I like making things: October 2019

Monday, October 28, 2019

Our house feels like home again

Whilst the house was on the market and people were traipsing through to view it, it just didn't feel like home any more. Once we had a prospective buyer and we started packing and has boxes and totes everywhere it was even worse.

Stuff is still packed in boxes and totes but they are behind closed doors for now in closets and cupboards.

We know we have to sell and move but for the next few months until we see if we can get my husband's heart issues sorted and Thanksgiving and Christmas done it is back to being home.

I have even started on knitting Mary!

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Well that's that then!

As suspected, the buyers of our house didn't get the financing. I am a tad annoyed (slight understatement here!) as they were told from the get go that the house would qualify for a conventional mortgage but not a VA mortgage. They insisted on going the VA route because they didn't have the down payment for a conventional loan and of course, it was a no go. The VA wanted a series of repairs done to grant the mortgage. We had spent all our money on doing the other things I have been blogging about so we were not able to do them and besides we had dropped the price by $10,000 to accommodate the repairs. The house was appraised at $20,000 more than our asking price in it's current condition but VA would not budge.

We knew this would be the case from the get go so why the buyers wasted their and our time is a mystery. The realtor had made it really clear to them that a VA loan wouldn't work.

For now we have taken it off the market. My husband has been diagnosed with more heart issues and has been told no more stress and no more hard physical work. He is restricted to gentle exercise like walking until they decide if they are going to do more procedures on him. Ablation is what they are looking at where they scar the inside of the atrial chambers to stop the atrial fib and atrial flutter he is having.

I have managed to get some unpacking done but my sewing room is still in disarray with totes everywhere. Perhaps later this week I will get around to sorting it all out.

Prior to the past month or so's goings on I did manage to knit Joseph. Maybe I will get Mary and Jesus done in time for Christmas, I seem to have lost my mojo right now. The rest of the characters will have to be a next year project.

Here is Joseph, I am quite happy with how he turned out and the characters are quite a bit bigger than I thought they would be,

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Traumatised

It has been a roller coaster ride since my last post. On the day we had set for taking the house off the market we got an offer. We had reduced the price of the house and they knocked it down a bit more. On the strength of their offer and their timing we put an offer in on a house much nearer to the VA hospital which was accepted with a contingency that our house closed on the 16th of this month.

They have not got their finance sorted yet which means it won't close for another 5 or 6 weeks at the earliest even if they do. That seems doubtful right now. So we will have to forfeit the house we have an offer on.

It is a horrible time, we are half packed, in a state of limbo and I am close to breaking point.

Glad you stopped by

I started this blog in 2011: Ever since my Mum taught me to knit at the age of about six or seven I have made things. Back then it was doll clothes. I was also inspired by Mrs Levitt an elderly lady who had a sewing room in a conservatory type room on the back of her house. I would sit and watch her in awe as she sewed.

When I was a child living in England the school system was such that you started at 5 years, did two years in Infant School, then four years in Primary School then five to seven years in Secondary School, depending on whether you chose to stay on after fifth form to get qualifications to go to University. I can't remember much of the Infant school other than making the standard square doily thingy from fabric that had holes in it so you could embroider patterns into it. A bit like the modern day cross stitch fabric but with bigger holes and spaces to make it easy for small hands to use. I also remember with great joy getting a toy sewing machine one Christmas which sewed only chain stitch but I did make doll clothes on it and that was before I started Primary school. I do have very vivid recollections of Primary school and having sewing and knitting lessons. In Primary school I knitted gloves and made a dress from scratch hand sewing it all.

Secondary school continued on with sewing by which time I had progressed to using full sized sewing machines and was making more intricate skirts and dresses. My parents bought me a proper sewing machine when I was thirteen. I used that same machine right up until I emigrated to Canada at age forty six years.

I have always had a fascination for sewing machines and knitting machines. I bought my first knitting machine at around age twenty one from an ad in a newspaper for twelve pounds. I had absolutely no idea what one was just that I wanted one. I trundled on the bus to the address in the advert and handed over my twelve pounds having absolutely no idea what I had really bought. Fortunately it came with a manual. It was an aged Knitmaster, very basic and I loved it. I wore it out. Next was a Brother push button one which I didn't keep because it was at a time in my life when things were difficult. Later on in my life, around forty, when things were better I bought a brand new Brother punchard machine with a ribber attachment. I loved it and made many things. Life took a different turn, I moved countries twice and along the way, regrettably I sold it.

Now, through the universe's blessing I now have another machine. It is a vintage one because they stopped making them early 90's but works perfectly and I love it. So I decided to make this blog to document my knitting progress and include sewing projects.

In 2013: we embarked on a new hobby, leather-work. My husband got started with it and it drew me in. It is something we can do together. We have a workshop so have plenty of room to work. We added another workbench for me to work on in 2013. We already had one but we were tripping over each other both trying to work at it. We only make things we want to make. It is strictly a hobby. We made some things for our good neighbours who help us out a lot. I am also working on Christmas presents. So this blog now incorporates the leather-work. Knitting and sewing will always be my first love though.

Fast forward to 2023 and now age almost 75 years. I have seven sewing machines, four knitting machines, several ribber attachments and a garter carriage for one of the machines. I am blessed beyond words, but I know that I have more than enough machines to keep me going in my lifetime so I don’t think I will be adding to my collection any time soon……….unless a nice embroidery machine manifests itself very cheaply.

I am a Brit living in the USA, sometimes I spell like a Brit and sometimes like an American. Sometimes I use slang and even make grammatical errors. I blog for the pleasure of it and to record my endeavours in the event that my memory fades, as I am sure it will with more age. I will be able to look back and remind myself of the things I have made along the way. So please forgive my mistakes when reading about my life making things here in the hinterlands and I hope you get as much enjoyment from my blog as I do from reading the blogs I follow.