A, B, C, J --

I was going to shamelessly pinch an idea from Beyond Eden Rock and do an ABC of miscellanea, but found myself with multiple ideas for S (some of which I've redistributed to other letters -- !) and nothing at all for Z, M-N-O, not even for E.  And so rather than leave this post marooned in the Drafts folder while I flail about trying to think of what would work for D, I'll just go with what I've got ...

A = The “Anna Ohman” sampler continues to be a pleasure to work.  (I have since gone back and put in the missing dot on the downward stroke of the R in år, Swedish for "year," florid though it is.)

B = This week's “Bookshelf Traveling for Insane Times” is one of our living-room bookcases.  Most of the one on the right is science fiction and fantasy.  Dedicated shelf-readers might spot in the other case my set of Laura Ingalls Wilder companionably next to my set of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturins, and the Ransomes on the shelf below.  What you do not see is the Golden Lion, aka Hardy House, which has resided in front of these shelves on a pair of sawhorses for the past two years or so.  It was a bit of a wrench to even decide it was time to give it away, let alone do so, but I realized that not only was I not able to devote the time to fixing it up that it deserves, but that it was keeping me from even beginning the project that had got me started in miniatures in the first place.  Luckily for me, its departure was as gentle and sudden as its arrival three years ago.  So -- bless you, dear Lion, and fare well!

C = I asked David to put up some shelves in the closet in our front bedroom -- which we continue to call a bedroom though in the twenty-some years we've lived here has never had a bed in it, but is our family/catch-all room.  All three of our bedrooms still have the original 1929 built-in dressers, but we have added to the shelves that other owners have added, because, really, can you ever have too much storage space?  I had suggested merely a plank resting on the existing 2x4s attached to the walls on either side, and another across the top of the window frame, but David either didn't believe me or knows me too well when I said that there would still be enough light from the window, and so he decided this was a better idea.  Which it probably is, mind you, as I can put my boxes of embroidery floss (just about to perform a sort of meiosis into at least one more box) on the little shelves as the boxes are not heavy and will be quite easily reachable, with the much-larger shelf on top for heavier seasonal things.  I have also made the promise to weed things out as they go into the closet ...

J = I'm very much enjoying my re-read of the Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin series -- am on the fourth at the moment, The Mauritius Command.

    [Jack] sighed, smiled, and was about to seal when Stephen walked in, looking mean and pinched.  "Stephen," he said, "I have just written to Sophie.  Have you any message?"
    "Love, of course.  And compliments to Mrs. Williams [Jack's mother-in-law, a tartar]."
    "Lord," cried Jack, writing fast, "thank you for reminding me.  I have explained about Lady Clonfert [a fellow-officer's wife who has begged passage on Jack's new command]," he observed, as he closed the letter up.
    "Then I trust you kept your explanation short," said Stephen.  "Circumstantial details destroy a tale entirely.  The longer, the less credible."
    "I merely stated that she did not appear at the rendezvous, and passed on."
    "Nothing about three o'clock in the morning, the hocus-pocus at the inn, signals disregarded, the boat being made to row as though we were escaping from the Day of Judgement, and the lady ditched?" asked Stephen, with the unpleasant creaking noise that was his nearest approach to a laugh.
    "What a rattle you are, to be sure," said Jack.

L = Two lace samples from an 1849 lace collar pattern that I'm trying to figure out from the both complex and somewhat cryptic period instructions.  These are the two choices for edgings once the collar is knitted -- I did these in crochet cotton at a much-larger gauge, just to get it worked out before I started the real thing.  As it happened, I recognized both of them after a few repeats -- the bottom one is  a variation of the "Hearth and Home Lace" edging and the top one a variation of the "Clover Leaf Lace" found in Nancie Wiseman's Lace from the Attic, and probably numerous other Shetland edgings sources.  I started knitting the collar in no.80 tatting cotton on the smallest needles I have, but got interrupted enough times by Julia wanting another length of the cotton for her elaborate bobbin lace project that I decided it would be better to just give her the rest of the spool and start again with a fresh one! which I haven't got hold of yet.

Q = I had already heard, around the internet and from the local needlework shop owner, that if you work cross-stitch with overdyed thread, you should do it in the "English style" and not the "Danish," which is making each X before going on to the next, instead of a line of //// as long as necessary then returning to work the \\\\.  Why "English" and "Danish"?  I don't know! but the reason is that because, unlike in the days when unevenly-dyed thread was something to be disguised, now we celebrate it, and making all of the strokes in one direction then coming back to finish the Xs tends to even out the variations, whereas making the whole X at once keeps them prominent.  It seems that I have been working Danish-style all my life without knowing it (also "left-handed" with my right hand, though that's another story)!  Because I wasn't sure if I could go back and forth between the two methods without driving myself crazy, or if concentrating hard on making sure that I was keeping to one or the other would spoil my enjoyment of both projects, I decided that a bit of prudence was in order and I will set the “Quaker Virtues” aside -- but not very far -- for the much-smaller "Anna Ohman".

S = Yeah, I also needed a knitting project, because the gauges are small enough on the samplers that it's easier for me to work them without my glasses or contacts.  I can't watch television without my glasses, obviously, so having a knitting project means that I can watch the new season of the "Bake Off" or "The Good Place" while I knit! and save the samplers for the quiet hour after my usually-early breakfast, before anyone else gets up.  The S is for Savannah cashmere/nylon/superwash merino, wonderfully soft, which is on its way to becoming the “Copilot” cowl.

T = Skillet Turkey Chili from Smitten Kitchen -- impressively delicious for something so quick and so simple!

Comments

[juliet brown]

Your bookshelves have me twitching to climb into your photo so I can properly admire all the books - Laura Ingalls Wilder, I re-enacted much of little house in the woods, I adored her. The Ransome books, devoured them - we should have grown up as neighbours we could have had so much fun comparing book finds, on a very shallow note - the blue colour of the bookshelves is adorable

[Ellen]

I didn't know what the two cross stitch styles were called before, thanks for the tip. Though I suspect I would find using only English frustrating (depending on the pattern).