all made up with nowhere to go

I have had a cold for the last...week? I felt really grim when I finished work last Saturday, but it had also been a really bad shift - it was busy and we were a person down, so yeah.

Now I'm at the sneezy/snotty stage, which eugh. I think I may actually spend the day in bed, if I can think of something to do whilst being there. (This is the downside of all my creative stuff being mostly downstairs now, heh).

And my hands have been hurting to varying degrees during this time. Which could mean this is a stress response (and I think sometimes it is), but also it could be my immune system being all "HEY! LISTEN!" Which I also suspect it might be. IDK. I am not a doctor, and apparently it's still not arthritis, so who t f knows??

I'm looking at my hands right now as I type this, and I can see that my right hand is swollen. My left hand feels it, but doesn't look as bad. I wish I knew what was going on here.

Anyway, that aside, I sorted through some more of my mum's/gran's yarn stash - the stuff I don't want is going to charity shops or the local college - and found a whole load more crocheted squares, including what looks like the start of a blanket like my childhood one. Which confirms to me that my gran made these, since I know she made my blanket.

So I have unjoined all the squares I'd put together so far, so that I can put them around this rectangle instead, but also so I can make a more coherent big blanket. I'm honestly glad I didn't do anything more than slip stitch them together, as it made taking them apart really easy.

But part of the reason I decided to go through the yarns was because I was looking for 100% (or high percentage) wool to felt. Because after almost a year of feeling like I didn't want to do felting/didn't know what I was doing, I am sort of back on that! Partly because thinking about art dolls got me thinking of ways to make them, and 3D felting is one way I can do (some of) that. I didn't think I wanted to learn 3D felting, but I appear to have changed my mind about that!

But also partly because I sorted some yarn that I found in the cupboard under the stairs a few months ago, and then proceeded to knit three scarves from the blue shades (as it is my favourite colour). I washed them, as the yarn had been under the stairs for more than forty years, in all likelihood, and some of them felted. I don't mind, since the scarves were just for me. But then I was like, "I could make my own felt from some of these yarns!" by knitting them up and chucking them in the wash. I don't know that it will work for all of them, but I think I have a fairly good grasp of what a wool yarn feels like? And assuming they were mostly my gran's, she seems to have used high percentage wool a lot. So I shall experiment. Although not right now, given how my hands feel.

I impulse bought some more felting stuff - it should have been delivered on Thursday, but I knew I would not be home when the postman brought it, so I had to rearrange it to come this coming Tuesday. Which turned out to be the only day where I am home as I am working/doing other stuff the rest of the week. So. Yeah. Although I haven't regretted the purchase in the time since I bought it, so yay?

I feel like this post should have a more coherent end to it, but it isn't going to. I'm stopping it here.

More bullet points, because:

# I have a cold in the middle of summer, because of course I do. Although I realised it's been several months since I actually had a legit cold, so honestly that's not too bad.

# Work is continuing to be mostly rubbish, and it's only going to get worse, as it will be the summer holidays soon!

# I have made a bunch of plush friends! I started with a fish, then made a cat*, then a starfish, and finally a whale.

I am now making a crow, inspired by this tutorial by a lovely lady on youtube called Tori (I have mentioned her before, I think, but it was some time ago).

I am going to make more whales, and I am definitely going to do a jay when I've finished this crow, because they're my favourite corvids/birds.

*It is bigger than I was expecting, at nearly two feet long!

I really need to upload some pics of them somewhere (e.g. bsky or ko-fi) but I dunno. My want to share stuff is really lacking at the moment, and I don't really know why. Like I'm not even taking photos of stuff I've done as much, never mind uploading it to a website for other people to look at.

# I think that's everything for now. I'm going to go and curl up somewhere and hope my nasal passages clear themselves, pronto.

So, ever since 2020, I have been thinking about redecorating my house. It really freaking needs it for various reasons and it hasn't got done.

About a month or so ago, I was measuring the downstairs hallway to get an idea of how much flooring I would need (I'd like tiles, ideally), and I looked up carpet prices and holy moly is it expensive! So I was like, ugh, really I need to make lots of money before I can even think about doing a tiny part of the house. And my house isn't massive - it's essentially a two up two down terraced council house - so it's not like I even have a lot of space to cover with new carpet or wallpaper (or paint).

Anyway, on Monday, I ended going on a wild goose chase to Burnley, and ended up in the DIY departments of The Range and B&M. And because I was in the DIY bits, I was looking at paint, and wallpaper, and carpet tiles which were not what I was there for, but which I had a look at anyway. And like. I know I would be better off buying from somewhere that isn't super cheap, because I'll likely regret it. But it kind of gave me ideas for what I might want to do, and got me thinking about wallpapering one wall in the hallway, just to see how it would turn out (and if I could do it, heh).

I did almost buy a wallpaper scraper while I was there, but I'm almost certain I should already have one. I just need to find it. And it's not like I have any new wallpaper yet anyway. And I might paint it anyway, who knows.

~

Also while I was in Burnley, I bought some things I didn't need, which included this sewing book, and a set of tarot cards.

The book was 50p brand new(!!), and the tarot cards were half price. I don't really need another set of cards, as I already have two, but I wanted one that I'd bought myself (the ones I already own had belonged to other people).

I got the book because it has a pattern in it for making a simple drawstring bag that I immediately looked at and went, "that looks like a dice bag!" But on flicking through it again (I originally got it out from the library), there's a few other projects in there that have piqued my interest, including what the author describes as a boro cushion cover, but it isn't really. But I am going to make my own version, as I've wanted to make a cushion cover since the beginning of the year, but not done it for reasons I can't actually fathom at the moment.

I also want to make a bojagi inspired blind for one of my windows, so I think I will do that when I've finished the cushion cover. I say inspired, because I did learn how to do proper bojagi hems, but I find them quite tedious to do, so I'm going to do something similar, but not the same. That's something I've been putting off since last summer.

And then, of course, looking through that book reminded me this morning that I haven't looked properly at the boro book I bought for my birthday! Which was three months ago now! So perhaps I need to do that at some point soon, too.

~

Also, apologies for me taking ages to do this, but here's a link to pics of my tattoos when they were freshly done!

And that's all I've got for now, because mostly my life is the same old, same old at the moment.

I am currently very impressed with my council's bulky item collection team. I submitted a request to have the tumble dryer (and some other stuff) picked up at the beginning of last week, and they came around twenty four hours later and picked it up!

\o/

I'm pleased about that, because it had already been out there ten days from the date me and Jackie moved it, and I feel self-conscious about a lot of stuff being out there, even though I don't do it that often (last time was literal years ago).

~

In other news, I made another sketchbook wrap (link goes to my ko-fi), partly for myself, and partly as a test to see if it would be a viable thing to sell/offer as a commissionable object. It took me around 20 hours to make and, at £10 an hour (which is slightly less than current UK minimum wage), I don't think anyone is going to want to pay me £200 for one.

I mean, there are ways for it to take less time - this was all hand-sewn, because that's how the original tutorial I watched had done it. So, like, I could machine sew parts of it, or make it less faffy (I didn't even put any decorations like special stitches or beads on this one I just made, and it still took that long!) But honestly, I dunno. Maybe I need more confidence in myself to think that my work is worth £200, and someone might buy it.

I know this is a problem with all hand-crafted things. I used to underprice my work SO MUCH when I was younger and I probably still do it now - the prices on the embroideries in my shop are guesstimates, but they're closer to the prices they should be.

I am mostly just venting my frustration. I know there's nothing I can do because, as I have repeatedly said to former bosses, you can't force people to buy things.

I think also I am feeling a bit frustrated with the felting, because I don't know what I'm doing, and I don't feel like I have any concrete ideas about anything, and that's leeching off into other things. That said, I did find a tutorial in one of the Stitch back issues I have for making your own felt from wool, but it is wet felting, which I'm not really interested in, but who knows till I have a go, right? (It just feels like an incredible faff to me, and I'm too tired to faff with stuff).

~

Anyway, that's all I have for now, I think. Life is very much a work, sleep, video game cycle right now, and that's not terribly interesting.

My felting kit arrived on Saturday, and I have had a little bit of a dink about with it, and I think I will enjoy using it! Especially if I keep working on the scale I am right now, which is very small. I think I will get a multi needle tool at some point in the near future, but right now a single needle is okay for me.

(I didn't actually really buy it for felting at all, but for using the same way you might use an embellishing machine but a) they're extremely expensive, b) I didn't know if I would enjoy the process, and c) I currently have very little room for one even if I could afford it).

I also got some books from the library about felting, although most of it is either 3D (which I have little interest in), or wet felting, which I don't want to do. But I figured that at least some of the information would come in handy, so I got some of the books anyway.

One of them has multiple sets of instructions for making felt cacti/succulents from pre-made felt, and I am going to make some of them. Because I am nothing if not a sucker for cacti.

(I also discovered some among the random printouts and copies I have of various tutorials when I was going through that folder to get rid of some stuff I was no longer interested in. So there are a lot of fake cacti in my future, it seems!)

(and also maybe that corvid I said I was going to make last summer but didn't get to because what are brains, right).

~

In other news, I have been playing FFXII, to absolutely nobody's surprise (esp if you read lassarina's What Are You Playing Wednesdays posts). I am currently in Golmore, having just beaten the Elder Wyrm on my first try! I am playing it not in Strong Mode, although doing fairly well. No-one KO'ed until the Belias fight, and I haven't had a game over yet, so I must be doing something right!

~

I don't have anything else to add, so I shall end this entry here.

I had an interview the other day, and I didn't get the job, but the manager who interviewed me said if ever another job came up at their place, I should try applying again. Which was nice of him.

I also am going to be starting a new volunteer job! I hope! I spoke to the manager of one of the local charity shops yesterday, and I'm going in tomorrow morning for a couple of hours to see if I like it there.

~

So I had a commission back in November and, with some of the money from it, I decided to buy some perle threads to sew with, because that's what my weasel brain is currently obsessed with. I thought I only had some fancy looking Anchor multicolours which I currently don't want to use (because I don't want to "waste" them; I am trying to break this mindset, though). So anyway, I made an order, and managed to luck out and get the threads for slightly cheaper, as there was a sale on.

While I was waiting for them to arrive, I thought I'd have a look through some of mum's stuff that I hadn't looked at for years - namely the crochet threads, as you can use them for sewing, and I've never had the dexterity to crochet with them.

Guess what was lumped in among with them?

Only a whole load of perle threads.

I,,,

I did not, however, cancel my order, because I had (unknowingly) ordered several colours that I did not find, as well as two replacement multicolour skeins of DMC thread that I bought last year and I absolutely love the colours of.

I also found a whole bunch of tapestry wool skeins which I knew I had, but had somehow misplaced*.

TL;DR version: now I have a whole bunch of perle cotton threads, coton a broder, and crochet threads! As well as the heap of embroidery threads I already owned!

(I've been reading up a bit about a Canadian quilter called Judy Martin, who started a textile piece on her 59th birthday with the aim of using up her thread/material stash. Perhaps I should do the same?)

(I have also thought about making fabric kits because I also have a lot of that, and some of it I will definitely never use because I don't like the feel of it**, or I don't like the pattern on it).

This is partly, though not entirely, why I've decided to pivot towards textile based art for the time being.

Also I used some of the perle cotton for the first time last night, and I love it! It's so smooth and wonderful, and - I said jinxing myself - it doesn't seem to knot up like six stranded cotton can do. And I love the finish of it. I now realise some of the stuff I've been looking at online has been sewn using it, and now I can know, I can see if I can make things that come out more like the things I saw and was inspired by.

~

I thought I had something else to say, but I don't! I'm going to go and ponder what to have for dinner.

~

*We got a whole bunch donated to work one time, and I had to stop myself buying some of them because I knew I had a bunch, and do I do tapestry? I do not.

**I would love to know if there are other textile users with texture issues, but I don't know how to go about asking other people (except from, like, asking friends, or putting up a badly worded tweet).

I would estimate the front part of my quilt is about 75% done? It's worked up really fast, presumably because I'm using large pieces of material, and making them into strips, and then sewing those together. I mean, also I've spent most of the last few days on it, as well.

I'm going to put it to one side for a bit once the front is finished (although hopefully not for another eleven months, heh). Just to have a rest from it. It's been fun making it, but a) I've had other ideas while making it that I want to do, and b) I don't want to get burnt out on it. Also it's frikkin' huge now, so it's becoming a bit of a struggle to handle.

In related news, I bought a couple of sewing books! One I knew I wanted, and the other one I bought impulsively, whoops.

I'd originally gone to buy this sashiko book by Susan Briscoe (link goes to Goodreads). I already own a smaller one (her Simple Sashiko book), that has some of the same content, but I got the Ultimate Sashiko Book out of the library a few years ago, and it is AMAZING. I want it just to look at the patterns, even if I never learn sashiko properly (I think I am too impatient, but I haven't really tried to learn if I'm being honest).

(I also saw she'd written a book about boro stitching, but I told myself I'd buy that for my birthday).

And then I got distracted by the "similar books" links, and also "people who bought this also bought" links. And I found this one - Daydream Journals - which caught my eye, because it had fabric covered books, and I've been thinking about making some books with soft covers, because when am I not thinking about book binding (never, that's when).

Anyway, you don't need to know the other thought processes that, instead, took me to buying the other available book by this author - Stiched Memories.

This is the one I am ambivalent about, because I think I will find both of the books' content somewhat twee. It is a problem I have with a lot of crafting stuff in general, particularly sewing and junk journalling. But that's a me problem, I know. And if I'm not taken with this one, I don't have to buy the other one! (And also I don't have to buy it anyway).

And then the second one I got was one that's been on my to read list for ages (FOUR YEARS, apparently!), which is Stitch, Fabric, & Thread, so I was fairly confident that I would like the contents of this one (also I was kind of swayed by part of the blurb mentioning designs inspired by Aztec counting systems and I am very interested in the Aztecs as is).

So I have no idea when those will turn up, partly because of the postal strikes that have been happening, but also I haven't had dispatch emails yet. As long as it isn't tomorrow or Tuesday, as I'm not going to be at home. (I know I can get stuff redelivered, but I prefer not to where possible).

But I am interested to see what's in them, and ready to be proven wrong by the one I feel whiffly about.

I "accidentally" fell into watching journalling videos again, and omg that stuff is so soothing for my brain, and I have no idea why. Especially because most of the videos I see, the people making the spreads use things I would never consider using (doilies, lace, particular types of stickers or washi).

To which end, I have a book I made...forever ago...that I decided I would use as a collage spread book* (because, to me, those journal spreads look more scrapbooky or collage-y than they do what I would consider appropriate for a journal, but that's because I am an old man who yells at clouds). It's roughly the same size as a Traveller's Notebook, because you bet I thought about making inserts once upon a time. So it's not so big of a space to fill, and I don't have to do both sides at once if I don't want to.

And then I thought, "I need to sort some stuff out!", so now I have various folders full of various types of paper and card (supplemented from some general tidying I have been doing) that I can use for said collages.

I even categorised (some of) my sequins, because of seeing someone use some in one of their spreads. And came to the conclusion that I either need to sell or donate some, because I have a veritable mountain that I will never use. (Curse Poundland and that time they had massive bags of sequins in multiple colour sets! Like, it's nice having the different colour options, but oh boy, even if I encrusted every page in sequins, it would probably take me years to get through them all).

I also grabbed my mum's two seals out of writing sets she'd bought + the additional wax because IDK it looks cool when people on the internet do it. One has an interchangeable head, which is nice, and the other one doesn't, but that's okay. It's not like I have an alternate head for it at this point in time anyway.

I'm going to get one that is more "me", eventually. And one that has my constellation on it because I can! (hopefully; as constellations go, Aquarius isn't the most complicated, but it's also not the most simple).

...I just need to get everything a bit better organised in the living room so that I can access things when I need them, and not have to dig through layers upon layers of boxes (or whatever). And then I can collage to my heart's desire!

~

I don't think many of you follow me on twitter, but in case it does collapse in on itself, you can mainly find me in the following places online (as well as here, obvs):

wordpress: rootsandbonesart.wordpress.com

ko-fi: ko-fi.com/rootsandbones

society 6: society6.com/rootsandbones

my hilariously out of date website: rootsandbones.weebly.com

I am thinking about setting up a gumroad account for digital downloads at some point in the future! I will likely only put freebies up on ko-fi for reasons I'm not going into, because they are, quite frankly, really boring.

Also I figured out a way to film stuff at my desk, and it is not great, and I am not making any promises that that will happen, but hey! I finally figured it out!

~

*This is what I was wonkily talking about in the last entry, except sometimes I get carried away with myself, and also assume that because I know what's going on, so does everyone else.