Five yards and counting

Well, the bobbin-winder finally got fixed today, although late enough that I’ve only gotten about 2 feet woven today.  I’m now sitting at the 5-yard mark, about 5 yards short of where I had planned to be – though, having lost three weaving days to the broken bobbin-winder, that’s not too surprising.  It’s OK, I’ll just keep on weaving.  🙂

And my WeaveZine article is off to the publisher (hi Syne!), so that’s one less thing to worry about.  It was fun to write, although it was something of a mad scramble to get all the samples woven in time.  Can’t wait to see it online!

I’ve also gotten the new laptop up and running, with most of the software I need installed, though there are still some rough edges.  I’m very pleased with it – it’s a Lenovo Thinkpad X200, an ultralight laptop.  Almost brand new – I bought it from a fellow on Craigslist who bought it new, then decided to get a Mac instead.  The operating system hadn’t even been set up!  So I am pleased.  I got a good bargain, and it’s under warranty through May 2012.  It’s incredibly small and light – only a little bigger than a netbook – but has a 2.4 GHz processor, 4 GB memory, and 160 GB hard drive.  Weighs 3.5 pounds even with the bigger 9-cell battery (6 hours battery life).  I LOVE it.

I have not, however, been idle in my weaving downtime.  I made a batch of bread-and-butter pickles, and a batch of my favorite cabbage pickle.  It’s made by sprinkling some salt over thinly sliced cabbage, letting it sit for a few hours to draw out juices, and draining the liquid.  Then boil vinegar, sugar, a HUGE WHOPPING AMOUNT of garlic, and hot pepper to taste in a pot, add the cabbage, and remove from heat as soon as it comes to a  boil.  I imagine you could can the stuff, but it never lasts long enough around me to require anything more than refrigeration.  It’s garlicky and spicy and very very good.  I love the stuff.

I’ve also just acquired a copy of Bakewise by Shirley Corriher.  Shirley Corriher is also known as the food scientist to the stars, and her first book, Cookwise, is an essential part of my library.  I would give up virtually every cookbook (except some of my rare chocolate cookbooks) before parting with this one.  In it she explains much of the chemistry behind food, with illustrative recipes (which are also delicious!).  The candy section alone is indispensable – I use her formulas as a basis for all my fudges, for example.

At any rate, I have a copy of Bakewise now, and am looking eagerly forward to reading it.  If you haven’t already read Cookwise, I recommend ordering yourself a copy – I believe it’s still in print.

I’m also pleased to report that I have found an affordable source for 30/2 silk!  The company in India that I bought the 120/2 silk from emailed me to ask if I needed any more silk, and I asked if they could manufacture 30/2 silk for me.  They can! and are charging me only $48/kg plus shipping (about another $15-16/kg), so it works out to about $30/lb.  The company is Mint Fabrics, http://www.silkindian.com/.  They don’t list 30/2 silk in their regular catalog, but they will manufacture it custom.  They do stock 20/2, 60/2, 120/2, and 210/2 silk, however.

And off to weave a little bit more!  Tomorrow’s my first day of work, and I want to make the most of what weaving time I have.