Contrary to how it commonly goes, I actually did manage to finish the long tunnel, completely sew in the second short tunnel, and make another waterproofing test run yesterday. I wouldn't have thought that I really would get all of this done! In addition to that, the most patient and helpful of all men started on the front hem yesterday and thus took a bit more load off my shoulders concerning the stall.

And all that meant that yesterday evening I found the leisure to take out my knitting again for two rows, for the first time since Sunday the week before last. The thing seems to turn out just like I planned, but I don't think I can get it into the testknitting stage before Freienfels, even with the rows now getting shorter and shorter quite fast. I'm a bit sorry about that - I would have liked to finish off that knitting-design project and tackle the next one, but the market stall (and then preparing the things to sell - my gold thread has arrived) has to come first.

On to another day at the tent - which really has to get finished one of these days, and there's still quite a bit to do. At least I have almost finished one of the long tunnels that will (hopefully) keep the fabric in the roof part more or less taut; I only have to close it with one 2,30 m whipstitch seam now. I have to do another test run for the waterproofing (also on the plan for today) to figure out the best ratio stuff:water when diluting the stuff to make it applicable. And there's one more short tunnel for the back horizontal bar to sew in, and then there's mostly only the sides, hems and the small stuff to do.  According to experience, though, the small stuff takes abnormally long (and always much longer than expected).

I wonder if that means that if I now adjust my expectations to a ridiculously short time for the finishing touches - will it go faster? Obviously there's no use in expecting a more realistic figure, since it will take longer anyways, right?

We had some fun in the evening in the garden yesterday, taking care of some of the sweaty tasks like starting to build a slightly raised vegetable bed with old compost earth and removing some of the lawn thatch. Slowly but surely, things are coming along in the garden - and of course the tulips are growing! But to me, the best thing about the garden is the gazillions of birds landing on the front lawn and the flower beds for their breakfast. Blackbirds especially - and I am very fond of blackbirds!

Slowly but surely is the proper description for the tent progress as well, and the rest of today will also be tent-sewing time. I have dug out a radio drama CD full of stories from "Jonas, der letzte Detektiv" (Jonas, the last Private Eye), a sci-fi detective story with a really high body-count - but wonderful to listen to. The series is from 1984 and following years, and the author, Michael Koser, did write about some things that are getting more and more realistic, which makes the series a little unnerving at times. If you understand German and can get your hands on that series, I can highly recommend it!

I cut the two bits (if you can call 2,9 m of cloth 2 m wide a "bit") of fabric for the side walls of the tent yesterday, and that should have been the last bit of cutting from the bolt for this tent. There's still some bolt left because we have a bit extra just in case and some more extra for making a crawl-in small, additional sleeping tent - what you'd call a "Dackelgarage" in German (translates as dachshund garage, yes, really).

The two side-wall cuts are currently taking their second bath in the tub, which will run the same course as its first bath and the two baths of the main piece: Run the tub with water as hot as it gets from our tap (which is plenty hot), dump in fabric, poke fabric under with a stick-like implement (also called a bath brush). Dunk fingers into water occasionally and swear (plenty hot, right?). Open bathroom window and keep open to let the steam get out.

Return to bathroom periodically to do some more poking and swearing. After a while, grab submerged tent fabric (possibly swearing) and rearrange in hot water.

After a much, much longer while, decide that water is cool enough to give the tent some additional tender loving care by trampling around on it. Take off shoes and socks, roll up trouser legs, get into the tub (possibly swearing again) and take turns around the tub, walking on every bit of the submerged fabric.

Get out of the tub again and realise that the water was still beyond "warm" and even "hot", but all that time hadn't been enough to get it cooler than "boil-a-lobster". Admire bright red colour of feet and legs. Optionally: Walk into the living room with bare feet and trousers still rolled up to drink the rest of your coffee, shocking a visiting friend with the colour in that process. Grin.

Drain water from tub and get the fabric to dry.

I'm currently at the "check back and poke periodically" stage with this bath, so I can still look forward to some bright red colour today!

Full points to you if you can catch the book quote in this text and pinpoint book and author.

For a while now, my days are spent like that:
I get up, I make myself a pot of tea, I sit down with it at the computer and spend most of the morning with reading and answering e-mails, blogging, and other computer stuff.

And then, my workspace is shifted to a spot on the livingroom floor that may look approximately like this:

Well, sometimes (for preparation of smaller bits) I even get to sit down on the sofa, but for the most part, tent-making means floor-sitting. Note the large cushion to sit on. The little rectangular thing is my block of beeswax for waxing the sewing thread (a very thick, sturdy linen thread), and beside it there's my cup of tea. The text on the cup, by the way, says "Alles unter Kontrolle" (which means "everything under control"), and that's an expression of hope, most of the time. What you can't see from the photo is that I amuse myself with nice music while I'm sewing. That is one of the perks of that job, I think - you sit down quietly, your hands occupied, and can just relax while having favourite musicians entertain you.

But you are probably more interested in the tent right now?
Here is one of the main constructive elements, innocent-looking as it might be:


This is the corner bit for the right-hand back corner. Its job? Holding up the crossbeam and tensioning the fabric across the upper edge of the back wall. There's an additional tunnel to be added that will cover most of the crossbeam and distribute the stress on the fabric more evenly, but the tent would function with these cornerpieces without additional tunnels.

And here's a closeup of the work on one other innocent-looking constructive detail, the pocket for the sidebeam in the top front corner:

It is a little blurry, but you should be able to make out the needle I use (one of the two needles, the other one being below the fabric at the moment). All seams are done in saddler's stitch (more or less saddler's stitch; there is no half-hitch in the stitch where the two threads cross in the fabric). Aside from a measuring stick, needles, a pencil and my resurfacing mathematics skills (right-angle triangle sidelength calculation, anyone?) you can also see another of my all-important tools for the tentmaking: binder clips. They are incredibly useful in marking a spot, holding down a fold or fixing something into place until it is sewn down. No tent-sewing without them for me, thank you!

 (By the way, did you know that the official German name for binder clips is... "Foldback-Klammer"? Very German, eh?)

Sorry for the belated blogging - the Firefox update somehow slowed me down a lot.

While Sunday was a nice day for relaxing and taking a walk in one of the neighboring towns, I spent most of Saturday very diligently working on the tent fabric. Waterproofing tests are still running, though a favourite seems to be emerging by now (oil cloth, by the way, really stinks).

The main constructive element is sewn, and I am now working on the next bits - the anchor points that will keep the wooden structure for the back of the stall in place on the fabric. And after that, it will be time to provisorially put up the tent and see where the rest of the anchor points will go...

And tomorrow, I will hopefully have some pictures of the tent construction details already finished.

If you want to know what "it" is today, it's both the Call for Papers/Call for Workshops for this year's Textile Forum as well as the tent for the market stall.

Writing the call for takes so long because, well, there are quite a few changes in comparison to last year, and we don't want to give a wrong impression by hastily written information.

And making the tent... well, everybody who has ever planned the construction of a tent/stall and then sewn that tent by hand knows how long that can take. Add to this the additional problems and challenges popping up - like the waterproofing issue - and it's no wonder that progress is slow. But it is there. After taking a nice, hot bath


the tent fabric is now completely dry again, and today it's time to test the construction basics by putting up the "framework". Most of the connections for putting up the wooden part will be temporary and provisional, since the tent structure has no stand-alone, rigid framework, but relies on combining wood and fabric. But I need to get a proper, hands-on evaluation of how large the inner space will feel in the completed tent, and I also need to mark where to put diverse bits and pieces for the construction on the fabric. So up it must go.