Qigong Instructors Course - Shropshire, England

I am sorry that it has been so long since I posted something new.  Here, finally, are some pictures from my wonderful experience with the Tse Qigong Centre at the instructors course.  One must have been studying Qigong for at least 3 years and be recommended by her/his instructor to be invited to the instructors course.

While I was living on Vancouver Island, I was lucky enough to discover Lee Masters, a superb teacher of Qigong and Chun Yuen.  Here is a link to her website:  http://wildgooseqigongcentre.com/.

This is me and my wonderful Sifu (teacher) Lee.  Sifu is on the left.

The instructors course was held at an agricultural college in Shropshire.  Below are a few photos of the group practicing.

This is Darryl teaching, with my Sifu carrying the red bag.

A group practicing Chun Yuen, a martial art.

I was successful in passing the first few forms, as shown on my certificate.

Now I remember why I have not posted more frequently.  We have very slow internet access here at the new house.  So uploading the photos for this blog is painfully slow...  I am going to have breakfast.  Maybe I will post more later.

Harper Adams University College, Shropshire, England

Well, I have just checked into my room here at the agricultural college in rural Shropshire.  Beautiful green countryside.  My taxi driver who drove me from Stafford (about 16 miles) was very pleasant.  We discussed the problems of national health insurance, the worldwide economy, and racism.  Lovely man.

So far I have met many friendly members of the world-wide Tse Qigong Centre.  Apparently one of the "games" Michael Tse (our leader) likes to play is to have students try to name everyone there.  I am notorious for my inability to learn names.  So I have concentrated on the first few people I met.  Maybe those will stick.  If I try to remember them all, I will forget them all.

For some reason, the temperature seems warmer here.  16 degrees C today, but it seems quite warm to me.  Perhaps it is the humidity as it is cloudy and threatening rain.  If it was threatening rain at this temperature in Salinas, I would be cold, but not here.

We will meet soon for dinner at a Chinese restaurant called Tin-Tin's.  I am told that we will go there several times over the next week.

From Stafford England

Today is my first whole day in England.  I am here for 10 days.  Most of them will be full of learning and testing at an instructors course for Qigong.  But I came early for a couple of days of gentle exploration and recovery from jet lag.

It was a long trip from California.  Getting up at 4am to catch a 6am shuttle to the San Jose Airport, followed by a short hop to Portland, OR.  From Portland we travelled a northern route, passing over northern Canada from west to east, then over Greenland and on to Amsterdam.  The trip took about 9 hours, but it is hard to determine how long it is because the time change from California to Holland is + 9 hours.  So when we arrived in Amsterdam, it was the next morning!

I paid for an upgrade to what they called an Economy Comfort seat, which did have some advantages.  There was more legroom, there were only two seats together.  The seats were advertized as reclining more than the regular seats.  Perhaps they did, but the difference was small.

Pluses included a very pleasant seat mate, a gentleman who was a teacher of music, especially piano.  He was about my age (actually a bit older) and what with a shared experience as college teachers in the arts, we had lots to talk about.

Minuses included parents and two small children in the seats in front of us.  I was irritable because of lack of sleep and the discomfort of sitting for so long, but the children were much more upset, understandably.  Their upset did not allow for much sleep.

However I am feeling much better today and will go out exploring the little town of Stafford.  I will take my camera so that I can share a bit of it with you when I get back to home and can download the photos.  Meanwhile, my entries will be words only - sorry!

I will go to the back garden and do my Qigong practice now, followed by a nice walk.

Success!

The baby blanket is complete.  I am really pleased with it.

Here it is right off the loom.  It measured 43.5" long (plus hem allowance) and 32" wide before washing.  Notice the dog chew at the bottom left?  As soon as I put it on the floor to measure and photograph, Becca ran on it with her chew.  I kicked her off twice and finally had to shut her out of the room in order to get this picture.

Click on this one to see the "hole" made by the dog claw in the center left (yellow section).  I didn't worry too much because it was going to be washed, and it was no problem.  This is also before washing.  You can already see the huck lace/ basketweave pattern with the natural weft.  It is pretty subtle on the gold warp, but very clear on the turquoise and brick red.

This picture was taken later in the afternoon, when the light was warmer.  It shows the colours differently.  The blanket has been hemmed and washed and ironed with a steam iron.

Here it is draped over my warping mill.  I can't share its softness with you, but that 2/8 cotton is pretty soft after only two washes.  The second time I took it right from the front-load washer (which got it pretty dry) to the ironing board.  It now measures 40" long (loss of 3.5") and 30 inches wide (loss of 2").

The light in the living room at night is not great, but I needed to include something of Becca.  Since I was not happy with the idea of doggie claws in the threads, this is as close as I let her get.

I hope the mom and the baby both like the colours.  They are not traditional baby colours, at all, but I thought they looked good together.  I tried using a navy weft for a few rows at the end; it looked much more sophisticated, and the warp colours really popped.  I would like to use this colour combination again.

Next, I will make some 12 shaft tea towels with 2/10 mercerized cotton.  Any suggestions for pattern?  There will be black in them, as a friend here just got new black countertops in her kitchen.  Of course it never entered my mind to order black when I did either of my two last orders of the above cotton.  Oh, well; guess I will just have to buy some more!  Too bad.

I would like to get the warp wound before I leave.  I am going to England for the Tse Qigong Centre's instructor training seminar.  Getting pretty excited as it is only a bit more than a week away.  Surely I will have a couple of blogs worth of tales and photos from my 10 days there.

Finally weaving!

Well, the first warp that I wound to try and make this baby blanket was so bad (had so many mistakes in it) that I threw it out.  Never done that before!

Now the second warp is on the loom and I have started to actually WEAVE on my new Louet Spring.  I decided on wide stripes with navy in between.  Fifteen threads makes one repeat of the basketweave/lace pattern, so the navy stripes are fifteen threads wide.  I did not make the selvedge wider, even though I know it will draw in more.

Here is the warp ready to wind on.

It is as wide as the loom will allow, 35 inches.  I know I should have woven something narrower for my first project, but this was the item I wanted to make.

And here is Jones, enjoying the sunshine as he hopes for some stray threads to come his way.

Here the warp is lashed on to the loom.  I found that I had wound one too few threads in a couple of the colours, so I now have several things dangling off the back beam.  I already had two for the floating selvedges, and then the warp seemed looser at the selvedge edges, so I weighted all 15 threads at each end. Jones loves those dangly things.

And here it is with the hem woven with cotton sewing thread and three repeats of the pattern.  I am using cream weft to soften the effect a bit.  It is a baby blanket, after all.

Jones and Becca are telling me that it is dinner time, so I had better go.  Wish me luck with the weaving!



Becca with good news!

Hi, you remember me from the last post?  Well, the nice people I have been stayin' with have decided to keep me!  I knew they would because I am a nice doggie.  I try really hard to do the right things, but I get it wrong sometimes.

Do you want to know why I was sure they would keep me?  Even when I made a mistake, they didn' get mad at me.  They are both very nice about lettin' me know what I should do.  They even praise me when I get something right.  And the lady gives me yummy treats when I do things right.  I think I will take them up on their offer and stay.

I am also gettin' better about not barking at people as much - better with other dogs too.  But they don't understan' how much I think I should protect us all from strangers.  I had some not so good things happen with strangers in my life.  But we sure are meeting lots of nice people an' dogs.  Life is pretty good. :)

She took this picture of me while I was sleepin' in the "cat bed".  (That's what they call it, even though I am a dog.)  It was dark, cuz I was sleepin', so the picture isn' the best quality.  For some reason, the lady thinks it is cute.

Remember, you can click on it for a better view.

Luv,

Becca

Something is interfering with my weaving!

Hi there!  I'm Rebecca, but most call me Becca for short (and I am pretty short).  You can see the legs of my person's loom behind me,  I don't think it is right that she is blaming me for keepin her from weaving.  I know how to sit right under her weaving bench.

No problem for me!  I like being under things. 

I like being on the furniture too, but the living room furniture seems to be off limits.

However, to make up for that, my person got a new cover for the futon that matches me:

Don't we look good?

But I found another soft spot.  I have lived in several houses, but I had never seen a soft spot like this before.  It is in the bathtub!

OK, I, Dawn,  should probably explain:  We had to shut the cats in their bathroom when we had some deliveries right after moving to this house.  I wanted them to feel comfortable, so put an old comforter in the tub for them.  Now I don't know what to do with it, so it has stayed in the tub.

Rebecca is staying with us right now.  She may stay with us for a long time.  It depends on the cats.  We are fostering Becca to adopt from Animal Friends Rescue Project, which is located in Pacific Grove, Calif.  If the cats accept Becca (and I can teach her not to bark at strange people and dogs), she will become our new doggie.

The siamese (Jones) is doing great with Becca.  He doesn't seem worried at all, though he is even more vocal than usual.  Chloe, however, is taking her time.  She hides under the covers (a common hiding place for both of them) all day long, not even coming out when Becca is gone.  So, we shall see...