Post 178 Mostly stitching again

A cold day in Adelaide, with a little rain. Canberra, however, had snow flurries! Both Victoria and NSW Highlands had snow today - but, of course, ski fields are closed.

It was my cleaning day. I had a postal delivery around lunchtime (the times are really out of joint when you get postal delivery on Saturday!). It was one of the books I ordered from Can Do Books. I've also ordered a book called Milarrochy Heids - hat patterns from Milarrochy.

I am considering making the hat on this cover from the left-over wool from the Shetland scarf.







I was very pleased to stay home today and work on the Icelandic Endless Knot.

I persevered for a day with the square roll frame but didn't like it. I'd prefer to scoop my long-armed cross stitches but that progressively loosens the fabric in the square frame. But stabbing really requires two free hands.

The piece fits nicely in a 10" hoop. In a seated stand I have two hands free to manage stabbing stitches.

It requires concentration. I unpicked a couple of sections because I had been one thread out in my count in a base row.

I went to Katherine's place for dinner and took my knitting. There's no way I can be sure of an accurate count on this motif while socialising. The knitting is progressing slowly - still too slowly for me to include photos!


By the end of the evening this is where I am up to. It's not fast work but is going to look great!

Post 177 Mostly stitching

My morning began at 8.05am with a phone call from Anthony asking if he could come and dry Fionn's football gear in my dryer. He did so, delivering the dry clothes to Fionn's school on his way to work. I'm very pleased to be part of the coping mechanisms of a family with 4 adolescent children playing multiple sports, singing in choirs, learning to drive and sitting exams through a pandemic.

I spent much of the morning getting my next stitching project together. The World Embroidery Study Group is looking at Icelandic Embroidery at our September meeting, based on an article in Piecework Magazine. That article has a project attached which a few members are going to try.

I thought I'd like to try it to. It is an Icelandic Endless Knot Design in  long-armed cross stitch.

The project is designed for  Cork linen - 20 count. I planned to use Aida, until I discovered I had a substantial piece of Cork linen - purchased at the Guild. So I cut a piece, zigzagged the edges and found appropriate Appleton's wools in my supplies.







The article also recommends using some form of frame rather than a hoop.  I'm not sure I agree but I'll try it their way.

I tacked the centre lines and marked off a square 60 treads by 60 threads.

At this point I grabbed some cheese and biscuits for lunch, checked what the Prime Minister had to say about the National Cabinet and dashed off to pick up Jennifer for our Sit'nStitch afternoon at our friend Susan's place at Grange.

We had a really pleasant afternoon. Susan had made cheese scones and a banana cake. We are all three being cautious in where we go at the moment.

Jennifer is adjusting to her medication and to the limits she needs to work with as a result of the Covid impact on her heart.

She has finished the embroidery she began on the Cruise and continued in quarantine in Perth. I took a photo to send to the Thread Studio, who drove some of these threads to Jennifer's quarantine hotel in Perth to enable her to keep stitching in isolation.

It looks really great.

I worked on my knitting, adding half a pattern sequence.


When I got home I realised that I had marked up the Cork linen without remembering that each stitch is over two threads, not one. I should, of course, have marked a square 60 stitches by 60 stitches. I therefore re-tacked it, ending up, of course, with a much better size square!















So this is where I am tonight. I haven't worked long-armed cross stitch before. I quite like it. It is, I realise, of the same stitch family as Breton stitch (or rather, Breton stitch comes from the same stitch family as long arm cross stitch).


It does require accurate counting - and is not as simple as I first thought.

It might take more than one day to finish this design!

Post 176 Back in my car, and bag finish

I got a phone call around 9am this morning to say my car was repaired and ready to pick up. I had a Pilates class at 11.00 on the other side of town, and the sensible thing would have been to go to Pilates in the loan car, then pick up my repaired car. I was, however, wanting to have my own car back and anxious not to have the loan car any longer than necessary, so I had breakfast, a few jobs,  got ready for Pilates, drove the loan car to the nearest petrol station, replaced the petrol I had used and headed to the Crash Repairer.  They were very efficient. The car was ready, fixed and clean (cleaner on the inside than it has been since the day I bought it!) and I was on my way just in time to make it to Pilates.

I appreciate my Prius C all over again. It is so smooth and even to drive, especially at take off.

After Pilates I went to Unley Shopping Centre. I had a parcel to post and a bit of grocery shopping.







On the way home, around 1.40,  I stopped on Hutt St for a Yiros to take home. I love the trees in their skeleton form, especially when there is cloud cover as there was today.

The forecast was for rain all day. Again, there were a few showers but nothing substantial. I bunkered down with the cube pincushion construction.


It was a pretty straightforward case of shaping the insets, trimming and folding the squares, and whipping the sides together through the four-sided stitch.











This completes the set as per Christine's design. It is quite lovely and really useful. I had thought of making a scissor keep to house the scissors when not being used. However, I remembered the spare pair of small scissors that I had bought when I made Christine's Shadow Box. These fit quite well into this set and don't need a scissor keep.











The sun went down in a bit of a haze of glory tonight followed by a rain shower. It looked like a dust storm over the city, but was simply cloud.









I had a few bits of linen and, somewhere.  a square of lining fabric, left from the project, so decided to make a little pouch for a needle threader. I had used up all the Blue DMC 824 thread bar 2-3 single lengths - both the skein that came in the kit and another skein of my own. I didn't want to wait until I could get a replacement. so I used the blue as an outline and the green for a border of Breton stitch.

It took a while, but worked out. Frustratingly, I could not find the small square of Liberty lining I had used. In the end I found and used a fragment of a Liberty print. It's not a match in colour, but at least the texture and weight are the same.

The missing piece will, of course, now turn up.




The lining will rarely be seen in this little pouch which will hopefully help me not to lose the needle-threader.


It's been a productive day. Now I can return to my knitting and think about my next embroidery project.

Post 175

There was some rain and wind overnight (in fact, what is believed to be a tornado in a Southern suburb) but although it was very overcast, there was little rain this morning. I'm not sure if the weather explains the silence on the building site today.

I had lunch with two Guild friends at Louca's Seafood Restaurant two blocks down the road. We has a table nicely isolated in one corner, a delicious meal and good conversation.

The restaurant booking system insisted on a credit card from which a $50 per person guarantee would be taken if a booking didn't turn up or cancelled in less than 24 hours before the booking. A bit rich - but they have limited space and trying to keep a business going. Understandable in these times.


Walking home I had a closer look at the mural on the wall of the building on the corner of Carrington and Pulteney Street.

It's quite extraordinary - birds with what appears to be a sea creature on a huge wall.

There's also a small panel of wrought iron visible on the end of the hotel verandah- oddly contrasting with the electricity box just below!













I ran into my neighbour in the street. It's nice to have the experience of neighbourhood.

The Square was looking quite lush and cheerful.















Several of the trees are dropping pine cones. or seed pods.

Just before 5pm the skies opened and the rain came. In the East the Hills disappeared into cloud, but it was short-lived. The promised day of rain did not happen.

The rain brought Brigid to my door, wet from playing sport in the rain, to change her clothes while waiting for her Dad. A bonus for me!

Since arriving home I have worked solidly on the cube pincushion. The embroidery is finished. I'm not sure if the beads show up in the photo, but they are there! Tomorrow's task, in between Pilates, is to construct it.

That should be a lot of fun.

Post 174 Hair, rain and pincushion

This morning I had a hairdressing appointment - the first haircut since I had a perm six weeks ago. The perm did not work well - for the first time in years. My hairdresser agrees and next week she is going to redo it in part.

Today's cut was excellent.

Before I left for the appointment I managed to finish my response to a council canvass of resident views about a requested parking change in our street. My neighbour and I discussed it yesterday and she offered to take our responses to the Town Hall, which she did today.It's great to have a  collaborator!





I was meant to meet Panayoula for coffee at 2.30pm but her appointments changed at the last minute so we postponed. A pity, but it gave me a chance to advance the cube pincushion for the counted bag project. I managed to get the four-sided stitch outline done for the whole piece before dinner.







Around 5pm the promised rain arrived.


It had been gloomy all day, without any rain falling, but it has now arrived and set in - if the forecasts are right, for the rest of the week..









The city was dark and misty.

The pub on the corner looked cosy. I hope that Lorraine is warm and comfortable in her room in the hospital behind it.

The building work had been relatively quiet today and was silent by the time the rain came.

I got two of the cube sides embroidered this evening.

Three sides to go, then construction.





 Should be fun.

Post 173 : Deliveries and delivering

Today turned out to be delivery day.  A number of things I had ordered over the last few weeks turned up in my letterbox. I really appreciate companies that pack in a way that ensures the parcel will go in a letterbox. When you live in a apartment with a secure entrance it makes a big difference to know an item can be delivered even if you are not home, especially in times like now when notification of pending delivery is often not happening because of distancing efforts in transit facilities.




My Ink and Spindle Corea linen arrived. I bought this to make more carry bags. The linen is a lovely weight and weave and I thought I might embroider directly on to it. Probably birds.

I had almost forgotten that I succumbed to a remnant sale from KimoYES.


These are mostly vintage hand-dyed cottons, but I was also seduced by a very shiny piece of synthetic, which, if all else fails, will make a bag for gifts.

The added incentive was, with every order, a free pack of fabric and elastics to make two face masks!

Unimaginable prior to 2010.



I was also pleased to receive the scarf pins I ordered from Beechworth. My daughters scored one too.









My final treasures for the day were two masks from Bundarra, including one with flannel flowers (still in its packaging). I now have a good supply just in case.

Since I had shopped yesterday for today's dinner ingredients I got going early to make my pastitsio with feta in filo pastry. I cooked rather too much pasta so made a small one as well as the family one.

I had two long and enjoyable phone calls from a neighbour and a Guild friend. The former call sorted out our response to a council consultation about a parking variation and the latter clarified some of my dilemmas about the counted bag and accessories. It's just good to be in touch and talk.

 Today Fionn has footy training after school and the younger girls had a pupil-free day, unfortunately finishing in a 4pm orthodontist appointment in the city, so it was just be Brigid and I until after 5 when the others dribbled in. So I could relax and stitch knowing the pie was ready to cook.

I had intended to take a photo as it came out of the oven, all golden. but by then I was focused on getting the food on the table. It's a shame - it did look good.









I remembered the beads and managed the four-sided stitch edge before going on to stitch in the lining, doctor's flannel and the closure.

I'm very pleased with the result. It's a really neat little needle case.

Post 172: Birds, book-ended by 'broidery - and a bit of a breakout.

The first task after breakfast this morning was to finish the needlelace on the second tassel of the bag. Before I could start there was a message from the friend who was to host our Sit'n Stitch this afternoon to say she wasn't well and needed to postpone.

I was to pick up Jennifer for this, so we consulted and decided that we would go to Mr Nick's for lunch then come back to my place to stitch.


That settled, I finished the bag.







Then, as I was getting tidied up ready to go out, I had a balcony visitor, the first in a while. The building work is silent on Sunday so the Noisy Miner was about.

He eyed off the plants, but clearly there is no nectar that appeals in any of them.










I was, however, pleased to see any bird. I took these through the glass door, so as not to scare him off.







I was a few minutes late picking Jennifer up in my effort to get these shots.













None the less we had a very delicious lunch right in front of the fire. Both of us shed a layer in the warmth.  There were a respectable number of people there when we arrived, but it was never crowded and before long we were pretty much on our own.

We began with a gin cocktail and finished with affogato (the gin, I hasten to say, the only alcohol).


We both had a little bit of shopping to do, so separated and met up again. By this time, Jennifer was worn out. There was, I fear, too much walking for her around the supermarket. At her request I took her home rather than to my place. Two and a half hours is more than enough for her at the moment. I hope we didn't overdo it. My mother would have said she should sleep well tonight, but I'm not sure it works like that for a Covid long hawler.





Back at home, the birds were making a racket. It seems they have been taking advantage of the lack of building activity.















Before a helicopter scared them away, I managed to capture a couple of lorikeets. While the branches appear bare from a distance, they are clearly beginning to bud, and the parrot families are on to it.

 The rosella sat silently in the background. Perhaps it wasn't the helicopter that scared the lorikeets away.












It's good to have these back. I haven't seen the doves this weekend, but reckon they won't be too far away.

My evening was spent on embroidery for the needle case that goes in the bag. I.m very pleased with progress on this. I have 24 beads to add and four-sided stitch all around the outside edge of this, the front, and an equivalent sized back, before construction.

Then I have only the little cube pincushion to go.

Rain is forecast all week this week, conducive to stitching.