sarah in nyc

Ari’s tallit is boxed up and has been picked up by Fed-Ex. That means that I need to get serious about Ella’s tallit. Ella loved how the texts around tallit talked about  כנף.   You could translate the word כנף as corner, or your could translate it as wing. The texts around putting on a tallit use it both ways. Ella wants the atara/ neckband on this tallit to look like wings. One of the texts Ella particularly liked that talks about the protection of God’s wings is the השכיבנו. The prayer was inserted into the evening service during a time when many synagogues were located outside of town. Walking home after evening services was not so safe . The paragraph was inserted so latecomers could catch up to the others and so that the attendees could walk home together in a group. The prayer  itself asks for God’s protection. it evokes the image of God’s sukkah as well as God’s wings.   Ella and I spoke about having the lines of text serve as the stripe section...

  I had to make the physical reality of the materials I had at hand match the vision inside my head so I could complete Ari’s atara .  I stitched the chiffon down to the layers of fabrics.   I then stitched around the word  ohr/ light with silver metallic thread. The stitching would draw the eye to the word. I added lines of the silver stitching over the two other words in the verse, illustrating the verse “ in Your light, we see light “. But, then I had a second thought, beading the letters. I know, it’s a slightly deranged idea. But I had a beading needle and my eyeglass prescription is pretty good, and I have lots of teeny beads.  The process was obsessive but took less time than I had expected. I also couched four rows of the silver Lurex yarn to the atara to border the piece.  I added dark bugle beads  to the rays of light . You will be able to see those later in the post. Photographing this tallit has been surpris...

Hurray for crowd sourcing! The votes generally came in in favor of the midnight blue.  Actually, what I had thought was midnight blue is actually black. Never the less, it was the right choice. Usually, painting the letters is an easy and stress free part of the task of constructing a tallit. This time though there were several bad starts that all had to get tossed. I also had to think about the pinot/ corner pieces.  I ended up doing this.   The black silk chiffon is layered over the stitched sandwich of two layers of flannel, there just for invisible support, silver brocade and slate blue lace  left over from making this dress.   I then painted stars on the chiffon. I have been laying awake at night thinking about how to edge the pinot nicely. Ari had vetoed gold . I own LOTS of gold threads  and yarns in a variety of weights. I have silver, but less of it and in less variety.  I knew that I had a piece of a skein of silver Lurex...

My friend Elisheva asked me how to do a four strand braid when baking challah. She saw the visual superiority of the four strand braid but was unsure about how to create it. There is more than one way to skin a cat, several ways I can think of off hand to do a four strand braid  but this is an easy way to do it. I have used four strips of  fabric as my visual aid. When we braid hair or do a standard three strand braid you work your hands in both directions. With this four strand braid you weave only from left to right. (Yes, if you are a lefty you can braid going the other way) Braiding hair always begins at the top. I was taught though that it is simpler to begin braiding a challah in the middle. 1- Here are my four strand waiting to be braided.Another tip for cute challot, don’t make long strands of dough. Stumpy strands end up  looking better. The act of braiding stretches the dough creating attractive striations in the challah. Long braids tend to look over work...

Today I I had an idea about Ari’s atara/neckband. I thought that if I covered it with a chiffon and did the intended lettering on top of the chiffon , the end result might be terrific.I love the metallic threads shimmering through the sheer silks. If I had a purple chiffon, life would be easy.  I have maroon chiffon. Midnight blue chiffon.     I also have brown. I’m thinking that the brown might read as purple, but I also really like the midnight blue. I’m crowd sourcing this one. Any thoughts  from  internet land?

this Shabbat means that my cooking load is much lighter this Friday. I made challah, and a bonus challah roll that I shared with my sons  right after the challah was baked. Eating bread right out of the oven is a great experience. The reality is though that the bread actually needs to be cooler to really taste all of the flavors in the bread. Eating the challah roll was amazing, but frankly, I have no idea what it actually tastes like. That will have to wait until after motzi. As you can see I decided to line the baking pan with parchment paper again. There is a slight difference in the taste and texture of the bottom crust. If you oil the baking pan then the bottom crust is extra crispy and is slightly enhanced by the oil. On the other hand, I do appreciate not having to scrub the pan quite so hard. Our hostess has a weakness for my meringues, or as they are known in this household, whities. So I made a batch. I committed a baking sin in baking the whities. A bit of egg...

I had a cool idea for Ari’s atara/neckband. I decided to layer a silver brocade, a slate blue lace and some flannel for support and then sew lots of random straight stitching.  I learned the method from an article by the brilliant Bird Ross .   The result looks cool, but unfortunately the color doesn’t quite work with the tallit. The blue/grey reads as greenish with the plum tallit.   The tallit though looks great. If I had more time I would have spent some time getting bummed out about the failed experiment. Instead I began adding beads and sequins to the tallit.   There is a small constellation of clear glass beads in the photo below. you may not see them in the photo, but when Ari wears the tallit in synagogue the tiny beads will catch the light.   The goal isn’t to create a Las Vegas showgirl tallit. But the subtle bits of light glimmering out from the tallit draw your eye to the tallit and ultimately to the wearer. It gives a sense of ...