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Wallpaper

  Today I am following on from last week's theme of tasks that are manageable and safe to do by yourself. My earliest first-hand memories of wallpapering are rather dramatic - my mom (always a sucker for a bargain) had been to a closing-down sale where you could have as much wallpaper as you could carry for some ridiculously small amount. Despite being less than 1.5m tall, she managed to carry a boot-load of rolls out of the store, leaving my dad and myself with a legacy of many weekends of DIY joy! Back in the day (and even now in some countries), wallpaper was not just a decorative finish, but an important part of the construction of a house, sealing off all porous building materials and gaps in boarding to make the rooms more airtight. People would simply add another layer of paper when the old one became a bit faded and torn, improving the insulation with each refurbishment. In places where lightweight boarding is the main external and internal walling method, plain paper is us...
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To DIY or not to DIY

  Today I want to look at a problem faced by any home-owner on when to do a task or project yourself, and when to call in a specialist. One of my neighbours started to strip down their window frames down to the original steel, but more than a year ago ran out of steam, with only a couple of windows done. These frames are now quite vulnerable, as they have not yet treated or painted them. So the question is what is reasonably "do-able" and even more importantly, what is legal. The three types of work where one needs to be careful, even if you are very competent and courageous, are structural, plumbing and electrical. Some aspects of these need to be done by a registered person or company, otherwise you would be falling foul of building regulations and potentially putting your insurance policy at risk. On the other hand, it becomes very expensive and annoying if you have to call in an electrician every time you need to change a light globe or replace a plug. Two common types of...
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Timeless things

Today I was doing a bit of tidying and noticed a quote by JD Sedding that my mom had crafted into a cross-stitch sampler which I have made up into a cushion cover. Sedding was a Victorian architect who was one of the founders of the Arts and Crafts movement in the UK in the late 1800s. The Arts and Crafts artists were reacting to the excessive ornamentation that characterised many of the artefacts that were produced in the early industrial era. In particular, they criticised ornament that did not derive from the function of the object, its method of manufacture or the materials that it was made from. This was possibly the first movement that purposefully aimed at authenticity, even to the extent of encouraging designers to engage in the manufacture of their products.  Today, hand-made objects are often unaffordable, unless one is lucky enough to have one passed down or find a treasure in a thrift shop. In some parts of the less industrialised world, craftspeople are still very much...
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Curating with photos

  Last Wednesday I had a fascinating chat with one of my newest PhD students who is looking at wheelchair accessibility in informal settlements. We were talking about using photovoice, a research method that asks participants to record their environments with photos which they then use as a way of understanding space and conveying their thoughts and experiences.  Through talking more generally about how photos can help us understand our spaces in a way that is different from direct observation, she shared an interesting anecdote. She and her mom had taken some pics of their cottage so that they could advertise it for rental, but they noticed quite a few things that looked out of place, unsightly, or visually unbalanced. On the basis of this examination, they did a bit of "editing" - rearranging some of the furniture and removing other items. Their second round of photographs gave a far better impression of the cottage - a successful exercise in curating. This led me to think,...
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Forgotten projects

  Last week was intended to be my last blog of the year, with a roundup of my crafting projects , but I was reminded of some that I had missed, so I went back over my photos and found more than 20 that I had overlooked! Many of them were in the middle of the year, hidden in WhatsApp messages. Starting with the jerseys, I made a pullover in a rich terracotta for my daughter, followed later in the year with a green cardigan. My mom has the ultimate pattern which I have copied - every size from a four-year-old to a men's XXL, and all the variations of sleeve and neckline options. I took a short break from adult knitting to make a jersey for a small child using yarn left over from one of my mother's projects. I had some of the green yarn left over from the cardigan, so I thought it would be fun to make a pullover for my daughter's favourite small boy.  I thought I would have just enough, but I ran out half-way up the second sleeve. Unfortunately, I could only get matching yarn ...
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Needlework in 2025

  This time last year, my blog reflected back on the needlecraft projects that I managed to complete in 2024 . All of the projects were knitting and sewing  - I have done some crochet and embroidery in the past, but I have really settled on knitting and machine sewing  as my preference. As in 2024, I have kept up my routine of knitting a little every evening while watching TV, and on the weekends I try to make time for the sewing projects.  My ottoman started the year quite full of fabrics and yarns to get me started, but the stash was topped up a couple of times during the year - Arthur Bales ' annual sale being one of the main culprits! I am really not keen on making garments for myself. I find that, by the time I have completed a jersey I am tired of the colour - lovely to see on somebody else, but not on myself. The problem with sewing for oneself is that it is difficult to fit the garment, unless you have a friend or family member with the skills. This year was ...
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Flood-proof paving

As a lifelong resident of a water-scarce region, I never complain about the rain. However, living in a city, one is often conscious of storm-water when it causes flooding, or even pooling in the carpark exactly in an arc around your car! For several years, I have been part of a study group on permeable paving, a Nature-based Solution to urban storm-water, headed up by Prof Neil Armitage of UCT. Permeable paving solution Creative commons licensed: https://laturfandpaver.com/shop/turf-block/ Most Nature-based Solutions use vegetation: many of us are familiar with constructed wetlands,  green roofs , swales and rain gardens , where the planting does much of the work in absorbing the rainwater, trapping it in its roots and directing any water that is not needed down into the sub-surface "groundwater". This contrasts with conventional storm-water engineering, where the rainwater is encouraged to flow away as quickly as possible, using impermeable sloping surfaces (roads, paving, p...
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