Tidy-ish desk

These cardboard drawers were going cheap in Lidl or Aldi, can't remember which now, and they have gone a long way to helping me keep my desk a little tidier. They have reminders of what is in each drawer, or at least what was originally in each drawer, and hold all the bits that I use each day. If you are wondering about the object on top of the stack, it is a tracing paper covered frame that I use when I take photos of small objects, to diffuse the strong sunlight coming in through the window at this time of the year. That's why the curtain is pulled across to keep the sun off the screen, but let me sit here feeling the warmth....

I haven't blogged much crafting lately because it has been a little boring; One of the residents of the place where we bowl lost his wife about 18 months ago, and he is running out of socks. Yes, he does know how to use a washing machine, but he doesn't know how to knit. He had polio when he was a lad, and since then, one of his legs has stayed the size it was then. He has to wear a brace and an enormous boot, and his wife Mary used to knit him knee socks with a big turnover to stop the brace rubbing. He asked if anyone would be willing to knit socks for him, and I said yes, not realising at the time that he wanted five pairs! He brought me a Fortnum and Mason's hamper containing Mary's annotated sock patterns, half a dozen balls of wool, one completed man size sock and a half completed boy size sock. The man size sock was riddled with moth holes, as were the balls of wool. With a lot of knot tying, I managed to complete the half done sock and darn the holes in the completed one. I then put the whole lot in the freezer for a few days in the hope that the treatment would kill off any remaining eggs. A visit to the local wool shop didn't produce anything with the right wool/nylon mix to survive the wear and tear plus machine washing, so I ordered wool on-line. It arrived the week before Christmas, and I've been knitting it ever since. Three grey pairs completed, and only another two to go....

I should be making shaker cards for the PC swap, but my heart isn't in it at the moment. I fused on a backing and the heat of the iron melted the vinyl on the other side. I tried another, carefully protecting the vinyl in the centre, but afterwards the shakees would not be shook, and they clung resiliently to the vinyl. I'll have to re-think my methods.