Grilled

The burns are better. Yes, I can knit. The worst of it is an ugly hard white blister at the base of my middle finger and a rough spot below that, but otherwise the rest of the burns are greatly improved and really don't hurt today. I can't get over how weird the skin there feels, though. When I open my hand, the burned areas feel tight and stretched. Strange.

Not much went on around here today. I drove down to the gallery to pick up my piece from the Spring Show, a good hour's drive down then another hour back. The gallery owner showed me an old loom that someone had donated—it's in pieces, and it looks fairly old, but for one missing treadle I think all the parts are there. He said the person who donated it claimed it cost $9,000 originally. Looms are rather expensive, when new or when used but in good condition, but I think that was long ago and far away for this loom.

The gallery owner wants to sell it to whomever will make an offer because nobody at the gallery has any idea how to use it, let alone put it back together. Somehow I managed to leave with my pocketbook intact. Having a car that is too small to hold it helps, too. But it was interesting. I only looked at it briefly but didn't find a brand name. Some of the structural parts are metal but the rest is wood and it looks solid.

I'm half-tempted to make a low-ball offer and bring it home and see what it might be. It could always be auctioned off on eBay. Except I think he thinks he can get some "real money" for it, and honestly? It's in pieces. It has a treadle missing (unless it was in one of the boxes of parts). It may not be repairable. I'd give him $50 for it to take it off his hands. If he wants more, he'll have to find someone to reassemble it and see if it's salvageable.

Hmm. I wonder if he'd take fifty for it?

Like I have room. Or time.

I had a hankering for grilled burgers when I got home and since the store FINALLY restocked the Black N Blue burgers last week, I decided to try my hand at it. I'm proud to announce my virgin foray into the world of grilling was successful. It took three tries before I got the thing lit properly—it kept going out and cooling off so I added more lighter fluid (I know, I know, I was careful) and relit it and on the third try I think I overdid the lighter fluid because it caught, and the flames were a tad higher than I was comfortable with, but they eased off and finally, I had a grill going.

Though I was considering the green bean casserole in honor of Crazy Aunt Purl's cat Roy, the call of the grill was too loud. The casserole will have to wait. Instead, I had a Corona for Laurie and a yummy BnB burger with grilled onions, green & red pepper strips, and grilled corn on the cob.

I'm so proud of myself. Hey, Dad, I did it. I grilled burgers on your grill. All by myself.

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Labels: injuries, loom, nothing important

posted by Jeanne @ 12:36 AM 3 comments

I Won the Yarn Wars

It took two days of detangling, but I WON.

These are my mini-cakes of self-patterning sock yarn that I dyed in the workshop two weekends ago. The color motif is turquoise with white flecks to teal green/emerald to chartreuse to violet. This was taken at night; the flash makes the chartreuse look more yellow than it actually is. The base was Gems Pearl (or Opal—what's the dif again?). As always, click if you want a close-up.



And since I'm all photo-happy and the room is as clean as it may ever be, I present you with my beloved corner desk, revived, resuscitated, and reinvigorated:


The view from my desk (this is my creative studio, I guess, because it contains my graphics studio, my loom, my sewing stuff, and is where I'll do most of my designing):


Finally, the Stash Closet:


About the closet. It runs the full length of that wall (basically to the edges of the photo). There are huge tubs hidden behind the walls that the sides of the bookcases are up against. You can just barely see the ones to the left. There is another whole set of them on the right and yes, they all graze the lower shelf.

But there is still a little room for more... muwahahahaaaaa!

Bookcase to the left: all knitting, weaving, sewing, fibers-related books. Bookcase to the right: all designing books (software manuals, How-To's, design concept books).

I love books. I love yarn. I have more books. They are in one case and two towers in another room. I need a library.

Well, tomorrow is my birthday. I'll be 29 again for the 15th time.

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Labels: dyeing, loom, sewing, stash enhancement, workshops

posted by Jeanne @ 10:25 PM 4 comments

I Broked It

My commitment to Knit From Your Stash 2007, that is.

OK, maybe I really didn't break the commitment, because the yarn in question will never see a knitting needle (only a loom). It just feels that way.

Yesterday, I went to my LYS. I was on a mission. Mission Accomplished. I returned home with 18 balls of yarn. All of them are different. I spent over $200.

Why would I do this, you ask?

Well... the Black Swamp Market Day is coming up at the end of the month, and my weaver's guild is hosting a booth. I'll be manning the booth with some other members for a few hours, and that means I can sell stuff. Stuff of my own. Woven stuff.

At our last guild meeting, one of the members drooled for the third time over the scarf I'd woven during the two-day weaving workshop I took in October. It's just a simple Basketweave pattern, but I guess my color choices helped. The droolee loves the way they form a sort of checkerboard effect he's never seen before (and he's seen plenty of these scarves, it's the pattern used in every one of the beginning weaving workshops). Well, that got me thinking.

If nobody else is putting together yarn combos this way, and it's striking enough to be droolworthy... maybe I should try a few more, eh? All it takes for a scarf is one skein of Brown Sheep Nature Spun, one ball of GGH Amelie (or similar), and one skein if desired of mohair.*

I'm now armed with enough to make about a dozen scarves. I'll be smart about it, though. There are three warp colors. I'll make two or more scarves per warp (production weaving!). For the Roasted Coffee (brown) warp, I have four or five potential weft combinations in mind. So, I'll warp enough for four or five scarves, then weave one, add some sheeting to separate, weave another, add sheeting, etc. Much faster than warping for each individual scarf.

If it's nice tomorrow, I'll do a photo shoot. I'm pooped now, after spending the day finishing my other mission. Since I'm Master of the house now, it seems fitting (as well as a necessary rite of passage) that I occupy what was my parents' bedroom and move out of my childhood bedroom. After two days of emptying the closet, sorting, organizing, washing the clothes (dust—OMG the dust!), packing them in bins, moving the bins to the storage unit, vacuuming, wiping down the woodwork, and mopping the parquet tiles with a good hot dose of Murphy's... THEN singlehandedly moving the box spring and mattress from my old metal frame to the green French Provincial I inherited from Mother (yes, I moved them All. By. My. Self)... it's official. I've "moved". The last bit of my parents' stuff has been packed away (the noticeable important stuff, that is; the stuff that declared them as "here").

My loom now occupies the spot where I slept for the better part of 35 years. It's behind me right now. My old bedroom becomes my fibers workroom.

There is no guest room. I somehow left out the guest room in favor of a fibers room, a bedroom, and a TV/guitar/knitting hideaway in the 3rd bedroom. Tough on ya, "guests". (Nobody visits anyway except the Phamily. Who knows if they'll visit now that Mom & Dad are gone? Besides, they took all the extra sleeping furniture.)

My Dad was right. Jobs like this go better after a beer (or two). All Hail Corona. I'd forgotten how nice it feels to sit outside on the deck on a warmish spring afternoon with a beer in hand. Oh, I saw one tiny yellow crocus that has bloomed. Spring is finally here.

Well, I'm pooped. Y'all can go ahead and Spring Forward all ya want. Me, I'm going to shower and Fall Back into my "new" bed. G'night!


*Note: these are my personal opinions, not paid-for endorsements. Just so ya know.

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Labels: boring household crap, loom, stash enhancement

posted by Jeanne @ 9:25 PM 3 comments

My 100th Post!

Milestone
I was over on Carson's blog and saw that she'd arrived at her 100th post, which got me thinking: as jabber-jawed as I can be, is it possible that I'm nearing that mark myself? Knitty Banter has only been in existence since September 2006. One hundred posts sounds like a lot, doesn't it?

But to my surprise, my last post was #99. Which means...

THIS IS MY 100th POST!

Anyhoo.

School was back in session Thursday. Every professor is wigged out at being "behind" according to their syllabi. I spent 13 hours total (7 Thursday 6.5 Friday) in the weaving lab catching up on samples and I still have two to do, which doesn't sound like a lot until I explain what they are.

Weaving
All 15 students in the class received a different pattern draft and weaving instructions. We each warped our loom accordingly and wove eight inches of the pattern. Then we wove a shot of—oh crap, what is it called? sheeting?—anyway, to separate my sample from the next girl's. (And the one guy's.) Then we go around and weave eight inches on the next loom, etcetera, until we have completed all 15 patterns. At the end, we'll put our samples into a notebook to have and love forever and ever and ever. *imagine me hugging it to my chest swinging back and forth like a toddler hugging the stuffing out of her bunny*

Mine was Finnish Towel, an overshot pattern. Complex because it incorporates two weft yarns—a thin one like the warp for the tabby shots, and a thicker one for the pattern shots. The way the loom is threaded, I have four out of the six treadles that lift the harnesses that create the pattern, and the other two lift every other strand of warp. I'm not good at explaining it visually yet, but Anne at How the West was Spun has it down. It's complicated because first you weave a shot of tabby, then a shot of pattern, then a shot of tabby, then pattern, etc. You have to stay focused or you get lost fast.

I blew through all but the last three after doing my own; most of that was on Thursday. On Friday after Law and Econ, I braved the 5 below wind chills to walk to the art building with the intention of finishing up the last three.

WRONG.

I chose to do Pile first. Think "carpet". It involves NOT throwing the shuttle back and forth; rather it involves tying individual pieces of yarn in knots in various ways for eight whole inches so they create pile. NEVER AGAIN will I do pile, unless it's a small area for a wall hanging or something. It took me six and a half hours to do one stinkin' sample! ACK! My fingers were aching by the time I left, past 7:00, to run home and change my sweater and baseball hat (one of those showerless days), grab my knitting, and run to meet my friend B for our standing Friday-night personal S&B.

(Interjecting to add that I finished and pulled off the home loom the scarf for the Weaver's Guild Scarf Exchange; all it needs is to have its ends woven in and its fringe knotted, then washing and blocking... but I have until the April meeting to do that. Photos to come.)

Oh. The remaining two samples? One is another overshot (Star of Bethlehem) and the last is a double-weave pickup. That's the one that scares me. Instead of one shed's worth of warp, there are two. I can't begin to explain it. Here are two references if you are interested. One shows examples of doubleweaves; the other is a PDF from the Jan/Feb 2007 Handwoven magazine about designing doubleweaves. It looks complicated–another 7-hour sample, I imagine.

Knitting
Not much knitting got done Friday night. I re-seamed the toe of the first of the belated Xmas socks for Ceramicist Niece for the third time because I realized what I'd done wrong. Again. If you recall, the first time I somehow managed to seam so the toe was running perpendicular to the way the toes go.

The second time, I thought I had it—turned it inside out, did a three-needle bind off. What was I high on? I looked at it Friday night and thought "DOH!" I meant to do Kitchener. Not a bind off. *sigh* Yanked it out, put it back on the needles, and Kitchenered. The sock looks tired. All that surgery.

I tried to start Sock #2 but had a major brain fart—I cast-on just fine, then I could not for the life of me figure out which way was up! How do I join this thing? Where is the incoming yarn supposed to come from—the top? The bottom? The left-hand needle of the triangle or the right? I stared at it for several minutes while B rambled on and finally I just gave up. It occurred to me that it's been about four months since I cast on a sock. Somehow I forgot how to do it.

It came back to me last night and I cast on and knit the ribbing. Silly, silly me. Senior moment and I'm not even 45 yet. What I need to do is set up a mnemonic to remember how it is done. Especially since I've agreed to do some sock test-knitting. *blush* *ahem* Might look a bit foolish having to admit I can knit the sock, I just can't figure out how to cast it on. (I can; I think I was just tired, and distracted by the band playing in the coffeehouse, the kids running around the bookstore, and my friend's ramblings. I need silence to think it through.)

Well, I suppose I should stop procrastinating and get back to the schoolwork I'm obviously trying to avoid. It irks me that I have no true "weekends". I need them to recharge but somehow I always wind up studying. I even studied on the snow days! (That's just wrong.) Yesterday I worked up a PowerPoint presentation for Law for Monday (group thing, this time I have a group that actually works). It took longer than anticipated but it looks great. Today, I have:

1. a brief paper (1-2 pages) for Creativity & Innovation to demonstrate my understanding of a problem-solving technique we learned last week (due Tues)
2. four chapters of Econ to read (likely we'll have another "homework" pop quiz Mon, Exam is Fri)
3. two or three chapters of Law to read for Mon (Exam Weds)
4. two chapters in one book and one in the other for C&I (Tues)
5. it won't happen today, but I really need to get to the surface design lab and do the pole-wrapping portion for the background of my project since we lost Wednesday's work time. That was supposedly due for a half-done critique tomorrow. Not gonna happen. I'll see what I can do during class.
6. a load of laundry (no clean undies for this week!!!! help!!!)
7. a load of dishes (same as #6!)
8. clean the catboxes
9. shower (about time, too)
   

Yeesh. Where does the time go?

PS: I've done really well with Knit From Your Stash. So far, I've only bought three skeins of yarn—two red and black angoras intended for the Red Scarf Project but on ice until next year and one ball of black fuzz for the Weaving Guild scarf. I suppose it takes the edge off having four huge yarn closets to "shop" from in Weaving class, though! Then there is the floss loophole I discovered. If I absolutely must buy something yarn-like, floss IS the way to go.

OK. I'm really really going back to my homework now.

Really.

For sure this time.

Honest.

I mean it.

Bye...

Labels: Christmas knitting, college life, loom, musings

posted by Jeanne @ 2:37 PM 1 comments

Finished Object!

News Flash: I won the lottery.

OK, it was only $3, but hey, it's still a win. I got one number (3) plus the Mega Ball (29) in last night's MegaMillions game. Since I've been hitting at least one number consistently for the past few weeks (winning nothing but a warm fuzzy feeling), I can only assume this is the sign that I'm on the right track... keep playing, and one of these days, I'll hit all five plus the Mega Ball.

Anyway.

The REAL News Flash is:
I have a FINISHED OBJECT of a massive kind.
Feast your eyes on this! (Ignore the black shadow in the corner please)*



If you're interested in seeing the process unfold, I've made a slideshow of the images (embedding it didn't work).

I tried to document as much of it as I could. But as I only had two hands and no helpers, I satisfied myself with photos of the stages, not every bolt. The harnesses with the 800 heddles had to be built from the ground up. They did not come that way. They came in a bundle of 800 heddles (on strings, thank God), steel harness rods, steel harness frames, wooden pieces, screws, screw eyes, etc. The only pre-assembled items were the wheel block and the cloth and warp beams (the rolling ones). Absolutely every piece of this thing was assembled one piece, one screw, one bolt, one nut, one swear word at a time by moi.

Note: Whomever said, "Oh, it'll only take you about four hours to assemble it once you're done sanding and oiling" is WRONG WRONG WRONG. Try four DAYS. I'm pretty sure if it took mere hours for them, it was because (as they conveniently forgot) they had a team of people working on the loom all at once. Assembly line. Yeah.

Was I frustrated at times? You bet.

Do I feel like I got run over by a Mac Truck because my muscles are so sore from sanding, oiling and rubbing a gazillion wooden parts? Yessss... ow.

Was I overcome with the fumes from the mineral spirit/oil solution? ...huh? What? You say sumthin', man?... (Apparently that's an affirmative).

Were there times when I thought perhaps I was in over my head? Sure.

Did I ever think of giving up? Not on your life!!!

Am I prouder than heck of myself for my triumph? You bet!

* Dummy here finally figured out why so many photos have an odd shadow in them. It's because dummy here got her fingers in the way of the flash! AUUGGGHHH!!!

Labels: FOs, loom

posted by Jeanne @ 11:38 PM 1 comments