In Between

 A friend sent me this today and I started my day with a good chuckle, as I lifted my first coffee.   It's the mid point time between the winter Solstice and the spring Equinox, and every day going forward will see an increase in daylight.    Even if you are somewhere covered in snow right now, it will be brighter!

So I have three scarves completed and waiting on the camera for their glamour shots. Our house is full of windows and during this time of year it's still dark and dreary..... but not for too much longer if the furry guy is right.

So yes, there had been weaving and much planning.   But also my back decided to act up again and so time was lost getting a muscle spasm to relax.  I was able to spin while recuperating which is a bonus as my Hansen has been collecting dust. 

This is an exotic blend of superfine merino, baby camel, eri silk and pendunkle silk called Night Stalker from Fellview Fibres (UK). It mimics the colourings of a barn owl.   Lovely floof!  I have 300 grams more to go in lace weight.

I did manage to get a gradient warp beamed before the back got cranky..... it features 4 shades of tencel...

.... and colour 5 makes it sing!    Obviously more on this to come....

On the more personal side.... we have been very lucky to escape much of the winter cold snap and only had 1 inch of snow so far (touch wood).   On December 16th, we had a brand new Mitsubishi heat pump and back up auxiliary  unit installed and it's been working like a charm.   It's good to -15 degrees Celsius  and so covers our region nicely and if it goes colder, the back up unit kicks in.      A year ago we had no heat for 5 or 6 weeks when some parts on our old unit failed and we tried to get parts.    The space heaters and gas fireplace kept us warm but we spent a lot of money on electricity and gas.... and furnace parts, only to find it was a stop gap measure.     The install took 10 hours total of removal of the old parts, and install and set up of the new.  It went well and cleanly done and the only painful part was paying for it  😳💰       Here's the outside unit and there's a large refrigerator sized 'box' in the crawl space.

There was a break in medical appointments over Christmas and we both said how nice it was to not be so focused on medical stuff for a time.   But January saw them resume again as further diagnostic tests resumed to learn more about my hubby's leukeumia.     His pancreas decided now was a good time to act up too so we have been struggling to get his blood glucose numbers back into line as well.   He wears a continuous glucose monitor, 4 insulin shots a day and every bite is subject to scrutiny by me mainly and him most of the time.  Sure takes the fun out of a meal!

I wasn't too sure about sales of my hand wovens this past Christmas with people watching their funds and trying to buy Canadian goods after all the tariffs were slapped onto Canada.   I had to sadly shut off American buyers from my Etsy store due to all the paperwork and extra costs.   I found that Canadians supported other Canadian sellers at Etsy by looking for the tag "Canadian Made" and had a number of sales on line and in person.   From not having high expectations to 11 sales I sold: 2 shawls, 5 towels (and gifted 3 more) 2 table runners and 4 scarves all went out and under someone's Christmas tree!    A big thank you !   🇨🇦

So we'll navigate Hubby through his care,  watch for signs of spring, enjoy the increase in daylight, plan to photograph the finished scarves 'soon' as a sunny day appears.... and slowly ease back into weaving again.

How goes your winter?     Stay healthy and stay warm.....