Happy Earth Day! Gentle rain here, perfect

 

This evening I'm at another Stand up for Science online event, this time to celebrate our earth. 

I think you can still sign up. Go to standupforscience.net and find the simple registration form.  Show up! 8pm Eastern time. I'm posting early to give you the chance.

The loom is on its way. I keep getting excited updates -- now in NJ! Too funny.  But yes, I'm ready. 

Meanwhile I slept till 9:30 this morning, unheard of, but all's well, and I've started another Tudor history, this time a fictional account but well researched, of Thomas Cromwell. 

Happy Earth Day, everyone, each one do our bit where we are, following Jane Goodall's advice. Also go, Virginia!

Now that Orban is gone, Hungary has released massive funding to Ukraine that he had blocked.

Another great Tuesday

I had a different friend drive me today to the Tuesday knitting group,  usual friend not well. It was a great session, with two new members, and an array of skills. 

One member was making starters -- a bit of knitting set up ready --  for several of her work colleagues she's starting to teach beginning knitting. Another was knitting socks in her own handspun as well as a commercial self stripe. Another learned to knit on the spot and was moving on to the purl stitch before we left. Another was getting to the waist of a topdown color worked sweater,and she's going to teach knitting at the library next month. And a new member brought all kinds of items to show us including beautiful tiny knitted and beaded purses, which can be worn as pendants.

The teacher prep wearing her own handmade crochet and knitted cardigan, and get those organized knitting needles 

Foreground handspun, in action self striping yarn 

Ready for the waistline design 

Wonderful tiny purses, lovely to hold

Talk ranged over summer travel, miniatures, band weaving, woodburning, back to the land, driving, Maine, the V&A, introverts, hearing aids, sweet woodruff, quilting, long draw spinning, short draw,  and a lot more.

Then to the post office to send off an artwork, and home to Textiles and Tea with Kira Keck, based in Michigan.

They're a weaver, embroiderer, mixed media worker, exhibitor and workshop teacher, still very young and already with prestigious fellowships and residencies behind them, including Cranbrook. Take a look.

It's exciting work, full of references and experiments in color and texture, mixing weaving with needlepoint and fabric printing, and interrogating the lesbian experience in textile form.  I came home too late to catch the intro slide, but you can see their website at kirakeck.com, which explains their philosophy and approach.

Meanwhile back at my weaving studio, well, table, I've set up threads ready for a second band after the loom arrives and after I do my first band. 

Five pattern threads, four blue, one green outside edges green. Ready to go.

Happy day everyone, get weavin!

Ready, set -- wait for loom

I spent much more time than I expected choosing threads, cutting, untangling, organizing, untangling, threading, changing my mind, unthreading, untangling, rethreading, and now I'm set. I only need the loom to arrive. This is to be a short band in yellow and white, pattern in yellow, background in white. 

I paused to set up a ride for next week's one year checkup for Hippolyta. A year already.

 And to watch a couple on the path, carb loading ahead of mating and nesting.

And to fill in an endless online medical questionnaire ahead of the orthopedic appointment. They ask the same things over and over. 

I feel like shouting DITTO! SEE LAST TIME I TOLD YOU! I'M STILL MISSING ORGANS!  THEY'RE STILL DEAD! after the tenth time of being asked for my surgeries, and all the causes of death of my whole family of origin, parents and six siblings. Don't be the survivor, folks, there's a lot of paperwork.

And I needed to keep up my strength so I carb-loaded on shrimp pasta, followed by a strawberry shake.

Cold today, frost last night so I'm back in warm gear for walking. 

I got one artwork packed ready to send tomorrow. Another has been claimed, and I need to figure out materials for shipping for that. And a couple of others have been requested by an excited lady who neglected to give me her address. That gives me time to pack them though. The art winnowing is going nicely.

Happy day everyone. I have a lot to learn about bandweaving including my usual trying to keep the threads organized. 

I wonder if some YouTubers edit out the parts where they're crawling around retrieving dropped ends and combing out knots. I do like this new heddle though. It feels good to be threading it. 

Bread, salt, olives, socks, rain, your basic Sunday

This morning with rain in the forecast, I glumly decided I'd better make bread, since I was totally out. No toast, nothing to make a sandwich or cheese toast, nothing to hold up my sardines, this wasn't right.

I wasn't in the mood at all, but as usual once underway I wondered what the fuss was about. My bread is no knead, easy to make.

Anyway I did, and here's the rather small cast of characters needed

to make a large loaf which I quarter into four medium loaves, three in the freezer.

I didn't have my favorite whole-wheat, so I went with bread flour and ap, and added in ground flaxseed, the usual vital wheat gluten, that's in the can marked chocolate fingers or something, salt, need to order, yeast, need to order, and for a savory touch, sliced green olives.

Quite a nice crumb and a good crust, crisp not tough. Not bad for an experiment, since I didn't know about the vital wheat gluten and how it works with bread flour. Okay, it turns out. The olives almost disappeared but there's a mild savory effect. I've been meaning to try them for ages.

Then I finished the socks, in yarn which the donor tells me is probably hand wash, so they're for me. I do need some anyway.

And I ordered various vital items, salt, etc.    The whole wheat flour is harder to come by, but it's ordered and I'm not in desperate need. 

Now I need to get packing small artworks to send to friends. Not a favorite activity but, like bread, you're glad you did it.

Happy day everyone, rainy here and my chives and honesty are happy, gentle rain is what they can use right now. I'm impatient to get seeds going, but last year what with surgery and rehab, I didn't get seeds in till late May and still had a nice showing. 

So you never know, late is okay.

Interesting day, high and low tech

I was lugging a couple of bags of potting soil through the house this morning, to fill more pots and decided I'd better take a walk immediately to avoid back issues, and it seems to have worked.  I'm quite ahead of time with the pots ready for seed, as you see

Last night, one thing and another, online meetings interrupted by Gary with plant questions, I went to bed forgetting the patio door was wide open. I found out this morning when I noticed the furnace running..

Anyway my knitting friend who originally gave me the cotton bolls from which I extracted the seeds now wants to reserve one of my seedlings because hers aren't doing well. So that will happen when she says, because she's a master gardener and knows this stuff 😉

I heard the #$#$ in the White House had been manipulating the stock market again, as well as bombing, so I thought I'd check my retirement account such as it is. Hm. 

I decided if I needed anything now's a good time, since my stocks are up. No, I don't sell at the top of the market, but I can afford to use a bit of my divi for fun. Thereby pulling something good out of evil doings.

Sooo I thought instead of mulling about a narrow band loom, why not just get one and make bandweaving more portable than back strap method.

So this is on its way 

They market it as a beginner loom, no idea why since bandweaving isn't exactly beginning weaving, but I think it will work for me.

And I'd been having all kinds of problems with one of my tablets, dropping out of online meetings, showing no Wi-Fi even though connected when the other devices were online, etc, very puzzling despite all workarounds including the nuclear clear everything off the browser and start over. But it still balked, and it's losing battery faster. I think it's just worn out, aren't we all.

So while I was on a shopping roll, I decided on this 

Not expensive, marked down, probably because a newer shinier one is coming in, and in blue. For $20 more you can have it in grey. Make it make sense. 

I found it as "best value" on a couple of consumer report sites, so okay.  I won't agonize over it. It's replacing one that's done fine for several years, and was also low-cost. 

And I'm getting ready to ship out various art works to friends here and there, part of my deaccessioning. Posh art term for winnowing. I had to order package tape, but I can use the cardboard cases the potting soil came in, cut down, as protective stiff inserts for the packages. Waste not etc.

Oh, and the shoelaces are in action, with gold aglets.

Acrylic metallic gold paint. Works a treat.

Happy day everyone, I'm hoping for a quiet evening to read my current mystery. Living in hope. 

Sez Ted and Big Ursy and Pony and Ursula