Textiles and Tea, tapestry, sock start

I started a sock for the Sock 'n Glove Ministry, while listening to the latest Contrarian, with founders Jen Rubin and Norm Eisen discussing the felon's current edicts. Reliable reporting coupled with making. A win.

Another day of excitement, Gary taking all kinds of trouble to get me a battery, so now we hope it's done. He wants to take it to the dealership to get them to tighten it in place better, so I'm good with that. Some technicality about the terminals.

And Textiles and Tea brought Molly Elkind, a former tapestry weaver now weaving in paper, after a shoulder injury stopped her tapestry work.

She uses 140lb water color paper, painted then sliced into strips then overpainted then rewoven. Definitely worth visiting her website. 

I used to do paper weaving, with paintings and photographs, and taught a couple of community classes at the library to kids. They love paper weaving, worth it to try if you have grandchildren. 

Even quite young children can manage it if you tape down the  top of the strips to keep them still. I used my little paper shredder, which cuts strips with sawtooth edges, very handy for keeping the strips snugly together.

Happy day, everyone, get weavin'!

Battery time, soup, Frederica and Pepys

The car died again, we jumped it again, I decided I needed a new battery.  Gary may help with that this week. Meanwhile the car's down the street out of the way of the truck coming to pick up the pod from his house.

Handsome Son tells me AAA might be able to replace the battery on the spot, so that might be worth investigating. I must admit to feeling a bit defeated at the moment, just not enough energy, emotional or physical, to deal with the cold weather and attendant issues. 

In my seventies this would have been very manageable, but once you get past eighty, things are very different, including the energy available to cope. I do continue with what exercise I can manage, to try to maintain strength.

One really useful one is getting out of a chair without using your hands,  then lowering yourself veeeeery slowly back down to a sitting position. It's like squats, and is vital to keep your legs working if they currently do. 

I do about ten of these in a set, and various stretches and balancing things at odd times. Usually waiting for the microwave is a good moment for a tree pose and other moves, with counters handy just in case.

Meanwhile, spinach, cilantro and potato soup, yogurt stirred in for a lovely tangy flavor. Toasted multigrain on top.

And I realized I've had Pepys' Diary on my Kindle since December 2020, probably a plan to do some serious winter reading which didn't get very far. Giving it another push now.

He mentions a lot of names, which are instantly explained in brackets, and hold up the narrative flow to a trickle. This part is happening during the upheavals of the Rump Parliament, around the restoration of the monarchy, and his undramatic recital covers a very dangerous and dramatic time to be living in London.

He still makes a point of describing his outfits and meals, though, and continues to enjoy his life despite all. So I'll push on a bit.

and for comic relief there's Frederica, with some of the funniest scenes ever, the best being the passage where someone actually does object to a marriage, cries out for video!

Happy day, everyone!

My salute to Ukraine today is to its fiber arts, here the exquisite white work

Not reducing the size here. This is from the blog Fils et Aiguilles