on balance

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I wanted to gift a couple of bookmarks and it was a good excuse to try out some of the threads Madhur had gifted (https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2022/09/joy-of-succumbing.html)

Madhur will understand why I especially chose this book as a background. 'On Balance. An autobiography' by Leila Seth. 

But first a bit about the bookmark ...

Pattern is 'Overlapping Chains' by Jon Yusoff and can be found here for free -

https://tatsaway.blogspot.com/p/bookmarks.html

I enjoy overlapping elements and went for a flower and leaf kind of story (hence picots on the yellow 'flowers') surrounded by a trellis.

The first row became fiddly on the way back with a tendency to twist, till I wove it as I went. That kept it in place.

I chose Red Rose size 20, since it appeared to be the same size as Lizbeth size 20. Wrong. It was closer to Anchor size 20, which is thicker than its Lizbeth counterpart.

Hence too thick to gift, especially with the overlapping chains adding to the thickness.

Final measurement - 15cms x 4cms

However the threads were a pleasure to work with. Smooth and a bit soft. Very easy to handle, manage, close rings; even stitches. 

At one end, I placed a picot incorrectly and noticed much later. It was easy to pull up each half stitch till the picot was shifted to the correct position 3 ds away.

The final lace is not as crisp or 'stiff' as when done with Anchor. 

On balance, there's a place for every thread!

'On Balance' is Leila Seth's autobiography. It is a very simply written book and it is this simplicity and straightforwardness that I liked. No attempts at being an 'author'; merely a walk down memory lane. Somewhere somehow I kept sensing glimpses of my mother in her character, her approach, her strength and values. And this bound me at a deeper level. 

As the chapter title shows, Leila Seth became the 1st woman Chief Justice of our Supreme Court in 1991. She has other firsts to her name, too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leila_Seth. I even chanced to meet her on my 50th birthday when we went to watch a movie and she was there with her husband. And as an achiever in her own right, she was later also known as Vikram Seth's mother.

Many thanks Jon and Madhur - an enjoyable journey!