One Knitted Dress for a Demanding Client

I finished knitting this dress and delivered it last night. It took only 29 days. It had to be done quickly because she is growing so fast.

Ice Storm: Jan 19,2012

Here are a couple of sample shots of the ice on our car and in the Maple tree. The freezing rain is sticking to everything out there, including the side of the house.

Raccoon Tracks in Snow

The baby raccoons have grown up and now we have five adult raccoons patrolling our driveway. I think this became their route because we used to leave cat food out on the porch for Pompi. When the cat food disappeared, I always assumed it was Pompi who ate it, so I kept putting it out each night. One night when it snowed and I saw the only tracks around the cat food were raccoon tracks, I quit putting out the cat food. But the raccoons continue to use the route past our porch.

Christmas Tree Ornaments

Here are some of the Christmas ornaments I made last December using yarn left over from previous projects. The first photo shows four hats that fit perfectly on my fingers.

The next photo shows the hat and sweater sets I made. Each sweater was a miniature of the original sweater made from that yarn. We put fuzzy pipe cleaners inside the sweaters so they would hang on the tree.

November Glass Bead Class

Last November I took a class to learn how to make functional beads rather than merely decorative jewelry types of beads. First I will show you some that I made. They make nice handles for things like letter openers, canope knives, light switch pull strings, and maybe even pendants. The red one is Monya's favorite but I like the transparent blue beads. The white beads were just markers to identify my beads compared to other student's.

The next three photos show what an expert (not me) can make. There is a hollow teapot, a plain hollow bead, and a snowman. All of these are still on the stainless steel mandrel, with a coating of white release agent. We use a pair of pliers to hold the mandrel while we twist the bead loose. Since these good beads were not mine, I was not at liberty to remove them from the mandrels.

Froe Mallet

My new froe arrived the other day and I was excited to use it right away. Unfortunately, it requires a mallet which I needed to make. So I picked out the smallest log from my stash and began cutting it in half with my crosscut carpenter's saw. In the first photo you can see my new froe in the foreground, and the log being cut into its partner mallet.

In the past I have always had a difficult time cutting a log such as this without the saw kerf meandering. By the time I finish the cut, the kerf being cut does not line up with the kerf at the beginning. But now, thanks to my hero Roy Underhill, I know how to do this: "Rotate the work frequently, and keep one's mind clear of impure thoughts." It worked very well, as can be seen in the second photo.

The next step was to cut a handle out of one end of the stump of log. I followed the same process of keeping "one's mind clear of impure thoughts" and sawed partially through the log, splitting off the excess wood with a chisel.

When it came time to clean up the new handle with a drawknife, I discovered that my shaving horse was woefully inadequate. The jaws of the shaving horse were not large enough to accomodate a full sized log. So I tied the log to the shaving horse and braced it against my knees with a piece of scrap wood.

Here's what the handle looked like when I quit working on it. I could clean it up a little with a spokeshave, but it's just a froe mallet.

I'd like to show the froe and mallet in action, but that takes two hands, leaving nothing for holding a camera. I used it to split the other half of the log I used for the mallet. It will be a nice piece for making a hammer handle, and I have enough left over for making several more handles, or spinning tops. Now I have lots of indoor projects that will keep me through the rainy winter.

Launch of The Merry Yarn

Today we launched our new row boat, The Merry Yarn.

The whole crew (except for the photographer) posed for a photo opportunity.

Monya tried it out first.

Then Bopop took the mermaids for a ride.

We even have a video of the ceremony. Notice how much at ease the two girls are. When I told them to "hold on" because I was about to hop into the boat, they tucked down low to the bottom of the boat, making it much more stable.

Launch of The Merry Yarn from Jim Zimmerman on Vimeo.

Clean Garage

Once every fifteen years or so I clean out my garage. Somewhere I have a photo of our 1981 Toyota Starlet inside the garage but I was unable to locate it. It's probably a printed photo, not digital, so I wouldn't be able to post it anyway, and within one week the garage was so full of junk that the car didn't fit any more.

When I started, there was only enough room for two bicycles to roll in and out. This occasion for cleaning the garage is to make space for Monya's new 14' rowboat on a trailer. I still have five boats hanging from the ceiling, so maybe I should call this a boat house rather than a garage. It's certainly not a woodworking shop.

October Flowers

Monya planted these flowers at the same time as the tomato seeds. The summer was unusually cool, so the tomatoes didn't ripen before the cold Fall weather returned, so she pulled out all the tomato plants and left these flowers to finish maturing. Now it is mid October and the poor things are just getting going.

The Fireplace Channel

The other day I noticed we had the television tuned to "the fireplace channel" and decided it was worth a photo.

Bicycle Repaired

Yesterday the guys at GHY Bikes called to tell me that my bike was ready to pick up. Those guys are really good! I'm just barely able to ride a bike again while those rarely replaced parts have been ordered, shipped and installed.

Broken Parts
front fender
hydraulic brake line
hydraulic brake fluid
rear view mirror mount
right shift housing

Worn Parts
brake pads (front and rear)
chain
cassette
Schwalbe Marathon Plus tire

So in order to save a little walking time, I decided to ride the XtraCycle over to the shop, then walk both bikes back. But Jesse pointed out that I could put the front wheel of the Norco into the carrier of the XtraCycle and it will pull like a trailer. It worked so well that I could have gone much farther and faster without any problems.

Grape Harvest 2011

The weather this summer was very cool. In fact, the summer weather didn't even start until nearly July, and during the month of August the high temperatures never reached the average. So our grape crop was very late in ripening.

Last year the crop wasn't ripe so I left it on the vine until the Fall rain started. Three days later all of the grapes had fallen off the vine and we lost all of them.

Two years ago we had a great harvest (Grape Harvest 2009). So when the rain started this weekend (Oct 1) I immediately checked on the grapes. They were not ripe but they were swelling, getting soft, and falling off the vine.

In desperation I gathered up what was left: about six gallons of grapes. Some of them were the ripe purple color, but most of them still had that reddish glow. A few were still green but full sized. I picked all of them.

I picked the grapes off the clusters and put them into a crusher sieve. Since there were so many reddish grapes I wondered whether the juice would be too bitter to drink, so I tasted the first batch. It was wonderful! A bit on the sour side, but very nice.

I finished off by including even the green grapes and finished with about 4 quarts of juice. Next year I'd like to try using a centrifugal juice separator since the sieve I'm using doesn't get all the juice out. Maybe an apple cider masher would work more effectively too.

Tree Climbing

We had two visitors spend the weekend of Sept 24-25 with us. I put up a rope swing in time for a wind storm to blow through. I captured a few seconds of the wind gust blowing through the oak tree while two girls screamed in mock fright. A few drops of rain fell and when the girls were touched by rain they immediately fell to the ground, growing mermaid tails. Unfortunately I was not prepared to take a movie of that action. Later, I put up a real climbing rope and LaGrande showed her strength and courage by climbing higher into the tree than she's ever been (except for the movie where she "jumped" out of the top of the tree). By the way, these photos have not been altered except for rotating and sizing for web viewing.

Swollen Hand

Two days later and the swelling in my hand has gone down quite a bit. I've been keeping an Ace bandage on it, and that helps around my wrist, but it isn't very effective around my fingers or knuckles. I don't know why the swelling would go way up into my fingers since it was only my wrist that took the impact.

Another Bicycle Wreck

This morning I wrecked my bike again. It happened as I rounded a corner on the entrance to one of those jogging/biking trails. You've seen them; with concrete posts to prevent motorists from entering the trail. Anyway, I was zooming as usual and I didn't see the stump of wood laying at the apex of the corner. It took my front wheel sideways, changing my trajectory such that I ran directly into one of the posts.

The front brake hydraulic line is severed, the front fender is broken in two pieces, and the air horn mount is broken. I think that custom front wheel is OK but I'll take it to the shop and have them check it out.

My right wrist is probably sprained, my right knee has a nasty abrasion, and my right quadracep feels like one big charlie horse. The quad took a direct hit on the post.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

In the future, I may take the corner out in the street and go between the posts in a straight line. It will be slower that way, but probably safer.

Update: adding a photo of the "stump of wood" that caused all this grief. I put it next to the OEM tire that came off my bike since the bike is currently in the shop being repaired.

You may ask, as I have, "how could I not see this in the road?"

I can only claim the Moon Walking Bear defense.

Glass Bead Class

Last weekend I took a class to learn how to make glass beads. We were only taught the basics of how to work with the tools, and they showed us a couple of techniques like how to make a heart.

I took this photo of the beads I made. Notice that Monya has already turned a pair of them into earrings. Those two beads are the only ones I considered a success, while all the rest are technically failures, but even the failures look pretty interesting.

The tiny white beads were just my markers, to identify my beads from the rest of the students. I liked them too, so I kept them. Next time I'll try to make them a bit more uniform. I'm planning to take another class and learn some more techniques.

Another Capsize Recovery

Another Capsize Recovery from Jim Zimmerman on Vimeo.

This video, taken on September 4, shows how a roll recovery, when done properly, can be so easy that it's possible to pull yourself up so hard that you throw yourself over the other side.

Bopop Capsizing

My new camera came with a suction-cup mount that holds on to the deck of the kayak like SuperGlue. Check out this video of a failed attempt at an Eskimo Roll recovery.

One More Capsize from Jim Zimmerman on Vimeo.

Two Mermaids Capsizing

Capsize LaGrande from Jim Zimmerman on Vimeo.

Here is LaGrande taking her second plunge from the kayak.

Mermaid Capsize from Jim Zimmerman on Vimeo.

And here's the Wee One doing her best to tip over the boat. In the end, I helped her with a tiny push.

Last Lake Crossing

Last year I swam across the lake to celebrate my 40th anniversary of that crossing. This year I wanted to make it a "60 year old's" crossing, only this time I would have witnesses. The two mermaids helped paddle the canoe while I swam, towing my kayak. In this photo, taken by LaGrande Mermaid, you can see me swimming with my kayak behind. The captain of the canoe is checking our heading with a GPS to make certain we don't get lost on the lake.

The second photo shows the uncanny talent of LaGrande as photographer. She has captured an undewater image of me swimming just above the yellow guide line. The yellow line helps me go straight without having to raise my head out of the water to see where I'm going.

The third frame shows LaGrande herself, an accidental close-up. I gave her the camera without any operating instructions, and I know if that had been done to me I would not have been able to take any photos at all.

In this last frame, the happy group is paddling homeward, enjoying calm weather and none of the rain that had been predicted for this afternoon.

By the way, I didn't make it all the way across the lake. I was about 1/3 to 1/2 mile short of the finish when the cramping in my legs became too much to bear. We had so much fun with the outing that I don't really care about not crossing the whole way.