Some things I have been doing lately

I am stating the obvious when I note that have been very quiet here. Truth be told, I am back to feeling completely underwhelmed by the prospect of using the computer after work and school. In my spare time I’ve been pursuing Real Life activities, but my camera has died a terrible death, and my cellphone camera bites arse so although I want to show off and upload images of things that I’ve been making and eating, I have no way of doing so unless I put up a very small, very dark, thumbnail-sized image, which means that I might as well not even bother.

Those are my excuses. I remember reading a NZ Post advertisement years ago that said that you should never apologise for taking a long time to write a letter - that every letter is a gift and no guilt should be attached. Are blog posts the same? I guess not so much if I am serious about readers and their opinions et al, but I’ve never been that good at sticking to one theme at any rate so the blog is more of a sprawling scrapbook of a thing than a curated magazine, or a Deeply Meaningful Expose and Examination of my life. My journal stops and starts in the same way with months between entries and then feverish writing for days and days.

So, lately:

I have been getting my craft on a wee bit more: I made three pairs of pyjama pants, and have started on a patchwork duvet cover which will be my first foray into the world of quilt making.* I made a pattern for the pyjama pants an old pair that I picked apart, and used some old sheets for fabric. I was absolutely stoked with how well they worked out! Having three new pairs of pyjamas has been fantastic: I have been suffering from a great Falling Apart of my bedwear recently.

The patchwork duvet cover is based on this idea - I am overlocking smaller strips together and then cutting them squares and then overlocking those squares together … I have bags and bags of scrap fabric which I am using as the material, and I’ve worked out that I need to make 132 squares out of these scraps and bits in order to make a queen-sized duvet cover. On Saturday last I made forty-odd before losing all my enthusiasm. There is SO.MUCH.WORK in your average quilt, and apparently lots and lots of work even in the totally rough and ready way that I’m making this one. Having a cutting board and a cutting wheel would make a difference, but would also defeat my intention to make do with the materials and tools that I have for the time being.

In terms of knitting: I unpicked a hat I made a few months ago and reknitted it with the right sized needles, which means that it actually fits me instead of swamping my head. The pattern is called Amelia Earhart cap. This is the previous evocation (ie the super large version)

I think it’s adorable. I used possum merino yarn so it’s super fluffy and warm however I feel less like Amelia Earhart when I’m wearing it and more like a Medieval serving wench, which is something to do with the very country-fied something about it.

I found a fabulous book in the library in which vintage patterns are made over for modern knitters. I'm making a wee shrug out of some blue lambswool that will be very pretty I think! Far too cold for the moment though. Brr!

Also, I've been knitting tiny clothes. Not for me, but I'm keeping the disclosure on the down low, so forgive me if I say nothing more on this topic at present.

At school, I am doing a project whereby I intended to redesign this blog and give it some interesting functionality. Suffice to say, my coding skills make this whole process tedious beyond belief. I have so much respect for web developers who can understand and use coding languages, because I know that I will never be fluent.

However, I am getting some things out of my course. Firstly, it's great having a good idea about what is possible in terms of development, and how one might go about doing it. Secondly, I am learning empathy with people who struggle with comprehending things on a daily basis. As in, I've never struggled so much with something in my life, and I figure it must be character building. My character is being built upon daily.

At the moment I'm reading the biography of Ada Lovelace who was one of the first women to write (hypothetical) code... one of the people who helped "invent the computer" in the early 1800s. I think she must be truly amazing with an incredibly tortuous mind, because to come up with this stuff is MIND BOGGLING, I tell you. I can't wait to feel safe and happy in my little history world, once again.

My other exciting news is that the holiday I blogged about two months ago is mere days away! We fly to Auckland on Saturday morning and I will then spend a week in a studio apartment on a beach and drink coffee and sleep and sleep and NOT DO ANY CODING. I also intend to read a great deal. And visit the vintage clothing store in Waihi. And op-shop until my feet fall off. Hoo-bloody-ray.