I’m not distractible, oh no. Singleminded, blinkers on, focused on getting this warp ready and my dye samples made, weekend perfectly planned”¦
“¦whoa! Did that sign say FRESH SOUR CHERRIES???
What can I say? I love sour cherries and they are nearly impossible to find in California, because our winters aren’t cold enough. So I immediately screeched to a halt, ran into the store, and bought, um, a few sour cherries.
OK, well, maybe more than a few. Like, an entire case! (What can I say, a box of sour cherries is enough to make me weak and wobbly-kneed. It must have been the cherry fumes.)
So now I have 24 pounds of sour cherries sitting in my kitchen, waiting to be made into cherry pie and candied sour cherries and brandied sour cherries. A good chunk of tomorrow, I suspect, is going to be spent pitting cherries. No matter ““ I love them, they’re hard to find, and I couldn’t pass up this golden opportunity!
Which reminds me that it is almost fruitcake season”¦so, as soon as I finish candying the sour cherries, I’m going to make a batch of fruitcake. I plan to try some experiments this season, sprinkling some with whisky, some with Southern Comfort and Amaretto, and some with rum. Much yumminess will ensue, I hope!
Weaving-wise, not much happened. I did get quite a bit of dyeing done, and here are the results:
These were dyed in three successive dyebaths, and the colors match perfectly and are even. This seems like a small thing, but it is NOT! It took me nearly ten attempts to get even, reproducible color. I am very proud of these three little yarn-wrapped cards, because collectively, they mean I (finally!) got it right. I have another three skeins that were dyed a much lighter color (which is tougher to dye reproducibly). They are also evenly dyed and uniform in color. Sweet, sweet victory!
And I have finally, after much thought, settled on a threading for the warp. It was surprisingly difficult to come up with a threading that fit all the parameters I wanted, and eventually I had to compromise. I’m doing a point threading on 12 shafts for the ties, and a point threading on 12 shafts for pattern.  I’d really prefer a straight draw, but with “only” 24 shafts and a 40 epi threading, each motif would be only about half an inch wide. I’d like more than that, so I moved to a point threading, even though it imposes other limitations. I’ve threaded up about 3″ of a 24” warp, so far.
Final note: I have just upgraded my blog to WordPress 3.0.1. So far everything seems to check out, but if you should be looking around the site and find something amiss, please leave me a comment or send me an email (via my “About Me” page). Thanks!