Bracelet undergoes reassignment, buds

So much cooler, windows open today.

After hours of torrential rain and flood warnings, though long-term we're in a drought, I got out briefly on the deck to show you a couple of things.

The little flower that came up right next to the gatepost turns out to be a coreopsis, tiny flowers with big color. There was one last year around here, so this may be its offspring.

And since it started raining again and I didn't want my phone wet, I quick took a couple of bud pictures 

The hibiscus is definitely going to pass last year's three blossom total 

And the zinnias will soon be ready to pick a couple for little bouquets. One there on the left may be red, always interesting to study daily. I planted only the dwarf ones this year, probably better for pots.

The potatoes are all going well, but too rainy to add their picture. All in all, pretty hopeful.

On the craft front, I declared the bracelet, if not done, as done as it's going to get, braided one end and it's now a handy scissor fob. 

I learned that perle cotton isn't good for this kind of project, too resistant to knotting, just slips away and tries to come undone. I've learned a lot one way and another. Still going, though. I'll try just embroidery floss.

Also still waiting for the antibiotics to arrive. Promised for Monday but who knows, holiday weekend. I need them in hand before I call the dentist about the tooth which has crumbled further, since I take them one hour before appointment. 

However nothing's really hurting, just some pressure, which might also be sinus reaction to the weather. So I'm trying to stay calm and occupied, and I'm starting another bracelet or something without the perle cotton and we'll see. 

I did some weaving this morning, always nice to have the loom ready to do a few inches.

 I've been amusing myself with puzzles online, mainly the math kind where the comments fill with furious arguments about the terms of the puzzle and how there's a better answer etc.  It's amazing how worked up nerds can get 

I'm pretty good at spotting puzzles that ask for logic rather than computation and usually know when there's not enough information to derive an answer. And the trick ones, like the one my teacher gave us and I've never forgotten from age 11.

We were doing mental arithmetic where she read out the question and we promptly  either shot up our hands or clasped our heads depending on aptitude.

It was a rapidfire addition which I'll improvise:

What's 3x6x4x8x2x8x5x6x0?    Some kids got the joke because she rattled out the number and dwelt on the zero. Some panicked after the first couple, some zoned out. It pays to listen to the end. 

While we're at it, how long is the 92nd Psalm? 

See end for answers if I remember to insert them 

Happy day everyone, unclasp your head if it applies, the world's full of puzzles. My nephew, the one I taught the macrame bracelet too, was a dab hand when younger at questions. What color is blue? How high is up? You know the sort of thing.

Answers:

Zero.  And a minute and a half. Sez Ted and Big Ursy and Pony and Ursula 

Blessed cool, bracelets and Lively

So much cooler today, and tomorrow more so.  Last night we had lashing rain and high winds with thunder and lightning. 

I looked out to see the solar lantern swinging wildly back and forward as the Japanese maple was whipped about.    Both looked fine this morning.

I even got a bit of gardening done, pulled out and disposed of a lot of vines which were choking shrubs out front. Evidently the torrid weather just suited them. 

And I made a little bouquet.

Daisies, lemon balm, wandering dude, English ivy.  The daisies are a bit tired after the heat. But there are plenty of zinnia buds, and the hibiscus looks promising, with multiple buds. Out front the little patch of black eyed susans is budding up. And the daylilies are about halfway through blooming.

Today's reading is a great, if harrowing, Penelope Lively. Note you can choose your spelling.

It's thoughtful, unsparing, analytical and prime Lively.

And I am determined to get the hang of the bafflement of the easy, easy, beginner, your cat could do it, knotted bracelet.

I have finally found out what's getting between me and succeeding. These are points none of the videos mention. I think they seem so obvious they don't think about it.

One, you need the right thread. My weaving cotton wasn't very knottable. Now I'm trying a mixture of perle cotton and embroidery floss, working better. If I had more perle thread I'd use it. Paracord, of which I have none, might be even better. 

Two, nobody shows exactly how to tighten the knots. I made the mistake of tugging both ends equally, which made the knots lopsided and pulled the wrong color to the surface. Once I grasped that you hold the anchor thread firm, and slide the other thread up while tightening it, things improved.

Three nobody explains the path of the thread as it travels across, in the candy stripe design. Does it go over or under the last thread?  I got this eventually, on bracelet three, which you see. 

Four, this was my own mistake I invented, I kept forgetting which was the traveling thread and started moving the wrong one before I realized this. This is how threads get all out of order and you can't make stripes, and you get a lot of practice in unknotting.

I have developed some expertise in unknotting at this point and I'm bloated with pride that I have, by George, finally got the candy stripe design, more or less.

Wobbly but more recognizable. Diagonal stripes are emerging. And I'm finding knotting isn't hard on my hands, a big plus.

Happy day everyone, it's okay not to get it right away. Anyway that's my story.

She's right, you know, sez Ted and Big Ursy and Pony and Ursula.

Quiet Fourth

Quiet hot day, Handsome Son visited and we snacked and chatted.

Text exchange among knitters, missing each other.

I drew a bit 

Made another wobbly bracelet, my knots still not quite there. 

Napped in the afternoon.  

Just a peaceful day, the kind I wish on all people of good will.

Happy Fourth, ready to take back my flag and fly it again as I resist the regime that dragged it down.

To hot to talk about and other set backs

Today being the hottest day since Adam blamed Eve for the weather, I decided to try my hand at friendship bracelets to take my mind off it. Which it did. 

First I did a few inches of the current weaving which I know how to do. Then I set up threads for an eight thread bracelet project.

These are not the actually easy ones we used to make way back. These are described as easy and to judge from the YouTube comment, other people were as baffled as I about the paths of the threads. Also how you follow every step and your threads don't end where the video says.

After numerous tries and retries, I finally emerged with a simplified, three thread, version of the easy (!) one, which would fit a hamster, after all the thread loss from false starts.

Here's the belt to date and the threads organized for the first of many attempts.

And here's the output. I'm not done yet but I wouldn't say I was an adept beginner.

All this was happening against the background of Gary rushing in to borrow a tool, I think he's at the stage where whatever he needs is at the other house, and FedEx dumping off a huge parcel, a neighbor jumping in to ask should he bring it in out of the hot sun, and my saying it's not mine. I checked the name -- future tenant next door!He made FedEx come back and move it to their step.

Throughout I was trying to get my right ear hearing aid to work.  I tried everything I knew, cursing this happening on a holiday, audio closed, and after resetting it twice, plugging unplugging, having it work several times briefly,  finally got it fully charged, and it's held up all day.

All good,  until I suddenly felt something in my mouth a while ago that wasn't food, and found a section of a molar had fallen off around an old filling. 

It doesn't hurt, good, because holiday weekend, but I quick ordered the antibiotics I have to take before dental visits, to be shipped Monday. They say. Monday I'll set up a dentist appointment. 

So this has been more eventful than anticipated. It's taken my mind off the weather anyway.

Happy day everyone, I guess. 

 

Hotter plus Misfits and pens

 I'm indoors, weaving, reading, dealing with Misfits.

My pens arrived and a little set of watercolors.

But first, Misfits

Canned food to share with the food pantry, yogurt to go with fruit, extra spinach for salads and quiches, beautiful eggs likewise, cherries because they're great this year, scallions for salads.

One thing about organic clean fresh produce is that the scallions and onions are pungent, short path from field to knife. These are literally as sharp scented if I'd just picked them.

Tiny chocolate chips for cake purposes, extra bananas likewise, parsley for everywhere, apples just in time, I'd run out, tuna for tuna melt or salad, coffee, double order because it's not always available so one's an insurance policy.

Jeff was out in the weather you note above. I need to add to his tip.

Then I tried out a pen. I really like these fine tip black pens and these glide very well on the slightly toothed paper. 

The Christmas cactus posed for me. 

The paper is pure white but my phone insists it's really beige..

Happy day everyone, a bit of weaving and a bit of reading and a lot of lying about comes next. 

The Durham Weaver from whose book I'm learning narrow patterned bandweaving, suddenly started friendship bracelets, unlikely for her, and gave a great YouTube channel for learning them.

Not your middle school patterns! Watch this space.

Happy day everyone, keep cool, be nice if possible, I know, not easy, sez Ted and Big Ursy and Pony and Ursula.

Hot

 White rabbits!

I watered all the plants early this morning after one of those two-sleep nights. 

It's where you wake at 3am, ready to get up, have a snack, make coffee, read, listen to an audiobook, then go back to bed. 

Then get up again a few hours later, for a second breakfast and a shower.  Except for the shower, people used to sleep this way. The idea of staying in bed all night is fairly modern.

I'll probably water the plants again this evening, though the humidity is in the fifties, not drying them out.

Very quiet day of reading about the Tudors, bit of weaving 

I'm liking how this is working. Definitely getting a bit of experience in managing warp threads and keeping them uncrossed. 

The shuttle is a pleasure to work with, too, much better than the usual blunt ones I've had. And this weaving doesn't bother my hands at all, unlike knitting. 

I did a bit of painting but found, shock, horror, I have no pilot pens. I use them for writing as well as drawing and I think they're all used up. So I ordered a supply. It took a couple of tries to find a source that didn't charge more for shipping than for the item.

All the daylilies are in bloom everywhere just now so I have to mark that.  This is watercolor crayons and graphite pencil.

Happy day everyone, off to make a roast chicken sandwich with a green salad for supper. Tomorrow Misfits arrives with fruit and other things I'm out of now. I have great sympathy for the drivers this week, brutal heat.

Billie the Pup wonders if these are the dog days. To her every day is a dog day.