Tien Chiu

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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.

Comments

  1. 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!!!