"Ohmisoka"

In Japan, we have a word for the last day of the month, "misoka" and in the old days all bills were due then. Today is "Oh-Misoka" or the Big Misoka, and in addition to bills, if one borrowed something during the year, if one has become indebted to someone, the borrowed items were returned and polite "Thank you's" were conveyed to those who helped you.

By the way, the month of December has a nickname, "Shiwasu" or "teachers running"; the month is such a busy one even teachers, who are usually dignified and cannot be rushed, need to get a move on to finish everything that is required of them.

And on the home front, we do, as it were, the whole Spring Cleaning in one day. In the dead of the winter. And I hear winter came early this year and the northern half of Japan has had February temperatures and snow falls this month. Of course many mothers plan well and start cleaning incrementally, but even fathers help on this special cleaning day. Most families finish cleaning sometime in the evening, and then we sit together and have a super simple bowl of soba (buckwheat) noodles either as part of dinner, or near midnight. Soba noodle is nothing special, we eat it all the time, but it's slightly more brittle than other noodles, so since the Edo Era we've been eating it on Ohmisoka evening to sever our ties with all the bad things that happened during the year.

Whereas the name "New Year's Eve" seems to me to mean only the day, or evening, preceding The Big Day, it is an important day in its own right in Japan, and we don't get drunk, but sit with family, eat mandarins, maybe watch the telly or a movie, shoot the breeze and chill out. And some people go out even later to be at a shrine, or the top of Mt Fuji, at midnight. It is an important day, and even when I was 31I got in hot water because I wanted to go out with Ben to see a famous shopping area selling Hagoita, decorative Japanese racket for a genteel version of badminton-like sport; it wasn't so much the actual cleaning, but the absence of common sense for him to ask me out on Ohmisoka and for me to want to go that absolutely enraged my mother. Needless to say, I didn't go. (Though I must add, at a younger age my brother was allowed to go out with friends.)

So Ben and I did your ritual/symbolic cleaning today. And it's a good thing because the house really needed it. He also made a pasta dinner, but we might have soba too, at midnight, just a small bowl.

I printed out my 2013 Things to Remember,

put up the map of Italy on the stash room wall,

 and the Riverside Shakespeare on my bedside.

I sprained my ankle before lunch and cleaning, and it was so loud Ben heard it in the other room. Or maybe it was my yelping he heard. I didn't break anything, I can walk, and cleaned the house thus, but it's a little swollen and, how can I describe it, it vibrates when I hobble. So I couldn't weave my purple piece even though I really wanted to. 

The water turned grainy brown at around 4PM and I had to ring the City Council. I really didn't want a plumber to have to come to my house just before 5PM on New Year's Eve, and in the end the water cleared, but I'm fringing the cashmere scarves, and I'm not sure if I want to wash them tonight.

And way before all that, at the start of the day, I sheared Ben. He has new glasses and they require very short and tidy look. More than his old pair.

There is three and a half hours left of 2012 here. Thank you for your company, and I shall count on some more in the coming 2013. 

Feeling Jane's Love

Ben found an envelope from Jane in the PO box this morning. And it's so lovely. A card with a small bookmark, with a message and the list of contents: eight threads, (5 meters each!) from her working box, either used recently or her favs, in a delicate bag; a small hot pink noteboook, the same size she carries to record inspirations, (a kindred stationary lover,) a set of photographs about Jane, (the one showing her bookmarks I've taken out to show you below the threads; another set of inspirations from Lapland of Finland; her business card with interesting words, and a tiny crocheted flower.

Her personal photographs and how she came to be interested in weaving is wonderful - exactly the kind of things I love to learn about another weaver. It turns out we both started with handmade looms. I had forgotten about mine; in college I worked out how I can weave a relatively large piece (hanky-size) of plain weave cloth and had my then-boyfriend build a frame about A2 size, (double letter size,) and hammered in tiny nails all around it myself. Even then, I tried to make as flat a cloth as possible using the skinniest knitting yarns I could find. From memory, one was orange! 

I've been thinking a lot about Heather's felted broach, achromatism, and texture, and Jane's threads and the bookmark on the card fit into my thinking; not exactly achromatic but lovely and possibly more to my taste our summer light. 

The small size of the notebook and the photographs make me wonder, too. I write big and my eyesight is bad, so I tend to prefer larger things, (at least A5, roughly half of letter size,) but I can carry Jane's photographs and notebooks so easily, and I look forward to taking Jane along to Japan next Feb,. In fact, I think I'm going to take all my envelopes to show my mother. 

And Finland, oh, Finland. If you celebrate synchronicity, you will smile when I tell you I also received a card from Maria today; you know, she's from Finland, though I don't know if it's Lapland.

I appreciate the thoughts that go into these envelopes. They are lovey, personal, touching, and very, very special. Thank you so very much. 

* * * * *

"A Day in the Lift of Looms" Version 4; let's do it. Take loom pics on January 1, 2013; post and send me the links or send me pics. It's a Loom Pic Fest, so no theses required.

Here are V1, V2, V3. I didn't realize we've been doing this for this many years. And one of my looms still has the same warp as 2011! I'd better get a move on.

December

Didn't do much, except complain about the dud cashmere warp and the heat. And cooked and ate a lot of veggies and legumes.

From far left: two faced twills in three pale blues wefts, a nice piece but utterly unexciting; Christmas Present motif with autumnal wefts, OK but structurally unexciting enough for Santa Fe; an experiment in "do as I say, not as I do"; I keep telling mother to not change colors if she wants to show off structure and yet I went ahead and failed/aborted; same structure in one weft because I was too tired to think of something fresh; leftover fabric in much simpler draft but with more rapid changes. Conclusion: I do love close-up structural interests and in that vein, only the last swatch was successful. Which requires my "bold" attempts to be more structurally finicky to keep me happy, and yet be, ummm, bold in appearance from some distance.

Next up: pink baby blanket

in this draft,

which is this draft turned and doubled,

a draft I've wanted to weave for as long as I've had this book,

which has been a long, long time. And mine.

I've not woven much of 18DPI or sparser in a while so the thought of 6 EPI freaked me out and I sleyed at 8 EPI, so the piece will be more rustic than luxurious in hand, but that's OK, I'm pretty ruthless when it comes to using my woven cloth, and this will stand in good stead for years to come. This is a wide warp, though, and though I'm weaving standing up I can't see from one selvedge to the other unless I kneel on the bench!

Kiwi House Pants

I'm such a single-tasking simpleton, I think I could be a good gardener if I didn't weave. Or a good cook if I didn't weave and didn't garden. Or I could do none of these and study and get a higher degree. Or read.

I've always known about my single-minded nature, but weaving is what I've chosen and I've focused on it to the exclusion of everything I could exclude in my life at one point. But food, cooking, heath aren't mere hobbies or interests; they are, ummm, life, and I can't feel good about being a bad cook even if I somehow decided I'm a great weaver, the latter can't make up for the former.

I'm slow to understand things. I need to read things many times and I need a lot of practice to get better at things. But I don't like practicing. I'm also lazy.

EDIT: This is a stage I wouldn't mind getting to, but it's a scary prospect, too.  It's a dangerous territory for us Lazies.

* * * * * 

I'm amazed how much I'm enjoying cooking. I go in spurts being interested in food and then not at all, but I'm trying not to overdo it so that this spurt will last longer. And because we don't use as much oil or cook starch, washing dishes is fast, requires less detergent, can be done in cold water, and in this heat, it's a welcome task. I'm also pleased how quickly we got used to smaller portions, and not having much meat/fish/starch or any alcohol wasn't a choice but something that just happened. Again, I think the heat helped feeling very satisfied with salads and other vegetarian dishes served cold, and fruits.

We have no intention of becoming vegetarian; I would never even contemplate depriving beloved of bacon, and I would feel very sad if I were to never have smoked salmon again. And we love cheeses. But even our other dairy consumption has decreased. It'd be interesting to see what happens when the climate is kinder.

Even Ben started cooking and serving small portions and we don't go through as much food. Who knows, we may be rich next time this year!

* * * * *

Have I mentioned the heat yet? We have been having a heat wave. Just last week Nelson was astonished to have 20C at 7.30 in the morning, but we had a blustery, glare-sunny Christmas Eve with our shady cold house 28C in the early evenings, and right back to 28C at 8AM Christmas Day with no wind, just glare, still 30C at almost 1AM. Nelson doesn't get this hot, at least this early in the summer. Our house might get up to 25C once or twice a year for half a day max in late Jan/early Feb.

Boxing day, yesterday, was cooler but much more humid in spite of a Heavy Rain forecast. Goodness me. I didn't want to waste another day looking at multiple screens imitating sloths.

I sewed a couple of Heat Wave house pants/PJ bottoms for Ben. He has no heat wave clothes, and was quietly suffering in thick synthetic long shorts, and I've wanted to make these crazy pants for him for years. I made a few mistakes so two pairs of the simplest PJ bottoms took a little over half a day and I didn't have time to go downstairs to finish what I wanted to, but I'm pretty pleased with these, and I'm going to make a couple of more today. None as funny as these Kiwis, though.

I wish I were better at sewing. Like knitting, the logic and mechanism of construction has fascinated me since Fifth Grade, and I enjoy reading about pattern construction and sewing techniques very much, but my delivery is "Good Effort" at best. Some parts, it's better if you don't look closely. But I like the idea of making something nobody else has, altering patterns or adding something to make things for Ben and me knowing there's something unique, (at least un-usual, as in not standard,) about it. And I keep hoping many practices will make me better. Automagically. Without effort. Only fun. 


It's been a cool morning so far, ever so slightly overcast, but I doubt we'll get rain. Not a bad day for a Pants Day!

Unintended, Yet...

I didn't set out for my Weaver to Weaver envelopes to arrive on a specific day, but I've been told those to Europe arrived on or around Christmas Eve. Here's one I sent to Ela.

(If you are taking part in this project and have not sent yours yet, please be reminded to get them out on or before New Year's Eve.)

2012/2013

2012 is coming to a close. In 2013, I am going to:

1) Start thinking not in terms of what I haven't done, but what I have done, and concentrate on the quality of the job or the amount of joy I experienced while doing it. If I still feel compelled to record numbers, as I'm prone to, I won't use fractions with the denominator admonishing me how many times I should have done that task;

2) In the same vein, be less punitive. Be less angry about politics and social injustices. Let go of things; don't be a drenched duck; lighten up. If it helps, don't look back because I stew more than learn from the past. Don't commit to things; think carefully before I sign up;

3) Resume studying Italian. I think this every week but I'm doing this systematically, and my system is: do something every day, even if it's to learn one new word, go over the spelling of the days of the week, listen to Rai for an hour, or learn the location of a new town on the map. Something;

4) Draw regularly, even outside class. Also try to revisit some and consider what "finishing" means;

5) Start reading all the plays and editorial/tutorial comments in my Riverside Shakespeare from Page 1; skip Sonnets if I like. I've thought about doing this since 1982 when I graduated from college, partly because after three and a half years of intensive study, I never got that The Bard's words are pertinent in the modern age. I see his plays as a social commentary on his glorious times and him as the first bona fide blockbuster writer/playwright, but not related to my time;

6) Dye;

7) Become healthier;

8) In the same vein, stop watching so much telly or gazing at the computer. Do something with my hands other than typing; 

9) Clean house/garden; don't give up on the idea that my domicile should reflect what I make.

You may have noticed that I don't have weaving goals, other than 5). I've become more accustomed to multiple ideas running riot in my head most time and feel OK moving from one to another and back again. If something/s isn't/aren't banging at my door, I can always go knocking on my list. It's going to be an "Expect the Unexpected" sort of a year, 2013.

Merry Food

And peace on earth. Today and every day from this day forward. If only everybody wished for this...

We've been enjoying being thoroughly immersed in thinking of food, reading about, cooking and eating almost-vegetarian, watching and re-watching gazillion mostly-English cooking shows. (Mostly English by TV stations' choice, but we're not complaining.) I didn't buy an eye-candy cookbook for Christmas this year, but goodness me I have a lot of nice ones and more than a few I never really read; I have a few new low GI books which are good to read, (albeit, GI still surprising/confusing us from time to time), and Ben and I bought The Hairy Dieters, which in the UK has been deemed better than porn. 

The Hairy Bikers are funny fellows. I used to think they looked so unsanitary and unappetizing as soon as they came on I changed the channel; Ben had to watch when I wasn't around. For some reason we watched an episode of The Best of British about a month ago and suddenly I couldn't get enough. Though I wouldn't try their recipes, I love their baking the best.

This year we didn't save anything for Christmas. We got stuck into Panettone as soon as Ben came home with it on Friday, (but only the recommended slice of 1/16 of the cake at a time;) munching on raspberries and boysenberries as soon as we came home from picking on Saturday.But strangely no booz; we haven't really wanted any.

Eating healthily has also meant we don't use as much oil or flour and washing dishes has been easier. We got used to the smaller portions much sooner than we expected and feel full quickly. One of the strangest of all is that I've not had chocolate craving for... over a month.

Yesterday, Christmas Eve, though we had no special plans, we each assumed we'd have some kind of sumptuous meat, a salad, and some carbo. Turned out we had a windy, glaring-sunny, heat wave kind of a day so we changed menu: almost-dry-fried monk fish, orange kumara and walnuts, tabbouleh, and cucmber/yogurt sauce. Except I forgot the garlic in the last and it tastes like a healthy milkshake.  We used to make tabbouleh often but hadn't for a while; I don't like parsley too much and the way we were taught by our friend Margaret had a lot of parsley in it. I thought it would be a good thing on a scorcher of a evening, so I looked up a recipe. We didn't have lemons or lemon juice, and it was almost too late to go shopping, so I squeezed a lime and two lemons. We didn't have flat parsley so we used a lot of crinkly ones, which would have given a stronger, green taste. But then I didn't have olive oil so used flax seed oil which is blander but healthy.

When Ben was putting things away after our supper, he asked what I had used the soba/buckwheat for; I hadn't. I only made tabbouleh. But the bulgur packet was still sealed. Ah, that's why it looked slightly different from how I remembered! Oh, well, the texture was similar. I just hope we don't get sick eating uncooked soba.

And that's how it came to be that I more or less created an semi original dish. Though I may never repeat it again.

Today looks set to be hottter; it's sunnier and we have no wind. And it may sound strange to you, but I'm having a break from the kitchen duties today; we're having vegetarian leftovers and fruits for the next couple of days.  And more reading and talking about food.

Words/Triggers/Ideas

The Sketchbook Projects allows us to choose a theme from the following choices:

Travelogue
Memoir
Narrative
Atlas
Almanac
Chronicle
Sketchbook
Chapbook
Documentation
Photo Log
Undecided
Dwellings
Strangers
Participate
Diagrams
Warnings
List
Creatures
Dinosaurs
Upstairs
Mystery

It's a nice selection of starting points, but is prone to fashion. I mean, "Upstairs'??? When I first received the sketchbook, I was thinking along the lines of us all living inside our skins in the first instance and our clothing/cloth in the next, so I chose "Dwellings". But that's not what I think I'm doing. Or what I think I'm doing doesn't seem to reflect the idea of dwellings. Not that that's important. So shall I go with "Creatures"? Or am I working on... ""Diagrams"? And what the heck is a "Chapbook"? And yet I don't want to fall into ambiguity like "Undecided" or "Participate"; I don't want to be that lame. Yet.

But then the world might end tomorrow and I may not have to worry.

Further down, I noticed this morning there are a lot of explanations/descriptions I can add on my online profile. It's probably for sort and search, and I'm not too interested in overloading information outside of my (boring) Sketchbook. But, among them were these choices for my book's area of interest:

Architecture
Design
Fashion
Science
Travel
Abstraction
Family
Narrative
Portraiture
Color Study
Landscape
Music
Technology
Cartography
Memoir
History
Education
Nature
Engineering
Community
Interactive
Media
Othe

This list looks less prone to fashion, but doesn't include, "philosophical/metaphysical/existential/universal goo," which best describes my current stage of ponder/ing.

Still, I like looking at lists like these. 

* * * * *

Cally wrapped up the year. Or started to anyway. Which pushed to the fore yet another goo of mine; the 2012/2013 List post. I've been working on it for over a week but simultaneously going through mood swings, priority shifts and a relatively new-to-me quandary, "Are Lists Good?". Crikey, this will be one major paradigm shift if I decide, "No"!  A substantial portion of my life spent making, reworking, color-coordinating and revising lists will have been for naught. Still, living in a murky goo not committing, not deciding, not clarifying, not prioritizing and not listing appeals to me a little bit; at the very least it will match the physical environment I've lived in for a while.

Evan Appeal

I'm still emotionally stuck at Haiti 2010 and have observed Christchurch, Japan, China, Turkey, and the Indus Floods with something of a detached frame of mind, but we in New Zealand have special place for the Pacific Islands. Auckland, for instance, has the largest Pacific Island population in the world. Many Kiwis work/volunteer in the Islands and many Islanders come to New Zealand to send money back home. The latest, Cyclone Evan worries me very much.

Samoa had a bad flood/tsunami in either 2010 or 11, which decimated a tourist areas, an important cash earner for that nation. Evan went over the entire country this week.

Fiji has had tremendous political upheaval in the last couple of decades, hurting the populous and the tourist industry. It's only today we're finding out how Fiji is faring, (not well,) because a lot of folks were evacuated and power was out for a couple of days.  

Tonga has had political unrest of late and was supposedly in Evan's path; I understand they did better than Samoa and Fiji this time. 

And these are the larger Island countries who have resources, infrastructures and established (albeit at times tenuous) relationships with New Zealand and Australia as well as Japan, China and some with the US that I know of.

Even without extreme weather events, these, and smaller nations and territories like Niue, Nauru, Kiribati, Cook Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands have been suffering from the rising waters, some territories reluctantly deciding to leave altogether in the next decade or two.

Many/most are devout Christian countries if that is a factor for you.

This holiday season, if you have a few dollars to spare, please include these folks in your option to give.

For starters I'm giving Kiva credit to my nephews and niece and talk to them about the Pacific, (we've been to the Cooks, Fiji and Tonga,) and how micro loans work so they can reinvest. Kiva has a relationship with Samoan organizations, and the Philippines; mustn't forget Bopha. I have a moral unease when I catalogue-shop for borrowers, but do prefer my meager help going to older women involved in what to me are worthy work, (food, textile, as opposed to selling fizzy drinks and cosmetics,) with loans going to the women's own businesses rather than their borrowing on behalf of their menfolk. and Kiva is so easy.   

My direct donation organization of preference is Salvation Army and they have their Pacific Island HQ in Honolulu. I'm hoping your local Salvation Army, Red Cross, church and other groups of choice will have something set up for Evan victims.

Thank you for reading.

Living and Thinking à la Patrick

Last night Ben caught me humming the last part of the SpongeBob SuqarePants theme song repeatedly while reading in bed, and asked about "Eric". I knew He wasn't "Eric" but I couldn't remember His name and we became increasingly awake and throughly annoyed annoyed. Thank goodness for Google. Suffice it to say, we didn't have to try to get to sleep wondering. Remember those days?

Ben hates SpongeBob. Probably as much as he hated "The Nanny". It's the voices, you see. Me, not a Big Fan, but I've always felt comfortable/frustrated/fascinated with/by Patrick and appreciated SpongeBob's patience. This morning, I found out why.

This is parts of an email I sent just before I found out why, to my drawing group, in response to a lovely email describing how one member works, and how we probably don't need to meet in Jan or for a while outside class. Bear in mind our application is for 2014, and we find out if we get a spot by the end of January 2013. 

* * * * *

So here’s where I come from. Half of me agree we’re getting ahead of ourselves, but I also understood/assumed if we didn’t get Refinery, we’d go after somewhere else. Which leads me to my need to discuss and gauge consensus/feedback at earlier stages in projects to make sure I’m not assuming things or at least gain a measure of understanding on how we all think individually and collectively. (sic: I'm learning the three of them already know each other possibly very well.) I’ve been told that setting the framework first is a Japanese approach by an American that worked a while in Japan; Judith Ritchie tells me it’s a weaver thing.

I’m away Feb/Mar,... (sic: and there's no guarantee I can return to the Friday morning class subsequently, it being the most popular time slot but I somehow manage eventually. ) But I’m VERY available after I mid/late Mar, especially if we meet in town or on the beach.

I’m a slow thinker, and it takes me a long time to understand what I read or hear, and longer to work out my ideas. As such, IF we are to have a common theme/idea/thread/concept around which to build an exhibition, if possible, I’d appreciate if the discussions can take place early. (sic: the other three are engaged in drawing/painting a lot more and a lot longer, whereas I had none between 1974 and 2008 and only go to Ronette's class.) So I’m in dire need of help from the group. I also must first establish mind pictures to really understand things.

I also get ideas and inspiration from discourse, (I even say things out loud to understand what I’m thinking, as in the last couple of days preparing for this email,) and from knowing people and their life stories, processes,... why people draw/paint/make, what they get out/make them happy, tastes in art/artists, etc. This explains,...why I seldom listen to music during the day but usually have the radio, podcast or audiobook playing.

I also have this thing about group exhibitions needing to look more than/different from an exhibition where a group of people bring disparately-worked pieces to show in a shared space. (sic: And we had one brilliant idea at the last meeting.)

... What I was hoping to ponder were 1) do we need a unifying concept/idea/theme, and if so can we throw some ideas around to mull over? And 2) related to that, is (sic: the idea we had) the only thing we work on at this time? And 3) how do you work, i.e. the kind of things I wrote here. I was going to suggest going to Jane Evans (by way of coffee in town,) and “shoot the breeze” to learn more about each other; going to Refinery/discussing the space was on my list, too.

So, that’s me. I hope you all have a lovely holiday. If you’re coming into town and have some time to kill but nobody to kill it with, drop me a line. Or call. Though I wouldn’t quite say, let’s Skype, until I’m in the Winterland.

* * * * *

So I'm interested to know. How do you work? How do you think? Which part do you spend a lot of time on?  What is your version of a good group exhibition? From the participant's point of view vs a viewer's? I didn't do well with my last group so I'm gung-ho in making this group work, for the group and for me.

* * * * *

Yeah, more food, cookbook, and foodie TV posts to come. It must be the season.