Thankful

Thankful for stitching. Thankful for you. Thankful for a sister who, when I said I didn't feel like cooking, ordered a precooked meal. Thankful for two nieces who love dinosaurs and want to be pirates. Thankful for my pooch. Thankful for the dude. Thankful.

Here's what I worked on last night, instead of preparing a huge dinner.

This is Liz Turner Diehl's 16th Century Knot Garden. It is stitched on a piece of evenweave with the kitted Madiera threads. I started in nearly ten years ago. And the last time I stitched on it was in 2012!?!? Can that be? I added the purple flowers and a bit of green (see the closeups).

Going to spend more time stitching thankfully.

Day 12

I went to see the retina specialist today. Fortunately, I have run-of-the-mill senile retinoschisis (tearing of the retina that comes with age). They're going to measure it again in six months, and then annually afterwards to make sure there's no worse damage. Even though it is called "senile" retinoschisis, I was the youngest person in the waiting room by like 40 years. And we piled up in there because the doctor was over an hour late this morning. He was kind of special. He said, I should only worry if I start seeing fireworks in that eye, "but at least you have a retina specialist now." I felt like saying, well, buster, you were an hour late and I have choices about where they poke and prod my eyeballs. (But I probably won't go somewhere else because they'd have to do the baseline all over again. And I did not like having my eyeballs prodded.)

While I was waiting, I was stitching. This old lady says to me, "Well, that's a good sign, you sitting here doing that." And she's right. I can see; I've got to keep it all in perspective. Later, after my eyes were dilated, and I couldn't see to stitch, I was reading the new JCS Ornament Issue (full report soon). She says to me, "you can find that stuff" in the little shop in her "home" where they sell dead people's things*. (She didn't actually say dead people. She said, "where they sell things after people " and she acted out dying.) Anyway, she continued, "you can get ornaments like that for twenty cents." My heart felt a little stab. She made sure to tell me they clean everything with Lysol so you're not getting their germs. I'm pretty sure that I'm not dying from what they're dying from for 50 years or so, you know? She kept going, "There's also Waterford and antique furniture...not just junk" she says waving her hand in the direction of my magazine. The old people certainly can turn a phrase...and one that makes you feel extra special for doing needlework. 

There were a couple of older nuns in too. The younger one asked if I was working on Hardanger fabric, and when I told her it was 35 count, she told me it didn't look that small. She said she had a basket of needlework in her closet. She thinks she'll start carrying it around. Really? I thought stitchers just automatically carried it around. Anyway, she had brought a book but wouldn't read while the older sister was sitting there even though she had encouraged it. They sat together in silence. Yeah, definitely bring the needlework next time, Sister.

Today's post is illustrated by Liz Turner Diehl's Sixteenth Century English Knot Garden, stitched on a random khaki evenweave with the Madeira threads and Glissen Gloss I bought in 19dickety2. There's a lot of confetti stitching in these outer borders...

*White Horse Village's "The Stall." Open Thursdays 9-1.

Gardens and Mermaids

 I finished the corner garden and made headway on the other three corners, but not so much as you need to see it.

I'm bringing out the troubled mermaid. Longtime readers will remember the tragic unstitching that had to be done with this one. I pulled her out last winter during the Olympics when I became a one at a time stitcher for two weeks. And then I didn't put her back into the rotation once. Let's see what I can manage.

Snow and Ice

This is a little message for Kelly: wonton in chili oil, dumplings in chili oil, scallion pancakes, Taiwanese sausage, beef and tripe in chili oil, chicken in chili oil, spicy crispy cucumber, cold sesame noodles, dan dan noodles, mung bean noodles, crispy chicken, Chinese cabbage, double cooked pork, beef kidneys, hot and sour fish, mapo tofu, eggplant in garlic sauce, beef with scallions, lamb with cumin, and six more dishes we can't remember. It was a great deal. And if you're looking to fill a table for ten, you've got two.

Anyway, that's also my excuse for the tiny bit of stitching I accomplished.


Today we had an icy start to the day. I had to walk the dog both times since the dude is home sick. And with the frozen slush on the sidewalks, it was a little like walking in sand. We're both exhausted.

I pulled out Liz Turner Diehl's English 16th C. Knot Garden. Apparently I haven't worked on it in over a year. There's a lot of confetti stitching here, so lower your expectations!

Knotty but Nice

Liz Turner Diehl's English 16th C. Knot Garden made the trip back to the old country. This one also seems to have been abandoned during 2009. I had only finished the center and the specialty stitch square back in 2008, the last time I worked on it.

Unfortunately, I seem to have left the color code at my BIL's--well, I seem to have lost it there. I hope they come across it. Of course, if you've seen the pattern for this there are pages and pages that describe every square of the outer garden--I may be able to work it out without the code.

Tied Up in Knots

It's good to know that I'm not the only one gaining weight watching my husband eat. Barbara reminded me of the dude's (eating) feat of strength. My dad and one of his friends took us to Morton's. (You know Morton's rep for giant portions, right?) The dude ordered the following: a bowl of black bean soup, a tomato and blue cheese salad (three huge slices of cheese and a giant beefsteak tomato), a 12 oz steak, a head of broccoli--no kidding a whole head--with cheese sauce, a baked Idaho potato, and a hot chocolate cake. He ate every bite, and my dad's friend, who'd never seen the dude eat, was amazed by every forkful.

Thanks for all your comments on the framing! It's so exciting to be finishing things to hang in my house instead of giving everything away.

I have finally finished ten hours on Liz Turner Diehl's 16th C. Knot Garden. Here's what it looked like before. Back in August when I started it. How is it that I get so sidetracked? And now it looks like this:

New Start: Knot Garden

Liz Turner Diehl
18th Century Knot Garden
khaki evenweave of some sort that was in the collection
prescribed Madiera threads (that I bought 13 years ago...)

This was one of the projects I decided to start this year. And now I have. I'm looking forward to stitching on this again because the next few rounds include specialty stitches (the center is all cross). The directions, however, leave much to be desired. Good thing I'm not an amateur.