Making Good Use

Too Much To Do, Too Little Time (and Daylight)

Cripes, it's 1st December tomorrow and I've still got LOADS of stuff I need to get done before Christmas.  There's been quite a lot of secret knitting and sewing going on (none of which I can share on the blog as yet) and I seem to be being incredibly hampered by the lack of daylight now.

I've been really pleased with how I've coped with the dark days this year, but now they're reaching their zenith (it was pitch dark at 3.30 pm yesterday afternoon for heaven's sake!!  Although this afternoon is much better as it's gone 3.45 pm and it's still light enough to see what I'm typing - thank goodness) I'm really beginning to struggle.  It's so difficult to take decent photos for ebay listings when it's only sort of semi-light all day - and I've still got a lot I want to get listed before Christmas so that's winding me up. 

Then there's trying to do the housework in the gloom (although a plus side to that is not being able to see how grubby the windows are or how dusty the surfaces are - every cloud etc.)  Yesterday afternoon, in the rapidly gathering twilight, I started doing the ironing - for some reason I never feel I can do it properly by artificial light - but I managed and at least when things are as dank as they are at the moment no one's really going to notice if our clothes aren't perfectly crease free.

Ah well, only another three weeks and then the sun will be heading in our direction again.  And at least tomorrow is supposed to be fairly sunny here - hallelujah.  Time to fire up the washing machine.

A Couple of Links

Just found a couple of interesting links about a Freegan who has spent a year living totally cash-free.  It sounds a really interesting concept, although I certainly wouldn't want to use toothpaste from fish bones - yukkity yuk yuk yuk!  The links are here and here.

In Which Various and Diverse Purchases Were Made

I finally girded my loins and took myself off to Basildon this morning for a spot of various and diverse shopping.  I've been making excuses not to go down there each Friday (too rainy, too windy, my hip's playing me up etc etc) for the past two or three weeks.  This week I knew I'd finally run out of excuses and would really have to get my a*se in gear and go.  I don't really enjoy schlepping around town centres but Basildon does have the added advantage of a charity shop or two and the 'Bargain Box' in the church hall each Friday.

I didn't do too badly all in all and arrived home laden down like a pack horse.  Most of the weight came from various tasty tidbits bought in Marks and Spencer's food hall.  I don't go to M&S very often but now and again it is soooo nice to have something really tasty to eat from there.  They had some excellent special offers on, including BOGOF on their wonderful Onion Marmalade - tres tasty with some Cheddar and a nice digestive biscuit - yum!!   There was also buy three for £5.00 on their packets of cold meats which all had really good dates and will make for a bit of variety in P's sandwiches for a week or so.

I then popped in to the 'Bargain Box' - so conveniently placed just behind M&S - where I bought a pair of M&S ladies black trousers brand new with their labels still attached for £1.00.  They're destined for ebay.  Also for ebay was a boxed Champneys gift set (£1.00).  I got what I hope will be a nice top for my Mum (50p) and a Yves Saint Laurent 'Pour Enfant' T-shirt for my nephew (25p).

Then, having seen something rather nice pictured on another blog this week, I braved the hell that is a pre-Christmas Primark store.  Ye gads, that place does some business if their queues are anything to go by.  Anyway, I found what I was looking for - and very nice it is too - at an unbelievably reasonable price - now, I see why their queues are so long, the prices really are extraordinarily good.  (Sorry to be a bit cryptic about this but a certain relative of mine reads the blog and I don't want to give too much away as it's a present!)

Next I lugged my shopping bags into Waterstone's where I was looking for something rather specific for P.  I did indeed find what I was looking for and had it in my hand to pay for it when I suddenly thought 'hang on, I'll bet this is cheaper on Amazon,' and promptly put it back on the shelf.  When I checked on Amazon it was indeed considerably cheaper with the added bonus that I could use some of my vouchers from Valued Opinions to pay for it.  Excellent!  And I didn't have to carry it home with me.

Finally, for even more diversity, I called in to Wilkinsons to buy some large-size washing-up gloves.  Since Woolworths went from Wickford it is nigh on impossible to get hold of large-size washing-up glove here - being as they are SUCH an exotic item!!  I did find a pair in Somerfield recently for something like £1.25 and when I got them home they had a bl**dy great hole in them - the swines.  Wilkinsons had plenty of size L gloves at 67p a pair.  I thought it best to stock up and bought four pairs. 

Now I'm feeling just a tad kn*ckered from all the walking round and carting about of heavy shopping bags.  But that's that out of the way until the New Year.  Any other presents I buy now will definitely come via the internet.

Perhaps I Really Should Get Out More

I was chopping tomatoes this morning, to make a roasted tomato pasta sauce, when I thought - 'Gosh, that looks almost modern-art-like, I'll take a photo for the blog.'  Ahem, yes, I think I probably should get out more!

Actually I did have a quick trip to the High Street this morning, where I saw a large Iceland lorry making a delivery.  On the side of this almost-a-juggernaut-size lorry, in huge letters, was the phrase 'Life's too short to peel a carrot.'  WHAAAT - sorry, exactly whose life is too short to spend 30 seconds or so peeling a carrot!!

Tiddly-Om Pom Pom

I finished the pom pom garland last week and have been forlornly hoping for some decent daylight to take a photo ever since.  Sadly, that's not likely to happen in the near future so I decided to go for using the flash on my camera.  I don't really like using the flash - it gives such a harsh light - but the flash-less pictures were waaaayyy too dark.  There's masses of this garland - about three times the length shown in the photo.  I'm hoping it'll look good draped around the Christmas tree.

Mum's cat, Lily, is also know as Lily Pilly Pom Pom (just because, you know, somehow she suits a really girly twirly sort of moniker).  She's a Maine Coon and has a real pom pom effect top to her incredibly bushy tail.  I tried to find a photo showing the 'pom pom' but I couldn't, so here's a gratuitous shot of her looking somewhat wild - hoping for a few more cat treats!

Supplies

I'm getting serious withdrawal symptoms from the car boot sales now.  It's five or six weeks since I last went to one, and there is goodness knows how long to go before they start up again - at least four months!!  Lucky Caroline has them going on all year round where she lives - I've got huge car boot sale envy! 

Anyway, at least the two charity shops in our town are open all year round and this morning I got a few useful craft supplies from one of them.

 

Five 50g balls of traditional Irish wool - 50p per ball.  I rarely leave pure wool or pure cotton yarn behind if its cheap enough in a charity shop as it's quite a rare find round here.  Bri nylon is still big in our charity shops - where do people find it, is it still maufactured?  Or that horrible acrylic eyelash yarn - that's easy to find too.  This lot will be added to the not inconsiderable black sack of yarn which is jammed under the sideboard in the dining room - oh, for a bit bigger house (or, alternatively, less of a pack-rat personality!)

For £1.00 I bought these five vintage cotton reels.  I can never resist the vintage wooden cotton reels, and often the thread comes in very useful at some point too.  These vintage colours had such lovely names - Bright Violet, Lemon, Dark Lovebird.  It must have been somebody's job to think up such evocative and accurate names for the various colours - what a lovely job to have.  Does anyone know if modern thread manufactuers like Gutterman have named colours these days, or is it all done by numbers?

Practising Until I Go Boss-eyed

I practised my crochet 'skills' (har-de-har!) yesterday evening until I went quite boss-eyed looking at it.  I think some small progress was made and I've now worked out wrapping the yarn around the shaft of the hook in, I think, the correct way.  I practised both treble and double chains, although as I'd really like to make a crocheted square blanket I think the treble chain is what I should really be practising.

Luckily, I had a couple of fairly chunky-sized crochet hooks knocking about - under the counter purchases from a charity shop some time ago - they could be lethal weapons, you know!  Really, I kid you not, some charity shops keep all knitting needles and crochet hooks 'under the counter' and you have to ask to see them.   Presumably if you look 'dangerous' or have a mad gleam in your eye, they'll refuse to let you buy them.

The 'Crocheting for Dummies' was bought for me by my Mum a couple of years ago and the 'ABC of Crochet' booklet I got in the charity shop this week.  Oddly, enough it's the booklet that is most clear to me at the moment.  Anyway, I'm sure there will be A LOT more practising over the weekend. 

Crochet and Cupcakes

Yesterday evening the local library was having a 'Craft and Cupcakes' evening.  I was particularly intrigued as there was the offer to learn either knitting or crochet.  Well, crochet has flummoxed me for many many years so I was determined to go and see if someone could finally get the idea of it into my thick skull.

  


The evening started off on a good note when someone asked me if I'd made my bag, and said how nice it was.  That was lovely and made me feel a lot more relaxed (I didn't know anyone else there and quite a few had arrived in groups.)

It quickly became apparent that the vast majority (20 or so) had come to learn how to crochet, whilst there were only five or six wanting to learn how to knit.  Which made me feel a whole lot better that I wasn't the only dumkopf out there who couldn't get to grips with a crochet hook.  The girl teaching the crochet was lovely, really patient, really helpful and really clear in her instructions. 

By the end of the two hours I'd managed to produce a small amount of treble chain (is that the correct terminology?) and a little bit of double.  I'd made the stupid mistake of doing too long and too tight an initial chain - it all got a lot easier when I came to the second row.  And I finally learnt why all my previous attempts at crochet had ended up getting smaller and smaller - you had to crochet a few turning chains at the start of a new row - ah, that's where I'd been going wrong.  The green item on the table is the crochet I'd managed to produce after about an hour (please note refreshing cup of tea and remains of a gorgeous cupcake - all provided by the librarians.)

The cupcakes really were the stars of the evening.  I'm not sure who had made them - one of the librarian's daughters possibly - but they were real works of art and tasted as lovely as they looked.  These had been placed on our table by one of the two local newspaper photographers who turned up during the evening (yup, Wickford is a very quiet town with little that is newsworthy.) 

It was a fantastic evening.  I got to meet plenty of other local 'crafty' types, had a couple of cups of tea and a fab-u-lous cupcake and, most importantly, managed to produce a tiny bit of crochet.  I'm really hoping there might be another such evening in the not too distant future.

MISI

I'm probably very late to this particular party, but I've just discovered MISI - Make It Sell It - the sort of UK version of Etsy. 

I've tried Etsy several times but never had a great deal of success.  I know it has proved to be immensely successful for many crafters but somehow I could never really get my head around pricing things in dollars (and trying to work out more or less what the exchange rate of sterling to dollars was at any given time.) 

I've also tried selling some of my handmade items on ebay with a buy-it-now price and although I've had some limited success there it now costs 40p just to list a buy-it-now plus 6p for every additional photo after the first one.  Call me Scrooge, but that begins to mount up if you're listing quite a few items.  On MISI it only costs a flat rate of 20p to list an item and you can have up to five photos in that price too.  It's lovely to be able to price things in GBP even though items can be posted anywhere in the world. 

Anyway, I've started small and only listed three items for now.  Should I sell anything I'll definitely list a lot more things.  Has anybody else listed handmade items on MISI, and did you have any success in selling them?  I'd love to know.

Scarf

Finally finished the scarf which I seem to have been knitting for months.  Knitted using this lucky charity shop find - Rowan Kid Classic.  Re-reading the post of when I found this wool back last April, I see I already had a scarf in mind!  I think it was a couple of days later that I found another couple of balls of the same wool, in the same charity shop but in a mid-grey colour.  Fortuitously enough, the muted heathery colours of the scarf go very nicely with my new coat.   

The question now is what to knit next - or do I just carry on with my revived interest in pom pom making with the aim of actually creating a pom pom garland in time for Christmas (as opposed to just randomly pom pom-ing any bit of wool that comes my way!!)