Spring has sprung! We just went for a walk around our neighbourhood, it’s 21 Celsius out there (although it will be cooling again after tomorrow) and the local deer are enjoying the delicacies provided by our backyard flowers, such as they are.
Mr Stitches, aka my husband, is recovering well from his cancer treatment. After the anticipated dip when treatment ended, he’s been getting better and better. He’s eating well though has to take care with his throat still. Nothing too scratchy or spicy or dry. He’s started to wean himself off the painkillers.
We’ve been taking daily walks and his energy is returning.
I’ve been vlogging frequently all month at Stitches and Slapdashery on YouTube and also published a few tutorials. I have one for drawstring project bags for knitters/crocheters, zippered project bags, a denim cup/water bottle carrier, and a couple of crochet ones too.
The granny square pants were finished and have been worn (INSIDE the house)!
I am in the process of knitting a baby blanket with Ice Yarns Sweet Baby – the pattern is Ten Stitch Twist by Frankie Brown (free on Ravelry).
I made quite a few upcycled denim bags. The one I was most proud of was the backpack which I designed myself.
And I also made an Amplector by Spencer Ogg, and a simplified version of the Linds Handmade H2O2go, which turned out awesome.
My crochet WIP is probably going to be a cardigan or sweater, for which I’ve started making daisy squares like this one.
They’re all going to look different as I’m using stash and the background yarn has long colour changes.
I’ve been recording over the Easter weekend so there’ll be another vlog uploaded tonight. If you haven’t checked out the channel yet, I’d love for you to visit! Leave me a comment 😀
Hope you’re enjoying the seasonal changes wherever you are. Have a wonderful April. 😊
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.Â
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.Â
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!Â
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.Â
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!Â
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!
Day 2 involved some housework, because I like to feel I’ve done something domestic before settling down to crafty pursuits.
Once the vacuuming was done and the bathrooms cleaned, I went back to the sashiko stitching. I spent so long on it while watching Netflix that my right hand ached later in the day.
Tuesday evening we had a yoga class so that was the exercise of the day.
Day 3 started out with a 9am Bosu Blast class. Eek, it was a challenge for this lazy girl. I sweated a lot! We did burpees, planks, dumbbell work and more on a timer and I couldn’t keep up with it all but I did my best.
After that, I went and bought food to stock up the fridge and popped into the dreaded Wal-mart for a nose around. The staff were restocking the yarn department and it actually looks better than it has in ages. I didn’t buy yarn but I did get a few T shirts for work/the gym.
After dinner, I met a friend at the beach. It was a cooler day, with a maximum of 29, and by 7pm it was 25. With the wind coming off the lake it actually felt cool (for the first time in a month) and I spent some time adding to my sashiko pieces.
There weren’t many people about but we did share the beach with about 50 Canada geese.
It was such a relief to have have a cool evening. I even pulled out a knitted wrap to keep comfortable while I continued to read my massive library book before bed.
Today the plan is to decide on a crochet or knitting project for the Ravellenic Games (Ravelry’s equivalent to the Olympics) because it starts tomorrow. And I should be able to finish the sashiko stitching so that I can move on to making something out of it. I also have a small additional sewing project in mind. I’ll update you again tomorrow.
Before inventory at work, I booked a week off. I knew it’d be something to look forward to, after the extra shifts and overtime, and now I’m appreciating my good planning.
Day 1: I looked at the week ahead and booked myself into some gym classes. Monday, I just did a regular self-directed workout, with some treadmill time and some weights machines.
I did laundry, cleaned up the kitchen and mopped the floor, and then treated myself to a few blissful hours in my sewing room.
This is another boro/sashiko project, probably a bag, but this time I’m covering the whole surface with stitching. I’m not rushing it, just stitching away while playing YouTube videos or Netflix, and it’s very relaxing.
The weather has been in the 30s every day, and even in the basement it’s been uncomfortably warm. Add to that the hot flashes that I’m getting every day now and sometimes I’m mopping my face as my glasses slide down my nose.
I’ve been reading a series of novels by Robert Galbraith (aka J K Rowling) which are detective novels. I read the fourth one in the series first, because I picked it up at the library not realising it was part of a series. And I only realised that J K Rowling was the author once I’d finished it. So I requested the rest of the books from the library and quickly devoured the first three.
The book above is the fifth one. Admittedly it’s a large print version, but still, it’s huge compared to the others. If you’re interested, the first book is called The Cuckoo’s Calling.
What do you think of this adorable pincushion? One of my co-workers left this week, and I gave her one of the bags I’ve made as a leaving gift. She gave me this with a lovely note.
I’ve been eating quite a few apricots this week. Our tree produced a fair few this year, and even though some fell on the ground before I could get to then and others were occupied by earwigs, I still got to enjoy those little packages of edible sunshine.
Our valley has been hit by smoke again this summer from the numerous wildfires around the province but I am grateful that we are only breathing smoke and not having to deal directly with fires in my neighbourhood.
…bunnies, lakeside walks in the sunshine and hot cross buns!
I made a fun gift for a co-worker. My Ravelry project page is here if you’d like to check out the details and pattern. It’s a cute pattern that I found on Ravelry, of course.
Earlier in the week I met a friend for a walk and tested out the photo capabilities of my new phone.
It was a beautiful day though the wind was really cold. Today I went for another walk and the temperature was in the double digits and I was warm in just a T shirt.
As Easter is imminent I just had to make some hot cross buns though mine don’t have crosses. I completely forgot to add them just before baking. It’s not the first time I’ve done that! Still, they taste wonderful. I used a vegan oil-free recipe from here.
I confess to having scoffed a couple when I returned from my walk and now I just feel sleepy, but I’m cooking dinner so I’m having to keep my wits about me!
I hope your week is going well. I’m working the next two days (yes, I work on Good Friday but at least I get stat pay) and then I have the weekend off.
Well, what a week! Mr Fixit and I enjoyed a lovely break away from it all in rural British Columbia. We were served gourmet vegan meals three times a day, took twice-daily walks in the woods, had three spa treatments each (mine included a pedicure, a facial and an all-over seasalt scrub), sunbathed (because the weather was amazingly warm for the time of year, and windless), and took a complete break from social media. We even swam in the nearby lake, which was cold enough to make you gasp and even go a little numb when you submerged yourself.
No photos for you, I’m afraid, as I only switched on my phone or iPad to check for messages from the boys at home. But if you want to check out the place, go to silverhills.ca and you can see for yourself.
I took the Habitat Cardigan project with me (link goes to my Ravelry project page) and finished it partway through the week.
It’s soft and drapey in the Loops & Threads Serpentine/Meandering Minis. Perfect for this time of year.
The construction is easy – just a rectangle, to which you add an extension to make it cover your bum and then a collar and cuffs. Pattern is by Jess at Make & Do Crew.
With that finished, I picked up a skein of the other yarn I took with me on my retreat, Berroco Espresso, which is a chainette yarn in acrylic/cotton. I whipped out a quick basket with an 8mm hook in a couple of days.
I have a second skein of this yarn and am in the process of making a pumpkin with it. It should be finished quite soon.
I’m excited about my birthday present to myself. My birthday was back in August, but I waited until Labour Day as I thought that there would be no lake swimming after that (I was wrong)! Then I got the massive toothache and waited until I had that dealt with, and by the time those aches and pains had gone I was out of town. No more excuses left, I went to the piercing place today and now have a new titanium helix stud.
My plan is to wait for it to heal and then get a cuff to put in, in place of the stud. And buy three extra pairs of studs to go in the old piercings.
Gosh, look at all that natural grey/brown hair! For the first time in ages, I don’t have any colour in my hair.
The fall weather hit properly yesterday, with the temperature dropping below 20 and the rain starting. I do love this time of year, though I’m glad the rain held off until this week.
My 4S program is really helping to keep me moving. The Strength part has been a circuit that I’ve set up downstairs, with some music, and various exercises with dumbbells and bands and things. The Stamina is mostly walking, with some gardening thrown in. The Stretch is yoga, and the weather has co-operated so that I could enjoy some Sunbathing, in my swimsuit no less!
Some days, I’ve managed three out of four, though my goal is two.
I just realised Sewing is another S that I enjoy, and I did finish a couple more things today. These shorts…
…are not something that I would be seen dead in in public! However I had this remnant and thought I’d try the “make a pair of leggings from a pair you already own” as per the Crafty Gemini tutorial. I made them as shorts because (a) it was just an experiment and (b) I only had a small piece of fabric. I must say, I was surprised with how well they worked out. My new sewing machine has a bunch of stitch options and I used a couple of the stretch stitches to put these shorts together. If this fabric was a lot sturdier and held in the <ahem> wobbly bits a bit better they would work as swimshorts and I could make a bikini top to go with them.
At least my old fear of sewing knit fabric is waning!
An old interest has been sparked again recently. I pulled out my quilting books, some of which are full of templates for foundation piecing. What this involves is tracing the outlines onto a sheer fabric, interfacing or tracing paper, or you can photocopy them from the book and use that instead. Then you place small pieces of fabric behind the paper outlines and sew them together, through the paper, in the order of the numbers on the paper. The paper is torn off at the end.
I thought I’d have a play with this rat block, to which I added fabric top and bottom and then turned it into a zippered pouch.
This is a pretty sloppy effort! I’m not proud of it. The zipper seams are not perfect, the quilting lines didn’t stay in the ditch, and the part on the top of the head where it meets the ear doesn’t match up. I could blame getting used to the new sewing machine but I should probably just suck it up and take responsibility!
I am happier with this result – the Loops & Threads Barcelona cowl/snood. The colourway is Lapis. It’s very muted but I do like the variations. The circumference is 29″ and the length top to bottom is 21″, which is long enough to be able to wear it as a hood.
And my other crochet FO:
Four little nesting pots or bowls, for which I have no plans at the moment. They could be used as mini yarn bowls, plant pot covers or just catch-alls for random bits and pieces. These used up some of my miscellaneous DK yarn that I’d wound into cakes using odds and ends of different colours. By using two cakes at a time and holding two strands together, the colours seem to work! And I like leaving the ends hanging, trimmed to a uniform length, for added quirkiness.
Well, I think that’s us up to date. I need to get a daylight photo of my knitted blanket to show the progress. Tomorrow, if I remember. Take care!
I don’t often make it to my favourite tea shop on a weekday. Usually I’ll go on the weekend with Tai Chi Man, when I’m not working. But today I did, and I enjoyed this lovely green Raspberry Matcha Latte which just happens to coordinate beautifully with my Espe (vegan leather) wallet.
It was a day off for me, and I was awake early, even without the alarm. So I was out walking after breakfast around my neighbourhood. These pics are from a few days ago but the weather was the same – cool and sunny.
After lunch I was feeling antsy and ready for another walk. Very unlike me! I didn’t want to go to the gym today because my shoulder has been more sore than usual, plus I have yoga tonight. So I went to a local mountain which gives one a good workout on the steep trails and walked up for about 25 minutes, and then down again, so that made two walks of around 40 – 45 minutes today. Then I met Tai Chi Man for tea. And of course I had my crochet blanket with me.
It really is so lovely to have crisp sunny fall days. We had a heavy frost this morning, but even so it wasn’t that cold when walking, because you make your own warmth.
This cheerful little snowperson is a side project (because when I am stuck in large projects I have to have little distractions) which I am going to take to work to keep on display for a while. I found the perfect little stick arms while out walking. I probably should have made the rainbow scarf longer but it was fiddly and I’m not making another one.
The thing with working in retail is that you can’t avoid all the “holidays” and any reason for having a “sale” – I changed out the front table on Friday for a Christmassy look. Of course, here in Canada we already had our Thanksgiving in October, and Halloween is now past, so it’s all systems go for Christmas!!!
Hi peeps, how’s it going? Time for another WIP Wednesday. Seems like no time at all since last Wednesday, and it feels like I haven’t made a whole lot of progress.
The Party Cardi hasn’t been touched so I won’t bother with another photo of that. However I’ve started my Moe of Change…
This is going to be a pretty blanket. It will be baby blanket size as it only uses two cakes of Lion Brand Mandala but it’s good to have at least one project where I have to concentrate on stitches and counting.
The granny blanket with the Red Heart With Love has grown quite well though the colours are going to be a bit predictable from now on. The centre used up small balls of leftovers and now I’m on to the big balls, of which I have only a limited number. The plan is to repeat the white/black rows after each set of colours, and I hope it’s going to look ok with the different colours in the middle.
The knitted blanket has grown a tiny bit. I have added a few rows but they are so long that it’s going to be a slow project.
That cake is one I wound up with my ball-winder when I first bought it and wanted to wind every scrap into a cake!
I also have a Finished Object – a very small one!
I needed ears for my Hello Kitty outfit for Halloween and found this hairband at the dollar store. It’s perfect because I crocheted the ears and slipped them over the plastic ear-shaped bits on top, sewed them on, and they won’t flop.
So I’ve been a good girl this week and got back to the gym. I had two weeks of holiday followed by two weeks of sloth (except for one yoga class). On Sunday, Tai Chi Man and I went to the gym in the morning and I did a 40 minute workout (20 mins treadmill, 20 mins weights machine circuit) to get me back into things. On Monday, I was back for 30 mins of treadmill plus a 30 minute upper body workout. And Tuesday, we had a challenging yoga class with lots of downward facing dogs and OMG my shoulders today are SO painful. But it’s a good kind of pain, I suppose, because it means I did some work! Couldn’t face another workout tonight after work, but I shall see what I can fit in tomorrow around my social commitments. Maybe a ‘leg day’ in the afternoon so that the shoulders get a break.
Part 5 of the Scrapsrific Rainbow Blanket CAL is now complete, and Part 6 came out today. Here are my rectangles and blocks (the 3″ squares joined into fours) for Part 5.
I foresee some fudging in my future, because the rectangles are 18 x 6 inches and are supposed to start with 84 chains. However my first one was 4 inches too long, so I reduced the chain by 16, and now the size is perfect. Surprisingly my row gauge was spot on. So whilst the size is right, the stitch count is off.
I decided to mix up my small squares a bit when joining them into larger blocks. So that’s done, and now I need to get on with Part 6.
My other active WIP is a new one, just started a couple of days ago. I love the Daisy Charity Square (available for purchase – see this Ravelry link) so much, since I incorporated it into my Groovyghan last year, and have been thinking of making a blanket with just daisy squares. It is now a reality. I’m using Red Heart With Love in various colours, along with a 6mm hook, and the squares are coming out around 8.5″. I have three finished so far.
I’m using three colours per square, repeating the centre colour for the border. These are really thick squares, as the colours travel behind each other for the flower petals. And it’s a little tricky too. The pattern is VERY wordy, and even though I’ve made some of these before, I still messed up and had to frog more than once. I definitely recommend the accompanying video. I will see how far my yarn lasts – there are no definite plans for a finished size.
We won’t talk about the socks, once again languishing in their project bag. The ones I recently finished have been worn, but it made me realise I did make them too big. Maybe it’s the yarn that is missing some spring and stretch, because my gauge was right. So I may frog and restart the new pair with even fewer stitches.
It’s been an active week for me, with an hour and a half elliptical/weights workout on Monday, a treadmill/weights workout on Tuesday, yoga Tuesday evening, work on Wednesday, and 45 minutes on the stationary bike tonight. Work tomorrow, but I shall plan to do the gym Saturday and Sunday too. I am mixing things up because I still have to be careful not to overstress my right wrist/forearm, even though it’s been 15 months since the fracture and surgery. I like to focus on upper body/lower body on separate days if I don’t have a rest day in between.
I’ve been a member of the gym for about a year and a half now and I’m noticing the difference in my muscles. I sometimes get annoyed that I had that setback last year with the broken wrist, and the limitations that it places on me now, but it’s better to focus on what I CAN do, rather than what I can’t.
How do you keep active/fit/healthy? Let me know in the comments.
NICOLA KNITS 