MAGPIE'S MUMBLINGS

A blog about my interests, which include fabric landscapes and various and assorted other artsy pursuits and sometimes known to contain mumblings of a random nature.

Monday, February 01, 2021

One never knows what one might find here!

 I keep eyeing my bag filled with yarn odds and ends and wondering what I could make to use some of them up.  It suddenly came to my attention that such a thing as mile-a-minute afghan patterns are out there and wouldn't that be the perfect use for those partial balls of yarn.  I made one strip and weighed the ball of yarn before and after and came up with how many oz. I need to make a strip.  Resident Chef then undertook to weigh all my leftover yarns and we sorted them into what I can use for my afghan.  I will need to augment for a few colours I would like to use but otherwise I think I can pretty much make a useable blanket.  Useable is the key word here because, like much of what I do, I don't have any use for said blanket.  It will go in the Christmas box and maybe will 'bless' some poor unsuspecting soul in December.  


There follows a mini-rant so be prepared!


One would think, if one thought upon such things, that paying a lot more for something that's supposed to be 'better quality' would mean that I wouldn't be taking a picture and circling in RED what happened to my office chair this morning.  One would think that one would be comfortable in said chair for several years to come.  One would think that, wouldn't one.  Well....said chair has had a massive squeak since Day One and has required many applications of the wonder elixer called WD-40.  I'm sad to say that WD-40 can't fix this.  The arm rest snapped right off very nearly dumping moi very ingloriously onto the floor.  Resulting screech of dismay brought Resident Chef running, only to have to wade through the air that was rapidly turning blue.  Sigh.



anybody got any spare gold lying around?
One chair, in need....

22 comments:

  1. Said chair! That's a scary serious flaw. I hope you are all right. It can take a day or so for aches to show up.

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    1. I'm fine - I didn't fall, but it was close. Wouldn't be the first time I've fallen off a chair....once at work while talking on the phone to someone in head office. The rest of the staff thought it was so funny that I didn't miss a beat.

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  2. Looks like you found the perfect use for all that spare yarn. Should be beautiful when all done. I've been keeping a temperature chart since the beginning of 2021 with the intention of doing something like a quilt or scarf, or maybe just a paper art piece. I don't really trust the source I have for temps here in town as it appears that they're about 4-6 degrees off of what we register with our indoor/outdoor thermometer, but I need to have something that is done at specific times and if we're not here there's no one to record it. Such is life. We're in the midst of a snowstorm here right now. 15" so far.

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    1. Unfortunately it's still not using up all the stash balls. I'm consoling myself with the fact that at least the real estate it's taking up in my sewing room is going to be less (sez I, who today ordered four more balls so I could augment the colour choices!). I've toyed with doing a temperature afghan and actually planned to do one...until....I priced the cost of all the different colours of yarn and that put a stop to it.
      Stay safe - 15" is a LOT of snow!!!

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  3. No spare gold here, but do chairs in need of a little tarting up count?? It seems these days that there is always something wrong with whatever we purchase...so very frustrating. Your afghan is going to be fabulous. Love those colours.

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    1. Alas no gold here either. Jury is still out whether we'll try to fix the armrest or just remove the other one and do without.

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  4. You and your Resident Chef are amazing. Weighing the yarn! Who would have thought? I love it! Too bad I am not on your gift list for I know this is going to be good just like everything the two of you do. And, just to let you know, your comment about the kicking calf, which was my own favorite thing about the photos I posted, just cemented our friendship forever!

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    1. Oh, the weighing of yarn thing isn't my original idea! I saw it done on a blog somewhere once and filed it in my memory bank for future reference.
      As for the kicking calf - I was raised on a farm and spent altogether too many hours playing with the baby animals (only child, what can I say).

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  5. Can you get a replacement for the busted chair? That looks like a mfr defect. Could have been serious if it had dumped you on your spine. Very disappointing. And unnerving.

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    1. I've had the chair (in daily use) for over a year but I'm going to look into the guarantee to see if there's any wiggle room. It was definitely unnerving but not quite sure who was the most affected...me for almost falling off my chair or Resident Chef hearing me screech...lol.

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  6. Oh, and I forgot to say... I would love to see a fabric landscape you did of the pond! You amaze me!

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    1. Hmmmm....would you give me the okay? I'd like to give it a try!!!

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    2. p.s. - full credit would go to you as photographer of course!!

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    3. You have my full permission to use any of my photos any time you like. I would be honored for sure!!!

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    4. awww- thank you so much!! Don't expect me to get right to it because I have two or three others waiting in the wings

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  7. Your mile a minute blanket will give lots of warm hugs to the recipient. I adore that Resident Chef pitched in and weighed your yarn stash. Great thread spool rack however I have no spare wall space. Your chair was very bad and needs to be replaced by the manufacturer...you could have been injured. I love the Japanese way of repairing with gold and adding to the story of the item. No spare gold here though.

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    1. My Resident Chef is my go-to guy for unraveling yarn barfs too....comes from spending a lot of time patientlky unravelling tangled fishing lines when he was younger. I, on the toher hand, would chuck the entire ball in the garbage rather than wrestle with it. So weighing yarn is definitely in his wheelhouse (and besides, we were using HIS kitchen weigh scale to do the job).

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  8. Hi M. They’re called “mile-a-minute” now, eh? I made several afghans of that pattern “back in the day” (over 30 years ago, LOL). Sorry about your chair, but glad you’re OK. Have you talked to the retailer where you bought it? That can’t be normal to break in that spot. It looks like Lisa has added her own great spin to the CQ magazine. Loads more professional-looking!

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    1. Yes, that crochet pattern is an oldie but still a goodie I guess, at least when you're wanting to use up stash.
      As for the chair, I left a bad review on their web site but the warranty is over so not much they will do. And Lisa has taken the magazine in another direction which is interesting and fun.

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  9. You know we have three fairly new office chairs here. Two were form a very well known brand and I'd like to chuck them in the bin. The cheappo one is very comfortable and the owner (not me) has had no issues. That temperature quilt is an interesting idea but I think I'd make it smaller and make a wall hanging instead.

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    1. I have never before bought an expensive chair but I spend so many hours in it on a daily basis so thought it might be worth the investment, plus I was given a couple of gift certificates for Christmas that brought the price down to what I would have paid for the cheapie models. Lesson learned - buy the cheap ones and replace them every year if I have to!

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  10. The Temperature Quilt is going on my To-Do list! Thinking of finding a Home School Family that might want to put this in their daily weather routine like I used to do in my classroom? I'll sew the pieces together. You know I'm onto hexies right now, so that's what I'll use.

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