Three Shoe Day!

Long ago, when the kids were small and the knees still worked, every so often I'd have what I like to call a 3 shoe day.  I'd get to wear my cleats (boots) coaching kid's soccer in the morning, I'd get to wear bike shoes on an afternoon ride, and then slip on the Sambas for an indoor soccer game--those were great days. Three shoe days! 

I wore the same shoes all day yesterday, but I'm pretty sure it was a 3 shoe day.  Kelly and I met some long-time friends we hadn't seen for ages for lunch. 

We went to the airport to see the solar powered airplane. The plane is making an around-the-world flight without using any fuel. The plane made an unscheduled stop in Tulsa and is housed in an airplane hangar here until the weather clears and it can resume flying. 

I returned to work to hear the incomparable Dean Erwin Chemerinsky talk about the Supreme Court and the 2016 election.  He's a captivating speaker.

Then, I attended a fabulous team meeting for the ACTS retreat.

 If that's not a 3-shoe day, then they aren't being made any more.  It was a rainy Monday to boot.  

New Endeavors/Passions

Since my last post was fully a year ago, it's obvious that the new passion is NOT blogging.  

After literally YEARS of snarling at the influx of quilting fabric overtaking the garment fabric available at the fabric stores and harrumphing (how do you spell that anyway?) about  those craft sewers, a few years ago I consented to sewing a few straight lines of quarter inch seam allowance to make some baby quilts for charity.  All the while proclaiming that I AM NOT A QUILTER, I stealthily collected a few cheerful bits of cotton fabric that might be nice accompaniments to the donated fabric used by our group, King's Quilters and Crafters at Christ the King Parish.

  Can you guess where this is going?  

So, I rocked along making a few baby quilts a year.  I made a few aprons for gifts.  I practiced quilting by making place mats for the kitchen table.  (OK, the place mat drawer might be overflowing and there might be some cloth napkins involved).  And then, as things tend to do, somehow things sort of got out of control...

the workroom got cleaned up

shelves were rearranged and moved

the big loom was slid across the room to make space

Kelly wrote a big check

and

 Whaaaaaat happened?????  

Longarm quilting machine happened, that's what.  12 foot long table happened, that's what.  Her name is Gertrude, that's what.  

9 baby quilts done by me and 6 more quilted for others, that's what. 

 I guess I am a quilter after all.  

My new business is AnnMade, LLC.  I'll be quilting for fun and profit in my spare time soon.   You can check out that blog at annmadeLLC.blogspot.com 

 In the meantime, I'm upstairs in the workroom playing with thread and moving my now sizeable stash of fabric from pile to pile trying to decide how best to use it up.  Or maybe I'll just go buy more fabric, because God might stop making cotton, and then where would I be?  

  

A Making Kind of Weekend

Mayfest and the Blue Dome Art Festivals proceed apace in downtown Tulsa this weekend.   I could go wander through booths and booths of things other people have made and eat something fried on a stick

OR

 I could 

make stuff myself

No contest there, really.  Since it's Mayfest weekend, rain is pretty much guaranteed off and on all weekend.  So, instead of dodging rain, I plan to closet myself in the house with a few gallons of sweet tea and sandwich fixin's  and make a few batches of soap, make bread, make biscotti, and sew.  

So, maybe the house will smell of yeast, and citrus-y lemongrass-y soap rather than wet dog.  And maybe I'll have to buy new pant and skirt hangers instead of refolding and storing the linen fabric I've been hoarding.  I'll let you know.  

READY

SET

Gooooooooo!!

 

Sea Change

I've been battling "bad" knees for years.  (A hard fall on my kneecaps caused arthritis there).  I've managed doing most things by taking a prophylactic handful of Advil and soldering on and capping my activities with another handful.  Years ago I was told I had knee replacement in my future, albeit at a distant point.  

Sometime last year the left knee got so painful, I had to just about quit doing anything.  I figured the time was up on my original equipment and  I needed a new knee.  I ended up seeing 3 different orthos:  1) you need a knee replacement, but you are too young (HuH? do I just sit on the couch and fester until I'm old enough?); 2) why do you think you need a knee replacement, lets try PT and I'll send you to my colleague for arthroscopic surgery if you still have pain; and 3) I'll be doing your lateral release surgery (cutting tissue to allow the kneecap to get back in place).

I did PT--it was magic, the knee was lots better, but still very painful.  Now, almost 4 months after the lateral release surgery (and cleanup of a big meniscus tear and removal of arthritis from kneecap), I'm waaaaay  better than last year but not as good as new.  By which I mean, I CANNOT ride my beautiful nearly new Trek Madone (bicycle).  She's the prettiest thing I own, I love her in a way you are NOT supposed to love material things.  After convincing myself I could ride her, I spent an afternoon crying because I couldn't make a single revolution. 

Yesterday afternoon, my husband bought me a used recumbent ('bent) from a pawn shop, a Rans Stratus LE.  Its wheelbase is easily as long as our bikes were when we rode the kids across the state of Oklahoma around on AlleyCat Shadows (one wheeled trail-a-bike devices that attach to the seatpost and enable the kid to pedal along).  The wheelbase is longer than either of the tandems that we owned at one time.  Compared to the Madone, it's a ship anchor.  

I spent the day cleaning her chain, adjusting her brakes, and making micro adjustments to the seat (it is definitely a seat--NOT a saddle) to enable me to pedal.  This afternoon I went for a ride--and I was able to ride.  

Except for this last year, there hasn't been a time (unless I was pregnant or had the flu or some other affliction) since the early 80s when I couldn't get on a bike and ride 50 miles. if I chose to do so.  Today I rode maybe 2 miles, maybe a little more.  I was worn out:  out of shape; recumbent uses different muscles; steering is funky; and knee not completely rehabbed, it was a bit stressed.  

IT WAS GREAT!!!!!! 

I may spend this afternoon crying because I can ride.  

And, my conception of what constitutes a beautiful bike may have just changed entirely.

They Call Me The Plant-Killer

Hey you!  You say you're hardy, but Troops, you've been selected for hazardous duty. I'm pretty good with kids and dogs even though mine smell like they've been rolling in something dead (dogs, not kids).  But plants?  HA!  You'll be lucky to live until June.  

There!  The challenge has been issued--let's see what you're made of.  
                                                                                                                                                                          

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

How'd that eye-popping headline grab you?  

If you've somehow stumbled into AnnWorld, that must make you want to read on and anxiously await as the snappy thoughts just tumble from my fingertips to your eyes through the magic of electrical impulses. 

In the vein of snappy original thoughts, I ask: 

Is it a New Year and therefore a clean slate, or just another Wednesday?

Well, no choice but to wait and see.

In the meantime, here's a thing for you--

                                a knitting pattern thing--

                                          a V-E-R-Y C-O-O-L knitting pattern thing.

 

A HAT

a hat of Olympic proportions

Admittedly, that's a bit overdone--you judge.

 This is the Team USA 2014 Sochi Winter Games earflap hat--FREE   pattern on Ravelry.com.  This hat is NOT to be confused with the 2010 Team USA hat, which is also very cool.  I only knit 4 of the 2010 hats, with the last one completed on December 27, 2012.  Maybe my plans to knit 6 of the 2014 hats before the February 7 opening ceremonies is a little ambitious?  Again, we'll wait and see.   

 

                            

 

Bye Now

Here it is, the last day of 2013 (well, it was when I wrote this) and, very unoriginally, I'm taking stock of the last 353 days (I took a few days off).  

The year started ordinarily enough that nothing stands out until February 26th when we got the alarming news that my mother had advanced pancreatic cancer.  What followed was a whirl of appointments, procedures, and rapid weakening.  As awful as that time was, and it was awful, I was privileged to observe my mother meet her short future on earth with class and extreme patience for the rest of us who struggled to meet her needs, and ours.  An even bigger privilege was having the opportunity to observe Dad patiently and tenderly take on the role of caregiver for Mom and to watch them together.  

For 30 years, at least, Mom has had a magnet on the fridge that says:  "Life is a grindstone, whether you become worn or polished depends on what you are made of."   In the grindstone that was 2013, my parents both shone.  Thank you for that.  

Thanks too, to my many friends and those of my parents who stepped up to help shoulder our troubles this year.  And thanks, especially, to Beth who helped in uncountable ways, up to and including delivering Mom's eulogy.  

There was other loss too, as Uncle Pete, Aunt Leoba, and Beth's father also died.  

HOWEVER, all was not doom and gloom for our clan in 2013 as Kelly and I had the unparalleled experience of traveling to Italy to visit Sister-Daughter (Sister Divine Providence, SSVM) at her convent in Tuscania.  For nearly two weeks she shepherded us around Italy.  We went from coast to coast listening to her speak Italian for us as we looked on with pride.  And in August she moved back to the US after her year in Italy.  

Alex moved back to Tulsa from Los Angeles, accepted a scholarship at the University of Tulsa in the MBA program, switched to Masters of Accounting, and received a graduate assistant position for the duration of his time at TU.  

And, I got to spend a week with Sister-Daughter at the convent in Maryland.  She went on with life there and I busied myself sewing habits for the new novices, and a surprise habit for the Mother Superior.  It was an absolute blast to be folded into her world for a time.  

There were basket conferences (two) and a weaving workshop squeezed in as well as two trips to Lawrence, Kansas for spinning and weaving supplies.  The kitchen was painted, we got a new heating and air conditioning system, and Kelly and I both got 4 new pairs of socks and 2 t-shirts each.  (HA!).

Pardon me if this post reads like a stereotypical bad Christmas letter, but I really need to put 2013 away in order to get started on 2014.

And so, 2013 ends.  Tomorrow I'll wake up with the same mess on my bedside table and the same to do list taped to my mirror but nothing will be the same because it will be a New Year.  I wish you a happy one. 

Oh that rascally . . . Pumpkin?

 
    








 I happened into Whole Foods sometime in mid-October and what should I see, but acres of stunning non-standard pumpkins.  There were Cinderella pumpkins, and Fairytale pumpkins (maybe they were the same), white pumpkins, and green pumpkins, but the very best ones were the Rascal Pumpkins.  I picked out the best Rascal.
The best feature of the best Rascal was the great stem and curlicue.   

 Alas, October came and went and so did Thanksgiving and Rascal Pumpkin's time as a decorative item came to an end.  And that's when my kitchen became a killing field.

THIS COULD HAVE BEEN CINDERELLA'S COACH

TWO STOCK POTS FULL

PUMPKIN GUTS

I GOT A BLISTER FROM CUTTING UP RASCAL PUMPKIN

I'm thankful for you Rascal Pumpkin, you looked cool and your sweet meat will be soup and bread and muffins and maybe even a pie.  I've saved a few seeds and maybe I'll grow you a cousin next year.  
 p.s.  the Rascal Pumpkin is very very tasty. 
                                                                            

How dishtowels are born

Sometimes people say, "Oh, weaving is sooooo interesting--why don't you tell me EXACTLY how you make that?"  About an hour into my explanation the questioner tends to drift off, feign death, or engage in some other artifice to make the explaining stop.  

So for the curious I offer this pictorial essay about weaving.  

Start with an idea--here a scarf pattern found in an issue of Handwoven Magazine

read the instructions and decide to make dishtowels, not a scarf, and further decide to use cotton, not the fibers used in the scarf

Rewrite the pattern (draft) in Ann-speak to 

accommodate the changes

Select hopefully appropriate thread from the shelves in the workroom

Measure each of the 400+ threads to an exact length, here 6 yards

Move the threads to the loom and HOPE this doesn't happen--it does.

Wind the threads onto the back beam keeping them in order and untangled as they are here, even though it doesn't look like it. 

Thread EACH of the 400+ threads through the eye of a metal device called a heddle without crossing the threads and whilst keeping them in the correct order for the pattern

Heddles threaded--THIS is so beautiful, it brings tears to my eyes.  The nonsense you see at the left of the frame is  a correction for a couple of threads that were missed in the measuring and threading--thankfully there were only two such threads and they were next to each other.

Another shot of the lovely threaded heddles

Thread each of the 400+ threads (in order and without crossing any of them) through the slots in the reed.  This is known as sleying the reed. The reed is used to beat the weft threads into place.

Wind yet MORE thread on bobbins, insert bobbin into shuttle and  . . . 

WEAVE

Cut the towels off the loom and hem up the ends.  At this point they are stiff and somewhat disappointing--not at all dishtowel-ish.  They need to be washed and dried.

Here they are all washed and dried and ready to be used.  They don't look much different than the unwashed ones, but ohhhhh, they are sooo much softer.  

That's it, except it takes hours and hours to dress (thread or warp) the loom.  The weaving goes really fast unless you discover threading errors that have to be fixed or threads break. 

Yeah, I know Walmart sells dishtowels.  And, I was lying -- People don't really ask me to tell them how it's done, I just offer that info, but they do really glaze over and run away, can't understand why. 

 

Oh WoW!! Yarn

No, despite my BEST EFFORTS I did not get the vest done in time to enter it into the fair.  I knit & knit & knit all day and until after 9:30pm the night before it was due and came to the realization that, despite having spun more yarn, I was going to run out again with just inches to knit and further, the whole thing looked a bit incredibly wonky.  The wonk-i-ness might be solved by a proper soak and blocking, but there wasn't time for that and so I went to bed, slept soundly, and put the vest in time out.  It's still there . . . probably plotting to not be completed for fair time again NEXT year.  

Since it's fall now, and since that is prime knitting time, I've taken a partial inventory of my yarn stash.  Oh WoW!  I have lots and lots of onesie and twosie skeins that are fit only for small projects--while those yarns make quite a mountain, they are not the subject of an oh WoW.  The piles that evoke oh Wow-ness are those where the number of skeins of one type and color of yarn exceeds 10 and the yardage exceeds 1000 yards, or 1500 yards, or in one case 3000 yards.  These piles are the sweater-worthy piles.

The sweater-worthy oh WoW yarn might have been purchased with a particular project in mind, but more likely because it was a good price.  (or my favorite color, as most of it is green).  I have spent hours days pouring over patterns and have assigned suitable patterns to each pile. So, right now I have 3 cardigans, a vest (or two) and a shawl assigned to the oh WoW yarn.  I've documented the yarn/pattern pairings in several places so I won't get off track.   Thus, I  am FIRMLY committed to stopping the endless pattern search, going with what I've decided, and ACTUALLY knitting the stupid lovely sweaters.   (the success of this plan is not hampered in the least by the fact that for the third Christmas in a row I'm knitting on the same sweater for Sister Daughter). 

BUT, as I was writing this post I noticed a new book on the shelf:  Top Down Sweaters.  I  cannot proceed with my plan until I have ruled out making any of those sweaters with the oh WoW yarn.  

And this may be  EXACTLY why I have piles of Oh WoW yarn. 

This Time I AM Going to be MATURE

What I mean by that rash statement is this morning I decided good enough is good enough.   I am not going to make myself (and maybe Kelly) completely crazy by attempting something that, while possible, cannot reasonably be accomplished in the time allotted. I feel really good about that. 

It is Thursday.  Saturday is the turn-in time for entries into the Tulsa State Fair.  (Yeah, we know Tulsa isn't really a state).  I signed up to enter two skeins of handspun yarn and a vest knit of handspun.  I could possibly get the vest completed, but I'm going to run out of handspun.  So, to complete this task, I'll need to spin more yarn AND knit between now and Saturday.   

I've calculated the waking minutes from now (Thursday) until the turn in date (Saturday) and subtracted the time wasted in working for a living and attending things I cannot reasonably dump.  So, in a RARE flash of maturity, I have abandoned the attempt to complete the vest. The yarn CANNOT be spun and plied and washed and dried and knitted and then the vest washed and dried in the remaining time, plus I don't have a button--the vest needs a button. 

Two skeins of handspun will have to be it for my entries--I'm mostly OK with that. :(

THEN, I got to work and looked at my calendar.  AND maturity just moved to the back burner.  


I am attending a continuing education seminar tomorrow, which is pretty much 8 hours of uninterrupted knitting.  The place is well lit and the chairs aren't too awfully uncomfortable--there is LOTS of coffee and it would be perfect except the coffee cups aren't very big and they have speakers that keep blabbing about stuff.   BUT, I'm pretty sure I can get the knitting done in that amount of time.

I only need about 50 yards of 2ply yarn, so although I'm not getting home until after 7:30 pm, I might try to get that spun and washed tonight.  I gotta figure out how to get it to dry quickly, but this IS do-able. 

I'll need a cool button, but I kind of have this idea that I might make some pounded copper wire affair.  The button wouldn't necessarily need to be functional for the fair. I hope I still have the copper wire at home where I think it is. 

Yeah, I'm back in business.

GOOD BYE MATURITY

No Dirt on MY Hands

Yes, in fact I do know that a bar of soap can be purchased for less than the amount of change left in my jeans after a weekend.  

And, two people can only use so much soap. 

Yet, I spent most of this holiday weekend and untold dollars making soap.  

TWELVE POUNDS

of

SOAP

Why?  Well, over the last few months, I made one batch of soap at a friend's house, I've read books, bought ingredients, looked at web sites, took a DISASTROUS class, bought more ingredients, joined forums, bought molds, read some more, and soooooo . . . it was finally time to get my saponification on.  

I planned to make shaving soap for a birthday gift for some old duff  :) I'm related to who just happens to lather up with a brush. The recipe I had made 5 pounds but the mold I bought only held 3 pounds so I had to adjust the recipe by dividing by 5 and multiplying  by 3.  That was pretty easy math, and all was well until I poured the hot oil into the crock pot I planned to use and realized there was no room for the other ingredients (lye & water). So, I had to change the method from cooking in the crock pot to cold process.    

In cold process you mix lye and water and melt the solid oils and then cool everything to the same temperature pour them together and mix like mad until the stuff looks like pudding, pour into a mold, wrap in blankets and wait for a day, unmold, and cut into bars.   That was so much fun I had to make more.  

Next I made another cold process batch, but that recipe made 3.375 pounds (things are VERY exact in the soap world), but the mold I wanted to use was for 5 pounds.  So,  back to the calculator to end up with 5.6 pounds.  This batch was made with sunflower oil and was scented with lemongrass, and rosemary.  

Well, I had lots of ingredients left and I thought I should try to use the crockpot. So I went to Whole Foods and acquired ingredients. No calculations were necessary, I just followed the recipe (except for the scents which were orange, a bit of lemongrass, and rosemary) Cooking the soap in the crockpot was less trouble than cold process.

 Cooking in the crockpot & finished product

cooked in the crockpot

cold process

I like the result from the cold process better.  The bars are very smooth.  You can compare the photos and see the difference.   

Soap waiting to come out of the lamb mold

Baa! I made it!

I must have miscalculated--the shaving soap was a mess!

I made a bunch of these from the shavings

The soap has to sit around and cure for 6 weeks (actually it's just drying out so it will last longer--it's pretty soft at this point).  I should really be ready for a bath by then.  :)

It's back to the drawing board for the shaving soap--I haven't given up on that.  

Anyway, when you make soap the resulting mess is interesting to clean up because it's soap.  Right now my hands and kitchen counter are REALLY clean. 

Weave Every Day

For the umpteenth time I am implementing a NEW plan.  This one involves keeping my small rigid heddle loom continually warped and actually weaving on it EVERY day.  

My first offering involved some silk yarn which I think is gorgeous but is miserable to knit with.  It became this scarf in less than a week.  

It's actually not completely finished.  The fringe has to be twisted and the ends knotted--I really hate doing that part.  

.

Then, I warped up the loom again.  This time with some wool and silk Warping the rigid heddle loom is  f a s t  but it takes up the length of the family room.  Keeping the dogs out of the yarn is the hardest part of the process.

Here is the result of the second week's work--again not completed, fringe twisting to be supplied later.  

Meanwhile . . . The larger rigid heddle has been warped too.  The weaving here is not going so rapidly.  The secret to actually getting weaving done seems to be having it in the way so I work on it a bit every time I walk by.   Kelly has NOT agreed to let me move the big floor loom downstairs though.  

BUT wAiT, that's not all . . .

The plan continues well into its THIRD week.  This warp is yarn dyed by the very talented Denise of Lost City Knits.  The colorway is called  "primitive."  The weft is Ann spun yarn (that is handspun by me).  The roving for this was purchased from Donna of The Weavery at Indian Meridian, the color is "jungle fever." (actually that might not actually be the name--that might just be what I call it).  It was handy that the colors actually went together as well as the names of the colorways.  The handspun was chain plied to keep the colors distinct.  It was a surprise to me how evenly striped the woven scarf is as a result.  It is not exactly what I expected, but it seems to work.  

 The colors are quite washed out in the photo--they border on garish in person, but I like 'em.  

I've been playing with the BIG loom too.  Warp was measured and everything looked GREAT!!!  And the threads were evenly spaced and the colors were perfect.  I didn't buy any new yarn.  This was all stuff I had squirreled away.  I had visions of the jacket to be this yarn would become.  And then . . . 

I began winding the warp and threads began popping and breaking and I grabbed the scissors and  . . . 

There you have it--six yards of warp all tangled and nesting in the trash peaceably where it belongs.  Not ALL plans work out.