Post 150 Back at the Guild

After a couple of days absent, Turtle came looking for food this morning, waiting for me to scatter it and staying while I did so.

I finished off the partially completed demonstration face masks from yesterday before heading off to the Guild for Christine Bishop's class  - Cube Pincushion, Needlecase, Fob and Bag Counted Set.

There were about 17 students, plus Christine and Melissa - on cleaning duty.

The Gallery is set up on the 4 square metre per person principle - tables well apart and only 2 students per table. Entry is through only one door - the main one - and exit likewise- through the shop door. There is a sign-in sheet requiring phone number.





The cleaning every 2 hour rule has been relaxed. Once seated, students don't leave their seat. Anyone using the bathroom must clean all touched surfaces, then exit, cleaning door handle and light switch as they go. In the break, Melissa boiled the kettle and poured hot water into the cups students had brought with them. I brought a thermos. At the end of the day Melissa cleaned the tables and all from 1.5 metres touchable surfaces.  Christine walked around the room observing student work and offering assistance. As always Christine had tacked the outlines on to the lines marked - a substantial amount of work.

The kit contained everything we need - including Liberty print lining (or dupion silk if you ordered the green or red kits).

Christine even prepared a stitch sample for each individual student!

It was a fun day, listening to people talk and laugh and catching up with a couple of old friends.

I had a request for another set of face masks, including a child's one. I managed to source more Tshirt fabric for this when I got home and cut out pieces. At Katherine's tonight I got them to try the fit of the masks with ear loops. The younger kids need shorter loops. Ear loops seem to be winning. I think I need to make another half a dozen to meet the current need - plus a couple I have promised my brother.

We worked on the scissor fob today - the smallest piece. I didn't get a lot of time to work on this tonight but this is where I have just reached.

I can see this will not be a quick finish project, but it is pleasing to work on and breaks down into manageable chunks.














I did make a little progress on the Owl while at Katherine's tonight.

It's late and I'm falling asleep.  It was a productive day - and more tomorrow.
e

Post 149: Building

I woke this morning at 7am to the sound of an engine nearby, It turned out to be a pile driver on the vacant lot next door, which is approved for a 9 storey apartment block.

The top of the pile driver was about 2 metres from my balcony.

The pile driver itself made almost no noise but there was a motor, presumably powering it, that made a steady engine noise.

The work seemed concentrated in the corner of the site closest to me - the north east corner.




I was out much of the day. When I returned home this evening this was the result. I seem to remember the developer added a screening wall in this position. It looks as if the build is about to begin.

I rearranged my blocked shawl, removing the towel which holds moisture underneath. When I got it pinned out again, I recalled buying blocking wires last year.  They turned up in the last place I looked - under a sideboard cupboard right at the back against the skirting board.

They certainly made blocking more even.

I love the way garter stitch turns out in squares when blocked.




I left the blocked piece to dry out properly while I was out.


This is how it looked  when I removed the blocking pins this evening. It is quite large and wrappy.



I managed to complete a few more masks before heading off to my Sit'n Stitch with friends this afternoon. One of my stitching friends wanted to talk today about mask-making, so I left the last 4 in various stages of construction to demonstrate the process.















This worked quite well. I just need to finish these and I have another set for family to try out. 

Jennifer was at Sit'nStitch today. Our hostess made us a great lunch of pizza and her home-made pasties. Jennifer has some permanent heart damage from her Covid experience, which has resulted in fluid on her lungs. She is taking diuretics and limiting her fluid intake to get rid of this. She also has a thorax stenosis reducing her air passage by 50%. On 6 August she is booked to have a balloon inserted to widen the air passage and also have an angiogram.  The latter will provide more information about treatment. She gets exhausted and can't exercise or do anything strenuous. We has a good time stitching.

I worked on the owl today. It's coming along nicely.

This weekend I have a two-day class at the Guild with Christine Bishop. Six months ago this would have seemed routine, but right now it seems exciting and daring.

The biggest challenge will be waking up in time! I'm not sure pile drivers work on Saturdays!

Post 148 : Mostly masks on my mind

Before having breakfast this morning I constructed two more masks and threaded one with a cord discarded from a trouser waist, and an elastic loop designed to go around a head. I packaged these up with those finished yesterday and mailed them to Canberra later in the day on my way to Pilates. .

I have changed my Pilates class from Friday to Thursday, because on Thursday there are only 4 students using the equipment, whereas there are 7-8 on Friday. While the studio practices strict hygiene, I feel more relaxed with fewer people.

From Pilates I went to Spotlight to buy more elastic. I had a good supply and have not yet used all of it, but since mask-making and adjusting is likely to continue for a bit, I thought I needed a supply. I met two other women buying elastic for their daughters - both buying it to send to a daughter in Melbourne, where shops have run out of elastic. While we had a discussion about which elastic would be better, we all agreed we will only know by testing by the user.

It seems that elastic might be the new toilet paper. At least elastic buyers have specific projects in mind!


Since I was more than half way to the beach and it was lunch time, I phoned Grange Jetty Cafe to see if they had a table for one and took myself there when the answer was positive.












It was a lovely winter day. There were plenty of people there, but appropriately distanced. It was warm enough to be outside and enjoy some seafood.


Although the photos don't show it, there is a canvas canopy over this outside section on which I was fascinated  to watch the the silhouette of a seagull.



More embroidery ideas.



























I was very glad I had taken the time out.










Back at home I made four more masks, but without adding elastic. I think I need  to test out the elastic in the existing ones before adding more - even though I now have a good supply.

This morning I also contacted the Guild about a class I thought I had booked into this weekend. There was no record of my enrolment. We are not sure what went wrong - it could well be my mistake. The good news is that there is room for me and I can attend while we sort out what happened! I'm really looking forward to it.







I have just, with great difficulty, blocked the shawl on the floor - the best I could do. It is huge - and ungainly.I don't have an open space to fit it - and I can't get down on my knees to crawl along and pin it properly.

In the meantime I'm relaxing with the owl.

Post 147: First batch of Masks

Most of the day was taken up with mask making. I got into a rhythm, took breaks between every four and stitched a dozen.












I then cut and threaded the elastics

and finished by stitching the elastics into loops.

I notice there are now suggestions for using a cord (a shoelace is suggested) threaded through both loops and tied at the back.


There is also provision in the pattern for a nose wire. I think the only course now is to try them out and work out what the wearers prefer. I can add nose wires to this model in a couple of ways and it would be easy to adapt the ear loops to either a tie or an elastic around the head.

Tomorrow I shall send nine of these to be tested by my Cnnberra family. The remaining three need adjustment, including one that I had to unpick as I'd stitched the lining inside out.  These can be tested here in Adelaide and feed into the making of the remaining 10 - and more if needed.


It wasn't such a good idea to wear black today - both trousers and top. This process produces lots of threads and trimmed fabric. Good job I found my lint roller!


I managed to weave in all the loose threads on the shawl. The instructions  say to 'block aggressively' by pinning the cast off row firmly, then stretch until the lace rows align. I wasn't sure what this meant, so tried it out by pinning to the curtain. I figure it means that the stripes need to end up parallel.

I will block it on the floor sometime tomorrow.

I'm in two minds now as to whether to start another knitting project or return to embroidery.

In between mask-making.

Post 146: Shawl Finish and Mainly Masks

I did finish the shawl tonight but blocking will wait until tomorrow as well as photographing it in its full splendour. The day did not turn out to be simply knitting and blocking!


I discovered this morning that the new row markers I ordered from the Fox Collection had arrived yesterday after I had checked the letterbox.
The one I have been using is on the left.It requires metal backboard for the magnet, It's OK, but is a bit clunky to carry around. The new are ruler-sized strips with an inbuilt magnet. They slip over the page like a bookmark.


Unfortunately, I no longer need the pattern for the shawl, but there will be other projects.


The day took off in an unexpected direction. I got into a conversation about face masks with my daughters. This led to my finding an online pattern for masks made from circles of cloth - using different sized plates for adult, adolescent and child sized masks.

I made a sample with three layers - cotton outer, 1200 thread count middle layer and T-shirt fabric on the inner layer. It was rather too tight and too small.






I then downloaded a shaped pattern in two sizes - women/adolescent and men.

The test sample, with the same three layers, was much more satisfactory.

I had used an old t-shirt of mine for the sample. Once I had cut the t-shirt for the sample, it seemed sensible to use it up on a batch. I spent several hours, ironing and cutting out layers. The t-shirt yielded 9 large sets and 13 medium. I matched these with middle layers from the sheeting. I then raided my stash for cotton outer layers for 22 masks.

Here's the result.

It was quite tiring. I did the cutting standing up so I could use the iron at the same time. I don't usually stand so long. It triggers my sciatica and back ache. I took short breaks every hour.

Tomorrow I will try to get as many stitched as I can.

As i result, I did not get the shawl blocked. As can be seen from the photo above I did finish, but am too tired to either display of block it.

That's for tomorrow.







It was an impressive sunset.

Post 145

I forgot to take photos today. The moussaka looked great and so did the Greek salad, but I didn’t take photos. Fionn had footy training after school and then went to the football - Crows vs St Kilda at Adelaide oval with a 50% crowd. The moussaka was a hit with the adults. The youngest girls were polite, but, I think, unconvinced.

I went shopping at Frewville this morning to get the salad ingredients - and some of Bulla’s Murray St ice creams - my new favourites. Today was the first of term 3. Brigid had her first trial Yr 12 exam today so arrived early. She was fairly happy with the exam. Niamh and Veronica also had good days. Niamh was very excited to get the news that JEMS (Junior Embroiderers) is starting up on 1 August.

By Julie Edgley - Flickr: Whoof?, CC BY-SA 2.0,
 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12842383

I spoke to my neighbour this afternoon. She told me of a bird drama on their balcony one night recently. An owl attacked and killed a magpie on their balcony, leaving the mangled corpse behind. I was shocked. I didn’t realise owls preyed on other birds as large as that. I did a bit of research. Apparently barking owls attack and kill medium sized birds like magpies and cockatoos. They are more common in bush settings  but not unknown in cities, including Adelaide. Horrible. It happened in the time when the doves didn’t show up for my seed. No wonder! It's a dangerous world out in the trees.

In between these activities I worked on the shawl. I finished the main colour with little to spare. I doubt it would have covered two rows, so I am glad I made the decision to reduce the rows in the previous band. 

I am now on the final band, with about ten rows to go. There are explicit instructions for blocking. Given the length, that’s going to be a challenge. I am, however, much happier with this now I can see the dark bands emerging. The alpaca is lovely to knit. It feels really smooth on the hands. It is, however, much harder to keep even than lambs wool. It’s not as firm - but will be so soft to wear.

I heard from Frankie today at The Crewel Work Company. It seems the extra linens for my chair will be in stock soon and on their way to me. I’d better get on with the ones I’ve got after I finish the shawl - tomorrow I hope.

The news, which I followed during the day as I knitted, was focused on the spread and control of the virus in Victoria and NSW. Victoria is trying to pull back an outbreak and NSW to get on top of two or three clusters before they become outbreaks. The rest of our states have no current community transmission and are trying to stop people coming across our borders from those two states. While there are people trying to sneak around the restrictions, we are not seeing many people outright defying or rejecting them. Governments have made mistakes, but are taking their advice from medical experts, collaborating and working hard to stay on top of it. It’s scary - but not yet out of control. I'm proud of our leaders. On both sides of the political fence they are working hard, listening to experts and making hard decisions responsibly. Thanks be. 

Post 144: Layers

This morning was the monthly meeting, in a coffee shop, of the Crime Book Club I joined two months ago. I apologised.

As interested as I am, I did not feel comfortable in meeting with 5 or 6 people outside my usual 'bubble', around a table in a coffee shop without 1.5 metres between chairs. While the shop has tables set well apart, and only admits the regulated number of clients, last month there was no attempt to distance people around each table - no doubt assuming they are a social group. Even though there are no known active cases of Covid in South Australia, I don't feel like taking risks - or disregarding the rule. 


Instead, I spent most of the day making moussaka for tomorrow night. It's a bit of a risk. I make it frequently, but haven't made it for the kids. I'm hoping at least some of them take to it.

Last night I sliced and soaked the eggplant in salty water overnight. This morning I rinsed them, laid them out on a tea towel, rolled it up to dry them off, then spread them on trays in the oven for about 40 minutes.



While that was happening I made the ragu






and cooked half a dozen zucchini.


I usually stage this over a couple of days, but there was time today to do it all.

When the ragu was ready I layered the meat, eggplant and zucchini







then had a rest with a coffee and knitting.  The knitting seemed to resemble the moussaka - layered. I finished the dark lace layer I was working on last night before making the cheese sauce layer for the moussaka.







Finally came the grated kefalograviera cheese and the grated nutmeg.

It's now in the fridge ready to bake tomorrow.

Back to the knitting, I was not sure I would have enough of the light grey wool to finish, so I have shortened the second to last band by four rows. I'll kick myself if I end up with enough left to have avoided that decision.  I don't think it is impacting the design adversely.

Inevitably, sunset was yet another layer.