“OK, so where are all the fascinating posts?” you ask. I know, I know… you all live vicariously through me, don’t you?

Well, summer is here, and I’m trying not to be such an A/C whore this summer. Last summer, I don’t think I ever left the house, except to go to (air conditioned) work. So far, that means basically walks in the park.. heh, I have to ramp up to such radical things as *gulp* going somewhere.

Haven’t been doing any neat tech stuff, and the books I’ve been reading have all been shite, so no use in reporting on those.

I bought the g/f a new inkle loom for her birthday, and I bought myself a small one. Yes, I do have a penis. Yes, I do like doing textile stuff now and then. Actually, it’d probably only be US citizens that would even raise an eyebrow.

So anyway, I’ve been doing a bit of weaving, which I find incredibly soothing. Inkle looms have no moving parts and are only good for doing straps, which is both limiting, and sorta freeing. I don’t have to fret about taking on some huge project because the little inkle loom I’m using can’t do big projects.

But what was most fun about this, is that its spun off some satelite projects. There are some small wooden hand tools that make this kind of weaving easier. The g/f has a few she bought, but really they are *very* simple and it seemed silly to buy more, so she went out and bought a few thin-stock ebony and cocobolo (spelling?) boards and asked me to make more tools.

So yesterday, I dragged out all my tools and tried to remember what I used to know about woodworking. And found that dealing with these small items (the stock is only 1/8 inch thick) means that all my old knowledge is damned near useless. And living in an apartment doesn’t help… it ain’t like I got a table saw in here. 🙂

In the end, I went out and sat in the park with some roughed out stock, a carving knife, and some sandpapger, and made something at least in the ballpark of what we need. I gotta check it againt her originals before I put the finishing touches on.

But I tell ya, after all the time I’ve spent doing everything I do in cyberspace, sitting out in the park, the sun shining down, carving a piece of ebony into a tool… man, it was a damned near religious experience for me.