Tatters with the flowers that bloom in the spring, tra-la

Here's the current Tatter, on-line newsletter and website with a textile museum in Brooklyn. The newsletter is well worth signing up for, and you'll see their address in the pic.

They're looking at flower embroidery from different cultures right now.

The pocket above, that bag with strings, is the kind of pocket women had, that Lucy Locket lost. 

It ties round your waist under your top skirt, which usually had a slit to access the pocket. You could carry eggs, live chickens not unheard of, personal stuff, everything you might put in a tote, but beautiful and hands free.  And much better than the silly little "pockets" in modern manufactured clothes.

The modern fanny pack is a kind of new take on it.  I fancy making a pocket for myself, but wearing it visibly, not having overskirts and underskirts. 

I really recommend Tatter, lovely articles in each newsletter, and interesting insights into cloth, weaving, sewing, decorating. The history is there, too, if social history interests you.

Update on the bathroom situation: after a solid day's work, punctuated by (unrelated) consultations with numerous doctors about a relative's sudden serious health situation, Gary got the toilet installed, and had to shop again for a hose. 

And search his own house for a shut off handle, since the current one still leaked rapidly. He found one, it fitted. He came back later in the evening for a post operative checkup, still working.

So water, and order,  were restored as the water company says, about seven pm. Great relief all round. Gratitude too.

He's a wonderful neighbor, and we go back a long way to when I helped get proper home medical care for his mom, in her last days st his house, and later I helped nurse his girlfriend in her last few days, across the street at home.  No, I'm not a nurse, but I've picked up skills from various life situations I've been in, and I know what not to do, when a qualified person needs to step in, and how to get one.

He was constantly available in his turn, during Handsome Partner's last days, too, also in  a lot of other crises in both our lives. There's been a lot of thick and thin. Life and death.  It's not just baked goods! 

And now to round up all the tools he's left, and possibly his glasses, phone, wallet, all of which he mislaid at different times yesterday. 

Today I'm hoping to be bored.  There's been enough adventure around here lately. Maybe I'll make soup.

Happy Saturday, everyone! 

Spring, Misfits and nearly therrrre

Here's the original plainsong version of Sumner is icumen in, which you'll be able to read if you know the tune. This takes me back to school where we learned plainsong for fourteen different Masses and assorted other observances. No secular stuff like this though.

This used to be the first day of summer, if you count that way. It's also the Annunciation, nine (calendar, the Church fathers a bit hazy on gestation) months before Christmas. 

It's when the angel told Mary she'd conceived Jesus.  It's the doctrine of parthenogenesis, aka Virgin Birth. 

Not to be confused, though many do, with the Immaculate Conception, which refers to the conception of Mary herself by St Anne, when Mary was issued a waiver on original sin, the only human being so waivered. 

Moving right along to plumbing..

Gary, being reminded I still had no water, off to shop. I had called him, said let's cut out the repair efforts, just go for a new toilet. And sent a screenshot complete with model # of what was needed. 

Asked him if he'd rather I call the plumbers, I keep offering him off ramps, but he said no, he could handle a two piece. One piece design is too heavy for one person.

And so it came to pass, and later he arrived with it, after a couple of consultations from the shop.

It's almost done except it needs a longer hose, which is another trip because he forgot it first time.

In the middle of all this, my Misfits box arrived and was set down among the debris on the front step.

All present and correct. Salad for dinner. Maybe stuffed into pita bread. Look at those giant carrots. The greens will go in the stock bag, now ready to use. And the carrots and cashews along with sweet potatoes I already have, will be the next soup, using the whey from the cream cheese.

Which came out for lunch, open face whole-wheat, cream cheese spread and roast chicken. 

I burned off a lot of anxiety by cruising through the second sock, which needs to be pressed with its friend, and wrapped for shipping. 

I'll make a couple more pairs to send in one package. 

With any luck, the bathroom will be usable by end of day, and maybe even with running water. When you consider that I'd be lucky to get a plumber before Monday earliest, this is great. 

I do feel guilt about how hard Gary is working, and with a lot of other family related issues on his mind. Jackie too gets summoned to hold things frequently. 

I carried a few buckets of water from their house this morning -- that's when Gary remembered my water was shut off and put on a spurt. 

All in all, if Gary's been doing all this heavy work, why am I so tired?

Let's hope NATO realizes they may as well help Ukraine directly. Things can only get worse if they don't. They may also get worse if they do, but action says more than waiting around. 

They really should have invited me to speak. That was a missed opportunity on their part. I could have thumbed a ride on US One.

Say cheese!

So this morning, as I might have guessed, I'm knee-deep in cooking activities, stuff in the oven that I'm timing, milk coming to the boil on top, when Gary shows up, tools ready, to tackle the toilet.

Luckily he got a phone call which kept him long enough to let me finish the activities so I was free to help or watch, as the case may be.

But this is what I was up to before his arrival.

I thought rather than order Misfits dairy, I'd make my own as I used to.  Yogurt, cheese, why not butter? Making your own means you have just the amount you need. So I sent away for butter powder, from the place I buy my milk powder.

Meanwhile, cream cheese, aka paneer.

Here's what you need

Bring the milk almost to boiling like here, right after this picture it rose up and I turned off the heat.

Then pour in lemon juice to sour it and make curds and whey 

You drain through a cloth here I'm using a piece of fine cotton, save the whey for soup, and let the bag of cheese drain until it's cool enough to handle. 

Turn it out,  off the cloth, into the strainer. Now transfer to a container to serve it from.

The whey is going into soup later in the week, with sweet potato, carrots and cashews. When they arrive from Misfits, that is.

I roasted a package of chicken thighs, along with making cheese

with berbere and salt, and that's now done,  cut into useful chunks and in the fridge for fast food.

All's well on the kitchen front.

However the plumbing has encountered complications, involving mopping, shutting off the house water, and another trip to the hardware store.  Also some concerns about the shutoff and if it also needs replacing.

At one point Jackie was summoned from next door to hold something, and before she left we chatted and she did a taste test of the cheese, declared it okay.

So here's the state of play. 

Handsome Son and I postponed our scheduled visit this afternoon, not up for peaceful chatting just now.

Fortunately I have a new sock in progress.

The second of this pair

So, all's moving along. More or less. Or say Jeez!

Indonesian textiles and Western knitting

Yesterday was a deceptive day,  bright sunshine but a sharp wind. I needed my Joanne-sourced corduroy jacket for walking. Windproof!

At home I lost track of time, knitting peacefully on a new toe-up sock, dozed off with it in my hands, and completely missed Textiles and Tea. I did catch a later Hajji Baba presentation on Indonesian textiles though, see below a bit.

Finished spiral socks, yet to be pressed.

New choices for next socks

These are my favorite knitting gadgets, a clamshell of stitch markers, a gift long ago. Non knitters -- you slip them onto your needle to remind yourself of critical points in the pattern, and help with counting.

These are particularly nice. Yesterday I dropped one in the course of doing the toe up section, swept the floor, moved every item from all around the sofa, coffee table,  no cat to blame now. No marker. 

So I got out another, so as to get on. When I was folding the sock after knitting, I found the marker. Fallen into the toe I'd knitted.. maybe I could store small items in there as I go.

The Indonesian textile presentation was largely concerned with the collectors, all Westerners, remnants of a colonial age, sadly, and carbon dating to establish age.

So I'll just show the woven items and geographical context and let them speak for themselves.  

This intricate weaving is done largely on the back strap loom, another amazing example of the weaver's skill using simple equipment. 

The fibers include cotton, abaca (banana tree fiber) and bark cloth. And you'll see beading and metal thread weaving and embroidery.

 

It's intricate, detailed work, some dating back to the fourteenth century, a long tradition of art making. 

I'd like to see presentations by the makers, like the Australian aboriginal artists we saw a while ago, speaking for themselves as artists and curators, rather than being viewed as material for scholarly research. 

Meanwhile, these are lovely images of sophisticated work I thought you'd like to see.