Thursday, March 11, 2010

Geeky Gifts


I have often thought my prodigious fiber activities could be in direct response to the copious amounts of tools we have kicking around here. If fiber is my legacy, tools certainly are Gene's. We have saws and drills and all sorts of things that look like they could be used to torture cats.Only joking, we save all nifty torture devices for the dogs!
:-)
But there is one tool in his arsenal that we fight over. I won the good hammer battle BTW, it now sits in my little tool section in the studio, but this tool has both of us at odds. At any time of the day or night, I will hear, "Okay, where did you put it?" Closely followed by some sort of ear burning curse to keep my paws off his cheese. I then usually point out he has a lot of cheese, certainly he can find other cheese to do what this cheese does. He's getting smart though, yesterday mornings comeback asked if I would use linen when I wanted wool, after all they are all CHEESE! So, Mr. Smarty Pants finally did something about the division of tool cheese. He bought me my own.

Other than a hammer and a nail, this is the most useful tool in the house. You gotta love a man that brings you home stuff like this.

The sweater is just about done. The sleeves are all sewn to the shoulders and awaiting me to sew up the sides and sleeve seams.


Then pick up and knit the neck ribbing,weave in ends, wash, block, dry, pictures and then off to Massachusetts. I spent part of my afternoon scanning the hoards of toy patterns. So many fun ones to choose from.

Carolyn has been reduced to the sum of her parts. Finding boxes for some of the odd lengths and sizes is proving challenging. I'll tell you one thing, when the new spinning wheel and loom come, I am saving their boxes. It just makes life easier all around.

The pillowcase warp goes slowly, but then again, what's the rush?

There was a bit of weaving on the blanket but most of the fiber time was spent on the sweater.

On farm news, the horses not only are muddy but shedding. They look very unappealing right now. I can't find my shedding blade so this Friday another will be picked up. Everyone is stomping around, full of high energy and all of them need some quality time on the lunge line and a little pre conditioning for the riding mounts. Hay this year was good and they are all a little fat. Spring brings along with warmth and sunshine, an assortment of wormers, the clippers will come out soon and hoof nippers, the annual farm vet visit and some serious barn clean-up. Gene and I have a date to take Cooper and Dandy for a long walk down the BLM road. Not riding, just good fun walking the big dogs kind of stroll thing. Let them rubber neck at the trees that might have fallen and get any jump and jiggle out while in hand and so we can all go investigate if need be. We'll split up on one of the trails to get a sense of how buddy sour they may have become, see if we can find some delicate shoots just waiting for a quick graze and marvel that we have had these two fellows for so many years and what truly good kind horses they are.

13 comments:

陽台 said...
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Cindie said...

Love that sweater - glad I saw it in person being worked on at guild Tuesday.

The tool looks great - we had the discussion over our tools missing all the time at Sewing Sunday this past weekend. I had tools of my own when I met Sam, Dad bought them for me when I bought my first house......somehow all those tools have migrated down into Sam's big tool stash.

Anonymous said...

I asked for a set of my own tools as a b-day gift when I bought my AVL. Received a nice set in it's own zippered case and it still is beside the loom (most of the time!) Love the sweater!

Susan said...

I have a small basket with some tools for my looms. Some came with the looms and some 'appeared' and now stay. Hub has finally yielded to the situation and if he borrows his own tool, he returns it to the basket! ( training took well doncha think? :)

So Carolyn is on the move again? Where's she off to now? As you can see the boxing up was quite difficult and that it took awhile to accomplish. I can give the new owner the name of the only other weaver ahead of me to own it so they have a complete history ( if they want to know)

So share about the new equipment coming!?

Susan

Michelle said...

That sweater is IMPRESSIVE!

charlotte said...

You're an extremely fast knitter! And the sweater is lovely, I like those classic cable patterns very much.

Theresa said...

Charlotte & Michelle, Thank you. The sweater is complete and has been washed and blocked, just waiting for it to dry. I love the classic cables too.
I'm looking forward to seeing this sweater done in the two lovely shades for my Mom and Gene, dark ocean blue and a deep moss green, both very tweedy type yarns.
Susan, I keep my stuff in a series of canvas pockets on one of the walls. Seems handy and it is so nice not to have to go surfing in the heaping pile of tools which only Gene knows the organization method.... Carolyn is heading to Western MA.
Cindie, yes, tools seem to be quite mobile don't they!
To the person who sent the characters I can't read, hope it was something nice and polite! :-)

LA said...

I keep my loom "tools" in my loom bench! I don't want to have to go to my tool drawer in the kitchen when I need to tighten a nut/bolt. Love the sweater!!!

Leigh said...

The sweater is great! I'm quite jealous, I'll have you know.

Love the part about the tools. Ours (believe it or not) is a tape measure.

Life Looms Large said...

The sweater is gorgeous!! And you are one fast knitter!!

Glad to hear that you're getting your loom decisions sorted out. I was just on the phone yesterday helping some one who recently bought a Toika. (A big Toika in Vermont....so not the loom of your dreams!)

I am so lame with tools. I grew up in a house of mechanical geniuses and I live with a mechanical genius now. When I need a tool, it usually comes with assistance from Jim. I do have my own weaving gadgets of course. But I can't say that we fight over tools!

For a second when you said "off to Massachusetts" in this post, I thought you meant that you were heading out this way so soon. But then I realized it's not quite time.

Mud season is here too now.

Think spring!
Sue

bspinner said...

I made myself a small house tool box. Worked great until, you guested it, DH came along and made it his own. Now I can't find a thing. I'm with you. You've got to love a man who brings you tools.

Love the sweater!!!!!!!!

Sharon said...

I keep my equipment tools in a ceramic bowl but haven't needed a hammer until we installed the anti-spin system. Did you say you shared a hammer?

I love the sweater and know your dad will too. You really got that done quickly. I'm suddenly fascinated by three-dimensional knitting, which takes me surprise since I'm usually quite practical.

I got an email from Jenkins today, apologizing for the reply. I got to order two shuttles. Thanks for the information!

Jennifer said...

Oh don't you hate it when the DH comes to understand your stuff well enough to argue effectively??? Ugh!

The sweather is beautiful! I am simply amazed!