New Year's Weave

Day 79: Happy New Year's Weave! This demented little project is something I've thought about doing for a long time, i.e., making a band using sewing thread for the ground. The red pattern threads and white border are 10/2 cotton (single), and I chose to hang it on Pippin because I'd just taken a band off her. Jutta, my Leksand loom, would probably have served this exercise better. The distance between the heddles and Pippin's breast beam makes picking up the pattern threads in this method rather awkward since they are suspended between the upper and lower layers. I could have used a different system, specifically threading them through heddles rather than between them, but besides utilizing sewing thread, I also wanted to test the method. Some of you will spot the pitfall in the scientific protocol here: never change more than one variable in an experiment. "Eh," I said as I was pulling threads through heddles, "what's the worst that can happen? So maybe I have to cut it off and try again. It's just sewing thread." Now that I've confessed, I have to say that it's working out okay, not perfectly, but okay. I simply have to be a little more careful that I am picking up the proper threads from the free-floating layer.

Warping Into 2024

Day 78: As far as I'm concerned, Warp 10 isn't fast enough to get out of 2023. Of course there are no guarantees 2024 will be any better, but we can hope so. That said, I'm weaving my way toward the limits of several current warps, and have two measured and waiting in the wings to replace Pippin's band (top right, will be done by evening) and the King's Flower overshot (bottom left, still about three feet to go). Jutta's band (top left) is going much faster than anticipated, given the finer threads, and I'm enjoying weaving it so much that I really wished I'd hung a longer warp. The wildly colourful "log cabin" runner on the rigid heddle (lower right) is also nearly done, but I have nothing planned to replace it at the moment, so I'm dragging my feet a little until inspiration strikes me. Pippin's next project will be a real challenge because the pattern will be worked on a ground of sewing thread. While that's not the finest thread I've ever used in a weaving (I once wove fine linen napkins at 52 ends per inch), it will be the finest I've ever used for a band. With the projects I have lined up, I'm heading into 2024 at warp speed.

The Grand Medlar Experiment

Day 77: It will be a few days before I can give a complete report on the results of the Grand Medlar Experiment 2023, but indications are that it was at least more successful than my 2021 attempt. This time, I used commercial pectin and Certo's recipe for apple/crabapple jelly, adding a quarter cup of lemon juice to give the pectin a nudge in the right direction. Prior to decanting it into jars for processing in a hot-water bath, I skimmed the foam off the top and placed it in a small bowl. By the time canning was complete, it had cooled sufficiently for me to see that it was going to set, although how firm the jelly will be after a week or two remains to be seen. Some jams and marmalades take up to two weeks to fully set; others soften. In any event, the foam was delicious, licked straight off the spoon, albeit rather sweeter than expected. There is a note of rose in the flavour, a hint of citrus, overall much like a fragrant, light honey. Even if it goes "soupy," it will make an excellent glaze for ham or a pork roast, but I am expecting it to set this time around.

Open Season

Day 76: Christmas is done and dusted, and now it's open season on light bulbs. Scoff if you will, I've lived with the phenomenon for...well, way longer than I want to admit. When a certain type of mood affects me, no light bulb in the house is safe. They wink out if I flip the switch, touch the fixture or sometimes even if I just walk past, and over the next two weeks or so, I will probably have to replace half a dozen or more of various types and ages. And that brings us to one particular thing which constitutes a major lament, one thing I miss most grievously: incandescent bulbs. I am working my way through my stash of them at a rate which will mean I don't have enough last through my remaining lifetime despite using curly ones and LEDs in less critical areas than my work space. No modern bulb gives as much or as good light, no matter what the manufacturer claims. Today, a 3-way LED gave up the ghost and I had to replace it with one of my precious 100-watt incandescents, and I swear the 100-watt bulb casts more light than the 150-watt equivalent LED ever did. This is an important thing to those of us whose vision is less than optimal. And worse, that hideously expensive 3-way LED was purported to have a longer life expectancy than the antiquated incandescents. That, in my vast experience, is a bald-faced lie, patently false advertising. Here's hoping I get through Light Bulb Season without too many more fatalities.

Vegemite On Toast

Day 75: One of my personal mottos came up in discussion yesterday: Life is too short not to try new foods. Indeed, I will try anything once. I may never eat it again, but on the other hand, I may decide I like it. Many years ago, I decided to try that Down-Under classic, Vegemite on toast. None of the local grocers carried the Vegemite brand, but they did have Marmite. I bought a jar for my experiment. I'm not sure what I was expecting. I knew it was a savoury topping as opposed to a sweet one, but that did not prepare me for the strong salty taste and a flavour reminiscent of beef bouillon. It might have gone better at a different hour of the day: breakfast fare, it was not. If memory serves, I wound up using the remainder in soups. Even then, its merits were dubious. Still, I could not conclude the test until I found some real Vegemite which, thanks to my Kiwi friend Rob, arrived as part of his Christmas gift. At lunchtime, I spread one packet on a slice of homemade sourdough and hesitantly took a bite. By the time I had finished the toast, I had decided it was edible, although in that first moment, there had been some doubt in my mind. It is less salty than Marmite, less "beefy" (there is no beef in it, or in Marmite), and I think I will probably grow to like it by the time I've used the other three packets, allowing for a hefty serving of cultural difference on the side.

Scale - Upping My Game

Day 74: I am always looking to "up my game" with new challenges, particularly in fiberarts, so when I had devised a new and hopefully foolproof way of warping my Leksand loom, I also decided to change the scale of the weaving to one using much finer threads. The band on Pippin (right) uses 8/2 throughout, doubled for the red pattern. Jutta's band (left) is made over a 16/2 white ground with single strands of 10/2 in the border and single 8/2 for the pattern. Obviously, Jutta's delicate band is more suitable for clothing than the 8/2 bands I apply to bags and straps, and is progressing rather more quickly than I'd expected, given the weight of the weft thread (also white 16/2). Many traditional Leksand bands used even finer threads for the ground, something closer to the weight of modern sewing thread which, in fact, present-day Leksand weavers frequently employ. Given the success of this experiment, I may graduate to sewing thread next.

Christmas 2023

Day 73: I think I have perfected the lyrics after several years of trying to get the last line of the chorus to scan properly.

The Holly and the Ivy,
Both as invasives curs'd,
Of all the shrubbery in our woods,
These two are just the worst.

Oh, the rising of the sap and
The spreading of the seeds!
A little bit of herbicide
Is all a person needs.

And a Merry Christmas to you and yours from your friendly neighbourhood naturalist and her small Tippy-child!