All Kinds of Crazy

We'll have been in this house for 20 years next January, and we're used to seeing roofs and cars covered in yellow pine pollen, but to our recollection this is the first time we saw a cloud-like formation over Rabbit Island, (and it's yellow in real life,) in spite of almost a week of consistent but sometimes tentative rain. I'm glad I got this season's (first?) hayfever meds yesterday.

In fact I came home with more head meds, (I spoke too soon in the last post; I kinda relapsed,) and a selection of probiotic stuff; Dr Karl is exploring the possibility my joint pains, vertigo, fatigue/lethargy and weight gain are related, (unlike my previous who gave me 500 generic paracetamols;) and if this works to plan, it may even ease my allergy. I hate medications, but if they work, (and most of the food to help maintain the, er, "biotics", we eat regularly anyway,) I'll regain my life. He also told me about slow-release steroid shots to take care of the hayfever. I'm such a fan of steroids, not, and he knows, so we delayed deciding, but if this year is going to be particularly bad, I might give it a go and get it over with.

I started the other side of the wee bag, and it's not progressing as spontaneously as I expected; the angle of the diagonals appears not as acute as the first half and I keep folding the piece in half to see if it matters. I bought an extra skein of the darkest blue, but may run out of lightest to proceed in the proportions I imagined I would. Or I could skip it on this side and not worry about it.

Pat came home and I got my Searles book yesterday. (Vendor only shipped within the US.) Although I only started reading, it appears to be just the book I needed right now, and not as difficult to understand as I feared. (It also has a lots of photos illustrating the text.) So far the technique appears almost in between loom-controlled and hand-manipulated, so not as onerous as I assumed.

I haven't started threading Baby Blankets #5 and #6 because I haven't come up with two attractive eight-shaft drafts. Weaving double weave requires my full attention with every pick, so I had started making simpler drafts, but this is not a sticky warp and there is no need to dumb down the interlacement, and I want to surprise myself.

I used to go into town with an ancient normal size backpack instead of a purse, then a small backpack, but lately small textile bags, many of them handmade, have been accompanying me. I am a bag lady; even if I don't use them, I like to imagine/mix/match fabrics/styles. I'm often seen loitering in bag shores and departments in Japanese department stores, not so much the high-end European leather stuff but more unique/handmade-y kind, fabric and leather.

Usually when I weave bag fabric, (or fabric I would like to turn into bags if/when I get around to designing/sewing outside my head,) they are either warp-end swatches or stash reduction projects. But like the baby blankets, there is no need to dumb down the design just because I'm bad at sewing. In fact specially designed-and-woven bag fabric projects might give me more satisfaction, (if not the usual hair-tearing bother,) if I make the weaving more labor-intensive, because I'm that kind of crazy.

I ordered some aforementioned "default" yarns; two kinds, eight colors, to audition Though all are in lovely colors, I chose what work with Mom's and my stash, (grays, dark blues and purples,) and I'm feeling sorry for myself for not being able to explore the 2/30 merino colors/combinations. But now that so much stash yarns are out of the boxes strewn all over the house waiting their turns, I don't have room to line up and study. But I'm enjoying my stash, and they are enjoyable once out of the boxes and I can visit with individual lots or introduce one lot to another.

Though not postcards, Jade invited me to join a Letter Journal group. It's mixed media mayhem in collaboration, as serious or light-heated as I want. I.e. vigorous proactive relaxation of the soul. True to my goal/award-carrot/stick-Lent/Easter predilection, I declared I can't join swaps until I weave two baby blankets, but now I'm revising that to after I've finished sampling the blanket warp. Meanwhile, I've been trying to improve my paper-cutting/slicing and hole-punching-on-the-fold skills in the evenings, neither of which are going great. You might say if I had time to do this, I could have joined already, but I know, it's my mini OCD. (The painted sheets were made two years ago, just so you know I'm not distracted to that extreme.)