sarah in nyc

There isn’t too much that feels better than cashmere on the skin. I am always on the look out for cashmere sweaters in the thrift stores. A bad shape or an unfortunate color don’t detract a whole lot from a well priced sweater.  Any sweater can be re shaped or dyed, to suit my taste.   It’s generally warm in New York City apartments. I nearly always have a few windows open in my apartment, even on the coldest days. I usually wear a sleeveless dress topped by a cotton sweater while at home. When I go out I switch to a warmer wool, often cashmere cardigan.     I found this very pink cashmere v-neck at the Salvation Army this summer. It was half price.  I put it on yesterday for the first time over an orange paisley dress. I realized that I just wasn’t going to wear it  very often unless it was turned into a cardigan.   I folded the sweater in half and lined up the side seams to be sure that I would actually cut along the center front prop...

When I was pregnant with my oldest 24 years ago, my friend Eve was pregnant with her second. She needed to get rid of a couch to make room in her apartment for her second baby. It was a grey cotton couch.  It was the perfect couch  for us, about to become parents, because it came pre-stained with baby Tylenol. After many years we got a new couch and tried to get rid of Eve’s couch.  Housingworks sent two men to pick up the couch. They refused to take it. They said that it was to worn out for them to sell in their thrift store. We kept the couch. After several more years I recovered the couch with a mix of marked down upholstery fabrics in colors and patterns that looked good together. Eventually, the new couch began to look shabby. I have been slowly recovering that couch as well. I still haven’t done the back cushions, but I have done all of the seat cushions Last night I noticed that the old arm protectors had gotten really shabby. I made new ones today. I also not...

Diane is a bible scholar and a good friend. I have made at least three tallitot for her.  The year my father was dying, Diane came up with another idea for a tallit. My husband couldn’t understand why Diane would want yet another tallit, let alone, another made by me.  Diane’s mother came from the Syrian Jewish community. Diane wanted the tallit  to honor her past. She hoped that I could make the tallit in the form of a Moroccan star. Something like this. ( Image source http://www.dphotographer.co.uk/image/160311/moroccan_star ) I loved the idea. Then it got a little complicated. Diane wanted the tallit made out of one layer of pieced silks, no lining. She wanted the tallit made out of crayon- bright colors. My other problem is figuring out how to do the geometry in my math challenged brain. Diane was kind enough to realize that while my father was dying, I simply didn’t have enough brain power left to figure out how to  make the tallit. Diane was kind enough t...

When my Aunt Sheva would see one of us eating, say an ice cream cone, on the street she would always quote in Hebrew, Ha Ochel BaChitz Domeh l’Kelev,   “One who eats outdoors resembles a dog.” Mostly, we didn’t follow Aunt Sheva’s edict, except to quote it before we began to eat. While I am a big believer in good street food, I do think that there are activities that probably ought not to take place out in public, on the street. Living here in the city, on Broadway, I do often see people engaging in activities that probably should be best left at home. When I used to walk my youngest to elementary school invariably, I used to pass the same  suit clad man walking to the subway while he was shaving with his battery operated shaver.  Aside from the shaver, he always looked completely put together and  businesslike.  Often, when I leave the house, I see a delivery man from the Chinese restaurant on the corner, sitting in his car while carefully tweezing hi...

I had a doctor’s appointment today. on my way back to the subway, I noticed that Paron is having a moving sale. Paron is moving a black south to 39th Street. Fabrics in their regular price store are now 30-60% off.  I’m not quite sure the percentage off in their half price store. I assume that prices are a bit fluid. Fabrics in the back corridor are now all priced at $3/yard. I bought these three fabrics from the bolts in the back room. They are from left to right, a Lurex knit, a rayon knit and a hammered silk. Oddly, each of the bolts had the identical yardage, a yard and a half. I’m especially pleased by the hammered silk. It has a beautiful drape and a great feel. While my fabric was being measured, I noticed a box of ancient vintage velvet ribbon. As the various fabric stores in the district close up shop they tend to sell their stock to the ones still left standing.There are all sorts of treasures to be had here. This is what I bought; grey 1  1/2 inch wide,...

Last week was a really hard week.  Each day came with terrible news. I’m fine and my kids are fine. But  a relative was diagnosed with a terrible illness.  A friend’s child woke up dead and a sweet young man committed suicide. It’s all a bit much to assimilate in just a few days.  It does make it hard to work. My kids have begun subscribing to Netflix. We have been enjoying an orgy of reality TV. My son now claims to be addicted to   Intervention . Watching Hoarders   has convinced me that we don’t need to keep quite as much stuff as we currently keep around. My husband gets very attached to objects. He also feels strongly that just a few holes or wear spots doesn’t mean that something isn’t perfectly good. I was given a block printed table cloth several years ago. It had belonged to my friend’s mother. it’s hand printed cotton from India and was purchased from Bonwit- Teller in the mid 1960’s. I assume that when it was new it had a coarse feel. It's be...

The bat-mitzvah was lovely. Hanging out with the various generations of cousins, is  a pleasure. My cousin ET surprised me with this. Another addition to our Royal drek collection I may have to rearrange my collection of Royal drek. My daughter pointed out that both William and Catherine look terrible in the photos. I think that adds to the charm of the plate The dress? It was fine. I did notice a fair number of sequins on the dance floor. I don’t know if they were from my dress or from  a dress worn by someone else. It was comfortable to wear. I think I will even wear it again. But all play-time must come to an end. I’m getting back to work on Maya’s tallit. Here is the lettering, raw, without the refinements that come with adding a border. "I will increase your offspring..." A detail shot "...like the stars of the sky." both sides of the tallit     Yesterday, I had a cool experience while meeting with a client.  i'm se...

I got my black tie event outfit al put together. The dress is complete. I realized I needed a wrap of some kind. My usual lace or  chiffon won’t work with the dress because the sequins will snag those fabrics.   It’s hard to look elegant while extracting ones self from  a shawl. This is where being a tallit maker comes in handy. I had a length of Calvin Klein satin in my stash. ( Hurray for www.fabricmartfarics.com mystery bundles!)  Sewing it up and top stitching the shawl was quick work. far quicker than pressing all the wrinkles out of the fabric.   I did need an evening bag.  My neighbor had given me an evening bag with a cute shape in bright orange.   See, it’s a really bright orange. I made a slip cover out of  crinkled metallic silk organza. I hand stitched it onto the bag. I think the bag is vastly improved. Yes, you can see the orange peeping through.   I assume that the room where the party will be held wi...

Lots of wonderful European hand work was embroidered by cloistered nuns. Probably , most of those women lost their vision doing  that beautiful work. I’m working away on Maya’s tallit.The beading needle has a really teeny eye. The gold beads are miniscule. Aside from giving me an opportunity to worry about the state of my eyesight, I love how layering the stars, with the paint, the stitching and the beads and sequins creates a layered look to the cosmos that I’m trying to depict on Maya’s tallit.   The twinkly sequins will catch the eyes of people even in the back of Maya’s synagogue. The fact that the high octane sparkle is sprinkled , rather than paved over the entire surface actually increases  their impact. I have lots more to do.   I did manage to slice my finger on yet another X-acto knife.   I did  not bleed on Maya’s tallit. Yesterday, I heard about the death of our friend Peter, a wonderful man who didn’t quite believe i...

In our family we often joke that we speak our own dialect of English. our speech is loaded with Spoonerisms, punch lines of ancient jokes, remainders of  mispronunciations by our kids and kids I had worked with back in the day when I taught day care. Added to this are bits of Pee Wee’s Playhouse and odd phrases that came out of our childhoods. One cooking term we use often is cooking food “Until Dead”.  In normative English, I would say that the food is cooked until crusty and caramelized on the outside.   Because I can’t add large amounts of salt to my food, my husband abhors garlic and we both want to avoid excess fat, the question is how with those restrictions does one add deep flavor to food. One way to do that is to cook the food with dry heat. If you cook food for a long time, uncovered in an oven much of the moisture evaporates and the flavors intensify.   Tonight’s meatballs are more than half vegetable matter by volume.  My non vegetable eat...

in her completed tallit. Looking so much like her mother. She tied her tzitzit in the Sephardic knot pattern of 10-5-6-5, spelling out the name of the Holy One. Ayelet’s mother comes from the Syrian Jewish community. I look forward to being at Ayelet’s bat mitzvah on Shabbat.

Usually, during the early part of the week, our meals are made up of left overs from Shabbat. It’s busy season for my husband so he has been coming home late and I haven’t done a huge amount of mid week cooking.I realized as I pulled tonight’s dinner out of the oven that it is made up entirely of food I have purchased at Costco. I was baking pita in the oven at 420. I put some frozen mixed vegetables into an olive oiled baking pan. This vaguely Asian mix of vegetables takes a long time to cook, so I got those cooking first.  I had pulled a small package of tilapia out of the freezer yesterday. I usually break apart the giant Costco rafts of fish into smaller meal sized packages. I topped the fish with dried rosemary and balsamic vinegar and returned it to the oven. By the time the last tray of pita was cooked, so was the fish.Every ingredient in tonight's dinner came from Costco. I made this simple dinner, partially because I had to make a dress to wear to a black tie event. ...

    Some elements of making a tallit ( or doing anything) are just plain fun. Other elements are about as exciting as watching paint dry. The other day I had to cut the silk for Maya’s tallit. Generally, when you gut a piece of fabric from selvedge to selvedge, the easiest and most accurate way to cut is to make a little cut at the selvedge and then just rip the fabric. It makes a great satisfying sound. You also end up with a perfectly straight edge. I learned this from a cranky very old chain smoking saleswoman in a fabric store that no longer exists on 39th street.   The old saleswoman  had a really contentious relationship with the owner of the store who she probably remembered from the time he was in diapers. The two used to have screaming fights regularly as you shopped for fabric. they were both quile lovely on their own. They had a screaming fight each time I went in there. I’m not quite sure why it didn’t bother me enough to stay away, but it felt ...