You saw it here first

Today was about designing a patterned band with high hopes. This may or may not work, but trying is how I'm going to find out. 

I've been working it on my head, but finally committed it to paper, more or less. Eagle eyed blogistas will see what this is about. 

Then I figured out the colors, five green pattern threads, flanked by tan, then off-white background and weft.

 Then I cut the threads, thredded the heddle, methinks thredded looks nicely medieval there, and mounted the outfit on the loom. 

You may notice that I'm not using the heddle I made. That's because the holes didn't hold up against the strong warp thread, which just cut through. So, change of plan, I unthreaded my cardboard heddle and threaded up one with a similar dent, thread count per inch. 

And we'll see how it goes.

In medias res, Gary came dashing in with a box of small computer parts in case I could use them in art, very good idea to check. I couldn't but I liked the gesture. 

He's in the middle of packing, I've already Freecycled some items for him, and I expect there will be more. He's using my Misfits boxes, which are really well designed, intended for carrying, with handholds, a big point when you're lugging stuff about.

Rainy today, not good for walking but I'm doing movement inside the house.

The patio looks lovely just now, the honesty still doing great and the sage coming through it.

 Soon I'll plant seeds. That big split leaf houseplant on the right is a guest, which will leave when Gary does. Along with the posh glass table I've been using as a staging area for packing art for shipping. I did cover it with a cloth.

Before I leave the subject of condominium ownership, I had two documents to deliver for the townhouse I live in. They wanted one notarized. 

This involved making an appointment at the library, where the fee is blessedly small, and arranging a ride to get there. The HOA manager had planned to be available at the clubhouse yesterday from 2:00 pm.  So I'd fitted in the notary to suit. 

I walked over to the clubhouse, really the pool house,  at the appointed time, with both required docs, and found a knot of owners waiting for him to arrive. 

The gate was locked, pool area not yet open for the season, so we waited and chatted and grumbled outside.  Another young man joined us, saying he'd come to help the manager, and was also waiting to get in.

After half an hour we all started to get a bit mutinous and one owner asked if the young guy would take our docs and hand them over when manager Shiam arrived. Which he agreed to. I got his name, insurance purposes, he's the son of a Board member, so I handed over my stuff too and left, not best pleased. 

I will not hesitate to hold this non -appearance over him next time I need a bit of leverage, heh. Well, home ownership is a rough game, face it! Little things like retaliation bring great joy.

I hope he's okay though. 

Happy day everyone, strategy is everything,  from weaving to bureaucracy.

Catchup all over

I got a ride this afternoon, to the food pantry to drop off canned goods before their next distribution, then to the library to return DVDs and donate a book, then upstairs for a brief reunion with my knitting buds.

The last bit was great, and I got useful ideas for my basket. Beads? A lid? A handle?  All noted.  And gave a rapid tutorial to a new member, on how to make cordage. Lucets came up, too, the spinner of the group having tried it but not with a lot of success. 

I also got renewed offers of rides, which will be great because the knitters are there as long as we need to meet. Today's visit was limited by my needing to let my ride get on with her afternoon. But it will be too cool to get back.

And interesting food has happened. Oatmeal wraps for lunches. These are fun to make, like clay time in preschool.

Breakfast 

The inner life of wraps, yogurt, spinach, walnuts.

All rolled up and a bit artisanal. One cup of oatmeal, one of water, pinch of salt, makes half  a dozen wraps.  I'm definitely doing this again, with various flours, same recipe.

The flatbread is flexible and wraps fine, so I have many ideas now about fillings.

The thing is that it's not as quick as the YouTube cooks would have you believe. This one is "five minutes". 

I wonder which five. The dough prep five, the cutting and rolling out five,  the time each takes to cook five, the filling and rolling up five?  They're nice and I have several lunches now, but why fib about how long? If people like to cook, they don't mind knowing the actual time needed.

Tuesday's garden, despite massive overnight rain and thunderstorms, serious flooding north of here, major highways closed,  was perfectly happy. The lavender had fallen over, but other plants were unworried, even budding out.

First morning glory bud in this garden's history, seed hand-collected in Idaho by Chris, thank you. A breakthrough.

Any minute now the hibiscus will open with a flourish of trumpets.

 

First zinnia flower, yay. Not many flowers get the loud greetings that mine do. And happy dances.

Gary was having phone issues before he left, new phone, unable to get contents and contacts from old dead phone, packed with pictures and videos, serious user. Then Monday night he called to check in then Tuesday texted this 

That's Billie in front. So clearly Gary's back in phone business. I texted back catalpa, before looking it up, such a smart approach, ready, fire, aim.

Textiles and Tea Tuesday featured Nicole Yi Messier, who with her collaborator Victoria Manganiello, is an artistic powerhouse, working at the intersection of fiber arts, fiber optics and sound.   She teaches at NYU and Parsons, and is the tech brain  in the weaving/tech partnership in which Victoria is the weaving driver. Their work has been exhibited in many venues, more to come.

Her works use LED fiberoptics, which respond to the movement of the people viewing them. One large installation is called Signal to Noise. Here the concept of seeing noise as interrupting the signal is changed into seeing the noise as a signal in itself. Like the shakuhachi concept, where everything is life, not an interruption of life. 

This is the Signal to Noise piece

The striped object is radio broadcasting ability, wrapped around the arm on the left, permitting transmission!

She's a great teacher, patiently explaining the concepts and intentions of the art, and you might want to go to her  website to learn more.

Every year her organization runs a fiberoptic/fiber arts tech camp for weavers and other artists. Next year it will be in Michigan in September. Worth checking!

Happy day everyone, Tuesday is usually great around here and this one came through.