Making Good Use

Mulberry Scarf

 
I finished off my scarf the other day and it's worked out to be just the right length - which is lovely as I did have concerns that I didn't have quite enough wool to make it as long as I'd like.  Although I wouldn't normally spend £15 on wool for a scarf, as I'd bought the Rowan yarn by mistake I thought I might as well put it to good use.  The colour is fabulous - a deep, luscious mulberry purple - which goes rather well with my pink velvet coat that has flashes of pretty-much the exact same shade in the pattern.  Only small problem is that it's so beautifully spring-like and warm at the moment that I can't envisage wearing the scarf anytime soon.  Never mind, it'll keep until next autumn.

YouGov

Finally, after quite a long time and a lot of surveys, I've accumulated enough points (5000) to earn a £50 cheque.  I'm really looking forward to that cheque arriving and my bank account could do with the top-up too.  I have to say I've really enjoyed most of the surveys and am more than happy to carry on and, hopefully, earn another £50 cheque at some point. 

It's quite nice to be able to give my opinions on the government and government policies and the surveys are usually bang up-to-date - today's had questions on Prince Andrew, Public Sector Workers' Pensions, and the government's response to the conflict in Libya.  I don't suppose my opinions will ever have any influence on what the government decides to do or not do but it's nice to be asked - and to earn a bit of dosh into the bargain.  If anyone is interested the registration  address is http://my.yougov.com/register.aspx

Flower Power

Since the discovery of a Marks and Spencer 'Simply Food' located in a large petrol station on the outskirts of Wickford, it has become a bit of a weekly habit to just pop in there to get a few tasty treats.  Their low-fat plain yogurt is wonderful and, at the same price as the one in the Co-op, pretty good value too.  Their whole chickens are from a local Suffolk farm and are not horrible battery-raised cr*p.  Granted, at £6.29 for a small chicken they are nowhere near the 'three chickens for a tenner' offers that you can find in other supermarkets but P and I are a bit fussy about where our meat has come from so we like to pay a bit extra and eat something that has had a reasonably pleasant life.  I try and make the chicken do us for three meals - one roast, one curry and one stir-fry - so it ends up not being too expensive in the end.

The one slight problem is that I never seem to have a bag with me when we end up in M&S and as they quite rightly charge 5p per plastic bag it was getting a bit of an expensive ommission.

 
Yesterday, I made myself another shopping bag upcycled from a vintage pillowcase.  The print is incredibly 1970's flower power - not sure I'd want to sleep on such a pillowcase but it makes a lovely cheerful tote.

I've got one very similar that I keep in the shopping trolley and I'm always amazed just how much I can cram in there and how sturdy the whole thing is.  As they fold up really small when not in use, this one can be stored in the car's glove compartment for when we next happen to be passing M&S and just can't resist calling in, and this time I won't be spending an extra 5p on a plastic bag that I really don't want.

February Buying and Selling Roundup

During February I 'only' spent £31.64 on second-hand items, a slightly lower sum than January - probably because a) February is a shorter month, and b) I was away for five days..  Not quite all of the spends were on items for re-sale as £6.40 of that total went on things for me or P - useful items like three low-fat cookbooks, a large bottle of Charles Worthington Shampoo and a pack of three new socks for P.  So that gives me a total of £25.24 spent on items for re-sale and my total sales on ebay for those items that were any good was £83.24 - giving me a grand profit of £58.00. 

Out of that total profit, I had two really good sales - £30.00 for the rather moth-mauled Aquascutum Scarf found for £1.00 in a local charity shop, and £17.50 for the boxed Crabtree & Evelyn set which I paid £3.00 for in the same charity shop.  Other than those two biggies, there were lots of little profits of £5.00 here and £3.00 there.

I also sold £28.64 worth of books on Amazon at the beginning of February - nothing since, sadly.  There were no Greenmetropolis sales at all in February but, oddly enough - not having sold a thing on there since before Christmas, and mentally threatening to shut the whole account down and get rid of the books - I've sold three books on there in the past 24 hours - weird!!

Monday's Bargains

I hotfooted it to the 'Coffee and Jumble' this morning but sadly the bakelite knitting needle box and its contents had already been sold - b*gger, that'll learn me not to prevaricate!! 

 
Instead I contented myself with buying a beautiful Wallis fake fur coat for £3.00.  It's a large size 10 apparently, although one thing's for sure (or should that be fur sure,) no matter how large a size 10 it is, I wouldn't fit into it!!  It's a beautifully soft coat in the most lovely colour and is plainly of very high quality.  It'll be heading for ebay.

 
In one of the charity shops I bought this pure wool handknitted hat - made in Nepal - for 50p.  I did hope it might fit my bonce-piece but, no, I can't jam it on my enormous head!!  So, that's another one heading for ebay.

 
Also only 50p from the same charity shop was this amazingly patterned gentleman's cravat.  It is pure silk and I'm hoping it will do well on ebay - after I've given it a good iron, that is.

 
Finally, I did find a few things for myself, eight balls of pure wool - some six ply, some chunky - at the princely sum of 25p per ball.  I always pick up 100% wool knitting yarn as you never know when it will come in useful.  Plus, most yarn I find in the charity shops is so acrylic (or even 100% nylon) that it sets my teeth on edge just to touch it.  Yuk!!  I also got a bottle of Lavender handwash for 20p at the 'Coffee and Jumble' which'll come in useful, and at only 20p it was even cheaper than Aldi's handwash.  Plus a copy of Susan Hill's 'The Woman in Black' for 25p as I've never read it and it was being highly recommended on 'My Life in Books' last week.  So, all in all, not a bad little haul for me.

 

Computer Woes and a Lovely Cheese Dish

Many apologies for my absence from the blog - our computer picked up some really nasty virus and was so badly infected that it had to be taken away to be sorted out.  Oh woe was us, we felt quite bereft without t'internet at our fingertips and a big old dusty hole where the computer box had been.  Luckily for us, it was returned swiftly and is now super-duper uber efficient and has extra-tight virus control security. 

I'm afraid the virus was somehow all my fault (although I'm not sure exactly how it happened) as poor old P was not even at home when the problem occured.  And it cost an arm and a leg to sort it all out - what I wouldn't like to do to those idiots who send these viruses out into cyberspace - the swines!!

On a much happier note, my lovely next-door neighbours phoned up yesterday to see if I'd like an old cheese dish they were getting rid of (they know me well enough to know that I'm usually game to take on anything like that.)  I was delighted to have it because despite the fact that I'm no longer eating cheese, I had just been saying how much I'd like a butter dish so that I could keep the butter out of the fridge and therefore make it much easier to spread and to use less of.

 
As if by magic, I've now got a lovely little vintage cheese dish gracing my kitchen side and keeping my butter at a spreadable temperature.  And, quid pro quo, I was able to pass on a copy of this month's 'Country Living' and a recent 'Hello' magazine to my neighbour in return.  We were all happy with the deal.

Checkmate

 
Today is P's birthday, and for one of his presents I made him a large bag to hold his travel chess board and chess pieces.  He took the chess items with him to Champneys and was saying how much he would like to have a bag to carry it all round in.  Ah ha, I thought, just the thing to make for his birthday. 

 
First task was to find some black and white check material - which proved surprisingly easy via the wonder that is ebay.  This is actually material for making chef's trousers from but as it is quite heavy and canvas-like it proved to be ideal for making the bag.  Once the material arrived it was just a case of cutting it big enough to hold the board and stitching it up - very easy and satisfying when you can use the checks on the material as guidelines for cutting.  A couple of sturdy handles finished it all off nicely.  I was quite pleased with the end result and, as I've plenty of material left over, I might make myself a couple of really sturdy shopping bags from it as well.

Knitting Natter

A few weeks ago I stupidly ordered the wrong type of Rowan Felted Tweed wool - I'd actually needed chunky not aran weight.  It was all a bit of a pain in the proverbials at the time but another quick order later and I got the correct weight wool that I needed but was still left with £15.00-worth of Rowan wool that I didn't quite know what to do with, but I did really love the rich purple colour.

 
Cue a new scarf in the making.  I'm not totally convinced that there is quite enough wool for the scarf to be as long as I would really like it but I can either a) order another ball of wool, or b) make do with what I've got - the more likely scenario if I'm honest.  Being on the cusp of Spring is probably not the best time to be knitting a new scarf but who knows, we could still have snow for another six weeks or so!!  And besides, it'll be all ready and waiting for next autumn otherwise.

 
Yesterday, I found this incredibly psychedelic knitting needle bag in the charity shop.  It has had a bit of wear but the colours are so extraordinary and bright that at 50p I thought I'd buy it.  A good soak in biological washing powder seems to have improved it no end.  It is a little worn in places but the zip is still good and you certainly wouldn't mislay it in a hurry - not with those zinging colours.  I'm going to give it a whirl on ebay and see if anyone is interested.

After buying the knitting needle bag, I was checking out the prices for vintage knitting bits and bobs on ebay and was astonished to see a zipped case of Aero knitting needles had sold for over £100!!  What!  I've got one of those zipped cases myself, although as I use the needles frequently I certainly won't be selling mine any time soon.  However, I will be keeping a weather-eye open at the boot sales this summer.  In fact, vintage knitting equipment seems to be fetching very good money on ebay at the moment which is a bit of a b*gger as I passed up a bakelite kntting needle box stuffed with knitting needles at the 'Coffee and Jumble' yesterday.  In my defence, the whole thing was incredibly heavy and I needed to get quite a lot of shopping as well.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed it'll still be there next week - if it is, it will most certainly be coming home with me.