Mending again

Tatter is offering a new series about visible mending

and the cooler mornings have brought out my handknitted and visibly mended warm socks. Seen from the top they don't look mended at all. They wear out underneath

So it's only fairly visible mending.

Meanwhile it's still warm enough to have tea and dessert outside, enjoying butterflies and late flowers 

Years ago I stopped using music and audiobooks while I was out walking, and I get a lot more out of it now, noticing everything now. 

Likewise I sit on the deck without music or books or knitting, just watching butterflies and bees and noticing flowers hidden under foliage. It's a restoring kind of time.

Saturday's walk around the neighborhood yielded 

and whoever this is on the newly opened autumn joy sedum 

It's a continual surprise to me as a person who lives alone, how many of my meals are interrupted.  Today I'd just dished up lunch, red potato dice, stir fried with red onions, garlic, and scallions,  feta cheese crumbled over, when my neighbor came rushing in all upset, with a little package in her hands.

She said  I'm sorry to disturb you, oh that smells so good, but I didn't know what to do with my feelings! Turns out the little package was a bird, young mourning dove, which had hurtled down from the sky, onto her patio, and expired.  

I asked her if she'd seen a hawk around. We have a lot and usually bigger birds escape them because they're harder to seize. This unlucky fellow didn't have a soft landing, and didn't make it. 

Later she texted me to say she'd now seen the hawk, a young red tail,  on her fence, the other birds having vanished.  So that was the drama that got between me and my hot lunch. It was still good when I finally got to it. She was very apologetic, but I assured her I was glad she'd come over.  

It seems the young hunter didn't realize his prey was too big, and the young prey didn't know enough to take cover when a hawk showed up. 

Never a dull moment. 

And I'm continuing reading S and S, but also binged on a 1971 BBC series production, very well done, less intense than Ang Lee, and with a great ensemble none of whom I knew. Jane is getting me through the last couple of days before the mammo do-over.

Happy day, everyone, enjoy your day, whatever surprises it brings.

Irish lace and other holey stuff

I've been meaning to signal-boost this workshop, for anyone in Brooklyn in July

Lace has a significant social history, largely a cottage industry demanding long hours and great skill for low pay.  But the tradition is worth exploring for other than earning a living.

And here's a slightly different puzzle from the Haggard Hawks word puzzles.  

Here, just give your number answer, not an explanatory narrative, please! That way more people get to try it.

I was out walking earlier this morning, frogs watching me from the pond, eyes out of the water, exactly like the cartoons. The birds are busy, flickers pecking away, a bluejay warning me off, probably from a nearby nest, I've seen nestlings there before, cardinals singing, Carolina wrens shouting endlessly.

I had pictures of one second after frogs were visible, and a chipmunk after he'd run, and they're not blog worthy.  

And there's this little flower I need to identify, growing in a bed of poison ivy, so I proceeded with caution. I think it's bittersweet nightshade, and if you know better, please speak up 

One of the yarn balls from Mary is making up into lovely lacy woven squares, maybe to go with the linen shirt, seen folded in the corner. 

 

I'm thinking about a vest. The kind you can't have around cats!

Happy day, everyone, weave on!

Indigo, money matters or does it

Tatter is offering a wonderful indigo workshop, probably a life changing event, wayyy beyond my budget but if you can get to Brooklyn in April, you may want to contact them.

They have a lot of good teaching online and in person, worth the fees, on fiber related stitching and hand construction skills. They help preserve valuable skills for all of us.

On a less elevated plane, the cost of home ownership continues to rise. I can handle it for now, but it's getting onerous. 

In the last week the monthly condo Association announced that monthly fees will be higher as of April, plus a large one -time special assessment fee to catch up on expenses,including insurance and water increases. This is on top of the fireplace and another small replacement costs. Soon I will be required to replace the water heater.

My water bill for the townhouse shot up this month, maybe related to the bathroom leak, maybe the same increase noted by the condo Association. This is on top of the plumbing bill.

I've rarely had a more expensive month that didn't involve fun! And  there's the personal amplifier cost, but I think that's going back, not useful for general purposes. On the good side, I can pay the raised costs, but I reserve the right to grumble anyway.

But I found a lovely artwork, always a good thing for a person's spirits

Happy day, everyone, Tuesday knitting group this afternoon, and Textiles and Tea, so there's that.

And moral support to  people who need it is always available.

Misfits box and sashiko

Misfits arrived in the evening, too late to blog, so here it is

Salad today. The carrots are sweet to taste, very fresh. And there was a stray red potato which found its way in uninvited.

Today's Tatter is about sashiko, stitching that serves many purposes. It's artwork and is used for repairing old clothes, also for creating warm winter gear by stitching together layers with many rows of fine running stitches.

I tried my hand at it a while ago, using a design the Embroiderers Guild supplied.

This is a book cover, with a brocade fabric. The cover is straight, the picture crooked, sorry, better stitcher than photographer.

This is an embroidery form that can be as simple or as complex as the stitcher wants. When we did sashiko at the Guild, a six year old granddaughter did her own version. She really liked doing it. 

So if you want a project for kids, this is one. Not just for girls, boys like this too.

Meanwhile I need to get on with that book cover and insert pages into it. It's been a while. Or it might become pockets on that Robe of many stitches which you haven't seen for a while, the one with all the embroidered pieces appliqued, and sashiko on the front, more to come there, too.

You can see the design I  drew on the left there, waiting for stitching. There's even a needle stuck in there to remind me.

Maybe I'll take a stitching interlude between sock knitting. The light's better now, friendly to embroidery.

The current sock harvest is here

one more pair and I'll send them off.

Pray for Ukraine, for the spirit of resistance and to preserve their art as well as their people. It's vital to life.

Tatters with the flowers that bloom in the spring, tra-la

Here's the current Tatter, on-line newsletter and website with a textile museum in Brooklyn. The newsletter is well worth signing up for, and you'll see their address in the pic.

They're looking at flower embroidery from different cultures right now.

The pocket above, that bag with strings, is the kind of pocket women had, that Lucy Locket lost. 

It ties round your waist under your top skirt, which usually had a slit to access the pocket. You could carry eggs, live chickens not unheard of, personal stuff, everything you might put in a tote, but beautiful and hands free.  And much better than the silly little "pockets" in modern manufactured clothes.

The modern fanny pack is a kind of new take on it.  I fancy making a pocket for myself, but wearing it visibly, not having overskirts and underskirts. 

I really recommend Tatter, lovely articles in each newsletter, and interesting insights into cloth, weaving, sewing, decorating. The history is there, too, if social history interests you.

Update on the bathroom situation: after a solid day's work, punctuated by (unrelated) consultations with numerous doctors about a relative's sudden serious health situation, Gary got the toilet installed, and had to shop again for a hose. 

And search his own house for a shut off handle, since the current one still leaked rapidly. He found one, it fitted. He came back later in the evening for a post operative checkup, still working.

So water, and order,  were restored as the water company says, about seven pm. Great relief all round. Gratitude too.

He's a wonderful neighbor, and we go back a long way to when I helped get proper home medical care for his mom, in her last days st his house, and later I helped nurse his girlfriend in her last few days, across the street at home.  No, I'm not a nurse, but I've picked up skills from various life situations I've been in, and I know what not to do, when a qualified person needs to step in, and how to get one.

He was constantly available in his turn, during Handsome Partner's last days, too, also in  a lot of other crises in both our lives. There's been a lot of thick and thin. Life and death.  It's not just baked goods! 

And now to round up all the tools he's left, and possibly his glasses, phone, wallet, all of which he mislaid at different times yesterday. 

Today I'm hoping to be bored.  There's been enough adventure around here lately. Maybe I'll make soup.

Happy Saturday, everyone! 

Tatters event and other good thoughts

I'm passing on this invitation to stitchers, if you're interested in a chance to learn, participate and donate, to help preserve the art of Ukraine

And a reminder that it's the oil companies gouging us for gas buying, not the President. Middle east oil is ramping up production to offset Russian cutbacks, which are only 10% of our supply.

In fact not all those choices are available to a lot of people in the US. But we can refrain from complaining, while pressuring the oil companies to back down, and pushing for greater renewables.  

And here's a note of hope. Life continues, returns, nature heals

Not up to writing much about my tiny life today. 

Peace.

Hand stitching, composition, chicken noodle soup

Yesterday I was moseying about online as you do, and found a reference to chicken soup with ginger and turmeric. 

To think it is to do it around here, well, yesterday, anyway. 

I've been planning for years to make chicken soup, and yesterday the planets were in alignment, I rummaged around the bottom of the freezer and found a chicken thigh.

So, I poached it to tender in stock, turmeric and loads of fresh ginger and whole tellicherry black peppercorns, while I ssuteed tons of onion and garlic in oil, then strained the poaching liquid into the onions, added more broth, and simmered. Then I blended it smooth. 

I had a large bag of spinach and a handful of broken spaghetti ready, plus the chicken now in bite size bits. They all needed about ten minutes. Bunged them all in, and this doesn't look like chicken noodle on account of the spinach. Koi Pond Noodle, thank you Steve and e.

Anyway it was great. Very spicy but not gasp for air spicy, gingery not peppery. Definitely worth doing. More interesting than chicken soup I've had up to now. If course, since this time I'm not taking it to fight a cold, I can taste it, which definitely makes a difference.

I have some cod left from the recent cod capers, and I'm thinking of a chowder involving cod and shrimp, which I also have. Must check that out. 

A friend of mine used to talk about a great finnan haddie recipe she made, using cod. When I said but haddie means haddock, so you made finnan coddie, she was not amused. Anyway following her lead, maybe I'll make clam chowder using cod and shrimp.

Moving on to the suddenly busy bird feeder on the patio, temp in the teens f., birds all puffed out, running about making zigzag tracks. My attempt is capture the tracks didn't work but I managed a very nice  accidental blurry composition, here

Today's Tatter is about a lovely young hand stitcher, about to teach online courses in hand making your own clothes. A bit pricey, but if you learn these skills, they're good for your lifetime.

Hand making includes making your own buttons, covered, or Dorset, or clay. These are her covered buttons. I added in the Dorset and clay because I've made them.

And as you know, I do like the slowness and thoughtfulness of hand stitching your own clothes, and longtime blogistas have had blow by blow coverage of various items now in use. More to come. I have plans.

Like spindle spinning your own yarn, collecting your materials to make paper, hand stitching is about connectedness.  Also kindness to the earth. And a great sense of content. Not a bad ROI.