Misfits and cherry blossom

Today Gary's weeping cherry burst out and cheered up a cold grey day.

And Misfits arrived, Robert in charge 

Missing from the picture because I didn't notice it in the bottom of the box is a package of shredded mozzarella. Also missing because they didn't send it is another can of pureed pumpkin, for which I got a refund.

I splurged on Better than Bouillon because I'd heard good things, and I'll be parboiling all the potatoes ready to roast, some for whenever Handsome Son is free for Easter. I have other vegetables ready, green beans, corn, mushrooms for our dinner and he'll provide some meat and dessert. Probably ham, it seems to be the time.

Back at the counter, cashews to make a cream sauce with penne, sauce from Young Man Cooking. I'm planning to bake this, too, and add in to the Easter fare, a first. 

Cans for the food pantry as usual. The bag's getting heavy, so I'll get it in next week.

Lovely Envy apples, they're a favorite if I can't get gala or Rockits. Blueberries to go with yogurt, or anything really. 

If you look at the picture of the pink truck arriving you'll see shrubs across the street which my neighbor conferred with me about, pruning out the winterkill, since the landscapers don't get pruning. I thanked her for her service. 

The socks are coming along and I'm vowing not to do this pattern ever again, ever.  

It's been a learning experience and I'm going back to my regular patterns after this, less stress and sturm and drang.

Happy day everyone, and send good thoughts to blogger Mitch, whose two old cats, Dudo and Moose,  have crossed over, after a long and wonderful life with Mitch and partner. Hard day for them all.

Busy day at the protest stand, all the time.

Not feeling great this morning, kind of low in energy, but work called.

I wrote to my State Senator Linda Greenstein, currently Assistant Majority Leader, requesting that NJ join the part of WHO which attends to outbreak alerts. Only sovereign nations can have full membership, but states and New York City have joined this section of WHO so as to have early warnings. 

Then it was a note to the great Daily Beans podcast, usually excellent on research, who fell down this morning on Talarico.

He's running for Senate from Texas, in a Democratic primary against the great Jasmine Crockett. But, big but, he's been taking GOP pac funds, and lied about it.  His campaign says he's running as a Democrat but not allied to the party (!) 

He's a potential Sinema or Fetterman, and they have not understood this yet. Talking about him as if he's the second coming.  No, he's just another mediocre white male Republican plant, getting too much attention. Well, now they know. 

And then I signed on to ACLU to add to the names they're taking to the April 1 (no joke) case they're arguing before SCOTUS  It's in defence of birthright citizenship, which T***p has been attacking since Day One.

 

 

If you're a member you'll probably already have received this email with the link to sign on. If not you can find them online and do so.

Anyway all this happened before I showered and cut my hair. I'm feeling better on all counts now. Apologies to readers outside the US for this domestic policy-heavy post.

Knit on

Act Blue, Rockit apples, and knitting capers

I waited till some thawing happened on the sidewalk before I went out today. We're in the thaw, run, freeze sequence and yesterday I had to be very cautious because of sudden ice patches too wide to step over  The wind both days was icy, so no pictures. Just out, walk, home to tea and cake.

More signing and writing today, aside from thanking my elected representatives for standing fast about Homeland security.

I wrote this today to the execs of YouTube and Google. Note the threat. 

No business is too big to disregard its consumers. I already use anything other than G as a search engine, best I can manage now. And I've been steadily complaining about AI fraud to YouTube. I'm hoping enough people push back on ads for ICE recruitment to make them think twice. It worked with Spotify.

The sponsor of this campaign is Act Blue, fyi. IYKYK. 

Recently someone asked me what IYKYK means! A true meta moment.

And about Rockit apples, take yet another bow, NZ!

I wondered if gala apples were involved, another favorite. They're crisp and juicy and not tart. I can't do tart apples. Anything with crisp in its name makes my face go all painful. Pink Lady, too. Just doesn't work. But Rockits rock.

And an update on the knitting. As usual I find that the better the yarn quality, the easier on my hands. 

This pattern really is designed for circulars which I currently don't have, so I had a good time figuring out how to compensate.  As usual, modular design rules. I also knew the starting yarn wouldn't be enough, so I'm recruiting a related one to add in.

You Are Here

At this point if I had circulars, I'd add 49 stitches at each side. Then I'd knit all of them for four more inches 

As you see, the current 117 stitches are already a crowd. So I really enjoyed coming up with a plan. This is not about making do, it's about finding another solution. 

So I plan to knit on for the four inches, then cast off. That will complete the middle section. Then I'll cast on two lots of 49 stitches on these same needles, each with a yarn supply and knit both for four inches. This will keep the size working and the yarn well distributed. 

Then I'll stitch or crochet the three pieces together.  Ta-daah. 

At least that's the plan.

Happy day everyone, you can figure things out if you just breathe.

Sez Ted, Big Ursy and Pony 

 

New knitting for me

I started this long shaped scarf with this yarn. I've made several of these for other people!  My turn, thanks to R for reminding me I can have nice things.

 I'm adapting the pattern to use straight needles because I don't have a circular. Maybe I once did when I made this before.

Anyway 

Happy camper here. I just wanted to explain a bit about my hand issues, in case you're getting the impression I'm smiling through pain. 

My hands don't hurt. They tire, the tissue is old and worn away with decades of close work. So the tendons jump and jolt a bit, and my fingers jam,  which makes fine work tricky. But it's all good, not complaining here.

I switch to whichever fiber art is easier at the time, good thing I have choices.

And today I got my home insurance bill. It's doubled since last year. I put in a message to the agent asking what? 

I suspect wo things have happened. Rates have risen and I've cancelled my auto insurance which I had had bundled with the home insurance to get a better rate. But I still think it's spite!

In the same mail I got the form which I can use to apply for several real estate tax and homeowner rebates at once. Good, I'll need it. 

I pressed all my electeds today to hold fast against $$ for ICE, and to vote down the SAVE and MEGA bills. That was before dawn, catching them early. 

And I thanked Booker for voting against the bad crypto bill. Good to catch them doing something right.

There's always something to dance about. 

Simple stuff like today was in the 30s f, so I got a walk. It was the maiden voyage of The Boots I stretched and have been practicing with at home before launching them. They move differently from shoes because of being up around my ankles, so I have to get used to it.

Enjoy your day sez

Ted, Big Ursy and Bad Pony! 

Cold, so indoor things happened

this is why I didn't go out. I did listen to podcasts, while I made peanut butter granola bars 

I make them a bit differently each time. This time the syrup ingredient was honey and a bit of molasses,. I added in cacao nibs, a dash of ground flaxseed, and pumpkin spice. 

Breakfast bars, so much easier than toast..

And I read more of the Yorkshire mystery with Inspector Blades agonizing his way through another murder.

Knitting happened and I'm beginning to think there's enough yarn for a small cowl, but I have a Plan B, anyway.

Then I suddenly fancied doing a bit of spinning, very inexpertly, with a bandaid on my sore thumb, and lack of practice.

Various bits of unlabeled roving, some easier to manage than others. It's not all about the spinner -- some roving is friendlier than others. Also some is better suited to needlefelting than to spinning.  

Disclaimers aside, I'm not a very good spinner, hands too cool and slippery to handle roving well. It slips through my hand.  But I like doing it, so there's that.

These activities are good for anxiety. When you feel tuned into history, spinning as women have for centuries,  you feel less distraught about now. My theory anyway. 

Happy day everyone, what's your equivalent to fiberarts for self care?

Shoveling light rain, banana bread, clothes wash

The forecast was for light rain. Then

11am 

Noon

Still going. Local police now advising inches of snow, roads are slippery, many collisions reported. Shoveling in progress.

 Meanwhile I had stuff to do 

The makings for banana bread. See the cacao nibs, Wilma? 

And, not to be confused, the makings for laundry soap

The Windex jug is empty,  just a handy gallon container for the mixture. The little wrapped thing next to the funnel is the last of the castile soap, to be grated in.  I don't add scents or color or anything, just a simple mixture. 

And later, after a strengthening cheese and tomato sandwich, here's the rest of the story.

The laundry soap needs 24 hours to cure, the banana bread a few minutes to cool.

In the cooling process I turned the loaf out onto a rack, and made handy discovery.

The rack made handy cutting marks for slicing. How clever.

The knitting is moving along 

The boxes are coming along, one repair almost done. Reveal tomorrow.

Then the plan is a pot of tea, cake and a murderer mystery under a knitted blanket.

Happy day everyone, it's okay to cut straight to the tea and cake, if you're not as driven as some of us.

 

An old idea resurfaces, and a new project

The $$$$ tub to shower idea isn't the only way to go. I checked into various versions, from complete tear out and rebuild, to prefab shower inserts, to revisiting an idea I had years ago.

I wondered if it was possible to just cut into the bathtub wall, remove a section leaving a step over, and cover and waterproof the raw edges. At that time Michael the Talented Artist Contractor was very dubious, and we didn't find anything available on the market to work for us.

Anyway now, years later,  there are quite a few companies doing this work and installing the kit, and I can get it locally, and will definitely investigate the best way to go. 

Like this 

And it's many $$$ cheaper than the reno. So I may be able to get the bathroom retiled and painted without going broke. Anyway that's where the thinking is right now. Old thinking not as impractical as it sounded at the time.

And the current making project consists of continuing one of the items that arrived yesterday.  

If there's enough yarn for a cowl, that's what it will be. If not I'll think again. I also repaired and rebuilt underwear but you probably aren't eager for pictures of that.

Thank you whoever recommended this book

I think it's been made into a movie which I don't plan to see because I've got the characters vividly in mind and I bet the movie won't correspond.

It's a book that's wonderful mostly, a bit chick lit here and there but who cares, it grips, that follows interesting people occupied in and around books, writing, selling, reviewing. 

The action is mainly on Alice Island in New England, hard to get to, largely a summer resort place but the characters live there. Not one of those affluent-family-at-summer-home tropes.  

The literary background is second to their lives, hearts, connections, births and deaths. I really encourage you to read it if like me, you hadn't even heard of it when it was a bestseller.

Happy day everyone, and let me know if you have any info, or experience, on the potential mayhem of the bathtub.

I have deleted the coverage of the nomadic textile presentation after finding the presenter doesn't permit recording. I took that to cover screenshots, too.  Just in case you notice.

About politics -- I don't come to blogland for armchair political opining. So I limit my coverage to a few pertinent actions we can take, and  acknowledgment of what blogistas are doing. I'm involved, not trying to ignore our situation, but not wanting to make more noise.  

I have taken to scrolling past blog posts, nothing personal, that include complete cut and paste of the newsletters I already follow.  Just sayin'.