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  • Some thoughts on THE WASTE LANDS

    I am not very far into The Waste Lands yet and it is already starting to be a very interesting book.  Although I don’t usually ponder and make notes on popular novels as I read them, this one has me changing my ways.  Oh it is still a great story, and so far each volume has been a great story in itself, with a complete ending so that one does not fee the rush to move on to the next novel.  But each subsequent volume (subsequent layer) adds and builds on the ones that have gone before it.

    The symbolism and sense of dichotomy that is building in this, Volume 3, is particularly interesting.  This is the third Volume of a series (3).  In the second Volume, called The Drawing of the Three, there were three doors and at the end there were three companions embarking on a quest.  And here things get more complicated.  One of the companions was a person divided, one who had become two, and who in the end is reunited and made whole, two who are made one by the uniting factor of a third.  So the one who becomes two becomes three in a sense.  At the third door Roland realizes that the person who acts as his bridge is not the person he will bring back to his own world, but that rather, he will become the third, or he will become Death as he thinks at that time.  But at the same time the third door leads to something that unites all the companions.  And Roland’s actions when he enters the third changes the past, both his and someone else’s.

    In book 1 Roland met the boy Jake, and at the end of book 1 Jake died. Jake’s death will always affect Roland’s fate.  In Book 2, Jake resurfaces behind the third door, but here he is only a secondary character, something that happens, the righting of a wrong perhaps, but it does not seem primary to the plot.  In book 2 Roland saves Jake from the fate that he had faced in book 1.

    But Roland remembered Jake from when he was in Roland’s world.  And Roland remembers the death of Jake.  When Roland prevents Jake from dying in his own world and entering Roland’s world he changes both of their fates.  Now he is divided in two.  There is the Roland post door #3, who knows there was no Jake, and yet he remembers the other history as well, the Roland who knew Jake and it was Jake and his fate that sent Roland on the path that lead him to the doors to begin with.  Roland knows two pasts, knows they cannot both be correct, but knows they are.

    At the same time, in another world there is a little boy named Jake, a little boy who is not run over by a car, a little boy who does not die.  All this is true.  But this boy Jake also knows that he was run over by the car, that he died and went to Roland’s world and that Roland let him die again.  He knows both stories cannot be true and yet he knows they are. 

    Although I haven’t gotten there yet, it seems that Roland has set in course a path that must result in his being reunited with Jake.  And so at the third door, Roland did not draw a third companion and yet he did, as he made it possible for Jake to live and by doing so changed both of their fates.

    This is proving to be a very sophisticated novel, and a great read as well.

  • Maroon Skirt done

    Maroonskirt9b

    Finishing the skirt didn’t take much time once I was awake and paying attention.  The delay in posting was mostly caused by finding time and energy to take pictures, that and figuring out which top to wear with it.  I thought I had several things that would go, and I do have quite a few garments in the same colors, but most of them did not work either due to size or shape issues.  Still I have this knitted top for summer, along with the requisite summer tees in several coordinating colors.  I also have several fall sweaters which will work and the color of the skirt will allow it to transition into fall quite well I think.

    I like the way the skirt turned out.  I will be using this pattern again for some fall skirts as it was easy, fit well, and is flattering.  I have a couple of pieces of fabric in mind. 

    As is my wont I started with a cheap inexpensive cotton fabric, one that I feared might be too light for a skirt, but by the time I finished I ended up with a rather nice garment.  The added piecing at the hem band helped weight the skirt nicely, as did the fact that I faced the hem with the same cotton fabric.  You can see the faced hem below.

    Maroonskirt4

    The outside of the hem band is on the folded up hem, showing the hem facing with its striped binding is on the right.

    I also used the striped fabric to make the narrow waistband:

    Maroonskirt8_1

    The fact that it matches the lining so well was just an added bonus.

  • The Drawing of the Three

    ThedrawingofthethreeI finished the second of the books  in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, The Drawing of the Three and it was quite good, better than the first I think.  Here Roland is joined by companions, but as in the first book, things are not always what they seem and nothing is obvious or clear cut.   Roland himself is also expanding and evolving as he "draws" his companions.  Everyone in this book as a long way to go on their quest and this does not involved just the physical journey.

    As you know I get well wrapped up in a good story, and this is a good story.  It is also complicated and thought provoking, modern and archetypal all at once.  I am not going to discuss the plot, it is a straightforward quest, but as in all quests there are many subplots, distractions, and sink-holes along the way.  I do love the way Roland’s course, and the lives of his companions are all inter-related, even though they do not yet know this, and all quests merge into the one quest.  And yet, we don’t really yet know what that quest is, even though we have an inking of this, after all they are seeking the "dark tower".  But what is the dark tower?  Where will the journey take them?  Why are these people chosen?  Is there redemption from the choices we make in life?  There are no obvious answers to these questions, just as there are no obvious answers in life.

    Leave it to me to take a simple fictional story and start pondering metaphysics. 

    Needless to say it is a good book and an enjoyable read.  But there are no easy answers and no easy escape here.

  • Encircled

    I lost the sewing spirit for a couple of days there and then, as tends to happen, the weekend was upon us and life got busy once again, going hither and yon.    Sunday was a relatively quiet day however and I got a few hours to play with my ideas for the hem band of the maroon printed skirt.   I played with some striped pieces of Kaffe Fasset cotton and this is what I ended up with:

    Maroonskirt7

    I had intended to finish the skirt and photograph it today but it was not to be.  Obviously I have been out of the sewing groove far to long as t here were setbacks. 

    Most importantly at this point is that I am out of thread:

    Maroonskirt8

    This was not anticipated.  I had a full unused spool of thread which should have been enough, but last night, either because I am out of practice or I was not paying attention I wound a new bobbin and messed it up, creating a long tangled knot of thread that was not on the bobbin.   I probably have more bobbin thread than I need at this point, but it is easier to just run down to S&S later today and buy another spool or two, especially considering I need a thread stock refill anyway.

    I still need to finish the hem band, the inner band has not yet been sewn to the skirt.  I also have to attach the lining and add the waistband.  None of these projects is time consuming or difficult, but they all require thread, more thread than is currently available.

  • The current obsession

    Summer is always cooking time in this house, even when there is no actual cooking going on because we are dining on salads.  Fresh produce abounds and it difficult not to be excited about food. This year however, the emphasis on food, and most certainly the time spent on food, has been considerably greater than in the past.  I spend hours planning menus and revising recipes, checking nutrition information.  It seems like I am always planning what to eat or cooking it.

    But the effort seems to have paid off.

    First a little history:

    I have Celiac Disease.  I apparently also have Irritable Bowel.  Apparently there are several forms of Irritable Bowel and I do not have the most common varieties as I have neither constipation or diarrhea, just constant, overwhelming volumes of gas and subsequent bloating.  For a long time I felt like the Hindenburg on most days.  I would inflate as the day progressed whether I ate or not. 

    My first GI Guy, the one who doesn’t believe I have celiac but always believed I had irritable bowel, is no help.  He tells me that “you can’t eat anything anyway” and to take fiber supplements.  But fiber supplements make the gas worse.  I gain two pounds and four inches through the waist.  I am always uncomfortable.  I become depressed.  I eat even though it does not make me feel better, because I feel bad even if I don’t eat. 

    I find another doctor who refers me to another doctor and a nutritionist.    Yes I do have Celiac Disease.  Yes I do have Irritable Bowel.  I probably always had both but it is possible the celiac masked the irritable bowel and protected me from the worst of it’s symptoms. 

    My goal is to change my diet to get as much fiber as possible without taking fiber supplements and without eating wheat bran, or oat bran, or the other common sources of fiber because I am celiac and can’t eat them.  Apparently there are one or two fiber supplements I might try, that are less likely to cause gas and bloating, but I should only take them in moderation. This might be good to know when we travel again, because I see myself running around the world with apples and carrots and stopping in markets all along the way.

    I immediately feel better.  I no longer feel like a hot air balloon.  Vegetables and beans do not make me gassy.   I lose 3 pounds and 5 inches around the waist the first week.

    The diet begins on a very limited note, but expands to include most food.   The secret seems to be getting a good bit of natural vegetable fiber with every meal.  I learn to love vegetables.  Well, I always loved vegetables and fruit, but now I love them more.  I begin to think about and enjoy food in an entirely different way.  It is a lot more work, to plan these menus.  But I am beginning to get a feeling for what to eat. 

    I download the USDA nutrition tables to my recipe program. I start cooking more.  At first I just ate apples and simple proteins. Then I added simple steamed and raw vegetables.  After a couple of weeks I could start adding dairy, starches, and more meats.  I still feel good.    My taste buds begin to change.  Processed foods don’t taste as good as I remember.  I eat a lot.  It takes a lot of broccoli or other vegetables to get 40 grams of fiber a day. I go grocery shopping a couple of times a week because I can’t fit all the vegetables I eat into the refrigerator.  People stop me and ask if we havy company, then marvel that G and I eat all that food just between the two of us.  I am full at the end of the day and can’t bear to eat more.  But I am eating fewer calories.

    After 5 weeks I feel loads better.  I no longer have constant gas and bloating.  I have more energy.  I have lost 13 pounds. I don’t know how much more weight I will loose, or even if I will  lose any more but it is likely.  By analyzing the nutrition values of all I eat I learn that this diet high in vegetables and green leafy vegetables especially is more than providing all the vitamins and minerals I need in a day, except perhaps calcium.  I drop all the vitamins except the calcium supplement.  I can probably add a little more yoghurt or cheese into my diet and eliminate another pill.

    Best of all, I can still indulge my love of cooking and eating.  I don’t have to eat food that tastes like  “health food” although we are eating a lot more Asian dishes.

    Pork_and_noodle_pot_with_turnips

    Pork and Noodle pot with turnips.  Thinly sliced pork loin, fresh rice noodles cooked with turnip greens and steamed Japanese turnips. A sweet and spicy cucumber salad on the side.

    Chicken_with_greens_and_goat_cheese_1

    Chicken breast baked with broccoli raab, turnip greens, and goat cheese.  Beets on the side.  G had potatoes as well but I actually ate more beets than are pictured, by which point I was far to full to enjoy a potato. Beets seem to be a very happy food, too bad they really aren’t portable. 

  • Homage

    Janegover_2

    I met Jane when I was a budding teenager and she was in college.  She took time for this young person who didn’t yet know where she was going or what she wanted to be.  She offered my first encouragement and support in my budding interest in fashion and clothes. At first she showered me with interest and guidance.  She taught me about style and that dressing well was more about looking good and knowing one’s own style than  about designers and labels.  She taught me that elegance and style had nothing to do with height, size, shape or money.  She also became my friend.

    Jane was a bright light that could light up a room.  She was warm and embracing.  She could cut through bull like a knife.  And even though she was very short, and more often round than not, she had more style and class than most people ever dream of commanding.   

    Although our lives had taken us further apart,  the occasional phone call would brighten the world.  I did not make enough of those calls.

    I would not be the person I am today without Janes friendship.

    Jane collected Vuitton bags.  She knew what she had and what she pursued what she wanted.  Jane was a monogram canvas kind of girl.  I most definitely was not, and although I was always attracted to the structured Epi leather bags, I put off buying one for years and years.   When I got my first Vuitton bag, this past spring, the first thing I did was call Jane.  She was thrilled and we screeched and giggled like the young women we once were.

    I’m sorry I never got to show Jane my first Vuitton.

    Jane:  1951 – 2006

  • Waiting

    I would sneak up to the sewing room when I had a chance yesterday and look at different fabrics and trims, thinking about the solution for the maroon skirt.  Whenever there would be a lull or a pause in whatever I was working on, my mind would slip away and ponder the possibilities.  Miriam’s suggestion made me think about the skirt in a new light and several alternatives presented themselves…..

    but still they weren’t quite right.

    By early evening I was ready to escape to my own little fiber refuge and resume construction.   I got the skirt put together and the pleats sewn and the skirt fits beautifully and looks lovely. 

    I  certainly have no complaints about this pattern: it is very nice; it goes together easily (its a skirt for goodness sake); it looks nice; it fits exactly the way the pattern says it will for the size chosen; and it looks just like the drawing on the pattern envelope.  That sounds obvious, but often it seems patterns don’t turn out so simply.

    As I went downstairs to watch THE CLOSER with George and knit a bit, I suddenly envisioned how I would finish the skirt.

    I came back to the sewing room after the show and thought I should finish the seam allowances before I played with the hem.  I didn’t want to serge the seams and I didn’t feel like cutting bias strips from the lining fabric to  bind the edges.  I remembered that I have a roll of rayon seam binding that I found when I cleaned up the sewing space.  It is a beautiful dark green, not the same color as the skirt, and it coordinates beautifully.  As I started to apply it to the skirt I had a sudden vision of it bleeding over my skirt after I put all this effort into it, even though I know it is supposed to be colorfast, so I stitched a bit on a remnant of fabric, washed it, and left it to dry overnight. 

    Better safe than sorry after all.

    This morning at 5 AM I was relieved to see that the seam binding neither shrank or bled onto my fabric so I promptly went to work meticulously folding the seam binding, pinning it to the skirt and sewing it on.  It looks nice. 

    Maroonskirt5

    I realized, after I did all this, that my Bernina must have a foot that will accomplish the same task in far less time than I did working by hand. So by 7 AM I was on the web perusing the sewing machine foot options.   Shortly after 9 I phoned S&S, my local Bernina dealer, to see if they had any of the feet I wanted in stock; it did not surprise me that they did not, I doubt they have much call for feet that either fold and apply binding or apply prefolded binding to seams.  So I ordered them, along with a couple of flat fell feet as well, the smaller and the larger one, figuring I might as well order several things at once.  They usually place orders on Thursday and I should have my feet next week.

    I can make an apply binding by hand.  I can flat fell seams.  But why make life more difficult than it needs to be.  I keep forgetting that I have a new machine that does all these things that my old beloved machine did not.

    Now, why I didn’t think to wash the fabric that I need for the new bottom band last night when I washing the seam binding sample is beyond me.  So I sit.  I washed two fat quarters of Kaffe Fasset striped cotton and I must wait for them to dry.  I did consider running them through the dryer just so I could get back to work right away, but even I am not that profligate with energy that I will run an entire dryer cycle for 1/2 yard of fabric.

    I didn’t put on the waistband or attach the lining.  I might want the waistband to match the bottom hem.

    But here is the skirt so far:

    Maroonskirt_014

    I like it, I really like it.

  • Skirt Progress

    After thinking about sewing a few summer skirts, I finally got the ball rolling this weekend. Here we are, summer mostly past and I am finally making another skirt.

    Do you remember this fabric?

    Maroonskirt1

    I originally posted about it on May 28th.  And that seems frightening to me, that I planned on making a simple summer skirt and I am just now making it, nearly two months later.  Where has the summer gone?  Well, I actually do have a few ideas, but let’s not dwell on that.

    Simplicity4186This is the pattern I am using, Simplicity 4186.  It is a very simple, one pattern piece skirt.  There are two options, pleats that run straight up and down, and pleats that are angled out from the center.

    I have no idea which skirt will look best on me at the moment.  I haven’t made a pleated skirt for some time so I opted for the straight up and down pleats.  That is one of the interesting things about sewing, it is always a guessing game.

    Saturday night I traced the lining pattern and sewed the lining.  So far so good.

    Sunday night I traced the skirt pattern, and cut the skirt.  I kind of have mixed feelings about the skirt.  I love the fabric but I am not sure I will love the skirt yet.  It was an inexpensive cotton from JoAnn Fabrics so I figured that if the skirt works and I like the pattern I have a skirt I can wear for the summer.  If it doesn’t work, either fabric-wise or pattern-wise, I have at least made a muslin, and hopefully, learned something.  I am always hoping that I will learn something, especially when I don’t end up with wearable goods, but sometimes I have my doubts about this.

    OK, on to the skirt.

    Saturday I traced, cut, and sewed the lining

    Sunday night I traced the skirt pattern and cut the skirt fabric.

    Maroonskirt2

    I still had doubts, but went ahead anyway.  I made an extension for the contrast band to go at the bottom of the skirt and started cutting the green fabric.  When I placed the first piece on the skirt, I did not like it.  Yet, ever hopefull, I cut the remaining strips.  Still not good as you can see below.

    Maroonskirt3

    The green is much too bright and does not go with the skirt.  I wonder what I was thinking when I purchased these two fabrics together.  Did I not see that the green was too bright?  Obviously not.  It seems I was running with the vision in my head, completely oblivious to the fact that the reality of the materials were not going to yield that ever-elusive dream result.

    I do not have enough fabric to recut the skirt, but I do have enough to add bands of the same fabric at the bottom.  Perhaps I have a decorative ribbon that I can use at the seamline between the two pieces.  Perhaps I have another piece of fabric that will work as a contrast band?   Perhaps all these options were overwhelming my poor, tired, frustrated brain.

    When you hit a wall, go to bed.  Words to live by.  And so, I did.

    Today, I will construct the skirt and see if Iit fits and if it looks good on me and I like it.  Then, having passed those three critical tests, it will be time to see what can be done about replacing the bottom piece and bringing the skirt to a wearable length.

  • The Dark Tower Book 1

    ThegunslingerI finished Stephen King’s The Gunslinger today and enjoyed it immensely, enough in fact that I was half tempted to get the second volume of the series and run back to the exercise bike so I could read some more.  This first volume of the DARK TOWER series was short, not 300 pages and the reader slides right through it.  I finished it in less than 2 ½ hours, but I am a moderately fast reader, especially when fully engaged in a book, or chained to it by the rotating wheels of a bicycle.  Further, faster, further, faster, seems to be the mode of bicycle reading at its best.

    But back to the book.  I had read one of the volumes in this series once before, the third one I believe.  It left me completely confused.  I believe my mom had sent it to me in a consignment of old books she was passing on.  I read it before realizing that it was part of a series, or that I would become so involved..  At first I thought the western theme did not appeal; but it does.  It is archetypical after all, as the story of the journey or the quest, and the whole issue of good and evil.  King approaches the story in an interesting, at times confusing, intelligent and gripping way.  At first off-putting, you are drawn in.  Nothing is clear in this world.  But then nothing is really clear in our world either; one begins to feel at home even as one is uncomfortably aware that one is lost and out of place.  I am not going to tell you about the characters.  I do not yet know them, if ever I will, and am still confused at the end of book one, but I think this is part of the point.  Knowledge is always partial.

    A good story.  I have always liked Stephen King.  He is obviously a literate and good writer.  His stories are good as stories and I am partial to good stories.  The best make us think about ourselves a little differently, but the best stories always do.  He is literate but does not write literary fiction, a plus in my book, because literary fiction seems so often to be too heavily bound up in its own existence.  Give me a good story any day.  I am looking forward to the next volume.

    I will have to read the end again tonight again before bed.  There are things to ponder. 

    But not quite at the end, and not the ponderous subjects I intend to contemplate later, this line resonates with me now:

    “despite a tremendous increase in available facts, there were remarkably few insights”.

    Of course you will recognize why this appeals.  Have I not rambled on and on about this very thing far to often?

  • A little sewing

    The itch to sew something, anything actually, but preferably clothes for me really soon has gotten stronger and stronger.  Oh I have been in the sewing room occasionally with a few minutes here or there, but not enough time to proof a pattern, alter it and cut anything out, or just late at night when I am so tired that just trying to figure out how lining up the pattern paper seems like a major challenge.

    These are not good conditions for perfect sewing.  So I have played. I did a little messing around with coat pattern.  I still need bigger shoulders and haven’t finished.  I suppose my heart has not been in it, but time has been an issue as well. 

    I set up the embroidery unit on the Bernina and played with that too, trying different techniques.  It was fun, but I wasn’t making something that I wanted to be making so it didn’t have the thrill.  Perhaps I should find something I really want to do and start playing with that goal in mind, working my way up to the perfect garment. 

    Perhaps my brain has just boiled into mush.

    So last night I decided I had to make something, and it had to be something easy.  I want to make a couple of skirts.  I showed you the fabric back in June.  No progress yet.  But skirts require measuring and proofing the patterns.  I don’t have a TNT skirt pattern right now.  Last winter’s skirt pattern is miles to big.  Last summer’s skirt pattern is almost right;  I can fit into it but it will be more comfortable in about two weeks.  That is probalby close enough that I can probably use it as a base.  In that sense it is probably good that I dilly dallied a bit on the cutting out.  Now I will be cutting smaller than I would have been a month ago.

    But back to last night.  What to sew?  Well, I could sew the baby blanket.  The fabric was prequilted, all I needed was the binding. 

    Of course your realize that sewing the binding on the quilt took far less time than cutting the strips, turning up the hem edge and pressing everything so it was perfect don’t you?  I got the cutting, hem pressing and pinning all done before dinner and dinner was a little late as G went to the gym after work.  All I had to do after dinner was sew it up, but I didn’t finish.  I was too tired  I got about half way around and the corners were starting to get difficult so I thought it best to go to bed.

    Instead it was finished this morning.

    Babyblanket2

    I can’t get the whole thing in a photo, but you get the idea.  That stripy fabric is quite puckered, like a stretch seersucker, and it pulls up at that point.  The blanket is square and holds for a few minutes after pressing, but then the stretchy parts pull up again.

    Here is a detail shot of a corner.

    Babyblanket3_2

    I’ll ship the whole thing down to Knoxville today along with some more baby clothes.  And then I think I will cut that skirt.

    But first I have another picnic and concert to get ready for.  Tonight we are hearing Mendelssohn’s Elijah and I am really looking forward to it.