Post 626 Out and About

On Wednesday I had lunch with old work friend, covered a lot of Adelaide politics. I also called at Pink Carat and picked up a necklace they were repairing and I had forgotten about, even though it has been a favourite. The cord had broken and I had left it at a popup shop they set up in the Unley Village while their shop was being renovated a couple of months ago. I'm not wearing many necklaces at the moment because of the heat but it's good to have it back.

Thursday after Pilates I called at the Guild to pick up some Appleton’s thread a friend left for me. I’m about halfway to the threads for the Crewelwork Bluebird linen I’ve ordered. It was a good visit, a pleasure to catch up with a few people.

It will be a while before the linen arrives, so I’m working my way through the remaining Kasia Jacquot panels. Olga is finished (left) and I'm starting on Kylie  

Our  group of Ladies Who Lunch met on Friday at Yakisan, at North Adelaide. The food, a shared 6 course, was good and suited us. We talked and laughed nonstop for three hours. Service, and signage to find the place left a bit to be desired. It was a relaxed and enlivening three hours after which I went to Frewville and bought the ingredients for a roast dinner on Monday.The forecast for was a mere 28C and I was expecting only 5 for dinner, so bought a smaller piece of pork than usual, requiring only 2 hours in the oven. I’ve put off roasting for several weeks because having the oven on for 3 hours heats up the apartment. It worked well.

Later in the afternoon I finished off the shrug. I think it will prove useful. Details in my embroidery blog.

I spent the evening winding my birthday wool into balls. It took quite a while. I also went hunting for patterns, ending up with a wavy patterned shawl.  This is the beginning.

Our Book Club met on Sunday. My favourite of the recommended books was The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell. I added  another 50 books to our database of books reported on by members. 

By far the best book I've read recently is A Divine Calling. I had no idea of the efforts of Roman Catholic women to achieve ordination within their church. It is an extraordinary account. I couldn't put it down. It is very difficult to find in Australia, so my copy will be in demand. 

Today I swam laps again, managing 750 metres in half an hour. There was no competition for a shower and I got home refreshed, to discover I had left my bathers hanging in the shower! I considered driving staight back, but saw sense and rang them. Ingrid, the receptionist, checked, found it. and hung it over a pipe in their storage area to dry. I can pick it up tomorrow. They are the most pleasant, helpful people imaginable. 

I have been looking for a line dancing group for a while now. Some twenty years ago a work friend and I went line dancing once a week and had a great time. She is now back in her home town, Canberra. The most convenient group meets at the same time as my Pilates group. Another possible group meets on Tuesday evenings. I'm looking for a way to swim, do Pilates and line dance on three different days. Haven't solved it yet, but may have a solution for the middle of March. My focus for the next few days is my talk on Mexican Embroidery on Monday's Guild General Meeting.

Post 181 Windows, Hair and Runes

This afternoon I spent a couple of hours sitting on my front balcony in the sun and stitching the Icelandic Endless knot. It was pleasantly warm in the sun. The plants are looking ready to welcome Spring.


It was a busy morning. The window cleaner arrived before 8am. He cleans my outside, non-balcony window from the roof of our car park with a very long-arm tool before doing all the other windows from inside the apartment. Before Covid he employed 5 men, one of whom used to come and help. With Covid his work has dropped off to the point where he works on his own.  He normally comes twice a year, which is sufficient, but I suggested that if he ever has a job in the city between my cleans he could do an extra one for me.  It should be easier to photograph the doves (when they return) through the window now the dust from the building work has been removed (until it recurs!)

We are all in this together.


My other commitment this morning was the hairdresser to repeat my perm. It doesn't look quite so mad in reality. It will be a bit frizzy for a couple of weeks. but will settle into what I want after that. It will also reduce the oiliness of my hair for several months- the main aim of the exercise.  So the effort has been worth it.

From the hair dresser I went to Create in Stitch to replace the Appleton's 227 I had run out of for the Icelandic project. I also asked about hessian for the Jenny McWhinney garlic bag that I got free. They don't carry hessian, but did have some 18 count linen that should work in a similar way. I got enough to make two. I know Jennifer wants to make one too. The colour isn't as rich, but the texture is right. Given that most of the recommended thread is silk, the linen might work better.

My brother called to catch up and with a small research request. Unfortunately my phone battery died before we hung up.  It was so flat that it took quite a few minutes on the  charger before it revived enough to be usable. It was a very rare moment when I wished I had a landline!

I discovered this afternoon an article on Icelandic Embroidery written by Elsa Godjonsson, an Icelandic researcher who has written a now out-of-print book on Traditional Icelandic Embroidery. I'm a bit tempted to indulge in an expensive second-hand copy!  I also found some designs based on Icelandic runes. I might try working one of those and have ordered a couple of papers on their background. I hope others in the World Embroidery Study Group have become as addicted!

Here’s my progress on the one at hand. The camera picks up flaws not visible to the naked eye - but that’s helpful.

It might be possible to finish it tomorrow.

Post 138: Getting Organised

Turtle turned up this morning, waiting for seed and allowing me to distribute it and take photographs from one metre away.










I needed to be at the Toyota service centre by 10.30. It was well organised, distancing measures in place, and the coffee's still good. I got them to adjust my clock back from daylight saving (yeah, well...), restore the voice on my GPS and give me advice on the dent I put in the back passenger-side door when avoiding a mad woman in February.  My service guy, Mason, was patient, courteous, obliging and unfazed.

I now have the name of a crash repairer.

I got quite a bit of knitting done while waiting - finished the plain band and began the next lace band.




Afterwards, I went to Officeworks to purchase some more document boxes. I have decided to use them to organise my Appleton's threads. I bought 5 of them, 4 coloured, with a view to using the colours to separate and organise the threads.

From there I went to Create in Stitch to pick up a few bits and pieces. Di Kirshner had a class going. It's great to see people distanced, enjoying themselves and concentrating.

Since it was now nearly 2pm and I was hungry, I stopped at Mr Nick's and had an excellent calamari lunch.

Back at home, I tackled my old Appleton's storage system.










I managed to divide them into four main colour groups (cleverly aligned with the box colours!) and then arrange them in rough number order.


I suspect I should have gone for the wider storage boxes.

They do, however, just fit. The advantage of this system is that I can see the numbers through the box and it is easy to pick out a set of blending colours.
















That left the clear box for me to use for the threads I need for my current project and the fill-in bits for my Crewel chair. .


I didn't start the Oak Apple Tree tonight. I wanted to get the next (lace) band done on my shawl. I managed that.


I have a window cleaner coming at 8am in the morning, so I'd better get to bed.