Japan and Elsewhere

So I mentioned ages ago that I was reading 'The Long Earth' by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. When my brother Bart spotted it he said it was much more Stephen Baxter than it was Terry and I think I would concur, as the Pratchett humour was there but it did not feel anything like the discworld books. Apparently he collaborated a great deal in the latter years of his life as he had trouble holding stories together as his mind declined. It is testament to his amazing creativity that he never stopped writing. In the book a scientists creates a device that allows people to 'step' sideways into parallel earths, each one having taken a slightly different evolutionary path, but all empty of human beings. It follows Joshua who was coincidentally born in another world and can 'step' without the device, and an epic journey across the earths in a stepping airship. I enjoyed this book. It was very clever and I relished the story and the concept, it was hugely imaginative (though in some ways depressing at the thought of human beings fucking up multiple earths) but that was about it. 

'Abroad in Japan' by Chris Broad is about a guy doing JET like Monkey Sensei and basically acts as a kind of introduction to living in Japan with chapters about food and onsen and Mount Fuji and shrines and so on. So was just like chatting to Monkey about how she's getting on and what she's been up to. It's just life, that is kind of the same, but kind of completely different, but it does get across the peculiarities of learning to live in another country. I kind of enjoyed it because I am already interested in Japan and its culture but in truth I'd rather spend the afternoon video chatting with Monkey while she cooks her gyoza for dinner. 

"Breast and Eggs" by Mieko Kawami came from Monkey's bookshelf and follows two sisters and a niece as they wrangle with the nature of being in a female body. It starts as the older sister is visiting the younger with the intention of getting breast implants, pursuing a lost youth somewhat. Then in the second part, a decade later the younger sister is contemplating the process of having a child via sperm donation, something not available to single women in the somewhat socially conservative Japan. She encounters a support group for children of anonymous donors and spends a lot of time debating the ethics of the choice she feels bound to make. It was a lovely book of relationships between the three women, bound together by only having each other. I liked Natsuko because she seemed so vulnerable, sometimes still this child who had to fend for herself as her mother and then grandmother had died and left the two girls as teenagers. It was all very much inside her life, day to day stuff like coping with the heat and worrying about her life, and big existential stuff contemplating sharing her life with another person. 

In between reading and working and stuff my lovely Ady had her third birthday. I searched for an hour on the interweb for a freebie pattern to make her a dress and then gave up and went to the library and found this fab book, Wild Things by Kirsty Hartley. It is full of lovely simple designs and contained patterns to trace (and adapt, I did some dungarees and turned them onto a dress instead). I bought the monster fabric down in Leons last year some time. She had a 'pretty dress' ready for the party so she didn't put it on for a photo but whatever. I am pleased as punch with it.

Stay safe. Be kind. More catch-up posts coming ....

100 Days - day 35 : busy day

Oh, the wonders of the interweb. 1. Get up with grand plan to finally finish making the living room divider curtain (fabric only purchased about six months ago). 2. Wind more thread on bobbin and thread runs out. 3. Search sewing shops and find that Fred Aldous not only does click and collect but stocks the required colour. 4. So excited to find that I do not have to abandon grand plan that I jump on my bike and ride straight up without waiting for confirmatory email. 5. Wait outside for a few minutes in the drizzle and nice man comes to the door with my thread. 6. Ride home triumphant.

And the rest of the day went swimmingly. I spoke too soon. I failed to appreciated that a full width curtain cannot be drawn back when the curtain pole has a centre support bracket. We tried putting it up without centre support bracket. Not a good idea. Did not wish to attempt to cut huge curtain up the centre. Compromised by moving centre support bracket as far to one side as possible and used metal garden plant hanging bracket as a hook to hold the curtain back. Curtain looks luxurious and beautiful and complements the red walls and is altogether fabulous and even drilling holes for the brackets did not stress me out.

Lovely new sandals arrived, fair trade made in Peru, from Qaylla Andean Style on Etsy:

Watched Great British Sewing Bee and felt smug cos my sewing machine got used today. Then Monkey painted my hair and I painted her hair and tomorrow we will both have fabulous hair... watch this space.

Barely went outside so as a contribution to 30 Days Wild I recommend as my Book to Make You Think - 'How To Be Wild' by Simon Barnes from 2016.
(p.s. Third osprey chick hatched.)

Stay safe. See you tomorrow.

#100DaysToOffload

#30DaysWild

Granny's Chair (home making part 10)

Mum and dad are trying to downsize, so when they came up last month they bought me Granny's chairs. They were probably bought in the 1930s or 40s, and as children we slept on them when we visited my maternal grandparents; they lie flat and have metal legs that fold out. Or they used to. One chair is upstairs in my room but the other fell apart rather badly with the move. Dad had obviously bodged it back together previously, possibly several times as none of the joints sit together very well. If I had the skill and tools I would take the whole thing to pieces and start again but given that I don't I added another layer of bodge that should hold it together for a few more years. 

Then I went back to Abakhan and bought another metre and a half of the curtain fabric and recovered the cushions. And actually it looks pretty lovely.

Lyra thinks so too, it is now her official spot:

Home Making part 8 or 9: Meet Lyra

More house stuff. I put off taking down the tatty net curtains from the front window for several months because of being exposed to the street. Problem solved with this window film; you can get all sorts of fun designs these days but this one is faceted and makes rainbows in the front room when the sun shines in:

and looks like this from the outside in the evening:

We had been cat-less for more than a year, putting off adopting until we were settled in the new house. Monkey and I went up to Rochdale RSPCA centre after Julie had seen an elderly one-eyed cat in the adoption centre at Pets at Home. Sadly he was already taken when we visited so we spent an hour or so meeting all the other cats waiting for new homes.

We could have taken any (or all) of them but Monkey fell in love with Lyra:

partly because she is a shoulder cat:

and we got her just in time to help with the curtain making:

The living room is kind of done but not finished or tidied up so I have not posted photos, but we bought this fabric from Abakhan:

and here are the lovely curtains that I made:

And these are the lovely outer space curtains Monkey made for her bedroom:

I spent far too many weeks making a new duvet cover, patchworked with silk remnants and some sari yarn and backed with brushed cotton so it is lovely and cosy:

And then the other day my bedroom door conspired to prevent me going to work and Tish had to barge it open and rescue me. This confirmed a vague plan to replace it with a curtain. I rummaged through the stash and gathered all the remnants of velvet and patched them together, and lined it with some leftover quilting:

I am sure lots of people have a home without a pet, but having one is so friendly. Lyra definitely likes to climb, and look outside, so a nice climbing tree is next on the list.

Homey stuff part 2 or how you should never throw anything away

We have been preserving our modesty in the upstairs bathroom with a copy of the Declaration of Human Rights propped in the window. I bought this roman blind for the bathroom of a house I lived in 20 years ago; it has been sat rolled up in the cupboard under the stairs ever since. Yesterday I added a little fringe of old silk skirt so that it was long enough to reach the window sill. I think I might add a few more patches if silk just for decoration.

The other plan, that we concocted a few days ago, was 'sofa pockets'. I guess they already exist in the form of holders for remote controls or magazines, but these ones are specifically designed for crafty stuff. The fabric was a small strip left over from some cushions that I made back in 2011. It has a big pocket for scissors and crochet hooks and stuff, and then a tiny little pocket for sewing needles.

It is held in place with little velcroed straps around the metal frame. I made a second one for the other arm that I can keep my glasses in too.

In other crafty news Monkey has been crocheting like crazy; she made a lovely blanket for Peri:

and Happy as a gift for a friend:

 We took a trip to Black Sheep Wool over the bank holiday, but I didn't buy anything, and came home and began to recycle my Rainbow Cardigan (again from 2011) into a jumper. I have named it 'jumper of a million ends' as I am just knitting the stripes as they unravel from the cardi and leaving all the ends dangling. 

Making the house a home: Part 1

Over the few last weeks time not spent at work has mostly been 

dedicated to making the house more homey. 

A cosy curtain at the front door to keep the draughts at bay:

The back hallway has become the cloakroom, with the maps for added educational value:

The cellar is still a jumble but we are making cushions and organising the boxes so it can become a craft room:

The upstairs landing is becoming an art collage of postcards and found pictures, a work in progress that will be added to over time:

I picked up an abandoned chair from the pavement as I rode home from work the other week and Tish has decoupaged, painted and recovered it:

I helped her for a while and then decided to do my own little decoupage project:

We have a few other things still in progress so there will be more updates over the weeks to come.

Works in Progress

Stuff going on at home at the moment, besides worrying about the outcome of the election.

Tomato plants from Unicorn potted up in the porch (which is something like a greenhouse much of the summer), in three year old home made compost. I have only been intending to do this for the entire time we have lived here, so six years later I get around to it:

Three weeks later they are looking pretty good. I kept the sign from the NHS protest we went to back in March, and it has come in very handy as a plant support. 

Crochet blanket for Claire is coming along well, over half way towards my 144 granny square target.  I sorted the yarn stash and gave the project its own box.

And a trip to town with the girls yielded a lovely wicker basket in which I have hidden my Turkish Coat project. I have done bits of it occasionally but the mammoth task of hand quilting the pieces turned it from a labour of love into just a labour. I need new impetus to renew my enthusiasm.

Julie had a stash clear out and gave me some yarn, partly to encourage my crochet ambitions, and she started me on the Lost in Time shawl. I have combined it with some leftover from my Still Light Tunic. It is slow going but is going to be beautiful.

Not A Simple Skirt Tutorial

If I had taken more photos I could call this a tutorial ... but I was so wrapped up in f***ing up the french seams that I forgot, so it is instructions but without the detailed visual aids. 

Our recent watching of the Great British Sewing Bee, and renewed enthusiasm for creation, coincided with my lovely mum asking me if I would maybe sew her a summer skirt in cotton jersey with a bit of purple. We didn't like anything down at Leons so I browsed the Abakhan website and they had Liberty cotton jersey in the sale. However it would only allow me to buy whole metres so I decided it would be worth the trip to town to have a closer look. And I'm glad I did because I changed my mind about the one I nearly bought and plumped for this fabulous pink and purple swirly stuff in a Liberty lawn cotton (which was half price!!)

I followed this basic skirt tutorial at Melissa Esplin: I cut four trapeziums that were 15" across the top, 23" across the base and 30" long (I just drew the shape onto the fabric with a washable fabric marker and a very long ruler). I drew a pocket pattern freehand on a sheet of paper and cut four and left a long strip to make a waistband. All I have left of 1.70 metres is a few narrow scraps.

A French Seam is a neat way of hiding all your raw edges so that you have a professional looking finish. However you have to firstly sew the seam with the wrong sides together ... and this is somewhat counter-intuitive and so of course I kept doing it wrong and having to unpick and start again. I followed this tutorial on Sew Mama Sew for putting in a side seam pocket with French seams, which is very clear and helpful.

Et voila! (it doesn't look like much but I felt it was worth the bother):

Instead of just sewing nasty elastic to the top of the skirt I cut a long strip to match to top of the fabric exactly, attached it, folded it in half and top-stitched at the top and bottom of the waistband, leaving a small gap. Insert the elastic using a large safety pin then adjust to fit the waist comfortably, stitch ends firmly and sew up the opening. I did a small roll hem just to tidy the bottom but will adjust the length to suit mum when I go and visit in a few weeks.

I have come to believe, as with yarn choices, it is always worth the money to buy lovely fabric because it is so soft and hangs beautifully. I hope she likes it:

Turkish Coat Part 2

I have had a busy month, what with the A to Z Challenge and the local elections coming up and helping Ben with his campaign, and then there was the Readathon that took up the entire of last weekend, but I have still managed to make quite considerable progress with my Turkish Coat project.

We paid another visit to Leons and bought five metres of cotton batting, that was allowing for pre-washing and the potential shrinkage.

Then the four metres of yellow linen arrived. This has come from a website simple titled 'Dress Fabrics' based in Ireland, which seems an appropriate place to buy linen. They sent me a small sample beforehand and the colour was exactly what I was looking for. (Just to give a mention to the lovely people at 'Ralston Fabrics' on Etsy, who also kindly sent a sample but the colour was too dark.)

Having dithered, as I mentioned last time, for a long time over the colour choice for this project I chose this yellow because of my beautiful cable jumper that I knitted back in 2012 but spoiled by shrinking very slightly.

I reread the instruction, which appear at first glance to be rather scanty, and finally grasped that the coat is not put together anything like I imagined. Each piece is to be layered and quilted together before being constructed.

All the batting pieces were cut out last week and today I have sewn some more of the patchwork fabric and cut out the sleeves. Here they are in all their layered glory:

I am planning to do a trial run of some quilting, so that is my aim over the next week.