An Old Standby

So this is where I left you last time.... dangling bait in front of you!

If the warp on my Woolhouse is 4/8 cotton and is thicker than I'm used to, then this is the opposite size wise. It's 2/16's cotton and will be set 36 epi for tea towels. I have some towels woven by a friend of mine, Gudrun and they are 2/16's. I love the hand and feel of them and you can get them into glasses and cups. They wash and dry well and are a bright cheery addition to the kitchen. 'Santa' brought me some 2/16's cotton for Christmas and I had towels planned for it. I wanted to use a bit of the 'new' greens that seem to be popular right now and so they would be more current for the fashion trends.

With no other pressing projects, I decided to put on 12 yards on the Louet Spring "Lilibet". I chose a favourite pattern, my old stand by, that I have used many times before from Strickler's A Weaver's 8 Shaft Pattern Book, #47 "Breaks and Recesses". It's a straight draw 1 to 8 and the treadling is the same. All the pattern is in the tie up! When you get into weaving something like this and develop a rhythm you can actually pick up speed and you go on 'auto pilot', and then your mind is free to think or ? Some call this 'zen weaving'. What I have been doing is plugging into my iPod and listening to music and podcasts and just loving it.

So now that both looms are fully loaded with long warps and between grabbing a few shots in between house chores and gardening, I'm busy! Then I came home to a message on my answering machine. A young woman who was recommended to me by a friend, wants me to weave her a one of a kind shawl. A commission order.... possibly. Now I have to weave off at least one of the warps to free up a loom! Then I recalled that I signed up for a weaving exchange ( "Spring is Sprung' April 1st /09 post)for the GCW to weave a runner. While this may or may not go ahead given the sign up numbers, it would be smart to plan something *now* and get to it. Life happens!

Update: It seems I will be weaving a commission shawl! We met today and details went smoothly. I will have to place a yarn order (darn! :) and the shawl is to be ready for late September.

On the home front: we have decided to go ahead with ripping off and replacing our upper and lower decks, side decks by the studio and re-inventing our front entry way to the house. When you come in the front door you are cramped into a small space and right next door is a room we barely use. So it looks like a small interior wall is going to come down (or create an archway) and a whole new entry will be built! This means new patio doors, new front door and the stairwell inside will all be affected as well. HUGE job and happily most of it's outside. It will make a huge difference to how the house looks and feels for us. We are, after all, staying here! We are starting on this soon and plans are commencing tonight with a contractor coming to look things over.

So it seems to be a time of fresh starts.... for many reasons. Heck even the dog got a spring hair cut and is looking like a plucked chicken! A cute one mind you....

Here's Connor 'before'... note the surly attitude. We agree that this is a mutually disagreeable activity to be endured. We've been doing haircuts for 12 years now, so he knows when the grooming table comes out!

And after, no doubt feeling a draft!