A while back I posted about using a penny, a cell phone, and a bit of math to determine the thread count of linens, both evenweave and skew. And now the US penny is quickly charging to extinction, abandoned by the US Mint, and soon to disappear entirely from circulation. Which means that I need to issue an update. Voila!

Recipes for three pies – Apple-Orange; Chocolate Pecan; and Pumpkin Chiffon. Plus a recipe for a lard crust.

Coming to the end of our recuperative sojourn out in North Truro. I had hoped to post pix of the aurora from here, but sadly last night was heavily clouded, and windy. So I maintain my record of weather-related disappointment in relation to notable sky events. But that doesn't mean that nothing has been accomplished in the past week and a half.

We are making headway here! First, as I announced on FaceBook, I have completed radiation therapy. Minimal side effects to report even at conclusion of the course. We are now taking a bit of ease to recuperate both from the therapy itself, and having to drive out in the pre-dawn hours for 6:45 am appointments. 40 days of that doesn't sound too bad when compared to the decades over which we left early as commuters, but once you are no longer used to being part of the Dawn Patrol, it becomes a lot harder.

Yes, I'm still working on the Italian multicolor strapwork cloth. But the holidays approach, and a topical whimsey presents itself. I am going to take a quick detour to kludge together a hat, then knit several for my various Offspring and Honorary Offspring. In specific, I'm going to knit topical event relevant frog hats, in egregious green. Complete with bulging Muppet like ping-pong ball size eyeballs.

Sorry for not posting many interim images this week past. The repeat has been established. Memorized, even. So progress is pretty much more-of-the-same. Not particularly visually interesting, just being repeat after repeat. But I'm now on the run up to the second corner. That diagonal just beginning to appear in the right side of the hoop will be the one that spans the corner, just like the one in the first corner.

No, not inflation - at least not overtly. I'm just about 25% done with the frame around the outer edge of my Italian multicolor piece. Closeup posts of the bit currently under the needle are going to be repetitive from here on in, so I present the full canvas of this "painting." If it looks to you like I've sped up production - I have.

So. More examinations of the corners of the big towel from the MFA, and my first corner. Here are the four corners of the original Not quite aligned but all there. Now my stitched corner as of this morning: It's closest to the one on the lower left, above. But not exactly. Look at this bit. That's a clear kludge. Not to brag, but my join is cleaner than this.

My improvised corner on the current piece appears to be working out. And it looks like the original stitcher(s) hit upon the same notion, and did something very similar. Here's what I have: Note the extension of the zig-zag frame to a full iteration of the pattern, but one headed off on a right angle to the initial bit. And the beginnings of another red flower section in the triangle made by the border.

I am very glad that I didn't focus on making this piece two-sided. At the outset, I thought about it. Hiding the ends on both Montenegrin Stitch and Meshy (Two-Sided Italian Cross Stitch, pulled tightly) are easy. Lots of real estate overstitched in which both beginnings and endings can be camouflaged. Double running is a bit more difficult, especially when one strand is used.

No international or domestic tumbles involved. Only, just like that, my fall project begins. Yes, I am sticking with a project inspired by the big Italian towel/cover in my last post. I'm working it on a much smaller piece - a quotation rather than a full reproduction. I'm using the 19 x 27 inch (48.26 x 68.58 cm) piece of 40-count linen I mentioned earlier.

I've finally figured out what to stitch! Two years ago Friend Merlyn and I went to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and saw an exhibit that featured (among other things) this Italian masterwork. It's described as a towel done in Punto Scritto and Punto a Spina Pesce MFA Accession 83.242, Italian, 16th century, silks on linen. In terms of size, this piece is big enough to be a table spread to seat eight, much bigger than anything I'd think of as a bath towel.

The Grand Experiment of splitting the individual plies of my vintage six-ply Pearsall’s silk floss into component strands continues. So far it has worked out. I’ve only lost one of the …

As I mentioned before, there’s no point in honoring a book called Forlorn Toys without showing some of the toys. So I drafted up a representative sample. I’m still filling in the backgr…

At long last, ASSIST is complete. It still needs to be ironed and framed or otherwise prepared for display, but the stitching is done. The tumbled columns on the top are there because my life was p…

Blackwork embroidery seems to be having an Official Moment right now, with tons of new interest. I’ve got a lot of resources here that might be useful to folk beginning or continuing their jo…

Here I am. A bit less than I was, in terms of body parts, weight, and height, but overall what remains is whole and mostly functional. I am not going to go into the all the details, but I will say …

This is post that’s not easy to write. Some of you have wondered about my rush to release both Ensamplario Atlantio III, and the single-download edition of my Epic Fandom Stitch-Along. And th…

Just a quick post to let folk know that the Epic Fandom Stitch-Along from several years ago is still free, and available for download here at String-or-Nothing. AND I've made it much easier to do so. I have consolidated all of the individual week by week releases along with the general info provided before the project began into a single 50-page PDF document.

I am delighted to announce that the third volume in my free-to-download series of blackwork pattern booklets is now up and available here on String-or-Nothing. Like the previous two volumes, Ensamplario Atlantio Volume III contains original (and a very few redacted) filling designs of the type used in inhabited blackwork. That's the style that fills outlined shapes with fields of diapered fillings, as seen in my Unstitched Coif project submission, and in my current sampler.