Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from December, 2024

הַנֵּרוֹת הַלָּלוּ שֶׁאָנוּ מַדְלִיקִין

 Yesterday, we had planned to be in brooklyn for a big family candle lighting and celebration. Unfortunately, the fact that my husband and I were both under the weather meant that we couldn't go. However with the magic of the internet we did candle lighting together via Zoom. Despite being family, some of the customs of candle lighting differ slightly. The actual candle lighting is traditionally followed by this text which is a little historical and legal round up about the act of lighting Chanukah candles. הַנֵּרוֹת הַלָּלוּ שֶׁאָנוּ מַדְלִיקִין, עַל הַנִּסִּים וְעַל הַנִּפְלָאוֹת וְעַל הַתְּשׁוּעוֹת וְעַל הַמִּלְחָמוֹת, שֶׁעָשִׂיתָ לַאֲבוֹתֵינוּ בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם בַּזְּמַן הַזֶּה, עַל יְדֵי כֹּהֲנֶיךָ הַקְּדוֹשִׁים. וְכָל שְׁמוֹנַת יְמֵי הַחֲנֻכָּה הַנֵּרוֹת הַלָּלוּ קֹדֶשׁ הֵם וְאֵין לָנוּ רְשׁוּת לְהִשְׁתַּמֵּשׁ בָּהֶם, אֶלָּא לִרְאוֹתָם בִּלְבָד, כְּדֵי לְהוֹדוֹת וּלְהַלֵּל לְשִׁמְךָ הַגָּדוֹל עַל נִסֶּיךָ וְעַל נִפְלְאוֹתֶיךָ וְעַל יְשׁוּעָתֶךָ. We kindle these lights on accou...

A Little Behind in My Blog Posting

 I haven't posted for a while because I  have been sick. The world hasn't stopped because of of a bad cold though. We reached the halfway point of Chanukah last night. There isn't a photo of night three because I had to light Shabbat candles as well. I loved this video about a tallit and tzizit factory in Israel. I'm sorry that there isn't an English translation. But this factory does the entire process of tallit making from making the wool threads, through twining and weaving the tallitot themselves. If you want to see tallitot made by hand you can watch this  video of a tallit weaver in Tzfat. The weaver sees the act of weaving the tallitot as a spiritual practice. For me, both videos are food for thought as I work away on the tallitot that are currently on my plate. And for your Chanukah listening pleasure, the Muppets singing a Chanukah song. Chag Sameach!

Making Fog with a Foggy Brain

 Well, I am laid up with a cold once again. You know how cold meds all tell you not to operate heavy machinery while you are taking them? A sewing machine isn't exactly HEAVY machinery...I can hold all of my machines one handed. However, it isn't a good idea to operate a sewing machine if your brains aren't fully plugged in. I currently have two tallitot on my plate, Miles' tallit which will need lots of machine embroidery and Nini's. Nini's tallit is Nova Scotia themed. I had been working on adding some fog to the tallit using oil paint sticks. I was thinking that the fog needed something more.  While tidying up (I do actually do that on occasion) I found a couple of spools of white silk thread. I also had pulled out a giant cone of a persnickety rayon/silver metallic yarn to use on Miles' tallit. My cold has shut down many of my brain cells, but I can do a chain stitch by hand even with reduced brain power. A little bit of stitching doesn't look like m...

More Food and Another Simple Skirt

 It's another challah baking week. I got this dough going interspersed with having my morning coffee and eating breakfast. Here are the challot a few hours later just before I covered them with tea towels and put them in the dining room to rise. I started my chicken cooking adventure thinking that I would make what I think of as red chicken, that is chicken rubbed with smoked paprika, sweet paprika, sumac and a bit of cayenne. It reminds my husband of the chicken his mother used to buy at the Queens store called Mauzone. The word means food in Hebrew, and the taste of my approximation of their rotisserie chicken always makes my husband feel loved.  I ended up taking something of a left turn  and added a bit of turmeric, some Sri Lankan curry and some Bell's Seasoning to the mix. Sometimes my spice mixtures for chicken remind me of the story of how the lyrics for this song were composed. Apparently someone bet the Poet Natan Alterman that he couldn't write a poem where no ...

Clothes Worn by Me, and Garments Made as Gifts

 There are some blogs devoted to what the blog owner is wearing that day. If you have spent any time here on this blog you will know that this is something that I rarely do. However... There has been a meme going around the internet which is basically "Tell me that you are from____ without saying that you are from _____". So, this leads me to the following. It has gotten nippy out. I put on a wool knee length pencil skirt that I had made a few years ago because I had fallen deeply in love with the fabric. I had to go out so I put on my warmest sweater which is a Dale of Norway. So now, this is the answer to, "Tell me you are from New England without telling me that you are  from New England." The great thing about the Dale of Norway sweater is because of the floats of yard  on the underside of the knit you are essentially wearing two sweaters, I was fortunate to find the sweater in my local thrift. A sewing friend once described my style of dressing myself as Anthro...

Going to a Craft Show!!!

  Long before I began sewing, one of the great joys of my life has been going to craft shows. Actually, let me make that more specific I adore going to good, carefully juried craft shows where the goods sit on that border between craft and art. Going to a "craft show" where the good exhibited are unoriginal, made from a commercially available pattern or are simply slightly embellished commercially made goods is just depressing This weekend was the Crafts at the Cathedral show. The Cathedral being St. John the Divine, a glorious building built as if it were being constructed in the late Middle Ages but construction began sometime in the 19th century and continues even today. So the building itself is a great setting for the work exhibited. below are some details of the doorway going into the church. The Crafts at the Cathedral show is one of those wonderful juried shows. I bought myself a weekend pass and went to the show yesterday after Shabbat morning services. It felt luxur...