Tomorrow we’ll be empty nesters again for a short while.

Joe/Frank heads off in the morning to Europe for a long awaited holiday. Exciting!

He will be mostly in the excellent hands of Joan and Ovi, so I will try not to worry too much.

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Items the neighbourhood ravens have dumped in the birdbath for future consumption:

+ a very large slice of toasted bread
+ an English muffin
+ potato chips
+ a large cooked crab

I have no idea why they do this. The food is always eventually eaten (either by the ravens or the other random birds that visit) – except the crab, which it flew elsewhere.

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In astonishing news, the mangoes I planted from seed in 2019/20 are flowering!

I’m impressed that they’re growing at all given the size of the pot several plants are crammed into. But they appear to be thriving.

I expect zero fruit, but this is quite exciting. I had no idea mango flowers looked like this – though of course probably hadn’t given a lot of thought to what they actually looked like.

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A couple of Fridays ago, I called in to the Sewing Basket and for a total of $15 scored a perfect pair of unopened vintage Semco aluminium 3mm needles, a small scroll frame, a piece of needlepoint fabric and …

This cross stitch kit for $5! It’s a cross stitch of this work. And appears to be merch from a Cluck Close exhibition at the MCA in 20014/15!

AMAZING! I haven’t seen anything like this before and can find no reference to it on the InformationSuperhighway.

The original aida was missing, but the threads and pattern were all included.

I don’t know why we would want a giant young Phillip Glass on my wall, but I’m very keen to give it a crack. I’m interested to see how the pixel-like blockiness of the pattern translates in cross stitch.

It calls for 11 count aida, which makes for quite big crosses. I was considering going even bigger with 6 count Aida – but that was prohibitively expensive for what is essentially an experiment.

I grabbed some aida from haberdashery-chain-store so I’ll be ready when it calls to me.

I also impulse bought an unrelated crafting tool at haberdashery-chain-store, but that is a story for another time.

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I’ve gotten into the habit (if twice counts as a habit) of taking a Hana Fukin Sashiko sampler with me on holidays to Thailand. They’re a great project for sitting by the beach / pool – no magnification other than reading glasses required, able to be completed in a holiday time-frame, and have very pleasing results.

Given that I was trying to be low-tech on our trip to Switzerland, I thought I’d take one along with me there too.

I had two samplers that I’d bought pre-pandemic and chose Diamond Ocean Waves. I really think the pattern looks much more like mountains – appropriate for where we were headed!

Started in Spiez

Continued in Grindelwald

And completed in Grindelwald on our last morning there.

I love how it looks (mountains!), but it was probably not as fun to stitch as the last two. There was quite a bit of stop-start – rather than rows of undulating lines.

It was lovely to sit around and stitch in in quiet times (and with that that view in the background!). I’m definitely planning to take some sort of low-key crafty project along on all future holidays. They evoke very pleasant and soothing holiday memories!

I have another sashiko project planned for our December trip, but this one might be somewhat more challenging!

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Rather than smashing together my daily post as I’m falling asleep, over the next little bit I’ll have a crack at catching you up my recent and future crafting!

I wrapped up knitting cassapinka’s the vibrance of strangers last month. I very much enjoyed the whole knitting process.

I knitted it with the extremely lovely Manos del Uruguay Alegría in the Carnaval colourway. This was the first time I’ve used a called-for yarn in a project. We generally don’t have a good variety of yarn available to us in the antipodes and honestly I’ve really not been able to justify the expense when it is available. This was way (way!) outside my comfort zone at AU$43.90 a ball!

One I’d completed the pattern I had quite a lot of yarn remaining, so I just kept knitting in pattern until I ran out.

I’m very happy with it! I love the colour, I love the pattern, I love the feel of the yarn – BUT – I really wish it was much larger. Compare the blocking photo with the action photo and you can see what I mean. I definitely have a stronger interest in making Bonkers Giant Shawls. Though perhaps not quite as bonkers as Stephen West Shawls**.

On with the pix …

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Blocking!

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Pretty!

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Action Shot!

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** foreshadowing

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winning at thread chicken!

I spent a good part of my day off today finishing up my minimal lace scarf!

I was tempted to get another ball of yarn so I could make it longer, but then sense won out when I realised I had no idea if it would actually block to shape.

I did very much enjoy knitting it.

I’m in a definite knitting phase right now, but perhaps time to mix up the crafts? I have a small backlog, which I’ll make efforts to catalogue!

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Maybe it really is a very tiny pinecone?

In this week’s adventures in physiotherapy, we learn that if we gently encourage our poking-out right ribs to lay flat, it will significantly reduce the pain on the left side of our neck. And will also allow for a much greater range of movement on the left side.

Bodies are weird.

After many, many weeks of this, I’m not feeling super-vibey. So having the rib-pressing available provides a little respite.

If you are a person who lives with chronic pain, please accept my extreme admiration and a giant gentle hug.

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Hopefully words will return eventually!

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More hazard reduction burns make for spectacular sunsets.

And very smoke hanging heavy over everything.

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