Gary Telephonicus and weeding

In case you were worried that I might miss Gary, be assured. He called early this morning about some urgent information he'd lost. Also about something he'd done for me, which in fact I'd taken care of after it stopped functioning, no problem.

So I tracked down the info and got back to him to his great relief. And he plans a run over to next door to check into things..

Meanwhile, this morning while the front yard was in shade, I cleared the daylily foliage, and a lot of dayflower spent foliage. This revealed the remains of the flowering Russian sage the landscapers had hacked down which is evidently trying for a comeback.  The area looks much better, less end-of-summer now.

After the exertion, filling two bags with debris, I was too tired to tote them out back to dispose of. 

When I retrieve my energy, I'll do that. They'll dry a bit and get lighter too in the meantime.

Meanwhile I'm very happy with the new knotting,  mainly because I can do it without stressing out my hands. 

The summer of bandweaving and related projects has been a success. I now have skills I didn't have before and projects I didn't have before, and friends now own items they like. It's all good.

Happy day everyone! 

With the rain the air is still bad! And other complaints

Today is in the 70sf, and full of flood and tornado warnings. And the air is still unhealthy, I suppose washing down from the upper atmosphere.

And I'm exploring sock options. Maybe Tunisian crochet? I'm testing whether it's less trying than knitting. I found sock patterns.

Up to now it's a maybe. I've been trying  different ways to manage the thread tension without my hand totally seizing,  with moderate success. I have another idea to try, too.

Meanwhile if you love brilliant satire, Brit and US, take a look at these YouTube writers and actors

The comments on their YouTube channels are hilarious, largely people who don't understand it's acting and think it's someone frankly stating their (highly prejudiced) opinions,  then other people trying to explain! Then exasperation on both sides. A lot of hot air ensues. IYKYK.

My new next door neighbor, long time acquaintance, dropped in yesterday, to return stuff Gary had borrowed, and get me up to date on the move and pandemonium at the new house.  

It seems he's not planning to pick up the big houseplants he left here, hoping I'll keep them. I'll check with him before offering them to the library along with other plants I've given them.  But I'm not being held hostage to a Giant Splitleaf. So there! 

We had a great time taking him apart, both of us devoted to him, heck, she was married to him way back, but with no illusions about how high maintenance he is.  It's so much more peaceful now. I haven't had a single interrupted meal in a week! 

Happy day everyone, try to have interesting friends, then there's NADM.

Clasped weft, and taking it to the post office

Yesterday I was feeling up to weaving, and here's a sequence showing you what this clasped weft idea means. 

I decided to use the frame loom I repaired and it's working just fine, particularly the heddle bar.  I used three colors for the warp, the tan one being some yarn I spun 

Here's the heddle inserted ready to go 

This is how clasped weft works. Two weft threads instead of one, one looped over the other

Then you draw the thread across and it pulls the other color along, to where you decide to stop

You can make all kinds of interesting shapes by simply pulling the second, clasped,  thread over. I made it more complex by using three colors so quite a few different effects happen in what's really a simple piece.

It's a lovely technique which I haven't done for a while. I may make a band using this approach, too.

I had an irruption by Gary last evening wanting me to identify a plant, was it poison ivy? We have a lot, reasonable precaution. We also have a lot of Virginia creeper which he gets confused with it. 

I came out to look, because I'd removed a couple of poison ivy runners from my yard. But his plant, also one he'd seen at a neighbor's house, were something else. 

He's definitely planning on paving me a patio out front in the summer. I think he'll be around here quite a bit.  Meanwhile he gave me his relative/tenant's cell number, and his daughter's.  I've known them both for years but never had their numbers. 

He's now ordering window treatments for s couple of dozen windows. The new house is large! I seized the opportunity to remind him to retrieve his plants when he's ready.

Happy day everyone, I think my four windows and a skylight are enough to handle right now.

Before you go, please go to Marcia's blog New Decade New Chapter New Hampshire, and see yesterday's post. It's birdsbloomsbooksetc on Blogger.

She gives all the details on how to protest the USPS proposed interference in the elections.  You can email or write, in the comment period which ends early July. So please go there, get the info, and do that. 

Great resistance, and thank you, Marcia! Public service!

Elderhood, Tuesday Knitting Group, Textiles and Tea

Current reading is the fascinating 

About aging and the medical profession, it's about getting up to date on the facts of aging rather than the assumptions. It's very readable and with plenty of planning ideas as you notice physician and patient interaction.  

My own doctor is careful not to attribute to age alone any new symptom. She may be unusual in that.

 Before anything else today, please contact all your MOCs to demand they put the brakes on the madman in the white house, lower case while he's in office. They must support the military in refusing illegal orders.

And on immigrant rights, there's a proposal to reduce the deportation appeal period to a clearly impossible 12 days. Please go to Chop Wood Carry Water and use the links Jess provides to make your wishes known, on both issues. Thank you.

Meanwhile an interlude of friendship and civilization, with the Tuesday Needlearts Group.

Here's a familiar WIP 

A camisole in progress, blurry image, wobbly hand

 

This is a marvelous cardigan design of four rows mohair, four rows fine wool

The baby blanket in progress

Toad has a body!

Here's a spiral sock in progress, using the knitter's handspun yarn.

Much laughter, and sharing of projects and advice,much of it conflicting (!) and the book above which I've requested my library to acquire.

And here's great new library program 

Talk ranged over everything except the news, since everyone needed a respite. It includes travel, Malta, sweet woodruff, cotton seeds, which I shared around for planting, aging, taxes, Easter hunts, high school reunions, tatting, health, auto shows, crime fiction and more. 

Textiles and Tea presented 

He's an innovative weaver in many weaving patterns and approaches, ikat where he dyes both warp and weft, waffle weave, wet felting, paper weaving, framing, dyeing. He exhibits, sells and carries out commissions. He's also a full-time middle school art teacher lucky kids. 

Here's his home studio, from which he was speaking today 

 

And a wet felting project his students made

Above commissioned pieces in a restaurant, below massive ceiling panels woven in cotton 

Here's adventurous weave patterns 

Ikat, where he paints both warp and weft in a freewheeling style 

Definitely an art teacher everyone should have!  Check his website.

Happy day everyone, I certainly had one,, complete with a Gary irruption wanting advice on a new hoodie with a transfer image which separated from the fabric when he tried it on. I undertook to stitch it.

Mary Wesley, instant soup and all change

 I just finished a great Mary Wesley, they're all great, that atmosphere she creates immediately, that surrounds you to the end of the novel.

I also like the way her characters wander in and out of each other's stories. Here Calypso, from Chamomile Lawn, has a cameo, and her son, Hamish plays a small but important part in this story. It's like Barbara Pym, where someone is described and the reader knows them from having read the novel where they were leading characters. You feel you have the inside track. 

This one is about recovering from crushing grief and the loss of a child, trigger alert in case you don't want to go there, and people plunging about trying to make life work with varying degrees of success. 

It's set mainly in London with a quick business trip to the US, and some excursions into the country. And there's a lurcher. I'm always game for a lurcher 

There's also a little echo here and there of Margery Sharp, the rangy, unconventional heroines, the men whose appearance is nothing like their inner longings, the rough trade that appeals surprisingly to some conventional women. I wonder if Wesley read Sharp. 

Wesley published her first novel at 70, so I expect there was a lot of reading in her life before then. And some of her writing comes from her lived experience with her own family, uncaring and callous to her, but paid out in her fiction, maybe after their deaths.

The storm seems to be coming to nothing much. The library closed because of the declared state of emergency, cancelling our art opening, and I cancelled my dental checkup. Then I thought I may as well cancel the cancellation, and found my dentist, who evidently works Sundays, had already reassigned the slot. 

He'll call with an appointment for the same day. Gary, who's driving me,  assures me no problem, Monday is flexible for him, so it will work. I was being courteous, not wanting to cancel last minute, but oh well. 

Lunch was soup, made from the rest of the chickpeas, tomatoes and spinach from that pasta dish. All heated together, worked fine. Canned mango chunks and yogurt, beaten with lemon juice and sugar for dessert. Easy, A noncooking day.  Another can of mango goes to the food pantry. I think someone will like it.

There being no rain, I caught up on walking, A nice half hour. It's surprising how soon your strength falters when you don't walk daily.  Weight training Sunday evening.

This account was interrupted by Gary rushing in with a pot of boiled eggs, to practice shelling them! 

He's been working on his eggs lately, unfamiliar with boiling and shelling them successfully. Many consultations! I think he's cracked (!) it now. He's very happy. I'm encouraging him to buy free range, easier to work with, more nutritious etc.  

He suddenly said "I'm going to go nuts when I don't live next door to you! So many questions answered." I think there may be a lot of calls after he moves, what with plants, cooking, medical decisions, the gamut.

Happy day everyone, teach your grandma to shell eggs, sez Ted and Big Ursy.

And resist 

See Portland's brilliant turnout for further information on the frog.

And a Happy Thanksgiving, Canajuns!