Heatwave

We've had a nasty heatwave in Australia where temperature records were broken (again) and even our shady corner got uncomfortably warm. I took off to the coast for a few days where it was still hot but you could always jump in the ocean to recover. I took absolutely no photos but it was very very nice - especially because school went back for a new year!!! Hahaha I do not miss that, not one bit. Other than swimming I had a sewing frenzy - including some fabric that I'd lifted from the quilt shed, they are happy to be rid of it - and read some of the two dozen books I got at the book fair.

Art classes continue on, and I continue to attempt faces. This is Susan Sonntag. It is not terrible but also not very good. The teacher makes me change things if they're not right (not something I do for myself, I tend to throw it in the bin) so I spend the full two hours smudging away at my latest victim. And the next week I did this bloke, who was a life model from many years ago. 

It doesn't look like him at all, it's hard to describe how it manages to be both the shape of his face and a completely different person. Sometimes you capture the essence and sometimes you really don't. 

We also had a friend to stay for a few days which was a real treat  ... he parked out front and made the cottage look MUCH classier than it usually does! He took my husband for a few spins with the top down but I have informed him we are much too poor for a mid-life crisis convertible.

Garden shed inside transformation

Here is our little garden shed, that used to be the laundry, and still has a part-brick floor for the copper. It also has hot and cold running water and is weather tight ... but there's not a lot else to say about it. Small and shed-like.

It was also very filthy, had a lot of gaps where critters could come in, an uneven floor, dodgy sheeting on the walls (probably asbestos tbh) and was generally held together with paint and optimism.

Some of the uprights are timber, some appear to be actual tree trunks, and some were just split in half where a big branch must have landed on it at some point. We decided to have a little project because it is just too hot to garden, and did an incredibly bodgy job trying to fix it up. We used quick dry cement in inappropriate places.

Where the cement dried too quickly we used cornice cement to fill in the most obvious of cracks, in ways cornice cement was never intended to be used.

After a thorough scrubbing I discovered the absolute joys of expanding foam. That stuff is amazing, you just shoot the little nozzle in and whoosh! No more rat-sized gap between the roof and the wall. Looks like shit but an astonishing amount of fun for $13. 

Then we painted the ceiling a mix of all of the ceiling white / primer / antique white  that we had in the shed (quite a lot as it turned out). The walls were a mix of more leftover white and two of the blue sample pots that we bought for the hallway. It turned quite a violently bright blue. It's hard to tell in the photos but it is much much brighter than the previous colour.

The floor was a full tin of "terracotta" something that we found in the shed -  that you use on driveways, or concrete planters, to make it look like terracotta? We thought it sounded promising, so did two coats, and it went a violently bright orange that does not work with the walls AT ALL. Each coat took about two days to dry and even then it looked a bit damp but we were over it by then so did a coat of concrete sealant (which we actually had to go to the hardware store and buy, shame).

Then we washed the furniture, moved it back in, and my husband spent a day putting up hooks and a pegboard and arranging it all so beautifully! It looks amazing. The whole thing took two weeks and was a bit of a pain but we are very pleased with ourselves and our project ... as long as you don't look at any part of it too closely. 

Two of my favourite things

This weekend I have been rampaging through other people's unwanted stuff ... fabric and books! Does it get any better than that.

The fabric is donations to the quilter's group that are starting to take over the shed. We are going to try and sell it at a destash sale in a few weeks but first it has to be ironed, sorted, measured and priced. This is part fun treasure hunt and part wake-up call for those of use that hoard fabric. If you can't use it all ... it ends up not treasured, no-one wants it. It's a bit sobering, especially when you see things that were clearly precious projects in progress.

And the books were the town's book fair which has been on the Australia Day long weekend for a very long time. The amount of books is staggering - I volunteered to help with the stocking and tidying. The books can't all go out at once so as they sell we go to the stash and re-stock. It is just mind blowing ... but again, all the gardening books and cook books were on super sale because no-one wants them. 

I had a lovely time and volunteers are positively encouraged to snaffle books for themselves. Everyone has an increasingly tottering pile in the kitchen (volunteers also get cake, it's very social) and pay up at the end. Awesome ... I will read my way through my tottering pile and donate it again for next year. 

Johnny Depp

Art classes have re-started and I have decided this term to focus on faces, because my faces are dreadful and some actual instruction would help. So I spent two hours creating this woeful mockery in charcoal from a black and white photo of poor Johnny Depp.

I feel like I should write to him and apologise. The reason why I am focussed on faces is because my mission during the break from art classes was 'a nude a day'. I didn't quite make one a day but got close ... and they were pretty terrible, especially if I tried to draw the faces. I ended up sketching a lot of bums (much easier) and backs of heads. Here is a representative sample: I'll start with the better ones.

These look like people. This second lot are a bit rough but also look like people ... no faces though.

These ones don't even look humanoid, they look like misshapen aliens.

It's all a bit difficult - there are websites that have reference photos for artist's models and a lot of the poses are far too complicated. Swords? No. I have enough trouble with arms.

Contemplating 'pants' and 'vests'

Pam left a comment on my dyeing post saying that for her 'pants' are only underpants, and those would be called 'trousers'. I found this quite intriguing, because for me 'pants' are all things you wear on your bottom half that aren't skirts ... the superset. Trousers are a subset, and not really a word I would use very often, although it's not an unusual word. Trousers are generally full-length, although I suppose you could say 'three quarter length trousers'. But you'd generally say pants for everything, and specify more if needed.

Underpants are definitely 'underpants', and never 'pants', but I would most commonly say 'undies'. Occasionally 'knickers', and in my house we also say 'pundies', 'grutlies' and 'jocks' ... but I accept that is likely to be a local usage (i.e. local to my house). The words 'panties' and 'briefs' also exist but are not to be used by right-thinking people (shudder).

Vests are sleeveless garments that are worn over other clothes and almost always close up the front. So you would have a hi-vis vest, puffer vest, or fleecy vest. If it is a bit fancy (tailored, buttoned and lined) then it would be a waistcoat although you could use vest in a pinch (but you'd probably have to say 'suit vest'.) You could use 'sweater vest' even though it doesn't do up the front but I would probably say 'sleeveless jumper'. 

If a sleeveless garment is worn under other clothes to keep you warm it's always a singlet. If the garment is worn on its own - like a basketball player - it's still a singlet, but you can also use 'tank' or 'tank top'. This is more likely as the garment gets more about fashion - 'singlet' carries a bit of the underwear nuance to it. 

Thank you Pam, this stuff is endlessly interesting to me! I mattocked around a new garden bed yesterday and I was thinking almost entirely about clothing names :)

Knitting

I've finished the socks and moved on to my new, big, scary project - the world's easiest jumper. These are the latest pairs, firstly a self-striping number in pretty colours.

I really like the colours and the stripes but it was a bit harder to knit because it's ever so slightly fuzzy. You can't really tell but I could feel it on the needles, and I stuffed up some of the pickups.

And the last pair were a Malabrigio sock yarn I found in the magical tub of yarn under the bed in the beach house. These were lovely to knit with although the colours are a bit odd. I can't remember buying it at all. After four pairs I think I am done with socks for now, although they make a very good travel project so I'm sure I'll have more on the go in the future. I certainly have more sock yarn to use up.

The big scary project is going OK so far - I went with the "Step by Step" sweater because it is super easy, has been made by thousands of absolute beginners, and has an hour and a half video on Youtube where Florence goes through each bit with wonderful thoroughness (and slowly! it's amazing).

It's top down on circular needles so I've done the folded collar, the shaping at the back (german short rows! I had to watch the video about fifty times) and I'm moving on to the increases for the yoke. It's all one colour and all stocking stitch, so couldn't be simpler (we shall see!). I bought the 10 ply from Bendigo Woollen Mills and it is a nice clean wool that I'm enjoying knitting with; although it feels like absolute rope compared to sock yarn. I don't know how I'll go when I have an entire garment on the circulars, it will be like hauling around an elephant. I will keep you posted in about six months when I reach that stage...

Dyed some pants

As part of my ongoing series "nothing is too trivial for the internet" may I present some pants that I have dyed a different colour. Here is a before shot of my favourite three-quarter pull-on linen pants (rolled up, wrinkled) that I have worn at least twice a week for the last four summers.

I never really understood linen until I got these pants, and washed them and wore them and washed them and wore them, and they went all soft and drapey and gorgeous. I thought linen was scratchy and rumply and hard to wear ... but when the colour finally started to wear out of these pants I put them in a dark green dye bath and will keep on wearing them until they literally fall to bits.

Which won't be far off, the seams are starting to go and even a new dye job hasn't stopped the wear. But I will count this as a success.