A New Skill

On Saturday, my friend Lena and I took a class in Split-Ply Braiding at Sifu Design Studio.  An old craft from the Tibet, Nepal, India area.  Basically, with the use of a tool called a gripfid, you open 4-ply cord and pass another cord through the opening.  Change the order, location or direction of the piercing and you can produce fantastic patterns.  Here are a few of the items made by our teacher, Michele O'Reilly.

First, two bracelets -

Two three dimensional items, a "vessel" and a thing.

And here is result of my class, my very own, designed by me, made with yarn dyed by Michele, bracelet.  I hope you like it.  I am very proud of it.  

The pattern at each end is called Serpentine and the center section is also Serpentine but the work is turned over at the completion of each segment.  

SPRING

In my last post I said that we were having a hint of an early spring.   It is no longer a hint.  It is a fact.  (I've lived here all my life, so I know things can/will change.)  Spring is here.

Spring flowers are blooming.  There are bright yellow daffodils along the expressway, forsythia are exploding in their golden glory, trees are budding, the willows are changing colors.  Life is wonderful.



Speaking of changing color, tomorrow the Chicago River will turn green for the St Pat's Day parade.  But they got a head-start at the fountain in the Daley Center Plaza.

Just in case you need to see what is in store for us, here is tonight's 7-Day Forecast.

WOW!!

Last Week

Spring is trying very hard to convince us that it is April not March.  I actually saw some crocuses in bloom on Wednesday.  Unfortunately, I missed the photo opportunity.  Sprouting bulbs are all over, the trees are getting fuzzy and the willows are becoming golden.  This is all good.  They are predicting 70s for Tuesday and Wednesday.  Let's hope we will not pay for this later.


The usual things happened this week, Mensa lunch on Tuesday, lunch with Barbara on Wednesday at 
Icosium Kafe at Clark and Foster.  I had Crepa de Roma, delicious.  


The investment club met here this morning, no changes in our portfolio.  

The total count for the Hexipuff quilt is an amazing 216.  

Strange, but True and More

Inside Tulum

Saturday, Abe and I were sitting at Tulum, an interesting little restaurant at Grand and Wolcott, when we saw very strange groups of costumed people running past pushing grocery shopping carts.  The first one we thought was some sort of prank or dare, but they just kept coming.  A quick Google search on "shopping cart chicago" resulted in "Chiditarod"  (Ain't technology great?) Sure enough, the fund raiser was running right outside the restaurant. These photos are from last year's event. but you get the idea.

Today our neighbors, the Erenbergs had a coffee (actually bagels and) for Mike Forti, a candidate for a Circuit court judgeship.  He seemed quite reliable, well-spoken and OK.  There was a good turnout and our new across-the-hall neighbors were able to meet people from the building.  A gathering for a candidate is a great time to knit.  Today I got three Hexipuffs done.

Hexipuffs, bread and more

I have been working on the Hexipuff project.  I'm now up to 201 of those little buggers.  One hundred and ten of them are assembled.  Eighty-five in the big bunch and twenty-five in the small group.  The rest are at loose ends, awaiting joining.

The colors in the photos do not truly show the actual colors, but you get the idea.

Good news on the vacuum front.  The patient survived, got its bearings and is fit for many more years of service.

A few weeks ago I made some Speedy No-Knead Bread.  Quite tasty.  When Abe heard about it, he tried it too.  His first time it was pretty straight up.  For the second loaf he added herbs, garlic, a little brown sugar and other misc. things.  He reported another success.

Here is the recipe if you want to try. RECIPE LINK  Give it a try and let me know how it goes.

Playing Catch Up

Thursday evening we had dinner with our old "Dental Show" friends, Wilma and Paul Pinkney.  I first met them at least 15 years ago at the Atlanta Meeting Dental show.  Their booth, Theta Corp, was near mine and we struck up a friendship that has continued through the years.   Now that I don't go to the shows anymore, we see each other when they come to Chicago for the Chicago Dental Society Mid-winter Meeting.  People come from all around the world for this meeting.  They come from places that are warm and sunny to be in Chicago in February.  The mind boggles.

Dinner was at Salerno's on Grand at Racine, one of my favorites.  The food is always great, we caught up on the news and had a good time.  The only drawback was that, unknown to us when we got there, it was Thursday Trivia Contest night.  That would not have been bad except that the director of the game felt that he needed to use an amplifier to reach all the players.  There were only four teams playing and they were within 15 feet of him.  TOO LOUD.  And the questions were dumb.  OK, they were obscure.  Picky baseball stats, minor players on old TV shows.  I'm much better at Jeopardy.

Boy and his Toy / Girl and her Group

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My brother got creative with his power washer.  

Tonight I met Georgia at the monthly meeting of the Windy City Knitting Guild.  A great group.  There were at least 100 knitters there to enjoy a presentation about Orenburg Lace Knitting.  A very intricate style of knitting from the steppes of Russia, in the Urals on the border between Europe and Asia.  Orenburg lace is made with hair of the native goats. The hair is combed, not cut, spun and then knit into spectacular shawls.  The goat hair yarn is called down and is frequently plied with silk.  The  shawls are so fine they can slide through a wedding ring.  So they did.  Amazing.