Under Way with Maeve

 It's been a busy time here this October and we're now into November, complete with shifting clocks back an hour to standard time and into what I'd like to call "the Dark Times".   You know, the time period where you can have lunch and watch the sun set at the same time?  😳

It took some time to tweak Maeve up and get her running smoothly. Heddles needed thinning, then layering shaft by shaft so not cause the shafts to float. I discovered that the apron rod at the breast beam (stick is more accurate) is actually 1/4 inch too long and jams under the breast beam when starting a warp. Nothing more complicated other than being simply a tad bit long for the space.  I know a man with a saw who can fix that so not a problem.   

The loom doesn't come with beater blocks anymore like my old loom so we had to make some from maple and install. Funny thing is, they still pre drill it for the blocks and then don't add them. I didn't like looking at the holes, and I wanted the beater blocks as it meant a further reach for arthritic shoulder joints.

The black rubber 'feet' under the loom and bench leave black marks on the carpet, so I ordered clear 1 inch foot cups and after cutting down the soft side to the right height, slipped them onto the bench's feet. No more marks!   The loom's feet will be done at some future date when I have some big burly helpers to tip her side to side to slip them on.   Its little details like this that drive me crazy and so I look for a solution.

In her spot so I can see the garden.... or watch winter storms.  

This plum shade is the start where I wove just to get the feel of the loom and check for errors. Happily none!   I chose a handweaving.net draft #79912 as it used all 16 shafts and is basically a point twill and sequentially a reversed point twill.   The heddles were all bunched up and so each and every one of the 728 had to be teased apart,  cut either top or bottom loop if missed and so this took a fair amount of time to do.

I could see lines in the warp so I carefully checked and they were threaded correctly.  I had used a 14 dent reed, slayed 2 ends per dent so that reduces warp streaking.     I would stop and check every little thing that looked 'odd' and there was nothing to fix.   

I had double soft butter yellow ends as a design feature in the coloured stripes. I wasn't too sure about that but it worked out okay to have them than not.

It was 7.5 yards of 10/2 cottons from Web's; sett 28 epi.   Approx 25 inches in the reed and I wove each of the 6 towels to 37 inches.    Three has cream weft, one had khaki, one was a plain version of the three main stripe colours and the last was a plaid where I wove a plaid and also included the butter yellow. That one is my favourite.

Here are the group of 6 towels with the Cameo Rose pink stripe facing out.  There was also a silvery purple and a deep mossy green.   The neutral portion of the warp was a cotton colour called Shell and I used a neutral cream as weft on three towels.

This is the plaid:  I also noticed that there were lines in the weft every pattern repeat now that it was off tension.    It also happened on the reverse but in the second portion of the repeat.    It looked like skips!   It affected every towel, front and back.   So I checked the draft, the tie up plan, did the shafts misbehave?     Everything was correct and fine.    So its a feature that appears off tension that looks like a mistake but isn't.    It still bothered me though. 

I have another warp that I was planning to use the same draft again and now was changing my mind on that.  I will use the same threading but a different tie up plan. 

Here my favourite as the soft yellow perks everything up.   I turned the hems and hand sewed them.  I'm not a fan of the 'stitch ditch' line.  Some of my buyers use what I call a kitchen towel as a table runner instead so this makes them more versatile.

The khaki towel.   

The three towels with an off white 10/2 weft.

The towels end up being 21.5 inches wide by 30 inches with the shrinkage and hems turned.   Quite a bit of shrinkage but they are still generously large sized towels.

Things well under way on Maeve: The name Maeve is of Irish origin and means "she who intoxicates" or "she who rules". It comes from the Old Irish name Medb, the name of a powerful warrior queen in Irish mythology, also linked to the Proto-Celtic root *medu- for "mead" (a honey wine). Another meaning associated with the name is "the cause of great joy".  

Well, once we have all our initial  kinks worked out, Maeve will rule the studio and be the cause of much joy !

My newly set up winding station. Current weft yarns on top and the next projects weft yarns on the second shelf.  Third layer has a series of 3 pound weights to use while beaming a warp.  Towel under the winder is by dear friend Wayne Nicholson.

Finally, for those of you out there with 16 shaft looms, the draft and  you'll see there are a few treadling variations to try. I have the number wrong below and the correct draft number is 79912 at handweaving.net.  I call it a senior moment  😉

🌹 40 Years

 

Time flies, but memories last forever:   "The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot."   🌹

....or another way of saying "you are the Architect of your Life".   

40 Years ago on October 25th 1985, we got married.  Both of us had been married before but were willing to give love another try.   And what an amazing time it has been!

This was our first little home together, a rental with an acre of lawn out front and almost as much at the back.  Fruit trees and rows of raspberry canes. It was a great place to bring my two kids to play with Bruce's dog Samson, an Airedale terrier.   The rail yard where Bruce ran trains as an engineer was behind the house and down the hill.    I could hear him coming into town and we had a special whistle he'd blow for me to hear.

Our second home was a two story walk up, sandwiched between a school and a church, on a busy road the garbage trucks used.  But it was ours and a new start. 

Our third home was something else entirely.  A 52 foot twin power cruiser with a washer and dryer, queen sized bed and even a deep freeze.   We lived aboard for 5 years between 1988 to 1993.    Then we shifted to a townhouse near the sea walk dyke in Richmond.   By this point we had two Lakeland terriers and so the sea walk was great for them to burn off some energy.  Bruce was running trains in the Vancouver area and I was working for a local grocery store as a bakery / deli manager after previously working for Clinique and the Bay for 8 years. 

Besides living aboard a boat, we also crewed on a racing sailboat.  It was great fun and boats kept us busy and active.  We took Power and Sail courses together and did quite well with navigation and VHF radio.

Here's Bruce standing on the deck right above our bedroom.   We moored in a small boat and float home community called River Bend Marina on the Fraser River, 15 miles upstream from the ocean.    No dogs then but we did have a parrot called Ronnie.

Backing up a bit to 1986  Expo and Steam Expo:  there was a huge display of 23 live and static steam engines off the Expo site. Bruce by this time was the president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Union  and so manned an information  tent and chatted with all the rail fan's on the site.    I went down every day and got to visit, and in most cases, ride the engines and got to know the crews from all over North America. I had a blast!

This was the UP4466 and just before there was a race between them and 2-3 other engines and I got to ride along!  

This is me and Bruce on the front of the 6060 and I'm worried that he's going to fall off, but he was fine.  He had helped to scrape paint on this engine when she was a static display in Alberta many years before and she ran live steam all the way to Expo.

About the same time period there was a 100th anniversary of the first steam engine, the 374, to arrive in Vancouver at the Roundhouse.   We attended and apparently I got along with this engineer too. Sadly, I forget his name.

I also go to ride with Bruce on some of his work trains but in this picture I took Christmas time 1984, he's running the Via Passenger train and I'm up in the cab with him.    There was 14 days or 7 round trips and I managed to run with him 5 of those 7. 

Here we are at the beach at a weiner roast at Steveston, where the Fraser River meets the ocean.  We we living in the townhome by then and about to make a life changing decision.     There was an opportunity to transfer to another rail district and make a good deal more money and after much discussion and a quick flying visit to check things out, we agreed to move to Vernon BC where Bruce ran trains, day and / or night shifts in the Okanagan Valley. So he ranged from Kelowna, to Vernon, Armstrong, Kamloops and side excursions to Lavington and Lumby to service mills. 

Here's Bruce shovelling snow on our 120 foot drive way at our first rental home that first never ending winter!   He worked mainly the night shift taking trains to Kamloops and I was a home bored to tears, and knew no one. By the early spring, I had found the local weavers guild and started my weaving journey.  I could weave during the day while he slept and feel productive at least and had made some new friends at the guild. Best thing I ever did!

Christmas party for CN Okanagan division.   Dinner is late coming and we've had a drink or two too many!

Finally it was Bruce's last run as he retired early. The company had made an offer too good to pass up. They were turning the local CN division into a short line railway that would be run privately.  Bruce 'retired' and turned a hand to being a volunteer firefighter (and drove their pumper truck) and later had a 10 year run at selling any type of exterior renovations including roofs and windows.    I kept on weaving!

I supported Bruce's career over the years and he was equally supportive of my weaving and guild activities.   Here at the Kelowna Guild's annual spinning event in 2000, he sported a saucy apron a friend made him while he volunteered to help in the kitchen.    He loved to show that he could put his hands into the 'pockets' in the briefs.   

At this point we had lived in Lake Country, then moved across the lake to just north of  the Fintry Delta and then moved to the Shuswap area to a place called Blind Bay.

From there we moved back to the coast and lived in Powell River for approximately 18-20 months and then shifted to Vancouver Island and the Duncan area, where we lived for 9 years.    Yes, lots of moves but each house was our home for a time and equity was building.

Bruce and I also loved the fun we had winding on warps together.  We'd talk  and have a laugh. He also devised his own system for getting the paper on straight and (try) to keep it from walking sideways. 

Bruce was sweet in that if I needed a tool or loom, he'd find a way to make it happen. Turned a blind eye to the yarn coming in the door, while I ignored the tool acquisitions and model railway gear. 

This one is taken in Cowichan Bay by my brother. Clearly the years are starting to add up. 

But we always laugh together. Here we are on Saltspring Island after visiting Jane Stafford's studio and  dropping an obscene amount of money on 2  looms. We promptly headed for the ferry  as we couldn't afford to stay for much more than a gelato.

Our last dog was an Airedale and we loved her beyond words.  Calli didn't favour either Bruce or me but actually seemed to share her time with us equally.    She'd lay by my loom for an hour or so and then wander off to visit Bruce.    

I caught Bruce "washing the floor" in the laundry room after Calli's bath and she had shaken off.   

Here he is making bread from scratch (but forgot to put the yeast in)

We moved off the acreage in Duncan and moved to Campbell River in 2016.   We wanted a new home and house prices kept pushing us further and further up the island. We've been here 9 years now and staying put.  Yes, we did try to find a smaller home this past spring but decided we love where we are and we'll manage somehow. 

Here is Bruce this past week when the Blue Jays were looking to win. He's finally made me a baseball fan and it only took 40 years to do it. 

Our one and only wedding picture, taken by a friend who apparently only had 2 shots left on his roll of film and no spare rolls.... and both were over exposed, so we got one sort of fixed and decided it didn't matter as it was everyday that counted and not just the first.  

That's 14, 600 days so far .....and counting!  🌹

Making Waves 🌊

 Time for a finished project!    Woven on the Megado that doesn't live here anymore, a month or two ago.  It has been so busy here and  this one slipped my mind!    With all the studio rearranging, it was folded and put away....

I wove this pattern a couple of years ago on my old Spring loom and enjoyed it very much. I could see some potential for treadling variations and colour pairings.  I wound a 4 colour gradation from royal blue to deep teal green on my warping mill. It does take some time but I quite enjoy the process.

The warp yarns were 8/2 tencel as they have so many lovely rich  colours:  royal blue, azure, greyed teal and dark teal. The first scarf I used salmon which looks very terracotta to me.   The sett was the usual 24 epi. 

Its a very rich looking mix and there is irridescence!

When it came time to weave up the second scarf and I had to choose a weft colour, I was stumped! Last time I wove this pattern, I used black for one and coral for the other.     I auditioned a few candidates and finally chose lemongrass..... and a different treadling for a whole new look. 

I would have to say it's my favourite of the two.  Sometimes you just have to push through and test your comfort colour barriers!   😊

Here's the draft  which is 8 shafts and I found it on Pinterest, with no credit given to who ever designed it sadly.   The colour gradation was done by me using Fiberworks for Mac.