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 166 Cars, Doors and Family

My car survived the night in the street, and I got it to the  Crash Repairer at 9am as requested. I had to pack up the numerous shopping bags in the boot, and all the useful things in the car itself - hand sanitiser, sunglasses,  face masks, walking stick, keys, pens and a Tshirt waiting to be altered. These, of course, are needed in the loan car.

The crash repairer is in unlikely premises - except in Adelaide where stone houses like this are common and not infrequently used for businesses.

The loan car was in use by staff - 20 minutes away. It is a Yaris, a car I drove between about 1995 and 2000. It didn't take too long for me to remember how to use an ignition key but unlocking the steering wheel took a bit longer.

The heavy  door to the apartment carpark was being repaired between 8am and 11.30 so I couldn't return there. With the building work,  street parking is at a premium and impossible by 10 am. I had a podiatrist appointment and some shopping to do, so I went to Frewville, getting the feel of the car, did some shopping, drove back to the podiatrist (which is within walking distance of the apartment, but does have off-street parking for clients) then went to another shopping centre to deposit soft plastic recycling and go to the Post Office - an elastic mercy mission. 

It was here, at 11.30, as I was about to head home, that I received the message to say the repair to the garage door had been postponed to 2pm-5pm. Grrr! I was home by 12, so no harm done. It was still a lot of unnecessary messing around.

I had this evening's meal prepared, so was able to get organised, put shopping away and spend a couple of hours embroidering.

Jennifer rang. She is now being discharged on Wednesday, with outpatient appointments to keep monitoring and adjusting her meds. If the meds do not improve her breathing, a pacemaker is on the cards. I have promised to visit her tomorrow.

The kids arrived after school. It is such a privilege to be part of their lives. They are so interesting to listen and talk to.

It wasn't a big photo day I'm afraid. I was too focused on getting the hang of the loan car!



I did do a few rows of knitting, but mostly I worked on the last panel for the bag.

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.