It's been a month plus?!

 

I finished my 1^st draft of my Morse code edging. I used single picots for dot and double picots for dash. I’m not that happy with it. It seems visually noisy.

There are other options. I could do SCMR (self closing mock rings) and so single picot for dot & Josephine knot for dash.

I could use a picot for dot & bead for dash. Or bead for dot and 2 beads (1 up and 1 down) for dash. I could even try, although I’m not likely to, using seed beads and bugles beads for dots and dashes.

I finally finished a bear from Loomahats book with tiny loom knit bears (look up title). I wanted to use up some yarn left from another project but there wasn’t very much. The bear body took most of it, but I wasn’t sure there was enough for the limbs, so I used leftover coordinating yarn for limbs, ears, and snout. Plus a 3^rd yarn for the headband. I think I will also add tatted flowers to the headband. I wish I had thought of that before I sewed the headband to the bear.

There’s a peanut butter snack ball recipe I’ve had for over a month. I finally picked up the last two ingredients. There’s an optional 3^rd ingredient I don’t have, but it’s optional. And kind of expensive for the amount I need for the recipe.

Spring has sprung, in all of its pollinated glory. At least the flowers are pretty.

My friend with the mid-March birthday celebrated late this year. He rents a picnic pavilion at a park, as his house isn’t really big enough for all the guests. He makes it a cookout and provides the charcoal and everyone brings good. C made burgers and my favorite fruit dessert. C takes raspberries and blackberries, muddles some with honey and lime; he added fresh rosemary this time. Then mixes crème fresh with mascarpone, honey, and lime. Layers the fresh berries with the muddled berries, then covers the whole with the crème fresh/mascarpone frosting-like. The berries are quite tart and the frosting is creamy and they work together so well. Sorry, I don’t have pictures because I forgot.

March 29^th, Tri-Tatters did our demonstration on the Matriarchs of Mordecai day. There was a lecture in the visitor center, so we were on the porch of the big house, aka the yellow house. If you look carefully, you can see the shadows of the display in the pollen on the tablecloth.

 

And footprints in the pollen on the porch (oooh, alliteration).

 

At the Carolina Fiber Fest I talked to a woman who concentrates on linen and cotton. She recommended I use 100% cotton thread to sew my linen edging to my linen hankie, since I am highly unlikely to find linen sewing thread.

If Michaels has 100% cotton thread, I didn’t see it. And of course, the thread rack at Joanne’s is denuded. I emailed one online company because I wasn’t sure which of 3 colors would work best, and you can’t really trust what you see on a computer screen. They were not helpful, ‘whichever one you think is closest.’ I understand them not wanting to take a chance since I asked for ‘closest to unbleached linen,’ but still. I’d rather have a ‘we do not have enough information to give you a reliable recommendation’ than telling me to trust my video card. The whole [gold and white/blue and black dressfiasco] proves that you still can’t trust video cards (although one article I read blamed other factors like people perceiving the color difference due to whether they think it’s in shadow or not and in artificial or natural light). 

I volunteered to make motifs for pin cushion/needle something for part of NCRL’s provided goodie bags to next year’s IOLI. I plan to make 25 and I made 14 in less than a week. I need to have them done by May 3^rd, the NCRL Spring Lace Day. Sumiko is doing the sewing and she needs to have them on hand. 

 

I also need to recover my headphones. They are very expensive ones that I got secondhand for a really good price. Alas, the cover has split on one ear and I need to cover it before it gets worse. And if I’m covering one, I should cover the other. I have some nice, soft knit to use; black with white print.

I got the knit to make shorts or leggings but I’ve been using it to patch stretch jeans, etc. Both because a stretchy patch is better for a stretchy garment and because knits don’t need to be hemmed.

If you’re wondering why this post is so long, there are 2 reasons. One is that it has been a long time since my last post. The other is that my supervisor has requested that I avoid social media during working hours. Which wouldn’t be a big deal except the only people who can see my screen are behind me. I have a privacy screen on my display because I sometimes look at sensitive information. And there are times when I am quite busy and there are downtimes when I don’t have anything to do.

I can’t do trainings during slow times, because between the noise of the area and the poor quality of the speakers, I can’t really follow anything. I have old tv, radio, and movies playing because I feel no need to follow the plot and don’t need to watch them. I do have headphones, but they were ordered when I thought this change was temporary and I only needed them long enough to listen to voicemails, which are rarely more than 2 minutes long.

I have ordered new earbuds. One, I only need to wear one, so I can attend to people at the counter without an earbud that suggests I’m not paying attention to them. Two, I can actually hear training videos without ear pain. Most trainings can be interrupted, although being able to take them without interruption is better. That’s not going to happen, so I need to work with what will happen.

Obviously, I can’t tat or loom knit either. I hate having to look busy. I don’t mind being busy, just having to look busy when it’s not.

And I can’t go far from the counter for very long. Yes, other staff can handle it but the counter is my primary responsibility.

Instead, I will work on my writing. Thank goodness for the ergonomic keyboard.

Fish and Lace (sorry it's been 2 weeks)

There is a boat lock in Utrecht (Netherlands) and it's on the fish migration route. So they put in a gate, to admit fish through, but of course they can't keep it open all the time. They noticed predators had gathered to take advantage of trapped fish. To expedite fish passage through the gate, they crowd sourced it. They put a camera on it and when viewers spot a fish, they click on the 'doorbell.' That photos the fish and someone at the dam opens the gate. The lowest watcher count I saw was in the 600s.