Please judge this Nook by its cover.

This week I joined the e-reading millions when I bought a Nook Simple Touch e-reader (is "Nook" supposed to be capitalized? I don't know...). I couldn't very well let it run around naked when I have scraps of fabric, batting, and interfacing stashed away unused, so I threw together this cover for it. This first attempt looks a little rough, but I plan to make a "real" one based on what I like and don't like about how this one works. I already don't think I'm going to try rounded corners again. What do you think?

The nook itself is a lot of fun. I am already persona non grata at the libraries in Fairfax and Loudoun counties for my tendency to hang onto library books longer than they would like. Reading e-books frees me up from having to make trips to the library, and it reduces the weight on the the end table on my side of the couch. So far I'm not excited by the selection of e-books that are available for loan from the library, but I hope that will change with time. For now I've loaded up on a few e-books that I have purchased and some others that are out there on the interwebs for free (yay, Sinclair Lewis books!).

Without warp, there can be no weft.

The first post-planning step in weaving is to make a warp, or a collection of threads into which the weft will be woven. These can be all one color, many colors, or a repeating pattern of two or three colors, but they need to be the same length and they are often quite long.

The easiest way to create a warp is to use a contraption called a warping board that allows string to be wound around a series of pegs. My first couple of warps were wound on the warping board of my co-worker who taught me how to get started, but if I was too impatient to wait until I could go over to her house I would create a warp using a combination of dining-room chairs and pegs clamped to tables. That gets rather tedious when I need 400+ ends that are about 5 yards long.

My first unemployment project was to make a warping board for myself. I used this pattern from All Fiber Arts:
http://www.allfiberarts.com/library/graphics/gallery/wrpbrd_pln.gif. It's a bit hard to read, but the pattern was good enough. I modified it slightly (of course) because I don't see myself ever needing a 16-yard warp.

Here's the end result! It's not beautiful, but it works.

A froggy morning

For our Sunday morning nature fix, Rob and I headed to Riverbend Park. We were walking through the woods when I saw what looked like a meadow and heard what sounded like rocks being thrown into the back of a truck. What I thought was a meadow was a very still pond covered with duckweed, and the sound was the percussive chirping of a chorus of frogs! Capturing their poses was worth delaying our hike.

For a trail map of Riverbend Park, use the Hiking Upward site.

I know, I know...

I'm a bad, bad blogger.

I took a break from the blog without intending to. Meanwhile, nature has been explored, yarn has been woven into fabric, 6.5 years of work at an automotive consulting firm has been wrapped up, Virginia summer has arrived like an annoying house-guest who won't leave, Michigan has been visited, and voluntary unemployment has been undertaken, struggled with, agonized over, and then thoroughly enjoyed.

I have a backlog of photos to post. I hope to get through most of them before I find another job, which will probably happen both sooner and later than I would like.