The bad news first: apparently I have very slight arthritis in both hips. The doctor thinks that the weaving probably caused the flare-up in the right hip, since it’s under more stress than the other side. So I will have to be careful in starting back up again. The doc also recommended losing weight (I’m working on that right now, lost about 4 lbs since the start of the year) and doing strengthening exercises. So I’ll work on that some more, and probably start up cycling again.
But the good news!! I was paging idly through the Craigslist arts & crafts “for sale” ads, and found a woman selling a vertical electric steamer….for FIFTY DOLLARS!!
In case you’re wondering what a vertical electric steamer looks like, it’s rather like this:
You roll up the fabric you want steamed around a central pole, put water in the bottom, and it steams it for you. It’s used for setting acid dyes in fabric, most often for silk painting.
And…if you want to buy one of those new, well, check out the price on Dharma Trading Company’s page! Yes, a new one retails for $1200! And I’ll be forking over a grand total of $50 when I pick it up on Saturday. What a deal!
Now, I don’t paint silk, but it occurs to me that this could be used in all sorts of interesting ways…pole wrapped shibori, for example. Woven shibori with the dyes painted on. Having this tool in my collection will definitely open up lots of possibilities…and at only $50, there isn’t much downside to buying it. (Well, except for the space it takes up, but it’s actually got a pretty small footprint, and it can live in the garage.) I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do with it!
Off to do more pattern drafting! I solved one of the “self-test” problems this morning (well, mostly) and am looking forward to tackling the others. They are quite challenging, and are making me really struggle to understand the principles behind the techniques being demo’ed. I’m looking forward to discussing what I’ve learned with Sharon this weekend.
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Sorry about your arthritis. You’re rather young for that. For most of us, we get a painful flareup, and then in a week or so, it calms down. When my right arm was in a sling for 6 weeks following shoulder surgery last spring, I got an annoying over-use arthritis flareup in my left hand–it just wasn’t accustomed to doing so much work. That one took a long time to settle back down, but it’s finally better. Are you careful about what you sit on & how you sit when you weave? It can make a huge difference if you have arthritis in your hips.