The Evaporating Month of July

The story of July is, 4th at Stow House (museum); gone, home, houseguests, birthday, gone, home, collapse. In that order. The entire month of July passed before my astonished eyeballs about half-past June!

Stow House is a wonderful museum in my home town. It is a Victorian farmhouse with a small lake nearby, original garden plantings, a cool breeze off the beach, and a lovely place to spend the day. I volunteer there, and the Old-Fashioned Fourth of July is always a wonderful day. For the Fourth we have gas engines in the farmyard, hayrides, tri-tip sandwiches by the Lions' Club, Old cars on display, arts & crafts vendors, and a down-home music stage set up in the lovely gardens. It's a perfectly low-key way to spend the Fourth.

On the 5th I was on the road. By the 6th I was in the air (this was last week's family wedding) to Seattle. I returned home on the 12th, and had a day to clean house before my friends arrived for the Orchid Fair. So by Friday I was on the road locally, flitting with my friends from orchid grower to grower, meeting interesting people I would never have met because I don't collect orchids. Yet. I am weakening. They are incredibly lovely, and some can be grown in your backyard in Santa Barbara County! Amazingly enough, the weather was perfect for the weekend: cool and sunny, with an ocean breeze. Our usual summer weather is more like "morning fog, burning off by noon, then cool and sunny (or maybe high clouds) til dusk, when the fog comes back."

A detour into a rant: it's FOG. Fog, ferpetessakes. Plain ol, garden variety fog. Not "mist." And definitely _not_ "Marine Layer," thenkyewverrymuch weatherman. Just fog. I loves it, I do, because it's responsible for our orchid-friendly weather (and some darn cold Junes!). I was on vacation here, visiting my dad, the first time I heard the local weatherman utter the words "Marine Layer," and I about fell over laughing at the Extreme Euphemism for plain ol Fog. Dad sort of looked at me in astonishment while I chortled my way through the next 30 minutes of news. "Marine layer" my foot fulla blue mud. Fog [end rant]!

Houseguests left yesterday (Sunday), and I fell into the usual routine today: walking MWF, Trader Joe's (groceries), and home; and catching up on the Ends Left Loose while I was away. Including cuddling a kitty. Miss Flora always velcros herself to me the first few day's I'm home from a trip.

A week from tomorrow I'll be heading Eastward for another family wedding, on the so-called other side . This time, all bets are on _our_ side being the most numerous, because DH is the fifth of eleven children, almost all of whom have lots of grandchildren already. This bids fair to be a big event, and I'm really looking forward to visiting with all the family we don't normally spend much time with (something about an entire continent between us).

Before the wedding, I'll spend a few days visiting other letterpress printers and a press, which lives at the Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown, NY. I'm looking forward to taking photos & measurements and talking shop with friends of the Amalgamated Printers Association. Great bunch- and I get a packet of inspiration every month, and see what other members have printed and how.

So, before the rest of July evaporates (and it's working on it even as we speak), I'll sign off for now. Hope your July is just as fun but perhaps a little less frenetic .

More of.... All of the Above

Ya know, I'm a repeat offender. So I celebrate my many evil habits by doing them over and over again. So I'm away from home at a family wedding (go, Ben & Theresa!), and have taken a few days to explore Washington State. What a wonderful place. And Oh, darn, happens that we are staying in the very same town as the famed Shipwreck Beads. They have grown since my only other visit to them, something like 15 years ago. At least TEN times their former size. Perhaps they are taking over the world! So now you know. I'm a maker of beaded things, too. Shipwreck is so called by its very ability to shipwreck a credit card in under 30 minutes. They even have a coffee & juice bar for the Spouses & Children among us, who may accompany but can't hold out for heavy duty bead shopping. I am in utter awe.

I restrained myself seriously, buying only one tool, a few strings of beads, and a couple of findings. Really!

Shipwreck Beads. See their website. (If only I knew how to link to it here, but you can Google no sweat)

In what passes for Hog Heaven, and about to go play tourist in actual Seattle, ==Marjorie

Not really a Wart, but it could become one. Travel.

Another Evil Habit. I love going places. Back when I was first married I'd jump right up from anywhere if my husband even suggested going to the dump! Alas, no traveler he, but I do like exploring odd places. And other wonders.

So last weekend was a good one. I went to a hobby printers' convention known as a Wayzegoose, in Oklahoma City. There were fun places to explore, mostly printing related. A historical business in the old state capitol, Guthrie, nearly brought us to our knees... it is a full working printing shop housed in its original building. There are rows of presses and linotypes just standing there as if the printers would be back any minute. The machines have been there for almost 100 years! The other printers and I (the hobby printers, remember?) just drooled at seeing so much of a "real" shop left in the world.

The pinup wall was amazing. The latest girl must have been 20 in about 1923, and she was fully clothed. So were the earlier ones... a calendar girl from 1903, and others in fancy ballgowns and the like. I tried photographing the wall, but it is protected with a shiny plastic that's hard to shoot through.

The entire exhibit felt as if you could almost still hear the clatter of the brass matrices falling inside the Linotypes; the clank of the ink disks on the presses, and the hum of the drive belts.

The organization sponsoring the Wayzegoose was the Amalgamated Printers Association, of which I am a member. We print for one another and exchange our work. I get a pile of inspiration from my fellow printers. We had a swap meet Saturday morning, with lots of equipment, books, type and cuts exchanging hands. An auction followed. This time I was not a lucky bidder, but listening to the two auctioneers was entertaining.

The high point of my weekend was buying many elements of a 19th century border called "Egyptian." I have admired it for years but never thought I would be able to obtain any. It is a border that is pieced together like a puzzle, element by element, and it requires some skill to assemble. I feel as if it will be a test of my printing abilities.

But travel is my theme here.... and after the Wayzegoose I drove to Kansas to visit my grandmother's childhood home. I had only a day and a half, but managed to find family graves, see the home, look at land records, buy some quilting fabric, and have a lovely time. Small Town Kansas is charming, and I am glad to have been able to go.

I am certainly glad to get back to my Purring Teddy Bear, Miss Flora. Coming home is an essential part of travel!

the Sock Factor(y), or Wart 3

Ok, I'll fess up. I'm a knitter. Mostly by need-- I'm not a fast knitter, but I am dee-termined. Silly clothing manufacturers won't market nice-looking woolen ladies' socks in California, so I determined (that word again) that I would jolly well make my own.

The reason for knitting my own is the same as why I sew. I get color, style, and design control, all with the satisfaction of having made something really cool. I am hardly a knitting maven (I'll let the Yarn Harlot do that job http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/), but I have slogged my way through about a dozen pairs of socks, so far. See? I'm _not_ fast. Just D-termined. Dee-termined. Wossname. Stubborn.

The trickiest bit about knitting socks is simply learning how. When I began, I wasn't at all sure I would even _want_ to continue. What if the dread "turning the heel" was too hard for me? I didn't want to knit the entire leg-of-a-sock, then the heel, only to find out I didn't have what it takes. What a waste of time! What it it wasn't actually FUN? So I cheated. I took a huge shortcut and made ONE HEEL, to prove that I could._Then_ I figured it was safe to invest in some yarn for an actual pair of socks.

Here's what I did, in case you want to learn how to comitt sockification:
1. Bought a 24ç sweater at a thrift store, making sure it was a hand knit so the seam was take-apartable.
2. Took the seam apart.
3. Cut off a sleeve at the elbow.
4. Unravelled the sleeve back down to the cuff.
5. Picked up the cuff stitches and began knitting in the round.
(the cuff was the stand-in for the leg-of-a-sock, as mentioned above)
6. Using Nancy Bush's book, Folk Socks, I carefully followed her instructions for a standard flap heel.
7. Worked the heel, did the heel stitch, the short rows, worked as far as the decreases, and....
8. IT WORKED!

Once that was complete, I had no excuse. Sockfication was mine. I could DO this. So I did. Now my feet walk around in hand knits-- complete with colors and styles and textures that I love. See some at http://the3toad.googlepages.com/home Warm feet are happy feet. Long live wool!

Wart Two: Letterpress

I print. So what do you call me? A printer? But kids are learning that the box next to the computer is a "printer." What about the person who prints? In some languages, the default term for a person who prints takes the male article. So what about a woman who prints?

The weirdness goes further. I am no luddite, but my printing takes the form of letterpress work: type directly in contact with paper. It is considered antique technology. I began, appropriately enough, at a museum, where I demonstrated a press. Quickly appreciating that it was an approachable art (much more so than offset, which I had learned in college), I switched majors, as it were, to letterpress. My course of study did not change, but my printing technique did.

Current trends in letterpress involve more pressure than is good for lead types. The former mode was to achieve a "kiss" impression, where ink, but not indentation, was deposited on the paper. Being a devout middle-of-the-roader, I like a nice heavy kiss... one with a little character. However, I am not willing to sacrifice my type to achieve this look. If there is any question about it, I will order myself a plate from a good proof of the type. I won't have to worry about my type in that way.

I have been asked if I do wedding invitations or business cards. While I _can_ do such things, and have, I have not offered services for pay yet. Depending on my schedule, it might happen in future. However, first the post-move shop must be set up, and moving presses alone is not an option. Things progress glacially.

If you are interested in my printing, see my website: the3toad.googlepages.com/home. I have posted specimens and shop photos.

For printers (those of the human persuasion) I can recommend a website full of links: http://members.aol.com/aapa96/lpress.html, run by my friend Dave Tribby. Of his links, I think Briar Press and the "Letpress" are among the best. Your milage may vary!

An oft-quoted saying from the List: "Freedom of the Press belongs to the person who owns one." I am happy to be among the number.

Wart One: I sew

Hmm. As a beginning blogger I should have something to say. I'll begin explaining my many interests. Most are related to making things I need or want. I can't emphasize enough the importance to me of being able to make things. In this prefabricated world making one's own "whatever" is the ultimate rush. I've beat the system and gotten exactly what I want and didn't settle for inferior quality or poor design. We're talking life skills here.

Sewing is perhaps the most important and long-lasting of my skills. Since I am not an "average" size in any direction, off-the-rack never fits right. But most important, making my own gives me color, style, quality, and design control. I wish more people, guys included, could understand how powerful the ability to sew can be. I can repair favorite clothes; I can remodel things that don't fit quite right. I can design what no pattern can offer me. I am not limited by what retailers want to push at me, because I can make my own version of whatever I need.

I don't always sew my clothing. Sometimes, disgusted with the prices for soft goods (ever buy a high end camera bag?), I make my own. The bag for my 35mm camera has two main sections, six outside pockets, two straps, and a hidden pocket. It is all padded and made of pack cloth with bright zippers to close things. A similar bag cost over $100 when I priced them. Mine has already lasted 18 years, and looks just as good as it did when new. It has been all over the US, and carried many lenses, cameras, and miscellaneous items. Had I not been able to sew and envision what I needed, I'd have needed to spend a lot of money to get something not fitted precisely to my needs.

Sewing, unfortunately, has become a dying art. Schools no longer teach it, and kids have never seen how useful a skill it is. Even should they learn, they assume they don't have time to DO it. My sewing time is at night, when the TV rules so many homes. I don't watch much TV. Hmm... maybe that's why I have time to sew. Actually, though, with my fitting issues, I don't have time NOT to sew.

Sewing is a fabulous way to gain control of your wardrobe, or even your accessories. I highly recommend it as a creative challenge that has real, cost-effective results.

Things I have sewn (either made or repaired:
Tents, quilts, camera bags, briefcases, draperies, specialty bags, purses, canvas leg coverings, outerwear, lingerie, furry animals, furniture coverings, doll clothes, corsets for historical clothing, hats, bathing suits, lingerie, and the usual blouses, dresses, skirts, and pants.

Sewing. Learn how!