Making something, a good sign

Last evening, a sign I was doing better, I just had to make something. I've been thinking about Tunisian crocheting for a while, haven't done it since this

and this

And, since I didn't have the energy to cross the room and search for materials, I rummaged in my knitting bag for my repair crochet hook, and the yarn I'd been using for the gloves.

All set, I started on what will be a phone purse with a strap to wear it. I've made and given a lot of these to people who keep losing their phones.

You can do Tunisian crochet with a big hook but I didn't need mine, which was upstairs anyway,  for this little project. 

It's a two part process: work the stitches, here I'm using Simple Stitch, then work back casting them off ready for the next row.

I think this is probably a sign of returning health. Handsome Son had told me most people he knew who went down with whatever this is, were down for about seven days, which is where I am. 

Gary stopped in last evening, was distraught I hadn't called on him to help, but I explained I had what I needed and didn't want to expose people. 

He took out my garbage and instructed me to call if there was anything. He noticed the Christmas table and I explained we haven't celebrated yet. I think I may have to dust the dishes when we do!

All in all, a better day than for a while. The temps are going up to the 50s f. which suits me better, more humidity in the air.

Happy day everyone! I think I may resolve next year, which is next week, not to try to catch up, just to accept that some things didn't get done and there's no rush to get all up to speed. 

That will be an entire new way of looking at the world for this driven little person! About time, though.

 Cheers!

Saturday, Tunisian bag, deck done

Greeting Saturday with the painting of that name by Brynhild Parker

Yesterday's Misfits arrived, modest box, trying to economize

But still eating well.  That odds and ends bag is raw almonds, a staple around here.

And yesterday, Mike the contractor came to finish replacing the walkway so I have an operative deck again, in case the weather ever gets warm enough to go out.

To the right of the gate is a new open place where the walkway used to be, fine for a couple of containers, probably herbs, next to the sage you see there. Mike left with a branch of curry leaves and a section of sage. He's a great cook, so he's got plans for both.

When he does a job involving large screws and nails, he makes a box to hold them as he works, and leaves it for the customer. Here's mine

Today is about making butternut and carrot soup, the weather still being soup friendly.

And, before we move on from Tunisian crochet, here's a Tunisian crochet bag I made ages ago, lined with a scrap of black silk, closed with Dorset buttons. 

The strap is regular double crochet. The yarn was the rest of the multiple short lengths you saw before in the gloves.  Time to get it out again, for Spring.

Hoping Spring will return to Ukraine, too.

Happy day everyone!

More Tunisian, art theory, and notes from an immigrant

I'm glad the Tunisian crochet was interesting, and I thought you'd like to see a few samples I made when I was learning. The simple stitch you saw yesterday makes a warm sturdy fabric, great for winter gloves, but there are other fancier ones, too.

There's knit and purl, and things like

Top, smock stitch, next honeycomb, next simple, and, at the bottom, feather and fan regular crochet. Feather and fan is really better knitted, I decided.

Anyway if you already knit or crochet, you might want to try it. Very small items can be worked on a regular crochet hook, so you don't need to buy a Tunisian hook, which is much bigger to allow for the buildup of stitches on the hook.

There was talk about immigrants on Mary's blog and I remembered I was one. When Handsome Partner was 29 and I was 24, we sailed out of Liverpool in late December 1963, with one trunk of books and two suitcases, bound for New York, having sold everything we could,  to put together the cost of the one way sailing tickets. We knew nobody and had no family at our destination.

From there we made our way to Wisconsin where HP was to do postdoctoral work, by invitation. One of my NJ Indian friends used to say we were the only people she knew who'd been invited!

That was post Sputnik and the US was in search of people like him, atom scientists, and people like me, modern language people, to add to the numbers.

When people point out that "but you spoke the language", well, yes, I thought that at first. But after the hundredth shout of "I can't understand a word you say, talk English!" Wisconsin folk being loud and blunt to our Brit ears, we realized that mime was going to be useful. 

And the daily struggle to learn new cultural unwritten expectations, everything different, was really tiring, despite all our energy and goodwill. 

One day, after a difficult time all day at my temp job, I was working from day two of arriving, I got home, went to switch on the light, and it wouldn't. I'd forgotten the US switch was opposite to the Brit one. I burst into tears, probably the only time it was just one thing too many, couldn't even switch the light on right!

It did get better. We made friends, enjoyed a lot of our discoveries, and never regretted the move.

I've been able to do work I'd never have had the chance of in the UK, we left for good reasons. Although we had not counted on pushback from the community who were very much against immigrants, even when we were bringing value, we learned to navigate it and seize the day.  

And I continue to navigate the othering which still persists. Just a couple of weeks ago a new member of the knitting group asked me "Where are you from, you talk with an accent! I mean where are you from really?"  Blessedly she didn't imitate me or ask questions about the UK as if I had arrived last week.  That still happens too, a regular reminder that to some people I really don't belong. But to me, I do. It's fine. And we all talk with an accent.

Menbers of both sides of my family have been living in the US since the 1850s, and that confuses the heck out of the otherers. 

I never thought anything of the emigration from the UK where we had few opportunities, because it was common among people who got good degrees and couldn't get jobs. 

Then I was asked about it by American friends who couldn't imagine doing it, alone, so young. We thought we were pretty grown up, though looking back I guess we were too young to be scared!

And your art notes for the day, if you wondered about portrait, vertical presentation and landscape, horizontal presentation, Moose Allain explains it all

Why I'm not planning on sitting on the patio just yet

And a lovely encouragement about the example set by Ukraine

Later today knitting group and Misfits. That's all, folks!

Happy day, everyone!

Spring Handwear for the Mature Fashionista

The weather looks bright and sunny and the wind is sweeping down from the Arctic.

So here's the handwarmer gear I had to use to get the mail, do the recycle, all that, needing free fingers.

 it's Tunisian crochet I was doing a while ago. These are simply designed, work fine. It's Tunisian Simple Stitch. I mean, that's the name of it. I realized I should explain that when a knitter I showed them to, when I said it was simple stitch, retorted that's easy for you to say!

It's a cross between knitting and crochet, invented sometime in the nineteenth century and given an exotic name. As far as I know, Tunisia doesn't enter into it, but I'm open to correction if anyone knows better.

Meanwhile back on the deck, Mike the contractor/artist friend came and assessed what's needed. For him, pretty simple. He'll do it in the next few days.

He lives across the street and has been occupied keeping his two little dogs safe while his fence was gone, they being used to play freely on the patio, and now not at all happy about collars and leashes. 

His new gate is now in place, high enough that the dogs can easily figure out how to get under it. So he's designing something to avoid that. He's about as happy as I am about the tackiness and clumsy design of the new fences. He's a craftsman and he's in pain over it. They're flimsy, ss he showed me, easily bowing the side wall by rocking it.  He said it would not tolerate the weight of planters hung from it, don't try it.

However we might get together later to design some freestanding wood supports to grow plants on.  We'll see.

And here's the Pair in Progress aka PIP

Looks as if Biden wants to apply the seized oligarch assets to help finance the war in Ukraine. That would be very satisfying. I hope Congress agrees. Except for the inevitable ones who won't, that is.

Jam review, and pockets ahoy!

My neighbor gave the strawberry ginger jam a good review. He had it on breakfast toast, liked it enough to make a second batch of toast to put it on. 

It did gel enough to stay on the toast. I've also had it on plain yogurt, like a sauce, and liked it a lot.  So that's good. There really is nothing as good as the flavor of jam  in small batches. I believe it has to do with the evaporation of liquid in the boiling. And using fresh picked peak ripe fruit counts.

 

And, on the Mitered Square jacket, msj, on mdw, Memorial Day weekend, pockets are happening.  

As I got under way with the yellow one you see above, I remembered I had a similar one already made somewhere, and found it. Perfect for the other pocket. Done in Tunisian Simple Stitch, just like the yellow one. I probably made it when I was learning simple stitch.

They needed to be bigger than the squares, to accommodate my hands and my phone and whatever else I want to put in. And they need to be firmer than knitting. So this was just the time for a bit of Tunisian crochet. You notice the giant crochet hook in the picture.

It's like a woven fabric, and I like doing it, a cross between knitting and crochet.

I realized after I started that I needed to review how to proceed, after I'd got the foundation chain done, the usual start of any crochet. 

One of the best teachers on YouTube is this lady

She's an excellent teacher, paced nicely for a beginner or a review, and I just like her a lot.

I am signed up;  she doesn't post a lot, but what she does is worth your time if you're interested. And she got me started again just fine. It all came back.

In the picture above of my pockets, there's a nice little piece of saori weaving I found, too, already lined as a wall hanging, but now I'm thinking a purse.. I can crochet a long strap, stitch up the sides with a flap, done. But first I'll finish the jacket.

And after that I'll make the skirt. I also unearthed a lovely piece of linen I'd dyed, which might be a skirt, if there's enough..you never know what you'll find in that little box of remnants and scraps.

Rainy cold weekend, but I'll be occupied.