Knitters, hake, and Hercules

Yesterday was hake for lunch, with big capers scattered around, and steamed broccoli with blue cheese crumbles. Hake is a nice friendly whitefish, not too expensive, that you can add sauces, or here capers, without clashing, because it's a neutral flavor. This week's package made three meals. I love cod, but there wasn't any this week, and halibut, which never fits into my budget. 

It got up my brainpower to go to the Tuesday Knitting Group, where lovely things are happening, as you see.

Here M is showing her top down short sleeved cardi, which she dyed using an acid dye which she'll tell me about next week. This color is wonderful. She's very interesting -- a spinner! Using spindle and wheel. And she's done natural dyeing as well as this acid dye.  It's so cool to be in the company of someone who spins. Not many of them around here.

Here's S's baby blanket, which is a lacy pattern. She says she's a beginner, but I think she's far beyond. She's interested in having another project to turn to, so is thinking of trying socks, and took pictures of my simple sock pattern. 

And here are G's amigurumi pug dogs,  which will look puggier when she uses that brown yarn in the background for ears. She'll make the noses from felt.

Good news -- they've extended the group through February. I think they're going a bit at a time, to see if it holds up. It's a friendly group, so if there's a chance of one where you live, I'd really give it a try. Everyone feels timid at first, until they meet.

Once home, Handsome Son visited, polished off the last of those caraway cookies and the walnut chocolate cake, discussed his latest electronic DIY build, full of terms unknown to me, whether Malinowski might run for governor, batteries, car insurance which is going up 28%, shock, horror, and other interesting probably male-oriented subjects.

And my trusty jar opener, without which olives and capers are the impossible dream, finally collapsed and here's its replacement

Complete with a rather clinical set of graphics inscribed into the pad to explain how to use the opener, and what the counter pad does when it's not stored in the blade area.

It's Oxo, which has served me well with other small appliances helpful to my creaky old hands.

Speaking of strength

Happy day everyone, maybe there's an appliance to insert pills into cats?

Recovering now

Yesterday reminded me that nowadays a full day might be followed by a tired day. But I did make a start in threading the new giant heddle, with a setup taking advantage of the heddle blocks. 

The reason I like the big heddle is that you can do so much more than with a small one. I can thread with more choices of width than with my tiny handcut one, size of a credit card, or my 10", though they're more manageable. 

Notice that blogger suddenly centered this section, no way to change it on a tablet? That's because it entered a picture in the wrong  place, and I had to delete it. After a bit, it resumes my preferred left blocking.

 

And this is the first cotton warp I've used in ages, so much easier to thread and manage than the wool I'm working on for the skirt panels, because cotton slips about easily and doesn't try to get into knots when you're not looking.

People who've been asking about the loom, the top picture  shows the backstrap loom parts in a box waiting to be assembled again. Rigid heddles can be used in all sorts of contexts, not just in the rigid heddle dedicated loom, which I gave away anyway, in favor of the lovely simple back strap. Some people would never part with their rhl, but I didn't like it so much. Different folks, strokes, etc.

After a lunch of hake, fried with panko breading, steamed carrots and chard, I braved the now prevalent no seeums, and sat out, rewarded by seeing the first hummingbird in two years, just a split second before he darted away. 

The bees are diving into my butterfly bush, lovely scent, just a few inches from my face as I was  reading Jane Parr.

And I pulled the morning glory out of the Japanese maple, because it was dragging it out of shape, and reorganized it around the shepherd's crook. Here it's hiding behind the last plant Gary has to retrieve, that cactus on the crate there.

Lovely,  if brief, time before I had to retreat and rub anti itch on all the bites. 

Gary is trying to winnow  and visited yesterday with ideas. I agreed to free cycle some items for him, declined to store cardboard boxes from appliances, explaining I'm trying not to let more stuff in! He's cool with this. 

Yesterday elsewhere there was a bit of chat about clothes, some people happily wearing the same things daily, others changing up. I like to wear a different outfit every day, including many days when I don't see anyone to talk to. It's a bit of pleasure each morning, choosing which skirt or pants, which top, just to please me.  

I know some people take other people's presence or absence into the equation, but I don't mind that.  One of my friends, same age as my son, once said, but you're older than my mother and she wears the same sari all the time, how come you look different every day, I mean, who's looking? Which cracked me up! 

Happy day everyone, wear what you like! Some people own several of the exact same outfit, to save time deciding, some would be a bit bored by being identified by their personal uniform. It occurs to me that having to wear the same hated uniform five days a week for seven years at school might be playing into this picture for me.

Can't upload my daily Ukraine picture, so Slava Ukraini anyway!

Friday and all's well

Yesterday I did a hake bake. Hake has a nice flaky texture, and not a lot of flavor, so you can add to it.

Here a bed of scallions, plenty of za'atar and some salt. This made enough for several meals, and yesterday I made roasted fries with it.

It's less than half the cost of salmon, a big point around here.

Then while the stove was hot, a batch of buttermilk biscuits with walnuts and golden raisins

And the weather was fine for reading a Hamish Macbeth mystery out on the deck, and a bit of painting. There may have been a nap in there somewhere, too. 

And a hot biscuit with tea.

Misfits later today. All good, hoping for the same for you. Happy day everyone.

Hake, and suzani embroidery

Yesterday, I broke out the Misfits hake. Long time since I'd had hake, probably not since English fish and chips from the chippie. It's a nice white fish, not as moist as cod, but good.

So I breaded it with spiced-up Panko and an egg wash.

Roasted potatoes with scallions for a while at 400°f then put in the fish for the last twenty minutes.

And I happened to have ingredients to make a tartar sauce. If you have a different recipe please share!

This made three full meals plus extra for stuffing pita bread for  sandwiches.

In the middle of this I remembered an online presentation I'd signed up for, so I ended up cooking, photographing food, and doing screenshots more or less all at the same time.  Interesting thread on my camera.

It was a Hajji Baba club presentation on silk dowry embroideries. Central Asian suzani. Suzani means embroideries.

The speaker is a collector and trader, who loves the form but, like other collectors in this Club series, has only a passing interest in the actual execution. 

He skimmed over the stitches, saying chain stitch and others he wasn't sure about (!). He only once mentioned the ground fabric was linen, maybe wool. He never mentioned the size of the works. He did say they dated from the late 18th to early 20th century.

But he has a terrific knowledge of the geopolitics of the region and the theories of origin of the works.

They're in part the stitching done by young girls to demonstrate their skills and improve their chances of a favorable marriage. Works are purchased by the family to go with the daughter as a valuable dowry.

Most of the slides here show masterworks, luxury items, almost certainly group executed.

Whatever the origin, the beauty is undeniable, and he organized it clearly around the various regions and styles.

 So here's his slide selection.

He ended with this respectful montage, a tribute to the women, this is a women's art form, who created the artworks.