TC-1 Going, Woven Pixel News

Although I am having a technologically challenging period, with problems with my computer (though I think they were resolved with the repairs last week), and our Internet and phone cutting out at random times (my theories run all over the place but then get disproved when the next dead time comes; right now I think a squirrel has partially eaten the wiring and when the wind blows the right way, the wire disconnects), still I decided it was time to get the TC-1 up and running. There were some glitches--I insisted the air compressor should be plugged into a surge protector and Mark said I was wrong and it needed to go directly into the wall outlet. When we tried running the compressor with the surge protector, it would trip it. I am so stubborn that I decided I was still right, and what we needed was a super high power surge protector. A trip to the hardware store had the man saying he would sell me a surge protector but I shouldn't use it, that Mark was right. He (Mark) was only mildly smug when I came home and said, "You are right!"

I also had issues with my computer. I am a mac person all the way, but have a PC which we needed to do satellite Internet in New Mexico. I only know how to use it in very limited ways but am glad to have it, since it also runs my Fiberworks PCW program as well as the TC-1 loom and the Louet loom. I had all the connections down pat last time I used the loom, but was slightly foggy yesterday. One of the connecting wires, which goes from serial to USB, I use for both the Louet and the TC-1. So I put it in place and then couldn't get the program to download. It took three trips to the local computer store (I bought, then returned a part that wouldn't work--seems I just couldn't give away my money yesterday to any of the local vendors) to find out that I did have the right wires, and all I needed to do was identify the correct port for the program to find the device.

So you can see, I did get the loom going. The cardboard box around the wire springs that attach to the heddles is there to cat proof my loom. My cats love clawing at the springs and causing them to stretch out. I could ask Mark to make something more elegant, but he already is working on a long list, and right now that means he is painting the dining room (which is looking very beautiful). I am going to design something now to weave for real, since I just used a small circle file yesterday to test the loom.

Here is some Woven Pixel news. Up until now, Alice and I have used a distributor to sell the book. They were mostly good (sometimes strange things would happen, like countries disappearing from the list in order to purchase the book) but it seemed time to take it in-house. Now if you go to the order page, <http://wovenpixelorders.com/>, it connects you to a page on Alice's website. (Do you think I have enough links to that page in this paragraph?) You can also see some sample pages from the book if you go to this link on Alice's website. We will be able to take credit card payments using PayPal, and checks or money orders as long as they are in US currency. Here is an image of the cover in case you haven't seen the book. I use it all the time myself, and will certainly crack it open today as I design my first TC-1 image in Vermont.