I like making things: November 2025

Friday, November 28, 2025

One of the pitfalls of moving to the city!

Being close to everything is great. Unfortunately, that means we are closer to people. And it is cold and flu season, and yes, I caught a really bad cold, and then my poor husband caught it from me. This was inevitable as we are 'joined at the hip.'

So I have spent a lot of time resting and watching TV. Today I am feeling a bit better, so I caught up with some chores and cooking.

We postponed our Thanksgiving meal until Sunday; hopefully my husband will be well enough by then to enjoy it. If not, we will postpone to the following weekend.

Saturday, November 22, 2025

Here it is in situ!

Here is the dresser we bought for a TV table.

Such an improvement. Very happy with how it fits right in.

Thursday, November 20, 2025

Trying to find some Christmas spirit!

I am at that time of year again when I need some Christmas enthusiasm. I am like this every year and then I usually find some inspiration from somewhere. So far it isn't happening!

Maybe it is because we have the house almost sorted now and I want a break. I don't want to mess it up by getting all the Christmas stuff out.

Tomorrow, if all goes to plan, we will be purchasing a beautiful oak dresser that we will put in the living room to put the big TV on. We let our other one go when we moved and have the TV currently sitting on two bedside tables. This actually looks okay, as we have a nice little table sitting between them, and it kind of resembles a unit, but it was only meant to be temporary.

I found this oak dresser on Marketplace, and it is beautiful. In it's day it would have cost a fortune, as it is a very expensive brand. Their current furniture prices are astronomical!

It is just the size we need for our TV and the drawer space will be very useful. It will hide all the cables and speaker wires behind it, unlike the existing setup.

This era of furniture may not be to everyone's taste, but we love it, and it complements everything else in our home.

The cost is very reasonable but as we don't have a means to pick it up we have to hire 2 guys and their truck to pick it up and carry it into the house for us, bumping up the price. But we are still very happy.

This will be the last thing we buy for the house for a while. It is finally beginning to feel like home.

Although, after looking at the existing picture, I think a new doggy mattress is in order, the camo just doesn't go in this house lol.

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.