Well. It’s been awhile.
I’ll plead that it’s been a busy time. I co-taught an online Weave-Along to 3,000+ weavers (that was fun!), and have almost finished co-teaching an eight-week online class on weaving with your stash (we’re in week 7 of 8). Now I’m gearing up for the launch of a new Weave-Along in October, for which the only hint I will give is this:
Between teaching the current course and preparing for the new one, I’ve been hopping!
But that’s not my only project. We’ve been upgrading my weaving studio! We finally installed air conditioning in the house this year, and we added a unit in the garage. But in order for the unit to work effectively, we needed insulation. The insulation installers arrive September 10…which means that EVERYTHING needs to be out of the garage by then (except Grace and Maryam, who are too big and heavy to be moved).
So we got an 8′ x 16′ storage pod dropped off in the driveway:
and I have been moving stuff into the pod, sorting as I go. My goal is to get rid of a lot of it, in hopes of making room for a small folding floor loom, perhaps a Wolf Pup or Baby Wolf.
I’m taking the opportunity to rearrange my garage studio. I’ve wanted to rearrange it ever since I got Maryam, but never did because it would have meant moving everything out of the garage and then back into it, not to mention moving both Grace and Maryam – a Herculean effort. But, since I have to move everything out anyway for the insulation install…now’s the time!
Here’s the new studio layout:
I spent quite a bit of time on this. Things are complicated because we had to put in a home gym due to the pandemic, which takes up quite a bit of space. Fortunately we live in a temperate climate, which means that the Olympic bar for deadlifts can live outside on the patio (not looking forward to lifting outside in the dead of winter, though). And Grace and Maryam both take up a lot of space. But I got it sorted out eventually. If I can get rid of one utility shelf, I’ll replace it with the loom.
The garden is going well – here’s a picture of some of the current bounty:
Concord grapes, Nadapenos (heatless jalapenos), mini bell peppers, assorted tomatoes, and Huckleberry potatoes, which are purple with yellow insides, low glycemic index (for potatoes – this is strictly relative!).
If anyone is interested, one of the things I’m trying to destash is a collection of beautiful Indonesian tjaps – used for batik printing. I have something like twenty or thirty of them, mostly animal themed ones (which are hard to find). I will be selling them for less than half the price I bought them for, and if you buy them all I’ll sell for substantially less than that, so a real deal. If you or anyone you know might be interested (they’re collector’s items as well as dyeing tools), please email me at tien@tienchiu.com .
Here’s a pic of one of the tjaps:
And another:
That’s it for now! I’m hoping to post a bit more as things wind down with Stash Weaving Success.
