The past couple of days have been prime examples of my forgetting, or not realising, how long certain tasks take.
I genuinely thought I would breeze through yesterday’s to-do list, but there were two and a half things on there that didn’t even get a look-in! Seaming a sweater takes time and I forget this, partly because I get so completely engrossed in the task I lose all sense of time. I thought I would have done the first set of seams ready for the neckband by mid-morning. Nope. It was lunchtime and I still wasn’t quite there. But, hey, those seams are done, the neckband is now knitted (finished at 11pm…) and the side seams were done this morning. I am so nearly there!!
Today I tackled some of the non-completed tasks from yesterday. One of which was to put my set of Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians onto eBay. This is a hardback, 20-volume monster of a resource that got me through my Music degree when I was living away from campus. We didn’t have such easy access to the internet back then. I still remember sending my first email in my final year at uni and being puzzled about how it could go anywhere without a stamp! I spent my entire first year student loan (plus a top up loan from my parents) buying it!
Anyway, it takes up over a shelf in the study and I don’t remember the last time I used it. Most students these days have online access through their school or uni libraries, so the real, physical version of the dictionary is less in demand from the younger generation. But if you think you might know anyone who would be interested please send them in this direction!
The next task of today was to list six ex-display samples for sale on the website. In itself, that doesn’t sound like a lot. Of course, in order to do that, I first had to list them all on Payhip.
Duly done, I returned to my own website and set about duplicating the relevant pattern pages as ‘sample for sale’ pages. I’d done half of them before I discovered the pages hadn’t duplicated in the way I wanted, but had put the original pages into draft format, linked the sample for sale pages to the main shawl pattern page and everything was topsy turvy!
I have now fixed those three pages and put the others up with less nail-biting going on. They now look rather splendid!
There has been a good amount of knitting happening this week as well as sewing up. I have begun in earnest on the Tencel shawl. I say ‘begun’, but I’m already on the second skein of the main colour, and I’ve started to plan out the stitch pattern for the deep edging in the contrasting colour. It’s such a gorgeous yarn to work with – and I get to enjoy a plant-based yarn with amazing sheen!
We inspected the seedlings this morning and I was really hoping to be able to show you lots of happy baby courgette plants. However, something in our garden loves courgettes and squash even more than we do, as nearly all the plants have been munched down to soil level! There are about 3 left! We still have some very small tomato plants that are giving it a shot and several broad bean seedlings in the pots. There are also a couple of French bean plants doing their best by the canes. The two rows of broad beans that I sowed directly into the veg patch, though? There’s one left. The rest are gone. Eaten. It’s a bit pitiful really.
Did I tell you about my car door? How I have been waiting for a replacement lock mechanism since March? I rang again Friday before last (10 weeks in) to ask if there was any news: no, it’s on back order from South Korea, we have no idea when it will be arriving, no eta, etc etc. Then, on Thursday, a text: your part is in stock, please contact us to book an appointment. Hurrah!! I rang straight away and, by some miracle, there was an appointment slot the next day (otherwise, the next possible time was June 30…!) So I booked it in and it has been fixed and I can once again open all four doors on my car. Such a relief.
I hope you have something in your week that gives you pleasure – whether it is an enjoyable knitting project or a car door that opens, or a seedling that hasn’t been eaten. Until next week, take care. K x