It’s Spring

After a long and difficult winter, it is finally spring, not just by the calendar but by the weather as well.

The street trees have begun to bloom.

I am also doing the spring time task of catching up on ironing all of the table cloths I used during Passover. Well, I actually haven’t gotten through all of the cloths.  I have done about half of them.

I also ironed most of the napkins we used for the two Seders. Unlike my mother who was a big believer in using matching napkins at a meal, I use a mix of similar napkins. Some in the stack are from my mother, others I inherited from other people.  All of them are roughly the same size and are ivory linen with taupe cutwork. I think that like the various people at the table, they can get along even if they are not identical.

 

I also began constructing the stripes for two very different tallitot for two very different people. This black gold and blue tallit is for Jean.

 

She had taken a  tallit workshop I had taught last spring. jean is a deliberate thinker and wasn’t ready to make her tallit at that point. She needed a longer time to mull over what she really wanted. The base of her tallit is a truly delicious ribbed black silk. She chose a complex striped silk that is a mix of chiffon and tightly woven satin brocade. Like Jean herself, it’s deceptively simple. What you see here is actually the lining of the tallit. this is a tallit that will look good  both on the inside and on the outside.

 

I have also begun working on a tallit for my friend Howard. We had begun discussions about this tallit more than a decade ago.But he recently said that he was ready to go ahead  with his tallit.

What you are seeing is striped Italian tie silk that has been cut apart and re-stitched together. I love having two such different projects going on at the same time.