Round two... and this Time Blue!

Sorry to keep you waiting for a post. Its just *that* time of year when everyone is distracted by summer, traveling and guests. Its a slower time of year.  No rules, and no agenda for many.  We have also just come through a nasty heat wave and the much needed rain that was promised, only fell lightly here and far too much elsewhere !

 We are very dry and you might have heard of our forest fires.   Besides the Okanagan fires, the far north is burning, and there's a huge fire that has taken over one hundred homes south of us in Washington State. 

I also have had another new distraction!

I was doing some updates for my computer one morning and found this program and saw that it was on sale for 50% off. Who doesn't love a sale???  Doing up a family tree is something I have wanted to make a start on for some years now. I have 'special boxes' with letters, cards, photos and mementos.... all with bits of family history scattered throughout.  Printed emails from my Dad with his stories of family long since passed,  and many memories of days and times long ago.    I have dug it all out and organized it into folders based on the families that intersect with mine and starting adding in what I have to hand. Even something as simple as an old letter from a family member gave me a name of a family member and when they died,  an address and a date.  Its all gold on the genealogy trail !

Its also *very* addictive...and it eats time like crazy! You are a super sleuth and solving a mystery.  Next thing you know, you find yourself calling relatives who haven't heard from you in a decade or longer.  Now you suddenly want to know them better  :)

Eventually it cooled down enough here that I felt like weaving again. Yeah, it was *that* hot here. My studio was 86 degrees and that's the above ground basement where its supposed to be cool.

I just kept treadling away and two days ago I pulled off three runners and some samples.  I have one more warp wound to go for third linen runner warp and after that, I'll be hanging up huck lace for while!  I can do this pattern in my sleep now.  Its just more proof that I could never be a production weaver. I like variety too much.... I get BORED !

On the loom and under tension.

Hemming with linen is great. Fold into thirds and press.  The linen simply fold neatly, unlike cotton, or tencel where it can spring back on you unless you press at every move.

Press flat...

Fold one third over...

Fold again to the bottom edge of the hemstitching and press, then pin. {Excuse the nasty ironing board cover. Its time to buy a new one.} I quite enjoy the hand sewing as we relax in the evenings. The longer daylight is a nice bonus.

I filled the laundry tub with hot sudsy water and soaked them for half an hour. Then I rolled up my sleeves and got to working the cloth with my hands to encourage the threads to shift into their groups and also to reduce the reed marks.  I think we are harder on the cloth than the final owner will be as manipulate and press the cloth into its final look!

After gently squeezing out water I lay them onto  older towels and fold it all up like  a parcel. I pull and shape as I go.... it all helps with the pressing to come! ( Heck, I knew of a weaver who would pin out a damp piece until it dried to keep it to a preset size she needed. "All's fair" she said. Since knitters pin out their work after washing, it seemed reasonable to me!)

The big work out is the pressing. Hot iron, lots of steam and a whole lotta muscle!  It seems to have been worth it. I got two all blue runners and one longer one that I mixed with natural coloured linen again. 

9/2 French Linen from Brassards en Fil in Quebec, Canada

Sett 24 epi ; colour is "Vieux Bleue"

8 shaft huck lace diamonds: nicely balanced fabric. 

This runner is 72 inches long and is just lovely!

I also found a source for uber fine Japanese silk in a stunning array of colours, sold by the ounce. They are leftover yarns from a Kimono weaving house in Tokyo that was in business in 1920. These silks are close to one hundred years old.

I thought a penny might give some perspective to the fineness of the yarn.  I think I might ply the silk on my spinning wheel. The sheen is amazing! Hauser Gallery  They even have gold wrapped silks. Take a peek at least....

I hope your summer is going well! Friends, family, BBQ's and sunshine.... Its what we waited all winter long for so enjoy!

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?