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.