Saturday 15 June 2019

Is it time to build an ark?

They were calling it 'monsoon June' in the papers this week because it just wouldn't stop raining.  Earlier in the week we had a strong wind storm overnight along with rain, and the next morning the garden was all smashed flat:  the foxgloves were snapped off or sprawling, delphiniums fallen over, alliums snapped or drooping, rose flowers shattered into petals and one rose bush just sprawling flat on the lawn - obviously my staking and plant supports had not been at all sufficient so I've had to go out in the rain and try to prop things up again.


But this plant support for the drooping rose bush has arrived, so once things dry out a bit I will see if I can fit it over the rose bush after the fact. Obviously it would have been much better to have this from the beginning so the rose could grow through it. It seems decent quality even though it was one of the cheaper ones I found online, and it will gradually rust which will look nice.


The wet environment is not helping our wall and ceiling to dry out.  The worst bits are staying stubbornly around 18% damp readings (compared to 3% on the dry walls).  But the repair job on the original leak seems to have worked so that's good.  As Daisy pointed out in the comments, at least the leak didn't happen while we were in Japan.

The trains were better behaved this week so Monday night I had time to cut out the pieces for my final applique block and start stitching it over this week.  This one features three hexagonal flowers (hollyhocks?) growing from a pot.


I've done some more rows on the granny square afghan this week.  The rows are getting longer so each one is taking more time to complete.  I like the colour scheme, which is outlined in the pattern so you know which colour to use for each row.


I'm just finishing off the little finger on my red and white Sanquhar glove.  I pulled it out at work for our little monthly craft club (30 minutes in the middle of the day) and completely boggled the other ladies who either don't knit or don't knit with double pointed needles.  It was because I had left the main body of the glove on two long needles (basically using them as stitch holders) while I knit the little finger first with four short glove needles, so the whole affair looked a bit pincushion-y.  I hadn't really thought about it apart from feeling too lazy to put all the stitches on waste yarn when I am going to need them again immediately after knitting the little finger, because you are only ever knitting with two needles at a time. Once I get to the main four-finger part, then I will put all the stitches on waste yarn as I will only be knitting small groups of stitches at a time.

I'm trying to design a fair isle cushion cover featuring bobbin lace motifs, which will serve the dual purpose of being my entry for the machine knitting club's cushion competition, and give me something to sit on at Lace Days.  I used an Excel grid to design a 24-stitch machine punchcard, and I did make the squares taller than they were wide, but the first knit test has revealed that everything looks a bit compressed and squat so I've got to do some tinkering.

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