BOOK REVIEW: THE APPRENTICE BY TESS GERRITSEN

Story wise, it has been a year since the conclusion of the first Rizzoli and Isles novel The Surgeon.
Jane Rizzoli is now more respected amongst her peers in the Boston (Massachusetts, USA) Police Department, while Doctor Maura Isles serves as the city's new Chief Medical Examiner, when a new serial killer arises.
But while at first the suspect is thought to be a simple copycat, it soon grows more obvious that the killer is actually The Apprentice of The Surgeon.
Or is he?

There are a couple of (unanticipated) twists and turns during the course of the investigation, especially in the second half of the book as it races towards the climatic confrontation, that I will not spoil for those who haven't read the novel for themselves.

Tess Gerritsen has certainly created an interesting cast of characters that will grow even on the casual reader, even if they aren't fans of the TNT television series.
Speaking of which...

As established in my review of the first novel in this series, there is obviously continuity differences between books and television.
For one, the author has more time to develop the characters within the course of the first two books, limited only to her imagination and word count; compared to the budget constraints, spare soundbites and background moments when the show's stars are not investigating murders or capturing the guilty in weekly episodes.
For another, Rizzoli and Isles are, at best, working acquaintances during this novel, and not the good friends that they will become.
The TNT series started with an adaptation of this novel, but with a more advanced friendship of the title characters, before going on to new adventures. While points from subsequent novels have been touched upon since, this book is the only one to make any kind of transition between the two mediums.
But even if you're like me, who discovered the show before the novels, do yourself a favor and read the books.
_____________________________________________________

Lee Houston, Junior, one of the founders of this fine blog, is the Editor-In-Chief of The Free Choice E-zine and the writer/creator of Hugh Monn, Private Detective and Alpha the superhero.
When not busy writing, in what he laughingly calls his "spare" time, he wishes he had more spare time to finish the manuscript for ALPHA, BOOK 2: WAYWARD SON, among other projects.
He maintains a presence on G+, Facebook, and his own writer's blog. His creative work can be found in both print and e-formats at Amazon.com and other outlets.

Year 15, Week 38, Day One (week 735)

    Year 15, Week 38, Day One (week 735)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-25-14 Saturday

    69 degrees very early morning 84 late in the day, blue sky early morning, with puffs appearing “suddenly” about ten. I never noticed they were there until one blocked the sun. It took me a while to realize they were marching to the south. They stayed from just past over head and spread on to the West. They mostly disappeared with remnants far west, the edge following the sun west. A nice breeze, not strong enough to blow things around, carried the heat of the sun away, making it quite comfortable. This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

It was Yard sale again.
I only had to bring out three bins and a bunch of boxed items. Four trips. It was still a lot of work. I took some stuff off my truck.
I left for breakfast and parked a distance away, then set up my stuff for display. I used the bins my stuff was in to add to raising stuff up off the ground.

I brought a bunch of model railroad buildings I had accumulated from a couple yard sales. I was selling them for a dollar and sold ten of them. I sold a couple other items. I did not do horrible. I did get rid of a a bunch of stuff. I will try to bring more next week and hope to sell more too.

I had started a dish cloth early last week and finished it up. It is a yarn color that many people like. I then did another dish cloth, this time in pink. I used a pattern of increasing stitch lenth each row, then starting small again and working my way up again. After finishing this one, I started a third dish cloth in some yarn I got from a recent yard sale.

I shaved some on the ornaments I have in process. Making big adjustments on the mice, making some finishing cuts on a few of the sox. The knitting took up most of my time. I have a tighter time limit on them than on the ornaments.

During the week, I came up with an idea for another ornament. I did not have the opportunity to go and make blanks. Maybe tomorrow.

I did have my Christmas ornaments on display. I am holding on my price of them, possibly the most expensive items in our yard sale. For the work I put into them, I am not about to let them go cheaper than I am. I haven’t changed my price since I started making them back in 2000.

The yard sale ended and I had to pack up stuff. I only had one bin, one of mine, and some boxed items to put away, along with some empty bins. Mom emptied some four bins this time. She still had four bins she had not opened for the sale.
Mom’s big problem is that she is missing a bunch of power supplies for moving or lighted ornaments. She won’t sell them if she can power them up. She asked my brother to check his house to see if there are some there.

I was wore out and sore. I do plan to work on the new ornament tomorrow.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.







    Year 15, Week 38, Day Two (week 735)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-26-14 Sunday
  
    Blue sky, nice breeze, 69 degrees very early morning, 84 degrees in the afternoon, This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach department of Tourism.
  
    For some reason, I am very tired this morning, I had to force myself to do some on line stuff I needed to do, and then do laundry before I could get heading to Mom’s house.
I worked on the dish cloth I started yesterday and got it finished.

My brother was making a wood step for his house as one of his regular house guest can’t go up one step well enough any more.
I talked to him while he was working.  He was almost done.
Later with his project finished,  he sat down to read, I cut two blanks for a new Christmas ornament idea. Each one is twice as tall as they are wide. I sat down and started the process of removing wood.
    I intend to use the bandsaw to make rough blanks for the multiple pieces I need to make, but first I have to figure out what has to be removed. I am carving these from scratch so I don’t make big blunders.
    I have already figured out some of the details even though I have not gotten very far, and others will have to be worked out as I go such as angles and sizes. I do have the concept ornament  started.

Being tired, I stopped when lunch was called and after lunch napped for a short time before going home.
I found out that I have made eight dish cloths so far this year. Three this week. Each dish cloth has a different color or design so far. I have not tried repeating what I did before. There are stitches, patterns and effects, I still want to try. I also have a couple colors of yarn I have not worked with yet in my stash. I have many more weeks to make dish cloths. The nice thing is that the more dish cloths I make, the more people I can add to my list that will get something from me.
I added a dark red edging on the pink dish cloth, with shells where the stitches are tight, and on the corners (a cornering experiment) and will have to look at it and get some opinions, as I might rip it out and re-do it in some way if I don’t like the results.

If the weather is good next weekend, we will have another yard sale. I will work more on the new ornament design and will see how things go everywhere else.

I will see what I do next weekend.

My work area with my big drink

Started this scarf near the beginning of the week. finished it up early in the morning. colors are very popular.

did this scarf with a graduating pattern, single crochet, half double, double crochet, half triple, triple crochet, then single again. 

My ornaments on display

My portion of the yard sale. 

Started this dish cloth on Saturday and finished it Sunday.

The three dishcloths I finished this weekend.

An experiment. I have not cut the yarn from the ball yet, trying to decide whether I like the results.

Year 15, Week 37, Day One (week 734)

Year 15, Week 37, Day One (week 734)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-18-14 Saturday
   
    69 degrees early morning, 76 at around eight, 86 as the high. Blue sky, nice breeze, loads of sun. This was the right temperature for our project of the day. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
   
    CAN WE SAY YARD SALE?
We did not go out, but we set up our yard sale.
I brought three bins worth of stuff, figuring it would add quite a bit to her sale. I was shocked that my stuff fit in a five by five area and looked sparse. Mom had over 20 bins of stuff along with stuff in boxes and this was a super sized yard sale, all Christmas stuff. My sister-in-law had died this year and Mom gathered all the Christmas stuff she had and added her own stuff.

I got to Mom’s house and went out to start bringing bins in before we went for Breakfast at Seven. Well, It was nearing Nine when I decided I had brought enough. I was worn out. 
Nothing was above the weight of what I am allowed to lift. Being bins, most things required just minimal bending. The fact that it was so many of them, placing them on the Wagon and then pulling the wagon carefully through the obstacle course of the path to the front, and then taking them off the wagon and setting them on top each other, it added up to do me in. There was a few things still in the shed I did not bring out, and I left some things on the wagon. I was really done working for the day. I then had to bring out my bins which were near the front and lay out the contents. And then my projects to work on during the sale. With a humongous drink, I just sat and worked on my projects while people came to get Mom’s stuff.
Mom emptied a bin and got rid of some large bulky things. I sold $4.50 worth of stuff. Nothing I have is worth much.

I worked on my mice ornaments, correcting the shape of them due to sloppy bandsaw work on making the blanks. The head and nose had to be about half the length. The ears needed to be cut down and shaped. I got all four down to a good rough shape. They are ready for finish carving.

 
 partially corrected mouse next to one untouched. I shortened the nose even more a bit later.


During the week, I started on a dish cloth that was made up of the shell stitch. This is where you put five double crochet into one loop and spread them out into a fan. There is an opposite stitch that I know, but I could not, for the life of me, get it to work. I ended up just adding shells between the other ones. Even with this, the stitches fought me. When I was done, the dishcloth was not square in any way shape or form. I didn’t like the yarn much either. It was white, with small sections of pink and a blue haze in one area. I was happy to get that dishcloth finish and done with.





 
 shell dish cloth. The design made sure nothing was square.


I started a wave stitch dish cloth using two colors. The wave is created by -half single, single, half double, double, half treble, treble, and back down again, -- repeating the pattern all the way across. I was doing two color crochet. I was using lime green and yellow yarns. The next row is basically opposite the stitches done in the previous row so the top bars are straight across. I used a double crochet row to give the wave some more mass.
Two years ago, I made dish cloths and this pattern was well received. It is fun to do but a bit of work. I finished the day with a third of the dish cloth done.  To get the pattern to work right, I made it 30 stitches across, which meant that it would take about 15 rows to complete it.





 
two color wave dish cloth.



When it came near time to pack up, I packed up my stuff and then went in and napped for about half an hour before coming back out to help mom, even though she was done. As usual, Mom can run me into the ground with no trouble.  Pain pills and taking it easy during the rest of the day helped.  It was not until Noon that the thought about sun burn came to me. My arms are pretty much tanned. I wear long pants and a wide brimmed hat. Only my neck and arms were really in the sun.

I have no idea what condition I will be in tomorrow. My main project is to go over my drills. I chose not to set them out in case I wanted to hang onto them. I will go through ever y battery, and every charger. I will also try to finish the wave dish cloth I started today.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
   
   
   

Year 15, Week 37, Day Two (week 734)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-19-14 Sunday
   
    69 degrees early morning, 85 as the high. Blue sky, nice breeze, no humidity, quite comfortable.  Sitting in the shade of the awning, this was nice. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
   
    I stopped at a yard sale on the way to Mom’s. They had almost nothing, but they did have a food processor. It looks like the same brand I have at home. The slicer and grater is on a stand inside the machine and the stand on mine broke. If they are the same, it will be worth the money. If they are not compatible but still work, it will be worth the money.

At Mom’s house, after petting and feeding the kitty, I set up the table and gathered up most of my Harbor Freight drill stuff.  It did not take too long to figure out that several of the chargers did not work. They have a cord that plugs into the charging stand and the cords are damaged. One of them worked as long as the cord hung down over the edge.
I found that one drill has a problem with the switch. Stick the battery in and it starts instantly. The switch is jammed. So is the direction switch. I could likely fix it by opening it, or ruin it beyond repair, depending on my skills on that day.

I dug out all my Makita drill stuff. I found two chargers did not work. One was not in a good mood. A couple did not like the batteries I plugged in. I charged a few of my batteries with my Harbor Freight charger.

Harbor Freight puts the batteries in backwards to Makita. Otherwise, they work for the most part.
I marked the bad batteries, chargers, and drills. I Got a more permanent cloth bag for the equipment to be stored in rather than a big black garbage bag.
I have more harbor freight stuff but not sure exactly where they are. I guess I will have to dig deeper into the shed. That looks like too much work.

I finished the wave dish cloth. I had found some more dish cloth yarn. The lime green and yellow waves needed an edging and I decided that a dark olive green edging would look good. That was in the yarn I found.
I will start something fairly simple for my next dish cloth. I decided on a pink yarn, but not sure What I will do. I have some dark red yarn so a two color, pink and red, dish cloth would look nice, but I would rather not start another multi colored dish cloth. It is hard to keep track of the multiple balls. If you are not sitting in one place and working, the yarn keeps getting tangled. 

Next weekend, if the weather is any good, we will have another yard sale. I hope to have even more stuff to display next weekend. I may have the drills out, then again, I might decide to keep them. I have a week to think about it.  I hope to do a couple more dish cloths. I also need to make more mice blanks. I still need to come up with a fourth design.

I will see what I actually do next weekend.
   
   
   
   

Year 15, Week 38, Day One (week 734)

Year 15, Week 38, Day One (week 734)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-11-14 Saturday
   
90 degrees in the afternoon, blue sky with puffs all around, nice breeze. One of the best days in months. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
   
    I was not on my best of days, having a medical treatment the day before, but did pretty well.
   
    I finished another dish cloth. With this one, I used a row pattern, a single crochet row, a double crochet row, a triple crochet row, a double, a single, and then a second single to restart the pattern. It came out pretty well. Good enough for a dish cloth.


 
 Another finished dish cloth. The yarn had strands of three different colors. Red, Blue, Yellow and green.

   
    Mom talked about having a yard sale this weekend so I gathered two bins worth of stuff to sell from my place and then she decided to hold off.  At least that stuff is out of my house. I will be able to collect a bin or two more by next weekend.
    We visited a yard sale that was advertized “Because my husband ordered it.” I thought that was cute. It was several families gathering together. I picked up some white crochet thread and that was it. It looked lonely and I have some at home of many different colors to keep it company.
    We then went to an organized place where they have collectibles and nick-knacks. There, I found a cheese box filled with yarn. I looked at it four times before I decided to get it. A bit later, a woman was gushing over the box so I took the yarn out and sold the box to her. I ended up spending a dollar for the yarn.  There was some cotton in there and my newest dish cloth is being made from one of those balls.





 Cheese box




 the yarn I got. the white ball in the upper left I got at another yard sale.

   
    While gathering stuff for the yard sale, I ran across my Game Boy Games. I knew where two of my Game Boy units were, but could not find the games. I’d been looking for about six months. I moved a bin that was holding stuff that went to Mom’s house for the yard sale and there were the games. I have some 30 games and with the game cartridges, I had two more game units. That is almost as good as getting a yard sale find for a dollar. I picked out four games to carry with me. 
   
    I did some running around which included waiting for some medicine, and that pretty much ended my day. Other than unloading the truck, petting the kitties, and feeding them again, I did nothing outside.

Considering how I felt during the day, I did very good.

I hope to do some woodworking tomorrow.

I will see how I do.






Year 15, Week 38, Day Two (week 734)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-12-14 Sunday
   
    88 degrees, breeze blowing beneath the awning, blue sky with only an occasional cloud overhead which was gone fairly quickly. Most of the clouds were along the horizon all around, mostly to the west.  Being slightly cooler, today was much better than yesterday. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
   
    I stopped at a yard sale on the way to Mom’s house. I picked up one of those dog-claw sanding units. The people said their dog wouldn’t let them use it. It is actually a pretty good unit. It will use some of the larger shaft Dremmel bits. It is variable speed from almost stopped to pretty fast. I have not tested the power on it yet. I checked and the threaded collar is bigger in diameter than Dremmel. I will have to see if the collet chucks from Dremmel will fit in this unit. If they do, it will become a nice unit. Of course it will be good for what it is designed for.



























Doggy nail grinder.
 

    I had some clear plastic tooth brushes and decided to turn them into crochet hooks. I also had a couple other pieces that needed work.
    I first worked on a Sea-Grape crochet hook I had made and broke the hook off. I shaved the “handle” back quite a ways and got the diameter about right using my knife. I used the Dremmel with a flap-sander bit on it to smooth out the ridges caused by the knife. It needs some more work but it now is useable.
    I had a hook I had made from a tooth brush that needed some adjustments. It still needs some but is much better.
    I cut the bristles off the tooth brushes and then shaved the shafts roughly round with the knife. I cleaned it up a bit with the dremmel flap-sander, then used the dremmel with a cutting disk to cut in the hooks. A bit more sanding and they are usable. They are not quite right and need adjustments. One of them somehow got turned around so the handle is backwards for what is comfortable when holding the hook right.
    I am learning that crochet hooks don’t have to be a perfect design to be used. Getting the comfort and feel right is important, but in a pinch, these can all be used with no problems.  With a couple of these, the shaft needs to be a bit smaller. Others need the hook cut in better. Plastic melts a little while being power cut and that messes up the results when shaping the hooks.
 
 
 Crochet hooks. The upper one is Sea Grape wood. I adjusted the second from the top. 
The middle one I accidentally put the hook on the back side. They all work, though.

   
    After making them and searching for something with my brother that we could not find, I pretty much gave up for the day. I did get something done, however small it was, so I am not complaining.
   
    Next weekend, Weather willing, We will be having a yard sale. I will be working on carving projects and crochet while waiting for people to look around. It was what I planned for Saturday and since the yard sale did not happen, it messed up my plans quite a bit.
   
    I will have to see what actually happens during next weekend.
   
   

   
   
   
   
   
   

Year 15, Week 37, Day One (week 733)

Year 15, Week 37, Day One (week 733)
 (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-04-14 Saturday
   
    90 degrees, high humidity, lots of puffs moving across the sky. A few surprise showers late in the day. A good breeze, though coming just right for under the awning. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
   
    Still feeling the effects of the illness from last week. Also feeling the muscle pain from the wrong turn I did last Sunday. That muscle has gotten just a little better over the week. 
My thumb that I nicked last week has almost healed. You can see where I did it, but it is just a bother because of the hard skin around it.
I figured out what I was doing wrong with my carving. There is a very simple rule that you teach new carvers and I had forgotten all about it. That simple rule is that you always keep wood between a sharp blade and skin. If you do that, you will never get cut.
   
We hit a couple yard sales but they did not have anything I really needed. There were some decorating things but I did not need any of them. The big problem is that I have no place for a lot of things.

I got out back and settled at the table with knife in hand. I carved on the last five blanks of mittens I had cut. I now have 12 mittens and 11 socks. I had one blank for socks I had messed up on when I cut them and tossed it. These are all rough carved. I removed the excess wood and gave them the proper shapes and motion. I now have to carve in details and get the final shape as I have edges and rough areas yet. I am glad I am this far ahead already. I am usually half way to having ornaments near the end of November.
I am having second thoughts about the mice I started. The ones I used the band saw to rough out has the problem that I went too deep with the bandsaw. I will have to make them a little smaller to make them look right. That is not a problem but it is a bit of extra work. When I started the mice, I was sure they were going to be a key ornament while the mittens and socks were in question as to whether they would be worthy of doing. The mice are now the ones I am in question about. I still need at least one more ornament and maybe two. I have had many times where I tried an ornament and never cared for them. Last hear I was making leaping fish and decided they were too much work and stopped after four. I have five mice started this year.

I had decided to make dish cloths this year as presents. Early in the week, I finished my first dish cloth. The yarn is called Ombre and is where the yarn changes color over the length. It creates an interesting effect. The first dishcloth was crocheted in a POST STITCH. Most crochet grabs the horizontal bar between the posts. The post stitch grabs the post. How you grab it will cause a pattern. If you grab the post in front all the way across, then when you flip it you do the front again, you get horizontal ribs. If you grab the posts in an alternating fashion, front, back front back, and continue that on the next row, you get vertical ribs. What I did was to do the alternating ribs, but grabbed them the opposite on the next row so I ended up with a woven look. I did what is called a crab-stitch around the outside, that is where you do a single crochet but you do it backwards. It makes for a nice edge.










First finished dishcloth. 



Today, I finished my second dish cloth. This one was in a Tunisian crochet or an Afghan stitch. One loops the yarn onto the hook as you work across, but leave the loops on the hook. Then when you get to the end, you finish the loops as you draw the hook out of the loops. The front and back of the cloth looks totally different. It is a nice tight stitch. It looks really good if you change yarn colors in each row. I might do that some time later, but starting fairly simple for now.  On this one, I did half crochet all the way around. I have enough yarn to do another dishcloth exactly the same. I might do that but for now I am going to go to a new yarn with a different look.





 front of the Tunisian crochet dish cloth


 
 back side of the Tunisian crochet dish cloth.

I have time to create a number of dishcloths and I can choose who is going to get them too. I was told tonight that one woman still has the one I gave her two years ago. I also know that a couple women put theirs on display rather than use them. They seem to be good gifts. I just wish I had started a lot sooner.
   
    I have no idea what I will do tomorrow. I do know the weather is going to be really nice.
I will have to see what I do tomorrow.

Year 15, Week 37, Day Two (week 733)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
10-05-14 Sunday
   
    78 degrees before noon, 85 after Noon. We are expecting a serious chill tonight of 70 degrees. Have to dig out the parkas. We had mostly blue sky with lots of puffs around the horizon. Sunny, strong breeze. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
   
    I dug out a bunch of battery powered stuff from storage. I have a bunch of MAKITA  batteries and equipment.  I was able to charge every battery and they ran the drill at least for a moment. Two chargers might not have worked as I concentrated on a speed charger as I could charge several batteries in the time it took to charge one. I have a battery powered circular saw and could not get it to run with any of the. batteries.
    My intention of pulling these out was with the idea of seeing what could be sold at yard sales. I have more stuff to look at to decide what can be gotten rid of. These are all nice, but I am not using them. It would be better to pass them on and be able to use the space for more yard sale finds.
   
    I first went to Home Depot with an idea for something to design around. They did not have effective replacements for what I was using, so I explored a re-design. The options were just not working so I ended up leaving without any purchases. It was frustrating as I even walked through the toy, I mean tool section and did not find anything that leaped into my hands.
   
    I got to Mom’s and decided I was not in any mood to work on the ornaments today. I dragged the lathe out. It took to moving a lot of stuff out of the way first. I then looked at the various pieces of wood I could work on. Many were for different projects or for special projects I had not decided on yet.
   
    I looked at an Oak branch my brother had given me. I had seen a wood working show where they split a branch at a bend to create a naturally curved Ladle. I was looking at the oak with that idea and even walked to the bandsaw. I decided I would have to adjust the bandsaw blade space to cut the wood and decided against it today.
    I returned to the lathe and found a piece of wood that was cut off another project. Either than or I had rounded it and decided to work on something else. Because of the shape of the wood I needed to put a tenon on the smaller end so I could flip it around and turn it from that end. I started working to make it into a goblet. I made a tenon and then flipped it around. I started removing the old tenon and the wood shifted in the jaws of the chuck. I decided that was enough for one day. I have lost a lot of skills and muscle memory of wood turning. I am going to have to spend a lot of time in front of the lathe to recover those skills.
    





 The piece of wood I was going to work on.


    It had been a while since I used the lathe, and it has been over a year since I did real maintenance on the lathe. The ways have light surface rusting. Bugs are dining wonderfully on the wood of the frame of the base.
    Of course all the tools need sharpening and cleaning.  None, except one or two new tools are in any condition to turn wood. I really need to spend several days just getting the lathe and tools back into shape.  I put everything back and called it a day for that lathe.

    It was cool out so I decided to set up the table, for carving, then dragged out the machine lathe. For a simple project, I grabbed some chop sticks from a batch I got from a yard sale early this year. I got them to make crochet hooks. They are bamboo.
    These chop sticks are longer than the lathe can handle. The head of the lathe is hollow so I stuck the chop sticks through the head and worked the exposed end.  I used my knife to knock off the square sides of the handle part of the chop sticks, located the approximate centers of each end and indented it. With most of the stick inside the head of the lathe, I put the point of the tail stock into the indentation, set the cutting tool to remove the deepest flat and rounded as far as I could with my settings. I likely could have gotten all the rod rather than leaving the center square, if I moved the tool after I made my first cuts, but was lazy.
    While talking to my brother, I machined four rods, I would machine one end, then flip it and machine the other end, leaving the middle rough. I might cut these for shorter crochet hooks or use the big lathe to finish the center.
    One rod cracked so I cut off the crack end, and then was able to machine it except for a quarter inch bit in the center. I used my knife to remove the high spots, spun it and used a file then emery cloth to hide the center.
    








   
First dish cloth of the year.


I did make one mistake my brother pointed out. There are three pulleys. One is on the motor. The second is an idler pulley. The third is on the head. They each have several sizes of pulleys built into them so you have a lot of different speeds you can have. One thing you can do is to go directly from the motor to the head for direct power if stepping up or down is unimportant. My mistake was to put the belt on the idler pulley but then put the belt from the motor directly to the head. I never noticed this. My brother pointed it out. I removed the idler belt and the lathe ran a little faster as there was less resistance.
    I like telling about my mistakes so you know I am not absolutely perfect. It also reminds you of things to watch for.
    









 
mice on top, socks on the side with almost finished ones on the bottom, mittens in the middle, rods I machined today on the bottom.



   I have no idea what next week will offer. It is totally up in the air. I do hope to finish another dish cloth by next week.
   
    I will see what I will do next week.