Grumpy Pants

Yes, I'm a pessimistic, cynical, grumpy old git. You only get that way through great trial and error.  ― George Banister

I'm feeling grumpy today. I'm not sure why. I usually try to go through the days with blind acceptance of the current situation, but I think I'm sorta topped out with that at the moment. Cups of tea and chocolate biscuits, quiet music and naps... those are the balms I'm using at the moment. They're working pretty ok.

It hasn't all been grey and stormy in my head. The hubby has his pilot's license, and in a desperate bid for a change of scenery, we went off on a short journey in our Cessna down to Victoria yesterday morning for lunch. It's an unusual way to go out for lunch, but whatever, we did it. It was a good day for that: not too hot and relatively calm:

I prefer to go when it's cooler out because it means our co-pilot can come along and he won't get too warm:

He usually goes to sleep as soon as we level off, but he does wake up every so often to check on our progress:

We were able to park the plane outside one of the hangers thanks to the generosity of one of the pilots down there. We were able to walk out of one of the side gates to cross the road to a cafe to buy some sandwiches. The original plan was to sit out on one of their picnic benches with Seymour, but they ended up being in the dusty parking lot with lots of people driving past. The hubby had had the forethought to bring along a couple of lawn chairs just in case, and they were perfect for a couple of seats in the shade of the wing to eat our lunch:

And the view of the airfield far exceeded the dusty parking lot:

I think one of the reasons I'm feeling grumpy today is because I'm getting tired of my current project. It's been kind of a grind throughout. It's the Angelica Bag from the latest Bookazine from Scheepjes. It looked like a cute, quick project. It's cute, but it is NOT quick. 90 rounds of waistcoat stitch is NOT quick. Waistcoat stitch requires you to push your crochet hook through the centre of the stitch to pull up a loop. If your tension is too tight, that is not an easy feat. I thought 90 rounds would teach me to loosen up. Turns out, not so much. I also discovered on round 82 that I was using the wrong size hook - apparently, I was supposed to size down to a 2.75 mm hook. I can't decide if I just missed that instruction or if I consciously decided to go with a 3.00mm hook instead (I don't own a 2.75mm hook). Either way, I sure as heck wasn't going to rip back to start over. No sir, not this time... I am ok for learning experience for the moment:

Consequently, my bag is taller than the original design. No biggie. Who wants a teeny bag anyway? And since it's taller and since I do not have a 2.75mm hook, the motifs are also being made with the 3.00mm hook:

The flower/stems were more fun and less fiddly than I anticipated. I like that they're all made without having to cut the thread and without sewing little bits together. They were like wonky little octopuses (octopi?) for a while:

I'm currently working on the fern motifs, but they are definitely more fiddly than the flowers were. That is not helping my grumpy mood. I also discovered that the written instructions for one of the ferns do not match the chart - well after I finished it. It's far too fiddly for me to re-do it. I'm supposed to make one more large one and one smaller one, but I think I can get away with a medium-sized one and a small one. Both the area of the bag AND my patience are running short, and I still have to figure out how the heck I'm going to stitch those fiddly things into place:

 Sigh. I can barely stand myself in my grumpiness, so I think it's about time I took Seymour out for a walk. Here's hoping for a better mood next week. Have a good one.