Harvest!

Linda has the best garden! She invited me to come pick her extras. I got a bunch of greens and peppers.

Wooly Worm, Oh Wooly Worm! What will the winter be?

After careful examination of the wooly worm, I'd say the South West Arkansas autumn will be long, with no terribly cold weather until mid-December, but spring will arrive late, dragging it's heels. It might be May before it really gets off of the ground.

Some ideas

The heddle reed, extra heddles, and a boat shuttle have been ordered. That aught to keep me weaving for a while. Later today, I am going to Hobby Lobby to get some threads for Gramma's chair cover.
A handbag woven out of silver wire might be interesting. I was thinking of weaving 28 gauge silve for warp, and 28 gauge copper colored wire for weft, I have no idea as to the sett. The Canadian Snowflake pattern looks like a copperhead snake skin when drawn up in those colors. If Alan gets the computer up to snuff again, I'll be able to post a photo.

More about the Loom

The loom is great. It does need some repairs and adjustments, though. I need a new hedddle bar, more heddles, a couple of shuttles, a sack of tie-ups for the threadles, and thread! Lots of it!

Open Shed

The Loom

Stuck shaft.
Treadle tie-up.
I've been having problems with the sixth shaft sticking in the up position. I think it has to do with the tie-up job I've done with rope that is just a tad too thick.
Actually, I had wound a warp and started to beam it, but had happened to notice that the rear four shafts had no heddles. Since I wanted to sample with eight shafts, I had to stop, take it apart, and redistribute some heddles, but found that one of the shafts is missing a heddle bar (which made me realise I had to do a seven shaft pattern instead of eight), and only then continue with the beaming--not a pretty picture. It doesn't have enough tie-ups for the treadles, either.
I just noticed i was treadling wrong!!! HAH! maybe that's why I can't see the pattern! I'll get back to it momentarily.

Using 8/4 cotton warp, I've sleyed the reed 2-1-2-1 across. Since the beast has a 12 dent reed, it yields 18 epi.
Sleying the Reed

Thread shafts 1-7, in sequence (twill?).
Threading the Heddles

Terri sent me this email this morning. I couldn't resist publishing it!
Shattered Dreams

Recently (like two days ago!), I've was in the kitchen doing dishes and passing the time by thinking about getting a loom. I had to sell my last one to buy a new car, after the Lincoln broke down. Yesterday, Marty said she had thought it over, and since her loom wasn't getting any use, she'd 'store' it down at my place. It's a Schacht, and is much better than the old Model T. This one has eight shafts, instead of four, so more complicated weave structures await my exploration!
Well, it's just a loom, but recieving it may have implications. On one hand, I'm ready to just chuck everything and panhandle on Mexican beaches. On the other, I have these built in survivalist/simple-living urges. When I was "putting it out there," I was actually thinking about how weaving isn't a portable hobby...maybe I (we) should just stay put, weave, tend my fruit trees, make compost--rather than pursue becoming a freelance esl teacher. Then, all of a sudden, the loom falls into my lap. Hmm. It's almost as if God has answered my question--or gave me a nudge in one direction, anyway!

Hospitality Club

I have been a member of the Hospitality Club for about 7 months. We welcome travelers from around the world, to come and tell us of their journies. To aid in helping you find my place, assuming you will arrive by UFO or broom, I've posted this photo that my metaphysical Auntie sent me, which I assume she captured on one of here ethereal fly-bys.

Dried Osage Orange

I can't believe an osage orange would dry and shrink so much! Check out the differnece in their sizes.

Mexico part four

Puerto Ángel and Istacauite

Talking with Martha

Some how this seems pertinent to Rosh haShanah

I love my friend, Martha. We are on the same page concerning so many issues. This morning, Martha and I had a telephone conversation. A friend of hers started seeing a girl...they broke up. Martha's friend said, "that's what I get for having expectations." Martha and I agree that this is a prime example of the misuse of a new-age platitude. Here is our line of reasoning:
Typically, events have a beginning, a middle, and an end. We decide what we'd like to accomplish, put energy and effort into it, and then reflect on our progress. In the case of Martha's friend, she quite naturally expected a relationship to develope from their repeated contact. She may have to come up with a new plan of action to get the result she's come to expect. If she had no expectations, would she ever have put forth the initial effort?
There are many people who simply let life happen to them. They live like zombies. Perhaps, having expectations would get them at least a few steps foreward.
One of the themes of Rosh haShannah is personal evaluation.
Have I lived up to (insert: my, God's, family, community) expectations? It is a good thing to make commitments. It is a better thing to follow through with them.
To read more about teshuva, go here: Done something wrong? We all have. Here's how to fix it!

Who cares how many words Eskimos have for snow?

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Is language a collection of sounds, words, and facial expressions, or is a way of looking at the world?
Does language preceed culture, or does it merely define it?
How does language affect attitudes or perceptions?
Do the word we choose affect our perception of the world? Or is it the other way around?

"Toki Pona is a constructed language designed by Canadian translator and linguist Sonja Elen Kisa. It was first published online in mid-2001.

Toki Pona is a minimal language. Like a pidgin, it focuses on simple concepts and elements that are relatively universal among cultures. Kisa designed Toki Pona to express maximal meaning with minimal complexity. The language has 14 phonemes and 118 words. It is not designed as an international auxiliary language but is instead inspired by Taoist philosophy, among other things.

As a language designed to shape the thought processes of its users, it relies on and demonstrates the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. This conscious goal of the language plus its deliberately restricted vocabulary have led some to feel that Toki Pona resembles George Orwell's fictional language Newspeak." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toki_Pona

What if we could only describe?Toki Pona