Pictures, Bikes, Visitors

First, the big computer is finally hooked up to the internet again, so I can post pictures of my looms I was talking about last week. Here ya go:

This is the LeClerc "Dorothy" set up for a weaving demo at the 2007 Farm Arts Festival at Rural Resources in Greene Co.




And here is the Kromski "Harp" rigid heddle, naked (unwarped). That's a stick shuttle laying inside of it.








Second on the agenda - DH and I bought bikes yesterday at WalMart. They're both 26" mountain bikes, though not hard-core. Mine is a 7-speed; DH's is 18-speed only because he couldn't find a 7-speed that he liked. There was a 29", 24-speed bike there. That sounds like it's for a serious, long-haul, road biker. We'll stick to the local parks and maybe school tracks, thank you.

We'll have a busy February. First one BIL is coming to visit and check on his property here, about 5 miles from us. He'll stay with us while he's here. Then DD's ex and his mother are coming for DGD's birthday. Then sister and BIL (a different one, of course) will be here to check on THEIR property, about 10 miles from us in a different direction. They'll also stay with us. And now that DD is working second shift, DGD is staying with us during the week so we can get her to and from school. Should be interesting. At least ex-SIL and mom will be staying at a motel.

Bikes

Wow, two days in a row. I can't stand it. But this was running through my mind last night and keeping me awake, so I want to get shed of it, as they say around here. Actually, I've never heard anyone say that; I've just read it.

DH has been talking about getting a couple of mountain bikes (that we really don't have the money for). Notice I said "a couple." He can't just get one for himself; I have to get one too. Anyway, it got me thinking about my bikes that I've had. There have been four.

The first was a pickup truck tricycle. Behind the seat, instead of the frame curving down to the back axle, it went back and connected to a little two-wheeled wagon. It was a stiff frame, not a trailer, so the wheels of the wagon part became the back wheels of the trike. Really cool.

The next one was a 26", blue, J.C. Higgins. It had a coaster brake and fat tires.
What a clunker! But it got me around. I had already learned to ride on my girlfriend's 24" bike when I was around 6, so I guess my parents figured I'd grow into this monster. I'd ride it to school once in awhile in nice weather. That's when I was at Alfred Reed for 4th thru 6th grades. They didn't have the slotted bikes stands they do now. It was just a horizontal steel pipe. You'd pull the front of the bike under the pipe, then lift the handlebars up and over the pipe backwards so it would hang there. Of course, the kids with the "English racers", as we called 10-speeds then, were out of luck. With those dropped handlebars, the bikes wouldn't hang. They'd have to use the kickstands.

Next came the Christmas that me and my oldest brother (5 years younger than me) got bikes, mine blue and his red. I guess I was around 12 or 13. That bike was forgetable.

Then I got a used, green, 27", 10-speed that I could never shift into any gears except first, fifth and tenth. I would invariably get it between gears and the chain would slip. If I was on a hill, I'd have to practically stop, put it in first, then try to get started back up the hill. At least on the flat, I could coast along while figuring out where the daggone gear was. Longest ride I took on that was from home in Ewing to Titusville, about 6-8 miles. There was a long hill going and coming back, where I'd end up walking the bike up. Even first gear was too strenuous. The final stretch in Titusville was about 2 miles along a two-lane road with not much of a shoulder. Back then the speed limit was probably around 40 and there weren't NEARLY as many cars as are on that road today, which explains why we didn't get killed. Funny, I remember riding TO Titusville, but I don't remember riding HOME, except maybe walking up that hill in Mountain View. We (me, oldest brother, and DH before he was DH) certainly weren't given a lift. We also walked that route a couple of times, a full day's activity.

So bike number 5 will be a combination of the others, but a little different, too - fat, knobby tires; gears; 26" hybrid men's/women's frame. I'll try to stay away from hills.

Gung Hai Fat Choi - Year of the Dragon

I've started getting ready for the weaving "demo" at next month's meeting at Limestone Creek. On Sunday I measured out 80 ends of 5/2 perle cotton, 80 in. long, for the warp. I warped the Dorothy today. I warp front to back, meaning I sley the reed first, then thread the heddles, tie onto the back apron, wind the warp onto the back beam (with a layer of paper grocery bag going in to keep the threads from burrowing into previous rounds), then finally tying onto the front apron. I'll also add two floating selvedges (selveges?) later. It should be plenty wide enough so everybody can see different patterns emerging as the weft goes in. I'm taking a bunch of books too, so they can get an idea of the hundreds of patterns possible. I've just done a "straight draw", that is, threading the first thread in the first heddle on shaft 1, the second thread in the first heddle on shaft 2, the third in the first from shaft 3, and the fourth in the first from shaft 4. Five through eight go into the second heddles on the shafts in the same order, 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on, until there are 20 heddles on each shaft that have threads running through them. I used white, sort of an off white, for the warp. Then the weft will be one of four different colors, also 5/2 perle cotton which was left over from the overshot class, to show contrast.

I've also started collecting various things to take with me - sley hook, heddle hook, different shuttles, the aforementioned books, the few things I've already made, including the sample from the overshot class I took and the "Cats Track and Snail Trail" runner I made on the end of that same warp.

DGD pointed out the sliver of new moon in the sky tonight at sunset. It was new at 2:39 am yesterday (Chinese New Year), making it about 39 1/2 hours old when we saw it at around 6:10 pm, just about the youngest I've seen. I think the record for the youngest moon observed is around 19 hr. I don't usually see them until they're at least 45-46 hr. old.

Signs of Spring and How to Be An Enabler

Well, I told you the newness would wear off of this blog thing. lol Last post was on 1-3 and here it is 1-21. We're now a full month into winter and I can see it's staying light longer in the evening already. Instead of closing the chickie girls in at around 5:15 pm, I can wait until about 5:40 or so and still see to walk down there without falling on my face.

Back in October I had dropped a couple of fleeces off with Ozark Carding while I was at SAFF. I got a ship notice last Wednesday, the 11th. The post office finally delivered the box with the roving yesterday, the 20th. NINE DAYS! They must have been sent from MO to TN via Anchorage. One fleece is just carded roving, which I'll use for spinning students (if I ever have any more ) or other demo type stuff. The other, heavier, fleece I had pin drafted after it was carded, which aligns the fibers much more than plain carding does. It looks like it turned out really nice and should be easy to spin, although there is a bit of VM in it, as all the fleeces from "that" place do. I should mention that the box is about 12x14x14, and AFTER I took the fleeces out of the box and opened their bags, they took up 4 or 5 times that space. I've already rolled all the roving into balls so they'll be easier to use.

The first of this year's planting has been started. There are 25 each of small Chinese cabbage, broccoli, and red and green pak choi seeded in trays out in the little homemade greenhouse. They were all planted on Monday, the 16th - first day of the 4th quarter moon, in Virgo. Yuck! We also have seeds for full size Chinese cabbage; they'll be started in a week or so.

Now, about that enabler title - A new woman at the Limestone Creek Fiber Guild wants to learn to spin and weave, so I said I'd bring my small looms, the Dorothy table loom and the Harp rigid heddle. (She already tried her hand at spinning last Saturday) I have to warp the Dorothy with something small to play with and I'll just measure the Harp warp, maybe enough for a scarf, and will warp it when I get there, to show Betsy how to do it. I'll have to read up on it to remember. Plus I'll haul all the various accoutrements with me. I might even take that enormous fly shuttle. Now I just have to get my butt in gear and start measuring. And I have to get everything ready by Feb. 18th. I hate measuring warp. Gee, I can't even add a picture of the Dorothy because I'm on the wrong computer. Have to get that DSL line switched back.

The grocery store has hyacinths in bloom already. I ALWAYS stop and smell them. Spring is coming!

Snow, Guard Rails, Reading, Night Sky

We had the first (substantial) snowfall of the winter on Monday night, at least by East TN standards. The northern part of the county got enough to cover the roads, so of course NONE of the buses could run, so of course ALL the county schools were closed. It's probably based on population, not area, but I think that's one thing that northern states have gotten a little bit right - the counties are split up into townships. So just because Hopewell Twp. schools (northernmost township in Mercer Co. NJ) are closed because of the rural roads and hills doesn't mean Hamilton Twp. (southernmost township, same county), which is much flatter and doesn't have much rural area left, have to be. Last year the kids here had about two weeks of "snow" days because there are a few roads that are shaded and don't melt quickly.

These are usually the roads that are also hilly or narrow with no guard rails, so are treacherous. I've heard that roads are supposed to have a guard rail if the drop off the side is more than 4 ft. Yeah, right. I know a few places with a 10 ft. or WAYYY more drop off with no guard rail. Oh, there may be some trees to catch you or maybe a couple of strands of barbed wire on rusty T posts that have been in the ground so long they're leaning at a 45 degree angle. So why bother with guard rail?

I'm in the middle of The Royals by Kitty Kelley, another library sale acquisition. Which reminds me, the sale will be coming up in a few months, early May I think. I have to take some books over there. And I've decided to initial the books I've read so I don't forget and re-buy them. I forgot and rebought a Star Trek book last year.

The garlic has sprouted, but the rest of the garden is fallow. We have to start pulling last year's plants, getting tomato plants and bean vines off their support fences, and planning and buying seed for this year. DH talks out of both sides of his mouth - we're going to cut back this year, but then he gives me a list of what he wants to plant, which is not a cut back in my book. Different, maybe, but not less. Neither of us can kneel, neither of us can squat. I can bend over, but it kills by back. He can bend over, but it kills his knees. So I don't know how much gardening is going to get done.

MIL has been discharged by the wound care doctor, say hallelujah. That's one less place she has to be hauled to on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Now if she'll just watch her salt intake so her legs don't start weeping again. Sure, that'll happen.

I've been star gazing when I take the dog out to do her business after dark. Cygnus the Swan is flying downhill in the west now, Pegasus is overhead, and Orion is rising at sunset. When the newish, crescent moon is low in the sky, it peeks through one of the leafless tree like a Cheshire Cat smile. Venus is fairly high in the western sky, probably about as high as it gets, right after sunset, and Jupiter is high overhead. The moon was about 3 or 4 fingers-width from Jupiter on Monday night. I was looking at the new Old Farmers' Almanac, which I finally bought today, and there's a transit of Venus across the sun coming up in March, I think it said. The observatory up in Kingsport will be crowded that day, no doubt.