Thursday thoughts

in which our plucky heroine toddles along...

Spent time the last several early mornings doing various and assorted pruning, cutting back the fig which is starting to overgrow into the good neighbors yard, trimming the flower heads off the nandina, and cutting back the shoots of Wanda plum. Incremental progress is still progress!

After a few days of not-watering, the large potted Oregon Spring tomato was just enough lighter that I could lift it down to the porch floor. I am going to use the luggage cart to roll it into the side yard, next to the clothesline, so I can still check on it frequently, but it can get a bit more sunshine than the shady front porch allows.

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~ do not eat ~
.

Back in 2009 I bought a set of gel paste food coloring, to make a rainbow cake for a "hippie food" theme tween's birthday party. (while I always find the taste of artificial coloring quite abhorrent, no one else seemed to mind?!) Since then, however, rather than for cookery I have used the colors several times to dye wool yarn, when I need small quantities of colors I don't have. In the past I have dyed wool a cheerful orange, to make a Laurel headband for my pal Marya, for example...

I decided that I really wanted some purple yarn to knit a tiny poncho for Kenya, so I got out my little jars of coloring, some white vinegar, the cone of white fingering wt wool, and a saucepan. Before my evening zoom, I measured out 4 yard lengths of yarn, made some mini-skeins, and set them soaking in warm water vinegar bath. Later, after playing alchemist for a bit before bedtime with more simmering water, toothpicks dipped in dye/gel paste, damp yarn skeins, and spoonfuls of white vinegar, I had three different purple bundles of yarn hanging up to dry.

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It is Thursday, which means that the garment for week 6 of the tiny doll wardrobe challenge has been posted -  pants! After checking my dolly clothing tin, all four of mine already have a pair of pants, of various styles. This greatly reduces the number of pairs I will want to make (only a few to send to Kestrel) but gives me a number of examples to share ways to vary the two basic patterns I have used. And maybe an impetus, should I feel inspired, to move forward on making a new denizen of Tansu Terrace, Nandina's father and Kenya's partner Raúl... (I recently found the brown chambray I used making Nandina, which may be a hint that Raúl needs to turn up soon)

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• food for hope: "Trial Results for Longer-Lasting Covid Vaccines and More (Next Generation Update 17)"
• a dangerously wrong turn: "What Went Wrong with a Highly Publicized COVID Mask Analysis?"
• food for thought: "Some Thoughts On The Society For Creative Anachronism" by zzambrosius
• currently reading for fun: "Reaper Man"
• currently listening to: "A Closed and Common Orbit"

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July SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	4 tiny knit vests	cleaned keyboard	recycle bin
2	tiny cargo pants	pruned grapevine	yard waste bin
3	very smol Birks	horses blouse	recycle bin
4	silkworm print	some more pruning	yard waste bin
5	4 reversible skirts	even more pruning	-
6	Peach tinyprint	x	x
7	8 tiny tops	x	x
8	2 tiny cardigans	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. I picked more blueberries - thinking about pancakes
2. scientists continue to strive for better ways to keep folks healthy in this (and future) pandammits.
3. Sewlarium had packages of 0.9mm white marking leads. I brought some home to use in one of my several Sumogrip mechanical pencils; they fit perfectly. It leaves a very narrow line, less bright and blurry than my chalk marker, but will be most useful for tiny stitchery. I wrapped the barrel of that particular pencil with some washi tape, to better identify it in the pencil jar.

Time of Isolation - Day 1475