A little stitching

I've been very busy at work lately and not stitching much. I've gotten in a bit of work on the Sudoku project and am nearly half-way done. The small squares work well with my limited time, but they're like popcorn. I can't do just one! I like some squares a lot and others not-so-much, but it's fun to play.

I also finished another Dalek egg cosy. I'm nearly done with a fourth, thanks to our weekly knit/crochet group at work.

This is me and my sweetie at a car collection tour this weekend. These short jaunts are fun and I have friends in the group that I'm always happy to visit with. The cars are usually old and/or rare and generally polished up and shiny. This tour also had a large collection of animated and neon clocks.

At long last--Crewel Friday

I'm feeling back on track, now. I finished all of the stems and I'm done with the brownish green used for the hills and main stem. I didn't much like the block shading on the main stem. Having done it now, I know how I'd improve in doing it again, but it won't be on my favorite's list. I think to be most effective it needs to be very, very regular and square and I'm not a regular and square kind of person.

It was a great relief to get back to chain stitch, outline stitch, feather stitch. I've accomplished a lot and feel like I'm skiing downhill now. The leaf on the lower left is about half way complete and then there's just the leaf on the lower right.

A finish and progress!

The broiderie perse ring bearer pillow was in a time out for a couple of weeks while I decided exactly how to finish it. Once I got it straight in my head, it went together in an evening.I added a purchased woven piping around three sides to help hold the shape and stabilize it.

I stitched it by hand so it's reversible to make it into a larger sofa pillow later on. The front is above, with a ribbon to hold the rings.  The back is below with a "tail" for the ringbearer to hold on to.

I got some knitting time in early on Saturday and finished the first lace pattern on the shawl. It's still small enough to see.

I stretched it out a bit here to show the pattern. On the last row I knit, I doubled the stitches on the needles. The second lace pattern is much larger, with more repeats.  I put in a new "lifeline."

I'm getting somewhat used to this horrid new Blogger. I'm using Firefox now to work in. It's worse than the first version of Blogger I used years ago; it keeps adding formatting and spacing I don't want. If I work in HTML, I can manage it for now, but I'm annoyed I have to.  I don't have time now to look into other blogging platforms, though, so I'm glad I figured it our somewhat.

Costumes and Lace

Last weekend we went to see Mirror, Mirror. The movie was good but what had me entranced were the costumes.

  

We noted at the end that the costume designer who had done such a wonderful job had died and the movie was dedicated to her.

Lace. Lace was everywhere. Huge lace collars, like in Elizabethan portraits, only these actually looked wearable.

I think it's nearing the end of it's run but if you want to see some glorious costumes and loads of lace, go see Mirror, Mirror.

Westminster Abbey high altar mosaic

When I visited London last spring, the cosmati mosaics at the high altar at Westminster Abbey were being painstakingly refurbished for the upcoming wedding of Kate and William. It was wonderful to be able to just stand their and take them in. The designs were intriguing and I would loved to have taken dozens of pictures, but no photography was allowed. I wished I could walk onto them and see them in more detail, especially those in the back, or have a bird’s eye view of the whole thing. But what I saw was wonderful and I looked as much as I could so I’d remember.

Upon my return I looked for information on the mosaics. Westminster Abbey's site has some information, here, here and here. Plus, I found two books had been written on them. One is in our library and I’ll take it out eventually. I ordered the other Patterns of Thought: The Hidden meaning of the Great Pavement of Westminster Abbey by Richard Foster through Interlibrary Loan.

I’ve just begun reading and realized some of what caught my eye: “Whereas mosaic designs are made up of tesserae all of the same size and same, roughly square, shape, cosmati designs are composed of stones of different sizes cut to particular shapes to fit the pattern, rather like patchwork.” (p.2)

I’ve also already learned what “cosmati” means: it is a name derived from Cosmatus, the paternal name of one of the leading families of these Italian craftsmen. (also p. 2)It would have been brilliant when new.

I've also learned from reading that there is a Latin inscription on the floor that refers the the end of the world and perhaps describes the cosmos. There is so much cool stuff to learn!

Blog

Sad to say, this blog may go away. The new Blogger format will not work with my browser and since I use an office computer after hours for this, I don't have choice in that. The new interface is all focused on stats and ads and I'm not interested in either.  I'll give it a week or so to see how I feel and figure out the browser thing.  I know that I always absolutely hate every new change (and why do they have to keep changing it all, anyway?) and I ultimately get used to it (but almost never think it's an improvement).

Dealling with Blogger's nonsense has kept me from posting for the last few days.  Well, that and work. Work is taking all of my time and energy right now. I'm not stitching, reading or much of anything.

Last weekend I did begin my first lace shawl. It begins at the back of the neck and then expands out into a semicircle of lace. This bit is about 6" across--tiny yet. Once it get much larger it will become bunched up on the needles and just look like a tangle of yarn.  As I was knitting this, I realized what a leap of faith it is. You have no idea what it will look like until it's done and blocked. You just have to trust the pattern and your skill. 

The little back rings are markers for the pattern repeats. I'm going to need a lot more of them before I'm done.

The thin white line through the knitting by the needles is a "life line."  It's a line of thread stitched through the stitches on a row where I know it's correct. This way if I make a mistake in the next few rows, I only have to rip back to this point and my stitches will be held by the line for me to try again.  I'm going to be using a lot more of them, too. 

Silk

I finally took the time and pulled the silks from the grab bag I bought and pressed them.

They are from the  Laura Murray Designs booth.

Some are reversible like my scarf (above and below--I've folded over an edge to show both sides)

One below is embroidered with metallic threads.

Not sure what I'll be doing with them. That's okay.

For Easter dinner my sister decorated each plate with a Pink Peep.  It brightened up the table (and the spirits of those of use who like Peeps!) . We had a nice day with family and friends. My sister is the best hostess--she makes it all look so easy!