult pattern and it’s as much as I can do to remember what to do from one section to the next, let alone one whole pattern to the next!

2.     I’m the Queen of Procrastination and if I had three or more projects on the go I would never complete any of them. 

3.     It’s not a cheap hobby, and having to buy multiple yarn packs in quick succession would bankrupt me.

BUT…. I think I’ve found the reason why hookers have multiple projects on the go at any one  time. Hear me out…..

Ends.  I have very strong opinions on these.  Ok, so here’s the thing.  I sew in each and every end as I go along.  WHOA!  More crazy stuff?  My first crochet project was a granny square blanket, made up from 100 squares, plus a border.  Each square had 6 different colours.  Let’s do the maths.  That’s 12 ends per square, 1,200 ends in total.  That’s a very lot of ends.  As far I can tell, many crocheters can’t be arsed bothered with sewing in ends as they go along, so they end up having to do 1200 when all the squares are finished.  So, the do the sensible thing and quietly put them all aside then start on the next thing.

AM I RIGHT THOUGH?

Because I slavishly followed the instructions for my first blanket, I adhered to the designer’s exhortations to ALWAYS SEW IN YOUR ENDS AS YOU GO.  As a result, it’s now ingrained in me.  I actually find it strangely calming and  cathartic.  Loose ends offend me and I sew them in at every colour change.  It literally takes a few seconds and results in such neat work as I go along.  I realise I’m probably an outlier here too but I’ll never understand why anyone would want to tackle hundreds of them all at the same time.  Who’s the crazy one?

Accessories.  Wahoo!!!  This is where we can ALL  go completely batshit crazy.  Here was me thinking a hook, yarn, darning needle, notebook and pencil were sufficient.  Pah, pish and tush.   We need tension rings, stitch counters, blocking boards, blocking tiles, blocking combs, mini steamers, travel totes, yarn swatch pegs, clips, project planners, pattern folders…. plus an unlimited source of funds.  If you live with a significant other of the miserly persuasion you also need a diploma in creative accounting.

Tension.  I’m not talking here about the kind which permeates the room whenever you mention the word ‘crochet’.  Nor am I referring to the sort which is created by addressing a particularly difficult pattern, which causes a vice-like grip, clawed hands and clenched teeth.

Whole screeds have been written about crochet tension and from what I can gather it’s pretty much impossible to produce absolutely consistent tension throughout a project.  Apparently it can be influenced by factors as random as the way you sit, or your mood.  For example if you feel stressed you’re more likely to crochet tightly, which makes your stitches smaller.  By that measure my octagons should be microscopic! In my complete novice days, I purchased a tension ring, in the vain hope that it would miraculously sort my tension woes.  Spoiler…. It didn’t.  However, I’ve found a fairly failsafe way to do so.

Wine.  Ok, so it doesn’t necessarily improve your crochet tension, but frankly my dears, you won’t give a damn.

Spring is sprung....?

It's felt positively springlike this week.  The sun is shining from a clear blue sky, the birds are singing, buds are beginning to burst on the trees and it's almost warm.

Of course, even mentioning the s-word will banjaxx the whole thing and we'll be back in sub-zero arctic conditions by the end of the weekend, but for today at least, I'm allowing myself to believe that our seemingly endless winter is on its way out.   And with just over three weeks to go till the clocks spring forward and deliver a whole extra hour of useful daylight in the evenings, my thoughts are turning to our outside spaces, and transforming them into a garden of delights.

This requires quite the leap of imagination as our patio areas are currently far from delightful. During the winter months, our north-east facing garden doesn't get much in the way of full sunlight, and the patios get none.  As a result, a creeping green algal miasma colonises everything, from the flagstones to the patio furniture.  We keep things covered as much as possible, but even so, come spring, EVERYTHING needs to be washed down.

Now. I like jetwashing as much as the next woman. The thrill of watching a powerful jet of water scour away the winter ming and bring each surface back to life. But it's bloody hard work and I can only manage it in very short bursts. This, though, is fine, because we have a so-called drainage gully around the edge of the main patio and in defiance of its function, it resolutely refuses to drain. So after 10 about minutes, it fills to the brim and all jetwashing operations have to be suspended till it eventually drains... ever... so... slowly, into the soakaway.

Last year, after the marathon jetwashing of the patio, I sprayed it with Patio Magic, a solution which acts as a disinfectant to kill algae, moss, and lichen growth on outdoor surfaces. 
I must admit, that despite my scepticism, it does work, as is evidenced by the steps which lead from the patios up to the top of the garden, but they at least do get sunlight in the winter. 

I didn't do much to the outside last summer and as a result, this year there's a lot to do.  I need to replace the scenic shower curtain, which gives the illusion of having an outlook over a scenic harbour.  I need to replace the curtain over the woodstore, which is now many years old and looks very shabby.  All of the 'Gin Garden' area furniture needs a thorough clean and a bit of a revamp... maybe new throws and cushions.  The floral garlands for both the dining gazebo and seating gazebo need to be replaced too.  

But the main job is dismantling, cleaning, then replacing the corrugated plastic roof on the wooden gazebo.  It was done almost 3 years ago, and inevitably, water has seeped between the sheets overlaps and gone all green and slimey.  We tried skooshing it with the jet washer wand last year, to no avail.   I had a few people in last month to give us quotes to replace it with flat, twinwall panels, but despite it being tiny....only 2.4metres square, the quotes were eye-wateringly expensive.  So we've moved to Plan B.  We're going to take the existing sheets off, clean them thoroughly, then replace them, adding a special tape to cover the joins which should hopefully stop any water ingress between the sheets.  

However, we will need to replace all the fixings. I have no idea what they're called so I've been having a high old time on Google trying to find some. Probably some sort of reciprocating flange widget. I'm determined NOT to have to physically take one into Screwfix and ask, in order to avoid the eye-rolling mansplaining and sniggering which may ensue.

All of the above, is going to take the best part of a month, and that's if the weather cooperates, as in our joint decrepit states we can only manage to work in short bursts then take lengthy rests to recuperate. We might do it in staggered shifts to spread the pain.

So hopefully by Easter, we should once again have a fully functioning outside area in which to dine, relax, and enjoy the great outdoors. In which case I will have a full, ceremonial re-opening of our Gin Garden, with a ribbon to cut and everything!

Mignonette Presentation Box Kit update....

Yes.  Yes I know.  My end of February deadline for completing the presentation box kits has come and gone.  As deadlines are wont to do.  When I retired last year I pledged to myself that deadlines would be a thing of the past.  Yet here we are.

In my defence, I did say in my last post, and I quote:

 "With luck and a following wind I'm hoping that I'll get it all done by the end of February, but don't hold me to that. "

Anyway, no, they're not ready yet, although progress has been made.  The main problem is I keep having ideas for more contents.  And although they are generally very good ideas, I have to go through the process of designing the 'idea', then refining the 'idea', then producing a sub-kit for that specific 'idea'.  At some point I'm going to have to call a halt on the ideas.

I'd say I'm probably three quarters of the way through, then I have to tackle the instructions, which will have to be supplied as a PDF file otherwise I'll be printing out gazillions of sheets.

So, watch this space.