Hiaku for DIY-er

Winter light is weak
for choosing a cork floor tile.
   We are not smart folks.

I'm exhausted and we're not even done

January 11-16, 2012


Tearing out the floor to the original planks (that are covered in glue and crap). The room is wrapped up like a bio-hazard zone.

 

 Ugh.

 It's really old floor. And it stinks.

January 12

Move the plumbing and cover up the old raggedy floor.

Luan! Luan! And the plastic comes off.

January 13-14

Sometimes it doesn't LOOK like much has happened, and the cabinets aren't actually nailed in, but they are staged and, at this point, we know that we are missing a fill piece that I scrambled to order. A great deal of plumbing work has occurred. We are relocating three lines - fridge, sink, and dishwasher. Throughout this, too, they've been engaged in some plaster and electrical work for us both in the kitchen and outside and up on the 3rd floor. So lots of work, most of it never to be seen. At this point we also know that we need 2x10" registers instead of the 2x12" we bought. Well, duh that's because the pretty ones only came in 2x12." Surely that makes sense...

Sunday is, thankfully, a day of rest. So, we went to the tile store for a few hours. 

January 16

Monday was a bank holiday and I had the day off and took Maggie The Dog and Nick The Son to Gloucester to buy a big old lab table that happened to have a beautiful butcher block top.

We're using it as the top of the island. The tabletop is 6'x30." Extra stuff included for scale. That yellow...ahhh...I love that yellow but DH decided it was time for a change. I'll get used to the new color.

 And we have lights under the cabinets!

And finally the sink is hooked up! Plumbing!

No, the cabinets aren't nailed in yet. 

We have cork floor samples on order, the filler from the cabinet company should arrive Friday, and let's hope my sinus infection doesn't get any worse. 

Being the hearty DIY-ers that we are, we're going with tile countertops that I'm installing because somehow I signed up for tile duty once way back and it stuck with me. Well, hell, I like tile and this time I get a new toy: a wet saw!  Solid surface is gorgeous but so expensive it makes me uncomfortable - I can't justify the expense, even if I can afford it...which I can't. So, tile it is. Nice tiles. Big tiles, and gorgeous variegated blue/green (do not say teal) mosaic tiles on the back splash.

Progress. 

And now to bed because today was a day off from kitchen work and tomorrow it starts up again.

Cheers

Some weaving is done, and a sampler.

What sampler, you ask? The one I wove on the big, restored floor loom, Bam-Bam. But, I'm not going to show it off because it's about as ugly as sin except for the last six inches or so. Maybe I just show off those inches.


The next project in the queue is a standard sized scarf using three different colors of cochineal dyed Blue-faced Leicester from (sales plug) Sonoran Desert Dyed Fibers. The weave structure will be twill in a houndstooth pattern. Way cool.


Probably you'll be wanting to see the Autumn Tartan shawl (a little too big to be called a scarf). It turned out great!

oh, well, not when if first came off the loom. Ugh! Look at those ratty edges! All those threads hanging out! Actually, this is after it went through the wash.  It was even more ratty when it came off the loom. Wannabe Weavers, do not despair!

Yes, I took a cellphone picture. I'm such a dork. And the color isn't quite there - the yellow is more yellow than gold. And yes, that's the headset I use for work.  One of the flute players in the Flute Choir has pictures of us in concert where I am wearing this piece so I'm hoping he'll share those soon.


So there we are. The Autumn Tartan Shawl.

Don't poached eggs just make you go weak in the knees?

I like eggs, clean, unspoiled by melted cheese eggs. Scrambled, fried, hard boiled, soft boiled, poached...My dad, Jim, used to make soft-boiled eggs when I'd come to visit. This is when he lived on Erlands Point in Silverdale. Let me say that Jim is not a culinary genius, but he's as good a cook as anyone else who doesn't have their own cooking show on Food Network. He's just no Anthony Bourdain. But when we dipped English muffins into those soft boiled eggs it just made my heart sing. Maybe it was the amazing view of Dyes Inlet out the picture window, maybe it was just about Eating Breakfast with Dad. I was 13 years old. 


Then I discovered Eggs Benedict. Whoa, Nelly! I do kinda like a little Hollandaise on my eggs once in a while, but only if Canadian bacon and an English muffin are between it and the plate. French, Canadian, English, Holland ( hahaha ) how very international. I'm sure I thought I was so sophisticated when I ordered it. There was a restaurant in Seattle, on Denny Way, that served THE BEST Eggs Benedict and hash browns. Again, perhaps it was the atmosphere. After a concert or Rocky Horror, midnight, smoking and goofing off with friends, sitting on the patio in the summer...or on a Saturday morning. It was a 24-hr place.


Dad used to also make corned beef hash with the egg fried in the middle, which essentially poached it...and I'd stick my fork in the middle and mush it around and the yolk would ooze into all the little crevices of the hash that hadn't been crisped...


Huevos Rancheros is best with poached eggs. Try it with roja. Poached eggs are to die for on pancakes with breakfast sausage and a little drizzle of maple syrup - no drenching, just enough to get an occasional reminder that it's there.


I was surfing Chow.com for an appetizer to take to a friend's Thanksgiving dinner and ran across some ideas for leftovers...it included turkey hash and a poached egg. Sounds good to me. See how it derails me? 


I have so many posts "in progress" but this one demanded to be written right now.

Curbside Delivery

When Costco says "curbside delivery" that's exactly what they mean. Take it literally. The good news is that with two men (DH and Son) and a lot of motivation (Mom with camera and pom-poms), three pallets of cabinets can be moved indoors in about 30 minutes. 

Considering the right way to haul this f****r up.

Answer: just pick it up.

Cabinets in the living room.

Cabinets in the foyer.

No cabinets in the kitchen today, but painting happened!

I can't begin to tell you what it's like to be surrounded by cabinets all packed in their protective cardboard shells. It's excellent solid wood so it smells nice but it's weird anyway.

Anyone will tell you that doing a kitchen remodel is stressful and draining. Doesn't matter if you're doing it because you want to, need to, or any combination of the two. In my world this takes the shape of me having trouble getting to sleep, then waking up at 3:15 almost every night and it takes a half hour to get back to sleep. Why 3:15am? Beats me but it's frighteningly consistent. I'm not even doing the work. My right arm is "gimpy" (tendonitis) so about the only way I can contribute is handing tools to DH while he's up on the ladder, taking pictures, swiping the check card at Home Depot. 

Tomorrow is the first day of the new school year. DH is back to a "normal" work schedule. He also has a show opening on Sept 8th. He really knows how to load up on activities, doesn't he? My theory is that I'm carrying the stress for both of us (not by choice) so he doesn't have to this week. 

I'm so tired that I have to debate whether to go to bed early or get into the car and drive one mile to the grocery store for the four items we need. It should be a no-brainer, but getting into the car is so unappealing. Maybe I'll just have a little nap...just a tiny one...

The Kitchen Remodel, Cont'd

As my die hard readers know (ha, 'cause I have SO many of you), we've been picking away at a kitchen remodel in our 100-yr old home since we moved in, ten years this Christmas.When I say "picking away" I'm really not kidding. It went something like this...

2001: Bought the house, started and finished major rehabilitation work just in time to move in for Christmas: plastering, plumbing, flooring, carpeting, painting, and basically bringing everything up to code, inside and out, and making the place habitable.

2002 to 2004: OMG, what the hell are we going to do with the kitchen?! So exhausted and distracted by teenage boys and dealing with their problems that it was all we could do to make it through the day.

2005: Started drafting the kitchen plan. The kids become a little more independent, DH begins his work with FIRST Robotics, and we start to feel a little more relaxed, less exhausted, and a little motivated. Replaced and enlarged the electrical panel to make sure we could add the appropriate outlets in the kitchen, which has three really inconveniently placed outlets which had a tendency to trip the breaker.

2006: DH ripped out an entire wall of cabinets and built a beautiful wall of open shelving while I was on vacation for ten days in Scotland with my mother and grandmother. Boy howdy was I surprised when I got home. I think my exact words were "holy shit."

2007: Inspired by his success in the kitchen, DH took a break and constructed built-in cabinets in the living room (but the molding and the doors on the bottom still haven't been added, even though I bought him a NEW compound miter saw the previous Christmas because our garage had been burgled). Again, he started this while I was on a two-week business trip to India. Perhaps I need to go on another long vacation...

2008: Kitchen windows shortened. A little like a boob lift. We were having all the windows replaced (all as in 30 of them, yes, and well worth it, although to be honest there are still 8 more that could stand to be replaced) and had the guys order shorter windows for the kitchen. They still hit at the same height at the top, but the bottom was filled in so we could run counter in front of the window. Even then we knew where certain elements would reside.

2009: Moved the kitchen door three feet left of it's original position. We have always known where we would move the fridge, so this was an easy thing to add to the deck work we were doing.  I think we replaced the dishwasher during this year, too.

2010: finalized the kitchen design - FINALLY! In Fall of 2010, I said to DH: just do it. I trust you, tell me when you are done. We've been futzing with the kitchen design for years, and had settled on certain things but there were details that were incomplete.

2011: This year, we replaced our gawd-awful glass-top freestanding range, whose oven thermostat ran 100 degrees too hot, with a wonderful freestanding gas range (from Craig's List!) which we just love. Of course, this also involved getting gas piped in from the street, having the gas plumbing done, etc. We also replaced the vent hood, which didn't work anyway. 

Most of the electrical is complete, and the majority of the dry-walling and misc plastering is done. We'd hoped that would all be done a little earlier so we could be done with the painting by Labor Day Weekend but you know how these things go...they had to start a day late, then ran into some old-house-wiring challenges...it happens and it's no big deal.What counts is that the work is done.

The cabinets arrived today at 6pm, and we'll hold them in the foyer and living room and wherever we can find room for them until the painting and floor is done and then we can begin hanging the uppers. 

13x13 Ferroker Floor Tiles

Backsplash - glass tile in "Arctic Ice." Ours are a little less saturated.

We haven't picked out the counter tiles yet but they'll be white, hopefully something with a little variation and interest, as in not just plain old white. In a couple of years, when we can afford it again, we'll replace it with solid surface Staron in Pebble Frost (probably, because it goes well with the floor, cabinets, and the glass tiles).

So there we are. The work commences at a roaring pace. The kitchen is barely habitable right now only because it's complete chaos and objects are continually changing places, like old base cabinets that still house flatware and pans. There is dust everywhere. 

Pictures to come...really. They are in my camera.

This Is How It Goes

This is how it goes when I spin when I spin on a spindle. First, I pile on as much fiber as possible onto the little guy. The spindle only weighs about 16 grams, but the light weight allows me to spin very fine so I can ply three very fine singles to make a thin-ish yarn. In this picture I'm referring to the second spindle, the out of focus spindle, with the green fiber. I posted this picture a few posts ago.

So, I don't really care to ply from my spindle - a phrase, by the way, wrought with meaning in the world of spinners - so I wind it off onto a storage bobbin. The bobbins I use were recommended by one of my spinning heroes, Judith MacKenzie McCuin. They are generally used by weavers for storing small amounts of yarn. Judith has a whole philosophy about how a spinner can use these bobbins in the plying stage of the game. I will restrain myself from explaining it except to say: she's so damned wise.

Anyway. I spun up a little more than what you see here,  and wound it off onto one of my wee storage bobbins.

It's about 16 grams of fiber. I REALLY stretched the limits of the little spindle. There's some engineering involving rotation and gravity and twist per inch and how it translates to strength, and I read all of this in a book and was mostly lost in the math. Bottom line: a spindle can generally hold it's weight in fiber. I didn't make that up. I read that somewhere too, though not in the same place I read about the engineering and string theory (ha ha) as it pertains to spinning. Time to ply.

I wish I'd taken a picture of my slapdash "lazy kate." I'd love to know the origin of the name for the device that holds a bobbin from which you pull string/thread/yarn. I have a perfectly good one but it's very fiddly so I stuck a 3/8" steel rod into the spout of a teapot and put the bobbin onto the steel rod. It's quite silly looking and works marvelously if you only need to use one bobbin. On the other hand, if you have multiple teapots you can press them into use for multiple bobbins for plying two, three, four, or more strands into yarn. I'm using a single bobbin to make a three-ply yarn! Ahhh! It's magic! Nah, actually it's called Navajo plying and it is slick. 

So many colors! My goal with this round of spinning was to see how much I could fit on the spindle, and I just used whatever little samples of fiber I had lying around my desk. There's some black alpaca, creamy white cormo, dark green cormo/mohair blend, a short length of bright green mystery wool, and some teal/green/blue targhee. I was also interested to see how each of these would spin on the wee spindle. I'm still struggling with the right tool configuration for alpaca. I have so much of this fiber that there is no shortage of opportunity.

Cellphone picture. See, this little skein of yarn isn't very big. That's what 16g plied sock-weight fiber looks like.

The neat thing about this type of plying is that you can retain the color sequences of the fiber you've spun without a great deal of thought or advance planning. I've done the "split the roving lengthwise into three pieces and spin each separately, then ply." Yeah, I've done that a couple of times and all the colors SHOULD mostly line up but so far, for me, they haven't. Maybe my planning is less than wonderful. Maybe I'm impatient (ooh, rings a bell...). Now that I've figured out how to Navajo ply it's just about all I want to do. I'll deal with the other when I begin plying four, five, or more strands. 

I Weft My Heart...in a Kromski Harp

There's so much to catch up on. Such as: I traded in my drum carder for a 32" rigid heddle loom. Below is my first project. The warp (long-wise) is Fannie's farmhouse sock yarn, the weft (short-wise) is Madelintosh Merino Lite. I love it. Consistent with almost all the other beginning weavers I've talked with, it took me most of the entire project to get the hang of the right-hand selvedge (edge). For some reason, I didn't have any problems with the left selvedge.

I have done a second project which I cannot discuss because it's a gift.

The third project is either a set of three towels in cotton-linen blend, for which I have fashioned a tartan pattern of black, gold, red, and yellow (which I have started to warp), or I'll do an "art" scarf with miscellaneous fibers, commercial and hand-spun. So many ideas!  So much stash to play with!

I did all this in Numbers on iPad. Neat, eh?

Just because I started warping the towels doesn't mean I need to start weaving them right away. I'm warping and chaining them (mostly) one color section at a time. As I'm warping though, I realized that the edges need something before the pattern repeat begins. The pattern begins and ends with the red, but I originally wanted it to begin and end with the black, so we'll see how this turns out. Yes, I know that's obvious when you look at the picture. It just wasn't obvious to me.


Update: I finished "sleying the reed" and my calculations were off...not way way off, but off enough that I have to adjust the finished width of my towels, and add a few more ends of black on one side. It'll be asymmetrical. Sure. That's planned.  I had to order another set of the same red, yellow, and orange to make sure I still had enough for the doubled weft.

In other projects, I'm working on a ring for a lovely faceted orange Mexican Fire Opal. I finished the shoulder bezel and, having sworn never to fit a bezel to the band again, I created a design where I have to shape the bezel to the band (which I finished since I wrote this two weeks ago, picture to come).

I figured out how I wanted to hang the big green pendant: on a combination of solid curved wire (a half choker) and chain, possibly with some beads in split complimentary colors - in this case, yellow-ey and red-violet. Or whatever I happen to have on hand :)