Friday, August 29, 2008

Local Food


GEDC0421
Originally uploaded by tormash9
There is something really satisfying about sitting down to a meal made up entirely of stuff you grew. Except for the dumplings (I'm not quite ambitious enough to try wheat for flour), the entire meal was raised here.

Now if only my kids could appreciate how good a fresh homegrown tomato is, instead of accusing me of starving them.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Knitting - Lessons Learned (Maybe)

A friend of mine is extremely precise in everything she does. She checks and double checks to make sure she has the right materials and processes before she starts anything. I could learn from her.

I found a pattern on Ravelry for a scarf that I wanted to make as a Christmas gift. It was knit in lace weight yarn which I have plenty of since I ordered a sampler package from Knitpicks. I picked a color I though would be good (a baby alpaca/silk blend), cast on and started knitting. At the end of the first repeat I looked at what I had knitted and was not at all satisfied with the result.

Time to rip it out and pick another yarn, this time a merino with more loft than the alpaca. I finished the swatch and again it looked terrible.

I ripped it out again and moved up to a fingering yarn. I had some sock yarn leftover that I thought would be enough to make a scarf. Again after the first repeat I still wasn't satisfied with the result. It was better, but still didn't look right. At this point I stretched the fabric and compared it closely with the photo in the pattern.

Aha! The problem was that my yarnovers didn't twist. It totally changed the look of the fabric. So once again I ripped it all out and pulled out my trusty Readers Digest Guide to Needlework. It stays on the table beside my bed, so I can refer to it when I have a how-to question. I was working yarnovers for a purl lace, exactly backwards of what they should have been.

Last time was a charm. It looks, well, like it's supposed to look. When I got about halfway through the scarf, I laid down the knitting needles and read the size. My short blue needles weren't size eight, they were size ten. The lace weight yarns probably would have worked perfectly with the proper size needle.

Awesome Friends


GEDC0415
Originally uploaded by tormash9
You know you have an amazing friend when he'll take you and a friend to the lake with his canoe and a bottle of wine, then sit and read while the two you are out paddling around and relieving stress. Thanks Terry! You are the best!

Friday, August 15, 2008

Preservation 101 Online Course

Linda Clark Benedict, Alone in the Archives Blog recently had a link to an online Preservation 101 workshop that looks really good. It was funded by an IMLS grant to the Northeast Document Conservation Center and has two study options. The self study is unfacilitated and free of charge; there is also an instructor facilitated study for a fee which earns continuing education credits.

In my spare time I think I'll work my way through the self study.

Maude Gibson Paintings

Several months ago I borrowed an idea from another archives and started a Find of the Month. The August find was Maude Gibson's paintings. Maude was an art professor at Eastern from 1910 to about 1941 and painted almost her entire life. She died in 1964 at the age of 93 and the painting to the left is dated 1962.

The small paintings were scanned and uploaded to Flickr, but in the process of resizing them I got screen shots of small closeups of the paintings showing the layers of color and brush strokes. These small clips were so cool that I copied several of them from her paintings and uploaded them as well.

Here are some of my favorites. To see the entire collection click on the Flickr link above. If you want to have fun, try to match up the abstract clips with the original painting.











Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Eastern's Historical Resources

Eastern celebrated it's centennial anniversary in 2006. The provost provided funds to hire Joyce Miller, who compiled an inventory of the art, sculpture and other historical artifacts that were on campus at the time.

For 2 years that information has been sitting in an Access database not being used by anyone. Now it has been added to the University Archives Photo and Image Database. So anyone can find photos and information on the art and sculpture on campus.

The inventory may not be complete, because Joyce may not have been able to get into every office with university owned art work. For example, I know that she was unable to get into the Blanton House, so nothing in there was inventoried.

If you know of any art that was missed in the Historical Resources Inventory, leave a comment here and we'll photograph and add it. One other shortcoming is that very few of the art works in the University Archives were inventoried.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Perfect Corn with no Pesticides

My neighbor gave us a bag of corn from his garden this weekend and it was the prettiest ears of corn I think I've ever seen. They were perfect ears with no signs of bugs at all. We took it home and put it straight on the stove for corn on the cob. Delicious!

When I asked him how he kept the worms off, he gave me his recipe. He fermented cabbage and hot peppers in water, strained off the solids and sprayed the silks with the liquid. Since my corn is getting close, I started a batch Sunday. Hopefully it will be ready to use soon.