Visible mending and other clever stuff

An embroiderer friend passed on some nice ideas about visible mending. This sampler of visible mending ideas was created by Candy Barnes of @heartfulstitches

Doesn't that make you want to try out? Most of them are beginner friendly. 

Then there are embroiderers like Melissa Galbraith, who create an entire miniature scene around a patched area. 

There are blogistas who could do this, looking at you Bay Area M!  And the rest of us can admire anyway.

Meanwhile back on earth, I found myself figuring out a simple pattern for knitted slippers made from a rectangle. 

It's all very well to know your measurements, and you see the entire thinking in these notes, but without knowing how many stitches to cast on, what's a knitter to do?

This one crocheted a chain the length required for her foot, added in a few stitches because knitting takes up length a bit more than crochet, and started knitting by picking up the chain loops. Then I counted the resulting stitches and noted it.  I could now do a knit cast on for the second slipper but the crochet chain does make a nice firm start. 

I'm using up small quantities, so this project is striped with a cream yarn.

I started thinking this would be for me, but noticed that the yarn is machine washable, so these slippers may join the items for the Sock 'n glove 'n whistle Ministry.

I have a number of donated projects to finish, all interesting too, and I seem to be doing a project I suddenly thought of instead.  Don't ask me, I only live here.

The weather is grey and there's dirty old snow, but no ice. So I donned those purple wrist warmers I made from a cashmere sweater, 

now ankle guards because of the boots, the new scarf, the beret made from the same cashmere sweater, and went walking, coat open, that kind of cold no-wind day when you can.

I pushed a bit further, to retrieve my stamina which has decreased a bit with the snow stopping walking. Twenty minutes, in fact pretty good for me. Home to a pot of tea, and probably sleep will happen. It usually does after walking in the cold then coming home to get warm.

Happy day everyone, make do or don't, and remember where there's a will there's a won't.

Death doula, and visible mending

 Latest reading one of several books going at any one time, a first person narrative where the narrator is a death doula, and what she learns as she goes along. 

It's an easy read, a bit of a romcom type of story, but I did finish it. Very New York is the center of the world, and leaving it means going to Nepal kind of vibe. 

The writer seems prejudiced against  people who don't like crowds and parties, characterizing them as inevitably lonely and longing.

When the main character starts to run  about traveling and joining groups, dumping her doula work, it's presented as personal improvement and progress into an adult life.  I'm not too comfortable with the underlying agenda. Not very respectful of end of life work. If you read it please let me know if it struck you differently. I'm open to revisiting. 

I was up at 4am on the solstice, woke ready to get up and drink coffee. I like waking in the dark and watching the dawn gradually appear. Now that I can nap after breakfast it's a luxury. There's not the pressure there used to be when I was caregiving, on my feet 7 am to 11pm, and needing to stay in bed as long as I could.

Saturday is for visible darning and other pursuits.

This is under the heel, as usual. I walk through my socks. I used a soft yarn for the darn and it feels soft underfoot.

Happy day everyone, repairs are as interesting as creating if you make them fun.

And I spent Saturday evening online with a phone tech who diagnosed the issue with the lack of mobile data on my phone. It was the plan not the phone blocking it. So now I have a new plan with mobile data enabled, and I don't need a new phone after all. That was my main need. Yay me 

Where'd it go? Knitting Group, Textiles and Tea

 I looked out this morning and there was the car, gone. The car fairies must have been out early. It was there last night.

I was doing more visible mending Monday, and found I'm darning darns at this point 

These socks are warm house socks,  definitely worth mending till the original sock vanishes into the darns.

I have looked everywhere, everywhere, for the peanut butter bar recipe and it has vanished. So I'll reconstruct it, per request.

18 minutes or till edges are brown, in 350°f oven.

Heat over moderate flame,  stirring, quarter cup honey, quarter cup molasses (or maple syrup for a lighter taste) half cup smooth peanut butter, till all blended, add one tsp vanilla, half tsp salt, tsp pumpkin spice, stir, then two cups rolled oats, stir off heat till all blended. I also added in ground flaxseed. You could fling in other seeds and nuts.

Then parchment paper in pan, I used a glass pan, just guessed the medium size would work, spread the mixture, pressing down. 

Bake as above, cool 10 minutes in the pan, on wire rack, then use the parchment paper to lift out the mix, to cut into bars.  I used a pizza wheel to cut. Store in airtight container. If there's anything left to store. 

I expect the recipe will now reappear. I'm pretty sure I didn't skip any steps. 

The recipe reappeared, doh. The source Forks over Knives.com, a plant based website. I'm glad I can credit it now.

I liked this recipe because it's unfussy.  So now you have two options, the real one and my version.

The needle arts group had two new members, mom and little girl, who both plunged in and learned to knit in no time. I didn't get the child's picture, security purposes. And other great works are underway. 

Chat ranged over resistance, whistles against ICE,  one member took a yellow whistle for her neighbors, learning to knit, dpns, the upcoming library needle arts display, cats, car sales, children's names, spool knitting, Friends of Pine Ridge, westernized Chinese names, and more.

Then home, courtesy of driving friend, cold rainy afternoon, to Textiles and Tea with nuno silk felter, Patti Barker

She creates wearable art and one of a kind wearable art coats, on themes of women's lives, struggles and needs -- see the coat of many pockets! 

She addresses climate issues and nature in her costumes. There's a lot of meaning behind her work. 

Ocean Crone 

Stained glass effect 

Me Too, features missing to show what was stolen 

Earthquake, wildfire and tsunami 

Moth and another winged insect 

Dragon skin 

pockets on top of pockets! She's working on a hundred-pocket coat

here's a felted silk lattice scarf like the one she's wearing

A few of her artworks behind her in the studio

Go to her website for more. 

Happy day everyone, mine was full of incidents. I hope yours was. Good incidents, that is.

 

The red carpet

 Sunday's chilly walk, down vest under coat, extra socks, because the cold penetrates when it's humid after overnight rain, rewarded me with a red carpet. I imagine the rain, as well as the freezing temps brought down the leaves, because they were lying where they fell. 

Full disclosure: I did bounce up the color in the third shot, because this is more like the reality. I don't adjust pictures usually, figuring it's already worth every penny you paid to get in.

Is everyone in the country having anxiety dreams? Saturday night was about being unable to lock an outer door. Interestingly, it wasn't about trying to get in, but about trying to keep people out. Boundaries. It made a change from being lost and it's getting dark and I'm on foot, anyway, so there's that.

I am really not in cooking mode just now, but Sunday's lunch was easy, spaghetti with butter and grated Parmesan on a bed of raw spinach and parsley. The greens wilted nicely when the hot pasta was added. Yogurt beaten with pure cane sugar and lime juice for dessert.

I'm thinking of making peanut butter oatmeal bars. In old age I'm developing a taste for peanut butter, at least the good kind I just got from Misfits. None of the dark metallic aftertaste I get from the famous labels. This is good. I even had a peanut butter and crushed blueberry sandwich Saturday night.

Bars doesn't count as cooking, more like assembling. So I think that will happen. It's breakfast food, which needs to be easy, I'm not in any kind of mood for work when I first get up and trudge glumly about.  It takes a while for me to accept the universe.

And trudging glumly results in darning 

These socks have darns already, in fact they're on the way to more darn than sock. Wabi sabi.  One minute there's a couple of thin places, then they come out of the laundry like this.  Ready for visible mending with contrasting colors.

Like this 

Done, ready to trudge.

Happy day everyone,  Misfits comes Monday because of the holiday, very small order, so it will be a small box I can use to carry the soft sculpture and stitched pieces I'm putting in the library display. Last year I did knitting and crochet, so this is a change. 

Rehearsing, repairing and revisiting

 I seem to be in dress rehearsal mode at the moment. Practicing dressing using a dressing stick and a grabber, practicing showering using the slide bench, practicing getting in and out of bed protecting the soon to be repaired hip, Helen Mark Two, practicing using the walker and checking how to navigate the bathroom with it, checking my cup will fit in the walker tray. 

There's also the exercises from my PT. Heel slides, toe taps, side moves, balancing one leg, bridges using resistance, leg extension, hip flexor stretches, sit to stand then overhead holding 5lb dumbbell, windshield wipers, knee side stretches with resistance band.  He and I are determined my strength will help recovery. 

This is all about managing anxiety, as astute blogistas will have noted. 

And I finally got to do a sock darn, before I started my new crochet.

I used my spectacle case as a darning tool, because the shape is right for the heel. A scrap of contrasting yarn, and I was set.

Two socks in waiting, but I thought I'd do one 

Here's the finished outside and 

 

the finished inside, soft and comfortable. It's partly crocheted, picking up live stitches, partly darned, weaving across the hole and the surrounding thin area.

Then I made the starting chain for the summer top I'm making from several leftover cotton threads in various summery colors. I'm starting with a pale green.

The whiskers you see are scraps of thread acting as stitchmarkers, since I don't have any locking markers. I inserted one every ten chains, to save a lot of counting as I chained the base of the piece. They can stay in place as a guide while the piece grows.

I'm doing a half-double stitch here, new to me and I think it's going to make a nice fabric, less transparent than double and less warm than single. A Goldilocks choice. At least that's the plan. It's a bit wobbly, learning as I go, but it will block out fine at the end. That's my story, anyway.

Happy day everyone, rainy and cold here, Helen complaining a bit. I finished the tofu sticks and tomorrow I embark on the veggie lasagna. 

Mme Ramotswe is my reading companion just now, too.