I forgot to link ProChemical when I mentioned them earlier. Here it is. I’ve been buying things from them for years, and they’ve been very efficient and prompt. They’ve got so much that I don’t have a clue what it’s all for–batik, surface design, immersion dyeing. And the nice thing is that all their directions are online. So, if you forget how to do something …
Taking a Break …
… when I should really be working. All I really want to do is take a nap. It’s cold, we’ve got freezing rain, and it’s not going to get warmer for a couple of days. Ideal time to get work done, right? My electricity was off for 5 1/2 hours yesterday. And since it was so cloudy and dreary, I couldn’t see to do much work. Tried one of those headlamps, but the band around my head gives me a headache. Never could wear headbands when they were in style. I’m really hoping that this freezing rain/ice/sleet doesn’t get thick on the electrical wires and cause power outages.
I was supposed to hang my pieces at Stage West today, but with the streets like they are …. well, I DO live in Texas, and we’re not used to this stuff! The play opens Thursday, and I’ll be hanging my work that morning. Nothing like last minute.
Finishing up
Ordered the new dyes from ProChem on Sunday–got an email that they will arrive Thursday. Great! Very efficient. Today I’m lashing the rods onto two pieces, one of which is in the steaming process right now.
Later
I am planning on tying the warp on the front today in preparation for weaving tomorrow. Not completely sure where I’ll start, but have a few ideas. Yesterday I went to Kinko’s and made some copies and had an enlargement made. It’s of a preColumbian fish that I want to do someday. Maybe I had better decide on what I’m going to be weaving before tying on that warp. At least there’s a nice fire going in the studio. Makes it all better.
Okay…I Give Up
I’m going to stop trying to get the correct shades of yarn for now. I looked at the ProChem site today, and ordered some WashFast Acid dyes. I know lots of people use them, but I’ve never seen the need to change from using my Sabraset/Lanaset dyes before. I ordered some colors that might work, but I’ll believe it when I see it! For now, I’m going to work on hanging the pieces at Stage West and start another weaving project. Tomorrow I will buy a new level (maybe laser?) and some stainless steel rods from Discount Steel. Those guys were really helpful when I went out there before. They cater to the small user of metal, folks like you and me. They took me around in the warehouse and showed me “stuff.” I have been wanting to get some galvanized sheet metal to cover the countertops in my dye studio. All I have to do is measure, and they will fold the edges over so that I can nail it down.
Now, about all those dyed skeins of yarn that I’ve been dyeing the wrong colors…I’ve been wondering what would happen if I took them and redyed them with the same color…like turquoise, maybe?
So, it’s time to tie a warp back on that loom and get busy weaving.
Dyeing…Again
Wrong colors, way too olive-y, probably attributable to the golden yellow dye.
Dyeing
I made up some 1% solution for the three colors I’m going to try this go-round. I usually dye with the powders, but some of my numbers were coming up in the hundredths of a gram. Even the triple beam won’t do that! I like 2 out of the 5 colors I’m working on.
Stage West
The theater decided it needed to repaint the wall where my pieces will hang rather than repair it. And, no, they are not changing the color. A short reprieve from that chore/pleasure. I’m thinking of using the method of a friend and lashing a stainless steel rod about an inch from the top of the piece, and hanging with the rod. Guess I should experiment with that.
Don’t read this if you don’t want to hear anything else about politics
Here’s a blog that I find both amusing and interesting: http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/.
Beware that some people may be offended by the political stance, but I think her January 20 post is right on. But, again, I don’t know why we can’t have different opinions and still be friends. I generally avoid political and religious discussions because there’s so little point. No one’s opinion is going to be changed, and folks just get over excited.
Dyeing
I’m a little discouraged today about the yarns for the commission project. The colors are not quite right, so I pulled out my samples again and decided to try new formulas tomorrow. I’m going to have a mountain of yarn for another project when I get finished. Then, the challenge will be finding the perfect design for these color rejects. Limitations always make me more creative!
On the plus side–got the oil changed, tires rotated, and the car beautifully washed. Isn’t it amazing how a clean car makes everything seem better. And I know it drives better!
I may start recreating that database tonight. Or maybe not….
Inauguration
Okay, I got so involved with everything that I forgot to watch the actual inauguration, but I tuned in as everyone was heading to the luncheon. Wow! I had tears in my eyes just seeing that huge crowd of people. And later watching them walk part of the way to the White House! I don’t know why I found that so moving, but I did. Obama really has a great knack for bringing people together. As I’m watching and listening, I’m wondering what I can do to help, along with all the thousands of others who were listening. Here’s hoping that all of us stick with our new-found service aspirations. And here’s hoping that our congress can work together instead of continuing all the backbiting, ugly disagreements, etc. Tom Brokaw was saying how people in Washington who disagreed politically used to talk and be friends (way back when!). Now, it seems they stay on separate sides of the room. All of that “if you’re not with us, you’re against us” stuff. How can people make decisions without discussing the issues? I’m ready for some reasonableness–is that a word?
Faxing, Copying, etc
Darn! I got so involved in my to do list, I forgot to watch the inauguration. I really wanted to see it. Guess I’ll have to watch a video. Double darn! Does that equal a damn?
This morning:
I am so excited! I can receive faxes! G got me a wireless all-in-one HP printer for Christmas, and it’s finally set up along with the desktop–a must have after the Great Computer Fiasco. The computer couldn’t find the printer in the wireless network, so I had to go into the website for my ATT and find the IP address. Then I could print from anywhere in the house, via the laptop, and in the office via the desktop. This morning I tested the fax, and it works!
I had two dye pots going this morning and washed six skeins of previously dyed yarn. I was afraid the colors weren’t going to be right, but now I think they’ll be okay. They’re close to the samples in the Color-aid papers, but the true test will be when I take them to the customer’s house for her approval. You know, the light is everything. A friend took a small piece to her house to see if it would go in her den. She didn’t think so, but then she moved it to another wall, and the colors totally changed. Looks good there.
This is a computer generated design of what I’m going to work on next–the one on the top left. The squares will be shades of brown, from a creamy color to caramel to chocolate. The background will be charcoal.
I’ve also got the purple ikat blocking. So far, a productive day (except for NOT watching the inauguration). Wish I could solve the ikat weaving part so that blocking wouldn’t be necessary. I don’t block anything else, so it’s irritating.
This Evening
Discovered how to transfer files from one computer to the other w/o moving anything but my hand. Pretty exciting stuff! So now my documents are on two computers. Pretty sure I’m going to have to reconstruct my database files in eArtist, but at least I did keep names in both Outlook and eArtist. It’s the reconstructing of individual pieces and their new homes that will be the difficult part. Another lesson learned–even though the hard drive backs up on the external drive, some programs have to be backed up individually in order to access the files. Yuck!
To Do List
A picture of the piece I recently took off the loom, with its warp ends woven in. The colors aren’t accurate. I was wrong; that IS orange before the yellows start. Funny what you see when you start doing the finishing. They are all shades of red below the ikat part. After the reds come shades of gold-y yellow. You can see the warp ends here.
The numbered list below is what I originally started out with, but I decided it sounds too much like whining. So, here’s what I actually got done today:
- yarn store to check out fixtures (and yarns, of course)
- box for box tapestry weaving
- tray to put into mailbox (postman puts mail way in back where it’s hard to get out)
- nap
- started on printer, but had to walk away in frustration–will finish tonight (I just finished with the printer installation for one computer. Hope to get the other one to find the wireless printer tomorrow.)
- worked on paper weaving to use for letters to boys
Here’s my to do list for the week. Ridiculous. I know the list won’t get completed, but I still keep adding to it. Maybe a few lines will be drawn through items by the end of the week.
- Finish dyeing 5 colors of wool, plus charcoal.
- Weekly housework
- Laundry
- Whiteboard for Gary-finished
- Letters to the boys-finished
- Arrange for new roof date
- Block purple ikat-finished
- Hang pieces at Stage West-postponed by them
- Set up home network with new desktop, laptop, printer-finished
- Plant onions
- Fill bird feeders
- Plan menus-finished
- More needle weaving
- Visit parents
- Yarn store closing-check out fixtures-finished
- Call about insurance on work that’s hanging in a show
- Call about intermittent merchant credit card processing
- Join American Craft Council-finished
- Design–I’m feeling a really strong urge to deisgn–why I don’t know since I have a commission piece to finish.
- 4x4x5 box for box tapestry-finished
- Change oil in car, or rather, have it done!–finished
What to Hang
Stage West
I went to Stage West today to see the location where they’ve asked me to hang several pieces. The wall is RED! I came home and tried to play around with pieces that might look good on that wall. But it’s RED! Anyway, here’s what I’ve come up with so far. I think I’ll continue thinking about this. So many of my pieces have red, and I just can’t picture those red pieces on that red wall. Right now, I’m kind of leaning towards the first picture. Tomorrow? Who knows.
Computers
On the computer front–I’ve got my laptop almost back to normal. My computer guys seem to think that it was a complete failure of Vista (not a virus or hardware issue), but now I live in fear of crashing again. Even if you’re totally backed up, you’re without a computer for days while everything is being fixed, so I bought a desktop that runs XP. It’s wireless like my laptop, so I’m hoping I can set up a home network and have mirror images on each computer. Gary gave me an all-in-one printer, copier, scanner, and fax, which is also wireless. I plan to have everything connected together–someday, somehow, some way.
Procrastination
Everybody knows we shouldn’t procrastinate, but we do it anyway–some of us more than others. I’m paying for procrastination right now. I have a laptop computer that I love. The last time we went on a weekend trip, I put the laptop in one closet under some stuff, and the backup drive in another closet, cleverly disguised on a shelf. When we returned, I got out the computer and used it for 3 months without ever getting the backup drive out of the closet. Yes, I thought to myself, “You really need to back things up”, but did I? Of course not. I even had a reminder come up from my calendar 2 or 3 times, but still I did not backup. I’m paying for it now. My computer crashed last week. It’s been in the shop since last Thursday. They can’t figure out what’s wrong. First, we thought it was Vista. Then maybe the hard drive. Then maybe the motherboard. Nothing is behaving like it should. The good news is that I will be able to rescue most of what is on the computer. Then we will re-install the operating system, but probably XP this time. Even if all of that works, I still have the job of installing software all over again. Time, time time! Then you have to tweak everything to get it back where it was. I keep remembering things that need to be backed-up–things like iTunes, a database program that has pictures and names that I have collected for years. There’s a program called One Note (part of Office), that I use as a big filing cabinet. Instead of printing, I just send it to One Note. That has to be saved. It’s amazing how dependent on our computers we can become. Scary, right? I know, everyone is attached to their computers, so, all right, I’ll stop whining. But, remember, BACK UP YOUR COMPUTER!
Oh, and I’m grateful for a friend who will let me borrow a computer for a couple of days.
I finished needleweaving all the warp ends back into the fabric on two pieces. I’ll try to have pics for the next time I have a computer.