Aesop Frame half-way point

I began the Aesop Mirror Frame in May 2021, with the wood pigeon,  in the top right hand corner, working left across the top then moving down the left hand side. It's a pleasant, meticulous all-consuming project.  

After the wood pigeon, 

came the squirrel  

and the pea hen before I put the project aside to work on some smaller, more pressing projects. 

I picked it up again in late March this year. After finishing a number of other projects I was ready for a longer project. I had started the woodpecker and finished that relatively quickly.

When I moved the hoop it was quickly evident that I should have taken the linen OUT of the hoop in the months it was idle! I can fix it by blocking - but a lesson nevertheless.

The next corner still went nicely into the hoop and I pressed on.

There will be a few touch-ups at the end but I'm very satisfied with this result. 

It brings me just beyond the half-way point and the end is in my sights. 

I moved into a 12" hoop for the next section, enabling me to fit the whole of the fox in (just). Although the tension is not as good as on an 8" hoop, it's much better to be able to see the whole figure.

I've embroidered the greenery and the frog. All set now to do the fox.

I hope to report soon on the last side and the finished product!

Metalwork Fox

Having finished the embroidery for the two projects at the Spring Retreat, I turned to the final project of my March visit to England, the metalwork fox. I chose to stick to the order in which we worked at Hampton Court, so  worked the passing thread around and around on the back of the fox, the up and down on the face. It took a bit of thinking to get the required circular effect on the back and fill in the bits that wouldn’t fit into the oval shape, but it wasn’t too hard. The face lift an alarming amount of plunging to be done!

The plunging was nothing, of course, to the ends that then needed to be secured on the back!

The chips were quite relaxing after that. Even the cut work proved to be ok. I took it along to a first Sunday Come and Stitch at the Guild and got quite a lot done.

I was pretty pleased with the result - but it is a simple, well designed project that doesn’t require great experience.

I had in mind to mount it on the lid of a small box that was advertised at Create in Stitch, however, when I got to the shop they had sold out, but were not, in any case, quite big enough. 

What they did have, however, was an oval glass paperweight. It was ALMOST the right size. It covers up a tiny bit of the purl  pearl along the bottom, but the reflection makes up for it. The other advantage is that, while not perfectly airtight, it does reduce the chance of tarnish.

The embroidery is stretched over an oval base that comes with the glass and would normally be secured down with a cork base with a peel-off sticky back. In this case the thickness of the embroidery meant that the cork base didn’t stick uniformly around the edge. After some hesitation I helped it out with a couple,of drops of superglue.

I’m delighted with this result. It stops papers blowing around on my table and looks great. 

Failynn Fox Cowl

Some months ago I bought a Velvet Acorn knitting pattern for a cute fox cowl. It is knitted in super bulky yarn - not something I have in my stash, so when knitting yarns began to appear in local advertising, I set out to buy enough to make cowls for my 5 year-old twin granddaughters. I settled on Shiver - very soft Moda acrylic - it was the thickest yarn I could find locally in foxy sorts of colours, soft, very washable and nice to feel. I figure they are more likely to wear an acrylic hood than a woollen one in our climate anyway.

These were a joy to knit. The base is knitted in the round, then the hood is knitted back and forth and joined at the top. the ears are knitted separately, one piece for each ear. I could manage to finish one a day if I had some time in the day and knitted in front of TV for an evening.

I decided to use up the left-over wool making an adult-size stripey one - without the ears. At the very least it will be a warm head cover for a homeless person.


I'm not sure how much practical use these will be in an Adelaide Winter, but the girls certainly think they are a lot of fun.