New Windows!

We had 60 yeard old windows in the house in aluminum frames that were loose and the calking holding the window in place was falling out. If someone had pushed real hard, some of these windows would have fallen out they were so bad. So this year, I decided to get new windows. We chose to do the install in two segments due to the congestion of stuff in the house - which has to be moved 3 feet away from the windows - inside and out - for the installers to have a place to work. The first installment was about 3 months ago before the hot weather. The last 3 windows installation took place yesterday.

It sure took a lot of work to get the house ready for both installations! We have been home organizing to install new windows in very congested areas of the house. We have been organizing the office for about 2 months. My live-in cannot throw anything away and we get into a huge fight every time I try and get him to get rid of anything. So rather than fighting - I allowed him to make the office so untidy that I could hardly get in and out anymore. It's funny that you have no idea what it is going to be like to live with someone until you've been with them for a while. We've been living together for 10 years and it's slowly gotten worse over the 10 years. It's a serious problem when you live in a small home.

So anyway, this weekend was spent moving the computers and computer tables away from the windows. There was a LOT of stuff in there and it's now sitting all over the living room. And the outside was bad too. We had a woodpile to move, tables with dye pots, microwave, etc. on them. And what added insult to injury was that it was about 100 degrees outside when we were doing this stuff. But it's done, yay! Now all we have to do is get the house back together. There has been some really good things come out of this whole mess. I will not allow him to get the office in that state again. We will get rid of paper and equipment that is unused and just piling up. I can finally clean the carpet in there! And the windows look superb. Clean white and lovely.

BTW, this brings me to Home Depot windows. The windows themselves, of medium grade, have a lifetime guarantee on them which can be passed on to the next owners. The installers were meticulous, cleaned up after themselves and did a wonderful job on the windows. My complaint is with the scheduling department. On both window appointments they double booked in our time slot. And although we had our appointment for about six weeks, they still booked over us. I was so mad yesterday morning I was ready to spit bullets at the girl. This is the second damn time they have done it to us. When I called her to confirm our appointment, because they neglected to do that (AGAIN), she says "I'm so sorry Ms. Brunston, but it seems we have double booked your appointment and we have no one to do it today. Would Wedneday be a good day?"
That's when I blew up! I said "No, it will not be a good day. You cannot do this to us again! We both stayed home from work today for this install as well as spending 2 days getting ready for it. You WILL fix this." And she did. She wound up cancelling someone else I assume. Which I'm really sorry about but damn it, serious time and money effort was involved here and I was not going to be put off. Jim was insistent that if they didn't keep the appointment yesterday that we would cancel our order and get the windows elsewhere. Luckily it didn't come to that. I did not want to wait for another eight weeks to schedule the order with someone else. They have to custom make your windows and it takes them quite while to make them. Anyway, it's all done now and we have all new dual paned windows in the house. There's only one window left and that's a garage window that faces the street. We might do that one ourselves one of these days just so the glass and lines within the glass match the rest of the house.

Bobbin Lace Making

No, this is one craft that I don't do. But Margaret More does. She's a music teacher, dancer, harp player, spinner, bobbin lace maker and all round good sport. Here are some pictures of her lovely bobbins and lace making set-up. This one's a bit blurry but it was really hard getting a good picture. Plus my camera isn't doing closeups very well right now, even the macro doesn't seem to be working.

Pretty Handcard Covers

I had some leftover overshot from a weaving project I did last year so I put it to good use by making handcard covers. It was really easy to make, just took a bit of time. I bought some cotton fabric at fabric store for the lining, laid the handcards on the fabric to determine how large to cut. I overlapped one side and cut a slit in the middle of one side, sewed the lining on, sewed some velcro to close it and voila!

Here's what they look like without the cards:

Finished Fiber Trends Felted Clogs

I just realized that I hadn't posted the finished pictures of my finished knitted, felted clogs. Here is a picture of them with my feet next to them for comparison. Felting is sooooo much fun! You keep throwing them back in the wash and checking them every 5 minutes until they are the size you want.

Catching Up and August Dye Workshop

O.K. I know it's been a couple weeks at least but I've been busy! My daughter and family are here from the U.K., around London, and we are putting new windows in and everything has to be cleared away from the windows for 3 feet. That's a major project for us. Anyway, even though I don't have any of my own pictures to post, here are some photos that a friend of mine took of a dyeing workshop that we took last Saturday, August 9th. What fun! Anni Redding was the lady's name and she was amazing. She can get amazing brilliant colors from natural dyes, like I have never seen before. Here are the pics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9099252@N07/sets/72157606639367878

The multicolored skeins are the skeins and colors that came from only 4 dye pots, just by using different mordants. I can't wait to do more experimentation! We had the dye workshop on Mt. Hamilton at a friend's house. She and her husband work at Lick Observatory for the last 30 years. The view was absolutely spectacular in all directions from her mountain top home. It was a really great day and now we have a huge card of samples and 8 pages of dyeing notes to do more experimentation.

Giant Felted Clogs

I knew these felted clogs would be large but you can't get scale unless you see my feet next to them (below). According to my friend Frank, who has done quite a bit of felting, the length of knitted garments shrinks 50% and the width shrinks about 30%. Attached are the photos of the clogs.

Felted Purse

Here is a felted purse that I did a couple of weeks ago and then crocheted and beaded onto. The felted purse is purely felted wool, no knitting. Bits of string and color made it a little more interesting. For a handle I spun up some purple wool (2 plies) and plied that with 1 more ply (3 all together) and then knitted them into an I-Cord over the shoulder handle. This morning I attached it to the outsides of the purse. I think it's rather effective.