Posts

mem_somerville, 9 days ago to random

Interesting. My water heater died this week (this is actually good news: now for the heat pump one and I can turn off my gas line!1!!).

But I'm chasing down the MassSave paperwork. I have had 2 heat loans from this bank before, so I wanted to give them the heads up on my filing.

Spotted this. I didn't know bike loans were a thing.

#HeatPump #WaterHeater

mem_somerville, 12 days ago to random

Wow. Jury duty is pretty wild these days.

"Juror in Feeding Our Future case excused after being offered bags of cash to acquit"

https://minnesotareformer.com/2024/06/03/juror-in-feeding-our-future-case-excused-after-being-offered-bags-of-cash-to-acquit/

mem_somerville, 15 days ago to SciComm

One of the people I used to follow at the Bad Place is Raven the Science Maven. A great scientist #scicomm account.

I looked at the NYT and saw her and thought: yay! NYT feature....

And then I read the headline. Not science--#racism, aimed at her.

Grrrrr....

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/31/realestate/race-home-buying-raven-baxter.html?unlocked_article_code=1.wE0.TyEO.-VkwsUkj28h0&smid=url-share

mem_somerville, 16 days ago to climate

In other news, this surprised me. I knew that they were planning it, but it is actually today!

New England's largest fossil fuel electric plant is shutting down today | Mystic Generating Station

"shuttering the plant shows the era of burning fossil fuels for electricity may have peaked, at least in New England"

#ClimateChange #FossilFuels #SomervilleMA #EverettMA

https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/05/30/mystic-electric-station-massachusetts-closing

mem_somerville, 17 days ago to random

Reminder: Historic New England has open house on Saturday June 1. All sites open for free.

Looks like great weather this year.

https://www.historicnewengland.org/youre-invited-to-our-region-wide-open-house-2/

mem_somerville, 17 days ago to Lace

For #WIPWednesday, some #tatting underway. I'm currently on a kick to do denim doilies, and have done 3 in #BobbinLace so far. But now I want another style.

Using the wonderful hand-dyed thread from @yarnplayer called Blue Skies.

Pattern is by Anne Orr. I recently discovered what a #TextileHistory rock star she was--art editor, writer, entrepreneur, pattern designer... and no #Wikipedia page. I'll be fixing that eventually.

https://quiltershalloffame.net/anne-orr/

mem_somerville, 18 days ago to climate

Had a fabulous #FieldTrip today with Long Now Boston folks. We toured the #DeerIsland wastewater treatment plant. Yes, Long Now Boston is a nerd club.

But it gives me hope: some really smart, thoughtful, and capable people are keeping our infrastructure going and planning for #ClimateChange--no matter what the other noise around is.

Great tour, take one if you get the chance. #BostonMA

The tour starts in this lovely old brick building that retains some of the 1890s pumping machinery around. Now it's set up as a sort of classroom or visitors center. There's an MWRA podium up front and a bunch of state and national flags behind where a speaker would be, but in front of the massive iron pumping equipment. A large American flag hangs down from the high ceiling at the second floor height.
In the visitor center near the pumping equipment, there is a large topological map of Boston. It was reportedly displayed at the World's Fair in 1900. It's about 2 feet off the floor, larger than a typical kid's pool, and the class covered surface holds a real 3 dimensional rendering of Boston and the harbor.
Near the place where they disinfect the water, there's this open gravel covered area. To the right of the disinfection long cement pools there's an odd object that looks like an early space capsule shape, but it's made in cement. It is one of the diffusers that matches the ones sitting 9 miles out in the harbor where the cleaned water comes out from the tunnels. It has a series of small sort of portholes around the cement where the water would come out if it was at the end of a tunnel. This one was defective though, and so it just sits up here for discussion purposes. Off to the background there is some greenery on a nearby hill with a water tank. That water is the stuff that come from the MWRA clean water reservoir system to serve the island.

mem_somerville, 24 days ago to Bloomscrolling

I don't know what this plant is, but it spawned from a sidewalk crack and I love it for weirdness and resilience.

#Bloomscrolling

mem_somerville, 25 days ago to SciComm

Fauci: " two credible attempts on his life that prompted the arrests of two people". I did not know this.

#scicomm #misinformation #harassment

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01468-9

mem_somerville, 29 days ago to Lace

My supervisor monitors my progress as I try to rescue this piece of antique lace from the nasty sticky backing paper someone put it on decades ago.

It is an impossibly delicate piece with super-fine thread.

Similar to this museum version, it is Brussels bobbin lace appliqué on a netting.

https://www.si.edu/object/brussels-bobbin-lace-applique-droschel-ground%3Anmah_639512

#BobbinLace #Caturday #TextileHistory

A close up of the now-unstuck lace on a blue felt backing for contrast. It shows the floral edge of the lace and includes two American coins for scale. The flowers are about the size of a 10 cent silver piece. The threads are incredibly thin, and the flower is worked with a heavier outline edge. There are also tiny picot decorations on the outside edge. There are coin-sized flowers on the edge and smaller ones as you go up, as well as some leaves and vine details. Some of this seems to be embroidered on the netting and some additional needle lace details.
Another close up of the flowers to see the details. I cannot express how thin this thread is, but was woven with bobbins by some woman in the past in poor lighting, for probably pennies.

mem_somerville, 1 month ago to Lace

#WIPWednesday is attempting to recover from transporting this Tønder lace. I took a workshop with Bobbi Donnelly and ended up trying 2 pieces, without enough bobbins. So I had to unwind my first set. Trying to re-wind them now. So far, only one thread broke.

First time I used 140/2 cotton thread. It scares me. So thin. But it is lovely and delicate in the completed pieces. I can see the appeal.

#BobbinLace #TønderLace

Close up of the mat project. You can really only see the tops of a lot of steel pins. You can kind of see the edge work on the right. It alternates between cloth stitch sections that appear fully covered, and the Copenhagen hole stitches that leave a gap in the center of the oval and all the stitches are smushed up against the edge. The pattern notes solid | hole | solid | hole, so I can remember which one to do at each section. The unworked part has the thread outline and the pin holes for the next sections. Various threads hang off the incomplete part.
I didn't think I'd get to a second project so I didn't bring more bobbins. I hastily set up for this second one. But I was able to try another new-to-me stitch, the gimp fingers. They are tricky to do with threads winding back and forth in really short order. The advice was to make sure you deal with the tension of them constantly so they don't slip around. Anyway, my little practice piece is a mess, sitting on red felt next to the pattern printouts. My honeycombs are a mess but I just wanted to get to the fingers to be sure I tried them a couple of times during the workshop with the instructor there.

mem_somerville, 1 month ago to boston

I'll admit: I had no idea there was a #MonkMobile. #Boston

mem_somerville, 1 month ago to random

Hey #NewEngland folk: my friend Val reminded me today that June 1 is free admission day to many houses in the Historic New England collection.

Plan those trips now!

https://www.historicnewengland.org/youre-invited-to-our-region-wide-open-house-2/

mem_somerville, 1 month ago to Lace

Antique store cat wonders if you really need more doilies....

To be fair, she's right (her name is Beatrice, at Howard's Flying Dragon Antiques). But you can't get linen like the fineness of these squares now, perfectly hemmed. Seriously great stuff.

And that goose. I mean, of course I needed the goose doily.

#BobbinLace #FiletLace #Caturday

A round linen doily about 7 inches in diameter. It has a triangular trim with a little flower motif in it, made of filet lace. The center of the doily also has about a 2 inch square motif of a goose with a long bent neck in that angry goose pose. The circle of linen in the main area also has drawn thread work removed so that it looks like a tic-tac-toe grid (with the goose in the center). The initials ADH are embroidered in the top center square too.
A pile of fabulously soft and fine linen rectangles, with drawn threads to make one inch squares around the edge. It also has a perfectly sewn folded over hem all the way around. It has a safety pin holding the batch, and it says $10 set of 8. I can make a lace trim around the edges of these that will look divine. And that means I don't have to sew the center part, which is just not my favorite part of the whole thing.

mem_somerville, 1 month ago to random

This giant insect sculpture both compels me and haunts me, every time I visit the #IpswichMA Museum.