A Trip to Town

I had to be in town this morning to get my beautiful new crown - in my mouth. I love my young just-out-of-dental school dentist. The crown snapped on like a Lego and I got to keep the cast. We had talked a little about this technology over the past two visits. I'm fascinated that the technology for making a crown is the traditional lost-wax casting which means dental labs use is the same technology that Rodin used to make his bronze sculptures. I teased them that I now had an expensive classic work of art in my mouth.

Afterwards I drove south of town to the Apple store and talked to a Genius about a Mac Book Pro. I've been saving my shekels for a new computer and I'm quite divided on wanting to switch to Apple or be comfortable with the software I know. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Microsoft Office devotee but I'm desperate for better photo management. Fortunately I don't have enough shekels yet. This sculpture was outside the store and I thought it typified my dilemma. The apple the kids dangle is Apple and I'm the beast - so confused.

I've dressed Miss Millie with a dummy warp and am tying on a secondary warp from my handspun yarns. I've been talking about doing this for years and now I'm doing this - a lap robe from Shetland.

The warp is on the right - Mickey - and the weft is on the left - Robbie. I've threaded in a diamond twill and though the color difference is minimal, I'm just going to see what I get for this first run. I think they want to see what I get too.

I'm weaving now on the final sampler from my workshop last October. You need to understand that this was my first workshop since I took a beginner class about eight years ago. So many questions were answered for me then and I want to get every last drop out of this learning opportunity. I stopped by Rae's on my home this afternoon. She took the workshop too and has been a great resource for me. She was letting me try her end-feed shuttle. In the course of my trial I asked her if she beat on a closed or open shed - I didn't want to mess her up. She said she beats on an open shed with the harnesses raised since it minimizes draw in. Whoa! What say?!! I wonder if I've been sabotaging my selvedges by beating on a closed shed. I'd sure love to hear from you other weavers. How do you bet you sheds? Oh boy, I bet that sounds racy to non-weavers :) Anyway, I'd love some feedback.

Seven-year-old Alexia called two nights ago on her Mommy's cell phone - she's going on break and wants to spend next week with us. As she gets older, it's gets a little more challenging to find activities we can do together. She's quite tall so I decided today that I'll see if she can weave on my sampler. After all, that's what it is. I'll change back to standard tie-up from direct and I think she should be able to have some fun.

I've been trying to remove word authentication to spare you that torture and Michelle has been a guinea pig, helping me from the viewer's side. I knew the settings in the old blogger but absolutely couldn't find what I was looking for in the new blogger. I found a tutorial and if you're as frustrated as I was and want to remove word authentication, check out this blog post.