Not self sufficientish at ....

[Flo]

Are there things that you have tried thinking that it would be good to be able to do it yourself and failed?

Mine is painting wood. Walls fine, wood no ....

[doofaloofa]

When ever i have made bacon nobody likes it but me, so i don't bother any more

[Green Aura]

There are so many things - I may need to revisit several times.

The first thing that springs to mind is finishing off knitted items - you know, sewing up side seams, setting in sleeves etc. I can knit really well but by the time it's sewn up the offending (literally) garment looks like a dishrag.

I'd also like to be able to create a pretty flower garden, somewhere that fills all the senses when you sit there. My mother could make something quite beautiful from a patch of dirt, often for next to no cost (she was a bugger for nicking cuttings from other folks' front gardens - and they always struck). Every time I've tried it always manages to look patchy, unbalanced and contrived - often at the same time! So I stick to growing veg and I do love sitting among those with a cup of tea but it's not the same.

[ina]

The first thing that springs to mind is finishing off knitted items - you know, sewing up side seams, setting in sleeves etc. I can knit really well but by the time it's sewn up the offending (literally) garment looks like a dishrag.

Use a style where you don't have to do any sewing up: like a proper Guernsey, or raglan, knitted from the top (I'm sure I explained that some years ago somewhere...). Although I can do the finishing off bit, I tend to just leave the stuff sitting about for years until I get round to it...

[Green Aura]

I do ina, but I'd still like to finish off some of the projects I started (like yours) years ago.

[ina]

I do ina, but I'd still like to finish off some of the projects I started (like yours) years ago.

Ah yes - those ancient ones - I know them well!

Got three things (I think - at least) on the go: one almost finished (jumper), another one half way there - and a single sock.

[Green Aura]

We recently bought several huge tubs (110l) to store all my yarn. One of them is 3/4 full of projects in various stages of completion - some I got fed up with, some I just didn't want to sew up, others I lost the pattern for so don't quite know how to finish and a final bunch that will get finished but have been put away safely while we do renovations. Plaster dust plays havoc with yarn!

[ina]

[Odsox]

Yes there's one thing (at least) that I don't do, which I ought to, and that is make my own potting compost.
I think I'm now reaping the rewards of my laziness as some of my tomato plants last year suffered from an unknown leaf problem, which resulted in me throwing away my overwinter toms, and now is appearing on my new season tom plants.

I use the same manufacturer potting compost, which I now suspect of containing weedkiller residue from composted contaminated grass cuttings. A not uncommon occurrence apparently, and they certainly use unsterilised spent mushroom compost as I've had huge mushrooms appear in all my pots.
So now, as you can no longer get pure peat compost, or even just pure peat, I am going to have start producing my own, instead of picking up 3 bags for the price of 2 at my local garden centre.

[diggernotdreamer]

I am hopeless at anything that involves, screws, nails, wood, power tools, I am the most cack handed person I know, I have watched things being made endless times, but the minute I have a go, I screw my foot to the floor or fall off a ladder, it has got to the stage now, that if I so much as pick up a tool, the Wizard is chasing after me shouting where you going with that screwdriver,which is fine because he does the job for me........................ but potting compost, now that is something I am quite good at, I make all my own

[doofaloofa]

if I so much as pick up a tool, the Wizard is chasing after me shouting where you going with that screwdriver

LOL

[bonniethomas06]

Diggernotdreamer how do you make it?

[sleepyowl]

Machine sewing, if I had a treadle one that might work

[Flo]

Gosh yes, I remember my mother taking over the sewing machine and making it look so easy when I had school projects to do!

[sleepyowl]

I got my sewing machine serviced today by my mother, it appears I hadn't been threading up my bobbin properly, so now I can start my Christmas projects.