Artfully

A nice surprise arrived yesterday in the form of Artful Blogging magazine. There's an article about Whip Up and I had a couple of photos featured.

There's some great articles in it too. It feels a little strange to be reading about Moonstitches and Simple Sparrow (amongst a varied array of other creative blogs) on heavy printed paper, but it's wonderful to find out a little more behind the blogs.

Certainly plenty to muse on in addition to enjoying the thrill of seeing my work in print.
(Also mentioned on Whip Up here)

Feature white bricks

I took a moment this morning, prior to reinstating the temporary shower screen (which promptly fell down half way through my shower. Doesn't everything go wrong when you're in a head cold headache induced daze?) to take some photos of the bathroom. It's looking so much better now without the blue plasterboard, and it's exciting to see the transformation take shape with each bit of work. White grout is yet to be applied, so the joints will read a lot less than they do at the moment.

After much debate over the tiling layout (assisted by an exercise in carefully propping loose tiles in various arrangements) we settled on a regular grid (stack bond if you will) layout for the tiles. I'd always had it fixed in my head that they were going to be staggered, brick bond like, as a counterpoint to the painted brickwork, but it just didn't work. Sometimes I think I should be able to see and judge these things better in my head, but I can't, and I'm trying not to let myself think that I'm not a good architect because of that. I'm trying to let myself accept that it's OK to play with things full size, real life, to figure them out. At least you can do that with your own bathroom. Pity you can't always do that with larger buildings.

We're also still debating (well I am at least, I don't know wether my client/head contractor/maintenance man/husband is) whether the tiles should go to the top of the wall. I think they should, and I'm kicking myself for not seeing this before. Or perhaps we could make do with some more plaster at the top on the brickwork wall. Either is going to look better than a little bit of red painted brick poking out at the top there. But we'll see. More in-situ mockups will be trialed I'm sure.

Red

Just a little bit of red around here of late. Seasonal changes have given us a house full of red, snotty noses. My head cold seems to have degenerated into a throat infection, giving me the perfect excuse to lounge on the sofa as much as possible and knit whilst watching old episodes of Spooks (instead of painting the red brick wall in the bathroom).

As a result the red kaftan is knitted (that must be a land speed record for me) and I'm enduring the annoyance of waiting for it to finish drying after a quick pre-seam blocking.

Scott took a little break from the bathroom tiling (still waiting for the vanity to arrive......) to whip up a little trolley for C. It still has a bit of work to go- some more shaping (to get rid of those lovely sharp corners) and sanding and shellacing. It's so cute, and will undoubtedly be getting a good workout now that C has started pulling himself up to stand (Yes, Wow, Gosh they grow up fast don't they?).
And to close, a bit of C playing Sock On Head. Or perhaps it was me playing Sock On Head. Either way, hours of entertainment for both of us.

Progress Stats

Item 1: Nautilus Socks

(Pattern by Anna Bell, knitted in Fleece Artist Merino Sock Yarn, colour Origin)

Status:
Started June 2006. Stalled (yet again) because I realised when I got to the heel that the second sock is knitting up at a completely different tension to the first sock (as evidenced by the contrasting colour spirals, and confirmed by a quick count of the lace pattern repeats). Should I frog or carry on knitting regardless? Maybe. Maybe not. Can't decide. Stalled.

Item 2: Kaftan

(Pattern and yarn from Debbie Bliss. Minus the embroidery. I just don't get embroidery on knitting. And it's a bit too feminine for C)
Status:
I'm craving opportunities to sit and knit this. I cast on a "tension sleeve" (When I'm too lazy to swatch first, I just start a sleeve. If it seems to be turning out OK just keep on knitting.) at S'n'B last weekend and now I'm two sleeves down and a third of the way up the back. Totally unprecedented knitting progress for me. But then, I feel like I can indulge in some knitting time now that the drawings are off with the builders, and the yarn (Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino) is so divine to knit. Like buttered silk in your hands. Divine.

Item 3: Bathroom

(being created on a very tight budget that didn't allow for anywhere near enough tubes of silicone)
Status:
Ongoing. Feels so much more complete now that we have a solid, finished, watertight floor. A slow week but ticking along OK. Grouting is a nerve wracking business. It's so hard timing things around baby naps (the bathroom is right next to his room) and other necessities (like a little bit of time out every now and then). And there are so many little steps in the process, which all need to happen in an appropriate order, with appropriate drying times and such. There's still some more black grouting to happen around the bath before we get on with the white wall tiles. I'm planning to start re-painting the brickwork this week too, being as it should be quiet enough that I can do it while C's sleeping. But you know, I'd rather be knitting so it's going to take some will power...

joint lines

The transformation of the bathroom continues with the laying of black tiles*.

The whole process is a learning experience in ways that I hadn't imagined. I'm used to planning and scheming and thinking about the design, and documenting it, and then letting someone else make it happen. But on this project the process has been more rubbery. I'm a partner in the designing and making, and my co-worker doesn't think and visualise the same way I do. We have differences of opinion, accompanied by discussions and debates, and inevitably, changes of plan.
Like when a hearty discussion in the car one day led to a complete backflip on the tiles we used on the front and ledge around the bath. A really good change I think. A reminder that sometimes it's good to be open to rethinking and reconsidering as things progress, to leaving some things not set in stone. To pause, and examine closely, and think openly.

Elsewhere in the project, after running around in concentric circles for far too long trying to find a basin/vanity, and with new clarity of vision now that the black tiles are nearly all laid, we have at last found The Right Vanity. Right price, right colour, right style. Now I need to see whether the budget can stretch to The Right Toilet too.

*Black grout to be applied over the next week or so. White wall tiles to be laid next weekend

A treat

You know how lovely it is to give yourself a treat every now and then. To let yourself do something, go somewhere, buy something, or whatever, just because you need a treat.

I did that the other week. I gave in to the temptation of seeing this fabric at Purl Soho (Norwegian text perhaps? Kris??), and a few clicks later a little package was on it's way to me, for no reason other than I felt like I needed a treat, and I wanted to think about something other than the bathroom (In my defense, some of it was on sale, and I had been admiring it from afar for quite a while).

Not straying far from home renovations, when I saw the fabric I found myself instantly thinking about the upcoming transformation of our kitchen, and thinking that surely I was going to need to sew a few new things to display in there.
Maybe a simple tea cosy or two.
Some potholders.
Trim some plain white linen tea towels.
Make an apron even.

And now that I've finished (yes, at last, after WAY too long, FINISHED.) the construction drawings for the Extension, I feel like I can allow myself another treat and blog about the new fabric in the stash. This kind of makes up for the fact that it's likely to be months before I sew anything with it.



PS, Thanks for the overnight nappy ideas. It's good to know we're not the first to come across this annoyance!

knitting

I need to knit.

It helps me stay (or perhaps just to get?) calm.

It helps to take my mind off the surrounding household chaos (momentarily abated by a quick tidy the other day, shoving things back into boxes and bags and into cupboards, or the bin, or the garage. Anywhere out of sight is fine, really).

It helps take my mind off the myriad of other things that I know I need to be doing but momentarily (hopefully) don't have the headspace for.

It helps me to ignore the ringing stuffiness in my head from lack of good sleep. Not that C's not a good sleeper. He is. But he's taken to waking up at 4.30 or 5.00am with a leaking wet nappy (any night time nappy tips gratefully received. Yes we have tried larger sized nappies, and they seem to end up full to bursting too. And I have against my preferences tried Huggies) and I'm having difficulty getting back to sleep afterwards. The thought of starting work, and really having to be able to think, in 6 weeks or so (I haven't had a close look at the calendar) is increasingly frightening.

*Only one smocked dishcloth because it involved too much brain power. Grandmother's favorite on the other hand- well, I can even knit that in the dark. All knitted on 4mm Brittany Birch needles with Bendigo Woolen Mills 8 ply cotton. Destined for hard labour in my home or someone else's. And now that I've finished (near enough) that ball of cotton, I'm trying to finish the second of these socks, before getting into some winter baby knitting.

Bathroom report

It was a busy weekend for the head contractor (aka my husband), hammering in a gazillion nails into the cement sheet flooring, and then siliconing the joints and applying the waterproof paint. We think there is a danger that the bathroom will remain standing when the rest of the house eventually falls apart.

What a huge impact this weekend has made on the room. You can really see and feel the space. There's room to move (especially having moved all of the tools and offcuts back into the shed outside). The layout seems so right, and simple, and obvious that it's hard to remember what it was like with the old bath and vanity.

This week we continue to plan vanity construction and next weekend we attempt to lay tiles.
Oh, and this week I also try to catch up on a self imposed deadline for the extension plans which expired about a month ago. I'm no good at self imposed deadlines.

And so, some sewing

It seems like eons since the craft retreat, but at last I've managed to photograph some of what I made, and also managed to make some progress on some things I started then.

First up some sleep sacks, needed as the colder weather approaches. I made two, exactly the same, with copious input from others. The pattern was drafted from some vague ideas about what size it roughly needed to be (sized hopefully to last for a year or so). A loose fit is perfectly acceptable, and the stretchy materials (cotton interlock and polyester fleece) provide some extra give, so precise measurements and a "real" pattern weren't needed. I have to say I've always been a bit scared of working with stretch fabrics for some reason, but I felt a bit more confident having some more experienced stretch sewers with me, and it was of course far easier than I imagined it might be.

Pleasingly they not only fit (with the sleeves rolled up a few times), but C seems quite happy sleeping in them (I'd been warned that not all babies do). I still want to make one more, and have been thinking of making a couple in a heavier weight too, because our house tends to get quite chilly in the wilds of winter (you know, no insulation in the walls will do that).

To go with the sleep sacks, nap times have also been revoloutionised by the re-heading of C's sleep toys. He managed to chew through the ears of two of his muslin sleep toys, so I decapitated them all and remade the heads with cotton interlock. Much more sturdy and they passed inspection as you can see above.

Other projects that I started on the craft weekend, and have been trying to finish (in occasional short bursts of sewing after dinner) are a little hooded jacket (Pattern from this Makie book) made with scraps from the sleeping sacks (requiring a few extra seams down the centre of the sleeves and back, which I made into a "feature" with some top stitching) and another kimono buttoned shirt.

I've been trying to finish the shirt in too much of a inpatient hurry, keen to get some use out of it before he grows out of it. I really need to unpick and redo the neck edging with something more appropriate (the brown cotton tape doesn't have enough give to sit properly) and a bit more patience to get it right. Currently it seems to be stalled, but I really need to get on with it (and everything else I've been daydreaming about sewing) because sewing opportunities are set to rapidly deminish as the next phase of renovations and my return to paid employment creep closer.

First in...

C christened the bath last night.
Cheers all round.
Now it's just a few finishing touches left. Ha!
In reality, it will be slower going from now on, with work confined to weekends and evenings. And with a bit of a delay on the vanity front because the one that we finally manged to negotiate agreement on was discontinued the day before I went to order it. [insert silent scream here]
Never mind. The chief laborer is now looking at building one from scratch instead.
But at least we can bathe at home now.

And most readers will be pleased to here that there will be some textile craft blogging in the next few days.

What a difference a day makes

It may not look very different from Day 8, but a great deal has happened.
We are all recovered from gastro.
The final loads of washing are in the machine.
The bath is secured, it has a tap and a spout and a drain, and the mortar bed is setting.
Tonight we'll be showering at home, surrounded by a sea of temporary plastic curtains.
And the home that I grew up in, where my parents have lived for 30 years, is SOLD, and they are moving across the country to live closer to us. It is so strange to think of someone else making that house into their home. I wonder how they might live in it. Who will sleep in each room. What they will change, for we changed it so much while we were there. So strange to think of cutting such a substantial tie to that city, to the life that I led there. Who knows when I will visit next, where I might stay, what I might choose to do there. It seems like an appropriate counterpoint to our current creative activities, making and marking our home here.