A busy day

 We are home! and between doing laundry and readjusting our internal clocks  to EST I have also started a project that is due in the middle of March.

I have been asked to transform this beautiful embroidered shawl into a tallit.

The base fabric is fine midnight blue cashmere and the design is embroidered in rayon  chainstitches.

The verse for the atara is

מוֹנֶ֣ה מִ֭סְפָּר לַכּוֹכָבִ֑ים לְ֝כֻלָּ֗ם שֵׁמ֥וֹת יִקְרָֽא׃

He reckoned the number of the stars;

to each He gave its name.

Psalm 147:4

I had thought when meeting with my client that I would dye a flat woven silk to look like the sky. But poking around my stash I found a bit of rayon jacquard woven tablecloth. I realized that if I dyed it it would look similar to the embroidered pattern on the shawl.

Three layers of dye later, setting the color, rinsing out the excess dye and then pressing the fabric you get this.

I calligraphed the text onto paper and then traced the lettering onto cotton batiste.

 I could have basted the batiste to the dyed fabric  with needle and thread but instead I basted with safety pins. 

I know that it isn't standard practice but it works for me.

My plan is to have the letters go from light to dark.

This is what I have accomplished as of now.

A dear friend is ill. When I asked what I could do for her she asked for some of my chicken soup.

I ordered many packages of chicken bones and onions, parsnips, carrots, a turnip and some leeks. I shoved as much as I could into my crock pot last night.

I set the mixture to cook . By the time I went to sleep it smelled good. By morning the soup smelled heavenly. That was the easy part of the task.

soup ready for straining

I then set about straining the soup.

I set a mesh strainer into a pot and lined it with a dish towel.

I ladled bits of soup into the towel lined strainer.

The cooked vegetables got mashed with the spoon and then squeezed until I had wrung out every bit of liquid out of them.

The result is a beautiful clear rich tasting soup.

After I had finished squeezing all of the vegetable matter I opened up all of the mesh bags of chicken bones and separated all of the chicken meat from the bones. The meat has been put in the fridge and will be turned into a chicken salad. The bones, after 12 hours of cooking, have gotten soft. I squeezed all of the yummy chicken juice out of the bones.

I have three quarts of rich flavorful entirely clear chicken broth for my friend. 

I usually don't start buying food for Passover until after Purim---but 

Costco sells Shmura Matza at such an excellent price---and once it is gone they don't buy more so I bought some and promise that I won't write about Passover prep for another few weeks.

Tonight we were invited to join friends for Shabbat dinner. I
was glad of the extra day to work that it gave me. 

Shabbat Shalom!