Year 13, Week 10, Day One (week 686)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-30-13 Saturday
   
    Blue skies, fast moving cotton puffs, plenty of sunshine. I have no idea what the temps were as I could not get to the thermometer to see the reading. This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach department of Tourism.

    Last week I was really sick. This week I have recovered quite a bit. The Doctor changed my BP meds and gave me an antibiotic. Other than having no endurance, I am doing well now. I lost 10 pounds and will see if I can keep that off.
   
   
    We visited three yard sales in the morning. Each had interesting items, but not interesting enough to pick up. One had a sleigh design basket with deer. Another had an articulated battle dragon. A third had some salt and pepper shakers I gave thought to and decided to hold off. I am sure I have some already. I just have to look for them.
   
   
    I had a little problem. Mom and her neighbor are getting hooked up to the new sewer out by the street, getting off the septic tank system. The entire side of the house is piled up dirt, blocking even the door. Across the back is the trench from where the system connects to the house.
    The trench goes across in front of the awning where I work. To get into it, I have to drop down into the trench, then climb out at nearly knee deep.
    I have a problem in that my leg is not working right. To get out of the trench and to my stuff, I would have to sit down on the paving and then get up onto my feet. I don't get up off the ground very well.
    I was told in no uncertain terms to stay out of the trench.
    I spent some time in the morning, examining the situation, working out how I might get to my stuff. My answer kept coming up with NO.
    I spent most of the rest of the morning playing video games and then some reading.
   
The trench that kept me from reaching my stuff.
 

    Later in the day, my brother showed up and he got me my dremmel boxes. It was too late to do anything, but I had them for tomorrow.
   
    It was extremely frustrating to not be able to do any work. Hopefully tomorrow I will get some work done.
   
    I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
   
   
   
   
Year 13, Week 10, Day One (week 686)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-30-13 Saturday
   
    No temp information, blue sky, soft puffy clouds moving quickly, bright sun, but strong winds taking the heat away. this weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach department of Tourism.
   
   
    I still cannot get into the back yard, but I had access to my dremmel supplies.
    In my dremmel boxes, I have rods that I can make crochet hooks out of. Most are bamboo skewers you can get

at grocery stores. I do have some rods from other sources such as some reed.
    I dug out a folding table (the one I really wanted is captured in back where I could not access it), an extension cord and a chair and set up in the shade of some trees in the planter along side the driveway.
    I used a cutting disk and a grinding disk to shape and cut the crochet hooks. The grinding disk removed a lot of wood on the end, rounding and slightly pointing it to go through the loops of the yarn. I then used the cutting disk to make the hook and shape the throat for the hook. I basically had three sizes of dowel to work with. in Crochet sizes, I had D, H, and I. I have a sizing gauge to give me the sizes. I also had a bit of oak rod in the size of K.
    I worked each hook one at a time, and tested it with some yarn I had beside me. I had sand paper which I worked the entire length of the rods, and worked extra on where I did my cutting and grinding. The work has to be smooth or it will catch on the yarn. Several times, I had to go back and re-work some areas to make them better.
    The D sized rod, are the tiny skewers, the most common you will see at the grocery store. Crochet hooks made from them are a challenge. Being tiny, it is easy to make them too weak so the hook will break. I did that once. I just flattened the end and did it again.
    The K sized oak rod was so short that it needed at handle to be useable. the garage is filled with stuff on hold for the sewer project. I had to climb over stuff to get to the drill press. I grabbed a piece of dowel and had to go back outside and use the dremmel to cut a length off. I then placed it beneath the drill press and bore a hole in the center with it on end.
    I did a lot of hand sanding of the handle as it had some nicks and dings, along with other little flaws. Knocking off the edges also caused more sanding to be done.
    My glue was in back, where I cannot access it, but I found that Mom had some school glue in the kitchen on the table. that solved the problem of gluing the rod into the handle.
    I cut the reed rod in half before I made both ends crochet hooks. Not all hooks need to be really long. I also had some short skewer rods that I made hooks from. they were in I size and after making the hooks, I softened the skewer point. I have been poked by a few I left on when I made the long rods from skewer.
   



Eight crochet hooks I made today
 
 
    Of course, this was not what I wanted to work on. I wanted to grind on my dragon, which of course, was out back, out of reach. It is typical. One never wants to work on what is available, but instead on what one cannot get to.
   
    Next week is going to be busy as there are meetings going on. I do plan to bring my work down to the antique shop and put it on display. I could have done it this week but was not mentally and physically ready to do so.
   
    I will see what I actually do next weekend.