(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
04-02-16 Saturday
76 degree before Sunrise, 94 on some gauges, strong breeze that cause loose hats to almost leap into the air and cause light things on tables to try to run away. The clouds were a mix of solid cover and broken cover with some later sunshine. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
Last week, a friend told me he had a treadle sewing machine he was going to sell. I gave him a bid on it before even seeing a picture of it (used, but mint looking condition). A woman came to buy a bunch of his furniture as he is moving and the sewing machine went with the stuff. He had warned me about that. If I had that, I would have forced myself to learn how to sew. It was just not to be.
Yard sailing was sparse this morning. I breezed through five of our six areas of yard sailing and saw six yard sales. One in the second area, One in the third, two in the forth, one in the fifth. Since it was basically one continuous loop, going through the different areas was not bad. The scenery is always nice. What really surprised me most, was that I did not come home with anything. Several places had teddy bears. I was able to dodge fast so they did not tackle me and force me take them home. One place had a lot of children’s stuff which included craft items. I did not see anything there that I could not live without. I have some of the same craft items I have not gotten to in a very long time.
Two places I visited was by people I have visited before. One of them, I recognized a box of foreign coins, I knew I had seen that a few months back, then I saw one of the recognizable people involved and knew I had been there before (I did not recognize the house or the street). He has an anvil in his garage and last time, half a dozen people asked him about it, but he was keeping it. He had a sewing machine motor, but I chose not to get it. I have a sewing machine motor that is hooked up with a buffing wheel (somewhere). Seeing his motor reminded me of the treadle sewing machine I was not getting. The other recognizable sale was a condo that sometimes had sales, but this time they did not have anything in the club house, just outside.
I got home, petted and fed the cat, she really needed attention. I removed a bunch of stuff out of my truck cab, and took my truck to the dealership for the 30,000 checkup. I ordered the super-duper 30,000 mile check up package that including cleaning the injectors and replacing the brake fluid. I likely did not have to do this, as I got the truck when it was 25,500 and it likely got that treatment from the dealership, but I wanted to make sure it was in the best condition. It might never get this again, as it was a lot of money. I was told, when I got the truck, to have the first service with the truck’s dealership, then I could go anywhere else after that.
They said it would be about two hours. It took nearly four as they had lines of people, some getting free car washes, others getting different kinds of services. It took them a bit to get to the truck and they had a lot of work to do on it.
I started out with crochet. I am working on a roll case to contain a bunch of crochet hooks. The design I started with is where there is a strip down the center creating a series of loops. The strip would not be very wide. The hooks would hang out both ends and it would just keep them contained. It was pointed out that a better design is where the fabric folds up to form pockets at the bottom for the hooks to slip into. The difference is how wide you do the fabric. The one with the pockets goes about a third to half the width past what you want.
Now, I have to say, that I had been working on a case where I was working side to side. The width is fixed and the length goes until I stop. WELL,,,, I have done that off and on for a while, sometimes part of a row, sometimes several rows. I looked at it this week and saw that my stitch count changed several times over the short length I had done. I then remembered that I have always done better when the length is fixed and I work the width, simply because there is not as many turns at the ends of the rows. It is easier to make a mistake on the stitch count if you are doing several hundred turns, as opposed to just a few dozen turns.
When I saw my error, I considered unraveling it to the first mistake, but then decided to start over with a fresh yarn. Before today, I had about four or six rows in a twelve inch wide piece. While at the dealership, I think I may have done something near 15 rows. The ends look straight so my stitch count is doing well (No, I am not actually counting, I am just not skipping stitches or adding stitches accidentally).
I am making the fabric really tight. I am using a single crochet stitch and a 3mm steel hook. This is usually with thread rather than yarn. I would have gone with a smaller hook, but those hooks were just are not quite big enough to catch the thick yarn. Being tight, my stored crochet hooks will be less apt to poke through.
It was in my last half hour there that I took out my tablet and on a lark, looked to see what WIFI was available. It turned out that the dealership had free WIFI. I would not have used the tablet even if I had known about it before then, as there is nothing that is worth spending four hours on the internet for, but it was nice to know that I could check the weather and the news while waiting.
I got home, fed and petted the cat (she acted like she had never seen me today and was starving), ate lunch, and then laid down for a nap. I had gotten a little drowsy at the dealership. I considered taking a nap before going to the dealership but decided to get it over with. I zonked out and it was near time to leave before I had any urge to get up. I kind of felt guilty for not going out to work. At one point when I rolled over to a new position and checked my watch that I gave a strong consideration to working on something but I realized that I had time to get set up, and time to possibly make something, but would have no time to clean up after. One does not leave things out over night.
Other than yard sailing and crochet, I got nothing done today.
Tomorrow is a do nothing day also. I am going to a “Fish Fry” sponsored by a nearby Elks club. There is usually a limited selection of food items, but you can go for many servings, and there is usually some music by some musicians. I have some friends that show up sometimes. The weather should be fairly good by the reports. No projects will be worked on tomorrow so there won’t be a post.
I will have to see what I do next weekend.
1332
A dishcloth I stopped working on about a month ago. I really need to decide what color edging would go best with it. I have ot looked into my stash to see what I have available. I did this corner to corner and it cups because I did not quite get the stitch count right.
the first attempt at the crochet hook roll case. As you can see if you look closely, the sides weave in and out as I got the stitch count wrong in many places.
My new attempt. I did not flatten the curl when I took the picture. I agree with someone I showed the picture to. It looks like bacon. That is a little over 12 inches long.
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