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sewing, dancing, singing, moving in
Mar. 30th, 2011 12:46 amOh, dear, has it been that long since I typed up an update? My lifestyle really has changed since moving to Sweden, with far, far, far fewer hours spent on the computer.
On Wednesday morning last week I finally got around to taking the measurements of that black piece of linen and working out a possible cutting diagram in CorelDraw to turn the fabric into a skirt for me. I had much fun working out a different approach than I normally take, which is even more efficient with the fabric, and was quite surprised when I looked up when I was done to see that three hours had elapsed. When![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
archinonlive came home from work that evening I showed him the pattern and he agreed that it looked workable, and that he was happy to do the sewing on machine for me (since it is modern clothes I don't mind if it is machine stitched, so long as the quality doesn't suffer). However, we agreed that first we should cut out the gores for the wool tunic we made him for 12th Night, but ran out of time to finish, so he wore it with slit sides instead of having side gores. After we'd cut the gores we discussed the fact that there was enough remaining wool to make a nice heavy bag suitable for decorating and carrying things at events. This reminded him that he has been wanting a bag with pockets in it to carry some of his musical instruments.
The next thing we knew we had started that project, instead of the skirt. Can I tell you how much fun he is to work with on projects? We took some lovely blue cotton he has and made the internal pockets for the bag, fitting each one to exactly the section of flute, recorder, or other wood wind (what is the name of the one that has a wide end far from the mouth, and one blows into a reedy thing that sticks into the end closest to the mouth? He doesn't know the English word for it--does that sound like a shawm, or is it something else?) that it is meant to carry. For the pocket fitting it was very helpful to have two sets of hands to play with, and as soon as he'd done a bit of the machine sewing we then had a couple of places which are better done by hand so that we could both stitch at once.
We managed to completely machine-stitch the bag together that evening, and the next two nights we both did the hand finishing (using more of the cotton we did the lining with to cover the seams--by sewing it to the bag when we assembled it and then turning it over the seams and hand-finishing it the whole bag looks like it is hand done. We are both quite pleased with the results, and it is a good way to carry all of those instruments.
On Saturday we went to our normal gaming session, which was quite fun. Afterwards they asked him for help salvaging a damaged hard drive, so a bunch of us walked back over here, and he spent some time digging boxes out of the computer server closet looking for something he needed to try to deal with the problem. I stayed out of the way while he did that by teaching one of our friends basic nålbinding. After everyone left he and I took the stack of boxes that had been brought out of the closet and organized them into piles of computer stuff and other categories. With all of those boxes out of the closet the closet is revealed to be quite large! The plan is to move the server itself to the other side of the closet so that the closet pole is available for SCA costumes.
We have been spending some time each day since then going through those boxes to separate out the things that he wants to get rid of, get out the things he wants to keep and should be accessible, and better pack for storage things that he wants to be kept but can be stored most of the time (like christmas stuff). In and amongst the things we've rescued from the closet are some cute stuffed animals that he made many years ago. They are now perched on the shelf by our bed where most of my stuffed animals will also go when they arrive.
We now have his boxes mostly removed from the kitchen, which is good, because this has been dedicated as the staging area for when my stuff arrives. He still has the largest pile, the boxes of computer stuff, to go through in the living room. But we have invested in a good set of shelves for the server closet, so when things go back in they will be easier to access in the future. The original estimate for delivery I had from the guy in Scotland who picked up my things fromclovis_t said 28 March. More recently he forwarded me a message from the company which will actually be delivering on this end which said 29 March. I haven't heard anything since then, but to be on the safe side I moved my computer to the kitchen this morning so that if they did arrive I would actually hear them when they came to the door.
They didn't show up (not really surprised about that), so this afternoon I sent company #2 an email, and the lady there replied promptly saying she would chase up the appropriate person and get back to me. I didn't hear from her today, but perhaps I will in the morning.
I did my Swedish exam for the second term class (chapters 4 to 7 of the text book) on Friday. This exam was not as easy as the last. Remember that last time they warned us in advance that we would need to do an essay describing our typical day, so I wrote one out, got it edited, and then memorized it, and wrote it out verbatim on the exam. This time they told us that they would not tell us in advance the essay topic (which turned out to be a discussion of our time spent in Sweden). I probably should have prepared a bunch of sample sentences on a variety of topics anyway, but lacking direction of a topic I didn't make time for it. As a result the exam was much harder to do this time. Many of the things I would have liked to have said in the essay I could not say due to my lack of vocabulary. Instead I searched the other sections of the exam for sample sentences which I could modify to fit the assignment once I ran out of things I knew how to say without help.
I accidentally missed the first class of the new term. I forgot that classes started up again promptly after the exam, and vaguely remembered that this term class is always on Tuesday and Thursday, and I didn't actually look at my calender on Monday till late in the day. Then I recalled that while most of the term class meets on Tuesday and Thursday this week it meets on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Opps. Oh well, I did e-mail my teacher to apologize for that. Last term the first class of the term was the day after the final, and only two of us actually showed up for class, so perhaps it is normal for people to miss it.
In addition to sewing and re-arranging and organizing his stuff in anticipation of the arrival of my stuff we have continued with our normal round of folk dancing and choir *and* I have two editing jobs to do this week! One due Thursday and the other on Sunday. The editing is fun, and I am learning interesting things (as one must do--one cannot edit a science paper without first understanding what they did!), but it does help the week feel even more hectic than usual. Though having two jobs is good. When I hit a particularly hard to edit sentence in one I have the option of switching to the other paper instead of checking email to take a break. This is amazingly effective in terms of keeping me productive!
Now I just need to make time to return to my own writing, too.
On Wednesday morning last week I finally got around to taking the measurements of that black piece of linen and working out a possible cutting diagram in CorelDraw to turn the fabric into a skirt for me. I had much fun working out a different approach than I normally take, which is even more efficient with the fabric, and was quite surprised when I looked up when I was done to see that three hours had elapsed. When
archinonlive came home from work that evening I showed him the pattern and he agreed that it looked workable, and that he was happy to do the sewing on machine for me (since it is modern clothes I don't mind if it is machine stitched, so long as the quality doesn't suffer). However, we agreed that first we should cut out the gores for the wool tunic we made him for 12th Night, but ran out of time to finish, so he wore it with slit sides instead of having side gores. After we'd cut the gores we discussed the fact that there was enough remaining wool to make a nice heavy bag suitable for decorating and carrying things at events. This reminded him that he has been wanting a bag with pockets in it to carry some of his musical instruments. The next thing we knew we had started that project, instead of the skirt. Can I tell you how much fun he is to work with on projects? We took some lovely blue cotton he has and made the internal pockets for the bag, fitting each one to exactly the section of flute, recorder, or other wood wind (what is the name of the one that has a wide end far from the mouth, and one blows into a reedy thing that sticks into the end closest to the mouth? He doesn't know the English word for it--does that sound like a shawm, or is it something else?) that it is meant to carry. For the pocket fitting it was very helpful to have two sets of hands to play with, and as soon as he'd done a bit of the machine sewing we then had a couple of places which are better done by hand so that we could both stitch at once.
We managed to completely machine-stitch the bag together that evening, and the next two nights we both did the hand finishing (using more of the cotton we did the lining with to cover the seams--by sewing it to the bag when we assembled it and then turning it over the seams and hand-finishing it the whole bag looks like it is hand done. We are both quite pleased with the results, and it is a good way to carry all of those instruments.
On Saturday we went to our normal gaming session, which was quite fun. Afterwards they asked him for help salvaging a damaged hard drive, so a bunch of us walked back over here, and he spent some time digging boxes out of the computer server closet looking for something he needed to try to deal with the problem. I stayed out of the way while he did that by teaching one of our friends basic nålbinding. After everyone left he and I took the stack of boxes that had been brought out of the closet and organized them into piles of computer stuff and other categories. With all of those boxes out of the closet the closet is revealed to be quite large! The plan is to move the server itself to the other side of the closet so that the closet pole is available for SCA costumes.
We have been spending some time each day since then going through those boxes to separate out the things that he wants to get rid of, get out the things he wants to keep and should be accessible, and better pack for storage things that he wants to be kept but can be stored most of the time (like christmas stuff). In and amongst the things we've rescued from the closet are some cute stuffed animals that he made many years ago. They are now perched on the shelf by our bed where most of my stuffed animals will also go when they arrive.
We now have his boxes mostly removed from the kitchen, which is good, because this has been dedicated as the staging area for when my stuff arrives. He still has the largest pile, the boxes of computer stuff, to go through in the living room. But we have invested in a good set of shelves for the server closet, so when things go back in they will be easier to access in the future. The original estimate for delivery I had from the guy in Scotland who picked up my things from
clovis_t said 28 March. More recently he forwarded me a message from the company which will actually be delivering on this end which said 29 March. I haven't heard anything since then, but to be on the safe side I moved my computer to the kitchen this morning so that if they did arrive I would actually hear them when they came to the door.They didn't show up (not really surprised about that), so this afternoon I sent company #2 an email, and the lady there replied promptly saying she would chase up the appropriate person and get back to me. I didn't hear from her today, but perhaps I will in the morning.
I did my Swedish exam for the second term class (chapters 4 to 7 of the text book) on Friday. This exam was not as easy as the last. Remember that last time they warned us in advance that we would need to do an essay describing our typical day, so I wrote one out, got it edited, and then memorized it, and wrote it out verbatim on the exam. This time they told us that they would not tell us in advance the essay topic (which turned out to be a discussion of our time spent in Sweden). I probably should have prepared a bunch of sample sentences on a variety of topics anyway, but lacking direction of a topic I didn't make time for it. As a result the exam was much harder to do this time. Many of the things I would have liked to have said in the essay I could not say due to my lack of vocabulary. Instead I searched the other sections of the exam for sample sentences which I could modify to fit the assignment once I ran out of things I knew how to say without help.
I accidentally missed the first class of the new term. I forgot that classes started up again promptly after the exam, and vaguely remembered that this term class is always on Tuesday and Thursday, and I didn't actually look at my calender on Monday till late in the day. Then I recalled that while most of the term class meets on Tuesday and Thursday this week it meets on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Opps. Oh well, I did e-mail my teacher to apologize for that. Last term the first class of the term was the day after the final, and only two of us actually showed up for class, so perhaps it is normal for people to miss it.
In addition to sewing and re-arranging and organizing his stuff in anticipation of the arrival of my stuff we have continued with our normal round of folk dancing and choir *and* I have two editing jobs to do this week! One due Thursday and the other on Sunday. The editing is fun, and I am learning interesting things (as one must do--one cannot edit a science paper without first understanding what they did!), but it does help the week feel even more hectic than usual. Though having two jobs is good. When I hit a particularly hard to edit sentence in one I have the option of switching to the other paper instead of checking email to take a break. This is amazingly effective in terms of keeping me productive!
Now I just need to make time to return to my own writing, too.
