Katheryn Howard, Izzies and cake!

 Yesterday brought a gift from a lovely lady, so welcome. Fruitcake! I love fruitcake, and anyone who doesn't perhaps hasn't had  good fruitcake.

At its best eaten Yorkshire-style, with good cheese, here cheddar. And since it's full of nutritious fruit and nuts, it's also breakfast food. Around here, anyway. Thank you!

It's keeping up my strength to knit Izzies, see the first finished of this group, with more to come.

One of the things I like about this is that after you stuff the doll,  you sculpt the shape with needle and thread, and transform it into a little person, hands in pockets. The intended recipients, Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation, have seen this picture and are happy with the proposed dolls.

When I'm not knitting along to Click and Clack, I'm reading another Weir, another doomed Queen

I like the settings Weir describes, how they got around, on horseback or in a litter, so slow, what they wore, the food, and  the whole period ambience, especially the fear, of the King's power and illness against which they had few protections. And they were all so young, marrying in their early teens, grandparents by their thirties  sometimes. It's a gripping world to enter.

Happy day,  everyone, misfits arrives later today with ordinary food, no fruitcake, but I'm already supplied.

Winter is icumen in, and Car Talk

This was yesterday morning, first snow of the season. My walk later was brisk, icy wind, happy to get home and warm.

Today's in the thirties, tops. Oh. 

And here's my latest podcast find. I used to love NPR's Click and Clack, long gone now,  and found out yesterday that there's a podcast to accompany my knitting.

This and The Daily Fail, and How to be Fine will complete my podcast requirements.

And here's yesterday's Textiles and Tea with a rugweaver who loves upcycling old cotton and linen fabrics. He's a beloved teacher, judging from the masses of wishes and memories in the comments, working in the building you see below. He's also written several well loved books.

It was a cheerful episode, and he's clearly a good teacher, refraining from the thicket of technicalities many guests plunge into. They assume they're speaking to experts, and forget that it's intimidating to the eager beginners in the audience to blind them with terminology, and might put them off completely. 

He didn't do this, translating weaverspeak into everyday language as he went. He's also a spinner, and promised to come back and talk about that, since it never got into this session.

Happy day, everyone, weave on, spin on, knit on! Metaphorically for most of us.

Success! Yarn appears!

Yesterday, after I received several kind offers of yarn from generous freecycling people too far away to warrant the trip, another response arrived in my email box. This was from a freecycler five minutes' drive away, really interesting woman, great to meet. 

She had a bag of bright colored yarn left from a marvelous mitred-square Afghan, which she showed me, and she searched around a bit , coming up with a skein of possible face-color brown, yay.  We had a convo about kits, helpful cats, and I left so pleased, to get going right away winding the brown yarn, and knitting up a bright color on the current doll.

The brown yarn was translated by my camera into grey, who knows why.

Seen here three dolls in search of faces and hats. The new colors are so cheerful to work with, I think kids will like them. You'll see soon how these flat bits of work become dolls.

I was just reading  in Aeon about what constitutes being an adult, with various criteria, such as self supporting, marriage, parenthood, and wondered if an old lady getting all excited about colored yarn to play with can possibly qualify!

Happy day, everyone, do you consider yourself adult? Is it a desirable state? How to classify it.. I don't think much of the marriage and parenthood bits. It seems very possible to be a fully fledged adult, I know quite a few, to whom those  don't apply. I wonder if there are other better criteria.

The ceasefire is extended a bit more. I'll take it, if it means a bit more relief all around, to the Gazan  civilians and the hostages.  

Photo AC

who probably had no idea how much mileage I'd get from this little light photo when he gave me permission to use it.

Jennie, and the little cactus that could

You know how I knit socks and gloves for the special project, and send my work off to a community of sisters, to be added in to their work? Here's where it goes! This is Jennie, the convent resident dog, in chapel with one of the sisters. I met her, well, both of them, when I stayed there with a guild group learning gold work embroidery.

She turned up this week in her own right on Twitter, on one of the few accounts I still check in there, a weekly roundup of video of dogs and their stories. And here's one I've met!

left to right, presenter inset, Jennie, Sister.  There's also a black and white cat, and for many years,  a pony, Pony, a real mischief maker, quite a character. There's a book about him now.

And the Thanksgiving cactus is really coming through

I notice that even when a plant is small, it produces full-size flowers. This one's doing well, more buds there. I'm always surprised when the pink buds become bright coral flowers.

I made a freecycle request for yarn, and got a couple of offers, too far away to be practical for pickup, but kind anyway. Meanwhile I can knit partial dolls then add on the faces and hats when I get face-colored yarn.

Father Dowling continues to entertain me, with those huge cars, skidding round corners. I learned to drive long ago in a V8, and have never really got used to smaller cars since. I still  expect half a mile of metal in front of me! My current car could sit on the hood of a V8. 

Happy day, everyone, if your knitting supplies, real or metaphorical, are incomplete in any sense, it's the human condition!

More hostages released in Gaza, and Israel's minister acknowledged it's a Biden truce, not a Netanyahu truce. Take that, people who think he's a weak Presidential candidate!  He's one of the best presidents we ever had. And you know why people whine that he's too old? It's because she's black.

The old is new again, and upcoming events prep

Last evening I finally got around to watching some Father Dowling, the brand-new-in-shrinkwrap DVDs I found at the library sale.

And found they're really fun. Steve, the nunly sidekick, is a great tearaway character. It's old fashioned, people don't move and talk that way now, but still good. I never even heard of this series before, not being a TV watcher.

Yesterday saw the last of the Thanksgiving veggies plus spinach, turned into an omelet, with plenty of long red pepper ground in.

After the spinach cooked down to practically nothing, as it does, I added the eggs with peas and corn, and that worked fine. And I turned off the burner.

I ordered a book of year long daily poems for my upcoming birthday, and will start the reading on the appropriate day. Accompanied by favorite treats.

The Australian offering looks like a relative of sponge candy which I love and rarely find in affordable amounts. I couldn't remember the term sponge, and spent quite a while online searching foam (!) and finding many references to styrofoam, none edible, before the right word showed up.

At this point I'm grandly planning on one piece per daily poem. We'll see.

Meanwhile, back in the knitting arena, I found the unfinished doll

On a stitch holder and thought ah, next it needs a face, I'll just check for right colored yarn. Then I found out why it's on the stitch holder. No face colored yarn in the house. Oh.  I'll get some bits of yarn from the stash at the library on Friday then, and continue. 

These Izzy comfort dolls are what I'm planning to make for children living on  a native American reservation out west. poor pictures from a while back, but you get the idea, and the size.

The Izzy doll has a moving history, which you can check. I've made dozens of these for AIDS orphans in Africa, used as packing for the medical lab glass shipped to AIDS clinics in Africa by ICROSS Canada. Then the postage got prohibitive and I switched to the more local Sock Ministry, but I'm taking a side trip into dolls just now. Once I get my yarn sorted, that is.

Happy day, everyone, whatever day it is, don't ask me, I'n still confused by the US holiday.

Granola, yogurt, and freecycle

Yesterday was about returning to hippie food. Granola and yogurt happened. Enough for about a week of power eating.

Breakfast for now, though, is cranberry sauce on toast. When you think about it, cranberries, sugar and lemon juice really make jam. That's my reasoning anyway.

I also ordered a couple of treats ahead of time for various December events, pictures when they arrive.

And, partly as a response to the national law that requires people to shop the day after Thanksgiving, I went my contrarian way and freecycled some artworks. 

They've all been exhibited, the ink drawing in a fairly prestigious juried show, and they've run their course with me. The recipient was happy, so that's better than sitting in my loft.

Elsewhere, Liz Hinds, see her blog, she's lovely, writes occasionally about absent mindedness, reminding(!) me of a recent attempt I made to boil an egg for tea. 

I put the little pan of water in to boil, forgot to set the timer, and went away. Arrived back later to a hissing noise, a skim of water, spitting as it dried. Just in time to avoid burning the pan. Which was okay, as it turned out, because I'd also forgotten to put an egg in.

Happy day, everyone, when you boil an egg remember to add the egg.

Photo AC

Post Tday thoughts, visible mending, and color change

Another Thanksgiving, thankfully conducted our way, reminds me to talk about Thanksgiving as an immigrant. In our first couple of years, we were invited out, as newcomers happily learning about this unknown occasion. 

Then, like newlyweds wanting to start their own tradition, we eventually embarked on doing it ourselves, and inviting guests. I was interested in taking initiative, as members of both sides of my family had made the same journey I did, ship from Liverpool to New York harbor, in the 1850s, so I thought it was time for me to get going.

We reckoned without the indignation of several people who called to invite us. Far from being pleased they'd got us onto our own feet and modeled Thanksgiving for us, they were annoyed that we were hosting for ourselves, one even saying you can't do that, you're a guest! I even got a call  one year as I was serving up our table, complete with guests, demanding that we come over, because I probably had nothing prepared. Ah. Interesting insight there.  And there were others. I never quite fathomed what was going on, and if you can surmise, please do.

And then there are the people who, when I was widowed, invited me, saying you may as well come, nobody will notice one more! Ah again!  I think that was just an awkward way of saying it was no problem to add a guest. Except that I had a son, not part of the math. People do clumsy things with good intentions and comic results!

The Thanksgiving cactus came through

It's such a transformation from the pink buds to the coral color when they open, never fails to surprise me. That was a Christmas gift from my cleaning family last year, great gift.

And while I'm thinking about making things,  the skirt awaiting ideas, the socks finished, the comfort dolls awaiting yarn the right color for faces, I did some visible mending.

This sock is getting to be more darn than sock at this point. Here showing the other recent repair, too.

Speaking of what's going on, next time anyone tries to say we have a President who's old, a weak (they should try his schedule, it would kill them) candidate, show them these accomplishments. Not even a full term, and too many to fit in one screenshot

He also did a family Polar Bear dip yesterday. 

Happy day, everyone, enjoy your Friday, no knitting group this week, on the assumption everyone will be lying about like pythons after yesterday's feasting. 

Happy thanksgiving, if it applies. Or Thursday.

 Yesterday we had a lovely afternoon, the food was simple: precooked turkey slices, tender and very good, heated up with baby preroasted tricolor potatoes, with peas and corn, steamed, cranberry sauce. Cheese and crackers. Pumpkin pie, baked at the store, whipped cream fired from a can. All easy, still with leftovers, low labor. 

He asked after Pink Rabbit (predictive text thinks that should be Floyd), and went up to my bedroom to see her on the baby rocker with the bears. While he was there he kindly adjusted my shower stools, two, one in each bathroom, which I use outside the shower. 

They were both a bit low, different height from the ADA -compliant toilet and the bathtub sides, but right for Handsome Partner, for whom I installed them. I think this is a safety issue, so he raised both to match the fittings. 

This involved wrestling with pliers to pop the leg-adjusting buttons which had been in place for years and were beyond my strength to press hard enough. I suggested silicone dabbed on with a qtip, and that and brute force did the trick.  Much easier to rise from now.

So I'm thankful for a  good son who doesn't mind doing a safety job on a holiday. 

After he'd left, I finished my socks

Which are much redder and less purple than the camera thinks.

While I knitted I listened to the rest of an old favorite in a new recording on YouTube

 I like this because it has a couple of my favorite female characters, the Sharpes, mother and daughter, the wrongly accused, very independent, and nonconformist. They're not unlike my other favorite, Catherine Oliphant from Less than Angels, for similar reasons.

Now the knitting is done, I think, after a day off to rest my neck, just in case, I might make a few comfort pocket dolls for children. I've made many of these in the past and I think there's even one on the needles somewhere. I'll keep you updated. 

So while Handsome Son was here, we planned for him to visit mid December and cook me lunch for my birthday,  then get out my small bag of Christmas decorations to set up. Lunch is  going to be garlicky chicken breast and mozzarella on toasted long rolls whose name escapes me, a special request from me. It's my birthday present.

And I did a selfie, complete with the official Good Pearls, to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving, or happy Thursday, whichever applies. Rayez ce qui est inutile. One of my favorite French bureaucratic commands -- delete that which is inapplicable!

But do have a happy day. I plan to.