Trials and Tribulations

Well, I did warn you some time ago that there will come a day when the medical stuff going on in my life will start to really squeeze out the weaving part.... and its beginning...

In the last month I have had three dental appointments, and seen my family doctor twice, my rheumatologist once and recently my surgeon again. Its been a very busy time and will be ongoing for  awhile.

I had a three hour root canal this past Tuesday and I'm still in the recovery phase and not chewing on that side of my face.   I'm a "white knuckle flyer" in the chair and on the day, so  I took some ativan and brought my iPod along.   I plugged in my ear phones and listened to some favourite music... loudly.... and just lay still. I reckoned the orthodontist could do a faster job if I kept quiet.... and I did a good job of it.  I even started to fall asleep once!  They got it all done and even a permanent filling in place, so no return visit or two.  (We won't talk about the two crowns I need now....)

Then two days later I saw my surgeon for an important appointment.  Bruce came in with me and we had a discussion about my two cranky joints and which goes first.  They are both equally painful now and both need medical intervention and it was decided to go with replacing my right hip as its a major weight bearing joint and the left knee will be next year, approximately June to August possibly.

I've been down this road before as I had my left hip replaced in 2001 and so know full well what is ahead and we have been busy getting ready. There are a lot of helpful aides that you need to set up: raised toilet seat, walkers, a reacher, crutches, a cushion to raise your spot on the coach or chair, and a bath bench.   You need comfy clothes for coming home in,  and going to rehab. We have been ticking off things on the list. Why the hurry?   Well, they have moved my surgery up to December 4th and that's not all that far away.  

So add in getting Christmas done early (such as it will be) and there is an air of urgency !

Coming up this week is yet another Doctor visit and a three hour education class at the Joint Replacement Clinic.  It doesn't leave much time for weaving and quite frankly, sometimes I just sit and read a book to take my mind off everything.  Between the knee and hip and dealing with pain.... and some time down the road, there will even be a foot surgery, it can all get a bit much to deal with.   Weaving keeps me sane and is my "carrot" to dangle at the end of all this!

If you made it to here, then you deserve some fibre content!    I've been playing around with my Fireworks program and came up with this: (click to enlarge)

I saw in my mind's eye,  scarves in three types of fine silks: silk yak blend is the grey, silk and camel is the gold, and 30/2  bombyx silk is the cream, with a sett of 36 epi.  Soft natural colours.

Its tough for me to stand in one spot for too long so winding the warp took time, especially  with all the colour changes!  I did bits and pieces as I could and Bruce helped me wind the warp on. 

Today,  I worked the new tie up with the loom up on her crates and made a start!

The two stick start means you get busy right away.

This is a close up of the sample for my records.

I laced on to reduce loom waste... it is silk after all! I plan to weave one scarf like the sample with all yak silk weft, and then maybe try my silk plaid arrangement for the second?  Or find another weft yarn?  I'm just happy that the loom is back in action and I can sit and weave when time allows!

Bruce took the pictures of the Japanese maple today while the sun shone. This magic colour is such a brief period in time and I wait all year for it!

Here's one that I took a few years ago and the leaves seem to  float by themselves in the air!

Snowflakes That Won't Melt

If you have been a regular reader of my blog, you'll know that I love the complexities of snowflake twill. In a previous post, I ran through a number of projects I've done featuring this pattern. I left you awhile ago with a brief view of the current three scarf warp on the big loom. I had found a streak on the underside of the warp. It looked fine on the top side! It was from a mis- threaded heddle where the thread went below the eye, so it produced a visible line, but not where I could see it.

I used a lovely 30/2 blend of  55% silk and 45% bleached camel. Its a soft creamy colour and soft as a cloud. The sett was 36 ends per inch and just about eight inches in the reed.  After fixing my little oops, I decided to change my weft to something shiny as the warp is rather matte in finish.  I end up weaving all three scarves in more subtle shades. The pattern can be a bit busy when brighter colour are used. I prefer things a bit more subtle.  I wove two scarves to seventy two to seventy three inches and the last one went  a bit long to seventy six inches! Its amusing how the warp that couldn't seem to get started, and then I  couldn't get finished and then on the last scarf.... I wouldn't quit weaving!

Here's the bronze-gold bamboo weft (the last, longer scarf) on the fringing board.

This one has a fine 10/2 white tencel. Nice play of light on the pattern with the shiny weft and matte warp.

The picture above shows the silk/ bleached camel warp and a 45% regular camel and 55% silk for a lovely soft gold tone. This scarf is butter soft to touch! I twisted the fringe in fine bouts on all scarves for a more feminine look.

This grouping shows the sewing of beads and bling.  I used various fine glass beads, Swarovski crystals and fresh water pearls. There are twelve pearls and twelve crystals per scarf!

Madge Mannequin looks elegant all decked out. She's modeling the bamboo weft scarf.

In these below, you can see the camel/ silk with camel /silk. The pattern wove up  'to square' and smaller. More petite.

Below are shots of the white tencel and creamy warp. The contrast between matte and sheen is wonderful and so you get good pattern definition. Its just hard to shoot with a flash as the tencel shine takes over!

An interesting thing happened when I measured them up for their hang tags. The length was puzzling! Two scarves woven to seventy two or seventy three inches were now only sixty eight inches!. The extra long bamboo went from approx seventy six inches down to seventy two inches! The length wise shrinkage with the camel silk yarn is quite considerable. I will be making notes to add to the balance of the yarn for the next project.

Silk...its a lovely fibre to weave with. Plied, it has great strength on the loom as warp. Its lovely natural colour or takes a dye beautifully with acid based dyes. I've used Telana dyes with great success. My stash of 20/2 and 30/2 silks are running low and so I started to search for a source.  At $117.00 to $135.00 per  pound, it can get expensive fast. I checked all the usual places and then went looking for other sellers on line. and I found  an Indian direct silk seller. (edit: link removed)  I ordered five- one hundred  gram skeins. That's just a bit over a pound... for $50.00 plus a small postage fee.  It took some time to arrive and when it did, it was a marvel to behold! The postal clerk was amazed it was still full! So was I. The paper wrapping had a mesh backing and the silk was enclosed in a cellophane bag. It was unscathed but we all marveled at why... The only places on the parcel that was okay was where there was tape. They just didn't use much! I had a email conversation with the seller and the pictures convinced him that shipping changes were in order. Either to completely tape it, or use a box. Those Indian postal clerks play rough!

As you can see the silk inside was untouched and simply beautiful!

Edit: ... and at $10.00 a skein, I  would like to order more but won't.  They have repeated the poor shipping to another weaver and her parcel barely arrived in one piece too. My complaints about the wrapping didn't change a thing!  They have also changed from a 'buy it now'  to a bidding process which means the price is driven up considerably.   Back to looking again!