pointysticks.net

This is nuts, check it out– I ran the books this morning for our home and business and everything actually balanced out. There must be some kind of accounting error, this never happens. The really wild thing is that we’re not even close to overdrawn yet. What will the bank people do? How will they feed their kids if we don’t pay for overdrafts?

I spent yesterday fiddling with a nostepinne. My thumb hurts, I got this brilliant idea to whittle a spiral down the handle part and then file and polish it all piano finish smooth, then I decided that it looked and felt too cold so I actually took it all down and roughed it up again and then put a nice satin coat on it. Now it’s warm and just wants to be held.

I realized yesterday that I haven’t really sat down and carved anything since before I met Mr. Dufus (that’s Josey’s bio-father), when we were together my carving knives (most of my tools, my jewelry, my cds, family heirlooms, artwork, nice clothes and anything else of value) disappeared and I was so busy trying to fix everything that I didn’t have time for much of anything.

I found a pocket knife and that worked just fine, although now I need to dig out the whetstone and give it a little honing before I start a new project. No woodworking for me today though, today I’m going to catch up on some knitting and sewing.

Matt was cracking me up in the shop last night, he decided to decorate the shaft of a padouk spindle with a looser spiral (there’s that competative thing he says doesn’t exist) mumbling and grumping “…don’t have a carving set so I’ll just use my teeth… oh look I knitted a sock… I’ll just go inside and cook dinner, build a website, feed the baby, and start knitting a new house..blah blah blah… I’m so bored, I need something to do..”

The crazy thing is that he actually does a fairly decent impression of me, he has my inflections and body language down pat.

I have no idea on what I’m going to knit, but I’ll figure something out.

One of the website trades didn’t work out. I’m a bit disappointed, I was really liking the work but it wasn’t what she wanted/needed, really nice lady though. I’m still waiting to hear back on the other one.

On the brightside– I bought more stock wood and cut the blanks, finished plying up the blond roving, discovered that my bench brush actually cleans the drum carder nicely, and Matt turned a gorgeous spindle from Ambrosia Maple (the wood of the month at WoodCrafters).

He wants me to list it on eBay to see how much it’ll go for– foolish man. It’s not going anywhere but in my stash. I told him if he made another one just for me that I’d consider letting him pry it from my grubby little paws (which is probably untrue– I’d take the new one and keep the first.) Just kidding, I know that we can’t keep every bauble and pretty that comes out of the shop (although I’d like to try).

I made a noste from some burl (don’t know what kind) for myself, though– I’m not going to post pictures yet because I discovered after taking it off of the lathe that it had an odd crack, so I had to stabilize it with CA glue (sounds really technical doesn’t it? Interprets to “put some crazy glue into the crack and worked it in with a papertowel”) So I have some hand sanding and polishing to do before I truly have bragging rights.

Ahh, it’s the sweet smell of… oh wait, I think that’s just burning pot roast. Darn.

Okay Caroline, this is just for you.

Made another whorl, this one is tiny (just a bit larger than a quarter) and I’m not sure what kind of wood (scrap bag of pen blanks) but it turns really nicely, with almost a glassy finish to it even before sanding. I’m going to turn a shaft for it and use it as a shade pull.

We’re going to get some more turning stock Thursday for sure, although I’m getting antsy and asked Matt if he could try to get out of work a little early tonight so we can run to the evil hardwood place in Salem. Maybe we can get a new grinder so I can have some sharp tools again.

I have to finish plying up the undyed stuff, I don’t have any projects on the needles right now, so I’ll probably start something in the car tomorrow or Thursday.

Finally ordered the chucks that we needed for the lathe, and we picked up a new lathe (this one’s a ShopFox MiniLathe)– the new lathe is in part the reason that Matt finally let me order the chucks online. Matt hates waiting for shipping– especially for toys.. er.. I mean tools. This time he has no choice, there’s one place in Salem that might have what we need in stock but they’re overpriced and their customer service is completely absent, and there’s another place that can order what we need but then we run into the shipping neurosis again.

Speaking of the lathe– I made a whorl this morning. Have to go shopping again and pick up some more stock so I can make the shaff and finish it. My turning skills are improving, I’m not quite the artiste that Matt is, but I’m improving.

We have a weird competitive/supportive relationship thing. I have always been really confident in my artistic skills, and when we met Matt described himself as a ‘doodler’. He quit working for a while and I supported all of three of us bartending for several months, I introduced Matt to using color (and better quality art supplies) and he started just blossoming as an artist. Now his artwork just blows mine out of the water, my artwork is good– but his is stunning now.

I wasn’t feeling too threatened because we have totally different styles, he does a bold anime influenced look and I like doing botanical and Celtic knotwork. But then he did this Celtic key piece and that really baked my cookies– I’m proud of how far he’s come, Matt’s extremely talented but it’s a bit annoying that he’s so darned good at everything. I worked for years to be as good as I am and he just floats effortlessly into genious.

Ah, but then there’s the shop. I am a ninja with the scroll saw– and I’m learning to harness the power of the lathe. While Matt’s artistic genious knows no limits even in the shop, I’m catching up to him.

Finished spinning and plying the pink roving into a pretty little sockweight yarn (yes, after I stopped laughing at myself I turned all the hooks so that now they’re going the right way.) Right now I’m plying the blonde stuff and considering overdyeing the roving that I dyed in the crockpot with the Easter Egg dye.

In theory the EE dye should have made a very pretty roving– however, it’s absolutely hideous. My Celtic roots often compel me to make some daring, if not downright dangerous, choices as per color combinations– there’s not a whole lot colorwise that I consider off limits, but this roving has crossed even that line. I believe that it might actually be terminally ugly, although I haven’t quite given up hope.

I dug out some of the Kool-Aid roving that I dyed last summer, and have been diligently working my way through it all. My spindle has just plain jane undyed roving, but on the wheel is the kiwi-strawberry varigated.

I’m actually getting much better at spinning using this wheel, which I still detest this baby. I think I want to get an Ashford traditional or one of the Kromski’s. I’m not sure yet, but I’ll feel better about making such a large purchase now that I know I can use a wheel for more than plying. It takes some discipline for me to actually sit and use the wheel, while with the spindle I have so much more mobility. I can work at the computer and spin, I can take the dogs for their walks and spin, I can cook dinner and spin– can’t really do that with the wheel.

I love bartering. Philosophically, it’s the only way I would get stuff if I could. I’ll build web-sites, knit socks, take in mending for anything that really comes from another person– cash just isn’t the same. I put up an offer of web hosting for spindlers in trade for fiber stuff and spindles, and a couple of people responded. I just made up a sample site for one person and I’m starting another for the other person and I’m feeling so great.

It’s absolutely beautiful today, the sun is shining. I put out some dyeing experiements to dry (I’m not sure I’m fond of the results yet, but I was happy to get back into the swing of things) and between wrangling servers and fighting html dragons, I can slip outside with Lexi and spin in the sunshine. She just lights up when we’re playing outside– Lexi is so close to talking, she’s making talkie sounds but not quite babbling yet.

I was thinking last night between nursing and sock sorting session something along the lines of I’ll be glad to finally have the house back.. What am I thinking? Between dogs, kids, business, remodeling, and damage mitigation– I’ve never been happy with the condition of our house. I have boxes yet unpacked from when we originally moved in, I have closets filled with building supplies, and about two dozen sewing machines in various states of functionality.

I decided that I’m going to give this place a brutal decluttering, take my unwashed fleeces somewhere to be washed and commercially processed, organize my dump table, and thin my craft supplies down to the basics.

I just bought a hot knife, then I had to get all of the tips for it (of course) and now I’m scared to even take it out of the box because I just know that I’ll lose it and have all of the tips and blades floating around, or that I’ll find it– then won’t be able to find the correct tip and end up scrapping my project because I’m monomanic about using the right tool.

Still working on the green and yellow lace scarf, not impressive stuff but the pattern is very soothing to stitch. I figured that today if the weather clears up a little, I’ll plug in the crockpot and start playing with the Easter egg dyes that I picked up at Wal-Mart. I was terribly smart this year and decided to pick up more than one package, so now I have enough to get me through some serious fiber stash. On the spindle I have some plain jane roving, undyed. On the wheel I have the same stuff but KA dyed pink from last summer.

I pulled the Morse from it’s table and I’m going to give her a good tune up and belt change, and set up for mending again. I won’t go so far as to say I LOVE my Morse, but I really like her and she’s a tough old gal. After she’s taken care of (if Josey’s not home by then) I’ll operate on the serger that my mom brought over months ago– I’m not certain that Mom actually gave the serger to me, or if she just wants it repaired (sometimes she gives me broken things and when I fix them she claims that she was just ‘loaning’ them to me– I would be upset but she usually lets me ‘borrow’ the stuff right back until I can find a suitable replacement.)

The serger should actually be easy, when it’s on it sounds like it just needs a good cleaning, a new razor, and the feed dogs aligned. I swear I think women should learn at least how to maintain their machines– most of my favorite machines only needed some motor-love or basic maintenance, cord replacement and cleaning, or an alignment that takes two seconds. Other than my Kenmore (which was bought newish from a friend about ten years ago) I don’t think I’ve ever bought a machine that cost more than the price of a tune-up. The Toyota/Morse (bright blue, ‘Singer’ clone, occupied Japan, darling machine) was only $2, and I’ve only thrown about $10 at her in parts, and now she’s a machine reborn– ready to start a new life, not as versatile as my Morse but a nice little straight stitcher for quilting.

Ugh! I could scream– I’ve got a flu-bug. Yesterday I was trying to freshen some clothes that had been in the closets for too long, airing outside didn’t work so I decided to add it all to the laundry. Big mistake, because I wasn’t finished before Matt came home and he ordered me to the couch with a big cup of hot tea and a quilt. When he left the room I pulled one of the laundry baskets over and tried to finish folding, and he came in and took the laundry away from me.

He’s a very sweet guy, but he’s a guy which means that he’s not going to fold the laundry. For Goodness sake, it takes an act of divine intervention for him to remember where exactly the washing machine is at any given time.

Now there’s this HUGE pile-o-laundry threatening me from it’s perch on the love seat. I walked by it earlier this morning and I think I actually heard it snarl at me.

I’m so proud of myself, managed to go through my closet and pull out some clothes that I don’t wear, can’t wear, or never wore and never will wear and put them in the charity box. The scary thing is that I kept most of my retro-clothes and tossed clothes that I bought new so long ago that they are almost ‘in’ right now.

I didn’t think I’d be able to fill an entire huge box, because by nature I’m a pack-rat, but the box was filled and I’m looking around and I realize I could probably fill at least another two boxes with the stuff that I pulled out of my dresser and closet to air. I am going to try to make a habit of filling a box every couple of months, just to clear out the stuff. Our bedroom actually feels larger, now that some of this stuff is out of it.

Blog neglect is a sad sad thing.

My bad. I really didn’t have much time to access the computer though, we have a new puppy. A border collie male named Bailey. Bailey believes it is his job to protect me from that strange sense of accomplishment that comes with finishing anything.

Working on some mindless lace scarves right now, finished a pink varigated one in mohair, working on a lime green and yellow one in mohair now– nothing too complex.

My mom pooped out and asked me if I would be willing to take a fleece that she bought because she’s not sure that she’ll be able to get around to it. Hmm? Let me think about it…um…oakey-dokey.

Finished refurbishing a couple of sewing machine motors and realized that I don’t have the accompanying machines any more. One was cannibalized for parts, and another was gutted for the sake of home-decor.

So now I’m tossing around whether I want to order an extra fly and use it to make an electric spinning wheel, or if I just want to make a couple of really industrial strength wool winders. Or I could make one into a teeny-tiny lathe. The possibilities are endless.