Post 217

I finished the tassels this morning, attached them and used machine thread to tidy up the back. The soft  c

cotton fluffs up when cut, which looks untidy and runs the risk of shedding. I photographed it onthe curtain to show the transparency - not that evident as it has loaded here. For the moment it is draped over one of my dining chairs (yes, admittedly un-ironed!). 

The builders next door were pouring concrete today with the motor right outside my window and balcony. Quite noisy.

I went to Frewville to get a bit of fruit and ingredients for my muesli and also to have a late lunch. It was very pleasant. They had been busy and sold out of three of the four lunch dishes on the daily menu. The one left was a green fettuccini with pork and heritage tomatoes and basil. Went well with the Prosecco. The latest Inspirations magazine was in my letterbox as I left home, so I could browse it over lunch. Only one of the projects really grabs me -the Peace Dove by Cynthia Jackson. It's really lovely, but not sure that I'm up for it. In my letterbox there was also a shade card for Bendigo Woollen Mills new cotton range, now in 4, 8 and 10 ply and such fabulous colours. 

Not until I've emptied the two drawers of knitting yarn I already have.

I called at Create in Stitch to talk to Samela about the Catarina fabric and buy another magnetic needle keep so I can have two hoops of crewel on the go.                                           .

I got home just before the rain set in. It didn’t stop the concrete pour. I had planned to spend several hours scanning photos but didn’t want to listen to machinery while doing it, so settled for my crewel rabbits.
 

It was wonderfully relaxing after the Caterina project. I love the flexibility of it - its adaptability and forgiving, as well as enabling really rich colours. Comfort stitching. 

It's also relatively fast. This is quite a small piece so it grows quickly.  Now that's a blessing!

Post 216 Rain, Knots, Scanning and Rosella

 The Rosellas appeared to know the rain was coming about an hour before it arrived. There was a fair bit of bird activity and this rosella alighted for a decent feed.Within an hour it was bucketing down and there was no sign of a bird anywhere. I had a plan to go to Frewville for a few supplies and lunch, but gave up.

Early in the day I finished off the first tassel and attached it to the embroidered mat. Now I have some  I  idea  of what I am doing I got up a bit of a rhythm and finished it without hassle. It just takes time.  I began the second tassel and worked out a bit of a system - preparing the strings of knots in lots of 80 but not cutting or assembling the lengths until I have the four sets of 80 necessary for one tassel. One you reach 80 knots on the thread there is a greater chance of the thread tangling.  After the second set of knots I made them in sets of 40 knots - the number in each of 8 bundles in each tassel.  Altogether i made 1000 knots before beginning to assemble the tassels.

I rook a break to prepare the next lot of photos for scanning. I am about to tackle the 1990s - the decade for which I have the most printed photos. It is a bit sobering and confronting to find how much I have forgotten. Photos, of course, act as an aide memoire, but there are some people and events for which I have no memory at all. There is also sometimes the question of whether I could have done that better. I now have piles ready to scan and some to throw away.

Speaking of memory, my brother and sister-in law are currently hoidaying on the NSW north coast, near the town where as children we spent a holiday each year from the ages of about 7 or 8 until I went to high school.  Our father had two weeks holiday a year. He took them in March, took us out of school and hired a clocottage where we swan and our parents fished. One ritual was a visit to65 a nearby town, where our parents fished from the shore while we explored the rock pools. One year we were promised a visit to the cinema around the corner from their fishing spot at the the end of the day. However, I fell over in mud while playing and got mud on my clothes, so the cinema was cancelled. Today my brother sent me a photo of the cinema, which is still there - and looks very much the same! I hope he goes to see see one of the movies currently showing to make up for the one he missed some 65 years ago!  

The knots provide a steady focussed rhythm and a product at the end that is very reassuring and predictable, for the moment at least. I have no doubt I will not remember how to do these in a few months time. But at this stage I have no plans for making more of them! I had hoped to have the four tassels finished before posting this blog tonight, but I'm also trying to post it by 11pm, so I have to make do with two tassels finished and two to assemble in the morning. 

I still do not like the new Blogger tools but I am adapting to what is possible. For those of us who use photographs with text as a way of blogging this is nowhere near as good as the old interface. I am not the only one complaining! I  have also not found a way to review the whole post as it will appear in a browser, so again, apologies for any layout glitches. 

Post 215

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I am struggling with layout here today. Blogger, the program I use has been updated and I (and a lot of others) have had difficulty getting text to wrap around photos. Until today the legacy system has been available, but today it has been removed. I'm hoping I can work out a fix over the next few days.

Today was the first meeting of the Basics to Beyond Group at the Guild since pre-Covid.   I finished the project I had been working on pre-Covid while in lockdown. My intention was to use today's meeting to progress the Catarina project, in particular, to get some help in making the tassels. There were  5 students there today, plus Gay as tutor. This is a far cry from pre-Covid levels of 15-20. It was, however, pleasant and productive. Two were new students, two continuing, and me as the 'Beyond'. 

I still had one and a half sides of double back stitch to work on the Catarina piece . I finished the half side of back stitch and also turned the hem before beginning the tassels. Since returning home I have finished the other side, hence the photograph. I placed it over a cushion to photograph it - it won’t remain there.

The tassels turned out to be even more complicated than I had anticipated from reading through the article. Each tassel requires you to tie 320 knots in the embroidery thread, each one 2mm apart. This wasn’t that easy. Gay has a useful idea of using a darning needle to manoeuvre each knot into place. By the end of today’s session I had 80 knots, enough to try the next stage when I got home.

It really was a lovely afternoon in Adelaide today. I managed to sit on the Western balcony for an hour to finish the double back stitch and hem. I moved inside as it got cooler at sunset. The tassel knots are too complex to work on outside.

The mobile personal trainer was back in the Square this afternoon in the warmish weather.

The tassels involve a length of knotted cotton, cut into lengths of 4 knots, then joined in bundles..Two of these bundles will make a tassel - 320 knots. So at the end of today I have a bit more than half a tassel!  I need four. 


Maybe tomorrow I will break up knotting with scanning!