slow threading

taking it very slow not because it is  the way to go, but because i'm   fearful of going back to cervical problems. threading some, stopping to rest my neck and doing other stuff, like printing on fabric, stitching

and even some gardening.

i found that all the new growth in my clematis is coming out curly and some parts of the stems are open exposing the inner parts and flat. 

i've sprayed  with a lot of neem oil last week and the newest shoots still come out curly. so now i'm using copper sulfate if there's a chance that it is a mold.

can someone please come to rescue?

on the rant department 

 the prblems w. ff4 continue. i visited one of the help forum and there was a long list of people experiencing misery, so it helps to know i have company :(
however there was a generous geek who provided a solution to unninstall and go back to your last ff. and without more preamble:

To downgrade to Firefox 3.6 first uninstall Firefox 4, but do not select the option to "Remove my Firefox personal data". If you select that option it will delete your bookmarks, passwords and other user data.You can then install the latest version of Firefox 3.6 available from http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-older.html - it will automatically use your current bookmarks, passwords etc.

To avoid possible problems with downgrading, I recommend going to your profile folder and deleting the following files if they exist - extensions.cache, extensions.rdf, extensions.ini, extensions.sqlite and localstore.rdf. Deleting these files will force Firefox to rebuild the list of installed extensions, checking their compatibility, and reset toolbar customizations.

For details of how to find your profile folder see https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Profiles

  

and the newest rant:

something changed without notice at flickr. now even if you have a paid account you do not get the html code. you are forced to use their blog this application which wipes out your sig line, forces you to change font and sizes back to your settings the post goes out with the title of your photo  and some  more disfunctions. paying does not assure anything nowadays, that's what happens when companies get too big. i do not understand the why of this because if you click on the photo you are taken directly to flickr , so what is the issue?

luckily there are other hosting companies. flickr take note.

  
oops too quick. i swear that while i was deep-in-rant-mode they added the html code button.


however, no matter what i do i don't seem to be able to go back  and post in my old font and size settings. GRRRRRRRRRR.

addendum:
went line by line until i found the %**)/&$ offending code. there went the morning.

neki desu

delighted

Oh What A Night ... Prom!

ArtFire.com

guess which one am i?

thank you gossameer tangles for including me in your curated collection!

neki desu

spring is here and do yourself a favor

more vintage charts to celebrate, it was about time, the arrival of spring.link for  the  small wreaths below.
and the medium wreaths above. click on the links and they will take you to download page.

and now the self favor. beware of  anything beta.
beta means problems. big time. how do  i know? downloaded the new firefox 4. no delicious app. crashes like there's no after life,occupies the space of an aircraft carrier. and i'm stopping here although there's more to be said.




neki desu

some history

mother had a singer machine and i learned to sew with a singer machine in homec class. when i moved to europe there were of course no singer machines, at least in my circles and i came in contact with elna sewing machines.

my first elna was the grasshopper pictured left, a gift from a colleague repatriating back to the states. little did i know that it was a collector's item and i, playing the ignorant fool, happily gave it way when moving up the sewing machine ladder.

it was simple, very well built, sturdy and came with many presser feet. in fact i still have and use some of them in my newer models. amazing what that little machine was able to do !

having had such good experience with elnas, which by the way  coming full circle

were the brainchild of a spanish civil war refugee named ramon casas, not to be confused with the painter. i bought an elna  jubilee put out to commemorate their 50th aniversary. again, sturdy, made of metal so it stayed in place, a workhorse of a machine has only had the light bulb changed. it has some very nice features such as air pedal, overlock stitch, speed control button , clip on foot and best of all never skips a stitch.  if you're on the market for a simple workhorse if you see one even second hand grab it. i've had second thoughts on trading it and i'm holding on to it as if my life depended on it. imo the only drawback is that it doesn't have drop feed dogs. nobody's perfect.

that feature when i got interested in free motion embroidery   prompted me into buying another machine. well, and the idea of having a couple of fancy stitches. again, after such great experiences with elnas i went back to them and got a 5200. i had so far lived in a world of simple buttonholes and threading by yourself and was taken by the 1 step buttonhole capacity which makes perfect buttonholes and self threading capability. no, there isn't an arm with 20-20 eyesight that threads for you, but the next best thing.

however i was puzzled by some design flaws. the machine seems to be lighter and it is because its body is  made of plastic. although it is conceptually irritating for me, i can live with that. what i can't live with is the placement of the end of pattern-lock stitch. i have small hands and it gets hit when threading, changing needles or sometimes during holding the fabric while sewing. the screw of the presser foot shank   loosens up during sewing and has to be tightened more than occasionally. and coming from the air cushion pedal on the jubilee, the pedal  mechanism is almost old fashioned in a pedestrian sort of way. all in all very un elna. why so? i am aware that nothing is the way it used to be made anymore everything has the look feel and performance  of cutting corners, but so much as to compromise a good reputation?

consequently i went to st. google and as ever found the answer there.in 1994 a cooperation was established between elna and janome and  some years later tavaro s.a. the manufacturers of elna, filed for  bankruptcy. in other words the machines ceased to be swiss made. janome also bought husqvarna so basically the market is divided among them and bernina, with juki competing. i would not be surprised if juki being japanese as janome is would be a division of janome.
i'm thinking about getting an embroidery machine, but honestly doubt i'll go the elna route. berninas are insanely expensive,  therefore so far  it is not clear which route to take .
if you're on the market for a sewing machine and have dilemmas here are some helpful links : 

• sewing machines reviews  

• sewing in general  but has machine reviews and  sewing patterns

have a spring fest of a weekend!


neki desu

the ai gods are happy

and 私もう!have made some interesting discoveries about machine knitting and am seriously contemplating doing the city and guilds course. the good news is that as the courses are getting re organized that will buy  me time to think it over and finish other commitments .

on another note downloaded and installed the new firefox browser which promises to be faster(and safer) then the 3.6. let's see if they hold the promise, 3.6 was driving me up the walls.bad news is that some of my add ons are not compatible with this version. bye to pera perakun and delicious :(

 last night's wine tasting session was awesome. discovered a wonderful portuguese wine by the picturesque name of cavalo maluco roughly translated as crazy horse. a small handmade production. not inexpensive, but truly worth it.

neki desu

finished reeding ,doing threading

and i can do plastics too!

different kinds of plastics including bubble wrap laminated together and machine stitched. have you noticed the recurrent use of the word machine lately?

wine tasting session later today. doing portuguese wines.

neki desu

experimenting and enjoying the process

whoa! this is intentional! now that i can finally  use the machine and knit one of those long rectangular things without many issues i am teaching myself to control dropping stitches at will and making holes. i have a lace carriage, but those holes are too uniform for what i'd like to knit .i saw some scarves and wallhangings by barbara ridland and want to try that kind of knitting.

tha'ts my kind of knitting. of course i have a whole lot to learn so that i can produce those holes (^_^) she's a master!

yesterday i practiced making buttonholes and distorting them. fun!

turning a page amanda ho is conducting a raffle to help japan. a donation to the red cross  japan help fund is required.please consider entering. information at her blog

neki desu

or something similar

 there have been positive things during the disaster. a friend from the uni was in town and we had some very pleasant chats and dinners. we hadn't seen each other in 20+ years so there was a lot to catch up on.
i also started knotting a knitted scarf and was able to finish and start with the aizome.the knotting was very soothing:  hands working swiftly  emptying the mind  like meditation.
the ai god was not 100% helpful, but something was accomplished so i cannot complain.
i am sampling controlled grunge  with the knitting machine.
the week holds some promises.


neki desu

much needed comic relief

disaster explained in layman's terms.

ps. thanks for all the nice thoughts.


neki desu

soothing the pain

reclaimed silk shibori overdyed with artichokes and stitched

stitching is very soothing. and so is human kindness.

neki desu

math challenged

no matter how well planned and counted sometimes  i end up short of warp ends. not fun especially when they have been custom dyed for the project as in this case. good thing i still had some murasaki steeping in alcohol. now time will take its course with the yarns.

in the meantime staring at my design wall and having a feeling that all of this is irrelevant given the situation. thinking about life and how it goes on. though not in the superficial sitcom way we're used to  where even the most compelling issues have to be solved in twenty minutes. not even in the let's not think about it and keep moving way.

comfort  came by way of one of my favorite reads.

and outside is  raining and thundering. ides of march?

neki desu

on current events

 photo credit:http://japanesesymbolsofpresence.com/shinto.html

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.

John Donne, Meditation XVII

if you are considering helping go here for options


neki desu

i can do grunge

without much effort and avant la lettre. i'm older than the term, had been practicing it for fear of falling into the cutseyness trap long before the term was coined. grunge  contrary to boro has not to do with make do, grunge is more wtf i really don't care attitude.

funny how  it became an adjective-oh the glory of the english language and the easiness  with which it  can make a noun an adjective- synonymous  to raunchy  until this word changed meaning  its to obscene. merriman cites as synonyms  fro grungy befouled, begrimed and besmirched, but quite honestly i haven't heard those much lately. unless you want to prove something, that is.

now try to convince an english learner the language is a cinch! 

language aside  the grunge series development, aka what to do with all those machine knitted tension swatches is  finding a fun way.
dropped stitches glamour,some dyeing and stitching.

and if y'all not already tired of this twisted post  some weekend fun for devout photoshopers: here for textures and here for brushes.
yes and they're all grunge (^_^)

good weekend
with my japanese friends in my mind


neki desu

if only

i could have this hair color!  looks like this is the color of the season.
unscoured silk shantung yarn steeped one week in my antique lichens.i still have a lot of extracted liquor which will keep on aging until who knows when.

this yarn is unusual in that it takes coloring, both synthetic and natural without being scoured first.

the texture of it is also unusual, stiff and paperlike singles that when gently-remember one cannot boil silk or it wrecks-simmered turns into silk floss quality.

i was hoping for a more reddish tone but my one lime  squeezed and dumped in the pot wasn't apparently  enough. anyhow i thing it will blend well with the madder colored layer.

hoping to finish reeding tomorrow!!!

neki desu