My loom now has somewhere to be set up, and all the bits are leaning against the wall waiting for me to do something with them. I also have the sewing desk in the same room, which is awfully convenient.
Next step is sorting through all the yarn and fabric and working out what the best storage method is going to be. I think that in the long term it would be nice to have shelves for yarn, but that will probably wait until after any repairs etc have happened. There are two wardrobes that will probably just get filled with stash boxes in the shorter term.
Photos to come eventually...
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Sunday, 27 February 2011
And there are pictures
It's now time for a quick photo tour around our house.
We still have some lawn:
But not as much as we'd like:
More broken windows:
Exposed brickwork:
Less wine:
A larger house:
\
A now unjammed back door:
A new floor storage system:
And some bonus daylight:
We also have power and a road that hasn't been closed (yet). (This is the main road near our place, it's a bit worse further along). No water or sewers yet, don't know if we've managed to acquire any portaloos either. (Currently not home, heading back again tomorrow to see how things are).
We do still have jobs to go to, it's just a matter of getting there. The cat has been sighted and fed multiple times since Tuesday, but he's spending a lot of time in hiding. Really, we could be a lot worse off (but would have been quite happy without all this).
We still have some lawn:
But not as much as we'd like:
More broken windows:
Exposed brickwork:
Less wine:
A larger house:
\
A now unjammed back door:
A new floor storage system:
And some bonus daylight:
We also have power and a road that hasn't been closed (yet). (This is the main road near our place, it's a bit worse further along). No water or sewers yet, don't know if we've managed to acquire any portaloos either. (Currently not home, heading back again tomorrow to see how things are).
We do still have jobs to go to, it's just a matter of getting there. The cat has been sighted and fed multiple times since Tuesday, but he's spending a lot of time in hiding. Really, we could be a lot worse off (but would have been quite happy without all this).
Thursday, 24 February 2011
Oh dear.
It's been a while since I last updated, hasn't it. Unfortunately, not much weaving has happened since then, and it's looking even more unlikely now.
I just moved the loom bits upstairs into the spare bedroom because I didn't expect to be able to put it back together where it was. And then we had another blow.
Tuesday 22nd of February, just before 1pm we had another big quake. Only a 6.3 this time, but very close to town and 5km deep. I won't go into too much detail, but here's a link to an article about it. The short version is that the damage here is much, much worse than back in September, and they're still trying to rescue people from rubble. Thankfully we're okay, but our area has been hit quite hard. (Photos to come eventually). Our garden is full of silt, up to a foot deep, and our house now has much worse cracking. (The previous broken wall now has a small gap that we can see daylight through). We managed to get our phone and power back last night, which was earlier than we were expecting, but there is still no water (and probably won't be for a while yet). The worst damage we've seen in our immediate area is down by the river where the road is now multi-level, with at least a metre in variation, and huge cracks. (And it's all dropped below the level it started at).
Much more excitement than I would like to have had, and I don't think I'm the only one. We're all hoping for the rest of the search and rescue operations to be as successful as possible.
I just moved the loom bits upstairs into the spare bedroom because I didn't expect to be able to put it back together where it was. And then we had another blow.
Tuesday 22nd of February, just before 1pm we had another big quake. Only a 6.3 this time, but very close to town and 5km deep. I won't go into too much detail, but here's a link to an article about it. The short version is that the damage here is much, much worse than back in September, and they're still trying to rescue people from rubble. Thankfully we're okay, but our area has been hit quite hard. (Photos to come eventually). Our garden is full of silt, up to a foot deep, and our house now has much worse cracking. (The previous broken wall now has a small gap that we can see daylight through). We managed to get our phone and power back last night, which was earlier than we were expecting, but there is still no water (and probably won't be for a while yet). The worst damage we've seen in our immediate area is down by the river where the road is now multi-level, with at least a metre in variation, and huge cracks. (And it's all dropped below the level it started at).
Much more excitement than I would like to have had, and I don't think I'm the only one. We're all hoping for the rest of the search and rescue operations to be as successful as possible.
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
I got there eventually, right?
The towel is finally washed.
Still no word on when I can put the loom back together though. I'm managing to get some non-weaving stuff done though, so I guess that counts for something.
Starting to have plenty of ideas for what to weave when the loom is back together, I'm not yet sure which one is going to win.
Still no word on when I can put the loom back together though. I'm managing to get some non-weaving stuff done though, so I guess that counts for something.
Starting to have plenty of ideas for what to weave when the loom is back together, I'm not yet sure which one is going to win.
Monday, 25 October 2010
And something on the weaving front
My weaving is finally done!
No finished photos yet, I haven't washed it or anything.
My loom is now in pieces leaning against the lounge wall:
And the reason why:
And a close-up:
My timing appears to be good though - the deconstruction happened yesterday, and today the EQC inspectors turned up. And now to wait for the next part of the process...
No finished photos yet, I haven't washed it or anything.
My loom is now in pieces leaning against the lounge wall:
And the reason why:
And a close-up:
My timing appears to be good though - the deconstruction happened yesterday, and today the EQC inspectors turned up. And now to wait for the next part of the process...
More dyeing photos
The new dyeing from the last post has turned into this
(Hint - it's a bag. It's not finished yet, still got lots of edging to go, and felting.)
And more dye has happened:
It is destined to be some sort of shawl, and I think I've worked out what I want to do with it.
(Hint - it's a bag. It's not finished yet, still got lots of edging to go, and felting.)
And more dye has happened:
It is destined to be some sort of shawl, and I think I've worked out what I want to do with it.
Friday, 1 October 2010
More dye!
Firstly, the shawl in the last post is finished
I had 0.8g of yarn left over(about 7m). I call that success.
And on Tuesday some more dyeing happened.
I intend to get better photos when it has finished drying, and after reskeining. In theory there are three skeins in each of those colours, which may or may not make things Interesting.
I had 0.8g of yarn left over(about 7m). I call that success.
And on Tuesday some more dyeing happened.
I intend to get better photos when it has finished drying, and after reskeining. In theory there are three skeins in each of those colours, which may or may not make things Interesting.
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Fun with dye
A while ago now I did some more dye experimenting.
The main target started out like this:
And turned into this:
(Pattern is Vernal Equinox (sorry, I could only find a Ravelry link) by Lankakomero)
The other part of the dye session was an experiment to try and create a gradient yarn. This was the result:
The reason I'm finally posting about it? I've started knitting it to test whether it actually works. Pattern is Echo Flower by Jenny Johnson Johnen.
I think I've done nearly as many repeats of the main pattern as I can get away with, and will be starting the border pattern soon.
I've decided the yarn colour is Magnolia:
And to show how it's coming out so far:
I was a little disappointed by the first couple of colour changes, and then I got up to the pink section. It seemed to be going on for a long time until I noticed that it had sneakily changed colour while I wasn't looking...
The main target started out like this:
And turned into this:
(Pattern is Vernal Equinox (sorry, I could only find a Ravelry link) by Lankakomero)
The other part of the dye session was an experiment to try and create a gradient yarn. This was the result:
The reason I'm finally posting about it? I've started knitting it to test whether it actually works. Pattern is Echo Flower by Jenny Johnson Johnen.
I think I've done nearly as many repeats of the main pattern as I can get away with, and will be starting the border pattern soon.
I've decided the yarn colour is Magnolia:
And to show how it's coming out so far:
I was a little disappointed by the first couple of colour changes, and then I got up to the pink section. It seemed to be going on for a long time until I noticed that it had sneakily changed colour while I wasn't looking...
Monday, 6 September 2010
A bit of excitement
At 4.35 on Saturday morning we awoke to this:
Well, that's actually a lie. We awoke to darkness, and made a quick dash for the door. This is the aftermath - the chests of drawers fell after we reached the door. (Bedroom door is visible open at top left, the door on the right is the wardrobe).
Somehow our emergency torch had managed to stay on top of the kitchen bookshelf. Next stop was into the library:
We had guests there that needed rescuing:
(Okay, we should have had the shelves screwed to the wall. We hadn't quite got that far...)
A brief investigation into the dining room showed that wooden wall-fixed wine racks seem to work much better than metal free-standing ones:
Impressively, there were only 3 broken wine bottles and one broken whisky bottle (nearly empty anyway). There was also a wine bottle with a cracked lid, which was only discovered later.
The loom appears to be perfectly fine. I'm not particularly surprised though - I think it would have taken something big falling on it to even have a chance of denting it.
We then had a while of sitting around listening to the radio. The reports started with some helpful observations like 'Possibly an earthquake, maybe somewhere in the South Island'. There were also people phoning in with descriptions, and I think the most accurate (although possibly not very helpful) was that it was like the Napier earthquake simulator at Te Papa...
As the sky started to get lighter we managed to listen in surprise to the continuing lack of fatalities. I had been a bit worried about my workplace - playing with molten metal is a fairly important part of it, and that didn't seem like a good thing to be doing at the time. (Apparently they ran through it, and were not very badly affected at all).
After it was light we went and had a look outside. A bit of minor house damage, a few cracked windows etc. The houses on our street seem to look okay too, although the street has developed some terrain:
There is a quite impressive slump in the road (no actual cracking) a block further on than these photos too.
In conclusion: Wooden buildings are fabulous. Our Civil Defence and local authorities have been doing a Very Good Job. I prefer not to wake up before dawn. It's important to have an accessible emergency torch. It's surprising how quickly you can come to ignore tremors of around magnitude 4-5. It's not surprising how quickly you can get sick of said tremors. The weaving will probably be delayed a bit longer.
If you want more actual detail, try here
Well, that's actually a lie. We awoke to darkness, and made a quick dash for the door. This is the aftermath - the chests of drawers fell after we reached the door. (Bedroom door is visible open at top left, the door on the right is the wardrobe).
Somehow our emergency torch had managed to stay on top of the kitchen bookshelf. Next stop was into the library:
We had guests there that needed rescuing:
(Okay, we should have had the shelves screwed to the wall. We hadn't quite got that far...)
A brief investigation into the dining room showed that wooden wall-fixed wine racks seem to work much better than metal free-standing ones:
Impressively, there were only 3 broken wine bottles and one broken whisky bottle (nearly empty anyway). There was also a wine bottle with a cracked lid, which was only discovered later.
The loom appears to be perfectly fine. I'm not particularly surprised though - I think it would have taken something big falling on it to even have a chance of denting it.
We then had a while of sitting around listening to the radio. The reports started with some helpful observations like 'Possibly an earthquake, maybe somewhere in the South Island'. There were also people phoning in with descriptions, and I think the most accurate (although possibly not very helpful) was that it was like the Napier earthquake simulator at Te Papa...
As the sky started to get lighter we managed to listen in surprise to the continuing lack of fatalities. I had been a bit worried about my workplace - playing with molten metal is a fairly important part of it, and that didn't seem like a good thing to be doing at the time. (Apparently they ran through it, and were not very badly affected at all).
After it was light we went and had a look outside. A bit of minor house damage, a few cracked windows etc. The houses on our street seem to look okay too, although the street has developed some terrain:
There is a quite impressive slump in the road (no actual cracking) a block further on than these photos too.
In conclusion: Wooden buildings are fabulous. Our Civil Defence and local authorities have been doing a Very Good Job. I prefer not to wake up before dawn. It's important to have an accessible emergency torch. It's surprising how quickly you can come to ignore tremors of around magnitude 4-5. It's not surprising how quickly you can get sick of said tremors. The weaving will probably be delayed a bit longer.
If you want more actual detail, try here
Tuesday, 24 August 2010
Excessive photography...
Tea towel (unwashed)!
Shrinkage was negligible on the width - maybe a few mm, and 2cm over the length (65cm shrank to 63cm). I still need to hem, but I'll wait until I've finished the warp, then I'll use some of the loom waste as sewing thread.
And post-washing:
and the other side
Close ups on the brocade sections:
Castles
Flowers
Unfortunately the blue cotton shrank a bit, making the edges draw in on the bands (I'd hoped it wouldn't, being an embroidery thread). It's not much shrinkage, but enough that I now know to be more careful on the next one.
The awful lines I was getting with my too-coarse reed have mostly gone (thanks to the tedious on-loom manipulation I was doing that took twice as long as the actual weaving). And as of today I have a new 16dpi reed. I'm half way through re-sleying, and I'm changing it to 64 epi (down from 70). That way, even if I do get lines they'll at least be regularly spaced in terms of the pattern.
Shrinkage was negligible on the width - maybe a few mm, and 2cm over the length (65cm shrank to 63cm). I still need to hem, but I'll wait until I've finished the warp, then I'll use some of the loom waste as sewing thread.
And post-washing:
and the other side
Close ups on the brocade sections:
Castles
Flowers
Unfortunately the blue cotton shrank a bit, making the edges draw in on the bands (I'd hoped it wouldn't, being an embroidery thread). It's not much shrinkage, but enough that I now know to be more careful on the next one.
The awful lines I was getting with my too-coarse reed have mostly gone (thanks to the tedious on-loom manipulation I was doing that took twice as long as the actual weaving). And as of today I have a new 16dpi reed. I'm half way through re-sleying, and I'm changing it to 64 epi (down from 70). That way, even if I do get lines they'll at least be regularly spaced in terms of the pattern.
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