All in Good Time ⏰

It would appear that some things in Life simply can't be rushed.  They evolve " in the fullness of time".    Okay, I get that and can even appreciate it.

But this project borders on the ridiculous!

I wound this ten yard warp  four years ago just before we moved in 2016. I thought it would be great to put a nice long towel warp on the Megado and weave off some kitchen towels.   It was tucked away in a box and forgotten until I found it in January.   The project notes were long lost and so I sat and counted every last warp end to see what I had to play with.  I also wondered what was in my head by using this heavy cream beige colour! It doesn't easily pair with much..... but I soldiered on.

I played with some drafts at Handweaving.net, which by the time they made it to the actual warp on the loom, didn't thrill me very much.  The pattern was too diffuse, no clarity to it, or too intensely busy.  So the threading remained the same as it was already in place and I 'borrowed' tie up's from other drafts to see what I could come up with.   

I got this below and I liked it. 

It somehow reminded me of hardanger embroidery.   All was going well until the dobby died on me. Repairs were impossible as it contains all 1990's technology bits and pieces that no one can even get spare parts for anymore.  So there was a delay for a new refurbished dobby from Louet to arrive and set up.  (See older post for details)

Weaving resumed and just in time for a medical crisis with hubby Bruce in mid April. It involved large kidney stones, blocked plumbing, infection and a hospital stay.   It is still to be continued as he's waiting for an urgent medical procedure. I found I was alone at home and could weave 24/7 if I liked, but I simply could not focus on either loom.   Oh, and throw in a pandemic for good measure!

I wound warps instead.... and found it strangely calming.    Two warps, ten yards long for future projects! Incidentally they are both on the looms now....

So here's my melded draft, which is woven " as drawn in":

I wove seven towels and decided towards the end of the warp to weave a long runner as a change.  Finally the cloth beam was unrolled to produce a nice satisfying mound of fabric, and I got stuck into finishing right away.

I want to wet finish before hemming but the cloth is simply too long for the washing machine which would just twist it up, so I like to serge the towels apart and wash the shorter lengths.  The edges are very secure this way, and later when I use my steam press, the edge is totally flat for hemming.

That's when the old serger died.    It was 19 or 20 years old so not totally unexpected but  really?  It had to go now?

Two days later I was back in business with this younger model with more bells and whistles! 😊   (The old serger will eventually be repaired / tuned up and sold in time.   More waiting again)

So here are six of the seven towels  in a nice satisfying stack. I'm calling them my " Country Kitchen Towels" as they have an old timey look to them.  They are approx 20" by 30-31" and all are hand sewn so can be used as either a towel or small runner. 

Cinnamon Stick and Peach Cobbler

Plum and Vanilla

Herb Garden and Sage

Towel number seven is a compilation of all the colours as I had part pirns of all colours left over and this was a neat way of using them up. It reminded me of some 1930's table cloths I saw in a museum once.

So, last but not least there is the table runner. That turned out very nice and looks good on my large dinging room table!   Same warp, same pattern but this time I used 8/2 bamboo weft. It wove up beautifully, looked even better after wet finishing and pressing.   Fringe is a neat two inches and the runner measures 19.5 inches by 62 inches.

A final close up view: you can see the sheen which picks out the pattern beautifully.  The tea cup and saucer is part of a small set brought back from Hong Kong in 1953 by my Dad, who was in the Royal Navy, for his mother. The dragon on the china is raised  and is hand painted.   I just found out last evening that a friend inherited a cup with the exact same pattern from her grandmother. It must have been a thing back in its day.

Getting Things Sorted

Last Thursday, the Fedex guy arrived on our doorstep with a plain brown paper wrapped box and inside was this box.   Isn't it beautiful?   😁

It has my new baby... my new interface or brain for the Megado loom.  I watched it travel across Canada for a week and arrive a day late. Thankfully I didn't have to wait out the long weekend and quite honestly, my hat is off to the delivery guy as the address was wrong!  He decided to go with the postal code.    Smart man!














We got it open and wiped it down and found there was no manual or instruction sheet inside.    The manual I have on hand was for the old dobby technology.... and the online instructions are for the new wifi enabled dobby 2.0 but I managed to get it set up okay and running within 30 minutes.   Yes, we're back in business again!

Lets take a minute to say our good byes to the old dobby.   I gave it to Bruce and he took it out the garage and promptly took it apart.  I walked by the box and saw this sad sight:

It really does look like old technology compared to new computers today. (Not that I open them up or anything like that!)  The outer box was beautiful solid beech wood which he might reassemble and do something with.  A bird house?     The 'okay' sticker  in the photo is from 2013-2014 when it was sent out for some repairs and a tune up.   A $700.00 'tune -up'   😳.   Back in 2000-2002 when this was new and just starting its weaving career, this jumble of parts was worth $2500.00 to buy complete and running.   Looks rather sad now doesn't it?

Meanwhile, here are some pictures of the new dobby interface installed and working:

It has a black metal box which does the job..... but I do miss the wooden one. It blended in nicely and didn't look so 'borg' like.  (Trekkies will understand this reference)

The solenoids fire with some punch to them and are louder as a result. I might wear ear plugs; I'll have to see how I feel about that. I might just get used to it.....  or play my music louder!

The black seat cushion is something new I ordered on line and received just before our isolation period began. Its a gel cushion and quite comfy.   Its not shaped for the bench (not many would be!) but the over hang does help with the edge of the bench cutting into the back of my legs and my 'bum bones' don't hurt now.

So now that we're weaving again, I'm using an 8/2 bamboo in white and weaving a runner which will be as long as what ever warp is left on the back beam.  I'm going to fringe it.   I reckon there's at least one or two towels worth of warp so that's 68 inches +/-    It will be a surprise!

On a more personal note.....

My husband Bruce is having emergency surgery this afternoon. He has a large obstructing kidney stone and he is in danger of his kidney function being so reduced that the organ will fail.  He's in the hospital now and in good hands. He's in a hospital in another community so there's a long drive.  The hard part is not being able to be with him during this pandemic time.

I'm missing my best friend.

Edit:  as of April 19th:  Bruce spent 5 days in hospital and was released to come home on oral antibiotics. In 2 weeks time they will go in and get the big stone, and so we anticipate another hospital stay.  Even in strange times as these, life situations continue.

Please stay home and stay safe.... we had a first hand look at what is going on inside our hospitals and the staff need us all to hold the line.

 🌎  🌍  🌏

Its About Time

The signs are clearly starting to show.... summer is "done and dusted" and autumn is officially here.   As of October 1st we will have been here in our new home one year.  A year that flew by!   We have no regrets about our move to this home and simply love it.  We spent last winter looking at what needs to be done here and this summer we got busy and replaced some sealed window units, re-roofed the sheds (we had a leak),  checked our perimeter drains around the house (we get a lot of rain in the winter!), we're getting leaf guard protection on the gutters (no more cleaning clogged gutters and climbing ladders) and in a couple of weeks time we're getting some rooms painted to freshen them up. We already have a list started for some jobs for next year :  new kitchen sink and faucet, get one of two runs of side fencing replaced (a joint effort with the neighbours) and possibly more interior painting.  There's always something that needs tweaking!

After we recently went to Vancouver and saw the grand kids and returned home, I found my feet very painful again with arthritis and it hurt to walk, let alone treadle. So I took a rest and wound warps instead and wove when I could for short periods of time.   I'm waiting on  seeing a surgeon about my right foot, but the left is painful now too. Getting old(er) sucks!  So the studio has not been as busy as it normally is.

It seems I wasn't quite done with the last draft and tie up on the loom. I inherited a couple of 'seconds' over the years as table runners for our bedroom furniture but our night tables remained bare. This seemed to be a logical time to fix that and weave some up for our home.  I had the same warp and weft yarns on hand, the draft in hand and tie up all done.   They may not have been very long runners but they still had all the hemstitching!  In fact, it seemed like all hemstitching interspersed with a short run of weaving.  The day they were washed it was raining outside and so the rack was set up in the house to dry.

Tails were snipped, and then a hot time on the steam press and ironing board  and they were ready for some pictures.   There is also one longer runner that's 15.5 by 40 inches in length.  The warp is 10/2 mercerized cotton (colour: shell) , sett 28 epi and this runner was woven up with 8/2 tencel  (colour: taupe)

I wove two smaller cloths with the same shell mercerized cotton warp but used cream or off white 8/2 bamboo. This way they would match the existing runners in the room

Naked no longer!

close up detail of the pattern

Bruce has a couple of small little end tables in his den that needed a little something too, so I wove these small little covers for them.  I find it rather ironic that I weave miles of cloth, but it took so long to do these small pieces.  "The Cobbler's children have no shoes".

As you can see I reduced the pattern motif to fit the smaller table top.   The LED bulbs in the lamp are a rather warm white so I did my best to reduce the yellow in the computer. Now he can put down the cold beverage while he watches his Blue Jays baseball games.

The older table runners are up high on a tall dresser and an armoire..... so the treadling error isn't on full display but do their job well.   Yes, that's me at about age two or three with my mother.... a long time ago now. 

I held the camera up high and snapped these....  but you can see the new runners have good company.

We're all "matchy-matchy" now!

Some good news:   Two years ago today, I got a whole new left knee and while it was a tough recovery, its made a huge difference in my life! 🎉🎈 I have a 'birthday' for each one of my three artificial joints as each in turn resolved some painful issue  and gave me a new lease on life and, my main goal,  kept me weaving.

A Class Act

I'm weaving classy "classic Drall weave".... in between tax prep, yard work, window cleaning,  and catching up on Life.  One side effect of deteriorated joints and surgeries is that sets you on the sidelines and you watch other people doing things and going places.   Like you used to do.

Well, I'm feeling stronger and more myself again and I have some serious catching up to do! Some decisions to be made.

Like what colour weft to use with grape 20/2 silk?  How about mint fine bamboo?    These are going to be nice once washed and pressed up. You can see the silk's sheen coming through already as it turns the corner on the breast beam.

Next scarf? I'm staying with fine bamboo and either an old gold or ??   I'll show you what I decide next post.

I'm losing ground on the stock situation as my neighbour came over and bought two scarves for his mother and aunt both turning 90.  I'm very pleased he thought my scarves worthy of a special gift like that.   I'm going to have to keep plugging away and try to get my sales chest built back up again!

I need towels, runners and shawls  so check in from time to time and see what's being dreamed up and made real.  

That's what we do you know.... take an image from our mind and make it real.

With help from your friends of course....

Its only fair as I helped him at his job some years ago....

This is how I spent two weeks over Christmas 1984. The Via  passenger train.  The engineer, my husband Bruce,  sits on the right hand side. Everyone thought I was running the train and I was happy to let them keep thinking that!

Garden Walkabout

Today, I grabbed the camera and went for a walk round the garden and snapped some of this years spring blossoms.... (click to enlarge !)

The first thing I saw (that made me go back in and get my camera!) was this lovely Columbine

Blue Bells ....

Can you see the bright green of this years growth?  

This little fella decided to really go for it this year!

(and growing through rock too!)

Then I walked around to the front yard ...

My three matching hanging baskets this year are a delight!  The past few years I wasn't happy with my more expensive choices but this year my cheapy $13.00 Costco specials are stunning!  They love their location and a drink of 20-20-20 fertilizer really brought out their blooms.

I hope this red mini petunia looks okay on your screen. My Mac hates reds and does weird things to red on my screen

Our late blooming rhododendron by the front door looks sad due to its age, and we have considered removing it a couple of times. The rich red blooms are the reason why we don't!  I throw down fertilizer under the shrub every spring for the next years flower bud sets.

I'm not sure what this plant is called but it was originally in the rock garden in the back yard and climbed using runners all over the place!  Bruce moved some to this big pot last year and it loves it there, especially with the hanging basket above it dripping second hand water and the occasional  fertilizer 'buzz' too. Its sending out runners and trailing over the pot and making dash for freedom.

All the orchard trees had lots of blossoms this year and so we hope for a good crop of fruit.   I'm afraid that I'm quite useless this year as far as yard work is concerned due to my knee and hip joint issues. So big thank you to hubby Bruce and Colin for their efforts!

Some fibre content for you...

Mother's Day was not too long ago and it was  a quiet one this time round.  So, I decided to treat myself to a new tool for the studio!   A custom made wrought bronze sleying hook.

No two are alike!  

They come in either bronze or silver. I have acidic skin and so not kind to silver ( and bronze was less expensive). The hooks are nicely weighted and feel good. The hand fits well on the handle and the back 'bump' is a nice wedge against  the last finger.  I'm right handed but its hard to take pictures of your right hand with the left!  I'm using it to sley the latest warp on the Louet and its *very nice* to work with.

Here's the info that came with it and be sure to check out Celtic Swan Forge web site!  They make a lot of beautiful things such as crochet hooks, knitting needles, shawl pins......

We had a day trip to Victoria  for me to visit my rheumatologist. My visits there are usually very fast (so fast it isn't worth paying for the parking spot!)  ... so we had a day to ourselves in Victoria.  We drove further south out towards Ross Bay and stopped by Knotty by Nature yarn store.   I picked up some black 9/2 linen.... and admired a soft yellow. There is also a new colour in the bamboo range too. So I was happy with the black linen and when I got to the till, Bruce had bought all three for me as a belated Mother's Day gift.

I'm not sure what the orange bamboo will become in the future but I see more huck lace runners in jet black for sure. The soft yellow will make a nice set too.  Additions to the stash are always nice!

Then we drove out round Ogden Point (click on the links!) This is where cruise ships dock in Victoria.

We just followed the road round..... then next thing we were  next to the BC Legislature buildings and in the heart of downtown Victoria. 

The harbour come right into the heart of downtown and there's a lovely sea walk down by the water.  

There's nothing like being a tourist in your own back yard!  This is the Fairmont Empress Hotel where they serve a delightful afternoon high tea.    The ivy is the front door.... and the habour is the back view.

High tea is on my to-do list for this summer!