All the Excitement

Some of you may have attended Convergence 2002 in Vancouver and saw the fabric I submitted to the Carnegie Yardage Exhibit that took second place.  (The juror was Junichi Arai of Japan.)

Eventually I found the above jacket pattern, and recently asked a tailor, Selah Barling, if she would be willing to sew the fabric up into a jacket for me.  She agreed with my choice of pattern, and last weekend one of the reasons I drove down to Seattle was to have a fitting of the muslin.  Selah then came to Syne's and worked like the proverbial beaver all evening getting the jacket sewn to the point where she could do a 'final' fitting and then complete the sewing after I left.

I didn't think to bring a swatch of the fabric with me, so you'll have to wait unitl the jacket is back before I can get a photo of the completed garment.

In the meantime, I've sent in an entry form to the ANWG conference in Salem, OR, so if you are attending that conference you may get to see it live and in person.   (No, I won't be there myself - ANWG is the same weekend at the conference I'll be teaching at in Quebec.)

The lecture at the Seattle Guild meeting was interesting.  Afterwards Selah and Syne took me shopping at Weaving Works and then over to Nancy's (on Queen Anne) which has the most luscious fabrics and notions.

Sunday I started for home intending to stay overnight somewhere along the way.  As usual this time of year, it was raining in the Lower Mainland and through the Fraser Canyon.  Unfortunately there was a largish rock in the road just south of Lytton and by the time I saw it, it was too late to safely swerve to avoid it given the wet road and, hoping for the best, I straddled it. 

Unfortunately it was too large and it wrecked havoc on the undercarriage of the van.  Needless to say it was nerve-wracking listening to all the banging and clanging as the rock bounced around under the van,  tearing the spare tire off it's mooring, which then joined in the gay abandon before shooting out from under the van and skidding across the road.  The barrier prevented the tire and wheel from going over the edge and I managed to safely stop the van and assess the damage, retrieving the spare tossing it into the back.

Heart in mouth, I started the engine again and carefully eased back out onto the road, heading north.

Ten minutes later the rain had stopped.

When I said I wanted some boring in my life, what part of that request did the universe not understand?
(whine, snivel)

We delivered the van to the dealer this morning.  Initial damage estimate is in excess of $1000.  But it could have been so much worse!  There could have been oncoming vehicles when the tire was skidding across the other lane of traffic.  The rock could have been much larger, disabling the vehicle entirely.

And my surgery is booked for tomorrow - I report to the hospital at 11:45.  The procedure itself will take about 15 minutes and then I'll spend a couple hours in recovery.  I'm going to request a spinal block so that I don't have to deal with general anesthetic.  But at last, the metal will be out!  And then I can deal with the latest health crisis beginning on Thursday when I get the word from the oncologist.