Oh Dear - More Unravellings

Not only is there a pile of garments waiting to be mended in my workroom/craftroom, but Mr Melody and I went through his clothes this morning and put a whole lot of stuff into recycling. White shirts that have been in the wardrobe for months and the collars around the neck have gone yellow, shirts that are past their sell-by-date and a pair of his pure wool work trousers that I noticed had a tear in the pocket fabric that wasn't mendable. I've popped a lot of the boys' socks into recycling too as Dan's feet have grown so much in the past few months he's outgrown them!

My invite to join Wardrobe Refashioning arrived this morning - trust me to find the People Tree website just a few hours before it arrived. Sheesh *rolls eyes* There's some fabulous stuff there....

My refashioning tasks this week will be to mend the trousers in my craft room and to mend my combats where the pocket ripped and the button came off.

On the knitting front - I frogged my 2x2 cotton cardigan last night; I decided that I could free up the needles and concentrate on a chunky cardigan for the cooler months ahead.

Falling Apart

It's one thing to buy cheap and cheerful clothes from the supermarket and to think that we've bagged ourselves a bargain, but it's quite another thing to find that these items of clothing start to fall apart after being worn for only a short period of time. This week has seen it's fair share of clothing falling apart in the Melody household: I have already mentioned that two pairs of Matthew's school trousers have been put into repair (my crafting/work room!) which joined a pair of Mr Melody's trousers that need the leg seam repairing. But I've found to my dismay this week that a pair baby cord combats that I love have lost the cordy bit on the inside of the legs due to friction :? and the fabric has become thin as a result, and the hood of a cashmere hoodie (again bought from a supermarket chain and not handknitted) is parting company with the neckline and I've spotted a dropped stitch.

We all went to a sports store yesterday evening to buy Matt a footie top as he plays football a lot now and needs this type of sports clothing, and I was taken aback to see the amount of non-sports clothes on sale at the sportswear store. All cheap and all cheerful. No, I didn't buy any non-sports stuff as I'm currently trying hard NOT to buy clothes just for the sake of it, but I wonder how long it would take before they start to fall apart too?

Very Little Progress :(

I have a bit of progress to report on my Las Vegas socks - I'm up to the gusset pick-up on the second sock. Although I can report that my first assignment is in first draft phase at the moment, awaiting quotes and references where appropriate.

I managed a few more rows on the Alva cardigan and Paris jacket but that's about it this week.

Matthew has somehow managed to rip the side seam of his school trousers and the hem of another pair has come adrift, so there's mending to be done this weekend. The trousers are in good condition and there's no way I'm throwing them out just yet.

Strangely, I 've just removed a comma splice from one of my sentences when last week I didn't even know the term existed....

Las Vegas Socks for September Maybe?

I've just sat and typed out my post for today and the whole lot disappeared into the ether - sheesh!

For some reason Blogger appears to be a pain in the rear this afternoon as my delete key wouldn't work a few minutes ago.

Anywhoodle, here are my Las Vegas socks which will possibly be finished in time to enter into the September Sockamonth challenge on the Crafty Threads 'n' Yarns forum:

I managed to miss the train by about five minutes a couple of times this week, so I took the opportunity to grab a polystyrene cup of train station tea, whip out my sock yarn, DPNs and sock bag and knit. Sheer Bliss.

I might have to miss the train a couple more times to get these socks finished by the end of September, and as these are my third pair, I might be in the running for a bronze award.

Student Life

Uni life has already started and we have assignments to write and plans to set out. I'm tired, I haven't had dinner yet, but I'm happy :) I've discovered that wearing my contact lenses all day in hot and dry environments doesn't result in particularly comfortable eyes :?

I also found this week that socks are very useful to knit on station platforms whilst waiting for trains. I promise I'll take piccies of my Las Vegas socks to show you at the weekend. Denver Jon would be proud as he sent me the yarn last year all the way from Colorado just up the road from Las Vegas.

On to Refashioning News - I have done a little refashioning since taking my pledge - I shortened a pair of navy chinos for Mr Melody and he's already worn them several times to play golf in. He's been to the office in them once as well, as he now informs me that chinos are perfectly acceptable in his office environment.

Preliminary Placement

Phew! Busy.

I spent Monday to Friday this week as a Student Teacher in my preliminary placement at a local primary school.... I had a fabulous but busy time working with Key Stage 1 children and have enjoyed it immensely. I have loads of notes to type up.

Lectures start on Tuesday morning at 9.15am sharp.

Ooh! Ooh!

I forgot to tell you that Jacquie awarded me the Rocking Girl Blogger award last week..... how could I forget!!! I've been coveting that award for ages, and when I finally get one, I forget to tell you all *rolls eyes*

Thank you Jacquie! Now all I have to do is figure out how to add the button to my sidebar....

And now I have to award the button to five other bloggers, but I fear that they have all been nominated previously :( Here goes nowt:

1 My darlingest, best cyberbuddy Denver Jon of Colorado Knits who has a blog no more. Jon was the one whose blog I read every day and who got me into blogging in the first place. So thanks matey!

2 Jo from I'd Rather be Knitting - she knits some fabulous stuff and we seem to have the same patterns on our 'to-knit' lists. But she finishes lots more than I do!

3 The blogger who showed me Wardrobe Refashioning - Joanne from Don't Talk Just Knit - you gotta love a girl who refashions

4 Murdo and the Pirate Purls cos I love the nutty, orange, lab-coated muppet to bits, and I love her Perfect Paparazzi Pirate Purling girls too (and happy bithday for yesterday to the eldest Pirate)

5 Fegrig - not a Rockin' Girl Blogger as such (then neither is Denver Jon of 1 above, but we gotta have equal opportunities here guys) as he made me laugh so much with his dog-walking antics today. I hereby award both Fegrig and DJ a *cough* Rocking Boy Blogger button each. Bring it on boys....

It's Refashioning, Jim. But Not As We Know It.

Not refashioning in the true sense of the word admittedly, but our cream leather sofas and chair were getting a bit grubby and looked bleugh, so last Monday I cleaned the leather with hot water and washing up liquid and made some more cushions from fabric that I already had in stash. I made one cushion cover from pale cream cotton with a smidge of lycra in it; it's not plain cream, it has white figured flowers all over it but the pattern is difficult to determine with the camera. I had intended to make flowery cushion covers for the sofa this week as well and got as far as getting the fabric out, but fate intervened once more and I found myself in class 1 for four days solid and helping out by being nursery nurse cover for the week.

Birthday Booty

I was finally allowed to opened my pressie from my wonderful friends Murdo and the Pirate Purls and this is what I found inside:

Wonderful knitting luxuries from Knitpicks, Boyes and the Yarn Yard, and some other little luxuries for me. Thank you so much Murdo and Pirates!!

I had such a bad headache on my birthday that as soon as I'd taken the boys to school and I'd had some breakfast, I went back to bed to try to sleep it off - so many apologies to the wonderful Murdo and the two Pirates for seemingly blogging late about my wonderful birthday gifts - they really are appreciated.

On birthday afternoon I logged in to see if I could pay my student tuition fees online again - this time it worked!! It's stressful having to shell out £1,535 to pay for the first half of my tuition fees - my next installment for the other half is due in January 2008. Thankfully my parents had given me money for my birthday and Mr Melody always gives me a sum in the bank to spend on what I want for me, but I can see that it will be no yarn purchases for me for a while nevertheless :( as I spent my birthday cash on the books and yarn in Wales this year (see previous posts!!)

Birthday and resolutions.

As it is 2nd September today I'm took the pledge yesterday to join Wardrobe Refashioning as from now, although officially I won't be able to join until 1st October. I just cannot afford to buy any new clothes anymore for myself unless I absolutely need them; the boys of the family are excluded from this of course as they will need new items for school uniform and work I should think.

I really need to sort out the old clothes that won't fit or I won't be wearing anymore and either get rid of them or pack them away somewhere. Having worked in an environment with small children and paint and glue for three years, I'm used to wearing casual stuff for work and clothes that could be mullered and I wouldn't be bothered about it. I can still wear jeans and combats for Uni of course, but I'm assuming not for Teaching Practice in schools. Besides, I want to look half reasonable for school and jeans just don't cut the mustard do they?

And I really have to lose some extra poundage. Sitting around on my fat ar*e all summer and not doing any exercise, plus all the goodies I've been eating, has added inches to my thighs, hips and waist. I'm positive that when I start walking from home to the train station and then from the train station to Uni each day the extra weight will start to drop off, but I can't wait that long. I walked to pick the lads up from school on Friday, and then round to my friend's house later in the evening and all told walked about 2.5 miles. Not bad for a start anyway.

I sat in bed for a wonderful hour yesterday morning, in a quiet house whilst the boys were at football practice, and read about a quarter of Jacqueline Wilson's ‘The Illustrated Mum' as part of my summer reading list. I'm about a third of the way through already and sat this morning with a box of tissues by my side, tears rolling down my cheeks. It's an excellent and thought provoking book; I'd highly recommend it.