Three days ago, I read Your Money or Your Life, and frugality is quickly becoming my favourite word. It's a fruity word, a cheeky wise word. A word with wings and feet. With big eyes and an attitude. I could live inside that word. In fact, I just moved in.
I only got the book on Monday though, which means on Saturday I didn't even know about frugality. So I went to the thrift store (as of usual) and found this beautiful 70's wooden weaving frame for children.
Now to be frugal is to only spend money on that which gives great pleasure. And so far, I have to confess that only the idea of the weaving frame is giving me pleasure. The frame itself is a tad more problematic. My personal weaving experience being exactly zilch, I'm rather dependent on instruction. Luckily, the box does include instructions, in fact the instructions come in 6 languages, of which I am completely fluent in three (I know, I know, the great polyglot, that's me). You can imagine my relief at not having to learn Finnish before getting to play with my new toy! But the relief was rather short-lived. The instruction sheet consists of one small A4 (per language that is), half of which is taken up by a picture of the weaving frame (presumably in case you forget what it looks like, since the picture looks exactly like the weaving-frame). Here's an excerpt:
"For this purpose turn the sley once alternately forwards and backwards. Push the shuttle through the raised threads so as to make the loosely lying wool-thread form a slight bow (see picture)".
Right... If you are like me, you don't know what a sley is, or a shuttle... you have trouble locating the warp, and your first impression is that the wool-thread is not lying loose anywhere. As for bows, slight or otherwise... Turns out, it is a bit like Finnish after all. The French and Dutch versions are similarly nightmarish. Help!
Incidentally, I have changed the comment settings on my blog so that anyone can now comment without registering. So if you have been itching to leave a comment but have found the prospective of a log-in rather daunting, itch no more! Instead, tell me all you know about weaving frames...
2 comments:
It's not that difficult if you get the idea behind it right (and that's very simple) -- some of the basics is at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_jenny
We learnt it at school (good old socialist education, nowhere to be found any more...) Enjoy! A.
I do not know anything about these things however frugality is the word most often used by Joe; now I start to be frightened being surrounded by all these wise people.
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