Tien Chiu

  • Home
  • About
    • Honors, Awards, and Publications
  • Online Teaching
  • Gallery
  • Essays
  • Book
  • Blog
  • Dye samples
You are here: Home / All blog posts / The best birthday gifts ever!!
Previous post: Garlic, garlic, garlic!
Next post: Another jacquard loom is coming!

July 6, 2019 by Tien Chiu

The best birthday gifts ever!!

My birthday was last week, and I got the TWO best birthday gifts ever! The first was from Ricki, who finished threading Amazing Grace!! Yes, that’s right – finished threading all 2,640 heddles. Ricki has been working on this roughly since December, coming down two or three times a month and working five-hour shifts to get Grace threaded. I am amazingly indebted to Ricki for getting this done, because I simply couldn’t face the giant hump of threading and heaven only knows how long Grace would have sat there had Ricki not appeared.

I have now dived into sleying (much easier) with glee:

Sleying Amazing Grace, my TC-2 jacquard loom
Grace, three-quarters sleyed

Sleying the last half is going slowly because we accidentally put an extra round on warping mill when winding half of the warp, so I have to pull an extra three yards of warp through on four of the six threads going through each dent of the reed. So it’s taking awhile, but I should be done in the next day or two. Debugging is going to be long and painful as well – jacquard looms don’t like to sit unused and Grace has been idle for almost two years – but I’ll launch into it with something like my usual verve. Ricki got me unstuck, for which I owe them, big-time. I’ve already told them they are welcome to come down and weave on Grace any time they want to.

The other best birthday gift ever is from my in-laws (surely the best in-laws ever!). It’s a Leatherman Tread, a 29-in-1 tool bracelet. Yes, you too can break glass, open bottles, drive Philips, hex (Imperial and metric!), and flat-head screws, turn bolts, cut thread and fishing line, open and close oxygen tanks, drive socket wrenches, pop out SIM cards, and, uh, other stuff with one handy, wear-everywhere, TSA-safe bracelet:

Leatherman Tread
Leatherman Tread, showing box wrench, Philips Head, 1/4″ socket driver, Allen wrench, flat head screwdriver tools

Leatherman Tread
Leatherman Tread, showing 3mm Allen wrench, 1/8″ Allen wrench, 1/4″ Allen wrench, oxygen tank wrench, among others
Leatherman Tread
Leatherman Tread, with Philips head screwdriver, carbide glass breaker, pick/SIM card remover, cutting hook, and (hidden in clasp) bottle opener. And has my name engraved on it!

The only downside is that I had to remove one full 1″ link and the 1/2″ link to get it to fit properly on my wrist, so I don’t get to use the full set of tools. But Geek Girl is thrilled beyond compare. I’ll never be using a butter knife to turn the bolts on my Baby Wolf again!! And the Tread is even engraved with my name and everything.

Best. Birthday gifts. Ever.

Share this post!

  • Tweet
  • More
  • Email
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Print

Filed Under: All blog posts, textiles, weaving

Previous post: Garlic, garlic, garlic!
Next post: Another jacquard loom is coming!

Comments

  1. nancy biggins says

    July 6, 2019 at 11:46 am

    oh Tien, a late but happy birthday to you, and thank you for sharing…… all the things you share whether weaving or tomatos or just commenis

    i have been happily reading your things since those years ago when you trekking on foot thru southeast Asia. they are non-stop enjoyment. thank you!!!

  2. R.N.Sharma says

    July 7, 2019 at 9:19 pm

    Dear Tien Chiu,

    Very beautiful gift given to you by your in-law

    Regards

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Information resources

  • Dye samples
    • Procion MX fiber-reactive dye samples on cotton
    • How to "read" the dye sample sets
    • Dye sample strategy - the "Cube" method
  • How-Tos
    • Dyeing and surface design
    • Weaving
    • Designing handwoven cloth
    • Sewing

Blog posts

  • All blog posts
    • food
      • chocolate
    • musings
    • textiles
      • dyeing
      • knitting
      • sewing
      • surface design
      • weaving
    • writing

Archives

Photos from my travels

  • Dye samples
    • Procion MX fiber-reactive dye samples on cotton
    • How to "read" the dye sample sets
    • Dye sample strategy - the "Cube" method
  • Travels
    • Thailand
    • Cambodia
    • Vietnam
    • Laos
    • India
    • Ghana
    • China

Travel Blog

Entertaining miscellanies

© Copyright 2016 Tien Chiu · All Rights Reserved ·

 

Loading Comments...