I have to admit that I have a problem when things go wrong in the house, such as appliances, or the computer. Yes, I do tend to panic, probably because after many years of Robin tending to these sorts of blokey things, it now all falls on me. What to do, who to call? On Sunday I noticed a big puddle of water under the tub and washing machine, after I had done a load of laundry earlier in the morning. So out came a couple of towels to mop it all up, and I wondered if the washing machine had died, or maybe it was a plumbing problem, who knows? Everything came out from the tub cabinet, and the shelves were mopped up too. What a mess, water everywhere. On Monday morning I phoned the local appliance centre, they have a good name, and we have used them before. A workman will be around at 2.00pm I was told, whew, that's quick, I thought.

Very prompt service

A nice young man came and checked the washing machine out. It turned out there a worn and damaged seal on the pipe which goes from the machine to underneath the tub which was leaking, and was easily replaced. That's better than being told I needed to purchase a new washing machine. So all my worry was for nothing, once again.

I peeked under the tub

After the pipe was replaced I gave the tub cabinet a wipe down and replaced all the bits and pieces which live there, laundry powder, cleaning products, that sort of thing. The knitted selvedge mat which lives on the floor in front of the tub was sodden and needed washing, no problem, I've got a second one. But...... it had a hole and I'd never got around to mending it, why didn't I repair it straight away, I asked myself. So now was a good time to get on with fixing the hole, better late than never!

How did that happen?

Mmmm, what to do here? This would be a bit difficult to knit the partial rows together. So I found another selvedge strip, attached a safety pin to the end, and wove it in and out pulling those loops together. There, done, and hardly noticeable. It is now sitting in place on the floor in front of the laundry tub, the hole repaired, and looks fine.

Selvedge mat in place

I checked back through earlier blogs to find that I started knitting the selvedge mats in 2014 - that's quite a while ago! It wasn't easy knitting at all, quite hard on my hands, but I persevered and made two. And used up an awful lot of selvedges. I got the idea from the very talented Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts. I loved seeing all the different colours coming through, offset by the various neutrals. I used up long lengths, and shorter selvedges too, whatever came to hand, stitching the ends together and wound it into several big balls.

I started knitting these back in 2014

After all the excitement of the flood in the laundry, which is situated in the garage so didn't really do too much damage, it was nice to get some unexpected visitors pop in after the serviceman had been. My niece Lisa, my late sister Kathleen's daughter, and Lisa's daughter Kate had come down to the Kapiti region for a long weekend, and called in on their way back to Hastings.

Lisa and Kate

The girls presented me with such a pretty little posy too. Written on the card was "Dear Aunty Jenny, a little something from us to brighten your day". Such a lovely thought, and yes indeed, my day certainly was made all the brighter.

Romany Quilting

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