Wednesday, April 17, 2024

I’m making excellent progress on my grad gift, as I should be after several days of non-stop working on it. I’m at the border stage now and we’ve decided to have the project framed in Calgary so that will buy me at least a couple of extra weeks for stitching.

I was worried about the border design and was very disappointed when the stitching didn’t match the pattern at the first corner. I had sorted out how I was going to amend the pattern when I noticed I had made a small error just a few rows back. It was relatively easy to take those stitches out (I’d had a lot of practice in reverse stitching over the last few days). I was very happy when, after fixing my mistake, the first corner matched up perfectly to what the pattern showed.

I had my hair trimmed today. Pat had a meeting so he dropped me off at the salon and I walked home. I’m still using my friend’s cane; it helps a lot on the stairs but whenever I’ve used it for a longer walk my wrist is very sore. I have problems with my wrists all the time – I can’t knead bread, crocheting and knitting bother them, as does walking with my poles. It leaves me wondering if it is better to have a sore knee or sore wrists.

I made it back to my sewing room today. I mailed out my last April card on Monday so it was time to get busy on my May cards. I made a start on one last week but when I came to the point where I had to do some reverse stitching I quit. I’ve fixed that particular problem today and have that card finished. I’ve made a start on a second card and now that I know what I’m doing I think they will move along quite quickly.

Saturday, April 13, 2024

We went out to a concert south of town last night – Nathan Tinkham and Saskia Delaronde. Nathan is a good friend of Pat’s and he’s stayed with us a couple of times for various shows over the years. The hall is just a tad bit smaller than Cranberry Hall but, again, is one of the older ones in the area. It was a good mix of their individual talents and there were even a few people I knew in the crowd.

I’m getting used to my new walking aid – a cane. After I asked, the doctor (as did Audrey) recommended using a cane. Our friend Geoff brought his over for me to try out and I’ve been using it, when I remember, for a couple of days. It really helps going up and down stairs but at most other times it seems awkward to use it. You can’t really carry much in just one hand and I like to have a handful of things when I’m going anywhere. I’ll go out tomorrow to see if I can find a cane of my own.

I am able to do my stitching while we watch TV and I’m taking advantage of that today. I started with curling this morning. We switched back and forth to golf during commercial breaks and then we stuck more with golf as no Canadian teams were playing. We switched back to steady golf when curling was over until it was time to move to the ball game. When ball was over golf was still very much in progress. We’ll be waiting for the hockey game to start after supper. I normally wouldn’t watch golf but I’m enjoying it. I thought I might pick up a few pointers for my mini golf putting skills but so many times the professionals are overshooting the hole or just missing it – much as in my own game!

I’m making some progress on my stitching but there are still quite a few patterns that I want to take out and redo. The mistakes have been corrected but some of the colours don’t show up as well as they should so those are coming out now. I’m still hopeful I’ll have time to get the border done but I want the centre finished first so there will be something finished come graduation day.