A Pleasant Diversion

Yes, the work is starting. Not all at once but a few frantic hours then, nothing. Then you wait for the next trades person to arrive for a quote. Can be hours or days... Then there's the scheduling and rescheduling. These boots belong to a young plumber Chris who installed a new hot water tank. This was part of the planned energy update for the house under a government grant program. The new tank is super well wrapped to retain heat and we have noticed an improvement in efficiency already.

I have the local Home Depot building supply store on speed dial, then in the store every other day for purchases and then inevitable returns as we change our minds... and now on a first name basis with half the staff, which should tell you we have been somewhat preoccupied of late. Underlayment?... back splash tiles and grout? .... drop pendant lights? Its a sad statement when I'm shopping at Cosco and get excited at finding an 18 gauge stainless steel sink for $136.00!! I'm trying to stash kitchen stuff and also shift the dining room and kitchen contents into a ever reducing available space on the same floor level.
Then while out running errands our car battery died and happily it was in a mall parking lot as I don't carry a cell phone (but will soon!). Unhappily the battery and installation was $200.00. When the heck did they get to be that expensive??

I need a diversion! a fibery diversion... (actually, I'd rather leave, go on a nice long vacation and come back to it all done.... to be truly honest here...)

So, the plan is to load up the big countermarche, Emmatrude with a towel warp that is easy to thread, a 10 shaft point twill, and has all the colour in the warp, stripes! The treadling is simple: runs of treadle 1 through to 10 and back again. Sound familiar? It should as I'm doing a reprise of this project. The goal is to have something I can treadle and throw a shuttle for a few minutes while chaos reigns over head. Something that needs no real thinking so I can wear my iPod and tune out. Well, that's the plan... reality may be otherwise!

Here's the warping board and the warp is wound in one inch bouts and securely tied off every yard... for 24 inch wide, 10.5 yard long warp of 2/8 cotton, sett 24 epi. {Yes, last time I did 20 epi, due to a mistake in warp calculations and said I would use 22 epi this time, but the 'correct' sett for 2/8 in a twill is 24 ends per inch} The warp bout is taken directly over to the back of the loom where it's wound on 'fresh' from the board! (see this for a description of my hybrid warping method)

You can see my cones of colours above... I'm thinking spring already. {Sorry, but we have been having warm temps, heavy rain and the end result is spring bulbs coming up and shrubs are budding up. There are moths flying about and I saw a frog in the driveway. What winter Olympics?}

I must confess this fully loaded warp took me the better part of a week to wind and load. Terrible! In my defense I did lose a day to shopping and visiting the beauty parlour. I came home sporting a cut and a touch of colour. Must have some fun!

I was grabbing a few minutes of time when and where ever I could in between calls, housework and endless shopping errands and the ongoing packing up. I must confess to not feeling overly creative and inspired with all the chaos going on here right now. I thought I could go into the studio and tune it out but this seems to be a lot harder to do than I originally thought.

Yesterday I loaded the lease sticks up and hung them behind the shafts.... and started threading. It's a simple point twill using 10 shafts. The colour sequence is very precise and repeats every eighteen ends. This makes it easy to see when you have goofed and need to back track. So that's where I am right now.... slowly working across the warp.


The colours are a soft melon, salmon pink for the centre of the stripes, then the outer colours are a alternating plum and sage green. There is a neutral cream in between the colour stripes. It has a soft spring colour appearance, which is timely.

We never really had a winter in the usual sense this year. One dump of snow and one bad wind storm. That's it (so far). Just lots and lots of rain.

Take heart all those of you wearing winter duds and pushing shovels....this is coming to a garden under a snow bank near you! This primula is by my front door...

My Louet loom is patiently waiting for me to rediscover the black silk warp. Its going to have to wait longer as I know that I don't have the mental gymnastics to handle that treadling right now!

My next post will be a special one and one that most weavers will be quite happy to hear all about! Once I have the final details posted, I'm hoping that you will help spread the word either at your guild meetings, newsletters, by linking to the coming post. Its worth the wait... :)

Emmatrude

This is my main floor loom and I call her Emmatrude. It's for my mother and maternal grand mother combined. My second name is Trudy, so perhaps for me as well?
It's a Woolhouse Tools countermarche and is called a Gertrude by the builder, John Low. {http://www.woolhousetools.com/} So, sort of close name wise. Yup, that pink blur is me and yes, I'm camera shy. A friend tonight says she loves seeing my hands in pictures, but to give me some credit, it's hard to photograph yourself weaving!

Anyhow, my loom has 12 shafts, 16 treadles, a second warp beam and a tie-up assist. The action on this loom is so easy and smooth! Since she has the floating lamm system (upper jack cords come down the outside of the loom) you can get a full allotment of treadles underneath. She's nice and gentle on my creaky joints and I don't think I could really handle a jack loom with this many shafts anymore. Easy treadling action is a big consideration when shopping for a floor loom..... not that many of us planned to get old(er) and creaky! The picture was taken at our last house in Powell River and the windows faced east. It was nice and bright in the mornings.

Today I woke up with more back pain and then the sudden realization that I had an early guild meeting. {http://www.northwestweavers.org/MemberGuilds/MGTzouhalem.html} I dashed through the shower and was reasonably ready when my ride came. Thank the gods for drugs! I really enjoy being with the other weavers and sharing ideas and planning workshops. In fact, I'll be taking part in a workshop with Jane Stafford later this month called 'Twill Explosion" featuring 8 shaft twills. I picked up my warp today and my 12 shaft table loom will be featuring (ta, da....drum roll...) a 4 shaft twill. Okay... not quite what I imagined but I'm game and really looking forward to the class.....

In April, I'll be attending 2 half day seminars with Laura Fry featuring her "Magic in the Water" and " A Good Yarn". I'll have my camera handy for both events and will report after they are done. It's been a while for me participating in a workshop as moving homes seemed to coincide with the last few I had a chance to take. In June, my best friend will come to visit us and we'll attend Victoria's Fibre Festival at Saxe Point Park. That should be a fun time too.

Weaving can be quite a solitary hobby, so a day out with like minded friends is a great diversion. It's uplifting! Hey....I just realized that I'm not entirely alone...

This is Connor, our Lakeland Terrier. He hides his toys in the end sections of my loom bench and stuffs his rubber balls under my treadles, usually when I'm using them! He doesn't know or seem to understand that he's 11 years old. We could learn a lot from our pets....