June 29, 2009
Jim Bowie Days
This weekend we went to the Jim Bowie Days festival... was fun... Friday night, I sat down to read the shopper & was reading about the upcoming Quilt show on Saturday... Friday night. It mentioned needlework categories and one of them was knitting... panic was beginning to set in... KNITTING?? ARGH, it's too late to CALL them about it... do I have anything finished? The bookmarks, yeah, I'll block them & then in the morning I'll pick up some needlepoint needles to tuck in the ends...
By 9:30, we were at the quilt show and they were thrilled to have another entry & they gave me my own category: Lace Knitting... very cool...they were cool about my having to tuck the ends in & mount the pieces, especially since I said I found out about the event at 11pm the night before... here are the bookmarks:
I also won a tshirt from KNTX radio (spun the roulette wheel & got an even number, 40)... also someone was giving out mouse pads & yesterday one of them was screaming at me to decorate it with sharpie markers... so I did... fun. Will get pics of that another time...
Today we were supposed to go & pick up some building materials, but when we walked out the door a little after 8, it looked like someone was pouring buckets out from the sky... so we'll have to go another time...
June 23, 2009
A blank page full of photos & a Contest!
Last night Gary helped me make a Low-D water pipe whistle & it came out decent. I figure I'll need to get comfortable with it since it's more of a stretch than a smaller whistle...
Here it is next to the smaller, higher pitched whistle modelled by Jellybean & Sonic:
Here's a closeup of the mouthpieces:
The Low D mouthpiece still needs a little work to make it look better, but it works...
The Low D was made from a 3/4" hot-cold water CPVC pipe and the Soprano D was made from a 1/2" CPVC pipe... the wooden fipple was poplar dowel... had to sand them down to make them fit in the hole...
Got all the materials from Lowes.. including the following tool:
Also used a hacksaw, sandpaper, metal file, measuring tape, ruler, marker, pencil & a pocketknife...borrowed Gary's for the initial hole cuts & then used a smaller one to carve out the holes...
Tapestry Weaving
May be able to do a bit of tapestry! Got this wonderful beater in the mail yesterday:
Sorry about the blurry photo: I probably should have gotten someone else to hold the camera as it's not easy to hold something in one hand while photographing it with the other!
Just need to wind up some of the Briggs & Little Regal yarn so that I have colors... will do something like this for the first piece that I do:
Then I'll do some other stuff, maybe cats, or some other ideas I have...!
For the warp, I'm using Briggs & Little Durasport. Wish they had a finer 2 ply with nylon... guess I'll get some Navajo warp, I liked it!
CONTEST!!
A few days ago we had this for dinner:
It was yummy... it's gone now! Can you guess what it is? email me with your answer ... winner gets a copy of one of the Cottage Creations patterns in stock, my choice! If a lot of people get it right, I'll use one of those random drawing thingies to pick a winner!
Gonna keep comments closed until the contest is over (Tuesday June 30th at noon CST)...
And heeeere's Toph & Puzzler modelling their wonderful collars made by Sew Crazy Dog Lady They are VERY well made!
Here's Jellybean relaxing on Gary's keyboard:
I feel a nap coming on....
June 16, 2009
Promised Photos
Here is a photo of the tapestry loom I made... I put a warp on it & was going to weave a bit more than what is shown when I realized I don't have a beater.. might have one in storage, but I'd like to try out some new ones!
Here are my socks in progress:
2 socks on a 40" circular needle... I tried 47" but that gets a bit unwieldy, so I got a 40 and I like it...
Here's a closeup. I think the pattern is lost on this color yarn, but I want to do something interesting besides just knit until the cows come home (or until I get to the heel, which I'm guessing is roughly another 20 rounds), so I'm doing the Knitty Spring Fling stitch pattern on these socks:
I used a coat hanger for a "sock blocker" here to show the stitch pattern... it's a bit bendy...
More another time! :)
June 15, 2009
Wild Moth about a month ago
We had a wild moth (I think it's a wild silk moth?) here about a month ago:
I remembered this when I saw a moth posted on this blog Not sure if it's the same type of moth or not, but they're sure pretty...
BUT STAY AWAY FROM MY YARN & FIBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gonna go take some photos of the loom, socks in progress, etc., for my next entry....
PVC pipe loom
So yesterday I picked up some PVC pipe to make a small tapestry weaving loom or 2, threaded rods for it... I made the loom with Gary & Micah's help... Gary & Micah cut the PVC pipe and Gary cut the threaded rod & I assembled the loom. It's the size of a legal pad (but thicker)... we'll see if I like that size. I'm thinking: wider & shorter... whatever would give me good postcard/ACEO card sizes... photos another time as I'm getting pretty sleepy.
Will eventually make some looms in copper, but am using the PVC pupe as prototypes to see what sizes I like. I do miss the looms Gary built as Tornadowood prototypes, but we still have the jigs, so that is good... if we ever replace the tools or borrow someone's woodshop, I may have more... but the Tornadowood looms don't hold the warp as tightly as the copper looms will.. but I still loved weaving on Gary's looms...
Looks like I may be looking for a new tapestry beater. I may still have one in storage by Snipes.. I had 2: one was a little narrower than the other, 4 or 5 tines vs 7... both are great for the small size I work with. I've been googling & Finniwig is one possibility or Crafts by Patricia... or maybe another Snipes. I did email the gal who I bought my Hagen Tapestry loom from in 2005: she sent along a small but WONDERFUL tapestry beater & maybe she knows where I can get another similar one... also I emailed a couple of other woodworkers I know...
Also I'll want to come up with some new yarns that i'll like for tapestry. I'm thinking that I liked the stuff that Brown Sheep had for needlepoint... hmm... will play with the Briggs & Little Regal that I have for now, plus I DID see some needlepoint (wool/tapestry) yarn in storage, so may use it for stuff... (but I'm wondering what on EARTh possessed me NOT to get the Yellow & light green Regal colors. Who knows!
Music/Pennywhistles
I also bought some PVC pipe to make pennywhistles, as well as tools, etc., to make them. The CPVC pipes I got for whistles is actually hot/cold water pipes & have thinner walls than regular PVC pipe. Next time I go to Lowes, I'll see if they have electric conduit pipe. Also got some dowels to use for the mouthpiece. Am probably going to follow these instructions to make the PVC pipe whistles. His low D whistle sounds pretty good... just listen to the clips near the bottom of that page.
Home stuff
We're still trying to figure things out... need to finish up the loan application & also see what options there are for rebuilding or relocating... I'd love to be able to live closer to my family, but the east coast is ridiculously expensive as far as land values go... we'll have to see about job prospects up there, or/and the possibility of opening up a yarn shop...