I seem to have used up most of my crafting energy this week on interfacing with, and learning new, technology. I bought us a new TV after one too many night scenes in programmes where I couldn't see diddly squat - the breaking point was watching the reboot of Shogun and not being able to make out what the heck was going on in the night scene ninja attack - on our 14 year old LED television. I went for a QLED mid-range telly which arrived in an enormous box - you have to either sit closer or have a larger screen for these smaller LEDs it seems. The new TV is 65" and the old one was only 46", so it feels like some kind of giant black hole has taken up residence in the living room. It was a lot of effort to get it all connected up, the stand assembled etc. and get the new TV to talk to our existing streaming devices and input all the log-ins etc. but eventually we had sound and picture. I am now rewatching Shogun and it's like an entirely new show, so many details I had missed or couldn't see. And the current sumo tournament is just amazing, it feels like I can see every detail of the audience even. I feel a bit stupid that we were putting up with the old technology for so long. Although speaking of old tech, I've had to order a SCART-to-HDMI converter so that we can hook up our antique DVD player.
Then there was the long-arm fault. The engineer came at last on Thursday, about 15 minutes after the new TV turned up. I was already stressed about how much the visit was going to cost just for one hour (plus call out and travel costs) and after 90 minutes she was still saying that she couldn't see anything wrong with the machine apart from a very loose thread guide above the needle which she recommended replacing. She ran it to demonstrate for me that it was stitching perfectly, which had me shrieking 'stop, stop!' because of the terrible thunking noise. She thought the noise was a normal machine noise. Whatever she had done had made the thunking better than it had been, but still definitely not the quiet purr the machine used to have. Mystified, she departed and phoned her supervisor to report in and see what he thought. So he called me and asked for videos of the machine running. I went up to make the video and had trouble threading the loose guide, which is when I realised that the noise all along had been the loose guide hitting the presser foot on every downward needle stroke! I took the guide off and hey presto, no more noise. Apart from me yelling a few swear words rather loudly. I'm assuming that the thread guide started to loosen and started making the noise while still having a normal appearance. By the time I had run the various tests they asked me to, and the engineer had run the machine quite a bit, the guide had been hitting the presser foot long enough to become quite distorted and loose which is why she had noticed it sagging. I'm kind of peeved that she didn't realise that it was actually the cause of the noise. I phoned up the dealer and reported that I had identified the problem. They have sent me a replacement guide which I need to fit tomorrow, but I assume I am still going to have to pay a couple of hundred pounds for the engineer visit even though I'm the one that ended up fixing it.
And our new 3D printer arrived this week, but didn't get set up until today. More leafing through instruction booklets, a complicated unboxing process to follow as there were various screws and stabilisers that had to be removed, two new apps to install, more passwords, blah blah blah. Eventually we managed our first print, the traditional little boat called a benchy. Then we printed a handle for the scraper tool, and then I struggled through my first download of an online file and using the slicer in Bamboo Studio to print a 'poop bucket' to catch the unwanted filament that gets ejected out the back of the printer. So much new stuff to learn now, a whole new world - it's supposed to be good for your ageing brain to have to learn new things. We've set it up in the laundry room which may prove too humid in the long run, I don't know. In the first instance, I want to use it for printing dollhouse minis and DH wants to print some model soldiers. Meanwhile DS has commented "I thought you were meant to be decluttering", lol.
I went down to London yesterday and had lunch with DS who was doing an office day. Originally I was booked to go down because my niece was supposed to be flying over from Canada, but she had to postpone her visit until September. I already had the train tickets so went down anyway. Before and after lunch, I visited a couple of historic Georgian townhouses which were interesting. In the morning, I went to the Handel-Hendrix house, a townhouse that was the home of the famous composer, and next door is where Jimi Hendrix had his London flat. In the afternoon, I toured the Benjamin Franklin house, where he lived for many years while representing the interests of his colony prior to the revolution. Both houses have been restored from near ruin and are fairly bare with none of their original furnishings, but it really gave you a sense of what it would have been like to live in a narrow, deep, tall townhouse in the Georgian period, looking out across the street at other townhouses. The Franklin house had squeezed in a ladies loo by hiving off part of the former basement kitchen, leaving an old kitchen range marooned next to the sinks which made me smile.
Earlier in the week, I was working on a knitted rendition of Grogu, or the child, from the Mandalorian TV series. I couldn't find a good pattern so I downloaded one to use as a starting point and riffed on it until I had something that looked how I wanted. I still need to find something suitable for eyes - I may eventually try 3D printing them once I learn how to design.
I've warped up my loom for a new table runner but haven't started weaving yet, I need to sort out a few missed slots first.
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