2023: A Weaving Year in Review

 Happy New Year to you all..... where ever you may be!  🎉

It's become a custom here at my blog to do a weaving year in review. To see what I was able to accomplish in my studio. I will admit right now that my looms are very quiet.  The smaller Spring loom is waiting for me to resume threading on two huck lace shawls and two lovely painted warp scarves are just under way on the Megado.    

About mid December my left lower SI joint started to ache and I ignored it to my peril and now I have terrible back pain and hobbling through my day. Gel ice packs and pain meds are my main stay right now until this subsides.

In good news, this means I have much more time to use my Hansen e-spinner and have been enjoying the heck out of that. 

We were hit with an atmospheric river of rain, combined with high winds on Christmas Day night. The rain was literally coming in sideways. Late that night as we were heading to bed, we discovered one of our skylights was leaking.   So we put buckets under the drips and went to bed.   

I must have called every roofing company on our part of the island over the next two days and not one has called us back..... even to today as I write this.   We end up calling our house painter Glen who cheerfully came, went up and recaulked the skylight and said that come the better weather he'd reseal the other three skylights for us.   What a guy!    Both of us are under the weather right now so not able to do much of anything so his help was fabulous!

All the details and even drafts for some of these projects are in the archived months of 2023......

January

So this month was a bit of a bust as I was healing a muscle spasm in my right shoulder.   Apparently I'm not aging all that well.  I hope this doesn't get to be an annual thing! 😳

February

My dear friend Margaret passed away. She was instrumental in setting my feet firmly on the weaving path and then gifted me her loom. She's with me every day.

I placed a large 8/2 cotton order for the first time in 5 years.  How do I know it was 5 years? Because Brassards had given up on me reordering and gave my customer number to someone else.   So much of that was used in towel warps later in the year.    I also ordered some new 3D printed warping assist bits from Ginger Locks Handwovens to try out on the Megado.  I like to see if I can streamline the process and make it easier for me.   Out of this bunch of 3D printed parts, the beater lifter is great and the rest I will have to try again at some point and see.

March

Apparently this happened again.....sore back...  and no weaving.   Seems there is a pattern huh?

April

Finally some weaving! Three table runners in a fancy 16 shaft twill. 10/2 cotton, sett 28 epi.

I signed up for a towel exchange with two weavers and also started an intense search for some dusky peach silk. I had a very request by a client to reproduce a scarf and didn't have any of the weft yarn any longer. I eventually found it at Treenway Silks with owner Susan's help.  It's "spiced cognac" and almost a perfect match!

May

More gadgets:  3D printed Helping Hands warping assists from Lofty Fibers for my Spring loom. I have to say they work great and I have kept it up as part of my warping routine!   So I ordered a set for my Megado too.

I also completed two shawls that feature a soft pink Rose fiber warp and one shawl has tencel weft in taupe and the second has dandelion fiber weft yarn. The sett was 24 epi and featured an 8 shaft draft from Handweaving.net

My friend Hilary was selling off yarn from a very large stash she acquired and so I bought some silk / yak in an ivory colour.  I kept some for myself and sold about half of it and that paid for the entire purchase! Some of it will be used with the huck lace shawls currently now waiting for my cranky back to settle down again. 

June

I got (too) adventurous and tried incorporating a painted warp with solid shades and a 16 shaft diagonal pattern.   The black weft  one turned out okay but the second shows even I can get things wrong!  *sigh*  😳   I think parts of  the second purple scarf is destined to become greeting cards..... or ??

The commissioned scarf order was finally completed and delivered, so that's two more Abalone Shimmer scarves. These feature the 20/2 spiced cognac silk weft. I wove one for me too.  I have nothing to wear with it but I now have one too.

July

Finally, a chance to set up and warp using the new Helping Hands Megado version and I wrote three posts on the process. It's become easier each time I use them and it was a worthwhile purchase.  Of the other  parts I purchased first? I use the beater lifters all the time when threading.

Then there were two scarves woven after an initial cranky start.   I had a draft in mind and once I started to weave it up, I hated it.   So I cut out the weft, rolled the warp back and rethreaded, and resleyed..... but kept the same tie up  and got this unique  pattern. Thank heavens for Handweaving.net's special search features!  One scarf has a multi fleck, part alpaca, part silk weft.   The second is all tencel.  (*I always leave the lease sticks in place, pulled to the back of the loom and tied in place until I'm sure of no mistakes, and now additionally, that I like the draft.  I do remove them when everything is fine*)

At the very end of July, my younger sister passed away. She died on my parent's wedding anniversary and my father's birthday.    She was 58, so much too soon.   That's her with the bow in her hair, many years ago in New Zealand.    That's me as the eldest at the back.  I think I'm about 15 or 16 here. 

There was also another sad loss for me that day too and it's one I'm still coming to terms with. I'm not sure if that story will have a happy ending or not.  That's all I can say for now. 

August

The towels and small gift exchanges rolled in in August and helped to cheer me up.

 

My husband says our kitchen towel drawer is full to overflowing and we may need to cull some oldies to be able to close the drawer!   I think I'll sit the next annual Padre Wayne towel exchange out.....

Having said that, I have 5 towels warps planned, but there will be for Christmas thank you gifts and to sell in the Etsy shop.  The first batch of eight are based on 16 shaft point twill, 8/2 cotton warp and a variety of drafts from Handweaving.net

September

Second batch are the "Everything Everywhere"  towels and feature 10/2 cotton, sett 28 epi and turned twill.   I got six towels.

October

Next up was # 728 towels from Carol Strickler's "A Weavers Book of 8 Shaft Patterns". This was a modified version and featured blues, magenta and peacock 8/2 cottons from the Brassards yarn order earlier in the year. 

Then we discovered our roof was leaking above the garage attic. Eventually, some wider flashing and caulking fixed it but I learned all about insurance claims, adjusters and roofers.  Our roof is only 13 years old but it seems someone back when it was being replaced took a short cut and used a piece of flashing too small for the job, rather than go down and bring up a new one......   

November

The next towel batch was my "Kitchen elegance" towels.... and there were six towels and one table runner.  They are 10/2 cotton, 28 epi and a sixteen shaft twill.    I have a lot of 10/ cottons and decided this year to use it more.   It means more work winding, threading and weaving, but the cloth is so nice in the hand!

December

Last batch of towels was a repeat of the happy "Herringbone twill". They were such a hit last time I wove them and so this time I used natural cotton and another arrangement of doubled coloured ends.   This means you have many choices for wefts!  As you can see with the seven towels all stacked up here.

At the very end of November, my mother in law Lorraine passed away quietly in her sleep.  She was 100 1/2 years old so it wasn't unexpected, but sad none the less for her son and daughter. Bruce had many more years of conversations with her than most adult children get with their elderly parents.   She was an elegant lady, fierce Canucks hockey fan and loyal Blue Jays baseball fan.  She had jerseys for both teams. She celebrated all the events on the calendar, but her favourite holiday was Christmas and sadly she missed this one.

This is Lorraine as a two year old holding her doll while climbing up on the pilot of a steam locomotive 98 years ago.

So despite some back pains and heart aches I did manage to get some weaving done and the totals are"

towels 33

scarves 6

shawls 2 

runners 5

deaths 3

dental surgeries 2

roof leaks 2

towel exchanges 2

bad back spells  3

Sunrise at Willow Point, south of Campbell River, BC

Then a few hours later in full daylight.

I hope your coming year is healthy, happy and with smooth warps and swift shuttles!

2022: A Weaving Year in Review

Like many of you, I'm thinking about the past year and just how fast it went by! Another one 'done and dusted'   😳     We had a nice but very quiet Christmas and it could only be that way due to being inundated with snow and we couldn't get out!  We never got much of a fall and seem to go straight into winter with a dump of snow while the leaves were still on the trees and then it would melt and fall again etc. Then came the recent cold snap and more snow.  Winter has only just begun and we're sick of it already!     A pineapple express from Hawaiian waters came to the rescue and warmed us up and melted nearly all the snow away with heavy rains. Its a case of be careful what you ask for as now we have had some flooding, but not for us fortunately. 

New Years Eve was also quiet for us but we did stay up for the big moment and our neighbours set off fireworks and banged pots together.   🎉

Some years ago it became a 'thing' to photograph what is on your loom for New Year's Day and I changed it up to be a review of what I accomplished for the year in the studio instead.  I can say that I wasn't as active as in previous years, but I put more thought into each project and took my time enjoying each step. That's a good thing as Life is busy enough as it is and weaving is something I want to enjoy and have fun with.   Both my looms are engaged; the Spring has rose fibre shawls, and the Megado has table runners underway.

Thank you to Robyn Spady of Heddlecraft for this fun Bingo card for weavers!

I know that there are some regular readers out there and I thank you for your patience when the time between posts go long,   Blogger took away the email notification of when a new post is written so  I have to rely on you taking time to check in periodically.   Blogging seems to have fallen from favour with the trendy masses as they shift to the next new thing.   I can't keep up with it and don't want to.   So I am on social media at Instagram as @ThrumsTextiles, Face Book as Thrums Textiles, Etsy shop called Thrums Textiles, and my favourite weaver playground of Warped Weavers at Ravelry, as weever.    I will continue to post here; after starting this blog in 2008, I may as well carry on while I enjoy it. 

Now lets get to the review....  Click on pictures to enlarge.  Click on hilighted links to list the past post for details, possible draft and more pictures.

January 2022

I had some health issues for several months in 2021 with a reoccurring toe infection which makes treadling difficult and resulted in a minor surgical procedure in December.    That, and a shoulder muscle spasm meant I was healing in January, but I did get both looms full and busy and weaving was underway again.

February 2022

I had a ruby warp on the Megado and planned for two 16 shaft twill shawls. Some tension issues meant I cut the first one off and so this beauty was able to be finished and modelled. 

I finished these two scarves featuring a pretty little 16 shaft twill and a colour gradation. The top picture was recently featured on the cover of the Guild of Canadian Weavers "Bulletin" as they show cased their 75th anniversary online exhibition.    My first time as a cover girl! 😁

March 2022

Then there was three table runners woven on the Spring loom featuring pattern #246 from Carol Strickler's   The Weavers Book of 8 Shaft Patterns. The pattern when used in band of colours,  looks like straps interwoven, but I went for a more subtle look.   Some soft colours and its a play of light that reveals the interlacing bands.   A touch too subtle it seems as none have sold.   Its so darn hard to photograph white on white. I'm going to try again come spring and  with better lighting conditions.

The second shawl off the ruby warp was completed as well and shows some iridescence and our early spring garden.

April  2022

Nothing weaving related  to show in April but the looms were  busy, as was my e-spinner. I just love it!

May 2022

I was trying more of the 'interlacement' imagery when I wove these two silk and silk bamboo  scarves.   The treadling is done in little groups of three that you can enlarge in both threading and treadling to make bigger boxes. I thought this might make a colourful baby blanket in the future. Except later in the year when I wove a baby blanket I forgot to use it.  😬

June 2022

This month started with having a close call with our old car when the steering column started smoking as were about to start a trip. We got turned around and headed (slowly) to the dealership.   A shortage of parts, and of used cars thanks to the pandemic, but we did leave with a newer used car and feeler safer on the road, and a slave to car payments once again.   *sigh*   Hub went back to the dealership two days after we bought the car and discovered they had had a fire in the service bay and were half burnt down! No it wasn't our old car but it was the same make and model.   

Weaving is underway on longer warps of 8-9 + yards so they are all 'in progress' and I was also enjoying more spinning time sitting on our patio

July 2022

So finally one of the longer warps was completed and finished!  6 shaft herringbone twill kitchen towels that were fun to weave and a great way to use up some small part cones for the double shot of colour.  They have been a big hit and my local guild is possibly using the idea to weave a large 5 foot by 9 foot blanket for a local care home.

August 2023

I participated in an online towel exchange in honour of my late friend Padre Wayne Nicholson.   I received linen towels from  Cheryl in Georgia, USA and she received  one of the recent herringbone twill towels. 

September 2022

Our family Doctor announced she was expecting and I felt inspired to weave up a blanket  for her.   No idea if it was a girl or boy as she was going old fashioned and waiting to see.   So I started it a bit late so I could have it reflect a girl or a boy. Also, I was trying to use up stash... and I was shy on blue!  I forgot about the other draft I thought would make a good option, and went with  striped of twill and braided twill.    It was a little girl, so she got salmon pink hems.   The other two were more neutral green or plaid. 

These three scarves all have the same painted warp and with weft changes show three different faces.  The 16 shaft  straight draw pattern, by the late Ingrid Boesel, resembles ripples or twisted ribbons and the painted warp makes it look so much more complex. There is an 8 shaft version now at handweaving.net

October 2022

Continuing with the three theme, I was going to weave two shawls in the dramatic colours you see above but end up with three table runners instead.  Long story but the link will take you to the post where its all explained.  🍋

November 2022

The previous scarves I wove in the early spring with the olive to eggplant gradation had me wondering if it was possible to do closer shading, based on my existing stash. Web's tencel line has a great series of close blues into teal. So that's the reasoning behind these two 8 shaft twill scarves. I also thought that a careful choice in draft would also help to assist in the blending of colours, or at the least, make it less obvious.  

The first scarf I used fine 30/2 burgundy silk called Velvet Opera. It worked well with the blues and also the teals.    Then I dug around in my stash and found two small 50 gram skeins of dyed 20/2 silk that the dyer called 'vintage apricot'.  It was a peachy orange with a brownish undertone. I tested it and it looks fabulous.... and I had enough weft for one scarf! There are more pictures at the link above.  I really liked it, but I listed it anyway for sale at Etsy. In the morning I decided to keep it for myself and was going to take the listing down when I got notice it had sold overnight.  I also got another message from a disappointed potential customer who asked if I had another  as she wanted to buy it.    Oh, dear....

That begun the great peach silk hunt....  the original seller / dyer was not able to reproduce it for me, so had to go looking all over the internet.  Stay tuned.  😳  

I wanted to use more silk this year and had a lovely single scarf painted warp of 200 ends and added some solid plum dyed silk as borders.  Dark teal tencel was my weft and it was soft in the  colours and also the  touch.  It also sold right away.  

December 2022

I had fun winding the colour gradation, and so I wound another tencel colour gradation where the colour appears as a ripple across the warp.   See the colour changes in the fringe in the picture above.  Royal blue to greyed teal and back again twice.   I used the colour adobe as my weft and had fun weaving up these two scarves as my last project for the year.  Once again, they were snapped up over night and now they live in Maryland.

2022 Tally

scarves: 12   

shawls: 2

runners: 6

kitchen towels: 9

baby blankets: 3

A grand total of  32 finished items for 2022!

...... and I have also found the right coloured silk for weaving that special scarf again!   

I want to wish you all a very Happy, Healthy New Year with Smooth warps and Swift Shuttles!