(mis)adventures of spindlerose

Week off review

I wasn't nearly as productive during my week off as I'd hoped. Here's what I accomplished:

1. Warped loom and wove off about half of the warp (color samples and 3 towels).
2. Cooked Thanksgiving dinner, including 3 pies.
3. Cleaned studio for a few hours.
4. Knit most of a sock foot.
5. Piles and piles of laundry.

I ended up watching more football than planned with a cat and no knitting on my lap. And reading more news and Facebook than I really wanted to.

This week, I'm recommitting to consciously using social media and news apps--this weekend I slipped back into the mindless surfing habit, and my creative productivity, sense of well being, and blogging suffered as a result. I've set 3 non-work goals for this week to keep me on track--and I'' sharing them for a bit of public accountability.

1. Practice yoga every weekday (2 classes and 3 times at home).
2. Finish the towels.
3. Write something (blog or journal) every day.

Preparing

Today, I started preparations for our small feast tomorrow. I baked two pies (pumpkin and cherry). There was too much pumpkin pie filling for the collapsed crust, so David and I shared baked pumpkin custard with baked pie crust scraps for dessert tonight. 

Mid-afternoon, I  decided to make my new favorite Shaker lemon pie (with backyard Meyer lemons) even though it wasn't on the original plan. I sliced 4 or 5 small lemons (about 12 ounces total weight) and macerated them in 2 cups sugar. And I made one batch of pie crust. Tomorrow morning I'll add 3 beaten eggs to the lemons, put them in the crust and bake the pie.

While the cherry pie was in the oven, I made the first batch of caramels. I'm sure Dad is already ahead of me by several, but I'll catch up over this weekend and next.

 Now my house smells like its the holidays (vanilla, hot sugar, and more vanilla).

Missed a day

I spent yesterday happily being productive. I looked up at about midnight and realized that I hadn't even thought about writing a blog post. Ditching bad habits and making better ones is tricky. And making writing a habit is even harder for me for all kinds of reasons.

I did not accomplish everything I set out to yesterday, but I'm happy with what I did accomplish. I sampled colors for the new warp and decided on 4. I reorganized a few shelves in the studio to make room for my most recent weaving yarn order and unpacked a box of counted cross stitch books (I decided to get rid of almost all of them). Then I spent 3 hours making dinner--which was not at all my plan. 

I also spent a bit too much time watching TV while being a cat bed. And obsessively reading news. 

Today, I wove two towels and braved Trader Joe's for Thanksgiving supplies. I decided that I'd rather weave than make pie crust  and rolls tomorrow. Don't judge me.

Week off goals

I have next week off. I'll do some work on Monday and Tuesday, but I don't have to go into the office. I'll keep up with email, answer the phone, and do some planning.

I plan to spend this week making things. There's a new warp on the loom. I bought a small pile of fabric today. We're hosting a few people for Thanksgiving.

I have an overwhelming list of possible things to make this week. If I don't make a list, I'll end up frittering away the whole week doing nothing much at all.

1. Weave off the towels on the loom now.
2. Make yoga pants.
3. Create some order in the studio. Spend 2 hours every day (except Thursday) cleaning up and finding things to move to new homes.

I'm keeping the list short on purpose. If I finish the first two projects, I'll choose two more.

Saturday threading

Today, I threaded the loom. First the heddles.

 Then the reed. And I tied the warp onto the apron rod. 

Tomorrow, I'll sample colors and start weaving.

Someday, I will learn simple arithmetic

and how to read a simple weaving draft.

I finished winding the warp onto the beam after work. 

After dinner, I sat down to start threading. And quickly figured out that I calculated 8 * 4 + 2 * 2 = 34 when I wound the two outer warp sections two weeks ago. Not 36.  At least this is a pretty easy problem to overcome with a couple of intarsia bobbins (which I haven't used for knitting in at least 20 years) and a couple of shower curtain rings for weight. 

 

As my friend Jen always says, MIT teaches mathematics, and not arithmetic. And I took as little math as I could get away with for my political science degree.

I'll wait for daylight to start threading. I finally understand why Nonny used to hand me her needles to thread when we stitched side by side in the evenings. When did all those individual threads become so fuzzy and hard to see?

Warping

Warping is a bit of a challenge in my small, overcrowded studio. After I play a bit of tetris to clear enough space (loom bench and desk chair out of the way, sewing machine under the loom bench, and boxes precariously stacked) across the room to spread out, I can start.

I have little sectioned box that I drop warp sections into as I wind them. I separate the sections with those annoying subscription reply cards that come in every magazine. For ease of winding, I made each section 36 ends since that's the width of each color stripe. There are 11 total sections for this batch of towels.

I push that little box as far away from the loom as I can and load 2 sections at a time into the raddle. (I just figured the two section trick out tonight.)

Finally, I start winding onto the back beam. To help keep even tension as I wind on, I run the warp under a box full of magazines and books. (The four cones on the floor my weft color candidates for these towels.)

As you can see, there's not much working room because I have too much yarn and fiber. I'm slowly (much too slowly, if you ask David) using up, selling, donating, or giving away things I'm sure I'll never use. I'm planning on getting rid of more stuff and rearranging the studio furniture during my time off next week. Who knows if that will actually happen.

Re-entry

I hoped to start warping the loom tonight. Instead, I went to yoga after work, stopped for groceries on the way home, cooked dinner, and went for a short walk with David. And now it's nearly bedtime. How is it that it's nearly 10:00 pm, and I haven't created today?

At work, I feel like I spent all day reading and triaging email, as you do the day after vacation. There are still a few messages left to read and act on.

The only bright spots tonight are that the cats have forgiven us for leaving them with a stranger. And this box of possibility came while we were away. Holiday towels for everyone!

 

I'll start warping tomorrow.

Between

I'm at a bit of a loss tonight. We're home from vacation, and I'm between many things. Vacation and work. Projects on the loom. Projects at work. Weekends. Napping cats (Toni snores). The beginning and end of November and NaBloPoMo. 

Early this morning, we walked between the moon and the sun and between the ocean and the mountain.

I'm holding onto the peace and calm and optimism I gathered over the past 6 days for as long as I can. I hope it holds up to a day back in the office.

Another day by the ocean

Even though we are pale and sun-phobic, the tropical ocean calls to David and me. Just hearing the surf day and night lowers my blood pressure. Seeing and smelling the ocean has a deeper effect.

Yesterday , I took a solo walk on the beach. Inspired by another beach goer, I found the shade of a tree and did a little yoga while watching for sea turtles and whales. I saw a turtle, but no whales; it's a bit early for them.

Today, we did our usual last day of vacation activity we rented an oceanside cabana with comfy lounge chairs and shade until mid-afternoon. The surf is still to high for safe swimming at our resort's beach, but we dodged waves and got our feet wet in the Pacific one last time.