I like making things: January 2024

Monday, January 29, 2024

The sun is shining! Yay!

It's been a cold gloomy few weeks here. We travelled to the VA hospital the night before my husband's surgery and were able to stay in The Fisher House on the VA grounds. What a lovely facility for families of veterans in the hospital. I was built last year and only opened late in the year.

There was an ice storm and so the hospital had very few employees able to get into work so his surgery was postponed to the next day. Met some lovely folks, both guests and staff whilst we were staying there. Surgery went well but stayed one more night as he had several appointments the following day there.

Lot's more appointments scheduled for the future.

I saw my doctor for the follow up after my trip to the ER and am awaiting a call to go get a heart monitor patch fitted which I have to wear for a week or more.

We found a new place to board our dog. A lady in a town on the way to the hospital boards in her house and is extremely flexible with her hours so Maggie stayed there while we were away and seemed to be very settled there. Much better for her than the vets boarding kennels where she is in a kennel all the time.

The sun is shining today and everything seems so much nicer with the sun on it.

I have been trying to not get stressed over things and taking time to enjoy things. I watched Bambi 2 at the weekend and it was lovely. I made a Thank You card and am generally taking things a bit easier. Only one other episode that I was aware of and that was 8 days ago so fingers crossed.

And finally, our Kansas City Chiefs are going to the Super Bowl. Go Chiefs!!!

Sunday, January 14, 2024

Unable to reply or comment on my own blog!

I have been unable to reply to the folks that kindly left comments on my last post and I was unable to leave a comment on my own blog too. Sometimes Blogger just goes awry. I am not able to leave comments on other folk's blogs either. Hopefully it will get resolved. But please know I appreciate all the kind words posted in the comments.

XXXXX

Saturday, January 13, 2024

It has been a rough month or more

Christmas was very enjoyable with good food and lovely presents. We were very thankful for that.

But, things have just kept going wrong. The new streaming TV set up has caused us many problems and just when we thought we fully understood it all Youtube TV decided that the TV was not at it's home location so we couldn't watch some programs that we should have been able to. Everything is linked to our cell phones and the phone wouldn't update the location even though we were sat right in front of the TV with it. Very annoying! But it seems to be OK right now.

Our waste pipes got clogged and we had to call the guys out who clean out pipes and they got their vehicle stuck in our back yard. Just a few weeks ago I blogged about our furnace going out. That was fixed successfully albeit quite costly.

My UK bank card got flagged and I couldn't use it. This was particularly troublesome as we pay some of our monthly bills using that card and it took weeks to get it unflagged and lots of costly cell phone calls to the UK. And that brought up another problem as our new phone system provided through our new internet company does not do international calling but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I could use my cell phone to make these calls....but it ain't cheap!

They told me to put their bank app on my phone and I would have much more access to my bank details than I do on my internet banking. Well, that sounded good so I tried to get that working but at the exact time a call from the bank giving me the access code for the app, another call came in and the bank call went to voicemail and it was a one off deal! Eventually spoke to someone in the UK who told me how to resolve that issue so that now works OK.

My husband had his surgery postponed and now we have to make the 300 mile round trip in really bad weather conditions in a weeks time.

There were other weird things happening too and it all culminated in me having to call an ambulance yesterday as I was having a rapid pulse and felt feint, nauseous and out of breath. It seems I went into atrial fib too. The hospital calmed it down and let me home and now I have to follow up with my doctor and see a cardiologist. The paramedics had problems getting an IV in the back of either of my hands and had to put one in at the crease in my elbow but I have two very black and blue backs of my hands.

Thinking it couldn't get much worse, this morning our current internet security which I thought I had taken off automatic renewal took an largish annual payment out of our account. We did not intend to continue with this company so I was not happy about that.

I decided not to stress over it though as I did not want a repeat of yesterdays heart thing.

We are in the midst of a very, very cold spell but are grateful for a warm home and warm meals.

Hope all is well in your worlds......

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.