First Project on the Floor Loom

Look, I can use a warping board!



This is cotton chenille 4 yd. warp. You can see that I ended up with 2 crosses, by mistake, but that was not any real problem.  I moved the warp over to my loom which I warped back to front (thanks to the spouse for making me a raddle).

The warping, threading the heddles, and sleying the reed took FOREVER.  Thankfully, I didn't have any threading problems.  Once the warp was tied on to the cloth beam I was weaving!



This is my weaving study group project for March.  The threading I used was a "rosepath" threading (1,2,3,4,3,2,1,4).  I will try out a total of 10 different treadling patterns to investigate how different treadling patterns affect the same threading.  I'm using an inch of plain weave to separate the different patterns.

Thoughts on the project:  The yarn I'm using is extra from the weaving group, with no info, so I had to do wraps on the ruler to get my estimated epi of 15.  I must have wrapped very tightly because the the fabric I'm creating would be great for upholstery.  I really need to get a 12 dent reed so I have more sleying options.  The draft I'm using must have been developed for a counterbalance loom because I'm pretty sure I'm looking at the backside of my weaving.  Once you get the loom warped the weaving is fast and fun!

Swimming:  I swam 1000yds this morning!!  WooHoo!  I did 200 free, 200 back, 200 free, 200 breast, 200 free!

Bamboo is being spun:



I've been spinning the very slippery fiber from the fold which has worked well.  It's giving me good control of the fiber.

I'm starting to get my stressed out pre-cruise feelings.  I'm going to sea April 8-14 for some deep sea coral work and I always get stressed before going to sea.  There is SO much to plan, purchase, organize, pack, transport, load, stage, and accomplish.  Plus, crap always breaks, fails, gets lost, etc.  Putting $35K or more worth of equipment into 500m of water is nerve wracking because you never know if it's going to come back up!  And believe me, I know from experience that ocean doesn't like to let go of what you put into it.

Quick story - Back in 1999 I was part of a team of scientists assessing the impact of Hurricane Floyd in North Carolina.  Massive flooding had occurred during the hurricane, hundreds of homes damaged, livestock killed, etc.  We had two teams operating on the river in two separate boats just a few weeks after the hurricane had come through.  I had spent the evening before we went into the field training my counterpart, Kevin, on the other boat how to use the $15K worth of water monitoring equipment.  The one thing I said over and over was 'Don't forget the safety line, you need the safety line to bring the package back up.'  Near the end of the next day we pulled our boats up to each other and Kevin had this sick look on his face.  He had lost the equipment because he had forgotten the safety line.  Apparently, when he realized what he had done they were only in 10 feet of water.  He decided to go into the river after it.  This was the same river we were surveying because of overflowed manure ponds, dead and floating farm animals, and all the pollutants that flow out of wrecked homes.  He stripped to his underwear and went in the black, tannic water that was so turbid you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.  He never did find it, but I could only be so angry at him after his insane gesture of going into that river hoping to find the equipment on the riverbed.  It also helped that he bought me many beers that evening out of quilt.

Snappy Hat WIP

I've been working on my second snappy hat here and there for the past week.  This has been my "purse" project that I carry around and work on for a minute at a time.



The yarn is a Lion Brand superwash I had in my stash.

Randomness:

Why do republicans only seem to care about fiscal responsibility when they aren't the ones writing the checks?

I swam 750yds this morning, mostly freestyle with some back and breaststroke thrown in for variety.  I've  been using a snorkel for portions of my swim workouts, mainly so I'll keep swimming even after I want to quit because breathing properly with the strokes has become too difficult.  I was so proud of myself this morning when I swam 100yd free followed by 200yd back without stopping.  300yds (12 laps) without a break is the longest I've gone yet.

I made black beans and rice the other night for dinner.  I placed a bowl of it in front of L2.  My 2 year old looked at the bowl, then looked at me "Mommy, I not eat poop."

Some cuteness for a tuesday morning

A little cuteness for a chilly March day.

L1 had an interesting experience recently.  Here she is in the recording studio with her music teacher and another student working on a song for her teacher's upcoming CD.  I'll post here when the CD goes on sale.  You can find Hazel's first children's album on iTunes, just search for Hazel Ketchum Big as the World.  It's a really fun kid's album.

A little Spinning

I spun and plied this skein on my Rose.  The greenish/brown wool is a Punta wool blend I purchased from Fiber Fancy on etsy.  The colorway is called Tree Tops.  The white is undyed Falkland wool I purchased at my LYS.  I spun each color separately then plied them together.  I am very pleased with the final look.



If you have never spun with either Punta or Falkland you should try it. These wools were so easy to spin they almost spun themselves. They are soft and bouncy. As nice as merino in my humble opinion.

Punta wool is not named for a breed of sheep, but rather for an area of South America - Punta Arenas, Chile. The wool itself is from a mixture of breeds. This is also true for Falkland wool which is named for the Falkland Islands and is a mixture of breeds.

What a crappy week

So L2 seems to be getting sick with the cough and fever that L1 had.  The good news is that so far her fever hasn't gone over 100 (L1 was at 102+ for 3 days WITH ibuprofen) and her cough isn't as bad either.  L1 continues to improve as well.

I've been doing a little tiny bit of knitting on the latest snappy hat and a little tiny bit of weaving.  No spinning this week.  Basically, I feel like I've gotten nothing accomplished except for taken care of sick kids.

But here is a pretty sunset (or possibly sunrise) picture I took somewhere in the Atlantic:



When at sea I've worked some crazy schedules.  I prefer 12 on/12off with shifts running midnight to noon and noon to midnight.  That way everyone has at least some period of daylight hours (putting gear over-the-side at night is sucky and more dangerous).  I've also worked 12/12 based on 6am-6pm, 6pm-6am.  The worst is 6 on 6 off.  You still are working 12 hours in each 24 hour shift, but you only get 6 hours off at a time.  This SUCKS because you never get 8 hours of sleep.  I get real grumpy when working 6 on 6 off and never use that schedule when I'm the Chief Scientist.  Anyway, the wacky schedules I work should help explain why I can't remember if the picture is sunset or sunrise.

Ohh, pretty bamboo

L1 is still on the mend so my house will hopefully return to some semblance of normality sooner rather than later (I hope).  In the mean time, here is some bamboo fiber I ordered to spin on my Turkish spindle.  I plan on spinning each color separately and plying all three together.



From left to right: hand-dyed bamboo, un-dyed bamboo, and carbonized bamboo.  I purchased the fiber from Silver Sun Alpacas on etsy (check them out, they're great).

L1 is improving

So L1's fever didn't break on Monday, but continued on.  The respiratory virus caused her asthma to flare and we ended up at the asthma specialist's office yesterday.  The new medications seem to be helping and she actually got some sleep last night (and so did I).  The spouse is home with her today while I'm at work.  Still haven't gotten together any of the weaving pictures, so that post will need to wait.  I did start knitting another hat, using the same Snappy Hat pattern. 

Even with L1 being sick I've continued going to the gym/pool.  I did circuit training and treadmill on Tuesday and did another 700m in the pool this morning.  Even though I didn't add any distance over Monday, I did do more of the laps using freestyle. I really prefer being in the pool to being in the other parts of the gym.  In the pool I'm in my own little world, with my own thoughts.  In the other part of the gym I feel on display, yuck.

Quick Update

I'm at home today taking care of sick child.  L1 has a fever and cough, but her fever seems to have finally broken.  She's upstairs watching Shrek 3 while L2 takes a nap.  I hope to get a post out tomorrow about weaving on the floor loom.  I did get to the pool at 5am this morning and manged 700m!  I used a hodge-podge of strokes, but I made it to 700 so I'm happy.

Do I or Don't I

First here is my pretty picture for the week:



We took this on a small section of the Great Wall just outside Beijing when on our adoption trip for L1.

Now as to the to the 'Do I or Don't I' title I'm referring to whether I should document my get fit plans here.  I've gone back and forth in my head trying to decide what to do.  I'd like a way to keep track of my activities (and this is what I use the blog for), but what if I fail????  And it's all here mocking me in the future???  But maybe this is some of the motivation that I need, fear of failure has often been a great motivator for me in other areas.

As I noted on the blog I ruptured a disc in my back a couple of weeks ago.  Thankfully I've responded super well to physical therapy and chiropractic adjustments and I'm almost back to normal already.  I've always had mild scoliosis and the weight I've gained the past few years is NOT helping my back.  Additionally, I am at very high risk for developing diabetes (family history combined with having gestational diabetes).  I need to get fit and lose weight for myself and for my family.  Period.

Now the question is HOW?  First, thing I've done is to improve my eating habits.  I don't smoke, do drugs, or drink much, but I am a comfort eater.  I've eliminated my snacking and, under the advice of my doctor, I'm starting on a 1000 calorie a day diet for the next few months to get some pounds off quickly.  I'm 39 years old and this will be my first diet.  If I fail dieting on my own, my doctor will prescribe me an appetite suppressant (basically legal speed).  I'm trying to face my emontional need to eat, recongize when it's happening so I can stop it (just because I've had a bad day, I don't need to eat a huge pile of nachos with cheese dip; just because I'm stressed out about getting the kids somewhere doesn't justify eating a Little Debbie snack cake, etc.).

The other thing I'm doing is increasing my physical activity.  We have a great family gym with all the usual stuff just 2 minutes from my house with an indoor pool.  A little known fact, I was a varsity swimmer in High School concentrating on the 100m freestyle and 100m backstroke.  I want to start swimming again.  I've joined the gym and plan on going at least 5 days a week for 30 to 60 minutes.  I'll swim M,W,F and walk the treadmill and do circuit training on T,Th.  The only time I have to fit this into my life is 5am to 6am, which isn't too bad since the spouse already gets up a 5am.  I'm now getting up with him, going to the gym, and home again before he leaves for work.

I am shockingly (at least to me) out of shape when it comes to swimming.  I have NO lung capacity and my technique is for shit.  Since I can't swim for long, I've been combining swimming laps with water walking to build up my strength and aerobic capabilities. I found a great website with a nice program to get a swim routine going - Zero to 1650.  I am currently doing the 0 to 700 phase of the program which is a preamble to zero to 1650.  As of this morning I was able to swim 200m non-stop by combining free and back.  I finished out my workout with water walking.   Hopefully in a few months I'll be swimming a mile!

I currently wear a size 18W.  My ideal target would be a size 10, but I'd be happy to get to a size 12.  Wish me luck.

Plying Ball, how I love thee

Why did I wait so long to try using a plying ball???? While I really enjoy using a spindle, getting the fiber off the spindle and plying is a pain-in-the-ass. I've played around with a number of techniques and have not been really impressed with any of them, until I tried the plying ball combined with a shoe-box lazy kate!

Here are some good posts about using plying balls if you're interested in learning more:
from The Bellwether
an article by Abby Franguemont
If you search for "plying ball" in the Spindlers group on Ravelry you see lots of good examples of this technique.

And here is a good post about making your own shoebox lazy kate from the Keyboard Biologist.



Ta da! This is a 4 oz. 2-ply skein of a silk/wool purchased ages ago from a yarn shop in Monterey Bay, California. I spun this on my Kundert spindle in two batches and plied using a plying ball. Very happy.

Snappy Hat

My brother-in-law split his head open on Saturday while working on a fork lift. He ended up with 42 stitches and a mild concussion. He is doing fine now, but I decided to whip up a cozy, comfy hat for him that would keep his head warm and cover-up the shaved mess. I used the free Snappy Hat pattern from Ravelry and Patons Chunky Shetland Wool yarn (acrylic/wool blend). The pattern was very well written and easy to follow. The pattern author, Picnic Knits, has her own website with both free and for-purchase patterns. Go check it out, based on her free pattern she does a wonderful job of writing easy to follow patterns. The yarn is soft and warm and I hope my brother-in-law likes it. Here is the spouse modeling it last night right after I cast off.

Winding and winding and winding

Yes, I'm winding a warp on my warping board. The weaving study group project for March is to investigate twills and how different treadlings affect the same threading. I have some cotton chenille that is 22 wraps per inch which works out to about 15 epi for twill. I want a 12 inch finished width on the samples (so I can cut them into 6x6 squares when done to share)and my threading is based on groups of 8 threads so I need ~216 threads. I started winding the 4 yd warp last night and I've already realized that warping a floor loom in-directly takes about a 1000 times longer than direct warping a rigid heddle loom. All plain weave projects will go on the rigid heddle loom and I'll save the floor loom for patterns.

On another note, I took the girls to the mall last night to look for pants for L1 since I think she grew 3 inches in the past week! While there I scored a DVD from the discount pile - The Day After Tomorrow. Okay, I admit this movie is totally cheesy, but I LOVE cheesy movies. Even more, I love cheesy movies where the geek scientist saves the day. And even more better, in this movie the geek scientist who saves the day works for the same government agency that I do! The DVD included a digital copy so I'll be watching this on my Ipod next month ... when I'm at sea ... on one of those government boats doing science ;-)

Silk Spindle

Isn't she lovely. This is a Natalie Silk Spindle from the The Bellwether. I was able to place a special order for her and think she it well worth the money. The wood is satine and she has a fast spin, but not not very long. She does spin silk extremely well.

Erosion

No matter the scale, it all kind of looks the same.

"The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead--
There were no birds to fly."
Guess what these lines are from??



I took this photo along a beach by zooming in on the dune sand eroding.  It made me thing about desert mountains eroding, same look...different scales.

Stacked Lanterns Scarf

To continue with the bad-back knitting I whipped up this scarf which I named the Stacked Lanterns Scarf because I think it looks like stacks of Chinese lanterns I saw during the recent Spring Festival.



This is from 2 balls of KidSilk Aura that I had in my stash.  I cast on 25 stitches and knit ~9 garter ridges (18 rows) on US 13 then ~ 9 garter ridges on US 6.  Repeat.

Cowl gone wrong

I've been knitting while resting my back.  My choice of knitting was based on something I didn't have to follow a chart for, and I could do while lying on my back.  A cowl seemed the perfect choice, especially since I had two balls of Touch Me yarn (total of 120 yds).  This yarn is Aran weight and insanely soft.  I bought it a number of years ago during a sale and after I got it home could never quite figure out how to best use it.  This weekend it screamed "Make me into a Cowl," so I did.  Or I should really say - I tried to.

I went to ravelry and searched the patterns for "cowl" and aran weight yarn.  I choose the Birthday cowl pattern, which is a simple, lovely pattern available for free.  Unfortunately it DID NOT work with the Touch Me yarn.  As you can see I don't have a cowl, I have a necklace.



It is still pretty, and I may keep it to use as a necklace/loose cowl, but it was not what I was going for.  I knit this on US 8 and should have cut out one repeat (maybe even two).  Sigh.

Improving

My back is improving, and we will continue with conservative treament (no surgery).  The MRI showed a disc extrusion making contact and deflection of the left S1 nerve root.  Since I'm improving everyday we'll contiune with physical thearpy and increasing exercise.  I also plan on losing the weight I've picked up the past two years.  I hope to be spinning and weaving again soon.  In the mean time, my kids crack me up.

 

L1 plays doctor

 

L2 plays blanket monster and attacks with her lovey

Knitting on the Knucks

I've been on my back since Friday, walking as much as I can stand, and I'm starting to feel better.  I go see the back specialist today at noon to go over my MRI results.  The good news is my wrist is better and I have been knitting while laying on my back.  I finished the Knucks knit from my own handspun!