New News

I feel the title of this blog should be “And Now For Something Completely Different”. This last week I was continuing to work on several projects at once. To give updates and news on all of them is as follows:

  1. Finished an Arm-guard.

    The Arm-guard was a secret gift for Grimmsfield 12th night. It was a arm-guard for Ernestine Nwani. This is a picture of the finished artwork before the buttons and cords were added. Final pictures to come.

2. Finished the top of a pouch.

Finished the cutting and dying of the top of Ernie’s pouch. I ran out of time before the party to finish the soft bottom. That will be done in the near future.

3. Finished Decorating My Arm-Guard

Finished the cutting and dying of a new arm-guard for myself. Still need to add the buttons and the Cord.

4. Cut, Dyed, & Began Sewing a Leather Bottle

Began sewing a leather wrap for a square bottle. I still need to shape the top of the leather to fit on the neck of the bottle and finish sewing.

5. Worked on 3 different Jewelry Pieces.

Did more work on three pieces of jewelry I am working on. Still just working on the cutting at this point.

6. Spun a skein of yarn.

Sunday and Monday ended up to cold to work at the forge, so I decided to get the spinning wheel out. A while ago I purchased a bag of Teeswater top roving from The Woolery. This was sold to me as a heritage breed wool. I have always been interested in the different type of sheep in existence and the wool they produce.

7. Kimchi Update.

First batch came out with the proper texture and taste, but way to hot. Attempted a 2nd batch with everything doubled except the red pepper. The halving of the red pepper did nothing to the heat of the finished product. I had my neighbor, Mr. Oh, who is from Korea, he imminently told me the problem was that I was using inferior pepper flakes. He said they tasted like they were from China and not Korea. I told him they were purchased in a Korean market and were made for Kimchi. He was emphatic that they were not Korean Red pepper. All heat no flavor! When I returned home, I looked carefully at the package and sure enough, the “Korean” Kimchi red pepper flakes were made in China. The next day I asked him where he got his red pepper from and was informed that his family sent it to him from Korea. His wife took pity on me and gave me what she said was much better pepper flakes. So Kimchi take 3 is in the future.