Post 377 Mostly Knitting and Embroidery

My dove friends have paid several visits this week. They arrive as soon as I have watered the plants, refilled the water dish and put out seed. They are undeterred by the washing.Wednesday was a day for catching up on chores and progressing my knitting. In the evening I went to friends' place for dinner. It turned out to be quite a late night after lots of yarning - both the conversation kind and helping with winding a ball of the woollen kind.

On Thursday, after Pilates, I had arranged to have lunch with a neighbour from my  old house, near  the Pilates studio. We met at the Queen St Cafe. The Lime milkshakes are now featuring on the menu board. Obviously I had one. 

 

Friday's Sit'nStitch saw all three of us working with wool. Jennifer did some more on Sophie's World, Susan B advanced her complex blanket and I plugged away at the Entrelac.

 

Saturday was a Guild Certificate Course Workshop on Fabric layered with Barbara Mullan. I wasn't sure what would be included this time. I have done other workshops with Barbara that involved reverse applique and Kantha. 

It turned out to be focused on embroidery for quilting - applique, and 3 dimensional embellishment especially Suffolk puffs. 

The yellow cotton I had chosen for my top layer was not the best for the job, but I made the best of a bad choice. There were only three students at the workshop - very unusual. It looks as if most students expected the workshop to be on the last Saturday of the month - next week. It was good for the three of us who were there - we had a really good, productive time. There was lots of pinning and tacking.  

When I got home I kept working on it - lots of opportunity for bling.

I'm now quilting the background in the hope of reducing the impact of the yellow.

Great fun.

Saturday night was dinner at Katherine and Anthony's, another fine meal and both Katherine and I progressed our knitting. I was pushing to finish the Entrelac and continued to work on it on Sunday in between cooking. I wanted to get the lamb shanks, eggplant parmigiana and the jacket potatoes cooked in advance of Monday so I could get to Basics to Beyond at the Guild.I succeeded, finishing it around 11 pm and spreading it out on the floor.

bmade a mistake part way through. I had turned a corner incorrectly. Had I been using straight needles I'd have seen it, but Because I was using a circular needle only 40 cm long and the work was bunched I hadn't noticed.

I slept on it, and worked on several solutions. I had used all but about 12 metres of the yarn, so couldn't add in the missing squares. I considered inserting a single colour piece with the date and my initials but rejected it (with the help of Niamh and the B2B group).

At B2B I worked on designing another bag, using some Ink and Spindle linen and Australian cotton. Another good session. Fionn didn't make it to dinner at my place as he was sleeping and recovering from an infected injury. The lamb shanks worked well but the jacket potatoes were over cooked. 

I woke this morning to the sound of rain. It's a good week that begins with watering the garden and ends with no need to do so. I set out to Create in Stitch to pick up a tin of DMC variegated stranded cotton - advertised in their Saturday newsletter. 

I think some of the variegated thread will help to modify the yellow background of the piece above.

I also indulged in a copy of Yvette Stanton's latest book, and the extra thread I need for Christine Bishop's Stained Glass Window Pouch later in the year.  While out that way I visited the Needle Nook to see if they had any Cotton/Acrylic yarn that might make a suitable edge on the Entrelac rug. They didn't. 

I decided I wanted to try to solve the problem, so drove to the Port Road Spotlight which, according to my search, had several. None were suitable, so I drove out to the Yarn Trader where, after talking it over with the experts, I bought two balls of Sheepjes' Whirlette in greens. It's cotton and acrylic, but much finer than the rug yarn. Since getting home I have used the two threads together to pick up stitches on one edge and knitted a band, which I've turned under and stitched down on the wrong side. 

This will, I think, give me a neat edge and fit with the folded section of edge. I think it will work better than adding an external edge, given the difficulty of matching the yarn exactly.

I'm hoping to have the four edges finished in the next 24 hours. 

.My apologies to those of you who have no interest in stitching. It's been a very stitchy week. There has been a bit of progress on the family history hunt for information and I've read a bit. I've been a bit rushed writing this today.

I'll try to achieve a better balance next week.