A different blank canvas

Sourdough baking presents me with a different kind of blank canvas: the smooth surface of dough, with the lame blade as my brush.

Sourdough, pre-scoring

Sourdough is scored to give the bread room to rise in the oven, and there are some amazing bakers doing intricate and beautiful cut designs that utilize different depths of cut to achieve their vision. I’m still learning control, so I am emulating the cuts of others to learn technique.

Scored sourdough with a leaf design
Same loaf after baking

I have much to learn, but the process is enjoyable, and the results, no matter how wonky, are edible.

Cat hammock physics

One of the commercial cat hammocks I had in the catio broke (it really wasn’t designed for outdoor use and degraded in the sunlight). I had what I thought was a brilliant idea to make a triangular hammock to fit a corner.

Double layer outdoor fabric with rivets for attachment (corners) and draining (center)

The old hammock was square and needed support for all four corners. A triangular hammock would only need three supports. I used a large washer and screw to attach the hammock to the wood, and originally had it flat. Here is where the physics part comes in. The fabric sags when weight is applied. The hypotenuse of the triangle sagged too much and made a slide rather than a hammock when the corners were all at the same height. It took some experimentation to get the corners at the right heights so a pouch formed to hold a cat comfortably. My cat was remarkably patient with me putting her in and out of the hammock.

Izzy waiting for me to figure it out

In the end, the right angle corner needed to be much lower than the hypotenuse corners to keep the cat from falling out. We got there, but it wasn’t pretty.

Success!
Izzy trying another angle

Replacing a belt buckle

My husband loves his Italian made leather belt, but the metal fatigued and broke the other day. Luckily I had a buckle in my stash, and the belt is so well designed, I could fix it.

Loop broke off the metal belt buckle

First I took out the broken metal, which was held on with a screw rivet (love these) and some stitches.

Disassembled buckle, with new buckle on left

I used waxed linen cord and the saddle stitch to sew the new buckle into the leather. I made the final knot between the layers of leather so it would be hidden.

Saddle stitching in progress

Then I reassembled the belt reusing the screw rivet, being careful to catch the leather loop and stay in the right places, and making sure the buckle faced the right direction. Did I mention I love screw rivets? If you assemble incorrectly, it is easy to remove the rivet and try again.

Fixed belt

For the love of spinning

I was testing a drop spindle while waiting in the car, and struck up a conversation with someone who had hoped to learn spinning, but didn’t get to due to the pandemic. I didn’t have any student spindles in the car. The horror! So I gathered up the spindles I made at home and paired them with some Shetland wool strips torn from a batt (these strips can also be called slivers).

Student spindles with balls of wool

The wool and spindles went into bags with a half sheet of paper filled with as many resources as I could think of to help a beginning spinner.

Fiber resource sheet to go into beginning bags

I have handed out a couple of these kits when I’ve been about town, and even gave a quick spinning demonstration out my car window. Spinning is not for everyone, but they won’t know until they try!

Be careful what you wish for

Since I first saw the neighbor’s flame point I wanted to be friends (it has to be said I want to be friends with all cats, so). After getting him fixed, I was certainly persona non grata. My eldest befriended first, with the help of a few treats. Then I took the hint and gave some treats, then some surreptitious scratches. He now walks right in front of my feet demanding treats and scratches. So much so that it is hard to walk. Be careful what you wish for.

Neighbor cat getting scratches

But he is such a pretty boy.