Landing on Our Feet

So the trucks pulled into the driveway, mats went down everywhere to protect the flooring and they began to unload our goods.  Now unloading is a much faster process and so there was a constant stream of men with box loads on dollies asking where does this go?  And where do you want this piece of furniture and how is it to be arranged?   Frequently being asked all three questions at the same time and needing to be in three rooms and the front door all at the same time!  Understandably there were no pictures taken that day, or for several days...... but we did take some of Calli enjoying her new back yard. Taken Oct 11th and note the all leaves on the trees.

The yard is fully fenced but somehow she has managed to get out twice. So no unescorted yard visits until we find out where the hole is!  Trust me, Bruce has looked and she never tries to use the hole when we are there with her.

We knew we would not have a formal dining room furniture for a time so that empty space became the default zone for anything we didn't know or were unsure of.   So you can imagine how full that floor space became in a hurry!

Even if you have similar named rooms in past and present homes, it doesn't always translate through the same, depending on many variables such as door positions, the room's shape,  and windows etc.  Large furniture is placed by the movers and so you must at least try to get that right (or close to it).  We had tried to envision major furniture placements the night before when the house was totally empty but the reality of when they physically bring in the goods is a whole other deal!  We'll be tweaking and fine tuning things for a time, as and when we have some extra manpower to hand.

Moving is never easy  but somehow at our age it is simply exhausting, so we woke late on the first morning in our new place surrounded by heaps of boxes everywhere and no coffee maker in sight!   I set to opening and getting the kitchen in place. Trying to figure out the best work flow and where stuff will best fit.  Next up were the bathrooms, then the linens.... and day after day went by in a blur!  Finally, after Bruce had taken *many* loads of crushed packing paper and collapsed boxes to the recycler,  we seemed to turn a corner and it felt more home than box warehouse.

We have also found groceries stores, got a new doctor set up and introduced ourselves to our usual banks.   Found a pizza place too....

So here are some pictures of the new place and studio:

This one shows the boxes, loom parts and such dropped into the studio space.  Technically its supposed to be the master bedroom but it made sense to use the second bedroom room for us and this room for the studio. There are also two closets that were also crammed full of boxes too.

So, where to start?    I had to empty out the closets, open up the boxes and then refill the closets with shelving  and then as much yarn and equipment as I could reasonably fit in there. Which was quite a bit!  I would then know what I had left to deal with in the main room.  That space is unique for its alcove with windows at one end, a French door that runs diagonally across one wall  ..... and ends with an ensuite bathroom at the opposite!  More pictures on that later.

Calli enjoying the view out front through the full glass doors. I foresee an almost permanent line of nose prints to clean for some years to come. 

On October 12th, we had the formal dining area finally cleared and our new rug down and movers brought in our 'new to us' dining room suite.   We had gone with pro movers (with insurance) as there are several pieces and lots of glass and mirrors.  To their credit, they had managed to get it down a curved spiral staircase, into a truck and driven here safely and in one piece.... only to break the curved glass door as they were about to unload the cabinet. The second cabinet has straight glass which would have been so much simpler to replace too.  The moving company immediately got the claim set up and a woodworker came to examine the damaged wood from falling glass, cracked door frame and miscellaneous scratches.  He can work his magic on all of that and took away the good curved glass door and it was on its way to a glass blower on the southern part of the island to make another new door!  There's no time frame on when we will see the new door so we are patiently waiting.  I suspect it will take some time. That means several boxes of fine china are waiting for the repairs and new doors for unloading.... 

Calli likes all the new rugs  :)

Below shows the studio in a stage of unboxing.... books on shelves and some order is starting to show. It seemed to be a lot of shifting stuff around for the longest time.

Below is the view from the studio alcove windows.  By this point we had more than a few storms blow through and some torrential rains. The chestnut tree, on the left, shows the predominate wind direction!

We just kept on chipping away at the boxes and finding new places to squirrel stuff away.  Or at least organizing them into logical piles in the garage. Occasionally we would take a day off and go into town.  Overall, we're slowly working out what we might need to buy and add to the home, and also discovering what doesn't work and we'll part with.  This house is quite different from our last and somethings just won't make the transition! Last house was built late 1970's and more 'country' feel.... and this one is built in the late 1990's and more modern in design. (Yesterday the house was filled with sunshine but it didn't come through very well in the pictures. I will retake them with full lights on another sunny day.... which maybe a while given the Pacific storm tracks right now).

The kitchen

The breakfast dinette

The formal dining room (the white door is the entry to the studio)

Opposite the dining room and some 'stuff' that needs to have some decisions made on. You can see the openness of the upper structure.

Then to the left, a lovely area to sit quietly or read a book. We are going to be re-inventing this space soon.

Then, there's the new studio... which was formerly the master bedroom. We are using the second bedroom.  This is looking towards the alcove which has windows on two sides.

...and this is the view from the alcove windows....

and down the other end of the room....

Yes, that's the ensuite bathroom you get a peak of down there at the end.  A bit odd I grant you but what the heck! Then there is the nice side benefit of a walk in closet for the yarn.  I added more shelving to the existing shelf units and then packed in as much as I could!

Meanwhile, I have started re-assembling the Megado but this is as far as I can go with it for now. There are four long carriage bolts that secure the front portion to the main loom and I'm missing four barrel nuts that seal the deal.  There was nothing left in the old studio and the parts are not in my container.... so I can only assume they fell out later and are rolling around in the back of the moving truck, or swept out as junk.   I have four new ones coming from Louet and hopefully it won't take long to arrive.

I can move on with loading the Spring or fringe twist some scarves, but re-working the tie up is an issue for me.  I can't get down on the floor and the crates I normally use to lift the loom up so I can do the tie up are all under the Megado!    Oops..... so I'd best start with the fringe twisting. 

Lucky you.... because that means "show and tell" next in the next blog post!

Between There and Here

It was a weird feeling driving away from our old house for the last time. The new owners were walking up the road hand in hand to the house and we were off up island towing a trailer load of last minute things, some house plants and the dog.  There was many feelings swirling about but the overwhelming one was that of a chapter in our lives was closing and a new one starting. 

We didn't get too far north, reached the little town of Chemainus and dropped Calli off at her usual kennel for a play session and overnight stay. 

Then not too far away, we stayed here for the night  Best Western Chemainus.   The idea was to stay reasonably local and then we could tie up loose ends in the area and at the old house.   I guess I had mentioned bringing our dog Calli along for our stay and the hotel had this little guest package ready for her. It was quite sweet!   Notice the dog bed has a nice goose eye twill. 

We had stayed here while we were house hunting back in 2007 and it somehow seemed appropriate to finish things in the Cowichan Valley here as well.

We had a nice drive up island of two- three hours to our new community of Campbell River.  It was getting late in the day but we drive round to the new house and had a walk around of the empty home, trying to envision where we'd place furniture the next day.    We went and had dinner at a restaurant in town and drove a bit north out of town to Painters Lodge.  Its a resort famous for its fishing charters and outfitter guides to the more wild northern part of Vancouver Island. It has been welcoming guests since 1929.  It also has a water taxi boat over to  Quadra Island and its sister business April Point Resort and Spa.    After all the stress of moving, the spa part sounded  really nice right about then!

It was after dark when we arrived and we snapped this cell phone picture of the main lodge, fireplace must be blazing inside and you could hear the sound of live music coming from the  great room.  We checked in and went to our cabin by the water.  We were all so tired!  Calli put herself to bed right away and we thought that was a good idea too. The next day was to start early and would be a long one!

So just at first light, I saw Calli checking out the view. Seems we were at the waters edge and had a  good view of the docks and boats.  You could see people making their way down to the dock to take a boat out on a fishing charter.  I checked their guide book in the room and read that this was a good time to catch Chum salmon.    Bruce took Calli for a walk and snapped this picture. Sorry its a bit dark but it was 6:30- 7 am !    We also found out that both resorts, Painter's Lodge and April Point, are up for sale.  No telling what direction they would be going once they are sold.  I can say that we stayed here but truthfully, we didn't see very much! 

We got some breakfast in town and headed over to the new house, just in time to see two familiar five ton trucks roll into the driveway and our very long day began.

***

Changing the subject entirely .... today, October 25th, is our 31st wedding anniversary.  Not too shabby for second time arounders huh?  No cards, no flowers this year.... but we may go out for supper tonight.  We gave each other a new house !

1985

1987

1995

1997

1998 or 1999

2013

Waiting.....

Our world is pretty topsy turvey right now!

The studio is in bits and bundles. The family china is wrapped, boxed and gone already.    Nothing to but wait for the packers and movers this coming week.   

 The calm before the storm...

I think Calli suspects something is going on. She keeps pretty close to either us or her bed. The suitcases purposefully haven't come out of storage  as yet as when they do, that means 'kennel-visit' to her'.  Except this time she's coming with us.

It will be my one year anniversary of my new knee on the 28th. What a difference a year makes!

See you on the other side of this adventure in moving...

Hang on for a Bumpy Ride

Sixteen days is what it took for there to be an accepted offer on our house and property!  Oh, and a total eighteen viewings and two other offers.    It was a nail biter finish yesterday. Someone is very happy and another family is very disappointed.    We're just feeling numb right now.    To be fair, our realtor told us after we signed the listing papers to strap in for the ride!

So that's part one done and now we move onto the next phase which is finding a new place to live.  Kinda scary letting go with one hand and having faith the next step is there.  A second ride and hopefully smoother....

I have finished weaving the second scarf and just have samples to weave off and then I'm into fringe twisting (when I'm not on the road viewing homes).

I can stop cleaning now.  

A Little Stroll down Memory Lane

It was just over a week ago that we laid my Dad's remains to rest and we all gathered as a family.  We shared a meal and reminisced.  Since coming home I have found my thoughts drifting back in time and so I went digging through old photos and I recently scanned some into my computer to share.

Yes, that's a much younger (and thinner)  me above with a lady who's name is lost from my memory. It was fall 1995 and I was buying her forty five inch Leclerc Colonial loom with 4 shafts, 6 treadles and it could be set up as either jack  or counterbalance.  It came with bench, electric bobbin winder, shuttles, bobbins, many books including New Key to Weaving, Marguerite Davison's Four shaft pattern book with the green cover, Burnham's Keep Me Warm One Night, and Peter Collingwood's Rug Weaving book.   All for $500.00 and I was so new to weaving, that I had no idea of the super deal we had found! It did involve a trip from the Okanagan to the Vancouver area to view and collect.   I found out later it was missing the apron rods but had some made at a machine shop.  Not a big deal really...

Summer  1996

Coldstream house 1995-1997

The house we first lived in after our move to the Okanagan was in Coldstream, adjacent to Vernon BC. The Leclerc Colonial filled a small bedroom and I don't have any pictures of her set up. What I do have a picture of is the small loom I agreed to 'store' for the local weavers guild and eventually bought from the owner.  We lived on Tassie Drive and the loom was owned by Libby Tassie. Her husband's family had been early settlers in the area. It was a little slice of local history.   It was called the Tassie loom by everyone for obvious reasons, but what it actually was, was a thirty six inch Leclerc Artisat four shaft loom.  You can see that the  "loom creep" was well under way with a loom in a bedroom and this little one was artfully angled in the large living room.  The stash at this point fit well into a closet. 

I upgraded the heddles to the inserted eye variety and in this picture I'm threading a baby blanket for a nephew (who is now nearly twenty!)    We were renting this house and our landlord decided a leaking roof did not merit repairs and so, with the support of the property management company, we broke our lease and moved after ten months....

 Winfield / Lake Country house  July 1998-2004

We rented another home in a community called Winfield (later changed to Lake Country) and were perched on a hill above Gray Monk Winery's vineyards. There was a stunning 180 degree view of Okanagan Lake.    In July 1998 I received the brand new Woolhouse CM loom and so I sold off all the others to help pay for it.  It was an eight shaft model at the time and the wood is so blonde for being newly made.  My brother Kent came for a visit and took pictures of me weaving on her.

No bedroom for this baby!   We placed her in the formal dining area and angled her so I could also see the lake and all its moods. Here I am weaving snowflake twill for the very first time in silk.

Estamont Beach house 2004- 2006

Another move but this time we were buying a home and we moved to a small community called Estamont Beach on the north west side of Okanagan Lake. Here there was an above ground, walkout basement with a rec room and I set up shop there.  The stash and associated equipment had grown (of course) and I used a small office downstairs to store things there.

We were enjoying a  new lake view once again, and the Woolhouse got the window, while a smaller eight shaft Leclerc Compact loom sat across from it. I bought the Compact loom from a dear friend who had woven many, many yards on her since she was new..... so much that she was actually wearing out!  I was warned she was 'tired'!  The loom needed some repairs and replacements and basically a reinvention of the tie up system as the slots for the cords had widened.   I struggled with it for a time and eventually sold it to a weaver in the Shuswap who's handy husband fixed the treadles and some other issues and she happily wove away on it. 

I found the loom was a bit too low for my height as well. New owner Jenny was of a more diminutive height than me.  It just goes to prove that there is a perfect loom and weaver match for every loom and weaver!

I had also bought a gently used 12 shaft Woolhouse Tools Carolyn table loom. It had only ever had one warp on it!  I got the support table frame and it made it much more accessible for use.  It ended up being too big and heavy for workshops, though it was really nice to stand weave when all set up over standing at a table all day. Eventually it was sold to Theresa of blog "Camp Runamuck" fame in Oregon and I believe she sold it in time to someone in Massachusetts.  That loom certainly was going places!     I love table looms for workshops and smaller projects, but if you are looking for speed, then it a floor loom all the way!

Having said that, here's a picture of me and a friend in 2003 working on a Leclerc Dorothy table loom. Julianne had found it in a local garage sale for $25.00 and thought she'd give it a try.   Well, we worked it and finally got  warp on her, but the heavy clunk action of the shafts and the slowness of the process meant Julianne had her own garage sale in due course.

Blind Bay house  2004-2006

We moved to the Shuswap in 2004 to a larger home and the idea was to find a community that was more temperate.  I was finding the long hot summers in the Okanagan really draining. You seemed to live in an AC house and run to your AC car.   It was August when we moved in and it was 39 degrees Celsius. So much for that idea!    The Woolhouse loom went to a small bedroom in the basement and stash and stuff went to the second bedroom down there.  I can't find a picture of the room just now, but they were both bright and cheery..... but very small and I did not feel very inspired in those spaces.

We literally had someone make us an offer on our home that we could not refuse!  Retiring accountants from the Oil Patch in Alberta who wanted our house on the 13th tee of the golf course. So we packed up and moved again.

2006-2007: A brief one year in Powell River 

The Woolhouse loom and Carolyn table loom stayed in a very large bedroom with excellent light. It was a nice space to weave in on the upper floor of our home.   Our situation there in Powell River changed and we made a decision to move, with our home selling in 3 hours, and went to Vancouver Island in 2007 to our present home.

I had become very proficient at dismantling and reassembling (single handed too) the Woolhouse loom.... which continued to expand and grow over the years and that included to an addition of more shafts, a second warp beam and a  20+ tie up assist.  

There's one more move ahead for us and hopefully in 2016 we can sell this house when my recovery is well under way.  Its time to downsize the size of property to look after.  Our home has the main floor 'up' and so a flight of stairs are required to get to bedroom and essential rooms.  Not ideal for someone with joint issues. I will still have another surgery to come even after the knee so the stairs will be an ongoing issue regardless.

You know, it will feel really strange not to have the Woolhouse to breakdown and pack up..... 

I also found some old photographs of past projects to share with you from 2003 - 2004 before I started keeping samples and better records.  It took me a few years to see the sense in it!

Baby blanket: white 8/2 cotton warp with a linen / synthetic blend; crocheted edging.  Sett would have been 24 epi. I used the draft you'll find in this post

Baby Blanket:  white 8/2 cotton with white #10 Aunt Lydia crochet cotton; hem stitched and hemmed.

Baby Blanket: white 8/2 cotton with beige #10 Aunt Lydia crochet cotton; crocheted edging.

 I was a fairly new weaver still and looking for sources of yarns to use.... Aunt Lydia jumbo 1000 yard cones were then $5.99 at Wal-Mart. It gave the blankets a crisp pattern and lovely shine.  I bought a few cones and still have them in my stash. Its nice to use actually. 

A dear friend Gloria, who is now long since passed on, gave guild members this draft for an 8 shaft false damask. I made some kitchen towels featuring Gloria's favourite colour purple. I still have one towel and its in constant use in our kitchen and still looking good after eleven or twelve years.

So what have I learned from this little wander down memory lane?  (besides the fact we have moved a lot, but all for good reasons).  That I tried and traded up different looms as I grew as a weaver. Some worked and fit right and some were interesting to play with for a time and move them along to another weaver.    The loom swapping slowed down in time as I found the right fit for me.

My later acquisitions of my Louet Spring are documented in this post, and my Louet Megado in this post. 

I also learned that our Province of BC is beautiful, one house move at a time!  I think we're happy being Vancouver Islanders now having lived here for 8 years now. It always feels like home when the ferry is heading for her shores. We might just be finally setting down roots!