tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71478580116618225832024-03-19T10:20:55.696-07:00Debbi RamblingsHere are my ramblings, written, sailed, traveled, and crafted.DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.comBlogger78125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-4208091941458514792019-06-23T19:54:00.000-07:002019-06-23T19:54:17.913-07:00Back To The Blog!Wow! It has been so many years since I used this blog. I've been an active member of Ravelry and tried my own WordPress site. The WordPress site was far more trouble than it was worth, so I'll probably create another that I write from the ground up. Ravelry, unfortunately, in the past 24 hours has been destroyed by the owner and so I'm leaving it.<br />
<br />
So I'll be moving my postings about my weaving projects and everything else here.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Weaving Baby Blankets</h3>
Right now, I'm in the middle of a Baby Blanket Weaving Frenzy! Have you ever noticed that babies tend to come in groups? I have five babies to weave for ranging from my niece's to my Starbucks barista's. I love to weave pin-loom baby blankets. They're a great portable project and relatively quick, as such things go. Pin looms were originally released in the 1930's and enjoyed a resurgence several years ago. Here's my mother's doll from the 1940's holding a pin loom from the 1930's sitting on a blanket I wove.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0eVUrBswPnPDQGhRboVBjI5HLDn6FYwKBjT-NM9Nyduf6vlz-HJlwKJqMtwn3X0YwZlmPY3bF6xQmV87QCcxBk0w8OiKpgOqxfd-krX-MECZfweQOVv4o6nBl-F4O3a9mGTcvmqh6RC3t/s1600/BabyBlanket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="375" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0eVUrBswPnPDQGhRboVBjI5HLDn6FYwKBjT-NM9Nyduf6vlz-HJlwKJqMtwn3X0YwZlmPY3bF6xQmV87QCcxBk0w8OiKpgOqxfd-krX-MECZfweQOVv4o6nBl-F4O3a9mGTcvmqh6RC3t/s320/BabyBlanket.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pin Loom With Blanket and Doll</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I have two of the five blankets woven and am in the middle of Blanket #3.<br />
<br />
Here's Blanket #1<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjigdfM8Nf65SFAiAGkHHIMlpfy-j7IOtUJcfMZAF1pRHHp6s2ZLZSsd9E9_s_kzHCEQo_3B3KIDnlZu0lZmusJpL_gqvbjWgVGtu9ioHxyzP5XPNtCRv8cGFmzLtfhSRyID6_pnEtu06X3/s1600/20190616_153056.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjigdfM8Nf65SFAiAGkHHIMlpfy-j7IOtUJcfMZAF1pRHHp6s2ZLZSsd9E9_s_kzHCEQo_3B3KIDnlZu0lZmusJpL_gqvbjWgVGtu9ioHxyzP5XPNtCRv8cGFmzLtfhSRyID6_pnEtu06X3/s320/20190616_153056.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baby Blanket #1 - yellow and multi</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This one is for a little boy, although I didn't know the baby's sex when I wove it. It uses a variegated yellow alternated with a variegated in multiple colors. I love the way it came out!<br />
<br />
Baby Blanket #2 is for a little girl. At first, I thought I made it too pink, but I really like how it came out.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisS5rFOmCpOX771vC0xzfKMl6MYwhA0RFj5s5SGo9fcS5YvwJzh6YRFC77ziU7mzf0DMi7zZ_XD-QxwSPnSA_T97Pt_-LgJ_X8GyY1TIa5_wiGWB27xa8VGilbkWs3_ejm7kn1LlieoRGj/s1600/20190617_210727.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisS5rFOmCpOX771vC0xzfKMl6MYwhA0RFj5s5SGo9fcS5YvwJzh6YRFC77ziU7mzf0DMi7zZ_XD-QxwSPnSA_T97Pt_-LgJ_X8GyY1TIa5_wiGWB27xa8VGilbkWs3_ejm7kn1LlieoRGj/s320/20190617_210727.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baby Blanket #2 - pink and multi</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It uses the same variegated multiple color yarn alternating with solid pink blocks. Love it!!<br />
<br />
Baby Blanket #3 is also for a boy and I'm loving how it's turning out. It'll be a posting for another day, though.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Grieving for Ravelry</h3>
I mentioned earlier that I'm leaving Ravelry. It has been a wonderful place for people all over the world to share their textile arts, projects and stories. It has been a place to ask for help and get encouragement. In the midst of a world that is vengeful and vituperative, it has been a place of sanity and calm. That all changed today when the owners of the site decided to persecute members based solely on their political leanings. I'm so sorry to see such hatred in a place that had formerly been, what I thought was so accepting. I guess it's yet another casualty of the time.<br />
<br />
I'll keep on weaving for babies and hope a replacement for Ravelry comes along. Heck! Maybe I'll write it myself!DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-58959706050692808872015-05-06T15:37:00.001-07:002015-05-06T15:48:44.436-07:00Changing My Life!Wow! Have things changed since my last post in January. Back then (it seems like an eternity), I posted on the weight-loss journey and the beginnings of getting fit. "Getting fit" translated into walking about 4 miles every day in January. Then it hit me. A crazy idea I had years ago when my marriage was falling apart and I was transitioning into becoming a single mom. How about a triathlon? No! That's crazy! I can bike, and I'm a decent swimmer, but I can't run. Nope! Not me! When I was a teen-ager, I could sprint, but I've never been an endurance athlete. I'm a fast-twitch muscle kind of girl, right?<br />
<br />
Wrong.<br />
<br />
So we signed up for a couple's triathlon in Austin in July and started training. Which has led to a crazy bunch of stuff. I decided I had to learn to run. I found a cool Couch-to-5K app for my phone and started in... 2.5 weeks before the Shamrock Shuffle 5K which we signed up for, just to get a taste of what a race was like. I was worried like all get-out that I'd blow the 5K, even though I knew I could run-walk the darn thing, if I had to.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS7-BXJGKE0a6k_J4arVjRqEzEqy_Sk4czg7YvrWGl6kw4Q6-E1IxRK0A4XtTfW-1ZKNXD3vBUFlYKhUInmhMV-_I6x0UxTOuWH5eX9VHkhLuhU4e_7FP5FWX1RHhGJwl7nXPCY3IcKz4O/s1600/ShamrockStart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS7-BXJGKE0a6k_J4arVjRqEzEqy_Sk4czg7YvrWGl6kw4Q6-E1IxRK0A4XtTfW-1ZKNXD3vBUFlYKhUInmhMV-_I6x0UxTOuWH5eX9VHkhLuhU4e_7FP5FWX1RHhGJwl7nXPCY3IcKz4O/s1600/ShamrockStart.jpg" height="320" width="238" /></a>Okay, so I ran-walked the darn thing. It was cold and overcast the morning of the 15th. We headed out early for George's favorite pre-activity breakfast of a potato-and-egg breakfast taco and Starbucks. I was so cold when we got there that I didn't want to take off my jacket. Finally, just before the race started, I decided that I'd be okay without it and we stashed it in the car. We started at the back of the pack, ran through the starting gate and off we went!<br />
<br />
Real slow. At least it seemed like we were going really slow. We did run/walk it, but I made sure to run up the one killer hill on the course. I've hated that hill for years. I hated riding my bike up that hill years ago. This time I was planning to kick that hill to the curb, no matter how the rest of the run went. So I did. So there!<br />
<br />
We finished the race and headed over to grab water (me), a beer (George) and goodies. The early times were in, but we didn't bother checking. There was no way either of us could have done very well, so we didn't bother. In fact, we were both chilled and decided to leave before the award ceremonies. Which turned out to be a mistake because...<br />
<br />
I medaled. Which I still can't believe. I took second in my age category. I was five minutes behind first-place and third-place was five minutes behind me. For some insane reason, I really, really wanted that medal, so we went to the store to pick it up a couple of days after the race. I don't have an official photo of it, but here I am with my Very First (and probably Only) Medal.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglseUoaxs1SyaONd-f1vQyQT0Z3teSHsUt2Mfw_TL47mMdOYQ1BCz6dyVioWsVEIpXKTBEINpnUjYww-W7xM5751U8NV6f5kp1dNwX24pjVaKalE12aXQDE8JZDwumxLPof_HpS__zxLZT/s1600/ShamrockMedal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglseUoaxs1SyaONd-f1vQyQT0Z3teSHsUt2Mfw_TL47mMdOYQ1BCz6dyVioWsVEIpXKTBEINpnUjYww-W7xM5751U8NV6f5kp1dNwX24pjVaKalE12aXQDE8JZDwumxLPof_HpS__zxLZT/s1600/ShamrockMedal.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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<strong><em><span style="color: #073763;">A New Bike</span></em></strong><br />
Well, running is all well and good, but there are two more events to a triathlon. After much research and soul-searching about joining a gym, we decided that swimming at our local school-district athletic complex was the best answer for training for the swim. Not much exciting there. No, the excitement was about the bike. A decade ago, both George and I were avid cyclists. However, I've never felt comfortable on my road bike. This had deteriorated to the point where I was almost afraid to get back on her. I rode my hybrid. We rode the tandem. And I was still afraid of the bike. There have been some great advances in bike fit these days and I decided to take advantage of it. I made an appointment to have a fit analysis done. You know it's going to be an expensive event when every wrench in the shop watches you walk the bike in and immediately says "It's too big for you." Yeah. Right there. Something I'd suspected since I bought the bike 15 or so years ago.<br />
<br />
The guy doing the analysis (a great guy, by the way) figured that we could get the fit better, if not perfectly dialed in. We opted to have the refit done and left the bike there. And then thought about it. Honestly, knowing what I do now, I probably wouldn't have spent the money. But I didn't know that then. So we started looking at other bikes just to look, you know. To make a long (fun!) story short, we bought me a new bike. I cannot tell you what a joy it is to have a well-fitting bike! My old bike does fit better since the refit, but the new bike? Wow! We bought me a Specialized Ruby Sport, a women's-specific design, carbon-fiber bike. Definitely not the top of the line, but definitely a good bike. And joy to ride!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFidgyW0HHodoR29kP1b-62tBhexcH9rN2c6MZ17w3UPvjsvkguFm-BirxNeVCg2DQhyhYRVrq8v6sbfigkO105R1_kIHtao4st6Qx8UkTVoVIB-fN4RI_m_5xgtrJSeqdKFSzsPEpAvcR/s1600/Kori.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFidgyW0HHodoR29kP1b-62tBhexcH9rN2c6MZ17w3UPvjsvkguFm-BirxNeVCg2DQhyhYRVrq8v6sbfigkO105R1_kIHtao4st6Qx8UkTVoVIB-fN4RI_m_5xgtrJSeqdKFSzsPEpAvcR/s1600/Kori.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
And here she is! Meet Terpsichore, Kori for short. She's named for the Greek Muse of dance and dance music. She dances along the road happily.<br />
<br />
We've gone back and forth about a triathlon bike. For the moment, I'm going to ride Kori in both the Couple's Triathlon in July and the SpaGirl Triathlon in a few days. We'll see how it goes from there.<br />
<br />
So did you notice? I signed up for a second triathlon. The SpaGirl tri is a women's-only short distance (a bit shorter than a sprint triathlon) race. It's held at the Mariott resort north of town. The swim is in their "Lazy River," a glorified pool with Clear Water!! The bike ride is 10-miles with a few hills, but shouldn't be too big a deal. The run is 2 miles and, by golly, I've been training! We'll see how it goes, but I think I can do it. Anyway, a triathlon with mimosas instead of beer afterwards? Yeah! I'm in!<br />
<br />
So there's running class, finishing the C25K (Couch to 5K) program, running shoes, swim practice, the Fiesta Wildflower bike rally (42 miles) and a major life change. We run 3 miles six mornings out of seven. We try to get in a bike ride most days and 2 or 3 swims a week. I've been slowed down by an ear infection. We're trying to keep up our demonstration schedule on top of training. But we're doing it.<br />
<br />
And I signed us up for two half-marathons. Yeah. 13.1 miles each. I can only run 3 miles at the moment, but hey! I couldn't even do that two months ago, so I betcha I can train up to run 13.1 by the end of October.<br />
<br />
I've got lots of other news, but I'll post this for now and add more later.<br />
See you out there!!DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-11237042693774153752015-01-21T18:53:00.001-08:002015-01-21T19:42:31.629-08:00Back to the Blog - FitnessI simply cannot believe that it's been over a year since I've posted to my blog. I do tend to use Facebook more than my blog, but that's no excuse. So! What's been happening since my last post?? I've been weaving - not as much as I'd like to. I've been teaching - and I have some really wonderful students. But 2014's big event was finally getting serious about losing weight and getting healthy.<br />
<br />
Mostly, I belong to the school of "don't talk about dieting - nobody wants to hear about it." So this is probably the only time I'll blog about it. I don't know what triggered it in 2014. I'm not even sure there was a single triggering event. An influencing factor was the new owner of <a href="http://www.yarnivoresa.com/" target="_blank">Yarnivore</a>, the yarn shop where I work and teach. Caryn is a lovely lady, yes, but to see her deal with physical issues that I don't even remotely have to deal with kind of kicked me in the rear.<br />
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<i><span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><b>Yoga</b></span></i><br />
Caryn inspired me to start in with yoga to recover flexibility. So in February, I started practicing yoga at least once a day. I kept this up for about six months and I need to get back to it. Going to classes usually doesn't work for me. If I have to leave home to do something, I typically won't do it for very long. I found a great app for my iPad, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/yoga-studio/id567767430?mt=8" target="_blank">Yoga Studio</a>. I fixed up one of the upstairs bedrooms for yoga and meditation and found my old yoga mat. Starting out was a nightmare of stiffness and pain, but slowly I started to see results. Then something in my head went "click" and at the end of June, I decided that my weight was awful and it was time to do something about it<br />
.<br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><i><b>Weight Watchers</b></i></span><br />
Over a decade ago, I was advised by my doctor to lose some weight and to give Weight Watchers a try. I took her advice and dropped down to a really good weight for me. However, I didn't learn to eat smart. I depended on Weight Watcher's frozen meals instead of re-learning how to cook. Then 9/11 happened. I lost my job, was a single mom and didn't have the money for Weight Watchers. I dropped out and started packing the pounds back on again. In late June, I decided to give them another try. Again, since I typically don't stick with anything that requires leaving home, I knew I wouldn't do meetings. There's an online option now, which is just what I wanted. I decided that this time, I'd re-learn how to cook, cook more of our meals at home and start getting some exercise. I splurged on some new Weight Watchers cookbooks, have learned to stir-fry, and am generally a much better cook than I used to be.<br />
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George has done the diet and exercise with me, and we've both seen excellent results. We've also discovered San Antonio's system of hike and bike trails, which is simply excellent! We've gotten back on the bike, to a certain extent, and started walking much more. As a little stocking-stuffer gift for Christmas, he gave me a Pivotal Tracker 1 fitness band by <a href="http://www.pivotalliving.com/" target="_blank">Pivotal Living</a>. And thus launched:<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #073763; font-size: large;"><i><b>The Saga Of The Fitness Bands</b></i></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHQjVolOQNHr9nvgD85rs_oVCEuFAGXRtg5INUHY9DPTXi6QnyMaUAnPzcv_rl8uywouukQXZqieeIT9ssHY7JhHQLB9AXz0DpI_cnKkj6GTTHODULLG1hE6go3RN6RZvNaego0T-7YluY/s1600/20150115_175411.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHQjVolOQNHr9nvgD85rs_oVCEuFAGXRtg5INUHY9DPTXi6QnyMaUAnPzcv_rl8uywouukQXZqieeIT9ssHY7JhHQLB9AXz0DpI_cnKkj6GTTHODULLG1hE6go3RN6RZvNaego0T-7YluY/s1600/20150115_175411.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pivotal Tracker 1 (top), VivoSmart (bottom)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<i><span style="color: #073763;"><br /></span></i></div>
<h4>
Take 1: Pivotal Tracker 1 from Pivotal Living</h4>
Pivotal Living's business model is a little different from other activity monitors / fitness bands. You pay a $12 annual subscription and get the band for free. There is a smartphone app that syncs with the band but no other way of viewing the data. The app is supposed to be available for iPhone and Android devices. The system is closed and does not interface with any other system such as Weight Watchers or My Fitness Pal..<br />
<br />
Okay, the Pivotal Tracker is not a good choice. It was launched before it was ready. I think it was rushed to market in an attempt to catch the Christmas and New Years Resolution wave and as a result, had worse than a rocky launch. The Android app is very bad, several of the features either don't work or are poorly supported and, worst of all, the initial band has some kind of hardware issue. I should probably get over my fixation with Pivotal, but I'm experiencing a kind of morbid fascination with watching a train wreck. I wish I was getting my PhD in Business,though, because I think I could get a dissertation from this particular train wreck!<br />
<br />
So, real quick - a review of Pivotal Living's Pivotal Tracker 1<br />
<br />
The product consists of a band and a phone app. It currently (as of this writing) supports iOS 8 and Android 4.4 (Kit Kat). It does NOT support Android 5.0 (Lollipop), which most new devices are running. (For example, I'm contemplating upgrading my Samsung Note 2 to a Note 4, which won't work with the Pivotal Tracker.) There is no webpage to view or manage data.<br />
<br />
This is what the band/app should do:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>The band can function as a watch, showing either 12-hour or 24-hour time.</li>
<li>The band tracks steps, distance, calories burned, minutes active and percent to goal.</li>
<li>The band has a sleep tracking function, although it is not automatic.</li>
<li>The app should pull this information from the band and also allow manual entry of hydration and weight.</li>
<li>The band can serve as an activity reminder and an alarm clock. We have no idea if these work or not as we don't use them.</li>
</ul>
<br />
This is what is really happening:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Probably the worst problem for all users, iPhone and Android - the band randomly resets, losing all the data accumulated since the last sync and resetting the clock to midnight. It also sometimes changes the time from 12-hour to 24-hour.</li>
<li>Due to numerous band resets, the time cannot be trusted, so it's hard to even use it as a watch!</li>
<li>When the band is working, it tracks steps, but the algorithm is a little wonky. For example, it typically tracked around 50 to 100 steps before I got out of bed in the morning. I don't sleepwalk. Since George took the band over and compares band info with MapMyWalk, the steps vary but not consistently. Sometimes it records more steps, sometimes fewer.</li>
<li>Minutes active is very wonky. There's no way to manually start an activity. Apparently, the band has some way of determining when the wearer is active and it's very hit-or-miss.</li>
<li>Sleep tracking on the app is hard to understand. The sleep range is 12am - noon - 12pm, regardless of when you put the band into sleep mode or take it out. And yes, noon and 12pm are the same thing. The graph is so small that it's hard to see what's going on - even on a Note 2 screen which is very generous.</li>
<li>Percent to goal doesn't work on the app. The band (when it doesn't reset) gives it, but the data doesn't sync.</li>
<li>At least with the Android app, syncing is very hit-or-miss - mostly miss. I could get it to sync, but I had to nurse it along and frequently had to hard stop the app and restart it to get it to work. George has had fewer problems with the iPhone app, although it isn't always smooth either.</li>
<li>A bad problem is the lack of customer support. It's gotten some better in recent days, but it's still lacking. An example of this is the band reset issue. Pivotal Living says that the bands are resetting due to static in the user's environment. They will replace the band one time, at the user's expense to return the band. Returning the band is around $6 - half the price of the annual subscription. They do not guarantee that the replacement band will work any better since the problem is the user's environment. Hmmm... So the resetting band is the customer's fault. As you'll soon see, I have a different band in the same environment and have no problems. And even if it IS the customer's environment, that means that the band is still unusable... at least for those customers in those environments.</li>
</ul>
My band never had the reset problem from when I started using it on December 25th through George taking it over and using it to mid-January. I read many, many accounts of other users having the reset problem and thought that we just got lucky. Pivotal Living says one in five of the bands have the static issue. One in five is 20 percent! That's a high failure rate, folks! And I know of at least one customer who has never reported the problem through social media. Are we the only ones? I doubt it. On January 13, in the middle of the day, George noticed that the band was in sleep mode. He didn't do it (he doesn't use or have any interest in the sleep tracking). We wrote it off as a fluke or an accidental setting and went on. The next day, January 14, the band started resetting and has never worked reliably since. Some days it will go without a reset, others it resets several times in the day. As a note, it doesn't seem to matter if it's a warm day or a cold one. There may be some correlation with humidity levels, but I've not taken the time to track it. Apparently, once something happens to the band, whatever it is, whether static or some other hardware issue, it is irreversible and the band cannot be trusted.<br />
<br />
As of this writing, George is still using the band. He hasn't decided whether to send it for a replacement or give up on it and buy another device. My tolerance is much, much lower. I bought another band.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Take 2: VivoSmart from Garmin</h4>
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Since I have an Android phone and was increasingly frustrated with Pivotal's buggy app, we did some research and found a band that had the features I liked in the Pivotal Tracker band. In addition, there are many more features I wanted as well as an app that worked with my Android phone and a very nice web dashboard. I chose the <a href="http://www.rei.com/product/881948/garmin-vivosmart-activity-tracker#tab-description" target="_blank">Garmin Vivosmart</a>. We got it on sale at REI, bundled with a heart rate monitor. Now, I've never used a heart rate monitor and wasn't sure I'd like it, but for $30 more than the band, why not? I've used it on several long walks now and really do like it. The Vivosmart itself has had a rocky start (although nowhere near as rocky as the Pivotal). I did have some initial issues with it getting going with the Android app, but it works very well now. As of this writing, it supports iPhone and Android 4.4 (KitKat). There is some question as to whether or not it supports Android 5.0 (Lollipop). I'll be sure it does before I upgrade!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju8F4OFBc6OVq_Gk-1neh0FlNelWgFrp3B97gzLJAteITJv5skE_NahpuJo8Kx01K1J0CBq2XLWIYfq9CadBfBONaFyVu3ba-29e6IKJPFfc5-p6tnuLbjicLJzeWd4LPWewSgCyDSl1W4/s1600/20150121_153009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju8F4OFBc6OVq_Gk-1neh0FlNelWgFrp3B97gzLJAteITJv5skE_NahpuJo8Kx01K1J0CBq2XLWIYfq9CadBfBONaFyVu3ba-29e6IKJPFfc5-p6tnuLbjicLJzeWd4LPWewSgCyDSl1W4/s1600/20150121_153009.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vivosmart Showing Steps Over Daily Goal and Goal</td></tr>
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This is what the band/app/dashboard should do:<br />
<ul>
<li>The band can function as a watch, You do have to double-tap it to get it to show the time.</li>
<li>The band tracks total steps, goal and steps remaining to or steps over goal, distance, and calories burned,</li>
<li>The steps goal is intelligent. It formulates a goal based on age, gender, weight and reported activity level. It automatically adjusts the goal based on how many steps you take during the day. You can override the automatic settings, but I find them very reasonable.</li>
<li>The band has a sleep tracking function, although it is not automatic. The graph is readable on the smartphone, but it's really useful on the web dashboard. You can see a minute-by-minute breakdown of your sleep. For example, I've noticed I tend to go into REM sleep at the same time of night, regardless of when I went to bed.</li>
<li>The band has an activity tracker, though it's not automatic either. If you put the band into activity mode, you can see the activity stats by moving the band up, as if to read a watch. This isn't 100% reliable, but it's pretty close. The activity will upload as a separate event into the smartphone app and web dashboard. The web dashboard allows you to edit more information about the activity, such as naming it, tying it with gear (I keep track of miles on my shoes, for example) and assigning a activity type and category to it.</li>
<li>In addition to the above, the band can notify of the receipt of phone calls, text messages and emails, if it is within Bluetooth earshot of the smartphone. It can also be used to manage the volume of the smartphone's media player if it is within earshot.</li>
<li>The web dashboard allows weight entry. I can't remember if the smartphone app does or not. I tend to enter it into the web dashboard once a week when I enter it into Weight Watchers.</li>
<li>The band can serve as an activity reminder and an alarm clock. I honestly haven't used the alarm clock, so I don't know if it works. The activity reminder certainly does! If you don't move within an hour, it reminds you, and then reminds you every 15 minutes thereafter until either you move or it resets itself and starts over again.</li>
<li>The band can sync with other ANT+ devices. The heartrate monitor is already paired with it, if you buy the bundle. The heartrate starts showing as soon as I put on the monitor and will be tracked and reported during an activity. I'm contemplating getting a cycling monitor to pair with it as well. </li>
<li>The smartphone app is very nice, but I really love the web dashboard, which I use for studying the results of what I'm doing. The web dashboard is customizable, allowing me to see only what I want to see.</li>
<li>The VivoSmart comes in three different sizes and five (I think) color combinations. The Pivotal Tracker comes in one size. You can see how much too big the Pivotal Tracker is for me in the photo above.</li>
</ul>
You only get one list because it does everything it's supposed to do!<br />
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One thing to note: Weight Watchers advertises that it can now sync with Garmin (and other) activity trackers. The Vivosmart definitely can't be used with Weight Watchers. This isn't a problem for me as the web dashboard makes it very easy to enter my activity numbers into my Weight Watchers tracker. If, at some time, I decide to leave Weight Watchers for My Fitness Pal, it will sync. At some point, Weight Watchers may decide to fix the bugs with syncing. From what I understand, other fitness trackers aren't well supported by Weight Watchers either.<br />
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If you've made it this far (and you're brave if you have!) then I must say that the initial $12 investment has had some amazing results. George and I are walking about 4 miles every day. We do have a rest day now and again, but we're out and exercising much, much more than we were. We're also contemplating a walking marathon - 26.2 miles. We'll see if we manage it!<br />
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So there you are! A review of two activity monitors and a very involved peak into what's going on around here. Next post, I'll go back to weaving. Stay healthy this year, everybody!DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-63984793749251505962013-11-14T17:03:00.002-08:002013-11-14T17:03:57.160-08:00Making Little Waves!There is a thread in Ravelry's Warped Weavers group called <i>OLAD Strikes Again</i>. OLAD, or Obsessive Loom Acquisition Disorder, is something that apparently strikes weavers. We seem to have a need to add more looms to the herd - more than we can ever weave on. Whilst browsing the Warped Weavers Marketplace, yet another group dedicated to acquisition and destashing of looms and equipment, I came across an ad for a <a href="http://www.gilmorelooms.com/Wave_looms.html" target="_blank">Gilmore Mini-Wave</a>. The Wave looms are primarily warp-faced band looms. They can be used for inkle, card or tablet, band and bead weaving. I've had my eye on the Mini-Wave, but I really had no use for one as I have two inkle looms already. But there was one in the Marketplace, looking like it needed a new home... And so she's mine!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFPsnwpN3_lzNKClH-ZtMr_Y8P8w2feJngzT3RXJQtO50ahwcsCzzJmmpTZ1LnZ_5YMYw8YJ36AGhkfnti8iG77fw14HnskSOroRniD_swnhc5fnm3Qm75bdKRKO8NZf9K2xj0C4lZ2O5A/s1600/MiniWaveSide.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFPsnwpN3_lzNKClH-ZtMr_Y8P8w2feJngzT3RXJQtO50ahwcsCzzJmmpTZ1LnZ_5YMYw8YJ36AGhkfnti8iG77fw14HnskSOroRniD_swnhc5fnm3Qm75bdKRKO8NZf9K2xj0C4lZ2O5A/s320/MiniWaveSide.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gilmore Mini-Wave Loom</td></tr>
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She arrived on Friday - a long teaching day for me. George brought her to the shop around lunchtime, but I couldn't do more than look her over. Saturday and Sunday were pretty much devoted to the <a href="http://www.kidnewe.com/" target="_blank">Kid N Ewe</a> fiber festival in Boerne, but I did think about a first project for her. I've been looking at the Josephine Knot design in <i>The Weaver's Inkle Pattern Directory</i>. It's done in a technique that might not fit so nicely on the Mini-Wave - at least not for a first project. I used the same chart in a different technique and added little green and gold cables to the side, and classic inkle bars on the outside. I opted for fall colors - again, because I love them and it's what I had in my stash.<br />
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After only a couple of tries, I got the project warped on. The little loom takes some getting used to. Also, the green Perle 5 cotton I used for the braid pattern wasn't as thick as I thought it would be. I had to unweave, untie, unbeam, and add doubled threads for the pattern. That could have been a disaster, but it worked out okay. I got the loom set back up again and took off. I've decided I love this little loom! She'll probably be my inkle loom of choice. I'm not a huge band weaver, but I do enjoy some pick-up work.<br />
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And here's the band in progress:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsCg4dIi3lYw1CUp3fT-f7MKQi8Biydr4Avgi7kdCvL7m_WEknWUdko3ZTrrUQPDRKh7v_WnKdg-CkzqWRKEjIQ8Ez4N6G92jxkWDR0SkQs0h5MrneQOqaVw7v6CbzIlVBI4OzEj9HMNN8/s1600/MiniWaveFront.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsCg4dIi3lYw1CUp3fT-f7MKQi8Biydr4Avgi7kdCvL7m_WEknWUdko3ZTrrUQPDRKh7v_WnKdg-CkzqWRKEjIQ8Ez4N6G92jxkWDR0SkQs0h5MrneQOqaVw7v6CbzIlVBI4OzEj9HMNN8/s320/MiniWaveFront.gif" width="222" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Celtic Braid Band</td></tr>
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It will probably be made into a small bag to be attached to an narrower inkle band I wove a couple of years ago. I'll use it at work to hold my badge, phone and other small items that I always seem to need.<br />
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But I'm really looking at a huge computerized loom...<br />
<br />DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-77308529553755896692013-11-04T13:41:00.000-08:002013-11-04T13:44:02.680-08:00Weaving Like A Celt Yet Again!Weaving like a Celt is apparently something we do quite a bit. The 2013 <a href="http://www.austincelticfestival.com/" target="_blank">Austin Celtic Festival</a> has come and gone and we have a mostly-finished tartan on the loom, a full bobbin of spun yarn and lots of happy memories!<br />
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This is the first year we've used the rug and bench pads - I barely got them finished in time. Here is the booth set up and ready to go on Saturday morning:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpo3JOptTkkZjmloCyIb7KbSMGy871-vcU3Avx_Gm-z_TzoLck-5AGxc5FeZjH2IKy-rTkyYLRzgq3MuCcCcYzn9u26PB628XwEACJihZLGjLDY27ebCV1UmfuJ36uMj2qu-l78fqOqtwg/s1600/TheBoothACF.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpo3JOptTkkZjmloCyIb7KbSMGy871-vcU3Avx_Gm-z_TzoLck-5AGxc5FeZjH2IKy-rTkyYLRzgq3MuCcCcYzn9u26PB628XwEACJihZLGjLDY27ebCV1UmfuJ36uMj2qu-l78fqOqtwg/s320/TheBoothACF.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">George and the Booth</td></tr>
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I am SO glad I made the pads, especially, as we were much more comfortable this year than we have been in the past. I now need to finish the bench pads for my studio weaving benches. Here's a close-up of the spinning wheel and its rug:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjavHvyuPfmuhJf3A6k_vFrEbO-xnWVQxsnqt7fRSSXbG2rIUGe0bs6mT1W7t0MeATLUDPZXjLdZQcev5aItbKxlWdwn52k_1sP3gDEqIw1GT7bRTAGgdsIi1Dz_2g2qOit-DTu2dov2Rnk/s1600/WheelNRugACF.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjavHvyuPfmuhJf3A6k_vFrEbO-xnWVQxsnqt7fRSSXbG2rIUGe0bs6mT1W7t0MeATLUDPZXjLdZQcev5aItbKxlWdwn52k_1sP3gDEqIw1GT7bRTAGgdsIi1Dz_2g2qOit-DTu2dov2Rnk/s320/WheelNRugACF.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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Now add one spinner and you get this!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPIajDq0hhIn2kY0EgwKPhWzQhTXQ1K3CnQukO6myQS0laDopQ6mCNPWra3NVKntwqr9y_5-ZCSmPhWWSTcg7pOYBy6FyfsOOQ9v4zHKpH6Nnh9hr4v46Gre4TIav5Rcxw_3qrPGrbFOS1/s1600/MeNWheelACF.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPIajDq0hhIn2kY0EgwKPhWzQhTXQ1K3CnQukO6myQS0laDopQ6mCNPWra3NVKntwqr9y_5-ZCSmPhWWSTcg7pOYBy6FyfsOOQ9v4zHKpH6Nnh9hr4v46Gre4TIav5Rcxw_3qrPGrbFOS1/s320/MeNWheelACF.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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We were especially fortunate to have Cassandra with us on Saturday. This may be her last demonstration with us as she's moving on with her life. On Sunday, we had two friends come who innocently thought they were going to drop by to see us and then enjoy the rest of the Festival. They stayed and worked almost all day! Chris worked the loom and Patrick the spinning wheel, freeing me up to do presentations. Such a luxury! Thanks to both of you!<br />
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So now I have to come down off my cloud and get back to work, both the day job and the studio. Although I don't have photos of it, the tartan is coming out beautifully. I adore the Maine Line 2/20 and will probably use it extensively in the future.DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-53566278472595340002013-10-30T14:15:00.000-07:002013-10-31T23:29:16.218-07:00Weaving, and More Weaving!Oh, argh! I haven't posted since August? (And I honestly had to be sure it wasn't August of LAST year!) I admit to neglecting the blog for my Facebook and Pinterest pages. Which probably isn't a good idea.<br />
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So! What's going on?<br />
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Mostly weaving, which I'm sure is a huge surprise to everyone. From most recent to oldest:<br />
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<b><span style="color: #073763;">The MacAskill Tartan</span></b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxFaASZGmh0YO1Pz9z7q4TU2EzKsD25S2OIMXXKxWlNSDtnf0QWWGMmDMXrn8epUC5gnSo7ZndUavd5dRTm-SL5YitAWz06RnMtFAht_KROnVwS0rTSa9aaTmzV5YYLz1YUTFKGOkeEDnm/s1600/MacAskillTartanOnLoom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxFaASZGmh0YO1Pz9z7q4TU2EzKsD25S2OIMXXKxWlNSDtnf0QWWGMmDMXrn8epUC5gnSo7ZndUavd5dRTm-SL5YitAWz06RnMtFAht_KROnVwS0rTSa9aaTmzV5YYLz1YUTFKGOkeEDnm/s320/MacAskillTartanOnLoom.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">MacAskill Tartan On Loom</td></tr>
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Demonstration season is upon us again! This year's offering for the <a href="http://www.austincelticfestival.com/" target="_blank">Austin Celtic Festival</a> is the MacAskill tartan. It's being done at the request of the Festival organizer. Although it's not the oldest tartan - and remember, almost all tartans are less than 200 years old - it's one of the prettiest. We're using a new thread this time, <a href="http://halcyonyarn.com/products/yarn/023.html" target="_blank">JaggerSpun's Maine Line 2/20</a> wool, which is much finer than we've used before. I'm very pleased with how it's weaving up and am looking forward to getting it off the loom and finishing it. I think the hand and drape will be very nice.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #073763;">Rugs and Upholstery</span></b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDUsitxFwcD5V0uIXdlsJXjiv4M4dCHcUe2e0TUH0SafXEgPZufWuw1lI7PP7PSb0VZ5g16VB_ddxpg8ongi0OswvsLGJZTSYND7RGXKWEY7FJr4LsHhnL6xqhodc02LJ1Whx78dnpdds4/s1600/AutumnRugOnLoom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDUsitxFwcD5V0uIXdlsJXjiv4M4dCHcUe2e0TUH0SafXEgPZufWuw1lI7PP7PSb0VZ5g16VB_ddxpg8ongi0OswvsLGJZTSYND7RGXKWEY7FJr4LsHhnL6xqhodc02LJ1Whx78dnpdds4/s320/AutumnRugOnLoom.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Rep Rug On Loom</td></tr>
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I swore I'd never weave a rug. I had no interest in rug weaving at all. When we bought the Glimakra, we bought it from a woman who used it to weave rugs. Included with the loom were several shuttles specifically for rugs as well as several spools of rug warp. I almost sold the shuttles, thinking I'd never use them. Fortunately, I didn't. I recently bought Tom Knisely's master weaving e-book from Interweave. At first, I couldn't even think of a good reason to buy the e-book. He specializes in rugs and I had no interest, right? One of the rugs appealed to me, mostly because of the colors. I've also been interested since I wove the rep towels from <i>Custom Woven Interiors</i>. I liked how her rugs (and towels) had an overshot feel to them. Since I've had so much fun with blocks, I decided to use Tom Knisely's colors and adapt an overshot pattern to rep weave.<br />
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I took the Snowballs section of the Wahoo Blossom and Snowballs draft from Marguerite Porter Davison's <i>A Handweaver's Source Book</i>, entered it as a profile draft and then converted it to rep. I admit to making a few mistakes in it, but it's working and I love it! I warped on enough to get a nice-sized rug and enough upholstery fabric for bench pads for all my looms.</div>
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George took this photograph. He loves the look of the project from below the loom.</div>
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You're seeing the underside of the rug wrapped around the beam, the rug border just above the beam and the right side of the upholstery fabric angling down toward the knee beam.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #073763;"><b>Breaking All The Rules</b></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibdXisumXIV9gZzI5OwKsHV8eWHG5L7TCRoF2l9dOdRxfhvX-8rA2vTODotNMvzrEiCWvUUCyeb8IEBPJkzRsStx1tluB8toiCitp__d3BHXVFHqdR1EMG4cfYmEWoE4LPUc2olLv4RJGB/s1600/ChristmasScarfHoodSide.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibdXisumXIV9gZzI5OwKsHV8eWHG5L7TCRoF2l9dOdRxfhvX-8rA2vTODotNMvzrEiCWvUUCyeb8IEBPJkzRsStx1tluB8toiCitp__d3BHXVFHqdR1EMG4cfYmEWoE4LPUc2olLv4RJGB/s320/ChristmasScarfHoodSide.gif" width="231" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Breaking All The Rules Christmas Scarf</td></tr>
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Schacht Spindle Company just came out with a little goodie for their rigid heddle looms. The new <a href="http://www.schachtspindle.com/our_products/variable_reed.php" target="_blank">Variable Dent Heddle</a> (they call it a reed, which it isn't) allows the use of multiple thicknesses of yarn in the same warp. I grabbed one of those at the beginning of the recent Hill Country Yarn Crawl. I also grabbed a skein of La Boheme in Christmas colors. La Boheme is an interesting yarn. It's two strands used as one and one of the strands is mohair. Now, mohair presents lots of challenges in weaving, when used as a warp thread. Mohair is very fuzzy and wants to cling to the threads next to it. There are ways to get around the fuzziness, but if you decide to use the mohair in blocks, as I did, prying the warp apart is something that has to be done in almost every shed. Slow, but workable. Then I chose a red sock yarn with an almost velvet look to it. The red is so rich. I don't even like reds, normally, but this is a gorgeous sock yarn. However, sock yarn has lots of stretch and the La Boheme has none. And I mean NONE. So tensioning the warp is a challenge. And I figured that if I'd come this far, I might as well go for broke. I chose a white, fine laceweight silk/mohair blend in white. And yes, it has all the mohair fun. The green and black accent yarns are sock yarns, but they didn't add to the challenges.</div>
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But I thought, what the heck, if I'm breaking rules, let's don't stop there! I left about 18" of warp unwoven in the beginning, then wove the scarf, then used the beginning warp as the weft to weave off the end of the scarf. All well and good, but how to you put tension on a warp if you've disconnected the beginning of the weaving? Sew the fabric to the apron rod of the loom about three or four inches from the fell line, tension the warp and go for it! This gave me a scarf with no beginning or end. It's not exactly a circle, but it's all connected. What a fun technique! I'm very happy with the resulting scarf<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1T0dgmmTpN1pCBvT6tAn7vEas86ImL8PF_EuoH0m56h-Ie08AynzbQQPZNxmv5TG515t7c_dOhYmTVYusVKeGZtazwSVmi6QvGcUZB95S2BtaYhKPjP7dvdQRUsOxiUBqs9SO6zZtF37N/s1600/ChristmasScarfHood.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1T0dgmmTpN1pCBvT6tAn7vEas86ImL8PF_EuoH0m56h-Ie08AynzbQQPZNxmv5TG515t7c_dOhYmTVYusVKeGZtazwSVmi6QvGcUZB95S2BtaYhKPjP7dvdQRUsOxiUBqs9SO6zZtF37N/s320/ChristmasScarfHood.gif" width="220" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The End As The Beginning</td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: #073763;">Weaving for the Kitchen</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDrVBtXLq_Zvha_cBEm6tNdWPeood9X1dJu_QTnmkkIji_UEyeosN0KnUxbxsiaeG1wtbuANtUB3LRByJ1QpdbYqpV1yT-Jf2vuYfgRxbQgDjVwocwpbTyzQh6WkhHOZkoFBweUka7vztA/s1600/KitchenWeavingStuff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDrVBtXLq_Zvha_cBEm6tNdWPeood9X1dJu_QTnmkkIji_UEyeosN0KnUxbxsiaeG1wtbuANtUB3LRByJ1QpdbYqpV1yT-Jf2vuYfgRxbQgDjVwocwpbTyzQh6WkhHOZkoFBweUka7vztA/s320/KitchenWeavingStuff.jpg" width="250" /></a></div>
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I finally did some weaving on the rigid heddle loom to be cut and sewn into items - in this case into two potholders and an oven mitt. My assignment this time was to produce fabric with a mixed warp and not to buy any yarn for it. All the yarn was hanging around the house, either leftovers from other projects or yarn bought for projects that never happened or something. There are four yarns in this project, a dark green cotton, a light green cotton, a green/purple variegated chenille and a lavender cotton/wool blend. The lavender cotton-wool had the most yardage, so I used it for the weft and for a few threads scattered throughout the warp. All the others were used in the warp. I'm very pleased with how the items turned out!<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><b>Weaving on the Antique Loom</b></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFYdh_Fpp6Wlfeab2eaETQoB1R06q1w4ONYa_SotWkPhy4fD0oaqRgK_NS-bN2j5iWF_Dcqn9hTFAQLjM4bVlOhywtz-VPn2YC6TCN3gtQ7GC0DqUZSxVELujEcf4NmJf5BRz7WY_8m4h6/s1600/NorseKitchenTowels.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFYdh_Fpp6Wlfeab2eaETQoB1R06q1w4ONYa_SotWkPhy4fD0oaqRgK_NS-bN2j5iWF_Dcqn9hTFAQLjM4bVlOhywtz-VPn2YC6TCN3gtQ7GC0DqUZSxVELujEcf4NmJf5BRz7WY_8m4h6/s320/NorseKitchenTowels.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Norse Kitchen Towels on the Sabina Loom</td></tr>
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Remember the entry about restoring the old Loomcraft Sabina? The post is here: <a href="http://debbiramblings.blogspot.com/2011/01/sabina-weaves-again.html" target="_blank">The Sabina Weaves Again</a>. Well, the poor Sabina has been put away since that time as I had no room to unfold her and use her. At long last, I've started working on the upstairs - converting it into studio space. We cleared enough room for the Sabina to be brought upstairs and unfolded. She's in the same room with the Glimakra. I decided to put a pretty overshot set of towels on her that I've been wanting to weave for some time: Norse Kitchen Towels from Marguerite Porter Davison's <i>A Handweaver's Pattern Book</i>. I decided to use a 16/2 cotton-linen blend that I will probably NEVER use for warp again. It's a little delicate and very sticky. The Sabina has a somewhat anemic shed and warp threads are breaking. However, that's not the loom's fault and I have another project ready for her whenever I finish these towels.<br />
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And that's it for now! I will TRY to be better about updating my blog!</div>
DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-6707348419708173562013-08-06T16:29:00.001-07:002013-08-06T16:30:33.349-07:00Got Lots of Catching Up To Do!Guess who has neglected her blog?? I try to keep my Facebook page updated, but my poor blog hasn't had an update in months! Spring is our busy season, of course, with the most demonstrations, but here we are in the latter part of the summer and no updates have happened. So here we go!<br />
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Well, I'm obviously weaving my little fingers to the bone, although at the moment, not as much on the big looms. A <a href="http://www.schachtspindle.com/our_products/zoom_loom.php" target="_blank">Schacht Zoom Loom</a> came home with me in early July. Since then, I've made two bags for it (one for me, one for the shop), a notions bag (for the shop) and two baby blankets (one for the shop). The little looms are versions of the Weave-It looms from the 1930's. I have two of the original Weave-It's, as well as a Loomette loom from the 1940's. I've woven projects on my antique looms, but for some reason set them aside. Although the antique looms are plenty strong enough to weave on, I do worry about carrying them around. If I drop the Zoom Loom, no biggie. So here is a photo of all my hand looms with the yellow / variegated baby blanket I finished a few days ago.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbsx87GsV6UGm-eOeub2VIvJhrvBjjQPSihllxz3MJfrFx52BRW-gXPQpHdhdYsi-2sIAGi7-qxVwZOtEegMygB7lEHwVKSSy66p4D53wQWVYG76FnzkSrUrmpQT_SRjcxedtBvnOZ2ev-/s1600/YellowBlanketWithLooms.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbsx87GsV6UGm-eOeub2VIvJhrvBjjQPSihllxz3MJfrFx52BRW-gXPQpHdhdYsi-2sIAGi7-qxVwZOtEegMygB7lEHwVKSSy66p4D53wQWVYG76FnzkSrUrmpQT_SRjcxedtBvnOZ2ev-/s320/YellowBlanketWithLooms.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Katie Ann with the Looms!</td></tr>
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From left to right are the Loomette (1940's), the wooden Weave-It, the resin Weave-It (both from the 1930's) and the Zoom Loom. Showing the looms is my mother's favorite doll from the 1940's.<br />
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Here's the blue checkerboard blanket I made for the shop.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi19_h7J-Fx1zTNbQC9yzOk5BbsCV_7NftXfmElrNU-e7TRnxhF6t1rH9_fAkKGQSOGhqfV-9ngtlGP7PvbaJiZ_xIakmL_eb4XZo1gPYcJwNhTlcbgF8KoKlXfe76GePLkiBanVyzdngHr/s1600/SSBlanket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi19_h7J-Fx1zTNbQC9yzOk5BbsCV_7NftXfmElrNU-e7TRnxhF6t1rH9_fAkKGQSOGhqfV-9ngtlGP7PvbaJiZ_xIakmL_eb4XZo1gPYcJwNhTlcbgF8KoKlXfe76GePLkiBanVyzdngHr/s320/SSBlanket.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blue Checkerboard Blanket</td></tr>
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Both blankets have a crocheted edging I got from a 1930's booklet. Here's a photo of the detail:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhktJ_IzliJ96-BOIWLEOpbXw8vYzK4jyP3pOg8bt3SrnVKx9AIKRUCvaq9JG-gjRQ9Y8b4Rz1AJkEmnINn9eWMg0ehf6NBVDMX-OG9vBZTj6_Hr_0GRInaCfiHyAjllye1_gfyGAIG8oAe/s1600/YellowBlanketDetail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhktJ_IzliJ96-BOIWLEOpbXw8vYzK4jyP3pOg8bt3SrnVKx9AIKRUCvaq9JG-gjRQ9Y8b4Rz1AJkEmnINn9eWMg0ehf6NBVDMX-OG9vBZTj6_Hr_0GRInaCfiHyAjllye1_gfyGAIG8oAe/s320/YellowBlanketDetail.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edging Detail</td></tr>
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Here's a photo of the first bag I made to carry the Zoom Loom and all its stuff:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Ral2XZJx9K2gaEgwpnYF3NR5O_lAavL-q7ff0Vi7X5KqfHX_C-McW0GjRYhpVwfZ58lOWkjIaVZnOd8vArZ6pEPAx7MOF6EmOxdJbizuUW1l1h6RV7-WHdJzik8gYUROFCepIw3oifEM/s1600/ZoomLoombagDetail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Ral2XZJx9K2gaEgwpnYF3NR5O_lAavL-q7ff0Vi7X5KqfHX_C-McW0GjRYhpVwfZ58lOWkjIaVZnOd8vArZ6pEPAx7MOF6EmOxdJbizuUW1l1h6RV7-WHdJzik8gYUROFCepIw3oifEM/s320/ZoomLoombagDetail.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Zoom Loom and its Bag</td></tr>
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Making squares on these little looms is a bit like eating potato chips. You really can't stop with just one! I've got lots of other ideas for Zoom Loom projects.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #073763;"><i>Navajo-Style Weaving... from a Cherokee Point of View</i></span></b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5fCRY-92p66Im0VWHYwfWaM9-W3iz-k5VBrJvPQDEP65ZgTnSvJGZFRYDrgwUANX1brGyDAWPJORypsucq_XqQsOiQQ9Xac_doO0_K_Z-HZeNkbWFRWURcpCQiK0LVr7YbTiXVKE48fuR/s1600/LoomNMe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5fCRY-92p66Im0VWHYwfWaM9-W3iz-k5VBrJvPQDEP65ZgTnSvJGZFRYDrgwUANX1brGyDAWPJORypsucq_XqQsOiQQ9Xac_doO0_K_Z-HZeNkbWFRWURcpCQiK0LVr7YbTiXVKE48fuR/s320/LoomNMe.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Loom and Me</td></tr>
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But before the Zoom Loom craze got me, I was taking some time to do more Navajo-style weaving. George finished my big Navajo loom. Of course, by "big" I mean "bigger than the miniature looms." The loom isn't big enough to weave a full-size rug on, but it's plenty big for me. The first project.. didn't happen. I probably made every possible mistake warping it. I completely removed the warp and started over. The second warp went on just fine, but it took a few tries to get the design working the way I wanted it to. The design is a cross between a classic Two Grey Hills design and "Arizona," a song I loved from the 70's. So that's why I'm using... colors of green and grey instead of more traditional colors. This is as far as I've gotten:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOdKPl3efgMLKIL-xPV5sp3gPzVgtvuo21XPuXBO60g_mwxXNdOsehmKNAeeUbd4TUYlQYfn3sJnnoMEM-l13uN-b2Zc4BlkuePHVX4ULyZYXAL4XAOChGvwknqiLWNwNTYkYAYrYNOWSi/s1600/ArizonaRug.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOdKPl3efgMLKIL-xPV5sp3gPzVgtvuo21XPuXBO60g_mwxXNdOsehmKNAeeUbd4TUYlQYfn3sJnnoMEM-l13uN-b2Zc4BlkuePHVX4ULyZYXAL4XAOChGvwknqiLWNwNTYkYAYrYNOWSi/s320/ArizonaRug.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arizona Rug on the Loom</td></tr>
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So why "From a Cherokee Point of View?" I'm not Navajo at all, but I do have two Cherokee ancestors. I have a great deal of respect for those two women and I wish I knew more about them.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: #073763;">More Overshot Designs</span></i></b><br />
After finally working through Madelyn van der Hoogt's <a href="http://www.interweavestore.com/block-weaves-dvd" target="_blank">Block Weaves DVD</a>, I decided to play with some designs from Marguerite Porter Davison's<i> <a href="http://handweaverspatternbook.com/AHSB.html" target="_blank">A Handweaver's Source Book</a></i>. That book has been following me around for 30-plus years but has been a bit difficult to use. Analyzing the drafts as blocks really helps and makes it easy to convert to more modern weaving drafts. The first one is a re-work of my favorite Soldier's Return draft. I made it a little smaller to fit on a scarf and then wove it up in blues and turquoises that reminded me of our trip to Florida and diving in the Keys. Here's the scarf:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO-7LvalkhQ723vUykUIPOegyt6fuBkCuKxdnARpBP1TjO3VtJAzcdDy3TeXdfS9aD92QkEXM5pKO98BvxCQPsnMnXmZZQh7VajZCEZn8RJAqRiCO4xA3eX4lX5JQ-1AO3FkkfecbJI1_T/s1600/SoldiersReturnSM.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO-7LvalkhQ723vUykUIPOegyt6fuBkCuKxdnARpBP1TjO3VtJAzcdDy3TeXdfS9aD92QkEXM5pKO98BvxCQPsnMnXmZZQh7VajZCEZn8RJAqRiCO4xA3eX4lX5JQ-1AO3FkkfecbJI1_T/s320/SoldiersReturnSM.gif" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Soldier's Return Scarf</td></tr>
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I have lots of other projects waiting in the wings, but I need to finish up things currently on the looms. I'm weaving another Orange Peel scarf to photograph for the draft available in my <a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/DebbiRYarn?ref=pr_shop_more" target="_blank">Etsy shop</a>. Once the scarf and Joseph's towels are off the loom, I have lots of new projects getting ready to go on!<br />
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And maybe it won't be so long before I do another blog post!DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-38995056749066374572013-03-31T19:02:00.000-07:002013-03-31T19:02:05.492-07:00An Easter StoryI hope it isn't too sacrilegious to post this story, but I am so pleased. Three years ago, in spring of 2010 my climbing American Beauty roses were finally mature enough to put on their once-a-year incredible bloom flush. It had taken me four years to grow the roses from gallon pots to climbing from the ground to the deck and then to climb over the trellises above the swing. They were awesome. Here are some photos of them that year:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIAlicGSCeE5m9ibfFM0Lpsxp97v7hrn44AfFVKzLISHk2ravaF_8Zrx2V9Qc_5A_r_W6KCYD_E2MS3ix7iPDEmSZQfRZOw7UOm7I7GFm78dQ_2RBETxyAr2UZbldNLKtBJn6fX0KorrnT/s1600/ABRosesSM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIAlicGSCeE5m9ibfFM0Lpsxp97v7hrn44AfFVKzLISHk2ravaF_8Zrx2V9Qc_5A_r_W6KCYD_E2MS3ix7iPDEmSZQfRZOw7UOm7I7GFm78dQ_2RBETxyAr2UZbldNLKtBJn6fX0KorrnT/s320/ABRosesSM.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Climbing American Beauty Roses (2010)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy6fCnXwfCt7q_5Sfc426jb4VhA3LBUiUVUzsSFxdzp7GbqdRqJTzBN6T6G8ebMJ6G9kN2jx5P7r7Ely3UHGrA5GP8cFQa6fMJyqfVH0QL8Op1gMhOMJqBu7XwqLhFbxF-gVlfBCf0SSEy/s1600/ABRisesSwing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy6fCnXwfCt7q_5Sfc426jb4VhA3LBUiUVUzsSFxdzp7GbqdRqJTzBN6T6G8ebMJ6G9kN2jx5P7r7Ely3UHGrA5GP8cFQa6fMJyqfVH0QL8Op1gMhOMJqBu7XwqLhFbxF-gVlfBCf0SSEy/s320/ABRisesSwing.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roses from the Side (2010)</td></tr>
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Then, you may remember, my next-door neighbor cut all my roses to the ground. Darkness kept her from cutting the second of the two American Beauties and my hysterical screaming kept her away from my roses the next day. It has taken three years, but the roses have grown back up and look like they're going to put on the same show this year.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilnDykketh3CFzALY1v84nlXumLNW2RvJpwWVV2shB7sWv6aNGDmO5a-cSe0kdr9Ho2Aa0HcnfIki4L-mGLksX2i4VNn8nzzviK8rmd6dt8_m1O_NmvP3oLrppU1A38wXrvOU9ycZSs1aw/s1600/ABRosesStarting.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilnDykketh3CFzALY1v84nlXumLNW2RvJpwWVV2shB7sWv6aNGDmO5a-cSe0kdr9Ho2Aa0HcnfIki4L-mGLksX2i4VNn8nzzviK8rmd6dt8_m1O_NmvP3oLrppU1A38wXrvOU9ycZSs1aw/s320/ABRosesStarting.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2013 Climbing American Beauty Roses</td></tr>
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Just a few of the roses have opened but the majority of the buds have broken color. I'm expecting them to pop this week or next. Exciting! The horticulturist at the Antique Rose Emporium (which has since closed its San Antonio location) told me to put Rose Tone on them and pray back in 2010. I did and they lived. Bless them! I think they may be the only plants that she cut back that did live.<br />
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I recently reread Frances Hodgson Burnett's <i>The Secret Garden</i>. It was one of my favorite books as a child. However, I didn't realize how much it influenced both my ideas of gardening and my ideas about religion. I think I may have finally achieved something like my own Secret Garden. Today's photos didn't turn out as well as I'd have liked, but here are a few of them:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLRz2NavDHs8gJUgrXkLrDACfiRr-phKfTi-YhepoHsXX5AjRoIZTAwfE8lq911z46FNWdoiNN46PuhcD5-d8px3kvrSEzETjU3dz17eSQhK1sNY_mGLK_aQ12rj9H8YuB0JUbhKF0UFUM/s1600/Tamora.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLRz2NavDHs8gJUgrXkLrDACfiRr-phKfTi-YhepoHsXX5AjRoIZTAwfE8lq911z46FNWdoiNN46PuhcD5-d8px3kvrSEzETjU3dz17eSQhK1sNY_mGLK_aQ12rj9H8YuB0JUbhKF0UFUM/s320/Tamora.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tamora</td></tr>
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I only have two hybrid tea roses in the garden. They don't do as well in South Texas as I'd like. Mostly, I have David Austin roses and antiques. The climbing American Beauty roses are antiques. Tamora is a David Austin rose. Here's the garden:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8-7hFPVj0QK4xHxIfx3qn_GDbGA-VWmoubm-Arx6v7Z7QU0OpO2KDQPOQErf69B7NBF_AxKH9soG1hj0JvkKem6YcEZe01MNb5Cs7KFCLIDUfftbH6a1PsKcrMlmHOnoFo9AHHZfzIGh2/s1600/SecretGarden.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8-7hFPVj0QK4xHxIfx3qn_GDbGA-VWmoubm-Arx6v7Z7QU0OpO2KDQPOQErf69B7NBF_AxKH9soG1hj0JvkKem6YcEZe01MNb5Cs7KFCLIDUfftbH6a1PsKcrMlmHOnoFo9AHHZfzIGh2/s320/SecretGarden.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Secret Garden</td></tr>
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Again, not the best photo. I'll try to get more when the Beauties bloom.<br />
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DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-6325724210463653402013-03-23T18:57:00.000-07:002013-03-23T18:57:53.169-07:00Roses, Roses!Just a quick post to show off my roses. The "Secret Garden" is starting to bloom! The roses are growing up into the trees above, over the arch and are covering the swing. The climbing American Beauties are about to pop. They're still in tight bud stage, but they should make a great show this year.<br />
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Remember the trip to Bellingrath Gardens? Remember the Moonstone rose and how I said I just might get one? Well, I got one this week! I got the last one at the nursery and it's a beautiful, healthy rose! It has several buds and just one open flower. Normally, I'd never cut a rose from a first year plant, but we're supposed to have 35 mph winds and the poor bloom would be blown to kingdom come. So here it is!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik2GpfvZAmxsdMX27Eg5WQMRum1FEvOzqMPreJVa-QIZ8NjWaJnj6U-TCHHrJUd25f7VOhqYq9Q56yzcCbUaYJ8-9gE99f4UfbxolOkF7NNFzkZ6GWQO1pNIEvYTj4OiLWGY3zMR3ROlKw/s1600/Moonstone.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik2GpfvZAmxsdMX27Eg5WQMRum1FEvOzqMPreJVa-QIZ8NjWaJnj6U-TCHHrJUd25f7VOhqYq9Q56yzcCbUaYJ8-9gE99f4UfbxolOkF7NNFzkZ6GWQO1pNIEvYTj4OiLWGY3zMR3ROlKw/s320/Moonstone.gif" width="258" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Moonstone Rose</td></tr>
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The David Austin roses are starting up. Mary Rose only has a couple of open blooms, but both Tamora and Ambridge are going strong. Sadly, the blooms will probably be blown off tomorrow, but I could only bring myself to cut one of them. Here's a Tamora rose.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirvSGCdWWQYdFUlzcdHufwieG6OCXfwtwtiaeQDhyphenhyphenrD7wofyCUb5dHJIBgGvsZCsCzFxAMNE_SPmKGwZrRUubT-pI5oqAs18KNaftfPuHCiweV-dDZfSfmLP3TPjAKO9k87lWgXjsLlLBV/s1600/AmbridgeRose.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirvSGCdWWQYdFUlzcdHufwieG6OCXfwtwtiaeQDhyphenhyphenrD7wofyCUb5dHJIBgGvsZCsCzFxAMNE_SPmKGwZrRUubT-pI5oqAs18KNaftfPuHCiweV-dDZfSfmLP3TPjAKO9k87lWgXjsLlLBV/s320/AmbridgeRose.gif" width="221" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tamora Rose</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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Here's to beautiful roses!<br />
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See you next time!<br />
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<br />DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-12352486623795634512013-02-12T21:47:00.000-08:002013-02-13T10:06:08.229-08:00Visiting Frank Lloyd Wright<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_a1nSArRmdmGTmHm8gcj7L41UUNOLZ8QEv5uho4UOHho8UJeKCkLPE_XNwolecZILFizuwTKF-ffxzqpOP154pNm_2dhAeDXO6s0u5NTNFUB7vMbrWLaEGrhsJOXqelmhRYSmtEFy7Rol/s1600/Facade.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_a1nSArRmdmGTmHm8gcj7L41UUNOLZ8QEv5uho4UOHho8UJeKCkLPE_XNwolecZILFizuwTKF-ffxzqpOP154pNm_2dhAeDXO6s0u5NTNFUB7vMbrWLaEGrhsJOXqelmhRYSmtEFy7Rol/s320/Facade.jpg" width="229" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Arizona Biltmore Resort</td></tr>
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Corporate annual conferences can be tricky things. I don't envy anyone who gets to plan them. How do you find the balance between useful information and putting everybody to sleep?? And let's face it - after years of studying psychology and learning to analyze research, I'm more than a little skeptical of the latest 2-day change-your-life psycho-babble. But this year's conference had something going for it that no other conference I've ever attended has had. This year's conference was held in Phoenix, Arizona at the fabulous <a href="http://www.arizonabiltmore.com/" target="_blank">Arizona Biltmore Resort</a>.<br />
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I was prepared to enjoy our stay here because a little research indicated that the hotel's design had been heavily influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright. Now, before anybody gets in any place about who designed it, Albert Chase MacArthur is the architect of record, so he, by golly, gets the credit. However, it's undeniably true that the old man had a hand in it. Just how much of a hand remains something of a mystery. I can't seem to find a straight story anywhere, so that will have to be one of those things that remain a mystery. My gut feel (worth absolutely nothing) is that MacArthur had more of a hand than many of the stories indicate. The influence is more Art Deco than I associate with Lloyd Wright. Anyway, whoever had the upper design hand, the place is gorgeous! For an architecture fan, the place is heaven.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw5Ar8ks6FncuxzYiO5vCowqAEvWbMTivPy6htQ5TscwhEy9zlYWN_9JCEn55cK9xhb1vxXO6H4-cLETULHHts42dNnJRw6qFcm8ibrcczBON8nLOA56f1gOURCn_LZpjCS6TRAYq2wnKQ/s1600/tower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw5Ar8ks6FncuxzYiO5vCowqAEvWbMTivPy6htQ5TscwhEy9zlYWN_9JCEn55cK9xhb1vxXO6H4-cLETULHHts42dNnJRw6qFcm8ibrcczBON8nLOA56f1gOURCn_LZpjCS6TRAYq2wnKQ/s320/tower.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Main Tower</td></tr>
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For some unknown reason, I didn't take my camera. There wasn't any time, what with corporate functions. Fortunately, my trusty Samsung Note 2's camera was up to the task and I got lots of photos. I even had time to do a couple of sketches. Neither is any good as I am beyond out of practice, but I had fun anyway.<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>The Sprites</b></i></span><br />
Here's another Biltmore Mystery. There are statues scattered around the grounds - the official book says six, but I only found five. The statues were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. That much everyone agrees on. He designed them for Chicago's Midway Gardens. When the Gardens were demolished, the statues disappeared. Depending on which version of the story you get, the six at the Biltmore are six of those original statues. Or they are copies made from the molds of the original statues. Or they are smaller copies of six of the original statues. Who cares? They're gorgeous in a very... well... Art Deco, geometric way. They are dramatically lit at night and placed such that the sun casts their features in a different relief at different times of day. I photographed the five I found (and sketched one of them). Here are two of my favorites - the sprites in the main courtyard:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfQlFetIbVXwypZo30BjjJEaPjvAx5qVsRdespqGCV0KtfcaqPNWq5ce1sKd6ru-qnG9ywOY5yiZyk7kpVrnonBH1exMv2U0qTIYXm5R9A7RHTbWWLPw9p1ua1q14Vnl35lzV-kUb42mgj/s1600/CourtyardSpritesDay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfQlFetIbVXwypZo30BjjJEaPjvAx5qVsRdespqGCV0KtfcaqPNWq5ce1sKd6ru-qnG9ywOY5yiZyk7kpVrnonBH1exMv2U0qTIYXm5R9A7RHTbWWLPw9p1ua1q14Vnl35lzV-kUb42mgj/s320/CourtyardSpritesDay.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Sprites in the Main Courtyard</td></tr>
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Hopefully, this photo will explain what I mean by the dramatic lighting. Here are the same sprites at night:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrBJkB1haWhTUw2aiwgeA9xXjLOslSGd5QGE0PGWmwcXxyqhesh9XmrqOezyY7d2ldhn0xP4TcQVWLBGGAhS4n_jTq22jw9b2uIsi1fmrqZaZ050mbeWjByQ1-eBAKMlNrHeZLZ-FX0HFF/s1600/SpriteAtNight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrBJkB1haWhTUw2aiwgeA9xXjLOslSGd5QGE0PGWmwcXxyqhesh9XmrqOezyY7d2ldhn0xP4TcQVWLBGGAhS4n_jTq22jw9b2uIsi1fmrqZaZ050mbeWjByQ1-eBAKMlNrHeZLZ-FX0HFF/s320/SpriteAtNight.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sprites at Night</td></tr>
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One sprite, all by herself, is placed by the fountain in the courtyard between the Valley wing and the Paradise Wing. As our room was in the Paradise Wing, I consider her "my" sprite. She's the one I sketched while playing hookey from one of the sessions.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtb7GmvNVINu4APD2-Nm0awz5hFEPVD_5BWe-ajTUF5HmbG3hiMKmmSeB7IqsA5U-iP65oZEYuCpUHaRYvb0rcmtPXPuz67l5maoQCG_t7fgdrb_73_uGJ3WNwupbmtpCtxb3wYtphxnpJ/s1600/ParadiseSprite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtb7GmvNVINu4APD2-Nm0awz5hFEPVD_5BWe-ajTUF5HmbG3hiMKmmSeB7IqsA5U-iP65oZEYuCpUHaRYvb0rcmtPXPuz67l5maoQCG_t7fgdrb_73_uGJ3WNwupbmtpCtxb3wYtphxnpJ/s320/ParadiseSprite.jpg" width="216" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My Sprite</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>The Restaurants</b></i></span><br />
As if the architecture, comfortable rooms and unobtrusive, yet excellent service wasn't enough, there's the food. Oh my! There are two main restaurants. a deli and a couple of bars. We never got a chance to try the deli, but we headed for the main restaurants every chance we got. Wright's, the more up-scale of the two, is rated the number one restaurant in Phoenix on <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g31310-d335043-Reviews-Wright_s_at_the_Biltmore-Phoenix_Arizona.html" target="_blank">TripAdvisor</a>. There is definitely a reason for it. We decided to treat ourselves to dinner there the first night before the conference started. Wow. Just wow.<br />
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The service, as I've said, is exceptional everywhere in the Biltmore, but nowhere is it as noticeable as in the restaurants. Tom, our waiter that evening, was great. He explained the menu, the thinking behind the way the chef prepares dishes, and even tried to find out for me if the architectural drawings on the wall were MacArthur's or Wright's. (And if they were copies or originals.) (My guess is MacArthur's and they're copies of the originals.)<br />
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The food was well-prepared and the flavors were perfectly balanced. I wish I could invent something as good! The chef gets a half-point subtracted because the textures weren't totally there, which indicates to me that they were a tad overdone, but, hey, what do I know?? Dessert? Get the souffle! They offer three versions, but we never got beyond the Grand Marnier version!<br />
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Tom told us that he worked at one time in the second of the main restaurants, Frank & Albert's. He suggested that we would enjoy breakfast there and to definitely get their French Toast. So the next morning, where did we find ourselves? That's right! Having breakfast at Frank & Albert's!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYK_xNXxteqooqLXsEN8FY9gh2fpS05M7-B9Eo7RGjgWN5ClI8XkGW_vhuhCsOQe8-9ovtDc4LqEcamfwrOdSxYFxUQ-va472y3y6XIuquWXZnqqITEUD5mD1KGW37uDzDD1yha134yYB3/s1600/FrankNAlberts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYK_xNXxteqooqLXsEN8FY9gh2fpS05M7-B9Eo7RGjgWN5ClI8XkGW_vhuhCsOQe8-9ovtDc4LqEcamfwrOdSxYFxUQ-va472y3y6XIuquWXZnqqITEUD5mD1KGW37uDzDD1yha134yYB3/s320/FrankNAlberts.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Exterior of Frank & Albert's</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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I think the wing where Frank & Albert's is located is newer than the main building of the hotel. I can't swear to that, however, because it looks just like the rest of it. And yes, get the French Toast. You'll think I'm crazy for recommending it when you see it. It's a loaf of brioche. Yes, a loaf. It's filled with lemon mascarpone. You'll think you're getting a brick. You're not. It's the lightest, most delectable thing I've ever had for breakfast. George got the Eggs Benedict. Instead of using lemon as the flavor base, they use a chili base. They also replace the Canadian bacon with smoked pork. It's yummy, too, but give me the French Toast every time. We had breakfast there twice, lunch once and had Cheryl wait on us each time. Get Cheryl if you possibly can. She's a jewel! We did have dinner once at Frank & Albert's, but we weren't as impressed. I think breakfast and lunch are their specialties. Well, those and...<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>Afternoon Tea</b></i></span><br />
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And then there's tea. Oh yes, there's tea. Why <i>Teatime</i> magazine hasn't run an article devoted to the Biltmore, I'll never know. Tea is served from Thursday through Sunday, from noon to 2. Reservations are not only required, they must be made at least 24 hours in advance. An area of the lobby next to the front windows is set aside for the tea. We got the best table of all - a quiet table for two overlooking the beautifully manicured front lawn.<br />
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Two gentlemen guided us through the wonders of Tea at the Biltmore. Kevin, the senior of the two, is the "tea sommelier." He is very knowledgeable about teas and is generous about sharing that knowledge. This is obviously his passion and it's a joy to see someone do what they should be doing. I wish I knew the name of the younger gentleman. I think he's a tea expert on the way up.<br />
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Tea consists of three (yes, three) courses. There's the savories course, the bread course and the dessert course. Although it all looks delicate, there's an impressive amount of food here. You've been warned.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdBa8_j3mR9_ugxns3lRcyIOGjgmK394doZrD9TaWCzdHOOlQ24t93-XPGuhVDrMcCcOpsCV1Nc45DTOEs9JGGLGlgD_RGSJnuheMkdn5Buv27sNO4oHnOEinoCL9pKFm9ahMTsqSuAXH3/s1600/savories.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdBa8_j3mR9_ugxns3lRcyIOGjgmK394doZrD9TaWCzdHOOlQ24t93-XPGuhVDrMcCcOpsCV1Nc45DTOEs9JGGLGlgD_RGSJnuheMkdn5Buv27sNO4oHnOEinoCL9pKFm9ahMTsqSuAXH3/s320/savories.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Savories Course</td></tr>
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Lobster salad, smoked salmon, Waldorf salad, stuffed cherry tomatoes... There are seven little sandwiches and they're all delectable. The bread course consists of two scones and poundcake.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzpzLq5C7KRO-yHyuWewNEFzk4o_UaLlYaTsHzX8CMWhBvp4OL8GnPObM3M4E_FdyejE9o2_V0NTLPE9dVzsFPkfPLTCP9xJPcxfYmPJ6JRDi8_jV3r88VJw6AgesLDJGl9KMj0UhC5jKe/s1600/Desserts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzpzLq5C7KRO-yHyuWewNEFzk4o_UaLlYaTsHzX8CMWhBvp4OL8GnPObM3M4E_FdyejE9o2_V0NTLPE9dVzsFPkfPLTCP9xJPcxfYmPJ6JRDi8_jV3r88VJw6AgesLDJGl9KMj0UhC5jKe/s320/Desserts.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Dessert Course</td></tr>
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And then there are the desserts. There are six delicate yummies, which are very, very good... and very, very filling.<br />
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There are 10 types of teas offered and you can have a different tea with every course. Kevin has his suggestions, and my suggestion is to take his suggestions. At first, I was dismayed that no milk is offered with the teas. However, even the black teas are light and really don't need milk. My favorite tea story is about the African Solstice tea, a rooibos tea. I've tried rooibos teas from Teavana and the Republic of Tea and really hated them. Kevin suggested the <a href="http://www.teaforte.com/store/gourmet-tea/herbal-tea/african-solstice/" target="_blank">African Solstice</a> for the bread course as the vanilla scent of the tea would compliment the breads. I turned up my nose at the suggestion, but he gently persuaded me to give it a try. Need I say that I found a tin of African Solstice at a local shop to bring home with me?? In fact, I may go get a cup of it right now!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHxBqQIwFbQcpcTdVlZBE-bvrLDpDdqW_QKg4qi_kZ-Yw5QHHO7jTmlNEtoxcsuJln1l8dcy9-eGmz5KSWeIz6jvz8g_7K3V06eHhBSxOokXMoDWKrKUQFaHeDQ1V1NMYyFk_uZkTiDAej/s1600/MeNTea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHxBqQIwFbQcpcTdVlZBE-bvrLDpDdqW_QKg4qi_kZ-Yw5QHHO7jTmlNEtoxcsuJln1l8dcy9-eGmz5KSWeIz6jvz8g_7K3V06eHhBSxOokXMoDWKrKUQFaHeDQ1V1NMYyFk_uZkTiDAej/s320/MeNTea.jpg" width="228" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Very Happy Tea Drinker</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So, if you ever find yourself in Phoenix, go visit the Arizona Biltmore Resort. Visit for tea, for a meal or, if you're very, very lucky as we were, stay awhile.<br />
<br />
And if you ever figure out who really did design it, would you let me know??<br />
<br />DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-72256693146036816032013-01-16T19:27:00.000-08:002013-01-20T19:45:09.761-08:00A New Year, A New ProjectAs part of my ongoing towel production, I thought I should make kitchen towels for my son. I've made them for my daughter, for my boat and for me. Why should my poor son be left out? His taste runs to something between Baroque and Steampunk. Favorite colors are black and gold. I was going to make him waffle weave towels like the others I've done recently, but hey. How Steampunk can waffle weave be??<br />
<br />
So I remembered a beautiful complex twill in Carol Strickler's <i>A Weaver's Book Of 8-Shaft Patterns</i>. The draft is a 7-shaft reduction of a 16-shaft twill called Bethlehem Star. I thought it would be beautiful in black and gold. After working it out in my weaving software, I realized I didn't have enough of either color to warp the project. So I made upset<i><b> </b></i>muttering noises and proceeded to ask my friend if she had any 8/2 unmercerized cotton in her stash. She had over 2 pounds of black, but older black from a different maker. I took it anyway and warped it on. Let me tell you, black is not the easiest color to warp when your eyes aren't the best and when there's no good natural light in the weaving room! Anyway, I got it on and proceeded to weave...<br />
<br />
And wound up with 16 broken warp threads in the first repeat. But it IS beautiful!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTJrONDhYDTdm2zxBgXYgbVm30h6MGgp3e4TpJzD0u9EiRjbWAgdoeS5AFHBcx9bfw-Emzy7aCFaQn1sjd2EQIMQagzfiEvOO8-yBqPRH3DITjvECIXpl9BuC30Ujp-n1wgWiMQmgmrUwP/s1600/JWSTowels1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTJrONDhYDTdm2zxBgXYgbVm30h6MGgp3e4TpJzD0u9EiRjbWAgdoeS5AFHBcx9bfw-Emzy7aCFaQn1sjd2EQIMQagzfiEvOO8-yBqPRH3DITjvECIXpl9BuC30Ujp-n1wgWiMQmgmrUwP/s320/JWSTowels1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joseph's Towels</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I don't know if the thread is too weak to use in the warp or if I'm having abrasion problems. I cut off the first repeat and decided to re-tie and try again. I used a lighter tension and got through a couple of repeats without a broken thread and then, bam! I'm up to six broken threads again. However, I have noticed that the upper and lower shaft bars are hitting the warp, so I may need to re-tie the shafts. Not my favorite task, but I really don't want to have to re-thread this project.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>I Still Kni</b></i><i><b>t</b></i></span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTXqez9yocCqtcXanGaj0oLVTzd-8Y8CwOlP5edx96-tg1_bYHOVAFUk5JDIYRX21aVjqjgcVbxhBRIcQPzTsft9JOE4v44w7NarZrgRlJ-Ho_agRS9r5xpRQd6Z32mI-z_gssEL1p9ckB/s1600/SquirrelSlippers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTXqez9yocCqtcXanGaj0oLVTzd-8Y8CwOlP5edx96-tg1_bYHOVAFUk5JDIYRX21aVjqjgcVbxhBRIcQPzTsft9JOE4v44w7NarZrgRlJ-Ho_agRS9r5xpRQd6Z32mI-z_gssEL1p9ckB/s320/SquirrelSlippers.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Squirrel Slippers</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Did everyone think that I've stopped knitting? I do still knit. I finished these adorable tree-squirrel-heart slippers from Laura Farson's <i>Knitting Scandinavian Slippers and Socks</i>. These have had their share of problems as well. I started them in Queensland Kathmandu Aran. We had it on clearance at the shop and I do love Donegal-style wools. 1) I didn't have enough natural and we didn't have more, 2) the Donegal characteristics obscure the pattern and 3) the second slipper was MUCH bigger than the first. I must have been uber-tense with the first one. I ripped out the second slipper and made more of those upset muttering noises.<br />
<br />
But I did really want those slippers, so I started over using colors in the Ella Rae Classic Heather we carry at the shop. They turned out beautifully! They're not as warm as my felted slippers, so I tend to put them on when I'm working at my desk or have my feet up on the glider or am weaving. But they're wonderful! I have a second set on the needles in a icy, heathery blue and natural. They're done with snowflakes. At least I won't have so many ends to work back in!!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>January White Sale</b></i></span><br />
January is my time to work on the house. I've driven everyone crazy with reorganization, but I'm liking it. I changed out the bedding. I needed a lighter down coverlet on my bed and while finally getting that taken care of, I noticed that Restoration Hardware had real linen sheets on sale. I splurged and got myself a set. Now that's luxury!! I've replaced missing pieces of my stoneware, flatware and my grandmother's silverplate. I'll replace the single broken piece of my grandmother's china. I moved the flatware from here to there in the kitchen and bought plain cotton napkins to use instead of paper towels. I LOVE this time of year!!<br />
<br />
In fact, I think I'll go move other things around!<br />
<br />DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-16033386903073504452012-12-23T23:21:00.002-08:002012-12-24T11:51:54.294-08:00Lots of HemmingI've finished both sets of towels that I talked about in the last post. I wound up with a stack of seven towels to hem and enough extra fabric to make two potholders. By Sunday (yesterday), all the hemming was done and the potholders were made. I'm happy with the results!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfiO89LzCslyu5ijHT6QUECS6soMEANzp9szAt7_ObvVVWRERqQWoSMfh8xI5otZHlW3HeEKpKLdZbqQgHNe8yCEqqFYcb7Y2MMTvJneyaKQm1E4RtGYEORGNtxxNbe0XeOVm7Ojf_8Exz/s1600/GypseaTowelDone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfiO89LzCslyu5ijHT6QUECS6soMEANzp9szAt7_ObvVVWRERqQWoSMfh8xI5otZHlW3HeEKpKLdZbqQgHNe8yCEqqFYcb7Y2MMTvJneyaKQm1E4RtGYEORGNtxxNbe0XeOVm7Ojf_8Exz/s320/GypseaTowelDone.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gypsea's Towels (and Potholders)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
First up are the towels for the sailboat. We've neglected poor Gypsea for the last couple of years. We haven't been up much at all, and I know she's suffering from lack of care. We'll start back at New Year's. We like to spend New Year's Eve on the boat and have plans to do so again this year. At least I'll have a small pressie for a neglected sailboat!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdW9hvJ8hZAFJ81kqZF0BlYme84uDsJFCfHax_xgPk0nP3bEn12vQ1e6Ct8TJNsllzOVnq5RNK-ucGBek_wOUvj72DAj7-ntv3B93guhIN_GLCQpw74pf-252QqkcFNqlejhjCvzB4M-H5/s1600/BrunchTowelsFinished.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdW9hvJ8hZAFJ81kqZF0BlYme84uDsJFCfHax_xgPk0nP3bEn12vQ1e6Ct8TJNsllzOVnq5RNK-ucGBek_wOUvj72DAj7-ntv3B93guhIN_GLCQpw74pf-252QqkcFNqlejhjCvzB4M-H5/s320/BrunchTowelsFinished.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ripsmatta Towels</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
And the ripsmatta towels are finished. The project plans called for three towels from the warp. By the time I'd finished the third one, I had quite a bit of warp left. I wasn't sure if I had enough for a fourth towels, so I made a smallish hem at the beginning. It was nerve-wracking, but indeed, I had enough warp for the fourth towel!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE2KkH6f8bpRHh6FQgrbX8FJLH9TrTv7mdzCzP9ntC1fyt4vBeQ-tjdfnkJ6goXBo1gcI9j-1LKNnKJU6p06tqkvb5NJZ6hvxbUY_NaaYIHmXUW-55uYgLtWK4h96gMVU1Z5AsAb4d9QOO/s1600/BrunchWarpEnd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE2KkH6f8bpRHh6FQgrbX8FJLH9TrTv7mdzCzP9ntC1fyt4vBeQ-tjdfnkJ6goXBo1gcI9j-1LKNnKJU6p06tqkvb5NJZ6hvxbUY_NaaYIHmXUW-55uYgLtWK4h96gMVU1Z5AsAb4d9QOO/s320/BrunchWarpEnd.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Squeaking Out a Fourth Towel</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As you can see, I was pretty much out of room to work, but I did it and that's what counts!<br />
<br />
I like ripsmatta so much that I decided to warp a second set of towels onto the loom. I've wanted to make these Southwestern Mission-inspired towels for some time. They're in one of the 2002 editions of <i>Handwoven</i> magazine. I ordered the thread for them at the same time I ordered the thread to finish up the last of Cassie's towels. After Gypsea's towels came off the loom, I got the Mission towels on. Here's the beginning of the first towel on the loom.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2IMp2SQVFbZTDdXg0dOOQ6uo_djMkzKux8SZ2MygLtGLnQ03M69OroTKuz-FGyZqgiGmI6yoeWFJWi46rW5dQcE3sZ9oBDUhoHRlQgr2OzqWkYuNAXt1kIRRO8zY8dZdnFFyJ6hyphenhyphentCyhc/s1600/MissionTowels1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2IMp2SQVFbZTDdXg0dOOQ6uo_djMkzKux8SZ2MygLtGLnQ03M69OroTKuz-FGyZqgiGmI6yoeWFJWi46rW5dQcE3sZ9oBDUhoHRlQgr2OzqWkYuNAXt1kIRRO8zY8dZdnFFyJ6hyphenhyphentCyhc/s320/MissionTowels1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mission Towels on the Loom</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
These almost look better if you look at them upside down. Anyway, I'm very pleased with how they're turning out. Now that I understand how they work, I think I'll play with the treadling pattern and see what happens!<br />
<br />
This is just a short post. But I also want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-18907760331535788892012-12-06T18:52:00.000-08:002012-12-06T18:52:10.950-08:00Towels for a SailboatThe last set of waffle weave towels are off the loom, waiting to be finished. I did, indeed, run out of the teal weft thread, and ordered more. Just after I warped the ripsmatta towels onto the Glimakra, I realized that I had the same teal thread in the kit I wanted to weave for the boat's towels. I had plenty to use for the boat towels and still finish my daughter's towels. So I did. I had enough warp left on her towels to weave fabric for matching potholders. Now, of course, it's a search to find the heat resistant fabric for the backing, but I think I've found a source.<br />
<br />
Old time weavers would save warping time by tying a new warp to the end of the old warp and pull the new threads through the heddles and reed. This only works, of course, if you're doing the same weave. Since the new towels are exactly the same structure as the old ones, the pull-through technique was at least viable. The modern version of this technique is how many people thread their sergers. Tie new threads to the end of the old threads and pull them through! Well, tying four or five threads isn't that big a deal. Tying well over 400 is a bit more daunting. But I persevered and I think it did save some time. Anyway, I have a very nice warp.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWCh76EK1wcRVQ13RtAwA7sVCvvEt_0Jbn7xmLWYgycu14UTYekThSuvqyF1qKaxQTjZghTjoknvzx-P2IlKBcSL6S2OvmRD7hOpTcAXzQpzv7i45pInVuwG90mvsLx6w7wS41_hNIoD0q/s1600/GypseaTowel1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWCh76EK1wcRVQ13RtAwA7sVCvvEt_0Jbn7xmLWYgycu14UTYekThSuvqyF1qKaxQTjZghTjoknvzx-P2IlKBcSL6S2OvmRD7hOpTcAXzQpzv7i45pInVuwG90mvsLx6w7wS41_hNIoD0q/s320/GypseaTowel1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gypsea's Towel #1 - Lavender weft</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Here's the first towel in-progress. I finished this one today and started the second towel, which uses the darker blue in the middle of the stripe. I'm liking how it's turning out. The third towel technically uses the white as the weft, but I'm not sure I'm going to like it. I'm considering using the teal of the warp. I have a full cone of it, so there's plenty of yarn there. We'll see!<br />
<br />
In the meantime, this is a fun structure to weave. It goes quickly, and with my new end-feed shuttle, quite smoothly as well. Gypsea will have herself some handwoven towels soon!DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-45626975633816790322012-12-02T23:09:00.000-08:002012-12-02T23:09:28.348-08:00Weaving Something New<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuXC-xX7k-O15cmGoYl0EUMPldrYJYA5NSzMdoc0qMKcjscpaxpFWPmYoZNsLtYNO9pQY8zuP0oC43e9WDynMCfOL7fr0im61N0YF9E9WwEU44ajLB1pVO-jgyhAjG-LJW5CwQo-ZUGib0/s1600/BrunchTowelsOnLoom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuXC-xX7k-O15cmGoYl0EUMPldrYJYA5NSzMdoc0qMKcjscpaxpFWPmYoZNsLtYNO9pQY8zuP0oC43e9WDynMCfOL7fr0im61N0YF9E9WwEU44ajLB1pVO-jgyhAjG-LJW5CwQo-ZUGib0/s320/BrunchTowelsOnLoom.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ripsmatta Towels</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Sometimes things just don't always go the way you want. I've had <i><a href="http://www.kellymarshall.com/book-bringing-color-and-design-home-with-rep-weave/" target="_blank">Custom Woven Interiors</a></i>, a weaving book by Kelly Marshall, for several months. All the projects in it are in a structure, ripsmatta or rep weave, that I've never tried before. All the projects except this one are for some kind of interior design fabrics; rugs, upholstery fabric, what have you. I've never done any of the above. But the thing that really grabbed me about this book was the use of color. I fell for these towels because of the colors and subtle patterning created by the color play. I thought these towels would be a good place to begin this exploration.<br />
<br />
I ordered the thread for the towels at the beginning of September. However, I really wanted to get the Dog off the Loom (see last post) before starting anything else. And then I really wanted to get my daughter's towels done before starting anything else. Sadly, I ran out of the teal weft thread I was using for the last of the three towels. I've ordered more, but it'll be later this week before the thread arrives... and there may be dye lot color problems. Yikes! So I decided it was time. Get these towels on the loom!<br />
<br />
My first challenge was simply understanding how the drafts in the book worked. I made it harder on myself by overthinking it, but I really think that some experience with ripsmatta would be helpful before tackling this book. I tried several times to make it work in my weaving software. Finally, it made sense to me and I got it into the software. However, there was still this niggly feeling that I'd done something wrong. I figured, though, that I'd never learn until I got the warp on the loom and started weaving.<br />
<br />
Last week saw me setting up two more shafts on the loom and getting them into the new countermarche system. I wound the warp on Friday evening and finished it off Saturday. I had some problems coming up with a way to wind the warp. The colors change with every thread and most times there are four colors alternating. I really wasn't willing to wind four threads at a time. I ended up by winding one layer of warp in one bout and then a second bout of the second layer. It worked quite well on the board, but not so well at the loom. It tangled more than I've had a warp tangle in a while, but it wasn't bad.<br />
<br />
Saturday was a marathon session at the loom. I got the warp sleyed, threaded and beamed onto the loom. I have to admit, it looked good. There are few things that make me smile like a nice warp on the loom!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP-sxUym8YJ3FydPh7epTTJW6JqMbQq2TwZ8QS_JJ7FM4gH6p0nnzcH_yaiwlcs2XTNN_ffcgCrdBGvhSEf_BDuvhUQ5p5U-yWfiLuvJ_WKF0fEcflRs-5HTGLCDV34HB2rtrX3I7-yzjd/s1600/BrunchWarp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP-sxUym8YJ3FydPh7epTTJW6JqMbQq2TwZ8QS_JJ7FM4gH6p0nnzcH_yaiwlcs2XTNN_ffcgCrdBGvhSEf_BDuvhUQ5p5U-yWfiLuvJ_WKF0fEcflRs-5HTGLCDV34HB2rtrX3I7-yzjd/s320/BrunchWarp.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nice warp on the loom</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I got the weft thread wound onto bobbins for two shuttles. I sat at the loom. Okay, weaving the hem for the towels wasn't all that big a deal, but when the pattern weaving started I just wasn't sure. For one thing, warp threads started breaking. First one, then four more, then two after that. Seven broken threads inside a foot of weaving?? Scary! I sometimes missed locking the warp threads at the selvedges and had warp floats. Sigh. I wasn't sure how hard to beat and no matter how hard I beat, I could always see some weft threads.<br />
<br />
After broken thread number seven, I gave up and went to bed. Today, I'm more at peace with it. I think that at this density, the weft threads aren't hidden. The weaving is what it is. And, quite frankly, I think it's really pretty! I'm looking forward to trying more projects from this book.<br />
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Although I'll probably choose different colors!DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-19126940494475635462012-11-26T15:47:00.000-08:002012-12-02T10:58:50.698-08:00Towels On The LoomSince I've been traveling so much, I haven't gotten much weaving done in the last six months or so. I have some wonderful projects in the design phase, but few have made it to the loom. I've had a "dog on the loom" going for almost a year. A dog on the loom is a project that the weaver has lost interest in and just can't seem to work on. The dog takes up space on the loom that could be used for a more interesting project. Well, I decided that I'd finish the dog - two scarves that really should be pretty and kind of aren't. The scarves were overshot - my favorite weave structure. Normally, overshot uses a pattern weft twice the thickness of the warp. In this case, the warp (the variegated yarn) and the pattern weft (the red) were the same thickness. The tabby weft that kind of holds it all together was khaki sewing thread. I wasn't happy with how the red weft formed large blocks. I was hoping that the colors would fade from one to the other. Nope!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinevUVne14I_VDpAtpqzc8i0OyhrjcuEo26yOXW4RZ4qBk9M1p8UcomX7TSOJzc4GL90NcVXQUgnVqRja-Ps85oVef0Ret52EvGrGcElBmLIrXdiMWe-9MtjnNjHBD66XKUbHkYkRTCjtC/s1600/CrazyOvershotOnLoom2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinevUVne14I_VDpAtpqzc8i0OyhrjcuEo26yOXW4RZ4qBk9M1p8UcomX7TSOJzc4GL90NcVXQUgnVqRja-Ps85oVef0Ret52EvGrGcElBmLIrXdiMWe-9MtjnNjHBD66XKUbHkYkRTCjtC/s320/CrazyOvershotOnLoom2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Red Dog on the Loom</td></tr>
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But since I was on a Dog-Off-The-Loom mission, I got the red scarf woven. I was planning on cutting off the rest of the warp and saving it. But hey. It was already on the loom and why not just weave it off. So I started the purple pattern weft.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimJiXJgsz3zCJgkPRCddvdNuBWYtWSCoEY9Dz49ihmtYgyQxnVMQ11BB8IY608m-UUplYFSYOjZ4iQ9a8aJ1zEVNtbrvJi-QSrCUnCiZseuGI_erZsO3ulaqwZF2CZwDJM07k0trQAhF6N/s1600/JeenScarf2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimJiXJgsz3zCJgkPRCddvdNuBWYtWSCoEY9Dz49ihmtYgyQxnVMQ11BB8IY608m-UUplYFSYOjZ4iQ9a8aJ1zEVNtbrvJi-QSrCUnCiZseuGI_erZsO3ulaqwZF2CZwDJM07k0trQAhF6N/s320/JeenScarf2.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Purple Dog on the Loom</td></tr>
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I'm glad I did, because I think it's much prettier! I still need to finish the scarves, but I had the purple woven off within a week or two of starting it. So, that freed up my good old Schacht 4-harness loom.<br />
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My daughter wanted dish towels for her university apartment. She chose a kit from Halcyon Yarn. Normally, I don't weave with kits, but I wanted to try out their 8/2 unmercerized cotton. The jury is still out on how well I like the cotton, but the towels are coming out very pretty. This is the first time I've woven waffle weave. The waffles will show up better when the towels are off the loom and washed, but you can see them forming now. There will be three towels when I'm finished and each will be a different color in the weft. Here's Towel Number One, woven with a light green weft:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiujt6-FhFUfvFcGqB02MR_Dg_l2PehxEsIH1Kml30zH0REsyv_tVRiXIvoluhv_VAAYn5ubZJ57zNakvaAJl_vM9fNecN05N9DOvvJ06KXF7ljVWWkYluvvplmjY3zixqKnkZSoAXqbG51/s1600/LightWaffleTowel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiujt6-FhFUfvFcGqB02MR_Dg_l2PehxEsIH1Kml30zH0REsyv_tVRiXIvoluhv_VAAYn5ubZJ57zNakvaAJl_vM9fNecN05N9DOvvJ06KXF7ljVWWkYluvvplmjY3zixqKnkZSoAXqbG51/s320/LightWaffleTowel.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Towel Number Two is woven with a dark green weft - almost a grey-brown-olive color:<br />
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Towel Number Three is woven with a teal weft. I'm scared about this one because I don't think there's enough weft thread. We'll see!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8UKlF6A7TzDSVi1ZqNa3KLk4c_iE9s2tSaHa-B-_7xOSEFNmcIvvKPA3enq1GaQEgojBUnyErqad2ow-NdtBl75bJOPtZcWlegDOLVZuG4yhJgNGd9-R8DX19N27nQUAL0Nj-3k0ZW43C/s1600/TealWaffleTowel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8UKlF6A7TzDSVi1ZqNa3KLk4c_iE9s2tSaHa-B-_7xOSEFNmcIvvKPA3enq1GaQEgojBUnyErqad2ow-NdtBl75bJOPtZcWlegDOLVZuG4yhJgNGd9-R8DX19N27nQUAL0Nj-3k0ZW43C/s320/TealWaffleTowel.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I've finished some projects that were woven earlier in the year. I think I like to weave, and hate to hem! Here is a set of four towels in a Barleycorn weave. I love barleycorn almost as much as overshot. It's very similar, but not quite the same. These were woven at the General Sam Houston Folk Festival this past April. Such fun!<br />
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Well, I'd better get back to the loom and finish Towel Number Three! I have at least two towel project lined up after this one!</div>
DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-25465350699903954482012-11-24T19:01:00.000-08:002012-11-24T19:01:11.720-08:00Look For America TrekSo what is this Look for America Trek? At the end of October I drove my parents to the Blue Ridge Mountains to visit family. This is THE time of year to do it, so we did. Since I wasn't totally recovered from my Disney adventure and illness, we took it slow. Day 1 was from San Antonio to Lafayette, Louisiana. Not much to report there.<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>Day 2 - Montgomery, Alabama </b></i></span><br />
Day 2 was from Lafayette, Louisiana to Montgomery, Alabama. About halfway through the drive we came to Mobile, Alabama and the beautiful <a href="http://www.bellingrath.org/" target="_blank">Bellingrath Gardens</a>. This was maybe the fourth or fifth visit for my parents, but my first visit. Technically, this wasn't the best time to see the gardens. However, the flowers were well into their autumn bloom cycle. The roses were blooming as were some azaleas, and a few camellias. The mums were set out for the huge November festival . A few had started blooming, but most were still in the tight bud stage.<br />
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Let's face it. I love roses. Anybody who knows me, knows I love roses. Of all the photos I took of them, here are three:<span style="color: #0c343d;"><i><b> </b></i></span>Sadly, I don't know the name of this rose. But it's gorgeous!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggaPKrkyaI2EkxE86gX9wcehEPizfWGiZKOtVSNrJt2F_3fOK1GwHUPhewKviqMilAgzKtZBt_BhWTkSv8QW1t5e9XH0yAk4pUcp4cUryL5HurE4CGIGmjGJK0o2w0xiSUUM5dUudL7fJ4/s1600/GorgeousRose.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggaPKrkyaI2EkxE86gX9wcehEPizfWGiZKOtVSNrJt2F_3fOK1GwHUPhewKviqMilAgzKtZBt_BhWTkSv8QW1t5e9XH0yAk4pUcp4cUryL5HurE4CGIGmjGJK0o2w0xiSUUM5dUudL7fJ4/s320/GorgeousRose.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Here is a Wild Blue Yonder rose. It's kind of purple, not blue, but who cares??<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHwQ6Ltmhe8BqBHfyzn5o0fdU-6L04L9Oz3AieQUbkMpCXZf6obwO3iMlvk4b07nSRNqPc5eMS_zYumnrVlqjMwiN-WEff9O3pQi8RqujE6F4_y-E6nJXsTEHynhDa94A0kSRQFGyt34FY/s1600/WildBlueYonder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHwQ6Ltmhe8BqBHfyzn5o0fdU-6L04L9Oz3AieQUbkMpCXZf6obwO3iMlvk4b07nSRNqPc5eMS_zYumnrVlqjMwiN-WEff9O3pQi8RqujE6F4_y-E6nJXsTEHynhDa94A0kSRQFGyt34FY/s320/WildBlueYonder.jpg" width="220" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wild Blue Yonder</td></tr>
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And the last is a Moonstone rose. I'm not usually a fan of modern roses, but I might just have to get myself one of these! The rose retains the pink edging to the petals throughout its life, although it fades as the rose matures. It's beautiful!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqcDLerQQxcuB2aA1ZkHltnE_E9fUM6TXo4OILqPzzv6Sgi2SnHmRo3glXJZY9lEU6NAiGTKh880P6eVmBB_gKExulZTNaNwe_gS_eEtWzrTaxOxItaOn_CDq2i1zsoTwU5y9_R9mQkHKD/s1600/Moonstone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqcDLerQQxcuB2aA1ZkHltnE_E9fUM6TXo4OILqPzzv6Sgi2SnHmRo3glXJZY9lEU6NAiGTKh880P6eVmBB_gKExulZTNaNwe_gS_eEtWzrTaxOxItaOn_CDq2i1zsoTwU5y9_R9mQkHKD/s320/Moonstone.jpg" width="312" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Moonstone Rose</td></tr>
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I could go on forever about the flowers in the greenhouse. There were pineapples growing and hibiscus and all manner of tropical flowers. However, the orchids really caught my eye. Here's just one of them - a classic cattleya.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3mpb7ArFObO_3TArEuooRBDAdKGpgAVucmuMxHInmFO8sapEUeDYs8wlLfqpmJHVpm_4zVPkWGlM20PrzUBOLNdzXZIT1ynGkv2AoFwL57rA4xSexVHCodDuWoMNaZTvXwmQZdvL09pNW/s1600/orchid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3mpb7ArFObO_3TArEuooRBDAdKGpgAVucmuMxHInmFO8sapEUeDYs8wlLfqpmJHVpm_4zVPkWGlM20PrzUBOLNdzXZIT1ynGkv2AoFwL57rA4xSexVHCodDuWoMNaZTvXwmQZdvL09pNW/s320/orchid.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cattleya Orchid</td></tr>
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The house fascinated me as well. It's not a huge place in an ostentatious style, but it's big and comfortable. I couldn't take photographs of the inside, but here's one of the courtyard from the outer walk.<br />
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Here's the same courtyard from the other side. (Standing inside the arches.)<br />
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Here's the last flower photo - a camellia we saw on the walk out.<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>Day 3 - Blue Ridge, Georgia</b></i></span><br />
We got a late start from Montgomery and decided to take a detour around Atlanta to visit <a href="http://www.stonemountainpark.com/activities/history-nature/Confederate-Memorial-Carving.aspx" target="_blank">Stone Mountain Park</a>. I'd never been there before and had always wanted to. Okay, I'll be honest here. The park is amazing and I'd love to come back sometime, but the carving is not quite up to what I expected. Here's the best shot I got of it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4YC5GOYi8NFPSI5B8sC1ztS7P7D2QY9vE4fkXvVL8vITs7yDEvdkWQLccaZKKBAWxxp9XPrjyXUfhDP2TE-lOmo9pRU9cSFQVfwxPhSDpc6pY5l_HX5X_xUowicXiuOZWL8b3sYgaep9e/s1600/StoneMountain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4YC5GOYi8NFPSI5B8sC1ztS7P7D2QY9vE4fkXvVL8vITs7yDEvdkWQLccaZKKBAWxxp9XPrjyXUfhDP2TE-lOmo9pRU9cSFQVfwxPhSDpc6pY5l_HX5X_xUowicXiuOZWL8b3sYgaep9e/s320/StoneMountain.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Carving on Stone Mountain<i><b><br /></b></i></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>Day 4 - In the Mountains!</b></i></span><br />
We visited quite a few places around north Georgia, but I took the most photos at <a href="http://www.gastateparks.org/AmicalolaFalls" target="_blank">Amicalola Falls State Park</a>. It's difficult to get the waterfall. It's the highest waterfall east of the Mississippi (although I can't believe Niagra isn't higher), but it's impossible to get a clear shot of the entire fall. Here's my best try:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfU3ZKq8zkAZV4OFqVTDFudip-qqiPXaNYfuBhWaWtPa8Hcbm0bpnSw-3CVZKYrp4kko4reJdnRhb9pTf4E0tPRSCc4-YbgQgy1ZFyHt0dEfpM-Q2erhWX4fTMN5BNyRP8x9hPKmRRAu3W/s1600/amicalola1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfU3ZKq8zkAZV4OFqVTDFudip-qqiPXaNYfuBhWaWtPa8Hcbm0bpnSw-3CVZKYrp4kko4reJdnRhb9pTf4E0tPRSCc4-YbgQgy1ZFyHt0dEfpM-Q2erhWX4fTMN5BNyRP8x9hPKmRRAu3W/s320/amicalola1.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Amicalola Falls<i><b><br /></b></i></td></tr>
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Here's a photo of the lower falls:<br />
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After visiting the Falls and having a wonderful lunch there, we visited a pumpkin farm and an apple farm. The apple farm was dangerous! I walked out with a half-bushel of the best Pink Lady apples I've ever tasted, a jug of apple juice and a bottle of sparkling apple cider. Didn't get any photos, but the pumpkin farm was awesome! People take their little ones to be photographed there the same way we take ours in the spring to photograph them in the bluebonnets.</div>
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That's my shadow in the lower left. It's as close as I have to a photo of myself.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: #073763;">Day 5 - More Mountains!</span></i></b><br />
Again, we spent the day visiting places around North Georgia. It's been a dream of mine for years to hike the Appalachian Trail. We stopped at <a href="http://www.mountaincrossings.com/" target="_blank">Mountain Crossings at Neel's Gap</a> which has the distinction of being the only covered part of the trail. I left my parents and cousins at the store and hiked a little way up the trail by myself. I wish I could have gone further, but at least I got my boots on the Trail!<br />
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My cousins know all the best restaurants. The following photo is one I'd have never thought I'd ever take. It's a mural on the wall of the ladies' room in Antonietta's in Blairsville, GA. It's a great restaurant, I must say, but who would have ever thought to disguise a vent so cleverly??<br />
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After driving through the National Forest, we came upon this wonderful old bridge.<br />
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I don't know if it exactly qualifies as a piano bridge, but it's very small and rattles quite a bit. However, the views from it are awesome!<br />
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Upstream, I could see a man fly fishing. I've never actually seen anyone fly fish before. It's fascinating, but I don't think it's my sport!<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>Day 7 - Johnson City, TN</b></i></span><br />
On day 6, we left my cousin's house, heading to Johnson City, TN. I've wanted to visit my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather's farm, the <a href="http://www.tipton-haynes.org/" target="_blank">Tipton-Haynes Historic Site</a>. My parents visited it several years ago and told me about it. We got there too late to visit the site, so we spent the night and visited the site the next day. Dad forgot to get a photo of COL John Tipton's grave when he was there, so I insisted we find the cemetery and get a photo. COL Tipton had quite a bit to do with the founding of Tennessee as a state. Apparently, he was a strong-minded, rather colorful old character. I do love his home and am proud to call him one of my ancestors.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tipton-Haynes Farm</td></tr>
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We got to share the site with several classes of second-graders. Even so, the staff of the site was very kind to us. I'm especially interested in an overshot coverlet in the museum. I'm working on figuring out the draft and hope to have a sample woven before too long!<br />
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And yes, we saw the cemetery. What a quiet, beautiful place!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">COL John Tipton's Grave</td></tr>
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The grave is at the lower right of the photo. The marker is hard to see as it's sideways to the photo. They aren't really sure which of the two (or possibly three) graves there is COL Tipton's. He is buried alongside at least his second wife. I'm descended from his first wife who may or may not be buried there. It's such a beautiful place, though!<br />
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After leaving Johnson City, we drove through Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg on our way to drive through the Sequatchie Valley. My mother's family lived there and migrated from there to Mississippi. Okay, just forget Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. For years I've wanted to visit the big October craft fair in Gatlinburg. No. The place is so heavily commercialized, it just isn't fun at all. However, after fighting 10 mile-an-hour traffic through both cities, we did get to drive through the Smokies. Again, a beautiful, beautiful place!<br />
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The photos need no commentary!<br />
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Sadly, by the time we got to the Sequatchie Valley, it was dark, so I didn't get to see it. After a rather grueling trip across lots of mountain passes and up (and down!) Signal Mountain into Chattanooga, we couldn't seem to find a hotel for the night. We finally found a Days Inn in Trenton, GA. Trenton is in the extreme northwest corner of the state. I didn't even know it was there, but they had a hotel with two rooms remaining, and we got those!<br />
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The next two days were the long drive back to San Antonio. Day 8 was distinguished by crossing five states in one day. Okay, we were almost out of Georgia when we started and we spent the night in Tyler, Texas, but that's still quite a bit of driving! Day 9 brought us home to San Antonio. The worst part of the drive? IH-35 between Roundrock, north of Austin, and home. The traffic was awful!<br />
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But this was a wonderful trip and one I look forward to making again sometime.<br />
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Since this trip, I've been staying home and am back to my looms again. But that's a story for the next post!<br />
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<br />DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-61266752643229876682012-10-05T19:10:00.000-07:002012-10-11T17:16:28.943-07:00Visiting Disney - Part IV<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>Epcot</b></i></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Epcot Pins</td></tr>
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Day three of our Disney adventure found us at Epcot. Epcot is an interesting park and not everyone's favorite. Epcot is really two parks in one. The front part is FutureWorld with all kinds of exhibits for techie fans and environmental fans while that back part is for fans of traveling. The World Showcase is there, featuring such countries as China, Japan, Mexico and Canada, Norway, Morocco and Africa (which they call the Outpost), France and Germany, Italy and England. Oh! And the United States! I don't think I'm forgetting anyone, but I apologize if I am. Each of the countries has food offerings and a shop where you can buy things typical of that country. Also, each area is staffed by young people native to that country who are bilingual. They're very nice and it's great for practicing your language skills! We decided to use our snack allotments here and snack our way around the world!<br />
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For some reason, we always turn left out of FutureWorld and head into Mexico. Because of that, we've never really gotten to enjoy Canada and England! One of these fine days I AM going to turn right and start with them. Mexico, we usually bypass as we live so close to Mexico and can visit any time we like. Next up is Norway, and this is the place for breakfast! We each had a yummy pastry and juice while waiting for the Maelstrom ride to open. It's a water ride and some people think it's getting long in the tooth, but I still love it. After your water adventure, you exit in a small "village." There's a small sailboat tied up to the dock on the "river." As nearly as we can tell, it's a real sailboat. The buildings in the village are adorable, but what excited me was looking up to see an SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) placard over one of the doors. A dear family friend recently retired from SAS, so this one is for him:<br />
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After our adventure in Norway, we went next door to China. (No, I have no idea how they decided who would be next to whom.) This one really made me think. As we approached what looked to be a beautiful temple, a lovely young lady in native dress beckoned us in for the movie, <i>Reflections of China</i>. This is a 360, Circle Vision film that is just this side of IMAX. You start your tour of China on the Great Wall with one of the ancient poets as a guide. I had no idea just how beautiful China is. Perhaps someday I'll be able to visit there.<br />
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After visiting China, we passed through the African outpost (after all, we're STAYING in an African outpost!) and had our mid-morning snack in Germany. Throwing caution, and possible repercussions to the wind, I made George order our pretzels, his beer and my water in German. I thought he did quite well! Of course, this meant that if we ate in France, I'd have to do the ordering!<br />
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Now the World Showcase lets me indulge my love for architectural photography and sketching, so here we go! Patience, please!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An adorable shop in the German area</td></tr>
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After Germany, we found ourselves in Italy, but we didn't stop for all that long. We pushed on to America. There's a replica of Independence Hall there where they have a wonderful film and animatronic show, a concert given by the most incredible a capella choir, and a show given by a Colonial fife and drum corps. Of course, we had to stay for that. The show, <i>The American Adventure</i>, is hosted by Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain. It's a bit corny, maybe, but I love it, too. The choir is simply awesome. They do American folk songs and patriotic numbers. They end with a version of the <i>Star Spangled Banner</i> that never fails to bring tears to my eyes.<br />
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After America, we visited Japan. This is one of the most beautiful areas of Epcot. My feet were really giving me trouble, so I didn't take photos here. We listened a bit to the Taiko drummers while my wonderful husband gave me a foot rub, we looked around the shop and then headed to Morocco for lunch!<br />
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Morocco is my favorite of all the countries represented in Epcot. The architecture is wonderful! It's probably the most complex of them all being a bazaar area with all kinds of twisty little turns and places to lose yourself. This is normally my favorite place to photograph and sketch, but we were ready for lunch, so we devoted our time to a magnificent lunch at the Tangierine Cafe (what a wonderful pun!). We would have loved to have stayed and listened to Mo'Rockin but we realized that we needed to go get ready for our Adventure of the Day!<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>Dive Quest</b></i></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6jAqPMoXZV3JA4UvUWxLwDWYY9xtqF1KfrxCO3h-y1fCX5Vcql5n5EOqWFIrYV2g3C_lOxcVeDADxy3jRCBhU9-E7EbiN92zAhFK4NJe93VnXsjseMV0N1r0tY6L-8fKFPWDoXzo0BWTI/s1600/D%2526G.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6jAqPMoXZV3JA4UvUWxLwDWYY9xtqF1KfrxCO3h-y1fCX5Vcql5n5EOqWFIrYV2g3C_lOxcVeDADxy3jRCBhU9-E7EbiN92zAhFK4NJe93VnXsjseMV0N1r0tY6L-8fKFPWDoXzo0BWTI/s320/D%2526G.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">George and Me</td></tr>
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The Seas in FutureWorld (the front part of Epcot) is a 6-million gallon salt-water aquarium. There are all kind of viewing windows onto it and the wonderful restaurant, Coral Reef, has windows into the aquarium. The aquarium is home to lots of sea life, including three species of shark, sea turtles, eagle rays and many, many more. The coral in the aquarium, however, is all man-made. Because the aquarium is completely enclosed and receives no natural sunlight, coral cannot grow. The Disney Imagineers have created very authentic-looking coral made of concrete.<br />
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There are several extra events you can do in The Seas, but for certified scuba divers, you can go on a 40-minute dive in the tank. The entire event is two hours and you see parts of Epcot that no outsider ever gets to see. We all met outside the park and were taken in hand by our tour leader, Andy - a guy with the most positive attitude and the greatest sense of humor. After a quick tour of what most visitors see of the Seas and our safety briefing and release-signing, we received our wetsuits and booties and headed to the lockers to change. We were then led to the aquarium itself to meet our divemasters and get started on our dive.<br />
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Both George and I are certified divers, but neither of us has done any diving in 10 years or so. We decided that this dive would be a good way to get back into it. I was concerned about my left ear as I had an ear infection in it several years ago. It has never been as easy to clear pressure in that ear since the infection. I had a couple of problems at the beginning. I didn't have enough weight in my BC, a situation our divemaster quickly saw. I surfaced (actually, I couldn't keep from surfacing). She surfaced with me and as she was confirming that I needed more weight, I was hit hard from behind by what I thought was another diver surfacing. Nope! It was one of the sea turtles. We all signed releases that we would not touch the turtles, but we'd been warned that they don't sign the releases and sometimes they touch us! I hadn't been prepared for just how much mass one of those creatures has! I felt terrible about the encounter, but I don't think I could have done anything to have avoided it. After our divemaster got my weights straightened out, I descended, yes, having trouble equalizing the left ear. After a little coaxing, it equalized and off went for our dive.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">George</td></tr>
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I think we enjoyed playing with the humans the most. We would swim up to the windows and wave to the visitors, both in the observation area and in the Coral Reef Restaurant. However, I wound up doing some serious observation of the sharks. Let me be very clear here. I am deathly afraid of sharks. It almost kept me from getting my scuba certification. On my very first ocean dive, I saw a shark. I've gradually come to realize that they have a beauty of their own, although I really don't want to get all personal with one. While laying on the bottom of the tank, watching the marine life swim by, George and I had a very large, maybe 8' shark swim straight for us. I decided (fearfully) to hold my ground and see what he'd do. He broke and swam away from us, but not before I had time to decide what stupid idea that was! I'd never do it in the wild. I swear those things have more than two rows of wicked-looking teeth. I think their entire mouth is full of wicked-looking teeth! Yikes!<br />
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Anyway, after our 40 minutes of bottom time, we surfaced, turned in our equipment and headed to our wonderful hot showers. After meeting up again, we updated our dive logs and bought our copy of the video from the dive. The stills here are taken from that video.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me</td></tr>
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What a fun thing to do! I probably wouldn't do this again, as I would the Wild Africa Trek, but I'm glad I did it once. Next time (given I get over my ear problems) we're going diving in the Keys!<br />
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We ended our day with supper in the France area of the World Showcase and yes, I had to order in French. I think I did quite well, thank you!<br />
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After supper, we found places to watch the fireworks, <i>Illuminations of Earth</i>. This has been my absolute favorite fireworks show in all of Disney. But yes, there were changes to Epcot, many of which I wish hadn't happened. Remember the loud music in Animal Kingdom? There is a loud Celtic/rock band in the England area of the World Showcase. Sigh. And the fireworks are maybe a third of their original length. What a disappointment!<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM Studios)</b></i></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hollywood Studios Pins</td></tr>
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Our fourth and last day at DisneyWorld was at Hollywood Studios. This is home to three of our favorite rides. As we arrived, I decided to do the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. This has been George's favorite ride and I just couldn't make myself do it last time we were here. This time I decided that two minutes of anything probably wouldn't kill me, so off we went to get into line. Yep, this is definitely one where you don't want a FastPass. The line snakes through the "grounds" of the Hollywood Tower Hotel. They are beautiful as is the interior with all its interesting things to see!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hollywood Tower Hotel</td></tr>
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Okay, here's my last architectural photo:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Angel Statue in the Courtyard of the Hotel</td></tr>
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After viewing the Twilight Zone preshow - yes, it's Rod Serling, but the voice is an incredibly talented impersonator - we went to the service level to take the elevator up to our "rooms." We were lucky the first time to get seats in the front row. (This is truly where you want to be.) After fastening our seatbelts, the elevator took us upstairs... to see the ghosts of the five former visitors who entered the Twilight Zone beckoning us! Then the doors closed and we went up again... and out of the elevator shaft into the Twilight Zone. As the lights go out and you have ample time to regret ever doing this... You're suddenly weightless! I was simply not prepared for what a beautiful, peaceful feeling weightlessness is. The Tower of Terror is a wonderful, wonderful ride! My first thought was that I wanted to do it again!<br />
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We ran around to the Rock 'N' Roller Coaster to get FastPasses (yep, you want them here) and then ran back to do the Tower of Terror again!! This time we had to sit in the back (sigh) but oh such fun!<br />
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After our second Terror experience, we rode the Rock 'N' Roller Coaster. Okay, this is my absolute favorite rollie. Yes, it's mostly in the dark. Yep, it does two (some people say three) inversions, the first of which is immediately after it catapults you up to 60mph. But it's smooth and awesome and I adore it. They say it pulls 4 G's on you, but I swear I don't feel it. One thing. Do put your head back into the cushions when you get into the car and keep it there. Your head's coming back into the cushions one way or the other, but it's best that you put it there yourself. And me, yes, I sing the Aerosmith songs at the top of my lungs while riding the coaster. Such fun!!<br />
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And yep! We rode the Rock 'N' Roller Coaster twice! PS, don't eat just before this one. Just sayin'.<br />
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And our last ride was the Great Movie Ride. I love this silly thing! Your guide takes you through all kinds of classic movies, Wizard of Oz, Casablanca, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and many more. This is a must-do for all movie buffs.<br />
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Since this was our last day, we watched the parade and then left to go do a little shopping at Downtown Disney. We also booked a wonderful dinner at Jiko. If I hadn't been coming down with what I now know was an ear infection, I would have enjoyed it even more, but Jiko is always awesome!<br />
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And there you are. Our trip to Disney, just two adults, with strong child-like leanings.<br />
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I hope you've enjoyed this small tour through a very magical place!DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-33430660869771499122012-10-03T18:28:00.000-07:002012-10-03T18:40:08.090-07:00Visiting Disney - Part III<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>Animal Kingdom</b></i></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tree of Life</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="color: black;">Day two of our Disney trek was at Animal Kingdom. Again, I was surprised at how crowded the park was. I think this was because of what has functionally become a fall version of Spring Break, but I'm not sure. Animal Kingdom was where I saw the most changes, and the most that I'm sorry were made. It's always been my favorite of the parks, and it's lost something of its charm. However, some good changes have happened, and there are some really FUN things to do here!</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Detail from the Tree of Life</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="color: black;"> How can you not love Discovery Island and the Tree of Life? They have several cast members interpreting animals, which is wonderful. They're very knowledgeable and very personable. We loved chatting with them! There are also wonderful little paths that take off and wind around. They're often empty, even on the busiest days, as people tend to run straight to their favorite rides or such. We even managed to get in a little smooching in some of the quiet places! Gasp!!</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kangaroo seen from one of the little trails</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="color: black;"> After exploring Discovery Island, we crossed the bridge into Africa. I LOVE to pretend that I'm really crossing into a small (and very crowded!) African village.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">African Drummers</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="color: black;">I love these African drummers. They've held a special place in my heart ever since our second trip to Disney. I found one of those wonderful places to get away from the crowds and was sketching a stairway when into the courtyard they came! I didn't realize that their "escape" was through a door right by where I was sketching. One of them, held a pose for me for a few seconds so I could do a quick sketch of him. How sweet!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="color: black;">This time, George and I were both brought into the dancing. Fun!! Honestly, though, I'd rather they taught me how to drum!</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An Architectural Shot!</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="color: black;"> Yep! I had to do it! I really love the architecture in Animal Kingdom, especially in the African and Asian areas. I just HAD to show you this one of the "hotel" where the dancers perform.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEH04qHukS2wKFFnFBnTKvML_hS7ebaMMORsyOvaumVbbmV5ertcM0NMeTAulSpXpXkrXTsfbUXTFDtGIfRL0akMW1xBi34GIIc6R_onTrq_cO65UURz0GvXaeog1afrviaJ4LZr3YzbSE/s1600/AKPins.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEH04qHukS2wKFFnFBnTKvML_hS7ebaMMORsyOvaumVbbmV5ertcM0NMeTAulSpXpXkrXTsfbUXTFDtGIfRL0akMW1xBi34GIIc6R_onTrq_cO65UURz0GvXaeog1afrviaJ4LZr3YzbSE/s320/AKPins.gif" width="230" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Animal Kingdom Ride Pins</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="color: black;">The two rides I've always loved are the Kilimanjaro Safari and the Kali River Rapids. We didn't do Kilimanjaro for a very, very good reason!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>Wild Africa Trek</b></i></span> </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="color: black;">Our special treat in Animal Kingdom was the Wild Africa Trek. This is at an additional cost and you have to make reservations ahead of time, but it is SO worth it! If you don't do anything else at Animal Kingdom, do the Trek. In fact, don't do the Kilimanjaro Safari and do the Trek instead! The Trek takes you "backstage" through the Kilimanjaro route. You do have to be in good enough shape to walk over unimproved trails for a couple of hours. Lack of fear of heights is a good thing, too, which you'll understand shortly.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd93Zs2AoiH4cuaXQo3sG3dSjca7xp-7p7-DWeRFbvScyrMUGoCVL1E7igrEzF7R4kHq5WpXhnOWl49pMHZR_lWPgPTaQHytMWVxFqBkN_fvK-LI-A9HPfKlZwwUvm0uTPG_2NtA73XHmM/s1600/GeorgeOnTrek.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd93Zs2AoiH4cuaXQo3sG3dSjca7xp-7p7-DWeRFbvScyrMUGoCVL1E7igrEzF7R4kHq5WpXhnOWl49pMHZR_lWPgPTaQHytMWVxFqBkN_fvK-LI-A9HPfKlZwwUvm0uTPG_2NtA73XHmM/s320/GeorgeOnTrek.gif" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">George suited up for the Trek</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="color: black;">The first thing that happens, after signing release forms and all, is that you put anything that can't be tied to you in a locker. No kidding. This means cell phones and everything! If you want to take your camera, be sure it has some way - a wrist strap or something - of being tied to you. After putting your things away, you're fitted out in a safety harness. This will be used to be sure you don't pay any unexpected visits to certain animals. You'll also get a water bottle to fill and keep with you, which is one of your souvenirs of the Trek. Lastly, you're fitted out with a receiver and earpiece so you can hear the guide's commentary no matter where you are.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="color: black;">Next you'll be taken to a small plank-and-rope bridge to try out your bridge-crossing skills. It's only about five feet above the ground, and it does sway. You step from plank to plank, carefully avoiding the gaps between planks. Such fun!!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="color: black;">After the safety briefing and instructions as to how to use the large carabiners to clip into safety lines, you go with two guides, both of whom are totally awesome. You'll start out on the Pangani Forest Trail, but you won't make it far inside. You'll take off on a trail off to visit the hippos.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-o7PPEIxAtIlfYHFiBX3HW31wwMBOiffvZ01lGj3qD-dvkM2G-l8BM7wPRRaRZkpIhuOPEkB88tET-HPU9D5uGhOKa42W5pfmkVkA-45yz2rN1khKi5Pdab3fljuLVDFRYcyVp8Q8eLHa/s1600/HippoArriving.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-o7PPEIxAtIlfYHFiBX3HW31wwMBOiffvZ01lGj3qD-dvkM2G-l8BM7wPRRaRZkpIhuOPEkB88tET-HPU9D5uGhOKa42W5pfmkVkA-45yz2rN1khKi5Pdab3fljuLVDFRYcyVp8Q8eLHa/s320/HippoArriving.gif" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hippo, and we're actually this close</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="color: black;">You'll be at the top of a small cliff above the hippo pool. You clip into the safety line which allows you to get to the edge of the cliff and look down at the hippos. We had a researcher there to talk to us about the hippos. He was as awesome as everyone else and very knowledgeable. He tossed some lettuce to the hippos, one of whom came to dine right below us. Such fascinating creatures!</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_3Ydh67iK_kUTNa7UbCmK2n0E7Q_L-DxcS091kbPmcamZmuBxi2wX0piJYTXSiqIEpe3rwEMlH4X3au4dPT-xt4f-2XU7gsuEOcGOsBKVVWx0RgZgd-KcwiRFqYt2qvQONSNKnOsYWSG0/s1600/HippoHere.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_3Ydh67iK_kUTNa7UbCmK2n0E7Q_L-DxcS091kbPmcamZmuBxi2wX0piJYTXSiqIEpe3rwEMlH4X3au4dPT-xt4f-2XU7gsuEOcGOsBKVVWx0RgZgd-KcwiRFqYt2qvQONSNKnOsYWSG0/s320/HippoHere.gif" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hippo Arriving for a Snack (Not Us!)</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="color: black;"> After spending time with the hippos, you're off on the trail again and you come to...</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bridge!</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="color: black;"> Okay, actually, the photos are of the second half of the bridge. This one was taken while I was waiting my turn to cross the first half. Only two or, at most, three people are allowed on the bridge at any one time. I don't think it's a weight consideration. I think it's because several people will cause it to sway more, which can easily frighten the Trekkers. I discovered that it's hard to get photos from it because it does move, even when you're still.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="color: black;">The first bridge crosses about 20 feet over the Kilimanjaro Safari river. The trucks are below you, but the riders can't really see you much because of the tops of the trucks. There are "broken" planks on the bridge and it's a little dance step to go from plank to plank. However, you're clipped into the safety line above and there's a net below just in case...</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyTY7Lz_clo4EowPxHpVmACm9-SCq1gW55K-yikHx_ODdt8ZFepzvmWb2mDGwMJkXcHJu0TI_WIdokL5UkpDnWHGS6ZAIsYf5_dkDx3iD7iSfwRyXEhRj69YCzaK5x_vW3mOoIPvnsVjnL/s1600/BridgeOver.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyTY7Lz_clo4EowPxHpVmACm9-SCq1gW55K-yikHx_ODdt8ZFepzvmWb2mDGwMJkXcHJu0TI_WIdokL5UkpDnWHGS6ZAIsYf5_dkDx3iD7iSfwRyXEhRj69YCzaK5x_vW3mOoIPvnsVjnL/s320/BridgeOver.gif" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Plank Bridge Again</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="color: black;">The first bridge ends at a small pavilion. One of your guides will be there to help if you freak out and to space Trekkers across the second bridge. The second bridge runs beside the river and over the... </span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyOFChkfwI-mqHOwH2Ca4ZK4HYMuvMvJl7JbeCTsq08CyqpBAVeyktKMclgMqPRDUxTI9LmX72PF5Tp9qbC3lMRItypksT5TOZnvhMFADHi6EHaTqdmNdL07QrujARFhJI60uI2B2j97rX/s1600/NileCroc.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyOFChkfwI-mqHOwH2Ca4ZK4HYMuvMvJl7JbeCTsq08CyqpBAVeyktKMclgMqPRDUxTI9LmX72PF5Tp9qbC3lMRItypksT5TOZnvhMFADHi6EHaTqdmNdL07QrujARFhJI60uI2B2j97rX/s320/NileCroc.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nile Crocodile</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="color: black;">Oh yeah! Nile Crocodiles!! We were lucky in that the crocs were out and about as active as they get (when they're not eating). Fascinating creatures they are.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwoWBppCtRCeo6S5wxOhI6mMtCSLnIK8lWWmkrwrFtiRHJSw-1X-QPXvplEQbI68pz4c2Z84ov1ILdiDffByJLeaQYBtI_QxfU-SxZ7S_be7t_1D3xHYeI8_ayJ15FwdCOqXI8QrOb9EV-/s1600/NileCroc2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwoWBppCtRCeo6S5wxOhI6mMtCSLnIK8lWWmkrwrFtiRHJSw-1X-QPXvplEQbI68pz4c2Z84ov1ILdiDffByJLeaQYBtI_QxfU-SxZ7S_be7t_1D3xHYeI8_ayJ15FwdCOqXI8QrOb9EV-/s320/NileCroc2.gif" width="240" /></a></div>
After visiting the crocodiles, you hike a little further and come to the Kilimanjaro Safari road where a truck is waiting to pick you up. You shed your safety harness (about five pounds!) and your sound system and retrieve your camera and water bottle. Then you load up onto the truck where there's a frosty towel awaiting you. After the heat and all, it feels WONDERFUL! The truck heads out to the Boma (Swahili for safe or protected place) where your snack will be served. Before you get there, you can see all kinds of the animals visible on the Safari. This time, though, you can stop and watch them and take photos. Here are some photos of the animals we saw.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyN64EMKJO6D3-TZ2J__4ng-HGNliM5YL_9jW15zLWjnn9qSOPejUabxNm2aQfBEU_NVH05vTKGF46Q_vEWmwlzTJ9XXvFVIH3HjcchMRjVLpBjvrQSImFVajR1W4gApcquwRwBZkbk-nh/s1600/ehlandmaybe.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyN64EMKJO6D3-TZ2J__4ng-HGNliM5YL_9jW15zLWjnn9qSOPejUabxNm2aQfBEU_NVH05vTKGF46Q_vEWmwlzTJ9XXvFVIH3HjcchMRjVLpBjvrQSImFVajR1W4gApcquwRwBZkbk-nh/s320/ehlandmaybe.gif" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See the Kilimanjaro truck in the back?</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIT9NMcorl5yPxy9SkHs8Xc5r2JR_nZ-_nIjOB1Kw3zy9vlA4s53gNS0JXbks0ol731wHDPzM4ulndXoRiIgM8_-obpryN2HHEUachWaCrw5cmdwez9uRXWRiSBc3Ed5pphwmtfCDNFxtC/s1600/Peekaboo.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIT9NMcorl5yPxy9SkHs8Xc5r2JR_nZ-_nIjOB1Kw3zy9vlA4s53gNS0JXbks0ol731wHDPzM4ulndXoRiIgM8_-obpryN2HHEUachWaCrw5cmdwez9uRXWRiSBc3Ed5pphwmtfCDNFxtC/s320/Peekaboo.gif" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Probably my favorite photo!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL-KqWy-FbZ54dV0kNRItpxf_eOvJyMJOmujeNnR_wXxGxiWvJWQvzQF4-6iNsJeKaVew9mTLD9wrKP6zjGHr-zVB1WZoEgC-s7o_C33fj9ZrBNYI8-Kn8euWG6tfk8FFVAslBBiJAhP6Q/s1600/elephant.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL-KqWy-FbZ54dV0kNRItpxf_eOvJyMJOmujeNnR_wXxGxiWvJWQvzQF4-6iNsJeKaVew9mTLD9wrKP6zjGHr-zVB1WZoEgC-s7o_C33fj9ZrBNYI8-Kn8euWG6tfk8FFVAslBBiJAhP6Q/s320/elephant.gif" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A real elephant, not an animatronic one</td></tr>
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At last you make it to the boma, a lovely permanent camp with bathrooms (yea!), tables, ceiling fans, and most important... Lunch! They advertise it as a snack, but you get quite enough food for a meal, even after the walking you've done. Your nice, cold lunch comes in a two-tier pail.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF_Jo9EwKBiZnGjM7N7LPyt6iOrOCrIaW-k0Jd_gxw39xYEr1PqCbpvGuw-7_Q59wVtEwUPlhRW6K22DcBygoPkY-is8bfVGoxNc2WtMRO1hEJjE00HqI0AERip5c27HWD0E_LWd6PFZQS/s1600/Snack2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF_Jo9EwKBiZnGjM7N7LPyt6iOrOCrIaW-k0Jd_gxw39xYEr1PqCbpvGuw-7_Q59wVtEwUPlhRW6K22DcBygoPkY-is8bfVGoxNc2WtMRO1hEJjE00HqI0AERip5c27HWD0E_LWd6PFZQS/s320/Snack2.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Snack - Top Tier</td></tr>
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The top tier has curried chicken salad, fresh fruit, and air-dried meats. It's topped with a lovely, edible dendrobium orchid flower. I put my flower in my shirt pocket and brought it home. I put it in a glass of water and it lasted until the end of our stay.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZONs03p5GpLDlc_40mmskvxwz1zj4H8Zkt8KUTPlZsfKIn_FvIjwT0j69t99hOg_q8HbaLhdM8xS3Ewg-egfiOW4gbIamQLMoMKkzTMAC0ffzBBI0EE7Zf3pF8CRYqxAhoJy-ZV91TOv8/s1600/Snack1.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZONs03p5GpLDlc_40mmskvxwz1zj4H8Zkt8KUTPlZsfKIn_FvIjwT0j69t99hOg_q8HbaLhdM8xS3Ewg-egfiOW4gbIamQLMoMKkzTMAC0ffzBBI0EE7Zf3pF8CRYqxAhoJy-ZV91TOv8/s320/Snack1.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Snack - Bottom Tier</td></tr>
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The bottom tier has pita bread, a spicy hummus, a sushi-type roll and two spicy, yummy shrimp. The food is prepared by the Tusker House Restaurant, which is linked to the restaurants at Animal Kingdom Lodge, so you know the food is good! Your snack is served with passionfruit / orange / guava juice, which just totally hit the spot for me!<br />
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After your snack, you load back up on the truck to visit the last animals of the day...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi41RHynJRNwEgimzoy3Hcc_o0WD1tgcM7PXRvqwO2C86oCrCXnYK7TU37QpWpxxuvTNMzHsils98SoR5y8yBNCW7ivnFXIE22scn-mHXFaZMTOvH8eriGxaGybH3bcWLSpu-kKg9weZNSl/s1600/Rhinos.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi41RHynJRNwEgimzoy3Hcc_o0WD1tgcM7PXRvqwO2C86oCrCXnYK7TU37QpWpxxuvTNMzHsils98SoR5y8yBNCW7ivnFXIE22scn-mHXFaZMTOvH8eriGxaGybH3bcWLSpu-kKg9weZNSl/s320/Rhinos.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Rhinos!</td></tr>
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It's so sad how many animals are in danger of extinction by poaching. Rhinos are valued for several things, but primarily their horns. Animal Kingdom has re-introduced two (I think) rhinos back into the wild. Long may they live where they belong!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQEZaWxpsDYPnpqrh_MFfhDESRadXgLdzmAMC_Jn12savdJutXZDAPfqyWtW3TNlVOpmBNiU7JwTbE13l7qinDMxF0O-dDxPqcrve4a0KCGpLk6p_P3qwL6Uh837qqWOKefVr-6xaqVt8A/s1600/rhino2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQEZaWxpsDYPnpqrh_MFfhDESRadXgLdzmAMC_Jn12savdJutXZDAPfqyWtW3TNlVOpmBNiU7JwTbE13l7qinDMxF0O-dDxPqcrve4a0KCGpLk6p_P3qwL6Uh837qqWOKefVr-6xaqVt8A/s320/rhino2.gif" width="240" /></a></div>
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Which brings me to a wonderful change in Animal Kingdom. The first time I visited was about five years after they opened. They were struggling at that time to be taken seriously as a zoo. They have come so far in the decade or so since I made that first visit. They are now a breeding zoo. This is a major step forward for them.<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>Kali River Rapids</b></i></span><br />
I didn't get any photos from the Kali River Rapids. This is one of my favorite rides, but for some reason, it seemed a little long in the tooth this time. I think that was just my imagination, however, because we were so enchanted with the Wild Africa Trek, I'm not sure anything could have lived up to it. This is one to consider not getting a FastPass. The lovely buildings that the line passes through are definitely worth seeing! Oh, and we got turned just right during the drop and got totally soaked! Which was just fine. Let's hear it for quick-dry clothes from the skin out!<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>Expedition Everest</b></i></span><br />
Expedition Everest is a new ride in the Asian section of Animal Kingdom. We'd been looking forward to it, but both came away with mixed feelings. This is definitely one to think about not getting a FastPass. The approach to the rollie itself is SO worth going through. My camera was beginning to run out of power, so I didn't get many photos. Here's one of the "temple" area:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfMZdNB24DGZWpn24yV_H_qh-w2V_Wv-_WgTGhJ8dbc_oqqRH5BPN0jkLdgUPLVrjzp7ovGOh0tZAxAWdoPC2mxlLcP6fKokQfSAxjoDAyrS_RBA94hQopUX738gwM576SI9kkrNlkL2ZN/s1600/everestshrine.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfMZdNB24DGZWpn24yV_H_qh-w2V_Wv-_WgTGhJ8dbc_oqqRH5BPN0jkLdgUPLVrjzp7ovGOh0tZAxAWdoPC2mxlLcP6fKokQfSAxjoDAyrS_RBA94hQopUX738gwM576SI9kkrNlkL2ZN/s320/everestshrine.gif" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Yeti "Shrine"</td></tr>
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After going through the "shrine," you go through an outfitter's store with all kinds of wonderful things to look at. Then you go through the "research area" for Yeti, the Monster of the Himalayas. After that, you find yourself waiting to board the train to take you up Everest.<br />
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From a rollie point of view, Everest is okay. There's not much to see on the ride itself. It starts off like a relatively gentle train ride. Then you climb a huge hill to see that the tracks have been pulled up and you're going to plunge down the side... except that the train stops. Honestly, the best thing to see here is that there's apparently a place where girls take the ties out of their hair and throw them to the side of the train. I thought about it... for about a second or two. You stay stopped for longer than I would have thought. Apparently, they are changing the track behind you so you don't go backwards the same way you came up. From here for about half of the ride, you're riding backwards and mostly in the dark. There's very little to see and you have no idea what's going to happen. Both George and I became a little disoriented. I think this is where he had the problem. Strangely enough, I had it when we reversed direction and went forward again. The ride isn't really jerky, but it's just totally uninteresting from a story point of view. Also, this is the only time I've become a little disoriented on a rollie. Neither of us were sick enough to want to lose our lunch, but neither of us really enjoyed the feeling. Both of us decided that we'd do the line again to see the wonderful things and then bail at the chicken spot! (All Disney rides have one.)<br />
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Here's a little shrine on an island near the Everest ride. You can't walk to the little island, but I love it anyway.<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>Maharajah Jungle Trail</b></i></span><br />
I love this walking trail. It goes through areas that look like abandoned temples and buildings in an Asian environment. We were very close to closing time when we did this one and we fell into conversation with a very knowledgeable interpreter at the Bengal Tiger exhibit. By this time, my poor battery was about done, so this is the only photo I got of the kitties!<br />
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And this brings me to the last changes at Animal Kingdom that I really
didn't like. When I've come here before, the background music is
gentle and meditative. Mostly, the music is now either completely gone or
drowned out. I expect the African drummers in the African section,
although I swear they perform more frequently now. I did NOT expect the
Indian rock and roll DJ music blaring out from the Asian area. It's
constant - no breaks and there's a dancer performing. She's good, but
it's right in the middle of the walkway. Argghhh!!! It's almost
impossible to get away from it. When we've been here before, every
vendor in the Asian area would greet you with "Namaste!" That's gone
now as are the wagons where you can get chai. Oh, there's a tea vendor,
but it's not the same and they will NOT serve the chai over ice. You
want iced chai, you get a frozen drink thing. Sigh. Not the Disney I
remember.<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span style="color: black;">What a full day! Here's one last photo from Animal Kingdom. It's the view of Everest from the bridge crossing into the African area:</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOhQgmHVr88J7ekQRXYAxacMP5UkhFtoiynkr3wDr0pEjOlD0Ft7rBFQ_jAUydWmiR9WXxtVF6LMzVXthBjTxhICvs75Vpw_lsN-lNDtIfXkO4gdrPnxy5lfVO1BNVK9ZqibP_i5n9Oaw6/s1600/ViewOfEverest.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOhQgmHVr88J7ekQRXYAxacMP5UkhFtoiynkr3wDr0pEjOlD0Ft7rBFQ_jAUydWmiR9WXxtVF6LMzVXthBjTxhICvs75Vpw_lsN-lNDtIfXkO4gdrPnxy5lfVO1BNVK9ZqibP_i5n9Oaw6/s320/ViewOfEverest.gif" width="240" /></a></div>
Although I know it doesn't really look like Everest, it makes me want to visit the base camp of the Goddess Mother one of these fine days!<br />
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Stay tuned for the fourth (and probably last) installment of our Disney Adventure!<br />
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DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-38231143994805199332012-10-02T18:33:00.002-07:002012-10-03T18:29:01.846-07:00Visiting Disney - Part II<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>Magic Kingdom</b></i></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Statue of Roy (not Walt!) Disney and Mickey</td></tr>
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So we got up bright and early... okay, we got up Monday morning and after a wonderful breakfast at Mara, we headed out to Magic Kingdom. Wow! Did I say crowded? I think it was the first (or one of the first) days of Mickey's Not-So-Scary-Halloween event and the place was packed! But still wonderfully fun. It was all decorated up for Halloween. I didn't get too many photos of the decorations, but here's George with one of the Mickey Jack-o-Lantern decorations on the lampposts.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRbtInb5gqMLIDB1ovrRYhZeKkGkCGygrFiyzpGIw0rhEOYsSwrg6IgkGDIIjabrErMGWa65iHLXIG0uyCa7rstdItjqJ1CPvZcK4I-5kH0HCrJ4xO0rdD0ZWj6aRNTX8q2mlZNDfYZlef/s1600/GeorgeNMK.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRbtInb5gqMLIDB1ovrRYhZeKkGkCGygrFiyzpGIw0rhEOYsSwrg6IgkGDIIjabrErMGWa65iHLXIG0uyCa7rstdItjqJ1CPvZcK4I-5kH0HCrJ4xO0rdD0ZWj6aRNTX8q2mlZNDfYZlef/s320/GeorgeNMK.gif" width="220" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">George with Mickey</td></tr>
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We had been selected to be part of the FastPass+ test. At the moment, it's only available in Magic Kingdom and only for certain rides. They send you cards, which you register and then choose two rides from each of two groups. Sadly, I wanted three rides in one group, but they're kind of sneaky-smart about such things. You set up your ride schedule before you come, with the understanding that you can change it at any time. We chose the Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain, the Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain. Honestly, I didn't think it would work since you're basically setting up your day ahead of time, but it works beautifully! I hope they expand the idea to all the parks.<br />
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Since we got there well before our first ride was scheduled, we wandered around (away from the show in front of the Castle) and found ourselves in Liberty Square. The Liberty Belle riverboat was just coming into service for the day, so we hopped aboard and went for the first ride of the day. Everybody else boarding the boat went up, so we went out and got to stand at the extreme bow of the boat, Titanic-style. Such fun!<br />
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Okay, now I'm admitting to a weakness. I love the architecture at Disney. I bring along my sketchbook, but seldom take the time to sit down and sketch, even this trip. But I photograph buildings and the boat ride has some of the best photo-ops. I'll share a few.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCpI4H9Fs0CoQ-dYFpXGf1iNLbiuBYqKKGyRx7GSha9I0Q_ECBuKWO0_UyLQYGyYap-BGinOaGoBAvaVHlFpmIEdbsYhkjjIhG_KyIO9GeCpm3qego19tzA8Op1aiMb9oOM1lqK8fDYqk8/s1600/BeckyHouse.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCpI4H9Fs0CoQ-dYFpXGf1iNLbiuBYqKKGyRx7GSha9I0Q_ECBuKWO0_UyLQYGyYap-BGinOaGoBAvaVHlFpmIEdbsYhkjjIhG_KyIO9GeCpm3qego19tzA8Op1aiMb9oOM1lqK8fDYqk8/s320/BeckyHouse.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Becky Thatcher's House (?)</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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Across the landing where the Liberty Belle docks, you can see a lovely little yellow house. I think it's Becky Thatcher's house, but I'm not really sure. Anyway, it's on Tom Sawyer's Island. We meant to get over there, but never did make it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2thpTPnLJnmj-Jdy0vVJqWVZNbIQUFqF7ueHtL3alQNi0VH6g4HWzVo5zBlmsNIMT0MI_dULePUgDI6UomiyAWDpsJvg3gSMFqxZv5HtGXO9xIK2UMbULAlApt3mDNyjmVlqcQuM22owx/s1600/Harpers-Mill.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2thpTPnLJnmj-Jdy0vVJqWVZNbIQUFqF7ueHtL3alQNi0VH6g4HWzVo5zBlmsNIMT0MI_dULePUgDI6UomiyAWDpsJvg3gSMFqxZv5HtGXO9xIK2UMbULAlApt3mDNyjmVlqcQuM22owx/s320/Harpers-Mill.gif" width="229" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Harper's Mill</td></tr>
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Also on Tom Sawyer's Island is the beautiful little watermill. Next time, for sure we have to go over to the Island!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfCJG8EZGvscMU8bma4CD6AFDvu1XPS7FTfEELO5tlOXoiSEeAXs8l-DYtrzJsJcT6LlHQOry1GxTgIdEfHG0A9pgB7KjLWjKO6WS1aVUt0W5Mr8-wSK0YZhi5LrwzlMM0Ac2IC1QEkavC/s1600/Windmill.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfCJG8EZGvscMU8bma4CD6AFDvu1XPS7FTfEELO5tlOXoiSEeAXs8l-DYtrzJsJcT6LlHQOry1GxTgIdEfHG0A9pgB7KjLWjKO6WS1aVUt0W5Mr8-wSK0YZhi5LrwzlMM0Ac2IC1QEkavC/s320/Windmill.gif" width="229" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Windmill</td></tr>
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Yet another pretty thing on the Island!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4dFVAljuFHSOa9kZFX9Qsu4qrc6W7YpKTSnwrWRy4sjgObCykytlsrtNUt6yxJtI05CcC2CmbIFThbWJXzc2-Ik4Z0MMZOGvQn0GAD5wfmzAeN5Sg1HxDRvIxwoPDO9RnhsXhgpscKF-b/s1600/IndianVillage.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4dFVAljuFHSOa9kZFX9Qsu4qrc6W7YpKTSnwrWRy4sjgObCykytlsrtNUt6yxJtI05CcC2CmbIFThbWJXzc2-Ik4Z0MMZOGvQn0GAD5wfmzAeN5Sg1HxDRvIxwoPDO9RnhsXhgpscKF-b/s320/IndianVillage.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Indian Village</td></tr>
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Okay, Disney is the absolute master of animatronics. I love them! This little Indian village, across from the Island is one of the best. If you look carefully, you'll see the train tracks on the other side of the village. The steam train runs on the other side, around the perimeter of the park and passes by here. And yes, we DO ride the train every trip and we rode this time as well.<br />
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There were other photos from the trip, but I won't post all of them!<br />
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In addition to the steam train, we did the most rides here at Magic Kingdom. Oh! Another confession. I adore Disney pins. I seldom trade them, but I do collect them. This trip was the trip of ride pins. I collected as many ride pins after the rides as I could. So here's the lot from Magic Kingdom!<br />
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From the top, clockwise, Pirates of the Caribbean (the wheel is hinged like a door and shows the skeleton at the wheel underneath), the Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Splash Mountain<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>The Jungle Cruise</b></i></span><br />
If you've never done this ride, do it. It's not scary although there are plenty of animatronic headhunters and critters. You board an <i>African Queen</i>-inspired boat with a driver who is totally committed to packing in the most puns possible during the ride. I never did figure out how our guide breathed. It was one pun after the other. We laughed the whole way around. You get to go through a cave with what looks like Asian temple ruins. There are elephants threatening to spit water at you, snakes all around, it's just such fun! Sadly, there's no pin for this ride, or at least none that I could find.<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>Pirates of the Caribbean</b></i></span><br />
We hadn't planned to do this ride, but we'd heard it had been revamped after the movies, so in we went. It's awesome! Again, not scary but such fun and yep, there's Captain Jack Sparrow at the end, rocking in a chair with a bottle of rum and talking. It's always a winner.<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>Splash Mountain</b></i></span><br />
I love Splash! The backstory is from the movie <i>Song of the South</i> and the story of Brer Rabbit and his antics. The first time I ever did this ride, I didn't even notice the story because I was dreading the five-story drop. This time I thoroughly enjoyed the build-up AND the drop! This one is a good one to put your hands over your head. Such fun!<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>Haunted Mansion</b></i></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl0YOk_mHAOjYQPZQzcYSCSdATRiDDQSXAaGlKWPDl8VvNavqtVo4tVrbMscu6V8aiR6yOIqUSJcwVYTCixXsFbeJoQJvOKri2_sL-yMo45qkbQn8mr6vU4odKFdF9JFdhAQp8hxdg8vMY/s1600/hauntedmansion.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl0YOk_mHAOjYQPZQzcYSCSdATRiDDQSXAaGlKWPDl8VvNavqtVo4tVrbMscu6V8aiR6yOIqUSJcwVYTCixXsFbeJoQJvOKri2_sL-yMo45qkbQn8mr6vU4odKFdF9JFdhAQp8hxdg8vMY/s320/hauntedmansion.gif" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Haunted Mansion from the Liberty Belle</td></tr>
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This is a must-do! Some of the best Disney magic is in here. You're first shepherded into the gallery to await your train through the mansion. Be careful in here. It's dark and people have started bringing in wheeled carry-on bags. Thus far, the Disney people are allowing those, but they can be dangerous. I almost tripped over one in the dark. Anyway, you're shut into the room with no obvious means of egress and then you notice that the portraits are growing... or are you getting smaller??? At last the door opens and you (at your normal size) exit and board your waiting car for the trip through the house. There are all kinds of animatronics in here, singing statues, graveyard ghouls and all. But the best thing are the ghosts. I know how they do them, but they're always effective. And either I notice different things on different rides, or they change up the ride now and again. Anyway, at the end of the ride, you can see that you have your very own personal ghost with you! Wooooo!!<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (The Runaway Mine Train</b></i></span>)<br />
This is my favorite of all the Magic Kingdom rides and vies with the Rock 'N' Roller Coaster for my favorite ride, period. Enjoy the walk through the line here. There are lots of things to see, many in unexpected places. The ride has lots to look at as well (for the split second you can see them as you go careening past!). The rollie isn't jerky, although it does do some ups and downs and fast turns. Except for a few times through the "tunnels" it's all outside so you can see where you're going. Love it, love it love it!<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>Space Mountain</b></i></span><br />
Ah, Space Mountain. This was our last FastPass+ ride of the day and I forgot that it shouldn't have been. Either they've changed the ride, or it is aging, but I don't remember it being as jerky in the past as it was this trip. And sideways jerky, too, which is the worst for me. I also remember more things to see as you go careening (not all that fast) past. However, the FastPass curse may have come into play here. With a FastPass, you go to the head of the line. In the case of Space Mountain, that means you don't have time to allow your eyes to adjust to the dimness. Not necessarily a good thing. Hopefully, we just caught it on a bad day and the next time we ride Space, it'll be awesome again.<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>Places to Eat</b></i></span><br />
Since we were on Disney's Dining Plan, we used one of our Quick-Service meals for lunch and a snack allotment. We had lunch at the <span style="color: #073763;"><i>Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Cafe</i></span> in FrontierLand. George had a cheeseburger, but I had their signature barbecue pork sandwich. DO get it! Since you're on the Dining Plan, you get dessert with your meal. We had carrot cake. Okay, the icing was a bit sweet, but it was otherwise very good!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq7ISRvEnpNPIN8NdoCqjKIpmRTTDcGP_Di1LTDsCcYD4QVX7zIR7sZ3kQOZZ7HCTZVFDlUbiYc0OYpQ1MF0Fui6S2UowSyeOHooilI5pAeOUjNd0Ps8EY9sIW9Hua55bgMk4XpirPzgXZ/s1600/Alohahut.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq7ISRvEnpNPIN8NdoCqjKIpmRTTDcGP_Di1LTDsCcYD4QVX7zIR7sZ3kQOZZ7HCTZVFDlUbiYc0OYpQ1MF0Fui6S2UowSyeOHooilI5pAeOUjNd0Ps8EY9sIW9Hua55bgMk4XpirPzgXZ/s320/Alohahut.gif" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aloha Isle</td></tr>
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This is THE place to burn your snack allotment! Get yourself over to AdventureLand, to the <span style="color: #073763;"><i>Aloha Isle</i></span> and have yourself a Dole Whip Float. I had mine in pineapple softserv in pineapple juice and it was absolutely magnificent! Next time, I'm going to try the pineapple softserv in orange juice, I think. Anyway, allow yourself some time. This is well-known as the must-do snack and I've never seen fewer than 15 people in each line!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW6kFx9b_eLL6q9OEvUM0l_X_wmv3jvCBfMGttslqgxMbLU3DgqXMVtK8PdL6kTnii7XWxtH6062NqVhr9wky233F1pEXBZD7zOm8kicdpZqTX-PhyMvkFYcUVsS8u0pWuIE5xqpHTQ-R1/s1600/UsWithHiddenMickey.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW6kFx9b_eLL6q9OEvUM0l_X_wmv3jvCBfMGttslqgxMbLU3DgqXMVtK8PdL6kTnii7XWxtH6062NqVhr9wky233F1pEXBZD7zOm8kicdpZqTX-PhyMvkFYcUVsS8u0pWuIE5xqpHTQ-R1/s320/UsWithHiddenMickey.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two Sets of Tired Feet</td></tr>
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Whew! We're getting old or something. We were so tired by about sunset (after realizing that we missed the last boat for Tom Sawyer's Island) that we decided to skip the fireworks and go home. This is a first for me since I love the fireworks behind the Castle, but I was just SO tired! However, dinner was back at the Lodge at Jiko, so how upset could I be?<br />
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See you next time for the Report From Animal Kingdom!<br />
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DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-56602120681853590782012-09-29T23:24:00.000-07:002012-10-02T18:40:47.811-07:00Visiting Disney - Part II haven't blogged since May?? Where DOES the time go? There's so much going on, so I guess I'm going to have to start at the end and go back to the beginning(?). Or something.<br />
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Anyway, George and I spent four full days last week at DisneyWorld. We had decided the last time we took the kids that we would someday return by ourselves. We got the opportunity last spring when I received a "smokin' good deal" offer from DisneyWorld, so we booked.<br />
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First of all, most info on the web will tell you that late September is the quietest time at DisneyWorld. If it is, I'd hate to see the place when it's crowded! Several southeastern school districts have a fall break and they all come to DisneyWorld! Then there are many people from other countries whose school schedules don't correspond to ours and they come to DisneyWorld, too. And we happened to hit during the beginning of the Halloween festivities. And last, but certainly not least, DisneyWorld wasn't created for adults. It's a children-centric, family-centric theme park complex and it will always be so. Having said that, we did have a very, very good time. It's been seven years since our last visit to DisneyWorld and there have been lots of changes. Some have been for the better, some for the worse. So, without further ado, here is the story of our arrival and our lodge.<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>Basic Disney Advice</b></i></span><br />
By the way, my advice to anyone visiting DisneyWorld is to stay at one of the resorts on property. There are lots of them - many more than I even know about. There are resorts for every price-range and interest. If you want a less expensive resort, the All-Star resorts are great. We stayed there the first three trips and they filled the bill at a moderate price. You won't be in your room all that much anyway, so do you really need a
luxury place?? If you want to upscale, though, there are resorts for
every desire, whim, or anything else you can think of. All the resorts feature transportation, which is wonderful - somebody else gets to do the driving! <br />
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The other piece of Disney advice I'd give is to get the Disney Dining Plan. This was the first time we did, and it is so worth it! After paying for your travel, park ticket and room, your biggest expense will be food. The Dining Plan gets almost all of that paid for up front. No surprises. I was afraid we wouldn't use all of the meals in our plan. We fell a snack or two short, but that was only because we didn't use the snack credits when we should have in Epcot. Lesson Learned. The Dining Plan works at all the resort restaurants, too - another reason to stay at an on-property resort.<br />
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Speaking of park ticket, don't necessarily pay the upcharge for the Park Hopper pass. You can probably only manage one park per day, so you probably won't use the ability to go to more than one park. At least, think it through before you spend the money.<br />
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The last piece of advice will sound very strange. Don't necessarily use FastPasses for the big attractions. Sometimes you really want to stand in line. No, I haven't totally lost it. More on this later.<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Getting There Isn't Really Much Fun</i></span></b></span><br />
In my desire to fly non-stop to Orlando, I forgot the primary rule of flying. Fly as close to first thing in the morning as you can. Why? 1) The staff is usually much more cheerful. 2) People tend not to want the earliest flights, so they may not be full, and 3) If something goes wrong, delays pile up upon delays and you can sometimes avoid those by flying early. A flight just before ours developed a cracked windshield. As a result, flight after flight piled up with delays. Our flight was pretty much the sacrificial lamb and we didn't even leave the ground until an hour after we should have arrived in Orlando. Four hours late. Sigh. We planned to use "Mickey's Magical Express" service which would transport the bags from the airport to our room. However, the service stops at 10:00pm and we weren't due in until 10:50. Due to some bad information we received from Disney, we believed that our bags were going to be held until the next day and that we couldn't retrieve them. We had the baggage people here pull the tags from the bags, which was unnecessary, as it turns out. If the bags arrive after 10:00pm, they put them on the carousel regardless. Ah well. Lesson learned.<br />
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The bus delivered us safely to our hotel at about 1:00am. Needless to say, even with Disney Magic, all the restaurants were closed and we got nothing for supper. Ah, but our hotel...<br />
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<span style="color: #073763;"><i><b>Animal Kingdom Lodge</b></i></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNiNqUlfKNan4CIWr3TwJQniYy51mSWRvVLcnoUppELwT9FeTToTBX1fPz_PXVuE5TVGmE9y-0NJxv0pNPpsrW_w77mM6jYZUhYFIZt824qhf6yNz9zQYAIdaPWuM-Zr1btk7iqzayzyLE/s1600/LodgePin.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNiNqUlfKNan4CIWr3TwJQniYy51mSWRvVLcnoUppELwT9FeTToTBX1fPz_PXVuE5TVGmE9y-0NJxv0pNPpsrW_w77mM6jYZUhYFIZt824qhf6yNz9zQYAIdaPWuM-Zr1btk7iqzayzyLE/s320/LodgePin.gif" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pin from Animal Kingdom Lodge</td></tr>
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I've always wanted to stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. If you've ever wanted to, do it. Do it maybe even if you haven't wanted to. We arrived tired, hungry, cranky and not in a very magical frame of mind, to be greeted gently and pleasantly by everyone there. Our package was ready, our room waiting and even a fun Mickey waiting for us, courtesy of a very creative maid, so I believe!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiNxdzYAzAMI72yYLBDKpe46EyaunIMR_HSZktuykOh3Lt0fviqA-EMQagcB-M9ti0v2N6AlJKVW_yugeYLlqgdOBwCBdiybTxNZAbQ4eNdcPPkXhSWWiOkuHLnzdJ44FZ19UJ5YyufNr7/s1600/MickeyOnBed.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiNxdzYAzAMI72yYLBDKpe46EyaunIMR_HSZktuykOh3Lt0fviqA-EMQagcB-M9ti0v2N6AlJKVW_yugeYLlqgdOBwCBdiybTxNZAbQ4eNdcPPkXhSWWiOkuHLnzdJ44FZ19UJ5YyufNr7/s320/MickeyOnBed.gif" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mickey in Towels</td></tr>
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Part of our "smokin' good deal" was an upgrade to a Savannah view room. Yep! That means we could wake up with a giraffe looking in our window! Well, maybe not quite that close, but you look out over the enclosure and you'll see giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, ostriches, and many more critters. Really, truly. I have trouble sleeping the first night in a new place, so I got up at 3:30am or so and looked out the window... right at a small herd of giraffe laying down catching some "z's." I watched one of them get up - no small matter when your legs and neck are that long - and actually rear up a bit. I've never seen that before, even when I worked as a docent in our zoo! I never did get any good photos of the animals from our balcony, but here are a couple:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgndeCBkKvPPtKxMIn-bLYITgj0lECveMsPfwveRwWMw6mtE9lAEZ1xyxwdR4_79MOMB4ITZiUaDVkiG8R2YTI3fa6xwn6J9YVdcwFkdQShHU-zi-WRZ8mrBIkUZuHkaPT5QQko3jkNjytS/s1600/GiraffeFromRoom.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgndeCBkKvPPtKxMIn-bLYITgj0lECveMsPfwveRwWMw6mtE9lAEZ1xyxwdR4_79MOMB4ITZiUaDVkiG8R2YTI3fa6xwn6J9YVdcwFkdQShHU-zi-WRZ8mrBIkUZuHkaPT5QQko3jkNjytS/s320/GiraffeFromRoom.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Giraffe Snoozing Outside Our Window</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8HEaQEjq0VnEpL5pjUPGgygGKTGuGVj34gQm19IBU8C_LXgcQasGb8WPHF8UDZQ-TJxk1ovH8A4dvpfY0e5o9A4C2hNOSxX4s1Bq7mK34MAiW24gmfUPfhA0vcXs34B0KWOIxFMLd3cuQ/s1600/Critters.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8HEaQEjq0VnEpL5pjUPGgygGKTGuGVj34gQm19IBU8C_LXgcQasGb8WPHF8UDZQ-TJxk1ovH8A4dvpfY0e5o9A4C2hNOSxX4s1Bq7mK34MAiW24gmfUPfhA0vcXs34B0KWOIxFMLd3cuQ/s320/Critters.gif" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look Carefully - Lots of Animals!</td></tr>
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Besides the view of the animals, Animal Kingdom Lodge has three of the best restaurants around. The food is truly awesome. <i>Mara</i> is a quick-service, run-your-tray-through-the-line restaurant. It opens early and stays open late. I wasn't expecting much from it, but, whoa, was I wrong! You can get typical food there, but they have a few African specialties, too, which you should really try. The bobotie plate was my hands-down favorite.<br />
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<i>Boma</i> is the second restaurant. It counts as a table-service restaurant, but it's buffet-style. It's a flat-rate, all you can eat place. They have enough "normal" dishes for the less adventurous eaters in the crowd, but their African-inspired dishes are yummy. There's a constant barbecue smell from the place that set my mouth watering every time I passed by, even if I'd just eaten. It's awesome!<br />
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The third restaurant, <i>Jiko</i>, is nothing less than exceptional. We were blessed with being able to chat with the sous-chef, a wonderful woman who can so obviously think in food. She has my unending respect. We also took her recommendations. Gentle hint. Do likewise. We had the swordfish and the pork the first night, with the tea-and-chocolate dessert and the milk tart. The second time we ate there, I had the berbere-crusted duck and George had another pork dish. We had the Black Forest Cake (not traditional and incredibly yummy!) and the tea-and-chocolate dessert again. Honestly, anything you get will be spectacular. Because I was running a fever and starting in on going all symptomatic on my cold, I was feeling awful. Hot tea sounded just perfect so I had their chai. I wish I knew where they get it because it's some of the best I've ever tasted.<br />
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Gentle hint: I'd make reservations for Boma and Jiko. They fill up quickly. Also, if you can stand to, eat late. The crowds are thinning and your experience will be quieter and more pleasant.<br />
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From what I understand, the Tusker House Restaurant in the African section of Animal Kingdom is run by the same people who run Boma, so the food there should be awesome. We didn't try Tusker... well, not exactly by that name. You'll see later! <br />
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In addition to everything else, Animal Kingdom Lodge has activities and features that could keep you right there at the resort for days. Why mess with the crowds in the parks??<br />
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Okay! Enough about Getting There and our Lodge. The next installment will follow our adventures through Magic Kingdom. More photos and less blah-blah, I promise!DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-30160417432029540662012-05-01T21:26:00.000-07:002012-05-02T07:26:13.275-07:00Weaving With Cousin Sam, Yet AgainWe're back from the <a href="http://www.shsu.edu/~smm_www/FolkFestN/" target="_blank">General Sam Houston Folk Festival</a>. We have a breather now between the rush of spring demonstrations just past and the <a href="http://www.texancultures.com/festivals_events/tff_home/" target="_blank">Texas Folklife Festival</a> in June. The demonstration loom was finished just weeks before the beginning of the season. Overall, it's been a resounding sucess. It's a four-harness, counterbalance loom which can be warped at home, collapsed to fit into the back of our SUV and set up at a demonstration site. As much as we previously looked like a modern-day covered wagon, we look even more so now!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6AXkwCGmaS92HPckVDFVEn36Vya72Oz8eK3d2pPDBz3-TvpMxan-N3DUQ1o8M3kzE_AHSDoWFmS9LZusFiHBQwVvCtfiueJdle6TeLC8AADnpMNOCVqCRxooCvYXr9BRjM3Y_UmUYbGcw/s1600/CoveredWagon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6AXkwCGmaS92HPckVDFVEn36Vya72Oz8eK3d2pPDBz3-TvpMxan-N3DUQ1o8M3kzE_AHSDoWFmS9LZusFiHBQwVvCtfiueJdle6TeLC8AADnpMNOCVqCRxooCvYXr9BRjM3Y_UmUYbGcw/s320/CoveredWagon.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Covered Wagon</td></tr>
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Here's the loom in the SUV with the tent alongside and the spinning wheel tucked in as well. Once these things are in, the rest of everything is tucked in as best we can. The display table which used to go underneath the loom now has to be strapped to the top of the car, but we're a self-contained unit!<br />
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Once the loom was finished I warped on a "maiden voyage" project - a overshot scarf. The warp was a space-dyed sock yarn. The tabby weft was sewing thread while the pattern weft was sock yarn in tonal purples. Overall, it looks good. It was mostly a "iron the bugs out" project. Here's the loom with the first project on it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZmZBApFe_qeurQIq0fH1q3z5UByf25OBBMHQJgTgDY-dHy78RocFl-av5ShQ57hk-_RIh5hP8r_gJLM0SuLG9ugnUrMYvER_nV8yilguLaE9ghGIj16h8dS5XUsqLxajygjCpEYPC0_CJ/s1600/DemoLoomMaidenVoyage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZmZBApFe_qeurQIq0fH1q3z5UByf25OBBMHQJgTgDY-dHy78RocFl-av5ShQ57hk-_RIh5hP8r_gJLM0SuLG9ugnUrMYvER_nV8yilguLaE9ghGIj16h8dS5XUsqLxajygjCpEYPC0_CJ/s320/DemoLoomMaidenVoyage.jpg" width="218" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maiden Voyage</td></tr>
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We've had an ongoing problem with the shafts staying horizontal. In the end, I used Joanne Hall's suggestion of elastic loops keeping the upper shaft bars horizontal. It seems to work just fine.<br />
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The loom's first outing was to a 3-day workshop with Joanne. A counterbalance or countermarche loom was required for the Opphämta sample and I had the only one available. I loved the workshop and I need to take photos of my samples. The Opphämta is interesting in that it gives a great deal of flexibility in the pattern design, although it is some slower than traditional overshot.<br />
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The St.-Francis-Upon-The-Hill Renaissance Faire was the loom's second outing and first demonstration. Although we were without Cassie this year, I decided to try a "worm to ecclesiastical stole project. Well, I didn't spin the yarn nor did I dye it. However, I wove the fabric for the face of the stole at the Faire (mostly). I chose Gothic Cross from Marguerite Porter Davison's<em> A Handweaver's Pattern Book,</em> and wove it in two shades of purple silk. What a joy silk is to work with! Gothic Cross is a beautiful pattern but I had trouble keeping track of where I was while demonstrating. I probably won't try that again! But I did finish the stole (at five o'clock in the morning!) in time for Elizabethean Mass the following morning!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDESCryxoKJjUixolESVy6Qc0i5RV90L1YvO4OkpbdacASgqvtHv0eqehy4aDjSzPovFt04udYjKogLpcV7Db8kaBCMCe6IXWaKDI9D3N1QHziAcXZh3Jxdt0dNDD_cEEXWS6vlblfN_uu/s1600/GCStoleDetail.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDESCryxoKJjUixolESVy6Qc0i5RV90L1YvO4OkpbdacASgqvtHv0eqehy4aDjSzPovFt04udYjKogLpcV7Db8kaBCMCe6IXWaKDI9D3N1QHziAcXZh3Jxdt0dNDD_cEEXWS6vlblfN_uu/s320/GCStoleDetail.gif" width="209" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Stole</td></tr>
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Next up was a one-day festival at Camp CAMP, a camp in the Hill Country set up specifically for children with developmental difficulties, who can't attend a regular camp. What wonderful work they're doing! They wanted a mini-Folklife Festival, so we found ourselves in company with a blacksmith and a flintknapper. I'd never seen flint shaped into spearheads or arrowheads before. It's fascinating! And to me, a blacksmith is a magician.<br />
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I chose to do a traditional overshot pattern in very untraditional colors for the Fest. It turned out beautifully! I don't have any photos of the piece on the loom, but the piece is still in my possession and I'll get photos of it soon.<br />
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Our next outing was the San Antonio Highland Games. Sadly, the piece we chose to weave didn't make it through the transportation process. Something happened, either in my setting the loom up or during moves, that caused the tension to go completely crazy. Once I had the tension corrected, I had breakage problems in the warp. I finally had to give up on the piece. I'll weave it again this summer as it was a beautiful sash in the MacLean Hunting tartan. The sash was intended for Cassie, so it hurt doubly bad to lose it.<br />
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And now for Cousin Sam's Festival! The Festival was only two days this year instead of three. Friday was still School Day, but with maybe 2/3 the number of children we saw last year. The loom covered itself with glory. I tried Barleycorn, a structure I've never tried before. I was scared at first because Barleycorn is based on huck lace which is an unbalanced weave. Counterbalance looms want to move two shafts at a time. Huck lace puts three shafts against one. However, huck has been woven for centuries and must have been woven on counterbalance looms. The loom, of course, did just fine.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO_eQNdSe_9eJYOEWN7BW3Xos_ASQFOw3YL2gYP_3IdJ58fEEsIxDZfN28afIbYOqpAlZoLL6e4fye7J19O3AoZHc9siTBhYKIBjboVoEitWGnZhkc6Hfvs1YieoSvlADtIKXc33GyfIM5/s1600/BarleycornOnLoom1.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO_eQNdSe_9eJYOEWN7BW3Xos_ASQFOw3YL2gYP_3IdJ58fEEsIxDZfN28afIbYOqpAlZoLL6e4fye7J19O3AoZHc9siTBhYKIBjboVoEitWGnZhkc6Hfvs1YieoSvlADtIKXc33GyfIM5/s320/BarleycornOnLoom1.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Barea Linen (Barleycorn) Towels On The Loom</td></tr>
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I warped four towels on the loom, intending to weave off two during the Sam Houston festival and the last two during Folklife. However, I was well into the second towel by the end of the first day and into the third by the end of the second day. I'll weave these off and choose another project for Folklife. The first two towels used a pale willow green as the pattern weft. I was getting a little tired of it by the end of the second towel, so the last two are being done with a periwinkle shade - kind of a purple-blue. They're turning out very well.<br />
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Here I am in my prairie regalia weaving away at the Festival.<br />
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And one last shot of the entire booth with George demonstrating drop spinning.<br />
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And it's not like I'm doing no weaving in between festivals. I have another Atwater-Bronson lace <span style="color: black;">shawl on the Glimakra. George upgraded it to a 10-shaft countermarche loom and this is its maiden voyage. I've designed four overshot scarves, one of which is one the loom now.</span><br />
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But that's all for now. More later!<br />
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</span>DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-28246615450069503342011-12-15T16:24:00.000-08:002011-12-15T16:24:34.649-08:00Weaving Scarves (and Spa Cloths)It's funny when you feel as though you're not making any progress and then you start counting up the finished items... and realize that you've gotten quite a bit done indeed! I'm feeling much more cheerful about my weaving. Not much is being done on the floor looms, but my rigid-heddle looms, especially my little Cricket, have been working their heddles to the bone!<br />
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<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763;">Spa Cloths</span></i></b><br />
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I've finished nine spa cloths. They're all hand-finished, washed, dried and ready to find new homes. The four in the photo above are destined to leave here in the next few days. The three in the bowl... well... we'll see what happens with them. I have lots of yarn just waiting to become more spa cloths. There's more of the lavender, lavender linen to make a different version, a set of natural colored yarn for yet another set and much more waiting in the wings!<br />
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<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763;">Scarves and More Scarves</span></i></b><br />
I usually don't like making scarves. I seldom wear them and don't often give them as gifts. However, they're great as samples. They typically don't use much yarn and they're a finished project. I've been working with my Cricket, developing projects that could be woven on a narrow loom and still be attractive. Here are two scarves that depend on the color of the yarn to make them work.<br />
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<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763;">Autumn Scarf</span></i></b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicfYkZkkiOwrP6JYT-SXQc3DC0m8Uu0iEF3k9LR64DzUgIEykRHa4Y0hzn7B5S1tFwHcX8pPVB7bTo84EX82QWFvDTgsG2GS0YrZVG7PhQGoPCiLxYYMFSJnKgTkgcqzZjUSkQ31v41tVe/s1600/AutumnKauni.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicfYkZkkiOwrP6JYT-SXQc3DC0m8Uu0iEF3k9LR64DzUgIEykRHa4Y0hzn7B5S1tFwHcX8pPVB7bTo84EX82QWFvDTgsG2GS0YrZVG7PhQGoPCiLxYYMFSJnKgTkgcqzZjUSkQ31v41tVe/s320/AutumnKauni.jpg" width="302" /></a></div>This scarf, while technically woven on the Flip loom, could easily have been done on the Cricket. It has very subtle color variations that don't really show in the photograph. The warp is striped in stripes, alternating wide stripes of forest green with narrow ones of brown. The weft is the autumn-colors <a href="http://www.kauni.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10&Itemid=20" target="_blank">Kauni Effektgarn</a> (color EV). It's easy to see the gradual shading of the Kauni, but the warp stripes give a depth to the scarf that's more subtle.<br />
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<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763;">Faux Ikat Scarf</span></i></b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiedP_Hi853kiGzgzmoRZcZ_NOh-xffGU1DU3zJ7uIRMS6eCehSdWiCyfwjs-eqsZNwctGUZcnYVSJziGU5RiTCYo9Vr0KOO_zCVRqmHWrtkXGz_tMfNxdJSurTzcGocX8IQrPfoqZToW92/s1600/FauxIkatScarf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiedP_Hi853kiGzgzmoRZcZ_NOh-xffGU1DU3zJ7uIRMS6eCehSdWiCyfwjs-eqsZNwctGUZcnYVSJziGU5RiTCYo9Vr0KOO_zCVRqmHWrtkXGz_tMfNxdJSurTzcGocX8IQrPfoqZToW92/s320/FauxIkatScarf.jpg" width="296" /></a></div>Now this one is just fun, and I mean fun! You take a handpaint sock yarn with shorter color runs (this isn't the time for Mini-Mochi or Kauni) and arrange it on the warping board so that the colors pool together. You can't wind the warp "out-and-back" style as you usually do, you have to wind it around in large circles. The diameter of the circle depends on the repeat of the colors. I used Great Adirondack's Silky Sock for this scarf. A single color repeat was a bit over a yard, so the finished scarf with two color repeats was.. very long. Not The Fourth Doctor long, but long. The interesting thing is that it's not as easy to get the colors to pool as you might think. Sometimes, I think they had been caught in a skein backwards or something because the winding would be going along well and then would come a thread that didn't fit at all. I finally realized that those threads would have to simply be cut out. Things went better after that, until I saw that one rogue thread made it into the warp, dead in the middle. I pronounced it a design element and off we went!<br />
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The scarf is woven off with Malagrigo Sock in Violeta Africana, a beautiful tonal purple in Malabrigo's cushy-soft merino wool. I am really proud of this scarf!<br />
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<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763;">Lace on a Rigid-Heddle Loom</span></i></b><br />
But tabby weave, while pretty, was getting a bit boring, so I decided to play with weft floats. In multi-harness weaving, this is how laces such as Atwater-Bronson and Huck laces are done. The same thing can be done even more easily with a rigid-heddle loom. All that is needed is the addition of a pick-up stick. The pick-up stick is placed such that every other slot warp thread is caught. Then when the pick-up stick is used in place of the down heddle position, only half of the threads are lifted, which means the weft thread skips over all of the hole warp threads and half of the slot warp threads. This draws the warp threads together just close enough to make a normal down heddle pass stand apart from the weft float section. And this gives us lace!<br />
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<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763;">Bamboo Lace Scarf</span></i></b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtWzinPHVLy276IxLHSsr6uOtsOfOVKoK_CYkirGtuwLVVnGzkfDsRRIrLia7QhOddozIsEgK0dXmtLVHIJYoC73m2PvZI4eBot4Dj72MvcppkD5rCdNYrt9I8J5-cXGpnQepTexgGorhg/s1600/BambooLaceScarf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtWzinPHVLy276IxLHSsr6uOtsOfOVKoK_CYkirGtuwLVVnGzkfDsRRIrLia7QhOddozIsEgK0dXmtLVHIJYoC73m2PvZI4eBot4Dj72MvcppkD5rCdNYrt9I8J5-cXGpnQepTexgGorhg/s320/BambooLaceScarf.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>The first lace scarf was woven in a fingering weight pure bamboo, Midori by <a href="http://www.fiberlady.com/" target="_blank">Fiber Lady</a>. I met the Fiber Lady folks at KidNEwe this year. Their yarns and rovings are beautiful - hand-dyed in luscious colors. But the natural color is beautiful, too, and I thought it would make a lovely lace scarf, as indeed it did. I bought WAY too much yarn and roving from them, but I probably won't see them again for a year, so I had to have enough to tide me over! The next ones will probably be woven on the floor looms... maybe. Again, this scarf was technically woven on the Flip, but could easily have been done on the Cricket.<br />
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<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763;">Aqua Panda Silk Scarf</span></i></b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggDOahbY5SfTuPRIZHLI_2WcSrGcz_sRpDuWy6NJRAkFJh8vW8bdwLPEDKigApRhAwgARQ1IOQ4mIXX7AWyCHYEUjpQ-FVO2B_YPyCgo7cq9Qtv1oAftQGlEaE-lS9Fo11pDgJt5X1D_2Y/s1600/PandaSilkScarfAqua.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggDOahbY5SfTuPRIZHLI_2WcSrGcz_sRpDuWy6NJRAkFJh8vW8bdwLPEDKigApRhAwgARQ1IOQ4mIXX7AWyCHYEUjpQ-FVO2B_YPyCgo7cq9Qtv1oAftQGlEaE-lS9Fo11pDgJt5X1D_2Y/s320/PandaSilkScarfAqua.jpg" width="268" /></a></div>And here's the last scarf in the collection, a lace scarf woven in Panda Silk. The warp is the subtly variegated Blue Lagoon color while the weft is the solid Aquarium. The Blue Lagoon gives the scarf very subtle warp-wise striping. While it was on the loom, I thought it would have been better to have woven it with the colors reversed. Now that it's off the loom and finished, I think I prefer the way I did it. I'm working on another Panda Silk scarf with the variegated in the weft and the solid in the warp. We'll see how it compares.<br />
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So back to the looms and more weaving!DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-83786595973585483542011-11-27T19:11:00.000-08:002011-11-27T19:11:19.435-08:00O Come, O Come<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Advent Wreath 2011</td></tr>
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We've made it through Thanksgiving and into the Advent season. This year, I decided to make a new Advent wreath. The old one was too big to fit anywhere, so I took the purple decorations from it and put them on a large candle wreath. Then I put the candle wreath of evergreens inside a wood-looking (resin) Advent wreath/candleholder I've had forever. With new candles, it's ready to go. All I could find this year were blue candles and the pink one. I prefer purple candles, but the blue ones looked rustic and were so pretty, that I used them. Maybe next year I'll actually start well before the Advent season! (It would be a first!)<br />
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In the center, in place of the white Christ candle, I put the Madonna and Child icon given to me by my friend from Turkey. As I recall, the icon is from Ephesus, traditionally the last home of the Virgin, as she was taken there by the Apostle John. It's on my Bucket List of places to visit.<br />
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The Christmas wreath is on the door and another on the wall beside the garage. After St. Nicholas' Day (December 6th), I'll start putting the "candles" in the windows and begin the Christmas decorations.<br />
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<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763;">Making Spa Cloths</span></i></b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8m331KH8Ndh6x1jwZj-jfsoq8e9KmE_RN-xXPAy3zftkgiHpWm_hFAhPcJ6KtgCy6MEqo4_7b9beFIeI9_ZpK6voaNRZ_lvvfyo56BYCQZYpqZb78CaSMdS-n15x6xSIuAtCNUAbyjZlH/s1600/BlueSpaCloth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8m331KH8Ndh6x1jwZj-jfsoq8e9KmE_RN-xXPAy3zftkgiHpWm_hFAhPcJ6KtgCy6MEqo4_7b9beFIeI9_ZpK6voaNRZ_lvvfyo56BYCQZYpqZb78CaSMdS-n15x6xSIuAtCNUAbyjZlH/s320/BlueSpaCloth.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blue Spa Cloths on the Loom</td></tr>
</tbody></table>The Cricket rigid-heddle group on Ravelry is doing a spa-cloth weave-along. I thought they'd be really good gifts for Christmas this year, so I decided to participate... well, as soon as I could free up the Cricket loom. This is a difficult thing as there's always a project on the Cricket! But I did find some linen yarn at Yarnivore as well as the Grass yarn (hemp and cotton) for the weft. The first warp I put on was a bit over a yard in length and was a slate-blue linen. The weft was a marled blue Grass yarn. I used a #8 knitting needle to form the loops. I have one finished cloth and three others waiting to be hand-finished.<br />
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The linen yarn was awfully hard on my hands, so I used Hempathy - a hemp / modal blend - for the warp on my current set. Again, I'm using the Grass in the weft and will get four cloths from this warp. Wrapped with a lovely bar of hand-made soap from a local soap-maker, the cloths will make wonderful gifts!DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-40614862971246050842011-10-17T12:16:00.000-07:002011-10-17T19:01:45.858-07:00Wax On / Wax Off or The Big and The Little Of ItIt's been a busy time around here. While we've been getting ready for the <a href="http://www.austincelticfestival.com/">Austin Celtic Festival</a>, I got a crazy desire to look at Glimakra looms. We've been talking about building a small reproduction loom for demonstrations and the most authentic loom we've seen is the old Swedish loom at the Institute of Texan Cultures. We went to closely examine their loom and then looked at modern Glimakra looms. They're so close! We toyed with the idea of getting a smaller Glimakra, but George is sure he can build one, and I know he can.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS_FRs42dKIh5avGRyfdBuKuv8pPCsExPDSxeyBqi4LU6gkRKLArYJkUgQmJ4i4IxrdZvVzR6Un23fLVETiqW-b8Y-nd-4fkvLAz1UHZy1lJDQ3bROKYSL_KEDzFUMvJ_GdEehMFlmqzwL/s1600/TheBigAndTheLittle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS_FRs42dKIh5avGRyfdBuKuv8pPCsExPDSxeyBqi4LU6gkRKLArYJkUgQmJ4i4IxrdZvVzR6Un23fLVETiqW-b8Y-nd-4fkvLAz1UHZy1lJDQ3bROKYSL_KEDzFUMvJ_GdEehMFlmqzwL/s320/TheBigAndTheLittle.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See the small Cricket loom on the bench of the Glimakra??</td></tr>
</tbody></table>I've always wanted a Glimakra, but the Standard, their workhorse loom, is big. I mean BIG. Although how would I know since I'd never seen one?? Something made me browse Craigslist and what should I see but a Glimakra Standard loom for sale. It was 45" wide and supposedly 4-harness, 6-treadle countermarche. Well, I wanted a countermarche, figuring that it would be more useful than counterbalance. However, I already have two 4-harness / 6-treadle looms so why this one? I got in touch with the <a href="http://www.glimakrausa.com/">Glimakra USA</a> representative and found out that Glimakras can be upgraded. She gave me tips on what to look for in a used loom and information on setting up a Glimakra.<br />
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When we went to look at the loom, we found that it was counterbalance, not countermarche, and had been sitting in a garage for years. But it was in pretty good shape, had tons of accessories, and since I'd found out that Glimkras can be almost infinitely upgraded, we decided to make an offer. By the end of the day, my birthday present was a pile of lumber in the garage and no place to put it.<br />
<br />
Right after getting the Glimakra home, we were up against the annual insanity known as <a href="http://www.hcyc2011.mybigcommerce.com/">Yarn Crawl</a> - the 4-day event held among 9 area yarn shops. Working Yarn Crawl leaves time for nothing else, but I did manage to do one thing... actually four things. I wove three scarves on a rigid-heddle loom and bought my own <a href="http://www.schachtspindle.com/our_products/cricket.php">Cricket loom</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGyZxGofO53YBc6lze-fz96smBQfmWQGAwqW78j2FNKoEQbAYKtLHS1IW9E4zhpdS__kV66Ce_SEm6-lDnmaSbirPD39HwlBdQc6QGfsKemxvBzCEIc9NOZc2NpiZbmN1xuQzk2DoCeOqL/s1600/Cricket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGyZxGofO53YBc6lze-fz96smBQfmWQGAwqW78j2FNKoEQbAYKtLHS1IW9E4zhpdS__kV66Ce_SEm6-lDnmaSbirPD39HwlBdQc6QGfsKemxvBzCEIc9NOZc2NpiZbmN1xuQzk2DoCeOqL/s320/Cricket.jpg" width="257" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Cricket Loom</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Why another loom, especially a loom that some consider "toy" looms? Well, it isn't a toy, it's a very well-designed small loom. It's compact enough to take with me, I can warp it in less than an hour and it's a great adjunct to my larger weaving life. I keep it downstairs and weave while I'm enjoying my morning coffee. No sitting at the computer, no working on something else, just sit and weave and sip coffee and look out the windows. (It's time to feed the birds again!) A great way to start my day!<br />
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<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763;">The Chakra Scarf</span></i></b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpWbilgcGjOOCj82MF93I1Df69W8bSiPj-AaT5uizNKtuZNFEnE2E7vPd03sS7WERH9BQ4l2D9_-o2SZzvTaqnXVwIzCoBRqhNRJH02x1CCw1Zm4u4-kux__gQ3OPQKbSWds0U8oPaxcox/s1600/ChakraWeaveScarf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpWbilgcGjOOCj82MF93I1Df69W8bSiPj-AaT5uizNKtuZNFEnE2E7vPd03sS7WERH9BQ4l2D9_-o2SZzvTaqnXVwIzCoBRqhNRJH02x1CCw1Zm4u4-kux__gQ3OPQKbSWds0U8oPaxcox/s320/ChakraWeaveScarf.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Chakra Scarf</td></tr>
</tbody></table>So first off the little loom was this Chakra scarf! It's made with Noro's Silk Garden Sock in the warp and Mango Moon's Chakra yarn in the weft. The stones and beads in the Chakra yarn are hand-tied by women in Indonesia and Nepal. <a href="http://www.mangomoonyarns.com/index.php">Mango Moon</a> is a Fair Trade company and sales of their products benefits these women. I wasn't pleased with the scarf on the loom, but I really like it off-loom. The stones and beads in the Chakra give it a weight and drape. I like to wear it with a black dress or top. It makes a statement!<br />
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There are two more scarves off the loom from the same Silk Garden Sock yarn as the Chakra scarf. They'll have to be photographed and posted soon. The scarf on the loom right now is a "let the yarn do the work" scarf. The warp is a handpaint lace yarn -<a href="http://www.knittingfever.com/c/yarn/ella-rae-lace-merino/"> Ella Rae Lace Merino</a> and the weft is <a href="http://www.mangomoonyarns.com/category-40.php">Capra</a>, a silk / mohair blend also from Mango Moon. Mohair doesn't work in the warp as it's almost impossible to get a clean shed, but it's lovely in the weft.<br />
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<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763;">Dyeing My Own</span></i></b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXoKB1-XKJRMF6Z0i1h8X5WuT1KPs19-kVuCL5kK8M8-gpSnB6qvMK6Q90-t1IbxVR2NXjxXwhJGBpPeNJC_jBsuuikyQKd2E8rHPvgpKmj_na7pmEUB07MbSbdGweznuht7Pcnf8143eD/s1600/ColorWheelProject.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXoKB1-XKJRMF6Z0i1h8X5WuT1KPs19-kVuCL5kK8M8-gpSnB6qvMK6Q90-t1IbxVR2NXjxXwhJGBpPeNJC_jBsuuikyQKd2E8rHPvgpKmj_na7pmEUB07MbSbdGweznuht7Pcnf8143eD/s320/ColorWheelProject.jpg" width="313" /></a></div><br />
But the next project will be a color project to the nines! Twelves, actually... This involves a confession. I'm afraid of color. I'm afraid of making a mistake. I don't know what goes with what nor do I know how to add that spark that makes things really glow. But I figure I can learn, so I'm going to learn. I'm starting the learning process by working through Gail Callahan's <i>Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece</i>. Last night's project was dyeing 12 small skeins of sock yarn in 12 colors of the color wheel. All the dyes were mixed from three stock solutions - red, yellow and blue - made with McCormick's food colors. Yep, this is a kitchen project. When all the skeins were in the dyebaths (small Mason jars) and arranged in a wheel, I got a crazy idea. I'd mis-measured and made 40-yard skeins when I intended to make 20-yard skeins. However, 40-yard skeins gives me enough to do a color gamp scarf project on my trusty Cricket. As soon as the mohair scarf is off the loom, I'll warp on the color gamp project with each shade set off with black yarn. This should be pretty!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu5fECW0TVRdqh5zUQnEC9w6QfJfZ91idh86mD-v4OXpAXuHgUvtkE9bqjNiUEBsUvG1OLgUeMGmeGM3BnIFzZos7MbIPdU1RwKFvdA9IDiQjU3ulVRT9VIwnYnaULIHlXM6xbJ6BFZ5Yg/s1600/ColorWheelYarnSkeins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu5fECW0TVRdqh5zUQnEC9w6QfJfZ91idh86mD-v4OXpAXuHgUvtkE9bqjNiUEBsUvG1OLgUeMGmeGM3BnIFzZos7MbIPdU1RwKFvdA9IDiQjU3ulVRT9VIwnYnaULIHlXM6xbJ6BFZ5Yg/s320/ColorWheelYarnSkeins.jpg" width="248" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Finished Skeins</td></tr>
</tbody></table><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763;"><br />
</span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763;">Pinwheel Towels</span></i></b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjicNnN0-3x5WrP9Piqb6FU70wTpIIQZE5o66ZmcBcKOxAsLj2VKeP403RtUHS6kKeV60e4jC11QpnlfkoAWvjh9f8L-M2OSkk1DKGVDjrHTLEoS7682sAlsiBPPtlZZeh35tBGcmZCod5E/s1600/PinwheelTowels1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjicNnN0-3x5WrP9Piqb6FU70wTpIIQZE5o66ZmcBcKOxAsLj2VKeP403RtUHS6kKeV60e4jC11QpnlfkoAWvjh9f8L-M2OSkk1DKGVDjrHTLEoS7682sAlsiBPPtlZZeh35tBGcmZCod5E/s320/PinwheelTowels1.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763;"><br />
</span></i></b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span">And yes, I finally finished all six towels of the pinwheel project. Four will leave for the towel exchange, but two are staying here. George refuses to use them, but I love them... hanging on the stove handle... not being used...</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763;"><b><i>The Autumn Leaves Shawl</i></b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span">But wait! I didn't leave the poor Glimakra as a pile of lumber in the garage! Last week was the project of starting to clean out and rearrange the upstairs. Now that both kids are more or less moved out, it's time to rethink how we use the house. This is their home, too, but it's time that old stuff leaves to make room for the new. So after hauling and moving and giving away and throwing out, there was a spot for the Glimakra in the loft. Wax on / Wax off?? The wood was so dry that every bit had to be conditioned with our favorite Ashford Spinning Wheel wax. If I ever leave the Cricket unwarped for five minutes, it'll get the same treatment.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span">Setting up a counterbalance loom requires having a project on it. I tried to think of something that wouldn't be too much of a challenge to weave and finally thought of a chenille shawl project kit I've had laying around for years. I hauled it out and warped it onto the Glimakra. At first I was wondering why anyone bothers to put on anything less than 10 yards, but the shawl is fine. It didn't take but a time or so around the warp beam, but everything got on and tensioned correctly. Then came tying up the loom and setting everything up. After only a few mistakes the old girl was weaving again.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyr8h8OVIN3kGF72RZ37V1CXLeHtXcLqRUtrBjR_80utLnKxw3dFVvE-WuDdXn2-dTI7_yaGKp2ajOY2SsImHgWJoOdJ_pDD4fHOo9kUPnG2pMxR_EeDqcnpzn-enSu3GIBvtd7a4iPEdx/s1600/ChenilleShawlOnLoom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyr8h8OVIN3kGF72RZ37V1CXLeHtXcLqRUtrBjR_80utLnKxw3dFVvE-WuDdXn2-dTI7_yaGKp2ajOY2SsImHgWJoOdJ_pDD4fHOo9kUPnG2pMxR_EeDqcnpzn-enSu3GIBvtd7a4iPEdx/s320/ChenilleShawlOnLoom.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span">Which caused the biggest surprise. I like counterbalance looms. I'm going to leave her that way for a while before I upgrade her.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><i>Leave it as it is.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><i>Never mind the turpentine.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><i>Just leave it as it is.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><i>It's fine.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><i>-- David Wilcox</i></span></div>DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7147858011661822583.post-49716604211881176032011-09-21T09:17:00.000-07:002011-09-21T09:17:01.410-07:00Weaving with the Bionic EyeOkay, back to the looms! I finished the shadow weave scarves after the surgery, but didn't consider that the real test of my vision. I AM pleased with how they turned out, so before telling the tale of warping with new vision, here are the finished scarves!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOdV8-3fFSbaAhTB-InkRlQxcvdXw3vd7HVrTz_8NJtXzv5YZfF9THmmCaqd9Yn3gIu0cNwJgj04GOhfn9I_kzqN92yYg5tzpEayxA4GCaPREfvCM-7lNnXYpr3acNbLdQYGkW9TE6m0f3/s1600/ShadowWeaveScarf2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOdV8-3fFSbaAhTB-InkRlQxcvdXw3vd7HVrTz_8NJtXzv5YZfF9THmmCaqd9Yn3gIu0cNwJgj04GOhfn9I_kzqN92yYg5tzpEayxA4GCaPREfvCM-7lNnXYpr3acNbLdQYGkW9TE6m0f3/s320/ShadowWeaveScarf2.jpg" width="247" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shadow Weave Scarf - Tromp as Writ</td></tr>
</tbody></table>The first scarf is "tromp as writ," meaning that it is treadled exactly as it's threaded. In this case, it forms little boxes of alternating design. Shadow weave tends to be complex and this one was no exception. It's one of the few where I've had to keep the draft beside me to remember the treadling sequence. Having said that, I must say I love this draft!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYZEt98sZNvlygnT1ZSKR1J0z0D-6yZW3GZwD8P2fwQhxXYAEcUUg_iG0V9E214Sq8sYfUUwAVnv1rUJpAHW_U30dDZOD-D9yVeqFgHRs-uUOkhhgFe6nuu-orx7narrI5GaZXITsx-ltC/s1600/ShadowWeaveScarf1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYZEt98sZNvlygnT1ZSKR1J0z0D-6yZW3GZwD8P2fwQhxXYAEcUUg_iG0V9E214Sq8sYfUUwAVnv1rUJpAHW_U30dDZOD-D9yVeqFgHRs-uUOkhhgFe6nuu-orx7narrI5GaZXITsx-ltC/s320/ShadowWeaveScarf1.jpg" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shadow Weave Scarf - Alternate Treadling</td></tr>
</tbody></table>This is the alternate treadling for the threading I used. It's a simpler treadling and gives a kind of striped effect. It should have gone faster than the first treadling, but the surgery interrupted its progress, so it took longer to complete.<div><br />
</div><div>After twisting the fringe and wet-finishing the pieces, the chenille turned out soft and slinky. Very nice! Chenille isn't my favorite thing to weave, especially in the warp. Several warp threads broke - some from Cat Assistance - but it wasn't a big deal to fix and they turned out well. I may tackle chenille again sometime.</div><div><br />
</div><div><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763;">Pinwheel Towels</span></i></b></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjshhX1k-rdZrqcyzaqwJx3ItbxMFgpTApJLEnOPAtAAbOFv6WwdCWsIV9AVS7D-7OYF7MiccWk3aHCRaBJtZ6PfIUOVyuzqcGyTs4hWNo3Co6bQ-RG0DFBsBo79fpXQBS61qkjI6b_y_54/s1600/PinwheelTowelsyarn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjshhX1k-rdZrqcyzaqwJx3ItbxMFgpTApJLEnOPAtAAbOFv6WwdCWsIV9AVS7D-7OYF7MiccWk3aHCRaBJtZ6PfIUOVyuzqcGyTs4hWNo3Co6bQ-RG0DFBsBo79fpXQBS61qkjI6b_y_54/s320/PinwheelTowelsyarn.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thread for the Towels</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div>I'm participating in a handwoven towel exchange in the Warped Weavers Ravelry group. I came across the draft for color-and-weave pinwheel towels in Handwoven Magazine's <a href="http://www.interweavestore.com/Weaving/Books/Winning-Towels-Handwovens-21st-Century-Towel-Contest.html?SessionThemeID=24">Winning Towels</a> - an e-book with the drafts of the winning towels from their recent competition. The original towels were done in teals and white with a specific yellow accent. I liked the colors, but I couldn't match all the colors the designer used. When I did finally choose colors - not quite as teal, more to the blue - I really wanted the specific yellow accent she used. It's not too eye-bending yellow, but does provide a good contrast. I finally found one supplier with a mini-cone of the yellow. After quite a search, I found the other colors I needed from the same supplier and so finally got the yarn ordered.</div><div><br />
</div><div>And now to warp! Because of the color sequences, measuring the warp was a challenge, but it let me think out of the box and think how I use my warping board. This is the first time I've used the warping board for a long warp since we redesigned the weaving studio. I'm still not really happy with how it works, but it will do until I think of something better. Once the I started measuring the warp, it was time to sley it into the reed. In some ways, I was kind of scared, not being sure if I could see. The good news is that since my intermediate and close vision is improving in the "bionic" eye, it wasn't as difficult as I thought. I sleyed most of it without reading glasses.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Of course, threading the heddles is the tricky part, but again, no problems. I used reading glasses... and then found myself looking over them as I was threading. So I took them off for part of the process. I think I can say that my vision isn't hampering me in my weaving any more than it ever did, and in some ways is much better.</div><div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga4SV68UntJvvkS3PXWDAWt3vIaM70SBJa5RYIsBmrE7-Gn1zPnLfMAMtN6sNeeK53Lm_e8AaG6P4n6lxT8zgEMazYwp4dggmSDzxSSDi74aBDPQys5wRorZKcwU4cX9-gb3pr5S4_KrEg/s1600/PinweelTowelsOnLoom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga4SV68UntJvvkS3PXWDAWt3vIaM70SBJa5RYIsBmrE7-Gn1zPnLfMAMtN6sNeeK53Lm_e8AaG6P4n6lxT8zgEMazYwp4dggmSDzxSSDi74aBDPQys5wRorZKcwU4cX9-gb3pr5S4_KrEg/s320/PinweelTowelsOnLoom.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pinwheel Towels on the Loom</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div><br />
</div><div>These are turning out very well! The interplay of the colors with the pinwheel pattern is very interesting. When I was warping the loom, I wondered if it would be possible to see the pinwheels. Traditionally, pinwheel alternates 8 light colors and 8 dark colors. No contiguous eight colors are the same in this draft. But it works and you can see the pinwheels in areas where the weft color sequence is the same as the warp color sequence. Hopefully, it can be seen in this detail photo:</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSfhSBFtTic58tfCsDOAwpm3fWr5oBn2nCCfoR8fxBT8O5W2hTQGEnMOIrYpCy11s8lhH4xRGSYwUo3WKCEAQwLzi3LGHUSj1GtacwEUdQgrBE11OkK9529zmtZbvySjZnoEHAldlYD0HN/s1600/PinwheelTowelsDetail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSfhSBFtTic58tfCsDOAwpm3fWr5oBn2nCCfoR8fxBT8O5W2hTQGEnMOIrYpCy11s8lhH4xRGSYwUo3WKCEAQwLzi3LGHUSj1GtacwEUdQgrBE11OkK9529zmtZbvySjZnoEHAldlYD0HN/s320/PinwheelTowelsDetail.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pinwheel Towels - Detail</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div>The pinwheels are easiest to see in the lower left corner. I'll get more photos as the process continues.</div><div><br />
</div><div>I think I can say... I'm back in the weaving room!</div><div><br />
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</div>DebbiRYarnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09372537454421664183noreply@blogger.com2