Hi all. I’m back for a roundup of what happened in February.
The main thing we’ve been dealing with in our household is my husband’s cancer journey. We are SO close to being at the end of the 7 weeks of treatment. He only has two more radiation zaps to go. He had weekly chemo, which was relatively easy compared to the radiation. He’s feeling pretty low now, and struggling to even drink the meal replacement liquid. The main cause of the pain in his mouth is actually the oral surgery he was told he had to have before his treatment started (to remove a wisdom tooth), so I’m assuming that the hole in his mouth is there because it didn’t get to heal properly before the stitches dissolved.
Happier news now! My YouTube channel reached 500 subscribers and I had a giveaway to win a small zippered bag. The winner has received her prize. And my little vlog benefited from a few more subscribers!
I have continued to make many more vlog episodes and tutorials for Stitches and Slapdashery. I even have business cards now, because I’ve been sewing up a storm for the farmers and crafters market in the summer (which I have applied for and it starts in May).
I’ll add a gallery of some photos of what I’ve been making below. I have also been enjoying my yarn crafts. Current Works in Progress are a pair of granny square pants (trousers) for which I am crocheting 56 squares (excited to see how those turn out) and a scarf which represents my husband’s cancer treatments, with different colours representing different things.
I’ve made a few amigurumi – an octopus for my great-nephew, a puppy for a friend whose dog was put to sleep 😦 and a molar…yes, a tooth…which was a gift for my orthodontist. I FINALLY got my braces off after 20 months. So happy, and I love my “new” teeth, though I’m still getting used to the fact they aren’t covered in metal.
I’ve knitted three of the Nottawasaga Buffs now. Such a quick and simple pattern, and so useful.
I hope February treated you well. We had a couple of cold snaps and a little snow, but really it’s been a very easy winter overall. My March will entail adding to the pile of marketable product for the summer market, seeing my husband through what’s probably going to be the worst of it (apparently things can get more painful in the two weeks post-treatment) and trying to motivate myself to actually do something other than sit on the couch! How about you?
It’s time for our January wrap-up and the sewing machine has been earning its keep!
My Stitches and Slapdashery YouTube channel is an absolute joy, and since the high activity levels of Vlogtober and Vlogmas I have been keen to keep talking to the camera! My sewing output has been pretty high, as I decided to start building an inventory for farmers and crafters market season. I haven’t yet applied for any but I’m hoping to get a table at a desirable location.
The things I’ve been making so far include zippered pouches, little snap pouches, book sleeves, phone cases, and soon drawstring bags and whatever else takes my fancy. I’m doing my best to use mostly stash fabric and accessories, and it does feel good to be using what I have and hoping that people will enjoy the products.
I added a Ko-fi link to my vlog, where people can “buy me a coffee” with a click through to my Ko-fi page. That felt kind of weird at first! If I decide to do online sales, I have the opportunity to add a shop aspect to Ko-fi, but I haven’t yet taken that plunge. The thought of overcoming hurdles like shipping has prevented me from starting so far. The cost of mailing things in Canada can make it twice as expensive to buy something online!
Other projects I’ve been working on this month have included:
fabric baskets for displaying my wares at the market
book sleeves using old jeans
blankets for the cats at the SPCA (the granny squares were going to be for some wacky pants [trousers] for me, but they just weren’t working out)
amigurumi from scraps of stash yarn (I need something to do with my hands when I’m waiting for my husband at the cancer centre)
a positive potato (yes, a crocheted potato with an encouraging message in its little hands for my husband)
a bandana style cowl (or buff) which knitted up in a couple of days (Nottawasaga Buff)
I’ll add a link to my Ravelry project page here to make it easy for you to take a look at the photos and notes, as it would take up too much space here.
the scarf for my husband which is a log of the progress of his cancer treatment – 6 colours, knitting a tube so the ends are hidden inside – green for radiation days, rust for chemo days, blue for rest days, etc. If you’d like to follow the progress of that, you can check out the Ravelry project page.
the Festoon shawl, which is a crocheted shawl in sock yarn, with a small hook, and I have been letting it languish for far too long!
I’ve published seven vlog episodes in January, and two tutorial videos. The link to my channel is here.
Yup, I really do love to talk! The tutorials are for fun zipper pouches out of chenille or fleece, and little denim baskets or yarn bowls that used upcycled denim and grommets, and are really simple. Be aware that these are not short pithy videos! I talk, I explain, I show as much of the process as possible, because sometimes people need to know WHY they are doing something a certain way, and what needle/interfacing/fabric is recommended for the project.
As for my husband’s health, well, he’s going through cancer treatment which is always horrible! There’s no way to sugar coat it, it really is a brutal way to try to get someone back to health. He’s having weekly chemo to zap any wandering cancer cells, but the main treatment is the radiation five times a week. His medical team consider his cancer to have been caught early, and don’t think it has had the chance to spread, so that’s good. But both chemo and radiation affect your entire body negatively, not just the cancer cells, and the list of all the things he may suffer from over the course of the treatment seems to get longer every week. We are two weeks in, out of seven. As time goes by, he is having more trouble swallowing. Eating a meal takes longer. He has been told to snack often to keep his digestive system busy and also to maintain his weight. He is using a mouthwash to try and keep sores at bay. He has Lidocaine to spritz in his throat when it gets too painful to eat (we’re not there yet). He has sennosides and Imodium, for the times when the drugs plug him up or give him diarrhea (hasn’t needed those yet either). Silver lining – he’s bald already! And shouldn’t lose his eyebrows!! Oh yeah, I forgot about the long term effects of head and neck radiation, which include loss of function in some salivary glands and tastebuds. Dry mouth is a thing.
I am past the shock and disbelief and have made it as far as acceptance. I also have faith that he will survive this. He has been told he is one of the healthiest cancer patients they have seen – no co-morbidities, healthy weight, non-smoker, non-drinker, healthy diet. He has barely ever needed to go to a doctor since I’ve known him. He is now on medical leave and can focus entirely on himself, without work stress, and I am doing what I can to support him.
Well, that’s enough of that. Thanks for reading, if you made it this far! Please do go and check out my videos on YouTube. I do my best to make them fun and interesting. You might want to have some knitting or crochet on hand when you switch on, though, I do tend to ramble!
I wish you all a peaceful and healthy February.
PS: I think my two links above have been duplicated. When I pasted this into my post, I got a warning that it wouldn’t embed so I manually added the links. I’ll leave them as is. If one doesn’t work, the other should!
And here we are at the end of 2023. It’s been quite an eventful year, mostly in a good way. I just recorded my end of year vlog which is uploading to my YouTube channel, Stitches and Slapdashery, as we speak!
I took the time to look back at the blog posts I’ve written this year, the project pages I’ve set up in Ravelry, and the content I’ve uploaded to YouTube. The events that stand out most for me this year are
March trip to Jersey to see the family – My mum turned 90 and I flew over for a week for the birthday party.
Launching my YouTube channel in June – Stitches and Slapdashery has been a lot of fun, with a total of 16 vlogs, 31 Vlogtobers and 25 Vlogmasses, plus a couple of extra bonus videos.
Quitting my job of 9 years in August and commemorating it with a serious buzzcut – it was time for a change.
November saw my niece having her first child – always a good reason to make stuff and I sent her a box of handmade things.
Our annual anniversary retreat in December – this time we went to Victoria on Vancouver Island for a week, stayed in an Airbnb condo on Fisgard Street, close to vegan restaurants and lots of other interesting places. And then shortly afterwards, my husband’s throat cancer diagnosis, for which he is scheduled to start treatment in January.
According to WordPress, this is my 2081st blog post. Wow!! Activity here has declined a little, as my focus has moved more to YouTube, but I have at least been aiming to do a roundup post once a month.
I think 2023 has been the year of the garment. I realised that I had made so many accessories (instant gratification) and blankets (stashbusters) over the years that, rather than make more of the same, I could divert that energy into clothing.
Sewing
Sewing has definitely taken up more of my crafting time this year, which is evident from my reduced project count on Ravelry! I’ve made baby clothes, fleece hoodies and sweaters, a coat, project bags, quilts, backpacks, zipper pouches, tank tops, T shirts, harem pants and overalls. About 100 items all told.
Knitting
Not as prolific with the needles, I finished a sweater, a machine-knitted cardigan, fingerless mitts and a beanie/cowl set.
Crochet
Some amigurumi (including an Edna Mode doll I was particularly proud of), dishcloths, baby items, accessories, and two cardigans and a sweater.
A total of about 27 yarny items for the year.
Works in Progress
What am I taking into 2024? The Festoon Shawl by DoraDoes is an ongoing crochet project made with sock yarn and a 4.5mm hook, so it’s slow going and not my favourite thing to work on.
I have a cross stitch project, where I traced a seahorse out of a colouring book and I’m making up the colour scheme as I go. Another thing that may take a while.
And I am in the middle of a stashbusting granny square….thing….which was going to be pants (trousers) but really really doesn’t look good or wearable, so there will probably be some unpicking involved so that I can rethink the final product.
2024
The main focus for the first few months of 2024 will be my husband’s health as he goes through cancer treatment. His diagnosis has meant I’ve rethought my plan to look for a new job in January. Instead I am going to take the time to plan and sew for a summer craft market. This will involve coming up with a better logo and business card design for Stitches and Slapdashery to tie everything together, and sew-in labels for the products I make.
I want to decide on a project that I can work on every day of R’s treatment, a bit like a temperature blanket idea, as it’ll be 7 weeks of almost daily appointments and then another couple of months until we know the outcome.
And I also want to make myself a Serene sling bag from Yoan Sewing Studio’s YouTube channel, so that’s probably going to be my first project of 2024.
Thank you for being here and reading my blog. I’d love to hear from you, so feel free to leave a comment. Do let me know if you’re watching the vlog too. Have a very happy, healthy New Year.
I’ve been enjoying October. I decided to dive into Vlogtober and record and publish a short video every day on my YouTube channel, Stitches and Slapdashery.
I learned the most important thing is to keep it manageable, both in recording footage (because you have to edit it at the end of the day when you may be tired) and in the final length, because many people are following multiple channels who are also doing Vlogtober.
Some days I have more to talk about than other days, but I’ve managed to be consistent with my publishing so far.
My phone became so clogged up with large files that I had to be brutal and put a lot of larger files in the Trash. Once they are up on YouTube it’s unlikely I’ll want to edit them again. But I kept the photos so I would remember to add them to the blog.
On of my WIPs is this bag, which I am crocheting with Scheepjes Softfun, a DK weight cotton/acrylic. I made the puffy flowers first from a tutorial by Hooked by Robin and then started on the bag.
The size of the bag will be dictated by the yarn I have and how it looks on the hook. I have made quite a bit of progress up the sides since taking the above photo.
I went a little nuts with this cellphone zipper pouch. It’s a tutorial from My Passion Crafts.
The first two are for gifts. It’s a good design, really useful for a phone in the front pocket and room for some money, cards, keys or whatever in the zippered compartment.
I made it blingy because I’m going to send it to her for a Strictly Sockalong prize.
New additions to the stash were acquired at Thread and Paper in Salmon Arm, BC. If I owned a store, I’d want it to look just like that one. It’s gorgeous! Packed with quilts, fabric, yarn, samples, thread, embroidery floss, patterns, you name it. I went around the store at least twice as I had lots of time to browse while my husband did the job he was in town for (I accompanied him on his work trip for the day).
Yesterday I had lunch with friends and spent the rest of the day reading. I really must get out into the beautiful fall day today and get some fresh air and exercise! The weather has been so mild. We haven’t turned the heating on yet.
I hope your October is going well and that you are enjoying some quality time with yarn or fabric. I’ll come back at the end of the month with another roundup of what I’ve been doing. See you then.
Hello! September was a pretty good month, if you ignore the fact that there was another major fire south of us. Thankfully, with the cooler weather, it was far less devastating and didn’t burn down any homes.
It’s hard to capture the deep orange-ness of the sun when viewed through smoke.
I did get to enjoy a few more beach days before the chill set in.
The water was…..refreshing?!
Last time I showed you a pile of quilt squares. These were assembled and backed and quilted and the result is…
…a 6 ft square bed-sized quilt with a scrappy binding and machine quilting radiating out from two points on the quilt. It was quite the challenge to get all that bulk under the arm of my machine.
I have already given this to the intended recipient, a lady I’ve known for 25 years and who lost her home in the wildfire in August.
A super fun project I sewed this month was this sweater.
The fleece is printed to look like crocheted granny squares and I knew I had to have some as soon as I saw it.
I made sure to buy enough to make a matching beanie.
My friends and I had a sewing day, which was a belated birthday celebration for my 61st, and we made Japanese knot bags.
These were mine. As usual, the sewing wasn’t perfect but the cute fabric makes up for it!!
Earlier this year, I made a batch of drawstring bags as a commission. This month I made another batch of 25, lined this time, as a donation to Vegfest. Of course I decided that the fabric had to have a fruit or vegetable theme.
These went into the goody bags on the day. My friend said that next year we should jointly make 100 so that every bag gets one! We’ll see!
Vegfest was fun. It’s so nice to be surrounded by so many vendors selling stuff that I can eat or use without worrying that it has animal products inside. I had helped to round up donations ahead of the big day, and the day before we were filling gift baskets. On the day we had more donations to add, and I was busy with that in the morning, on the door in the afternoon, and helping to clean up at the end.
A finished project that I’m really excited about, that’s hot off the needles today, is my second Sporto sweater. It’s a free pattern on knitty.com and last year I made a grey version. Last February I cast on this green one.
I didn’t plan it ahead of time, which meant that while I was knitting it I was trying to decide how to incorporate the contrast colours. The yarn is Scheepjes Truly Scrumptious Aran, and the main colour is Spirulina Bites. The pink which I finally used on the sleeves is Acai Bowl. I also have some Honeycomb (a mustard yellow) but it didn’t end up in the sweater.
The reason it took eight months? It sat in its project bag for months while I figured out what to do. I started to add a pocket then ripped it out. I finished the body but it was too short so I ripped back, added more length, and did a split hem. And then someone in the Vegan Ravelry group suggested a Finish Your WIPs-along and that was the impetus I needed.
So happy it’s done!
So the vlogging is ongoing over at Stitches and Slapdashery.
This is the latest episode. I’m still learning. I had to get an SD card for my phone because videos take up a lot of memory. I want to record a crochet tutorial but I’ve been having the darndest time setting up the camera in such a way that you can’t see the tripod legs! And I’ve had my new mic run out of juice and had to re-record footage, and the beanie tutorial will be redone because of camera shake! I’ll get there!
I’m looking forward to an October full of creating, and enjoying wearing the warm layers which I have spent so much time making! Happy times.
A few things happened this month. The main life change I experienced was leaving my job of nine years.
There had been a few rumblings of discontent for a while so when my boss decided it was time to move on to a new job it felt like the right time to make my move.
We had a great team and we all knew our responsibilities well and things ran pretty smoothly. But with the linchpin removed, what followed was the exit of four more key employees, including me.
I stayed on the longest and I did my best to hand over the tasks to the new management. They are doing amazingly well considering they were thrown in to a tough situation.
My last two scheduled shifts didn’t actually happen. That week, we had a major forest fire grow quickly out of control and threaten neighbourhoods only minutes from where we live. In the last week thousands of people have been on either evacuation alert or order, and some have lost their homes.
Our family of five has four cars between us and we had them packed and ready to move in case the fire moved our way. Thankfully it didn’t cross the highway…but it did jump the lake. Burning embers blown by the wind landed and caused fires on the other side and more people had to evacuate.
The store where I worked was in an alert zone and actually closed for four days.
Pre-blocking
So that beach day I enjoyed in early August was the only one I had all month. My Nightshade shawl did get knitted, just not at the beach as I’d hoped. In fact I finished it today and it’s currently blocking.
As you can see from the photo above, I had about one gram of the red left at the end, so I’m glad I decided to make the lacy sections smaller to conserve my yarn.
Doesn’t it look different when it’s had a wash and been pinned out on the mats!
I sewed a very cosy sweater from this pattern. It’s view A with the curved hemline. The fabric is chenille with a fluffy fleecy backing.
I’ve been cutting squares for a quilt from my cotton stash. I’ll be talking more about this and my other crafting on the next vlog which I’ll be filming in a couple of days. Please do visit – Stitches and Slapdashery on YouTube.
Mr Fixit and I managed to get out of town for a couple of nights, despite the fires, for my birthday. We revisited a little cabin that we’ve been to a few times before and it was very peaceful and less smoky than just about everywhere else.
And I buzzed my hair! Initially it was going to be maybe 10mm, and I was going to give it a fresh dye job, then I accidentally cut a 3mm swath through it and had to make it all that length. It was on my bucket list and now I’ve done it! That was two weeks ago and it’s grown a couple of millimetres so today I added colour. If you want to see it, you’ll have to go watch the vlog. I still need to shampoo the excess dye out of my scalp!!
I’m at the beach right now. I have my favourite beach quilt, my knitting, a puzzle book, water (no snacks because they mess up my braces and I don’t want to be fussing with them) and of course my phone.
I have been planning some solo beach days for weeks. When I handed in my notice at work, I gave them a month, but thanks to various shenanigans I stayed on for two more weeks to help out. So my beach plans were put on hold.
I still have three shifts to work, but today was a day off and I had nothing pressing that I had to do, so I finally indulged myself. It’s 34 degrees Celsius and the best place to be is right by the water so I can have multiple swims. I spent some time sunbathing but it was so hot and I didn’t want to burn so I retreated under the tree.
This WIP is the Nightshade shawl by Lisa Mutch. Found it on Ravelry and it’s a free pattern. I’m using the Jody Long Coastline yarn that I bought recently. It’s a plant fibre blend and is very comfortable to knit with. Because I’m not sure if I have enough yardage for the lower two colours I’m reducing the amount of repeats in the lacy sections. Hope it works out.
The highlight of last week was going to see Grease the Musical. It was a lot of fun. Love the songs. Didn’t realise the movie came out in 1978!! I was 16. Wow, that was a looooooooong time ago!!
Guys, I am happy to announce my new YouTube channel is going live any moment.
The first vlog has been uploaded to YT but I’m told that your first video can take a while to be publicly visible.
The name is Stitches and Slapdashery and in the first episode I talk about my Sporto sweater, the Any Yarn Will Do Sweater, and some sewn tops.
I expect that most of my energy will go to that in future. Unlike a blog post that can be written and uploaded in 15 minutes, a vlog takes hours, what with the setup, recording, editing, saving and uploading to YouTube.
But I enjoyed making my first one and I know there will be more.
I really hope you go over to YT to check it out. The more views, likes, etc, the better. Thank you!
Ah, February. The third month of winter. I have this quirk where I consider winter to be December, January and February. Spring is of course March, April, May. Summer, June, July, August. And fall/autumn is September, October and November.
The actual weather doesn’t always cooperate with my ideas, as often we will have snow in November or March and then the seasons get blurred.
But generally things follow a predictable path. And predictably, many of the people I interact with at work are moaning about the weather and itching for spring. They see a bit of sun and get impatient.
There’s an incontrovertible fact about weather. We can’t control it. So my view is that you might as well accept it and make the best of it.
One of the podcasters I watch is Ali from Little Drops of Wonderful (and also the vlog This Little Wonderful Life). She has a type of seasonal affective disorder that’s opposite to most. Rather than getting down in the winter, she feels low in the summer. She can’t stand the heat (which thankfully is not usually too extreme when you’re in England).
I can relate a little. Summer is nice for a lot of reasons but being hot and sweaty and unable to sleep comfortably makes it less fun. Spring and fall are comfortable, temperature-wise, and seeing nature’s changes is wonderful.
But there’s something about winter that’s so comforting. Obviously it relies on the beauty of a well-heated home. But as nights draw in, days grow shorter, and I get to add more blankets to my couch and bed, I feel very content!
Yarn crafts in winter are ideal. Especially if they keep your lap warm at the same time. This sweater isn’t quite large enough for that yet but I did just reach the point where the stitches fit nicely around the cable. This is another Sporto sweater (from knitty.com), this time with the Scheepjes Truly Scrumptious yarn that I bought last year.
It’s a little grayed out in this light, but the colourway is Spirulina Bites and is a pleasing shade of green. It coordinates well with the Caspian interchangeable needles!
The yarn is an aran weight and I’m knitting it on 6mm needles. I am hoping that as the sweater progresses, I’ll have an Aha! moment and figure out the best way to incorporate the two contrast colours.
Over the winter our “hygge” group has been meeting quite regularly and there is usually some craft content like knitting or crochet.
Today we had a special get-together, where a few people came to my house and we set up our sewing machines at my dining room table. We had an ironing station and a cutting table.
We had a teacosy theme, though one friend sewed on a different project. My first finish was a tall sleeve for my French press. I opted to cover the whole thing but left the top open for the plunger which sticks up while the coffee brews. The fun kitchen appliance fabric was a gift in December.
The second finish was a basic cosy for my large teapots. One friend had brought a template and I enlarged it a bit. Maybe too much. But it’s pretty.
The third was tougher.
I have a smaller teapot and chose a style that has a circle for a base and two rectangles for the sides. The cosy can stay on while pouring the tea. Sewing the sides to the base was a challenge and even though I added bias binding to the exposed seam allowances it was somewhat messy. I sewed a drawstring from the dachshund fabric and decided to add grommets to cinch up the top.
It’s not perfect but it’s cute.
I think I’ve waffled on long enough for today. Enjoy your February!
I only just got around to taking photos of these PJ pants, but they were finished before Christmas. I made them for Mr Fixit and didn’t want him to know I’d made them.
I used this pattern which I’ve had for a long time…
The blue tie dye ones are French Terry so he’s been wearing those to sleep in. The thin fleece ones with a Christmassy vibe are more for lounging in. I was surprised that the inside leg on the pattern piece was only 30 inches so extended them a couple of inches. I didn’t want them to be too short, as that was his main gripe about the shop-bought ones.
This isn’t a great shot but it was evening and I forgot to get a daytime picture before taking this coat to work. The colour is a deep magenta.
This fabric is called Nubby Boucle and is 100% polyester. It’s retailing for $50 a metre so the only way I was going to sew with it was to do a display project for work. I get to bring it home after a month.
Sewing with this fabric was mostly straightforward though I did break a needle when it had to get through four layers. And if I made it again I’d only interface the part of the front bands that’s hidden inside. I ended up having to trim back some unsightly white interfacing that was showing when the front of the coat flipped open.
I was also surprised by how narrow the sleeves were. My arms are pretty average and yet there wasn’t much room, especially if I wanted to wear a sweater underneath. Note to self: if I make this again, make the seam allowances smaller.
The instructions include three buttons and buttonholes. I thought I’d stick with just one button because I wanted it to drape nicely if I was moving around and sitting/standing. As the button I chose is huge I opted for a piece of cord to make a button loop. Much easier than sewing a buttonhole.
I fully intended to play in my sewing room again today but life got in the way. I stayed up late last night so slept in late this morning. Then I spent an hour taking down the Christmas decorations, tossing out the poor dried out tree, and vacuuming up ten tonnes of pine needles. And then I had to make a meal plan for the week and go out for groceries. And then it was time to make dinner. I had some help. We made sushi and miso soup and tested out a recipe from the VegNews magazine – Spiced Gingerbread Brioche Cinnamon Buns – which were as awesome as they sound and have about eleventy billion calories in them. Divine!
I think the rest of my evening is going to involve reading a Dean Koontz book from the library.
NICOLA KNITS 