Post645 All sorts of mending

There’s been quite a lot happening with friends and family this week. For the most part I’ve been at home stitching my thoughts, hopes and wishes into several projects. My major outing was a lunch with friends at Ammos Restaurant at North Adelaide, delicious, plentiful Greek food and great company.

It was 6C on Sunday morning at 8am. That’s cold for Adelaide. I had spent much of Friday finishing my presentation on English embroidery in the Anglo-Saxon period for WES tomorrow. Hopefully, with minor adjustments, it will also serve for the embroidery Tour Group I have to talk to in August. 

It has bothered me, because the topic needs  visuals but I'm troubled about possible breach of copyright using photographs from books or the Internet. I now have a visual presentation in which every photograph has the origin or link acknowledged in full. Even so it will never be seen other than in the physical presentation. I spent all of Sunday writing a paper (9 pages) telling the story of the presentation, with no illustrations, but links or detailed references to every source. That way, anyone wanting a copy can have the paper and follow the links. I printed it off on Sunday night and edited it on Monday morning from the printed copy, transferring changes on Monday afternoon while finalising the lamb shanks, potatoes and broccoli for dinner. I’m finally satisfied. Tomorrow WES Group can critique it and offer suggestions. Whew!

While I was in getting-things-off-my-list mode, I tackled the huge pile of mending on my sewing machine table.  It turned out there were two jumpers, two brooches and a necklace to be mended and a lot of bits of fabric looking for a home. I found the right drawer or storage bin for the fabrics and mended the jumpers  - or so I thought until I wore one and found another hole, now also mended.

The brooch was a greater challenge. Bought at a craft fair many moons ago, it was a mixture of beads and wire. The simple pin had been inadequately attached with a single loop of the wire, evidently at the end of the making process, and had come away.

I could see the problem. The structural wire was very tightly woven, giving no hold to attach the pin. I had been using waxed thread to lash the embroidery for the tea box, so threaded some up in a needle and poked and wrangled until I had secured the pin. Neither artistic nor professional but I’m hoping it will hold. I wore it for a day and it held 🤞🏼.

The finished tea box went into the mail on Thursday and has been well received. 

As relaxation I knitted Justice beanies. I can now do these from memory, once I get clear in my head which wool ply I am using. A few more will be required next year, so it’s a liesurely job. 

It is now three weeks since I had the repair to the piercing on my right ear and this morning, as instructed, I removed the stud and inserted a sleeper. The problem was that, no matter how I tried, I could not close the loop. In the end, I jumped in the car and returned to Essential Beauty and Piercing who had done the repair where, with some difficulty, the duty assistant closed it for me! It has to stay in place for another three weeks. That should be OK. After that I may need to find a different solution when not wearing regular earrings!

Additionally, one of my 8 year old hearing aids is emitting a loud noise whenever switched on. I have an appointment with my audiologist after the WES meeting tomorrow and I'm guessing it will result in replacements. 

This afternoon, after a lovely long phone conversation with a friend, I began the next tea box while watching the sun go down. A nice contrast with the way the week began.

I am so grateful for friends, family and the opportunities afforded to us.

Deo Gratias.

Post 598 The cupboards get fixed!

A quiet day at the Guild on Wednesday. I was very pleased when Phyllis arrived to do some financial work. We were able to chat for a bit on and off throughout the day. My major job was bringing in the bins. I got most of Hardanger Christmas ornament done, finishing the gold at home before I cut around the edges. There was fabric for one more in the kit, so I started it before I could change my mind.

Between posting off my Cancer Council (not, as I said last week, Heart Foundation!) bracelet with it's 7 days of data, Pilates and a family birthday dinner I as lucky enough to catch an Adelaide Rosella feeding on the native frangipani behind my balcony.

It was a great dinner, a cooperative effort by family members for their mother, every course a delight, and conversation just as good.

I had intended another visit to the Dangerously Modern exhibition on Friday, but last minute weekend commitments put paid to that. I needed to do the big shop for Monday night, prepare the bathrooms for cupboard installation and the spare room for Veronica to crash after a night sleeping out at the school in support of the homeless. Both bathroom cupboards needed to be emptied and contents stored out of the way. When all of that was done, I finished the last ornament from the kit - varying the pattern to suit my whim (and laziness)

I was concerned about parking for Will, the carpenter installing my cupboards on Saturday. It was a big job, with lots of panels and equipment to come up and down in the lift. Curiously, the street is always parked out on Saturday morning. I decided to park my car in the street to reserve a space, worrying about whether to do so on Friday night, or early Saturday. When I checked the street at 6pm, it was already parked out. I realised, for the first time, that most likely local residents without sufficient off-street parking, slip their cars in as soon as the weekday 2hr paid parking finishes on Fridays, taking advantage of free weekend parking. I checked anxiously every half an hour, then, around 8.30pm, I saw someone about to pull out directly opposite my apartment.  Still in my slippers, I dashed downstairs and moved my car into the space.   It proved fortuitous.

My car was, fortunately, still there, undamaged, the next morning - along with all the other cars. Veronica arrived just after 7.30am, quite bright eyed and bushy-tailed, ready for a shower, toast and Vegemite. Will arrived just after nine and our car transfer went smoothly. He was up and down for tools and timber all day, finally cleaning up and leaving at 4.10pm. Veronica left for work at 12.15. I stashed all her gear in my car to deliver that evening.

The cupboards are a perfect match to the old ones - as I wanted. This time the edge of the fascia is both painted and sealed in silicon, so should not absorb water for decades. The old one had a raw top edge. 

In the guest bathroom a miscalculation with a drill means screw holes in the two last pieces of vertical edging on either side of the door are too long not to and will be replaced, I presume because moisture could enter. From my point of view it was a really impressive day's work and result. 

In all of this, I missed the Chants Encounters concert at the cathedral. Katherine and I had tickets. I could have left Will to his own devices, but it seemed churlish when he was taking so much trouble to get it right. Katherine was behind in her schedule to make a 50 person birthday cake and biscuits for a friend's child's birthday the next day, so we both squibbed. I do like Gregorian chant, and the guest organist would have been worth hearing, but I can’t always have it all. 

In spare moments I finished off a mending experiment, detailed in my embroidery blog and got Monday night's Osso Bucco underway.

The sun rose joyously the next morning before the cloud descended for most of the day. It’s taking a while for the silicon seal smell to go from my en-suite. I had the fan on for several hours on Sunday and both balcony doors open to get a through breeze. A flannel flower, rose and geranium block in the bathroom helped too. It was largely gone when I left for dinner at a Prayer for the Wild at Heart with an old Sydney University friend here on his way to the Flinders Ranges.  We discussed our current lives and the state of the world. Good to know we still see eye to eye on most of it.

The Osso Bucco went down well, although I overcooked the vegetables. It is so good to be part of the lives of my family.

The shipment of indigo fabric arrived at Riverlea Quilts and I visited yesterday. There was only one good match, so I bought what I needed and got to work while the Osso Bucco simmered, finishing it off today. It has been tricky.  I have been in touch with the designer, who has been generous with information about her design process. I think the tablecloth might trigger a discussion at WES next year. In the meantime, I'm delighted with the result.

Post 509 Lots happening this week

On Wednesday I came into my living room almost ready to leave for WES Group, to find my 18 year old grandson sitting at the dining room table absorbed in his laptop. Surprisingly, I didn’t get a fright, and took it in my stride. He had come to do his last University exam for the year, using my wifi. He had woken to find  Optus, his home Internet provider, had been down since 4am - across Australia! His laptop frequently connects to my wifi, which does not use Optus, so he rushed here, connected and was in the midst of his exam. Enterprising. The outage was major. Train services stopped in Melbourne,  Ambulance services lost connectivity, courts could not access documents, businesses could only deal in cash, students missed exams and internet-dependent health services went down - for somewhere between 12 and 14 hours. Full credit to Fionn for finding a solution - as he always has when the path runs out. What the country needs.

At WES Group, unaffected by the outage, we managed our presentation - Moroccan Textile  Magic, drawing on Keryn's several trips, her extensive knowledge and collection.  Again, the group was very engaged. It always takes me a while to follow up afterwards, sending out a summary and notes. It looks as if the Guild's new office manager will set the projector up for us in future, which will be a great help. Keryn touched on textiles to ward off the evil eye. She corresponds with an archeologist in The Netherlands who has the best  evil eye explanation I’ve encountered. I’ve been following up. A couple more books on the way - another rabbit hole!  I've also been wearing some of my Turbo smaragdus opercula (cat's eyes) which, it seems, are evil eye amulets.

On Thursday I had a fasting blood test, getting to the pathology clinic just after 8am. After Pilates I called at the Guild, went grocery shopping and set about organising the cards and bookmarks I've been having printed.  The container is 30cmx45cm, so I am not going to run out of greeting cards or bookmarks any time soon!  I ended up really tired.

More bookmarks arrived today. I’ve decide on a bookmark for each decade for Di’s birthday today. She’ll like that. 

I had planned to visit Gallery M on Friday, where the Handspinners and Weavers Guild has an exhibition of Braids, but  with the temperature forecast at 42C I decided to stay at home and sent my electricity bill soaring. I got a lot of WES Admin done - and read Return to Valetto by Dominic Smith, which I enjoyed. It reached C40.2 but I stayed cool.

On Saturday Fionn asked if I could mend a pair of his trousers that had split from the waist to the bottom of the back pocket. Because of the position, I could use the edge of the pocket as reinforcement - so a relatively unobtrusive mend. The pocket is still usable, though Fionn assured me he is 'not a back pocket man'. Pleased to be able to help.

While on the topic of trousers....

The promised photos of the travelling pants arrived this week, the first on the flight and the second in a resort. Hopefully, as well as being comfortable, they are lucky pants - keeping the wearer safe while travelling.

There's still a bit more scope for repair if they can't stand the strain.....

Yesterday I bought a copy of December’s The Australian Women's Weekly, the first issue, I think, I've bought in about 50 years. It has a six page article about Sophie's Legacy, the foundation set up by Garry and Kate Putland, whose daughter, a 33 year-old Vet, committed suicide in September 2020. I worked with Garry in the 1990s and am full of admiration, and sadness, for the work of Sophie's Legacy. It's a very good article, outlining what amounts to a crisis in the Vet industry, and the steps being taken to address it.

The hat I was knitting a week or so ago is now with its owner and the detail is in my embroidery blog. 

I've also finished and delivered the alpaca shawl. 

I had thought about holding the link over to next week, since this post is a bit crowded,  but I've put it off for a couple of weeks, so here it is.

I've begun knitting the Buggiflooer Beanie in the Jamieson and Smith wool. It demands concentration because every row is different, but  is looking good. I have undone quite a bit, but I'm using stitch markers between each 34 stitch repeat, so I haven't had to undo more than 33 stitches at a time!

Today I had my annual checkup with my GP. My kidney and sugar readings were OK but still in the keep-on-eye-on range. We discussed weight loss at length, agreeing to rule out injectables at the moment. We've settled on an approach, I've cancelled the appointment with the nutritionist and made another appointment with my GP in 11 weeks time.   I had gone to today's appointment, made months ago, prepared for a 7km dash to my Aquafit class afterwards, but with 8 minutes to make it across town and into the pool, reluctantly gave up. Instead I called at Wakefield Press to pick up a copy of their just-released Adelaide Art Scene. I'm a little disappointed that its 740 pages focus on movements and galleries rather than artists, but it certainly has a wealth of local information for future projects.

I was clearly premature in my fear the jacarandas would not deliver this year. Carrington Street is glorious. 

The lorikeets still prefer the native frangipani. 

More to do in the coming week - to look forward to and be grateful for.

Post 496 Food, Fibre, Family, Friends - and moonshine.

I missed the super full moon on 2 August. Rising at 4am to see it wasn't a priority. However, last Wednesday morning I woke with a start at 3am. Although my blind was drawn, the bedroom was very light, so I got up to investigate. 

It was a half-moon (not evident in the hastily taken photo) with a star above it. I don't know why it woke me up. I sleep pretty soundly and thought the least I could do was to take a photo.

I went back to bed and slept a couple more hours. The star, it turns out, was Jupiter.

I'm tempted to say it's a once in a blue moon event, but there is blue moon on 31 August which rises at 11.08 am, so that's unlikely to wake me up. It remains to be seen if the sky will be clear enough to see it.

Wednesday was our WES Group meeting, and Barbara shared her collection of tribal textiles from West Bengal and Gudjarat. It is a fabulous collection and was accompanied by an illustrated account of her several trips to the area, developing links to the producing communities. There were 13 of us there and there was a lot of interaction and engagement with the topic. 

I had to rush home to let the cleaners in. Fortunately fortnightly cleaning will not fall on the second Wednesday of the month again until December.

On Thursday morning I had my annual skin cancer check. The dermatologist I have seen for the last 25 years or more has retired so this was my first visit to the new, young, dermatologist she referred me to.  I don't enjoy these visits, but was very impressed with her manner and thoroughness.  She identified two growing moles on my back that need removing. I have an appointment for this in early September.

I went on to Pilates, grabbed a milkshake at the Queen St Cafe,  and then visited friends who had invited me for dinner. As always, we had a relaxed and refreshing time. I undertook to further mend the pants one of the friends bought in Indonesia a few years ago. He wears them to travel in - especially on planes. When the pants split (also several years ago) I offered to mend them, and have been continuing the tradition ever since. I enjoy the challenge and he enjoys the pants and the narrative. They are travelling again soon, and the pants had developed yet another tear.

I finished mending them on Saturday. The  detail  is in my stitching blog.

My granddaughters roll their eyes. Their idea of fashionable, respectable, or even acceptable, clothing, does not include orange pants, with or without patches.

Rowan magazine 73 arrived on Friday. It is a beach-focused issue with some inspiring patterns. I already have more projects than I can handle, but I do hope I can make some of these. 

 As if that weren't enough, yesterday this book arrived with another fine selection of things I would like to make.

Guess I just have to  keep on being highly selective or find the one or two people in my circle who get attracted to one or other of them.  

A friend living in England sent me a link to this article about favourite knitting projects. I don't think I could name one favourite project, but the enthusiasm these knitters express is familiar to me. It continues the discussion kicked off by the Kate Davies quote I used last week. In December the World Embroidery Study Group will be discussing knitting and I'm hoping we will explore this aspect.

It looks like the trainer who works in the Square has returned. Perhaps this signals Spring is on the way. This group was working at 8am on Sunday as I was preparing to go to my Book Club. The cafe we used to meet in has closed due to a major shopping centre renovation. We have been meeting in homes, waiting to see if it reopens, but that, alas, is not going to happen. On Sunday we tried a new place, called Foliage. It is a lovely venue, with plants and all sorts of interesting bits for sale. It got a trifle noisy at one point, but was pleasant and convenient so we will give it another go.     

From there I went on to Katherine's birthday bash, which she had at home. The food, catered by Jesse, was fabulous, disappeared quickly and seemed to be endlessly replenished.  Everyone was occupied, kids drawing, playing games, visiting the park, adults engaged in catching up with each other. It was good to catch up with quite a few friends I haven't seen for a while.

I prepared Monday night's moussaka on Saturday, which gave me a relatively leisured Monday, extending into the relaxed dinner. 

Perhaps a little less relaxed, I cut the steek on the alpaca shawl. The cutting went well. 

The next step, however, was to pick up a further 320 stitches around the two cut sides, giving me 772 stitches on which to work a 12 row border.  I knew that was coming, but hadn't registered that the pattern requires this to be repeated on the inside, as well as the outside, to form a double border joined by an i-cord. I'm on my way with the outside border - but am not yet committed to the double border. It is taking me 70 minutes to knit each row. I've done three rows.

I will record progress in my stitching blog - and hopefully report on the outcome next week.