This week started in the usual way, with a trip out of town to do the weekly shop. The traffic is getting worse on the roads around London. Slow moving traffic everywhere. It puts me off going anywhere, but I do like to get out of town and have a change of scenery once per week. We found out the other week, that a new Lidl store is opening quite close to where we live, so I may get a granny trolley and walk there to do my weekly shop if the traffic gets any worse.
Anyway, I did my absolute best to keep the costs down this week, buying only what we'd run out of and would use this week. I was shocked when I couldn't get the cost down below £100, even after using a £6 off voucher at Tesco. There weren't even any particularly expensive purchases in this week's shop either. It is what it is, but I wasn't impressed. As a consequence, I've gone over budget by £63, which will have to come from next month's income.
Tuesday, I went off to the gym in the morning for my weekly class. It was good, but it makes me realise how much I've lost my aerobic fitness and need to work on it. In addition, the teacher informed us that she is going away for a few weeks, so I don't know who'll be taking her class. She deserves a holiday though, as she's there rain or shine, week in and out. Everyone needs a break.
The rest of the day was quiet and not very productive really. I did a bit of knitting and some work on my finances, as it was virtually the month end and I don't intend spending any more money between now and the end of the month. OH did more work outside today, so that he could take down the scaffolding tower, as it was due to be collected on Wednesday. He's virtually finished the back, anything he still needs to do can be done from a ladder or the ground. It's looking so much better.
We're planning on going up north to see family again soon, so I searched out some accommodation for us to rent for a few days. I found us a really reasonably priced small house in a good location, so OH booked it. LB is coming with us, as she's got a few weeks with very few shifts at the theatre between shows, so it's the best time for her to go. It's unlikely that she'll have time to go up nearer to Xmas, as she'll be working a lot more for the Panto season and on some days over Xmas, but she'll be getting paid double her usual rate for those, which is more than I've ever earned anywhere over the Xmas period and is definitely not to be sniffed at. It will probably help her to completely pay off her overdraft and start the New Year with a clean slate.
In the evening, we all sat and watched the fourth Hunger Games film, which made for a nice family evening. The only film we haven't re-watched is the Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes, as I don't think that one is on Paramount. We've enjoyed re-watching all the others though. OH and I have been continuing to watch Riot Women on iPlayer and I have to say, it keeps getting better. It's good to see good British Drama on the TV again.
On Wednesday, I had a bit of a lie in and then got up and showered. I intended to head out for a walk to get some steps in, but it was raining and it continued to rain all day. Instead, I decided to continue making the fabric yarn for weaving and started sewing up the strips I'd made previously to make the yarn. It took a bit of concentration and the sewing machine had to work hard, but I ended up with these balls of fabric yarn.
It's not a huge amount, but it's a start, and the beauty of this method is, you can use up any kind of fabric that you have no other use for, so long as it's not too thick, although you can use denim too, which is pretty thick and harder to stitch. It would also be great for using up damaged/worn out clothing or linens. I had a few more balls to make before I could start weaving it, as I needed some lighter colours to mix in with the darks.
I decided to try weaving one ball and see if it worked on my loom, before I made too many more. It did work well, but made me realise that I'd set up my loom incorrectly and had used the wrong kind of thread/yarn for the warp. I also needed to change how I'd attached it to the loom. It's a learning curve to me, as I've not done this craft before, but it's interesting. I found another great channel on YouTube called Spruce & Linen which will be a great help in getting me started.
Whilst making the fabric yarn, I had an idea of something that I could weave that would be useful. My loom is pretty small and isn't really big enough to even make a rug, so I thought that a mat to go under my sewing machine might be useful, as when I use it on the kitchen table the vibrations and noise from it being on a hard surface are quite loud. A woven mat placed under my machine should soften things a little and make the noise less penetrating. It's an idea for a first project anyway.
On Wednesday night, I didn't get to sleep until 3am. I was pondering an issue I had with my gym membership, which I'd recently renewed. I couldn't figure out what the issue was until I looked back at my payments and realised that I'd applied to renew two memberships instead of just one. Luckily, the senior membership that I had accidentally enrolled in and was causing me problems (as they needed verification of my age), only cost £1.70, so I didn't lose much money if I don't get it back. I was glad to finally figure it out and be able to get some sleep.
Thursday, I was back at the gym in the morning. Thankfully, the rain had stopped and it was a nice morning. I couldn't get a slot at the gym until 12 noon, but when I did eventually go, I was glad to get out and get some exercise. I was very happy when I saw that some of the machines that hadn't been working lately, had been repaired and I could use them again.
Whilst I waited to go the gym, I continued with making the fabric yarn. I made a couple more balls in lighter shades and I think I will now have enough for the small loom that I have and can now start weaving once I've re-strung the warp. Although it's been quite time consuming preparing the fabric yarn, I have quite enjoyed it, as it has been something completely different and it has been a great stash buster too.
Before I went out, I also mended a vintage duvet cover that's been in my project box for a while, as it had a rip in it:
I ironed on some fusible bonding and then stitched over the rip with a zig zag stitch. It's not the best repair, but hopefully it will prevent it ripping further, so it will do for now. It was tricky to get the part of the duvet that was damaged under the machine, as it was quite far from the opening and I nearly stitched two layers of it together at one point.
When I got back from the gym, I had some lunch and then decided to quilt the second gilet that I'm making. I rushed it a bit and didn't do a great job, but it will be okay. I tend to wear them around the house as an extra layer, now it's getting colder. I found it difficult to work with the cotton wadding, as it wasn't easy to stitch. I had to really push and pull the fabric through the needle. I got all the quilting done and sewed the shoulders together. I now need to make some external pockets for this one and stitch them on, before stitching the sides together and then binding it, probably by hand again.
The sewing project basket is now a lot emptier. Some of the things I'm currently working on are no longer in it, and they're not quite finished. They are hanging out around the kitchen table waiting to be completed, so this picture isn't really an accurate representation, but it now only really contains some bits of denim for making a gift for LB, (I need more and different shades of denim before I can start this), the pattern and fabric for a skirt that I want to make (which will probably be a New Year project, although it won't take long), some cut out fabric for some underbed storage (I'm not sure I want to continue with this project), and some fabric to make Xmas/birthday gift bags and fabric gift wraps.
Now that I have the overlocker, the latter will be made a lot easier. As there are now less than 60 days until Christmas, I should really get on board with this one, although I do already have a lot of gift wrapping stuff in the loft, so it's not crucial that it gets done. I'd really like to empty the basket of projects by the end of the year and then my mind can dream up new and exciting things to make next year.
We forgot to watch Celebrity Traitors on Wednesday night, and having seen a spoiler at the gym, we made sure to watch it on Thursday night, before watching that night's episode.
On Friday, I woke up to the sound of scaffolders outside adjusting the scaffolding on next doors house. I wasn't impressed. I thought maybe they'd taken our scaffolding away, but no, it's still there, for how much longer I don't know.
I got up and ready and headed downstairs. I did some laundry and then spent the morning doing a few clothing alterations at the kitchen table. Two of them were the dungaree dresses I made. I needed to re-hem them and make them shorter. I'd worn one on Monday and it was just too long, which made it difficult to get in and out of the car. It had to be done or I just wouldn't reach for them, which would be a pity considering the time and effort I took making them. I'm happy with the outcome though.
The other alteration was to a COS top I bought from the charity shop. I just shortened it and re-hemmed it. I've included this alteration in a separate post. The final thing I did was to re-stitch together some black linen fabric strips I was going to use for weaving, but have subsequently decided to use as binding for the gilet. It will save me buying some and means that I can get on with it when I get the chance. The strippy scraps from all of these alterations was added to the weaving bag to be made into fabric yarn, as they were just the right width. That was enough sewing for me for this week. I decided to take a break from sewing for a day or so.
In the evening, OH and I watched the last episodes of Riot Women and Landman. I started a bit of weaving on my loom, but didn't get very far. We now need to look for something else to watch going forward. I'm definitely going to watch Tom Daley's new knitting programme starting Sunday night, but I don't think OH will be interested.
On Saturday morning, OH came to the free session at the gym with me. When we got back, we collected next door's dog and took him to our house for the day, as they were out all day. I took him for a lovely long walk. It was a beautiful day, I was really grateful for it, especially after all the rain we've had recently. I took a picture of next door's pumpkin en route. It's cool, but disgusting at the same time.
In the evening we watched a film on Netflix called Steve and starring Cillian Murphy and Tracey Ulman. It was a very good film, but a hard watch.
On Sunday, I did the weekly shop locally and a day early. I managed to get £8 off my shopping with a 10% off voucher at Lidl, which was a good saving. When I got back, I decided to clean the window sills in the kitchen and downstairs toilet. They'd got covered in paint dust when OH was preparing the outside windows for painting. Now he's finished, I could finally clean up and I made sure to rinse my plants too and give them a good watering. It was long overdue. Unfortunately, there was one plant casualty, which was beyond saving.
Later, I tackled the ironing basket, which was mainly full of towels, so it didn't take too long. We were going away for a few days on Monday, so it was good to get it done before we headed out.
Hope you had a good week.
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