Socks Restored

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Finished restoring these two pair of socks last night.

They were holdovers from a batch I restored well over a year ago. After replacing heels in a half-dozen pair of socks I’d had enough. This pair, however, although I had set up for new heels – I’d run a stitch-holding thread where the heel began and though the instep, cut out the worn heel – I put them aside.

Socks Renovated!

Marlene’s birthday is at the end of the month. I thought it time to repair these two pair of socks and give them back to her. These were two of the original Kaffe Fassett yarns I’d bought a long time ago. The original heels used the rust/brown yarn but I had none in my stash and couldn’t find any in town so I matched up the dark blue, instead. Works fine.

Both pairs look like new socks. They should each get another couple years of wear.

Putting Words To How I Feel…

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Yesterday I got to the point where I could verbalize how I was feeling: disappointed and let down. Then my sister Donna sent me a link to Frank Bruni’s piece in the NYT:

Photo From The NYT

It’s always assumed that those of us who felt certain of Hillary Clinton’s victory in 2016 were putting too much trust in polls.

I was putting too much trust in Americans.

I’d seen us err. I’d watched us stray. Still I didn’t think that enough of us would indulge a would-be leader as proudly hateful, patently fraudulent and flamboyantly dishonest as Donald Trump.

We had episodes of ugliness, but this? No way. We were better than Trump.

Except, it turned out, we weren’t….

Some 46 percent of the Americans who cast ballots for president in 2016 picked him, and as he moved into the White House and proceeded to soil it, most of those Americans stood by him solidly enough that Republicans in Congress didn’t dare to cross him and in fact went to great, conscience-immolating lengths to prop him up. These lawmakers weren’t swooning for a demagogue. They were reading the populace.

And it was a populace I didn’t recognize, or at least didn’t want to.

Read the complete article yourself – he wrote it a week or so before the election, I wonder what he’s got to say now. I will keep an eye out for his next article.

How Maps Deceive

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When I look at the current election map of the US I am mystified by the enormous red expanse. I’m supposed to believe that the US is almost entirely Republican:

Normal Vote Representation by State

And then I came across this map showing population density – now the election results make some sense! People in the US are clustered on the coasts and in a few central locations – and the vote distribution is clearly more equal:

Vote Map By Population Density

I came across the map in a tweet by Sarah Cooper and then tried to find out more.

“Land doesn’t vote. People do”

Here is the visualization by data scientist Karim Douieb:

Data scientist Karim Douïeb figured that a more accurate way to represent how people voted is to use colored dots, varied in size proportionally to the population of each county. He turned the results into this GIF, which provides a clearer picture:

Pretty eye-opening, no? And yet, while this is clearly an improvement over the ham-fisted method of the first map in this entry, even this is not quite accurate. Within each of those large blue dots, you still have plenty of people who voted red, and vice versa. These results only show you which party won the vote in each region.

What do you think we’d see, if these data represented actual individual votes and we could zoom in on each one? The country is now more divided than ever, and just about evenly split. So all I’m certain of is that zooming out, we’d see a perfect shade of purple.

I guess it’s important to think more deeply about the mundane.

The Day After…

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A Gloriously Sunny Day

A gloriously sunny day, if cold, and I feel profoundly disappointed. Sad so many people chose the path they did. Last time wasn’t a fluke – just a harbinger of things to come. Yes, I know populism is spreading globally, but I’d hoped the folks in the US would see possibility in voting for the ideals expressed in their constitution. I guess they understand it very differently than I do.

People will continue carrying on – grocery shopping, visiting the dentist, managing in whatever ways they are managing in the middle of the pandemic. The stock market will go down and then up and then down again. This snow on the ground will melt tomorrow – the temperature is predicted to reach 12° during the day. Fall will march on, I have an appointment to put my snow tires on at the end of the month. Winter will come and go. Life goes on.

I don’t feel like sewing today. Maybe back to the mystery novel, maybe take a morning nap.

4:12 pm

After some conversation (and a few tears) I can now describe my feelings: profoundly disappointed and LET DOWN.

For more than 4 years I’ve invested huge emotional energy being informed and trying to understand American political happenings even though it’s not my country, and I don’t have a vote, but I have friends living in the US who were doing their damndest fighting for social justice for everyone.

I feel let down by all those women, LGBT, Black, Latino, other vulnerable people (who ought to have voted Democrat but obviously didn’t) whose social, financial, and health prospects will now be severely diminished because they supported the Republican ticket maybe even electing trump and returning a Republican senate which (if Biden/Harris are elected) will result in unimaginable acrimony and chaos for the next 4 years.

We don’t know the outcome yet (likely won’t for a few days) but you can certainly expect trump (even out of office), hanging around pulling Republican strings for as long as he wants.

It’s like being betrayed by a very close friend. It’s that same let down feeling. The best you can do is sever ties and move on with your life.

That’s it. I’m cutting out the news  – I can now invest the 2-3 hours a day I spent trying to stay informed reading novels, doing things that reduce stress levels. It’s time to turn my back on this nightmare I can’t do anything about.

Nov 3 2020 – Getting Through The Day

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My day started as usual and being a Tuesday I first went to have my hair cut, then visited the chiropractor. Came home and had lunch. Next a bit of sewing:

I started a new small “purse” yesterday – 4 small zippered front pockets and one side pocket, to carry “my stuff”. I’m carrying less and less these days: a couple of credit cards (I probably could dispense with those since they’re in a card app on my phone, but I still carry three), my health card, drivers’ licence, car registration and insurance card, a bit of cash, a couple of loyalty cards, 2 low dose aspirin, and a wee bit of change.

The “change” thing, I realized this morning, was only for parking meters; I don’t use change for anything else – I’ve taken the coins from my purse and put them in a small change purse in my car – now I no longer need to put up with the weight.

My “Purse”

I made it from some leftover PUL fabric which I used the other day to make an outdoor heater cover for my sister in Toronto (I forgot to take pictures of that project – maybe she’ll send one when she receives it).

I’d sort of finished the purse last evening but didn’t like how I’d handled the side zipper so after lunch I took the two side and the bottom seams apart and redid the side zipper. It works better now.

Completed size: 4 1/8″ x 5 1/2″ – a wee bit large to fit easily in my front jeans pocket but it’s great in a jacket pocket.

It means I don’t have to carry a purse (my chapstick is in my iPhone case along with some cough candies and chewing gum).

It’s now 3:05 – I started a Thomas Perry novel yesterday (The Burglar) – I’m going to pass the next couple of hours – a tall glass of sparkling water with a couple of lemon slices at hand, and a the book.

Last night I fed Ruby and me; tonight she’s returning the favour so I don’t have to think about dinner.

It’s snowing out quite hard right now – even accumulating on the ground:

1st Snowy Day of the Year

I can barely see across the parking lot. I may put my snow gear on and go for a short walk in the storm in an hour or so – fresh air to clear my head.

Tonight, I’m gonna try to avoid any network TV – I’ve got the latest season (Season 4) of “Somebody Feed Phil” on Netflix – a great light, amusing way to pass some time. This season Phil Rosenthal is visiting Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, Singapore, the Mississippi Delta, and Hawaii. All sure to be entertaining. 3 and 3/4 hours of binge watching.

When that’s over, I probably won’t be able to resist checking out MSNBC to see what Rachael Maddow has to say about the incoming election results. God I hope Biden/Harris are leading at that point. I’ve been preparing to feel like I did on Nov 9 2016 – as if people close to me have died. The polls have consistently been favouring Biden since last winter – surely that’s how the election will turn out – but like everyone else I’m nervous. I can feel the tension everywhere in my body.

I just read something by Charlie Cook (editor and publisher of the Cook Political Report – someone people consider “in the know”) – here it is: “Don’t Expect A Contested Election” – he should only be right!

And I’m Canadian – eh? I don’t have a vote in this contest. But it will affect my world in ways I can’t imagine right now.

Oh, well. Enough of this time wasting – gotta get to my mystery novel….

Small Projects

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Last week Ruby handed me the sleeve from an old Persian lamb coat – wondering whether I could make a small zippered handbag for her.

I cut a strip from the sleeve, discovered some original lining inside (still usable), added a bright red zipper and a bit of leather lacing for a handle – and there you have it: a small Persian Lamb handbag – finished size close to 7″ x 9″. I also put a small zippered pocket on the inside! (I used a leather needle and ordinary polyester thread – the machine handled the stitching just fine.)

Persian Lamb Small Handbag

She should be happy with that.

After finishing the last pair of socks I picked up this ball of Antarctica yarn which came in a “mystery bag” of sock yarn I ordered from Hobbii (in Denmark).

It’s one of those balls you want to use up quickly but I realized I’d be more than bored knitting this yarn…

Ugly Yarn

It’s a lovely texture yarn, nice to work with, but the colours are so bleh! So I added a bright leftover that I intended to interweave through the Antarctica yarn:

Ugly Yarn + Bright Leftover

This is what the sock is turning out like. By chance, the heel more or less fit in the green section, almost the whole heel, so I decided to keep knitting with just the original yarn.

Developing Sock

Right now my plan is to continue the foot in the Antarctica yarn, introducing a bit more of the leftover somewhere past the instep for a short distance – mainly to extend the yellow section (which will knit 20 rows – I counted that in the leg).

If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to end the toe in mauve to match the cuff –

Socks For Christmas

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I visited my massage therapist ten days ago. I noticed her largish sneakers – I asked what shoe size she wore – size 10.

I had already finished the first sock of a pair which I set aside. I worked on the second sock, extended the foot length by eight rows so it will fit her size 10 foot, then finished the toe. Next I unravelled the toe of the first sock, matched the yarn (which I happened to have on hand because I unrolled the better part of a pattern repeat so my second sock would match the first), added the required number of rows and reknit the toe.

Socks For Christmas

That Christmas gift is now done.

On to the next – for a smaller foot – size 6 shoe.

Skyline #3 – Completed

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Finished the third quilt a few days ago. It didn’t take as long to quilt as I’d anticipated in large part because instead of quilting single blocks I was able to quilt two at a time using the 360 x 260 hoop. I probably could have quilted 4 at once using the large “Garden Dream” reversible hoop (360 x 350) but it was just as fast to re-hoop blocks as it would have been to fight to take the hoop from the arm and turn it around and hope the positioning was close. The problem with that large hoop is getting the second side to align with the first. So I rarely use it for quilting.

Skyline #3 – Top

I am happy with how the layers on layers of circles turned out. There are actually five complete circles but they’re not obvious in part because the four quadrants are all different. But that’s also what helps with the layered effect.

To quilt it, I used a floral design I’d created for another quilt doing my best to overlap the stop/start positions where the design ended and began in adjacent blocks. Overall, the effect is to appear to have been done using a long-arm quilting machine.

Skyline #3 – Quilting Detail

Again, I used a strip from the original Hoffman “Skyline” fabric as a strip in the back – making sure I had it right side up in relation to the front of the quilt.

Skyline #3 – Back

The three quilts together as a set I’m calling “The Sisters”!

Skyline #1
Quilt Top Skyline #2 – Quilt Top
Skyline #3 – Top

Three very different quilts all from the same fabric.

Now on to something else.

The Last Day Of Summer

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It’s a week ago – October 22 – I spent the day with my friend Deb on the South Shore (of Nova Scotia) looking for bayberries.

Bayberry

They’re small, hard, waxy berries (birds eat them) wonderful for cleaning the soleplate of an iron. I collect them, remove twigs and leaves, and sew them into small cotton bags. Ironing with a hot iron melts the wax (which dissolves the gunk on the bottom of the iron) and the hard roughness of the berries scrapes it off.

However, there were none to be found where I’d previously harvested them. I checked with Margaret who was with me on previous excursions – turns out a house was built on the small stretch of dune where we’d found them before. Bayberries all gone! I’m going to have to locate another source.

Because it was such a lovely day – 20° C – highest temperature in Canada that day – Deb and I stopped at a stretch of nearby beach. Deb decided to have a wade – mostly so I could take pictures for her to send to family back home in Manitoba where they’ve been having snow!

The Last Day Of Summer

We had lunch at the LaHavre Bakery, then moseyed our way home. The next day, the temperature dropped substantially and while we’ve had some gorgeous sunny days it’s been quite a lot colder.

Summer’s over.

Skyline #3 – 3 / Christmas Fruit Cake

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Skyline #3

This morning I managed to complete 24 more blocks (14 left to get me to 63 which I’ll get done tomorrow).

49 Blocks – 7 x 7

I’m not going for a traditional drunkard’s path layout – I want a relatively random layout with probably 5 complete circles (at the moment I have three) and the rest partial circles which creates the illusion of layers of circles. The colour flow is working out but I won’t be satisfied until I have all 63 blocks on the floor and I can photograph them and move them around.

If I stay with a 7 x 9 array (63 blocks) I will end up with a 40 1/4″ x 51 3/4″ panel. Since I want the final project to be close to the size of the other two quilts – 48″ x 64″ I can either do a narrow 1″ sashing with the dark blue grunge I used on the wedges and a 3″ border strip from the Skyline fabric. That gives me the width (40 1/4 + 2 + 6 = 48 1/4″) but short on length (51 3/4 + 2 + 6 = 59 3/4″). If I were to add a 10 row to the bottom, I’d end up at 57 1/2 + 2 + 6 = 65 1/2″.

Or another way to solve the size problem is to add two more rows and a column to make an 8 x 11 array (46″ x 63 1/4″), a wee bit shy on width and length but close enough to the other two that I could live with that. In this case I’d need 25 more blocks. I have the fabric to do that – I bought the end of the bolt, another 1 1/2m of the fabric, so I have more than enough to create the needed blocks.

What I’m liking about this latter idea is that it mirrors the more modern finish I’ve used on the other two quilts. To finish the panel with sashing and a border will make it look more like a conventional quilt even with a hidden binding.

So after I’ve laid out the 63 blocks and stitched them together I’ll audition the sashing/binding idea but I’ll probably take time to construct another 25 blocks….

Christmas Fruit Cake

Christmas Fruit Cake 2020

Canadian Thanksgiving was last weekend. I always make fruitcake just after Thanksgiving so two weeks ago I bought the candied fruit, raisins, dried cranberries, put it in my 27c Tupperware bowl with lid then added a pint of dark Barbados rum and left the mixture to soak for a week.

Today was the day. I’ve ended up with 10 2lb loaves (plus a single small cake) which will get wrapped in waxed paper, stored in a ziplock bag, and kept on the bottom shelf of my refrigerator for the next two months.

Right now, the cake is kind of “cake-y” but in two months time it will be dense and moist from the rum working it’s way from the saturated fruit into the cake. Just in time to give it away for the holiday.

That’s my single big Christmas preparation – all done.

This is my Fruit Cake recipe in case you want to give it a try. A very forgiving cake.