and.sew.to.knit

It was mothers day here yesterday, so we had presents, flowers, chocolate cake and strawberries, and of course an I.O.U for a t-shirt that is going to be made for me.
I have no idea where he got the idea that IOU’s were okay for presents….must stop teaching my children bad habits.

In order not to have a re-run of the christmas fiasco where no-one ordered my requested book, I did indeed go ahead and order them myself, so here they are in all their loveliness, as yet they are free of any post-it stickers, but there is still time before they make it into a box.

There is bad news though, Jamie was not allowed to do his work placement with me, just to clarify, it is compulsory they spend one month working in the alteration/sewing business to complete their year, when it comes down to it I would rather he worked with me, passed this year and moved up, than his other choice, which is leave school and find a job completely unqualified. Lots of chances there!
It is a shame as all my friends have already told me they will gladly bring all their mending/alterations round. These are jobs I usually say a polite no to, I would rather make a new pair of trousers than replace a zip!

My other bad news is my copy of Interweave is lost in the post, not that I need distraction or a new project, so you all have to stop making cute stuff like this, I REALLY want this.

A really bad picture of my lovely flowers, sorry Jord……

No really it is, though you might have trouble recognising it from the weather we have been having. Storms, freezing rain, wind and snow at 1500m. I of course in my wisdom, well it was May and sunny, have packed all the winter coats etc, so we had a mad dash one morning to find where they were. We have no heating as it is communal and turned off at the beginning of May and on at the beginning of October. On top of all that I have caught the cold and need my hot water bottle which is packed somewhere! So here we are nice June weather in France.

No knitting time, or sewing or anything else I have been packing sorting and trying to find a job placement for no1 son, so not easy.
He has decided if he doesn’t find one he is leaving school, so I am kind of desperate. Desperate enough to suggest to school he could stay home and sew for a month.
Which I have to say is not an ideal solution for lots of reasons, least of all we are moving in the middle of the month, second I love him dearly and he drives me completely insane.
On the up side I think he might learn more and feel more fulfilled if he sews for himself rather than spend a month learning how to do repairs and alterations. School are considering this as an option but it has to be approved by his sewing teacher, I really need to be a business, qualified, blah,blah,blah!!
Of course I can teach him how to replace zips and hem trousers too but I do feel he has to realise that what he has is a talent and not everyone can see things how he does, or put things together how he does. School is so negative and I’m afraid its pulling him under.
Oops forgot to say, thanks for all your comments I haven’t got back to anyone and I apologise, sorry.

Shhh, I am supposed to be packing boxes or throwing things out or making dinner or something equally as boring. I thought I would share the rest of the yarn I bought in London with you, partly because if I don’t document it here I might move and forget what I am doing with it.

So first up I bought some Rowan Damask to knit the lace shrug from Lace Style, so that is soon cause I want it, NOW!! Well actually not right now as its rainy and only 13 deg, seeing is it was 31deg on Friday, its a little bit of a shock to the system, there was snow on the mountains this morning.

Next up some sock yarn in gorgeous pink, that will be for me, of course.

I also bought some yarn to knit Juno from Rowan 40?, but had to leave it behind as there was no room in the suitcase!

And this sooo pretty, no idea what it will become but for now I can just admire its loveliness.

I also did quite well in the book dept recently as it is Mothers Day on Sunday I was determined to not miss out again like Christmas, so ordered early! I’ll show them tomorrow.

I leave you with this, what do you think, chicken, tulip, crown? …….
Oops almost forgot am almost finished Wispy, she is blocking and tomorrow I will tell you how much I love/hate this project……

Well I have been tagged (twice) for the random facts and Polly is right I do need an excuse to not think about packing, so here goes.

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1. I have a terrible memory, I use notebooks all the time, trouble is I quite often can’t remember which notebook I wrote the thing I need to remember in…
I can’t remember authors, film titles, actors, I spend ages reading the first pages of books when buying new ones and hate when they change cover pictures to make me think its a new book.

2. I love peace and quiet, I very rarely choose to listen to music, not even when driving, in saying that, I always have to listen to someone else’s choice of music in the car and in the house and love when it is turned off!

3. I have been sewing for about 26years, I started working in a fabric shop on a saturday when I was 15, I have fabric that I bought then, it has handwritten remnant tags, I can remember who the handwriting belongs to.

4. I am terrible at going to the post office, I always have something waiting to be posted, I think it stems from the having to queue to complain about the many missing packages since we moved into this building.

5. I hoard everything, I am regretting that now as I pack to move, I am being ruthless, really, and time will tell when I get round to unpacking it all in a couple of weeks.

6.I am scared of going to a hairdressers here, I have been once and it was awful. I have not had my hair cut since last August, it needs all chopped off, its boring. Everywhere else I have lived I have had a friend who was a hairdresser and its always been fine. I need to go home for a visit to get it cut, I need something new.

7. This year I will have been married 20 years and this will be the 9th house I have lived in, I am kinda tired of moving around.

8. I LOVE shoes, love, love, love them, I have no idea how many pairs of shoes I have, maybe I should count them when I pack them, or maybe not!!
I love it that my niece is a shoe addict too, with absolutely no influence from me, its genetic, isn’t it Mum!!

Now who to tag, think lots of people have done this so here goes, Rebecca, India,Heather, Yvonne, Susan,

Remember when you are buying, wool, fabric, beads and stashing them all over the house/apartment, when you are moving they all have to come together somewhere, somehow and right now thats a pretty scary prospect!

We think we have a new apartment which is near enough to not need a removal van, so the fun/packing commences. I might take this opportunity to document the wool that lives here OR and this is more likely, I will just take the biggest box I can find, throw it all in there and unpack it when everyone is at work/school. The slight problem is the severe lack of storage/cupboard space, trip to Ikea anyone?

The other problem is the 70’s kitchen tiles, these I really think I am just going to work with, so to add to the fabric that lives here already, I am on the hunt for some very 70’s retro fabric with orange in it, any ideas, and the nearest Ikea doesn’t do fabric so thats out!

I unearthed a patchwork project the boys and I have been working on for my niece for about, cough: ahemm, 3 years, so when you are working on something from a pattern, DO NOT pack it away without the pattern, otherwise you will be forced into doing one giant fabric jigsaw and then having to listen to other peoples opinion about said jigsaw as they step over pieces to re-arrange it.

So I think we are about done with it, just needs to be put together…..another day.

There is nothing going on around here except apartment hunting, no sewing, minimal knitting on a plain sock for car and bus journeys and waiting around and thats IT!

I saw 2 apartments today, one is fabulously gorgeous and is downstairs from me, it is TOO small and the other is bigger and has a teeny wee room for sewing and the decor is ICK. 70’s yellow and brown tiles are never going to make a comeback in my book, so can I live with them short-term? It is empty right now so we need to decide, like, yesterday and I can’t. If I take it we have to move in 2 weeks, I can’t pack my stuff in two weeks, never mind a whole house……

Moving on, I bought some wool when I was away, well you all knew that, I was shopping with Yvonne, how could I come back empty handed.
Silkwood sock yarn in yummy purples.

This was a present from Yvonne and is Silkwood angora bunnyfluff, soooo soft, thank you.
More later……….

When I was gone, the tech person in this family decided that our computer needed upgraded, I really am not computer savvy, so I like things to stay the way they are. This computer is not even one year old and I like the programmes I use to stay the way they are! HA!
So since I have been back I have spent lots of time wrestling with things that either don’t work at all or are completely different.
Each morning I sit at the computer and have a video chat with my Mum while we drink our coffee, its a very nice “ME” time and I love that with my bluetooth headset I can get up and find my knitting and answer the door etc and still chat.
It of course is not compatible now, the new headset is clunky and for some reason that no-one can figure out the mike doesn’t work with messenger but does with skype!!
I have had to re-sign in to everyones blogs in order to comment and the new programme to download my photos doesn’t allow me to do stuff I like doing! So needless to say I am a little “annoyed”.

Knitting- not much achieved here this week at all and its Friday already, these socks got toes at last they are my first picot hem and they are a perfect fit. The wool was a gift from Heather, who needs some commiseration on gauge issues, so go on over and say hi.

I started the second sock for my brother, here is the first one and I was sweating while finishing up the first as I had just 10″ of yarn left, phew!
Wispy is still in the London bag as I made a mistake while chatting at Libertys and have to take it back a bit.

I saw a big apartment yesterday but it was fuel heating, very expensive, no double glazing, old windows and the owner is apparently a pain to deal with, there was no park nearby and no garden and only one parking spot. It did have fab big rooms, high ceilings and enough rooms for the boys to have one each. I’ll keep looking.

Embroidery is something I have done little bits of and I do enjoy playing around with thread or silk ribbon every now and then. I am not very good though and its just as well I like the rustic look.

This is Jamies latest project from school

and a close up.

Its very cute and he did want to give it to my niece but I am tempted to frame it, he may never choose to embroider something this cute again!

I had a fabulous day out watching the boys and Jim climb, we did get a little lost finding the wall and ended up walking straight up the mountain for a bit, which did nearly kill the very unfit among us, mostly me.

This is the view from the top so it was kind of worth it.
Turns out the wall was about 200m from the car in the opposite direction and not UP!
Someone was playing with my camera when we were out so I did end up with a couple of hundred pictures of various views and rock crevices.

My baby ended up tied to a tree for some of the afternoon as he decided that straight down might be quite good to try out!

No news on the apartment hunting front, I have one maybe two to see tomorrow and then we have a meeting with our landlord on Friday, which I am not looking forward to. I have no idea what else she wants me to say I am trying my damnedest to find somewhere, so we can move before the heat hits and maybe we will still get to go on holiday too.

Well I had a fabulous time, the princess was sick poor baby, so it meant she had to stay home from school and play instead. Which did mean she didn’t want to go to school on Thursday but she was better and I had a date with a knit/shopping friend and a meet up at Libertys to go to. I had a busy day and had a very quick mad dash around Stash and found some yummy stuff of course, pics later when I sort out the camera.

I got to see the yellow socks in their natural environment

and I knitted my fastest pair of socks ever, 24hours for this pair, well they are only small, they ended up being worn with the purple crocs too, to complete that hippy chick look!

Today is a public holiday so I am off to watch my boys do some outdoor climbing. I am hoping the sun comes out though or I may be very cold. Jamie is staying home to do some sewing, his latest project from school is very cute, I’ll share later, but I am very impressed.

Sewing something important for someone else is always a little bit scary, I am always very glad when it is all gone and the person is completely happy with their garment.
So the dresses fit, she was happy and now I can breathe easy.

So this is my new skirt and t-shirt, I am almost finished a pair of trousers too, they are pale blue to match Wispy who is still very much in an unfinished state.
I am still hoping some kind of miracle might happen, like suddenly tomorrow will have a whole other 12 hours to it, or the fairies will come and pack my clothes AND they will be the right clothes for the right weather in London. It could happen!!