Post 390 Staying safe

Saturday night was a feast for Katherine's birthday. Fionn and Veronica made the lamb shanks, with potatoes, carrots and peas, Brigid bought and presented cheeses and Niamh made the meringues and chocolate coated apricots and strawberries.  It was a wonderful evening.

I managed to resist the cheese and meringues, although I do love meringues. 

I had, however, indulged in a lime milkshake earlier in the afternoon. It was a JEMS afternoon and I picked up Niamh as usual and we went to the Queen St Cafe for our regular milkshake treat. It's the first icecream I have had in six weeks. The after-JEMS milkshake will remain my special treat.

I finished the second shawl and blocked it. Not a very good photo, I'm afraid, but it worked well.

The Anglo-Saxon Horse I had bought last week seduced me. 

I was really curious to see how it would work up. It proved a lot of fun to work. I have written it up for my embroidery blog for anyone interested.

I made it into a pouch with a zip closure at the back and lined it in gold dupion silk.

I spent much of the weekend working on my final project for Design Online, the course run by Barbara Mullan for the Guild. I enrolled mostly to try the new online venture and have managed to adapt the assignments to things I've been working on. I could have used last week's Inuit project, but it felt like cheating. The assignment was to produce drawings with colours, rather than the finished project.

I decided to work on a design for the Italian boiled wool coat I made a couple of years ago. I've always intended to embroider the edges, and this seemed like an opportunity to progress it. 

I began with a series of Australian native flowers adapted from Annette Rich's book, choosing flowers from blues through mauve to red and arranging them in pairs on two long strips to fit on either edge of the coat.

Although I was pleased with the result, I decided, on reflection, that it was too fussy and the next day began again, focusing on Hardenbergia Violacea, a flowering vine found all down the East Coast of Australia.

This resulted in a much better design that I hope to work down both sides. My coloured pencils were badly in need of sharpening, and none of my sharpeners did the job, so the colours are not right,

but the threads will be better. They are a combination of Mogear and Cascade House - both Australian wools.

The Design Online course does not require making the design, but I will complete it - probably over summer when I don't need the coat!

On Monday I bought 4 new pencil sharpeners - I guess it's reasonable that the blades lose their edge over time. And not even I will sharpen the tiny blades of a plastic pencil sharpener! I also, however, bought new batteries for this one - which I certainly had in the early 1990s, maybe the 80s. I wasn't sure the C batteries were still available, but I was in luck. While I accept a battery-operated pencil sharpener is shameful, it is the best pencil sharpener ever and now works brilliantly.

Three more parcels arrived this week. The Sleepy Merino PJs are a treat, really cosy and comfortable and the possum merino socks from NZ Nature are very welcome. The alpaca yarn and pattern from Adagio Mill, which is, unfortunately, closing down also arrived.  I managed to get this package in their natural colour 'baby elephant walk' - a fawn. I think the pattern might also work for some of the leftover 4 ply green Sheepjies yarn  from my blanket.

It's an interesting brick pattern alternating with plain sections.

I've done a little trial on the  4ply green Sheepjies, and I think it's going to work too. 

The hand-woven linen from the Ukraine for my Viking workshop has arrived in Australia - presumably Melbourne. It could, of course, sit there for weeks, but there's a chance I might have it by next week. I'm curious to see it.

It has been a relatively wet week for Adelaide. 

Sunday night's sunset was lovely, if a bit threatening. However, both Sunday and Monday were sunny and pleasant. 

There is more rain on the way - unusual for Adelaide and always welcome.

Today I had the podiatrist appointment  (with mask, of course) postponed from lockdown two weeks ago. 

I was impressed with my podiatrist's P95 mask, which has elastics around the head, not the ears. My cloth masks have head elastic, as ear elastics dislodge my hearing aids. My masks work OK but better without my glasses. I'm going to investigate these further.

I bought some bread and brie for after-school snacks and took the girls to netball practice.

 It had been photo day at school, so they had several changes of clothes as well as their netball uniforms. Niamh, if I got it right, had 4 different sports team photos with differing uniforms, as well as her class photo in regular school uniform. A lot of clobber.

I was back to finish dinner - leftover lemon chicken with cauliflower rice- before 7pm so I can continue my 13 hour fasting routine. Quick and easy (but too much on my plate - ate about half). My weight has fluctuated  this week - down .2kg, .4kg. .6kg,  back up by similar amounts. I finished today the same as last week. I'm hopeful the drop will be consistent next week.

Our Covid restrictions in South Australia have been relaxed a little. Hospitality venues can now operate at 75% capacity. Masks remain.  Our borders are closed to all Eastern States. We are OK here - but on high alert. Friends and family in NSW, much in our thoughts, are having it much harder - hanging in, getting vaccinated, writing books and winding wool to revive almost forgotten knitting projects. Bravissimo!