Jan 27 - new yarn arrived! Going to start on attempting a crochet hoodie in cotton yarn. My rough plan is, work the body as a tube from the bottom hem up to around chest level, with the seam planned to fall at centre front. Then split into working a back panel and two front panels upwards to start arm holes and the head/neck opening. Join the panels at the shoulder seams, though not all the way to the inside front edges, so there's basically a T-shaped head/neck opening at the top. Work sleeves outwards from the sleeve openings, and a hood upwards from the crossbar of the neck opening. Make a patch pocket to sew onto the front, covering most of the join seam. Optionally crochet a cord to lace the lower part of the T opening together if it needs it.
Will probably be kind of boxy since there's no fitting at all, but the fabric should have enough give for it to be wearable. Also, being cotton yarn, it's going to be kind of weighty, which should make it drape well.
For supper I fried a couple of pork chops and braised them with onions and apple chunks, which I served with boiled potatoes and steamed corn with green beans.
Jan 28 - the balls of cotton yarn are waaaaay too heavy for my yarn spinner. I should probably take the time to wind the other balls into two cakes each, which should be light enough, though it'd mean adding extra joins into the yarn and having more ends to weave in.
Supper was dilly ground beef with sour cream, egg noodles, corn, and peas.
Jan 29 - Cleaned the toilet, vacuumed the kitchen.
Spent some time cleaning the interior of our bread machine. I've bought a new pan to replace the old one; it had developed a slight leak around one axle some time back, which over time has led to a buildup of carbonized deposits where the pan axles engage with the interior works of the oven compartment. Basically I wadded paper towels over the worst of it, soaked them in white vinegar, let it sit for a while to soften the deposits, then scraped the gunk loose with a combination of a small metal skewer and a plastic scrub brush.
I also have new paddles on order which should arrive in the next day or two, after which the bread machine will probably be fine for at least another couple of years of use (I'm betting it'll easily go another 4, though I might need another pair of paddles in a couple of years as they do wear out over time). Dad bought well when he decided to splurge on a top end Zojirushi; I forget how long we had it before he died but it's five years this spring since that latter, and the machine is still going strong enough that when faced with "spend ~$150CAN for new pan and paddles or buy a new bread machine" there was no contest. Like yeah sure I can buy an entirely new bread machine of a much cheaper brand for what I spent on the pan and paddles but this is VERY MUCH a Vimes' Economic Theory of Boots thing. The Zojirushi will probably still be going strong for another 2-4 years easily, it's an absolute workhorse of a machine. Also, they cost between $400-500CAN when dad bought this one, and price for current equivalent model is around $700CAN so yeah, a few more years of use at the cost of a pan and paddles (and possibly extra paddles) is cheap.
Supper was soup from the freezer.
Jan 30 - Had to frog back most of my current crochet project and try again; I'm working on what's eventually meant to be a hoodie, and I'm currently making the body as a tube of stitches with the seam of the join meant to go at centre front, where it'll mostly be covered by a patch pocket eventually. Except I was repeatedly f-ing up the join of the rows and accidentally working in extra stitches, so there was a growing wedge of them forming instead of a straight seam:
Basically had to frog 7 of the 8-ish rows worked so far and then rework all the (lengthy!) rows of stitches again, though at least I figured out what I'd done wrong and have a properly straight seam now. And spent enough time crocheting today to redo everything that was ripped out. Yay.
For supper I made chicken wraps.