Archie The Wonder Dog

Well, it’s that time of year. Although, as someone who went through (and then worked in) the English education system, this is completely the wrong time of year to be getting or writing an end of year report* but I’ve always thought it made sense to tie the academic year to the calendar year so I’m embracing it.  *Fortunately, we don’t have to participate in sports day/end of year plays/school discos but there can be Toy Day and Big Toy Day if you fancy. Don’t bring anything with lots of small parts or which is very expensive or very new. You are entirely responsible for making sure you have all the correct toys and all the component parts with you at home time. I’ve been trying to decide how to write my report and have decided that I will stick with pictures, for the main. It’s at this point that I am making a note to 2023 me not to delete photos of finished objects until I’ve written my Fettle Those Finishes Report. In this instance, tidying as you go does not make life easier. S...

Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something Hello! I’ve made some progress on my socks since last I furtled, I’m a way off a finished pair of socks, but I’m just glad I can do some knitting some days, even if it is only for a few minutes each time. My elbow and shoulder are still sore, but I think my elbow is a bit better than it was, which is nice. After putting up with watching telly and only watching telly (that’s harder than you think - what do other people do while watching telly if they don’t sew or knit? Eat sweets?!), I decided to see if I could do some pinning so fetched the Summersville blocks down and over about a fortnight, I pinned them in sets of three. Then, over the next week and a bit, I (machine) sewed the seams - I can only do four (that’s seams, not rows) before I have to stop, but all progress is welcome and I now have lots of seams to press. I suspect that will have to be done a (very) little at a time, too, so I’ll set the ironing boa...

Furtle (v): to have a rummage or delve into the contents of something Hello! Spring has sprung!! At the start of the month, I looked at my photos of the garden from the start of lockdown last year (most of which contain Mini Archie hiding in various spots) and couldn't believe the difference in how much green there was in them.  I looked at the garden and didn't think it would be anywhere near by the time the 24th (one year anniversary of Mini Archie's first Lockdown Hide) came round, but it is almost there and it's lovely to look out of the window and see the fresh spring green. And with the cheery thought of plants springing into life, let's look at what I've made this month: I finished the pair of socks I was knitting last time: You may notice that neither sock looks exactly like the finished one I showed last month, and that's because I got halfway down the foot of the second sock and ran out of yarn! So I unpicked the toe of the first one and pulled ...

Hello! Time is definitely returning to normal, I think. Although the afternoons and evenings (particularly the latter) seem to be travelling very quickly, so maybe normally-moving is a way off yet?! This month has been quite a busy month for sewing.  About halfway through it, I realised that there were six months left of the year (do I get a prize for that revelation?), that I have twenty-four low volume scrappy trip blocks left to make and that the first goes nicely into the second and I could have all the blocks made by the start of 2021 if I got a shift on. At that point, there were sixteen days left in July, so I had four days to make each block if I was going to stick to my newly-set target of four blocks a month. So far, I've managed three and am a good way through the fourth (I might have finished it before this post, but I've spent far too long wrestling with my elderly laptop and coaxing it into working) and here they are: At the start of the month (I...

Hello!  I feel like time is (sort of) returning to normal because June feels like it's been about the right length.  I wonder whether July will follow suit? I hope you've had a good month and are ready for a furtle? I haven't mentioned my first project at all until now, either here or on instagram, perhaps because I've been so caught up in the daily games of  #WheresMiniArchie that posting anything else seemed a chore? After last month's Furtle, I realised my furtling had not been thorough and I hadn't mentioned two things I'd done/started in May - I think I'm on the Bad Furtlers list! I knitted these socks for a friend (using my default cuff-down pattern from Regia, which comes free with Regia sock wool) and the yarn is Made By Penguins ' rainbow speckle sparkle yarn in a merino/nylon 4ply.  I'm afraid you can't get it now as Lisa-Lou does a special range of dyed-to-order rainbow yarns each year and this year's have a...

Hello!  I feel time may have just about returned to normal in May, it seems to have been about the right length?  Maybe a little longer than usual?  I mean obviously, the end of the month comes round quickly (or rather the day before the end of the month, which is when I generally write and schedule this post), but that's perfectly normal unless, of course, what the end of the month signifies is your pay packet arriving.  In that case, the end of the month arrives incredibly slowly because that's the rule. I think that's enough of my tenuous grasp of the concept of time, let's see what I've done in May. First up, I've finished the thirty-second LV scrappy trip block: And I was getting low on LV squares so I've spent quite a while printing (using quilt stamps ) and cutting out about twelve squares from each of the LV fabrics I've bought/been sent since I first cut out all the squares: And I've got all four narrow border s...