Golden Fairy Garden

Some time late last year I bought a painted silk warp from Carr Park Artisan's similar to this one. It was 200 ends and 6 1/2 yards long.   Not really wide enough and not really long enough but I loved the colours!    Also, it's *silk* , the princess of natural fibres!

I knew the 16 shaft draft I wanted to use as it has the beautiful effect of playing with colour and make them appear to flow and shift.  Draft #78116 at Handweaving.net /  designed by Ingrid Boesel in the Thrilling Twills Collection.

Picture 'borrowed' from Carr Park Artisans  

I dug deep in the stash and found a silk bronze gold and a rich silk purple and these gave me nice borders and a width for the scarves I could feel good about.    At 28 epi, the 200 ends would have looked like a neck tie! Here's a peek at the warp on the loom and you can see the flow of the colors.

 I got it all set up in late November 2023 and made a start.... and then I hurt my back in early December.   It would be 7 months before I healed enough to be relatively pain free to weave again.  I also took some time to be depressed and think over my options.

At first I thought I might never be able to weave again.  We use our backs so much in the motions of everything we do at a loom.    Then an MRI showed that I have several disc issues and stenosis, plus my spine moved forward by 9 mm at L3-4 with the disc shifting out the back by 6 mm. Bending forward is a risky thing for me.    I raise up my Spring onto crates to do the tie-up and sit on a low stool. This involves bending / leaning forward and I'd rather not do this.  I love this loom and bought it new 16 years ago and have kept it full and busy all that time.  But with the Megado, there's no tie up to deal with at all.

Besides, there isn't any weaving I can't do on the Megado loom from 2 shafts to 16, and as I always said "there is only one bum for a bench"   😁     I have also acquired a LOT of tools, equipment and books over the last 28-30 years and its time to downsize voluntarily and not end up as one of those "dead weaver estate sales".  I have to say the extra money, space and reduction of stuff is liberating!    Once the Spring loom has moved onto a new home, I'm even thinking of getting a nice comfy chair so I can sit in the empty alcove and read. 

But the Spring is still has a warp being woven (slowly) off and that is all down the road for now.....

Meet Fairy Garden.... woven with olive 8/2 tencel and measures 11" wide by 80 inches long.  Yup, I lost count from weaving one session 7 months ago to more recent.  My notes vanished in the meantime.

The colours flow as I had imagined....

Yes, it's the same scarf but the sun washed out the colours. The true colour is the other photos.

For the second scarf I had to think hard about a warp colour.... and the best option was a 10/2 tencel in a pale gold.  I bought a 3 pound cone of it off of Ebay years ago and it never disappoints. Its also not available anymore sadly.

This is Fairy Gold.... and it's a much softer blending of the colours and it's a quieter beauty.

It's 11" by 72".... so a good length.  Seems the 6.5 yard warp was enough after all as I took my fringe length from the loom waste at either end.   I also didn't get my customary sample for my notes.

So finally some show and tell at long last.... thanks for waiting. 💝

Leaning into Fall 🍁🍂

 Trees in our area are either showing signs of drought stress, or starting to turn early.   Since we had some generous rainfall, it must be the start of Fall. The sunlight comes in at an angle now and there's a golden glow, and the nights are cooler.  Having said all that, we are going into a few days of summer heat again. 

  Its all about change...

Speaking of which, there are a changing of seasons in my weaving room and I undertook the last tie up on my Spring.   I took my time and listened to my back and grateful it was only 8 shafts and 8 treadles ( and not the full 12!)

Then in keeping with the slower approach, I played with some Danish medallions.  Its been a while since I've done them so I'm slow, and the yarn is fine, and there 714 ends.... but the first two rows took me three hours! I told Hub that I wove an intense half inch today!  😳  Usually they are done in a heavier 'gimp' yarn but I wanted them to be more subtle and be an accent at the start of the shawl.   There may be seed beading added later.... I'm still deciding.  It will be a good test for my new glasses on order.

Finally, the main pattern is underway and what you see here is 3 repeats and this is where I stopped for the day yesterday.   Its rather pretty!

I'm also fringe twisting the two scarves that came off the Megado, and then washing and pressing. I hope to get some photos of them in that golden light outside this weekend.

I've done some spinning / plying so some skeins will be washed and hung outside to dry. 

Getting things done again and enjoying the process.    

Now..... Isn't that the whole  point?   Because......

Proof Of Life 😁

Some fresh pictures taken this afternoon...

 A little ‘proof of life’ in the studio….. sleying my new 14 dent reed that I got for last Christmas and haven’t used until now. Just a bit more to go and then we’ll be tackling the very last tie up on this loom.

This is this loom’s last project with me at the helm.

Meanwhile on the Megado…. a new beginning on scarf #2 and I’m using a pale gold to take a softer approach to this mix of colours. 

This is the last project with the older dobby and the new one is waiting patiently in its box.

I weave for short periods and see how my back feels and also slowly build up my muscles again!

It came with a bonus foot rest too! Now I have one for each side on the foot rail.

Summer Update 🍹 ⛱️

 

Sitting at a waterside seasonal restaurant called Jiggers, waiting for friends to join us and enjoy a meal together.    We've been taking a much more relaxed time of things lately!   As luck would have it, we all chose fish and chips and it was yummy!  

Next up is the surprise crop of young green beans, that Hub grew in a pot behind the shed by chance !   He says there are many more beans coming along.... 

I have been spinning steadily for the past six months and once they are off the niddy noddy, they got tossed into a bin.   So the day arrived to wash them all up and so what you see below is 16 skeins of handspun that is almost dry after a day outside on the patio in a gentle breeze.   I washed up one more skein the next day so the skein count went to 17.   (Plus the ones previously shown here so.... much more!)

Spinning while waiting for my back to heal was a sanity saver!   😳

Weaving?  well, yes there has been some but I do small time increments at the big loom and so have 62 inches done on the first scarf, with a second scarf to go after that.  My legs will need time to regain their 'mojo' again.  The new dobby will go on after this project is all done. 

On the Spring loom I discovered three serious threading errors and decided that I'd rather fix them now and so pulled almost all the warp  back and now working on rethreading the loom again.    

So some progress on that front..... but I did say the pace and  focus of my studio was going to change and it has.

It's a long weekend here and so we are doing a 'staycation' and taking things easy!    Stay cool 🍹 ⛱️

Dobby.... and not the one from Harry Potter!

I can recall my friend Margaret telling me that when she went to Convergence in Vancouver in 2002 that she decided to buy a Louet Megado loom to play with. She had seen a demonstration  and ordered a narrower width  loom with 16 shafts.   Due to an oversell,  they upgraded her to a '110' 16 shafts. Nice upgrade!   😁

Margaret had many happy years weaving on the loom, when in 2012 it became my loom.   The original dobby box is as shown below.   Nicely crafted wooden box that held all the magic that makes your loom run!

A sign that it was ageing technology was the fact it used a serial port at the box to USB connector at the computer end.  Margaret had used a small Palm Pilot to run it.    She had sent it away to be 'tuned up' and so I wove happily for the most part.  I had issues but that was simply me adjusting to a loom that did all the thinking and I just threw the shuttle.    I'm totally fine with it now.   I realize that I do all the thinking part in advance and so now can enjoy watching the pattern form up and listen to music at the same time. 

That went along well until March 2020 when one minute it worked and next, it didn't. No warning at all. Just up and quit....

There was a big thing happening then called a Pandemic and life had narrowed us down to our 4 walls!   I had discussions about  a repair, and they just laughed.   It was explained to me that no one had any of the parts in the dobby box any longer....  the loom has been purchased in 2002, but the parts inside were designed in the 1990's!   Later after opening up the box, the pitiful pile of wires and such showed they weren't kidding!

I had two choices: a new Version 2 dobby at $5K ..... or a reconditioned dobby version 1 at $2500.00.   Since nobody expects this to happen (well, I didn't 😳)   I went with the reconditioned dobby, which they assured me was one year old or less. The former owner had decided to upgrade to the new Version 2.

So it arrived and I set it up and got busy weaving to pay for it!  💰  The box this time was this black metal thing...

I did have issues but they were related to Fiberworks, loom drivers and Apple messing with their programming but I eventually reached a place where I have that all handled and resolved. I can at least weave. (*someone reading this and having difficulties with their dobby and a Mac can reach me via the email address in my profile*)

Roll the clock to 2024 and Louet is having a 50th anniversary celebration!    They are offering 10% off looms and dobby's if ordered by July 31st.   It was late June / early July and I thought I would look into it and see what the new Version 2.2 dobby was all about.    It has wifi !

But after talking with a weaver who owns one , she basically does what I currently do which is to do design work on one computer with Fiberworks, then, put the new draft on a USB stick and take it to the computer that runs the loom and plug that in and bring it up in Fiberworks  and run the loom from there. 

So I was thinking: "my dobby works, the process is basically the same to run it.... so why spend the money?"

Then in a conversation with one of the staff at Jane Stafford Textiles who are Louet dealers.... she dropped  a bombshell comment that the version 1 dobby is no longer supported by Louet for repairs.     

That got my attention.     I have had my version 1 dobby for four years and it was a year old before that.  So, am I feeling lucky?    Or not?  

If I use it as a trade in, I get 10% off and they can deal with the older dobby.    Selling it privately just went out the window as who wants to buy a dobby that can't be fixed?   I know I sure wouldn't !

So now I'm leaning to buying the shiny new Version 2.2 dobby.      I checked prices at various Louet dealers on line here in Canada and it seems Jane Stafford Textiles has the best price.   I had questions about running the on board proprietary Louet software program so they recommended me talking to another weaver (the same weaver as mentioned previously).  I had a list of questions and we went through those and  had a great chat...

Her:  does your current dobby work?

Me: yes, no issues.

Her: so why get rid of it?

Me:  to get 10% off

Her:  why not keep it as a back up then? That way if the new one needs repairs, you have something to use while you wait.  Its that worth the trade in $$  ?

Me:   😳   Heck Yeah!

Pictures from the internet of the new version 2.2 dobby.

So I have paid a deposit and told that it will arrive sometime in October when they get a big shipment in.   Meanwhile, in the studio I have gone through every book,  all equipment and such and listed them into my Etsy shop and downsizing.    You simply can't do it all, read it all or need it all.....     Besides some extra cash will be nice to help offset my new purchase and as of today's date I have raised $1500.00 which isn't too shabby!

I plan to weave off the two shawls on my Spring loom and once empty, she will be cleaned,  tickled up and made to look pretty.... and then she'll be up for sale.  (Full details, price to come but it will be pick up only)

I lift the loom up to do the tie up's but it still requires bending forward and my spine literally slipped forward off the spinal column and I'd rather not tempt fate again. The pain was simply dreadful and I'd rather not repeat that.   A change in direction and goals happen from time to time and you adjust to the new reality and carry on. 

So my Megado and I are to become a closer team, a slower team.   I will be weaving for fun and not letting the pressure of filling a shop push me to over do things. 

😁🎉

Then in this morning's emails.... I got a notice UPS shipping notice.  The dobby is being delivered this Friday!

So.... a bit sooner than I was expecting.... but hey!

🎈🎉

Abstract Amethyst

 The colour purple.... just the colour, not the movie ..... is one that seems near and dear to many.  So I fell hard for this exotic melding of many shades called "Abstract Amethyst" by Fellview Fibres (UK).  Its glorious! 

I quote:  used 7 shades of violet, lilac and purple merino (21 micron), and added lashings of gold tussah silk. When these were not sparkly enough for me, I added gold Angelina into the mix in the second batch.

It does not disappoint!

If you haven't already, you should really visit the shop and enjoy the yummy goods on display.

So, not as romantic as the web site pictures, but here's the rolags on my tacky desk. It was a lovely spin up!

Plied,  time on the niddy noddy and then a gentle bath.  Hung to completely dry. Some wound into cakes (with yardage taken at the same time) and one left as a skein to show the colour changes.

I spin for relaxation and not technical about it in the least, but with my spinning being a daily effort in the past 5-6 months, my skills have improved and some of my latest efforts (not show here as yet) are looking like something to be proud of. 

🌷🌷🌷

It's been a busy time here at the house!   I found new drapes for the house, on sale and no delivery charge!  A lovely ivory shade and so bought enough to do five windows. I just couldn't take a chance they would run out if I only bought a trial set.   So there was a LOT of time spent at the ironing board and getting them hung. I took 2-3 days to get the job done and I must say they look fabulous and change the whole feel of the home.  It looks and feels more open. More light.  We changed the more private areas such as bedroom and den to a medium blue this past late winter / early spring.

Our gardener Kari has been working away at the flower beds and over hauling them.  a large tree stump was dug out (Hawthorn and must have weighed 70 pounds!) and flowers now bloom where it once stood.

We are now on the hunt for some interesting yard ornaments / statuary as we have a shady spot under two trees where we have hostas  and other shade plants, and  something unique would look nice there.   A bird bath was suggested, but they require daily cleaning, filling, and can be a great mosquito 'hot tub' and I'd rather not have them that close to where we like to sit.    There is a large pond behind the yard where the birds can get water, and the local fish and dragonfly larvae can eat the mossies!   The pond is also full of frogs.

I'm feeling much better in myself lately but the back is still an issue by mid afternoon.  I can now see a day coming when I'll be weaving again. Just more physiotherapy to do yet.....

🌷🌷🌷

some pictures to share.... the hawthorn tree stump and pond behind the house.

Then a sampling of some of our gardens flowers