Blogger’s life: November + Dezember 2024

I'm starting the year with a Blogger's life post 🤗 Welcome to 2025, where everything can be new - or the tried and tested continues to run its course.

NOVEMBER

What has happened

Plugins for the creation of maps | For the first Madeira post , I have used the plugin WP Go Maps (formerly WP Google Maps) . Without Premium, however, I can only create one (1) map (LOL!?). Since I have started to recap the Japan trip in 2023 for the blog and would like to include a map again, this is: impractical. Since I don't want to buy the premium version because I don't think it's worth it (for me and my blog), I've installed and tried the plugin MapPress Google Maps and Leaflet Maps as an alternative. I'm still not entirely sure whether I'll use it in the long term.

Online meets offline-comment, darning edition | A comment that connected my online life with my offline life in a beautiful way accompanied me throughout November and December. When I read the comment by Cinzia under the post Darning socks fever , I was totally blown away. She offered to gift me a pair of self-knitted socks because she thought it would be nice if I darned the sock once it will become necessary. I felt and still feel so appreciated and was totally euphoric about the comment and the gesture behind it. I then got in touch with her and we messaged each other for a while - including about a pair of socks for me. I have now received the result of this exchange 🧦

What was posted

DECEMBER

What has happened

Plugin for comment replies | Quite spontaneously, I've working on how I can make it easier for commenters to track replies to their own comments. I know all too well that I want to know what the blogger has replied to my comment. Some blogs have a function that informs me of a new comment by email and I am very grateful for this. And I wanted to offer this service on my blog too. In the end, I ended up using the plugin Comment Reply Email Notification . It seems to work so far and I'm happy with it.
The only thing I haven't been able to solve yet is the fact that the automated email is very likely to end up in the spam folder. I tried the Brevo plugin, but that was not successful.

DeepL and the english translation of my posts | While I was translating Internet findings (5) with DeepL, I had to laugh at myself for a moment. One of the internet findings is about the energy consumption of Generative AI and I associate DeepL with Generative AI. I don't know whether this is true in detail, but I found the situation somewhat ironic. This has rekindled my thoughts about whether I should stop translating my blog posts from German to English. I translate my posts by pasting the whole text into DeepL, then I revise it myself to make my posts at least somewhat being me. But the translation step makes blogging more exhausting. It is de facto a separate and therefore additional step. A completely automated translation (100 % copy paste or plugin that is embedded on the blog and translates directly on the blog) is out of the question for me right now because it doesn't suit me. I'd rather not offer an English version at all. The thought of English-speaking friends no longer being able to read the blog hurts (I don't even know if and how many of them do read my blog, but I didn't want that hurdle). But I also realise that I would be relieved to know that the translation step wouldn't be there anymore. Phew. 

What was posted

The white polka dot shirt and the dot no one wanted | study logbook darning

The last piece I wanted to fix before the big trip in 2023 was a white polka dot t-shirt. The first piece was the patterned blouse and the almost-chameleon and the second piece was the white-and-red striped long sleeve and shades of white.

One dot that doesn't belong there: A hole

A hole had formed under one of the armpits. As always, the best place to be: right at the seam, or in this case even at several seams. The hole wanted to be where four seams met. After the second piece which was darned very relaxed, this flaw was more of the type ‘well, you can do it that way but you don't have to’.

before

It should be an invisible repair as good as possible. In hindsight, the third piece combined the difficulties of the first two pieces: Working along a seam and finding the right shade of white. Once again, I decided to use the weave darning method and regarding the shade of white, I chose the one that came closest to the white of the shirt and started. In the end, this repair was also easy to do. I made sure that I anchored my threads properly at the seams, but that was not all that bad.

after

And even though you can see the darned area very clearly in the photo, I hardly notice it when I'm wearing the shirt. And that's not because one just don't see it that often (I rarely walk around with my arm constantly stretched upwards). I have the feeling that the colour has somehow evened out with the subsequent wash cycle.

Didn't hurt at all! 3/3 items of clothing are ready to be dressed.

I may have used the end of the year tactically to post the last two items of clothing. In case you're still looking for New Year's resolutions, I've got an idea! 😀

White-and-red striped long sleeve and shades of white | study logbook darning

At the beginning of this year, I showed you my patterned blouse and the almost-chameleon . It was one of three items of clothing that was picked up from the repair pile shortly before a trip in 2023. I hoped that the flaw would be gone in time for departure.

After the first item was shown, there was silence around this trio. I was motivated by a comment in which someone was very happy that I was darning, leading to my decision that the other two items should also be shown this year. By doing so, I'll conclude this series. Today's piece wasn't actually darned but that doesn't matter.

Our star: Striped long sleeve and the question regarding the right white tone

Today it's all about the second item of clothing that was repaired: a white-and-red (or red-and-white?) striped long-sleeved shirt. The first time you look at it, you might be searching a little for the flaw because the stain is quite light-coloured and well hidden. But there it is! There's a brownish stain on one of the white stripes.

Before (stain: 6th white stripe from bottom, quite in the middle)

I wanted to cover this stain, doing invisible mendingso to speak, by embroidering over it with a white thread. The method I chose was my favourite darning method: the duplicate stitch. The knit stitches were perfect for this.

While the method was found quickly, it was not so much the case with the colour selection of the yarn: Which white fits better? In the end, the shade of white didn't match anyway, so there was no way I could choose the correct one. But it wasn't that bad and most of the time I haven't and still don't notice that the colour doesn't match 100%. I decided for the cooler white tone, then I started and enjoyed my time working on the stitches. Needle in here, out there, then up, in again and out there. It went on like this and just like that, the repair was done, 2/3.

Colour selection - left or right?
After (GIF)
After: close up

In my post Darning - Some technical aspects I explain the terms "invisible mending" and "duplicate stitch" a bit. Get to the last item of clothing that was repaired: The white polka dot shirt and the dot no one wanted.