A shout out to Tuesday Weavers!!!

I have enjoyed the Tuesday Weaver's blog for quite some time now, and we've even enjoyed exchanging Christmas cards for a few years!  I've never had the chance to meet them, but I want to someday!!  I would love to see their studio and meet all the weavers!  Anyway, a wonderful shoutout of THANKS to them for their lovely package for the baby!!  It was full of all kinds of goodies!!!  When the postman brought it by, I was on the phone with my mom and told her what was left on the doorstep.  She wanted me to make sure I tell them that we have relatives that are from Tennessee!

Thank you Tuesday Weavers!!  I love it all, and so will the baby!!!!





We are feeling more and more ready for the baby, who should be making an appearance in the next month or so.  We are very excited!!  I should also mention that I am super excited to get my body back after the baby comes!  I haven't said much yet about my weird pregnancy symptom because I got my blog so far ahead with pre-scheduled posts that I could hide it for awhile, but since January I haven't been able to feel my right hand very well.  In fact, touching fabrics, yarns, and textiles with my right hand is unpleasant!  Even typing is hard to do.  The dr says it should go away once the baby comes, but it makes all jobs harder to do.  In fact, I haven't woven or sewn very much since January, but like I said I got the blog so far ahead that I could cover it up until now... because I am finally out of posts!  Without much weaving or sewing, I have actually been filling my time since January studying electronics and computer programming.  Ever since I discovered RGB LEDs (which are red, green, and blue lights) I have had this nightlight in mind for the baby.  I finally figured out how to make it using my own computer chip and circuits.  Here are the insides:

It's all based on the open-source prototype called Arduino, but to make a full circuit using an Arduino board and shields would be a lot of money... like $60.  This circuit that uses just the computer chip is about $15 in electronic parts... plus the challenge and fun of figuring out how to use things like voltage regulators, capacitors, 16 mhz crystals, voltage meters... all without burning the house down or electrocuting something or someone!

Here is a picture of the light in use:

The left picture is the back of the nightlight.  There is a silver knob that can control the speed of the color changing.  It can change 512 colors within a second, which is the fastest, to something really slow an relaxing that takes 13 minutes to cycle through all the colors.  My dad and I made a housing for it using sanded plexiglass.  And I love it!!  In fact, I have been running it every evening since I made it!

It really was intended for the baby... but I may have to "store" it in the living room so we can all enjoy it for awhile!

The End!

The life of a zebra

Just need eyes, a mane, a tail, and some fluff!

Oh, and a name!

Flat zebra

Zebra

Fresh from the dryer

The blanket was 44" square before washing, and 43" square after washing.

Here is the worst part of the center fold, before washing:

Same area, after washing: 

Washing definitely brought out the best in this blanket and relaxed some areas like the center fold.  I think this little section is so small that it will be overlooked.  Best of all, is is even softer than it was before, which I didn't even think was possible!

Ready for the baby!

I almost ran out of yarn on this one... wow, I really cut it close!

On the last stripe, I ran out of blue, so I had to substitute in a few shots of teal.  I don't think anyone will even notice, and I think it looks cool that way, anyway!  It's a good story!

The warp was plenty long!  I advanced it a little bit more before cutting it completely off to make the fringe a little longer.  I actually cut the fringe off 8 strands at a time, and then tie it right then.  Otherwise, the weft just pops out of place so quickly!  One thing I liked about having a slightly longer than needed warp on the doubleweave was the threads not sticking together in the end and causing seriously bad floats.  I had one float I had to deal with, and it was so easy to fix because it was near a short piece of yarn anyway.

Lots of work to do when it comes off... it took awhile!

But good thing I had Scout to help keep me company!

I love the way it turned out!!!

It looks great with the white crib!

I think our baby boy will love it!  I still need to send this blanket through the washer and dryer, and I think that will take out a few of the abnormalities that I see, as well as relax the center fold.

Until then... we wait for him to come... but it's still a little bit early for him to arrive!

My to-do list is almost done!!!  Yay!  My goal is to complete it before little baby boy comes!