I've finished making the lace for Krista's garter, and am busy joining it:
Heidi asked about the 'magic threads' - ordinarily I'd use either a fine crochet hook or a lazy susan to make the sewings in to join the 2 ends, but this time I'm using magic threads. When I started the lace I added loops of coloured thread looped through each pair of bobbin. Now I'm at the end, all I need to do for each sewing in is find the right magic thread (sometimes easier said than done), pass one bobbin through the loop, pull the magic thread and voila, the thread on the bobbin makes a loop through the start of the lace, ready to pass the other bobbin of the pair through, and then tie off. So no poking about with a crochet hook, which I'm dreadful at. I also tried to use magic thread to neatly sew the loose ends back through the lace, but found I'd not perfected my technique yet - so I gave up on them, and will have to use a needle and thread for that once I've got it off the pillow. This doesn't sound very clear at all... maybe I'll take some photos for an quick tutorial!
When I've needed a break from the lace, I've been working on Sunflower Charms - I'm about 1/2 way now, and am loving the wonderful summery colours. Shame the weather here hasn't been warm and sunny to match!
Today Margaret came to stay - we picked her up from Leeds station at lunchtime, and had a sandwich at a nearby cafe. After a short shopping spree, where I got a fabulous pair of trousers in the sale at Monsoon, and Margaret bought an AMAZING black jacket embroidered with cream chrysanthemums for a wedding we're going to in January, we headed back towards home - but carried on to Texere yarns in Bradford. I've been trying to get Margaret - who is a keen knitter - there for years. After much oooh-ing and aaah-ing, Margaret bought a pattern for a cardigan and some beige cotton yarn for herself, and Pam Allen's 'Scarf Style', some double knitting wool and knitting needles for me. Yup, I'm dabbling in knitting again.... I can knit, and made a wonderful cable knit jumper as a teenager... but I don't knit much now. A couple of years ago I made some dressy scarves using fancy wool, but it was all just plain knitting - and I wanted to try something fancier... having Margaret here meant I could ask questions when stuck.
So I'm knitting a scarf in feathers and fans (although just after taking this photo Margaret noticed I'd made a mistake, and missed out a row of knit. Hmmm, maybe I need to concentrate more :)
Food-wise, Sonia and Louise came over on Wednesday (allegedly also for lace making, but we didn't really do any) - we had green beans and potatoes, a lovely Greek dish; Thursday Sarah and Kat came over - we had chard paneer (our version of sag paneer, but with swiss chard, not spinach) and chana marsala (chickpea curry - our neighbour's recipe); tonight we had Moroccan chicken and Moroccan vegetable casserole. Best of all, each meal included some veggies from our garden.
Thanks for popping by, and happy stitching.
3 comments:
Wow you have been busy.
The lace looks very pretty but it still sounds very coplicated,m despite your assurances that it isn't.
Hope you manage to pack as much into your remaining days off as you have into the first few of your holiday.
You have been busy, it all looks great
That's a stunning piece of lace! It will be a beautiful garter.
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