knitting and sewing (confessions of a yarn hoarder)

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In January of this year, I admitted to having a serious yarn addiction, totting up ALL yarn lurking in drawers, bags and cupboards around the house, and realising I have a problem (27.538kg of a problem).

Since then, I’ve therefore been concentrating on getting that weight down.

After this sweater in January

500g out

This sweater in February

600g out

Two tortoise memory games in February & March

approx 280g out

That’s 500 + 600 + 280 = 1380g out meaning 26.158kg still to go.  I’ve begun work on another sweater in aran.  Knitting up a pattern I’ve used twice before, the “Shavo” sweater, I’m making a version for myself in a very pretty green, which should make good use of a further 600g..

“Shavo” in progress

This is how it looks so far . . . approx 150g knit up so far,  Knitting at a fairly leisurely pace since I won’t need a snuggly sweater in the coming months, but it feels good to be working towards my yarn weightloss goal.

I’ve also been doing a bit of sewing with stretch fabric.

baby dragons

On the right, a pair of leggings belonging to Toddler Tattoo (brought them home to repair a hole).  And on the left, a pair of baby dragon leggings, made by yours truly.  I’m waiting for Mrs Tattoo to let me know how they are for size, before I cut and sew more.   Since my Juki is all set up with the special “stretch fabric” needle, I also plan on making a few pairs of leggings for myself, for this summer. Not in baby dragon fabric, sadly, because I don’t have enough in my stash,  although that would have been fun lol.

the young (and the old)

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Proof that time flies . . . the newest family member previously referred to on my blog as Baby Tattoo has now been promoted to Toddler Tattoo.  She took her first steps at 11 months of age, and here she is, with yours truly, visiting the hens over Easter weekend.

And again, shortly after her 1st birthday, playing with the tortoise game I made.

Tali in the lake

Toddler Tattoo isn’t the only one growing up.  Tali, who is only a black spot in the middle of the lake, is 18 months old now. She’s a picture of canine health and enjoys a good swim every day during our walks in the park regardless of how cold the water is.

Ziva

And another youngster I don’t mention much . . . Ziva. She’s our youngest cat. Came to us as a stray kitten in July 2022, she’s now almost 2 years old.  She usually prefers to be outdoors and isn’t what I’d call a cuddly cat. However, above, I caught her enjoying some quiet time indoors.  Quiet time which didn’t last long before she dashed outside again and her warm sleeping spot was taken over by Le Bleu.

 

diamond painting – April (and asparagus)

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The activity is commonly called “diamond painting” but I always think of it as “diamond dotting” when I’m sat at the table, with my little plastic stylus thingie, and tray of drills.  Activity which doesn’t require any skill, just a fair amount of patience . . . and activity which doesn’t cost a fortune either, if you shop around. We’re lucky to have several discount stores in the area, all of which stock diamond painting kits and if those don’t inspire me, there’s always the internet.

Above is one I bought on @m@zon simply because I like the picture.

And below . . . a couple of cards

The cards were a set of 3 in the kit, for less than 2€.  Probably marketed as an activity for young children because very quick & simple to do, but I’m going to be in need of a couple of birthday cards this month and these worked out very inexpensive (and fun) to make.

While in April . . . we’ve started enjoying fresh crops of asparagus.  The husband planted asparagus several years ago now.  Has just two rows of sandy mounds, but when the asparagus starts sprouting, boy, does it grow fast!  Fresh is best, so we’ve been enjoying fresh asparagus several times a week, but also bagging some to go in the freezer.

home grown asparagus

Here’s an example of a colourful, yet simple dinner: salmon, plain rice and asparagus.  The strawberries aren’t home grown, but they ARE French grown.  An early variety called “gariguettes” which don’t grow very big, need to be eaten quite soon after picking, and have a gorgeous smell.

 

 

Happy birthday Le Bleu!

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Le Bleu – 16 years 

Today it’s Le Bleu’s 16th birthday – yay!

awwwww Mum’s lap is best

Last month Le Bleu had to go for an impromptu vet visit because of abces on his right cheek and general check-up.  Blood works all good but weight down, so I’ve been splashing out on lots of different brands of wetfood to help increase appetite, and avoid more weight loss.  It seems to be working.  Appetite has picked up and, Le Bleu is still very active for a cat his age. He enjoys sitting out in the garden, now the weather is warming up, or curling up on the sofa with Tali. But his favourite place, which hasn’t changed in the last 16 years, is curled up on my lap!

Of all our cats, Le Bleu is the one I’m closest to.  Some of my readers will have heard the story before.  He was given into my care, back in 2008, as a 3 week old foster kitten, along with three siblings.

I bottle fed, weaned, and handed the kittens over to be put up for adoption.  The three siblings were quickly adopted but no one was interested in the grey-blue one.

We already had 4 cats and a dog, at the time, when Le Bleu joined our family as a permanent member.  His name came about because . . . fostering kittens, I didn’t want to give them proper names so as not to grow attached to them. Called them “Le grand”, ‘la petite”, “le bleu” and “ruban” (identical twin to “le grand” who had a ribbon as a collar to identify him). “Le bleu” was therefore originally just a way of identifying the grey-blue kitten from his siblings. However . . . when we officially adopted him, the vet asked for a name to register him and we realised the name “Le Bleu” had stuck.  Also have to add . . . we’re huge NCSI fans.  In the French dubbed version, the newest member of the team is given the nickname “Le Bleu” (I believe in original soundtrack that’s something like “probie” or “rookie”?).  Anyhoot . . . back in 2008, Le Bleu was the newest member of the family, so it seemed doubly appropriate.

In 2009 Le Bleu had a very serious accident. Shattered femoral bone followed by dislocated knee joint, and it was touch and go whether the vet would be able to save either the leg or the cat.

 

Le Bleu has had a permanent limp ever since  but that hasn’t stopped him leading a very full life.  16 years on,  we still have the NCSI theme going with pet names.  There was Gibbs, our Flat-coated retriever who died in 2022.  And currently, we have (cats) Ducky, Abby and Ziva . . . as well as Tali (only true NCSI fans will know the inspiration for that one).  And how ironic that, the grey-blue kitten who was the little scrawny newbie is still answering to the name of Le Bleu when everyone knows he’s the top cat in the family and all the other animals show him the utmost respect.

 

 

SAL “ABC dolphins” # 2

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It’s SAL Sunday again . . . is it me, or do these 3 weekly updates seem to come around fast?  Time to link up with fellow SALers to show progress on our current stitching project.  Mine is an ABC design, that I pulled out of my UFO drawer last month. Last time I was here.

This time, a much better photo of colours . . . and a fair bit of progress.

Here’s the list of other members, if you fancy a blog hop to admire some very inspiring stitching.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Jackie, 

Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, Cathie,

Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy

 

the easter bunny?

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The husband had a surprising find while walking the dog on Easter Monday. Came across a lost dwarf rabbit  . . . no doubt escaped from its garden over the Easter weekend.

We set up an old cage in the veranda and started spreading the news.  We live in a small village (population 1600), with a local primary school and word usually gets around fast.  Within a couple of days we learned there were 2 lost rabbits over Easter, but neither were this one.  Whoever its owners are either haven’t noticed it’s missing or don’t care.  Anyway, we don’t need an extra animal in this house so rabbit has gone to live with Mona.  She’ll look after it until its owner comes forward . . . and if no one comes forward, her parents have said she can keep it (so I’m rooting for Mona lol).

When not looking after lost rabbits . . . I found lots of time for crochet.

and a second tortoise memory game has been made. Newest one is the one on the right.  Mum’s shell is bi-colour because I knew I wouldn’t have enough of the lighter teal to complete.

20 babies all have lighter skin than their mum, but the shell colour matches.

button fastening

Both mummy tortoise have a green button near the tail. That’s so that mum’s shell can be fastened, to stop all the babies falling out when the game is put away.  That’s approx another 120g of DK gone from my stash.

a bit of this & that – March

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I don’t seem to be getting much done in the crafting department because of other things getting in the way this month. One of the “other things” is Le Bleu.  We noticed he had a very swollen cheek on Saturday night (16th) but it was too late to get a vet consult. First thing Monday, I managed to get him an appointment. The vet said it was an abces, and she’d keep him in for surgery that afternoon.

after surgery

Here he is after surgery. Didn’t need a plastic cone. Just 4 days worth of antibiotics.  Le Bleu is quite a geriatric cat now – 16 years old next month.  He’s lost even more weight recently and barely tips the scales at 4.5kg these days (used to weigh 6.5kg in his prime) . . . we therefore also had blood works run, dental check-up etc done while he was at the vets for the op.  For a cat his age, blood works were surprisingly normal. No kidney failure on the horizon. Heart, teeth & gums are all healthy. Which is great news but doesn’t explain the general lack of appetite, resulting in weight loss.  Anyhoot . . . I’ve been splashing out on all the top of the range cat foods, trying to find something to tempt him.  He seems happy enough, and doesn’t have any trouble going up & down stairs, hopping on & off the bed etc . . . so I guess we just have to accept that he’s simply getting old, and do as much as we can to try and boost appetite to prevent more weight loss.

I gave myself a bit of retail therapy on-line. I know my resolution is to work my way through my yarn stash and avoid adding any new supplies to my overflowing drawers, but . . . I’ve still got a bee in my bonnet about making some miniature amigurumi and I saw that Scheepjes has just brought out a new line of fine crochet thread:  it’s called Candy Floss and is the equivalent of a n° 10 thread.  I already had 3 balls of Scheepjes Maxi Sugar Rush in my stash (which is the equivalent of a n° 8 thread) .

Scheepjes haul

Above is photo of my new Scheepjes stash.  The 3 balls on their sides, with label showing, are 50g balls I already had.  As you can see, I ordered in a further 14 in that weight, including skin tones and hair tones, with a view to doll making.  The smaller balls are the 20g balls of Candy Floss.  Bought 15 balls of those in total, again with a view to crocheting some dolls.  I’ve started work on a project with the Maxi Sugar Rush thread, on a 1mm hook . . . hoping to work my way to the finer, Candy Floss, thread afterwards, for which I’ll be using a 0.75mm hook, maybe finer.

I also made some headway with my diamond painting project. Which has gone from this

to this

 

So . . . a bit of this and that!  Another project in progress is a second family of crocheted tortoise, making a second memory game . . . but not far enough along to have taken any photos yet.

 

 

SAL “ABC dolphins”

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I’ve just picked up a partially stitched project that had been gathering dust, to work on as my next SAL project.

The design is

a kit bought several years ago on ebay for only 2€.  I did make a start way back then and got this much done before shoving it in a drawer.

A few evenings stitching and progress has been made.

Joining in with the lovely group of SAL members, showing updates on our stitching every 3 weeks.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Jackie, 

Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, Cathie,

Linda, Helen, MaryMargaret, Cindy

scraphappy # March

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It’s time to link up with the worldwide group of Scrapsters, organised by Kate, to share scrap happiness.

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid,  Tracy,
Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean,  Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera,
Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti, Viv, Karrin,
Amo, Alissa, Lynn, Tierney and Hannah

Last month, I was assembling 2.5″ squares, at the husband’s request, to make an induction hob mat, to sit under the Ninja Foodie airfryer the husband got for xmas.

Tis done.

I also made some 1/12 scale cushions for the dolls’ house sofa, trimming down a couple of 2.5″ squares to only 1.75″ which gives finished cushions 1.25″ square.

And the husband, meanwhile, was busy in his workshop, transforming old (and very grotty) wooden furniture feet into more yarnholders.  Two were immediately gifted to ladies in our entourage who knit, and I am keeping the other two.

Here’s one of the “new” ones.  And below is why I like them so much.

Up until now, I’ve been using the one on the right for DK or aran yarn while I knit or crochet . . . but I’ve since realised they’ll be very good for holding balls of much finer threads.  In a house with 4 cats and 1 dog, the last thing I want is yarn or thread balls falling on the floor and unravelling.

 

 

tortoise memory game – happy dance

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Having a crochet happy dance, after finishing the mother tortoise for the tortoise memory game.

Adult tortoise is literally 2 circles sewn together, with feet, tail and head attached. A gap is left near the tail, so baby tortoise can be stored inside. Very clever!  I would usually give a link and credit to the designer, sadly I’m unsure who the original designer is. I bought my pattern on etsy, where there are several people selling what looks like the exact same pattern, and I really don’t know who came up with the idea first.

Anyhoot . . . it was a fun project.  I used DK yarn from my stash, a total of 120g for the adult and 20 babies.  I’ll be making it again.