Post 176 Back in my car, and bag finish

I got a phone call around 9am this morning to say my car was repaired and ready to pick up. I had a Pilates class at 11.00 on the other side of town, and the sensible thing would have been to go to Pilates in the loan car, then pick up my repaired car. I was, however, wanting to have my own car back and anxious not to have the loan car any longer than necessary, so I had breakfast, a few jobs,  got ready for Pilates, drove the loan car to the nearest petrol station, replaced the petrol I had used and headed to the Crash Repairer.  They were very efficient. The car was ready, fixed and clean (cleaner on the inside than it has been since the day I bought it!) and I was on my way just in time to make it to Pilates.

I appreciate my Prius C all over again. It is so smooth and even to drive, especially at take off.

After Pilates I went to Unley Shopping Centre. I had a parcel to post and a bit of grocery shopping.







On the way home, around 1.40,  I stopped on Hutt St for a Yiros to take home. I love the trees in their skeleton form, especially when there is cloud cover as there was today.

The forecast was for rain all day. Again, there were a few showers but nothing substantial. I bunkered down with the cube pincushion construction.


It was a pretty straightforward case of shaping the insets, trimming and folding the squares, and whipping the sides together through the four-sided stitch.











This completes the set as per Christine's design. It is quite lovely and really useful. I had thought of making a scissor keep to house the scissors when not being used. However, I remembered the spare pair of small scissors that I had bought when I made Christine's Shadow Box. These fit quite well into this set and don't need a scissor keep.











The sun went down in a bit of a haze of glory tonight followed by a rain shower. It looked like a dust storm over the city, but was simply cloud.









I had a few bits of linen and, somewhere.  a square of lining fabric, left from the project, so decided to make a little pouch for a needle threader. I had used up all the Blue DMC 824 thread bar 2-3 single lengths - both the skein that came in the kit and another skein of my own. I didn't want to wait until I could get a replacement. so I used the blue as an outline and the green for a border of Breton stitch.

It took a while, but worked out. Frustratingly, I could not find the small square of Liberty lining I had used. In the end I found and used a fragment of a Liberty print. It's not a match in colour, but at least the texture and weight are the same.

The missing piece will, of course, now turn up.




The lining will rarely be seen in this little pouch which will hopefully help me not to lose the needle-threader.


It's been a productive day. Now I can return to my knitting and think about my next embroidery project.

Post 162 : out and about with purpose

Today’s take from The Bird Way is that birds communicate quite complex information in their alarm calls, such as the specific nature of a predator  (for example, snake, raptor, dog)m whether it’s in the ground, in the sky or in the trees, and what stage of its hunt it is in ( for example, surveying, searching, swooping).

The calls also signal instructions- flee or gather ( to mob the predator). The calls can be combined, in specific order resembling a grammar. Experiments have established that calls can be taught and learned. Much of the significant research in this area has been done at the Australian National University and the Canberra Botanic Gardens. It’s giving me new ways of viewing the Noisy Miner and doves. 

While I spent time reading this morning, I had, for me in this time, a relatively busy day. I have swapped my Pilates day from Friday to Thursday. I have been going to Pilates on Friday for so long that I had a lot of trouble believing today was Thursday. I went to North Adelaide before Pilates to get the ingredients for my muesli and a bit more fruit. 

On the way from the shopping centre to Pilates at around 11.45am, I passed a very active booze bus on Memorial Drive. This seemed an odd thing at that time and place. A friend, however, pointed out that there’s now evidence that marihuana stays in the system for well over 12 hours and police are focusing on drug-affected driving. This is the first time I’ve seen testing at this time of the day on a weekday.

Pilates was good. Only four of us with Rosalie. It’s always good to have a change of instructor to give a new emphasis. 

After Pilates I drove to Port Adelaide to the Yarn Trader. The point of one needle in the set of bamboo needles I bought here in February had a split in the point, which caught on the yarn at every stitch. I wasn’t sure if the shop would do anything about it. They were, however, unhesitating in replacing it from another set, which they will send back to the supplier. Great service. 



On my way out I was very careful not to be beguiled by this shawl, which I think is truly, truly beautiful.

From there I want to the Anchor for a quick lunch, then to a mask-making friend’s place to deliver elastic. She is making masks for family in Melbourne and neighbours. 

Lee’s elastic is being put to good use!

Jennifer had her balloon insertion operation today. The news from the hospital is that there is little to report and she is sleeping. There should be more news tomorrow.

I progressed the third side of the counted thread box while finishing the last of the delicious organic free trade chocolate from my food box from last week. 

What more could I want? 

Post 152 : Monday meal and making

This morning was mostly taken up with shopping for family dinner tonight. I also posted a set of face masks to a family friend and deposited 3 bags of soft plastic to the recycling at Unley. Dinner was a stir fry of noodles with duck, ham, broccoli, spring onions, capsicum, soy and salami. I bought a cooked Beijing duck and deboned it. I made stock from the bones so hope to have duck soup tomorrow. There was also enough stir fry left for Niamh's lunch tomorrow.
I managed to cut out another 7 face masks while making the stock. This time I did it sitting on a high stool. It avoided the worst of my sciatica but not entirely. It's very difficult not to stand while cutting and ironing. I used the remains of a bamboo Tshirt Katherine gave me for the inner lining (the tealy-green). It will be interesting to see how it makes up.

This will provide a set of 12 for Katherine's family. This is not urgent, since we currently have not community transmission in South Australia, but I hope to finish these tomorrow. I've had one request for elastic for masks.

This morning Margaret Morgan sent me a link to a video tutorial on Breton stitch. I found it useful. The stitch can be worked, it seems, as surface stitchery as well as counted. There are also variations.

I worked a little sampler on much larger  fabric. A is the stitch as included in yesterday's class, only a bit larger. B is a variation that is longer - three times the number of threads in height. C and D are the same stitches further spaced widthwise. This helps me get my head around the way the stitch works. Now I think I can work the smaller variety.


As I had expected, the pile driver began at 7.30 this morning. It was background noise I could live with. Just before sunset I took this photo of the day's work. It seems they are driving very close piles and setting them in concrete. It appears to be slow work.

It's unlikely I will see much of the doves while this work is going on. Enough to put any bird off.




Tonight I have worked a bit more of the owl. There is not a lot to do to finish it. I haven't decided what colour to make the heart above the owl's head.