Passementerie, dyeing and works in progress

Yesterday,  fast food from scratch. Tuna and cannellini bean fritters with steamed baby spinach, to get my energy up. Sprig of curry leaf plant which gives flavor even just resting on the hot food.

The Tuesday knitting group was great

The dye in the container is Green Shades,  shown by M, an environmentally friendly dye, this one giving that lovely shade she's working on behind there, very similar to the cotton I'm working in.

S. with her lace shawl in progress while she studies my glove pattern with future plans in mind 

Priti the librarian puts out a selection of different books each week to study and borrow. She tells us we're running at least through March, probably into summer then she'll see. I think there may be space considerations if summer programs need the space we're meeting in. We'll see. 

Talk ranged over home care for ill relatives, the local fire commission budget, the insanely warm weather, nearly 70°f this afternoon, blogging, tai chi, Eight pieces of Silk, countertops, green dyeing and more.

Then home to a pot of tea and Textiles and Tea, a great episode, about passementerie, which I vaguely knew from braid on military uniforms. 

But in the hands of  much awarded and acclaimed modern artisan, Elizabeth (Libby) Ashdown,  so much more. Weaving, dyeing, cording, all to create decorative edges for clothes and furniture. 

Elizabeth also makes wallhung art, working on many commissions at the moment. There are only four professional passementerie weavers in the UK, an endangered craft. She's by far the youngest.

She teaches and has written a book to help keep it alive, and she was a ton of fun to see, so full of verve. Her use of color is the modern vision, compared to ancient examples.

Here's a traditional use of passementerie work, on a man's Court outfit. Contrast this with her saturated, exciting colors

You can work passementerie on practically any loom, even a frame loom, though there are special looms for the purpose. She uses a floor loom as you see.

She used to run an open experimental weaving studio, seen here,  but it's in London, the building was demolished, they're still looking for affordable space in the city. She was working on this art form within five minutes' walk of where it was first introduced, centuries ago, London being the center of it.

Here's her book, first printing sold out, second due late March

She's such a great person to have on the series, generous, funny, very happy.

Happy day everyone, and I want to say this, because you can't know how important your words and encouragement are to me.

Heat, hibiscus, reading and whistling

Here's where we are today

Out early to water plants and pick flowers, then another day inside, reading, stitching, maybe knitting, whistling. Also prepping Misfits food this afternoon.

I noticed lights and decorations at my neighbors' houses and wondered what Indian festival was up. Turned out to be Lord Krishna's birthday, so I shot off greetings to Indian friends, which tickled them a lot. See the greeting below, like that, which means Happy Lord Krishna's birthday.

And, after some discussion yesterday chez Mary Moon about not being able to think what to cook, I just opened the cabinet door, found tuna and cannellini  beans, thought I wonder if these will make a nice lunch? 

Doused with malt vinegar, big bunch of cilantro leaves mixed in, beans mashed down,  it was really good. Then I looked up the ingredients for nutrition information, I like to know, and found

Turns out I'd "invented" a traditional dish. Like when I "invented" basil, mozzarella and tomato and discovered via Joanne and Mary, that it's a classic dish with a name, Caprese salad. Oh. 

I've done this in art, too, thinking I'd invented a technique only to find it's some classic approach for about a thousand years. My teachers were tactful about this!

I wonder if a lot of ideas like this were accidental, just some little Italian lady trudging about in the kitchen, mamma mia, another meal,  what to feed la familia, ah, let's try this. And a classic is born.

Speaking of ideas from other bloggers, I think Jeanie referred to September Song, one of my favorites, and it occurred to me to add it to my whistling repertoire. I know what I'm whistling, but I think listeners would need captions, to know Linden Lea, another fave, from Dead March in Saul. I bet this is why you get programs at concerts, too.

And here's another little known instrument

Take that, Rolling Stones!

I've found a writer I think I'm going to like, police procedurals set in the French countryside, the police officer main character also a good cook, tennis player, dog owner and lover of early music. Checks a lot of boxes. He gets into the Occitan language,  even, and Catalan  politics.  

I learned Old French as a language at the Uni, and had Chastelaine de Vergi in my old Kindle.  One day I'll get into the langue d'oc  and the langue d'oil (add another dot over the i), and be a great big bore about it. 

Anyway back to  Martin Walker,  he's written quite a few books. Great fall and winter reading to come.

I finished Fresh Water for Flowers, 

and liked it very much. There are many affairs of the heart, entanglements, a central huge sad mystery eventually even more sadly solved. It's long but you need to develop an understanding of the many characters and how they came to be who they are. Set in France, it's very much worth reading. France seems to be getting into my reading these days.

Meanwhile, I found a use for the replacement certificate from Breck for those totally failed snowdrops last year. I noticed how successful the neighbor's red hibiscus is, so I've ordered the bottom left you see here, not red, a lovely white.

Arriving in mid October, and I can't wait.  These get wide but not tall, so it won't get involved with the trees. 

Meanwhile this morning I picked zinnias for your morning bouquet.

Happy day, everyone, and let's hope any of today's accidents will be happy discoveries.