the scent of water

Some days the jewellery gods just aren't smiling.

So said Caroline, who sat behind me in yesterday's (last!) jewellery class.  Mel told me she thought it looked homemade.  I think she meant in a good way.  I decided that the rushed and crumpled bezel looked less like a ring and more like a free form pastry galette.  Rainbow Moonstone Galette.   If I ever decide to become a hippy, that's so what I am going to call myself.

Sewing machine repair man said this week it will cost $800 to replace the pc board in my machine.  Ouch. And the application I finally plucked up the courage to send in to a writing course at the local university never got to the right people until it was too late because of a technical error at their end.  Double ouch.  And so on. I think what this means is that it must be time to eat an enormous pile of jelly belly beans, because I'm sure I read somewhere that sugar = happy.

 

Make that sugar + books + tea + lap rug.  I finally finished said rug and am pleased to say that it works perfectly.  I might declare it winter every season, so I can curl up under it with the aforementioned happiness supplies and pretend that life is perfect after all.  I am sure that will work,  for one whole hour at least.

At least Miss Fashionista likes it

I made two of these yesterday, one for each of my girls.  Iona, who is the least trend conscious of the pair, looks great in hats, and thinks anything I make is just fabulous, put hers on and said: 'Oh my goodness.  I look so ugly."

Not a winner then.  But Eilidh, who would rather wear nothing at all than be seen in something she dislikes (true story), hasn't taken hers off.  She even turned up for breakfast in her pyjamas and hat.  Fair enough.  I'm good with pleasing some of the children some of the time.

Two hats in one day with this pattern is a piece of cake.  Truly. I actually made three, probably four if you count the early cack-handed attempts at learning the pattern (I'm not fluent in crochet-ese). If you used the thicker yarn and bigger hook that the pattern specifies (I used what I had - we're doing that a lot around here these days) you could probably knock one off with your morning cup of tea. 

Pretending I can crochet

 

One third of a lap rug complete, and I won't even bother to tell you how long that much has taken me. Or cost. Matey. My family is so impressed I can actually crochet an actual blanket that I have kept it my secret that only knowing how to chain and double chain isn't very clever at all.

I know, the colours aren't right. Should have gone more monochromatic, or less. Still, Autumn is the perfect rug-crocheting season, don't you think? Sitting on the couch with the rug on my knees, invariably watching some crime drama or another while merrily pretending I'm doing something extremely useful to the world, is pretty much as good as it gets. Sometimes I even get a cup of tea brought to me. Spoiled. Yes.

Next one's going to be a ripple.  Because my new life plan is to double chain until I die.