Day in the Life of an Idiot

Image: A piece of tie-dyed fabric hanging on a clothesline. It is a classic rainbow striped number.

Yesterday, it was lovely outside so I decided to tackle a project that I'd been meaning to do for awhile. After the whole medical craziness of Monday, arts and crafts were just what I needed to de-stress.

Several weeks ago, Shawn picked up some sheets on the "buy nothing" Facebook group for our neighborhood. They had looked decently blue in the photo, but when we bought them home they were a very washed out barely-there color. Shawn had been planning to use the fabric as an accent for some of her rugs and was vaguely disappointed. On the drive home, I asked, "What if I tie-dyed them?" Shawn got suddenly very excited by the idea of trying a rug made out of tie-dyed material, and so we got serious about finding a tie dye kit that was easy and color-fast. Shawn found a kit for kids on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tulip-One-step-Tie-Dye-Party-Kit/dp/B01FV60TAS/

I will say, this could not have been easier.


Image: a bunch of fun patterns of tie-dye on a clothesline.

I will admit to having had WAY too much fun. In fact, my hands are still purple because I blew off the instructions to wear gloves (in the Before Times, I would be mortified. Right now? I'm still very much, "by the time people see me, these will be back to normal." Not actually considering that, you know, I might go off to buy coffee this morning.)


Image: Purple and blue close up, kind of spiral?

It totally worked to de-stress me.

Some medical updatery under the cut. 

( Read more... the short of it: we got the appointment for Thursday )
Will keep those who want to know posted on those developments.



Image: more fabrics on the line (in shadow, apparently, but hopefully you can see the general patterns.)

The other thing I did last night was attend the Lammy's, the Lambda Award Ceremony. They had a Discord and so I actually connected with some folks in the SF/F community, which was nice. I am just going to continue to say that I am often surprised by how much I truly enjoy online events. This one was very "bare-bones," in that they broadcast the actual awards on YouTube and hosted a short-lived Discord. The cool thing was that people came in from all over the world. I hung out in the lobby for a long time watching people come in and there were people from India, Botswana, the UK, and... dozens and dozens of places all across North America. This is the thing, I don't know that the Lammys is usually such an international event? I certainly never bothered to go when I would have had to travel and pay for hotel. 

The Nebulas are also this weekend and I'll be attending that... as is something called Cymera, which you may recall, I added a reading to? I have no idea if they accepted it in their Open Mic, but hopefully so. Fun times!

In a few minutes I have to get up and fetch kitty litter (oh, the glamorous life I lead!) Before I head out, I wanted to post some pictures of our adventures with the Newcomb Fair loom this weekend.  

For those of you just tuning in, Shawn and I inherited my grandparents' loom via my folks a couple of years ago. It's a big loom. I don't know the exact dimensions, but it's as tall as me, certainly, and as wide as I am tall, as well. (Which, if you don't know me in person, is just a little over 5'.)  It's big enough that the best place for it is in the corner of the finished section of our basement:



As a bonus, you can see our goofy travel posters. We have interspersed real travel posters with NASA's space travel poster, Rivendell, and Hogwarts. 

But here it is in process. At some point I will post a picture that shows what it looks like when the threads are all the way through the machine, so you can get a better sense of how it works.

There's a big beam on the back where you spool all your thread. Now, each individual thread has to come off the loom in a specific order and so you have to wind the threads on IN THAT ORDER. How is this done, you ask? Several steps, but the basic process looks like this:



Shawn sets up this gift device with dozens of spools of thread. We're using black and white because we're currently weaving what's called The Hollywood pattern. We bought color thread and at some point may experiment with other patterns. Then, each bit of string is threaded through this nifty device that keeps them coming off the spools in order...



You can see Shawn's carefully printed out notes (thanks, Mom!) that mark in what order the black and white threads come off the spools and into this guide.

Then, there's a crank on the side of the big spool that I crank at least 50 rotations of.This winds everything on, through the guide, onto the beam. (Side note, with my new dyed hair and that little smile on my face the extent to which I look EXACTLY like my grandmother is a little bit uncanny.)



Ultimately the spool is completely covered (not shown, us having to rearrange the threads to accommodate the special pattern of this particular rug style AND the one weird section, 13, I believe, where there is ONE less thread.)


 
That was a big chunk of my Memorial Day. 

It was actually a perfect day for such a big undertaking because it was cold and rainy and dark outside. There really wasn't anything better to do. I certainly couldn't have gotten any more work done of the garden; I would have been drenched. 

After all of this, Shawn napped and I made us a big roast chicken dinner, which was quite lovely and hit the spot on such a chilly day. 

Now "ALL" Shawn has to do is tie each one of those threads to the ones already strung through the heddles and then carefully pull them through the machine. I will try to get pictures of that process, too. Because it really is quite the operation. Unfortunately, I can't really help her with this part, because it really does have to be one in order, one at a time. If I started on one end and her on the other and we ended up meeting in the middle with strings that didn't connect, there would be gross sobbing and probably more than a few recriminations. Best to just do it, piecemeal, a bit at a time. It'll probably take Shawn the rest of the week to do it, because it's such picky slow work.

But when it's all done she can get back to work.

This is the first year she's going to enter a few of her rugs into the Minnesota State Fair competition, so there's some pressure to make some good ones for next year's show, too!