Museum quality

I am pleased to say that the American Textile History Museum wants my wedding dress for their permanent collection!  I’m happy, and honored.  It will be a real wrench to part with it, but I’m glad to know that its future is secure.  Since I have no children (and no intentions of any), I’ve been unsure what will become of it when I die.  (Horrifying visions of garage sales, etc.)  I’m glad it will now have a permanent home.

Meanwhile, in weaving-land, I have finished threading the 10/2 cotton warp and am halfway through sleying the reed.  Threading was a snap!  It turns out that 10/2 cotton is much faster to thread than 60/2 silk, probably because it’s easier to identify and separate the individual threads.  I was threading up at only 8 seconds a thread!  (Usually it’s more like 10-12.)  With only 300 threads that’s only 2400 seconds, or about 40 minutes to thread the entire scarf.  I finished it in a single sitting between dinner and bed.  Absolutely amazing.  Almost makes me want to work with thicker threads!  (Not that I plan to do so anytime in the imminent future.  Fine threads may take four times as long, but the results they produce are simply stunning.)

I have also finished the last little bits of the garden – planted two pepper plants yesterday and transplanted the mint from smaller containers to larger ones.  I now have two large, long containers (3-4 feet long and 12 inches wide), one of spearmint and one of peppermint.  This is definitely overkill – I only use a few sprigs a week – but I love mint and it tends to get potbound in small containers.  Maybe I’ll make mint ice cream this summer!

I also helped set up the boards for the Special Sample Service at CNCH.  This is a CNCH tradition where members donate samples to be sold at CNCH – a fundraiser for CNCH and a chance for conference goers to get a wide array of samples for relatively low prices.  The samples are lovely and I urge you to visit the Special Sample Service booth at CNCH.  (And to send in samples for the next CNCH!)

Today the plan is to finish warping the scarves, and modify the drafts I chose to make them weavable on a 24-shaft straight twill threading.  Mike and I are also going to break up the concrete patio slab that is currently crowding the lemon tree, and I’ll put in some more pavers to replace it, in the parts that need replacing.

Speaking of the lemon tree, the advice I got from the local nursery is not to prune it until winter, so all in all, I think I’ll leave out the pruning for now, except to get rid of deadwood.  I think eventually I will get rid of the worst crossing branches, but I don’t plan to prune it anywhere near as drastically as a “normal” fruit tree – from everything I’ve read, citrus doesn’t need a whole lot of pruning.