A good sort out and tidy up!

I've had a good sort out and tidy up not just of my sewing room - ha! but also my READER!
I used to be quite good at keeping up with stuff, forums groups etc but lately I'm all over the place and my Reader just put me off with its bold list of squillions of stuff to READ - SO I took a deep breath and went through it, read as much as I could and marked the rest AS READ and now I feel all weird! I keep opening it up and checking! just a few new posts trickling in and easily managed!
I've started to go through my blog list and will update to reflect the ones I read and follow regularly.
In a bid to be more efficient, I've started reading the tips on various helpful forums on Ravelry and discovered there is LOT more to that resource than first appears - if I could "live" anywhere I think I'd live there! its SO organised and efficient! far more to it I just LOVE it!
Back to the sewing room!
Yesterday I finished the final sort out of my woolly stuff and I even put out some YARN! gulp! yes! and without a 2nd thought! only "fun" yarns I must confess, not the "good stuff" but in addition I sorted through my needles and have now got three rolls of matching sets and duplicates I have set aside to donate to new knitters at next week's charity knit event.
I found it harder to sort through my notions and accessories than actual stash - yarn and fabrics etc but I've made my set of drawers much more efficient by being ruthless and all my scissors and rotary cutters now sit INSIDE their cases (how long THAT will last I can't say!)
In trying to free up "space" I've now managed to get everything into either a cupboard a drawer or a box or bag and all the WIP are zipped into plastic project-bags and this leaves me with two large bags for my knitty projects "on the go" which I will use to transfer the current 3 or 4 knitty projects that are cluttering up the coffee table.  the only danger with bagging stuff, is that its easy to "forget" I've already got several things on the go and I start something NEW which I am resolved NOT to do!  My new resolution IS to finish something and THEN start something new.  the only exception being: another pair of fingerless mitts/gloves.  see? my problem? I just can't help myself! hopeless! oh well, at least they will be a quick knit and to be fair they are a request that I've promised! (excuses .. excuses ..)

some of my needles sorted into pairs!

some of my scissors all in cases

press & box of quilt threads

knitty & quilty projects "resting"

knitty projects WIP

yarnie stuff sorted

wadding & filler corner

felty stuff

craft fabrics

lingerie fabrics, powernets etc

household & silk fabrics

lingerie notions, elastics, straps etc

card making & glue gun

stuff I plan to "do" something with/to finish

embroidery station

tracing papers & stabilisers

emb threads & spray

emb hoops

dressmaking notions, tapes, shoulder pads etc

bag making handles, craft & labels

useful bits & pieces marking pens, tapes, rulers measury things

Knitting Updates

I've decided to try and keep the knitting updates separate from whitterings about other stuff going on ..

The jumper is coming along nicely, I've now knit the front up to the point where I switch to yarn E (the black) and blast it! I've run out! I checked, double checked! the pattern definitely says 1 ball, but I've got inches left of this and still got two sleeves to knit a stripe each too!  I hope to get to the shop next week to buy another and shan't fuss too much if the dye lot is different, but I shall be cross if I can't get this "off black" shade as it particularly complements the other colours and really makes the sequence attractive I think.

I'm enjoying this pattern and would consider knitting it again.

Tender: the front

Instead, I've concentrated today on knitting the Sirdar cardigan, design E and have just started the first sleeve after knitting both fronts - I decided to knit the size 6-12months thinking it would be a more "useful" size to knit for the forthcoming season and age of the new baby as she will be heading toward this over the colder months.
Its a quickish knit and not much to it in the way of shaping, but then baby garments don't need much in the way of knitting or shaping and I'm pleased with the colour.  Now all I need to do is finish it, and knit a "tiny teddy" before choosing fabrics to make up a baby-nursery-bag and the gift is done!

Sirdar Design E

OFF the needles and frogged are:
scarf - mainly because the pattern wasn't that interesting afterall and I don't think the number of stitches was particularly attractive either.  I've got other patterns for a single skein of KSH that would better use this so I've pulled it off and rewound it!!
gloves - simply because its too much effort to manage the stranding with the way my brain is at the moment and even though the errata came promptly I still found myself spending too much time for the value at THIS time (with all else I've got OTN's).
onto a cable and "resting" is:
Portree - for similar reasons as above although the value of this as a garment means that I may return to pick up and continue (or I might just unpick and use the yarn for something else, but until I decide am giving the project the benefit of the doubt and "resting" it).
I ripped back one "teddy" that I'd started for no.2.son too.  I will start over when I've time to commit to making it in one go.

I feel SEW much better for tidying up my projects and tomorrow I will blog and upload pics of the finished declutter of my sewing room - all my UFO's now are contained in one SMALL basket - I have been RUTHLESS the lot is either dumped or its got a last chance!

Grandma's box of treasures

In amongst the bits and pieces in my sewing room that belonged to both my late Mother and Grandmother I came across a box of "bits and pieces" and here are some of the more weird of them!
no.2.son and I laughed at some of the things, in particular the old pens and thermometer-thingie, the thimble without the finger end and some rather scary costume jewellery!
Now one thing I've learned over the years is not to just "open" strange boxes without some care and poor no.2.son had quite a shock when he opened a match box - expecting - naturally - a box of MATCHES and found a box of TEETH! .. he yelped! I said not to worry they looked more like animal teeth almost certainly horses teeth but quite possibly cows!?
Having recovered from that, he opened another box of "dust" - between you me I expect thats all it WAS - dust! but I couldn't resist suggesting it might have been remains of great-great-someone or other!? (well. knowing both Mum and Grandma, is more likely to be dusty remains of some beloved pet than a relation! but that, he said, wasn't much comfort and off he went - coughing and heaving slightly ..)

box of teeth!

my baby id

a shell

bits & pieces

Canadian coins & scary costume jewellery

I remember my Late Grandma taking a trip to Canada just a year or so before she died and it was nice to come across this purse with some coins in, I know somewhere in the box are photographs of her trip - taken at the time with her then "boyfriend" - Henry whose family it was they visited and stayed with on the trip.
Lovely to see a tattered envelope marked "Susan 12.8.1961" and inside a tiny scrap of ribbon printed with "baby Bayliss" which I think you can just make out.
Most of the box I'll be honest I threw out, I just kept one or two things but there was a lot of junky stuff that just got collected, I suppose? I've now got one smallish sized old fashioned case that is packed with old photo's and bits and pieces which is reasonable to keep and a nice momento from the past to pass on.

Cats and boxes

We've got two cats and enjoy their antics - some pics of them curled up in no.2.son's new-shoes-box which nearly brought about a huge fight over WHO claims the right to ownership!
Lilly likes boxes and is very fierce despite being a skinny-strip of nothing and last night poor Bertie inspite of being the bigger and stronger turned tail and hopped it after SHE made it very clear with some impressive hissing, spitting and fluffing up that SHE was NOT giving up the box for anyone or anything!!
Instead Bertie decided to chase his own tail underneath the curtains - silly cat, he "forgot himself" and bit his tail to his own surprise!

Bertie ventures to the box

He doesn't fit & needn't settle! Lilly spots him!

goes off to chase his tail instead!

looks surprised when he bites his tail!

tight squeeze but she manages it

& shuts out the family to curl up and sleep!

We made it Tuesday (instead of Monday)

no.1.son prepares Pork in Cider casserole

dried fruit soaks overnight  for "cider cake"

plate of cakes!

fruit scones & fresh cream

biscuits

Ok, so we made it today and not yesterday!  But I have "made" Mondays my day to get stuff done in the house - mainly getting the vac. out and cleaning the bathroom which is pretty boring to blog about.
No.1.son is gamely joining in with preparing meals and cooking and baking like the good lad he is!  I've not managed - yet! to swing it that he washes up as well, but to be fair he already does do this on a regular basis AND without my asking too which is pretty good? for an 18yo?
The cakes and biscuits are familiar favourites, the cider cake comes out everytime I make a pork casserole as one can "does" for them both and always goes down well.
Now we're changing seasons, I'm looking forward to switching from lunch salads to soups and will be trying out some new recipes I've come by in various books.

hurrah! he's passed his theory test! (at last)

HURRAH! third time lucky and no.1.son has finally passed his theory driving test.
Seems a really odd way to test - using this sort of computer tap-tappy thingie?
Anyway, had a good old rant about why can't they do things the old fashioned way and WHY does everything have to revolve around tap-tapping on computers but now he's PASSED then hurrah who cares??
We had this dilema you see, on what to do in the event he'd not passed; on the one hand we've spent a fortune on lessons which would be "wasted" had we abandoned paying to continue BUT on the other, until he has passed this test he cannot progress anyway and I had this awful fear that he'd never pass it! doomed to always score 2 marks off the required pass rate.
Trying to encourage him to be positive and "go for it" with some enthusiasm and willing him to wake out of this perpetual teen-zombie like state he gets into (particularly when around his father and I!) but without frightening him with threats of withdrawing lessons like a punishment for NOT passing, I think I managed to impress upon him the importance OF trying his hardest but that if he had failed though we'd be disappointed we'd not shriek - impossible to tell whether he'd pass/failed he sent us a text saying "done".  done. done what? done how? done PASSED? or done FAILED?   completely expressionless he took about 4seconds to catch up with his ears hearing what we were asking and managed to tune his brain in sufficiently to convey that he had of course : PASSED.  and then ducked. neatly. out of the way to avoid my outstretched arms seeking a congratulatory hug and very nearly collpased into the path of an oncoming bus.  We grappled a bit with me managed to get my fingers onto his coat but it took dh blocking his exit and helping me corner him to get into a position where I could aim a friendly thump at him and THAT I had to make do with.
Got my own back. though. while waiting for him to sit his test, dh and I looked around at bedding sets and bath towels and crockery and decided that perhaps we ought ask no.1.son what colours/styles he would prefer!  Dh backed me up and INSISTED that no.1.son accompany us back to the shop in order to express his preferences.
Seriously I would be tempted to just shove a handful of notes at him and say GO BUY YOUR OWN if I thought it would make ME feel better.  Managed to get him to point vaguely in the direction of a set of uninspiring plain sets whereupon I directed his finger toward some lovely hot pinks, brilliant blues and vibrant limes and reds .. ? no ? no. ok. no. then. NO. plain. ok, he'd accept a "stripe". Rather reluctantly he said he'd accept a pale blue stripe if I couldn't bear to just get him the pale cream and slightly paler cream stripe ..  by the time we approached the crockery dh had already anticipated his feet heading in the direction of PLAIN WHITE and cut him off announcing that PLAIN WHITE and pointly vaguely toward the dull and uninteresting corner AWAY from the jazzy sets of smart pillar box red that I was aiming for ..
on the bright side, dh commented that at least the plain and uninteresting sets are the "cheapest".

Baby knitted cardi and masses of teen-expenses & a party!

KNITTING.
First of all there has been lots of knitting.  I've just not achieved very much!  I felt a bit dispondant when my good knit-pal-sally rang and has knit squillions of stuff since I last saw her but I think my biggest problem IS that I have far too much OTN's at any one time!  No wonder nothing gets "done" when I'm spending hours knitting on several things all at once? .. Of course if I find out that she does exactly THIS too, then I shall have no choice but to stick my collection of needles into her neck and FAINT .. bah ..

I'm starting to work out what my problems are, where I'm going wrong and what I ought NOT be doing.  which is great - except it doesn't seem to make it easier to put right ..  I'm far too easily distracted and tempted to fling everything aside to CO for something "new" and especially if my cyber-knit-pals are doing it!  I've signed up for two glove KAL's already and am now wavering and thinking of doing some nice scarf knitting with the delicious KSH stripe ever since Sally mentioned buying some and Di dropped a casual suggestion of knitting THIS .. .. yes. its in my queue and no I've not bought the yarn - YET but I've squeaked by reply so in a way thats practically a commitment, isn't it?
mind, at this price! I might find myself backing away slowly albeit crying slightly?

Sirdar back, design E

Progress has been made on the baby cardi I'm knitting for Becky's sister's new baby daughter - I'm pleased with the colour which is a "nice" pink not at all the "baby pink" you'd expect and even dh says its "nice".  Bit shapeless as most of the garments in this book are, the pattern is interesting because of the bobbles but I've a strong feeling I went a bit wrong and am hoping its not going to be noticeable, it being the back it shouldn't be too obvious to a non-knitty-new-mum?
Progressing nicely is my jumper!  I've just done the stripe sequence where the two yarns are knit together and this is proving to be a quick (and easy) knit, I've resolved to not CO on any new projects until this at least is done.  I've not taken a photo because tbh its just the same as the back!

We're dead broke at the moment on account of both lads costing us money with their respective return to 6th form college and uni this month/next month.  Yesterday we spent a fortune on clothes for no.2.son and really just the basics!  we've still to buy him a new winter coat, a new bag and possibly a hoodie/top thingie - poor dh had to be dragged shopping to pay for it all on his CREDIT CARD!
Hate having to do this, but what with buying his very expensive travel card, clothes AND same for no.1.son together with all the household items to take to Uni its just too much for our meagre account to manage in one go.
dh is not very good at shopping.  dh does not go shopping very often.  he suffered.  at one point I had to lead him to a chair to wait while no.2.son proceeded to spend best part of 40mins trying on his clothes .. shopping with teen lads is NOT fun and I would say I'd leave them to it except that we have a discount card worth 20% including store offers which makes it favourable for us to buy their clothes which means we have to stand and wait outside changing rooms .. for ages .. sigh ..
no.2.son is not much good at shopping either, we had the usual 6min strop and fit when I "tried to help" by helpfully suggesting tops and shirts .. ? asking which style jeans he might be favouring? .. I was instructed to GO AWAY and leave him to it which I was happy to do until he produced jeans for £40! 
I wasn't the only mum there, I had a conversation with two others also shopping with their teen sons for return to college (which doesn't go down well with the family.  apparently they don't like it when "mum" starts "talking" to people.  I ought, they think, to really sit in the corner. and keep quiet!).  dh doesn't like it because inevitably he knows it will extend the experience of shopping by some minutes once I get going and if I'm lucky enough to find a crafty-mum to chat with it could be a lot of minutes!

Luckily - I think? - for US our son's college has not gone with this new trend of insisting their students wear "business dress".  One poor woman/mum was frantic trying to persuade HER 16yo not to throw away his good GCSE grades because he couldn't shove his arms through a jacket and face having his neck buttoned and tied up - the sales assistant advised us a lot of the local colleges have gone this direction even insisting on colours and styles OF "suits" to be worn!
I don't think this will be successful or popular.  Particularly for lads.  After years of "uniform" seriously are 16yo's really going to take to adopting "business dress" for College for 2yrs?? I know our no.1.son was THRILLED that at least HE could get rid of his blazer and tie and school shoes in favour of jeans, tee and trainers and HE wasn't even a problem to get to wear "uniform".
no.2.son is still going through a no-photo phase and would NOT permit me to take a photo of him wearing the lovely clothes he did eventually choose! but he does look very nice! x

Our eldest son, 18yrs is busy working all the shifts they are flinging his way and being rewarded with a weekly wage which WE are thrilled to watch his bank balance going steadily UP but even so, we're spending a fortune on kitting him out for his first year at Uni.  We can't afford to subsidise him much and certainly not on a regular basis, but are hoping that we can start him off with a few basics and with this in mind he has been in training in our kitchen "cooking" all week and we made him come to the supermarket with us a few times!  which was a nightmare.  the lad is NOT interested.  I've tried to make it interesting, I've tried to impress upon him the importance of being aware of stuff while out shopping but at the same time I've come to see I need to relax and let him find out for himself, and wait for HIM to come to me on the phone with the questions or plea for HELP! MUM!? WHAT DO I DO? HOW DO I? ..
We're having serious problems in coming to terms with the inevitable fact that our son is leaving home and we won't be able to do a thing about it after next month - a health visitor at one of the "baby clinics" once said that things didn't really change much as our "babies" grew older, the problems just changed to suit their age but essentially being a parent is no easier when they are grown up and you worry just the same.
When our no.1.sons first started at infant school, my best-pal-Ann and I were feeling tearful and proud all at once and we waved our small son's off and blew into tissues on the playground for several mins until we noticed our "teacher" waving! and calling? to us? we RAN thinking/fearing some dreadful accident? some trauma, perhaps? a mistake! even? that our son's needn't have started school this year? to be TOLD - quite FIRMLY - that WE had to do some homework of our own!  APPARENTLY a small select group of us "first time mums on the playground" were all guilty of NOT LETTING OUR CHILDREN DRESS THEMSELVES! gulp!  well. its quicker? and easier? isn't it? to carry on dressing your small child afterall we've been doing it since they were babies?   I remember we got ticked off by the teacher for NOT letting our children develop and learn the skills of independance by doing everything FOR them, we're not, she said, doing THEM any favours.  And I suppose I've continued for the rest of his school/college years to do exactly that: do everything for him! and now I've got exactly 4 weeks to train him to cook, shop, manage a budget, handle money and organise himself not to mention clean the bathroom? operate a washing machine? help! I need to start NOW with no.2.son? 

half price oven gloves and tea towels

set of saucepans!

and a frying pan!

After an hour long lecture on NOT falling into the trap of buying takeaways every night - BUT at the same time not missing out on opportunities to mix in - NOT spending all his time in the pub BUT at the same time joining in .. I came to the conclusion I was wasting my time.  HE had gone to sleep and zoned out after 3mins and all I'd done was reinforce to myself all the possible scenarios of HOW he could expect to come by some harm or misfortune.  by the END its a good job he had zoned out and nodded off, because I'd had him lying in a gutter mugged and drunk for 3hrs before dragging himself home to find he'd lost his keys, lay there bleeding on the step after trying to break in to find all his valuable stolen on account of the attempted breakin by robbers and criminals just happening to be passing who stepped over his body and made off with his LAPTOP containing all his vital WORK - DON'T GO! I SUGGESTED? FAR TOO DANGEROUS! STAY HOME WITH ME INSTEAD? ..  my SON woke up around this point and was slightly panicked at finding his mum sobbing slightly and muttering through sodden tissues about accidents, ambulances and the police .. of course I THEN had to spend twice as long convincing myself and reassuring HIM that he would have a marvellous time and that we'd be looking forward to hearing all about it!  at 8pm.  every night. by 8.15pm at the latest 8.30pm. or we'll be worrying?  which led to another ponder over whether I oughtn't to buy him a 2nd mobile phone? just incase? 

Personally I shall be glad when its all over and done with and he's GONE.  At least then anything that does happen will be happening for real and we can deal with it.

In the meantime we're spending a FORTUNE on household stuff and between you and me, quite frankly are NOT getting the excited response one might be expecting after spending that month ON all household things like pans and cloths.  Even dh remarked that our son might at least feign a little interest?  (he chose the black and white themed tea towels/oven gloves).

Party gifts

TOMORROW we shall out in the evening partying!  hurrah.  Our neighbour is celebrating her 60th birthday with a party and we're invited.  Didn't know what to buy, difficult to buy something suitable when you don't especially know the person all that well.  Not completely convinced she "drinks" we seem to think that maybe she doesn't? from a remark passed one time between dh and her dh.  Anyway we settled for a bottle of champagne and box of seriously expensive chocolates.  you can't go wrong with that?  Might take my camera with me to take photo's at the party.  After this occasion its back to "normal" as no.2.son starts College on Monday and dh is back to normal working pattern after the summer of filling in on odd days to cover staff holidays - I shall use the opportunity to revise my craft goals as I always find September a better time for me than, say, new year goals and resolutions.