2018: a Year in Review

Happy New Year!

Its hard to believe that yet another year is coming to an end, but 2018 is in it final hours for us here on the west coast of Canada.  We are just having a lazy day hanging around the house and no plans to go out or 'party-hearty'.  We leave that for the younger set. We're more the 'jammies and TV' types now.

We do have a bottle of Prosecco chilling and plan a roast beef supper.   

But this is all in 2018 and this is being posted on New Year's Day.  So basically old news! 😁

2019 right now in its early days is a fresh slate and everything is possible.   So lets start with what's on my loom as of today:   This is the best I can do with my lighting situation this time of year.... its a subtle pattern with this colour mix!

Its 8/2 tencel,  24 epi, warp colour is Pompeii and weft is Amethyst, and this is a six shaft crackle weave for two scarves. I'm undecided as to my second weft colour will be right now.  The draft is from Handweaving.net

So how did 2018 go for weaving results?  Well, my personal feelings on this is I was not as active or productive as in years past and this was due to many reasons, mostly personal.  We had a death of a family member,  a health crisis and then a cancer diagnosis and treatment (still on going in fact),  the emotional toll of all of this and then a death of our much loved dog Calli.  We'll be a long time getting over that one, if ever.

We felt the need to slow things down and restore some calm in our lives and so we stayed close to home, but took some nice day trips around our area and south of us to explore our part of the world.  That was great fun and went along way to helping us feel better in ourselves. No doubt we'll do this again in 2019.

Due to my husband's treatments, my foot surgery was postponed and finally dropped. It seems I must first determine why I'm so intolerant of post operative opiate pain meds first and what, if any, alternatives there are before going ahead with any foot reconstruction. To that end I have been going to pain management sessions and will continue on in 2019.  Arthritis is something I will have to learn to co-exist with for many years to come.

Of course my favourite loom, the Louet Spring, is the one with the foot treadles. I feel more connected and totally 'all involved' when weaving on that little loom.  Best decision ever to buy that loom back in 2008!  Heck, it was ten years old this past October.... time is flying by!

So what's ahead for the coming year?   well, nothing concrete as yet.  I want to play more and be more inventive with colour, and weave what speaks to me.  To try to avoid getting into the 'production mode' state of mind because it then becomes more of a job and not so much fun anymore.  I much prefer shorter warps where I can play for a time and then move onto something new.  It means much more warping and beaming but that's okay as the Spring is easy to load up.  I also like all the weaving steps and find them satisfying.

I used much of my 2018 weaving yarns from my stash, with only a few painted warp purchases. I'm not set up currently to paint my own warps right now as Hub is working on sorting out his models in the garage space.  I'd like to carry on rediscovering old friends (yarn) stored in bins and let them see the light of day.   That leaves more money for other fun purchases such as books ("Stubenisky Code" by Marian Stubenisky and the new, soon to be released new book by Laura Fry "The Intentional Weaver").  Thanks to some enabling at my Warped Weavers group at Ravelry, I got involved with a Kickstarter project for a electronic spinning machine called an  Electric Wheel Eel Nano which won't be shipped until August.  More information and video here Yes, I have two spinning wheels already but with my feet, it would be fun to have something to play with while I recover from the inevitable surgery down the road. ( I'm to be "no weight bearing" on the foot for three months!)

I will take a hiatus from commission projects for the coming year. They take a large chunk of my time and so nothing else gets done that is on my to-do list. I like to revisit old drafts from time to time but even old favourites will loose their glow if done to death!

I want to go and see the grand kids this spring in Vancouver,  also possibly visit an Airedale breeder down island this spring as well.  We acknowledge its time for another pet in our lives but still making decisions about the size and breed. Something half the size of Calli would be more practical and still have all the love! Its all under discussion....

So the year in review as follows....

January & February 2018

The 9/2 linen huck lace runners were fun to weave and I love the crisp hand of the cloth...... but out of three runners woven, two had treadling errors that were missed on the loom.  Bummer....

March 2018

These two scarves used a very old draft from the 17th century and the warp was a champagne coloured silk from the stash.  They are very pretty!

April 2018

Two more scarves using a painted warp from my stash from Iridescent Fibers.  Its fascinating to weave with a painted warp as the weft looks different with each colour change!

May 2018

Hub had his surgery.

June 2018

Calli died

Then we started doing our day trips and you got my travel posts.

Deep Bay, BC

July 2018
Cape Lazo, BC

Finally some weaving again with the Chocolate Cherries scarves.  The darker tones suited me at the time. That will tell you something of my mood.....

August 2018

I was finally inspired to weave something colourful and fun again with two Fire Iris shawls.  Again the painted warp was by Iridescent Fibers and I incorporated it into shawls.  They are my favourite item of the year actually....

Another drive and a post on Discovery Passage and our summer forest fires.  There is a uninhabited island on fire and burning off in the distance, with the blue smoke blending with the heavy cloud.  The clouds never did send a drop of rain to help.  They left it to burn and I wondered about the animals living there.

September 2018

These two scarves were fun to weave and the pattern is very satisfying to build. I can see using this 8 shaft draft again for a shawl?

October 2018

Then in the spirit of playing with string and 'what if' came these two colour gradation, braided twill shawls.   Three colours in the warp and two very different looks!  Both shawls were sold to one customer. I like to think she couldn't decide which she liked best either.   😊

Then there was a shawl commission where we revisit a popular past favourite. My blog post had a confusing title of 'going south' but it was the shawl that went and not me unfortunately!

.....and that led to a small but equally happy project of my sister Melinda's table square:

November & December 2018

The year concludes with this (newly purchased) painted warp shortie scarf..... plus the resulting solution to a problem. (to come next post!)

So let's tally things up:

• runners: 4
• scarves: 9
• shawls: 5

Total: 18 completed woven items, plus a further 15 from the mystery project
( and,  actually a further 26 more on top of that!)   I'll share what this is soon..... but I will tell you now it was great fun!

Happy New Year !    (click to enlarge)

Summer Brights During the Winter Dark

I fell in  love with this 8/2 tencel  200 ends / 4.5 yards painted warp from Carr Park Artisans on Etsy. Before I knew it, it was paid for and the order placed.  Oops....

I chose an 8 shaft point twill draft and the treadling was a twill progression. My Fiberworks showed it as a reversible draft which is what I look for!   I added some complimentary colours for the edges in black, old gold and olive green and we got it beamed with no issues.

The tie-up went okay and I used my method of using the numbers for the upper lamms and the blanks squares for the lower lamms on my Louet Spring countermarch loom.

Finally I was weaving away and I thought.... "looks a bit dark on this side".... and sure enough, this pattern does have a darker view on the side facing me, and a brighter, more colourful warp faced side on the under side.

Well, it wouldn't be the first time I have woven something 'upside down' and decided to go ahead with it as is.    Now this warp is only 4.5 yards total so this was going to be two shorter scarves with shorter fringes and no sample.  So it didn't take me long to weave up the first scarf.

The second scarf? not so much!  First I decided to change the treadling and I used a 'snowflake twill' treadling and it created lovely diamonds and was a nice change.   Then there were medical appointments, shopping trips, trips for the post office, writing the Christmas cards and all the other activities for this time of year.  So weaving on scarf number two was hit and miss and I just didn't have my heart in it.... but I soldiered on.

Finally I cut the scarves off the loom and turned to see  my handiwork right side up. First scarf was lovely and finished up as 8 1/2 inches wide and 60 inches in length.  Looks great as the picture shows below.

Second scarf?  well I wove as far as the warp allowed but it measured as 51 inches (woven on the loom) which is too short!  Then I turned it over and found not one, not two, but THREE obvious treadling errors.   Ah, crap....

For some reason I wasn't upset and actually felt calm about it.  I think I had already disconnected from the scarf when it took so long to weave it up.

I got the fringes twisted on the first scarf and gave it a good soak and a pressing. It took a while to get a sunny period to take some pictures but I got the following:

Of course its hard to say if you are actually seeing the colours as I have them here due to differing computer monitors/ screens and my camera etc. Its a lovely blending of raspberry plum, old gold with a hint of green and a dash of coral.    Its quite pretty and for a young lady or a diminutive woman.

It took me a day or two to come up with an idea for the failed second extra long sample (I can't really call it a scarf!).  I placed an order on a Sunday evening, it was processed Monday and the mail lady handed the solution to me at noon on Tuesday.....

But that's for another post   😁  📦  📬

Christmas 2018: in which we detect a theme....

 Merry Christmas Everyone!

While I must admit the list is slowly shrinking,  each year we send out the old fashioned, and apparently out dated, Christmas card.   I ran short this year and discovered they can be hard to find in fact.  I'm wise to the "extra postage may be required" oversized cards and avoid those. I also leave the foil and glittery ones alone too. Not very environmentally friendly.

Yeah..... I know..... but at least paper or card stock is recyclable!

There are many themes to cards: serious religious ones, Santa and his reindeer, snowmen are popular and then there are snow covered homes and villages from a fantasy world of idyllic times long ago.
I normally go for natural scenes of birds, trees with a dash of snow.

I sent out roughly 40 cards this year..... and as of yesterday's mail we got eleven.  I like to reach out to friends from past years and places we have lived. Some are distant family and some are new family we have recently got acquainted with.   I love to read the  letters, the emails and enjoy the phone calls that come in close to Christmas, and the week after.

The gingerbread house came from Australia and was our first card of the year (Thanks Billie!) Each card is placed to its best advantage.    After a week or so of adding the new arrivals to the display, I noticed a trend....

Out of eleven cards, seven or eight have the snow covered home or village scene!   Now did so many of  our family and friends all feel that this best expressed their feelings for the season?   What ever the reason I have never had this happen before!

I have a weaving related post for you.... and then there's the annual NY's day post.   So I'll be back soon. Hope your Christmas was special with good food, family and friends.

Going That Little Bit Further

So it wasn't too long ago I was looking at this colour combination and hoping my warp was long enough, and it seems that it was. In fact after weaving my planned shawl and fringe allowance, plus a sample for my records, I was looking at a length of warp still.   Not a lot mind you, but enough I couldn't write off simply as 'loom waste' as that would be.... a waste!   I had paid $27.99 USD a pound for this and I was going to get something more off the warp before calling it a day.

I had no idea how many full repeats of the pattern I could get off the remaining warp but I would get a least a couple 6-7 inch repeats at least. It would make nice card inserts at the least!  It turns out that I managed three full repeats plus a small hem allowance for either end. I wove right down to the wire....

I choose royal blue as my weft as I wanted something to go nicely with the teal green but add a calmness and depth to the pattern.   I found myself thinking of my younger sister as I wove and it came to me that this was hers!

I secured the edges and hand washed it. Then steam pressed it up and turned the hem and hand sewed then using a running blind stitch.   Wrapped up neatly and parcelled it up to mail away. 

Then, after it was gone, I realized I had forgotten to take pictures!

Sister to the rescue..... and here are a few pictures she sent me last night.  (click to enlarge)

Trying out different placements on her table...

It turns out that her new decorative glass bowl fits with the table 'square' perfectly!

Some close ups to show the pattern and the amazing iridescence!

This picture shows a bit of a picture on their wall and again, the teal will work with their art. 

Almost like it was planned or something  😁

I call these bonus projects and its always a surprise when they appear and seem meant to be!  

 

Heading South for the Winter ?

I got roped in.....

I agreed to a weaving commission to revisit an old favourite pattern again.  My client was agreeable to all my conditions and in fact, she made only one request and that was the warp be the dark teal this time and magenta be the weft.  The shawl would look the same as the one woven a few years ago, but the fringe would be teal.

I got her request about a week after Webs had concluded their annual tencel sale, and they had NO stock left.     Ah, bad timing..... but I worked up an order and placed it anyway so that once more stock arrived it would be shipped first thing. Normally they are out of stock only 2-3 weeks.

Roll the clock ahead three months and I decided to call Webs to see when it was likely to be filled.  They had some new stock but were holding up my order waiting for a cone of ecru coloured tencel.   I chopped it from the order and asked them to ship asap.   It finally arrived!

Oops, cancel the party..... they only shipped one cone of dark teal when I needed two, and I'm certain I ordered two.  The dark teal was the whole main point of the order!

No worries, I would order another cone, trying to get matching batch numbers  and get it rush shipped.   The customer service rep told me it was  out of stock again.   Oh, crap.....

So my planned two shawls is now reduced to one and I'm hoping the one cone will be enough.  As luck would have it, there was probably about two to three ounces left on the cone when I was done winding.  Cutting things really close!   It was beamed onto the loom and once the 12 shaft tie up was finally in place, I got things underway.

The pattern repeat is quite long and is in fact almost six and a half inches in length, but you don't notice it all that much as you throw the shuttle. You are caught up counting and watching the pattern grow.   Its so pretty!  Its much like snowflake twill in some ways as its another draft I never get tired of!

Weaving went well and as for the length, I had to somehow time it to end with the end of a pattern repeat so to balance at either ends of the shawl.   By my reckoning I wove it to 90 inches. Yes a bit long but its length what the client wanted. 

But off loom it measured 85 inches. I double checked my notes where I keep track of my weaving measurements and it seems I made a five inch error.... oops!    So it was actually woven to 85 inches which is still nice and long.   Then it had the fringes twisted and then into the laundry tub for its hand wash and  lay flat to dry.

It now measures (after being steam pressed and ironed) 80 inches in length.   I can only assume that it relaxed and took up more length, then shrunk  again with the hand washing.... but five inches is a lot! The width went from 23 inches on the loom to 21 inches finished.  All things considered, it still a beautiful shawl  but not the length the client asked for.   Now if I had been able to weave a second shawl I would have had a choice and been able to give her the longer of the two. 

So it came back again to my shorted yarn order.......   Plus my addition goof! But in my defence, I had very little warp left and couldn't have woven another full repeat anyhow.

My client lives in California which is literally burning up right now and I haven't heard from her. 🙁 I do hope she is okay.   Meanwhile I have hung the shawl up and it will wait till we hear some news.

On the personal front:   About two weeks ago hubby asked me if I knew how old our hot water tank is?  He couldn't find a date on it any where.   No idea!  I mentally made a note to dig out the house inspection report from two years ago..... and promptly forgot.

Last Thursday I woke early and decided to get up and went straight into the shower. Normally I have a coffee first and check my email, but not this day.    Hubby went out to the garage to get something from our pantry cupboard out there and discovered a puddle of water and an over flowing hot water tank!  Nothing too large fortunately and a bucket and mop soon had it cleaned up. As luck would have it, we had a plumber coming that day to repair an outside hose bib and indoor shut off valve that wasn't fully closing off ahead of the coming freezing weather.... in short a "small job". I called and informed them we now had a "big job" and they arrived that afternoon with a new tank and set about installing it.  Installation took approx three hours due to reworking of gas pipes and such but we had hot water and lots of it before the afternoon was done.    We haven't seen the bill as yet but we know its best to view it sitting down first.

So, we are giving each other a hot water tank for Christmas!   Its that special?   I bet you haven't got one tucked under the tree.      Our best wishes to Van Isle Plumbing for sorting things out in a timely manner!