All squared

This weekend is brought to you mostly by... squares.

Two long-simmering projects have finally been started.

First up, some patchwork cushions for the front room. I have a Moda "Snippets" charm pack and am attempting to squeeze two cushion covers out of it.

It will be close! I somehow forgot that the more seams you introduce, the less area of fabric you produce - duh!

And then there is the Barn Raising blanket , using leftover sock yarns. Again for the front room, for sofa-snuggling in the winter.

Nobody in my family believes I have the perseverance to knit an entire blanket out of squares. I am estimating I need to knit 144 of these, at 3 hours each... err, yes.

The plan is to knit at least one square a week to keep the momentum going. So watch this space for Square Sundays, when I will show you my progress!

Sources of Ethical Denim

Earlier this week I wrote about my obsession with a certain Japanese apron / dress and my intention to make it in "organic denim".

Little did I know how complicated a sourcing task I had set myself!

Recently (very recently) I bought my first-ever pair of organic denim jeans. They were expensive, but I decided that since my jeans last me several years and are worn every evening and weekend, it was a worthwhile expense - both ethically and in terms of "cost per wear". I love my new jeans! (From Howies.) But I digress.

Cotton production is notoriously un-ecological: the quantity of insecticides and pesticides used in farming, the water used in its processing. Quite apart from the exploitation of the workers who harvest the crop / spin the yarn / weave the cloth. Then it has to be flown half-way round the planet to the UK! So I was looking for an alternative: organically-grown, fairly-traded, utterly green denim. But I still wanted it to look like traditional blue-jeans fabric!

Here is what I found:

Soft organic, fairtrade dark blue pure cotton denim from EcoEarthFabrics, 1.2 metres wide, £16.50 per metre. This is my favourite, based on looks and texture!

Organic fairtrade cotton denim stripe from Gossypium, only £8.50 per metre. I don't want stripes, but it looks like good value.

70% bamboo / 30% organic cotton denim fabric, dark blue from Well Cultivated, 1.5 metres wide, £15 per metre Bamboo is very eco-friendly as it grows so fast, but it comes from the other side of the world!

Organic fairtrade cotton denim, in a range of colours (but not dark blue) from Organic Cotton, 1.2 metres wide, £9.95 a metre

Organic cotton panama in dark blue (but it isn't denim) from Greenfibres, £18.70 per metre.

If it didn't have to be blue, I also found some interesting hemp-mix fabrics. Hemp is allegedly the most eco-friendly choice of fabric because it can be grown in the UK:

A 70% Hemp / 30% Tencel fabric in plum from British Made Eco , £14.99 per metre. But this was imported from China, despite the fact that hemp can be grown in the UK.

A totally wild natural mix: 80% Hemp / 20% YAK (!) twill for £29.90 per metre from Greenfibres again. Not many yaks in Aberdeenshire.

I am probably going for the first one in my list, but I hope these links are of use to others!

Velcade Cycle 2, Day Two

Work commitments meant I couldn't drive FL to hospital for his Velcade today. His appointment was set for "1.30pm for 2pm" - they need a half-hour warning that he has arrived before calling up the drugs from pharmacy, as once they are out of the fridge, they have to be used.



He had this plan he would get a (free) pensioner's bus pass and take up his ex-wife's suggestion of an all-day-trip to the hospital. He got passport photos taken yesterday (eyes closed in all pictures!) especially to get the pass. However, luckily, it was raining heavily this morning and he couldn't face standing around in the storm waiting for a bus, so he is driving after all.



Yesterday, he took a dose of Dexamethasone by mistake (it was supposed to be his "off" day) so he won't be taking it today. So... despite being at work (two major Committee meetings) I was on standby to drive him home again if he "crashes" in energy after his Velcade. What a muddle!

However, he just texted me to say that he not only got a parking space outside the clinic door but was seen straightaway and is now visiting a friend - amazing! Who needs me, baby?!

FO: Pretty Floppy Thing

Back in the summer, I knitted the Scroll Lace shawl and convinced myself that I would make another one for my mother's Christmas. So I bought the yarn shown in the pattern: alpaca / silk sportweight from Old Maiden Aunt, colourway Ysolda. Gorgeous yarn!

But, as is so often the case, I chickened out, thinking my mother would never wear it. Instead, when the pattern for Pretty Thing came out, I decided this would suit my mum far better. But of course, my yarn was a bit thicker than the recommended one and I didn't have any circular needles in the right size.... so I went with 4mm. Because the cowl stitches just fitted round the cord, I couldn't really see what I was doing. I could tell I needed to reduce the overall height, so omitted one ten-row repeat. It was a quick and absorbing knit. I used the sewn bind-off described - how neat! A new technique!

And as I smoothed it out, I was feeling rather pleased with myself. My more open gauge makes it lacier, and less clingy - and I had a nagging worry that my mother would not want anything fluffy too close to her neck, so needed room for her coat collar underneath.

So I tried it on.

Noooooooo! It is too blinking big. The loose lace means it sags into a pathetic baggy roll of nothingness somewhere around the collarbone.

FL tried it on.

Errr... no. No, really, you can't wear that! My daughter says it looks as if he has a plaster cast round his neck.

But I'm told it is warm and soft.

Luckily, I have enough yarn to make another for my mother in a tighter gauge.

I have yet to hear what his pals said when he turned up at the pub with a ruff on.

Oh dear.

The Jane Eyre look

Image credit: Pomadour's shop at Ebay

"Let her stand half-an-hour longer on that stool, and let no one speak to her during the remainder of the day." (Jane Eyre)

My sewing momentum has fizzled out again, probably because I still haven't worn my new indigo and lime skirt. Why? It doesn't go with anything else I own. It WILL go with my Central Park Hoodie... but I haven't finished it yet!

So it was actually a relief to be seized by a new obsession. This apron dress appears in a Japanese pattern book which I do not own and do not intend to buy... yet.

Why do I like it so much? I think it is the combination of the denim* (it would have to be organic of course) with big pockets and the layered look. A large part of the attraction is the row of giant buttons peeking through the gap at the back, topped by a big bow. Then at the front, there is that super-flat Peter Pan collar over a wide boat neck.

She ought to be standing on a stool in a draughty Victorian orphanage. Or scrubbing the floor with a hard-bristle brush and carbolic soap. Or standing in her art studio, pondering a lump of wet clay.

It is a garment that speaks to me of utility and hard work, but also of creativity. And I want one! I don't think the under-dress is included in the pattern book, hence my hesitation to buy it. I have been tripped up that way before! I am hoping I can draft my own version of the"Tablier" using other Japanese patterns. The under-dress? Hmmm. Not so sure.

*ETA: The original is made of linen. The fabric can be bought from LinenBird in Japan via an online shop called Envelope. And I think that the same shop sells the apron ready-made, but I may be wrong. My Japanese is non-existent. But I will content myself with the book. Sigh. I need to buy the book now! Even though the under-dress is definitely NOT in there.

Velcade Cycle 2, Day One

Back at the hospital this morning. FL reported increasing numbness below the ankle, night cramps and breathlessness, but it was decided not to change his dosage of Velcade for the time being.

The doctor is going to check the "salts" in his blood to see if the cramp is due to a chemical imbalance. He had to get up three times last night.

Overall, he is doing pretty well. In a surprise move, he was back at golf yesterday!

Sofa sitcom

My front room this morning: note pair of blue sofas. Ignore the brown vinyl reclining chair with ripped mustard curtains covering the arms. (Ever watch Frazier? Remember his dad's chair? It's one of those situations.)

When I moved in with FL, we bought (second-hand) a pair of blue sofas: a 2-seater and a 3-seater. It was 6 months before we occupied the farmhouse (legal wrangles with his ex-wife) so when we came to move in, these sofas felt like part of the fabric of our home together. So it was disappointment when 3 grown men failed to get the 3-seater into the front room. I am told they tried everything.

So it was shoved into our bedroom, and the kids and I shared the 2-seater while FL sat in his chair. The kids are now teenagers and the three of us did not fit on the sofa. There were some rows. Someone always ended up sitting at the table. Often it was me, just to keep the peace.

But after the floods, I feared for my 3-seater sofa, which was backed up against the wall with a buffer of newspapers to save it from the pond in the middle of my bedroom floor. So yesterday I finally cracked. I persuaded my son that he and I could get the 3-seater into the front room while FL was out.

First, we had to remove the brown leather settee that FL had "found" and which none of us would sit on - not even him. It had become the place where he stored a month's supply of newspapers, dirty plates, junk mail and the occasional item of importance that none of us could bear to brave the heap to find. I had regular "discussions" with him, and he promised to tidy it, but I don't think it was ever fully cleared in over 4 years. It is now in the garage. Its contents have been filed / burnt / recycled / washed and put away.

Then my son and I went to move the 3-seater. It turned out to be much heavier than I ever imagined. I couldn't lift my end at all. My plan to take it out the front door and in the back was a non-starter. So we shuffled it through the house to prove the removal men wrong. My daughter got the camera and laughed at us. (She kept shouting "Pivot! Pivot!", which fans of Friends might appreciate.)

We wedged it in the bathroom door and tried to turn it. Nope. We backed it into the study. Nope.

Then my son had a brainwave and removed the castors. Ah ha! So we stood it on its end and pushed. Well, he pulled, I pushed. There was a cracking sound - oh that's just the draught-excluder on the door we can fix that later. There was a terrible creaking sound. Stop!

Too late! It shot through the door, and crashed to the ground, narrowly missing my daughter.

By some miracle, it is not broken.

And then another miracle occurred. FL came home, and after a second's pause said: "What I don't understand is why you still haven't got curtains for this room...?"

The kids and I stared at him open-mouthed. Because for 4 plus years we have been told that he didn't want the view obscured by curtains, so we have put up with not being able to see the TV during the day (it faces the window just out of the right-hand corner of this photo) and almighty draughts in the winter.

I am still reeling. And tomorrow I am off to buy a curtain pole before he changes his mind!