Quickie

Just a short post today. I have to announce that my DH, Thom, won a prize! He came Runner-Up in a handmade ukulele contest sponsored by Cigar Box Nation. See his winning instrument and all the scoop here. This was his first ukulele and only the second instrument he ever made so I’m pretty proud of him! Especially when you see all the fantastic competition. Check out the slide show. I love all creative handmade things and totally admire the imagination and skill that goes into them. Yay!

In other news, Jean was right in her comment about needing to weight my recalcitrant warp threads to make them behave better. I had a few problems still: the first stick I used bent too much, the weights (from my knitting machines) weren’t heavy enough and then I couldn’t find my plastic water jugs that I use for weighting supplementary warps and piqué. This morning when it was cooler in the attic I took the big camping light and climbed in to hunt and finally found the jugs (economy-sized salsa from back when we had kids at home). The cool thing about these is that they have handles that make it easy to suspend them and you can fill them to whatever weight you need. I still have to do that part.

Also I could really use a temple on this warp but although I have 4 of them (!) none are the right length. I need to get Thom to reduce the 24” wooden one down to 18” which shouldn’t be too difficult. It can go larger than that but not smaller. The smallest metal one I have can go up to 18” so that should cover the size gap nicely. I already have a 24” metal and a 30” wooden temple. The metal ones cover up less of the woven fabric but the wooden ones work just fine too. I do tend to draw in my selvedges too much so I often use a temple to spread the warp better. You always have to remember to move them frequently but it just becomes habit after awhile. Lynette has a great post on how to use one here.

Well, today we’re off to have dim sum for lunch in Chinatown with a friend from my guild and then walk over to her place to check out her borrowed bulky spinning wheel. She’s a new spinner and it seems to be giving her trouble so she’s bribing us to come trouble-shoot for her. This is not the first time Thom & I have come to her rescue so lunch is also for services already rendered as well. I’ll take any reason to indulge though! Yum.

More soon! I still haven’t shown you the Grey Tabby Socks, have I?