Prepping for Halloween

It has been pointed out to me that it's been over a month since I last posted.  Oops?  Can I use the start of the term for an excuse?  I had planned on just working in the historic collection--but got talked into teaching a couple of textile labs as well.  And helping out at the Goodwood Plantation for an exhibit they want to do.  Still working at the Museum.  Keeping busy . . .

Margo is the one who nudged me to post--and that's because she wants to see how the kittens are growing. So I'll start with them, and then she doesn't have to read the rest :-)

 RiverSong and NokoMarie are still best buddies--here, on Bob's lap

And NokoMarie and the great Nazgul are buddies.  She didn't seem to notice that while they were napping on Bob's lap he sort of rolled over on top of her.

In fact, it seems that *everybody* wants to take a nap with Bob.  (Unfortunately, RiverSong decided to jump off just as I was taking the picture--but she had been there with the rest).  As long as the cats are scattered around the house it doesn't seem like we have so many of them (sort of like spreading your peas around on the plate so you mother thinks that you ate some of them).  But put them all in one spot and you realize we have a pretty furry household.

 

 

(OK, Margo--you can stop now.  The rest doens't have cats)

When Bob's not being a cat-couch, he's been working on his models.  I'll have to make him do a model post sometime to give details (and say what's from a kit and what parts he's built from scratch) but for now here are these:

The first is a Quad .50 AA Stuart , and the second a Toyota Hilux--Libyan rebel truck, modified to carry a Russian made anti-aircraft gun.  It's his paint jobs that amaze me--especially the rust and wear on the truck.

And here's another of his paint jobs.  We're beginning to build Halloween props--we're not doing the haunted trail this year (I mean it--for real--not at all like I didn't do it last year) but we are decorating the one-room schoolhouse and turning it into a Cabinet of Curiosities.  Now we need some Curiosities to go in it.  I'm putting together a vampire killing kit, and one of the items is a small gun to shoot the silver bullets

Now while it would have been nice to go out and buy an approprite gun, the idea is not to go too crazy with the budget.  So this is one of Bob's modifications and awesome paint job.  What I gave him to work with was a $1 cap gun.

Yes--he is that good.

My small contribution is a juvenile Fiji mermaid

 

 

And I was requested to rebuild Zack the Zombie from a couple of years ago to use as a scarecrow at McClay gardens (so I added the hat and crow)

 



At the moment, there are a lot of works in progress--but here's a sneak preview of a conversion process.  I'm taking a Walgreen plastic skeleton and will be turning him into an Inca mummy.  First some muscles (not much---after all, he is dried up) with newspaper, the he got wrapped in a thin plastic dropcloth which was shrunk with a heat gun, and after that some paper mache and his first paint layers.  I haven't touched his face and hands yet because I have to fold him into his pose first to be able to model those.  I did find that hanging him from the clothes line makes him easier to paint.

And now it's bedtime.

Before and After, Cute and Cuter

A couple of posts ago I showed some of my works-in-progress.  I did finish up the peacock shawl. Yay!

The problem with knitting lace is that when you take that last stitch of many thousands of thousands, it's not a "tah dah" moment.  It's more of a "how many hours of my life did I waste on this" moment. 

Knitted lace isn't done when you're finished knitting it.  There's still a lot of work to be done.  It has to be washed, and then you spend an hour on your knees with dozens of pins and brutally stretch it out.

Then you have something worth wearing.  I'm pleased with it, and it's taken me to my next project (yeah, I know there are still 2 or 3 in progress).  This one weighs 3.75 ounces.  I'm wondering how big of a scarf I can make with 1 ounce of yarn.  Stay tuned.

In other areas--I've been working with a new bird at the museum.  This is a kestral--a wee tiny falcon.  And yes--she is full grown.

In the last post we introduced Noko Marie.  Not that we really needed another kitten--after all, RiverSong is only about 4 months old, and the Resident Kitten, with all rights and privileges thereof.  And them comes this stranger.

*And* the kitten was put in her condo!  River was at first a little jealous.  But, on second thought--best kitty toy ever!

August Mini-cation

We had another mini-vacation this past week--odd how many of them involve scale models.  This time is was the IPMS (Internation Plastic Modeler's Society)--the real biggie of the modeling world.  It meets in different locations each year, but this year it happened to be in Orlando--about five hours away.

As we were in no rush to get there we stopped halfway at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.  It's been many years since we've been there, and it's now an amazing place.  They specialize in prehistoric Florida--our favorite being the fossils.  They have an interesting way of displaying them--the skeletons are all in action poses, and on the interpretive boards there are small statues of what the animal would have looked like (as Bob calls it) "upholstered). (and yes--that is a big scary bird).

They have also recently completed a butterfly rainforest. So beautiful and relaxing.  And no-I didn't take this picture.  We forgot to take the camera in so I'm lifting them from their website.

We continued on to Orlando, and after circling around a few times we found our hotel.  It later turned out that driving in circles would be portentious of Things To Come.  The advantage in this case is that while hunting for a hotel we found a tiny hole-in-the wall Thai restaurant.  My kind of place--maybe 12 tables and the owners are also the cooks--and the food delicious.  And the music incongruous--for some reason they were playing Spanish guitar music.  Odd to be eating pork panang while listening to "Spanish Harlem."

I was fascinated by the juxtapostion of the two Floridas.  Orlando is king of edifices of artificiality.  We were almost within walking distances of Universal Studios (including Harry Potter World).  The sprawling metropolis of Disney World was a few miles away.  But just beyond the fence around our hotel was the "real" Florida.  Swamp.  Waiting patiently like an alligator, waiting to take over again.  I found it oddly comforting.

(and no--we didn't visit Harry Potter World or any other attractions.  Not in August, with thousands of other tourists.  No, thank you)

Friday the real adventure began--getting to the IPMS conference, at the Contemporary Resort in Disney World.  We went through the famous gateway of "where dreams come true"--if your dreams include driving around in circles for an hour.  We apparently missed a cutoff, and anywhere we asked directions we got sent to a different resort, or told a wrong turn, or whoever we asked didn't know about the Contemporary Resort (big building--monorail running though it--that one?).  We eventually got there.

The conference was somewhat bigger than others we have been to.

That's part of one of the vendor rooms.  There was also a hanger-sized room of model displays.  I tromped around with Bob for a couple of hours, then found a comfy chair to settle with my book and knitting.  We met for lunch, then parted ways again.  Our original plan had been to spend about a half-day there on both Friday and Saturday, but after the debacle of finding the place he was damned if he'd try to drive in Disneyworld on a Saturday so  he did a Friday marathon instead.

That left Saturday for my Orlando wish--to see an IKEA store.  I don't understand why Tallahassee doesn't have one, being as we have two universities and a community college and IKEA specializes in stuff for apartments.  Like Disney, IKEA is designed to make you get lost and go around in circles so that you see everything.  Unlike Disney, there are frequent maps and the staff actually know where the stuff is.  Although you can buy whole kitchens or living room suites there, I fortunately was not tempted.  It's all rather sleek Danish modern, and my aesthetic leans more towards Victorian/goth/steampunk.  I did get a neat strip of LED lights that I put on my loom:

Otherwise, we just got an armload of small stuff--LED lamps, some artists mannequins, a wine rack.  We found that at checkout is where customer service ends:  we paid, our stuff was shoved to the side of the counter, and we got an abrupt and somewhat mechanical "have a nice day."  No bags.  So we balanced our swag in our arms, and didn't bother to shop the Swedish food section that, for some reason, was beyond the check-out line.

And thence home.  As always, we enjoy these short getaways (except for the driving in circles).

And then . . . we got a call from our vet.  Someone had found a wee calico kitten on the interstate and dropped it off at the vet's office.  They really didn't want to take her to the shelter--could we . . .?

Never mind that RiverSong is now approaching four months old and entering the Crazy Kitten stage--or that we have four other cats.  Meet Noko Marie:

Scattered Projects

I often admire Bob--for many reasons, but at the moment for his model-making.  When Bob starts on a project, he works on that one project until it's finished.  He might think about the next one, and maybe do some planning or order parts, but he doesn't start on the next one until the first is finished.

Me--there are a lot of started projects lying around.  Several months ago I mentioned this one:

It's been sitting there for about 6-7 months because I can't decide if I like it.  And I have to finish spinning the the weft.

And there is this blob:

Lace always looks blobby while it's being worked.  This one dates back several years, when I spun the yarn to make this:

Gorgeous, yes.  But very complicated.  My style of knitting is "twiddling my thumbs."  I knit in the car when Bob drives; I knit while watching TV; recently I've knit a lot in the ER and hospital rooms while waiting on parents.  This project requires sitting in a quiet corner and concentrating on it. Not my cup of tea, so it's been sitting in the closet for years--every now and then I would feel guilty, knit a bad-tempered row or two, and shove it back.  I finally took my courage in my hands a couple of months ago and unzipped it back into a ball of yarn.  The yarn, after all, is handspun, and quite lovely, and I just had to admit that this particular shawl wasn't going to get finished.  The new one is almost done--meaning 5 rows to go, but it takes about an hour per row.  And I did stop in the middle of a row to knit the scarf that was in a few posts ago.  And something else has been started:

A young man of my aquaintance asked if I knew how to knit a dragon sock puppet.  Of course I said yes--and now I have to figure it out.  But unlike the lace shawl, which is 800 stitches per row and of thread-like yarn, this is fat yarn and big needles and only 28 stitches around, so it's going at a gratifying pace.  Now I have to figure out how to do the head . . .

Meanwhile, back on the other loom, the Project That Is Not Meant to Be.   Sometime in June I was supposed to attend a weaving workshop on how to get a warp on the loom with ease and grace (I personally can warp a loom, but it usually involves a wrestling match, yarn wrapped around various body parts, and some swearing).  I wound a warp to take with me--but the class got cancelled.  So I went ahead and put on on the loom in my living room, and wove a few inches.  That's when I had to disappear for a week or so to deal with parental concerns.   A warped loom + a new kitten = this:

Chewed threads.  I got it rethreaded last night--and now I have about a day-and-a-half before we go on a short trip to get it woven off before she finds it again.

And one more short project (done in one day!)  I wanted to try ice-dyeing.  Basically, you cover whatever you're dyeing (in this case a scarf) with crushed ice, and sprinkle dye powder on the ice.  As it melts the dye get distributed.  It's one of those techniques where you don't have much control--you just let it happen.  Here's the pan with the scarf buried in ice and the dye on top

Finally, the peacocks are molting, so I decided to take some of the feathers and make a collar:

It has a way to go.

So that's two weaving projects in progress, two knitting projects, one sewing projects--and one finished scarf.

For the cat-lovers, here's the warp-chewing demon who has also discovered my lovely sheepskin

Done!

Ceiling is finished!  Well--that means that the ceiling itself is finished.  We still need to put away tarps, caulk guns, nail gun, compressor, ladders . . .  At least I already sealed and put away the paint cans and paint rollers.

Here's the view from lying in bed:

There's been an expected and pleasant side effect to this--it's helped my insomnia.  I have a tendency to the 3:00 a.m. wakeup and then worry about whatever there is in my life to worry about (which may be something that's been resolved for a few decades--3:00 a.m. is not a logical time).    But there's enough light from the fish tank to bounce off the ceiling--and I admire how pretty it is and then drift back off to sleep.

It's Sunday, and The Day Of Rest, and much as I'd like to just lie in bed and admire the ceiling, the fact is that the garden has not died off completely yet.  Fresh tomatoes are ephemeral--so what we can't eat in the next few days are going to be turned into sauce today.

And the Ceiling?

Is not quite finished . . .

In the last post--about three weeks ago--the trim was painted and ready to go up.  And it did--just not enough of it.   There was one area where we thought we wouldn't need trim--and we did--so we needed to go buy some more and paint it.  Then things just sort of fell apart.  In the last post I had also mentioned that Mom got sick and had to spend a few days in the hospital.  She was home and recovering--but lost her balance one evening and when Dad tried to catch her he fell and broke his leg.  Then she got sick again.  So I spent a couple of weeks dithering between the hospital, the health center (where Dad is for rehab) and the folk's apartment (fortunately just across the breezeway from the health center).  After Mom got out of the hospital for the second time she also went to the the health center to be near Dad while he heals.

We didn't work on the ceiling . . .

The various health crises being more-or-less over, it's time to return to the project.  Actually, the only thing left to do is paint and put up 5 pieces of 40" long trim--about a 20 minutes job.  After, of course, we buy and paint the trim. We need about 17 feet--so a 10-foot piece and an 8 foot piece.  This means using the truck.  Not usually a problem--but we're now in the rainy season, so it rains every afternoon.  If Bob picks up trim after work--we're going to have wet and probably warped trim.  We had resigned ourselves to making a trip into town just for the trim this weekend--when two of my few remaining brain cells drifted past each other, shot off a little spark, and I realized that I could buy three 8-foot pieces and easily fit them into the Honda.  Granted, we'll have a few feet more than we need, and it cost about $2 more, but I can live with this.   I'm going to start painting as soon as I'm through with this entry.

For Margo--here is RiverSong helping with the project:

The almost-finished ceiling:

And life otherwise marches on.  What with spending too much time in the ER and hospital rooms, I've knit about 3/4 of a peacock shawlette--but lace just looks like a big blob in process so it will be pictured when done.  Meanwhile, Bob took care of the garden, and here's his prize pepper:

But we're letting the garden go to rack and ruin.  First we had Tropical Storm Debby, and then the daily rains.  This after an unaccustomed dry spell.  The result is a plague of mosquitoes.  I remember a scene in "A Land Remembered" (a history of Florida) where cattle literally choked to death on mosquitoes.  The most time we spend outside is a mad dash to the car.  Bob still has to go out in the evening to lock up the chickens.  Despite the fact that it's still sweltering hot even at night, he has to dress for the occasion.

And that's the news from the swamp.

But What About the Ceiling?

A couple of weeks ago I showed pictures of our half-finished ceiling.  Well--it's still half-finished.

Tropical Storm Debby got in the way.  The ceiling panels were down in my cottage, and exposing paint and plywood to the pouring down rain to try to get them to the house did not seem like a wise idea.  I also needed to finish painting the trim pieces.  As those are 10 feet long--and my workroom is about 10 feet across, I really can't do this inside.  I thought about setting up in the barn, but I decided that accidently getting copper paint on Bob's precious jeep might cause some marital discord.

But the storm has passed, the weather is clear, and the trim is painted--so the ceiling is back on the schedule.

In the meantime, I did get a quick project done.  In October there will be an alpaca show in town, and the local spinning/weaving guild is going to have a booth for sales and demos.  I usually don't sell my handspun yarn (it takes too long to make it) but I thought I might do a few skeins, and of course would have to have something knitted up to show it off.  I had spun up some black, white, and gray yarn and picked out a simple scarf pattern.  About that time, we got a call that Mom was sick and had to go to the ER.  I'm not good at waiting (that's a serious understatement) so I snagged the knitting bag on the way out.

The scarf is in garter stitch--I don't particularly like garter, but you don't have to think about it, and you don't really even need to look at it.  It's like twiddling your thumbs.  So now Mom is back home, starting to feel better, and I have a new scarf.  At least it's mine for a little while--I have a feeling that Mom may lay claim to it.