Monday, August 29, 2011

August 29, 2011 Did You Write?

August 29, 2011 Did You Write?


This is that time of the week again, to report what is going on in your life, and to also tell about whether you wrote. By reporting about your life, you have an excuse to post even if you did not write.
When you say you did not write, you will start feeling guilty and force yourself on the next week to write, even if it is adding a paragraph just so you can proudly say YES, I DID WRITE. Otherwise, you have the problem of coming up with an acceptable, or even any excuse for why you did not write.

We do not care what you write. We all love new writing and love big word counts, but if we are editing we are not going to get the big word counts. we also will not get it if we zap a section and rewrite it. Other kinds of what we accept as writing will not give big word counts.

As mentioned, new writing is writing. Editing is also writing. I do most of my writing through editing something I "blurted out." Editing of someone else's work is also writing, so is Critiquing. Poetry, technical writing, writing assignments, article writing, blogging, world and character creation are also writing. E-mails can also be writing if they are wordy and pertain to story or writing. If you have to ask it if is writing, the answer is YES.

As for me, I have been writing, and have been very productive. I am working on a series of stories entitled SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE. This is a super hero who has no problems with collateral damage.
I had written my first story and had to wait for comments from a writing friend. While waiting I started on the second story. I now have that story to the point where I have some polishing editing to call it done and am working on bringing ONE to the same level. When I have both of them ready, I will print them out and red-line them while reading out loud.
I also came up with the concept for the third story. I wrote a bit of the key scene. The first story is 18 pages at 7426 words, adding about 600 words during this week while editing it to match what I came up with on the second story. I am at page 6 at 2672 words on the second story, adding nearly two thousand words to that. My third story is still on the first page and has 224 words.
This story has really caught me. It is fun to write. I have no idea if the writing is up to the level it should be, but it sure is a real blast.

On the story idea front, I am a day ahead at this moment for the month. I tend to be a bit pessimistic about keeping up as the month nears the end. I know of a number of things that can keep me from posting the required number of ideas. Also, if I am ahead coming to the end of the month, I might get an extra idea or two posted.
Ideas seemed to be coming in quite fast. Including the idea I am posting tonight, I have 41 story ideas in my compost pile. some of the new ones look very good.

In my life outside writing, I have done some fun things. I made some noodles from scratch. I had some Bulgur wheat and I made my own flower, then I found a recipe for egg noodles in a 1949 GOOD HOUSEKEEPING COOK BOOK. I made a few mistakes such as having to make a double batch became of some errors, and making the noodles thicker than planned, but it ended up with acceptable noodles. It was a fun thing to do once or twice.
I started carving a dragon. It is actually looking like a dragon too. The design changed as I worked as the shape and nature of the wood did not let me do it the same way I planned. I think it is better.
Several months ago, I got a year's supply of yarn for my crochet. this weekend, I ended up with what I consider a life-time supply of yarn. The price was good even though I sort of planned on getting all of it anyway. Several yarn people said that I got a real haul. I have a lot of practice stuff until I gain the skills to make the stuffed animals I am planning to make.
I know learning to make all this stuff will come in handy in my writing some day. I do use them for my story ideas.


As to the question of the week,

YES I DID WRITE!!!!


DID YOU WRITE?

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Week 607 woodworking.

Year 11, Week 33, Day One (week 607) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 08-27-11 Saturday

90 degrees and blue skies in the morning with a nice breeze. 95 degrees in the afternoon with little puffs shooting by. Hurricane Irene passed this week, giving us some weather we are well used to, squall lines and the winds involved. Other than the fact that these lines of thunderstorms were passing over us at three times the normal pace, it was weather we are well used to. This weather report is brought to you by the city of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.


We went yard sailing after breakfast. At one yard sale, I got a battery powered drill, DRILL MASTER, that Harbor freight sells. It fits all my batteries. I have to make sure the charger works. the LED was broken off and was inside. I now have 5 batteries and three drills. I should take one set home.

We stopped at a church sale. bit mistake. They had a bin and two bags of yarn. the yarn bug hit and I got all of it for $14. I had a year's worth of yarn. Now I may have a life time worth of yarn. This is known as going crazy with yarn. I told Mom that if I ever reach for yarn again, to tackle me and call the men in white coats.
It took me some time to sort out the yarn, take pictures, and put it all back in place. I now have to come up with projects that are worthy of using up this yarn.

The bags of yarn I got


All the yarn laid out


Other things that was with the yarn. I think this was Knitting



Battery powered drill I got. This is a drill one can get at Harbor Freight.

I finally took grinder to the dragon wood. It already is not the dragon I thought I saw. as one removes wood, the real for starts to show. I mainly did work on the muzzle, and marked out where the legs are on one side. This project will take me till Christmas most likely. It is a big project compared to most of my carving projects.

the original piece of Dragon wood before any work is done on it.



The start of the carving on the dragon. A little bit of the head and a few marks for the arms and legs.

I decided to make some quick crochet hooks. I made the handles and was going to make the hooks themselves from dowels I made. I then remembered I had a really small metal crochet hook.
I decided to make a handle for it. My closest sized drill bit was just slightly too small. I then found that all my drill bits were too short.
I ended up taking a wire and using a grinder to make a form of a cutting end, and drilled through the whole handle. It mostly burned its way through but that is beside the point.
Since the hole was bigger than the hook, I filled the hole with filler, and then stuck the hook in. Hopefully, the hook will be nicely locked into place.

# B crochet hook with wooden handle added.

During the week, I tested the Crochet hooks I made last weekend. One of them had too long an overhang on the hook. Nail clippers shortened and shaped it, then emery boards for finger nails cleaned up the hooks of all of my creations. I sanded them all over, varnished them a few times and sanded them again. I think they are now ready for use.

I took it fairly easy the remainder of the day, making a phone call to a friend in the path of Hurricane Irene.

Tomorrow, I should work a bit more on the dragon, might finish the hooks I started, and might do a little wood turning. I have that piece of Norfolk Island Pine with 10 knots around it. I should make it round. I do not know if it is too big for my lathe so I may have to fit it on a face plate, turn the lathe head sideways and make it smaller. I want it bigger than I normally make my vases, which means as close to 12 inches in diameter as possible. that will give me the maximum space between the faces.
I still have a lot of unfinished projects laying around. I have to make some Christmas ornaments that I made last year and ran out of. I never did make as many as I normally do. I need to come up with a new set of Christmas ornaments for the coming Christmas and I don't want to wait until November to make them. I have loads of wood to work with. Like my yarn, I have several years worth of wood laying around if I choose the project based on what I have in stock.

I will have to see what I will do tomorrow.


Year 11, Week 33, Day Two (week 607) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 08-28-11 Saturday

94 degrees, blue skies with smears of white here and there. The puffs started showing later in the morning and built up to where they covered half the sky by noon. A little liquid sunshine came down right after I put the lathe away and it died down fifteen minutes later. It was just enough to wet the ground. Driving away, I saw it was not a tower- thunder boomer, as usually hits. it was a pillow with a grey bottom. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.


After feeding and petting the beast of the back yard, I drug out all my equipment.
I started on the head of the dragon. I now knew his mouth was open. I had not seen that last week or even yesterday. I worked the top of the muzzle more to get it into the right angle, and then tackled the inside of the mouth. the shape of the wood forced me to modify the shape of the muzzle when seen from above. I used the band saw to cut some wood off the bottom under the chin.
I used a belt sander to flatten the bottom of the piece, to make it sit nicely. I ground more all around the head and touched the piece on the sides a little as I was learning how the limbs would be positioned for the way he is laying.

\
Left side of dragon head. I dipped it in water for these pictures.


Sanded bottom of the dragon.


Looking face on to the dragon


Right side of the dragon

Many people are purists. In Austria, their carving associations have to certify that the carving was made without the use of power. As for me, I am more interested in removing the wood than to be pure. I will use band saws, grinders, wood lathe, sanders, along with the knife to get the job done.
I learned long ago that removing bulk wood is not really carving. The actual carving is really in the last quarter inch of surface. That is where the actual surface and details happen. It is normal in the American carving field to use band saws to create a blank, a piece of wood that has something of a shape of the figure, with the worst of the excess wood removed. To make one, you draw the profile, side view, of the figure on one surface and cut following the outside lines of the figure.
One then draws the front view of the figure on the wood and cut along the lines. Now that the worst of the wood is gone, one can get into the actual shaping of the figure. For the face, the cuts followed the nose hair and mouth. The cheeks and eyes are set in. One has to cut deeper into the wood to get to them. The front view followed the hair ears and such. One has to cut in for the side of the head, the nose and such.
The blank allows one to concentrate on where the actual skill is, making a figure that looks like a person, or animal, if that is what you are doing.
While I will do some carvings completely with the knife, I will use other tools for carving. This dragon and my face vases, are almost exclusively power grinding, mostly with the dremmel and grinding bits.
I decided long ago that learning to use chisels and gouges to carve was too difficult to learn. One has to know when to use which gouge and when. A knife gives you two options, point and flat of the blade, and you have to figure out how to get the results you need with those tools. I will use a chisel once in a while, but nearly always a V tool.


I decided to do a little turning, and took the log with the ten branches on it and realized I had to remove the branch stubs. I was going to bring out the chain saw, then remembered I had a CRAFTSMAN SAWS-ALL. I stuck a new blade on and it sliced the nubs off with ease so the wood was near round.
I worked to balance the log between centers. I have two drive spurs, one has a long point and close set spurs. the other one is wider in diameter, has a disk that the point and spurs are made out of. I decided to use the small one.
Once I got the piece centered so it did not touch the lathe bed anywhere, I started it spinning and knocking off the high spots on the wood. I got the very worst part of the high spots off, especially at the knots when I decided I had done enough.
One problem of the drive spur I used, is that it slowly digs in deeper and deeper. the close set spurs don't have a lot of leverage to keep from spinning in the wood. The spur ended up going nearly all the way in. I had stuck the spur into my chuck, which when almost closed, will hold the spur nicely. It was near the chuck when I stopped wood turning.

Ten knot Norfolk Island Pine log slightly rounded.

The branches of the Norfolk Island Pine goes into the trunk on an angle. For my face vase, I really need to figure out which way the knots angle into the wood. When I carve the face, If I have it one way, as I work my way to the eyes, the knots will drift up to the forehead. If I do it the other way the knots will drift down into the cheek. It important to know where the knots go and adjust the design accordingly.

For the little time I applied myself today, I did pretty good. Anyone can now see the dragon as a dragon. The face vase has been started. It will be another done near Christmas project.

For next week, I will be visiting the Antique shop on Friday, bringing a few of my latest pieces with me. I may swap a couple pieces out and I might change the design around. I will have to see.
I have the dragon to work on, the ten knot face vase, a tea pot to finish, a vase that needs to be carved or otherwise decorated, lots of wood that needs to be turned into sawdust.

I will see what I actually do next week.



Friday, August 26, 2011

Crochet projects #2

I am editing this post to show what I got this weekend.
I decided it was not worth a brand new note
edited 08-28-11
************************
I've been doing some crochet over the past months. I did some attempts at making a stuffy a stuffed animal and it did not quite work out right. I tried a pig, starting at the snout, and found I need some more experience in crochet, likely making some simple creatures first. Both projects were undone.

stuffy head, eyes just setting it. I undid this right after this picture was taken.


I decided the yellow panel on the front of Snowflake's dress bothered me. I located the end and pulled it out. I started rebuilding the panel using the same colored yarn as the dress was made from. I ended up pulling it out four times, correcting how to do it to get it right. My lack of experience showed I had a little problem in the design, it would fit well for a pregnant teddy bear. I turned the excess fabric into a pleat to make the design work. I really should have pulled it out one last time, but decided It is going to stay that way. it looks good.



New dress for Snowflake with re-made front.



Another view of Snowflake's new dress with remade front panel.



Ne dress from the side before I finished up the loose ends.


A couple months ago, I got a five pound bag of yarn. I am now trying to use it up.

I started working on a bag to hold my yarn in the truck. In my last crochet note, I showed the beginning of it. I am doing what is referred to as an ODD BALL, where one ties different colored yarns together into one ball. I finished the body of the bag, and added beads and rods to give the bag some shape.



New hand made buttons. I ended up using the disk buttons for the bag.




just Finished bag body roughly shaped.



I tried to give the bag shape by stitching the corners. as you can see from the bad angles, it did not work.






Finished body of yarn bag. upside down



yarn bag inside out showing ball and rods top and bottom. the bottom ones are inside the bag when normal Notice the knots that are visible in the yarn.


Finished yarn bag body with ball-skewer top button loop and hand made button


mock up of strap half done

I am now making the strap. I did not know how long I needed it to be so I ended up making it longer than it needed to be. I removed a couple colors of stitches and decided that was about the right length. I am now stitching it length way, this time creating stripes of colors rather than blocks of colors of the first pass. I will fold the fabric in half when I have doubled the width for extra strength, then attach it to the bag.


Long strap laid out.


how I worked on the long strap. the flower skewer held the coil together so I could flip piece easily and it not get caught.


mock up of yarn bag strap too long.


A mock-up of the yarn bag strap with the right length strap.



I made this new wooden crochet hooks. After some adjustments, they now work quite well.



I picked up a basket of knitting stuff from a thrift store.

Looking at all my yarn, I realized I should find a project that would use it up. I noticed I had some projects others had started. Among the projects were some granny squares. I also made some when I was learning crochet. I decided to take all those squares and bring them up to the same size, about twelve inches which is the largest squares I have, and then make a bunch more of them, turning them into some form of throw or blanket. I am now on my second square now. I am doing them in different colors just to use up yarn.

New square next to square who's size I am copying. Red center was what I started with.



New square close up view. Red square was what I started with.


New square I am working on. red square is what I am working with.

I eventually will get back to making stuffies, but need to get more experience. I can see things in the stitching now that I did not see when I started the square.

******************************************
I ran across a church yard sale. they had a bunch of yarn laying there and I had to ask how much. before the person came back with the price, I had already decided I was going to get it. the thought of getting SOME paused only a moment in my mind.


This is how I got it home.

Another view of the bags


All the yarn in one view.



The top table of yarn


bottom shelf of yarn

completed projects that came with the yarn. I am guessing but this may well be knitting.


Another view of the completed projects I got.


I added a handle to a fine (B i think) commercial metal crochet hook.



Monday, August 22, 2011

Fortune's Pawn news!!!!!



My book is now available on Amazon.com as well as their affiliated site CreateSpace. So you have two options for buying, and can pick what's best for you. And thank you once again for supporting small, independent publishing. We all work hard, and really appreciate your patronage. 


https://www.createspace.com/3674176


http://www.amazon.com/Fortunes-Pawn-Nancy-Hansen/dp/1466243465/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313976283&sr=1-2

~Nancy

Did You Write? 08-22-11

Did You Write? 08-22-11

It is that time again to tell about what is going on in your life, and in the process, about what is going on in your writing. Let us know what is keeping you from writing, or what is helping you to write. How have you done on meeting your goals or failing to reach them.

By posting regularly, you have an incentive to write. After posting a few times, you will start to feel guilty about not meeting your goals or not writing at all, and will try to work a bit harder to meet your goals.

We all love high word counts. It shows that you really have been writing. Word counts are not everything, though. We all have sessions where we remove or rewrite a passage and while you wrote a couple thousand words, you end up with just a small word count increase or even a decrease.
Editing is also writing. One does not get the word count joy you do with fresh writing. If one is aiming for a specific publication, your word count might decrease instead. Also editing someone else's work is also writing. So is critiques. It all counts even if the word count is not there.
Poetry, writing assignments, blogging, articles, technical writing, character and world development is all writing. Even E-mails are writing if they are wordy and pertain to story or writing. If the words are going on paper, it counts. If you have to ask if it is writing, it counts.

As for me. I did not touch my Waxy Dragon 4 story plot. I am still having to get her home and make it exciting.
I had taken on a different type of story, a super hero story under the title of SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE and it almost wrote itself. I came to THE END at page 19 with 6787 words. On that story, I added 1483 words. I sent that off to a friend to get an opinion on it.
I then had a scene for the next story in this series so I ended up writing two pages at 818 words. I have not finalized the plot to this story in my mind, I do have some concepts. That scene wrote itself.
I will admit that I will have a lot of work to do on this SPIRIT story to bring it up to snuff. It is an interesting concept, though.

On the story idea front, I am up to, including what I am posting tonight, 42 story ideas. I came up with seven story ideas this weekend, three of those just today. That is a nice feeling. A couple will have to be written very soon before they start sinking into the pile.

I had taught myself how to crochet. One thing I did was to figure out how to make my own hooks from scratch out of wood. I also have the technology to make them out of metal if I had to.
Anyway, I am aiming to make stuffed creatures, stuffies as they are known, but have to develop my skills before I try that seriously. Right now I am making a bag in crochet, to hold crochet and it is nearly done. I made the button that closes the bag. I just have to finish the strap and attach it for the bag to be finished.
This weekend, I made four crochet hooks. I could have made a lot more but I spent too much time petting the cat.

Using the above for a story idea, She is skilled at knitting. She has made many objects and sold them to help her family. One day, she saw a family that was in dire straights. the little boy hung onto a ratty teddy bear. The girl held a forlorn naked doll.
She and her husband brings the family in. The husband takes the father and older boy out and they do some work while she cleans up the rest of the family, fixing their clothing. She repairs the teddy bear and makes a few quick dresses for the doll. That evening, she knits a couple shirts for the teddy bear. The boy dresses the bear and is playing with it.
Near bed time, the teddy bear and doll comes alive. The adults are shocked, but the children accept it completely. both toys hug her leg then go to the children and play. She notices that when the teddy bear gets too far, the doll stops moving. The teddy bear is the source of the magic. When the boy takes the clothes off the teddy bear, the magic stops.
She is soon making knitted clothing for all sorts of toys. The clothing focuses the child's love into the toy to make them move on their own.

As to the question of the week,

I can honestly say

YES, I DID WRITE!!!!


DID YOU WRITE?


Sunday, August 21, 2011

Week 606 Woodworking

Year 11, Week 32, Day One (week 606) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 08-20-11 Saturday

80 degrees early morning with little breeze, a damp feeling, and blue skies, 90 degrees with a good breeze in the afternoon. Clouds shifted and changed through the day, mostly blue sky directly above us. Clouds built up as the day went on to become mostly cloud cover with blue skies in well to the east over the ocean, and rain gray skies in a long distance over the Everglades (about 4:00). This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Department Of Tourism.


WEDNESDAY

The school we meet at had some event on Thursday so we had to have our Meeting on Wednesday.
We had the club challenge, which was to turn a goblet. There were very imaginative varieties of goblets. Some beginners told about their mistakes and those were as good as some of the best goblets. I got a lot of comments on my branch goblet.
The other work on display was quite impressive. I showed off my face vase and got comments on that. I had my usual problem when I bring my best stuff. I look at their work and is quite disappointed that my finish is lacking. The best I can say is that compared to theirs, My work has a rustic quality.
The demonstration was on making rolling pins. The process was simple and the design was simple. I would say the hardest part of the project is the rolling handles. He used all wood design, dowels that the handles fit over and a cap to hold the handles in place. I may make one eventually.
Next time, I have to run the video camera during the demonstration. The camera shows what the audience cannot see.

SATURDAY
yard sailing was pitiful. Not much out there.

After feeding the beast of the back yard and Scar Face, I dragged my lathe out. I had some projects to work on but did not feel like getting out the tools from the truck. I decided to make some dowels for crochet hooks. I took a piece of wood, I think it might be mahogany but not sure on that, and cut the piece into four sticks. I then mounted one in the lathe. I saw that my normal methods of holding the wood was going to be a problem.
One way to hold work on a lathe is with a collet. A collet is simply a bit of metal with four slots, and a screw sleeve that goes over it. When you tighten the screw sleeve, the blade of the metal clamps down tighter on the material. Most motor tools like dremmel come with a collet. I have a set for metal and wood working that has eight different sized inserts. Each insert has a different size hole in it.
It was an expensive set that I got from a woodworking yard sale, gave to my brother and he eventually gave it back to me. I had it in "storage" for years. I think this is the second time I have used it in over a year.
My brother tried to use it for metal working and it was not doing what he expected it to do on holding and aligning the work.
I chose one with a hole slightly smaller than the wood, then used the disk sander to knock off the corners on one end and stuck that into the collet and clamped it down. I then put the other end into the point of the tail stock.
I knocked off the corners and roughly rounded the wood with the bowl gouge. The center of the wood was bouncing all around as the wood was too flexible. I tried methods of holding my hand behind it, and even using a piece of wood to back it up when I applied pressure with the tool.
I ended up using a file and sand paper to round it. The stick broke at a flaw. I cut the broken end off and worked with the shorter piece until it was small enough and smooth enough. The second piece broke at a flaw, then broke again. I got the third piece right from the start, again using files and sand paper to get it right.
I think I will cut the long piece in half and then turn larger handles that they will fit into. I will need to cut slots for the crochet yarn to catch on. That will take some time to get the hook right.

I sat and crocheted and made a phone call while the cat slept at my feet. He likes sleeping at my feet as I do not move my legs when he is there. My brother moves his legs all around and the cat reacts as if he expects to be stepped on.

Looking at the dragon wood, I saw that the top of the head is cut at an angle. I held the wood in the bandsaw and cut the top square to the rest of the head. My drawing of the spikes on top the head was based on the high side and now it is flat, it will change the head spike design. I think I have a better view of the design of the dragon. I am almost ready to start carving away the wood. This will be almost exclusively a power carving figure. Very little knife carving. I don't use chisels.

For tomorrow, I will have to see what mood I am in. Carving on the dragon might be high on the list. I would like to finish the crochet hooks. I have several pieces that need a little bit of work. I have lots of wood that is begging to be made into stuff. I have a dress vase that I barely started and need to work on.

I WILL SEE WHAT I ACTUALLY WORK ON TOMORROW.


Year 11, Week 32, Day Two (week 606) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 08-21-11 Sunday

90 degrees at nine in the morning, 96 degrees around four. Lots of puffs moving through but they did not effect the sun. A nice breeze blew around fine sawdust.
A storm is aiming at us. The weather fairies are breathing heavily, warming up for their mating calls of "the storm is coming." Over the next few days, they will be standing on the sunny beach in their yellow slickers, panting, and telling us that the sea is calm and the storm has not arrived yet. I might start watching and listening to local news just to hear them call to each other for their mating season.
This weather report was brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.


Yesterday, we came home from yard sailing and the bulk pickup had already arrived. Mom did not want the cuttings from the palm trees laying in the swale all week long.

As I was leaving home, I saw a chair sitting there without a seat. I grabbed it for the wood. It looked like it was oak of something like that. when I got to Mom's I removed the fasteners, which were a screw-cam system where a threaded pieces was inserted a distance away from the joint, and the screw went through the wood and screwed into the fitting. I lost one of those fittings in the grass
the sides themselves were attached with dowels and glue and was done quite well I pounded on them to try to separate them and broke the wood. One would not separate at all, so I used the band saw to cut it, and then realized I should have used the band saw everywhere.

I took one of the broken pieces and tried to split it. It split on a slight angle. I used a hatchet to follow the angle and knock off the corners. I then cut it into quarter sticks. I mounted one on the lathe and worked it into a dowel.

I took a couple bamboo skewers and some pieces of wooden dowel, and made four crochet hooks. I tested them to see if the design was right. With one, I cut my hook off and created a new one as the first was not good enough. I also had a couple I broke easily as I went thinner than I should have. I need to do more sanding and then give them a coat of varnish. I intend to use them a little to make sure I have them right. I need to use more exotic woods, such as walnut, but these were already straight and clean dowels to work with.


different sized crochet hooks with larger handles. I will have to sand these and then give them a coat of varnish with more sanding and varnish. The dimple on the bottom of one is where I drilled wrong. I will sand that away later.

Yesterday, I had dismantled a mixer and put it back together. Today, dismantled it again and showed my brother the problem. Then getting it back together was a bit tougher this time. I kept finding something not set right.
My brother and I discussed how to fix the switch. The original plastic switch decayed and broke. My plan is to make one of wood. My brother suggested adding a rheostat on top of it to do the same thing.
My big problem with this project is that I don't need to repair it. I got two good mixers at yard sales for three bucks each. I don't need a third. I was thinking more about using the motor for something. I have no idea what, though.

This is the mixer I was playing with.



This is the disassembled machine.



Yesterday I had dropped off the CD of pictures I took at the turning club meeting. He gave me a slide switch to control motors. On his suggestion, I plugged my dremmel into it and it controlled the power nicely. My dremmel is single speed. I got a bunch of twist and ties and wrapped the switch cord with the dremmel cord so the switch is right up by the motor, and they are plugged in together.
To operate it, I set the speed for the bit I need and don't have to change it until I change the bit or the operation. Having the switch dangling from the motor is not a problem at all.





This is the single speed dremmel with the slide switch attached.

I was getting ready to grind on the dragon for the first time when my brother arrived. It was almost lunch time anyway. A bit later, my nephew showed up and I showed him the wood. He saw the dragon in it. The lines drawn on and telling him what I was doing helped.

I worked on the handle for the crochet bag. I got to where I decided it was done and then tested out the fit with the bag. I quickly saw that it was far too long for what I was after. It was like a shoulder bag. For how I am using it, that would cause all sorts of problems.
I then ripped out several colors of yarn I had done and checked it again. I decided that would be long enough. It will stretch. I started my long ways stitching. I will double the width, fold it over and sew the edges together, then stitch it to the bag. I have a ways to go but the bag is looking good.


This is the long strap laid out



This shows the strap being too long



The strap is shortened up






The way I worked on the strap was to curl it up using a carved rose with a broken skewer stem to pin it in place. I would then crochet on just the end without it dangling down all over the place.


This is the bag itself as I displayed it at the turning club meeting.


On the way home, I stopped and picked up a piece of Norfolk with 10 knots around it. I plan to carve five faces into it. That will be an interesting challenge. I would love to do female faces but have not had luck with them so far.

This piece of Norfolk Island Pine has 10 knots running around it. The guy who gave this to me said he had seen one with 14 knots but both of these are really rare. This will be a face vase with five faces around it.


I have a tea pot I started making and it is sitting there in my TO-DO list. It is thicker and heavier than it should be but the wood won't let me get much thinner on the inside. It just dawned on me that I have plenty of wood to add some sort of carving on the outside. That would be easy, just takes time. Another carving project...

Next week, I plan to do something more substantial than crochet hooks and dowels. I want to actually start on the dragon. I have several vases that need to be finished up. I have lots of wood to make use of. I have that palm tree to trim.
during the week, if the storm looks bad, I told mom she can call me and I will come and help pick things up for the storm. that cold kill an evening.


I will see what I actually do next week.