Wednesday’s sunrise was beautiful. I don’t think it counted as red. I certainly didn’t take it as a warning as I prepared for the first WES Group meeting of the year. It was a good meeting - 13 of us gathered around the table, which was covered with my Sashiko tablecloth, catching up on holiday activity and discussing the ethics of merging cultural designs in embroidery. I thought I had posted the account of this project, but apparently not. I have rectified.
The Crewel Work Company have released the kit and linen for some of the projects from Crewel Work Then and Now, including the Blue Bird which I loved as soon as I saw it. I have given my copy of the book to the Guild library, which is currently accessioning it. As the Library Team were meeting at the same time as WES, I made a note of the Appleton's wools required for Phillipa’s Then version . and checked my stash. I had 11 of the 51 skeins required.
On Thursday I called at the Guild again to check if the trading table had any more. I found another 3. Another Guild member offered to search her stash for more - her mother had been into crewel. She found another 8. On the basis that I have almost half the skeins required, and Create in Stitch has a full Appleton's range, I have only ordered the linen. When it arrives I will buy the remaining threads and borrow the book from the Guild Library. If it goes well I’ll have a go at Hazel Blomkamf’s Now version, in cottons.
On Friday Brigid and I had another fitting with the dressmaker, this time the first fitting of the actual garment. It's looking fabulous and should be finished next week. There will be more to come. Back at home I worked on the vegetable bag I've been trying to finish for Brigid's birthday today. I finished it just before midnight on Sunday.
It folded up as neatly as I hoped, to fit into the Kasia Jacquot bag I had quietly embroidered a few weeks ago for just that purpose.
Now that the vegetable bag is finished I have returned to the Jacquot panels for my craft bags. On Saturday I mounted Olga in a 12" hoop and sorted out the threads I need. The threads were in a bit of a tangle, but are now sorted, and I have enough for this panel.
I'm still alternating with knitting the shrug. The silk/alpaca mix is fine for knitting in warm weather. I got a few rows done while we did two more-than-usually-difficult crosswords after dinner on Saturday.
On Sunday I chickened out of driving to Ukaria for a concert by a group called A Mouthful of Teeth. I’m sure it would have been good, but I just wanted to stay home and read, which I did. It was 35C. Even the bamboo clothes in the load of washing I did dried in 2 hours. I had noticed the publication of the third book by Anthony Horowitz in the Susan Ryeland series, and realised I hadn’t read the second, so downloaded and read it. A little disappointing.
The very large pot of Casula tetragona on my back balcony ( in the lid of the electric barbecue I bought and abandoned several years ago!) keeps blowing over in any strong wind. The metal base circle on which it is balanced needs to be larger. I keep meaning to go to a nursery to find one. I decided yesterday was the day to do it. Straight after breakfast I assembled the vegetable sausage bake ingredients for dinner. I knew I was missing shallots, and wanted to identify anything else so I could buy them. I went to Frewville for a change - always a pleasure and came home via Barrow and Bench nursery.
They didn’t have an
appropriate larger stand. They did, however, have a strange bottomless woven cane circle that I thought might do the job. While it won’t last as long as metal, it works for now and looks good. According to the sales assistant it was intended to go around the base of a Christmas tree!
It is Orientation Week at Adelaide Uni, so all three granddaughters are getting oriented. They seem to be finding their rooms and pathways while avoiding being captured by aggressive club recruitment tactics. Reckon they’ll be rearing to go by next Monday when courses start.
Today I had my annual audiology check up. Very little change in my hearing and my 10 year-old hearing aids are going strong so we have made no changes: a bit astounding, but when on a good thing…
I drove from the audiologist to the swimming pool - carefully removing my hearing aids to swim 500 metres with no hassles..
I drove from the audiologist to the swimming pool - carefully removing my hearing aids to swim 500 metres with no hassles..
Brigid’s birthday dinner was at Luigi’s - a fabulous meal that I couldn’t finish. I piked out of birthday cake afterwards - a sugar hit after 9pm is no longer my scene and I didn't think I could resist icecream.The dinner, however, was special: a privilege to be invited - and to be alive to enjoy it.
