... and Baby Makes 3 🍼

 I'm back again already with some new weaving show and tell.   

Our family doctor is a lovely young woman who has taken good care of us and in particular, my hubby with his complex health issues.   She had a baby girl in early July.  They decided to wait the full 9 months  and let it be a surprise.  Rather old fashioned and I love it, but then, I'm an old fashioned, old lady now. 

I had a lovely salmon pink but no soft blues in the stash so I decided to wait and see who arrived, As luck would have it, it worked well with my existing stash.    {although my white is now seriously depleted}.  So one blanket is a gift, and I added two more for the shop and they will nicely pay for my gift.    Less loom waste too.

I used Brassards 8/2 cotton, sett 24 epi and the project used 32 inches of my 34 inch loom!   I had to tie back the unused heddles. 

The draft came from Handweaving.net and no, I don't have the number. My Bad... 

It looked like this:

...and I played with colours and did this....

Then it came out looking like this: (I left the weft blue for pattern clarity)

This one is for the new little girl. I wove 6 inch hems in the pink which nicely showed the pattern over all.  Then I hemstitched every 4 ends. I used a slippery synthetic cord doubled to create my ladder space and wove with white, all using it to hemstitch along that edge. 

Three runners,  12 rows of hem stitching, each 32 inches wide.... I swear it took longer to hemstitch then it did to weave the blanket !    But it looks so wonderful and worth every minute....

Later, I turned the hems, into thirds  to the back of the hemstitching, pressed well and then hand sewed them using a running blind stitch and slipping a needle into the back of every little ladder.  I steam pressed them again once done. 

I dare say this will get a fair amount of laundry time given what babies are known to do!  It will hold up to both machines. 

Both the gift blanket and the blanket below with a green hem are the same: hems woven to 6 inches, main part of blanket woven to 46 inches. Final measurements after draw in, shrinkage, hemming and wet finishing:  28 inches wide and 45 inches in length.   Quite a bit of loss over all!  That's cotton tightening up and it will relax some with use.

The colours used are white, seaton (green), salmon pink, and purple.

The pattern is all threaded over 8 shafts, but it does use 12 treadles.   The bands of braided twill are quite eye catching and I have always enjoyed weaving it up. 

I like to think this blanket and the third are fairly neutral gender wise  inspite of the salmon pink. Its not the girly bubblegum pink but some entirely different.   The purple was too dark for my tastes as a colour for the hems so I stuck with the softer colours.

My husband commented that the cotton was quite soft and can be used right against the skin.   Absorbent, cool in summer, insulating in winter. 

The third blanket is 28 inches by 51 inches finished, so generously large. It cold be used for a full crib blanket or spread out and let baby play with toys and such. 

I had full pirns of all the colours and decided to try out a plaid version and I liked it

A final close up shot reveals the pattern nicely.  

 

🍼👶🍼

The Spring loom is being cleaned up and readied to beam another warp starting today.   Something colourful.   The main focus of my time will shift to the big loom and two shawls already underway there. 

We are starting to compile a list of all the end of season details that a house and yard need to be done before the weather turns wet, cold and nasty.    

Looking a bit further ahead, I even ordered in some Christmas cards so I can write them up when time allows.   Too soon?  😁  Its 13 weeks to Christmas....   🎅🏻 🎄

Good to Go!

 It took a couple of weeks to arrive but my birthday present to myself has finally arrived! 

I took my time 'un-boxing' (as its now called) and savoured the event.   Everything was packed in Louet's usual professional manner, with very sturdy boxes,  and clear instructions.

She has a nifty carry bag.  It has handles or can be worn as a back pack.   I found a video on Youtube on how to open her up and set her up correctly.   Its amazing how light and compact she is. When closed up and tucked into her bag, she can fit into the overhead bins on a flight.   She weighs only six and a half pounds.

Its hard to convey her size in these pictures, but she's tiny! She a fully functioning wheel and has three ratios (1:6, 1:8.5, 1:13), has a traveling kate and three bobbins.  She just has big feet for a little lady.

She's made from beech and in time will mellow to a light golden colour.

I'm so looking forward taking her along for spinning days with the girls at the cottage.  We also have the  Vancouver Island Fibre Fest being held here on May 5-7th. She will be out on the town quite a bit.

Its a different feel to my other wheel and so I have been spending some time playing with the new baby and adjusting the scotch tension and finding my groove.

I'm spinning a very pretty merino silk blend in a pink red..... which is more red than pink.   I have quite a bit of it on hand so I'm glad I like it!   I found I wanted to hunch forward over the wheel so I purposely positioned myself back into the chair and didn't worry where the orifice is located and focused on my hands and the drafting.

Next thing I knew, the bobbin was filling in nicely!

Its hard to convey the overall size with no reference points, so I thought of my old fashioned yard stick. So here's the measurements:  it comes to 23 inches to the top where the stick is and then the flyer and orifice angles upwards from there.

Here's the depth of the wheel and as I mentioned, she's all feet!   Cute ones too.

My other wheel? Its all set up and we sat outside today and watched ducks on the pond.  It was lovely!  

Tomorrow another spring storm is rolling through with high winds, so that will be a weaving day.

An Amazing Eight Days!

Meet "Madison Ava" born March 10th, 2015 and weighed 8 pounds, 2 ounces. Yes, that's me cuddling her. She's a very calm and cuddly baby. When she sleeps, her whole body relaxes. Some newborns still stay clenched with arms and legs folded up. Not this little girl!

This was our first peek at her on her actual birth  day. The hat looks large on here there but its only three to four inches across and is *very* tiny!

We headed over to meet her and see Ethan this past Friday.  Bruce fell in love with one look! 

Okay,  maybe Nana fell hard too with my first cuddle. We are working on a burp here!

Everything is so brand new!

Then there was Ethan, who will be three in April. He is the complete opposite of his calm sister! Constantly on the move, constantly talking in full sentences, and with intermittent shrieks!

Ethan is also train crazy.  This pleases Grandad Bruce, a retired locomotive engineer, to no end! We gave him one toy Thomas the Tank engine way back when he was first born.  Then his parents surrounded him with many other toys and play centres, but he found that train and hasn't looked back since! Here we are giving him a new stool with a train on it. He can now get closer to the sink wash his hands or help with the dishes. 

He watches Thomas the Tank on the iPad. The only time he's quiet outside of his bed at night I might add.

....or sits on the couch and watches Thomas the Tank and his Friends on the big screen TV....

.....or better still, you play train crash with Grandad!  Grandad's train fell down the hill in what must have been the worse crash of Bruce's railway career!

Ethan took me upstairs to show me his room and also to show me Madison's tree:

Soft dove gray with pink accents and little dragon flies. I found a little pink onesie with a dragon fly and also bibs and little soft shoes with dragon flies. Then there was the blanket I wove this past October.... two links to view:   here and here.  This used to be our guest room when we came to stay. We had a quiet hotel room to withdraw to at night instead this time. {But we were rudely woken *early* every morning by running children in the room directly above our heads every morning!  Quite the joke huh? }

The blanket finally made its final destination and put to use right away.  That makes a weaver feel good!

Also in the last eight days, to add to the joy,  my long time bachelor brother announced he and his lady are now engaged! No date set as yet.   Then my daughter  got married this past Friday in Colorado!  She and her new husband live in the Denver, Colorado area.   Then finally, my dear Dad is being released from hospital today after being admitted in January.  His situation was touch and go for awhile, so going home again must feel very sweet!

All that's missing is the lottery win...... but I think we already have done that!

Taking Her Out for a Spin

... Or "driving Ms. Daisy"....

I have a new tool in the studio!  A warping mill or warping reel.  It has a two yard diameter and can hold up to 20  yards. I suspect that would be rather fine stuff!   The yarn in the pictures is eight yards  of 8/2 cotton for a future  plaid project.  It was a bit awkward at first and by the end of two full bouts of my four to be done, I was a whirling blur and landing the sweet spots on each corner!

My desk is a bit too high for the mill and keeping it on the floor was too low. So it was very handy to score the large carton you see in the first picture as its the right height now.  That box had Bruce's recent birthday gift of a new skookum Sunbeam  table top mixer.   He wants to make his own bread and I think that's a marvelous  idea. { 'skookum' is a Canadian term for something that is wonderful!}

What's on the loom now? Well here's a sneak peak.... yup, more 8/2 cotton.   Approximately eight yards of it for seven towels. Half dozen for the Etsy shop and one for us, plus some samples (or a bread cloth if there is enough warp.... fingers crossed!). Weaving is under way now and of course, the knee sets the pace. My right side feels fine now and its like nothing was done three months ago!  Just a wee bit of swelling late in the day but it doesn't hurt. 

So this was my last warp wound on the warping board for some time.  It was peculiar  and long time getting it done.  The 600 +/- ends were done in short sprints where I would stand and wind like crazy and then sit to take a break and rest my knee.  It took many days to get done.  I ordered the warping mill on day one when I saw the difficulties.  May I also add that the warping mill is on sale at Woolhouse Tools so that was a nice surprise!  

Nana bought a new frame for the latest picture of our favourite grandson, Ethan.  He will be three in mid April.  Where has the time gone?  I actually bought two new frames.... as our new grand daughter and Ethan's sister will be born tomorrow by Cesarean section.   Her spot is there next to her brother already...    Yes, you can expect baby pictures next post!  Her new blanket is wrapped and waiting for her arrival. 

Speaking of time, here's another picture.  (click to enlarge) That's my son Chris (who is Ethan's Dad)  and my recently newly engaged daughter Carrie,  with Bruce and I back in  approximately 1987. Yes, I'm wearing a pair of 'high' high heels and so not normally that tall next to Bruce. We were at a family member's wedding.

Yesterday, Calli went and got her spring haircut and came home with a girly floral bandana. She had 100% more energy and raced around the house.  She's coming up to being five years old this spring. 

Our weather has been unseasonably warm and so she had to get all the long hair off.  (Sorry if you still are surrounded by snow banks, or heading into winter down under).  Our part of  Canada has enjoyed a mild winter with only one or three small snow falls and only one serious cold snap.   

Our quince bush is blooming....    Have you considered moving? Its truly beautiful here.....