Weave wise...

It's all happening now. I got my loom's shafts tied up this morning with a little help from the kind folks at Warped Weaver's over on Ravelry. I wasn't sure my tie ups should be made exactly as charted in A Handweaver's Pattern Book or whether they should be inverted. That's because Marguerite Davison's description of the process seems to indicate she was writing about sinking shed looms, whereas my loom produces a rising shed. (I think that's why it's called a "jack" loom.) When I press on a treadle on my loom some threads are lifted up, i.e. a rising shed. On some other types of looms, pressing on a treadle causes some theads to get pulled down, i.e. a sinking shed.

The answer was that I should invert the charts in the book.

So the loom was warped, tensioned and tied up, and I was afraid to start for fear of ruining what looked like a really lovely warp! Ha! I got over my fear quick enough, reminding myself that whatever happened, this piece wasn't going to come out perfect so I might as well jump in. So I did, and learned a few good lessons.

One of the first technical problems to solve was throwing the shuttle. It didn't occur to me that it would require a little bit of practice. My first shot made it half way across the loom. Oh... I guess it requires a little more oomph. Second shot, from the right, was great. Ah, it's the left that needs practice. I've got it down now, but not before tossing the shuttle all the way to the wall a couple times! Whoops... must remember to be poised to catch it at the other end of the warp.

I also learned quickly enough that if I catch the shuttle yarn with my thumb before tossing it across, the yarn doesn't get jerked up against the selvedge. Nice little trick.

I managed to create an impossible tangle after 1" of weaving... I had to laugh about it because it was too ridiculous. Like something from a slapstick movie. Somehow--I'll explain in a moment--the shuttle picked up one of the lower threads in the shed and created a mistake. Well no problem! Just send the shuttle back to where it caught the errant thread, steer it back under and up, check all, and re-shoot. I wasn't aware of the thread exiting the shuttle--it was a bit long and loose, and was lying on the other side of the shuttle, foward of the trouble spot. When I passed the shuttle under the miscreant thread, lower threads on the other side of the shuttle were getting picked up somehow! It took me three manual passes under the lower threads to realize what was happening and by that time I had a mess. Since I was still in the 1" of plain weave header, I snipped the weft and started that line afresh.

How did the thread get picked up? It took a bit more weaving to discover how that happened. When my fell line get's close to the reed the lower threads of the shed are lifted by the front edge of the reed's bottom rail where the shuttle skoots back and forth, making it easy to catch them. It happened more than once, but now that I know what causes it, I ease up a little on the treadle when the fell is close to the reed. Also, I advance the cloth so that it doesn't get too close to the reed.

It's been a fun day, a real blast...

In this picture it looks like the horizontal bars of color are of unequal height but that's an illusion by the closer bar straddling the edge of the cloth beam.

* * *

Yesterday, Riven921 from Ravelry came over and we made soap. It was lovely, and the soap, from what I can discern is coming out very nice (it's not unmolded yet). We then spent almost an hour out back knitting. Thanks Riven921 for the great company and the tasty shortbread! Yum!

Stenciling wise...

Today was the first really free day I've had since my vacation started. I had some students on Monday and Tuesday. My own cello lesson was yesterday. An obligation-free day today and it was good.

I got on the step ladder and cleaned up high in the bird room. They were all pretty darned good about it considering I took down one of their favorite "trees" while I cleaned. Most of them decided to skedaddle to the dining room till I was finished. They kept Peaches company. Poor little thing is in the convalescing cage while it's wing heals.

A few months ago I took a rough piece of plywood and made a cover for the sink which is in their room. I covered the wood with contact paper and it looked great--for about 2 days, after which time the paper became more and more tattered. By the beginning of the week most of the paper was gone leaving little more than shreds. I should have known. Something else to chew!

So today I took the plywood cover out back and primed it, painted it and stenciled it. I finished it with 3 light coats of clear finish which will make it easy to clean...

The blue is the same color as the wall with the stenciled wisteria.

I just about finished warping the loom today. All that remains is checking tension on the threads before tying the finishing knots. I would do it now--after writing this up--only it's probably best to wait til I'm rested and fresh. So sometime tomorrow I will start the actual weaving of my twill sampler (with color experimentation)...


Tomorrow is soap making day. Yippee!

Meeting my goals?...

Coming up on midweek later tomorrow, so how are my objectives faring?

* Make soap... Have a date for Friday with a Ravelry member who will be coming by to watch. One down!

* Make notebooks of the 2 small needlepoints I finished last year... Not yet.

* Work on the rug... I have done some hooking, albeit not much. Some is better than none!

* Get the 10-dent reed in the loom and begin warping it... YES!! Hurray. When the Harrisville New England Shetland arrived I could see that the recommended dpi of 10- 12 would be best, so I have temporarily set the 8 dent reed aside in it's current state of half clean. I sanded the outside edges of the 10 dent reed and placed it in the loom as is. There is not too much rust inside the reeds so I think it will be OK. Should have the warping done by tomorrow. I'm experimenting with color and patterns.

* Give the bird room a deep cleaning, meaning wiping the walls up higher than I can reach standing on the floor... This is slated for tomorrow afternoon after my cello lesson. Today I cleaned the hall and started on the bedroom.

* Crochet edgings on the coasters I knit this winter... Not yet.

* Sew the small sari-silk square into an eye-glass case... Not yet.

Not bad!

Aren't they pretty:

The wing is not broken....

That's a relief. A big relief. When I checked on the bird this morning, I thought perhaps it wasn't broken because it wasn't simply hanging, sagging from her small fragile body. It was held up--more or less awkwardly, certainly betraying that something was quite wrong. But had it been broken I would have expected to see it hanging limply.

I was able to get a 1 pm appointment with the vet. When the doctor first felt around the area, she thought strongly that it was indeed broken. So X-rays were ordered. Two views were ordered, but poor little Peaches got too stressed by the time the first one was done so the vet decided not to take the second. She could see from the first that there was no fracture. Thank heavens! Sigh of relief.

Peaches needs to take Baytril (antibiotic) for 2 weeks and Metacam (painkiller) for 1 week. She does have a nasty bruise. We suspect it is the result of a bird spat. It's her turn in the convalescing cage, but lucky she, I need to administer these meds just once daily. Orally.

Since the weather was warm I decided to take the subway with her. The hospital cage fits perfectly in one of my "green" shopping bags--the one from Planet In Peril. It saved me a bunch of money, and was faster than cabbing it. It was a revelatory trip. Since I wanted her to be as comfortable as possible, my senses--especially hearing--were heightened. I became acutely aware of every sound around us on our journey along sidewalks--some of them bordered by construction--down subway stairs, in stations, along the Avenues. It brought home to me how awfully, terribly noisy this city is. It is really noisy! Loudly noisy. Uncomfortably noisy!

We did hear some pretty bird songs while strolling through McCarren Park so Peaches did get a little of something saner.

The day ends better than it started. Nice.

I started warping the loom this evening.

Good eats... injured bird...

I journeyed across the street this afternoon to visit the farmer's market. With supper in mind, I came home with some camembert cheese, swiss chard, patti-pan squash, zucchini, onion, bread, baby carrots, and peas in the pod. Using eggs from last week's market shopping, I made a puffy omelet. I love this recipe because 1) it's delicious, and 2) it's totally adaptable. It can even be turned into a sweet dish by using fruit and sugar(and sour cream topping!) instead of vegetables.

I have made this with all type of vegetables. If you cannot have green veggies then carrots, cauliflower, tomatoes, yellow squash, etc. can be used instead. I always steam the vegetables instead of saute them, I think they retain more flavor that way. It only takes 5 minutes. While the veggies steam I mix up the batter and put that in the toaster oven. It cooks quickly in the toaster oven--taking only half the time specified in the recipe.

For today's omelet I didn't use any cheese because I didn't have any. Camembert would not have been suitable, but it did make a nice appetizer. I included all the veggies mentioned above and it was very delicious. The swiss chard was extra special and I think I will try to always use some in this omelet. When it came out of the oven I sprinkled a tiny bit of garlic powder and oregano on it, plus salt and pepper.

I got the recipe from a magazine that was published in 2007 called "Prize Winning Recipes"... substitute any vegetables to your heart's desire, ditto the cheese...

Vegetable Oven Pancake

1 teaspoon butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
2 cups fresh broccoli florets
1 cup chopped green pepper
1 cup chopped tomato
1/2 cup chopped red onion
2 tablespoons water
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1-1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

Place butter in a 9-in. pie plate, heat in a 450 degree oven until melted. Carefully tilt pan to coat bottom and sides. In a bowl, beat the flour, eggs, milk and 1/4 teaspoon salt until smooth. Pour into pie plate. Bake for 14-16 minues or until puffed around the edges and golden brown.

Meanwhile, in a skillet, cook the broccoli, green pepper, tomato and onion in water for 8-10 minutes or until crisp-tender; drain well. Add pepper and remaining salt.

Sprinkle 1/2 cup cheese over pancake, top with vegetables and remaining cheese. Bake 3-4 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Cut into four wedges; serve immediately.


* * *

By the time I came upstairs from cello practice, it was already dark outside. The birds don't usually have any problem getting themselves to bed other than apparently not liking to see the day end. They get very chatty--downright noisy--just before dark falls. As I passed through the hall I heard one fly--they do occasionally get spooked--but it's flight ended with a small thud. That means it was on the floor. So I went in and shone the flash light on the wall so it could see. It usually takes at least a minute before they move because their eyes have to get adjusted to the light. Well it fumbled instead. I thought it just needed a little more time but when I shone the light on it I could see it was injured. This is downright unusual. It hurt it's wing just where it connects to the body and there was some blood. I have no idea how this could have happened. First thought is that it had a spat with another bird. They can be quite aggressive with one another at times. At any rate I placed it in a cage where it will be safe, and I suspect a trip to the vet will be on tomorrow's schedule. I hope it's nothing serious.

Wondering...

Yippee!! I start a week of vacation--now.

I am wondering if I will get done as much as I'd like? It's a good question since I like to take things as they come and as the spirit moves me. But, if I keep one eye on my list perhaps I'll...

* Make soap... I'm totally out of all I made last fall.
* Make notebooks of the 2 small needlepoints I finished last year.
* Work on the rug.
* Get the 10-dent reed in the loom and begin warping it.
* Give the bird room a deep cleaning, meaning wiping the walls up higher than I can reach standing on the floor.
* Crochet edgings on the coasters I knit this winter.
* Sew the small sari-silk square into an eye-glass case.

There is little question that I will knit, probably every day, and spin almost as often.

The piano and cello are daily activities that I will have the luxury of taking up at whatever hour suits me (except evenings). On the subject, I've been playing a lot of Debussy lately on the piano. Isn't his music wonderful!? I'm thinking that one of these days I should try to video myself...

The cello--well I'm ecstatic aboout it. My teacher started teaching me vibrato about a month ago and ooh la la, not so easy. But I'm loving it. He has me working on a duet in addition to the Suzuki and scales. The Duet is by Kummer (it's this one: Opus 22). Well now! I don't sound like that yet. For one thing I'm not playing with vibrato even though I've started to do exercises for it. Isn't it pretty? I'm only on the first movement, but it sounds like I'll be on the 2nd movement soon.

I'm quite amazed at how practicing cello has "rehabilitated"--in my own words--large areas of my upper left torso. I have a scar running across my back from spine to underarm, where the surgeon(s) opened me up to operate in round about 1982 (and broke 2 ribs in the process!!).* For some reason I was never given physical therapy after that surgery--maybe they didn't do such things back then? I have no idea. Anyway I can feel much (much) greater mobility in that area after a year and a half of playing cello. And as I've mentioned before, it feels great!

* Long story short: collapsed lung, wouldn't heal itself, vacuum pump didn't work (after being hooked up to it for a week), so surgery was performed to re-attach my lung to the cavitity walls. Ugh. It was very painful when it happened and since it was on my left side I thought I was having a heart attack! Very thankful it wasn't. Other than that it was simply a matter of dealing with being injected, poked, pierced, prodded, sucked of blood every day, hooked up to a vacuum, shaved--how ignomonious (as Mrs. Slocombe would put it), and left to freeze, naked, under a very thin sheet outside the operating room for what seemed like an eternity. But all was well as soon as the magic potions started to creep up my arm and I remember flying from the operating table, literally out the window to embark on what must have been a lovely winged journey--just like a bird. A journey of which I remember nothing until the moments when I was swept up in my sheets, attached to a large scale and hoisted to be weighed. I imagine they wanted to be sure they hadn't left any of their tools inside!

Knit wise.... weave wise... spin wise...

The Gridlock Pillow is going to be on the needles for a while. Added one row today. Better than none! I had to pin it down to get this picture because it curls at the moment:


Excitement, excitement! My order from Harrisville Designs arrived today and the New England Shetland is gorgeous. Since I'm new at multi-shaft weaving, I'm going to probably weave a twill sampler using drafts and treadlings from "A Handweaver's Pattern Book" by Marguerite Porter Davison. I'm very tempted to go with the traditional bird's eye pattern. I'm thinking that if I weave a 24" width, I will end up with a sampler that can be used as a "keep warm" cloth, otherwise known as a shawl.


I spun up a new sample of the blue merino this afternoon to determine drafting and spinning speed in order to match the yarn I spun a month ago. Success! Much better now. The skein of too-thin is already claimed for a new crocheted scarf called "Lacy Gray Alpaca Scarf" which appears in Judith Durant's "Luxury Yarn One-Skein Wonders". Only, mine will be blue.

Found another small army of snails under the bird feeder again this evening. Happy little breeders aren't they!?