Worth the Wait

A friend in Scotland surprised me in the extreme with a lovely gift! I had sent her a kitchen towel for her birthday this past November, so when I got a 'soft' package, I assumed she had sent something similar... but no....

It's this stunning 12 shaft table runner with cotton warp and soft pearly natural linen weft. Beautiful selvedges, and lovely trellis hemstitching...  its beautifully woven! I was gobsmacked!

Here's a close-up of the hemstitching and hem. This is now gracing my dining room table and already some realtors have commented on it. (More on realtors later...)

Does this pattern look a little familiar? I sent Dorothy some 12 shaft drafts so she could have some to hand to chose from for her first time using all her new shafts and treadles. I started my scarves before her runners but she finished sooner. I lost time to back pain and sciatica and waiting for a new weaving chair. But slow and steady does eventually cross the finish line!

Ta Da!  Manikin Madge is wearing the scarf that is tencel 10/2 warp and 30/2 black silk, sett 28 epi. By using black along both selvedges it throws the emphasis to the centre of the scarf. There is no doubt about it, its a busy pattern and I think the 'tone on tone' as in Dorothy's runner works nicely and having solid edges in my scarves also  takes it down a notch. Here are some 'work in progress' shots:

Here I have two of the three scarves pinned out on my foam board for fringe twisting. This was the first time I had been able to put my new twister from Leclerc to work and I must say that having a quad did make things go much faster. The fringer squeaks and sometimes binds but once you get the knack, it goes quick!

Next up, beading! I found some real nice sparkly Swarovsky beads in black, silver and a smoky gray. Each scarf was beaded at either black side with an accent in the centre. 

Click on any picture to enlarge. The hand of the two all tencel scarves was quite thick and dense, with the silk weft scarf being half their weight. All are now soft as butter after wet finishing and a good pressing. If you are new to my blog then you can find links to my older posts on fringe twisting and beading in the side bar under the heading of 'Topic Shopping'.

12 shaft gebrochene / hind und under

There are other posts related to this project but it seemed simpler to post the draft again for you. I found this draft at Handweaving.net as I quite often cruise there looking for 12 shaft drafts or something I can play with and reduce down or increase up. Great web site and a wonderful resource for weavers! 

I'm still having to be very careful with my back as at my days end, it aches. So weaving is still important but I can't weave for hours or even every day. I am also looking for ways to maximize my efforts so I had planned to wind up a warp for runners and use the same threading and tie up again. With Dorothy's runner now on my table, I can see how they will look once done! In the mean time, I have started weaving the towel warp on my big Woolhouse loom. My legs must depress down further and so pulls on lower back muscles. So short 10-15 minute periods of weaving. Hey! its all good... I'm still weaving which beats the heck out of not!

On the personal front we have been having showings of our home every other day and three in two days this past weekend. Seems the market is very active! Sadly, the offer we had on another house fell through. There were some issues that could not be seen with a casual walk through and only the house inspector could find.

So we're back to looking once more. Its a tough job as we are looking for some very specific things in a home and in a certain price range...but I'm sure there's one out there for us. So if I seem to go a little long between posts, my apologies but life is pretty darn hectic here! I'll try and post shorter notes and more often.

So Calli has been here two months now. Wonder if she likes it here?

Bruce was lucky enough to capture the tail action with his cell phone camera!