unsprung

[kareina]

Continuing with yesterday's sprang enthusiasm, I decided to try my hand at a small bag this evening. I also thought to play with more than one colour at a time, to see if it is any easier to keep track of where one is in a wider piece that way. Since the web page from which I was working yesterday suggested that it is easiest to work sprang with multiplies of four threads I decided to set up the warp (is it still a warp if one has no weft?) by wrapping four threads of blue, followed by four white, alternating till I'd done a total of 15 sets of four, which looked like it would make a reasonable sized bag.

Part of the reason for adding an extra colour to this experiment is the fact that I really liked the diamond patterns in the article I mentioned yesterday. However, when working with the simple pattern I was using (the basic sprang, which alternates every other thread) the resultant design is stripes with little diagonal barbs sticking into the next row every four threads. I wasn't much liking look of it when I realized that I'd crossed something wrong, giving me a place where a couple of threads which should have been linked weren't (leaving what would be a hole in the fabric).

In looking at it closer, trying to figure out if I could repair it, I realized that the error in the last row was actually due to a mistake in the crossing way back in the first or second row (I'd done 6 or 8 rows by that point). Realizing that there is no way to fix that error without taking out everything, I decided to take it all out. So, now, three hours later, I once again have two balls of yarn and nothing to show for this evening's efforts other than some more time listening to Italian Language CD's, and the certainty that until and unless I learn how to do something like the above mentioned diamond patterns I'm not setting up a striped warp for sprang again. I *might* consider alternating one wrap blue, and one white, but I wasn't happy with the four threads of each.

In other news, I made it out rollerblading for a bit this afternoon. Found a few streets in the area which I will *not* skate upon in the future due to bad pavement, but found some others that aren't so bad. While out I scouted the location of a fabric store I'd been told about. I couldn't be bothered going in, as that would have required taking the skates off. It is only 20 minutes away by skate, so at least 35 by walking. However it is near a metro station, so we *could* do the ten minute walk to the nearest station and then shell out the cash to ride one station up the line, if we wanted (nah, probably won't happen unless we happen to be out on some other metro-based errands and decide to ride one stop past the house on the way home--I can't see spending the train fare to go one station). I couldn't tell from the window what sort of fabric they've got, but there certainlly is plenty of it. After I finish clovis_t's new tunic of that nice green herringbone wool (nearly done, other than embellishing the cuffs) I will finally get to cut out my new underdress from the nice white herringbone linen I picked up at Britex when I got the wool. After that is done *then* I'll permit myself to go fabric shopping again.

Having lost my fabric stash in the move (and only the suitcase with the good fabric) I think I like the policy of no new fabric till I make something with the fabric I've got on hand. If I haven't got time to sew what I've got, I don't have time to sew something new. No idea how long this policy will last, but it has been implemented for the short term, at least.

Tomorrow is the local SCA meeting, such as it is. The last two weeks it has just been clovis_t, myself, and the family which hosts it. I haven't made time to do any advertising, and I don't know that anyone else has, either, so I'm not holding my breath for anyone else to show. Oh well, if I'm not home I can't be tempted to try to set up another sprang attempt, but instead might actually finish the projects in progress (like the two tunics I've been embroidering for myself, as well as the above mentioned one for him).

Today's uni progress report: Managed to weld shut a capsule. It *looks* shut. We test them by sticking them in the oven for 30 seconds and re-weighing them to see if they lost any mass (due to the water boiling out of holes in the weld)--if they stay the same mass they might be properly sealed, and we do a second check at 60 seconds in the oven.

However, today the electronic scale decided that it didn't like my opening the door to the room with the oven (or something), because when I returned to it with the capsule after its first session in the oven it no longer read 0 g, but claimed some number noticeably higher than that. I choose (perhaps foolishly?) to hit the T button to get it to return to a starting reading of zero, and then opened the door and put the capsule on the scale and closed the door again. The silly machine then claimed that the capsule had lost mass while in the oven. About 4 times the amount of water that I'd put into the capsule. Sigh.

Then I put the capsule back into the oven for another session, and again onto the scale. Again it claimed that I'd lost about 4 times the amount of starting water (this counting from the amount above whcih was already reduced). I clearly can't believe those numbers--there is no way more water is boiling out than is inside of the capsule. However, it also means that the test has not given me any useful information--it may or may not be sealed. The difference between the before and after the oven masses may or may not include a component of lost water vapour.

One way to find out would be to just run this capsule in the experiment, and if the grain size at the end of the two week session is too small to analyze, I will know that it wasn't sealed and I did lose water. If the grain size is large enough for easy analysis, I will know that it was sealed, and the weird numbers was just the scale over reacting to pressure changes between the rooms.

Another option would be to not risk it, and just start over with a fresh bit of gold tube, fill it with fresh powder, water, and graphite and weld it shut and hope that when I test it in the oven the scale cooperates and shows the same mass before and after heating. Tough call, really. The gold tube isn't cheap. We've only got so much of the powder available (enough for many more experiments, but we don't want to go throwing it away). But it is two weeks lost if it turns out to have been improperly sealed and we run it anyway.

(Does anyone else think that LJ's vocabulary for "moods" is rather limited? It seems like I have to type in my own word fairly often.)