oh those pesky rusty dusty knitting cogs...

today i am pottling to the library with high hopes of killing 2 birds with 1 stone. not literally i might add, no sirree, i would not, could not ever do such a thing. plus our library is right next to the police station and i am quite sure they would have me arrested and banged up in jail in no time at all if they caught me throwing stones at little innocent birdies outside the library! however in a non literal way i hope the old 2 birds with 1 stone thing will work nicely.

for you see, my old knitting cogs must turn again! turn again dick wittington, turn again. (is that right, did he have to? i can't recall why he was turning again or for what reason, all i know is as i tippity type 'turn again', old dick wittington springs to mind and i have got dick and his 'turn again' ways, echoing in my ears)

right, can we just move on swiftly as this is not going where it is supposed to be going. first i have hurting (ney slaying little birdies) and next i am turning again with dick and i just don't want to, i just want to be knitting, albeit, slowly, but that is where i wish to be.

"so get on with it and be there, Tif" you cry

"quite right" say i

did i mention i have only gone and got myself a job? ummm, not sure i did, mention it, that is. well it just goes to show, where there is a will there is a way. after 22 years of staying home to be a mother and a crafter i am venturing into unknown territory and joining the work force out of the home. i will tell more in a little while for there is lots to tell. however my need to dust off my rusty dusty knitting cogs has something to do with my new spiffy 'i can't believe they actually gave me the job' job.

so as i poured and pondered over my old Rowan Yarn looky books, i noted their patterns and wordings are a mystery to me today just as they were many a year ago at the height of my knitting mania. 

i lust after this tank top (vest) even years on from first seeing it, i believe, i believe if i could reach the knitting sky i could indeed make this lovely sweetie (the little voice inside my head just fell over from laughing and mocking, now that isn't very nice is it)

i sighed, wondering if i will ever be handed thee Rowan golden key which unlocks the thee Rowan door and when the door opens, a chorus of angels (in lovely fair-isle tank tops) will sing and light will shine down upon me and suddenly, when i look at the words, all will become clear and glorious... 

well whilst i was 'a wondering' how old i will be when that finally happens (if at all), I happened upon the idea of doing little samplers of stitches and patterns. i told myself, baby knitting steps Tif, do not think after 6 years of 'non-knitting' you can just waltz right in and up to your Rowan Yarn knitting patterns and they will forgive you your dalliance with crocheting. also do remember who you are, you are the queen of squares and rectangles, they love you and you love them and where better to start then with a little happy rectangle of straight forward knitting in a peachy pink colour which makes your crafty heart and creative eye sing loud and proud.

peachy pink, safe rectangles, no tank top (vest) insight, "every things gonna be alright now" singing loud and proud...

once i was back in my 'comfortable crafting zone of rectangles and squares' an epiphany came to me, one which led to 2 birds and 1 stone... might i add, at this point i did hear a quiet 'hallelujah' which made up for my lack of Rowan Yarn angels earlier. 

how magnificent and marvelous would it be, to take my samples of eeking out the rusty dusty knitting skills and turn them into a 'how-to' for an article in a most peachy magazine which is due next month. "oh yes indeedy" i cried out to my constant canine companions at 7:26 am this morn to be precise. "darn, this old girl has still got what it takes, a brilliantly brilliant cunning plan, hatched and matched (no idea what that is) all before 7:30am on a monday morn"!

footynote: please note, no birdies, little critters, spiders, flies, or little green plants were hurt in the making of this blog post despite what some may be thinking

a roundie once again...

not last week but the week before i made a roundie cushion. 

i made it using the easy peasy lemon squeezy how-to 

from the Liberty Book of Home Sewing on my bookshelf.

(except alas, mine doesn't have this lovely cover for some reason)

i pondered if the use of my 'love you like no other' polyester fabric,

would indeed make for a roundie cushion of the utmost kind

wisdom told me to leave 

Miss Ethel out of the proceedings,

lack of knowledge sewing stretchy fabrics 

could only end in tears.

(such wise ways can only come from being 45 i told myself).

so with a bit of dandy hand stitching 

taking no more and no less than 20 mins

my roundie cushion was born

in all her polyester black floral glory.

and after another 20 mins (no more, no less)

her glorious roundie self was adorned 

and thus completed, 

with Little Olive hairs and some serious illegal parking

dabbling with chalk paint...

i must confess, one of the reasons i was attracted to trying Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint was purely because it works on most surfaces and requires zippo preparation, (according to the nitty gritty). so armed with one pot of 'old white' and a can of clear wax i set to on our tres large old english church pew. now our church pew has been around a block or two before finding me nearly 2 years back on Black Friday. actually it found me before Black Friday however i was a little canny and went back on Black Friday thinking to myself antique dealers surely are happy to bargain with you even more so, on Black Friday and much to my delight, i was tres right!

church pew 'before'

now our church pew at some point had been either left out in the rain or worst still, been in a church with a leaky roof, i fear the latter probably to be true. i left it as-is until recently when a willing victim needed to be found within Mossy Shed for the purposes of trying out the Chalk Paint. and so i went on my merry way thinking it most likely 2 coats maybe required as it was a light white on top an oak wood. after the first coat i must admit i was a little fretful although i was not letting Mr Doubter in on it. after the 2nd coat i started to see promise but alas, still that oak was looking limed. a 3rd coat it had to be, by now of course i was at the point of give up or go on to till the end. i told myself despite heavy arms and aching bod, there was no giving up in this here shed, this here week

after the 3rd coat i stepped back and still that darn old back rest on the pew just kept on soaking it up and shouting 'limed' back at me. i looked into my dwindling pot of paint and surmised, i could if i was tres caution and careful, eek out enough for a 4th coat along the back of the pew. i might add, at this point, the back side of the pew only had 2 coats as i was fearful my little can of Chalk Paint just wasn't going to see me through.

4 coats of chalk paint and 1 coat of wax later... 

after all those layers it was time to add the wax and then buff the wax. i was on my knees by then, literally and figuratively. oh why oh why did i think the fact of 'no prep' would make this an easy peasy quick paint job. wax on, then rubbed off i stood back to survey the final product of my pew. had i just created the most expensive and not to mention labour intensive undercoat of all time i asked myself. i pondered and then i went off and pottled. 

after some pondering and pottling i decided, the pew and its many coats of Chalk Paint was a keeper for now, however if you were to ask me would i use this paint again, truth be told, i doubt it muchly. do not get me wrong, the finish and the look of the pew is pretty darn peachy... is it what i was looking to end up with? perhaps not. will i make it work? yes i will. would i go back to my faithful paint next time? without a doubt