Saturday 7 June 2014

Patience and GCSEs

My son is currently in the thick of his GCSE exams.  He has 24 in total and 8 more to go. That's two and a bit weeks of me having to have endless patience and pretend to be super mum.  I don't really feel like that at the moment.  I have no free time, no patience, no personal space and yes, I'm super cranky at times.  Yes, its good that he wants me to help him with his revision but its just relentless and never ending.

Today, in between doing endless marking and helping the teenager with GCSE non-calculator maths revision, I've been trying to crack on with my sleeves for the on-going/never ending cardigan.  I've had to pull one side of my fronts back to the first butterfly because its clearly too taxing on my brain to count to one to five.  It was obviously just too difficult...how do I manage such glaringly OBVIOUS mistakes??? Where is the mind?  I ask you...at 48, I really just take a deep breath and relax.

Well, here's a photo for your amusement of the two fronts so far:
"life is like a butterfly"
It looks rather tiny but it won't be.  I still need to add the ribbing on the side and block it and add it to my beautiful back.  I'm on sleeve one.  As I've finished watching "The Story of Women in Art" on the bbc iplayer, I'll have to find something else to inspire me now.  Like the thought of not working in 6 and a half weeks for the remaining summer or that my son will finish his GCSEs soon...or that I am having my dinner made for me tonight by my wonderful other half.  Hope all's well for all of you.

Patience and a Piece of String

I would like to say that I would have more patience than I do these days but seriously, right now, no...that is not the case.  My son is in the thick of GCSE exams and I have no peace, no personal space, no free time that is truly my own.  He wants me to ask him questions, go through past papers with him, mark them and help him with things he doesn't understand...its constant and never ending.  Yes, I'm glad that he is trying his best but truthfully, we are both exhausted and I have painted the room blue with colourful language some days.

In between helping him with exams, I've been knitting.  I've finally finished my two fronts, backs and am currently doing the sleeves.  I had to unpick one second back to the first butterfly as there was two glaring mistakes I could not ignore no matter what and also, I did one butterfly too many...because obviously at 48, I'm incapable of counting correctly when there is 5 butterflies on one side. Its clearly too much on this taxing mind. What an idiot I can be.  I still have a LOT to do.  Blocking, adding the ribbing, etc.  But here's my fronts:
Yes, those are butterflies.
Yes, the very tops don't match exactly but it was the best I could do with the decreasing and following the pattern.  Its from my own pattern so fingers crossed...I've never knitted a cardigan from a pattern I've made myself.  Maybe I should put the pattern on raverly when I'm done.  I guess it depends upon how it looks and IF I can remember exactly what I did.

I have some fabric to make a dress but that is not going to happen this weekend.  Aw well...it will happen when it happens.

Sunday 1 June 2014

Two New Dresses

I'm hoping that the weather will be reasonable enough to wear two new dresses I made this past week.  I can hope.  They are both 100% cotton and from the Stylish Dress Book, one of my Japanese pattern books.  I got the book from Salts Mill and I've made two tops from it last summer.  I made them "large" even though, I'm hardly what I'd call a large person.

First off, the blue flower dress:
Pretty blue flowers
This dress should have been so simple to make but the neckline caused me no end of grief.  I kept getting confused which way to put the pieces and I had to unpick the neckline twice.   The original pattern called for five pleats in front but I opted for a gathered neckline instead.  I'm glad I did.  It hangs much nicer this way.

The second dress is fabric my son picked out.  Its a box style dress.  If I was to make it again, I'd make it a little smaller but live and learn.  Here's a picture of the end result:
It has two pockets on the front as well.
I figure I could actually wear this in slightly cooler weather with some tights and a long sleeve t-shirt underneath.  I'll probably wear this on weekends and when I'm not working.  Remember, stupid dress codes and other people's ideas about what you should and shouldn't wear.  I might be accused of having too much fun in this dress.  Enough of my whining.  Two dresses completed.  Oh how I love time off from work!