Monday, September 8, 2008

September's August Update

Well, it's been a while since I've had the time or energy to work on this blog.

Instead, I've been having drama...first vicariously, then personal.

The vicarious drama is going on between a neighbor and her son, and we're trying to stay out of it, but still make sure she's okay.  I think that might work out now that her family is involved.

Prior to that, however, I worked on improving my new Unprofitable Skill, kumihimo

I don't know if I've blogged about my 
Unprofitable Skills before, but I seem to collect them. If the modern infrastructure should collapse, I'm your girl, but in terms of modern life, I have a bunch of knowledge that can not used to earn my keep.

My new Unprofitable Skill is, of course, Kumihimo. I did mention it in my last post, but that was at least a month ago, so I figured an update was due. 

I find it relaxing and kind of zen, and, of course, I've passed quickly from the "cool, fun, and inexpensive" phase, directly into the "I need to buy that imported Japanese silk and handmade walnut Maru Dai" phase, which I called the "snobby beginner" stage.

I'm still working on braids of 8 tama (bobbins, or threads) because I want to keep the braids relatively thin so I can use them as necklaces for our pendants. (The pigs look really cute with the kumihimo necklace braids, don't they?) The ones pictured are cotton (actually, embroidery floss.)

But, since I can't leave well enough alone, have entered the "snobby beginner" stage, limited income, and found I needed to move to a Maru Dai, I made it out of Tinker Toys. Even a homemade Maru Dai is faster than the disk (though not as portable.)

Unfortunately, this has increased my desire to buy real Japanese silk and more books (I don't care if they are in English even!)

Oh yes, the snobby beginner stage is even more dangerous and expensive than the complete tyro stage, but if the civilization collapses, isn't it nice to know that I will be able to make the braids to piece together samurai armor? (Okay, maybe I did "forget" to mention I lived in the U.S., and chances of samurai's needing braided cord to make their armor around here are pretty slim...)

I must admit I took a vacation from braiding for a weekend over Labor Day so Peg and I could go out to Holyoke and help our friend, Jo, with her garage sale (and get rid of a bunch of our unneeded stuff in the process.)

Originally, we were to have sold jewelry there, and we did bring it out, but, apparently, people going to garage sales are not expecting to find "real jewelry" (or, it turns out, to spend "real" money.) We made money enough to pay for the trip, but really the only benefits were getting rid of some stuff and spending time with Jo.