Progress is being made... but the list just keeps getting longer

Well, I’ve been off work for a week on leave and feel I have really achieved quite a bit. And not just with my sewing. I've tidied, and cleaned and the house and garden have never looked so good, I just wish there was some way to make it stay that way. I had intended to go on a couple of outings but they didn't happen because I had promised to help mum sort out her garage because there was a smell... the origin of the smell turned out to be a mouse!!!!!!!! Well, several actually. I felt very brave as I persuaded the first one into a box and took it down the road (with box held at arms length.. what I sight I must have been) to let it free in the fields behind the estate. However, more were found and professional reinforcement was needed so we stayed in, cleaned everything that was going back in, and got a skip for the rest. No sooner was this excitement over with, than my spaniel Purdy decided to rip her dew claw off playing with a football in the garden... naturally she did this on a Sunday, the Monday was a bank holiday. A call to the vet reassured me she didn't need to go in until Tuesday, when she had her annual appointment anyway. BUT, she wouldn't let the vet look at it on Tuesday.... so she had to be anasthetised just to have her claw examined and of course felt a bit nasty for two or three days afterwards. So no trips out. But I did get a lot of sewing done while she was sleeping off her anaesthetic.
The Marfy jacket is complete except for the hand sewing but that will take a while as I couldn’t find any fold over braid that was even remotely suitable so have had to get ordinary braid, and need to sew this to both sides of the front edges and collar. I think I needed eight metres of braid in total (bought ten just in case) so that is going to take quite a few evenings to sew on. Then I can sew down the lining at the hem and sleeves. I need to get inside the jacket to put on the buttons at the pockets and to sew on the braid so the lining hem will be the last step.

The vintage rib knit sweater is finally completed, and I am really pleased with the result. I realised why I was so pleased when I went to put it away… its almost the same as a much loved one that has been in the drawer for years, even the colour is close.
And here is a shot of the sweater.

I’ve also cast on my next sweater, in four ply cotton. Its another vintage pattern and has short sleeves and ribbed yoke. I’m departing from the pattern by knitting it in a circle until the underarm then I intend to split the knitting onto two sets of straights to complete the front and back and may try the afterthought sleeve from Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard… a book that has inspired me greatly. Not sure my skills are quite up to my ambition yet… but that’s never really stopped me in the past. This morning I learned two important knitting lessons. 1. Don’t knit when tired (stayed up til past midnight knitting). 2. How to fix incorrectly knitting stitches with the aid of a crochet hook. (a requirement resulting directly from failing to learn lesson one).

The first of this year’s Marfy patterns are also traced and altered. The skirt with the draped hip and the blouse that goes with it are on my sewing table waiting attention. I cut the blouse out last night and am hoping to tack that together over this week, in between working on the jacket and sweater. I am telling myself the blouse is a muslin, but am quietly hoping it will be wearable as I rather like the fabric… and its been one of those fabrics that started out as a “oh, that’s rather nice” and became “ooh, I really, really like this, its going to look good in this pattern”. It’s a poly print in navy with light blue lines which RuthieK gave me in February when she visited me.

And tomorrow, I have to go back to work, and I would much rather be sewing. I haven’t quite worked out why, but the more sewing I do, the more projects I seem to think up, and the longer my sewing list gets. Not a complaint, but does anyone know how this happens?