Yes, there has been a spate of handiness that sort of absorbed my last week of freedom before starting work. Which was pushed back a week, but no worries. I've already mentioned that I made a raddle and my own warping board. Well, I now am also the proud owner of a table loom floor stand with treadles, which effectively makes my table loom a floor loom. Have a look-see:
Of course, after getting that done, I just had to start weaving with it. Unfortunately I finished the bobbin pretty quickly. I had modified a power drill to serve as a bobbin winder since winding lace by hand is a pain. The problem is that constant running of the drill burns out the motor and requires a bit of power.
Since I'd switched to a cordless drill (not pictured), the batteries kept running out and the motor put out funny smells. So I caved and started thinking about buying a bobbin winder. I looked around at the one from Woolhouse Tools and considered buying a Schacht one from Felicia, but while trying to decide I noticed that a bobbin winder is really just four main pieces: clamp, base, disk and a spindly stick. So I thought I'd try making one. This is what I came up with:
It's sort of cobbled together from leftover pieces from making the loom stand. The wood is scrap from the frame, the wheels and little spools used to hold the top stick and as a handle were rejected, also from the loom stand. The large circle/disk was something I'd made in anticipation of making a book charka (abandoned because seriously, when am I going to spin cotton?). It works quite well, except for the fact that I can't drill straight and therefore the large disk is wobbly because the hole through it is not straight. Just a minor problem. This thing cost me less than $10 and works perfectly well. A bobbin winder is about $100.
Next purchases for the loom will be a new reed, either 8 or 10 dent, cords to tie the treadles up better, and proper pins to hold the tie up. Right now I'm just using leftover bolts. And I need an open bottomed boat shuttle. Even I'm not nuts enough to try and make one of those.
- Mood:
amused
I took a three day trip up to visit Gwil in Armstrong, driving up on Monday, April 6, and driving back down on Wednesday, April 8. Gwil and I managed to fit in some koolaid dyeing in between me going to Salmon Arm for a job interview and walking the dog and shopping for really good food in Armstrong. We dyed some corriedale in gorgeous shades of purple and some silk and lambswool in funky, bright reds and greens.
Funniest thing to happen? Getting a call from my now employer, who I'd interviewed with on Saturday, while I was driving the Coquihalla back down to Vancouver. Yes, I have accepted a job in Vancouver with a nice firm (at least I hope it's nice and that's my current impression) with an office in the West End and an office in Sinclair Centre. First time I've had to say: "I'm not really able to talk, going 110 km/hr on a mountain highway."
After coming back down, I got to participate in a colour class put on by Felicia Lo of SweetGeorgia on Saturday. It was amazing. We got to experiment with different plying (first time I've been able to najavo ply and preserve my colour changes!), combination drafting (which I no longer hate), drum carding and fractal spinning. I loved it. My spinning is largely self-taught, so I've never sat in a room full of people spinning and participated. Felicia is a great teacher, so if you ever have the chance to learn from her, go for it! I am definitely anticipating taking a natural dyeing class with her, as soon as my schedule allows.She's posted pictures on her flickr here. Great aerial shots of drum carders.
Was dead tired afterwards, but still drove out to Maple Ridge to eat dinner at Martin's. We also watched Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Slumdog Millionaire. Both are very good movies; both contain very gross scenes.
Since then I've been frantically weaving at Felicia's because the aforementioned job starts next week. I had an extra long warp on the loom so that I could weave two scarves while warping only once. The first scarf is for me. It's a gorgeous blue uneven spun silk weft, woven plain weave with the absolutely gorgeous handpainted (by Felicia) magenta, purple and pale violet spun silk warp (both of these are pictured in my last post). Felicia took pictures of that too.
The warp chain.
In the raddle, getting ready to warp.
Still on the loom.
Off the loom and washed.
You can see in the picture that the scarf has this gorgeous uneven quality to it because the weft itself is spun tight in some places and loose in others. Sort of hides my uneven beating. I love the scarf, despite my whining about hating plain weave. It's so soft and drapey and has the characteristic silk sheen.
After that was done, Felicia suggested that I use a gorgeous skein of CashSilk lace as weft for the second scarf. I had been considering using a bamboo/silk weft, but that yarn is so fine, I doubt I'd ever finish the scarf. Well, the cashmere silk weft is absolutely to die for.
Just amazing...
I've worked as hard as possible for some semblance of even beating and it's paying off. I threaded the warp in a way that, with the correct treadling pattern, comes up with these cute little diamond shapes. It's so engaging, if a little dizzying when I'm weaving. I can't wait to finish it and fondle it. I'm already planning the next three in a similar style. She has some other pics from the weaving studio class here.
Unfortunately, I think this will be my last scarf woven at Felicia's studio. I can't make it there during the week any more, since I'll be working, and she won't be open in the evenings or the weekends. I might be able to pop in after work, but that will likely just be me making unwise but utterly stunning purchases.
- Location:home
- Mood:
sighing - Music:Chicago at Calgary: Game 3, Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 1
What brings this on? Weaving in plain weave. I'm doing a scarf in plain weave with handpainted silk as the warp and semi solid silk as the weft.
The blue stuff on the left is the weft. The handpainted purple in the middle is the warp.
This scarf has managed to fairly piss me off. The selvages are horrible and my beating is very uneven. The result is a very uneven fabric which I could fall in love with, but judgment is delayed until I've cut it off the loom and washed it. My hopes are not particularly high...
The purple skeins on the right of the photo are going to be woven in rosepath, which is a type of twill draw with some complicated treadling (what determines which threads are lifted and which are not) that I'm not 100% sure on. Oh well, I'll have to figure it out as I go along.
The other thing that has brought this on is that I'm weaving a scarf for Jie at home on the table loom.
Behold, the table loom in its glory.
The gorgeous twill pattern. White cotton header sort of woven in pattern. Hemstitched!
I am smitten with this scarf. I took a bit of a risk with this because the warp (the stuff going up/down) is handpainted and the weft (the stuff going left/right) is also handpainted. There can be some serious pooling with that combination, but so far the pooling seems to have gone in my favour. The zigs and zags are so mesmerizing. The two strings on the side hanging on by paper clips are my makeshift temple, used to stretch the edge of the warp and hopefully aid in better selvages. I suppose I should also say that I used fibernatura yummy for the warp and malabrigo lace, handdyed by me, for the weft. It's a soft and luxurious piece of cloth, even on the loom and before washing.
I can't seem to stop weaving on this. Or fondling it when I'm not weaving. Oh, and the thing on the top of the loom is my very own homemade raddle. Because of the way the loom is designed, the top of the loom is held in place by pins that stick out the top. I drilled two holes in the bottom of my raddle and now it attaches to the top of the loom with no problem. No need for clamps. Yay!
- Location:home
- Music:John Barrowman - Feelin' Good
I have spent the past three days warping the loom in preparation for making a mohair scarf. I fully admit that I will likely never wear the thing because mohair makes me itchy, but I became enamoured of the idea after seeing sweetgeorgia's mohair scarf in the studio. I kettle dyed a large skein of mohair with a nylon core and chose a bit of handspun for warp, since Felicia keeps dropping hints that I should use all of this handspun that I have hoarded. I chose a ball of twisted merino/tencel in the colourway Agnes that I spun up in a three-ply. Therein the problems began. First, I didn't have enough yardage in the yarn. To solve that, I added in some handspun Fleece Artist in the pastel colourway wildflowers. Second, I warped the thing onto the tableloom, but as I was doing so, I began doubting the sett (12 epi) since the threads seemed to be squishing together in the reed. But I soldiered on and got the thing tied up. Then I looked in the Weaver's Handbook and realized that my sett was very much too high. For a plain weave piece, which is what I was aiming for, the sett should have been closer to 6 epi. Sigh, weaving inexperience rears its ugly head. My (too packed) warp looked like this:
Pretty, but a pain in the arse to weave. I tried everything. Thinner weft, thicker weft, twill, plain weave, pebble weave. The only thing that looked halfway decent was basket weave. I hate basket weave. So no.
The solution? Decrease the sett. How you ask? Well I sure wasn't going to unwind the whole warp off the back beam (yeah, I'm lazy). So I did this:
That is 1/2 of the warp threads cut off the front. Amazingly effective, but leaves a mess of yarn in the back. I'm hoping to salvage it for tie-up yarn for use later. This new, improved roomy warp yields, with mohair:
Exactly what I was looking for. Now if only I could have gotten there without the idiocy that preceded it.
To assuage my idiocy, I started a nice, easy knitting project:
Swatching for the baby bolero from One Skein. Everyone is having babies, so I'm getting cracking on the knitting.
- Mood:
annoyed - Music:Wong Faye - The Last Blossom
On the job front, just last week I took a written test and went through a panel interview for a job with the Public Trustee's office. I don't hold any high hopes, but it was a good learning experience. I have to admit that I have never been so nervous about an interview before in my life.
My phatfiber box arrived last week too.
So full of gorgeous things.
Watching Man vs. Wild. Bear Grylls has a nice accent. And it's useful to know things like how to climb a tree using your shoelaces. These types of shows are quite interesting, if a little frightening. I mean, knowing the things you can get bitten by is very disturbing. But I think I need to learn about survival in the north, if only because it's always a possibility that one day the boat could break down out in the middle of nowhere and we'd have to know how to start a fire. We'd eat fish, but I'd prefer it to be hot. No sashimi in the wild for me. At least there aren't alligators, sharks, rays, hippos or other huge maiming creatures up here. Only bears. Ooh, he just flashed arse.
I'm trying to do some more regular dyeing. It's not really working. I recently packed up my steaming apparatus (the steamer pot and portable plug-in range top) and stole a page from Kirsten and Felicia's techniques. I got a turkey roaster on sale, since I couldn't find a used one at Value Village, and experimented with different baking trays to hold the yarn and fibre while heating. I've been able to increase my one time dye output to about two lbs. Not a lot, but sufficient for now. The problem is finding the time to actually dye things. After soaking, painting, baking and cool down, it takes three to four hours to dye. Not counting rinsing and drying. Hard to get that much time uninterrupted with my parents always milling about. Need to figure something else out. Getting rid of the parents would be nice, but then who would I make cake for?
- Location:home
- Mood:
giggly
Sometimes in spinning you run into neat coincidences that make things all that much better. Back in June of last year, I went to Calgary and bought some BFL in a lovely natural shade of brown at Shuttleworks. I spun it up into a three ply, with some bits of yellow silk carded into one of the plies. I ended up with two skeins of yarn. Not enough to knit something large. I'd been saving it for something suitable, but nothing has come up yet.
Two weeks ago I started looking through my box of handspun yarn with a mind to see what could be knit into a pair of mitts for my aunt's birthday. I have a neat little pile, mostly my own handspun, but some from yummyyarn and one skein of laceweight from funky carolina. I ended up not finding anything for my aunt, but I did manged to notice this:
Those two brown skeins match wonderfully with another skein of three ply that I spun up from fibre from yummyyarn. It really looks good together. Yet I had absolutely no intention of that happening.
I suppose that now I need to figure out what to make with 350 grams of light worsted weight three ply.
- Location:home
- Mood:
sick
All I can think is: Whuhuh?
Kristin Kreuk left Smallville to do that? I mean, okay, the writing is probably about the same quality (the mid-season opener was absolute crap) and not that I like her particularly much as an actress, but STREET FIGHTER? I guess Neal McDonough is a plus, but it's Street Fighter...
- Mood:
befuzzled
This being the south coast of British Columbia, the only part of the country where people are totally clueless about winter driving, of course the other driver didn't do that. He tried to pull to the side of the street to let us pass as if there were no snow. Of course he got stuck.
There was a lady who had been shovelling snow nearby, and she tried to help out. She had no idea that this stuck dude had a rear wheel drive car. Meanwhile, a few cars were having fun behind this dude trying to figure out a different way to get around.
My dad had the foresight to bring a shovel with us, but as he'd managed to whinge his back shovelling the walk (don't ask), we sent my brother out to try to dig this guy out. My brother has no idea how to get other people unstuck from the snow. He's okay with his own car, but his is a front wheel drive. Not helpful for the stuck dude. After listening to my parents grumble about the situation for a few minutes, I got out of the car and go to help. I had no shovel, but whatever. A number of other people had, nicely, come out of their houses to help. Somehow, everyone decided to push the guy further into a snow drift. Then one of the people behind him decided to try driving through. The short of it is, the impatient guy had to go around my parents in their car and he became impatient stuck guy. My parents got past the intersection and both stuck cars with no problem, and then my dad tried to get out of the car and help. I yelled because I do not want to be around my dad when he has a bad back. My yelling resulted in my parents driving off, leaving my brother and me there to help dig out the stuck dude and the impatient stuck guy.
We got the impatient guy out first because: a) his car is lighter; b) he had a better idea of what he was doing; c) he wasn't stuck quite as badly as the other guy; and d) he had a front wheel drive car. There was a lot of pushing and I pulled a groin muscle.
Then came the debacle of getting the first guy out. He was wedged pretty good, but by this time all of the other cars had cleared out. We dug out his back wheels, and I was saying that he should back out, but he wanted to go forward. So he tried, failed horribly, and then someone else noticed that he had rear wheel drive and began pushing his car backwards instead. Finally got him out.
So my brother and I trudged the six blocks through the snow back to our house. People do not shovel their walks consistently, so it took us a bit to get home. We're almost at the front door and my parents stick their heads out and point at the side street.
Our neighbour's daughter had gotten stuck in the snow 10 metres away from her house.
We went to dig her out, but as we were puzzling out the best way to do it, two other cars got stuck a few feet away. Sigh.
We eventually got them all out, but not before our neighbour berated his daughter quite soundly for getting stuck and not before a few people fell over trying to push one of the other cars.
Anyways, I've dug the cars of complete strangers out of snowdrifts. I feel suitably Canadian now.
Gwil opened her present, so I guess I can post this:
Mitts for Gwil, handspun soysilk/merino from yummyyarn , my own pattern. Something weird happened with the decreases at the top, but all in all, not bad for a totally improvised pattern. She says they fit. I hope she's not just trying to be nice.
I also did some dyeing just before Christmas.
The colour is a bit pale in the photo, but the real thing reminds me of bubblegum that I used to get as a kid. You know, when they stuck to strawberry, grape and orange?
Mmmmm, purpley teal...
This one, for some reason, reminds me of Christmas ornaments. No idea why.
I'm going to put them up for sale on etsy, mostly because I've got tons of superwash merino (the first two) dyed by other people that's in my spinning queue, and because I'm not he biggest fan of spinning merino/silk blends (the last one) while I've got dry and cracked "winter hands".
Final picture:
The view from my living room window on Christmas Eve.
- Location:home
- Mood:
exhausted - Music:Neverwinter Nights 2, Storm of Zehir Theme
It's been a good two weeks. The boat went back into the water last weekend, which was way faster than we anticipated. Still some electrical work to be done, as the horn doesn't work.
It's really cold here. Well, for Vancouver. About ten degrees below seasonal. It's also snowed, which is pretty sweet because it will hopefully be a white Christmas. Bad thing is that the roads (and the drivers) are all messed up. I did shovel the walk, which is why my back hurts a bit.
I spun up some wondrous sweetgeorgia merino/bamboo/nylon fibre.
This stuff is heavenly. I can't stop fondling it. Immediately went and bought more from her and braved the icy streets to pick it all up. So soft, so shiny.
I also knit a few presents. Can't post Gwil's yet, but here is the one I knit for Charlie.
Cute elephante.
- Mood:
tired
We brought the boat up out of the water into dry dock on Monday. Drove it around to the sling and watched as it was pulled up and out of the water. A very fun sight. 
The boat, docked in our mooring space. We drove it round to the part of the dock set aside for lifting boats out.
Where the man had the sling machine waiting. Here he is pushing the boat towards the sling so he can pull it up.
The boat out of the water. Lots of barnacles and sea grass growing on the bottom. The entire bottom was black with white spots. Pretty gross. The man took it over to the power wash and blasted the bottom with high pressure water.
The bottom after power washing. Still not shiny, but a sight better than before. The boat is now going to be painted with a type of poisonous paint that will stop ocean bitties from growing down there. Then the engine is going to be checked over because we've noticed oil and gas escaping from the back when we turn the thing on. Maybe the cover over the boat will be changed too. How long it will take will depend on the weather. So no fishing for a bit.
Since I can't resist quiz thingies:
What is says about you: You are a creative person. You appreciate friends who get along with one another. You are patient and will keep trying to understand something until you've mastered it. You share hobbies with friends and like trying to fit into their routines.
Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.
I got a carding related injury. Slapped my right hand against the carding cloth and injured my middle finger on the right hand. Stings. Also makes it hard to make any pastries that require me to mix with my hands.
So, this political circus is getting interesting. My opinion is that anything that gets rid of the lying morons in power now is a good thing. If you have an economic plan and people are freaking out every where, outline the damn plan and allay fears. Don't flip-flop and say that we're okay one day, then stand up in front of the international community and tell them we need deficits the next day. I mean, either Harper doesn't have a plan, or it's not a very good plan, or he really means that Canada is better than everyone else and all the other countries need deficits and we don't. First and second options don't seem too good for him and his party to say and the third option isn't very Canadian. Why else would they do this stupid crap?
- Location:home
- Mood:
frustrated
I hate continental style knitting.
- Mood: frustrated
On a less fangirl crazy front, Gwil left. We went to Coquitlam to shop on Tuesday. I bought some clothes from H&M. There were these great pants that I didn't get though and a nice sweater dress that I wanted, but it itched, so no. Gwil got a skirt and... an MP3 player. Reddish pink. We then got to go to Toshi's on Wednesday. The food was so good. That eggplant is amazing. So is the sushi. I'm still drooling over the thought of it. She left on Thursday. Before going to the airport, we went to White Spot. They changed their menu a little, so I had french toast instead of the intended waffles. That was probably the most filling french toast I've ever had in my life, including the ones at IHOP. HUGE PLATE OF FRENCH TOAST! With tons of strawberries on top! And whipped cream!
I've got two boxes of yarn/fibre packed up behind me. One is to send out to the US to sell on consignment, the other is to list on Etsy. If I can ever get around to it. Should get cracking on the pictures and listing. Sigh. Etsy needs to come up with an easier interface. Darn that back button.
- Location:home
- Mood:
blah
Gwil is here! I picked her up from the airport on Saturday. Because I'd already been to sweetgeorgia's studio, and because Gwil is a good sport but not mad enough to want to watch me go nuts over fibre, we went shopping instead of going to the grand opening. Didn't manage to buy anything at the mall, but had a pretty good time. We ate lunch out of coconuts. Well, a coconut. Finding parking was a nightmare though.
- Mood: amused
Well, now Gears of War 2 is out and, while I'm not jumping for the game like I am for Fallout 3 or for the new Neverwinter Nights 2 Expansion (3D Worldmap!), I am again struck by the song they've used to promote the game. While not as recognizable as Fallout's catch phrase, using How It Ends by DeVotchKa seems to be a good move. Whatever problems Microsoft has with Windows, they are marketing the Xbox and its games very much better than the Playstation 3 (Wii seems to be a different market, so I guess you really can't compare). I really don't need another game system, but if I did, I'd get the Xbox. So I can play Fable 2. But I'm already a Wii supporter.
I am seriously behind with the Christmas knitting. But, MY TORCHWOOD DVDs ARRIVED TODAY! Some serious knitting will be done while watching them. After Gwil visits, of course.
- Mood:
itchy
I did, hopefully, manage to make myself useful and messily mixed some dye stock for her. Got some dye on the back porch, but manged to walk away with relatively spot free clothing. Her respirator mask is wicked. Very Doctor Who.
On a more depressing level, Nortel hit $1.08 today. My parents own Nortel shares. I've always joked that My brother and I will inherit Nortel shares, seeing as that will likely be the amount of time it will take for them to gain any value again. It seems that's in danger of not happening as the stock may disappear completely.
- Mood:
sleepy
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sanginmychains can attest to this phenomenon and its effect on me considering that she's been around to witness it while I fondle fibre and handspun in front of her. In short yarn + me = "d'uuuuuhh"This morning I went to pick my order from Felicia Lo of Sweetgeorgia. Her studio is amazing. The building is quite nice, with a little courtyard. It's a loft apartment with two levels, and she's got her two looms set up. The view is a great panorama of Vancouver and the space is very open and comfortable. It's full of fibre and yarn. I'm giddy just thinking about it. I imposed upon her for about 30 mins, fondling things and ooohing and ahhhing. She must have thought I was nuts. We did get to discuss wheels and weaving. And the dye setup. I managed not to drool on anything.
In other news, if you didn't already know, I quit my job. Since then I've been fishing, sitting at home knitting, and baking, baking, baking. Not really looking that hard for any jobs. I do need to organize the stash. Maybe do some destashing and get rid of some of the yarn that I will never knit. And then get down to dyeing. Yup, that's the plan. Hopefully it'll get done at some point. That or I'll be suffocated under the weight of my stash. Mmmm, what a way to go...
- Location:home
- Mood:
bouncy - Music:Lamb - Gorecki
- Mood: tired
But something about him just doesn't strike me as Prime Minister material. I think it's the English thing. Some of the things he says, when you think about it, are really quite smart. The problem is, you have to think about it. I mean, sometimes he says things in a way that you can't understand it without applying some sort of thought to it. For example, carbon tax. Stephane Dion has greatly said "we will take money away from the big companies," which is all good and fine, but then he goes and says "we will apply it to pollution." By which he means that we will apply it to reducing pollution. But damn, wouldn't it have been more clear if he'd said we'll apply it to the environment? Every time I hear him say it that way, I think he's going to pour money into pollution as in pay people to pollute more. Also, he mumbles a bit. And he strikes me as a bit of an idealist. Not exactly a bad thing, but politics isn't really a place for idealists. Look what happened to Mike Harcourt.
I was watching Rex Murphy too. Yeah, scary. But he was talking about the emergence of Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff as Dion's lieutenants. Or, the real policy makers of the Liberal party. Oddly, it seems like the Liberal Party is subject to a triumverate governing system right now. Which would be fine by me, but apparently federal politics doesn't work that way. I like Bob Rae. Not so big on Ignatieff, but I could swallow that pill, if Rae and Dion were also at the helm. Better than plastic man Harper.
Have to sound in on the US election too. And can I say that American elections are just dumb. I mean, their choices are even more limited than ours! At least we have a sort of choice between plastic Harper, somewhat confused Dion, and hippie Layton (who was my favourite until the whole Green Party/Elizabeth May debate thing). And if we really want to have some fun, we can pick the Greens or the Bloc (only in quebec though. if they were a national party they'd have my support, just to mess with things) or one of the plethora of parties that only seem to pop up during election time. Down in the States, they only have two choices, scary Obama or old man McCain (I like that epithet by the way, it's the spiffiest). Both of them suck. Obama has gaffes that are scarily similar to the Conservative Gaffes up here, and when you actually listen to what he says, it can be weird. I usually try not to listen. And what's with Joe Biden? Did Obama think that it'd be a good idea to shut up nay sayers who say he's too inexperienced by picking a running mate who makes him look younger? McCain is ooooooold. Like seriously. He reminds me of a granddad. Which isn't bad per se, but brings up images of old people in retirement homes. He must be really dedicated to keep running and trying to work when he could just retire comfortably.
I do admire Sarah Palin, however. As odd as it sounds, I think McCain actually picked the person who could sway voters like me towards him the most. I don't agree with most of what she stands for, but you have to admire someone who walks the walk as well as talking the talk. I mean, it would have been all fine and dandy to have her saying that she's against abortion and that people should have their kids no matter what, but this woman is actually taking care of her child with down's syndrome. Gives her a little more credibility than all those preachy dudes who have no kids. I mean, this woman chose to have this kid, even when she knew she was in for a world of hurt, even knowing before hand that this kid would have this disorder, because she wanted to stand by her principles. I don't agree with opposing abortion (or a whole lot of other things she talks about) but I have to respect and admire that choice. Between the two of them, I get the impression that McCain and Palin sort of know what they're talking about, more than Obama and Biden. I mean, McCain was part of one of the most pointless wars ever, but he's still not backing down on Iraq (which wasn't really pointless, but should have been done way before Afghanistan. Human rights before oil or terrorism, damnit!). Or maybe that's me falling to the Republican press machine. *shudders* I can't believe that I'm leaning more towards republican than democratic. Oh well. They all suck anyways. Glad I don't have to vote in that.
- Location:office - bored, hence the rant
- Mood: confused
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