March 2016 – Dixie Weaver

Another Program in Another Lab …

Sometimes I like to rewrite the words of songs … often those of musicals. In this case, Evita’s “Another Suitcase in Another Hall”

Eva:
I don’t expect my programs to compile at first,
Never fool myself that my typing is true.
Being used to errors, I anticipate it,
But all the same I hate it, wouldn’t you?

Chorus:
Eva: So what’s compiling now?
Che: Another program in another lab …
Eva: So what’s compiling now?
Che: Printf, echo, take another stab…
Eva: Where is this silly bug?
Che: You’ll compile, you always have before …
Eva: Where is this silly bug?

Eva:
Time and time again, I’ve said it’s in NP,
That it just can’t be done, in polynomial time,
But every time we argue, all the proofs desert me,
And back I go trying, one more time …

[chorus]

Eva:
Call in three months time, I’ll be fine, I know,
The problem solved, though the code might be slow.
I won’t recall the names and places of this complication
But that’s no consolation here and now …

[chorus – but now Che’s lines are sung by nerdlets]

Tabletweaving for the Kostrup smokkr: Part 1

A bartering agreement has been made, and I will be trying to recreate the tabletwoven band that sits between the brooches but above the pleated fabric of the actual smokkr, as described in the paper The aprondress from Køstrup (grave ACQ).
Step one was acquisition of the wool; I will be going with commercially dyed wool since this needs to be done by late May (which is sooner than it sounds). I bought 20/2 Mora wool in four colours: blue for the background and then white, yellow, and red for the brocading. As you can see from the pictures below, I may have a slight surfeit of the brocading wool. Luckily wool can be used for more than one project at a time, no?

This is how the wool arrives from the vendor; in skeins that need to be wound off into balls to be useful for warping.

Step two was turning the acquired skeins of yarn into something I could warp. Swift and ball winder to the rescue. Note that the swift is constructed similarly to an old Viking horizontal swift, and is made entirely of wood, with the exception of the metal washer I added to facilitate the turning of the arms. The ball winder, in contrast, is thoroughly modern but faster than a nostepinne. And while it’s sunny, it’s not that warm outside.

The skein is mounted on a horizontal swift and then the end is found. After untying the skein, the end is fed into a ball winder and the turning begins. Each skein was wound into four very roughly equal balls of wool; sizes were eyeballed.

The advantage of having four balls is that I can quickwarp, when I get t that stage.

Several hours later, all four skeins have been turned into center-pull balls of wool, ready for the next stage.

To be continued …

Gulf Wars is Coming!

Which means I’m winding off spools of silk for Dixie Weaver, and working on class notes.

I’ve updated the Starter handout by adding more patterns, and have added a second handout with patterns for the Egyptian Diagonals class. I’m planning on using the old hand out for days 4 (doubleface) and 5 (3/1 broken twill).

So the new handouts are added to the Class Notes section and we’re slowly getting more and more ready.