Chez Spud

MrSpud casually reminded me last night that, 2 years ago, he told me I was hard to buy presents for because I didn’t have any hobbies (um, what? doesn’t diamond collecting count? OK….). Oh how times change!

Since October 2008, a smidge under 2 years ago, I have taken up photography, started blogging, learnt to crochet, bought a sewing machine and sewed a few bits and, recently, started cycling. Given my slightly obsessive personality type I have thrown myself in to all of them with huge enthusiasm (apart from sewing but that’s a space issue which will be resolved). I barely have time to breathe these days, since my days are consumed with my many hobbies.

As well as the hobbies I have to squeeeeeeze in working part-time, being the sole carer for the Megaboys during the week and being the usual washer woman/ironer/home administrator/wife/friend/daughter type thing. Stuff I don’t do (in the interests of full disclosure): clean, cook or garden. Recently I started going to the cinema every other week with a friend (Mummy Film Club), I’ve joined a choir (rehearsals start the week after next, hoorah), a 6 week cycling course starts in 3 weeks and I’m doing a monthly ‘women only’ bike ride. Oh and I’m a keen reader and like to snaffle my way through a novel or two a week.

Life is pretty full. So why, why, WHY am I consumed with the need…the overwhelming longing…to learn the lute. Yes the lute. Not the flute (I already play that). The lute.

We recently visited the wonderful Mistley Quay Workshops in search of lunch at the cafe. While we waited for our food I wandered around and peered in to the windows of the workshops….and there they were…LUTES..in the making. Beautiful lutes in every stage of development. And right there, right then the longing overwhelmed me. I have to play the lute.

I can’t think why I haven’t considered this before. I’m an avid admirer of early music, especially 17th century English music and John Dowland is right up there as one of my favourites.  In ‘theory’ lute playing shouldn’t be horribly painful for me as I play the classical guitar (although very rusty) and tablature is not a mystery to me as a result. So…the music of the golden age for lute music is my best favourite….thus learning the lute shouldn’t be an appalling trial for me. What am I waiting for?

Well cost is an issue as lutes are seriously pricey. I’m getting around that by claiming one as my fast approaching 40th birthday present. But do I have the time? Seriously, can I find the time? My life is full, really full. And wonderful! I love all my hobbies, I love all the different people it brings me in to contact with. I feel like I have a perfect work/life balance. Learning a new instrument could seriously upset the balance and something will have to give to make time for it, but what? Considers ebaying Megaboys…

I know exactly how time consuming it is to learn an instrument. If I take up the lute it will be instrument number 10 for me, actually possibly 11. That’s a whole lot of lessons and scales and exams I’ve done. I even read music at university so I really do know what I’m letting myself in for. Hmmm.

Head says “no”. Heart says “yes”.

How many hobbies are too many?

Most Commented Posts

• To my boy on starting school…
• Happy Blogoversary to me…and a little giveaway
• Lurkers…DELURK!
• FINALLY…Secret 30…I am a Big…Fat…Liar…
• Fantastic competition: win a family trip to New York! And a giveaway…a cool camera

I’m on a self-imposed Crochet Break. It’s breaking my heart because I love it so much, but crochet is breaking me and that’s can’t be good. My wrist is painful, tingling and numbness in my fingers, up my arm and in to my elbow and should. Carpel Tunnel nastiness I suppose. Weep. That’s not at all good.

I’ve not even been very prolific in terms of output recently. A couple of sweet headscarves as presents for little girls, above. And then Wilbur the Whale for The Wife’s youngest child.

A couple of Little Secret Things that I can’t show just now, and that’s it. The problem is that I had to rework both the headscarves AND Wilbur endlessly. Neither are hard patterns, but following them, keeping an even tension etc etc is tougher than I thought it would be. I think possibly I’ve been trying to run before I can walk, but you have to start somewhere right? You can’t just granny and ripple forever?

So I’m taking a break before I do some long term damage. Is it normal for crochet to break you like this? It’s annoying because The List of Things I want to make isn’t getting any shorter. I have a lovely book called Crochet for Boys & Girls and I want to make pretty much everything in it. Diggy has put an order in for this blanket:

And both boys want one of these:

Then I’d like to make these for my imaginary daughters:

Although I suspect it’s probably just as well that my daughters ‘are’ imaginary as I think that coat might just cripple me for life. Surely it’s a life’s work? Perhaps I could make it for my imaginary grand-daughter? I think that’s a more realistic time frame.

But for now I must nurse my poorly Crochet Claw and hope some rest will cure the pain.  Who knew crafting could be so hurty? Weep.

If you liked that, you might like this ...

• Made it…the sequel
• Can’t stop crocheting. Send help.
• Made it!
• Silent Sunday
• Silent Sunday

Admit it, the title really drew you in didn’t it? Yes, this is a Really Boring Post About Yarn. I’m going with ‘yarn’ not ‘wool’ since ‘wool’, the generic British term for stuff that is used for knitting/crocheting caused confusion on a previous post. In the US it is called yarn, which is all things knitty/hooky. In the UK it is called wool, which means wool, cotton, mohair etc etc. It’s confusing. Let’s just go with yarn.

This is a post for me to remind me which yarn I’ve used for which pieces and whether I liked them. At some point I plan on a journal, of the old fashioned kind, with a swatch of each of the colours used, number of balls used, total cost (written in invisible ink so MrSpud can’t see), time taken etc etc. But for now I’m recording my entirely tedious love affair with yarn here. Sorry about that.

First up, above, the Giant Granny. I made this as a break from the Giant Granny Bertie Blanket, and to use up various bits of yarn knocking about. This was my first foray in to working with cotton. I love how it feels once it’s been worked, but I didn’t much enjoy working with some of it. It’s a mix of Rowan handknit cotton and Debbie Bliss cotton dk. The Debbie Bliss wins by miles in terms of how it feels to work with, but the Rowan colours are better. And Rowan is a bit cheaper. Also, I learnt that if you don’t like a colour…no amount of fiddling with it and ‘just using it up’ will ever change that. Worked with a size 4 hook.

Mmmm, the Big Daddy of Spud’s crochet….the massive blanket for Bertie made of granny squares. This feels like it’s a life’s work, although I actually only started it in late February. I had a couple of false starts; first I did the squares in 4 different colours before deciding I like them with a white border. Then I realised I was making them all wrong. I’ve wasted a lot of wool making this. A pity as it’s pricey and I’ve used so much of it. The method I’m using to join it is lovely, and easy (found on Carina’s Craft Blog).  But it’s a yarn guzzler. And I’ve still got to put the last row on it and then granny around the whole thing a few times. I am so happy I’ve not attempted to calculate the cost of this baby. It’s very, very expensive. I just hope it turns out to be the ‘heirloom piece’ I planned it to be.

I didn’t plan this at all. I just bought a few balls of Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran and merino aran (now discontinued) at the local yarn shop. I picked it for colour, without thinking about how chunky the yarn is or the cost, or what other colours I might want to use. So it’s a pretty ‘organic’ piece (ie randomly made up as I went along). The colours are quite muted, but the yarn is gorgeous. Well the cashmerino is, the bit of merino in it is on the scratchy side.  Bit of a lesson in pre-planning and, when tackling a new craft, don’t go for a super pricey raw material. Oh well. I’m really loving how this is turning out though. Worked with a size 5 hook, using the Summer Garden Granny Square pattern by Attic24.

Very boring picture. Baby blanket in cream, Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. Work in progress, gorgeous yarn…so soft with a slight twist to it, worked with a 3.5 hook. I think my favourite yarn thus far. I don’t espeically love the end result of working in one colour but it’s a fast, easy pattern to work and very soothing. Pattern is from the book ‘Crochet Unravelled’.

I’m yet to take a good photo of this blanket and yarn. It’s a 50:50 mix of silk and merino by Mirasol, a range called Tupla. It’s so beautifully soft and shiny, and silky of course. I just picked all the colours in the range that I liked and made a stripey ripple. With hindsight I might have picked the colours and mixed them a bit more carefully.  I’ve used the turquoise to make a Queen Anne lace scarf too. Interestingly, (well not really) I ended up having to mix two dye batches for the scarf. The colour is a good match, but the texture isn’t! Half of the scarf is silky smooth, the other has a tangible ‘roughness’ to it. Worked with a size 4 hook. The pattern is the Neat Ripple from Attic24, well not so neat in my case. i just couldn’t seem to get the first row ‘right’ and thought I’d fudge it. Urgh, the whole thing is a pickle although it looks ok. I’m planning a Baby Ripple in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino for a friend and am determine to make a Right Ripple, not a Wrong Ripple.

Finally, the ill-advised hexagon project. I just really wanted to learn how to crochet hexagons and used the Attic24 pattern. I’m really not that struck with them to be honest, bit of a faff to make and not helped by using some experimental yarn and Diggy making off with the orange ball.  I’m trying to find the ‘perfect’ shade of greens, yellows, turquoises for a Big Daddy Granny Blanket for Diggy’s room but I am struggling. These are a few balls Debbie Bliss EcoAran, plus a couple of Rowan Cotton. I like how it turns out but it’s a pain to work with, lots of strands which keep unravelling. Urgh. I will be happy to see the back of this project. I also threw in a ball of Rowan Lenpur linen which is a gorgeous turquoise, but is utterly vile to work with – like a brillo pad. Worked with a size 4 hook.

Thus ends my Really Boring Post About Yarn. I ‘would’ show you my stash since, ahem, there’s quite a lot left over a quite a bit waiting for new projects. But then MrSpud would bust me. So it will be Our Little Secret? Ssssshhhh….don’t tell….

Most Commented Posts

• To my boy on starting school…
• Happy Blogoversary to me…and a little giveaway
• Lurkers…DELURK!
• FINALLY…Secret 30…I am a Big…Fat…Liar…
• Fantastic competition: win a family trip to New York! And a giveaway…a cool camera

I’m definitely obsessed. I spend far too much time thinking about crochet, thinking about wool, reading about crochet and actually doing crochet. It’s one big crochet fest round here, little piles of wool all over the place and half finished projects strewn about the place. I’ve surprised myself by being a ‘flitter’…I enjoy crochet most when I have a couple of projects on the go at a time. That’s quite unlike me since I’m one of those tedious, dogged types. But there we go.

I think part of the ‘flitting’ is because I am not enjoying the weaving ends/crocheting together part of my first and biggest project…a granny square blanket for Bertie’s bed. I’ve finished and put together 70 of the 80 squares but it’s painfully boring.

So I’ve been relieving the boredom by tackling, and  completing, a ripple blanket:

Used up some wool, tried a new edging technique with a giant granny (arrghh, scary big nana!):

Then I started work on a cream baby blanket (just peaking out in the photo at the top of this post), had a go at hexagons (really not keen on them, they will be a cushion cover ie. a small item) and then made a scarf in a Queen Anne lace pattern. And there’s an alarming amount of wool knocking about the house ready for other projects.

Yup. I’m obsessed.

It’s been such a learning curve though. From ‘never crocheted’ to ‘can pretty much crochet’ in just a few months. There have been a few tears along the way and quite a bit of unraveling, or ‘frogging’ if you’re in the know. I need to think more about colour, rather than just randomly picking colours that I like. And I’ve learnt a lot about wool, what I like, what I don’t, what’s good to work with, what’s a pain the neck to work with. I might write a separate post about that as I want a record of what I’ve worked with on which project.

What’s I’ve mainly learnt about wool, though, is how expensive it is and how little choice we have in the UK. Why do the US and Scandinavia have all the good colours?  I’m disappointed at how muted most wools are. I want brights!

I have to allow at least 10% wastage too since those Megaboys also like to crochet. Alas their version of crochet involves cutting wool, winding it around themselves/fingers, tying bits together etc. It’s enough to make you weep but I don’t want to stiffle their creativity. So, wastage it is…sigh. It’s upsetting though. It ‘may’ have involved Grudge Book entries for Crimes Against Wool. Harumph.

Most Commented Posts

• To my boy on starting school…
• Happy Blogoversary to me…and a little giveaway
• Lurkers…DELURK!
• FINALLY…Secret 30…I am a Big…Fat…Liar…
• Fantastic competition: win a family trip to New York! And a giveaway…a cool camera

It’s been a funny old week what with one thing or another. Mostly dominated by a client photoshoot and frenetic pre-holiday preparation.  I’m not sure why packing for trips is such a Whole Big Thing for me, but it is. I’d like to blame it on having to pack for an entire family but, if I’m honest, I’ve always been like this. It got a whole lot worse when the boys came along, but the low level packing hysteria has been part of my modus operandi since time began.

Really, there’s no reason for it. I ought to be a packer extraordinare given the huge amount of time I spent travelling for work in Days of Yore. But I never got the knack, more’s the pity. I’d like to be able to report the packing angst means that I’m one of those super organised souls who arrives on holiday prepared for every eventuality (you know, those who arrive with travel wash, travel clothes lines and pegs) but that’s not the case either. I’m pretty good at forgetting to pack something quite crucial (underwear was a notable low), or wildly over or under packing. I only took two pairs of trousers for a week long holiday when Bertie was a baby. A shame as he weed on one pair on the first day, and the second pair on the next. Lovely.

Anyway, so the Great Pack is in progress. A little slower than I’d like for some reason…

Despite this, I’ve managed to tick off (or nearly tick off) a few more items on my 39 things to do before I’m 40 list. I’m slowly starting to make inroads in to it…

1. Learn how to use a sewing machine (February)
2. Learn how to crochet (January)
   
3. Make a blanket from crochet granny squares – work in progress as of 8.2.10
4. Go to Sutton Hoo
5. Go to Cove Hyth
6. Have a family holiday somewhere hot (March)
7. Have a night away from the boys with MrSpud
8. Take the boys to Banham Zoo
9. Complete all my Christmas shopping by the end of November
10. Make my boys’ birthday cakes – one completed (7.2.10)
11. Learn how to use the Lensbaby (6.1.10)
    
12. Visit my family Up North
13. Make a wedding photo album
14. Join a choir
15. Replace ancient framed photos in the house with more up to date ones (photos not frames)
16. Make a photo wall in the kitchen
17. Decorate office and install Craft Corner
18. Go to Lavenham
19. Learn how to use flash
20. Get 5 mentions for my client in the Financial Times (boring, sorry) – one done, two interviews awaiting publication
21. Take the boys on the train for a day trip
22. Go to the cinema with MrSpud
23. Give Chez Spud a makeover (cheating, this is work in progress but who knows given previous track record) (19.12.09)
24. Ride a horse - (21.3.10)
25. Sit on a beach and read a book on my own
26. Ditch o2 for Vodafone – after much thought, stuck with 02 and upgraded my phone. V boring.
27. Make biscuits for the first time (yes, really)
28. Take a ’star trails’ photo
29. Take a ’smooth’ water photo
30. Drink a peach bellini (make that 4, in quick succession might as well finish up the bottle right?)
31. Watch 5 films I haven’t seen before – three done
32. Do the Secret Blog Project I’ve had in mind for a while
33. Have a pedicure (22.3.10)
34. Sleep in a tent in a location other than the garden (sigh)
35. Go to a fireworks display
36. 50 photos in Explore on Flickr – 31 done
37. Make felt figures
38. Buy a summer dress and wear it
39. Learn how to use our alarm clock. We’ve had it 2 years. It’s probably time.

So, I can 1. use a sewing machine (even managed to turn up a pair of trousers yesterday without ruining them…resultl!) and 2. I’ve finished all the squares for my granny blanket.  They are awaiting sewing together:

Oh but what’s that in the background? I have naughtily started another crochet project, a ripple blanket using the Attic24 neat ripple pattern. I wanted an easily transportable project for holiday. Yes, you read that right…I am now so obsessed with crochet that I’m taking it on holiday.  SEND HELP.

I’d hoped going on holiday somewhere hot would naturally lead to “38. Buy a summer dress and wear it” being ticked off. I just can’t seem to find anything that doesn’t make me look like mutton dressed as lamb or a sack of potatoes. Might have to deploy “1. Learn how to use a sewing machine” and make one.

Yesterday I ticked off “24. Ride a horse”

I had a little ‘helper’ as you can see, and he was in charge of producing photographic evidence. If you squint, you can ‘just’ about see me…

I haven’t been on a horse for 27 years, I was surprised how quickly it came back. It felt the same but a LOT higher up, presumably because I wasn’t handed an enormous Cobb to ride when I was 12 years old. Coco is pretty chunky

Mounting and dismounting was quite, erm, interesting. I’m surprised I didn’t get a nose bleed I was so high up there. I felt a little ‘anxious’ and definitely wasn’t up for more than walking, steering, going backwards and stopping. Coco had a few other ideas and there a couple of moments of panicked trotting (me panicked, her trotting). But it was a lovely way to enjoy the warmth of the early spring sun.

Spring is definitely here. We went to the beach twice last week, admittedly a bit breezy, and the garden is full of spring flowers now; banks of snowdrops, narcissi, daffodils, crocuses, first signs of hyacinths and, quite suddenly, a carpet of sweet smelling violets. Skippy days xx

If you liked that, you might like this ...

• Pig Woman Jan
• Can’t stop crocheting. Send help.
• Made it…the sequel
• Made it!
• Silent Sunday

Ssssssshhhhh….somebody, somewhere is getting this gift from me sometime soon….I can’t say who, or what it is….because I’m mysterious like that. Or, more to the point, the recipient might be reading and then it would be no surprise at all would it?

This is my offering for the Art Exchange project I blogged about a few days back. Make one gift, post it off, receive 36 in return…in theory. Even if I get one I’ll be thrilled.

I do feel a bit shy about my ‘offering’ because I’m such a beginner crafter. Also, the offering was immediately snitched by a Megaboy. Then the other Megaboy forced me to make one for him. I was going to make a third, non snitchable offering for the project but I ran out of supplies. So, in the dead of night, I snitched one back from the Megaboys and have posted it off. Let’s hope they don’t notice (slim chance).

To divert attention from my crap crafting I have gone all fancy with the wrapping.

Little bug clothespeg holding on a hand stamped, shaped paper apology for crap crafting:

Alternative view, hopeful that the lavender diverts attention away from crap stamping:

Crocheted flower embellishment. Oddly tied on with ribbon bow and stuck down with sellotape to stop it slipping all over the place. Pure class, that’s me…pure class…

‘Handmade with more love than skill’…that’s what it says on the card. Pretty much sums it up….I do feel sorry for the recipient! But it’s been a fun project.

Alas I can’t share the contents of the parcel because it would be too embarrassing will spoil the surprise. Sorry about that.

If you liked that, you might like this ...

• Extreme Easter Crafting
• Saturday Snippets…what I learnt today
• Can’t stop crocheting. Send help.
• Made it…the sequel
• Made it!

The Afghan is slowly taking shape. I’ve been making it for a month now and I’m pleasantly surprised how fast it’s coming along. Today we put all the squares on the floor to see how near/far it is from being ‘enough’. The tally is 55 squares done, 25 to go. I’ve set myself a target of completing the final 25 by next Sunday, because that’s the kind of crazy kid I am…I know how to live…

But then I think the really tedious boring bit starts. Look at all those loose ends that need darning in. On 80 squares. Scream. Then they need sewing together. Scream. And then I’ve planned to granny around the whole thing. THREE TIMES. Scream scream scream.

Much worse, I think I’ll have to block every single one of those 80 squares. Looking at them all laid out it’s very clear that there are ‘early’ (ie. beginner) squares and ‘late’ (ie. a little bit beyond learner) squares. The ‘early’ squares are pretty loose and baggy compared with the neat and tight ‘late’ ones. Loose grannies, gosh now there’s a thought…

So, crocheting bloggy people, talk to me about blocking please?

Oh, and Buzz Lightyear zoomed in to inspect my work and no doubt found it lacking (insufferable little know all that he is). “Buzz Lighter”, that’s what Diggy calls him….generally followed by his battlecry….”To infinity…and….THE END!!!”.

That’s actually very deep for a 3 year old. Move over existentialism….

Most Commented Posts

• To my boy on starting school…
• Happy Blogoversary to me…and a little giveaway
• Lurkers…DELURK!
• FINALLY…Secret 30…I am a Big…Fat…Liar…
• Fantastic competition: win a family trip to New York! And a giveaway…a cool camera

Can’t…stop…making…stuff…

Crappy iphone shot. Arms are both broken after shooting the valentine’s garland. Occupational hazard I guess…

This is mostly Julochka‘s fault. She’s either my ‘enabler’ or my ‘craft stash pusher’ (her term), depending on how gracious I’m feeling. Last night she was tempting me with a Gocco printer, but I fear my craft budget has been blown this month with the purchase of a sewing machine and an alarming amount of Debbie Bliss cashmerino wool. It’s surprising how much wool you need for crochet, especially when you don’t read the pattern properly and make 20 bad(ass) grannies and have to start again…

Once my arms are fixed I might attempt a ‘work in progress’ shot of the grannies. I’m getting on for half way through the granny part of the blanket. But then there’s all that tedious darning in of loose threads, blocking, sewing together of squares and grannying around the whole thing as a border to be done.

Should be done by Christmas.

Christmas 2012.

If you liked that, you might like this ...

• Can’t stop crocheting. Send help.
• Crochet Catchup
• Making progress
• Brown Paper Bags
• Made it…the sequel

Hurrah hurrah and thrice hurrah! Thanks to the patience of Kristina, a few million views of truly excellent videos from Meet Me At Mike’s and a healthy slug of awe/inspiration/jealousy from Lucy at Attic24 ….I can finally crochet a granny square! I can’t begin to express how proud of myself I am for doing this. The phrase ‘all fingers and thumbs’ was invented for me, I am the least crafty person on the planet and yet I have managed to turn out a couple of grannies and, ahem, even managed to change colour. Preens preens…

I even went a little bit fancy and quickly eschewed yer common granny for Lucy’s Summer Garden Grannies which are a far classier affair. For the Granny Unaware amongst us, the Garden Grannies have a circle at their middle, like a flower. Just …that…little..bit…fancier?  Emboldened by my success I sauntered off to our local wool shop and, having stepped back to the Days of Yore, I truffled for yarn for my First Project. I think I chose badly actually….but I’m a learner so cut me some slack. The wool is chunky and thus the Grannies are looking a bit industrial. Ah well.

Anyway, I bundled up my chosen yarn and paid the rather flustered looking owner of the shop. Normally this place is pretty empty, but yesterday it was BUZZING and he could hardly keep up. “There’s a 15% discount today” he said, gasping for breath from the exertion of more than one customer in the shop at a time. “Oh great!”, quoth I, “Why is that?”…”Erm, because it’s January and it’s very quiet so it’s 15% off everything”, he shouted over the noise of more customers in the shop than he normally gets in a month.

I asked the woman next to me why she thought it was busy. She thought for a bit. “Well, because it’s cold so we’re all, like…LET’S GO AND BUY STUFF TO MAKE SOMETHING!! No, I’m wrong…it’s January and finally it’s not Christmas so we’re all, like…LET’S MAKE SOMETHING!! AT LEAST WE CAN’T EAT IT!” Riiiiiiight, OK….

Edging quietly away from the shouty one, I paid. And the man handed over the goodies in a brown paper bag. And, in that instant, I was 7 again and standing in the shop attached to our local post office, buying wool with my mother.  My mother was a very taleneted knitter and crocheter until arthritis, which set in during her early 20s, finally got the better of her fingers. She bought her wool at the post office shop and, like everyone then, would reserve however many balls she needed for her next project so that all the balls were from the same batch (for colour matching). But she, like most people, couldn’t afford to buy more than one or two balls at a time. So the shop put all the balls on reserve, and would let her buy one or two as and when she needed them. I can’t imagine shops do that now?

I had completely forgotten about this until yesterday, not ever having bought wool myself. But, in that moment as I clutched my brown paper bag, I was transported back to the post office shop…staring up at the shelves behind the counter, packed with brown paper bags which were stuffed with wool, each neatly marked ‘Reserved for Mrs Smith’, or whoever.

I was never remotely interested in knitting, crochet or sewing while my mother was alive. Shame on me. When she died, I slung her sewing machine on the skip with all the other stuff of her life that I threw away. What a waste! Here I am wondering how I can justify the purchase of a sewing machine to MrSpud, when I could be using the one my mother used. And, whilst I’m so grateful to Kristina for teaching me how to crochet, I feel a deep sadness that I didn’t let my mother teach me. There’s a missing ‘link’ in my work, as it were.

I’m sure she’d be very pleased and astonished, in equal parts, to know that I’m crocheting. Yesterday I got out my Christening shawl, a beautiful white circular one which she crocheted for me. All of a sudden it felt like something so precious…not least because I finally appreciate not just the love but the WORK that went in to making it. I feel very connected with my Mum again, ‘hooked’ back in to her…one stitch at a time…one paper bag at a time.

If you liked that, you might like this ...

• Can’t stop crocheting. Send help.
• Help!
• Making progress
• How I became my mother
• Made it…the sequel