Wednesday...

i am far more obsessed with process than with product, so i got a big kick out of making a tapestry-style frame loom from some very inexpensive (mostly recycled) materials i had laying around.

first, it required a frame of some sort.  i recycled an art canvas stretcher-framey thing (whatever the technical term is for the wooden rectangle the cloth is tacked to) that formerly held an acrylic painting.  it was one of four equally underwhelming canvases left leaning up alongside the trash by one of my aspiring-artist neighbors. this actually makes my attempts at painting seem so much less frightening.

after stripping off the canvas, yanking out any errant staples, and giving the frame a slight sanding to prevent splinters or any rough bits that might potentially snag on my precious fibers, i used the tape measure to place marks at 1/4" intervals along opposite ends of the frame, offsetting the markings on one end, so they are staggered and not directly across from each other.  for example, i measured on the 1/4" on one end, and on the 1/8" on the opposite end (ignore the inner line of markings, as i decided to work closer to the edge of the frame in order to maximize the weaving area)...

the boy insisted on doing the hammering, as i tend toward self-destructive clumsiness... which was confirmed shortly after taking these photos when i pinched a large chunk of my finger in a pair of pliers while trying to snap a thin wooden dowel in half...

one end done...

i have to suppress my OCD when looking at the row of nails from this angle...

starting to warp the finished frame (i.e., lay down the base threads) with some commercial spun yarn (i believe it's an odd ball of Yarn Treehouse washable 100% wool leftover from gloves or some such thing)...

just wound the yarn back and forth between the opposing nails, wrapping it once around each nail to try to maintain some relatively even tension...

be sure to secure the starting end of the warp in one corner, or it will be like trying to nail jello to a wall.  i used small wooden dowels to take up some of the slack in the warped frame...

and a paint stirrer as a convenient shed stick (nothing gets wasted around here).  closed shed...

opened shed!!!

even MacGyvered a primitive heddle of sorts from a second paint stirrer and lots of loops of pink yarn.  i used a couple jars of Dharma acid dyes to hold up the heddle when i needed to alternate the shed... 

tossed in a few rows of my hand-dyed, handspun yarn... 

and was instantly bored. weaving is definitely not my thing, but i did enjoy making the equipment.

there are any number of websites and blogs providing detailed instruction on making and using a beginner-friendly loom of this type (like here, here, here, here, and here), should anyone be interested in doing such a silly thing.  even a small one of this size can produce something interesting to display.  if you want a true adventure on the wild side, try building something fancier, like the big-kids play with... out of PVC!!! 

i actually cut the yarn and re-warped it in a combination of grey, pink, and black, and i hope to eventually talk myself into (maybe) producing something interesting to hang on a wall... frame and all!  for now, i will daydream of my next loom-building adventure.  it will be like something out of an episode of the Flintstones!  happiness!!!

Tuesday...

(it's currently a few minutes after 10 PM on the West Coast, so i'm counting it as still Tuesday across the entire North American continent)

the trash story is not quite ready to be told (it involves some photo-editing that is being delayed by a combination of technical problems and user-laziness), so i will share a few of the several thousand shots i've taken in the past month or two (each of which tells a story that was intended as an individual posts... did i mention user-laziness???).

i have a fondness for collective nouns, which is evidenced by the title of this forum, and i learned a new one today.  while they lack the numbers to properly qualify as a nuisance of cats, my girls more than make up for it with their total lack of respect for my fiber crafting lifestyle.

the box they're perching on contains some quality mill-spun yarns i purchased to hand dye and (potentially) resell.  i made the incredible mistake of leaving the box on that table for a few minutes, and they have claimed it as a new resting spot... within petting-range of the studio computer, so they get even more love all day (and night, cause insomnia is my default setting most days)...


i'm growing tomatoes on the windowsill.  the plants have grown quite a bit since i took this photo a month ago. will have to take some more soon.  there are a few large clusters of decent-sized cherry tomatoes at this point, but they are still refusing to ripen.  the plants, however, have reached little shop of horrors proportions, and i am fairly certain that they will attack any day now.

i've been engaging in experimental baking almost every weekend.  recent episodes include: pita od jabuka (Croatian apple pie)...

old fashioned donuts (technically not baking, but there was flour and kneading involved)...

and spicy, cheesy crackers made with white cheddar and freshly-grated Parmesan.  before...

and, after!!!  (i had to nibble a few to make sure they tasted good enough to photograph)...

finally got started turning the empty hot chocolate containers i've been collecting all winter into a really nifty system for displaying some of my yarns (way less loony than it sounds, trust me)...

and i made this interesting looking contraption out of an old canvas stretcher (rescued a year or two ago from a stack of horrible paintings one of my aspiring-artist neighbors left leaning up next to the trash) and about 50¢ worth of tiny nails.

Monday...

(promised myself i'd post something every day this week, so i'm gonna cheat a bit and post these photos before midnight, then come back and add the captions, so it still counts as my "Monday" post.)


went for a late afternoon walk with the camera and the boy in tow. most of the photos i took were of trash (will explain why tomorrow).


standing in the middle of la rue Sherbrooke Ouest at a red light.  the boy always drags me to the intersection to cross the street (instead of in the middle of the block, as the defiant New Yorker in me tends to do) because he's Canadian and it's against their programming to break rules...

a cherry tree branching out over the sidewalk.  i was very tempted to steal one, but i behaved (but i've made a mental note of the tree's location for one of my future late-night strolls!!!!)....

i smelled these roses before i saw them.  such a pretty shade of pink...

(we strolled around Monkland Village for a while, eventually popping into the grocery store for fixings for dinner, then headed back down the hill toward home)

a cluster of well-chewed leaves on a copper beech.  the sky was actually much darker than it appears in the photo, and the tiny bits of light visible through the lacy holes caught my attention as i walked past the tree...

the bent cross outside the old church seemed to be making a poignant statement...

an alleyway that leads to the heart of the block (i.e., where the back of houses on one street are right across from the back of the houses one street over).  all the blocks in the neighborhood are like that, and it's sometimes fun to walk down the alleys and look at the backyard gardens and patios on either side of the alleyway as you go...

Notre Dame de Grâce Park at night...

southern edge of the park...

back home with bay scallops, calamari, baby bok choy, shiitake mushrooms, ginger, and garlic for dinner...

added some scallions and a green chili and everything is prepped and ready to go, with a quickly tossed together sauce on standby and peanut oil for stir-frying...

served atop steamed white rice.  the boy wanted a wide bowl...

but i prefer to eat everything out of a cereal bowl...

after dinner, we put out the recycling, and i used the cover of darkness to retrieve an old frame from the trash for a future craft project... but i will save that adventure for another day.

any ordinary day...

i had an interesting conversation with my mother last week...

me:  (sleepily) hi, mom.

mom:  i didn't realize you were sleeping.  i won't keep you long.  just calling to wish you a happy birthday.

me:  it's not my birthday, mom.
mom:  it's not?  

me:  no... that doesn't happen until tomorrow.

mom:  are you sure?

me:  pretty sure.

mom:  well... happy birthday, anyway.  

yep... that pretty much sums up life at present.  

this vacuum of inspiration and motivation has left me reconsidering the people, places, and things i have loved across my lifetime.  in this vein of thought, i recently woke up with a desire for something so simple and ordinary, it seems almost impossible to believe i have denied myself the pleasure for more than 20 years.


can you spot the forbidden culinary treat?

somewhere back in the nineteen hundred and eighties (doesn't it sound ancient?), the FDA issued a slew of warnings on the dangers of eating under-cooked eggs on account of the horror commonly known as salmonella (i may have to bathe my fingers in holy water to remove the curse of typing the word).  being young and impressionable as i was, the countless reminders splashed across every form of media available at the time left me frightened that my much loved soft-boiled or over-easy egg was a guaranteed sentence of death.  gone were the fingers of buttered toast dunked into a creamy yolk.  gone was the joy of piling bacon and egg between two halves of a toasted English muffin... then pressing down till the drops of golden yellow began to seep along the edges (that my mother was disgusted by this ritual only added to the enjoyment).  looking forward to Sunday brunch (which simply meant eating breakfast later than usual) was the only thing that made sitting through the early church service tolerable.  gone too was the privilege of licking the last traces of batter from the spoon and bowl when my mother made cakes (i was convinced that the raw eggs in the batter would kill on contact).  for over two decades, i waited, and seethed, and gasped in shock every time i saw someone consume an egg that was not cooked to the point that it could be used to drive nails into the hardest of lumber.


then i woke up yesterday with an overwhelming desire to try something so foreign to the norm... it seemed almost brand new.  now, not having boiled an under-cooked egg in decades, i cracked open the shell...

...only to realize that i had been a bit overzealous in my timing.

three and a half minutes later...

toss in a pinch of the cracked pepper (the current mix is black and green peppercorns with whole coriander and allspice) and pink sea salt lingering on my plate...

i took the big plunge with a piece of well-buttered, toasted English muffin from the past weekend's experimental baking...

it's funny how something so under-whelming can be the most incredible thing i've tasted this side of the millennium.  further proof that all those FDA warnings should sometimes be taken with a grain of salt... and buttered toast.

stuff...

so... i'm working on a sweater/shrug/cardi, called Georgina (here on Ravelry).  about halfway through, you're instructed to take the oddly-shaped piece of lace off the needles...

 and block it aggressively...

(which just means to soak lightly and pin it out till it dries).

after removing about a million pins, the lacework stays open!!!

because there was nothing better to do, i created SpongeBob PinHead!!!

and took about a hundred photos of a silly grey kitty i found climbing all over my stuff.