Socially Unacceptable Behavior

So I'm going to tell you guys this because you love me and tolerate my wildly unacceptable behavior and opinions.

There's a lady I know on Facebook who spends a lot of time posting hateful things about the Republican candidate and profound love of the current president and telling all the conservatives how screwed up the GOP is and how we shouldn't vote for him, blah blah.  I wouldn't care so much if she was just a staunch democrat and felt compelled to voice her opinion as is her right as an American...except that she's not an American.  She's Canadian.  Never once, that I can remember, has she ever said anything about the politics in HER OWN country!

Then, she just posted a "comic" that features a young girl asking her mother, 'What did you do in the War on Women?'  Ever-so-tempted was I to respond, "Why, dear, I did the right thing by NOT returning to my shitty $8 per hour job and dump you in day care like all the other mommies do because that's what society has told us we should do."  Personally, I think that telling women that they should choose their careers over family qualifies as heavy ammunition in the war on women.  Over the past few years, we have been told that being feminine and maternal is somehow wrong and that we should do our best to stifle that urge to nurture.  That staying home is selling out--and they pander to us by saying that it's a "noble choice" or that we're "the hardest working".  They have no idea...but I don't choose it for the accolades.  I choose it because it's the right thing to do.  I know that sometimes it's necessary for moms to go back to work to make ends meet, so I don't hold it against anyone who NEEDS to work, and I applaud any mom who arranges her work hours so that they are only absent from home when the kids are.

Girl Scouts, likewise, is leading another battle in the War on Women by removing many of the "traditional" feminine arts and replacing them with being a saleswoman, a marketing expert, a financial wizard--all based around selling cookies.  They've removed all the fiber arts from the curriculum from Daisies through Cadettes (1st thru 7th grades).  No knitting, sewing, weaving, needlework...nothing.  Most girls drop out by Middle School, only a few very dedicated girls continue beyond 5th grade.

OK, end of rant.

I made 10 looms yesterday in anticipation of the cardweaving class Bekah and I will be teaching next weekend.  They are all lightweight, portable looms on which to make card woven pieces that can hold an infinite amount of woven material...if you know how to wrap up the strings properly so they don't tangle up.  I suppose if you had a comb you could make all the strings lie down and behave even better...something I'd have to incorporate in the Loom 3.0 version.

This is how it looks with the weaving on it.  The strings zig-zag through the wooden blocks to create tension and the wing nuts hold them down.  Everything I used were from the scrap bins in the garage--most of it was leftover from the yurt project.  WIN!

After posting a photo of it on FB, I got a note from my future Queen who said that she wants to know if I sell them--she wants to have one for herself.  Since the pieces were so cheap, I said that I'm going to make one for her, but of course, I'll have to do an extra-nice job on it...it's for "Royalty" after all.  Maybe I'll even sand down all the edges and oil it up.  :)

This weekend is going to be fairly laid back--no serious plans other than watching the Sounders game tomorrow.  Maybe I can get a few more 9-patches made.  I've gotten about 50 made so far...I lost count when I made a few more the other day.  81 with sashing will make a King size quilt.  And this is just the 3 1/2" squares.  I have five gallons of 5" squares, too.  I see a few more scrap quilts in my future...

New stuff

Spent the weekend in Bham for the Ithra.  Godith allowed me to stay at her place in her newly retro-fitted home, where she spent a bit of money updating all the insulation and ventilation systems in the 100 year old part of the house.  The newer part of the house (about 20 years) doesn't need as much work, which includes the master bedroom and rec room.  Although we had originally slated to hold the session at a local historical home, we ended up having to cancel that location to avoid the extraordinary expense and we had it at Godith's instead.

I ended up teaching three classes this weekend--I had signed up to teach one, then was asked to co-teach a second, then an instructor ended up being scheduled to work (after she had already been given the weekend off), so I took over her class.  My classes I taught were card weaving (with Miss Bek), Pattern Drafting (the class I took over), and Dyeing Wool with Kool Aid.


We had some issues with the looms we provided for the card weaving class. It was a small piece of 1 x 2 pine and two small c-clamps.  It didn't have enough clearance for the cards to turn well and it was too lightweight to use effectively--especially for new students.  I talked with another artisan who gave me a good idea to try, then went to work building this very simple solution out of scraps of wood in my garage.  Four holes drilled in the base, two holes drilled in each of the four 1 x 1 blocks, and four nuts & bolts.  I would prefer to use wing nuts, but I didn't find any that would fit in our collection of bits in the garage, and figured this was just a prototype.  It works!  I figure with the parts--although I have to price them out at the store since the web sites for these hardware stores SUCK (you search for 4" bolts and you get hinges, eye bolts, and other weird things)--the cost for each loom would be under $5.  It took about an hour to make this, and only took that long because I was hunting around for parts, having problems with the drill press.

The pattern drafting class was a first time for me and I just threw the handout together with a bunch of links, images and a few patterns.  I got copies of the other instructor's handouts which is mostly text, so they compliment each other pretty well.  There were three students and they seemed to enjoy the class, made a body block based on their measurements, and sewed together a tiny dress sized for an American Girl doll.  I taught more than just how to make patterns and measure, but also taught each of them to sew a running stitch (boy, it was painful watching them do their stitches...I just couldn't stand it anymore), taught one student how to find 10% (apparently the Seattle public school system was unsatisfactory), and we had a fun, relaxing time.  One student also bribed me with chocolate wine, a large chocolate bar, and a chocolate candle for allowing her to register at the last minute.

The last class was a small one with only two students--we dyed yarn with kool aid.  Then the hostess and my bursar came over and jumped in on the class as well, bringing wool roving to use in the kool aid to see what would happen.

On Monday morning, we had to go to see the surgeon (or his nurse, as it turned out) and the dieticians about Ben's button and how to use the feeding tube.  But on the way to drop the girls off, my car started overheating.  The fact that there was snow and ice on the car in the morning and I only drove 5 miles meant there was something seriously wrong with the minivan.  I made it to the school parking lot and turned the car off, then called Kelly to have him drive us to our appointments (he had planned on coming anyway, so there was nothing lost there).  Afterwards, I drove it another couple of miles to the shop to have it looked at.  A couple hours later, they call with the results--water pump, thermostat, bad tires, and much more.  $2000 more.  Wow.  Happy birthday to me.

We used Ben's button for the first time last night for an overnight feed.  There were some issues with getting the pump to work properly and it wasn't supposed to beep when it's done, but it woke him up at 6:30 this morning.  It was fairly sensitive for disconnecting this morning and he wanted to do it himself.  Then there was the cleaning up the parts and I'm not really sure how many times we can use the parts before they need to be disposed--I think it's a week.  It was a lot of information to process in a single sitting, but there is a set of directions that came with it...I'll have to investigate it further.  But at least he can take baths and go swimming and do karate and do all the normal things that kids love to do.

The neighbor's house, which has been empty for more than two years, is finally getting emptied of all the trash left behind (box springs, old clothes, etc.).  It was put up for auction on the courthouse steps, which means that it has had all the liens cleared from it and it will soon be put on the market (no one in their right mind would pay the amount that was owed on it with all the back taxes, overdue mortgage payments, etc.).  It'll be nice to have a family living in it again rather than just watching it rot in place.