Pond walk, timely alert, and a new (old) seasonal craft idea, involving lemons

I was out Friday morning, cold but the sunshine made it great walking to the pond.

Great beech tree tracery and a large stormdowned branch to come home for added decor.

I hadn't checked on Sally Pointer recently -- older blogistas will remember my adventures in Neolithic crafts like cordage, which  I learned from her. I noticed a Neolithic reference in a blog, remembered her, and went to check what she's up to.

She went to Spain, I think, on vacation recently, and did a bit of orange related craft, bergamot boxes, using windfallen fruit from street orange trees. 

You can definitely guess what happened here next. She shows how to make them, starting with fresh fruit, then how to decorate them. This isn't Neolithic, nearer Elizabethan, but she was on vacation!

 

So I went to my current Misfits order and added

The fruit needs to be thick walled, and I have had these before and noticed they had much thicker walls than juicier lemons. The oranges available are thinner walled more fragile varieties, so lemons it is. Watch this space. 

Meanwhile we are under a Santa Watch

Happy day, everyone, look out for flying oranges and Santas.

Misfits and a weaving Discovery

 I started on the second woven lanyard and found a surprising pattern. The first lanyard worked like tapestry, weft faced, mainly I now realize because the warp and weft were the same yarn. And it was quite broad.

When I started working with a much thicker yarn for the weft, this happened 

I love this narrower band, and the birdseye pattern that developed. So cool. Exactly the same warp, same heddle, same plain weave, but the difference was amazing. I can see getting into more of this exploration. 

The width, I think, is a function of how far the heddle is from the working thread. I'm learning a lot. But as you work, you get closer to the heddle and this can affect your width. 

And as you're reaching further to work, you need to roll up the developing band and rethink the heddle position. There's quite a bit of decision making in this apparently simple process.

I heard back from the Knitting ministry, yes they'd like them. So we're on.

Then Misfits arrived, afternoon shift 

Start to finish, which includes sweeping the kitchen floor and flattening and tying the box.

Canned goods for the food pantry, and two bags of apples, I ordered one, but I'm not complaining, chicken thighs, bone-in, good for eventual soup,  spinach and scallions for a salad, peanut butter because the granola bars are becoming a staple, bananas to slice into yogurt. I had to go for fat-free yogurt, my whole milk yogurt was sold out, everyone's catching on.  

I'm doing a lot of roasted veggies these days, with seasalt and olive oil. Just diced and roasted. Lunch today tiny potatoes, diced onion, spinach, broccoli and carrots. I'm definitely adding onion in from now on, a nice flavor lift. Yogurt beaten with lime juice and sugar with blueberries for dessert. 

It's all good. Happy day everyone, it's a good day when you make a discovery.

How does the indoor garden grow, lanyards

 I chilled my Christmas cactus accidentally when I opened the patio door, making it drop its buds, sigh, just when it was going nicely. So I've moved it to the kitchen with that collection, and it's made a couple of new buds.

All the plants in the kitchen are doing well, the ivy sprouting, the wandering dude wandering and even the peppermint which I thought was dead suddenly sprang up when I put ivy in the same pot. My first aid aloe plant, which I use regularly for cooking burns, is happy.  So all's well in the kitchen. It's west facing, and most plants seem to do well.

Meanwhile back in the studio, well the living room where the weaving was set up,  I finished the band weaving for the lanyard. I had crocheted another, and I can stickweave another.

The woven lanyard still needs finishing and joining. Meanwhile I've contacted Sister M. at the Knitting Ministry to ask if she'd like some for the people we're providing with gloves and socks. They're certainly at risk of harassment, I think. If she agrees, I'll send them.

I have more warp threads ready for another weaving, so that will happen.

And the Christmas newsletter from the sisters arrived with a picture of some of the knitted items from the Knitting Ministry. 

The gloves and socks are from your humble blogista. Nice to know they arrived safely.

Happy day everyone, keep warm if you're in the US. Well even the southern hemisphere doesn't seem to be very summery yet.

Chair yoga, tuesday knitting group, Textiles and Tea

Tuesday started with April and Aiko, fifteen minutes of chair yoga great for my stiff neck from sleeping wrong.

Very helpful, too. 

My day starts at the moment by checking in to my online advent calendar, finding the day's elf, arranging flowers on Tuesday, and getting very engrossed in a game about placing gems on a board. I may go into withdrawal when I lose access to this game, just sayin'. 

• Tuesday Knitting Group was large and fun, new members, returning former members. New people included a beginner, and a great knitter, working on yarn she'd spun, with a lot of great projects either worn by participants or in progress or both.

Toad in progress to join frog already finished and played with by a grandchild 

Here are double-knitted mittens in progress and a great cabled sweater in action 

Here's a finished sweater we've seen as it was made, and a better view of the cabled sweater 

Your humble blogger is currently assembling pin woven squares into a shawl, with many helpful suggestions..

New member here knitting alpaca and her handspun, see that ball? She's an accomplished spinner and knitter

Here's a keen beginner on her first project 

And a total beginner getting to grips with crochet 

Here's the start of tacking the woven pieces into a draft shape, ready to attach together 

And here's what I was wearing today, the spun, plied, knitted woven vest you lived with me through several years ago. The picture is me cracking up at my attempt to show you the back. 

I spun and plied the yarn with my trusty Schacht spindle, knitted the sections following Sarah Swett's slanted concept, then wove the yokes using a cardboard loom I cut to size. The reason I wove was to keep the shape of the heavy wool vest, and in fact it has done that, no sagging nor stretching out.

Conversation ranged over many subjects, often several at once, Quebec hotels, Lyft, selling cars, English vs Continental style knitting, wheel vs spindle spinning, our exhibit, art, bequests, cats assisting in fiber arts, and more. 

Speaking of our exhibit at the library, here we are 

Embroidery, Tunisian crochet, knitting, beading, so many great things. We decided we're wonderful.

Home to Textiles and Tea with 

A raku potter and wet felter who combines both forms in her art. These pieces are bigger than you might think at first sight.

She created these hug scarves as gifts,  at a time when people had given her a lot of help.

This is an unusual combination of the potter's art with the felter's art. The flowers are felted and sit like lids on top of the raku pots, and can be lifted off just like lids. She's getting more into acrylic clay in addition to earth clay, to use for fine detail. As you see, she loves color. 

Typically she makes wet felt projects indoors in winter and raku firing outdoors in summer. Well, if you've done raku, with the smoke and burning paper and all, yes it's an outdoor pursuit.

Happy day, everyone, another great Tuesday happened. Just go with it. Or lie down for a few minutes.