Good Things Happen in Threes

This is as close as I can come to a spectacular finish to a year of blogging and the start of another!  I like to do an annual draw by way of thanking my faithful readers.   I know you are out there and sometimes you do a quick dash in and out.... sometimes, you settle in for a good read of past posts.

I have 'met' some of you via email and correspondence and shared in your successes and helped with some weaving problems.    Weavers everywhere seem to be a great bunch of resourceful friendly people, no matter where in the world we live!

Today its snowing at a steady pace and starting to add up.   No sunshine for some of these pictures to come so my apologies for the darker pictures. I tried to brighten them up on the computer.

I sat and read through each and every comment on the last two blog posts and wrote down everyone's name, or in the case of a few 'unknowns' I also added a bit of their comment so I could separate them. One weaver wrote twice and there's only one entry per weaver, and another commenter is a friend who is not a weaver, so the samples would not be of much use to her.

That brings the count to 47 names in the draw. They were folded in half and placed in a basket and shaken up well.....

I decided since I had eighteen samples to divide them into three lots of six .....

Then I placed them into three brown envelopes and had Bruce randomly number them.   Then we shook the basket once more and pulled three slips and tucked them under the number tag as drawn

Drum roll please!

Billie Weaver lives in the "Australian Capital Territory" of Canberra.   She also refers to it as the "Black weaving hole of the Universe".  I will leave it to Billie to explain that one....

Second slip drawn is for Karen Moore, a Canadian weaver in Ontario.

Third draw is for Capt. Dave and I have no idea where in the world Dave lives.... but he's clearly a weaver!

Congratulations to you all and please contact me via emmatrude at gmail dot com with your addresses and I will mail your sample prizes off to you sometime this week (after the snow stops)

I would like to take a moment to thank you for taking time to read my blog and following along as I get through my daily shenanigans and try to weave in between.  I never thought this electronic journaling would last this long but here we are at nine years and counting!

All the best for the coming year, Susan 

....And the Winner is....

On the 8th anniversary of me starting this blog, you, the  contestants had a 1 in 38 chance of being drawn!  Not bad odds huh?  Better than the lottery !   {There were a total of 39 comments but one person commented on each post... so only one entry to the draw}

So here's the prize. Its a guest towel woven by me (10/2 mercerized cotton and a fine Bambu 12 weft called  water chestnut which is much like an ecru.  Yes, there is a treadling error but the towel is pretty none the less!  I made up 38 little tags of paper and had all names entered and into the wee basket (that a friend made by hand and gifted us for Christmas).

A good stir and toss......

....and the name drawn was Deanna! 

Deanna has a blog she writes called Deanna's Weaving and seems to be very accomplished!  I searched for an email address for you Deanna to contact you directly but came up empty!  So please contact me via emmatrude(at)gmail.com when you see this.    

I simply can't believe that its now 8 years since I started this blog.  I had been the President of the Guild of Canadian Weavers for a period of four + years and it involved being on the computer almost daily with emails, meetings and such.   When my term was over and I stepped down, I went from being totally involved to a sudden nothing. I needed something to become involved in regularly as I became more involved with Life and weaving again and less about computers and meetings. 

A blog so that I could share what others had generously taught me over the years and in turn I could share with other weavers, such as yourself ..... and I could go about it in a way with blogging that makes it easier for both you and me. I'm sure many of you sit and read posts in your jammies.  

 I somehow sense that while blogs are still very popular, they don't enjoy the large readership they had of a few years ago.   I did create a Facebook page called Thrums Textiles   and I also created an Etsy shop of the same name. Even Pinterest, though I'm still trying to work out how this site actually works!  I'm trying to keep up with the times but draw the line at all the other social media web sites such as Instagram.... if I joined them all, I would never get any weaving done! (But if there's one you think I should know about, then please contact me!)  I hope to do more weaving this year and then write to you here more often than I was able to last year.

I'm optimistic at any rate! 

So Congratulations to Deanna.....

Drum Roll Please! The Winner is......

So, I wrote down every name of people who wrote a comment on the December 21st post and very scientifically, shook them all up in a sealed container and drew one out.... and it was......

Here's Barbara's comment:

 barbara said...

Hi Susan - Congratulations on reaching your 7th Anniversary of your blog - I have enjoyed every posting, and have learned lots from your writings. I am so pleased to hear that your recovery is coming along, and you are even thinking of go out to see a movie "The Hobbit", I too plan to see that as soon as Christmas is over. I have really tried to focus on the true meaning of Christmas, and am fortunate that I don't have to get all involved with the "commercial" end. This makes for a very relaxing time, spending time with whom I want to spend time with. Nice to see that you are starting to think about weaving again, and things will fall into place when your body is healed. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and Bruce. Enjoy the holiday season! Weaverly yours ... Barbara

Barbara has won the 12 shaft kitchen towel!   Its a rather interesting twill. Its a twelve shaft draft, threaded like a turned twill.  White cottolin sett at 24 epi and the weft is 8/2 cotton in pink. There is two distinct blocks (treadles 1 to 6, and, treadles 7 to 12) What you see above is a simple treadling of 1 through to 12 and repeated. Optically its a brain teaser! 

Please email me with your mailing address Barbara  to weever at shaw dot ca .  Its all wrapped and ready to go!

I find it hard to believe that I have kept this blog up for seven years as of today. I also know that some of you have been reading it all that time too. Thanks for hanging in there for the weaving content and also for enduring home renovations, new well being drilled, trees being felled,  trips away and baby arrivals!   Many of you have come along in the years since and live in many diverse places all around the world.  Great to have you all come and visit.

I have heard from many of you via email and sometimes run into you at places like Ravelry (where I am weever) and Facebook (where I have a page called Thrums Textiles ) and enjoyed chatting with you.  I have handled questions on looms, sources for yarns and such. The one thing I have noticed is just how much we have in common regardless of where we live.

Besides busy lives with children and grandchildren, we all share a love of weaving and working with fibre, of challenging ourselves to do more and better.  How to fit more weaving into our lives and how to make beautiful, functional cloth.

On the home front right now, I am making my way slowly with a cane in the house and the walking is getting easier as 'things' adjust to the new reality. My physiotherapist is quite pleased with my progress.   I even sat in the studio yesterday and spun on my spinning wheel while I waited for laundry to run its course. It felt great and it exercises the lower legs nicely.  So the wheel has been promoted to the living room to keep me busy and I have some lovely fleece from New Zealand on the go right now.

I did get to the movie, "The Hobbit: The Five Armies" and loved it.  I sat on my four wheel walker with a cushion and kept shifting my legs to keep things happy.   The length of the film was the only challenge but I survived! The multi-plex theatre has eight individual theatres and our film was in number 8.... the farthest away (of course). So Bruce suggested I sit on the walker and lift my feet.....and he pushed me down the long hallway and saved me many, many steps!  What a guy huh?

Celebrations!

Christmas is almost here! Are your plans all made, menus set ? .... gifts bought and wrapped?  Its become a crazy time of year and there are a lot of stresses on everyone. I have found that as you get older your feelings for Christmas undergo a change. Gifts are nice but not really necessary as we tend to buy what we need through out the year.   You may even start to scale back on the decorations.  Its a darker time of year and I find the sparkly lights are the best part for me.  With the Solstice today, the emphasis is on the return of the light!

Now that I have a grandson, and a grand daughter on the way, I can see where Christmas is truly all about the children.  For little Ethan this is a magical time of year as he learns the customs and experiences it all. For him, its real!  He also wants it all, and now..... (patience Grasshopper!)

So it comes down to what is really important.  Spending time with family and friends and if not in person, then make a call and hear their voice.  Face Time or Skype is another good option too.  (try not to have them looking up your nose and get the camera angle right!)

I had to get my cards done a fair bit early this year due to the operation. There were several letters needed for older family friends and relatives far away.  I sat and hand wrote them out as my attempt to keep something authentic about communication! No dispersions are being cast on the computer  generated family newsletter; its just not my style.

Our only festive plan this year is to go with a friend and see the third and sadly last instalment  of the Hobbit movie. That will be a big night out for me!  I already know their theatre seating is very low and soft so I will take my four wheel walker and my booster cushion and sit at the end of a row.   The movie is out now and I reckon another week and I can do it given my recovery and how I feel.

So how goes it here?  Well, Bruce has been doing a stellar job of keeping me fed and in clean clothes and taking me to medical appointments.  He's even starting to spend time in his hobby room again and work on his models.  I am moving better and feeling stronger with the two wheel walker and even taking a few steps (with a hand hold) on my own and I can see where using a cane alone is in my near future.  My dressing is off and things have healed well.  Its just all the internal healing and strengthening that must carry on in the coming months.  Its a slow process but there is measurable progress daily.   Its the slow part that had me bugged today.  You feel good enough to do more, but you can't ! (yet)

So I indulged in some retail therapy instead. I purchased a large ball winder with a tensioner (picture to come later) and I went bonkers shopping at Etsy! I shopped for the coming grand baby and grandson as you have to have something for him at the baby showers to come as well.  Ethan is now train crazy and so we are going to be feeding that fire very well!   My daughter in law wants a dragonfly theme for the new baby girl's room and Nana found some nice essentials with just that.

I also found yarn! I have a nice  cone of a luxury fibre coming.... to be revealed later!  Yes, my thoughts are returning to weaving even if the flesh is weak still!  And my willpower is too....

So from our family to yours, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a healthy Happy New Year! May your shuttles fly true and well.

January 8th, 2015 is this blog's  7th anniversary date and I will be having a  random draw of a kitchen towel based on comments left to this post. Draw will be made on January 7th  and the winner will be announced January 8th. I simply can't believe that I have been writing this blog for seven years. To those of you who have been here from the start, you have my grateful thanks!

pink and white only... spoon not included  :)

I appreciate that some find the comment system here cranky but simply click on the word 'comment' below and follow the steps. If the Captcha word is too hard to view, click the refresh circle with the arrow to get one that's easier for you. Then, failing that, email me and I'll add you in okay.  Email address is in my profile.