Tag: A. Catherine Noon

  • Spreading the Love Blog Hop

    Today, I\’m going to share something a little sweeter for Valentine\’s Day.  This little story was inspired from a picture prompt and I thought my readers might enjoy it.  I wrote it way back on March 30th, 2008, and I figured it\’s time to blow the dust of it just in time for some Valentine\’s Day inspiration.

    Thanks for visiting.  Be sure to visit the other fine authors in this year\’s Valentine\’s Day Blog Hop, and good luck!

    Blue Highway

    \"\" “Hedges. Hedges, Wilhelm. Why is it always hedges?” Lars grumbled. “And look!” He pointed with an agitated arm. “Now they are putting hedges next to the trees!”

    “Calm yourself, Lars. It’s not seemly to get so excited. It’s a beautiful morning,” Elder Wilhelm Yoder soothed. “Look there. You see how the trees form a line like they are walking to market?”

    “Yes,” he sighed, “I see them.” He clucked at Mila and Kesta to hurry up. The two black mares obligingly moved into a light trot, their unshod hooves making soft ‘clops’ on the pavement.

    The road was only two lanes. He and Wilhelm drove in the right-hand one. The English in this land drove on the right, but in their home country drove on the left. It numbered among the many things Lars didn’t understand. To the right of the white line separating the road, the ugly hedgerows began. Nearly waist-high and wide to the depth of his forearm, trees had been planted just beyond them, spaced evenly like in an orchard. But this close to the exhaust fumes of automobiles, the trees would be useless for produce. Another hedgerow started just after the trees, like a fence, and then the woods began.
    “Are those Mr. Madden’s woods too?” Lars demanded, the thought popping unbidden to his mind.

    “Mmm,” Wilhelm responded. “I do not know. Why is it you ask?”

    Lars blushed and looked away. “Curiosity only, Elder.”

    “We Amish are a curious people,” Wilhelm said softly.

    After a moment, Lars realized he was teasing. “Forgive me, Elder. I feel out of sorts this morning.”

    “And why is that, young Lars?”

    “It’s Rebecca!” he burst out. “Viktor Sauder gave her flowers at the Meeting. Flowers!”

    “It is Easter, my son,” Wilhelm said quietly. Then, “Are you out of sorts because you neglected to bring any?”

    Lars shot a look at the Elder and found himself regarded by calm, age-filmed blue eyes. “Yes,” he said miserably and looked back at the road. “What if she chooses Viktor?”

    “If you neglect to bring her any gifts, perhaps she will,” Wilhelm said gently. When Lars whirled to retort, he held up a hand. “I said ‘if,’ my son. ‘If.’ We go to market after Mr. Madden’s delivery.”

    Lars stopped. That thought had not occurred to him. “I brought candles to barter,” he noted thoughtfully.

    “Perhaps you should barter with Mrs. Mills, young Lars. She makes such pretty hair ties.”

    When Lars met Wilhelm’s gaze, he found the old man twinkling at him. “Do you approve of the match?” Lars asked, greatly bold.

    “I do, my son.” He patted Lars’s knee. “But first, to business. We have much work to do, and we are missing the scenery.”

    Lars grinned and turned back to the road. The sun, not up yet, provided enough light that the woods were cast into bluish shadows. “Aren’t the hedges rather attractive in this light?” he asked the Elder.

    Elder Wilhelm just smiled and settled deeper into his seat.

    (Original post here.)

    Start of the Blog Hop is here.

  • Thursday 13: Snowpocalypse 2K11

    This storm covered 30 states! Pretty amazing. Here are 13 random thoughts on the Lee of the Storm:

    1. Tuesday night, we made it through Lakeshore Drive just in time, apparently. Michael picked me up at 3:30 P.M., having left his office at 3:00, and we didn’t get to our garage until 6:00 P.M. We were lucky: many, many people got stranded on Lakeshore and had to be rescued.

    2. This is the view from our car, with 50 mph winds sweeping west (to the left as you’re looking at the photo), causing whiteout conditions and driving snow and ice before it. Lake Michigan is directly to the east of Chicago, so the storm picked up water off the lake to add to its fury.

    3. Here’s an article with pictures about the Drive being back open, and all the stranded cars.

    4. Several buses were even stuck, my bus driver this morning told me, and had to come to work the next day anyway!

    5. The thermocouple on our furnace gave out. What’s a thermocouple? Here\’s what Google gave me. What happened is that the furnace blew out (it’s gas operated). We re-lit it, and it blew out. We re-lit it, and it blew out again. We built a burm of snow around it, and it blew out – but this time, the flames came several inches out of the opening, missing my face by a breath, and burned all the hairs off my left hand.

    Here’s the guys, building the snow wall:

    6. The city did a terrific job of plowing everything. The streets are, by and large, open again. They plowed our street in the night, using a dump truck to get the snow out of the way.

    7. The ‘problem’ with plowing the streets, is that it creates a burm. A burm is a small mountain of snow, snaking along beside the road from the snow that was pushed out of the way of the plows. The bus stop is on the curb, on the other side of the burm from the bus. This means I had to climb over a wide burm to get to the bus.

    8. Our offices were actually closed yesterday, as was most of the city. The Chicago Public School System, CPS, closed for the first time in 12 years. My husband and stepson were home for the day too.

    9. I didn’t get to have a traditional snow day, though, due to the wonders of modern technology. Our office has a VPN, or Virtual Private Network, so I can work from home.

    10. Cable, however, was out. We use a cable modem. So my internet, wireless, AND television were all out.

    11. I piggybacked onto my upstairs neighbors’ wifi, which let me access work files – but very sloooowwwwwlllllyyyyy. I live in a 1925 brick building, whose walls are 12” thick. So the signal, she wasn’t strong.

    12. After the drama with the snow, and the fire in the furnace, and the shoveling and cable and working and VPN and food and stuff, I decided to take a moment to myself in my nice, warm bathroom.

    And a giant friggin’ spider crawls up the wall and trundles on over to me to say hello.

    D00D!

    13. I am very grateful that today is a sunny day, and that we have survived Snowpocalypse 2K11! HOORAH!

  • It\’s All About the Fabric

    I am weaving on a Schact table loom that\’s been converted to a floor loom.  It is an eight-harness loom, but I\’m only using four of the harnesses.  Unlike my previous project, which I wove on a four harness table loom, this loom uses floor pedals to control the raising and lowering of the heddles.  If you remember, the heddles are what control which warp threads are up or down for each pass of the shuttle; this is what creates the weave structure (like, for example, a houndstooth pattern or herringbone).

    For my Quesquemitl, which is a type of shawl and poncho, I am weaving a 2-2 twill:  this means that 2 harnesses are up and 2 harnesses are down for each pass of the shuttle.  Twills are characterized by movement, meaning that the patterns are created by something called a \”twill circle.\”  This is in contrast to a balanced weave, like plain weave or basketweave.  (If you made potholders as a child, that is plain weave:  an equal amount of threads on the warp and the weft, and an equal weight to both.)

    Here are some pictures that will illustrate what I\’m talking about.

    Here is a view of the fabric.  The bottom two-thirds of the image is the actual fabric, and you can see the diagonal striping leading from the bottom right to the top left.  This is the characteristic of the twill family of weave structures.  Beyond the fabric, at the top of the image, are the warp threads waiting to be woven.  The warp is a darker tonal family than the weft (the warp are the vertical threads, the weft are the horizontal ones); the combination of the two is surprisingly pleasing.

    Here is a closeup of the same fabric, showing the apparent \’movement\’ of the fabric.  This fabric is a 2-2 twill, which means two warp threads are up, and two are down, for each pass of the shuttle.  For the weavers among you, I\’m using a floating selvage for this project, which is a first for me; I like the edges very much.  They\’re a lot cleaner than my last project, where I didn\’t use them.

    Here is a view of the fabric unwound from the front beam; I included my hand in the shot so you can get perspective on the sizing.  I\’m holding this fairly taut; in the next image, you can see more of the drape.

    It feels a little bit like denim, but much softer.  It\’s a rayon blend and I love it.  As I weave, it creates a lot of fuzz; I hope that isn\’t a property of the finished fabric after blocking.

    As I mentioned earlier, the heddles are controlled on this loom by foot pedals.  The cool thing is that the foot pedals are variable:  you select which heddles correspond with which pedal.  For my project, you can see there is an A, a B, and 1 through 4.  A and B are set up for plain weave, and the 1 through 4 are set up as a 2-2 twill.  That means that for each pedal, two heddles are controlled – this way, I just have to press 1 through 4 in succession and I have my pattern.

    I\’ll admit that was very difficult for me to grasp when I first sat down to weave on this loom; my instructor set up the heddles.  The geometry of it just refused to penetrate my brain (I think it\’s that old 2-D/3-D problem).  But now that I\’ve woven this project on it, and am nearing completion, it makes a lot more sense.

    Here is a view of the back beam, for those of you curious to see where the warp goes.  The left foreground shows the warp threads traveling over the back beam and down onto the roller.  The gray paper is there to keep successive rolls of the threads from knotting across each other; each layer is protected by paper (or one could use clear plastic or even newsprint, whatever is handy).

    This final image is the boat shuttle, so named because the bobbin of thread sits inside the shuttle on a peg.  This allows the weaver to load multiple bobbins and not have to get up each time the end of the thread is reached.  It\’s taken a little bit to get used to how wide this loom is; my last project wasn\’t this wide.  But once I got the hang of it, it\’s rather fun to whiz back and forth.

  • Update from the World of Weave!

    I have some news from my weaving classes and pictures, as well as an announcement about WeaveSpa.  Check it out on Knoontime Knitting!  And another entry, here!

  • News from the World of Weave

    I continue to attend weaving classes at the Chicago Weaving School, which in turn continues to grow and prosper.  Founder and Instructor Natalie Boyett conceived yet another excellent idea called WeaveSpa – single weaving classes with a pre-dressed loom or packages of lessons for very reasonable prices.  It\’s a great way for people to dip a toe into the weaving world without having to take an expensive and time-consuming plunge.  (It\’s also a great way to get hooked on the weaving addiction, but that\’s beside the point…) 

    The first WeaveSpa is February 2, 2011.  Check it out on Facebook.

    As for what the heck I\’m weaving, I\’m weaving a Quesquemitl!

    Say huh?

    A Quesquemitl!

    Nope, doesn\’t make sense to me either, other than it\’s a Mestizo shawl thingie.  It\’s pretty cool.  Here\’s a pic:

    The schematic on the left is the drawing of what you weave:  it\’s a long rectangle with fringe on the ends.  I think I might add some clear crystal beads to the ends of fringe and macrame them in some fashion; we\’ll see.  I don\’t have to decide that til next week. 

    Why next week?   BECAUSE I\’M NEARLY DONE!!!  I\’m so excited.  Here is a picture of the loom I\’m using; you can see the fabric in the front wound around the beam and the threads on the back with the knots sticking out – those knots are the end of the warp!  That means I only have a few more inches that I can weave before I\’m all finished!

    And since a friend of mine asked me about what the school is like, and I realized I haven\’t posted any pictures, here are some views of the school.

    \’My\’ loom is in the back on the left.  In the foreground on the left is another floor loom, and the yellow threads are the warp of what will be a blanket.  The bookshelves are the weaving library, and the odd shapes on the right are, in the foreground, my jacket over a chair and behind that my classmate\’s coat hanging on the corner stantion of a giant floor loom.

    The left is the back of that same enormous floor loom, then the back door that leads to the other room of the school, a long hallway and the all-important restroom.  What you can\’t see is there\’s a little bit on the right where there\’s a sink and more shelves with looms.  In the foreground on the right is the castle of another loom; what you\’re looking at are the levers that control the harnesses.

    This is looking toward the front of the school.  The center table is the main worktable, and looks different each time I come depending which students will be working.  When not in use, those table looms go on shelves.  On the left is a floor loom with a blue warp; beyond it are three more floor looms and a large wooden contraption for winding lengths of warp threads.  It\’s got a name but I can\’t call it to mind at the moment.

    It\’s a fun shop, full of electric and creative energy.  The students are just as interesting as the instructor; I\’ve really enjoyed the time I spend here and look forward to many more days weaving here.

  • That Good-For-You Food – Yogurt!

    Stemming from discussions with some friends, my contribution to Thursday 13 today centers around 13 Things About Yogurt. An unusual topic, perhaps, but an interesting one none-the-less:

    1. Yogurt can be made from cow’s milk, goat’s milk, even soy milk. One article I saw said “any mammal milk,” which gave me pause – elephant yogurt? o.O…

    2. It’s fermented milk. Commercial yogurts have the fermentation added, but you can make it at home with a commercially-available home yogurt maker.

    3. I have a commercially-available home yogurt maker.

    4. I’m not brave enough to try it yet…

    5. The bacteria that make the yogurt are VERY beneficial to the human digestive tract. By now, most folks have heard about “acidophilus” (which my spellcheck tried to make “audiophiles,” but I digress…), but there are a broad spectrum of bacteria that are useful.

    6. When you have any kind of intestinal trauma, from simple stomach flu and food poisoning all the way up to intestinal disease, yogurt can help re-populate the healthy flora in the intestines and ease up on painful symptoms.

    7. Yogurt is an excellent facial cleanser.

    8. No, that’s not a typo – yes, it is a non sequitur (my spellcheck tried to make THAT ‘squirt’). You can simply take yogurt in your hands (use a spoon, don’t just dip your paws in the container, sheesh!) and spread it on your face with gentle, upward sweeps of your fingers. HINT: let it come up to room temperature first. (Ask me how I know.)

    9. It is an excellent cure for yeast infection.

    10. No, I have not personally tested that theory. I used to get them a lot (infections) and did a LOT of research. Something about the beneficial bacteria eats the yeast in your system, and so applying it directly on the … um, affected area… is how it works. I just couldn’t do that myself, but my herbal instructor confirmed it is effective. (Couldn’t eat yogurt for months when I found out, as a matter of fact…)

    11. Now, I eat yogurt pretty much daily. I have intestinal problems that I won’t bore you with, but the yogurt helps a) soothe my stomach and gut and b) helps keep the good flora well-populated. Cuz a flowery colon is your friend. (Um, forget I wrote that last sentence…)

    12. Yogurt impersonates sour cream REALLY well, and if you use the 0% fat yogurt, it’s MUCH fewer calories. I put it in my spicy Indian food (which, happily enough, is actually rather authentic – they put yogurt on it too!), Mexican food, my baked potatoes, in soup, all sorts of stuff. Even put cocoa powder and honey in it! (The yogurt, ya goof, not the Indian food…)

    13. If you need a quick dip for fresh broccoli florets, put some mild curry powder and a smidge of garlic salt into half a cup of yogurt and stir really well. YUM! And, 0% fat is your friend!!

    Wow. Despite my worries, I actually ran out of 13 before I ran out of list! We might have to do this one again!

    Happy TT!

  • New World Order – Chapter 17: Banker’s Hours (Belinda)

    The long-awaited next installment of New World Order, Chapter 17, \”Banker\’s Hours,\” is up on Taurus and Taurus for your perusal.  Enjoy!

  • Thursday 13 – 13 Stress-Busting Tips

    I’ve had quite a bit of stress in my life lately, and it’s reminded me of the tools I’ve been given, learned, or, let’s be honest, been forced to incorporate in my life in order to manage the stress. While the obvious best solution is to eliminate the stressors in life, sometimes that’s not an option. When stress rears its ugly head, and we aren’t in a position to slay it outright, here are some of the tools that have worked for me. I hope they help you, too.

    1. Breathe. This is one of the most effective, in-the-moment tools in the arsenal. Recently, I learned that breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth can give it an extra stress-busting kick that can help to bring the adrenaline down.

    2. Drink lots of water. So what, it makes you go to the bathroom a lot? (Seriously, this is one of the most common complaints in response to this suggestion that I hear.) Water helps to wash toxins out of our bloodstream. Stress releases toxic chemicals into our system (that’s part of why it feels yucky and why, over time, stress is actually damaging to the human body).

    3. Learn about stress. There are a lot of good materials out there, from places like the Mayo Clinic or your health provider’s website, to your doctor, books, friends, and the internet. Get good information about what stress is, how it affects the body, and what you can do about it. Knowledge is power.

    4. Take your own advice. Many times, we know what we “should” do, we just don’t do it. Take the steps to remove your own blocks to good behavior, and implement what you know will help you in the long term.

    5. Don’t be the lone gunman. While that has an echo of ugliness, because sometimes people literally become gunmen when under stress, I mean it more figuratively: don’t suffer in silence. Tell your friends, your pastor or rabbi or other religious counselor, your therapist, or other trusted advisor. Talking about it, even just admitting “I feel stress” is the first step to taking control and reducing the stress in your life.

    6. Understand bravery. Being brave isn’t lack of fear. Being brave is doing something even when you’re afraid. Sometimes, the things that are causing the most stress are within our power to change, we’re just afraid to. Practice bravery in the small things so that when big things come up, you have the skills polished and know what to do.

    7. Trust yourself. Your own inner guidance, that moral compass inside you, is your best and truest friend. Learn to listen to yourself, so that when you need it, you’re there to advise you.

    8. Exercise. Endorphins that are released when you exercise lower stress. It can also boost your ability to handle new stress, so it’s kind of a perpetual-motion machine of goodness that can beat back that stress. Just do it!

    9. Eat well. Medicating ourselves with too much sugar or fat is a common response to stress. Be aware of this impulse and make good decisions about food. If you need to get yourself into a program like Weight Watchers or Overeaters Anonymous if food is your drug of choice.

    10. Remember, or learn, the Serenity Prayer: “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the strength to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Simple, powerful, liberating.

    11. Learn what you can control in a situation. There are always options. When you can hone your ability to see those options, you empower yourself. You may not like the options, but having them can give you, well, options. When you can make decisions, you exercise control. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle.

    12. Go easy on the drugs. Understand the effects of your drugs of choice: caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, or others. Know that putting them in your system has consequences, and that when we’re stressed, it’s natural to want to self-medicate. The problem is that doing so can cloud our ability to effectively deal with the stress that caused the urge in the first place, which is why it’s difficult to stop. If you need help doing so, see a therapist or cessation group and get information and support.

    13. Massage. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: massage works. It works with the body’s natural healing processes and boosts your ability to manage the stress you’ve already developed as well as prevent further stress from having adverse effects. If you haven’t tried it, make a resolution to find a good massage therapist. Highly worth the money and time you invest.

    Above all, remember: you are the architect of your life. If there are things happening on a regular basis in your daily round that you don’t like, you have the power and authority to change them. Be open to the abundance in the universe and trust yourself. You can do it!

  • Happy New Year!

    Happy New Year!  It\’s 2011!  Wow, amazing.  It feels like it should still be October…  (don\’t ask me what YEAR I mean, either; we\’ll just assume for the sake of my dignity that I mean 2010 and leave it at that…)

    I hope this year brings you great peace and prosperity, and that your craft aspirations become reality.  If you don\’t HAVE any craft aspirations, maybe I\’ll finally convince you to join the bandwagon and you will decide to pick up a craft or art of some kind and play with it.

    I would also like to share with you the recent honor I received.  As readers of Knoontime Knitting know, I started weaving school in 2010 at the Chicago Weaving School.  I was invited by my instructor, Natalie Boyett, to contribute to an online gallery showing of weavers\’ works – a true honor, considering I am a very new weaver and relative novice.  My work is featured under my name in the world, as opposed to my pen name, and is reached thusly:

    Visit the website Through the Shed.  For you non-weavers out there, that\’s a pun:  the \’shed\’ is the opening between the warp threads that one passes a shuttle through; this is the essential weaving operation that creates a woven fabric.  Once there, you click on the \’through the shed\’ graphic.  To see my work, and other students\’ work, click on \”Works.\”  My name is the first in the list, Amanda Clothier.  You\’ll be able to see my placemat project that I\’ve talked about here on Knoontime Knitting.

    I wish all of you a very Happy New Year!  

  • The Daily Round

    Happy New Year! 2011 not only begins, but a new decade in the new millennium begins. It’s a new, new beginning.

    As with anything, though, plans rarely survive contact with the enemy. In typical fashion, I am reminded by the Universe that not everything is within my control.

    A fact I am disgruntled by, I might add…

    My story is typed from a table in the Acela Lounge in Washington, D.C., on Saturday afternoon, New Year’s Day. It SHOULD have been, or rather was INTENDED to have been, typed from a train somewhere in the Carolinas. Maybe, dare I suggest it, Georgia.

    DC was YESTERDAY.

    Ah. But that would be the case if the plans survived contact with the enemy.

    The enemy, in this case, being a burst water pipe.

    We were taken via rickety golf cart to our train via the wrong way down the tracks (no, really; the Red Cap [i.e. Bellman] got lost… reassuring, eh?) and got to our car – the last car on the train, and aaaaallll the way down the tracks from the station – and were told “Oh, didn’t anyone tell you? Your compartment is flooded, we put you in Coach.”

    For a twenty-five hour trip.

    Needless to say, we were not, um, pleased.

    We were put up in a Holiday Inn (an actually nice one; I was gratified and surprised, not being a fan of the Holiday Inn chain) for the night and given a stipend for the cab and for dinner. They managed to get us into a sleeper car for the trip to Florida on an earlier train, but ON New Year’s Day instead of New Year’s Eve.

    We both fell asleep prior to midnight, in the middle of attempting to watch a movie. I did manage to call my husband and a friend and wish them Happy New Year first, then zonked.

    In the “seeing the Sacred in the ordinary” department, this was pretty darned cool for the possible outcomes. We didn’t get derailed, the train didn’t hit anyone while we were on it, and we got a nice, comfortable hotel with two huge comfy beds AND a bathtub. And dinner – a pretty nice Chinese takeout with too much salt but very yummy steamed dumplings and won ton soup.

    All in all, one of the better contacts with the enemy experiences my plans have gone through.

    Thereby proving, once again, that adventure is all in how you look at it.

    Happy New Year!

  • Thirteen Management Tips

    So. … This is my list. It has no introduction, on account of I can’t think of one. Suffice it to say, if you’re a manager, and you want to motivate your team members or build trust, don’t do these things:

    1. Yell a lot.

    2. Don’t apologize.

    3. Yell some more.

    4. Look confused when confronted about your mood and why you’ve been yelling.

    5. Tell the person that confronted you about your mood and why you’ve been yelling that they obviously don’t know what their effect is on others.

    6. Yell at your team members about stuff they do outside of work, that has no bearing on work, and when they don’t bring it in to work.

    7. Look surprised when they tell you it’s none of your business what they do outside of work. They’re your employees, right??

    8. When you do get an inkling you might have gone a teensy bit overboard, apologize and act contrite to everyone EXCEPT the team members you yelled at.

    9. Yell some more.

    10. Blame your yelling on your own stress and tell people that if they find your yelling stressful, they should consider themselves lucky that’s all the stress they have in their lives.

    11. Don’t apologize.

    12. Yell about how you’re the boss, because obviously your employees have failed to realize that you are the boss.

    13. Pass off 1-12 as “clearing the air.”

    There are many good management books out there. Some are even in English. They’re available for free, even, at libraries. Public ones. That are nearby. Even walking distance of some places.

    Isn’t society advanced?

  • Thursday 13

    Thirteen Words:

    This is what you do when you\’re pressed for time, haven\’t done a TT in ages, and need to do a TT cuz yer friends are startin\’ ta eye yer blog with a dust rag in their hands…

    1. Prevaricate
    2. Bonk
    3. Abscess
    4. Obstreperous
    5. Fiddle
    6. Loquacious
    7. Moody
    8. Defenestrate
    9. Transit
    10. Vector
    11. Cetacean
    12. Nitwit
    13. Catalepsy

    There!

    ~faints~