Rogue progress is slow but sweet

To be honest, it’s a bit of a messy pattern. And the hood? I’m really really bad at the hood. Maybe I’m just a bad knitter. I can do all the moves, I can get a big section to look even, but increases and decreases can be extremely visible and need a lot of massaging.

I am this far into the first sleeve after having put it down for quite a while. The hood really made me angry. The body is great, and I worked it up really fast (for me) but after the hood rage, I don’t go do it as automatically anymore when I sit down for a TV and craft session.

The main offender is the top of the hood, where you knit together the sides and the back. This is the third or fourth attempt, after lots and lots of manual adjustments. It looks okay now. Not fantastic. It should probably be sewn together rather than decreased. But I don’t know if that will actually improve anything.

I really like the look though, and look forward to having it available for wear!

Tula Pink’s Mad Hatter Tea Party quilt, WIP

So yeah, that’s been my main project this summer. I only just finished my redesign plans (using photopea.com my new favorite online photoshop replacement) so I’m sharing what I’ve done so far.

First of all, this is what I’ve finished, and it looks pretty awesome without any border – so much so that I’ve considered just keeping it like this

another life hack is to pin shit to the awning for photo day

Anyway, here’s the redesign pic I’m using as a guide now

I’ve changed half the border colors, using Fairy Flakes: Ink for black to keep with the Tula Pink theme (though I’ve had to order my grayscales from another brand, because sometimes you gotta work with what exists!)

If you look at the original (google it) you’ll also notice I’ve switched direction for about half the cups and teapots, because having them all face the same way didn’t quite fit the theme for me. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good design choice as this is an “advanced beginner” project, but for the actual result? Mix it up.

Just for fun, here’s some more WIP pics

color vision challenge 1

tea pot backgrounds

short and stout

A great thing about summer quilt projects and having an awning is you can take your shit outside!

Discarded Magic The Gathering boxes are pretty decent carry-alls

color vision challenge redux

cup handles

And yeah, like mostly every other person out there it seems, I had a pre-existing Alice In Wonderland condition long before I became a tula trooper

Reroofing the shed

It’s great having a very handy dad who wants to come help you with stuff, like tearing off the old broken roof off the shed, and putting down a new roof. It’s almost problematic that he’s so helpful you barely get the chance to do any of the work yourself though!

I eventually told him to get down and let me have some fun too, instead of him just mocking me about “and now you can scrub it and get some paint on” (fuck that, the outside is great, and the inside now has a roof to cover it, I’m out).

Not pictured: My dad deciding he could improve the door (it’s now more stable and with fewer screws sticking out) and righting up the entire shed with a lever, putting new planks between the shed and the leca blocks, that have sunk a little, causing the shed to be uneven.

This is when I’ve moved all my shit back in – rather than drive a nail straight through the wall to the outside of the building (like it was from some previous installment I wasn’t involved with) I’ve put a bar up to screw the shelves to.

Nailed a bar to the left wall too, but had to wait for my grips – the first ones I bought close by (through web order) turned out to be tiny and weak.

These new grips are nice. High hopes they’ll even survive winter…

Star lamp redress

Remember this IKEA lamp?

I love this lamp

This lamp really began to stink. Like dirty human. Like organic resin gone off.

This lamp did not appreciate being an all year round lamp.

So I had to skin it.

Once skinned, I could use it to draw templates, machine stitch some patchwork look from a charm pack, and cut into new clothing.

It was quite friendly to stitch, but it took me a lot of evenings on and off through summer. Just because I didn’t work on it often, and I didn’t work fast.

These pics are before glueing it on, I just had to see if it worked

The gluing was a whole project in itself, because I keep having this idea that I should try to use “normal glue”. But FYI, neither universal attach-to-plastics glue nor superglue is even remotely my friend. The only thing I’ve ever managed to glue with superglue is myself.

The hot glue gun, however! The hot glue gun solves everything.

I could have done more work to make the seam allowances more hidden or just better, where it touches the edges of the star, but sometimes you just have to finish a thing.

Garden master post

There’s no pic of the lil watering computer, but it exists, and I’m quite fond of it. The Gardena watering system was of varying quality though, which is a little infuriating since it took me all day in the heat to install.

These are pics from all through summer (though it’s very glaringly missing a late summer pic of how the entire left half of the house is covered in tomato plants at this point).

last year almost no seeds sprouted, so this year, I’m in over my head in tomatoes (luckily I managed to give about 10 of these away)

the strawberries appreciated this spring’s cleaning

oh no! wimdy!

cucumbers need lots of protection when they’re babies

random raspberry bush that decided it lives here – don’t mind if I do

the pressure valve IS installed, and it’s NOT supposed to do this…

middle of summer daily harvest

lil wall of happiness appreciates it being far too hot to be alive

“we’re done now, get back in here”

they look very unripe, but they were on the verge of getting over ripe – it’s a weird type, with opinions about the weather

very happy tree this year – and I HAVE pruned the fruits a bit, just not like… enough

Boring costs (new AC unit)

Our old AC unit was making a huge racket and was about to give up. Which is mostly fine except it’s responsible for heating at least a quarter of the house in winter. Since we can drop to -20 for a while, and -15 for a few weeks, it’s… it’s a thing that’s nice to have done before it has to be done. Not particularly crafty in any way, but it’s a house update, and I want to keep track of those too.

Our ceiling is problematically low, so having this serviced is going to be expensive – it can’t be done where it sits now. But at least we have a powerful unit. And at least we have a solid house-expenses buffer to take from for this exact reason.

Patio planters

So, fence oiled, time to claim my patio as my own!

Still need to cut that canvas, but I’m in no rush. I want the soil to settle first.

I honestly just put some stuff in the soil, I’m not convinced it will survive. Very few are actually adapted for the soil depth and sun levels, and the clematises definitely want more space. But it feels nice having some stuff there for now – I can plant other things next year if need be. At least the space feels more like my own now, more squared off and available to use.

Stand up padel

I can’t really go anywhere in the pandemic because my immune system is shit. But… Sometimes you need to get out of the house, and I’ve been craving water.

look at those ridiculous little life vests on these ridiculous little humans

He looks so cocky in his hat, but let it be known that he was also the only one to fall in! His hat stayed on though, as he went underwater, which was impressive.

Oiling a fence

There’s a small but tall fence piece covering the direct view between my closest neighbor and my house. The long fence around their yard belongs to them, but this little wall is mine, and it needed some love. Especially if I was to start putting things in front of it, it’s better to have it taken care of before it’s hard to get to!

There’s no real before picture, but from the scrubbed, dry, white wood, some oil was much appreciated. Though I could have done a much better job scrubbing!

Excuse the trash around it, it’s a work in progress. But at least the fence should last a few more seasons!

Kitty shelf upgrade

After finding the cat down on the awning for the first time since we moved here, I felt like maybe it’s possible she even needs a shelf she doesn’t have to scrounge up on as much to fit. She does like to stretch out after all.

9.30 PM and still sunny, albeit with some clouds

I thought it would be like with everything else, that it wouldn’t be acceptable for a few weeks, but it was immediately accepted.

It’s good to be able to lounge. Now if someone could just remove that railing…