Back in December, before our latest lockdown, I was volunteering in a charity shop. I decided it was high time to make some more masks, but this time in a plain, light colour. Because I wash my masks every day, they are starting to look past their prime. So I dug out my material scraps and made these two beauties. The material came from my wedding dress that I cut up for projects yonks ago. Waste not, want not. I never dreamed decades ago what that material would eventually be used for. Very sad. ? Anyway, what is even sadder, is that my charity shop which was decorated and stocked up for ..read more

Who can come up with the best collective noun for face masks? Oops, we're supposed to call them face coverings here in the UK, but very few people do. I happily wear them when I have to. But I don't in the slightest believe they protect me from anything. I read recently that the virus is so small that a tablespoon could hold all the virus in the world. If I can breathe air in and out of a mask, then the virus can find its way in as well. Oh well, so far so good. At least my face is warm. I made another 14 masks for the worry monsters project run by Knit-for-Nowt. They will be distribu ..read more

I decided to make a couple of pretty masks...for myself this time. There was a bargain rail outside a charity shop. On it I found a little skirt for £1. The material was lovely. It was such a small skirt with seams in all the wrong places. So I just about managed to cut enough pieces to make two masks.  I use the fantastic pattern by Dhurata Davies. It is so comfortable and stays in place without constant adjustments. There are three layers as recommended by the medical experts. So it was quite hot in the summer even though I use cotton material. But we are now coming up to t ..read more

Crikey! I know it's been a while since I posted, but I wasn't expecting to have to learn a whole new Blogger. I expect there were good reasons for the changes, though I was very used to old Blogger. I know I can go back to it, but I'll see how I get on with the new, improved version before I do that. Here are another 13 masks that I sewed and posted off to Knit-for-Nowt. In July, I suggested it might be a good idea to add little face masks to the knitted worry monsters that go off to teachers and therapists. I didn't realise I was opening up a can of worms. This little batch is my thi ..read more

When I said I was done with masks, I spoke too soon. As I was putting away my sewing machine, I had one of those Eureka moments. Why not make face masks for the worry monsters that Knit-for-Nowt gives to therapists who work with traumatised children? I contacted Clare who runs the group and she thought it was a great idea because a lot of these children will be coming across adults who have to wear face masks and some children are afraid of them. I think there will be more traumatised children than ever after this year's events.  If I had had to miss so much school and stay at ..read more

One day before the UK was put into lock down in March, I caught a bus to my local garden centre. I had a sense of impending doom and it felt like "now or never". It was a strange experience; for most of the journey it was just me and the bus driver. It was also the day before garden centres closed down for 2 months at the busiest time of the gardening year. I know I bought two shrubs and planted them that same day. But my brain has mercifully blocked out which shrubs they were. We have been revamping the garden since last year and a lot of the shrubs are new. It's easy to forget which were ..read more

Who would have thought I would ever publish a photo of myself auditioning as Hannibal Lecter's sister? But here it is. Here in the UK we have recently been advised to wear face coverings on public transport and in shops. We have specifically been told not to wear medical masks as there is a shortage in hospitals and care homes and it wouldn't be appropriate for the general public to compete for supplies. Bearing in mind that even medical masks are not 100% effective at blocking bacteria, I am on the side of those that think face coverings are not only pretty useless, but also worse than u ..read more

Whilst under house arrest and going slightly crazy I am still knitting pants for Knit-for-Nowt's worry monsters. However, I can't keep writing about pants as this blog might start attracting some very strange viewers! So, today I am posting about a book that is helping to keep me sane at the moment; The Salt Path by Raynor Winn. To say I am under house arrest is a slight exaggeration. My Government guidelines are that I can go out for exercise once a day for an hour. I spend that walking the same streets as I am also supposed to stay local. Sadly, my streets are urban grey.  Thi ..read more

I used to think of the world as: before and after Daughter was born, before and after 9/11, and before and after Brexit.  Now I think of it as:  before and after Covid-19.  The "after" part(y) hasn't happened yet, but, for our sanity, we have to believe that it will. My last blog post was in January. I envy those innocent days when we had no idea what was looming on the horizon. I think rumours had started to reach us about a virus thousands of miles away, but we were told we had nothing to worry about. Wrong! It's a small world. Since then I have experienced every emotion, excep ..read more

If I haven't been writing many blog posts recently, at least they can be witty. Or so I thought. I've been trying to discover the collective noun for pants, as in a pride of lions or a swarm of bees. There doesn't seem to be one. All suggestions would be welcome! Here are the latest pants knitted for Knit-for-Nowt's Worry Monster project. The therapists who use the monsters requested pants so that the children could dress and undress them. There are 18 here in different sizes. I've just found a 19th lurking at the bottom of my knitting bag. That is a bummer as we say here. (Enough of th ..read more