Friday 17 June 2016

Wendy's Week - Kitty Cuddles & Compelling Yarns

Hello, lovely people, I hope you are having a great week and the sun is shining brightly where you are!

It's been a bit quiet around this blog over the last few weeks, I didn't intend to miss so many weeks of posting, but I've been a little in the doldrums lately which has meant I haven't really felt like posting or doing anything much worth posting about. Anyway I am attempting to pull myself out of it, as we all know it's pointless to worry about things you have no control over and so I am diving head first into another Wendy's Week - it's actually three weeks rolled into one but heck who's counting! So here is what I have been up to...

Kitty Cuddles & Compelling Yarns ~
-23rd May - 12th June -
The Butterfly Balcony: Wendy's Week Kitty Cuddles & Compelling Yarns - Marrows ready to be planted // Me and the fury one // Finished Socks // New book and new knitting // My Airfix addiction continues // Pretty Peony in my garden
Marrows ready to be planted // Me and the fury one // Finished Socks //
New book and new knitting // My Airfix addiction continues // Pretty Peony in my garden


- Finished my first pair of socks! I am really happy with them and they took a lot less time than I had expected, a proper blog post to follow shortly!

- Finally got a photo of me and Beau. It has taken four years, but now, at last, I have a picture of me and the furry one in which he almost looks pleased to be there - he's actually looking over my shoulder for an escape route and a second after this photo was taken he wriggled free from my loving hug, but it's a nice, if slightly untrue representation of our relationship, so I am keeping it!

The Butterfly Balcony: Wendy's Week Kitty Cuddles & Compelling Yarns - Airfix Hurricane- Making progress on my Hurricane. Now that it's all glued together, I've just got the best bit left to do and that's painting and sticking on the decals. Once painted I'll just need to glue on the propeller and pilots canopy and then it will be complete! I can't tell you how nice it has been to have something a little different and totally absorbing to work on when your brain is firing off with a million different worries, it has had an almost meditative feel to it as I find it so absorbing it is difficult to think of anything but simply painting, oh, and not getting paint everywhere, those pesky mini pots of paint are a devil to get open!

- Sorted through my pattern stash. I decided it was about time I properly sorted through my copious sewing pattern collection and had a little cull of some those which I will never use. This is actually much harder than it sounds, as I don't know if every seamstress feels the same about this, but there is always that niggling 'one day I might need it' thought running through my head when it comes to downsizing my pattern stash. I can be rather ruthless with other things I collect, but sewing patterns are my weakness. I do have a few I've managed to put in the out pile and so I will to add these to the giveaway I am planning on organising in the next few weeks!

The Butterfly Balcony: Wendy's Week Kitty Cuddles & Compelling Yarns - Knitting and Audibooks

- Started a new knitting project & an audiobook. I've decided to have a go at knitting a shawl. I was so in love with my pink/purple sock yarn that I bought a few weeks back, that I wanted to dedicate two balls of the four I had bought, to knitting up a shawl. It's not something that I have ever fancied doing before, but after finishing my socks I wanted to keep knitting but needed something very simple and something I could show off this pretty yarn a little better, so I cast on a Be Simple Variations Shawl which I had found for free on Ravelry. I have been enjoying watching it grow quite quickly and have found that I have been able to multitask up a storm by listening to this months audiobook, The Girl On The Train which as been quite a gripping listen. It is totally not something I would ordinarily choose as I tend to read more vintage crime and historical stuff but it has actually been a welcome change, plus I enjoyed it so much that I managed to finish it within a few knitting aided sittings!

The Butterfly Balcony: Wendy's Week Kitty Cuddles & Compelling Yarns - Planting up the Victory Garden


- Been digging and planting on the plot. I have been also keeping myself busy on the allotment. I have planted 5 short rows of potatoes and 2 rows of runner beans along with some onions. It is a small amount but with the weather being honestly bonkers (England seems to be going through monsoon season) over the last few weeks it has made it difficult to get as much digging done. I really need to get cracking as I have sweetcorn, marrows, pumpkin and broccoli seedlings to plant up, hopeful this weekend we might fare a bit better with the weather and I'll get a chance to dig like there's no tomorrow!

~ Me-Made May 2016 Week 4 ~

The Butterfly Balcony: Wendy's Week Kitty Cuddles & Compelling Yarns - Me Made May 2016 Week 4


It's now super late, but here are the homemade garments I wore for the last week in Me-Made May. First was my second version of Butterick 5748 (the first is the purple and black plaid one I wore here) in a heavy 60s style curtain fabric which I bought from Abakhans in Liverpool at the tender age of 21 to make curtains for my bedroom (I was going through my 60s psychedelia phase, groovy!) I never got around to making the curtains, so it has sat in my stash for a very long time before being set free! Next was my Self-draft red jersey dress which I made from the same pattern as my swallow print dress (see in the header my Beau cuddling dress), both dresses are made from my tried and tested pattern from Sew U Home Stretch!

I failed miserably most weeks in hitting my three garment target and I think this was for two reasons. The first is, now that I cycle to work I find it easier to wear the same, mostly shop bought stuff most days, as getting fully changed at work into a dress or something nicer is not so practical, meaning a lot of what I used to wear on a daily basis instead gets saved for the weekend. The second and this is something I was aware at from the start, is that I only seem to make summer clothes and mostly dresses so my homemade wardrobe is much less practical than my life actually calls for. This is something I am going to try (begin) to remedy this weekend as I'm planning to immerse myself in some bright and colourful sewing projects to fill the void in my wardrobe and it might help cheer me up a bit to boot!

I hope you have a lovely weekend wherever you are!
Wendy x