Resistance reading, Tuesday Knitting group and Textiles and Tea

Today's resistance involves reading Malcolm Gladwell 

The gist is that the powerful figures of our time aren't as fearful as they seem. And that the smaller people can defeat them. We need to remember this when it seems the oligarchs are winning.

We have examples from our own experience of resisting. Target,  boycotted by the people, is now struggling, the price of denying diversity and supporting a tyrant. 

Citizens Bank now starving ICE prisons of funding after massive public pressure. There are so many more. They all need us to stay brave and do our bit. None of us is exempt from trying. Wr have more power than we know.

Meanwhile I'm reading Gladwell for tips on strategy as well as encouragement.

The Tuesday knitting group was fun as usual, my bracelets admired and the Ukraine one under way 

Wearing one project while embarking on the next 

The embroidery continues, but she'll soon be teaching again so we'll only see her occasionally 

This work goes on until all the yarn is used up.

Chat ranged over birthdays and death days, Shakespeare productions, cat behavior, baking, age, birth order, socks, travel, quilling, glasses and more.

Home to Textiles and Tea with 

A young New Yorker from Venezuela whose work in textiles expresses resistance, narrative and the impact of economics on the individual. 

She runs community events creating large textile installations, often with braiding, where anyone can show up and participate.

She also creates intuitive woven gallery pieces, with great color sense and high energy. Look for her teaching a workshop in Queens NY in September, and a gallery show in New York in spring 2027.

She's worth following, so young but she's made her mark already in North and South America.

Happy day everyone, Tuesdays are always full of things happening here. 

Departures of a palm and other good things

Yesterday Gary and friend came to collect the tall palm, and the next door tenant seized the chance to make him take another big plant he wanted to leave there. Timing.

The palm is reclining in there, on two seats.

 Shortly to be joined by a large pony palm 

Here's the open space left

And the rearranged plants looking much more compact. I like this.

Meanwhile the wheeled platform I'd made for the tall palm is now reassigned to my  box of weights. They're under the coffee table so that I remember to use them. Now they're movable, too.

This was great. Turns out the other pony palm belongs to me. I thought I only had custody.  So we're all done with the plants.

Then Tuesday Knitting group, and a lively group with new and returning members.

I started a new knotting project with more threads. This could be any width, really. Another participant watches me a while and plans to try this herself.

 

Marvelous sock knitting, expert level, and she's always happy to show beginners how to get going.

Here's the beginning embroiderer, no longer a beginner, doing very well.

This expert knitter is wearing her own work 

So's this one 

Knitting, knotting, crochet, embroidery, all in action.

Talk ranged over cat behavior, afternoon concerts, English pronunciation, poutine, Montreal, social media, Ravelry, early cellphone use, group chat, diamond rings and more.

Then home to a pot of tea, and Textiles and Tea with a fifth generation weaver, closely associated with the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.

Here she is with her granddaughter, another weaver

Here, underneath, an overshot piece woven by her granddaughter, on top an overshot piece woven by her grandmother. 

Here's part of a retrospective exhibit for her 85th birthday 

She makes garments too

 Early pictures of Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts 

She survived the 2016 Gatlinburg Tennessee,wildfires which ravaged large areas and many homes

Her home and car were incinerated, the car melted and running down what had been the driveway. She lost a lifetime of looms, yarn, everything.

In response to my question about recovering from the fire her granddaughter showed pictures of weavings from after the fire, with pieces of the melted car incorporated. 

Frances gave the weavings for permanent holding to a local exhibit venue, just didn't want them around her after she worked through the losses of all kinds 

Look her up, she's a treasure, an artist and weaver, a survivor and a historian, from a long line of similar women.

Happy day everyone. I certainly had one.

Thrill packed Tuesday

The day started with packing a couple of woven items for a friend, to be mailed on the way back from the Tuesday knitting group, which didn't exactly happen, read on.

Since there's a thriftie stop in Wednesday's plan, I needed cash from the bank. Then I realized ah, I can get cash at the PO when I mail the doings. Two in one. 

Meanwhile the Tuesday group met, with projects in knitting, including knitter-spun yarn hand dyed by another knitter, crochet, and embroidery.

Chat roved over home projects -- playhouse for grandchildren, refurbed and painted -- vacation, tech workarounds, tai chi, Stratford Ontario summer theater, paneer, sourdough bread, honesty seeds, mosaic crochet, Izzy dolls, amigurumi, heatwaves, YouTube and more.

Then off to the PO to mail the package and get cash. The poor lady explained nothing was working, computer down, she couldn't do anything till it came back online, who knew when.

So the trip to the bank was on again. That worked, cash now in purse, and the friend driving me,  determined to get the package to its destination said she'd send it from her PO after dropping me off. Which she did, reporting that it took a couple of tries for them to get it done, too,and surly to boot.

Then a bit late to Textiles and Tea with a marvelous New Zealand weaver, Agnes Hauptli , originally German, now very established as a weaver and teacher in NZ. The comments were packed by NZ weavers and her students, what a loyal turnout.

Look at her work, the finest of threads, silk and alpaca, elegant cloth. She rarely makes more than one of an item. 

One exception -- one time she was commissioned to create one hundred scarves from cervelt, the most expensive, deer sourced, yarn in existence. She did that one 

She wove the self portrait she uses as a headshot. What a force of nature and such a laughing happy woman, it was end to end fun.

As was my Tuesday, come to think of it. Wednesday is the dentist and the thriftie. It's all good.

Happy day everyone, life's a workaround.