instant window seat

DSCN0913, originally uploaded by alicen.

Tom and I made this two nights ago in about twenty minutes. Ingredients:

1 defunct coffee table found on the street
2 dead computers
wood scraps
a couple magazines
circular saw
pliers
blanket

We removed the legs from the table (they were too short and really wobbly) and then removed the molding from the back of the table. Then we put it on top of the computers. We cut the wood scraps to size to even out the height of the computers, and jammed them in.

The computers are heavy, so it's quite stable. Long term plans involve storing things underneath and getting or making pillows to fit the space. The light in that window is great, so I think it'll get lots of use.

Circus vest!

Tom found this picture:



And so I made this:





It still needs edging and probably some decoration (all the stitching that's visible now is actually structural).

Card Weaving

DSCN0853, originally uploaded by alicen.

Only a couple of years after Laura sent me a book on the subject, I got around to doing a test card weaving project.

Card weaving is a way of weaving without a fixed loom. You have a series of cards with holes in them. Different color thread is threaded through each hole, and the cards are twisted to put different combinations on top. There's a pretty good explanation here.



It's a very old idea and can be done with all sorts of materials. I used cotton thread purchased for something like $1/ball. My strap (which is 4 or 5 feet long) is a simple diamond pattern, but you can quickly get much more complicated.

The process is surprisingly fast - this only took me an hour or so to set up and weave. I'm not sure how much call there actually is in my life for narrow bands of fabric (and the width of these things is sort of naturally limited by the nature of the weaving process), but it's definitely something I'll do again.