Heavy Handed!

 A couple of months ago I was answering questions on the Beginner Weaver forum at Ravelry.com. There are a number of weaving related groups there and we form a little enclave in the midst of knitters / crocheters galore!

A newbie weaver, Jennifer was asking about using an end delivery shuttle on her table loom. Well, why not?  Anything that gets the weft across, though a EDS is sort of wasted on a table loom. It would be more of a pass through than a throw!

It was a beautiful shuttle she had found at an antique store in North Carolina... or it came from a textile mill in the Carolina's. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details right now.  It was lovely and I was coveting it!  I collect shuttles and ones like this don't usually cross my path on Vancouver Island too often. I wrote to her and said that if she came across another, to keep me in mind. Well, imagine my surprise when she said she had two of them! She was willing to sell one to me.  The pictures here were taken by Jennifer.

The tightly wound yarn on the wooden pirn is polyester and its wound *perfectly*! The inside of the shuttle has these synthetic filaments that hugs the end of the pirn and tames the yarn as it flies off in the shed. Great idea for very fine yarns. Its the ultimate in yarn control!

 I can't find any identifying marks on it at all so if you recognize this shuttle or know something about them, please email me at the address shown on the right hand side of the blog.

There is one small  detail about this shuttle that took me completely by surprise.....the size and weight!

Here are pictures taken by me....and you might want to click on these to get a feel for the dimensions!

So its roughly 17 inches long and while I haven't weighed it (yet) its really heavy!

Here it is against my other Schacht end delivery shuttles. The 12 inch and 15 inch  which are real light weights next to this behemoth!  It arrived in a very long box and I thought Jennifer had reused a mailing box and it was a bit over kill but apparently not.  I did have plans of hanging it on the wall with my other antique shuttles but now I'm wondering how to do this?!  I love it....


Changing subjects entirely...
My husband was readmitted to hospital and is fighting one of those nasty MRSA super bugs. He had a second operation today and this time it was on his hand by a plastic surgeon. We are hoping that this now means he can start to heal and the antibiotics can do their job. I must wear a lovely yellow gauzy gown (yellow is NOT my colour) but they do coordinate nicely with the blue non latex gloves that every one entering the room must wear.  Its been a long month as we have been dealing with this since November 1st.

We decided it was unfair for Calli to be cooped up in a kennel so I took her to the doggy resort and when I last saw her, she had a huge grin and was being chased by a little Yorkie! I'm happy that she is playing with other dogs  but it means the house is rather empty. This would be a supreme weaving time but I have no heart to throw a shuttle and, to be honest, I'm too tired to play with my toys.
I am chipping away at Christmas tasks and  I have even placed a yarn order! Webs web site said it was all in stock and no sooner than I hit 'confirm' for the order, half of it was immediately back ordered!
There will be show and tell when it does arrive....this year or next!   :)

PS  I have created a sales page (see top bar) for some of my handwovens that came home from the Christmas sales.  More will be added as time allows so please check back!