Ravings from a Danish City at Night

Eyesight and Insights

I got my eyes checked today. As the doc had to see the retina, the layer of nerves at the back of the eye, I got to arrive half an hour early and get drops in my eyes to dilate the pupils. The exam itself was pretty standard. Doc first took a picture of each retina, studied them for dark spiots, then looked more exacting at those two small spots in my left eye. After a while he declared them to be pigmentation spots (Freckles inside my eye... whoever knew...). Now I can go and get my eyes measured for new glasses.

This eye exam, as light-hearted I describe it here, is actually quite important. Diabetics are at risk of developing micro-bleeds and micro vessel hyper propagation (big word that simply means the small blood vessel in your eyes grow out of control trying to repair damages).  Both of those can and will damage sight receptors/nerves if left uncontrolled, eventually leading to blindness. One of the first symptoms of these bleeds are small dark spots on the retina. I quite value my eyesight, so I'll keep an eye (ha-ha...) on this.

Of course it was cloudy all day.
Of course the sun came out with a vengeance as I had my exam.
Of course I had no sunglasses with me and had to stumble through the glare with wide-open pupilles...
Smart guy with poor planning abilities, yeah, that's me.

 

As a type II I sofar can control my diabetes with pills and diet and I very much hope it stays that way. I was reading about  Confucius the other day and got to thinking how a Chinese gentlemen's diet would actually be quite beneficial for this. Small, exquisitely prepared dishes, high on vegetables, low on simple/refined carbohydrates, spread out through the length of the day, never a big meal, but never hungry either. Of course there are several obstacles to this. For the first I'm not quite a gentleman-at-leisure. Two, I don't have the household nor the staff nor the funds necessary for either. Third, this may just be another Western writer's misconception of  ideals probably not even reached in China itself.

But it describes the basics for me: several meals, not just the 'Big Three', more vegetables than in a 'usual' diet, less simple carbohydrates.

In my search for such, I stumbled upon this food-blog: 101 Cookbooks.
Very appealing phoyography, simple preparations, and very tasty dishes that easily can be tweaked to my needs and tastes (as well as the available shopping facilities).

Speaking of shopping, I think I splurged a bit. My favorite internet yarn shop has a sale. So I herewith confess to buying sixty skeins of yarn. They are for weaving, I know exactly what to do with them. I just need the time to get it done. Summer holidays in six weeks!

A Close Call

There is something immensely satisfying about a thick roll of warp.

10.5 metres of Shetland wool yarn from the Gardiner of Selkirk mill. 2 grey ends as floating selvedge, 12 black ends as border, 160 grey ends main warp, and mirror.

It was a close call though. I wasn't too sure whether I had enough room on the beam for it all. But as you can see, it just about fit:

About 1 cm of space left. But I doubt I'll put on longer warps, as those 10.5 metres was the maximum length I could wind on my warping board. I might go wider though, in this yarn I could put on 480 ends for a full 80 cm width. But no real use for that at the moment.

The brown stuff is a double layer of Kraft paper which I use as warp divider. The warp threads have to be separated into distinct layers as they wind around the beam. Should they mix, sink into each other, some threads might get longer than others, causing different tensions in the warp.

I did of course make a mistake when threading.

Those threads got all pulled out, got re-threaded and re-sleyed and then it was tied up.

I've started weaving already, couldn't really resist starting on my sampler. The first one-and-a-half samples are done already. The lower part is a simple 2/2 twill, a weft thread goes over 2 warps, then under 2 warps, then the whole shifts one to the right in the next end.

To separate the sections, a few shots with grey with hem-stitching to stabilize it. The upper part is a vertical zig-zag over 6 ends, basically a 2/2 twill that shifts back and forth. The paper strip to the left I use to make all the different sampler section the same length. A strip cut from an A4 sheet is fixed to the weaving with two pins and then used to mark how much I've done. Two pins, so I can move one and the other still holds it in place.

One minor problem though: my fingers are sore! I'm attending diabetes school at the local hospital this week and they asked us to do 7 blood sugar tests each day... Thumb and first finger are reserved, the other three get pricked for blood. Ouch!

Especially as I hate needles!

There are two things to that:
1. While blunt pain isn't a big deal for me, as I've been thrown, kicked, hit enough in my martial arts years, acute pain, like in pricks, pins and needles, feels a lot sharper, harder, deeper to me.
2. Grandpa had diabetes type 1 and used an old-fashioned glass-steel syringe with a very thick needle for his insulin. The thought of having to inject myself with such a 'drain-pipe' is one of the motivators for me to keep my diabetes type 2 under control, so I can avoid that as long as possible.

So today when we had to prick ourselves with those training injector pens, I balked first.  However the needle is so fine and thin on those, when I did it, I hardly felt anything. At least objectively/physically. Subjectively/psychologically was another matter entirely. I had shivers, sweated, felt cold around my head and neck, slightly nauseous, hair rising on my neck. All those signs I know that I'm about to go into a slight shock, my rather typical reaction to needles. Both my doctor and my dentist have seen that in me when I got vaccinations or dental anesthetics. I took a deep breath and willed it away, for it wasn't really that big a deal, that injector needle. But try telling that to my inner coward.

I still decided I'll do whatever I can to drop those 45 kg of overweight I drag around. Each gram is a step away from insulin.   

    

And a new one...

Remember what I said about weaving eating yarn? Above you see a warp. 148 warp threads, each 10.5 metres long, the longest length I can make on my warping board. That's about 1554 m of two-ply Shetland wool. Your average Rowan 50 g ball is about 150 m, so the warp along is roughly 10 and some balls of yarn. Which is just enough 24cm width. I'm also going to need the same amount for weft.

This item is going to be a sampler. The warp will be threaded straight through, that is, for non-weavers, it will be put on the shafts 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4 etc. On my favorite weaving pattern website, handweaving.net, you can find more than 300 weaving patterns for that threading in just one of their pattern books. They have 50 online, the biggest of those, Franz Donat's Large Book of Textile Designs,  holds more than 9000. I'm going to pick some 30 different ones, weave about 30 cm in it, with a border on each side. This should give me 30 A4-sheet sized patches I'm then going to sew together into a sampler blanket. Or rather half a blanket, as I think I may need another 30 for it to reach full size.   

This yarn is my favorite weaving yarn. The cone I used for warp, ran out, so I ordered a new one from B.C.Garn. Still my favorite yarn pusher for mill cones. The colour is called 'Seagull'. The mill is Gardiner of Selkirk, maybe a relation?

Oh yes, this also shows how weaving also eats accessories. Having the loom isn't enough. You also need something to warp on, shuttles, bobbins, a bobbin winder, ... Sound familiar?

Today's big event: the fabric lottery.

1. I wrote the ballots.
2. I put them in a hat.
3. I drew one.

And the winner is: MaryB from Richmond.

Mary, I'm going to need a mailing address. You now have one month to create something new from it and either send me pictures of the new item or post them on your own blog. Happy Creating!

 

Update: ok, let's re-phrase that: one month to start creating something, with regular status reports please.

And to end this on a funny note:   

see more crazy cat pics

Told you so...

About three weeks from winding the warp to fully dressed loom.

A day and a half from the first shuttle to fully woven fabric.

Put on the loom: 3 m, 80cm wide, 640 ends of slightly slubby 50/50 linen/cotton blend, sett at 8 ends/cm or 20 ends/inch.
This warp had ..., erh..., "character". It stuck together. It stuck in the reed. It stuck in the heddles. It didn't want to wind evenly onto the warp beam. It broke in lots of places. All in all, it was a major p.i.t.a. Next time I use this yarn, I'll try warping back-to-front. Hopefully that goes smoother. Also, this yarn can do with a slightly slightly denser sett, like 10ends/cm. I'll need to do another trial piece.

You can see a slightly darker stripe along each edge. I tried something new. To ensure a more even beat, Anne Dixon in her book 'The Handweaver's Pattern Directory' suggests threading the first and last four ends normally, but then doubling the next four inward, threading the remainder normally again. It worked for me, the cloth in the tabby sections is far more balanced and it was hard to willingly overbeat. One problem solved. Now I still need to concentrate on getting nicer edges and getting a square fabric.

The weft was my own handspun Gotlænder wool single.  As the original wool were off-cuts that came from a mixed lot of sheep, the single had some colour variations, thus the slight stripeyness in some places. I put ten shots with the warp yarn in before and after the wool weft, to border it and to try hem-stitching there, a different edge treatment from simply knotting. 

You can just see the hemstitches as those small bumps along the edge of the fabric. They took ages, but did create a very nice and stable edge.

I also tried a single length of leno, where you by hand manipulate the warp to cross over itself in small bunches, held there by a length of cotton. Beyond that I tried a bit of very simple pattern weaving. There I used the warop yarn as  tabby yarn, the ground. Over that I wove a simple pattern in Shetland wool in a 1/3 twill in the wide stripe, a 2/2 twill in the narrow. Just experimenting free-style.

The cloth was then quite rigorously wet-finished. Hot water, a good dollop of wool-wash, lots of movement and wringing and pushing and squishing. Not the done thing with fine knitting, but woven goods need that kind of rough treatment to get the warp and weft settled in, and with this half-woolen stuff, I wanted to full it as much as I could in the sink. Probably another cause for the non-squariness as the wool fulled slightly different in some sections.

This time I kept numbers:
Warp put on: 3.0 m
Woven length: 1.2 m (I could have woven about 0.8 m more, but lost my patience with all the warp breaks, so I stopped early.)
Length after washing: 1.12 m.
Width in the reed: 0.8 m
Width after washing: 0.74  m (average)
Uptake: length ~7.5%, width ~7.5%

The uptake numbers are the most important. They allow me to better calculate the warp needed for another project using this yarn and sett.

Again, no idea what to use it for. It makes a thinnish lap blanket at the computer or when knitting. If it wasn't half wool, it might be a nice length of fabric for a 'rustic' apron. I was thinking of using it as a door curtain, as the leno and pattern section make it hang quite straight. Worst case, the ubiquiteous 'wall hanging', that according to rumour is the weaver's last resort for duds.

You got any ideas?

This reminds me: the 'Get Creative With It' challenge from the last post is still open until March 31st. Feel free to apply.      

What did I learn?

Easter holiday week is upon us here in Denmark. So I'm relaxing and de-stressing. I just need to remember to go shopping for a long week-end tomorrow as shops are closed thursday and friday. If I should be so mad as to go shopping on saturday, I'll go early. Somehow the idea of not having been shopping for two days with two days more of that to come drives people mad. A friend of mine who worked in retail said Easter saturday was worse than the day before Christmas.

I'm using the time to slowly get my place Spring ready, throwing stuff out, dusting, sorting through my books, all that stuff. Tomorrow a friend and I will take two old computers (minus harddrives, those get a very paranoid personal treatment), an old computer monitor, an old TV, two sacks of cardboard packaging and two boxes of paperbacks to the local recycling yard. Good riddance!

Also I'm slowly but steadily threading my loom. It takes ages, but I can switch most higher brain functions off while doing so, just steady repeating work. Not even the TV or the radio on. Here it is in an in-between picture.

The warp is all through the reed, tied in big bunches with slipknots so they doesn't escape back. 2 ends to a dent in a 40/10 reed, that makes 8 ends per cm (or 20 ends per inch for the Imperials). At 80 cm /32" weaving width, that means a lot of work. Each end has to be pulled through the reed, then through the right heddle. 12 ends are knotted together and will be tied to the back apron. Small bunches. but  they'll spread out nicely.

I brought old my last piece of weaving to take a good look at it and see what I'd learned from it.

1. I learned how to see and correct pattern mistakes,  in this case in the edge treatment.

2. A nice clean selfedge is a good thing, especially when helped along by a floating thread.

3. I need to look out more for errors, in weaving called 'floats', where I get the weft above/below a warp thread it shouldn't have gone above/below. I caught most, but not all and they are easier to correct while the fabric is under tension on the loom.

4. I need to be more consistent in my 'beat', the way I put new weft into the fabric, the weaving equivalent of knitting's 'tension' to avoid stripes.

One rather glaring example:

5. I need to keep better records of how long a warp I put up and how wide it is in the reed, in comparison to the finished piece.

All in all, a nice piece of fabric, 100% Shetland wool, light grey warp, dark blue weft, roughly 2.5 m/8' long, 35 cm/14" wide. Just one thing: I have no idea what to do with it. Cushion covers maybe?

So: Who here wants it? Just apply through the comments and I'll draw a winner. Only one condition applies: You have to use it for something, make something from it, complete the creation. Documentation either by putting said newly created item(s) on your own blog (if available) or by sending me photo(s) for mine.   

Lollipop, lollipop, ...

As much as I like my wheel, occassionally I still use my hand spindle. In this case to produce a bright scarlet single from some Corriedale fibre Polly sent me. For some reason it wouldn't draft to my satisfaction on the wheel, so I'm producing a yarn lolly on my Bosworth Spindle.

I also got a bag of chilli pepper red Corriedale, so I'll spin both colours on the spindle, then re-wind onto Schacht bobbins for storage and to ply it into a yarn.
This time I actually already got a name. Two reds, plied together = 'Double Happiness'

Easter holidays next week, looking forward to them. I promised a friend a woven woollen blanket. So I'd woven a small sample of it, in 1:6 size.

Four different natural browns (the lightest one is very light) on a natural white background. Here woven in a tabby weave, so I could see whether the colour distribution fit. The full-size blanket will be woven in two 32" wide strips in a 2:2-twill and then sewn together. This will give a thicker, warmer, and cosier weave.

But first I need to get the linen/cotton warp done, sofar I've only sleyed half the reed and not threaded a single heddle yet...  Warping takes forever, the weaving itself will fly.

What shall I call it?

Well, it is spun and plied. It has been skeined and tied and washed. Now soon it will be given to the Danish Mail services so it, along with some Easter goodies, can make the trip to its recipient.

The colours didn't mix too much from the distribution in the original fibre-braid, as I split it lengthwise and then spun each half sequentially. The last skein, the top one in the picture, in the exception. That one was left on one bobbin and so I used Andean-plying to make it into a more usable yarn. It got that 'barberpole' effect that some spinners sneer politely at, but it als0 is the skein I like best.

Still one big challenge though: I can't really send it back labelled 'Diseased Mouse Innards', no matter how excentrically some dyers/spinners name their creations. For one, the colours distributed differently in the two-ply as compared to the single; secondly, the washing watered down some of the most aggressive colours.

So, what shall I call it?

It has been a while...

So, what have I been up to?

Primarily, a lot of work. I got a semi-demi-hemi-promotion at work to be the new chemistry-teacher-group-leader. I got one more class to teach as their chemistry teacher left for a new job. I got the new biotechnology class that will come next school year for the 3.Gs/seniors. So a lot there.

Craftwise, i've been winding up a warp:

640 threads, each 2.5 metres long. Weaving eats yarn! But it takes ages to set up. This yarn is a half-bleached cotton-linen for a weaving experiment. It is also the first full-width warp (80 cm) I'm putting on my loom. It will be a linsey-woolsey at least the first 60 cm or so. After that free experimentation with various yarns from my stash.

This will be the warp for that linsey-woolsey:

A single spun from a friend's parents's Gotlænder sheep. A bit more greyish in real life than in the picture. It was quite interesting to spin. I'd scoured and carded this wool myself, so I really got into the process. I also on this yarn quite suddenly went from spinning 'inch-worm' style to 'long-draw'. You can see more about the difference in that on this website. They even got small videos.

I've actually been spinning a lot! Like this Black Welsh Mountain:

which isn't so much black as more a deep, red-tinged brown. Not the softest stuff, so not for direct skin contact. I originally wanted it for a scarf, now I'm thinking more like carpet. We'll see. I got the fibre from Wingham Wool Work, where I get a lot of my spinning fibres.

The next skein is a mix of Blue-Faced Leicester and silk, also from Wingham.

This is a soft and smooth and absolutely next-to-skin yarn. It feels cool at first, then the warmth slowly sneaks up on you. I had only one issue with the fibre: the silk wasn't carded in too well. It sometimes formed thick, white streaks. You can see one in the picture.

This yarn was spun from roving sent to me by Amelia:
A Merino, in deep and rich blues and greens. This is only about one-sixth the fibre I got spun up sofar. I got a definite idea what to use it for, so more about that later. I needed the break from the natural wools, so I just picked out some colour.

The fibre for this is from someone I currently choose not to name. You know who you are!! I think I'm going to invoke my 'You Sent Me The Fibre, I send You The Yarn'-rule on this. The roving had an interesting colour scheme, which sadly didn't make it into the spun single. It kinda reminds me of my time as a lab assistant. Though I don't think that 'Diseased Mouse Innards' was how it was supposed to turn out.

I'm curious though how it will ply into a yarn, maybe it will come to its full rights then.

More later. And very much sooner than this!

God Jul!!!

God Jul, a Good Julefest, to everyone who reads this.

May your holidays, whatever flavour you celebrate, be joyful and merry and as stress-less as can be.

Personally I'm staying at home this year. The family usually has its Jul together at the summerhouse in Gedser. But with mormor dying there just after Jul last year, mum wasn't quite ready to face that. So they decided to stay in Berlin. I couldn't quite get myself to trek to Berlin, so I'm staying in Aalborg. I hope kid brother and wife make a quick hop from Frankfurt/M. to Berlin, far easier and cheaper for them than for me...

I know I owe a ton of 'Thank You' messages to all the well-wishers from the last post. I can only ask that you please bear with me. I'll get to it shortly.

Here's a picture to show you what I've been up to lately.

 

And so it came to pass...

...that I turned 40 today.

Yes, that's right, the big '40'.

My first reaction was like, 'F**K, how did that happen?!?!' At which point my engineer brain started mumbling about birthdate, calendars, solar rotations and such until I shushed it.

Thing is, I don't feel 40, nor do I ((touch wood)) look too much like it. Not that there s a special 'He's 40'-look anyway. Yes, I got my grey hairs, yes, I got some wrinkles, but I don't really mind them. They are just me.

Except that, unlike women who are supposed to get heat flashes and cold spells, I'm now supposed to get a hot young mistress and a cool sports car... Not that I'd do that, though a question: would lacquering my spinning wheel Ferrari-red count?

It is one of those big 'round' birthdays here in Denmark, so I'm inviting my friends out to dinner tonight and my family out for lunch tomorrow. And I get presents at work too. Tough some co-workers have been muttering that they haven't gotten those big presents yet, while me newbie with less than 2 years of teaching gets them already...

My biggest present though came from one of my classes. Due to their low numbers, two small classes, one of them mine, are to be joined into a big one. Something that really shocked some of the pupils, especially the female ones. Good thing counsellor's office is nearby. She passed out a lot of calm and tissues. They would get new teachers too in nearly all subjects. When my pupils heard that they would no longer have me in chemistry, they all protested and said that they wanted to keep me or they'd all change school. They said I was fun, I was fair, I could teach at their level and I was good to be around with.

Comments like that from pupils really warm my heart. So that was a huge ego-booster for me that day.

Other than that nothing much happening here. Still knitting, just finished a larger piece on the loom ((will post about that soon)) and still treadling my wheel. Of course the usual Christmas shopping panic, but that's a yearly event. I used to buy all presents in mid-October and just stash them, works no longer.

With that enough from here, just one short sentence that I've cited a lot these days:
It is mandatory to grow old, it is voluntary to grow up.

Addendum:

Best birthday email sofar from an RPG/MMORPG riend:

Ding! Grats on Lvl 40! Any new special abilities?

Very much an inside joke though.