sarah in nyc

 Some weeks seem to be driven by a big project. This week was filled with bits of odds and ends. Tanta Marcia brought over her late husband's tallit. The fringes had gotten grotty with time. Some of the woof threads knots had gotten untied with time and others had simply worn away.  My plan is to cut off  the fringes---I used one of the stripes as my cutting guide. I reinforced the cut edge with a machine zig zag stitch. I will probably hand roll the hem---I had made one messy attempt that I will not show you. i pulled out that stitching and will try again soon. I also bought some thin wool yarn and will make knotted tassels to edge the tallit. I am just talking things through to myself here, but some of the tallit wool has worn quite thin so I will need to keep the individual tassels quite lightweight. I ordered the yarn and it arrived the other day. i can start figuring THAT out next week. I have made more mending progress on the  tablecloth. Most of the mending is...

 All of us are currently living with an elephant in our living rooms. But like the proverbial elephant in the room, I am going to avoid speaking about it until a little further into this post. I was about to make some gifts for some people. I decided to go shopping in my stash. I am glad I did. I found a length ( about three yards and change ) of a beautiful wool boucle with a windowpane plaid. I had purchased the yardage at my local thrift. I think that the contents of the home of a serious sewer were donated to the thrift.  There were several lengths of wonderful wool. The black boucle and a heavy white wool coating that may one day become high Holiday Totan mantles came home with me. I left behind a wonderful magenta and green boucle. I found the price tag on the wool. It cost me less than two subway rides but retail would cost anywhere from $35-$150 per yard. I cut just over two yards of the fabric and then cut the long length in half. Probably thirty years ago a nice sale...

My older son will be the houseguest of our dear friends in Philly. As I type this, they have two granddaughters. Tomorrow, their third grandchild will be born. I decided to make winter hats for their granddaughters as our house gift.  I had made the hats using a giant version of the little knitting knobbies I had used as a kid. A knitting knobby The knitting looms are exactly as mindlessly satisfying to use as the knitting knobbies. The only difference being is that it is easier to produce something useful using the knitting looms than it is to make something with a long snake of knitted yarn. When I was a kid I produced countless yards of skinny knitted snakes. My sister once attempted to make a miniature rug out of some of her knitting knobby production. I was never as resourceful. I usually tossed my yards of knitted rope after admiring my handy work for a while.  I bought the knitting looms earlier in December and  I have already made a couple o...

Yesterday I was working on the dress that I’m wearing to the wedding. But one can’t attend a wedding without a gift.   I gave the bride and groom the option of either something off their gift registry or I could make them something.  they opted for the made rather than purchased gift. It was a smart choice.   The text is familiar to anyone who goes to synagogue on Friday night, it’s Lecha Dodi likrat kallah p’nai Shabbat nikabla Come my beloved to greet the bride we will welcome the presence of the Sabbath I painted the letters on the linen damask. And then I did a crazy thing. I chain stitched all of the painted letters. I do not suggest doing this unless you really love the recipients. You may think about chain stitching all of the letters if you were paid handsomely by the hour. Otherwise it’s a really dumb thing to do. I do love both the bride and the groom.I listened to a whole lot of episodes of the Moth Radio Hour and This American Life as I...

My birthday often falls on Mothers’ Day so is often ignored.  My older sister has a birthday in late September so it often gets swallowed up into the High Holiday season. My sister is currently going through a Missoni phase. She has purchased several Missoni scarves for herself. When she saw the dress I had made out of Missoni fabric from Fabric Mart   she was blown away by it. I saw the Missoni lust in her eye. So the next time a batch of Missoni fabric was available I bought some. I made my sister this drape front cardigan The shape is fairly simple. I used an exiting sweater as my pattern but  extended the fronts to create a draped front. I also cut one of the fronts with the stripes going North-South rather than East- West My serger HATED the fabric and spent lots of time chewing it up.  Since I’m talking about what went wrong, I also sewed one sleeve in upside down once. Just in case you are wondering. Unpicking stitching from this knit is a yukky ...

This blog post reflects the state of my mind at the moment. Between my anxiety about my mother’s condition ( How much better will she get in rehab? Will she be able to live on her own after they let kick her out of rehab?) And my anxiety about getting ready for Passover after having missed a week of work time, my mind jumps from  topic to topic. If you find the concept of a jumble of ideas disconnected from one another in one blog to distressing, come back another day. I won’t take it personally. My husband often finds the workings of my brain slightly disconcerting, and I know that he loves me. I need to use up the flour and grans before Passover, so I made a batch of bagels. I ground up kamut and soft wheat into the dough as well as some oats. as I mixed the dough I realized the close affinity between porridge and bread dough. This did make excellent bagels. Anxiety is also a good time to guild the lily. I often find it difficult to actually creative when my head is fill...

My son’s school is having an auction this Friday night. I’m not going but I’m contributing items for the “Class basket”. My contribution is three scarves.   This boa is made out of four layers of Indian printed  “sari silk”.  Sari silk is not exactly silk, and is more likely a poly rayon mix.  To make the scarf I layered  four 2 yard lengths of the fabric, and stitched down the middle. I then cut strips to the stitching line on the diagonal so they would not fray. This infinity scarf is made out of metallic and silk organza. The fabric came off the bolt flat. After I sewed up the circle, I wet the silk. when the fabric is wet it crinkles up like crazy.  I love how it falls somewhere between a scarf and jewelry. I own several of these scarves and wear them a ton. They are just to thing to toss over boring clothes and look as if you made an effort to get dressed. This last scarf /shawl photographs the least impressively but too the most amount...