wordless wednesday
All posts by CurlsnSkirls
revisiting the past . . .
This past 3-day weekend was a celebration of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Junior’s birthday, and a time to reflect on his legacy here in the U.S.
In early 2015 I and a dear friend visiting from Australia went to his memorial in Washington, D.C., where I took some photos.
Hope you’ll enjoy. And pause a moment to reflect.
a late macro monday
time
If this first fortnight of the new year is a taste of what the rest of the year will bring, there’ll be a lot o’ reading going on!
I skimmed through The Last Flight (Julie Clark) for various reasons. Chiefly, I guess, because there wasn’t enough detail or description to hold my attention for very long. I didn’t want to wait to find out what the author did with what she’d conjured up. A lot was predictable.
Much more engrossing was Kate Morton’s The Lake House. It struck me as almost a fairy tale for adults, although sometimes her plot solutions left me feeling, “Hmm. What a coincidence.” And it was long. As in 500 pages long!
Facts + fiction? Susan Elia MacNeal’s Mr. Churchill’s Secretary appears to be based on a lot of historical data, and made for a pleasant read, with a few characters using double identities, as good spies should. Am wondering about checking out another in the series. Has anybody read any of the sequels? (Princess Elizabeth’s Spy, His Majesty’s Hope, etc.)?
Somewhere I squiggled a quick recount of last year’s reading, and discovered magazines outnumbered books 2-to-one! The books averaged about one per week. Having the library app has greatly increased my reading because it’s so much easier and safer than trundling to the library.
I also had time to get a bit of sewing done, and am now enjoying another LB Pullover, this one in gold polar fleece. Snuggley soft, I’m trying to convince myself my stash’s brown fleece needs to become pants – and who cares if they’re bulky. They’d be comfy, warmer, & more flexible that the cords I’ve been wearing.
What I forgot to show in the photo are the wrists. I stopped the sleeve seams 2″ from the end so the sleeves fold up into cuffs. My previous versions used other adaptations to avoid wet washing up sleeves. This might be the best solution yet.
❤️ ❤️ ❤️ All for now, Lovelies! ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
Happy New Year, everyone❣️
you’ll never guess …
A couple days ago I sat down at my machine to sew up that gold fleece LB Pullover I talked about last time. Then I thought maybe I should change the needle first.
The needle was probably a couple projects old — about when I last cleaned the machine. Oh! Might as well clean it, too, right?
It didn’t take long. The machine was fairly clean already. But you can see the long thread that fell out of the bobbin casing, and you know what that would ‘a done. 🙄
Every time I pull out the bobbin thingey — the half that comes out of the place where you put the bobbin — I can never get it back until I lean the machine back, then it falls into place. That’s why I made those 2 red rice bags.
Anyhoo – Next day I ironed a couple things and remembered the gunk on the iron’s edges. Might as well get on with another cleaning project, I thought.
Over on IG #James_is_so_happy had a recent post on cleaning his iron. I revisited.
He made a baking soda & water paste & scrubbed with that. There’s a ‘but’ coming: Don ‘t get the mixture into the steam vents. I went looking for an alternative.
And found this, from Architectural Digest. Choosing the steel wool option, I scrubbed. Am not finished yet — those steam vents are filthy! I’m leaning towards trying the vinegar-on-towel method for the vents. Any suggestions?
Our 20 degrees above normal temps continue, so I’m not hard pressed to sew fleece. As Friday night is New Year’s Eve, in the words of “The Wassail Song”. . .
Love and joy come to you,
And to you your wassail, too,
And God bless you, and send you
A Happy New Year,
And God send you a Happy New Year.
🥳 See you in 2022 🎉
❤️ 🧵 ❤️ 🪡 ❤️ 🧶 ❤️ ✂️ ❤️
Macro Monday
Hope everyone has had a lovely Holiday this year. Mine has been quiet and relaxing, even if the weather is increasingly warm , with mid-70’s by Wednesday.
Ouch! I’d just cut out a fourth LB Pullover from some of Vogue Fabric’s luscious gold no-pill polar fleece, and somehow can’t bring myself to sew it up. Can’t imagine why. 🙄
Maybe I should cut out another, lighter weight knit and leave off the lower sleeve, which would make a short-sleeve version. Maybe that’d be wearable until the humidity kicks in. Hmmm. What lighter weight knits do I have in stash . . . . .
Have you ever seen…
… a little Christmas turtle? I’ve had this little 3-inch ornament for ages, bought at a pottery collective up in California’s Santa Cruz Mountains. In this photo it’s sitting on a scrap of that gold fleece. Hinting?
Have a happy last Monday in 2021!
My King’s tradition ~
One of my long-standing holiday treats is listening to the annual Christmas Eve afternoon carol service from King’s College, Cambridge (U.K.).
As the U.K. is 5 hours across the pond from us & ahead in time, their 3 P.M. start time is 10 A.M. here on the U.S. East Coast, and a bleary-eyed 7 A.M. for West Coasters. But sleep in, peeps, as BBC generally leaves this up for a month.
For me, it sets the mood for the remainder of my 2-day celebration. The opening carol, Once In Royal David’s City, never fails to move me. And I get to enjoy the wonderful diction & musicality everyone brings to the service, in addition to hearing traditional Biblical selections as read by that year’s choir, college, and city officials.
From their web site ~
“A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service on 24 December at 3pm (10:00 EST or 07:00 PST). The service is also broadcast at 1pm on Radio 3 on Christmas Day, and at various times on the BBC World Service.”
Online at BBC 4 here.
Edited: Now available for replay here.
The programme for the Order of Service is here. (Scroll down.)
Curls n Skirls 
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