Three, Two, One and Lift off!

Back in the 1980’s when I use to do craft fairs, I always could tell how well I’d do at a show, by what went wrong or didn’t right before I left.  If everything went smoothly, I got everything finished, there was no peripheral drama with family or the house, or storms or anything, then the show would invariably be terrible.  If on the other hand, I was completely crazy by the time I was ready to leave for the show, because if it could go wrong it did, then the show would be fantastic.  The more that went wrong before hand, the better the show.  I know that seems like a silly gauge, but it was somehow comforting.  Like it was nothing I did or didn’t do, sort of just the fates.

If this week is any indication of how my trip to Reno will go, this should be the conference of the century.  Which I hope it is!  That said, I’m so tired of the drama.  I have a pond that keeps emptying, and is green, and pond guys came Monday, replaced a pump, cleaned the filter and it still dropped 3 inches overnight.  I’m guessing the next step will be to rip the pond out, re-line the entire system and start over.  The pond is old, probably 15 years, and I just want this to work again and not have to hire someone to babysit it every day while I’m on the road.  Yes, there are those I know well who are telling me to just back fill the whole thing and call it a day, but it was my husband’s legacy and I’m not ready to give that up.  I’ve invested too much already.

And then the comments thing.  I found out over the weekend that the comments plug in was not functioning and no one could leave a comment on my blog posts.  We traced it to an upgrade to Word Press, and it all seems to be part of the huge push to comply with privacy policies and opt in options and the whole plug in that controlled the comments section just disappeared.  I had to call in tech guy, who came in Saturday and spent the morning trying to figure it all out, and I hope he was successful, I’ll know because hopefully some of you dear readers will leave comments.  And it will work.

My daughter texted this afternoon she was in the Emergency Room with a possible gall bladder attack.  I’ve had them.  They are no picnic.  No sign of stones, but she is a hurting puppy.  A traveling mom’s worst nightmare.  I have to leave for this trip tomorrow.  Too much is riding on this conference.  And I’ve invested too much. Half of my stuff is in Reno already.   But then my daughter is in the hospital.  Hopefully as I write, she is on her way here to stay the night, where it is airconditioned, her apartment was 94 degrees last night and the cat went into severe distress.  She is a smart girl and knew what to do, get the cat to the vet hospital where she works.  I’m sure stress has nothing to do with any of this…  And probably the dinners at Taco Bell don’t help either…

Did I mention the storm that blew through here an hour ago?  Monsoon rains, torrential flooding, towns 15 minutes away got nothing.  The power went out before I could transfer my files and I had visions of my last trip, where I had to fly out with a power outage causing me to have to dump all my food the night before I left, from two refrigerator/freezers.  The power outage was short lived and you will know all is well if I get this post out.  It has been 100 degrees the last three days and it has been hard to function.

In spite of all this chaos, I could go on, but you get the point, I did what any self respecting fiber junkie would do and in between frantic calls to contractors and tech people, I hid in my studio, psyched about the path I was on, and looked around for more stuff to sew.  Slim pickings.  I have to get my naked looms dressed and get to weaving…  I did find the remnants from this tunic…  

And after I sent a huge hunk out to make these clogs… (Chameleon Clogs)

I was left with this…

There clearly wasn’t enough fabric for a bias top, but that never stopped me.  I am a whiz at butting selvedges together, and the selvedges on this fabric were beautiful.  So I carefully pieced the fabric in a way that allowed me to cut a bias front and back and I have another summer top.  The draft for this fabric, called Pacific Sunset can be purchased here.

I’m having trouble fitting all these lovely new things in my closet! (And in the suitcases for Reno).

Then there was the pile of scraps from the Autumn Patchwork Duster Coat I just finished.  

There was enough to make a tunic from the leftovers. Truth be told, I love this tunic even more than I love the coat.  And it is something I can wear a lot.  The draft is Autumn Patchwork and you can purchase it here.

And Sunday I needed to do one more dry run of the Turned Krokbragd technique that I’ll be teaching on Friday afternoon.  The weaving is easy, but the set up is pretty complicated.  And I had to see exactly what I needed to pick up at Staples to give to students, rubber bands, unsharpened #2 pencils, paper clips.  The result of course was this…

The draft is in my Advanced Inkle Weaving Techniques.  You can purchase the download for this here.  I hand dyed silk from India I bought from a weaver friend.  It is the same draft as this one I started last year, and had to abandon because, well, Shetland wool singles, what was I thinking…  Silk is so much better to work with on an inkle loom.

In spite of all the drama, I’m packed, just have to weigh the suitcases, which I’m avoiding as you can tell.  The limo comes to get me in the morning and I start the trek to Reno, via San Francisco, from Newark, and it will all be what it is.  I hope a complete success all round.  No drama.  None.  

Stay tuned…