Sock one done, sock two coming up, Planet Hippolyta

Here's the sock done, not for me, bigger size for the Sock 'n Glove Ministry*, second one to follow 

Still to be steam pressed, but all the ends are woven in. 

*New readers may not know about this. During lockdown I lost all my contacts with life. My activities shut down, couldn't visit friends, even the house cleaners couldn't come, and living alone without even pets, was tricky. 

I joined various online activities including a centering silent prayer group, meditation, coming from the convent where I learned goldwork embroidery. 

Through the convent newsletter I learned of the sisters' knitting and crochet ministry, part of an outreach by their county sheriff's department to homeless people. 

It's a county funded project, where a van with paramedics, nurses, medications and supplies, goes out to care for street people. They also distribute handmade warm items.

I found that none of the sisters could knit socks so I asked if they would let me be an at-large member taking on the sock needs. Well, yes. Later I tried them also with fingerless gloves and they too were added in to my work.  

That was five years and many socks and gloves ago. It's the only thing I knit and the people's needs make it a priority. I've been given lovely sock yarn, since buying is beyond my budget, machine washable always. Wool or cotton, I work with it all. 

So this has become an important part of my life and Sister Monica, my nunly contact, is lovely.  For ages this was how I felt included in life and it really got me through that fearsome time, especially before the vaccine was developed. 

Back to the everyday. I've been thinking about finding paper for a hat pattern,  since I don't take a newspaper and Gary is away so I can't get a nyt from him. Cutting up for patterns is a good use for it, but, moving along,  this political paper arrived in the mail.

No idea what this is, aside from being Democratic, Cittarelli being the T-endorsed candidate for Governor this year, but it's nice quality paper, right for patterns.

I did a few of those small jobs you can get to because house cleaners have done the heavy lifting. Like cleaning the patio door tracks, which had debris in them from summer use and the door was getting hard to move. 

Cleaning faucets. Getting between fridge and wall to sweep. Dusting underneath chairs to thwart spiders, poor ladies. 

I also repotted the philodendron, and pinned the vines down in a couple of places to get roots going. I really like a curtain of foliage rather than fabric. 

I walked a bit Monday, but my plans then to sit and read the Cazalets on the deck were quickly changed when swarms of mosquitoes arrived and bit me a lot.  So tea on the deck became tea indoors. I can't complain after an almost bug free summer, never had so many undisturbed afternoons before.

I made a great discovery in the Living Human book, too. I've been meaning to remind Handsome Son to let the funeral people know about my titanium hip.  I remember they needed to know Handsome Partner had a pacemaker -- they explode -- and I assumed they'd need to do something with Hippolyta.

Turns out they remove and recycle the metal, which is valuable, and is used in various equipment, including -- satellites! Just think, after my body is no more, you might see a satellite whizzing above you in the night sky and it might be Hippolyta!  Be sure and wave. Boud, overdoing it as usual.

Tuesday is Heat pump installation day. Everything crossed it goes smoothly.

The general $$ pain was slightly relieved when my ANCHOR check, homeowners' rebate program, arrived. Well, most of it went right back out to pay my auto insurance, but it all helps. 

And I think the heat pump people can do their job better than this "search" tool

I did find out, but not here.

In praise of Fall

Happy day everyone, you, too, can go to outer space! A bit late to take pictures, but you can't have everything.

New starts, health update, skirt pattern

 Yesterday I put some sprigs of lemon balm into the rooting teapot, and noticed it has tiny flowers I'd never spotted before.

Why, you wonder, do you want to start a plant that currently runs wild, choking everything in its path, escaping the supposedly restraining pots? Because like the other mint relatives, it vanishes completely over Fall and winter, and I fancy trying to keep it as a houseplant, to have some available in winter.

Also I'm just starting to see improvement in my neck issues, where I can think about eventually starting with my fiber projects again. Not yet.

So I needed to create a paper pattern for the woven/knitted skirt. This meant tracking down a newspaper, which I don't have. Gary promised me some ready for recycling, and I went next door to collect.

There followed a lovely chat with a visiting family member I'd met before, where we established we: both alter thrifted clothes to suit, both add pockets where needed, both make clothes without patterns, both use newspaper where we need to make a pattern. Nice convo, punctuated by Gary exclaiming I don't know what you're talking about!

Home again, ready to measure, make paper pieces to try on 

Here's the Notebook Of Thinking, which was also the Notebook of Learning Hindi

The Hindi was an ill-fated local adult school class where the somewhat inept teacher went back to India after three weeks, and we all got refunds.

Anyway the notebook being one I'd made, it's gone on being useful, and here's the current project with math.

The original idea was to weave straight panels (note that panel means vertical strip, horizontal pieces having different names), and knit wedge shaped pieces to alternate with the woven panels, to create an A line effect.

This involves figuring out the measurements of the wedges,  top and bottom and doing some tricky decreasing to get a smooth narrowing. Hm 

Then a rush of brains to the head! Why not just knit straight pieces, the width of  the hem end, here 2.5", and do the adjustment when I stitch the parts together, slanting the woven sections together at the top to create the wedge shapes. This will increase the bulk at the waist and I have an idea how to fix that. 

So here's the nyt, more useful than usual

I've tried this around me, and it seems to work. The two sides come around to meet. One big advantage of weaving and knitting to size is; all selvedges, almost no seam allowance needed.

So much easier. Now all I need is the neck to calm down -- it's already buzzing and jabbing from yesterday's pattern making -- and I'll be off. This feels so great, to be making again. Everything else feels like treading water.

Today's Handsome Partner birthday celebration will be an indoor event, owing to endless thunderstorms and inches of rain. We did escape the local tornado warning.

Happy day everyone, whatever the weather.

I have some Handsome Partner birthday thoughts which I'll save till tomorrow, there being a limit to how much I can stuff into one post. I marvel at bloggers who comment that they have to look for material. Mine's like the lemon balm of ideas, escaping all over.