Cuddle Bunny 🐰

 

Meet Naomi, my new cuddle bunny!   Isn't she adorable?     I have 'borrowed' these pictures from my friend's instagram account (with her permission).   Her creator / mother is Tracy who is technically my hairdresser, but after 8 years we have become good friends.   

Tracy is aware of all our trials and tribulations this past winter and decided I needed some soft companionship to help during rough patches.    Her name is Naomi.

She is crocheted with the softest yarn and is actually quite large. Most of her are those floppy ears but she also has a cute bum. 

I picked her up at my latest hair cut appointment two days ago and she is all settled in nicely here at home.   She was put to the cuddle test almost right away when my back x-ray results appeared on line that evening.    I knew something was up as if it was a normal strain  or pull, it should have settled down by now. It's been some time after all.     I have grade one anterolisthesis which is essentially shifting of my lumbar spine, due to arthritis.    

What the heck is that?

Anterolisthesis is an abnormal alignment of bones in the spine and usually affects the lower back. It occurs when an upper vertebra slips forward on the one below, leading to pain and other symptoms.

And that can look something like this.....

So it's going to take some time to settle down.  My disc spaces are normal which is very encouraging!  There are no signs of fractures or boney osteophyte bone growths which is also very good.  Work on better posture, and lose some weight is always good etc.

My idea of selling the Spring loom is still being considered as even if I lift the loom up onto crates, I still sit on my stool and lean forward to do the tie up's. Right now, that hurts to even think about! 

Hubby says to wait on a decision for now as it's very patiently waiting.     Using the Megado means no tie up's to do at all and will at least keep me weaving.  

I have no idea if or when this condition will progress?   I did have a great aunt who had much the same arthritis of the spine and she lived to 100. 

So I plan to downsize more in my studio, spin on my Hansen and work on resting my back. 

This is my friend Tracy with Naomi.  

A Life Well Lived

I got some sad news today 🥲

 

It is with regret that I must share the passing of Guild of Canadian Weavers Masterweaver Margaret Hahn on February 7th, 2023. She obtained her certificate in 1984, her thesis was on Opphampta. She also served as the GCW Test Mentor for many years.

I have posted her Obituary as published by her family below.

I was happy to call her a dear friend and weaving mentor and through her encouragement, had my feet firmly set on the weaving path, and my time and service in the GCW. Since I was a serving GCW president at the time of completeing my basic level, both Margaret Hahn as Mentor and Sandra Fearon as Test Administrator signed my certificate. The first and only so far I believe to not have a president’s signature. I’m fortunate to have some of her hand wovens and a couple of shuttles, but the best gift of all besides her encouragement, was her Megado loom which I use daily.

Margaret first came to weaving by using bed lap frames with her recovering patients in 1947 in her role as an occupational therapist. I met Margaret in 1995 as a new weaver and neighbour. She ‘inspected’ my first used loom and made sure of my posture and bench height to get me off to a good start right away. While I struggled with the learning curve, she picked up a shuttle and simply danced away on the treadles and it showed me what was possible! When I complained about my selvedges, she told me to ‘weave a mile’ and while it was said with a smile, she wasn’t joking. Of course she was right. I still recall her as mentor looking at an overshot tray cloth I had woven as part of my Basic level and she declared my circles as ovals and confiscated it and set it on her tea trolley and set a plant pot on it. She never did give it back!

Margaret inspired many weavers with her workshops and mentoring at both the local level or through her time mentoring with the Guild of Canadian Weavers. I know of several who started the testing program thanks to her encouragement.

After knowing her for many years I discovered that she wasn’t just Marg Hahn, friend and neighbour, but actually Baroness von Hahn. As you will see from her obituary, she lived a rich and full life outside of weaving.

The pictures of Margaret in a pink top are  from July 2012

This is her obituary and photo as placed by her family. Please click to enlarge to read.

🌹

The Ponderosa Guild of Kelowna, BC shard their memories of Margaret:

Margaret von Hahn

1928 - 2023

 

Marg Hahn, as the Ponderosa Guild knew her, died last week in Vernon BC. Marg joined us in the mid 1980's, after moving to Carr's Landing (Lake Country) from Winnipeg. Originally from Cornwall, England, she had completed her Occupational Therapist training at Oxford University, which included a vigorous weaving component.

 

Marg became an active Guild member, teaching various weaving classes, a term as President, and as newsletter Editor. All while completing her Master Weavers programme for the Guild of Canadian Weavers, with her 4th year thesis on Opphamta in 1994. John Low of Woolhouse Tools named his 'Margaret' draw loom after her.

 

She did take spinning and other classes, but preferred weaving. Dye classes at her house overlooking the lake was always great summer fun, as was attending ANWG conferences with her. Marg was always willing to share her knowledge with our members, in addition to test mentoring GCW members doing their Master Weavers programmes.

 

Marg was a wonderful weaver with great colour sense, excelling in silk tartan scarves and tartan blankets. Her Okanagan Tartan was accepted by the Lord Lyon of Scotland. Our Christmas sales certainly benefitted from her elegant work.

 

She stopped weaving about 2012, aged 84! When she moved from Lake Country to Armstrong in 2020, she very generously donated her many weaving books and magazines to the Guild.

 

We will continue to benefit from her legacy for years to come.

 

🌹

🎁 Towels for the Times

There is an awful lot going on in the World right now and frankly, not much of it is good. I guess that's why many weavers are doing just that... weaving, or spinning.   

Counting our blessings where we find them.   

In the evenings we find ourselves watching movies and seeing people in them all gathered together for meals,  concerts and wonder at it all.  People hugging one another and walking side by side.  We took such simple things for granted.

Its almost like someone did open up Pandora's Box and let the demons out!

I started winding this warp  in the 'before times'. Ten yards of  soft,  nice quality Egyptian cotton.  It was in my stash as a large three pound cone, along with another three pound cone of black. Not entirely sure where I bought it but its lovely. (I think it was Lone Star Loom Room.)

The idea behind this warp was to simply sit and weave  and enjoy the process. Listen to music or podcasts or just the silence.   Then the pandemic hit and we  stayed inside our homes and the choice to use bright cheerful colours as weft really made sense to me to help lift spirits.   Little dancing boxes. 

I wish I could share the soft lofty feel of these towels. You can see how squishy they are!
Grape, creamsicle, honey, and key lime.

Then there are the blue cool tones: bubblegum, peacock, blueberry and raspberry.

Towel number nine was created from having left over yarn on many pirns. So I created a colour way that worked together to use them up.  I call this one Candy Mix..... but it easily could be called "All colours under the sun matter".   This towel  is winging its way to my daughter as she is trying to work out what colour to paint her kitchen so something in this one will work!  😁  🌈

The 16 shaft draft was sett at 24 epi and they were woven to 35 inches. Width in the reed was 24 inches.  After a small turned hem they measure  21 wide by 28 inches long. So a fair amount of shrinkage.   The threading is a point twill and so is the treadling; all the pattern is in the tie-up.

A couple with the hem flipped to show the other side, which is equally nice. Boxes again, or if you look at them with a tilt of the head, there is almost a Celtic like intertwining.  If I had woven two towels in each colour, I would have turned one towel the opposite way and so they would be a nice set.   Maybe next time....

Here's the draft from Handweaving.net that I used showing two repeats of the treadling.   The draft is our road map to a successful project, along with some 'local knowledge'.

Maybe that's why everyone is feeling so discombobulated right now? There's no clear road map to a goal. Life feels on hold and if things are opening up again, it feels weird.   

So perhaps the little daily personal successes mean so much more right now. 

Some lovely peonies from a friend's garden.... and left on our front doorstep as a gift.   Huge blossoms and so lush.  The white ones were especially fragrant.   Thank you Donna! 💞

Long Time Coming

My title says it all for this post!  Time has just slipped away on me and we find ourselves rather busy around house, yard and new town. When we moved in October 1st, we went straight into months of rain and snow and so much was left 'as is'.  So there has been much wrangling of stuff in the garage, garden sheds resulting in yet more stuff to donate, sell, or dispose of.  I have embarked on some deep cleaning projects such as windows (with walls and doors to come). Working away in and around the frames with my handy dandy tooth brush brings out dirt, debris (such as dead bug bits) and bring back the inner frames back to the white vinyl and clean screens too. They are so much easier to open now! 

Anyway.... you get the idea of what's been happening around here.  We have had delightful tea breaks with our new neighbours on the west side of us and got to know them better. They moved in just a couple of months ahead of us.  Also taking some days off entirely  to drive around and get to know the area better. Sometimes just sitting watching the waves roll in at the beach.

Your reward for being patient ( hopefully you haven't given up on me entirely) is the beauty shot right at the start.   This is the second shawl off the 10/2 white tencel warp, and same little 12 shaft point twill pattern.   This time I used a 55% / 45% silk yak blend from Treenway Silks as my weft. Its a 30/2 in size so quite fine.  It has the loveliest silvery-beige natural colour and picked out the pattern nicely but not loudly.  

Its a chameleon as the light changes, so does the colour!

I watched my friend Gudrun sit and sketch this draft out quickly. All the pattern is in the tie up, so its easy threading and treadling.

It has a lovely drape and is as soft as a cloud.  I decided to add some seed beads and tiny pearl accents along the fell lines.  The fresh water pearls are 2-2.5 mm in length, all with perfect tiny holes right through.    I buy them from this Etsy shop.

As I worked at twisting the (seemingly never ending) fringe and later hand sewing on the beads / pearls, I came to realize that I simply could not sell this shawl.  I'm going to keep it.  I have nothing suitable to wear with it, and not sure where I would wear it, but I'm ready if the  event comes up in my social calendar!   My next realization is that in 20+ years of weaving I have only kept a cream silk M's and O's scarf for me..... and a whole lot of seconds for kitchen towels and table runners for the home. But they were for the household and not me per say. 

Long time coming, and I'm not entirely sure why that is.   (hey, that's a rhetorical question!)

So, normally I have my standard loom waste allowance,  a few inches for samples and another allowance for take up.... plus the  lengths of the items to be woven and it all works out fine.   So imagine my surprise when I wound the shawl onto the cloth beam, including its fringe allotment. and could see and feel there was much more warp on the warp beam!  So no samples this time and lets see if I can get a nice table square!  I chose a light silver 10/2 tencel as its fairly neutral for any decor and should weave up 50/50 (or close to it).  

I end up with a 22 inch by 37 inch table runner and three inch (more never ending) twisted fringe!  I must say it did take me longer to do this fringe because although the turns were less and all the steps the same.... it was fiddly and awkward and some days I just didn't have the patience for it. Finally I just wanted my desk back and got it done and dusted!    Another long time coming....

As an aside,  our house plants love all the light and sunshine in this house and all are growing well.  So imagine my surprise when my little hoya plant gifted to me by my late friend Gudrun in 2013 when we visited  *finally* produced flower buds on all its few little stems!   It produces a light fragrance that smells like you could eat it and its stronger at night.

This is the first bunch to open up. The flower clusters hang face down so you only see the tops of the heads but underneath they are so pretty!

So what's ahead?  Well, in the pictures above you probably noticed the teal warp on the loom. That's for two scarves in this same pattern  and then as you can imagine, I will be thoroughly sick and tired of this draft. (It seemed like a good idea at the time.) I'm well into weaving scarf number two. Then time to move on to something new.   I have two client commissions to weave so one of those will be next.  Time to get the warping mill busy.

More deep cleaning jobs and ongoing gardening as well.....   good thing we're retired!  😳

A Gold Thread Amongst the Silver

Gudrun Weisinger

October 8th 1941- June 22nd 2015

Gudrun Weisinger, nee Behmel, was born October 8th, 1941, in Dettingen (Hohenzollern), Germany as one of four siblings, two boys and two girls. In 1966 she moved to Canada, intending to stay one year, but there she met the love of her life, her soulmate Alfred. Together they built a life and had two sons, Peter and Franz. Gudrun also began her career as one of the most accomplished weavers in the country.

She had trained in Germany at the ‘Meisterschule für das Weberhandwerk', Master School for the Weaving Trade, in Sindelfingen, and completed a Journeyman certificate, earning the title of Master Weaver in 1964.

Over the years she has exhibited many works at art shows and galleries, and has received prestigious awards and prizes in Canada and the United States.

Her commissioned work includes a tapestry for the Japanese Sister City of Surrey, BC; a wall hanging for a library in Newton, BC; recreation of several historic home textiles; and restoration of a Jacquard loom.

She was a most loved and distinguished member of the Shuswap Spinners and Weavers Guild in Salmon Arm, and was an Honourable Member of the Peace Arch Spinners Guild in Surrey. She taught all levels of weaving and designing and was often a judge at weaving exhibitions.

Gudrun was a meticulous artisan. In her words, “finding a perfect harmony of colour, texture, fibre and technique is of paramount importance in my weaving.”
In addition to her weaving, Gudrun also loved gardening and being outside. She was always positive, vital, and up for a new experience.

*~*~*~*

I can honestly say that all those descriptions of Gudrun are true! She was always happy to see you, freely share a weaving draft or show you how to do something if you haven't tried it yet.  She became a dear friend and weaving mentor to me when we moved to the Shuswap area of BC in 2004.   We were guild sisters, friends and neighbours. We met socially for supper exchanges and both my husband and I became friends with her and her husband Alfred.  

Leaving our friends behind when we returned to the coast was my biggest regret about relocating and Gudrun would often ask when we were moving back?   Emails, phone calls and even Facebook all helped to bridge the gap between visits.  There were also the occasional envelopes in the mail from Gudrun with weaving drafts and woven sample surprises!

I simply can't believe she is gone.  I'm going to need some time to adjust to this new sad reality...

I have various pictures of Gudrun and her weaving work to share.  I think you'll see what a treasure the weaving world lost this Summer Solstice.

Beautiful kitchen towels

...and weaving her own tape for towel hangers!

Table cloths

Twill progressions was another of Gudrun's favourite designs and here are a set of placemats and a runner she wove that I bought as a gift for a friend.

Gudrun's favourite pine trees

Her overshot was stunning in her choice of colours and exquisitely woven. 

Full overshot bed coverlet that was on our bed! Its 16/2 cotton.... thousands of warp ends, woven double weave!

This LINK will take you to a Christmas theme post where she has made the most delightful decorations for our tree. 

This LINK will take you to a post where Gudrun had shown me some nifty finishing techniques and I used them in this project.

Gudrun at her loom

Its a large twelve shaft countermarch from Scotland and circa 1934 ... with a fly shuttle.

Gudrun had this really interesting, but heavy metal sample / workshop loom that she took to workshops and displays. Alfred would always carry it in for her and set it up.  I watched her use it many times weaving huck lace at one workshop, or Theo Mormon at another. She even used it at a tapestry workshop working her sample horizontally.

Gudrun was also an amazing tapestry weaver (* more on this later!)

Gudrun played the piano as well and we still fondly recall an evening  where she played for us after dinner.  She loved the classics. Here she is playing at a display where her weaving was on exhibit along with a few other weavers.

Gudrun sent me this picture of the ice cream cones at the local Co-Op gas station as bait to try and lure us back to the Shuswap!

Her  husband and true partner in all things, Alfred "helping"

Above is Liz Bosworth (Guild president then), Gudrun and myself at the Salmon Art Gallery.

So we went to visit and stay with them in the Salmon Arm area the end of June, 2013. We had a lovely time!

Later, Alfred and I sat and took in the view of the lake and Bastion Mountain while Gudrun and Bruce went for a walk on the pier.

Gudrun loved the Shuswap and its hot sunny summers and cold crisp winters.  She had a lovely yard and garden and they managed it well together.    Friends were invited to come and sit on their deck and do some fibre activity such as spinning, dyeing or simply twisting fringe.

Here's Gudie (right) with Gudrun enjoying the air  together and working on finishing projects together. The Salmon Arm Spinners and Weavers Guild are an active group so events like the fall fairs, workshops and projects are ongoing all year round.

Now back to the tapestry weaving....    I was able to photograph some of Gudrun's tapestries.

A night migration of birds.

close up detail

A computer chip!

Then there was  Autumn in Sunnybrae ... woven sideways.

Please see the link above for a past blog post on this amazing tapestry.

This was hung above their fireplace and when you see it from ten to fifteen feet away, it looked like a detailed, clear painting. It took your breath away!

Next major tapestry Gudrun embarked on was The Pond

Again, please take time to read the older post.

When viewed from a few feet back, you can see the shimmer on the water!

Then last August 2014, Gudrun finished another tapestry that she had worked on for nearly two years.  I have a great many pictures of it under way and the big reveal and we talked about doing a blog post on this work, but unfortunately Gudrun's commentary on the project didn't come to pass.

Gudrun's son asked her to weave him a dinosaur....  fossilized dinosaur bones!  Here are a sequence of pictures showing it under way... some are taken by me and most are by Gudrun and Alfred:

Be sure to click to enlarge!

The loom and weaver

The yarns and colours used

The cartoon

The start...

Finally removed from the loom last August 21st, 2014

Blocked and mounted by September 7th and now hangs in her son and daughter in law's home.

I have no more words other than to say...  I treasure my time with Gudrun and  I miss my friend.  Our deepest condolences to her family and friends. Gudrun leaves behind a dear husband, two sons, a daughter in law and two lovely grand daughters.   Maybe they will become weavers like their Oma?