Between the Folds

A couple of months ago my oldest and youngest joined forces and began to subscribe to Netflix. Now, every night after his shower, my youngest and I watch an episode of “Intervention”. My son claims that he is now addicted to the show. Yes, the show does make doing drugs seem like a really icky thing to do. I’m not complaining.

 

Netflix has caused other changes in my household. I used to work out during the week to “The Today Show” for about 30 minutes. That was about as much patience as I could muster up for the  “Today Show” mix of teeny bits of actual news mixed with lots of grisly murder and how to save money.

 

These days I will watch three episodes of “ Say Yes! to the Dress” in a row , which come to 66 minutes.  Today I decided to watch this documentary.

Trailer for “Between the Folds

 

 

When I was in grade school several of my friends were seriously into origami. I learned how to make a couple of forms but didn’t really get into origami until right after college. I was then running a five day a week after school class for a group of 3-6 year olds.  I know, no one would ever plan a group for that wide an age span anymore.  But that’s the group that I had.  The group met five days a week for, I think two and a half or three hours. One of the activities I had the kids do, was origami.  I had started out using the directions that came with the packages of origami paper. after a while I had purchased a wonderful tiny but packed full book from japan from the Museum of Natural History

 

I discovered that they could all  create even the most complicated forms if I sat all of us at a round table and didn’t speak.  I would demonstrate each step and wait for each of them to complete it, helping out the kids that needed a bit more help. If we were all quiet, then all of the kids could make the most complicated origami forms. using words just made it harder.

 

Doing the origami with the kids was a favorite activity in the group. Sometimes I would tell them ahead of time what we were making. Sometimes I let them be surprised by the results. it was meditative. They were also pushed beyond what any of them thought they could do. we used to make both small scale origami using traditional origami paper, we also used to work large scale using 36 inch rolls of Kraft paper to make giant sized birds and frogs.

 

I haven’t made origami in years. Watching “Between the Folds” I also thought about how I solved the problem of how to work on Diane’s tallit using my old paper folding skills transferred to silk organza.

Schmattas in the blood

The building below is 555 8th Avenue. My great uncle’s factory, Charlotte Frocks was on the 19th floor  of 555 during the 1920’s and 1930’s.

 

Uncle Louis factory made high end private label dresses. Charlotte Frocks supported my uncle’s family. Uncle Lou also hired his younger, and difficult sister Becky to be his bookkeeper. Becky was quick to anger and didn’t like to work 9-5.  She showed up at work when she was good and ready to. Uncle Lou also supported his mother, my great grandmother.

I believe that this photograph of Uncle Lou was taken during the late teens or early 1920’s.

Domestic Goddess Day

Yesterday was a Domestic Goddess day. I did many loads of laundry. I unclogged the bathtub drain. I unclogged the bathroom sink drain.

My daughter wants more blouses to wear to work. Unfortunately, the style for cute young things like my daughter that is currently being sold are in our family parlance,” too foofy”.  For people that speak standard English, that means too frilly. Ruffles are now hot. My daughter is allergic to ruffles.

When my daughter was younger I had found directions on a now defunct blog on how to transform a man’s dress shirt into a woman’s blouse. I have re-made my daughter several blouses  out of men’s dress shirts over the past many years. I made this one for her yesterday. I cut the shirt two buttons below the collar and cut in a continuous oval. I then serged the raw edge. Then I folded the serged edged to the inside of the shirt and zigzagged 1/4 inch elastinc inside the fold.  I shirred the waist onto four rows of stretched elastic. I cut the shirt hem just before the shirt tails began to emerge. It’s a quick transformation.

I’m glad that my daughter likes the stuff I make for her.  It’s not the most amazing blouse in the world, but it works. It looks cuter on my daughter than it does on my dummy.The blouse will look far spiffier once it is pressed and starched.

And on a different note. My son and I decided to toast marshmallows at home, in the winter. No, we don’t have a balcony or a grill.  But we do have Shabbat candles.

We both feel very clever. I am a true Domestic Goddess.

Maya’s tallit complete ( more or less) and Food Friday

After yesterday’s near disaster of making the pinot/corner pieces too big, I went back to the drawing board. I recut  smaller pieces and then did the calligraphy yet again. I needed to figure out how to edge the pinot. I noticed a ball of gold Lurex yarn in with my threads. The yarn had been given to me by my friend Yoki. It’s really flashy and glittery. It’s perfect used in small doses.

 

 

Yes, the tallit needs a good pressing. But here it is more or less complete . The eyelets still need to be done.

The mis-sized pinah.

I also cooked dinner for tonight.

Broccoli roasted with sesame oil and rice vinegar. Vegetables roasted  until they are nearly charred are just so good. Broccoli on it’s own is not so delicious. Roasted it’s just amazing.

Fingerling potatoes roasted with olive oil lemon juice and I forget which spices- I’m guessing that it's vaguely European in flavor.

 

Chicken roasted with an Israeli schwarma spice mix with added smoked paprika, my lasted addiction.

 

I also made soup.

 

It’s chicken gizzard soup with lots of vegetables and some wheat berries tossed in. I love how eating gizzards is a bit like chewing on rubber bands. I suppose that if my guests don’t like the gizzards they can leave them in their soup bowl.

 

 

I still may make meringues.

 

Shabbat Shalom!

A brilliant idea and a beautiful fail

I wanted to iron interfacing to the back of the pinot/corner pieces for Maya's tallit. This would add a bit of stability to the corners which need a bit more support. I was thinking about how to iron on the interfacing and avoid the inevitable sticky goop from the interfacing ending up on the sole plate of my iron. It just isn’t fun to clean that gunk off.  Since I do my ironing in my kitchen, I thought of laying parchment paper between the interfacing and the iron.

 

My solution worked brilliantly.

It was easy to cut away the extra interfacing from beyond the borders of the pinot. I was feeling awfully clever. I stitched on the border, and put the pinah on the tallit.

FAIL!!!! The pinah while beautiful is just entirely too big  in scale for the tallit. I had to start the pinot over at 1/4 the size.

 

I couldn’t use a square tipped brush for the lettering because I was working on such a small scale. Grrr! My husband suggested that I save the pinot for a future tallit. I hope I get the new ones finished by the end of today.

Then end of an era

 

I once read that a person dies completely when their name is no longer remembered.

 

After my mother in law died four years ago, my husband had the job of cleaning out his parents’ home.  My in-laws, like many others who came of age during the depression were thrifty. They also liked to stock up on certain items when they went on sale. Their basement was lined with packages of toilet paper, cans of tuna fish, cans of frozen vegetables and boxes of store brand breakfast cereal.

As my husband cleaned out his parents’ house many of those items came home with him. My in-law’s house was build on swampy land so some of the items had to be thrown away because they smelled, well swampy.

We ended up with many packages of aluminum foil. Each day I wrap my son’s lunch in foil.  Anyone who cooks ends up using a fair amount of foil to wrap cook food.There were many packages of foil.

 

I have been feeling oddly sentimental about coming to the end of the foil, as if my in-law are now completely no longer of this earth.

 

Today I wrapped up my son’s sandwich in the fast bit of foil from the basement of my in-law’s home. I mentioned my sense of  this very last bit of mourning to my son. He then reminded me of the matches that also came from their house.

The book matches are in a deep bowl. There are 250 matches in each of the boxes. I use one match a week to light Shabbat candles. It’s going to take a long, long time before those matches are used up.

It Isn’t Always Easy

 

I often use the four verbs associated with Tzitzit/ritual fringes, on the pinot/corner pieces of a tallit ( have, see, remember and fulfill). I can usually make the letters  interlock in a really pretty way . It usually comes so easily that it almost feels like a parlor trick when I make the pinot. Well, not this time. It took several tries, and many failures on Friday. Today I sat down to do the pinot first thing in the morning when I was fresh , not tires and hopefully wouldn’t mess up.  Today I got the lettering on the pinot right. Whew!

My next task was to begin embroidering the ribbon that will border the pinot and the atara/neckband. I have two nice but boring ribbons.

 

I layered the two ribbons and embroidered a diamond stitch in gold. it’s already better. I will add another layer of stitching  to the diamond.  Embroidering the ribbon is both really boring and vary satisfying. Don’t worry, pressing will remove the ripple from the ribbon. Stay tuned for the finish of Maya’s tallit.