Travels To Iran.

.....I have a friend who lives in Santa Rosa, California, who is an inspiration to me in that she is a Social Activist. A lot of her year is spent in various locations of the world working with local groups in tense regions in the hope of spreading a little peace. Last year was spent in Ceylon working in a Tamil village, interacting with them as they went about their lives and documenting their interactions with the government, who sees the Tamil people as a threat to their existence. There were tense times of which she doesn't like to speak, but she describes the entire experience as extremely meaningful and worthwhile.

.....Linda Sartor is her name. She has an extremely liberal viewpoint, to a degree that I find myself disagreeing with her from time to time. But I'm awfully impressed at the lengths she is willing to go to right the wrongs she perceives in the world.

.....Her latest adventure is a trip to Iran. A place called Yazd (hopefully I'm spelling that correctly). She spoke a lot with the people of the area. The majority of them are what she describes as 'remarkably normal'. There is no fervent hatred of Americans or the West. There is actually a great deal of curiosity and wonder. They see aspects of American culture all around them, both good and bad, and have incredibly wild notions of what it is like to be an American and live in the United States.

.....Linda spent most of her time with an artist of the area who lost his arms during a time of war when the Shah of Iran was still the ruler. He paints with a paint brush in his teeth. Linda plans on posting some pictures of his works, but describes them as rather spectacular.

.....When I read Linda's posts on these trips of hers, it gives me a little hope that maybe the world isn't going to end in anarchy or hatred tomorrow. And maybe I'm a little more left-leaning than some of my friends here in Kitsap County, but I'm just a little more hopeful when I think that maybe someone with a left leaning bent might be President of the United States in just a handful of months. Instead of spreading a lot of fear and hate, maybe we could see a little hope and joy.

.....Just a thought.

.....Aaron / Arontius.

Card-Weaving Disappointment.

.....I was at Mill Ends in Portland a couple of months back, during a 50% off sale. I ran across some silk embroidery floss that felt really good and the colors were really vibrant. I was standing there thinking that they would look good as a trim, so I went ahead and bought six spools of this stuff. There were 30-yards to a spool, at half price they were $3 each. The six spools cost me $18.

.....I put them aside for a while and then finally found enough time to card them up. By the time I wrapped everything up I had used almost five of the spools. We'll just call it an even 150 yards of this floss, maybe a little more when you consider the amount used on the shuttle.

.....I went for just a simple hook pattern, where the cards all went in the same direction continuously. I might have picked a different pattern if I had given it some more thought. With the cards going always in the same direction, the floss wound around-and-around to the point where I had to break everything down on three separate occasions so that I could untwist the threads enough to allow me to continue the pattern.

.....Even though I like the feel and the look of the silk, I've never liked working with it. Whenever I work a bobbin lace pattern with silk it frustrates me as it is always so slippery that if I'm not extremely careful my patterns continuously slide out of place the minute I pull a needle. So I was expecting the same kind of play on the card weaving. I was always careful to keep good tension and beat the threads into place hard.

.....The trim took no time at all to finish. I still like the feel and the look of it. But what dismayed me in the end was the 150-yards of silk floss equated to just 51-inches of trim! Not enough to do a whole lot of anything really. It turned out a little more narrow than I wanted as well. But that I kind of expected. It is amazing how much quantity of fiber goes into the creation of trim, and how expensive it really it. This piece cost the equivalent of $0.35 an inch ($4.20 a foot, $12.60 a yard). The sad part is that same 51-inches could have been done in less than a couple of seconds for pennies a yard at some factory in China.

.....But when all is said and done, I still like the finished product. I think that I'll use it for some dangly or something. Looks better than the majority of the chains I use now. :-)

.....Tamm was suggesting I try something using the wool embroidery floss she first picked up for the Baronail tapestry. The colours are kind of on the darker side, but I'll see what I can do with them.

.....Pictures:



.....and...



.....But I *AM* having fun with the cardweaving, and that's the bottom line. Right? :-) And just think of what I could do if I were really an artist. That would be cool. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.

I'm In A Posty Mood Today. :-)

.....Happy Birthday, fragmentsofnim!!! You've always been a hero of mine, and not just because of all the Rhys time you give us. I loved you even before I met TBT! :-) I hope that the Birthday Clause brought you everything you wanted for today. You certainly deserve it!!! :-)

.....I was never much of a fan of Christopher Columbus, but I'm becoming more of one as I get older. Anyone who dies so that I get an extra day off from work is WAY-O.K. as far as I'm concerned. I'll do my best to overlook the fact of what he introduced to the Native American cultures. If I could raise a toast of President Reagan for departing this planet and giving me a day off from work, I'll do the same for my good friend Christopher. Salud!

.....I managed to make it both a lazy weekend and a productive one at the same time.

.....On Saturday, I slept in until 9AM. Whooo! Hoooo! Took my mother out shopping. She scored big time with a lift chair, one that she has wanted for a long time now. We found one that was in excellent condition at St. Vincent's, for a good price too. Sigh! then I had to take her to the cess-pool of Kitsap County evil, Wal-Mart. She wouldn't take 'NO' for an answer. But I protested by keeping my hiney IN-THE-CAR while she shopped. She must have felt some sympathy for my disgust as she was out of there in less than a half hour. Then it was a trip to Albertsons and on home.

.....I trundled on home and watched mega-hours of Deep Space Nine (my favorite Star Trek series) while working on card weaving. When my eyes started squinting, I turned to Western Regional Pelican Agenda, which is done and uploaded to the web-site. I even went in and did my assigned homework from the last Regional Meeting and from Anne-Marie. Extra Whoot! Then finished the day with a fantastic food fest at Mistress Gwenllyn's house. Fried foods are probably not extremely good for me. But it all sure tasted good, that's for sure! :-)

.....On Sunday, I slept in again until 9AM. I was feeling positively L*A*Z*Y at this point. But was determined to not feel guilty. TBT and I did our traditional weekend date thing at Starbucks. Then I completed my third quarter Seneschal's report. Then went ahead and did my third quarter Crier Financial Report. Even went ahead and balanced the Crier books, made out check deposits, and filed everything. I was feeling positively ACCOMPLISHED at this point. Double-Whoot!

.....On Monday, Columbus Day Holiday, I managed to clean house and do some laundry. I deposited checks (U.S. Bank was actually open today. I'm glad that the Crier accounts are there and not at WAMU :-)). I did some circlet organizing. Dropped off stuff in the Baronial Storage Unit. Caught up on some e-mail. Did a little card-weaving reading. Turned off the sprinkler system for the year. And now I'm about to wind down for the pre-work week psyching up ritual. So far I've managed to maintain this ritual without the use of alcohol and still face going to work. Watch me celebrate when the Big Boss actually retires. Talk about WHOOT!!! :-)

.....What's up for this week? Fight Practice tomorrow, with a couple of meetings thrown in as well. We're actually going to get the Baronial Directory off the ground. This one has been squarely on my shoulders. I've been doing it for so long that I'm reluctant to give any of it up. All the more reason to do so. But I've got ideas. And I've got a couple of people who might play along.

.....This Friday everything came toether so that I can attend the An Tir Administrative Retreat in Salem. I'm feeling kind of guilty for skipping out on the Harvest Dance, especially since I wanted to add a couple of dance that I think would have balanced out the published repetoire nicely. But maybe I'll do a little Karabushka at Yule instead. :-)

.....Gonna run. Hope everyone has a wonderful FOUR-DAY week. :-) Man, I could really get used to a four day work week schedule. I'm quite jealous of Master Ralg and his 5-4-9 schedule. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.