Post 151 Elastic

Just after the sun rose gently this morning,  I noticed Myrtle and Turtle waiting patiently for some seed.










As I opened the door Turtle stood his ground and Myrtle backed away, but she didn't fly away. They stayed to peck at the seed for quite a while.

I, of course, had to get breakfasted, dressed and organised for today's class. I'd promised to take the products of the Stratford Retreat and my isolation to show my table companion.







She, however, had a bigger - and very generous - surprise for me. Yesterday I had told her about my face mask endeavours. Today she brought me some elastic, given to her by a friend who downsized. She had bought this online as a job lot - we surmised it might have been a shop closing down. The rolls each hold 100 metres. None of them is full - but there has to be well over 200 metres of elastic on the rolls, without counting the smaller packets in the plastic bag. I have not intention of turning into Mask-Making Madame.  I calculate I need to make maybe 15 more. There is enough elastic here for around 600 masks. I'm very happy to share. Just get in touch.

There were two goals for our class today, to finish one item from the project and to learn Breton stitch. I focused on the scissor fob first. Christine had managed to make most of us, myself included, the cord required. The fob fitted together very neatly and was fun to make.

I then practised a little Breton stitch on the sample that Christine had worked for each of us. Hers is in green, mine in blue. There was something wrong with mine. I clearly hadn't got it right.









I reread the instructions and practised more at home. I did have it wrong. My second attempt is much better. The stitch is right. It took a while to get the tension.












Following the example of Lee, my wise table companion, I chose to work the outside border and inner outlines of the box before adding the Breton stitch, which forms an inner border between the little markers along the side of the frame.


So I have a way to go and time for more practice before I need to use the Breton stitch.

It was a good weekend, and a chance to see how the Guild is t the afternoon there was an occasion when a couple of people left their tables to look at something. Melissa and Christine were alert and reminded us of the social distancing requirement. It can so easily happen - and just as easily transmit disease. I'm so pleased to have seen Melissa's reaction and concern.

Eternal vigilance.




Myrtle and Turtle were again waiting for me when I got home, having cleaned up every last bit of this morning's seed. Of course, I provided some more.



This evening I added the elastics to the face masks I completed last week. I decided to do the stitching by hand, because I figure that could be more easily undone to shorten than machine stitching. Many of them (not the one in the photo)  have about 2cm that could be released if the elastic were too tight. I suspect too loose is more likely


I also experimented with very flexible, narrow elastic on one of the child-sized masks by tying a knot with a generous tail. This would be the easiest to lengthen or shorten and slips easily into the hem without a lump that would irritate. I'm hoping these will provide means of adjustment for recipients too far away to give them back to me to adjust.

It has been a very eventful week - and weekend - in my relatively narrow Covid world. It was great to see Guild friends and get a sense of what it means to meet and stitch in the contest of Covid. I met some new people and really enjoyed the lunch time conversation, the quiet companionship of Lee, seeing photos of Margaret's garden and projects and hearing little bits about other groups.

I do home Niamh and Veronica enjoyed their umpire workshop.

Hopefully I can progress the box this week, as well as delivering a few masks.