I guess I was wrong yesterday, I can get one more post in this year.  As I hoped last night, I was able to get the loom fully dressed and ready for weaving.  Here it is:
And a close up view of the warp threads:
I can’t wait to begin weaving! ¬†Guess you know how I’ll be spending the last few hours of 2008. ¬†I’m planning on doing a plain twill weave. ¬†I added extra when calculating the warp length to allow for sampling. ¬†
Murphy’s Law was in full play last night. ¬†I spent about 30 minutes hunting around the house looking for my sleying hook. ¬†I’d seen it somewhat recently and made a mental note (hehehe) to remember it as the loom was on its way and I would be wanting it soon. ¬†I know. ¬†Good laugh. ¬†Naturally, I couldn’t remember where it was that I’d seen it when I made that note. ¬†The night wasn’t getting any younger so I gave up. ¬†My new loom has texsolv heddles with larger openings and my yarn is a fingering weight so I threaded the heddles with my fingers. ¬†I fashioned a hook to use to sley the reed out of an expired credit card. ¬†It worked well enough. ¬†Took me just under two hours from beginning to fully tied on and I caught up on the 4 episodes of Ryan’s Hope that my DVR had waiting for me 😉 ¬†After I finished, I had a flash as to where else I might have seen the sleying hook. ¬†Lo and behold, it was in the gadget box for the CSM. ¬†Go figure. ¬†Now that I didn’t need it, I had it. ¬† Not sure how it made it to that box considering I haven’t woven since 2002 and certainly didn’t own the CSM then. ¬†Oh well, I made sure to put it with the loom gadgets for next time. ¬†
I’m working from home today as the office closes at noon for the holiday. ¬†The kids’ school closes at 12:30, so it works out well. ¬†Its busy snowing outside, ugh. ¬†We’re looking at 1-3″ before this storm is over this afternoon. ¬†Thankfully dad is around to do the snow blowing of the driveway. ¬†Just prey for no snow between Jan 14 thru the 24th as that is when the folks will be away on the cruise and yours truly would have to do it.
I don’t have any resolutions for this year except maybe to sit back and enjoy things more. ¬†I do however want to use stash more than purchase this year, see if I can whittle this monster back a little. ¬†I want to wish everyone a very happy and healthy new year. ¬†¬†¬†
You all know the three fates:¬† Clotho, Lachesis and Atropo.¬† And yes, I did read the Piers Anthony books 🙂
First Clotho, spinner of the thread:
Clotho
Batting next is Lachesis. 
Last night after getting the kids off to bed, I pulled out the warping board and measured for the scarf project.
Warp Chain
Yum!¬† 82 ends of 110″.¬† As you can see on the bobbin, I still have plenty of yarn left.¬† For perspective, that’s one of my WW bobbins for the Womack, which incidentally is an identical twin to the Lendrum WW bobbin.¬† And yes, I did manage to cram all 8oz of plied yarn onto it with room to spare.
Warp chain up close
I’m working towards my first woven project entirely from hand spun.¬† I haven’t woven in quite a while now.¬† I picked my warping board up from storage and noticed that my floor loom still has the placemat project on it that I started in about 2002.¬† I know, pretty sad.¬†¬†
After finishing measuring the warp, I put the loom together and attached to the back beam.¬† I’ll wind it on tonight and fingers crossed, thread the heddles and the reed.¬† It is possible.¬† Not sure how likely as I’ve picked up some bug that has me coughing my lungs out.¬†
Warp Cross
I probably won’t get a chance to post tomorrow, I wish everyone a very happy and healthy New Year!
I think I’ve mentioned before that I have a “mini me”.¬† Kathryn.¬†¬† When I had my hair cut last week, she was with me.¬† I had my hairdresser give her a trim and halfway through it, Kat declared she wanted her hair short, like mama.¬† Seemed a little too spur of the moment so I told her that I’d be going back for a trim in 4 weeks.¬† If she still wanted a haircut like mine, she could certainly have it then.¬†
Bugger has the same patience level I do.  Mini Me indeed. 
Anyway, late Wednesday afternoon the kids were home, I was busy upstairs doing something while they played in the den.¬† And they had scissors.¬† You know where this is going.¬† I called them upstairs for dinner and I noticed that Alex’s hairline was a little odd.¬† He’d taken a snip almost to the roots right front middle.¬† Nice.¬† Also took a couple of just above the root snips at a few other spots going back.¬† As I was questioning him as to why he did this (and he was surprised I wasn’t mad.¬† Disappointed, but really, mad?¬† Not my head.¬† ) he said Kat did it too.¬† Oy.¬† Yes, she had almost 2″ trimmed off on Saturday.¬† Great.¬† I took a look at her head.¬† Nothing as bad as her brother’s work.¬† Though there were small sections that were cut to just below shoulder length.¬† Bugger forced my hand.¬†
So after dinner, I gave her a shower and washed/conditioned her hair.¬† After repeatedly questioning her desire she insisted Yes.¬† Like Mama’s.¬† Sigh.
Before
This hair was a lot of work.  I had to seriously condition it every washing as it knotted badly.  I had to also repeatedly braid it and then chastise her for taking the braids out at school.  It was pretty hair, but I have to admit it, as much as I loathed to cut it, I think she looks adorable (and older) now.
Like Mama
Her’s is a tad shorter than mine. What can I say. I’m a lawyer turned software developer. At no time did I cut hair … other than when I wasn’t supposed to like when I cut my butt length braids off at 4yo ;)¬† Goodbye painful brushing and nightly braiding, hello hair dryer 😉
This year’s teachers gifts were very well received.¬† The two main teachers received the felted tote bags.¬† One even hugged me thank you!¬† They were both floored that I actually made the bag but with the sewn in “Knit by Risa” tags there was little denying it.¬† I cranked a pair of socks out of some stash Trekking for one of the afternoon aides while the other got a Noro Multidirectional Scarf I knit 2 years ago or so and promptly misplaced when it came time for teacher gifts.
Teacher Gifts 08
I took a short break in knitting the had for dad¬† on Thursday and whipped out one for me.¬† It’s Chicknit’s Felted Bucket Hat done completely in hand spun.¬† The brim is some BFL I found in stash.¬† Not sure when I bought the fiber or even spun it up.¬† Just shoved it in the drawer with the rest of the stuff years back.¬† The others skeins near it were labeled 1999 so it has been marinating for a long while.¬† Very soft.¬† The middle and crown are ummm handspun.¬† Not entirely sure what the hell it is beyond that.¬† But it matches my coat nicely 😉
UnFelted Bucket Hat
It went into the machine on Friday. Here it is felted.¬† Sorry for the crappy photo.¬† I took it quickly this morning and didn’t notice that the camera was on the wrong setting.¬† Mea Culpa.
Felted Bucket Hat
Speaking of Mea Culpa, I plied up the two bobbins worth um Friday while the kids were at school.¬† I naturally used the electric Womack.¬† Like there’s any other way to ply 8oz of 40wpi ;)¬† Took almost 2 hours as it was.
Corriedale in Mea Culpa
I have it here with a skein of Misti Alpaca Lace.¬†¬† I have to confess to owning many skeins of this Misti in this colorway.¬† I was considering weaving these two together with the alpaca as warp and the MC as the weft.¬† I’ve since changed my mind and have decided to use just the MC.¬† I did the calculations last night and will probably wind the warp this evening.¬† I’m going to weave a scarf with it.¬† I haven’t a clue on the yardage but its 22wpi and 8oz.¬† I’m sure I have way more than enough for the scarf I’ve planned which is approx 350 yds.¬† Not to mention having enough left over to knit a pair of socks for me!¬†
Finally, here’s a face I haven’t shown in a while.¬† She’s finally in full coat and seems to have escaped the yearly trip to the groomer without being shaved.¬† Her undercoat didn’t grow back from her last shaving until about October.¬† I’ve been trying to regularly groom her since then.¬† I warned her that if she didn’t let me brush her, I’d have to have her hair cut.¬† Threat used to work on Kat ;)¬† Her tummy did get shaved, but no one really sees that!
Serendipity
She’s perched on my spinning stool in front of the Van Eaton.¬† Ahh Fabio.¬† Such a sweet wheel.¬† Ashamedly, I haven’t touched him in a few days.¬† I spent yesterday in the den playing with the Vermont wheel where I spun up two and a half more bobbins from the never ending bag of CVM roving.¬† I swear,¬†6 bobbins down now and it doesn’t look like there’s anything missing!¬† I haven’t a clue how much was in there but it was a 5+lb fleece at one point.¬† Sigh.¬† Someday I’ll finish it.
Oh. My. G-d.¬† It is serously cold outside today!¬† Currently 16F in my hometown.¬† It is an established fact that I HATE WINTER.¬† It is so cold today that dad drove me to a different station that actually has a building so I could wait inside rather than at the curve in the road that I normally stand alongside.¬†¬† He’s going to take the twins to daycare.¬† Or not.¬† He’s a good dad.
Speaking of dad, for the very first time, he requested a knitted item.¬† I know, what’s with my family?!¬† First it was my little sister asking for a sweater for her older one.¬† Then my middle sister requested first mittens which then morphed into hats for her boys.¬† Now dad.¬† None of them have asked for anything before.¬† I’m totally amazed.¬† I can’t discourage this whatsoever.¬† So what did I do last night but cast on a hat for dad.¬† I’m using the STR from my nephew’s hat in the blue colorway, but a different pattern.¬† This is simply a 2×2 rib for 11″ and then 3 reduction rows at the crown.¬† Easy peasy.¬†¬†
Man Hat
I know i said I was going to make a scarf for the boys out of the leftovers.¬† I started one, I just didn’t like the feel of the yarn.¬† It is great for hats, I don’t think its soft enough for scarf.¬† So…
After dad’s hat, I’m making one for me.¬† I can’t seem to find a single hat I’ve knit for myself, just stuff i bought at J.Crew when i worked there.¬† They just aren’t as good.¬† I had a felted bucket hat that I can’t seem to locate.¬† Not sure what the yarn is going to be.¬† I do have some brown cascade 220 to match the coat in stash, but there’s probably some yummy handspun cormo in stash.¬† Must dig that up tonight after I wrap the teacher presents.¬† Must also remember to photograph them.¬† I threaded the straps into the bags last night.¬†¬† I’m quite pleased with them.¬†
I didn’t ply the Mea Culpa yet, but did start a new fiber on the Van Eaton.¬† I’m spinning more from CMF, this time it is a BFL in the Black Sun colorway.
Black Sun
This wheel wants to spin very fine.¬† Not sure what the wood is on this bobbin but it isn’t black walnut.¬† I have 7 bobbins for this wheel, 4 of which are the walnut and the others are a mix.¬† I think this one is bubinga.¬† I also decided it was time to spin a little bit more of that toasted banana on the Reeves, another wheel that wants to spin fine!
I showed a picture yesterday with my head all wrapped in cellophane.  Well, a few weeks ago Wendy posted about using henna on her hair.  I followed her links and long story short, bought some for me.  This is the after picture.  I sat with that stuff on my hair for 3 hours yesterday and am most happy with the results.  The gray is covered and appears as copper highlights.  I love it!
Day 1
Mom, who agreed to apply the stuff, was most happy when I returned home from the hairdresser on Saturday with much shorter hair! I hadn’t planned on cutting it when I ordered the henna so I have a great deal left.¬† Which is good because I’ll have roots to deal with before I know it.
Yesterday was one of those days that was just full. ¬†After breakfast I got a lesson from dad on using the snowblower. ¬†I was never strong enough to use the old one he had, damn thing dragged me down the driveway one day, and at my apartment I had shovels. ¬†We have a four car driveway and with the way the weather is running now, I’m apt to need to clear the driveway myself, especially since the folks are going on a 10 day cruise next month. ¬†Murphy’s law dictates that we’ll get a foot+ of snow then. ¬†Now I’m prepared. ¬†The “new” (probably 5 years old at this point) snowblower is multispeed, self-propelled monster that I was easily able to use. ¬†
 
Monster Blower
Not quite sure who made this monster, but dad added that nice cab on the back to keep the snow out of the operator’s face. ¬†There’s even a headlight for nighttime operations. ¬†Nice. ¬†Dad gave me a rundown of the things to avoid, like that there’s no guard in the front so don’t go toooo close to the cars. ¬†It will eat whatever gets in front of it, tailpipes included. ¬†Or the house. ¬†Be aware of what day the newspaper is delivered. ¬†It likes to eat those! ¬† ¬†Considering it is now snowing AGAIN, 48 hours after getting 6″, I might get some practice in using the sucker this winter. ¬†Have I mentioned I hate snow?!
After getting the driveway dug out, and my car out of the train parking lot, it was time for a much needed trip to the hairdresser.  It has probably been 2 years since my last haircut.  Yes it had gotten pretty long, just beyond bra-strap length, full and wavy.  But it was looking a tad less than professional, and well, starting to seriously annoy me.  Not to mention that it was never allowed to be down and flowing but was almost always pulled back into either a braid/bun or ponytail.  I feel much better now!
Last night, while watching a movie on Netflix, I finished the second bobbin of Mea Culpa. I need to pull out the electric and ply it up.
 
Mea Culpa
Talk about production! That’s 5 days from start to finish on 8 oz 40wpi singles. I’ve never spun that fast. Not sure what is up next for this wheel. I’m debating between another batch of colorful stuff or starting on the BL bump that I bought to spin for a sweater.
Speaking of color…
What price beauty?
Finally, while we’re on the subject of hair, someone finally has a full coat again…
Hers is the slowest growing fur coat I’ve ever seen. She’s got an appointment at the groomer for Tuesday so just maybe we can avoid the yearly shaving of the Persian.
I’m off to spin while the timer counts down the time before this cellophane wrap can come off my head and I have to chip this stuff out.
While I’ve been spending my quality time getting to know my new wheel (and naming it – but more on that later), I’ve had the kate from the Reeves and the Van Eaton sitting near each other. ¬†Makes sense, the wheels are next each other. ¬†They looked awfully similar in size on the kates but I really wanted to see how they compared. ¬†I figured you’d all want to as well. ¬†Humor me. ¬†And then I wanted to compare these bobbins against a few others for some reference. ¬†
All of these are with the larger end up in the cases where the two ends are not the same diameter:
larger bobbin ends
From left to right:
 
Ashford
Lendrum
Schacht
Reeves
Van Eaton (bubinga too 😉
Side View:<
Same bobbins
This is the same order. ¬†As you can see that while the Reeves and the VE are the same width around, the VE is a smidge longer. ¬†Of course there are two other wheels in the house who’s bobbins are not included (Tina and Vermonter) but I’m too lazy to get downstairs to fetch a bobbin. ¬†IIRC, Tina’s bobbins are awfully close to Lendrum size. ¬†And yes, I realize I don’t have the Lendrum anymore, I did manage to find two stray bobbins the other day. ¬†Oh well. ¬†The wheel shipped off with ¬†7! ¬†I didn’t realize I had so many of the damn things.
Another thing to note, the only wheel I use with any regularity (other than the electric Womack) that has a Woolee Winder is the Schacht. ¬† The Tina has a WW but I don’t think I’ve used it in the last year. The rest are standard bobbins. ¬†I know there’s a WW available for the Reeves, but the regular flyer is so gorgeous that I couldn’t replace it with the wonderfully functional but less than attractive WW. ¬†And really, I ply on the Womack so stopping every now and again to change pretty hooks isn’t that bad.
As for capacity?  The VE bobbin easily holds four ounces!
 
Mea Culpa
Yup. ¬†Finished the first four ounces of the Mea Culpa roving! ¬†No wonder they call it a production wheel! ¬†I did this bobbin of 40wpi singles in a little over three hours. ¬†Dude. ¬†That’s production, even by my standards. ¬†Did I mention that the VE is QUIET? ¬†No need to adjust TV volume. ¬†The only noise is a slight whir from the bobbin. ¬†Its amazing. ¬†
While I was bonding with him, definitely a him, last night, he spoke his name to me: ¬†Fabio. ¬†He’s dark, exotic and sexy! ¬† And rich too 😉 I’ll be spending quite a few nights with Fabio, including this one!
Before I return to my dear Fabio, I finished the second nephew hat.  This is the same pattern, same yarn but the Stormy Skies colorway.  I finished it on the train this evening.
 
Nephew Hat
Tomorrow is the office children holiday party.  Wish me luck as I schlep the monkeys into NYC and back in the snow.  Sigh.
no.. not my sister’s new baby.¬† This BIG box arrived yesterday.
BIG box
Whatever could it be?¬† That bit of wood behind it is the top of my Jensen Tina II.¬† It does give some idea of scale, unless of course you haven’t a clue how big the Tina is.¬† For those, I’ve included the required iPhone for scale ;)¬† I know, but I always have it on me so it makes for the perfect ‘for scale’ item.
What was inside it?¬† My new baby…
24" Production Van Eaton
Not the greatest of pictures, but the light in my room sucks, especially since I replaced the regular high hats with the energy efficient ones.¬†¬† I must say, after only a few moments, i was totally in love with this wheel.¬† It is SOLID!¬† I won’t be toting this baby around anywhere.¬† It spins like a dream.¬† No noise, except a gentle whirrr sound of the flyer.¬† She’s FAST.¬† That 24″ wheel helps there.¬† You can see tucked behind her my Reeves, so you can get a better sense of the size of this.¬†
I loves this wheel.  She came with a beautiful kate, 2 whorls with 2 speeds each, and a whopping 7 bobbins in beautiful woods!  Better pictures when the light is around this weekend.
In knitting news, here’s a look at the finished hat for my nephew M:
STR Heavyweight
and the one in progress for his younger brother D:
This post is another about machines, but this one is less computer-y and more knit-y. Last post I mentioned I was off to pull out one of the knitting machines to make some i-cord. Must be the Apple fanboy in me that has me correcting iCord “typos” 🙂
 
Brother KX-350
This machine is a Brother KX-350 plastic flatbed machine.  I bought it off eBay a few years ago and tucked it away.  There are 3 different basic knitting machines out there.  Standard, Mid and Bulky.  The standard takes fine yarn and does insane things like 16 st/in or better up to about a sport weight.  The bulky is just what you thing, worsted to bulky yarns.  The Mid-gauge handles the yarns that most hand knitters are used to working with:  fingering to worsted.  The other two have added toys like ribbers, and fancy electronics, but are way way more expensive.  The mid-gauge, which includes the Incredible Sweater Machine of TV infomercial fame, is far cheaper and with hand manipulation, can do just about everything the fancy guys can do, just more work.  The Brother is modeled after its fancier siblings made by the same company and has a tensioned yarn mast.  The ISM does not (btw, I had an ISM, it was my first and I hated it).
Flat bed knitting machines have a carriage that runs back and forth along the length of the bed.  In each slot is a needle with a latch hook type end. As the carriage moves, the needles are pushed out, the stitch on the needle is moved to the other side of the latch, yarn is set in the hook and the needle is pulled back into position sliding the yarn through the old stitch.
 
i-cording
To make i-cord, the carriage is set to only work the needles in one direction and “hold” in the other. ¬†I have it working the stitches when the carriage goes to the left. When I moved it to the right, the yarn went unworked, just like when you slide the stitches from one end of the DPN to the other.
Here’s a quick (and not so good video):
It’s not easy to hold the camera and move the carriage one handed, but I think you get the general idea of how it works.
It took about 30 minutes and I had about 160″ of iCord. ¬†Can’t beat that 🙂
 
I like iCord
There’s as much of the darker stuff on the left as there is of the pinky stuff. ¬†It just didn’t want to sit nicely on the bed for a photo op. ¬†Here’s the cord with the bags.
 
pre-felting
They’ve since had a bath in the washing machine set on heavy duty along with a pair of jeans and felted beautifully! ¬† Both bags are busy drying in front of the heat vent in the living room.
I’ve moved onto the hats for my nephews. ¬†The first is for the older boy, M, who will be 12 in a few days. ¬†This is the STR Heavyweight in In the Navy, pattern is here. ¬†
 
Seaman's Cap
The color is off here.  The blue is way more navy.. and honestly, the photo is out of date as I finished it on the ferry coming home this evening.
This is the color…
 
In the Navy
I cast on for the second kid’s hat during the train portion of the commute. ¬†When both hats are done, I should have enough yarn and time to make them coordinating One-Row Scarves.
Thank you everyone for your congratulations on the new addition to the family.¬† My sister and baby J are both doing well.¬† Not sure how S is adjusting to being a big sister, but she’s all of 17.5 months, so I’m sure my sister is in for some interesting times over the next couple of months.¬†
The downside to this new baby thing is that I lost my housewife for a week or so ;)¬† Mom went out to my sister’s house in Lancaster county to first watch S whilst J was being born.¬† She’s staying for a week to help Rikki out.¬† Sadly, that means I have to do all the domestic stuff that I’ve turned over to my mother a couple of years ago.¬† We can’t exactly eat out every night!¬† So this morning I got all Suzie Homemaker and made a pot of tomato sauce (gravy for those that call it that) and about 2lbs of meatballs.¬†
That simmering for hours, I put a load of wash in (somehow Kat had run out of clean undies) and set about dealing with the aging food mom had purchased earlier in the week.  Next up was slicing some london broil into very thin slices, browning and then simmering in brown gravy.  What we call Chicken Meat. Long story there but it got its name in an attempt to get Kat, the devout Chickenatarian, to eat some beef.  We called it chicken meat, she ate it, and the name stuck.  Its awesome over rice.  After that was a second load of wash, followed by folding and putting away of the first.  Whew.
I get to roast a turkey breast tomorrow.  Yay. 
I did finally manage to sit down for a while between the laundry and actually serving dinner and finished off the second of the felted bags for the teachers.¬† Here’s a picture of the two bags side-by-side.¬† iPhone once again included for scale.¬† Why yes, it is my favorite item for indicating scale 😉
Teacher Bags - before the bath
After the kids go to sleep, I’m pulling out the flatbed mid-gauge knitting machine and while attempt to whip out a mile of iCord for the handles.¬† I’d like to get these into the washing machine tomorrow.¬† When they’re done, I’ll do a roundup of all the gifts including the rediscovered multidirectional scarf that I knit a couple of years ago for a teacher gift, as well as the socks I cranked out last Sunday.¬† Not a heck of alot of knitting, but some nonetheless.¬†
I’ve also been working on the Adamas shawl on the train, when not studying or otherwise occupied with the new electronic toy.¬† I got it in my mind that I only needed 12 repeats of the center chart and got all excited when I started that repeat.¬† For giggles, I pulled out the pattern to check if there was something different about the end of the 12th repeat only to read and find I needed 14!¬† I hate when that happens.¬† Oh well.¬† I still need to finish up the BSJ and ship it off, though I might just hold it for the family holiday gathering on Dec 27th.¬† Have to check to see if my sister will be heading out for that.¬† Oh and I need to make hats for my nephews and if there is time, coordinating scarves.¬† I got some STR Heavyweight in the semi-solids to knit those.¬† Busy busy.
I did get a chance to be seriously geeky yesterday though.  Check this setup out!
Why yes I was using em all!
You can see the tiny little Acer Aspire One between my 17″ iMac and the 14 or so inch Dell Inspiron.¬† The Dell was busy decrypting files I downloaded on the iMac while the hard drive was being repartitioned on the Acer.
For what you ask?  Why so I could do this:
Installing OSX
A while later and a few hacks:
Finder on my Acer Aspire One
I love seeing that Acer right about the Mac Apple 🙂
AAO Hackentosh Air
You can see on the left there that I have three “drives”:¬† MacOS, Acer and Share.¬† They are each about 50 gb.¬† Obviously I installed Leopard on the MacOS partition and formatted it appropriately for it.¬† The Acer partition is where Windows XP still lives and is NTFS and the third is for both to use for storage.¬† Nice huh?¬† I know, pretty geeky.¬† I’m dual booting the two OS’.
You see, I’ve been totally loving my little netbook.¬† The one thing that would have made it better in my eyes was if it was a Mac.¬† That had my looking at the Macbook Air.¬† It’s all of 3 lbs, which puts it in the okay to carry regularly category along with my 2.6lb¬†Acer Aspire One (hereinafter AAO).¬† So I started googling to see if there was a way to run MacOS on my PC in a similar way to how I run Windows on my Mac.¬† After much link clickage, I stumbled on someone who had installed MacOS on his AAO and that started the wheels in motion.¬† I now have an Acer Hackentosh Air for way less than the $1100 for last year’s Air.¬†
There are some limitations, like Sleep doesn’t work¬†and neither does the¬†wifi.¬† The wifi card that is pre-installed in the AAO isn’t compat with Mac.¬† Fortunately a Dell card is and readily available on eBay for under $15.¬† Yes, I’ve ordered one already.¬† There’s a how-to on the net as to replacing the sucker too.¬† Sweet.¬† I’m writing this post on the Windows portion of it now, hopefully by next week I’ll be able to do it on the Mac.
I’m seriously doing my part to stimulate the economy.¬† Between holiday presents for the kids, raw supplies for knitted gifts and stuff for me, lets just say the big brown truck has been at my house alot, along with my friendly letter carrier and Fedex :)¬† My new Van Eaton wheel is on its way and should arrive next week.¬† I’m really itching to play with it.¬† I have some new fiber on its way from Crown Mountain (Lady of the Lake, Shala and Mea Culpa) to get to know her with.¬†
I received another one of my recent purchases yesterday.¬† After the kids went to bed, I had to dig into the box.¬† Here’s what was inside.¬†
What's in the bag??
I included my iPhone for scale.  Whatever could it be?? 
Outta the bag
Here’s the picture from the instruction manual to help visualize what this pile of parts will come together to be 🙂
Ahhhhhh
Why yes, it is a loom!¬† It’s a DutchMaster 40/16 loom.¬† I bought it used through a posting on the Spin-Sales list.¬† I’ve since gone no-mail on it cause I couldn’t afford to keep stimulating the economy.¬† When the holiday knitting is done and I’m all spun out, I plan on doing a bit of weaving.¬† I was considering parting with my floor loom, a Leclerc 24“, but I’ve decided to hold onto it.¬† I just have to get it out of storage and find a good/safe way to store it in the basement so that it will survive the spring floods.¬† In the meantime, I’ll be using the DutchMaster.¬† It has more flexibility than one of my rigid heddles (will probably sell one of those), but not so much space is required as for the Leclerc.¬† win-win, ya?
It hasn’t been all fiber around here either.¬† I mentioned before that my company wants us developers to get Microsoft Certified.¬† To that end, I’ve been studying for the first exam.¬† I had been toting around one of them big programming books when I spied something very cool in one of those weekend circulars.¬† Enter this:
Acer Aspire One
It’s my new netbook:¬† an Acer Aspire One .¬† iPhone again included for scale.¬† I have¬†not only the PDF version of the programming book I’d been schlepping around, but the self test application AND MS Visual C# development installed on it.¬† Awesome.¬† It’s become my go to meeting note taker platform as my typing is far faster and easier to read than my handwriting.¬† Add in Evernote and you have another win-win.¬† I lurve it!¬† This bad boy is small and light enough to go into my purse.¬† It weighs in at 2.6 lbs.¬† We weighed it on the postal scale here in the office because my boss wouldn’t believe it was under 3lbs.¬† I don’t have any trouble typing on it, which surprised me as I had loads of issues with the keyboard on my smaller Dell Laptop.¬†
Been a while since I posted one of these (yeah yeah, since I posted a real post at all).  Sorry for the lousy photo, but the weather here is less than stellar today.  You get the idea though.
And finally, the newest thing:
love the new baby smell
My youngest sister had her second, a baby girl, yesterday at 6:40pm.¬† 8lb 6oz, 20″.¬† Mom and Baby J are doing well.¬† Welcome J!¬† Look at those CHEEKS!
🙂
.¬† iPhone again included for scale.¬† I have¬†not only the PDF version of the programming book I’d been schlepping around, but the self test application AND MS Visual C# development installed on it.¬† Awesome.¬† It’s become my go to meeting note taker platform as my typing is far faster and easier to read than my handwriting.¬† Add in 
