Stress: response

I had a very upsetting week last week, and when I woke up on Sunday morning I was so consumed with negative feelings, I really didn't know how I was going to make it through the day.

Does this ever happen to you? It doesn't matter how put-upon you are, or how justified your anger, or even how correct/ fair/ well-supported-by-others your position might be - it just feels so bloomin' awful inside.

It was very pretty outside on Sunday though, quite mild for this late in November, and there were still quite a few leaves and things to clean up before the first snow, so I put on my giant pink polka-dot rubber boots and went to take care of it all.

I forgot you get adrenaline from raking and sweeping.


And that even greeny-white hydrangeas look pretty when they dry out. I didn't have any ribbon handy to tie up the bouquet I made, so I stuck it through the fence.


I got the pots all tucked away in the back corner for the winter. They look terrible now but once they're under their snow blanket they'll be quite charming.


Less charming: the discovery that I let my big armchair slip off the flagstone and onto the dirt over the summer. I've had this thing for about 12 years and feel quite attached to it. It's pine, and would have rotted long ago if I hadn't been so careful with stain and putting it somewhere safe every winter. I hope it doesn't start rotting out from the inside, now.


At least I found my garden bunny again. He hides under green leaves all summer, but those died a few weeks ago and were due for trimming, so now I get him back.


I felt much better when it was all done. Not all better, even now, but getting there.

Nowhere to go but up

I did it!


I ruined the first pair of mittens!

And it took all afternoon on Sunday to do it. Fortunately, I'm pretty sure I still have enough fabric left on the back and other sleeve of this sweater to make a second, more presentable pair.

These ones will do fine for snow shoveling and, perhaps, snowman making, but they're not good enough to gift, for reasons that have nothing to do with my apparent lack of sewing finesse:

1/ the pattern calls for a single layer, which means you're touching the interior seams with your fingertips all the time and will freeze.

2/ an interior layer, with the right side touching your hands, solves both these problems.


3/ even if you cut both sets of mittens from two entirely different weights of fabric, they won't nest nicely if you cut them the same size.

4/ I'm not entirely sure that stitching ribbing onto a giant puffy two-layer mitten is the best way to get a finished look.

5/ plus, you get another annoying seam inside, rubbing against your wrist.


I think I'll ruin a second pair after adapting the pattern for a longer hand to replace the ribbing, and a slightly larger set of pieces for the outer layer. But I'm going to try not to wait until next Sunday afternoon to find time for this, because I am supposed to make 12 pairs in the next 5 weeks - plus shortbread.

Oh dear.

The inadvertent fruit of my various labours

Well, I'm glad to say that all my stealth knitting this fall has paid off with finished knitting patterny projects I can finally share, like:

A hat and handwarmers and

A really hot scarf.

And now I can relax a bit. Maybe even sew up a few felted mittens (please please please - I just need a little more scissor courage!)

Looking around the house though, I have to admit what I really need to do is Clean. Up.

I mean, honestly! I was talking to a friend yesterday who has a house so big I could fit probably four of mine into it. And she was saying that much as she knows she's lucky to have it, it is so much work to keep organized. So much space, so many places for activities to get spread out in, etc., and I felt for her, and helpfully pointed out that my solution is not to put cleaning on the schedule in the first place. Then when I got back through my door...

Ack.

So I have decided that mess can be unattractive and a mark of creative productivity.

(but I'm going to put a tiny bit of cleaning on the schedule anyway.)

A stripey source of lining with a bonus

I bought this great shirt when I was picking up all the half-price thrift store wool sweaters last weekend:


It's plus-sized (lots of fabric!), the stripes match the various "destined to be a lined bag" sweaters, and I was pretty sure I could put the buttons to good use as well.

Looking closer once I got home, I noticed an even nicer feature:


Long fold-back cuffs.


Or should I say, perfectly finished cell phone/lipstick/changepurse pockets?

Toe, meet water

All the sweaters I've been snapping up - and I'm terrified to put my scissors near any of them. I'm so worried I'll mess up and ruin the felted fabric I love most! And this is especially true since my favourite changes every time I pick another one up. They are all paralyzingly unique.

However, I did manage to cut these pieces on Sunday afternoon, while watching Wuthering Heights.


They're from a pretty and very soft XXXXL men's Italian Merino cardi; too thin to be warm enough on their own, but an effective liner for another fabric, I think. I figured it was a good place to start since the sweater, post-felting, is still big enough to yield four or five pairs of mitts. That's enough to cover me while I figure out whether the pattern needs resizing.

How long do you think it will take me to cut pieces for the outer layer?

Community cat

One of the houses in my neighbourhood is a short-term rental, occupied for a few months at a time by somebody whose own house is being renovated beyond recognition. The current tenants are my favourites, though I've never met them, because they brought

A Cat.


The cat's collar doesn't have a name on it. I have a few suggestions, the first of which is "Mary's Cat."


He looks like a Mary's Cat, don't you think?

He comes over a lot, what with being so social and not having his owners around much. I'll hear him meowing and find him lingering out front, waiting for me to come out and say hello and, incidentally, leave the door open a fraction of a moment too long.

Sometimes, he'll try to make a stand about this and play hard to get, positioning himself with an expression of indifference away from me (but still near the door).


Mostly though he makes himself at home.



Aren't those markings on his back just beautiful? And he's so healthy - his fur is unimaginably soft. Purrs like a big ol' engine, too.

I have to keep reminding myself that his name is really "Somebody Else's Cat."

These pictures were taken over the course of a couple of days, during which I talked to a lot of other neighbours about him. I'm surrounded by dog people, but most of them really like this cat anyway. It turns out he's just as adoring with everybody else as he is with me, but how can I hold it against him?


You can't get mad at a cat with the cutest paws ever.

How many sweaters does one girl need?

Well, I have a pretty extensive gift list - or do I mean giftee list? - so really I do need a lot of sweaters for the mitten/glove/bag extravaganza scheduled for this year's GiftFrenzy.

But I would say too that greed has played a role in my continued accumulation of sweaters. That, and the 50% off sale on Friday at the thrift store, which was coincidentally the same day a friend asked whether I felt like heading back there:


The little red roll is representative of a large-size boiled wool jacket with knotted buttons made from the same fabric. How lucky am I? Not only can I use it for slippers and/or a bag, I will be able to use my new rotary cutter and self-healing mat to cut out little shapes for stitching onto contrasting slippers and bags. Oh, the excitement.

(we will not speak of the extra storage space all this requires, or my lack of courage this far with regard to actually cutting into any of this fabric.)

I'm especially pleased with this gorgeous thing by Bianca Nygard, which was felted when I found it and felted even more when I tossed it in the washer:


It's going to make a most awesome bag, don't you think?

And this one, whose 100% wool label I couldn't find until I got home, is from Abercrombie and Fitch:


It had a subtle pattern to start with, plus a lot of moth holes in the bottom cuff, but felted it went stiff as a board even as the pattern softened further. I think it will grow up to be a very manly pair of slippers.