Work- of various kinds

This morning I woke up to see this out my 6th floor window.

For those of you not from New York, this is Local Law 11 at work. 

A couple of years before I moved here a Columbia student was killed when a piece of  a building's cornice came loose and landed on her.  In response to that tragedy, Local Law 11 was passed. Local Law 11 requires that every building in the city is inspected every few years and any potentially loose bits of facade are repaired.

It's an expensive law to uphold. It creates lots of work for local construction companies and engineers.

Ultimately it is a good thing.

Other work on my plate currently is altering the kittle I had made last High Holiday season.  The recipient of the kittle came by yesterday.  Frankly, it fit better  than I had hoped.

The recipient had a few issues with the kittle . The first was the easiest the address. He hated the buttons which had rhinestones in the centers.

That was an easy peasy fix, especially because I had inherited a stash of wonderful buttons from my friend Pearl's mother. Pearl's mother lived to be over 100 and was a serious sewer and knitter. She had a beautiful button collection.

These cut metal buttons are more subtle, and are exactly the right size.

Unfortunately, the buttons were so old that the plating had worn off of the back. I was concerned that the exposed metal might rub off and stain the white kittle.  I painted the backs of the buttons with nail polish and all is now good.

My next tasks are taking in the kittle.

I basted the alterations onto the garment while the recipient was wearing it inside out. It took me a while to figure out the best way to solve this particular alteration issue. But a combination of long darts in the front and a simple taking in of the sides ought to do the trick.

I had made the sleeves extra long, because that is the tradition for reasons I don't know. The recipient of the kittle didn't know the reason either, so I will be taking up the sleeves about 4 inches and they will be a little long but not crazily so.

I am also re thinking the gartle or belt and will keep you posted on how i end up making that.

Because there is going to be a fair amount of sewing in my life over the next couple of weeks, and a short bit of travel I started my Rosh HaShanah cooking today with stuffed cabbage.

I steamed the leaves off of one giant cabbage and one small cabbage assuming that between the two i would have more than enough nice leaves for stuffed cabbage making. The leaves did  come off nicely (because I remembered to core the cabbage  with deep cuts).

For those of you who need a cabbage rolling tutorial, here it is.

You lay out the leaf with the stem end facing you. Add a spoon-full of the meat filling to the lower third of the leaf.

Fold first one side, and then the over the meat.

Roll the cabbage up from the stem end to the top of the leaf.

Add to your pot which has shredded up cabbage core and unusable leaves on the bottom so you cabbage does not burn.

Repeat until there are no more usable cabbage leaves and no more meat.This year I didn't have enough usable cabbage leaves so I made the left over meat into meat balls which I put on top of the cabbage rolls. I made a sweet and sour tomato sauce and set my giant pan o cabbage into the oven to cook until it is done. My mother used to cook this on top of the stove. I find it easier to bake it in the oven. I suppose I may at some point uncover the pot if I need to juices to be reduced.

Right now the house smells like it will soon be Rosh HaShanah, and that isn't a bad thing.