sarah in nyc

 

I suppose that when some people have several jobs on their plate at the same time they completely finish one before they move onto the next. If I try to work that way I tend to get stuck. I tend to work better having several projects going at one time.  I find that the problem solving from one piece gets my mental gears going for the other piece I have on hand. Isabel’s tallit is in many ways the polar opposite of the twins’ restrained tallitot. Their tallitot are all about self control. They are visually uncluttered and clean.   Isabel’s tallit is lush.   The other day I realized that she needed  even more gold braid, so each side of the tallit got two more rows of the gold braid. Today I made the pinot /corner pieces. Tow of the corners have the pomegranate motif, and two the bell motif. Each one is framed by the gold and blue general’s braid.   I’m now thinking about the atara/ neckband. I’m trying to decide if I should go maximalist, or b...

Now that I have finished  the twins tallitot, as attested by this finished corner piece, it is now time to get back to Yoni’s tallit. Yoni’s tallit is a little complicated. It is expressing several ideas from his haftarah.   There are striped representing rocks. I already completed those.   Now I needed to make two leafy stripes. First I dampened the silk. Then I began laying down layers of color.  I let this first pass of color dry over night. I ironed the painted leaves to set the color and then set down more color. It’s getting there, but clearly it isn’t quite enough. Yoni wanted a dark forest green.  I needed to add more color. I also realized that the strips would be vastly improved if I floated a layer of lighter color between the leaves.   I used the now colored water from this painting effort to paint the background. Every once in a while I would add a bit more paint to the water. As I filled in the backgroun...

This is my soup before. It’s a mess of frozen chicken bones, a giant onion, some fat parsnips, you can some some but not all of the tired carrots hiding underneath the parsnips.   I also added whole spices. I decided to pretend to be fancy and tied them up into some cheesecloth. My husband hates getting a whole kernel of spice in his soup spoon.   The French probably have a really elegant way to do this. I just rolled the spiced up in the cheese cloth and tied a big knot. I also added a glug of vinegar to the soup. I do this for two reasons. One is for flavor. I don’t tolerate salt very well. The vinegar gives the soup an appealing bright flavor that salt normally does. The second reason is to dissolve the bones so all of the calcium will,be in liquid form. I filled the crockpot up with water and set it to cook.    Right now the soup is in the fridge after turning a deep brown. I will skim off the fat and re heat it for Shabbat dinner. This ...

I have been working away on the tallitot for the twins. there have been nights where I have laid awake in bed trying to problem solve. So at this point: One tallit is complete with stripes turned and top stitched One tallit has it’s stripes complete. The tallit is stitched together but still needs to be turned and top stitched One atara is complete One is nearly so One set of pinot are done These are the stripes on one of the tallitot. This is the evolution of one of the atarot.  First I painted the text on the grosgrain ribbon. Then I couched metallic thread for the border. I decided to add a hand couched motif on each end. I began with a circle, and then thought that a bit more was needed. This is what I ended up with. Couching, that is stitching down cording with thread is a great way to use threads that are otherwise too difficult to embroider. In this case, I used two otherwise impossible to use threads. The spool with the heavier thread is a rayon Lur...

The snow looks beautiful from my perch on the 6th floor. The tree branches are carrying white blankets of snow. I promise you though, that it is completely gross out. I hear plops of snow as they hit our windows. I feel sorry for the people who have to shovel the sodden mess.   You can enjoy it with me from inside your war4m dry home, and admire the visual reference to Japanese woodcuts.   I have lots of work to do. I plan to stay indoors today and get it done.

We are celebrating my husband’s birthday tonight. This morning when I spoke to my mother I asked her how old she thought my husband was. She thought for a long, long time and then came up with an answer, 42. My husband is youthful, but 42 was a long time ago. My husband has ambivalent feelings about celebrating birthdays. He tends not to like stuff. So I haven’t bought him a big gift. I have carefully planned tonight’s meal. There are elements of the meal that I will not be writing about because my husband is an occasional reader of this blog and I don’t want to spoil any surprises. I am willing to talk about two elements of the meal. There has been a bit of buzz in the internet lately about “bone broth”.   It’s soup. Tonight I made a chicken soup with several trays of chicken necks and a tray of chicken gizzards. I also put  a couple of mammoth parsnips, some skinny carrots and onions and whole spices in a cheese cloth envelope in the crock pot. I put everything int...