Finding the Sweet Spot

 So what the heck does that title mean?   

Well, I started weaving again. I wove short 10- 15 minute sessions and then waited to see how my back responded to the motion.   Sometimes I had to take a day or two off, and then I'd try again.   It seemed to be going well overall and the inches were slowly adding up on the loom.   

Progress. 

Then I added more repeats and a bit more time.... and waited.   Soon I was weaving a full 20-30 minutes with rest breaks and some days an Advil and a day or two off.   

Feeling better about how things were going!

Then the 8 yard warp of 8/2 Venne cotton and linen wefts was all done and  cut off the loom!   All 2 1/2 pounds of it!

I had another warp all prepared and so got to work beaming it.   I took my time and slowly wound on with frequent rest breaks.  But there is bending to depress the brake peddle and movement back and forth between the back and front to shift my weights. 

Once it was beamed I stopped for the day.  That night my back grumbled and let me know it was unhappy, so I knew the next few days would be 'rest days'.   Then I woke to a very unhappy lower back and now I'm on an enforced healing / rest time period once again. 

It would seem that moderate to severe arthritic changes to my lower spine, with stenosis (encroachment of the nerves exiting the spinal column) is my new Boss and is very clear about telling what I can and can't do.  😢    There are some positives to this situation:

• I didn't herniate a disc like last time
• rest will settle things down in time
• I will weave again
• I have towels to hand sew and play with finishing
• I can thread and sley slowly when the time is right and 'Boss' says I can 
• My Hansen e-spinner is nearby and doesn't hurt me! 

I'd like to add that my husband has been very good at pitching in when I need help and donning an apron and cooking when I can't.   We're coming up to 40 years next fall and I think it might be working out after all ! 💕 😉  

So it's all about finding balance and being content to listen to my body.  I don't plan to quit or sell this loom so I must be patient.  No doubt there will be more set backs and maybe not. 

Finding the sweet spot much like we do on our looms when weaving......

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. 💝

Winter Wallop

 Yes, I'm still here....

I'm not even sure where to begin really.....

It started with my mother in law dying November 30th at age 100.    

Then I hurt my back in mid December. How?  I bent over to pick up something off the floor and felt it go. My lower SI joint / disc on the left side and it came with a big helping of sciatica.  Dreadful pain..... and I'm still dealing with it.

Then the sky light above our hallway started to leak and there were no roofer to be had over the holidays so there was a classy plastic bucket set up in the hallway.  Our house painter friend Glen did what he could and it worked for a time.  It was finally 'fixed' in mid January when a roofer (the only one) called and asked if we still needed help?  Seems the roofers in 2013 when they replaced the roof took lots of little shortcuts and one was to not silicone under the flashing near all four of our skylights. They also didn't leave a run off trough for rain at the leading edges   This was before we owned the house, but a homeowner can hardly be expected to climb to the roof and inspect everything they do!    All fixed now.  (except for some interior painting etc)🤞

My husband was not all that well over Christmas and New Years as he had (has?) an infection they just couldn't seem to find the root cause of.     A diagnostic test called a pyelogram eventually showed he had a pocket of pus behind a very large kidney stone and it was right at the opening and about to try to exit.

On January 25th.... I had oral dental surgery and had: a filling, a root canal and filling and my last wisdom tooth removed. I guess my dentist is saving a crown for another time...   🦷💉

Before doctors could do anything about my husband's big stone, he went into renal colic and had two ambulance rides in 24 hours to the local hospital .... where there is no urologist. It didn't help it was the weekend as you know, you shouldn't get sick on a weekend in BC!  They fixed him up with pain pills and sent him home.   The third ride  came January 30th when he went to get up and simply collapsed.      I had paramedics and even fire fighters in the house to get him up off the floor and onto a gurney and off again.    This time they sent him to Nanaimo about two hours drive away and he had a stent inserted at 3 am.  There he stayed for a week. He had a large stone stuck midway and was delirious. He couldn't control his muscles from the waist down.   

He was seen by a specialist in infections and received special IV antibiotics that are held in reserve for resistant cases.   Once released and home again, he had to go daily to the local hospital for the IV meds for 16 straight days.

I still have my ongoing back pain issue  and we finally had to ask for some help from friends, who generously stepped up and helped us where needed.    I simply can't thank them enough.  There's no family here and just the two of us and this time, that sadly wasn't enough....

February was a time of healing and getting our stress factors down, regular blood tests and working out a plan on what to do with my husband's kidneys.    On March 11th he had a two hour procedure called lithotripsy to go up into his kidneys and laser / blast stones and removed as much debris as possible. His right kidney was simply FULL of stones and took an hour and a half all by its self. The left had only one stone but it was a lunker.     Tomorrow has has the two stents removed and then we'll see where we go from there...

There has been absolutely NO weaving since the day I hurt my back and I even considered that my days of weaving might be behind  me.    My back pain has reduced but I can't manage without some pain meds on a daily basis. I also don't want to set this off again and want it to completely resolve.  There has been no time or opportunity to do more than talk to my doctor and get a back x-rays ordered.  Simply too much going on with Hub.   The infection specialist doctor told both of us in a phone consultation that Bruce was within an hour of dying at one point.  I think I knew deep down how serious this was this time. 😢

So what helped me de-stress and calm myself was my Hansen e-spinner.... and I have put hundreds of miles on it.

I will share posts on my finished spinning for the next while as that's what I'm doing now for the foreseeable future.

I'm also mulling over the possibility of downsizing from two looms to one and I would keep the Megado and upgrade the dobby with the proceeds of my other loom sale.    Time to pause and take stock and plan a new road forward.

I talked with a lovely woman via phone the other day and she told me that she's 84 and still can't see a day where she doesn't weave anymore.   It gives her joy and so she'll keep on weaving for as long as possible.

Me too..... me too.

My husband's birthday flowers. He earned them!  🌹

Life has Other Plans

 

Trust me when I say that I haven't willingly been avoiding my blog or  promised projects.  I have been laid low by a pinched nerve or crunched disc in my lower back and not able to do much at all.

Some days my major accomplishment is a shower!  🚿 🥺

I've been down this road before and I know the eventually it will settle down and I can get back to normal again, but in time. No rushing things. I want this to heal right and once.

So no bending unnecessarily and slow movements, lots of rest, ice packs and good drugs. I have been able to use my Hansen e-spinner which is a delight to use.

The picture below shows where I'm experiencing the bulk of my pain / muscle spasm and it still is in a good clench, but not quite like the original, not to be forgotten moment it decided to show me who is boss.

Hubby Bruce is taking good care of me and no doubt is keeping a tab for the future!  😊

Back soon.....  🩻🩺💊