2015: a Year in Review

Happy New Year!    

Start of a fresh brand new year!  I'm hoping that this one is brighter and colourful, and more productive than last year.  A nice clean slate.

Many weavers like to show what is on their loom on New Years Day, which is a great idea, but I like to show what was going on in the studio for the entire year. A review of sorts.

2015: Not a stellar year  production wise as I was slower at weaving due to recovering from hip replacement surgery, then dealing with pain while waiting for another surgery.... and the resulting recovery interval once more.  Some of you have told me that you wished I posted more often but trust me when I say there was nothing to really share with you!  I did manage to get some cloth off the looms and I made some big changes to the over all arrangement of the studio space.

January to March

There was a time delay getting things started due to recovering from hip replacement surgery but the first project came off the Spring loom during this time period.  I started weaving again slowly at six weeks post operative.  Sadly my father took ill again with mini strokes at this time too and was hospitalized.  (Looking back now, he never really went home again.)

The scarves below were on the loom before surgery and waiting to be woven off. They are all silk and in fact a variety of silks!  Bombyx, silk- yak, tussah, silk-cotton....some home dyed and some commercially dyed.  36 epi and an eight shaft draft.  Light and soft and very nice hand to them. It took a lot of 'tromping' to get them done with the weft so fine. I'm not sure I thought that through too carefully before hand!

March 10th saw our new grand daughter Madison Ava born. Even now her big brother Ethan is still trying to work out if he wants to share the centre stage with her. Fortunately she is a patient, happy baby and is growing like a weed.

Then we had the engagement and marriage of my daughter Carrie and her sweetheart Colin. Their wedding was March 13th. I must say they are very well suited to each other and we have gained a son. They are making their home in the Denver, Colorado area.

April and May

We had a couple of visits over to Vancouver to see my Dad who now was sporting a new pacemaker  but still hospitalized.  The doctors finally told us that there was nothing more they could do for him. The search for a hospice began...

Meanwhile, this project was perfect in its simplicity. Four shaft plain weave with three thread lace.  I got the draft from Handwoven's Design Collection 16 and must say that if you decide to weave this yourself, be prepared for a lot of draw in and beat the heck out of it. It all settles down in the wash and I do recommend a good *hard* pressing to set the pattern.  It would make a lovely table runner.

I acquired a new tool / toy for the studio! I found standing to wind warps on the traditional warping board hard on the new hip joint and equally hard on the old knee.  I found a sale at Woolhouse Tools and had it in my hands in three days. I was amazed how fast it arrived.  First warp on it was 8/2 cottons for some plaid towels. Again an easier project to treadle and I wove it as one continuous length and then cut apart for seven towels.  A large and bold pattern and I'll be making more tartan towels in 2016.  Next ones will be an authentic tartan...

I also tucked into working out and fixing what ever was wrong with the Megado loom. The meant looking into getting the software all worked out and remedying some hardware glitches with shafts and solenoids.   All fixed and doing fine now!

It was during this time period that I found out my friend Gudrun was battling cancer and not doing very well.  

June

I fell in love with some silk at a European based Etsy shop and soon was winding a warp of 20/2 equivalent hand dyed rich violet and a bronzed green silk.  I used an eight shaft draft from Handweaving.net  My sett was 28 epi. It produced this neat striped effect.

We were over to Vancouver again for a visit with Dad.... I knew when I left it was most likely the last time I would see him so the good bye was very hard.  

Shortly after we got home we heard from my cousin that my great aunt Bessie had died. Bessie was almost the same age as my Dad. She had come to Canada as  war bride and settled in northern Ontario.

My daughter and her new husband came from Colorado and she had a good visit with her grand father over two days and then they came over to the Island to stay with us.  The time flew by and it was so good to see them. (They promise to come back in 2016 to see us again.)

Then in late June, Gudrun died and I was unable to go to her service because my father died a few days later.    Then a few days after Dad passed away, the hospital called to give me my surgical date for my knee.  

An amazing friend and Master Weaver, Gudrun Weisinger. 1941 - 2015

July

My Dad, Frank Waterfield.  1930-2015

I spent lots of time in the studio alone weaving, making plans and getting ready to tidy up the studio ahead of my surgery. It was a good place to simply 'be' and I really needed that. 

 I placed an order for a flyshuttle for the Megado and was advised it would be mid September before it would arrive.  The one shown below is not mine but simply a demo model at the Louet web site.  {It did arrive in mid September but had some issues with sticking so it was shelved for the time being. I hope to set it back up and get it busy again soon. }

My Woolhouse Tools countermarch loom finally found a new home in Sooke, BC which is at the southern end of Vancouver Island. Jill was a happy new owner  and we have become weaving friends.  She had it all together and weaving away on it in record time!   Before they left with the loom in their truck, Jill and her husband helped Bruce to move the Megado to spot where the Woolhouse once stood.  

Now the Megado has 'pride of place' next to a window and patio door for good natural daylight.  It also camouflaged where the loom's big feet has stood!

August

After coming back from Dad's service in Vancouver, I completed getting the Megado all set with a towel warp. Bobbins  all wound; draft chosen and tested for errors.

I also decided to sell my Louet Jane table loom and stand. It wasn't being used and only ever had two warps on it.   It quickly found a new home over in the Vancouver area.

September ( and a very quiet October)

I wasn't actively looking for a loom to buy but had a notice come into my inbox about a loom for sale in the Lower Mainland (as we call the overall Vancouver area)  It was a 45" Leclerc Tissart tapestry loom. It was made in January 1967. Normally a loom that old would show its age but this one had only three owners in all that time, and the last two had basically just stored it.   Pictures showed it to be in very nice condition!   I could hear Gudrun telling me in my ear to "go ahead and buy it."  I had actually got into weaving with the purpose of doing tapestry and was sidelined by regular weaving for um, twenty years!  Gudrun managed to do both and maybe I can too. 

Bruce set sail on the ferry for Vancouver and delivered the Jane table loom over to its new owner and then picked up my 'new' old tapestry loom. We sure had fun putting that together! Took two days but we did it!  Most of it was guess work too.   There was only one bruise on the wood (front right side near the tray) and some furniture oil helped to have it blend in and be less noticeable.  Its coming up to being forty nine years old in January....its allowed to have some character marks. I know I sure do!

I also ordered some fine wools for tapestry to come and 8/2 cottons for towel warps for the future.  My colour selection was getting rather slim!

I finally wet finished and trimmed up three linen and cotton book marks featuring a small fancy twelve shaft twill with a sett of 50 epi. They are two inches wide. 

With time running short, I got the guest towel warp off the Louet Spring and prepped them for hand sewing the hems sometime in October. I also got a new warp onto the loom asap and made a brief start to see what it looked like.

More on these below!

Tencel in three shades done as a colour gradient

Then suddenly it was September 28th and my date with the surgeon!

My old knee

My view for a few weeks.

my new knee!

November 

Eventually I was able to focus again after  the anaesthetics and pain meds and actually enjoyed hand sewing the hems. These were  a 10/2 mercerized cotton warp, sett 24 epi and a fine bamboo weft and each towel has five rows of hem stitching for these huck lace towels.

December

I came into possession of my entire family's photographs and documents via my Dad's Estate and spent two to three weeks sorting and organizing them.  I had started to weave again but it was painful the day after so this diversion was helpful. It gave my knee time to heal some more and I did something productive with my time.   This will be ongoing for some time to come. There are hundreds of photographs as it covers my parents years together, also both sets of grandparents, my father's sister and her two marriages, plus my mother's older sister and also her identical twin.   

Yeah, it will take a while.... 

Next thing I knew it was Christmas!

So that makes a final tally of:

3 scarves

3 book marks

13 kitchen towels

12 guest towels

plus:

5 trips to Vancouver, 3 funerals, a wedding,  a new baby

... and a new knee. 

I'm hoping to have a much improved list next January 1st.   More weaving, less drama!

2016 is off to a good start with a fresh warp now on the Spring, and I plan to be weaving on the Megado today and see if we can move the towel warp along some.  

Now, in my previous post before this one, I announced a  blog anniversary draw due to be made January 8th.  All you have to do is write a comment and tell me what keeps you coming back to read my blog and it would be great if you could tell me briefly your level of interest in weaving. Please be clear with your name and a way to contact you.

The winner of the draw, made by collecting names from the last post and this one, and then drawn from a hat, will win a huck lace guest towel.  To be fair, I must tell you that its a 'second' and has a treadling error but is still pretty and functional. 

If you get this post via email subscription   you will have to come and visit the blog web address to enter the comment as its not possible via the email format.

The continuing story of yet more Changes

Its been a strange summer. Long, very hot, and very dry.   We had no rain for 120 days and then this past week or so we have steady downpours, and its been downright cold.   Fall seems to have arrived overnight.

We're happy to have the forest fire risk diminish and more water in the creeks again!

I have been puttering around and not really pushing myself too hard. My knee is very sore and so some days it simply hurts to stand, let alone weave.  That has given me time to look around my studio and decide what direction I'm going to lean.  If you read my previous post, then you know that I have been through lots of changes before.

I have wound two scarf warps in tencel for the Louet Spring loom.   I plan to warp up this one (below) ahead of my coming surgery so its there on the loom to catch my eye and encourage me along with my physiotherapy.

I recently learned to do colour gradations using the Mac version of Fiberworks and I must say they sure do transition nicely. (PC users will get this feature in the next program upgrade)  I've used black, eggplant and red purple here.   It may be some time before I'm able to treadle this loom so the colours are my carrot!

The loom that will be easier to use first, when the time is right, will be the Megado and I have wound a twelve yard warp of simple natural 8/2 cotton and it will be ready to weave towel yardage. It has just the one treadle and I can use my good leg. The computer will do the bulk of the work.  I've got some attractive sixteen shaft drafts cued up and it will be fun to watch the patterns grow.  I'll use coloured cottons and cottolin's as weft.  I'll be beaming that warp later on today.

The fly shuttle arrived from Louet in Holland and as usual it was extremely well boxed and presented.  You basically take it out and bolt it on. Very little to do other than set the length of the pull cord.   I had to take the beater bump blocks off and replace them with new larger ones so the right hand shuttle box doesn't clash with the  computer interface.   That was four screws. 

Here they are installed on the loom. There's no reed in place or front breast beam as I'm preparing to beam a warp.  We turned the loom slightly so the boxes don't face any windows! I don't want any damage done to a twenty five hundred dollar patio door! I also placed red and green ribbons on the ends to catch the eye as you move in the room as my "port and starboard markers".

There's a problem though. The right hand flyshuttle box slides beautifully.... the left side, not so much.  Its stiff and hard to move. I've been emailing to and fro with Louet on this issue.  If a solution isn't forth coming soon, then I will take them off and use it by hand.  I'm sure it will be resolved eventually.  Edit: things seem to have been resolved nicely.....   Susan August 4th 2015.

The Louet  end delivery fly shuttle is huge!  Its fifteen inches long and heavy, with rollers underneath. It came with wooden pirns.  I was additionally motivated to move the loom when I felt that bruiser and realized all the tips I had received about not pointing the fly boxes at glass were good ones! I guess keeping your feet out of the way too would be a another. 

I have some (lighter)  AVL shuttles that I'll also try out in time as well.  I think there will be a learning curve and a routine to practise but hopefully it will speed things up.  It will be as fast as my one good leg can go!    So fun and games to come there....

Another change is that I decided to sell the Louet Jane table loom and stand as it was not being used.  Its been to one workshop and had one other warp on it. That's it since 2008.  I find table looms too slow and so tend to use the floor looms instead.   It sold right away and it was delivered to its new home today.

So with the proceeds of this sale I have placed a yarn order with Brassards to fill out my 8/2 cotton selections, some more 9/2 linen and cotton seine cord and wools.    Why seine cord and wools?  Because with some of the table loom proceeds, I bought this:

A gently used (only two owners) Leclerc 45" Tissart loom (circa 1967). It was picked up today (in pieces of course). Here's one all set up:

I'm taking down my warping board centre which isn't being used any longer since I bought the warping mill. It would be a very long time before I could stand to use one again anyhow. Its been put away and there is a nice sized space next to wall where the loom will go.  The new more open look to the studio will still be there and I can work seated at learning samplers on the loom.  I'll try to get a warp on her soon, but I have to see what state she's in and if she needs new bits and pieces first. Leclerc doesn't make them any longer but they still have parts.   Her name will be Gudrun, after my friend.

She had one too and so has inspired me to get busy following my heart as I always wanted to give tapestry a try.  If its not for me, then she can be sold and moved on.  I won't lose anything, including money, for the effort!  I will start with the basics and follow an online workshop and also review my notes I have from a tapestry class that I took with Gudrun.  I'll be a newbie again!

Gudrun's Tissart

So a lot of changes, some small, some big and some new directions.   The driving force behind much of this is coming to terms with the reality of my joint issues. I *will* be able to  floor loom weave again  but I'm looking for easier options for my health.  They can replace the joints but the Arthritis Lupus will never go away.  So, time to adapt, make changes... and move on. 

I hope to get another post done  before my surgery on September 28th.  Any posts after that won't be weaving related but I'm sure you'll understand.    I will admit to being very nervous and I hear its more painful than a hip .... and that was bad enough!  So getting things in order in the studio will be my distraction during the coming days.  Night time though,  insomnia has my Mind in full play!  I reason with myself that it will result in a better, more mobile me in time, but the Mind is having none of that argument!