GimletBlog

March’s wallpaper is now available for download on Solitary Elegance.  These two opera dresses, dating from 1809 (on the right) and 1811 (on the left), seem to be sizing each other up!

I like to share the descriptions of the fashions when I have them, and luckily there is a wealth of information available for March:  not only are both gowns’ descriptions available this month, but I’m also able to include a complete General Observations article and a description of gentlemen’s fashions for March 1809.  Anybody interested in the minute details of gentlemen’s dress from this era will learn plenty about the fashionable cuff lengths, number and types of buttons, and much more.  The General Observations article provides all the colors and fabrics a well-dressed lady would have worn.

A little trivia:  the floral background on this month’s wallpaper is derived from an embroidery pattern featured in an 1813 edition of Ackermann’s Repository.

(With apologies to James Whitcomb Riley and Au Ver à Soie)

After finishing the Hardanger centerpieces for Christmas gifts, I vowed that the next Hardanger piece I stitched would be (1) small, and (2) for me.  One out of two isn’t bad.

Early January  I had an idea to give a doily as a gift.  Surely a doily would be quicker and easier than a full size centerpiece, right? (Answer:  Not if I can figure out a way to complicate it.)  The interlocking diagonal box design was similar to the Vesterheim centerpiece, and the Maltese crosses were on my must-learn list of basic Hardanger stitches.  I’ve been wanting to learn how to stitch the beautiful edelweiss motifs found in the center of each block as well.

The pattern for this doily can be found in the 1997 Hardanger special issue of Diana Craft Journal.  The chart suggests stitching it on Bellana (20 count) fabric, but I wanted a smaller doily so I used 32 count Belfast linen instead.  The 32 count version measures about 9″ (22.5 cm) square or 11″ (27.5 cm) if measured on the diagonal.

After settling on a piece of Cameo Rose linen, I decided the doily would be especially pretty if it were stitched with silk rather than the usual perle cotton. (Complication #1.)  I used Trebizond long filament silk to stitch the kloster blocks and blanket stitches, and Soie Gobelins (another long filament silk made by Au Ver à Soie) for the eyelets and open work.  It seems like long filament silk finds every tiny dry or rough spot on the fingers and snags, but the final results are fabulous:  the stitches have a gorgeous sheen that can’t be duplicated by other fibers.  The fine Soie Gobelins is especially suited to this doily’s open work, because the stitches on 32 count linen are so small.  (Complication #2.)

Here is a set of photos showing the doily in progress.  I always like to watch a piece of Hardanger take shape; each step is so simple but as each is added, the project comes together and becomes a work of art.  The doily was completed in one month’s time; the kloster blocks and Maltese crosses took the longest to stitch at about a week each.  Each edelweiss was about 20-30 minutes of stitching time (which some might label Complication #3), but since there were only eight, I was able to complete all of them over two days.

This doily was a lot of fun to stitch (snags aside, I love working with silk) and I think it turned out beautifully.  My not-so-local local needlework shop owner, who guided me through all the different silk options,  couldn’t believe it was meant as a gift; when I brought it in to show off she said, “You’ll make another one for yourself, won’t you?”  Absolutely … isn’t that what I promised last time?

(The three dozen red roses in the photos are courtesy of The Gimlet, who knows a good Valentine’s Day tradition when he sees it.)

At 6:00 am on Friday I met up with the other scouts (The Gimlet did not go), and we drove to Paradise, Mount Rainier. The snow is 6-10 feet high now, and after a while, we got there. We hiked a quarter mile up to the place we were going to, and we started on our snow caves.

There were many different kinds of snow caves. My group built a Quincy, where you pile up snow while digging a hole, dig it out on the inside, and put that snow on top. Another group built a double snow cave. There was one door, and there were two  snow caves coming off of that. There also were other groups and their snow caves. Under the top snow, there was a layer of ice, and that was hard to get through. One group abandoned their snow cave because the ice was too hard, and most of the shovels got damaged slightly.

During breaks, we sledded a little, and I sledded down one hill, and I stopped near the end of it. Suddenly, three other guys stopped me because there was a big storm drain in front of me. Later, another scout troop came and camped on a hill close by. When they were sledding, we told them to stop because of the hole. We think they got the message. Not that many people sledded down there again. At nighttime, it was very cold, and an adult leader said it was less than 20°F. The roof in our snow cave was low, three other people were in that cave, but we slept well.

Saturday morning people noticed there were some parts of my face sunburned and some not. Apparently I put on sunscreen unevenly. After breakfast, we cleaned out our snow caves of all our stuff, and smashed them! The spots where leaders thought it would be weak in our snow cave were not weak at all! Before destroying the cave, we took a picture of the scouts all standing on top including some leaders! We actually could have made our roof much taller, based on how long it took to cave it in.

After all the snowcaves were destroyed, everybody went sledding.   After going down the hill a few times, I made movies of people sledding and catching air at the bump on the hill.   After that, we hiked back to the parking lot, and had McDonald’s for lunch (which is getting to be a tradition with snow camps). After camp food, fast food tastes especially good. One scout ate 5 Big Macs! After getting home at about 4:00 PM, my mom took a picture of me with the sunburned spots, and I started to write this article!

Thing One’s sledding videos (all in Quick Time format):

• Assistant Scoutmaster (4.4 MB)
• Another Assistant Scoutmaster (1.3 MB)
• Two scouts on one sled (5.4 MB)
• One scout (3 MB)

ETA 23 February: Check out Another Assistant Scoutmaster’s photo and video gallery!

Last spring (May to be exact) I began working on a scene from Edward Lear’s The Owl and the Pussycat, as a gift for Thing Two, who loves the poem.   Soon, though, several other bright and shiny projects like my niece’s band sampler and Hardanger Christmas presents distracted me from this one.  It also didn’t help that I had stitched all the interesting parts, leaving only the moon to do:  a vast expanse of white, and not nearly as exciting as … well, pretty much anything else I could find.  Before I knew it, Owl & Pussycat had become a UFO, a WIP, whatever you call those long-neglected projects.  (I prefer WIP (work-in-progress) because I really, really want to believe I’ll finish them some day.)

So I’m delighted to report that I finished Owl & Pussycat this weekend!  Thing Two is thrilled, too:  he watched intently as the last few French knots were stitched and was reluctant to let it go for photos before settling into its place of honor in his room.

Even though it took so long to get around to completing, I still like this scene quite a bit.  The color scheme is delightful and the characters are cute.  The night sky is all half cross stitches, so it’s not as difficult as it might appear; that section was completed much more quickly than the moon.  The backstitched characters and boat, set against half cross stitches and pale moon and sea colors create almost a three-dimensional look.  I added Kreinik pearl blending filament to the stars to make them sparkle; they also “pop” out a little more from the night sky.   Last year when I began this project, I was worried about all the back stitching, but after completing the chickadee tablecloth for Christmas, this back stitching was a breeze by comparison; I finished it in no time.

The design is by Sue Cook and can be found in Cross Stitch Collection, issue 128.  I bought my issue from eBay, and have seen a few offered since then, so it isn’t too difficult to find.   Owl & Pussycat is one of a four-part series of nursery rhyme charts by Sue Cook, all of which display the same vibrant colors and charm, and would be great additions to a nursery or to a fan of nursery rhymes.

While I’m showing off, how do you like these owl and pussycat stitching accessories?  The pussycat pincushion (which the Gimlet calls “Voodoo Kitty” for reasons best known to himself) was a Christmas gift from a local farmer’s market.  Its stuffing includes lavender, so it smells wonderful.  The owl and mouse tape measure (featured in the September/October 2008 issue of Victoria magazine) is carved out of cow bone with an amazing amount of detail — the feathers and talons are especially intricate.

We’ve seen sharp-shinned hawks around the city in the past, but our first up-close encounter occurred a few weeks ago, when I opened the front door and was startled to see one perched in the camellia shrub just a few feet away.   The behavior of this little raptor (at 9-13″, just smaller than a crow) is described in Birds of the Puget Sound Region as follows:

Feeds almost exclusively on birds, often near bird feeders.  Bursts forth from hidden perch to surprise prey in low, rapid flight.

Who says field guides can’t be thrilling reading?

Those of us who watch nature shows have a pretty good idea what’s coming next, but for everybody else, cue ominous music …

This morning I saw the hawk standing in the front yard.  Hmm; odd to see it out in the open like that …  A closer look revealed that it had successfully obtained some breakfast from our bird feeders.  Judging from the bill and feathers, today’s early bird special was most likely a dark-eyed junco.  The full-size photo is probably not for the squeamish.

Meanwhile, indoors our mighty hunter Nanaimo, growling triumphantly, trotted around the house with Thing One’s new coonskin cap firmly in his jaws.

Days like these make us thankful for opposable thumbs and a high brain to body mass ratio.

Our summer just got more exciting:  The Gimlet has been invited by our local scout council to attend a conference at the Philmont Training Center near Cimarron, New Mexico.  Invitations are limited to the top volunteers from around the country, so The Gimlet is honored that the scout council has offered him this opportunity.  As he attended Philmont as a scout Back In The Day, he is also delighted that Thing One will be able to participate in a very unique and memorable scouting experience.

During the week-long conference, Team Gimlet will be busy:  Thing Two can attend a preschool program which includes pony rides; Thing One will be eligible to take a 20-30 mile backpacking expedition through Philmont’s backcountry (with rock climbing, gold-panning, and other activities along the way); and Your Humble Narrator is looking forward to taking in the history, art, and culture of the Southwest, as well as day hikes and horse rides.

We’ll be driving to Philmont, so it’s time to dust off our National Park Passport and visit the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Arches and Zion National Parks in Utah, and any other monuments or parks we happen to drive past (there are quite a few!).  This vacation will test our tolerance for touring large holes in the ground, plus this is the first long driving trip we’ve taken since our Yellowstone expedition, pre-Thing Two.  Souvenir pennies will be squished, sunscreen will be slathered, and hopefully we’ll all be on speaking terms by the end of our desert odyssey.  Look for trip blogging or a wrapup report in July!

Editor’s Note: Thing One recently returned from a four-day musical retreat with his school’s senior orchestra held at the Icicle Creek Music Center near Leavenworth, Washington.

Last Thursday the senior orchestra went to Icicle Creek, and they have for more than 5 years, and I came this year. Icicle Creek Music Center is near the German themed town Leavenworth. The snow there is not too powdery or icy, and there is a great view of the mountains.

After unpacking, we went to the main building and played the music we have been practicing: the 3rd movement of the 3rd Bach Brandenburg concerto, the last movement of the Tchaikovsky serenade, and also the Divertimento by Bela Bartok. After rehearsing music and doing sectionals on the music, we went to our cabins, and went to sleep. The next day, we practiced music again, and watched the James Bond movie “From Russia With Love”.

On the third day, Saturday, after playing music (again), we went into Leavenworth and came to a block of German stores. The stores had things like candy (not just German candy), hats (like my coonskin cap), and funny t-shirts. They also had Cuckoo clocks (which all were over $100.00 unfortunately), little statues of gnomes and bears and birds (Oh My!) and of course, Leavenworth magnets. After about an hour of shopping at the stores, the entire orchestra went to a German restaurant, where they had spaghetti and meatballs, and also a band playing German songs, which people (including me) danced to. After that, we went back to our cabins. It was someone in our cabin’s birthday at midnight, so in our cabin (curfew was 10:00) we celebrated with the candy we bought in Leavenworth.

There were awards, too:  I won the prize for best hat with my new coonskin cap.  Icicle Creek was a fun experience, and we also got a lot of work on the pieces done.

February’s wallpaper is now available on Solitary Elegance!  A few people have asked about a widescreen version of the wallpaper, so I’ve added a 1280 x 800 pixel option to the available sizes.

Aren’t these ladies fun?  Miss 1809 (on the left) is labeled a “Dancing Dress” instead of the usual Ball Dress found on other fashion plates, and she certainly is getting into the spirit of the evening.  The plate on the right is a “Walking Dress or Carriage Costume” (how versatile!) from February 1811.  Both models’ poses are so lively in their own way, and  I love the rich gold color of the 1811 plate — still vivid after 200 years.