String and scones and things

I continued with the cording yesterday, now that the fibers were damp, much better 

There's a difference between using iris leaves and day lily leaves. You split them before drying then damping, and the day lily being long and narrow, has mostly long fibers, good for cordage. The iris is broader leafed and separates into smaller lengths, a bit trickier for cording but it still works. 

Quite a bit of what you see here is iris with a few lengths of daylily. And I've started to build up the wall of this piece, to make a straight sided container.

I'll use up the current supply then make more cordage.

 I found that my current Arabic course of twenty lessons only has seven on YouTube, so I had to look around for a new course. 

I'm now following this, from the beginning, and find it works as review, too, along with new words. Some really odd vocabulary, what with the words for secret, research, fail, sister, father, door, broadcast, repeat, pilgrim. Think of the dialogue you could have!

Since today's Sunday, I'm taking the day off from Arabic and trying to figure out the start time of a carol service I was sent a link for. It's in London, turns out, so I translated into their time, find it's not on, and wonder if it's already been translated into EST somewhere... We'll see. Oh, it's on now, must rush!

But first, Gary came over yesterday with scones! So my afternoon tea was lovely

Meanwhile another puzzle courtesy of Haggard Hawks

Planning ahead, honey, socks, and Celestine

The season's finally cooling down, and I realized this patch of ground cover killed by the fence project, is staying open.

To the right is where my six, this year only three, snowdrops blaze away each January. So this year my annual $30 gardening budget is going on this dream 

Well, not a river of snowdrops, I can only run to two dozen, but I can still dream. And maybe these will, unlike the others, multiply.

Another sign of fall was this little guy

who was apparently sitting inside the storm door, and when I opened it, fell on my head, giving us both a start. I ushered him out, go on, Jiminy, and was glad he hadn't made it indoors to drive me nuts chirping all night.

The bees are amazing. After inviting the cricket to leave, I noticed the very faintest tinge of pink on the Autumn Joy sedum, and instantly bees appeared

There must have been a memo.

Yesterday was a gardening rather than a walking day, tying up the Russian sage which had been blown all over, and pulling out the last of the iris and daylily foliage, cutting back the spent black eyed susans and marigolds. I also took out the spent foliage on the patio, and saved that for future cordage

And I expect this beautiful skeleton is the result of some deadly critter eating my Japanese maple, but it's still lovely

Meanwhile indoors to read, I finished the Donna Leon, Give Unto Others, and it was the best yet, full of ambiguity and coded dialogue. 

She found ways to acknowledge the pandemic and its impact on daily life without making it a central issue. And Brunetti, main character, being a thoughtful man, she always introduces moral issues often based on his favorite Greek tragedies. 

He loves the Oresteia, which reminds me to continue into the second part of it, and discusses Electra's power with his teenage daughter. Not incidentally, one of the more powerful characters in all the Brunetti books is an admin named Elettra.

This book also gets into the concept of the  prime mover, the force which causes action without itself being changed. This plunges you from Aristotle straight into Aquinas. And you consider who in this novel wants to be that prime mover. This is why Leon is such a satisfying read.

And it required a batch of wholewheat scone things and Manuka honey. This is a treat from Misfits, expensive and worth it. A tiny little jar is how it's packed, seen against the usual honey size I get 

And a dab packs such a flavor that you need a lot less to get the impact. This is the official real NZ thing, the retail grade.  Thank you NZ blogistas 

Not the high octane Manuka you can heal wounds with as in the Crusades, where battlefield wounds were sometimes treated by pouring on honey then wrapping and hoping for the best. I think it's also why honey and oil are mentioned in the New Testament parable of the good Samaritan.

Anyway back to teatime chez Boud, here is a scone thing split, Vermont butter, spread of Manuka honey

Glass of lemon iced tea because it's still hot in the afternoons.

The personal socks are progressing turn by turn, and soon we'll see how far the blue goes. I think I'll have to add to it to make the length of leg I like. 

I've been making Ministry socks either nine inch foot, seven inch leg, or ten inch foot, eight inch leg. Not knowing the calf size of recipients, it's better to make them that size rather than trying for over the calf size. Tube socks bypass the issue of foot and calf size, so they're more flexible.

Anyway my socks are planned for nine inch foot, seven inch leg, so we'll see how far the blue gets me. 

Today's art is a selection from the Fall collection of  lovely Karin Celestine, aka Celestine and the Hare. She's Swedish living in the UK.

She's a wonderful artist in fiber, metals and imagination. She also works with other miniaturists to make accessories for her animals. She's been in nationally juried and invited events in the UK and you can see why. On Twitter she's @andtheHare 

Her Lightbringer books helped a lot of schoolchildren in the UK get through lockdown. 

And she's very happy to be introduced to you here, I checked.

 https://www.celestineandthehare com 

will get you more info.  No, this isn't a business arrangement for me, just signal boosting good art.

Happy day everyone, may all your crickets stay outside, enjoy your day

Lovely walk, soup, thoughts of assumptions

 I finally got a walk today, cool and wet underfoot, and my neighbors in full bloom and art

 

This is a different rabbit, the one in the woods now having lost both ears 

Happy little elephant! I have the most cheerful neighbors.

Yesterday was cool enough to make stock

Then use it in a powerhouse soup of kale and celery with barley. Plenty of berbere seasoning and Old Bay, sprig of Italian basil on top.

The kale was easy to cut down, just had it frozen then hit the bag sharply, result small pieces, fine for purpose.

Last visit from Kira the Stringmaker last evening to thank me again, before she goes home, tell me she liked it, and is going to do it again, using the kit I gave her. 

She's teaching her Mom and aunt on Friday evening, all arranged! She not being big on talking, Gary filled in the details. So cool. The string going out into the world! Each one teach one.

The drawing of shrubs, no, people, reminded me of another couple of similar experiences, where the customer insisted I knew nothing!  

One was back when I was making a lot of paper beads and selling at festivals. One necklace made from shiny coated paper with a black and white abstract design was snapped up by a lady who said I'll take these porcelain beads, please. 

Not wishing to commit fraud I explained they were paper, and she swept that away with "No, they're clearly porcelain!" and went off with them, happy with her buy. 

Later I realized her knowledge of beaded jewelry extended to people who bought and strung beads for sale. The idea of making them didn't fit in there.

I also quickly found that when someone needs an artwork they are not interested in chatting with the artist. More than once I've been waved away from explaining the methods by the buyer saying none of that matters. I need this! Happened with  prints, drawings, miniature needlework, same thing.

I think this is probably quite right. The work matters, not the maker. In the best work you feel as if it was just out there waiting for you to make it, not something you thought up! You assist it into existence, rather than force it. 

And here's a lovely Maggie Rudy tribute to one of everyone's favorite destinations

And to the continuing brave struggle in Ukraine

Fiber and friends

Yesterday I tried that idea of blending roving with daylily foliage to make cordage.

Here's the silk roving at work, now being added to whatever this thing is. It might become a table mat for hot dishes.

Happy about how that worked, and the timing, because yesterday afternoon Gary and granddaughter suddenly appeared, ready to learn cordage. Perfect.

I had her pick a faded daylily leaf and split it several times end to end, to see how to start collecting her materials. I'd already prepared and damped a batch for her and Gary to use.

Which they did, very excited about it. 

Then, Kira proving very adept, we added in a bit of silk roving, her choice, showed her how to splice to get an endless string, then went on to use some wool roving, too . 

She was smiling happily throughout. I noticed how quickly she figured out how to move her fingers to keep the threads moving into place.  She's very good.

and here's the giant string she made!

So a seven year old can make a very good mixed yarn thread. Cool or what?

I explained to Gary about z twist and s twist, and  how plying works, and he knows now just how technically interesting this simple skill is.  Kira now plans to teach her mom, Janee, whom I've known since she, too, was a little girl. 

Happy students, happy teacher. Just half an hour, and years of benefit. Learning to make for yourself is an important step to a lifetime of feeling capable. Also fearless in making art . And anyway it was great fun for me.

Then Textiles and Tea was a bit of an anticlimax, the guest being Rebecca Winter, formerly an acclaimed doll maker using her handwoven fabric. But not a word was spoken about doll making, to my disappointment. 

She's now written a book about shadow weaving, highly technical, unintelligible to anyone without floor loom experience , and that was her focus. So I show you her beautiful weavings, and the weavers among us will understand

She was wearing a scarf she'd spun and woven from pima and natural green cotton

And she does paper weaving 

An artisan of many talents, including bookmaking, with handwoven covers. She binds using the Coptic stitch.

So there was still plenty of interest, but doll making will have to wait for another guest I guess.

Yesterday was a day of art all round. Intersectional, intergenerational, interracial, intercultural, you name it! Just a lovely time with friends.

Happy day everyone, weave on, make your own string, you'll be glad you did. This sounds like a late night TV pitch "Never buy string again!"

Yay, new day, I can see!

Yesterday's eye work went a treat. Different anesthesiologist, a woman, listened, noted previous aftereffects, made a plan which she explained. It worked so well. Little to no fentanyl, and anti emetic added in. 

I freely admit to preferring women on my medical team. They face many  more  obstacles in training and hiring so the ones who come through it all are superior.  At this point almost all my practitioners are women and I'm in good hands.

However, credit where due, my male surgeon did a flawless job, and here I am reading, writing, posting on a tiny screen, no glasses. Wheeee! 

I really appreciate the friendship you and other people have shown. I think the real test of friendship is not so much helping when friends are struggling, good as that is, because that puts us into a power position. 

I think a better indicator is when friends are happy when things go gloriously right, even when they wish they'd been as blessed. That's generous 

Yesterday got better and better. Gary stopped over a couple of times to check after Handsome Son left, and we were pottering about outside, got  into the subject of making string. I've shown his grandkids various art forms over the years. The older one is more interested in sports now, but the six year old loves crafts.

So I said fine, next time she's over I'll show her string making, from picking leaves to making her own string supply. Gary loves all the arts and was very happy. I said after she learns, she can show her friends, too. So that will happen. 

While we were in the house rummaging through my string stash, which intrigued him greatly,  I remembered something I've been meaning to do for ages. 

He loves this charcoal drawing, often he wanders around the house enjoying the art and now this one's his, a present. 

He's very excited and is planning a place for it. It's still here for the moment, but I'll deliver it if, and when, as expected, he forgets! 

This one has an origin story. Years ago I noticed the shrubs at a local nursery, burlapped and tied for winter protection, and noticed how human they looked. 

I did a few drawings, in charcoal, of them, on various papers,  some showing the support stakes. When exhibited, people insisted they were people, refugees, look, that lady's pregnant, where did you see them? I pointed out the stakes, but the illusion persisted. People even got a bit annoyed over it because obviously they were people!

This is the best drawing, I think, and I eliminated the stakes! The photo is a bit distorted here, but the framing isn't, in real life.

I just went further into the illusion, guided by my audience.

Here's the original old film photo, now attached to the back as part of the story.

So that was a really vintage day. Everything's so bright now I'm wearing sunglasses in the sunny living room even. Who is that mystery lady in the wraparound dark glasses! Just back from Mar a Lago?? 

Happy day everyone, hope we can all see better through the fog of fascism and fight back. I'm hoping Jared goes down next..

Foraging, flower id needed

Yesterday was about experimenting with fibers. My walking was dominated by searching for likely grasses for weaving.

Also I need a plant id if any blogistas can supply it. This purple flower, found in dampish ground at the edge of a belt of trees

I tried starting a grass coil basket, ran into ineptitude problems, started over several times. 

Grass doesn't seem to wear out with handling, and I eventually realized I don't actually like woven grass baskets. I'd got carried away with Sally Pointer and her lavender basket, because of the new skills I could learn.

So this grass material will become cordage instead, a different experiment.

And the cotton warping yarn I'd been using to try coiling with grass will be retired, in favor of silk thread, very unobtrusive, to make this 

I'm really happy with this start. As I use up cordage, I'll make more. This may be a basket. Or a table mat for a hot dish. Or a coaster! TBD .

It's like when I spun the yarn for that vest of many colors, just spun more when I ran out. No need to know ahead of time how many yards of yarn I'd need.

I was asked several times while I was spinning for the vest,  how I had estimated how much to spin. 

This mindset is the result of patterns and shopping where you stock up on enough ahead of time, as instructed by your pattern, full of dire warnings about dye lots. and being sure to buy enough yarn at one time.

But, when you're making what you need as you go, from your available raw material,  you don't even need to know.  That's a  modern tech-driven assumption. 

The other great point about making cord is that it's a form of spinning and plying. You twist the upper bunch of fibers clockwise, spinning,  bring them down over the lower, which then becomes the top bunch, and that's plying. 

This is how you get a stable cord that won't untwist if you let go. It's spun in one direction, plied in the other, just like spinning knitting yarn. 

And, since you're working with damp fiber, it's the equivalent of setting the twist in wool yarn by soaking it and hanging it to dry. The fiber tightens and stabilizes as it dries. It's a very strong string.

I really love the physical movement of making cordage, and my skills are definitely improving. It's benefiting from my spindle spinning and plying experience, a lot of the same hand movements, but your shoulder gets a rest from the constant piston-like movement of spindle spinning.

So that's us today. Starting Week Three of the eyedrop regime, blessedly down to one drop per day. 

However before this eye is finished with drops, the pre operation schedule for the other eye starts. Then I'll have two charts to use, one per eye. 

I'm already trying to get the drops for the upcoming need. As usual, supply chain issues, out of stock, back ordered, anxiously hoping I'll get them in time.  This is the most stressful bit, really. 

Interestingly the drop rx my doctor subbed for the out of stock one last time is now itself out of stock. This suggests a knock on effect, where increased demand used up supplies of the substitution too. But I started early, so I hope I can get it resolved.

Meanwhile I'm cording in short bursts. And so grateful I can see well enough to cord and stitch.

Happy day everyone. Happiness is a piece of string when you need one. Sounds like Peanuts.