Post 641 Nature and Knitting

 

It was a long weekend for the King's Birthday.  I spent it very quietly, trying to advance the gigantic Berwick cardigan to a point where I could try it on and survey the damage. It was a relief to venture out to dinner and crosswords on Saturday evening. 

As supermarkets don't open on Public Holidays, I ventured to Frewville on Sunday to stock up on a few things I was running short on. Of course, I came home laden. 

I had plenty of time to admire sunrises - Sunday to the left, Monday below.

I paid a bit of attention to the balcony plants.

The Aeonium is flowering, as well as the pale Schlumbergia

My efforts to fill the abandoned barbecue tub with nasturtium plants has had only mediocre results. Three plants are still alive, but hardly thriving. After Katherine mentioned getting Nasturtium seeds from the Digger's Club, I remembered the Diggers' shop in the Botanic Gardens, so I pushed myself out of the apartment on Monday afternoon and visited.

It is really uplifting to walk through the gardens with so many families enjoying them. 

I bought 8 different varieties of nasturtium seeds and some fertiliser, pausing on the way to photograph a pair of ducks posing in front of the fountain.

They were still there on my way back, allowing me to capture them from the other side.

I have only planted half of one packet of the seeds. It's worth a try, but Spring might be better.

Somewhat in contrast, on the way home from Pilates and the Queen St Cafe on Thursday, I managed to capture a rainbow over the western parklands, where the road into the city curves to the right. I'm not sure what promise the rainbow is making to the parklands - a sacred border around the city mile, declared in 1837 and currently being controversially developed to extend a golf course and car racing track. 

While at the cafe I had just signed a petition against the development. I'm hoping the rainbow is a promise to the trees!

 I have made a lot of progress on the Berwick cardigan. It is slower going than I'd like, but I just keep plugging away. Apart from swimming I worked on it all day today and most of the weekend. 

I have completed the front bands (they are still on stitch holders), joined the shoulder seams and cut the right-hand steek. 

It's still a bit hard to tell, but I now think I will be able to wear it. 

Although it is wide, it will drape, and the fronts will cross over. They can be held with a shawl pin if required. I think the shoulder drop means the sleeve will only need to be about 24cm long. In the photo I have completed about 10cm.

It will be touch and go with the grey wool. I have about 350 gm left. It will finish the sleeves, but I don't know that it will also be enough to pick up 718 stitches around the fronts and bottom and knit 6 rows of rib. I don't want to order more wool until I know I need it - so I'm knitting like my grandmother - every available minute!

Tomorrow is WES Group, so not much knitting!

Post640 Dedication

Last Thursday was the 12th anniversary of Jim’s death. Rather than posting tributes, this year I channelled my grief into negotiating a small remembrance: a plaque on the back of a seat in the newly refurbished Dunstan Playhouse at the Adelaide Festival Centre, where we attended many productions. I haven’t been much in recent years because renovations have made parking difficult, restricting me to matinee performances when I can use the city loop bus. It nevertheless feels a fitting thing to do to mark both the anniversary of his death and his birthday in three weeks time.

Jim was an actor at university and in his first years of teaching. He acted in a review entitled Drip Dry Dreams in the 1970 Adelaide Festival, with Rory O’Donahue and Grahame Bond, but gave up acting in favour of teaching. My daughters and I worked out the wording of the plaque and I selected a seat that has a decent view of the stage and is easy to get to - my more recent criteria for best seat in the house! The plaque can be read from two seats in the row behind, and also while descending the aisle. It will be there for the next 25 years. There is not a lot on offer at the Playhouse for the rest of this year, but I have booked the seat behind for a matinee performance in early December and will look at a State Theatre Company subscription next year if building works permit. 

I made the effort to swim last Wednesday. It was cool and overcast. I changed, washed and hung our my bed linen, most of which still required  half an hour in the dryer on Friday before I heading out for a big shop at Frewville Foodland.  They have the best range of chipolata sausages, which I wanted for Monday’s dinner. I ended up with small duck and fennel sausages, kangaroo sausages and chipolatas of traditional English pork. The dish went really well and lubricated the conversation for six of us on a cold evening.

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Saturday was the monthly market at St Margaret’s Woodville, not held last month because of Anzac Day. The rain was pelting down most of the morning. I waited for it to ease a little, getting there around midday. I came home with three more pots of sword fern and a native lemongrass, just about  visible in the lower right of the composite photo. .

On Sunday I planted them on the front balcony, disposed of most of the dead plants, fertilised and watered. Watering seems anomalous in this weather, but little rain reaches that balcony. Also, because watering it thoroughly involves running the hose through the living room to the kitchen tap, I have neglected it somewhat.

It looks as if Three Bags Full will arrive tomorrow, giving me time to read it before Book Club.

I’ve progressed the Berwick cardigan.The unironed section marks progress since last week. It now measures 54cm. There is another 6cm to go to finish the sleeve steek, and 10 cm to the shoulder. While it's relaxing and pleasurable knitting, I'm beginning to plan a couple of small embroidery projects.

I feel pleased with the week.

Post 639 Have you any wool?

On Wednesday I set off to see The Sheep Detectives at the Palace Nova Cinema at Prospect. I haven’t been for a while and expected, at midday, to be able to park behind the cinema. I discovered, however, that they have reduced their never-generous parking by half and there was none to be had. 

After three times around the block and a stop to check sessions at other cinemas, I gave up, returned home and took myself to A Prayer for the Wild at Heart for lunch, after which I sat on the balcony, reading and watching the wildlife. 

On Thursday morning I picked up my new mouthguard. It took about 25 minutes to achieve the adjustments needed for a perfect fit. It’s much thicker (and stronger) than previous ones but I’ve been able to wear it all night without any problem. The colour is to help me locate it easily. No doubt it would also serve to scare off intruders!   It’s designed to be the first one that I don’t crack in use!

On Friday, and much of Saturday I hunkered down with my Early Medieval Embroidery books and articles, trying to advance my August talk. I have ODed on information. The challenge is getting a clear storyline, eliminating the extraneous and selecting appropriately copyrighted illustrations.

I think I now have the general storyline, but not yet the order. 

When I got my head out of the books and laptop on Friday evening, I realised Saturday was potentially the last fine day for a week, so I got the washing done and hung out before heading to the butcher on Saturday. It didn't do me a lot of good. There was neither sufficient wind nor sun to dry thoroughly. In the end I caved in and finished the load off in the dryer on Sunday.

It's good for stitching and writing - but lousy drying weather.

 The 8 lamb shanks I bought on Saturday for Monday's dinner weighed about 4.5kg. They looked like small legs. Fortunately, there was a full turnout for dinner yesterday and all were consumed amid the lively conversation. I turned the remaining liquid into pasta sauce, some of which I had for my main meal today.

I’m making good progress on the Berwick cardigan. I have ironed it a couple of times both to get rid of the curl on the edge and to be able to measure length more accurately. 

The steeks for the armholes are now in place, making three steeks in all. The piece now measures 40cm, with 24cm to go, according to the pattern. I’m calculating the remaining grey wool will be enough, but  I do have a plan B.        

I eventually found a cinema and session where I could park and see The Sheep Detectives.

 It looks as if it leaves Adelaide this week, so today I took myself off to see it in the middle of the day at Mitcham. It was an entertaining, clever mix of genres - murder mystery, moral tale, fable, with touches of romcom. There are various improbabilities, but I think it works. There is some excellent acting.  The messages of inclusion, honesty,  courage and community are well integrated. It was feel-good without glossing over sadness or badness, - and without schmaltz. I did not realise it was based on a book. 

There were no local copies for sale and a four month wait for a library copy. I am the chooser for our July Book Club discussion books, so I have ordered a copy from World of Books. If it arrives in the next 3 weeks and lives up to the film version,  it might be one of my picks.🤞

I missed swimming today to see the film - so that's tomorrow's commitment.
    

Post638 You win some, you lose some.

On my Eastern balcony, various succulents have come into bloom over the last week or so, aloe buds opening joyfully and the jade, cassula ovata, sending out long stems of tiny star flowers that I’ve not seen before.

The cassula plant itself (below left) is thriving, along with the swordfern, (well below) clearly enjoying the rain and milder sunshine.

There is a lot of work, however, to be done on the Western balcony where I still need to replace and replant after the summer heat. It's a job I will get to over the next month, but in the meantime I am just enjoying what I have.

Last Wednesday was WES Group and we were a merry band of 12 gathered to hear Raelene talk about Community Arts Projects, focusing on projects gathered around a cause. Most involved quilts or quilting and included the Rajah Quilt made by convict women coming to Australia in 1841 with materials supplied by Elizabeth Fry to help them prepare for the life ahead, quilts made in POW camps, AIDs Quilts, and several school or community commemorative projects.  It was an animated, dynamic meeting with everyone contributing.

The highlight of my week, however, was the 80th birthday celebration for a Guild friend, held as a lunch at the Marion Hotel. I’ve not been there before and very much enjoyed the atmosphere in our room, dominated by a huge eucalypt reaching through the roof. 

I had a great time in our Guild corner, having time to talk to a small group of members I rarely see for more than a few minutes. It was a chance too, to meet and talk with a couple of spouses, all the while been plied with rounds and rounds of finger food. 

I had managed to knit my friend the 2025 Shetland Wool Week beanie for her birthday. The blog post is here.  

The only blot on my day was the ticket I received exiting the carpark. The hotel is on the corner of a busy road with no traffic lights. As I needed to make a right-hand turn I plotted a path away from the intersection, down the side road, without realising it was, for the length of the hotel carpark, a one-way street. The carpark was busy and I had turned into the side street heading the wrong way before realising my error.

I couldn’t see how to reverse, and there was nothing coming, so I went ahead, immediately there were flashing lights and the siren of the police car. The lone officer was polite and understanding. He breathalysed me - the main purpose I presume, of his wait outside the carpark. As I had not had any alcohol to drink I did not add to his statistics. He took great pains to explain the road directions, booked me for ignoring a road sign and travelling the wrong way on a one-way street and said he would issue a fine for one offense with a caution for the other. Thoroughly decent - and I was in the wrong. At home I checked my licence record. As I thought, last month the last of my demerit points (the 3 for trying to take a photo of the mounted police while at a traffic light) expired, so for 17 days I’ve had zero demerit points. I had hoped to keep it that way but alas…

The birthday celebration meant foregoing our Book Club meeting on the other side of town. I spent a couple of hours on Friday recording and annotating what I had read since the last meeting to send off to the group. By Sunday evening, most members of the group had sent me lists of what they had read so I added them to our database.

I had read a fair bit. I finished reading the H.L Marsay Inspector Shadow series and binged last week on the Fiona Tarr Opal Fields series. I had enjoyed the first in the series a while ago, so plunged back in and read No.2-No.6 one after the other. The seventh is out, but I think I've had enough for a while. I'm now on to The Denisovans In the Captivating History series.

Last night I cooked Honey-Soy Chicken and Fried Rice for dinner.  I forgot to take a photo of the chicken. It was tricky to get it cooked through without burning the honey-coated skin. I cooked it in advance while the solar panels were active then heated it covered in aluminium foil. It worked well.

In the meantime I have ploughed ahead wth the Berwick cardigan. I've pinned a section to show the curl.  It's slow-going in the round, but progress is evident. Here it measures 30cm in height - according to the pattern, another 4cm to go before I add steeks for the arms. It still looks huge in width. That's hard to measure, but it's about 1.8 metres around. It won't be too small. More like a coat.  This afternoon, after swimming, I've added another 2cm to the height. With a bit of luck I'll be up to the armhole steeks next week.

Post 637 The sky clears a little

On Wednesday I had an optometry appointment, the first with the replacement for the brilliant optometrist I’ve been seeing for around 5 years, who has recently enrolled full time in a Doctor of  Medicine course. To my relief, her replacement promises to be as good. He was thorough, thoughtful, knowledgeable and listened. My eyes are stable, I’ve now added a non-steroid cream to the nightly regime and will see him in six months time. 

Rather than rush home and change for swimming. I stopped at the wetlands on the SE corner of the parklands, and went for a walk. I haven’t been for a long time and a lot had been done - plenty of fallen timber arranged for animal visits and habitat.       

Most of the birds can be heard rather than seen, but the lorikeets were in view, as well as a wandering noisy miner. I managed 23 minutes before the rain came. I didn’t stop to photograph the magpies strutting in the rain.

Before Pilates on Thursday I had an appointment with my orofacial pain clinician to do the preparation for a new night mouth guard.  We had agreed on the timeline 12 months ago. The technology has changed significantly. Instead of biting into goo, creating a plaster cast, on to which the plastic is  moulded,  the clinician used a laser pointer to scan the inside of my mouth in great detail, projecting an image on to a computer screen. It took a while until she was happy with the scan. She is now using that to print me a 3D mouth guard! I'm very impressed. I return in 2 weeks to fit the guard.

Although I went to bed at a reasonable time, I made the mistake of reading another chapter of R. L. Marsay's A Christmas Shadow.  I had enjoyed the first 5 in the series, then set them aside. I've now returned.  My Kindle dropped out of my hand just before 2am. 

That left me a little tired on Friday, but, after running short of stitch markers for the Berwick cardigan, I ventured to the Needle Nook. Their online listing of  packets of stitch markers proved wrong. I selected 50 of these pins from a paperbag on the counter, handed over $5 and had a conversation with Hugh about steeking before taking myself determinedly to the swimming pool to swim laps. The markers do have the advantage of being wire rather than plastic.

The City Council had given notice of a road closure this weekend to remove a crane - the one that has appeared in my sunset photos for at least 2 years, and which curious readers had asked about. 

On Saturday I photographed the sunset towards the northwest at ten past five (above). Ten minutes later, directly west,  (right) the crane was still moving.

By the time I left for dinner at 6pm there was an additional crane in place (left) - clearly the move was on.

Dismantling a crane is evidently a major work. All day Sunday the cranes were slowly moving, 

Structures appeared above and below and only occasionally could tiny human figures be seen, dispelling the sense of a giant robot.

No wonder there were road closures!

At 3.15pm on Sunday. the cage that had evidently been inside the building supporting those tiny figures, was lifted out and manoeuvred to the street below. At that point I lost track, focused on finishing another book and progressing the Berwick cardigan. 

It was dark when I next looked - and there was no blinking light to warn planes. The job, I guessed, was done. When I checked in the morning, for the first time in recent memory, there is no crane on the grey building. The smaller one on the Credit Union building next to it is now the only one currently in view. 

I doubt it will be long before more appear.

We had a jolly crew of eight for dinner on Monday. I wasn’t happy with the crackling on the pork but everything else I deemed successful. I either need to buy from a different butcher or adapt to the way the current butcher is now cutting.

I slept exceptionally well last night and got a couple of rows of knitting done this morning before heading out to swim.

The Berwick cardigan has, as I hoped, stopped curling now that the pattern contains both knit and purl stitches. The edge will straighten when the band is added - and I will also block it.  Progress is still slow. I'm far enough into the 40 line pattern to see where it is going but I need to constantly check, and frequently have to undo several stitches. With 405 stitches in each round, it takes a while. It is, however, progress!

Post 636 Look to the sky - or the pattern.

One of the joys of living on the third floor is sometimes being treated to flocks of birds wheeling and calling around sunset. It doesn’t always, or even often, happen, but Thursday was one day when it did. I took a few photos, but most, while capturing more birds, were blurry.

I had been out all afternoon - at Pilates, then to the Yarn trader to renew my supply of fine gauge knitting needles, to Bunnings for a lucky bamboo (still no sign of the ones on tubes, but plenty in pots), to the Guild to drop off a Piecework article for a friend of a friend, Officeworks to pick up some printed merchandise and the local IGA for milk and fruit. 

At home I managed to separate one of the bamboo stalks and put it into the glass vase that came with some flowers a few weeks ago. It looks as if both might survive.

It was lovely to reheat some Osso Bucco, pour a zero alcohol Margarita and watch the birds. Oddly the latest Piecework was in my letterbox - an interest issue focused on blue and white.

I had spent Wednesday embroidering an aide memoire for my neighbour. I’m not sure if it will help her remember her keys, but it’s worth a try. It also gave me a small embroidery break from knitting!

The weather has remained warm. I had lunch in the CBD with friends on Friday, getting the city loop bus a bit early so I could call at Myers for some of the Narciso Rodrigues for her perfume I had settled on in March last year, which now seems has been discontinued. Myers still had stock, so I took the opportunity to stock up. I now have enough for a couple of years. 

The lunch lasted three hours, with excellent food and even better company. The restaurant wasn’t crowded and we could hear our conversation!

That morning's red sky had certainly not turned out to be a warning!

Saturday morning's pre-dawn sky, however, was even more interesting, a series of stripes and swirls ahead of two days of largely overcast sky with frequent rain..

Both were upstaged by a rainbow which I just happened to see on Sunday afternoon as I glanced out the eastern door.

Having finished the Chapter and Skein shawl last week, I did embark on a beanie with the remaining yarn .  It is a great grab-and-go project. 

Partly for that reason, I thought it was about time I tackled Marie Wallin's Berwick cardigan, which had arrived in May 2024, so, apart from shopping for food over the weekend, I spent most of it setting up and starting what is a challenging knitting project.

It is knitted in the round from the bottom up and a steek. With 404 stitches on the needle, and two alternating colours, twisting proved a challenge. I thought I had it sorted, but after 4 rows, found I had not one, but two twists. The only way I could get it sorted was to pin it out on the arm of a chair, cut the steek, remove the twists and stitch the cut end together with a sewing needle. 

I have now finished the Fair Isle border.

Annoyingly, but predictably, It is curling as it progresses.  I'm hoping that the introduction of purl stitches as I move into the main grey section will alleviate this. If not, I will have to see if I can block the work in progress. I don't think I can work with a fattening snake!

I haven't furthered the Poppies needlepoint cushion - one major project at a time is enough. For breaks from Berwick  I have been reading Ann Sutton's Saffron Weald series, set in the South of England in the 1920s. From a rocky start, they are improving and providing a welcome diversion. I've almost finished the second in the series. By tomorrow I should be on to #3, Book Clubs can be Murder, which is what attracted me to the series.