Stymie
tr.v. sty·mied d), sty·mie·ing also sty·my·ing -m-ng), sty·mies -mz)
To thwart; stump: a problem in thermodynamics that stymied half the class.n.
1. An obstacle or obstruction.
2. Sports A situation in golf in which an opponent’s ball obstructs the line of play of one’s own ball on the putting green.
3. A weighty instrument used primarily in frustrated – and normally foolhardy in the extreme – craft projects.
See also kill-joy (n.), thwart (v.), fart-arse (v.), despair (v.)
Also consider: to suck the life out of (v.), to infuriate (v.).
Origin: twenty-first century Devonian (dialect).

Yes folks: I’ve temporarily lost my marbles once more, which behaviour led me to forget – very temporarily – that to approach the sewing machine – or the stymie, as we now think of it – without at least an entire bottle of gin as a back-up plan is complete lunacy. I’ve been making the witchling a blind since about, well, December. So far, it’s one-all; the stymie has successfully defeated many attempts to finish four simple seams, but I prevailed – sort of – today, and managed to get the front! and the back! together! Sweet lord. However, I fear the stymie may have the last laugh: approximate quantity of thread used to achieve seams of roughly six feet in length – so far, nearly an entire bobbin, and about half a new reel. (Is that right? ‘Reel’? It looks… wrong, somehow. Perhaps that’s guilt by association?) The seams, thankfully now hidden away, have literally dozens of short bobbin threads per stitch. It’s an interesting effect – kind of the Glam Rock approach to sewing: ‘Now with added fringing!’. Not quite what I had in mind, but see earlier statement re hidden away… Why? Why does it do this, I ask?