(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-08-14 Saturday
The weather was supposed to be questionable at best and likely bad. “I always wanted to be a weather man, but I was not accurate enough.......”
70s early morning, 84 late afternoon, milk and feathers high up, some clouds built to the west and then dashed off to the west, but there was no rain on radar at that time. A good breeze kept things cool. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
It was another yard sale weekend. I saw a whole lot of signs out, but somehow I never even considered checking any of them out.
We got mom into position to start loading her tables when I headed for breakfast and to put the signs out.
When I got back, I set up my tables with my stuff. It was not until near the end of the day that Mom noticed something was missing from my display. About half an hour later, I found that I did not put out one of my bins. Here I had added more space to my display so it could have been shown.
I did some nibbling on some of my chimney ornaments. I was getting close to really detailing one when a slip of the knife lopped off the toe of the boot. I heard where it went but could not find it. I took another blank and cut into it where I knew wood would have to come out of about the size of the missing toe. I had to use the dremmel to free it. I then cut a piece off it and glued it where the missing toe was supposed to be and put a clamp it. I did a little more on another blank but set that to the side. One problem is that these have knots in them and the knots are hard to carve. There are times I would love to get a large piece of wood that hard, but not for carving.
Mom has a reindeer made out of cedar. The body sets in slots in the legs. The legs keep falling to the ground and breaking. Each time it breaks, it breaks at another place of fresh wood. It got dropped again so Mom asked me to put some pegs into it. I took it out back, glued it again, and clamped it. I intend to put dowels into it tomorrow so it won’t break.
During the early week, I had started another dish cloth. Mid week, my truck accidentally turned into the Joe Ann’s Cloth World parking lot. This is a chain of arts and crafts stores with about half the store devoted to sewing. The rest of the store is a good mixture of crafts.
Since I was there, I went in and checked a few isles. Six balls of yarn leaped on me and threatened to tie me up and hold me for ransom if I did not get them out of the store. Fifteen dollars later, I walked out with six giggling balls of yarn. I loved the bright colors of these.
New yarn I rescued from the store.
Near the end of the week, I basically finished a scarf I’ve been working on in the truck. Whenever I stop at a long light, I would grab it and do some stitches. It took me some time to work on it. The ball of yarn is something like 447 yards long (I started another scarf using that type of yarn) and I went until I reached the end of the yarn. I had four stitches left to do when the yarn finished up. Given a choice of adding a different yarn for the last, I chose to take them out. That left me about six to eight feet of yarn from the ball.
The six foot long scarf I worked on in the truck over many months.
During the yard sale, I wove in the tails of the yarn in the truck scarf, made a dishcloth from one of the new balls of yarn, which turned out to be the same yarn color as a previous dishcloth I made. I have two balls of that yarn that will each make another dish cloth. It just happened that the pattern matched my 27 stitch width. I have bands of color running up the dish cloth except for the last inch or so, where the color pattern shifted dramatically. This one was strictly double crochet. The color is nice enough that it did not need a stitch pattern.
Two dish cloths. One on left finished that yarn. I had started it early in the week.
The second dish cloth is in new yarn. The color pattern is by pure luck, not due to plans. I noticed it only half way. the yarn pattern changed near the ends.
I then finished the dishcloth I started during the week. This was two single crochet, a double crochet, and a single crochet. That yarn ended having finished two dish cloths.
I started on a new scarf to work on in the truck. I got the chain done to the right length, and then started going into the chain with my base stitch. The yarn got tangled up inside the ball and would not come out. The tag said 447 yards. I had to ball it up from the outside with a long tail sticking out from the inside. It took some time. At first the ball was small and took time to take up much yarn. At the end, the ball was bigger than a soft ball. I got the base chain completed and got a few stitches in the second row so now I can work on it when I come to long stop lights.
I should have done a whole lot more carving during the day, but it just did not happen.
Tomorrow, I intend to drill the reindeer legs and put in dowels, and to work on the chimney ornaments some more.
Year 15, Week 40, Day Two (week 737)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
11-09-14 Sunday
74 degrees in the afternoon. A front is passing over us today. We got some early morning downpours of Liquid Sunshine (The Florida Department of Tourism declared it never rains in Florida. It is known as Liquid Sunshine). It faded out and was medium and light the entire time I was at Mom’s house. A few bands early have passed but the main one is crossing the state. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
I had to dodge drops as I set up my work table and get my equipment out. I sanded the repaired foot of the chimney carving I fixed yesterday so it would be even. I do have to do some filling on it. I am using white glue right now and see how it looks when done. Paint will hide it nicely.
I then took on the Reindeer decoration. I have a three foot long drill bit that is the right size for the skewers I am intending to use to reinforce the wood with. I first drilled with a smaller and shorter drill bit starter holes to help guide the long bit. I then mounted the three foot long drill bit into my drill. I started working carefully as there is a lot of play in a drill bit that long. I started to realize that the bit was dull as it was not going into the wood very well. I am not exactly sure what happened but it got away from me and the drill bit became badly bent and the wood almost took off before I got the drill shut off. There might be a way to straighten the drill bit. I sort of doubt it though. What I most likely will do is cut it into sections. The drill part of it is pretty much straight so I can cut that and use that separately. The rod can be used for other things, possibly made into a turning cutting tool.
Above the extension cord is the bent drill bit. Those are two by two pavers.
I then went to the drill press and found a drill-bit that if I barely grabbed it, would go across the breaks. I drilled through several places on each leg on both sides. I put dowels through only on one side of it as the glue I was using was kind of watery and I wanted to make sure it set properly. Next weekend, I will do the other side and put it out.
I tried to use my regular white glue and when I pulled on the red cap to allow it to pour, the whole stem broke. It appears to have glued itself nicely. I carved a wooden plug to fit the hole for now. I will try to remember to bring an old bottle of glue I have and mix them. Either that or stop at the dollar store and get a new bottle and replace the one I broke. I will see how my schedule will go as to what I do.
carved plug for glue bottle.
Next weekend will depend on the weather again. We would like to do another yard sale. I am trying to get stuff out of my house. Finding time to dig them out is the biggest problem. I MUST work on ornaments. I don’t have many weekends to go before they must be ready. It is nice to be ahead of time, but still be better if they were done already, or at least finished with the rough carving so I could start painting.
I will see what happens next weekend.
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