Heatpocalypse

When the week ahead involves four days over 40 degrees C there’s no point making firm plans about anything. Staying as cool as possible was the priority. Being self employed means I can declare the days a ‘holiday’, though it does make for a pretty unpleasant sort of holiday.

It meant abandoning the upstairs and setting up downstairs. We slept in the guest room and I spent my days crafting, or attempting to, at the dining table under the aircon. I planned to tackle the refashion pile, and even wrote a long post about all the projects on it. But as good as aircon is it’s not good enough for trying on heavier clothing, and after three warm nights not quite cool enough for good sleep, in a less comfortable bed, my brain wasn’t awake enough for challenging refashions.

Pfft to plans, anyway.

On Wednesday I finally got to a Handweavers and Spinners Guild summer school workshop. Since I’ve broken my feet (have I mentioned that I have a pair of strained fascias from all the walking I’ve been doing in order to combat osteoporosis?) I’m not supposed to walk much and pressing the foot pedals in the Mini for long is painful, so Paul drove me there and picked me up later. Thankfully the guild is air-conditioned now. It was a Miniature Tapestry workshop and a great way to make another unbearably hot day pass faster. I’ll write a separate post about it later.

While I was there I succumbed to temptation and picked up one of the guild’s mystery challenge boxes. You grab a little chinese food box full of stuff and have to use at least 50% of it to make something. From the moment I started looking through mine I knew I wanted to make a figurine, and in the evening began sketching ideas.

And I spent half of Thursday staring at the contents in a state of dazed sleep-deprivation, the other half picking up and putting down refashioning projects. I did attempt to felt a figurine body, but that was a complete disaster. At least getting my hands wet did help to cool me down. All I made that day was a very simple leather bracelet.

Friday I was more awake and managed to finish a couple of crafty projects before tackling the mystery box again. This time I managed to make something – mostly by deciding I’d work out how to make a body later and concentrate on the clothes for now.

So I did craft during the heatpocalypse. In a bit of a stupor, and half of it on a completely new project, but at least the days weren’t completely wasted.