As Luck Would Have It

My second drawing hit success right away! Dianne in New Zealand wrote me right away, "I'm here! I'm here!"... and I got the silk into the post and on its way.

Then the next day the first name drawn 'Rose and Thistle' or Martha wrote me. Oh, dear! It seems that she and her family were in the middle of a major move to a whole new state. So her silk prize is on its way to her shortly. It just seemed the fair thing to do!

What amazes me constantly as I meet and make new friends where ever they live, is that I have so much more in common with these weavers, than just weaving!

Dianne lives in New Zealand and I used to live there. It's a small country and somehow it just keeps coming up in my life in many ways. As Dianne wrote: You certainly have a connection with NZ. For such a small country with small population we spread ourselves around a bit.

I look forward to following Dianne's blog and the coming exhibition she is participating in.

Martha and I have the Navy in common. As you may recall my Dad was in the British Royal Navy and her husband was in the United States Navy. I thought we had moved a lot in our married life but she has me beat by 3 or 4 moves!

We also share a love of medieval British history and could most likely chat up a storm on just that subject alone before we even get to weaving!

I look forward to seeing what comes of these skeins, the weavers, and perhaps share with you here in time.

Now shifting to a new topic.... see these scissors?

So weaving is carrying on in the second shawl and progressing nicely....until I had a big scare! I was changing bobbins and snipped off a long tail with my scissors. As I reached to put them back up on the shelf on the top of the loom, and they FELL from my hands!! Straight down and on the newly woven cloth. I felt sick. I could see cut ends sticking up everywhere!

(I took these pictures with my mobile phone so sorry if they are not my usual clear pictures...but I was too stunned to go and find the camera)

I started to cut back weft and remove it and as luck would have it...there was a silver lining to this situation. Yes, I had to unweave about 4 inches to just beyond the damage to a spot where I could resume weaving. This is tricky with a twill progression! The good news is there was only ONE cut warp thread. That's it. One.

So went through several emotions in about two minutes and finally came away from it calling myself lucky!

I took a long length of 10/2 tencel and pulled it from the back of the loom through the heddle, through the reed to replace its wounded cousin and then secured in place with a 'T' pin just below the cut end and 'figure 8 the tail around the pin. The portion at the back is hung in a weighted film canister much like you do with a floating selvedge. Then I pulled the old warp end out and just tossed it over the back. ( I always use the old thread as a guide because if you pull it out first, you'll have a heck of a time trying to find your place!)

The scissors now go into the bench storage!

Later when the warp comes off the loom, I will needle weave both ends on in their direction for an inch or more. The wet finishing will tighten everything up and it will disappear from view.... but not from memory!