Textiles and Tea, Misfits, Knitting group, third party Freecycle

I made it to the knitting group this week, bringing my new portable weaving.

M brought her wheel and was spinning some bluefaced Leicester and silk roving. I made a video for the YouTube channel which caught her explaining the process. 

Here's my new little weaving, a seamless pouch for my phone. The loom is the side of the box my Ashford loom clamps came in.

You see how you weave round and round to make it a seamless tube.

Such talent in this little group. Chat fell into many tributaries rather than group, for various social reasons.

Home again for Textiles and Tea with high energy 

She's an English woman, former professional oboeist, now wildly creative weaver and teacher, currently based in southwest France, in this great studio/teaching space 

 Here's her latest book, full of fearless ideas and philosophy 

Behind her are stalactite forms woven in a variety of threads including paper

She pursues seemingly impossible results and gets them. When she teaches, she limits the group to two or three so as to give maximum attention to each person's journey. 

I asked her if high jinks pretty much summarized her life and adventures and she cheerfully agreed that was a fair assessment.  I've rarely seen a happier more joyful worker, who tackles steep learning curves with total energy. 

Meanwhile back on earth, Wednesday saw me in the cardiologist office 

Shortly before being seen by a procession of nurses, nps, and the cardio, all of whom told me I was doing well and needed an annual ultrasound, or something, come back in two weeks. 

I notice my doctors now all have a walker at the scale, good thinking. Stepping onto that wobbly platform is a fall waiting to happen.

Then Misfits arrived so early today I never saw the driver, being upstairs getting dressed.

A couple of items were out of stock, dandelion greens and salty chocolate mix. Too bad about the greens.. 

I ordered a couple of starkrimson pears, of one of which I gave a sample slice to contractor Mike, who made a note. He and his wife are once again eating healthier, so he was glad to learn about a pear he'd never had.

The carrots are partly cooked for future quiche purposes, with the rest of the kale and maybe mushrooms from the freezer.

This is why I stocked up on the various cheeses. They're not in stock often, so I seized the day. Lunch may be a tuna melt, haven't had that in a while.

The strawberries will accompany the favorite yogurt, now back in stock. And maybe a smoothie or two involving bananas. Black beans to go with other pulse foods in the house. 

The bathroom is almost complete, soon to be usable again. I'll be glad to get my house back. I haven't seen so many people in years, more than I need really. 

The knitting group, all the doctor personnel, Handsome Son, who's always welcome, contractor Mike, neighbor who brought over a fall chrysanthemum, on and on.  My social cup is overflowing and I need recovery time. 

I put up a "spotted locally" Freecycle notice about this bicycle 

I know little about bikes, but I see the chain is rusty and needs attention. Maybe someone will want to rehab it.

Happy day everyone, well done, Alberta,  and everyone keep pushing for the good people. Most countries are in a right wing wave just now, and resistance is required, sez Ted and Big Ursy and Pony and Ursula 

Forsytes, Freecycle and Floor cloths

I'm currently watching this 

It's a good production, wonderful interiors, costumes, carriages, all that, and great casting. It takes some liberties with the original plot but it works anyway.  

Francesca Annis looks a bit youthful for the matriarch,oddly, since she's actually about the right age in real life, but her facial acting expression is wonderful, great communication.

The Forsytes Saga is the gift that keeps on giving. I've seen at least three productions on TV, all good.

Meanwhile back at the maker space, I checked the weaving of the proposed floor mat and realized it could be slippery. So I rethought and made the pieces into kitchen cloths instead. 

It's good cotton, so it will work. And now I've got all I needed from this yarn, so today I'm passing the rest on to a keen knitter anxious to get hold of it.

There were any number of potential takers on Freecycle, and it's going into grateful hands.

I'm looking for takers for any or all of these items 

And there's another folding bookcase as soon as I can get it downstairs to take a picture. It's like the other one I Freecycled recently, in fact it can be stacked on it

And this will probably get a taker

I use a steel, so I don't need it. Someone will be happy, I expect.

The less stuff I have around, the better I can breathe. The house looks bigger, too.  Ed addition: both knife grinder and bookcase had takers within minutes.

I was up very early Sunday so I improved the shining early hour by baking banana bread, with a bit of coffee essence added in. 

Second Sunday breakfast. That's Chobani yogurt, plain, on top. 

And here's a local warning from the county prosecutor's office (?)

The thing is they're warning about phishing, links, all that. And they give a link to find out more. I'm not clickin' no link!

Happy day everyone, so much good stuff around, hopeful about the elections, including the Alberta referendum.

Concierge Misfits, tiny bouquet, silk art

The seasons seem to be colliding, not unusual for this time in this region.

So I nipped out and picked the really last tiny bouquet of the year.

Jeff the Misfits Driver, is now giving me personal concierge delivery. He rang the doorbell, and asked where was best for the box indoors. This is above and beyond, so my appreciative words to HQ must have got back to him. Nice guy. 

Strawberries to go with the yogurt, and now Chris has told the story behind Chobani, I'm happy to buy it when it's available. Next week my old standby is back though.

Apples are the usual midmorning snack, one of those habits that get permanent. The cream cheese was one of those sold out items I put on my wait-list and got lucky. Excellent on that seedy oaty bread. The birds like the bread, because I shake out the emptied bag and they get the seeds left in it.

The cold brew coffee is an experiment, to see if it works hot, too. And as a possible flavor in baking.  The fudge brownies are just because it's been an exciting and tiring few days, or some such malarkey.

Bananas are for breakfasts on toasted seedy bread. 

And I made a giant quiche, not much cheeses available, so it's Parmesan and feta cheese, with a lot of scallions, garlic, kale and spinach and the usual ten eggs. I reheat by broiling for a minute or two, really good. This week my cheeses are available again so I'm stocking up in my next order.

I also made a large pot of soup, using broth from the chicken, and a lot of the three bean salad plus potatoes and chicken pieces. Between this and the quiche, the week's meals are fast food.  The three bean salad and dressing worked fine as soup ingredients.

I'm so pleased with the bathtub. Contractor Mike tells me the tiling and painting will be done by end of day Wednesday. 

Door in place but not screwed down 

Door out, in the usual way I'll use it. I tried stepping in, and that step means only a small distance to raise my foot, and I can put both feet on the step. Inside there's enough height that the shower curtain will contain the water.

Meanwhile the stair-lift is in use carrying stuff up. I needed to take the filled gallon containers of water from outside before frost gets here, and they needed to be available for the upstairs plants, which I'm terrible at watering. 

So the chair carried them up for me, so easy. I can carry one in each hand but it's not a good idea to climb stairs without holding on to a rail.

While I was upstairs setting up the water, I remembered Ellen was asking about examples of how the silk transferred images worked. So I found these, all hanging around upstairs. 

This is a silk transfer of a scan of sashiko stitching and a painting, overlaid images.

Here the appliqued dancing shapes are cut from a silk transfer. They're appliqued onto a silk square I dyed.

Parts of these soft sculptures are pieces of image dyed silk. There's also molded and painted handmade paper. 

So there's a few of the ways I used the fabric. Collectors now own some artworks with pieces collaged and stuffed, in hanging works. 

It occurs to me now that if any US blogistas (sorry, can't run to out of country shipping) want either of the 2D pieces as a little present, let me know. The sculptures can't travel, though.

Meanwhile I'm eagerly awaiting some new really tiny looms from an English artisan for a different experiment in weaving. Also two more clamps from the Woolery for more successful long warp weaving with the frame loom.

It's all good. I couldn't get the Mary Pipher book on aging Pixie mentioned, but I did read Women Rowing North.

It's easy reading, anecdotal, with ideas you can think about and try on for size. I'd recommend it if you're comfortable with the Noah's Ark mindset. 

Meaning the assumption that everyone has a partner, and that singles ought to just get.on and get one. She gives almost no recognition to the large and growing population of single ageing women and the issues they face. 

Some are widowed, some divorced, some never partnered. Their lives and plans are very different from the partnered, particularly straight partnered, who seem to comprise the world she's addressing.  And most of her subjects are statistically likely to be alone in their last years.

But given that caution, there's still quite a bit of value in reading it. I wondered if she'd written this back in her Ophelia book days, explaining how dated it is, but, no, pub date 2019. So I did give her a fair try.

Anyway, happy day, pick out the parts of books and life that work for you and go for it. 

Sez Ted and Big Ursy and Pony and Ursula