Thinking

I have been following Rachel's progress on her foot stool done in canvas work on her blog.  I used to do a lot of canvas work but got bored with it.  Now I think I would like to stitch a piece.  At the Embroiderers' Guild they have a huge selection of threads for this kind of work on the sale table, so I can get the thread cheap and I'm sure I must have some canvas in my stash.  Next step was what would I stitch?

I found a colouring book on-line from 1615.  It was originally written for glaziers and plasterers but I'm sure some of these patterns would work.  (These are the kind of things one finds on in the Internet Archive.)

There is a design index at the beginning setting out all the designs as thumbnails.

Then these are expanded to full page prints later and there are some interesting designs that could work.

It also has some recipes for mixing colours that come with the warning that these might be dangerous, still, it is interesting to read how it was done back then.

I intend to have a play around with these designs and see what I can come up with.

New Knitting Book

I can see a million new swatches on the horizon, well maybe not a million but lots.

My sister sent me a new book as a present.  "Book of Fair Isle knitting" by Alice Starmore.

I had mentioned that I wanted to learn how to do this method of knitting correctly and that it would be one of my goals for 2023.  I had knitted sweaters for my children with these patterns when they were children but I had just come up with my own methods, which I am sure wasn't right.  The jumpers looked quite good, but I know I didn't do it the right way and back then I didn't know of any books to look at, I knew nobody who could knit these patterns  and there wasn't any internet to Goggle it.

So I intend to start at page 1 and read every page and I will try to knit a swatch of every pattern.  There are a number of new techniques that I will have to master as well so I think that knitting swatches will be the way to go.  I'm looking forward to this new adventure and when I feel I am proficient enough I would like to knit this jacket.

Nothing like setting a high bar!

I hope I can rescue this

I ordered this book months ago and have been eagerly been awaiting it's arrival but when it was delivered the package was damaged.

When I looked at the back I could see that it was water damaged and still very damp.

We had a lot of rain two days ago and I would say this is when the damage happened.  It got all the way from the U.K. only to get wet here.  Such a shame and I am so disappointed.  I quickly separated all the pages so that they wouldn't  stick together and got it out into the sun and I am hopeful that I can dry it out but it will have permanent water marks I'm afraid.

The book is "White-work Embroidery" by Jennie Adin-Christie.

When I first met Jenny it was on her first trip to Australia and much of this book was in draft form held together with a bull dog clip.  Even then I could see that it was going to be something very special a bought a photocopy.  The actual book is far better than that copy and has so much more information  Although it is water damaged it is a wonderful book, full of techniques and patterns. Jenny is a master of this form of embroidery and has raised it to a new level.   I may have to buy another copy, cut her hand written salutation and greeting out of this damaged copy and attach it to the cover.

I'm not sure why I didn't find this book before!

Meet me at the Museum is a delightful book.

It is a series of correspondence between two people which is thoughtful and really 'sucks you in'.  The two are brought together by their shared interest in 'Tollund Man' who was found in Denmark.  It isn't a big book, only 288 pages but it is a delightful one.  Another interesting fact that this is the authors first book and she in 70 years old and she won a literary prize for it.

 

The early bird

I have turned into an 'early bird'.  I have to be up at 4:30am to get the 5am ferry so that I can be at my son's home before they have to leave for work at 6:45am and at the other end of the day I catch the 5pm ferry home again.  It is not as bad as it sounds.  In some places the traffic is terrible but for the most part the drive to and from is pleasant.  What is good is that my grand daughter is so much better in her own environment.  She makes a terrible mess here but at home everything is tidy and calm, including her bedroom. (I am really impressed with how she keeps her room.)  It makes a big difference to her learning. (My other grand daughter has a pet snake in her room so I stay out of there.)

There is only 6 weeks before the school term ends and my daughter has joined the teaching team and my son has rearrange his work to 4 days on 4 days off so I don't have to be there every day but I do have to come home and cook dinner.  I like cooking.  In fact I love cooking.  I try to make something different for every meal but I must admit that I have been re-making much of the same list of recipes.  Then I came upon recipetineats.com.

When I subscribed I was able to down load 3 recipe books for free, which I will work my way through and I want to buy the new book  'Dinner' that has been released here in Australia and other places overseas recently.

The woman that has put all this together is Nagi Maehashi who live in the northern beaches of Sydney.  We are such a multi cultural society that there is a huge range of recipes that come from many countries. Now I just have to get my husband to accept something different.

 

Knitting

After a month of searching for a pattern to knit a sweater for winter 2023 I have finally narrowed it down to two designs, both by Kate Davies.  I have a whole collection of her books but what I wanted wasn't in those.

I thought I had got "the one" but then she released another pattern that I like.  Now I have to decide which one I will knit.

I think that this is the No 1 contender.

But then she came up with this and I'm not sure.

I still have a month or so before I have to start but I think the first one would be less stressful as the pattern isn't so intense and I could put it down and still find my place.  But I do like that new pattern.

New Quilting Book

I put the link for this book into my bookmarks some time ago and forgot about it but I found it again and bought myself an Ebook copy.

Now I have lost the original link but it was an image of this quilt that got me interested.

I don't need any more quilts but I would like to explore something like this, hence the purchase of the book.  I have also signed up for the newsletters as there are some really interesting titles there.

She uses a lot of Kaffe Fassett fabrics, who's designs I love but the base cloth they are printed on leave a lot to be desired.  Still, it's all about colour so here goes.  I think that I will start with some of the cards.

THEN I READ that you need to have a group that should meet once a month.  Oh Dear!! But thinking about it I think I have some friends who could be part of this journey and you are only supposed to meet once a month.  That could be a Zoom Meeting!!  Now I just have to convince them that this would be a good idea and I need some lessons is setting up Zoom meetings.

I've done it again!

I would have to be one of the most uncoordinated people, physically, on the planet.  With the exception of my grand daughter Monique, who is even more uncoordinated then me!

Last week my husband sent our grand daughter off on the bike to deliver some magazines.  (He subscribes to the New Scientist and other magazines that he then passes on to others to read on the island.)  Off she went and the next thing we get a telephone call to say she had had a fall and is very distressed.  Let it be said that Grandma and Grandpa were very distressed as well.  She and her sister had been staying with us and we were due to catch the barge home in the next 20 minutes when the call came through.  We left the island with her complaining bitterly that her arm was hurting.

By the time we reached my son's new home, which isn't finished yet, I was in a bit of a state.  I was worried that she had really broken her arm.  I got out of the car, tripped on the curb, came down flat on my face, broke my nose and cut my face and now have a couple of black eyes as well.  To top it off it turned out that Monique had broken her wrist. 

So I am sitting around being still and quiet and reading books.  Luckily I had been to the library the day before and borrowed a few.

Not my Father's Son by Alan Cummings is the first one I read.

I read it at one sitting, it was so enjoyable.  One of the interesting things about it was that the author's 'voice' in the written word was so 'the same' as the voice that we hear when he is seen on TV.  A sad story of an abusive childhood, the loss of his grandfathers story and than finding his way in the world and re-discovering his grandfather and his taking back his own power again.  Through it all his sense of humour shines, even in the dark times. I now have determined that I have to read his next book "Baggage".

Not only is he a good actor but a very good author as well.  Makes me think that he would have been a great story teller if he hadn't choosen to be an actor, but then an actor is a story teller.

A little reference book

Here is a little embroidery reference book from the early 17th Century.  The reference says it would have been the working document of a professional seamstress.

So many stitches and patterns that we still use today.

Dyeing

"Slow Stitch" By Clair Wesley Smith, is a book I bought a number of years ago and reading it gave me one of those 'Ah Ha' moments when I linked her explanations to why I felt the way I did when stitching Kogin.

She writes an informative blog about her work which is always a good read and I have been watching some of her videos that she has posted on Vimeo.

 

I can see I will have to work my way through these.

An old book

I was looking for something else on my computer and found this book that I bought, some time ago.  (It is a digital copy)

They might be called little pillows but they are pin cushions to me and they are small projects that I can complete quickly.  I am having so little success with my knitting that I need something to boost my confidence.  So, pincushion Number 1.....

I bought the book on- line from Martingdales.