Sunday...

i've got super, huuuuge, exciting news, and i'm sharing it here first...

the tomatoes are starting to ripen!!!  seriously... that's as exciting as life gets around here.


after a couple inches of knitting, i transferred the new scarf to a piece of cotton yarn to check that i'd cast on enough stitches (would hate to get all the way to the end, then discover it's not long enough to keep my neck toasty)...

and spent the best part of the day laughing at this...

can't think of a better way to end my post-a-day week.  thank you to anyone out there who actually read any part of it, or just looked at the pictures... or even clicked long enough to realize that you weren't interested in my non-adventures.  [Roberto, your sweater is on the "knitting to get to... once the hottest part of summer's done" list, which should (hopefully) give me enough time to get over my squirrelphobia.]

Saturday...

i'm not usually a fan of tuna salad, but beer makes everything tolerable, especially on a hot summer's day...

this is one of my recent hand-dyed yarns.  it is a mill-spun, fingering weight silk/merino (50/50) blend.  i spent the last couple weeks daydreaming about a special scarf, and and i got about 25% of the way through constructing it in a different yarn, but that little voice in my head kept whispering, "Philly"... so i frogged the first effort and spent the early part of the morning casting on (would have been quicker had i not opted for (gasp)  girly picots). and, yes.. i always listen to the voice!

the color was inspired by my little kitty, whose coat is a tonal study in grey.  i love semi-solid colors, and i'm rather pleased with this one.  hopefully, i will do it justice...

Friday...

Montreal's on fire... or so it feels lately.  it's not really the heat, but the humidity that makes even the smallest task feel like a near-exhaustion crawl through the dessert.  i'm trying to harness my recent bout of energy (i.e., mild mania) into getting something productive done, but anything more taxing than going to the fridge to get a cold drink results in a sweat-soaked nightmare... so for now, i'm mostly daydreaming.


it was a sunny day out, so i opened all the windows and curtains (which is significant, as i generally try to maintain a cave-like atmosphere in my surroundings.

the windowsill tomatoes are experiencing an identity crisis, as they seem to think they're vines.  i had to wedge a piece of bamboo into the window frame to tie them to when they outgrew the original stakes and started growing sideways.  the stems are at least 8 feet long at this point, and are tangled together around the bamboo pole (which is more apparent silhouetted against the sunny window)...

and the immature fruit are hanging in chaotic clusters throughout...

these were the first two to develop. i check on them multiple times a day, waiting for the first signs of ripening...

and i spent a few minutes taking photos of a recent dyeing adventure.  apparently my bed is the one place in the apartment that offers true-to-life coloring for taking pictures.  the crazy things you learn when you let the sunshine in!

Thursday...

still need to catch up on sleep, so i'll try to be brief.  there's much i'd like to say about this meal... but i'll leave that up to the imagination....

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!!!