To blizz or not to blizz

I'm in the middle of this map 

Up to now it's mainly rain, and Handsome Son texted to say he's off to work anyway,  since the forecast of blizzard conditions this morning didn't seem to have been right. Now they're saying snow overnight and Monday.

The local library closed today and postponed the lunar New Year celebration. It's still only damp, so they may as well have gone ahead. But they couldn't sit around waiting since performers were coming from further away and needed to know.

Tomorrow the cleaners are scheduled and I wrote to tell them not to push, be safe, we can reschedule (again).  I don't plan to be away from the house anyway, so I'll just dodge them if they do show up. Which reminds me to set out a check just in case.

Wonderful lunch, forgot the picture, of baked breaded cod, roast potatoes and steamed broccoli. With malt vinegar. There's enough of everything to do it again tomorrow.  

I finished and stitched up the slippers, and I think they're not quite good enough to give, so I'm wearing them.

I folded the rectangle, stitched one end up for the heel. Then I gathered the other end up, drew it tight and stitched for the toe, continuing up the front to make it fit.  You just try on to make sure it's going to hold your foot firmly. Pro tip: if you make these, leave plenty of yarn beginning and end to use in the stitching up.

This was a real beginner project, and I may do it again only with better yarn for the Sock 'n glove Ministry.  I kind of invented it I think, or maybe hundreds of knitters before me did. 

It's definitely simple enough to work on while chatting at the Tuesday knitting group. In fact I wonder if it would be fun to knit corner to corner. That might also make a snug fit, since you'd be working on the bias. 

I'd have to review how to do a c to c rectangle, bit more complex than a square. But I think Sarah Swett has explained that somewhere, in her Slanted Sweater.  I know I did it when I spun and knitted and wove my vest of many colors.

My circular needle for wrappy scarf purposes has arrived, thank you, R,  and is now prodding me on to the next thing. I think maybe I'll weave a lanyard, though. My hands are suggesting a different fiber art.

Snow has started,  and I'm going to make a pot of tea with a slice of banana bread and spoonful of yogurt, and continue reading my mildly funny, snow day reading,  mystery series 

The inadvertent detective is Dr Lance Elliot general practitioner, and his retired doctor father who keeps Lance dragged into situations not helped by his eccentricity. The father's. The son is constantly sorting out life threatening situations created because his father thought they were a good idea at the time. 

Happy day everyone, stay safe, whatever that is for you.

Textile Headsups,

Looking ahead, there's time to go online and sign up for this March textile presentation, see the TMASC email contact in the image, or search online.

and Tatter has some embroidery classes from all over the world, taught by the experts from the culture

Self care gets in here,too, stitching and other creation with thread being a slow, meditative process.

In other thinking about self care, urgently needed around here, I've started a new morning process, involving no screen time.

Before I go downstairs, I straighten the bed, arrange whatever needs to be charging through the day so I can go to sleep by audiobook, unplug the heating pad which is timed for a couple of hours medium heat at night, then do various small tasks in the bathroom involving pills and combs and lotion. 

Then downstairs I organize breakfast, today a banana sandwich and coffee, switch on various lights, it's usually still dark, then retire to the sofa. At that point I finally look at a screen. 

This interval between waking and looking at email and news has made a big difference to my coping ability, amazingly so. For one thing I'm not getting ocular migraines with vision disturbance, and I'm not instantly depressed and anxious.  

Evidently simple tasks are a defence against feeling helpless. Who knew. I used to catch up in bed with email and various social media. Not such a good idea, it turns out.

It means Future Me has a nice environment to retire to at night. I also leave the kitchen swept and clean so Morning Me has a similarly nice morning scene. It's surprising what a difference it makes to a picky, picky person. I know everyone isn't as bothered by their surroundings, but you go with the temperament you have.

It must be clear that I'm a person born to live alone! 

I watched a rug presentation this morning, dealer Susan Gomersall for the Hajii Baba Club,which commanded my indifference, to quote the Great Jane.  

I very much liked the images of weavers at work.

Mainly it was very short and not a lot of slides. They were good, but I'd have liked more information about the meaning and significance of the designs.   Also a narrator who doesn't read, head down,  from a script.  But I'm picky.  I'll continue watching their offerings.

And in further self, and neighbor, care, there's banana bread with walnuts and cocoa nibs. Mainly because I forgot to order bread and this is a sort of bread.

Remember the potholder I spun and wove a while back? It's in daily use as seen here

Nice loaf. This may be, will be, shared around. 

Happy day everyone, enjoy your day the best way you can. We may have another giant snowstorm tomorrow, so I've notified the cleaning family that if Monday's buried, we won't be plowed out, so don't push, just reschedule. Again!  

And I have a doctor's appointment Tuesday which may not happen. Again.

Nobody's burying ME, sez Billie the Pup.

Busy day at the protest stand, all the time.

Not feeling great this morning, kind of low in energy, but work called.

I wrote to my State Senator Linda Greenstein, currently Assistant Majority Leader, requesting that NJ join the part of WHO which attends to outbreak alerts. Only sovereign nations can have full membership, but states and New York City have joined this section of WHO so as to have early warnings. 

Then it was a note to the great Daily Beans podcast, usually excellent on research, who fell down this morning on Talarico.

He's running for Senate from Texas, in a Democratic primary against the great Jasmine Crockett. But, big but, he's been taking GOP pac funds, and lied about it.  His campaign says he's running as a Democrat but not allied to the party (!) 

He's a potential Sinema or Fetterman, and they have not understood this yet. Talking about him as if he's the second coming.  No, he's just another mediocre white male Republican plant, getting too much attention. Well, now they know. 

And then I signed on to ACLU to add to the names they're taking to the April 1 (no joke) case they're arguing before SCOTUS  It's in defence of birthright citizenship, which T***p has been attacking since Day One.

 

 

If you're a member you'll probably already have received this email with the link to sign on. If not you can find them online and do so.

Anyway all this happened before I showered and cut my hair. I'm feeling better on all counts now. Apologies to readers outside the US for this domestic policy-heavy post.

Knit on

Misfits and puzzling yarn

Moving on with the slippers this morning and I decided the two colors I'm using may not make it, not enough.  So I rummaged around in the donated yarn and found two hanks of machine washable black yarn that will do okay, to be included in the color blocks.

But take a look 

Left is how the hank starts out. But it doesn't uncoil once as usual, into a single skein. Instead it's like bread you pull apart. Turns out to be several small skeins as you see. In the forefront is an uncoiled one. This makes quite a small ball of yarn. I wonder about this. It means a lot of joins in the knitting, not usually a good thing. Knitters, do you have any theories about this? 

Anyway Misfits arrived still in the white rental truck. I wonder if the pink van is in the shop. It takes weeks to get parts nowadays.

Can for the food pantry, and I had more for them already, Envy apples, bigger than gala or Rockits, plenty of potatoes to parboil ready for roasting or mashing, depending. 

Spinach because it goes everywhere, unsalted butter because what I have is salted but I like baking with unsalted because I can add as I want, Bananaz because they're a great snack and I may mash some for future banana bread.

Soy sauce, not Kikkoman, just trying a different one, peanut butter for granola bars, cod to go with roast potatoes and maybe broccoli which I already have.

 Red lentils because I'm all out and they're a staple, particularly for tofu, yogurt likewise a staple, I use it in pastry as well as a sour cream sub. Hot spicy plant based sausage. I might make sausage rolls with yogurt pastry. Or croquettes with roast potatoes and spinach. No end of ideas.

So that's us. I'm happy to say none of my relatives was arrested from a palace today. 

If it's a tough day, we can say well at least I wasn't arrested for passing on official secrets. Yeah I know that's the least of his crimes, but remember Al Capone went down for tax evasion, so there's that. Sez Ted and Big Ursy and Pony.

And here's late breaking good news, from New Brunswick NJ, close to where I'm sitting

The original plan for a park was restored. 

 

Visible mending and other clever stuff

An embroiderer friend passed on some nice ideas about visible mending. This sampler of visible mending ideas was created by Candy Barnes of @heartfulstitches

Doesn't that make you want to try out? Most of them are beginner friendly. 

Then there are embroiderers like Melissa Galbraith, who create an entire miniature scene around a patched area. 

There are blogistas who could do this, looking at you Bay Area M!  And the rest of us can admire anyway.

Meanwhile back on earth, I found myself figuring out a simple pattern for knitted slippers made from a rectangle. 

It's all very well to know your measurements, and you see the entire thinking in these notes, but without knowing how many stitches to cast on, what's a knitter to do?

This one crocheted a chain the length required for her foot, added in a few stitches because knitting takes up length a bit more than crochet, and started knitting by picking up the chain loops. Then I counted the resulting stitches and noted it.  I could now do a knit cast on for the second slipper but the crochet chain does make a nice firm start. 

I'm using up small quantities, so this project is striped with a cream yarn.

I started thinking this would be for me, but noticed that the yarn is machine washable, so these slippers may join the items for the Sock 'n glove 'n whistle Ministry.

I have a number of donated projects to finish, all interesting too, and I seem to be doing a project I suddenly thought of instead.  Don't ask me, I only live here.

The weather is grey and there's dirty old snow, but no ice. So I donned those purple wrist warmers I made from a cashmere sweater, 

now ankle guards because of the boots, the new scarf, the beret made from the same cashmere sweater, and went walking, coat open, that kind of cold no-wind day when you can.

I pushed a bit further, to retrieve my stamina which has decreased a bit with the snow stopping walking. Twenty minutes, in fact pretty good for me. Home to a pot of tea, and probably sleep will happen. It usually does after walking in the cold then coming home to get warm.

Happy day everyone, make do or don't, and remember where there's a will there's a won't.

Multi celebration day to you! And other things happening

 Today's Mardi Gras, Lunar New Year and Ramadan.

I'm an earth tiger. I wonder how they get along with fire horses. I checked out Handsome Partner's sign, water monkey, and found it's not supposed to be compatible with any tiger sign. Hm.

And I finished the scarf. I really like it. Because its a soft yarn, it feels very good, too. Sometimes you get a surprise when a yarn that feels good in your hands is scratchy on your neck.

Closer so you can see the shape better.

Yesterday also involved food, the soupe du jour being cream of red lentil and sweet potato. And enough for several more meals.

This used up the lentils left over from the tofu earlier. Sprig of fresh peppermint. I'm surprised how well the peppermint is doing in the kitchen. I'd expected it to wither.

Then today eating all the colors

Toast with butter and garlic paste, same old soup,  pureed pumpkin with blueberries and honey. Getting up my strength for Tuesday Knitting Group.

Modeling a newly knitted vest from yarn she spun.

Same knitter with Resistance Hat

Our new members, a married couple crocheting together.

A muff in progress.

Various projects lying around and Toad's bathing suit in progress.

Accomplished crochet by the earlier crocheter

Lovely shawl soon to go to a relative, while her neighbor considers a new color contrast.

Lovely lively time, with a lot of laughing and talk ranging over pets, cats hunting, smart dogs, animal rescue, music, parking, knitting classes, houses, Goodwill, German porcelain, guard dogs, FedEx, and more.

Home again in time for Textiles and Tea, and kente cloth and 

He inherited from his father a large weaving company in Ghana. The first president after Ghana got independence in 1957, Kwame Nkruma, often wore the traditional kente cloth of the region. He commissioned it from Kwasi's father, because of the cultural significance of the fabric.

It's woven in cotton and silk in strips on narrow looms, nowadays, wider ones are in use, joined into the finished yardage.

Here's a giant piece commissioned for the UN building in New York, with the UN insignia embroidered on. The group picture shows officials in front of it, showing its size and importance. He wove this in three months with a team of weavers.  His father had made one earlier and both are now in the UN archives.

Here's a traveling loom he likes to use. This makes me want to weave immediately.

Left, traditional design, right, his own design.

Here he is at his home loom, all handmade. He explained that kente cloth has deep cultural and traditional significance, including colors, some kinds such as Ashanti, preferring neutral and earth tones and others like his, the brighter colors, from which the Ghanaian flag is derived.

Full Tuesday again, though next Tuesday a doctor's appointment will cut in to both the group and T and T. 

Happy day everyone, let's all do our bit.  Baby Juan was treated for bronchitis, but returned to the Dilley concentration camp. At least he's in the medical unit now, and let's hope there's medical care. I've now written to all my reps insisting they push for the release of all children from every ICE camp and to hold fast on no further funding for ICE till our demands are met, not just promised.