Saturday, April 04, 2009

welcome to the sweatshop!

It's day one of my working holiday. My mum came over for a good chunck of the day to help me get started on the long list of jobs I have to do this week. While she was here we measured, cut, serged and sewed more than 20 yards of various backings. Wanting to get home before it got too cold and the roads got too slippery (it's been snowing all day here), she even volunteered to take the last dozen or so pieces home to finish! You can't ask for a better helper than that! ;-)

This is just some of what we accomplished today....


If that wasn't enough help, she also showed me that I've been threading my sewing machine incorrectly for the past 2 years. It's a miracle that I was able to sew so many linings and purse straps...but it does explain some of the problems that I've encountered along the way. I guess the moral of the story is that every once in a while, it's a good idea to break out the manual and review the proper instructions.

Unfortunately this helpful advice didn't help much with the serger. The serger I've been using for the last few years is a little temperamental, to say the least. It seems to tolerates linen and burlap fairly well....but it does not like rug warp. At. all. I have a funny feeling that we will be parting ways before too much longer, and I am open to suggestions. If any of you have had great success in serging large quantities of rug warp....I'd love to know more about your secret weapon. Please dish...

I haven't started dyeing yet, but I imagine the fun will begin in the next day or two. Naturally I'll share the results here. I took a quick picture of the wool mountain that is waiting for my approach. It's a little intimidating to look at, for sure, and I've come to the conclusion that it will take more than a single day of dyeing before I can see the counter underneath again....


Apart from getting a bunch of things ready to sell at upcoming hook-ins, I've also got a couple of other goals for the week. One is to blog every day. I'm not sure that I'll actually be able to pull it off, but I will try.

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I've been taking a bit of a break from the television lately...listening a lot to the radio, podcasts and music. It's a lot more compatible with hooking and other work I do with my hands. Sometimes when I'm watching TV, I seem to look up a lot to see what's happening, but I've recently discovered the DV (descriptive video) channels. Intended for those with vision problems, a narrator of sorts describes any important elements that don't form part of the dialogue (telling when characters arrive or depart a scene, facial expressions, etc.). I haven't tried "watching" it, while hooking, yet....but I'm definitely going to give it a try. (if you have Expressvu, the DV channels are between 1 and 99).