Post 396

On Wednesday I had lunch at Mr Nick's again with Dawn and Jennifer. They are both thinking of joining the Guild, and since then, Jennifer, I know, has joined. I hope they get as much pleasure and learning from belonging as I do.

It has been a week of periods of rain and sun. The balcony plants have responded well.  

I got carried away with more Viking work before posting a summary of my efforts on my embroidery blog. I'm not entirely satisfied with my final choice of metallic thread. The exercise has made me consider the whole issue of historic reproduction or representation and the limitations of both. On Saturday I visited Create in Stitch and bought some silver Perle 5 to have another play. In the very least there is a lot to talk about in a workshop!

I was back at Pilates on Thursday, where the class was taken by Leanne and stretched me in a slightly different direction. In the late afternoon I sat on the western balcony, feeling good in my body and the sunshine until it got too hot and I moved inside. The Strata AGM for our apartments is coming up. I mistakenly thought it was last Thursday and had, after some issues with the software, voted online. I had my dates wrong and it's next Thursday. No harm done, I am at least ahead of myself, if not on the ball.

Friday would have been my father's 102nd birthday and I had a whim to gather and post some photos to Facebook. It's good to look back over photos and remember him in the numerous contexts of family that occasion photos. Some of my favourites though, are the ones of him caught in typical, ordinary poses.

I also started preparing my 2020-21 tax return, gathering and ordering the various documents and receipts for a visit to the accountant. I was about half way through when I left for Sit'nStitch. I finished the process on Saturday, and have emailed the accountant for an appointment. I'm pleased to have pushed myself to do this. It's much easier to keep on stitching! 

The process of getting organised encouraged me to keep going and finish the task of gathering my Conversations with Baby Boomer Teachers into a book. I had progressed this a few months ago, but left it at the proof-reading and adding the last chapter stage. I spent all Sunday working on it and spare minutes on Monday. I had originally intended to try creating a cover from a photo collage, so gathered a few possible photos together before deciding it wasn't going to work. I have come up with this fairly crude but simple effort. The photo is a of banner created as part of a Multicultural Community Art Work  by the girls during my principalship at Gepps Cross Girls' High with the help of a group of artists for an exhibition called Threading Our Lives. I thought it appropriate. I also have an offer to design a cover from a BB artist, but it will probably take some weeks. Comments are welcome.

While on an organisational roll I cleaned up my emails - either completed or deleted all those surveys, requests for feedback, articles I'd been saving and got it down to 20. So far I've managed to keep it there or below. Another little goal!

It rained on and off all week, but the plants still needed watering a couple of times. I watered before hanging out washing on Sunday and filled up the water bowl. My dove friend arrived on cue. He/she no longer waits for me to go inside before tucking in.

On Monday I cheated a little for dinner and bought two of Enzo's lasagna trays from Frewville, on chicken and one 'meat' - an interesting distinction! They went down well. Next time I might try spinach and feta.  To offset buying the ready-made lasagna I made another batch of Anzac biscuits. I also finished off this Sashiko napkin to place beneath some of the biscuits.

Late on Saturday I got a message from Ancestry. One of their recent additions is a service that packages data from individual family trees to show progression, or connections. The service had combined these four photos from my tree - me (a long time ago!), my mother Sylvia, her mother Nell and Nell's mother Kate. It gave me an idea that I spent most of Sunday playing with, before sending some experiments off to Officeworks for printing. 

There might be more news of the experiment if and when it works.

I had to stay in today until Chris arrived. He is a building inspector, engaged by our Strata to measure any issue of 'water ingress' since some residents have reported issues on their east facing windows. He was very pleasant, informative and interesting to watch. I had some issues a couple of years ago, but they appear to have been fixed by some flashing and capping work done on the roof. Chris's water meter says there is very little moisture in my walls - and that the building next door is now protecting my south wall from weather and moisture!  It's interactions with pleasant, expert people likeChris that really lift my spirits.

After he left I zipped out to the post office, then came home and finally ironed the alpaca shawl and wove in the yarn ends. The only way I could photograph it was by hanging it on the line. I wished I had ironed it earlier - I could have asked Chris, the building inspector, to hold it up for me!

It is lovely and soft, and toasty warm when wrapped around. I still have another of the Noro shawls to knit for myself, and I already have several shawls. One way or another it will find a good home.

Saturday was JEMS day. Niamh finished her Father's Day gift for Anthony and we enjoyed our milkshakes afterwards. I was delighted that mine didn't interrupt my downward weight trajectory. As of today, I have lost 9.4kg since 27 June - onward and downward!

Post 377 Mostly Knitting and Embroidery

My dove friends have paid several visits this week. They arrive as soon as I have watered the plants, refilled the water dish and put out seed. They are undeterred by the washing.Wednesday was a day for catching up on chores and progressing my knitting. In the evening I went to friends' place for dinner. It turned out to be quite a late night after lots of yarning - both the conversation kind and helping with winding a ball of the woollen kind.

On Thursday, after Pilates, I had arranged to have lunch with a neighbour from my  old house, near  the Pilates studio. We met at the Queen St Cafe. The Lime milkshakes are now featuring on the menu board. Obviously I had one. 

 

Friday's Sit'nStitch saw all three of us working with wool. Jennifer did some more on Sophie's World, Susan B advanced her complex blanket and I plugged away at the Entrelac.

 

Saturday was a Guild Certificate Course Workshop on Fabric layered with Barbara Mullan. I wasn't sure what would be included this time. I have done other workshops with Barbara that involved reverse applique and Kantha. 

It turned out to be focused on embroidery for quilting - applique, and 3 dimensional embellishment especially Suffolk puffs. 

The yellow cotton I had chosen for my top layer was not the best for the job, but I made the best of a bad choice. There were only three students at the workshop - very unusual. It looks as if most students expected the workshop to be on the last Saturday of the month - next week. It was good for the three of us who were there - we had a really good, productive time. There was lots of pinning and tacking.  

When I got home I kept working on it - lots of opportunity for bling.

I'm now quilting the background in the hope of reducing the impact of the yellow.

Great fun.

Saturday night was dinner at Katherine and Anthony's, another fine meal and both Katherine and I progressed our knitting. I was pushing to finish the Entrelac and continued to work on it on Sunday in between cooking. I wanted to get the lamb shanks, eggplant parmigiana and the jacket potatoes cooked in advance of Monday so I could get to Basics to Beyond at the Guild.I succeeded, finishing it around 11 pm and spreading it out on the floor.

bmade a mistake part way through. I had turned a corner incorrectly. Had I been using straight needles I'd have seen it, but Because I was using a circular needle only 40 cm long and the work was bunched I hadn't noticed.

I slept on it, and worked on several solutions. I had used all but about 12 metres of the yarn, so couldn't add in the missing squares. I considered inserting a single colour piece with the date and my initials but rejected it (with the help of Niamh and the B2B group).

At B2B I worked on designing another bag, using some Ink and Spindle linen and Australian cotton. Another good session. Fionn didn't make it to dinner at my place as he was sleeping and recovering from an infected injury. The lamb shanks worked well but the jacket potatoes were over cooked. 

I woke this morning to the sound of rain. It's a good week that begins with watering the garden and ends with no need to do so. I set out to Create in Stitch to pick up a tin of DMC variegated stranded cotton - advertised in their Saturday newsletter. 

I think some of the variegated thread will help to modify the yellow background of the piece above.

I also indulged in a copy of Yvette Stanton's latest book, and the extra thread I need for Christine Bishop's Stained Glass Window Pouch later in the year.  While out that way I visited the Needle Nook to see if they had any Cotton/Acrylic yarn that might make a suitable edge on the Entrelac rug. They didn't. 

I decided I wanted to try to solve the problem, so drove to the Port Road Spotlight which, according to my search, had several. None were suitable, so I drove out to the Yarn Trader where, after talking it over with the experts, I bought two balls of Sheepjes' Whirlette in greens. It's cotton and acrylic, but much finer than the rug yarn. Since getting home I have used the two threads together to pick up stitches on one edge and knitted a band, which I've turned under and stitched down on the wrong side. 

This will, I think, give me a neat edge and fit with the folded section of edge. I think it will work better than adding an external edge, given the difficulty of matching the yarn exactly.

I'm hoping to have the four edges finished in the next 24 hours. 

.My apologies to those of you who have no interest in stitching. It's been a very stitchy week. There has been a bit of progress on the family history hunt for information and I've read a bit. I've been a bit rushed writing this today.

I'll try to achieve a better balance next week.