Today In My Life.. 02/28/2013

Today is:  February 28, 2013

I got up this morning:  around 6 or so to take the dogs outside.  What a joy they are!  I don't think I have mentioned Sam and Katie.  They love to get us up in the morning.  ;)

This is Katie.. She weighs 4 pounds and is all lady.  This is Sam.  He weighs 10 pounds of all boy!

I am hearing:  a small cacophony of sounds as Sam barks at someone walking by,  the heater is softly blowing warm air, the tinkle of glass as my sweet DH is getting his cup of coffee.....

I am thinking:  or not..lol  This is one of those mornings where my brain goes ADHD...lol  but I must get another cup of coffee.. brb...

As I look out the window:  the sun is shining at last.  The forsythia down the street is in full bloom and is absolutely lovely.  Forsythia has a wonderful meaning for me.  When I was 18 and living in Okmulgee, OK  my kitchen sink had a window over it.  Each morning doing the breakfast dishes I would look out that window.  We had a 13 month old son and a brand new baby in December.  It seemed that winter would never end and one morning in February  I looked out that window and there it was... a huge, huge spray of the most brilliant yellow blossoms looking back at me through that window.  I remember I could hear Jim playing in the living room and Phil cooing in his bed... I hear those wonderful sounds and see that window every time I see a forsythia.. 

I am thankful for:  my sweet DH who tolerates all of my hobbies... Today the dining room table is quite covered with watercolor stuff... and stuff... I think he wouldn't say a word until he found himself walking thru nothing but a tiny walkway in the house..lol  I must say that I appreciate him more and more.  I love him very much.

The current book is:  one that I got for my Kindle.  It's a freebie from Amazon and I'm finding it quite good..    Sacred Treason by James Forrester.  This is the first book of a trilogy, and I'm reasonably sure the other 2 won't be free..lol 

The family:  is growing..

And may I introduce (drum roll please!)  my first great granddaughter Elaina.... She is such a little beauty.  I only wish that we lived closer so we could cuddle her more often.. ;)

We are looking forward to welcoming another great grandchild  in May.  This one will be a grandson and I cannot wait.. :)  I had best get started on his christening gift.. ;)

Creatively:  there hasn't been much happening this week.  I have started  naalbinding  a simple scarf using the Oslo stitch.

I wanted a soft flowing scarf this time so I used a wool/silk yarn that I bought from a friend of mine.  It is hand spun and I love it.  Using the small needle instead of my naalbinding needle seems to let me hold my stitches smaller.. I don't know why that is since my thumb doesn't change sized regardless the size of the needle...lol 

Plans for the rest of the week:  had best hurry since this is Thursday..lol  I will continue naalbinding on the scarf in the evenings and I will try to get the other view of the old rusted delivery truck done.  Every time I decide I will paint something always comes up.. what's up with that? 

Free pattern for the week:  Over at Fabric Follies Two there is the cutest baby hat pattern.  Very easy and warm for the little one.  I'm sure I will be making several of these.. ;)

Hopefully the weather here in North Texas will warm up a bit during the day.  The nights for the next few days will be very cold, but eventually Spring will be here.. ;) 

Have a wonderful day.. :) 

They're Here.. Cedar and Deer Antler Nalbinding Needles

They came in the mail a couple of days ago. I started this bag using them both..lol One is cedar and the other is deer antler and they both are comfortable and easy to use. Aunt Edna said Uncle Bobby had made about 9 of them so now she and the ladies at church want to learn to use them..grin And this is how the works of yesteryear are preserved...lol

I started the bag using the chocolate merino and the tan merino/romney x. This is my first 2 color work and the only problem I had was the beginning.. There is a little nipple of work at the beginning of the tan and at some point I will learn how to do it without that....

We got up early this morning and went to have all the pre-admission and lab work , etc..., done for the cardiac cath. I'm glad all that is done. Now all there is to do is wait for the call on Monday to tell us what time to be there on Tuesday. But they said to be prepared for it to be around 7am since I will be second in line. Yayyy...get it over and out of there...lol
I asked if there wasn't something I could do to keep from having this done every year... he said no... that some people just produce more scar tissue than others due to the stent being a foreign body ... That made me feel better. At least I know it's not something I'm doing that is causing all this...

It's Too Hot to Work!

Summer is finally here and has made it into my work room. The garage, hall and my room run around 92 degrees these days... so to keep the costs of the air conditioner down, I have been gathering stuff up and trashing the kitchen and living room...sigh

At some point in the near future I will turn on the air conditioner out there, but haven't had the nerve to spend that money... saving for gasoline! Can you believe the cost of that stuff?! I agree with Newt Gingrich... the govt. should dump half of our reserve on the market and flood it...causing speculators to think twice about betting against America...

Anyway...won't go there..lol It's too hot to get all worked up... lol

I've not figured out what my next project will be. I've been trying to learn the nalbinding knit/tarim stitch and seem to be finally "getting" it.. I finished the homespun green wool tarim/knit stitch bag that was practicing on... still need to use the lucet and make the cord to use for closure. This work done by Alix at Alix's Nalbinding Page is what I am shooting for... Isn't that amazing work!

My small weaving loom that my wonderful DH made for me has been seeing some action. Using wool yarns that were spun a while back, I put together these two small pieces. They will be made into small bags. I find that I love, love,love the purple that I thought I would have to re-dye.

And one more thing... Hi, Patty. We're doing good. Missing the son that is moving to Phoenix because of a job change. Things will definitely be a little different around here. Not much news... The only doctor's visits these days are for the infinite number of check ups and returns that they all seem to be able to come up with...lol Hugs to Pat and puppies..grin

W I F #5 & Lucet

It's been a fairly good week...weigh in today...188..ta da...

We spent a little time out in the shop yesterday. These are nalbinding blanks, fingerweaving rods, Lucet and spindle parts. The all need to be completed, but I couldn't wait to see if I could work the Lucet. I only had inch and a half wide piece of oak, so I drew out what I thought would work and DH cut it out for me.

I used the Dremel to sand it down, but let me tell ya... a person needs a little time and practice using the Dremel...lol My poor little lucet has some real ocean waves... But it worked really well. I had to spend some time getting used to the small working area between the forks...about 3/4 inch... but when I did get it figured out it whizzed right along just like a grown up... Today I will finish sanding with some sandpaper. I think I will figure out some way to paint a tiny floral on the hand piece and then finish with something that will show the grain of the wood. May have to ask DSIL and find out what will work. I am trying to stay with whatever would be available around 800 AD... may not make it tho... sure like to use acrylic paints...hmmm

Lots of Socks, Tarim Stitch & Lucet

Ask me if I'm tickled that my Larry Schmitt's Lots of Socks book arrived?... It has instructions for 10 different nalbinding stitches and patterns for about 5 different nalbound socks. It also says that while naalbinding is a correct usage and spelling for this craft, an effort has been made to standardize the name using nalbinding with the pronounciation as nall-bin-ding using a short i .

It was surprising to learn that most nalbound socks in the early centuries and even up until the mid 19th century were made with a mixture of wool and goat hair.. the goat hair was added to help wick the moisture away from the feet.. with the side of the sock facing the foot brushed to smooth the goat hairs and bring them to the top. It seems that some very early Scandinavians were surprised to find that when they took their shoes off the skotalinger, or toe cap (nalbound shoe liner with a toe cap), was frozen to the bottom of the shoe. The toe cap was worn over the socks as an extra insulation for the toes and bottom of the feet.

Over the last day or so I have been trying some of the stitches and find that all but one are not that difficult to do. The last stitch, Omani, is complicated enough that I will have to study it in the full light of day with no tv...lol The Tarim Stitch looks just like the knit stitch. The better thing about this stitch is that it doesn't roll in from the sides like regular knit stockinette stitch.. and is much more durable. I really like this stitch and am in the process of trying to figure out if I have enough yarn yet to make something really big out of it. Or it may be that all the kids and grandkids will get another neck scarf for Christmas....lol (I offered to make Son #2 a pair of socks out of my hand spun pink/rose merino yarn...can you believe he politely refused!)...lol

I finished a nalbound bag the other... handspun orange Corriedale. I need to put cordage through the top so decided that I wanted to try a Lucet instead of the usual twisted cord. Here is my "Lucet". A wooden one will be quite easy to make, but I wanted to see if I could do it (duh...easy peasy) and also to see if I would like the square cord that it makes. It's great. I just drew off my approximation of a lucet onto heavy cardboard and used a combination of knife and scissors to cut it out...covered all areas that the thread would come in contact with, pushed a hole in the center and voila'. It goes very quickly and you can use everything from embroidery thread to big yarn. The only thing is that the finished cord must be of a size to fit through the hole in the center. Therefore...aha...perhaps it would be good to have more than one size...hmmm

Naalbinding a Red Cap

This is another of those pieces that I have been working on over the last few weeks. It seems to have gotten set aside while I worked on trying to learn to knit socks...sigh I will finish it..lol

This one is made with the handspun Corriedale from the second dye batch and also uses the first needle I made..the oak one. This needle continues to be my favorite even though I have made several other ones. The stitch used in this one is the Korgen stitch (classified as UOO/UUOO) This is a very easy stitch to do and makes the cap quite warm.

It has been lovely for last couple of days. Actually got into the hot tub yesterday afternoon and it looks like we will be able to again this afternoon. The sun is shining brightly today and as far as I'm concerned we can't have enough of days like this ...

Have a wonderful day...