Taking Care of the Details

Yesterday was all about me - maintaining me in several ways.  Today I have been buzzing around trying to tie up loose ends.

With a very busy 3 weeks (or more) still to get through it would be easy to let little things fall through the cracks.

My goal of having a representative selection of the new scarf design is well underway.  I had managed to get 4 or 5 scarves done for the show at the U a couple of weeks ago, wove a couple more short warps when I could get to them, wove one scarf when I got home finishing that warp, dressed the loom again last night and wove one of the two scarves this afternoon.

Three scarves have gone through the washer and dryer, and 3 more of the new design are currently in the dryer.  I'll press all 6 at once later today.  Tomorrow they can be trimmed and tagged and delivered to the show on Friday when we incorporate the inventory brought back from the last show into the inventory already packed in the van.

We also dealt with renewing insurance (house and business) this morning, and I got an email re: the Handwoven article - they want more info so I'll try to pull that together today and/or tomorrow.  The deadline is Nov. 14 and I will be long gone by then so it must be done before we leave on Monday.

Doug wanted to get my attache case and his two small 'bags' for his cell phone and wallet repaired but the shoe repair shop was booked up so we'll get those repaired after the trip.  The van could have gone in next week for the new audio system, but we'll be away so that, too, will get dealt with when we get home.

Doug is gathering up stuff for the trip, obsessing about which lightbulbs to buy for the booth.  With incandescent lights going the way of the doh-doh, he wants to find the 'perfect' lamp to best show off the weaving.  Good lighting is so very important or else the colours will look 'dead' and unattractive.

My small fill-in order of yarn arrived and I've contacted the two people who also placed orders with mine, hoping I can deliver during the craft fair here.  Plus I need to fetch some roving from the annex for a couple other people to look at.

I still need to pack some copies of A Good Yarn: Cotton in case weavers at the two big shows want to buy while I'm in their cities, saving shipping.

Doug caught the laundry up on Monday and Tuesday and now we both need to figure out what to wear and pack our suitcases.  I also need to hit the pharmacy because I forgot to stock up on the Niacin (which I take instead of other cholesterol lowering medications, all of which I have adverse effects to).  Unfortunately the heavy snowfall caught everyone off guard and the roads here are a mess and the young immortals are still roaring around as though it is summer, not winter driving conditions.  So many of them still have not figured out that while they may have four wheel drive, they don't have four wheel stopping on the ice!

And Friday I get my flu jabs, guaranteeing that I am going to feel icky for the show.  I may leave Doug in charge as much as possible and hide out at home.  If I don't get the Handwoven stuff ready today or tomorrow, I will have to do it during the show.

Details, details!

Currently reading  Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

October 29, 2012

the view from my kitchen window at noon....

We missed the local excitement Saturday night as we were still on our way home from Seattle.  The 7. something earthquake off the west coast of the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwai) was felt here in some places but no damage resulted.  We did run into the snowfall, though, and drove the last two hours home in the blowing snow, in the dark.  Which sort of cemented my inclination to stop going to do the Seattle Guild sale the end of October.  I've driven home just way too many times in similar conditions.  So for the time being, I'm thinking that this year has been my last at that show.

No substantive weaving info in this post - just a lot of rambling thoughts about life and living.  Nothing like a long drive to let thoughts chase themselves around in the back of the mind, examining various and sundry aspects of what is happening, what one would like, what one is actually dealing with on a day to day basis.

I have made no secret that I am dealing with a number of chronic health issues.  Many readers have thanked me for sharing my journey in this regard.  What I have really learned in the past four and a half years is that everyone - and I do mean everyone - is dealing with sh*t (pardon, but there is just no other word for it!)

No matter what I have going on, someone someplace is dealing with much worse.  This blog is just one way I can vent about my sh*t rather than burdening my husband with my frustrations because he's got his own sh*t and feels helpless about mine.  But let's face it, a gal has to vent occasionally!)

One of the things that happens when you have a lifestyle disease is that people assume that your lifestyle has contributed to the development of said condition.  It has been enormously frustrating to me to be confronted with this attitude when, upon sober reflection, each 'disease' has arisen in spite of my lifestyle.

Time after time I have gone through the questionnaires, done the reading, searching for why I have these things when I have been doing it 'right' - or as right as I can.  Face it, no one is that smart or strong!

So exactly what is my list of problems?

First and foremost, allergies.  Born with them, developed more as time went by.  My food allergies are in fact allergies - they are not 'just' sensitivities.  How do I know?  Had the tests.  When I consume an allergen the Ige response is initiated and the result is an immune system on high alert, a flood of histamines and an increase in inflammation.  (There are other responses that go beyond this but that is likely Too Much Information!) This inflammation can occur anywhere, often in muscles that are injured but also in my arteries, including my heart arteries.  This has exacerbated the genetic coronary artery disease prevalent in my family and from which my brother died at the tender age of 51 with a low level of cholesterol in his blood and no obvious signs of heart disease otherwise.

As a result of adverse drug reactions I now have hyper-tension (high blood pressure) made worse by my allergies.

As a result of the hyper alert immune system I have non-Hodgekin's lymphoma - a rather rare type (Small B Cell) which develops in people who have had continuous assaults on their immune system.

As a result of my allergies I have had chronic nutritional deficiencies which have led to other issues from time to time.

As a result of my allergies and nutritional deficiencies I now have osteopenia - a warning sign of encroaching osteoporosis.

All of these conditions are pretty much affected by lifestyle and as I looked over the list of recommendations each time a diagnosis came down the chute, I checked off most of them - healthy diet, check, active life, check, weight bearing exercise, check, non-smoking, check, non-drinking, check, etc., etc., etc.

So why the heck do I have to deal with all of this????  (Unfair!  Unfair!)

I got quite depressed in September when the osteoporosis was rearing it's head.  If I was doing everything right, then WHY?

Fact is, if I hadn't been doing everything right, I simply would not be here, now.  I would likely have died a few years ago and that is just about as simple and straight forward as it gets.  Because I have lived a 'healthy' lifestyle, these conditions were held at bay.  My healthy lifestyle has quite simply prolonged my life so that I am still here, still active, still able to do most of what I would like to do, and will probably be able to continue to do these things for a few more years.

How many more?  Well none of us has the answer to that!  Once again I bump up against the reality that life is short and precious.  We do not have time to waste feeling sorry for ourselves.  We can only do the very best that we can, each and every day.

"When you are going through hell...keep going"  Winston Churchill

Currently reading Heaven is High by Kate Wilhelm.  I picked up the last of the series currently available (a new Barbara Holloway novel is due out in December of this year) and will soon be up to date.  I've enjoyed Wilhelm's books so much that I will likely start reading her other mystery series.  I read the first one when it came out many moons ago so will likely begin with that one as a refresher, then track down the rest.

Seattle Sale

Here is a shot of the demo area.
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

Seattle

The drive this morning/afternoon was fairly uneventful and we arrived at the B&B sooner than we expected.  A nice walk in the nearby park, including a slog up to the top of the water tower for an almost aerial view of Seattle, then over to the cathedral to show Doug where it was and a quick trip to the nearby commercial area to run a couple of errands and have dinner. 

Tomorrow we'll be at the cathedral early so that I can meet my friend with my inventory and get checked in and then.....the fun begins.

Gaining Wisdom

By making mistakes and fixing the errors, we learn valuable lessons.  These lessons become what we call 'experience'.  Experience morphs into confidence because when we make the same mistake we know what to do to repair it.  Experience and confidence become the basis for wisdom.  When we are wise enough, we know that we will never know it all and accept our errors from which we continue to learn, become more experienced and confident that we will recognize a mistake, sometimes before we actually make it.  And if not, we are wise enough to laugh and put another notch in our belt of experience.

Currently reading Malice Prepense by Kate Wilhelm

Sunny on the Hill

Set up went fairly smoothly.  This is a small show so we didn't put all our inventory out.  Actually even at bigger shows we always hold stuff back to fill in holes as they (hopefully!) develop.

I left Doug there, came home and wove another sample for the designer - something less polished, less 'perfect' - I get the nicest rejection letters.  :^)

Heading to exercise class now, then back home to shower, eat and change in order to relieve Doug for a late lunch.

The space we're in is the cafeteria, lots of natural light, especially when the fog burned off about 9 am.  And the best thing?  No sign of the predicted snow flurries.  :D

Scarcity

Finished the tomato warp this morning and wound the next one - a mixture of browns, golds and sage greens along with Carob brown Bambu 7.

I had purposely let my inventory of Bambu 7 dwindle, thinking I was done using it in production so when I went to put together the yarns to complement the textured rayon I was stymied!  There wasn't really enough of anything to do my regular production warp of 4 scarves.

So how much yarn did I have?  There was enough of the teal for a warp of two scarves (partly because I'd lost 6 ounces of the textured rayon in the rat's nest winding it onto a cone).  There was enough China Red for a warp for 3 scarves.  There was enough Carob for a warp of two scarves.  And there was enough Onyx for another warp of two scarves.  Good enough for test marketing a new line.  If I can get enough of them woven before the last 3 shows of this season.

How did I know how much yarn was left?  Our old friend mathematics came to the rescue.

Bambu 7 is equivalent to a 5/2 cotton so about 2100 yards per pound.  (840 x 5 divided by 2= 2100)  Divide 2100 by 16 (ounces in a pound) for a total of about 130 yards per ounce.

I weighed the cone (taking care to minus out the cone weight) then multiplied the number of ounces by 130 yards.  Voila!  I knew approximately how much yarn was on the cone.

It was a simple matter to then calculate the yardage needed to do a warp for 2, 3 or 4 scarves and see how long a warp I could wind with the partial cones I had left in my stash.

The article for Handwoven just got sent - and then I remembered I'd not included the drafts!  So I'll get that done and sent off.  And hopefully I can dress the loom with the brown/gold warp and weave a scarf yet today.

Currently reading Death and Judgement by Donna Leon