In Flux

I took my three bobbins of singles to the guild meeting on Wednesday night.  This was the last meeting of the year and it was also show-and-share.  I'm the newest weaver in the group so didn't pull these out until after the meeting.  I want to weave scarves from my handspun yarns but I need to know so much more.  I placed an order with Yarn Barn last week and was disappointed that they don't have 60s/2 silk which is what I had wanted to order for binder for my singles.  Guess what?!  The trunk sale at the meeting was for hand dyed 60s/2 silk from Just Our Yarn.  I bought the skein on top at a dear price.

I just dove in.  I taught myself to spin from Karen Raven's book and apparently she is left handed because I spin left handed.  That means all the articles I read and videos I watch are backwards, but somehow about halfway through the last skein, my hands caught on to the concept.  I have a long way to go but I'm not nearly as frustrated about my spinning as I was.  Now if I can only figure out how to translate this yarn to weaving.  Warp?  Weft?  I suppose I'll have to do it and find out for myself

I have the Fiesta warp on Maudie Mae and it's interesting how the colors influence each other.  You need to click to see the red.  I'm stuck at this point until next week.  One of the things I ordered from Yarn Barn last week was Texsolv tie-up.  I am not doing the Gilmore tie-up one more time.  It's just too gymnastic and requires flexibility I no longer have.  My order arrived but without the pegs that will make this happen.  They weren't on the order invoice.  I called in a panic.  They're shipping but not charging shipping.  I love those guys.

This is what Gilmore tie-up looks like.  Mr. Gilmore invented the jack loom in the 1940s and this system dates back to then.  It's archaic.  You have a piece of clothesline dangling from the lam tied in  a single knot and then a piece of clothesline coming up from the treadle, which you tie in an overhand knot and slip over the knot from the top.  Are yours eyes glazing over yet?  And then each has to be adjusted until all the harness are lifted to a uniform height.  We are not amused.  I'm crippled by the time I'm done, and that's why I'm done with this system and I should have ordered the Texsolv at least a year ago.

Ian and I have been talking about where to put our battered wicker furniture.  It's second hand from a neighbor who moved away.  I realized today that one of our trees is big enough to give shade so took out one of the chairs and the table from the garage as a test drive.  This is the nicest afternoon we've had this year.

I read for a while and then had Ian help me bring out the rest of the set.  I can't explain it, but it's not the same as reading on the porch.  My book and I were in another place.  We only have one more day before the weather gets back to normal but I look forward to a summer of afternoons here. 

This the time of day that the birds come to feed and they fussed and scolded me, trying to get me to leave.  I saw them run a rabbit off earlier today.  The California quail were more forgiving. 

Two Kindle Touches, that's what you see here.  Since Massachusetts and seeing Paul's Paperwhite Kindle, I've been lustful.  It means reading in bed without a heavy book light.  I was sitting on the front porch yesterday morning when Ian came back from the mailboxes with two packages.  One was our onions, the other the Paperwhite he bought me.  He gets the hand-me-down Touch.  He says likes his original hand-me-down and has given my "cast off" to one of the kids.

Reading is so rich.  Books and information are in in a state of flux and we're just on the crest of this wave.  My job in resource sharing involved the physical shipping of articles and books and that was just five years ago.  It's an exciting time but a lot depends on licensing agreements.  As for virtual delivery, we need to keep our eyes open - pun intended.  Meanwhile, I have a stack of physical books on my nightstand as well as the four I've checked out from the library.