Cold day, but wait a day..

Yesterday I noticed I had very little butter to last till the Thursday delivery, so I needed something for my toast. A little pot of strawberry jam happened.

I make small quantities, no need to get carried away. And these really small amounts have great flavor. Just strawberries, lemon juice, sugar. Also great with yogurt.

I took a longer walk, different direction this morning, to try to settle the pesky sciatic/ piriformis whatever going on, and the wind and temp were so cold. 

Back in gloves and hat and warm jacket. By Tuesday they say high 80s f. Hm. It can't decide. But I found a lovely azalea, my favorite variety with big white flowers. This one had an extra feature.

And there were handy things at the dumpster, this one probably vital for weaving and other tools, so it's home now.

Perfectly clean, looks unused. It might replace some other storage thing for my art stuff.  

Home again I got into a bunch of weaving research, found new sources and here's what resulted. The Vesterheim Museum is a great find.

She's a young Swedish weaver, pattern band maker and now heddle carver. Watching her carve a heddle reminded me I would like a sunna heddle, with short slots for the pattern threads. It's easier than the regular heddle I've been using.

Then I thought instead of yet another outlay, I'd try making one from cardboard, using an old tissue box.

I'll try this with threads and see how it goes. Not as sturdy as the usual wood and plastic, but worth a try. 

I might even get back to weaving my current band, too.  

Happy day everyone, try all the things! Sez Ted and Big Ursy and Pony and Ursula.

Misfits, bookmaking and houseguests

Thursday was more eventful than expected so what else is new, involving many Gary sightings ranging from taste this turkey is it safe(!) to bringing in a heavy glass table, two man job, neighbor from across the street recruited, for safety while the moving upheaval next door is in progress,

large plant likewise

Then there was a consultation about a couple of other plants he wants to put outside and I persuaded him that from a shady indoors to full sun might be a bit sudden. So he'll set them under an umbrella.

Misfits was a late afternoon delivery so, since my hands were tired from knitting, I adapted that little art catalog nobody wanted on Freecycle, and created a single signature notebook.

 

That bookmaking book is the best I ever found, with everything you need to know to make all kinds of bindings. I've done practically every kind she shows. This simple one is a favorite though. And there are two internal pages from the catalog which might make another couple. Knitting friends might need these.

Then drumroll, Misfits and Haleem arrived. While I was bringing the food in, the UPS truck arrived with two large packs of potting soil. The step was a bit crowded.

Small selection this week because I'm pretty stocked up. Two bags of sugar while they had them in stock, two loaves likewise, not my favorite but okay. 

A whole raft of blueberries at a great price because they were caught by hail and knocked around. They look fine to me but the supermarket wouldn't accept them. They'd have been plowed under if Misfits hadn't bought them. So I have three packs in the freezer for all kinds of uses including sauce. 

Two bags of ground coffee because they don't always have it, and it's become a morning need because of the state of the world,  lovely green salad for the season, Envy apples, Bananaz needing a day or two, block o' cheddar because it's my security food. 

The pasta I made from the Yeung Man recipe needed a lot more sauce. I've since added a mozzarella sauce and now it's fine. Just as well, since I'll be eating it for days yet.  Along with the green salad.

Then, before I sorted the food,  Gary helped me heave the potting soil into the storage area, removing a large package of his which has been there for years, no idea what's in it. 

We had our annual argument about why I buy small bags of potting soil I can handle instead of saving money by waiting for him to, eventually, get a huge bag I can help myself to, etc. 

In the middle of all this the mailman arrived, with 

Both together, yay. The reveal 

The lucet and the rigid heddle. From artisans, who need our business more than ever.  Lucet from Pennsylvania, heddle from Minnesota. 

That's almost enough for what was supposed to be a low-key kind of day. Good thing I started the day with back exercises from Yes2next.

Happy day everyone, I did all the things so you don't have to.

Good news, flower futures

This morning I got emails about the heddle and the lucet. The lucet shipper alerted me to a status change in my order. This is not usually good news, often meaning they can't do it, but this time the change was that it's shipped.  The heddle has been shipped USPS and will be a couple of weeks.. let's hope.

And last evening I was happy to revert to my favorite sock pattern, and did the toe area in no time. One stage procedure.

I don't know about the recipient, but the knitter is happy.

Yesterday also saw the prep for this year's flower garden. I'm waiting now for potting soil, but the plan is underway.

Indoors I planted some cotton seeds, and have some for knitting friends tomorrow.

After the picture I pushed them into the soil. They're in the kitchen till they germinate and I can transplant them outside. 

They get several feet tall, according to the friend who grew some in her community garden last year. These seeds were in the cotton bolls I carded and spun a while back to make the fiber and wire birds nest. 

I must remember to add it to the Easter decor.

Soon Handsome Son will be here with cheese and crackers and other good things. I have the vegetables ready to go.

Here's the cheese table

Happy day everyone, if you're in the hospital, get well wishes, if you're convalescing, get strong wishes, and if you're still seeking a diagnosis and treatment, get info wishes. 

Sez Ted and Big Ursy and Pony and Ursula 

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!

Yesterday was a full day

In order of importance, a friend came by unexpectedly, late morning, bringing these

She claimed it was congratulations on the new fridge, but when I mentioned Handsome Partner, she acknowledged that, yes, she knew. 

In fact it was she and Gary who came over right after he died at home,  and supervised the funeral home taking away his body, to save my having to do it. Handsome Son and I went to another room until he'd gone. You never forget friends who do a major thing like that. 

And Textiles and Tea was about wet felting, a labor intensive and beautiful textile art form, guest Lisa Klakulak. She gets a lot of inspiration in the wilderness, especially around the remaining glaciers.

Meanwhile, the mail arrived, bringing

my new rigid heddle. This one's 24", really big, wide enough for serious cloth and wallhangings so today's about threading the heddle, sleying, technical term. 

There's a special sleying tool, but I use a tiny crochet hook. Sarah Swett, famous weaver, uses a paperclip, another reason for fangirling a major artist who likes to make her own tools.

Later Gary, same one mentioned above, came over and installed the new disposal.

And that's pretty much yesterday around here. A wonderful one, by end of day.