Post 496 Food, Fibre, Family, Friends - and moonshine.

I missed the super full moon on 2 August. Rising at 4am to see it wasn't a priority. However, last Wednesday morning I woke with a start at 3am. Although my blind was drawn, the bedroom was very light, so I got up to investigate. 

It was a half-moon (not evident in the hastily taken photo) with a star above it. I don't know why it woke me up. I sleep pretty soundly and thought the least I could do was to take a photo.

I went back to bed and slept a couple more hours. The star, it turns out, was Jupiter.

I'm tempted to say it's a once in a blue moon event, but there is blue moon on 31 August which rises at 11.08 am, so that's unlikely to wake me up. It remains to be seen if the sky will be clear enough to see it.

Wednesday was our WES Group meeting, and Barbara shared her collection of tribal textiles from West Bengal and Gudjarat. It is a fabulous collection and was accompanied by an illustrated account of her several trips to the area, developing links to the producing communities. There were 13 of us there and there was a lot of interaction and engagement with the topic. 

I had to rush home to let the cleaners in. Fortunately fortnightly cleaning will not fall on the second Wednesday of the month again until December.

On Thursday morning I had my annual skin cancer check. The dermatologist I have seen for the last 25 years or more has retired so this was my first visit to the new, young, dermatologist she referred me to.  I don't enjoy these visits, but was very impressed with her manner and thoroughness.  She identified two growing moles on my back that need removing. I have an appointment for this in early September.

I went on to Pilates, grabbed a milkshake at the Queen St Cafe,  and then visited friends who had invited me for dinner. As always, we had a relaxed and refreshing time. I undertook to further mend the pants one of the friends bought in Indonesia a few years ago. He wears them to travel in - especially on planes. When the pants split (also several years ago) I offered to mend them, and have been continuing the tradition ever since. I enjoy the challenge and he enjoys the pants and the narrative. They are travelling again soon, and the pants had developed yet another tear.

I finished mending them on Saturday. The  detail  is in my stitching blog.

My granddaughters roll their eyes. Their idea of fashionable, respectable, or even acceptable, clothing, does not include orange pants, with or without patches.

Rowan magazine 73 arrived on Friday. It is a beach-focused issue with some inspiring patterns. I already have more projects than I can handle, but I do hope I can make some of these. 

 As if that weren't enough, yesterday this book arrived with another fine selection of things I would like to make.

Guess I just have to  keep on being highly selective or find the one or two people in my circle who get attracted to one or other of them.  

A friend living in England sent me a link to this article about favourite knitting projects. I don't think I could name one favourite project, but the enthusiasm these knitters express is familiar to me. It continues the discussion kicked off by the Kate Davies quote I used last week. In December the World Embroidery Study Group will be discussing knitting and I'm hoping we will explore this aspect.

It looks like the trainer who works in the Square has returned. Perhaps this signals Spring is on the way. This group was working at 8am on Sunday as I was preparing to go to my Book Club. The cafe we used to meet in has closed due to a major shopping centre renovation. We have been meeting in homes, waiting to see if it reopens, but that, alas, is not going to happen. On Sunday we tried a new place, called Foliage. It is a lovely venue, with plants and all sorts of interesting bits for sale. It got a trifle noisy at one point, but was pleasant and convenient so we will give it another go.     

From there I went on to Katherine's birthday bash, which she had at home. The food, catered by Jesse, was fabulous, disappeared quickly and seemed to be endlessly replenished.  Everyone was occupied, kids drawing, playing games, visiting the park, adults engaged in catching up with each other. It was good to catch up with quite a few friends I haven't seen for a while.

I prepared Monday night's moussaka on Saturday, which gave me a relatively leisured Monday, extending into the relaxed dinner. 

Perhaps a little less relaxed, I cut the steek on the alpaca shawl. The cutting went well. 

The next step, however, was to pick up a further 320 stitches around the two cut sides, giving me 772 stitches on which to work a 12 row border.  I knew that was coming, but hadn't registered that the pattern requires this to be repeated on the inside, as well as the outside, to form a double border joined by an i-cord. I'm on my way with the outside border - but am not yet committed to the double border. It is taking me 70 minutes to knit each row. I've done three rows.

I will record progress in my stitching blog - and hopefully report on the outcome next week.