sarah in nyc

 Although there are times that my readers may feel like my brain is as scattered as a bird's, I do try to write somewhat coherently. Times like this when I haven't been posting as often as I would like (Passover and the flood just took up too much room) topics start stacking up like the chocolates on Lucy's conveyor belt. I will try to do my best to not get too overwhelmed and produce the blog equivalent of Lucy madly stuffing those chocolates into her mouth. I actually began fitting in snippets of time to work on Madeline's tallit. I drafted the letters on paper and then traced them onto sheer cotton batiste. I marked out 2 1/2 inch squares on the cotton using a ruler. I pinned the drafted letters onto a bit of ivory woo/mink coating and satin stitched the letters using some blue silk.  The mink fibers in the wool has been spun into yarn along with regular lamb's wool. The result is really soft and cushy.The silk came from a reel that I purchased when the Scalamand...

 As I start writing this blogpost I am hoping that I can make it about three different topics and still have it hang together in a reasonable way. Let's see how I do? A couple of weeks ago I had gotten an email from someone who used to make tallitot but had gone on to other pursuits. A tallit she had made several years ago had needed some repairs. She wondered if I would be willing to do them. I was. Below is the tear. After carefully inspecting the tallit I found a matching spot that was about to tear on the other side of the tallit I mended both the actual tear and the about to tear bits with what is essentially a fabric bandage. Some of the identical silk fused over the break. This stabilizes the rip.  We also decided to cover the area with gold braid. The braid acts as camouflage but also strengthens the weakened area. We then decided to line the tallit. This is another trick that provides strength and an extra bit of pretty to the tallit. We had ordered two different drap...