the quacking fiber addict

What have I been up to these past couple of days? Oh, well, let's see...

Mum and I tried to start reupholstering her set of 8 Edwardian oak dining chairs yesterday (we spent the day before in Hell Depot and Jo-Ann's getting supplies). After a practice run on a very strange footstool (has anyone ever heard of cedar wood shavings being used as cushion filling??), Mum and I pulled out the first chair seat. "If we can get two of these done today, I'll be happy," she told me.


Only to find that the chairs were really well made - oak seat frames, dozens upon dozens of iron tacks, silk velvet upholstery, silk batting under the seats, linen broadcloth under the silk batting and then 4" of wool rag encased horse-hair filling the cushions. All afternoon yesterday, we'd pull up another layer only to find that the frame was that much further away.

"Mum, we're going to be lucky if we get one chair a day done!" She waved me off, determined to finish two chairs by 6. After a couple more hours of pulling out iron tacks, ripping off jute webbing and oil-cloth, Mum sat down, huffing.

"We're might not get this chair done today," she finally admitted.

And we didn't. After another hour or so, she and Dad finally agreed that we might just want to consider the possibility of making plywood copies of the frames (er, frame, as we've only managed to strip one) and reupholster them.

After that, we had to clean up quickly to meet with some old friends who were in town, visiting their son. Our families had been in the same congregation in MD, so they called us when they were flying this way. We took them to a truly authentic Chinese restaurant and then home for dessert. I snapped a shot right before they left:


Sooo, that should explain why I haven't made that much progress on the Mystery Stole (scarf in my case) 3 or le Tour de Fleece...


And why I ache all over and still can't get the dirt completely out from under my finger nails (arrrrg). What's that? Here's a close-up of the stole IP:


I finally went back to the evil that is known as Jo-Ann's this afternoon to get a magnetic board and line magnifier. Last night I managed to cut and paste all of the charts into one file and printed it out - just so I wouldn't have to flip back and forth between the charts for the L and R sides. Of course, the charts are now tiny and require a magnifying rod - which is fine, because it clips to the stand.

Project specs? I'm completely crazy, but still smitten with the bamboo. I'm using Addi 2.5 mm's (US 1.5) instead of the recommended 3.5 mm (US 4). My stole's going to be smaller than intended, but I preferred the look of the lace knit with the smaller needles. Oh, and I am mad in love with Addi Turbo lace needles right now.

I'm also sorry (and embarrassed) to have to admit that I'm further behind than ever in my bloglines subscripts. My laptop and wireless card just aren't up to the new LAN set-up we got, so I'm stuck using the family PC. 30 mins a day to check my email, Peace Corps status, and other web stuff is clearly not enough. Hopefully, I'll get the cash together soon (after I get a job) to update my little Dell.

Until then? *sigh*

Well, on the bright side, maybe I'll have more time to knit with less internet access.

Labels: family, insanity, lace, le Tour de Fleece 2007, MS3