I wound on my scarf/sample warp today, and thought I’d document the process, as I do several things to speed up the warping process with my warping wheel. Here is a link to the new page:
http://www.tienchiu.com/how-tos/weaving/tips-for-using-the-avl-warping-wheel/
In other news, I finished digging and planting the garden yesterday, putting in:
- snap beans (bush type)
- carrots
- beets
- thyme
- Italian basil
- Thai basil
- globe basil (smaller-leaved variant of Italian basil)
- oregano
- chives
- garlic chives
- Asian cucumbers (long, thin, grooved)
- European cucumbers (short and smoothly cylindrical)
I already have habanero peppers, yellow bell peppers, two kinds of sweet melon, watermelon, okra, and butternut squash planted, so it will be quite a garden once it gets going! I’m looking forward to seeing the results.
I also did a little more pruning on the lemon tree, following Terri’s advice – not a whole lot, but cleaning up deadwood and taking out a few of the more egregiously crossing limbs. I’m wondering whether it’s best to do all the pruning at once or to take out bits at a time – anyone know?
Tonight, after my conference call (the editorial advisory board for Handwoven is meeting), I plan to finish threading the loom. I thread at about 5 threads/minute for a simple threading (which this is), so 30 threads x 10 inches = 300 threads should take me about an hour, uninterrupted. Wow! That is super fast. I can see why people like working with thick threads – instant gratification!
Then, of course, I’ll have to sley the reed, tie on, and start weaving. I do have my weft yarn in hand (Henry’s Attic’s Alpaca Lace), so the next thing up is to weave a test sample to make sure it behaves well when cross-dyed – some protein fibers do dye with some colors of fiber-reactive dye, even with soda ash, which means it won’t cross-dye. I found that out the hard way, and now sample before committing to a large project.
Tien, as a old Greek who grew up on lemons and garlic I feel I am an expert – go slow pruning your lemon tree. Just trim off the dead branches. My aunt had lemon and orange trees that were so laden with fruit you could blindfold your eyes and reach each out the window grab a hand full. To my knowledge she never pruned her trees – only cut off the dead wood. I’ve seen neighbors who think their lemon trees are like shrubs and for years after that kind of pruning the trees reward their owners very reluctantly with a miserly fruit. Have fun, don’t fuss. Just feed and water them.