I apologize for the lack of posting yesterday; I had the worst day I've had in a long time, and driving, typing, and even doing laundry was pretty much out of the question.  I spent most of the day lying on the sofa with a book propped up on pillows, because holding it was too uncomfortable.

Today is much better, thank you.  No need for sympathy comments; I know you feel my pain.  Unfortunately, some of you a little too literally. 

So I will distract you with Plimoth pictures - and commentary:


The first day started with learning to wrap worms - they're done in ceylon stitch GST (gilt silk twist; and I didn't do that part, just the centers), then the cross stitches are wrapped with the regular silk.  This looks awesome - as long as you fill the center enough.  After doing two (and becoming an "expert), I then went and filled in a couple that looked thin.  I also taught pinkleader  how to do them - she likes it too.  In fact, it's the same technique I've used on buttons for years.  I started with two blue ones on the shoulder wings (sorry, the other pic turned out blurry, but they look exactly the same).

Then, I did the detached buttonhole stitch butterfly wing on the collar:



(That's cathgrace 's finger, for scale.)  The GST is hard to get a tiny close stitch (for me, at least), resulting in a slightly lacy wing, but it looks awesome on the finished product.  This shot also shows off how the paillettes glitter in the light.

I spent the rest of the weekend working on the cuffs, starting with wrapping two more worms.  You can really see the sheen of the silk when you wrap them tightly:

 

And then filling in partial pansies:

 

GST detached buttonhole stitch petals, ceylon stitch leaves.  The second pansy had the large pink petals filled in by the awesome Jill Hall, btw, that's why they're so much tighter and nicer than mine.  :)  The GST is quite a bear to work with - if you pull too tight, it breaks, if you pull too loose, you get holes.  I work somewhere in the middle (remember, these are close-ups).  Of course, when the GST was brought out for sale, I bought $250 worth (each spool is $25).  I plan to make a nightcap for Bob.  A nightcap that will be the envy of everyone who sees it.

Me?  Modest?  Don't be silly.

Finally, I did the blue borage flowers, which finished out the entire frame for the colour:

 

These are done in a mix of detached buttonhole ("horseshoe" and petals), trellis (center, with backstitch for the stamens), and ceylon stitch (leaves).  Due to the super-tiny nature of the ceylon, I only (of course) managed to get the inset leaves to go perfectly on the second borage.  These were also done at the last minute on the last day - but I refused to leave until the frame was finished. 

The adrenaline rush was really something, I can tell you.



Since we're picture heavy anyway today, I thought I'd show you a couple of pics of garage progress.  There'll be more after this weekend, since we have people coming to help us get ready (I'll have pictures of the woods next week as well):

 

...That's the upstairs and downstairs.  These aren't even the most up to date photos, since I forgot the camera the last time I was down there.  But progress is ongoing. 


And now, memeage.  Because I can.

I actually found this meme through another meme (the personality defect test, which has been running around in one form or another for years), but this one is the funniest damn one I've taken in ages:

The Sublime Philosophical Crap Test

I'm afraid I have come to dislike posting the huge graphics, because they frequently break. What you want to know (or not), though, is my result, which is that I am an N-S-O, and sub-divided from that into a non-reductionist realist, a skeptical idealist, and an objectivist Kantian Deontologist. Not surprisingly, the "modern" philosopher I align with the most is Kant. And I have a soft spot for Aristotle, even though he was a blowhard.

I'm still really big on Camus.  I thought I should put that out there.  He's an existentialist (though he denied it), and very against nihilism, which fits in with my ethics.

It's not often you get to wring a bunch of humour out of a philosophy discussion, and this test was very amusing to read (though the results are more straightforward, assuming you can get through all the multi-syllabic words without glazing over). Most of the time, in my experience, people want to be deep and meaningful when they discuss philosophy, which translates as "show off how many really big words I know", and they react poorly to the "Descartes walks into a bar..." -type jokes (more's the pity; I love that one).

Personally, I think that if you cannot poke fun at philosophy, you're doing it wrong. And as for making fun of amateur philosphers, well, that's like dynamiting fish in a barrel.  Lots of flying fish bits, and good for an evening of laughs.

Make sure the fish are dead first, because otherwise it isn't ethical to dynamite them.  I think.  Depends on your philosophy.  I mean, if the fish are only a construct of your "reality", and reality is nothing more than an idea, and completely unprovable, then are the fish really feeling pain?  Or even there?  Here, smoke some more pot; it makes you think deep thoughts.  Mind the fish guts.