New things

I've decided to back off on weaving to sell and instead try new things, like this draft designed by Linda Gettman, a woman in our guild who periodically has her patterns appear in Handwoven.  And in fact, she was in the most recent issue, appearing on the cover.

These are the colors I said I want to weave next and this is how they're turning out.  It's pretty fiddley for me.  I don't have much experience in weaving with extended treadling sequences so have had to unweave more than I'd like.

Since Delaney still isn't traveling about I can get away with about an hour of weaving when she's here, and then she's done.

I'm involved in a project that I can do while I'm watching her and that's removing the photos from photo albums where they never get looked at and take up an entire shelf in the bookcase.  We need the shelf for books.

This is how many photos are in one album and a lot of them are the same thing taken several times, and then there are the pages and pages of the Great Reno Balloon Race. We used to live very close to the park they launched from and they often would land on our street, and one time put down in our front yard and for that we were gifted with a bottle of champagne.

This is the storage system that I bought on Amazon.  The outer case holds 16 smaller ones that hold 100 photos in each.  I'm noting the year on the upper right corner on the back and labeling each case with a sequence and with the time span contained.  I'm also shedding a lot of photos.  I'm really enjoying seeing them again and getting into a more interesting form.

Sunday evening the whole family went out to celebrate grandson Evan's 16th birthday.  And next to him is his little cousin, 15 years his junior.  Life is funny like that..

After dinner the wait staff brought him a whipped cream covered donut to make it official.  Wednesday he got his drivers license and now it really is official.

I've discovered that Delaney really likes me to ready my book out loud to her.

She vocalizes and looks intently at me as if she understood every word.  I don't get many pages read this way but I get all the pleasure in the world from her responsive engagement.

Passing the Baton

One of my assignments for Thanksgiving dinner is cherry pie.  Years ago when we all lived in Reno we would have quite the crowd and I baked three pies - pecan, apple and cherry.  This one is everyone’s favorite, and since I’m only making one pie I decided to make the crust with butter.  I had no idea that the characteristics of the crust would be so different than when I make it with Butter Crisco.  Someone told me that the chemistry of fat is different according to the fat.  This crust held together well and was pliable and malleable, and boy was it delicious.  It was a hit and I brought home an empty plate. I’m a believer.  Bye Bye Butter Crisco!!  I’ve always made good crust and I think the hand-thrown pie plate by Joe Winter is part of my success but there’s no comparison between my old crusts and the one we ate yesterday.

Son Josh and family went to Reno earlier in the month for a football game between UNR and Boise State, where grandson Logan attends on a band scholarship, and of course the band traveled to the game too.  They had a visit with my daughter who gave them a Christmas present for us that she had lost and recently found while deep cleaning in the house.  It’s from 2015 and is the names of our eight grandchildren.  Since then Gavin became a big brother to Rhett (Everett), and Matt and Julia are expecting Delaney Jane in April, which will bring the total to ten!  My kids went way too long before having their own kids, and just I thought I would never be a grandmother.  Happily I was wrong.

Logan told me recently that he’s decided to declare a visual arts major to go with his criminal justice major.  He told me yesterday that he has signed up for a basic photography class in January.  They’ll be using old fashion SLRs and developing their own film.  My first art and long-time hobby was photography and I even tried my hand with darkroom developing, even took a college class in it.  I asked him if he be interested in my old equipment and he leapt at the chance.  He has to go back to school today so came over this morning to check out my stuff.  He was really pleased and slung the Canon AE-1 around his neck like an old pro. He was surprised at the short strap and was looking to lengthen it, but I explained that it’s short for a reason - closer to your face and doesn’t get bumped around as much.

These are the lenses that fit that camera, and now they’re going to live in Idaho. I laughed at the two packets of lens wipes printed at .21 cents a packet.  I’ve had this stuff for awhile.  My original Canon died a slow and agonizing death.  It had a pin-hole light leak in the cloth shutter so periodically I had to put a drop of India ink on it, but when the tower broke and wouldn’t wind the film, it was time to retire it.  Sadly the film in the camera that day were the shots I had taken of my son’s high school graduation and they were ruined.  And there were four rolls of unexposed film.  I told him I only wanted the canisters to use in weaving for weighting broken warps or floating selvedges.

I also found the folder with some of the work I’ve kept.  I could only develop black and white and so focused on buildings and structures with texture, and old mine buildings were perfect for that.  I got derailed when I discovered Photoshop Elements.

I took a lot of shots of water towers and street lights when we visited New York City and this is one of my favorites.  I’m so happy to hand down my equipment to my grandson and I hope he enjoys it as much as I did.  Meanwhile I need to sign up for a Photoshop class.

Blogsy is Back and I'm So Glad!

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You would think that this box came expressly for Maddie. She claimed it as her own and it's still here, mainly because when she plays with her box, she doesn't bat ornaments from the tree.

This is what was in the box, an adjustable Yamaha piano stool. Even at it's highest, it's 2" shorter than my weaving bench so I decided to sley a warp to see if reaching up the 2" additional inches would be acceptable and it was. The thing is, the piano stool costs $30 with free shipping whereas a weaving bench runs around $400, plus shipping. Note the kitty under my rolling work table.

Both my looms have been nekkid and I'm trying to get them warped. I was threading Arthur when I noticed some link squeezing up between the harnesses from underneath. I started pulling and it kept coming. I know I have dust bunnies all over the floor but I never dreamed I'd have one this size *in* my loom. Somehow it was hovering between the top of the jacks and the bottom of the harnesses. Someone asked me if it has a name :)

I wanted to share this very clever idea that one of the ladies from my Tuesday Book Group brought last week. It's simply a brown bag and a page torn from a book with an interesting font. She tore the deckled edges, then glued on the leaf, button and rafia bow. She made the matching ornament by putting the paints inside and tying with another rafia bow. The colored tissue paper completes it. I see inspiring ideas on Pinterest but don't know how they're accomplished. Darlene explained this to me. I get it!

I've been on a buying spree lately and just got this magnetic bulletin board on the recommendation of a friend. I told him I don't have any way to display my photos. He's a photographer and said this is his solution, then sent me the link. He keeps his photos in a portfolio, then the first of each month he refreshes them so he gets to enjoy different ones from month to month.
Playing with my photos also has inspired me to finally get all my electronic photos sorted out and into folders. Over the years I've just let the photos download to a folder labeled by the date of the download, back to 2010. Every so often I'd be spurred to clean up this mess and then get overwhelmed. I've taken an hour a morning lately to get this under control. As of yesterday I've deleted 3 gb of photos and gotten the ones I've kept organized into named folders. I'm finally working on 2013. When all photos are in folders, then I'll go back and review each folder. And because I don't feel rushed, I'm able to enjoy the memories these photos represent.

And finally, both looms are dressed and in business. I'm weaving towels, twenty of them between Maudie Mae and Arthur. I've woven on the piano stool for several hours and while it still feels awkward, it's not an ergonomic problem. I really do like having two benches. This is the first equipment I've purchased since I bought my Schacht end-feed shuttle two years ago. Like I said, I'm on a buying spree. I've also ordered an Bluster Bay end-feed shuttle that's supposed to arrive Friday. We leave for SoCal a week from this Saturday so I hope I'll have a chance to use it in this next week.

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