Car world blues

 So I got the car in to the dealership for the fuel pump replacement recall.  They set up a ride home with a very nice woman Lyft driver, really interesting person, a writer when she's not a driver. So far so good.

At home peacefully reading various library books including this 

It's a bit dry, what with chemistry, but the history of cooking tools is interesting. She tends to get into list mode a bit. 

By 3:30 I hadn't heard from the dealership. I waited till late afternoon because they'd said it was a day-long job. But I was concerned in case I ended up driving after dark.

Called and found they couldn't do the work because they couldn't remove the panel to access the fuel pump. They needed to break the panel. And they planned to charge me for the part. 

Yes, didn't sound right to me either. And they said a week to get it.  I made unhappy noises about both things. So they're getting the part overnighted, will do the work tomorrow.

Soooo I called the general manager and he agreed it didn't sound right, he'd be right on it.   A few minutes later the service director gets back to say he's all over it, part ordered, he'll check with me Tuesday morning.  He sounded totally panic stricken.

So we'll see if they still try to charge me when I see them. If so, I'll definitely do a call the manager scene. I can't believe they can ask me to pay for what they broke. If they do, I'll definitely bust them online and here. 

Today started out well and then it didn't.

Happy day everyone, this too shall pass. Though I've had better days.

Glove One done, Ikigai

 I found an audiobook to knit by

which accompanied me through Glove One and untangling the remaining yarn ready for Glove Two. After I'd done that I fell asleep for a while, the usual result of being unoccupied with a task while an audiobook plays.  The narrator is so calm and restful it's like having a cat reading to you.

Then later, the first glove is finished

Thank you for the kind comments about the little gallery of a few of my fiber art pieces. Here's a bit more about some of them. And since the light's better, maybe a couple of better views. And an explainer about the sawblade loom.

I thought Ceres deserved a better shot. I was too tired to climb up and get her off the wall then, but now I've managed it and here you can see her better.

 

Technically, this is one of the better fiberworks I've made. Ceres, aka Demeter, goddess of corn and other grains. 

I started at the top, adapting a complex Victorian knitted stitch pattern called Wheatsheaf. 

This is knitted, two-dimensional, then I moved into crochet for the full belly, and you see that it becomes three dimensional as the roots develop. This was a single skein of yarn.  It's about grain and fertility, as you see.

And the rigid heddle piece is the only one I did before giving the loom to an eager beginner. There are tons of experiments in this piece. Then I concluded this loom was too restrictive for what I needed to do, and passed it on.

Charleston, one of the red pieces, I wove on a cardboard loom I made, partly because I don't like red. But it's not what the artist wants, it's what the art wants. 

So I tried to make it frivolous and silly, with ribbon and interesting patterns, leaving the top of the warp bunched like shoulder straps on a dress good for dancing the Charleston. 

The dress needed red. The weft threads are mostly fuzzy, not out of focus -- some are hand spun, some are unspun roving.

And here's the saw blades, donated by contractor friend Michael, which I used for the circular parts of some works. They're too blunt for his woodworking, but you still have to handle the points with care.

I used some hand spun to show you how I threaded the warp. Back and forward over the teeth, progressing round the circle. Then you start weaving from the center.

Here's the back, showing how you just catch the teeth. Once it's woven you slip one or two threads off the teeth, a bit tricky,  and the rest come off more easily, giving you a circular weaving and an empty loom for the next project.

Anything can be a loom. 

Rainy here today, but I did a bit of indoor exercise, and made broth from the remains of the game hen, ready for soup. 

Then I made a pot of soup, game hen broth, diced tomatoes, chickpeas, fusilli, enough for six meals starting with Sunday supper.

Happy day everyone, the best loom of all is the enchanted one, our brain, where the magic shuttles work.

Textiles at home

 I thought you might like to see some of my fiber art things around the house. These have all been exhibited, and a couple won awards. They were all fun to make.

The woven ones were done mostly on homebuilt cardboard and stick looms, and a circular saw blade (!)

Quite a bit of the woollen fiber you see l processed, dyed and spun. Some is commercial knitting yarn because it's what I had.  Some is donated thread, yarn and beads from other women wanting to be involved.

Charleston 

Ceres

Saori woven landscape 

Woven, stitched and beaded

This was woven on a rigid heddle loom, a real one!

Knitted scroll 

Beadweaving landscape 

Woven wire mask

Freeform seasons in a landscape 

Knitted and knotted string tribute to my bird Emily whose perch this was

Saltburn Cliffs Yorkshire 

Seascape 

Happy day everyone! Enjoy the pictures. 

I'm deep in The Innocents by Margery Sharp, first time I read this one.

It's more poignant than her other work,  wondering what will become of them.

Library, food pantry and game hen

Again I was up at five, me and the moon early breakfast,  then a nap. Then I marinated the game hen, about which read on.

Friday was about errands then food, how unusual. I still hate driving and have to force myself out, not getting easier. 

Anyway I went to the library in the next town, haven't been there for so long, but I made it. I needed to go in person to renew my card as an out of town holder. If you live in that town, you can do it online. 

So now once again I have access to that account, and their Hoopla has a different collection, so more choices.

On the way home since I was out anyway, I left my small offerings at the food pantry. While there I met a young woman donating bag after bag of food. I thought she'd done a drive but no, it's all her own effort. Next week is distribution, so this is in good time for their sorting. What a good soul that lady is. I was very impressed.

Then home to roast the game hen. Earlier I'd put coarse seasalt inside and out, olive oil and garlic paste spread on.

I roasted it for about an hour at 400°, turning over at halftime. Served with green beans, garnished with a sprig of fresh peppermint mint and some dried cranberries. Dessert was the last of the pureed pumpkin beaten with honey and whole plain yogurt.

This was a great meal after a fairly difficult morning, with the driving and many detours, roadwork season. But the newly repaired road outside this development is a treat, so easy to drive without multiple potholes. It's been years of pressure to get it done. 

Then at home I was able to borrow a new acquisition, a Margery Sharp collection, on my renewed card, on my Kindle.  I plunged into The Nutmeg Tree this afternoon.

The home library is planning on another exhibit of Tuesday Knitting Group items. Last year I showed knitting and crocheting, so I think this year it's stitching, maybe goldwork. I might even finish the fabric book, too, to show.

All in all, Friday was a day of doing things, some of which I fear, but did anyway.

Happy day everyone, do the thing anyway, you'll be proud. Or don't, your life, your choice.  

Yes, proudly flying my flag. We did it proud this week.

Misfits and more good news

I was up about five on Thursday, still dark and the full moon lighting up the street. I love to be up to see the day arrive while I drink my coffee.

 I'm still getting good news of elections from all over the country, typically too local to make the national news, but significant. Like Chris's report on the Idaho school board election, which I passed on via Spoutible.

Quite a few school boards have tossed rightist book-banning Moms and rejected new similar candidates, replacing them with blue candidates. 

Sheriffs, too, one local to here, Bucks county. Voters replaced the sheriff who had got into an agreement to assist ICE,  with a new younger man who plans to rescind the agreement as soon as he takes office. A Democrat. In red, affluent, Bucks county.  More and more news like this is coming in, a definite blue wave. 

I wrote to Schumer and my two senators urging them to hold fast, never surrender, and I'm hoping they won't give in to the emotional blackmail of hunger and soaring health premiums -- as you read on Wednesday, this is hitting my family -- but force accountability.  Election Day showed we're in fighting mode. Ooh, a pome! I'm doing my best to help on the hunger front.

And Misfits arrived. I messaged Haleem the driver warning him his usual entrance road is up for repairs, finally, and giving him a heads-up about another entrance to the development.

And here's the doings. Extra canned goods for the food pantry, this is a permanent part of the planning, apples for mid morning, blueberries and yogurt for desserts, yogurt also for sauces and maybe a bit of pastry.

Chocolate chips and dried cranberries for granola to happen today, tuna for tuna melt, peanut butter to sub for tahini which I don't like. This works in sauces and hummus with the chickpeas you see there. 

The garlic paste you saw recently is working well, anywhere garlic is needed. I'm making some good garlic bread -- garlic paste and butter toasted on whole wheat bread. I chunked that up to add to spinach and scallion salad. Some garlic roast potato dice. Maybe garlicky game hen. Hm. 

I expect I'll use it, too,  in the hummus I'm thinking about. Maybe I'll make crackers, using some yogurt, to go with. 

Lunch Thursday was raw spinach torn up, with roasted potato dice, mushrooms and scallions with garlic paste, olive oil and  feta cheese crumbles on top. Dessert was one of those apples, crisp, juicy, just right. 

And I made granola, oats, walnuts, dried cranberries, chocolate chips 

And as usual I'm reading a lot at once, just taking a look at Marc Freedman, How to Live Forever

It's about old people leaving a legacy of teaching, and encouraging younger people.  

I think it's a good thing in itself, but I wonder if that legacy thing is more a male idea. What do you think? I don't think in terms of legacy, and I don't know how commonly women do.

I'm noticing in other books that nonfiction, other than science,  from more than a couple of years ago, doesn't fit with our social reality. Quite a few assumptions don't work any more, in this age of fear and chaos. 

So when I see a publication date a couple of years back I read with a bit more scepticism. So much has changed, not for the better. Our optimism has taken a big jolt.

But this one doesn't date

Just started this. The cat, on loan for two weeks, is prescribed by the unusual therapist as a treatment for burnout in a Japanese corporate job. We'll see how it goes. It's very popular -- long wait. Hm, wonder why..

Out walking, I met a little black and white fluffy barky wagging puppy. That was a Good Thing. 

Happy day everyone, anyway, for now let's never mind legacy, just enjoy today!  Here's a nice picture, sez