Here is the status as of this afternoon of the main projects I've got going. I usually wake up early most mornings, and so after breakfast I stitch for an hour or so on the miniature Kurdistan prayer rug, before I put in my contact lenses. I continue to find this an utter pleasure to work. The strange white diagonal lines are the traveling threads on the back!
Granny Sampler Afghan all stitched together -- at last, she said wearily -- and the border almost finished. Still have about two-thirds of the ends to weave in, though. Sigh. On the bright side, it was looking very, um, extemporaneous for a while, and looks much more cohesive now, so I'm quite pleased with it.
A loaf of Finnish rye bread, from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess -- amazingly easy, since there was almost no kneading, to my surprise. Even better that it tastes delicious and used 180g of the rye flour that's been lurking in my freezer for years. (I might have to buy more now, actually, this is so good.)
Swatching with the KnitPicks "Palette". I wrote here quite some time ago that I wanted to knit the Victory Jumper with it, and I still think the yarn would suit the pattern well, but I think what was bothering me at the back of my mind so much that I've left it for a full year was that it's just a bit itchy to want to wear against the skin. What I'm thinking now is something more like this lacy waistcoat/vest from DROPS ...
These faux tiles would obviously look a bit more "realistic" when attached more snugly -- I've started gluing them to a paper base, which is curling a bit when just propped up against the front façade of the tea-shop-to-be -- but I'm just not very happy with them, I'm afraid. I could live with the uneven surfaces, but the fraction-of-a-fraction difference in sizes is quite glaring at 1:12 scale. So it's on to plan B, but unfortunately I don't yet know what plan B is.
Still pretty happy with this. I'm really fascinated by Quaker samplers -- I think what pleases me most about this particular one (aside from the ligatures, of course) is the combination of complex motifs with serene colors. I've made a few tweaks of the chart here and there, and haven't yet filled in the empty spaces with their smaller motifs.
Tomato seedlings, hardening off the last few days before getting planted. Some of the seeds didn't sprout along with their brethren, and so I put another seed in those pots -- then lo, up came the first one! and now some of the pots have two seedlings. With limited space in my two new raised beds, I had ordered seeds of two heirloom dwarf varieties, and then the seed company sent a third packet "similar to my selections" free, so I have eight little pots altogether, the purple cherry tomato "Dwarf Velvet Night" and the bicolor beefsteak "Dwarf Beauty King," plus "Dwarf Sleeping Lady". (I think I wrote "Sleeping Beauty" on the stick!)
The arroyo lupines and the lacy phacelia in our front garden are looking a bit decrepit now, since being the first ones to appear they have been setting seed for some weeks, but the mountain garlands are in full glory at the moment -- I think they are what I was most looking forward to, so it's lovely to gaze across the field of them (stopping before one's eye gets to the line of cars perpetually resident along both sides of the street these lock-down days, as so few of our neighbors are going anywhere at all). Though this photo doesn't really convey the delicious colors (nor the hum of the delighted and slightly drunken bees), I've left the photo full-size, so you can get the full effect! The shrubs that I can still find (!) are all doing well, and the little California wild rose has buds on it, hurray!
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