Threads Behaving Badly!

Well, the snow is gone... melted away in the rain and the early spring flowers are making an effort to resume growing. We have crocus and snowdrops. The greenest things in the garden are the weeds of course.  I've seen hummingbirds, swans and geese all back at the Somenos Marsh.  I think I even saw a red wing black bird today as well.

For my readers stuck in snow drifts, take heart... Spring is coming for you too!

I saw my surgeon this past Monday and its now official that my left knee replacement will be first up and right hip will be second some months later. So the knee surgery will be approximately  late summer or fall.  Now if my knee can hold out for some treadling until then, I'll be a happy camper!

We took a couple of days to go and visit my Dad who is *still* in hospital. That's three months in there for him now but he does seem to be slowly making small improvements now.

We had an upfront view of things on the return trip! This is a view up a cloudy Howe Sound from Horseshoe Bay. We're cosy and warm in the car and the ferry turned left soon after this was taken and headed across the Strait to the Island.

Another change for me is a new computer and I have been  learning the ropes for a new operating system on my new Mac Air.  Its amazingly thin and light weight on the lap, which is good for my cranky knee. No moving parts and so no overheating issues too. While I still have alot to learn,  I am enjoying the change! I bought a visual guide book to assist me.  I still have my old Dell laptop for the PC stuff and a ton of my pictures stored there! So this blog post is a joint venture between Apple and Dell. I'm happy they 'hand-shake' well!

I  have my priorities straight as the first program loaded was Fiberworks- PCW! I have a new manual to read up on that too now... A big thank you to Bob at Fiberworks for his help!

There has been some weaving going on here.  The Woolhouse Tools loom is all dressed up with my odds and ends coloured 8/2 cotton towels as shown in the last blog post. The loom has now been additionally advertised up and down the Island, Sunshine Coast and Vancouver and Kelowna area now.

Meanwhile on the Louet Spring.... is Italian Silk (from Diane Sanderson's Silk Weaving Studio) in a soft gold for two shawls. I bought it a few years ago when we were there visiting on Granville Island.  I'm using a 12 shaft 12 treadle draft sent to me by Gudrun.

Looks nice here doesn't it? Well, trust me,  its nothing but trouble just waiting to happen!   I set it up on the back beam and placed the ends into the built in raddle, sett for 36 epi. 

I enlisted Bruce's help with winding on and its just as well I did. We had a nice long afternoon together "inch-worming" the warp on.... literally inch by inch!

The fuzzies on this silk grabbed onto each other. I call it halo'ing. Bruce had to maintain tension and clear the raddle slots and I wound for an inch or two and then used a needle to work apart the warp ends, then pick off fuzzies for all eight yards of this warp! We had a great chat, sang some songs and had more than a few laughs along the way!

Here I am... picking away!

So finally I got the weaving under way and here's the first edge of the first shawl.

The weft is a silk yak blend in a beautiful silvery beige. Its the equivalent of a 30/2 for size and weight.  I will go into more detail in my next post on draft and project details. I plan to cut off the first shawl and finish it while weaving the second. I'm trying a special effect with the treadling plan and hopefully it will turn out as I planned.

This will be my last full twelve shaft draft and twelve treadle until after my surgery is done and I'm stronger again. The weight of the shafts and treadles is too much for me now.  So there will be more eight shaft projects (and perhaps even less?)  in the near future while the knee holds out.... or is that hold on?