Skip to main content

My life is not just cooking…

It was now time to tackle the atara/ neckband for Isabel's tallit.

 

I went back to look at my sketch.

Isabel 001 (2)

I had forgotten that I had planned to make an atara with the priestly breastplate in the center.

Isabel 001 (2)

 

So I had to get to work creating it.

 

Last week one of the local thrift stores was selling a roll of Joe Fresh gold knit fabric. It was a really really shiny bathing suit knit. If I wanted to star in a 1980’s aerobics video I would make myself work out clothing out of this knit. It was a silly amount of fabric for a silly price.  I had made myself a slip out of some of it.

 

I realized that it would be perfect for the breastplate for Isabel, the girl who loves bling.

 

I cut a rectangle of fusible fleece, and drew the stitching lines on the fleece with a marker. I backed the fleece with the shiny fabric and stitched.

SAM_3826

I then added twelve different shiny bits as the jewels.

SAM_3831

I then tidied up the little breastplate.

 

I painted the text on either side of the center and decided to paint a frame for the breastplate onto the silk. I used painter's tape to mark the area to be painted.

SAM_3836

 

I think this will look great when it is all put together.

SAM_3840

My friend's daughter is expecting a baby. This is a huge, huge deal.

 

I decided to knit a blanket for the baby. I have fallen in love with knitting on giant needles.   It’s the way that those of us with short knitting  attention spans can knit things like garments or baby blankets.

SAM_3846

I used four fat yarns at a time and switched out colors whenever I felt like it. the yarns are all acrylic so the blanket can be washed whenever it gets dirty. Given that the blanket is going to a baby, that means that this blanket will get dirty often.

SAM_3843

I love the colors. hope the baby does too.

Labels:

Comments

  1. SandyFebruary 13, 2015 at 4:29 PM

    The breastplate is very good. A way to say 'breastplate' without it over whelming the whole of the piece.

    I think If I could learn to knit on big needles, I would actually learn to knit. Instead I crochet (when I still want to make something, but haven't much brain.) I don't follow patterns...not good at all the sc, tc, * and all that stuff! LOL

    But for the most part, the choice of sticking with crochet and not knitting is that crochet makes up visibly faster. ;-) I have bought a big crochet hook with the idea to have fabric strips and crochet them. But I haven't been able to bring myself to actually tear up fabric!
    Sandy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sarah JacobsFebruary 13, 2015 at 4:47 PM

    I can't follow a knit or crochet pattern to save my life. i look at patterns and go immediately cross-eyed. I can knit something into a shape. I can then turn that shape into a garment. Knitting o the giant needles is a blast.

    I am incredibly pleased with the little breastplate. It hold up both from a distance and from close up.

    I taught my DD how to knit on the giant needles...and she is a lefty.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I love hearing from my readers. I moderate comments to weed out bots.It may take a little while for your comment to appear.

Popular posts from this blog

Connecting with the past

A few months ago I had a craving for my father’s chicken fricassee.  If my father were still alive I would have called him up and he would have talked me through the process of making it.    My father is no longer alive so I turned to my cookbooks and the recipes I found for chicken fricassee were nothing at all like the stew of chicken necks, gizzards and wings in a watery sweet and sour tomato sauce that I enjoyed as a kid.  I assumed that the dish was an invention of my father’s. I then attempted to replicate the dish from my memory of it and failed.   A couple of weeks ago I saw an article on the internet, and I can’t remember where, that talked about Jewish fricassee  and it sounded an awful lot like the dish I was hankering after. This afternoon I went to the butcher and picked up all of the chicken elements of the dish, a couple of packages each of wings, necks and gizzards. My father never cooked directly from a cook book. He used to re...
1 comment
Read more

The light themed tallit has been shipped!!!

 I had begun speaking to Sarah about making her a tallit in the middle of August. It took a few weeks to nail down the design. For Sarah it would have been ideal if the tallit were completed in time for her to wear it on Rosh HaShanah., the beginning of her year as senior rabbi of her congregation. For me, in an ideal world, given the realities of preparing for the High Holidays I would have finished this tallit in the weeks after Sukkot. So we compromised and I shipped off the tallit last night.  I would have prefered to have more time but I got the job done in time. This tallit was made to mark Sarah's rise to the position of senior rabbi but it was also a reaction to this year of darkness. She chose a selection of verses about light to be part of her tallit. 1)  אֵל נוֹרָא עֲלִילָה  God of awesome deeds ( from a yom kippur Liturgical poem) 2)  אוֹר חָדָשׁ עַל־צִיּוֹן תָּאִיר   May You shine a new light on Zion ( from the liturgy) 3)  יָאֵר יְהֹ...
8 comments
Read more

A Passover loss

 My parents bought this tablecloth during their 1955 visit to Israel. It is made out of  linen from the first post 1948 flax harvest. The linen is heavy and almost crude. The embroidery is very fine. We used this cloth every Passover until the center wore thin.  You can see the cloth on the table in the background of this photo of my parents and nephew My Aunt Sheva bought my mother a replacement cloth. The replacement cloth is made out of a cotton poly blend. The embroidery is crude and the colors not nearly as nice. The old cloth hung in our basement. We used the new cloth and remembered the much nicer original cloth. I loved that my aunt wanted to replace the cloth, I just hated the replacement because it was so much less than while evoking the beauty of the original. After my father died my mother sat me down and with great ceremony gave me all of her best tablecloths. She also gave me the worn Passover cloth and suggested that I could mend it. I did. Year after year ...
2 comments
Read more