Note to Future Self: over-crowding the dye pot will lead to less than optimal results – as will playing fast and loose with “continuously stir”.

Fortunately, I don’t hate a mottled look.

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Items I have unsuccessfully tested for candle moulds – where testing involves dripping wax on to the surface, letting it harden and seeing if it will peel off:

+ a small, lightweight plastic ball

+ a small plastic tub

+ another small plastic tub

+ a chai container

+ a milk carton

My test wax drops peeled right off the paper I’d put down as surface protection. But I’m fairly certain constructing a mould from it would be disastrous.

“Just buy a mould, carolbaby!” I hear you say. To which I would respond: Have you seen the price of those things?!

I really am not very keen to use a jar – but this could be where I’m headed if I want to reuse this beeswax.

Or I could like, just buy some new candles, but where would be the fun and learning (and crazy frugality) in that?

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I rarely watch television, but I completely adored the first season of Next In Fashion back in ancient times and am eager to get stuck into season 2.

My challenge is that I’m unable to sit still in front of the television for any length of time unless I have a craft project to quiet me. There is no way I can do any sort of sewing without a magnifier and very bright light these days, so knitting it is!

I bought three balls of 10 ply (worsted/aran) baby alpaca in ocean (wonderfully soft and squishy) yesterday, trawled through my saved patterns and landed upon the City Creek Cowl. I’m a big fan of those travelling cables.

I cast on this evening (in prep for weekend television) and knitted the first 5 rows of the ribbing. It was very satisfying.

Except now that I grab the yarn band to add a link here, I find that I have bought 3 balls of 14ply (superchunky) baby alpaca. *face palm emoji*

What this means is that the cowl will likely be enormous.

I’ll see how I go when I’ve knit a bit more, but will likely unravel and reduce it to 3 pattern repeats, rather than the 4.

Or find another pattern.

There’s yet another lesson in here somewhere.

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I’m very pleased to have tomorrow off work. I would really benefit from catching up on All The Things, but also to chill a bit.

I’ve just come off being in office for 9 working days in a row and I am still no clearer on how I ever managed to do anything non-work-related in the Before Times.

At a minimum I would like to pull out the dye pot and give a boost to a few of those blue garments I dyed in the midst of the 2021 lockdown. Also while playing with fire, I’d like to make a candle from the many fragments of beeswax candles I’ve been saving because it seemed the height of wastefulness to chuck them.

I should post about my (thankfully) brief period of eco-guilt insanity at some point – saving candle fragments being but the tip of the proverbial.

Theme for the weekend: productive restfulness – this keeps auto correcting to “productive tearfulness” which I hope is not The Universe trying to tell me something.

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There was a complete outage of the entire train network for several hours this afternoon, which meant of course that chaos ensued for those trying to get home from the office – or indeed get anywhere.

I’m exceedingly fortunate that while I usually take the train in to work, I also have many bus options and can walk in a pinch. And I can take the Light Rail – something I’ve never done before, despite living within reasonably close proximity to bits of the line for over 15 years. I’ve avoided it because it wends its way all over the place and takes an age. But with all the disruption, I decided today would be the day for adventure!

And it was a really lovely journey! I got a seat, people were relaxed. I experienced parts of the city I know very well from a completely different perspective. And what I’d always assumed took an age was only actually 10min longer than the train trip (though a bit of a further walk from ThePalace).

There’s definitely a lesson in there somewhere!

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It’s been a very warm past two days. Perhaps the highest temperature for 3 years? Highest at all – not just for March.

Definitely exhausting travelling to and from the office in those temperatures. I’ve felt in need of naps.

It was a little disconcerting to remember that these temperatures were the norm prior to the recent period of La Niña. Indeed, on the very low end of “hot”.

Best make plans for the pergola on the upper balcony before El Niño returns to sizzles my lovely verdant garden!

I’m super-fantastic news, I’ve signed up to the body donation program at UTS and received my donor card last week!

I’ve been keen to do this for ages and the process was quite simple – made enquiry, was sent forms and information. I completed the forms, they did their bit and the lovely bit of plastic is now travelling about with me.

Of course there is not a complete guarantee they will take me when the time comes, but at that point I’m unlikely to be terribly concerned.

Yay for contributing to science!

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This morning Don and I mixed it up and took a pottery class together at Project Snail. It’s a lovely, small, bright and really welcoming studio^^. Small class size, utterly fantastic teacher.

We each made two pots in the two hour
session.

This was Don’s first time with clay – and my third/fourth at the wheel. I wish I could say the experience helped me! Okay, maybe it did just a little.

In Don’s words: “it was a lot of fun, but didn’t ignite any great passion”. Yep.

I do want to love it, but my heart really isn’t quite there. I think the thing is that there is a quite large barrier to entry – clay is not expensive, but wheel time is – and it would take many, many, many more hours for me to achieve basic competence. Time that I could be exploring other creative endeavours! Never say never, but this could be the last hurrah.

But in this iteration – we’ll be back in a few weeks for trimming!

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On with the pots …

My two pots:

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Don’s two pots:

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Oops – my rather *ahem* artistic vessel:

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Don’s magnificent first effort:

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^^ I wonder if I would have kept at it if I’d started out here. A much more right-for-me vibe than the last studio.

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Movie date to see Tár this afternoon.

Very much liked it. It’s visually stunning with architecture that made me swoon. But definitely a film that requires a fair bit of effort and one that will stay with you – we’re both still puzzling certain elements out.

Need a rewatch when it hits a steaming service, but this will likely result in more puzzles.

Wave ball is slowly, slowly coming along and may even be completed some time before 2036. The scroll frame has been a genius addition.

I’m at the point where I think I’ve found a method is working for me, but there’s a long way to go and some of the symbols are particularly fiendish.

For example, these two:

Which breaks my eyes when they are side-by-side:

I’m keen to mix it up with other projects, but keep picking up this one. There’s probably just enough challenge in it to keep me engaged. I’d like to pick up something that will stretch the creative muscles a little more.

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I was four days in office this week and I am quite exhausted. I also feel very slightly under the weather – hopefully it is a result of tiredness and the tedious, repetitive work I was doing today – and not the summer cold that seems to be bouncing about.

To sleep!

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don’s dessert

Tonight we took Joe/Frank out to dinner at Hubert for a belated birthday and as thanks for kitty wrangling while we were in Thailand.

An excellent (and extremely delicious) time was had by all. It’s a lovely venue, and unlike most other Sydney restaurants, full of soft surfaces – so even though it was packed to the proverbial with diners, we could our conversation. Amazing!

Very nice to mix it up a bit on a school night.

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