Who thought about punctuation having much emotional content – except for maybe the exclamation point (I’ve had kids say they want a “sadlamation” mark) but the period?
Well read about how the period has taken on emotional significance…
Kinda made me stop and think.
The Phalaenopsis in my bedroom finally dropped it’s flowers last week – I love having these plants around because the blooms last 4-5 months and require little care aside from a drop of water each week. The orchids in my local superstore were on sale so I picked up a new one:
The soft mottling on the large petals and sepals offered a nice contrast to the deep red labellum – and the fact that there are still a lot of blooms to come out. This plant will provide me pleasure for the next 5 months, for sure.
I finished these socks from the Opal Yarn – Van Gogh Collection – a couple of weeks ago and took them to my sister in Toronto as a birthday gift. I forgot to take a picture! She sent me this photo of the socks this morning so I could post it. I love these yarns – they knit up easily – the pattern changing all the time so it never gets boring.
One of the fabrics I bought in Portland in June was a purple/grey plaid wool worsted that Pendleton uses to make lovely shirts. Then two weeks ago I made a trip to Petite Riviere, near Lunenburg, to visit the rug hooking shop to see if Jane might have some wool fabric to go with my Pendleton plaid. Hers is the only shop in NS (that I know of ) that sells wool fabrics. She uses them for rug hooking and she has a lovely selection. Last year I bought a gorgeous cherry red wool which I haven’t used yet but I think I might do another winter shirt with it. Anyway, she had a piece of large plaid that complemented the Pendleton fabric so I bought enough for a yoke and cuffs.
This has been one of those sewing projects that was a battle from the get go. First of all I had to match the plaids! Then when I started construction I discovered that the fronts were too narrow – no idea how that happened (I’ve used the pattern before and it worked out fine, but not this time). So I added strips to the front center edge (working them into the placket and the button edge), next I had to redo the collar/collar stand in order to get the two parts to go together, the burrito on the neck edge (joining the collar stand and the shirt) took three tries! Then the sleeve plackets done in the worsted turned out to be too heavy to form the fold at the top of the sleeve opening. In the end I used some silk dupioni (in a steel grey colour) which did work. Fortunately, the cuffs went on without a hitch. The buttonholes also went in first try, but I did have to resew a couple of the buttons to get the placement right so the plaid would match across the front.
The shirt is now done, it hangs well, and I’m pleased with how it turned out. I initially had pockets in the large plaid, but changed them for the main fabric – I would have had two headlights over my breasts!
Just the yoke and cuffs – that was enough contrast.
My Christmas cactus is in full bloom! This plant is a daughter of my original cactus which got too big and woody to keep any longer. It’s too bad the blooms last such a short while – in another ten days they’ll all be gone.
jmn 