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Here I would love to share with you our travels and adventures as international mushroom consultants. MEMOIRS about husband Pieter Vedder, who was a SCIENTIFIC PIONEER in Commercial Mushroom Cultivation Education. His practical handbook is in 9 languages and is called the MUSHROOM BIBLE: https://mariettesbacktobasics.blogspot.com/2020/08/modern-mushroom-growing-2020-harvesting.html

Saturday, February 4, 2017

Mega Task Crocheting DONE

On Sunday morning, January 22, at 4:30 AM the new hand crocheted curtain was hanging!

Mega Task Crocheting DONE
Photos taken later on Sunday, after I'd slept a couple of hours...
They also are perfectly in length, not touching our Delftware houses that we earned by flying KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (we got often an upgrade with our Royal Wing cards!).
On January 11, on my sister's 67th Birthday in heaven, I started...
'ONLY' 12 segments with Fleur de Lys to go and crocheting at a rapid, robotic pace without errors would yield one Fleur de Lys every 6.5 hours...
BUT how can a human being work without any errors?!
Impossible and I had to undo many times 2 rows.
You only 'spot' the error on the returning row... Arg.
It teaches patience and concentration!
Since it was such a Mega Task, I was determined though to have it hanging by Sunday!
It became heavy and harder to handle.
See the cone to the left, on the floor?!
Days were dark and the artificial light had to be used.
After breakfast, getting dressed and barely time for doing anything with my hair, I sat there.
Husband Pieter was the Chef for that time... He did well!
Using 2 sticky notes taped together I moved up, row by row.
On the left I wrote: 8 l (lossen in Dutch) for the 8 Chain Stitches it would take to add on.
I must say that the directions were POOR!
Lots of errors in this drawing too. Where I marked with the pen, bottom right, those should be openings for creating that wide V-shaped stitch. 
3 Chain Stitches and 1 Single Crochet done inside the 5 Chain Stitches of alternative rows!
So not 'around' but I did make those Single Crochets inside the Center Chain Stitches!
Harder to do but looking a lot neater.
One X stands for 4 Double Crochet and two XX = 7 Double Crochet etc.
For those that love this pattern:
Starting out on 156+3 (for Double Crochet at the beginning!) Chain Stitches and make your 1st Double Crochet inside the 4th Chain Stitch = 157 Double Crochet total.
At the end for adding XX you make 8 Chain Stitches and insert into the 4th for making Double Crochet = 7 added total.
12 Fleur de Lys done!
I had to sew on the 11 brass rings, that I have from my dear Mom, old ones for curtains that hung from a thinner rod.
Then I proceeded to launder them in short cycle and pressing the pointed area.
Should have pressed the entire Fleur de Lys however...
Had to use the hammer for first putting the 2 lower brass nails on the sides.
So they got hung wet and stretched up into perfect shape.
Love the quality of this 100% Egyptian Cotton by Lizbeth in a 6-cord Cordonnet!
Next day my left index finger and middle finger were still red and very tender from working with that steel crochet hook over 100+ hours!
My tip of the thumb is still kind of numb and index and thumb feel like a mix between callous and blister...
Before I fell onto the mattress, I wrote this for Pieter:
Bid maar voor mij..  In English: Pray also for me... meaning that I would not join him to Church!).
Pieter wrote in Dutch: Jij bent een verbazend iemand! 
Pracht resultaat!
English: You are an amazing person!
Splendid result!

It will take a while before I will create the smaller, half sized one and even that will take 50+ hours.
So happy that I had enough thread and that my design worked out perfect for these windows at this scale.

Hope you like them too.

Catching up on lots of things...


Related link:
{After 40 years Something's Gotta GIVE...} | previous post by me about the reason and the start...
{Our Veranda} | previous post by me
{Fleur de Lys in our Veranda} | previous post by me

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Tea Time and Spring Flowers

One of the our daily highlights is having Afternoon Tea
Yesterday afternoon with fresh cut Fragrant Daffodils from our garden with fresh Camellias.
On my side table with the beautiful Hand Crocheted Lace topper.
A gift from dear Susan from the blog: Ava Grace's Closet and you ought to visit this sweet blogger friend!
My other dear blogger friend Celia M. High Heeled Life & Resilientista would very much approve of this Self Care Moment!
Healthy Living and Relaxing with Green Tea, Mixed unsalted Nuts, Seaweed (Costco) and Rice Cake from Whole Foods Market.
A close up of that healthy portion...
Believe it or not, two of our feline brothers LOVE each a piece of Seaweed and Bandido-boy also eats one or two Cashews!
In reply to blogger friend Jim from The Road to Parnassus I have added these photos from the type of Green Tea used...
Organic Green Tea
A Blend of Sencha & Matcha
My photos got taken with very dark weather so that's maybe the reason the tea looks strong...
Having fresh flowers is one thing but the lack of sunshine for good photography is often another!

Thanks for visiting!

Related post:
{My Rice Cakes FIT in this Dutch Rusk Tin} | previous post showing you my Rice Cakes...
{Meaningful GIFT from The Fairmont Empress Victoria} | previous post showing you the table topper...


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Thursday, January 26, 2017

{After 40 years Something's Gotta GIVE...}

Well, life happens and not everything we love will last forever...
It was August 10 of 2016, that I had cleaned our veranda windows and also laundered my hand crocheted curtains.
Next day I would have a group of girls for Etiquette Class so everything would be perfect...

NOT perfect...
All torn up but I hung them up anyway!
There are certain days that we too feel like these curtains look and life goes on! 
But our Delftware houses still stand neatly lined up...
Well, that's how they look after hanging up for 40 years!
I made them for our home in Panningen, The Netherlands, and adjusted them for Horst, The Netherlands and then they went to Dublin, Georgia where they hung and in Cornuda, TV in Italy and back again here in our new home in Dublin, Georgia.
They always did fit; a miracle in itself.
They have endured many hours of sunshine.

It was High Quality Cotton a 6-Cord Mercerized Cordonnet that I purchased from 3Suisses.
One thing I learned to never ever make again those tassels. 
What a job to untangle them after each laundry...

This is taken on August 17, 2016 and showing the short wall, where there are NO holes yet... Only one tassel (not shown here) had come off.
But I got the message.
The search for new high quality Cotton 6-Cord Cordonnet in a similar Mercerized type.
Well, we went to Europe in September so I tried my luck.
NOPE! Nothing...

But I was determined for using a pattern with Fleur de Lys from this very Anna Burda that I'd taken over from my Mom.
Dating from September 1995 and Mom had handwritten 'mooie kantjes' - beautiful laces...
So glad that I bought this over from her!

Mom loved this Fleur de Lys pattern and I was determined to work it into a curtain with some tweaking.
In our veranda there is a theme of Fleur de Lys, see the links below this post.

So I did search on line and found a Handy Hands Lizbeth 6-Cord Cordonnet Cotton Crochet Thread size 3.
I've never worked with a size 3... so I ordered just one 50g ball to work with it for assessing its gauze.

This came in a Scottish Thistle color, a purplish green...
Yep, all what I wanted!
High quality 6-Cord Cordonnet
Mercerized Gas-Singed
Outstanding body that holds its shape
Size 3 thread
100% Egyptian Cotton 
Made in China!

50g = 120 yds
With my 2mm steel crochet hook I managed to work this (black & white photo) only to assess the total weight I would need.
Loved the high quality as it glides on my crochet hook very easily.
So I found one lady in Colorado Springs, CO at DS9Designs Tatting and Beads who just had 3 one kg cones left in white!
As I have assessed by this piece, I would need 2.3 kg total so I needed to order 3.
Today, on my Angel Sister's 67th Birthday in Heaven, it arrived and I'm delighted that it is not a pure white! I'd love an ecru but planned to tea-dye it myself. No need now.

So here it is!
Ready for me to start my Mega Task...

These were the last 3 1 kg cones left!
Will let you know and meanwhile you know what I'm at for the time being!

Thanks for your visits and kind comments.


Related links:
{Our Veranda} | previous post by me
{Fleur de Lys in our Veranda} | previous post by me




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