Concrete in Winter — Janet Szabo

People always ask me if the husband’s work slows down in the winter. The answer is that it depends. It depends on the weather, of course—if we get a lot of snow, he spends more time moving it than working. If we get a cold snap, the equipment doesn’t like to start. If the homeowner can afford it, the jobsite can be tented and heated, which allows work to continue.

This past week, he and the crew have been working inside. One of the buildings in downtown Kalispell is being converted to a restaurant. That building just happens to be next to our bank, so after I stopped at the bank to deposit some checks, I went to look at what the husband was doing in the basement of the building:

This building dates back to the early 1900s, when foundations were made of hand-laid stone and limestone mortar. Code requires a doorway here, so the husband had to cut through the rocks and remove them one by one. Yesterday, he and the crew poured a concrete sill and next week, they will frame a doorway.

He has been doing more and more concrete (and rock) cutting over the past couple of years. Homeowners who want to convert basements into apartments often call him to come and cut egress windows and doors in their foundations. He’s got quite a setup—all the cutting equipment lives inside a trailer that he has fitted out with pumps and large totes of water for cooling the cutting blades.

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We’ve been under a winter storm warning for the past 24 hours but it turned out not to be much—for us, at least. We actually got more snow on Monday when there were no alerts in the forecast. 🤷🏻‍♀️ The power did go out, which was no surprise given how much snow is still on the trees.

I finished the Kanoko tote yesterday. It turned out okay. I appreciate the process of making a pattern start to finish according to the pattern instructions, because I think it’s important to see how designers make the choices they do. I might think I know how best to construct something, but defaulting to familiar techniques doesn’t afford me the opportunity to learn anything. I am reminded of the women who would take my classes at Stitches events or other conferences and confidently swagger into the classroom announcing that there was nothing I could teach them because they had been knitting for 40 years. Most of them had been knitting exactly the same way for those 40 years.

In this case, though, I would make some changes. I am tempted to make this tote again using the Klum House waxed canvas just to see if I have an easier time of it.

I will do the top differently next time:

My travel tote has a longer zipper with zipper tabs at each end, and the zipper is free from the bag at both ends. Think the Open Wide Pouch by Noodlehead and you’ll get the picture. The bag design, above, makes a very neat and tidy opening, but it prevents adequate access to the interior. It was also a pain to sew, even on the 1541. I am not sure that someone with just a domestic machine would be able to make this bag. What I really needed was a post-bed or cylinder arm machine to do that last bit of assembly. (No, I am not going to buy one.)

Another thing I found curious was that only the high stress areas of the lining called for interfacing. I am used to making bag patterns where the entire lining is interfaced. It could be that interfacing is expensive or hard to get where the designer lives. Next time, I would interface the entire lining. I might also use a waterproof canvas or lightweight Cordura for the lining instead of quilting cotton.

I’m trying to decide if I want to go ahead with version 2.0 in Klum House waxed canvas, making it the same dimensions and style as my travel tote in order to test out the design modifications, or if I have scratched this itch for the moment and need to move on to something else. There is something to be said for continuing on while this is fresh in my mind. We’ll see.