Reclaiming ... Recycling ... Re-purposing ... Recreation ...

My laptop took twenty four hours to download 198 updates. Who requires 198 updates???

I don't.

Because now it is 'reverting changes' because those 198 updates failed to 'configure'.

It will likely take another 24 hours given the rate it is 'reverting'.

Mmm. Go figure.

Thankfully I have another device or I would not have received the message that Son#3 sent me this morning:

Sorry, Mum, we're not coming home. We're sitting on the roof of our villa in a fishing village in Italy in 28 degree heat, looking at the sea. It doesn't get much better than this.

I told him to send me the address and I'd join him. Even if it does mean walking for two and a half hours in the sun, carrying all of one's belongings, and then spending an hour or so looking for the landlord to obtain a key to get into the villa.


[Photo courtesy of Son#3 and DIL#3 who are enjoying a summer OE in England, France, Italy, Germany, Holland and Croatia.]

And here I sit in a cold house, too lazy to light the fire, with a laptop that has failed to 'configure', and wondering if I really want to don hat and scarf and jacket and take Nehli for a walk.

At least I have my knitting to make a New Zealand winter bearable. (That, and the fact that two precious granddaughters were born this month and another towards the end of winter.)

I've finished four large squares (75 stitches on the diagonal) of my blanket and am planning to do 5 more and sew them together to create a patchwork effect.

Hopefully it will work.



Recently I've discovered (re-discovered?) the satisfaction of recycling/reclaiming/repurposing yarn. Hats, vests, jumpers, even the legs of socks that have worn out on the soles, are not safe from this latest craze of mine. A few snips here and there to release seams, a few hours spent winding yarn, a few frustrated moments when it seems I'll never find the end that will unravel to more than a few inches long, a few (no, more than a few) items covered with yarn fluff, and the result is that I have a whole lot of new balls of yarn to add to my scrap basket.


It's addictive.

And guilt-free.

And since the yarn tends to be good quality wool or a wool blend, it is still in good condition, and will be a welcome addition to my blanket.

There are some good tutorials online on reclaiming wool from knitted garments so I won't dwell on it here except to add that I don't wash the yarn unless it's dirty (one garment sprayed dust everywhere when I undid it) and I don't worry too much about the crimping. I just knit it up and it doesn't affect the finished item (I'm not sure if this would be true for a loose knitter but I've always held a tight tension on the yarn when I knit and the crimping isn't noticeable once knitted - and doesn't make it any harder to knit either).


[The vest on the right is now in balls in my basket. The one on the left, well I changed my mind. The pattern is so pretty that I've decided to wait until the end of winter before reclaiming it ... that is if I don't find some way of making it work in my wardrobe first.]

I've also discovered that a crochet hook is a speedy way to weave in all those ends that inevitably arise when knitting with so many different balls of yarn. I hate sewing them in. Well the sewing I don't mind - it's threading the needle I hate and the fluffy texture of the yarn on my tongue when I wet it to thread it through the needle. The only time I use a needle in this project is to weave in the ends when I've joined in the middle of a row (something I have tried to avoid as much as possible).

 

So that's my latest project. I also have a cowl on the go, and, somewhere, a pair of unfinished socks (and I now owe Son#4 another pair since I just undid his holey pair to use in my blanket).

Somehow, I don't think any of this is going to be a substitute for not being able to lie on a sun-drenched roof in Italy.

But at least I can dream - can't I?

Comments