|
||||||
|
As promised, I did do the drawing on Wednesday, but then I got really busy and didn’t go any further. Right now I only have time post this much and email Liz for her mailing addy, then back to work. Actually to the nursery to buy tomato & pepper plants, among other things. Then back to the loom. Or outside digging. Or boiling potatoes for potato salad. Or something else.
I really like to knit socks. And to wear hand knit socks. I think I have 8 pairs in my drawer. Some are getting old, which means worn. Although I would never dream of fixing store-bought socks, I’ve thought about learning to darn my hand knit socks for a while. Earlier this week I watched 4 different youtube videos on darning. Specifically Swiss darning, aka duplicate stitch. This method only works if the sock is worn but does not yet have a hole. The toes of these socks were quite thin, so I took a deep breath and decided to dive in. My technique wasn’t great and it was certainly a slow process for me, but I got it done. The best thing is that the toes don’t feel lumpy or clumpy – they feel great! I have been having fun in my garden. Here’s a closeup of those parrot tulips. The red is so red and the white is so white – stunning.
And the back of my house.
I’m very happy with its new look. Should have taken a before photo, but all you would have seen was masses of violets and wild asters. Now there are coral bells, astilbe, tiarella, hosta, English primrose, wood hyacinth, hellebore, Japanese painted fern, lady fern, and pulmonaria. Very colorful now, and I should have interest for most of the summer. At least that’s my goal. I didn’t spend as much planning time as I might have, so if that doesn’t work out, I can always just pop in some annuals for filler. On the down side, I had machine failure. Sewing machine. I bought a new simple Janome in October of 2014. Supposedly the model that they sell to schools, so it was designed for hard work. I was sewing bags for my packaging yesterday. I’d cut enough pillowcases for about 3 dozen bags. On about bag number 28 the motor basically seized up. I immediately called a local sewing machine repair place and brought it in. I won’t know for several days what the problem was and how much it will cost to repair it, but I can assure you that I am decidedly unhappy. The machine is only 19 months old. And it’s not like I sew on it every day, or even every week. Sometimes not even every month. Bah! I got lost in the process again. This time the process was importing all my CDs into my computer so that I can listen to them via Sonos. From Thursday afternoon to this Saturday afternoon I imported 117 albums (1,476 songs). Whew! Sounds like a crazy amount, doesn’t it? (No, I didn’t have to count them, iTunes gave me those numbers.) There were probably 3 dozen CDs I never listened to and didn’t import, but I couldn’t not import any of the others. When I got near the end I got a little scared — how much room was this taking up on my computer? As it turns out, only about 11GB of my 250GB space. My photos take up 48GB. I really need to spend time cleaning them out…I have multiple copies of many images, and sure don’t need to save them. But not today. I’ll get lost in that process some other time. I need to get back to the loom. I haven’t been able to weave as much as I’d like over the past 2 days, partly due to all that importing, partly because Jack has needed to sit close to me, which often meant under the loom, so moving jacks (part of the loom that goes up & down) were dangerous to canine Jack. Why did Jack need to be close? I had roofers here for those 2 days plus a bit more. It was simply time to replace the roof. I gave MUCH thought to both the contractor I’d use and the color of the shingles. In the end, I am VERY happy with both my decisions. I absolutely recommend 5 Star Home Improvements to anyone in the Rochester region. The roofing crew was not only very good at their jobs, they were polite, professional, and personable. So here’s a before photo, with the roof pretty uniformly gray.
And an after with several colors (the photo of my crabtree shows the colors better).
My house is such an odd shade of green that I didn’t like how much other than black looked with it. In the end I chose the somewhat uncommon Aged Copper shingle color. Grays, browns, and greens interplay across the roof, and all colors are just right for my pea-soup-green siding. I also managed to get two decent garden shots before the rain started.  my crab’s maiden year  parrot & angelique tulips Back to Jack briefly – my dog, not my loom parts. Having roofers at my house for a few days was a good thing for Jack. The first afternoon that they were here working Jack was very upset. Lots of barking and hiding. On day 2 (a full day) I could easily quiet him, minimal barking with his tail wagging as he vocalized. On day 3 (morning only) he was pretty calm. Still needed to bark a bit, but could also sleep. Although he didn’t want to get close to any of them, he learned that, as I told him repeatedly, it was loud and annoying but not scary or hurtful. Wish he’d translate this learning to other situations, but I think Jack approaches every situation fresh. He didn’t get used to my friend’s husband for the 5 days we were at their house on my mini-vacation. Sigh. Jack is who he is, just as I am who I am. We deal with each other and the world as best we can. The good news is that the golden paste, maybe in combination with the reiki, seems to be working. This morning Jack demanded that we walk around 2 blocks instead of just one. Parting shot: I can now hang my clothes out! I’m happy with my Minky retractable clothesline; I got the double one.
I’ve been working on a variety of fronts. Although I don’t have any good pics at the moment, I’ve made plenty of progress in my new gardens. In addition to raiding my daughter’s garden I found two local people with perennial gardens they were dividing, and got lots of things: crocus, English primrose, hosta, lady fern, bleeding heart, echinacea, perennial forget-me-not, and more; even some clematis. My crabtree is doing its maiden flowering, and my tulips look very pretty. I’ll try to get pics of it all soon. Meanwhile I have taken pictures of some of the beautiful flowering trees I see on my walks.
I ordered some cotton rep filler, and when it came couldn’t wait to get started on a new set of mug rugs for my booth; I haven’t had any in a few years.
The warp only gave me 5 mug rugs instead of the 8 I’d planned, so I quickly warped up a second length and did 5 more.
Here are both sets finished. Sooooo much nicer than my first attempt at rep weave. Although I’m quite pleased with them, we’ll see if they sell.
Next I decided what to do with another hand painted warp. This time I went back to my first dye class and am using a rayon warp and weft. I’ve always been intrigued by braided twills, and this one is different – and better – than a draft I used before. This one is from Carol Strickler’s 8-Shaft Pattern Book, #381-4.
The treadling looks more complex than it is. However, I’ve learned something new in the weaving of this scarf. I have to back up a bit to tell the story…. When I moved into my new home I got a belated birthday present from my daughter and her hubby: a new Sonos system. I love it and use it all the time to listen to NPR and podcasts. But my old Mac was too old and couldn’t speak to the Sonos so I couldn’t listen to my music on it. And I didn’t really have the space to set up my old system: receiver, CD player, tape deck, and big speakers. So it all went up to the attic till I got a new computer. I did that about a month ago when I got my income tax return. But when I sat down to load my music into the new computer, lo, a CD drive is no longer standard, and I hadn’t paid attention and asked for one. My high tech son-in-law came through once again, lending me his external CD drive. It sat on my kitchen table for at least 2 weeks before I plugged it in and got to work. (The impetus to begin will be revealed in another post. Are you curious now?) The process is SOOOOO easy. And fast. I’ve gotten through several dozen discs yesterday and today. I must say I’m LOVING listening to my music again! I’d forgotten how much I like my music! So what’s this have to do with weaving? Well, I can’t sing along to my favorite tunes and simultaneously pay attention to what my feet are doing. 🙂 I’ve had to do a fair amount of unweaving. Fortunately I’ve caught the mistakes after a maximum of 6-8 pics each time, but still. I’ll have to figure out a reasonable balance between music and treadling: how complex can the treadling be if I want to sing along?
I haven’t done a giveaway in a long time. I intended to do so for my blogaversary in March, but somehow the time got away from me. So in honor of springtime, motherhood, and joy, I’m giving away this newly-woven rainbow towel. The towel, a bit oddly shaped at 15″ wide and 30″ long, is woven from 12 colors of cotton. It should serve well as a kitchen towel for drying dishes or hands, or wrapping up yummy warm rolls. Or use it on the table for a small but happy runner. Or find another creative use for it. So how can you win this towel? Simply leave a comment on this post. I’ll put all the names of the commenters in a hat and pull one out at random on Wednesday, May 25. Good luck! |
 |
|||||
|
Copyright © 2025 Weaving A Gem Of A Life - All Rights Reserved Powered by WordPress & Atahualpa |
||||||
