Mini Archie’s July Furtle Around The Blogosphere

Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something

Hello! This month has been unexpectedly productive so let’s crack on, shall we? But first, just a quick a reminder that you have until 10th August to link up your progress report for Fettle Those Finishes! 2025

I decided it was time to start tackling The Cupboard Of Possibilities and, to ease myself in, I started with the easiest shelf which was the one at the bottom. Part of the reason it’s easy is that some of it is taken up by the overlocker but the main reason is that most of it is taken up with yarn! While brushing my teeth one evening, I decided that I could let go of all the commercial* sock yarn leftovers and just keep the indie-dyed** ones (plus plain commercial leftovers which are great for contrast cuffs, heels and toes when you need to eke out the special leftovers) and I started a few days later by going through all the scrappy sock kits and removing all the commercial leftovers. I then went back through the remaining ones making sure I still liked the combinations and then checked everything against the sock lucky dip album and put it all back in the box. And, for the first time in a few years, all the scrappy sock kits fit easily into the box and I didn’t have to tie a ribbon round the middle of it to keep the lid closed! No before photo but here’s what it looks like now:

They’ve even got a bit of breathing room!

And here are all the leftovers which are going to be leaving for pastures new:

The difference in the weight of the box before and after was quite marked, as you can imagine. 

As I was putting the box back in, I decided to sort the bag of plain commercial yarn (some whole balls, some not) which sits next to it and is constantly getting in the way when I’m trying to slide the box back in and realised that it could be separated into two boxes which better fit the space. In doing so, I decided to move some of those on too; a decision made easier by the wish for them to fit in the easy-to-wrangle boxes rather than a massive Lakeland carrier bag! 

That seems to have started the ball rolling as I’ve now sorted all the shelves! There has been a bit of a coincidence in timing as I’m taking a short course of medication which simultaneously causes insomnia and provides a bit of a bounce of energy for me and uncomplicated sorting, tidying and playing cupboard/shelf Tetris interspersed with pots of tea was the perfect way to spend a few nights where there was precious little (or even no) sleep to be had. I’ve chosen to let go of quite a lot of stuff and had two mantras/questions I asked myself as I was going through boxes if I was dithering about keeping something:

- Would I buy it?

- Would it make my life simpler/easier if I kept it?

It’s surprising how often the answer to both of those questions is a resounding no! And, as always, I had a one-touch policy: don’t take it out and set it aside to deal with later, deal with it there and then and move onto the next item. And completely finish one box/shelf before moving onto the next.  (As you may be able to tell, I love a sort out/tidy up!)

One quilt is under review after I realised that I wasn’t sure I wanted to finish and keep it but that will have to wait until my friend comes round to offer her opinion and talk it through with me.

I’m not declaring it a fettled finish yet as I haven’t updated the key (which helps me know which box something is in and whereabouts in the cupboard it can be found) or the map (which shows exactly where in the cupboard each box is and which boxes are near/next to/on top of/under it) but I’ve ordered something this afternoon which I think will be much better than the scrappy lists in a reporter’s notebook I’ve been consulting for the past few years (why did I decide to use both sides of the page? Why didn’t I stick to the well-established protocol of only writing on one side and thus save the frustration of flipping the wrong way? It’s not like I was short on paper but I think it was meant to be a first draft as I thought I might need to rearrange things as I got used to the cupboard but I didn’t so I didn’t) and the scrawled map on a folded A4 page which I meant to copy out neatly but never got round to. Even better, it was in the sale so much cheaper than I expected which means it feels like a reasonable and justified purchase rather than sheer extravagance. 

* Yarn by the big yarn brands like West Yorkshire Spinners, Regia and Opal

** Yarn dyed and sold by small businesses, often sole traders or family-run. 

Although I knew I had them, when doing the cupboard, I fished these lovely tea towels out. I originally bought them because I’d bought an identical pack and made tote bags for Christmas presents and loved the fabric so much that when I spotted them in the Boxing Day sale, I snapped them up to make pouches. Thing is, I don’t really need any more pouches so do you have any other suggestions? (I also don’t need any more tote bags, in all honesty!) I suppose I could make one very fancy pouch or bag (the sort with different compartments and lots of zips?) at some point rather than the Lola pouches I’d envisioned? 

Okay, it’s worse than I thought: I thought I’d see if I could find a photo of the bags I made with the first pack and I made them in 2015 and by 3/1/16 I’d blogged about them and bought this set! I knew I’d had them a while but not approaching ten years.

At the start of the month, I also decided that it was finally time to finish the painting of the Toglet theatre so that I could get the work table clear and put the tin of paint, brushes and pinny away. I’ve been painting this on and off (more off than on if I’m honest) for what feels like years but I only (only!) bought the paint towards the end of May last year so while it’s been far longer than I expected, it’s not a shock like the age of the pack of tea towels. I did buy the display unit in August 2021 though so…

This is it before its final couple of coats of paint on the front but I wanted to see what it looked like against something other than the plastic liner bags from boxes of cereal which were protecting my cutting mat underneath and while this might not be the fabric I choose (although I do love it but I’m wondering whether paper might be easier to dust?), I’m thrilled with how a small print looks as the background. 

Mini Archie has been keeping busy while keeping me busy/snoopervising the sorting out:

I did say I was going to crack on wif knitting this sock because you clearly
wasn’t going to *pleased face*

Linking up to the July Furtle 

If you're linking up, please add a link (one per person, please) to your blog post, which could contain: a mosaic of all you've made in the month, something you've made/started/worked on, a goal which you'd like to achieve in the next month (and then in next month's post you can reflect on that goal and set yourself another one - I find this particularly handy if I'm in the midst of a big project and finding the making of hundreds of blocks to be interminable), anything crafty you'd like to share. This isn't just for sewing or quilting, but is for all crafts so if you knit, make lace, make clothes, do anything which could come under the heading of 'craft', then please link up. Please visit the link immediately before and after you and leave an encouraging comment, and more if you can manage it - we all know that comments create joy, so let's spread some around. Also, please treat all the linked posts and their authors with respect - I want this to be an inclusive space for all crafters and crafts and all are welcome. If you're not sure if you're welcome or you belong, you do - this is by no means a closed space and if you want to join, then you are most welcome. If you need help linking up, please leave a comment and I will do my best to help. Please add the Furtling button to your blog post: copy the code below and paste it into your blog post - it should then magically appear when you publish your blog post (I'll do my best to help if you have any problems) and it will help people find the Furtling page with all the details of the link up.

<p style="text-align:center"><a href="https://archiethewonderdog.blogspot.com/p/furtling.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTXDD7-BYr5nXJtGn7HIFUcDUZfLGBTpazWKP8TCUWdkA6zd2285lbJX4aoMug6QyKDdxtxA-njWnhvf0GugU-An4z5lTFcqmYnae0Gb68FR0ZmydWYETGSa2oF1NeQDMVNwZBnUHTpsD7/s200/textgram_1548790799.png" alt="Archie The Wonder Dog" /></a></p>

To link up, go to the link at the bottom of this page and click on 'link up' (it's a blue button) and then add your link (website URL), a title (this could be your blog name but could also be something interesting to draw people to it (keep it clean!) if you prefer), and your email. This last one doesn't appear on the link (I will have access to it - I won't use it unless there's a problem and I need to contact you) so don't worry that you're about to share your email address with the world (or the handful of people who find this link), you're not! The link will remain open until 10th August; if you're seeing this post after this date, I'm afraid you can't link up to the July Furtle, but you can link next month if you like.

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