The Second Coat

I'm up unusually early on a Saturday. This is a good thing. I'm crossing my fingers that I get to bring my spinning wheel home from Mom and Dad's tonight.


On Thursday I made it back down to South Austin for a second coat (and pizza with Mom.)
The second coat went faster than the first.


I was a little bothered to find a couple of black marks on some of the edges. Look closely at the center piece of the wheel. I think the newspaper is to blame. However, it doesn't seem so obvious now that I'm looking at the pictures a couple of days later.


I actually went back and put a little more on the outside of the wheel. I figured it will be exposed to a lot of wear and tear. It's one of the pieces I'll touch the most. I also went heavy on the flyer.

So today I'll probably put on one more coat, a heavy one, and put it together after it dries.

I'm going to get dressed and get going.

"Knitting helps me keep my mind off all the things I can't have on my diet..."

I saw this on tv not too long ago, and I've been looking for it online for a couple of weeks now.

Is this supposed to be a knitting insult? It looks like she makes pretty good stuff (except the basketball jersey.) I'd like my apartment to look like that.

On the other hand, the first diet book ever seriously followed recommended keeping your hands busy while watching tv to avoid the temptation to snack. Knitting was one of the things they suggested. It wasn't a bad idea. (Although that's not why I started knitting. I learned before the first diet.)

Either way, aspartame-sweetened yogurt is a poor substitute for sweets. In fact, it's a poor substitute for regular yogurt. Yuck.

FO: Entrelac Scarf

I'm ready for another cold front.


So is Poncho Pig.


I finally finished my Entrelac Scarf. It's a thick scarf, and a little on the short side. I think it lends itself well to the "I have a zit on my chin" look.

It's been pinned to the floor in my bedroom for about a week now. I finally unpinned it and wove in the ends tonight. It's done.

Mastering entrelac wasn't very hard. A lot of people recommended learning to knit backwards before embarking on it, but I didn't. I didn't mind going back and forth for the really short rows. (I think I tried knitting backwards, but decided not to do the whole scarf that way.)


Once again, this is the Entrelac Scarf, a good beginner entrelac pattern. (And it's free.) I used about 2 skeins of Noro Taiyo in colorway 5. I was wondering how the gauge would translate, since Taiyo is considered bulky. However, I didn't have any problems, although that's probably why the scarf is so thick.

I also used US size 5 aluminum straight knitting needles.

This project fulfills one of my 101 goals:

20. Knit an entrelac project.

Awesome!

The First Coat

Sunday evening I put the first coat of Tung Oil on my spinning wheel. I've been dreaming about the wheel ever since. I may sneak back to Mom and Dad's tomorrow for another coat. Now that I'm no longer overwhelmed by my unfinished wheel, I can't wait to finish finishing and start spinning.

I did the oiling at my parents' house, since I don't have much room to spread out in my apartment. (Especially outside. And my parents don't have neighbors smoking six inches away from their patio.)


Here's an unfinished piece of the wheel. If I remember correctly, the wood is New Zealand Silver Beech.


This is what the Tung Oil looks like up close. It has a smell, but it's not a particularly "chemical" smell. I couldn't find anything online or on the bottle recommending ventilation. (Except when mixing the oil with turpentine.) Still, I did my work on the back porch with newspapers spread out everywhere.

I wiped on the oil with one of Dad's old t-shirt as Douglas suggested.


I took this shot to show the difference between the oiled and un-oiled wood. (Is un-oiled the right word? Maybe non-oiled?) I think I used less oil as I went along. This first piece I did is a little on the dark side. I don't know if that's because of the amount of oil I used, or the variations in the wood itself.


Here's a look at that same piece after applying some more oil.

The piece of sandpaper on the right actually came with the wheel, in the folder that came with it. I wasn't quite sure what to do with it. Was I supposed to sand the whole thing? I ended up only using when I came across parts that were a bit rough, which wasn't very often. (Mom says I can sand after oiling, but I'm going to try to avoid that.)


I took this picture right before dinner, to show how far I had gotten.


After dinner, I managed to finish all of the first coat in enough time to shower before my sleep study. Looking at this picture makes me think the variations in color come from the wood, not the way I applied the oil. Some of the lightly oiled parts look pretty dark here.

I didn't oil the grooves in the bobbin or the wheel. Part of me wonders if I should oil the groove of the wheel with one light coat, but everyone else has said not to. (I think oiling the grooves of the bobbins would be next to impossible.)

Also, should I put on only one or two coats on the bobbins (instead of my planned three or four) since they'll be having a lot of direct contact with the yarn?

If you have advice, let me know.

Sleep Study Fail

Last night was my sleep study, and I feel like I failed.

I hardly slept at all last night, to the point that I couldn't go to work today. (I have a note from the sleep technician.) I'm worried that they didn't get the information they need.

Although I'm worried about the results (or lack of), the experience itself wasn't that bad.


This was the room I stayed in. It's more like a nice motel room than a hospital room. There's a regular full bed, not a hospital bed.


There was a flat screen television on the wall. There's a camera above it that taped me all night.

I got there around 9 p.m. After I got settled in, the sleep tech started to hook me up to everything. She taped some of the wires to my nightgown. There were a few electrodes on my chest. I was surprised by the number that went on my face.

The tech measured my skull and used a wax pencil to mark spots on my scalp.

Then they put one of those oxygen things in my nostrils to measure my breathing. There was something else that hooked to it to measure breathing through my mouth. I think I lost it during the night.

When all was done, I looked like this.


Of course, I brought my knitting. With all the berets I've made for other people, I decided it was time to make one for myself. I'm making another One Day Beret with a skein of Robincat's handspun that I bought at Gauge awhile back. The color is "Raspberry Beret," which seems appropriate.


Here's where I was in my knitting before bed, next to the box with all my wires in it.

I called Jules, then it was time for bed. It took me some time to get comfortable. I managed to pull out two of the sensors on my legs before I even fell asleep.

Eventually I fell asleep.

Then I woke up.

There was a crick in my lower back. I tried to stretch, but it was hard to move. I had to be untangled. I went to the bathroom.

You know when you're having trouble sleeping, and you know you must have slept at some point, but it doesn't seem like you did? All night was like that.

At some point the sleep tech said she should I have encouraged me more to take the sleeping pill the doctor had authorized. Of course, it was too late by then.

I know I move around a lot while I'm asleep, but I also need to move around a lot before I go to sleep to get comfortable. But every time I moved my head, I'd get tangled up in wires.

Finally, I was awake but resting when the sleep tech said she was going to "put me out of my misery" and end the study. It was 5:30 a.m.

The tech I said I could go home and really crash. Except I had work. That's when I decided to get a note.

As the tech took all the electrodes out of my hair, I asked her about how you become a sleep tech. Apparently it takes a health care background. She said she checks on the patients every half hour and documents what they're doing. The hardest part is interpreting the information. Sometimes it's clear cut, other times people are weird. (I bet I'm one of the weird people.)

When all the electrodes were out of my hair, I felt around. For a minute, I thought she'd missed some, but it turns out there was just so much goop for each electrode. I had to wash, rinse and repeat three times, and I think I still missed some.

I asked before I left if they got enough information. She said the recorded "some events", but she couldn't give me details. She couldn't even tell me how long I slept. There was a questionnaire where I had to guess how long I thought I slept, how often I woke up, etc.

I told her that I felt like I "failed" the test. The tech said I didn't.

I'll find out more on my follow up appointment Feb. 10.

It's Oiling Time

Tonight is my sleep study, and I'm about to head to South Austin early so I can crack open this box before I go. My spinning wheel has been sitting in a box way too long.


Last weekend I took a closer look, but I was so overwhelmed, I didn't get very far.

But today I went to Woodcraft, as Lyndsey recommended, and I feel much more confident now.

A very helpful employee named Douglas (It was on his wooden name tag) explained the difference between Tung Oil and Danish Oil. Basically, Danish Oil is Tung Oil with coloring in it. Mineral Oil works ok too. Linseed is a good choice, but it's hard to work with because it's gooey. He said Tung Oil is very non-toxic, and that convinced me it was the best choice. He showed me a sample table for a woodworking class that was finished with Tung Oil. It was very nice.

He also said wax would work, but I like the idea of the wood soaking up the oil.

Douglas told me to put the Tung Oil on with an old t-shirt, and give it at least a couple of hours between coats. Three or four coats should do it. (However, I've heard of some people only doing one coat. I think I need some more protection than that.)

I'm so glad I went. I feel much less intimidated. I'm ready to start oiling.

I think I may name my wheel Douglas.


While we're talking names, did I mention that "Chris" inspected my wheel? Awesome.

Remember This?

My Entrelac Scarf hasn't made an appearance on my blog since October. But last night I watched Jeff Dunham: Spark of Insanity while I finished the knitting the end of the scarf. Then I gave it a bath in Eucalan.


The Noro Taiyo bled a little, but not too bad.


Now it's blocking.

I had been making steady progress on cleaning. I've stalled, but I've maintained what I've done so far. That means I didn't have to block in the closet.

Random Act of Kindness

It's been a while since I talked about 101 Goals. Today I worked on 91 - Random Acts of Kindness.

I couldn't bear to eat the last serving of the lasagna I didn't like. So I heated up the last serving and drove around until I found a homeless person to give it to. It took me longer than I expected, but not too long. (Do homeless people take Saturday off?)

Anyway, I hoped he enjoyed more than I did.