Lillies of the Valley for May

Briefly I worried that I hadn't gotten the May puzzle done in its assigned month - I'd meant to do it all week, and somehow never did - then realized it was because I had been looking into the next week's calendar for work.  So today, I put it together:

Because much of the puzzle is dark, I left some of the pieces
reverse-up for the photo so you can see the shapes more clearly.

It was trickier than I expected, but I finished in about the
length of one side of an LP.  Yes, I still listen to vinyl.

Current project is something I'll show next week, after it is delivered, and this baby blanket made of three balls of the pink/white and one of the blue/white.  I'd intended to work the pink until it ran out, growing the blanket from a corner, then even with the blue, and reduce with the pink.  But I was tired of increasing, so changed to a central square of pink, with a border of alternating pink and blue stripes:

The balls of yarn fit into the blanket, making it very
self-contained, rather like being its own bag.

I finished this month's SciFi Book Club reading today, which means I am not cramming it until the final minutes!  Because the library system's summer program is based on paleontology, we read 
"Jurassic Park".  I was impressed in some ways, underwhelmed in a number of others, and thought it a bit full of tropes and thinly drawn characters.  But if you are writing for the masses and the movie studios, it's probably spot-on.  We'll have an interesting discussion, I am sure.

Thanks to Books Among Friends, which raises money for the Durham County Public Library, I also have its sequel, "The Lost World", and will start reading it.  I should be able to finish before I get next month's assignment.

Memorial Day

 

Despite receiving a commission after high school, my father was unable to serve due to a heart condition.  He'd had it since he was a small boy (it was probably congenital) and despite it lived past his ninetieth birthday.

Today we remember many people who did not have that opportunity.

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(It's also Towel Day, for the nerdy amongst us.)

Collaborative.

A designer offered a pattern for groups to use to make a shawl and asked if they would donate it to an event in May.  The shawls will decorate the hall and then be raffled, with proceeds going to domestic violence prevention.

A few of us in KnitTalk decided to contribute, with several persons knitting pieces or doing putting-together, and one writing a note in French to send with it:

I will use the ball in the centre to work the borders.

I've done the April puzzle:

Before, with most of the shaped pieces on the left.

Close-up showing a human-shaped
piece, which isn't as visible in the
upper photo.  And the flowers.

I sent off a box of thank you cards, totaling 282.  I didn't write six per day for Lent, as I'd intended, but the box is full (there were some in it already, for those checking the maths) and I will start another when I return from my next trip.

[Apparently I neglected to post this when written in April.]

Greek Festival at St. Barbara's

While I was in Texas on business earlier this week, my mother went to A Greek food truck she loves, and found out about a local Greek festival at St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church.  We'd loved going to them in Chicago, and I've been to ones in Dallas and when visiting my grandmother in Florida.

We decided to go early in the day and  it was a good plan and it's a hot weekend.  We arrived just in time to get through the long line into the church, most of whom were heading to the food area, and with a quick left turn found ourselves in the sanctuary in time for a tour.  It wasn't a walking tour, but a tour of the iconography which is the many-years work of a paritioner.

Their shrine to St. Barbara, patron saint of the
church, carefully brought from their previous location.

The communion table in the area where only
a consecrated priest has access.

The altar, which is behind the iconostasis.

The Bible accessible only to the priest.

This signals the burial and is used only on
Good Friday, but is available the rest of the year.

Saints ringed the sides, including Joachim and Anna with an
infant Mary, Mother of Jesus.

Saints here include Nicholas at left, Peter and Paul in the center.

The back wall, under which you enter, showing the Dormition.

Interior of the dome.

The iconostasis.  You can see through to the priest-only area.

The Resurrection, with Christ pulling up Adam and Eve.

The Transfiguration, with before and after images on the sides.

After the tour we joined the food line, having spanikopita and salad for lunch, taking home pastisio and a gyro sandwich and baklava and the walnut cakes I like and and cannot remember the name.  There was dancing and music, a jumble sale and a tent of artisans raising money for Ukraine.  I bought a few things (carefully avoiding the table of books) and picked up some fresh feta cheese before we headed home.

Revisiting a childhood activity.

This week was busy with an assortment of things, including a professional organization mixer on Tuesday, which happened to be Cinco de Mayo.  So the food was a taco bar (tasty, but not worth photographing) and we made paper flowers to contribute to an artist's work:

I made this type of flower as a child, and it was very quick to remember how.  Of course the artist showed people how to do it, had the pieces of paper precut (you can see a pile of deep blue at the top of the lower photograph), and even some of the flowers ready to fluff.  I did several from start to finish, and we look forward to the finished image.

Most of my yarning this week was making Warm Up, America! pieces, using up leftovers of acrylic, because any pattern I wanted to do needed more focus than I could manage.

Three in various garter stitch patterns, lower right is crocheted.

Currently OTN is one from their 30th Anniversary Pattern Bundle, a block in bamboo stitch which I hadn't heard of before and looked intriguing.  I have some speckled yarn that I wanted to work into a pattern stitch, and so far it's going well.  I'll probably take it and some other balls of yarn on my business travel this week, something easy that doesn't need much focus.

I also had my book club at the library on Wednesday, and errands plus all the trip laundry, and time with my mother after being away for a week.  Today is Mother's Day and my brother and his wife and I went to my mother's house for brunch.  Going out on Mother's Day is too crowded and noisy for us.

This weekend I started a more complicated item, the "Winter Sapphire" pattern using yarn that I purchased in Iceland.  Because the yarn is a bit "sticky" I realized I will need to pull from the outside, so went on a hunt for one of my Lemonwood mini-minders.  I think it's not officially the two-ball size, but it works for me:

Back from Iceland.

It was a marvelous trip: geysers and waterfalls, storyteller and musical stories, yarn-buying, good food, knitting and knitting classes, and a float in the Blue Lagoon.  I definitely want to go back someday to see more of museums and have other experiences.

One of the last things I did was wear the cardigan (in the unfinished state you see) to the smaller shop of The Handknitting Association of Iceland for buttons:

Striped.

I finally started on a sweater from the plant-dyed yarns I bought at last year's Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival.  I want another warm sweater to wear in Iceland, and decided to knit something that would be like a jacket.  Unfortunately, the sleeves are a bit close-fitting, but I don't have the time (or possibly the yarn) to redo anything.

Here's the current progress, you can see how the gold yarns shade in tone:

I am still deciding whether the sleeves will have
a garter stitch cuff, or ribbing, and what colour(s).

I use the safety pins on the sides to track decrease rows, and also the length.  To work the sleeves to the same length when I have only a single ball of colour, I pinned a couple of points together:

Also from this week, my irises are doing very, very well this year:

   

The photos are from three days apart, the plant in the back of the lefthand photo.  It's been very hot and I didn't water, so they didn't last as long as they could have.  Since it hasn't rained much, we're on water restrictions.