If you had told my twenty-year-old self that I would one day enthusiastically sign up for eight hours of hard workout spread over two days, she would have looked at you as if you were crazy and gone back to making chain mail, eating pizza, and watching TV. Continue reading
I signed up for a Linux Administration certification program, because I thought it would be fun, and because Amazon Web Services is a Linux house, which is geek for “we use a lot of Linux around the place.”
So I walk into the classroom and I was the only girl…by a lot. That’s really the only way I can explain it. Not only were the other 25 people in the room male, but they were all the same kind of male. Geek alpha male, Linux flavored. Continue reading
One of the things I love about going to a gathering of fiber enthusiasts is the sharing and inspiration that goes on. For example, I recently went to an Eastside Spinners meeting (held at Starbucks, because this is the Pacific Northwest) where a woman pulled out a gorgeous multcolored batt, filled with sparkly bits, recently hand carded so it was as light and fluffy as a cotton candy cloud.
I was instantly hit with an overwhelming wave of jealousy, because I’d been looking for months for exactly that kind of batt, with no joy on Etsy, online retailers, or my local yarn shop. “Where,” I breathed, “Did you get that?” Continue reading
It’s a banner day, the first of two warps for the Birthday Blanket Project are done! Eric and Kai were away for most of the week, and I took the opportunity to weave on my big noisy AVL (the flyshuttle is loud) while they were away. At first it felt as though the 13-yard warp would go on forever, but at long last it is done! Huzzah! Lessons learned include: Continue reading
I was browsing around online as I sometimes do, and look what I stumbled across. The Sept-Oct edition of Handwoven is on sale, with my eTextile project mentioned on the cover! How cool is that? Continue reading
Yesterday I was part of a flash mob. If you’re not famliliar with the concept, its an event where in some public space, seemingly random strangers break into coordinated action or song. It’s like a musical come to life. This flash mob was put together by Sock Summit folk, who were so organized as to publish video tutorials for the “ode to yarn” choreography. Friday night, my roommates: Astrid Bear, Lisa Grossman (the Sock Tsarina), and Sandi Wiseheart and I crowded around a laptop to practice. Continue reading
I’m a long-range planner. My husband tells an apocryphal story about the time he caught me furtively looking at prices of mulberry trees online. As he approached, I was trying to switch screens and go back to the novel I was supposed to be writing.
“Syne?” he said, in a wry tone, “Was that a mulberry tree you were looking at?”
“Um, yeah…”
“Are you planning to buy a tree, raise silkworms, reel your own silk, dye it with local plants, weave it into fabric, and sew a shirt?”
“Um, yeah. How did you you know?”
I had a plan, it wasn’t a perfect plan, it wasn’t a well-funded plan, but it was mine and I was determined to see it through.
—Syne Mitchell
I love it when life takes a turn for the surreal. A couple of Fridays ago, I headed out for lunch, and while I was crossing the Amazon headquarters courtyard, was suddenly confronted by a pair of slender giantesses, clad in pink and silver skintight spandex, doing a sensual dance number to the tune of ZZ Top’s Legs. Continue reading
