Something in the air?

This  must be the season for bad knees! Recently our son stood up at school and then had to sit down fast. His knee gave out. He didn't hurt it that we know of. After trips to two doctors and an MRI we know he has bruising under his knee cap. He wore a knee brace for two weeks and is now in physical therapy. The only thing that the orthopedic surgeon can come up with is that he has had a growth spurt and his knee didn't keep up with the rest of his body. Both knee caps are kind of loose and one isn't tracking well.

Then there is me. I have old, worn out knees. They will both be replaced in a couple of weeks. I sure am not looking forward to this. The timing is so wrong. Here I am trying to renovate a house and now this? Another delay to weaving or so I was thinking. My sweet husband said I should put a table loom in the living room and weave during my recovery. What a great idea! I can do some small projects that have gotten put on a back burner for some time now. I keep telling myself the surgery will be a good thing. I have been given a three ring binder of information. In it, it says that I will be able to play golf in just a matter of weeks! Isn't that amazing? I have never played golf before! What an age we live in! You can have surgery and come home with a new skill!

Then there is our daughter. She hurt her knee on an elliptical exercise machine. Sigh.........

Linda

Empty loom, great book and flowers!

This week I finally got my wolf pup empty! Sometimes it takes forever to get a warp off a loom especially when there are so many other things on looms that seem to take priority! However, the warp on the wolf pup was so much fun and easy to do. I mean, really, plain weave is a great rhythmic weave! I like to play with colors and just the simple wisteria and natural of this warp made 7 handtowels. 2 are the solid wisteria and the others the natural with wisteria plaid in part of it.  So this afternoon I am going to a bridal shower for the son and his fiance of friends of ours. What better gift than one of those handtowels and 4 Ellen's pattern placemats that I pulled out of my stash! I do hope that they use them. The towel is prewashed and 8/2 cotton holds up really well. I've got several that I just throw in with my regular wash and haven't had any problems with them. They just get softer! Now, what on earth am I going to put on that loom next? Decisions, decisions!I recently ordered a new weaving book from Amazon. I hoped it would be really good and it's better than I thought. This book is not a how to with patterns in it.  Nope, this book talks about the weavers up in Michigan who are of Finnish descent and the weaving they brought over with them. I have only just started reading it but there are jewels in there that will help our rug weaving. I do enjoy reading history books especially of people who rose to the challenge to succeed. These weavers used clothing and fabric that would have been thrown away to create the most gorgeous rugs. They wove and still weave in sheds or dark basements. We aren't happy unless we have alot of light in our studios. They even love polyester. How much polyester and double knit have we discarded that we could have used? We all have big stashes of yarns and fabrics. Some, like my DD, even call us hoarders, but we're nothing compared to some of these people. This is a thick book that will take a long time to savor and read! I'll have it next to my chair for a long time!

My DD finally had her knee surgery on Thursday. She is now in recovery mode. She tore her ACL, MCL and miniscus. Surgery took almost 3 hours. We brought her home Thursday evening yet and we're kind of camping out in the living room since the bedrooms are all up on the second floor and with crutches she needs to stay on a level area. We're learning alot about knees! The pain is still pretty incredible but she's doing her exercises faithfully. Physical Therapy starts Monday. I keep thinking of Laura Fry who's been through all of this and in fact, DD injured her knee about the same time Laura had her "accident". However, with ACL injuries they want them to heal some before surgery. I included this picture of flowers because it's so unusual. The family in Atlanta sent it to her. I'd told them she liked flowers, just nice spring flowers. Well, this is quite the arrangement. That's a flower pot on its side full of little roses. The other flowers are all beautiful garden flowers. It sure made her day to get her own flowers.

So I shall keep weaving this week as time allows with appointments scattered through out the day. I've got a basket of handwork to do when I need to be in waiting rooms or even in the living room. Might not get much weaving done but there's always something to do!

Carol

Polliwogs & Perseverance

It happened Thursday.....the post card announcing the opening of my pool:  MONDAY!   I thought I'd have one more week for the wee tadpoles to mature and hop away.  I really try hard to keep the water pumped out of the cover during the winter and spring, but it doesn't seem to take a lot of water to encourage frogs to throw a party.  And, party-hardy they do!  Sometimes the noise is deafening!  They loudly call for all their friends to come to party central on the ridge and celebrate the rites of Spring.  So, I ditched my plans for yesterday and wrangled polliwogs (some with back legs already evident) into a large container.  I'm catching as many as I can with a net and filtering the pumped water.  This afternoon I'll drive over to the pond near the river and release them.  Yes, I know that many will become fish food, but a few may make it to sing their own song.

  And, that is why my tote bags are not finished for today's Guild meeting!  They are off the loom, but they are not finished!  I ran out of steam last night. After I cut the warp off the loom, I laid them on my bed to check for any boo-boos.  Cece helped.   The four yard warp made 3 tote bags, and I would have had a little extra warp at the end for fabric for pockets, except one of the handles wrapped around the cloth beam, and I couldn't advance it any further.  But, I've got the warp rolled up and in my tote bag to take to the meeting.  Sometimes just getting the project off the loom is worth sharing.  My afghan project warp will be going on this week....barring any more interruptions!


Happy Weaving!!!

LouAnn

Death of a UFO, or 20 years of guilt

20 years ago, my mother and I machine pieced together a queen sized quilt in a weekend.  She and Dad were visiting us in TN (we were home for a year furlough after being gone for 4 years overseas).  I worked on it faithfully for a number of years, until one day when I put it away,  I left some tape on it.  I had no idea that the tape would stain the fabric.










When I next pulled it out of the bag, of course I was dismayed at the stains.  2 blocks were basically ruined!  So back in the bag it went for many years.  Guilt, guilt, guilt!  It nagged at me thru the years, but I didn't know how to fix it.  So this week I finally got out the quilting frame, and I remembered how to put it together, and once again pulled out the quilt.  I had decided to put the quilt on the frame and carefully cut out the bad pieces and make new ones to replace them.

This is what I found.  This picture is after I have washed it a couple of times. There are huge stains of some sort (urine?) all over the quilt!  The backing, of course is ruined as is the batting.  Of the 24 blocks, only 11 remain untarnished, most of the outer sashing is ok too.  I have been debating what to do.  Do I just toss the whole thing?   Do I take it apart and save the good squares?

I may save the good parts, and see if I have different colors of fabric, and remake it, maybe not  queen size, but full.  I am still not sure, but there is a lot of emotion in there.  Mom and Dad are tied up in there with being in the US after so many years abroad.  Hard to just let it all go.

                                                                                                            I finished my first inkle band.  The first 6 inches are just a little wider than the rest.  I really enjoyed doing this project, so I decided to try something a little more difficult.  I saw a video on youtube about the pick up method of "inkling".  It was produced by www.norsegirl.com . So I went to her website and was able to pick up a ton of info there.

This is a Celtic Knot pattern that she has on her website and on the youtube video.  It is going really well, it is only a 6 row repeat, so not too complicated.  The hardest part about this is the set up.  You use triple strands as your pattern thread, and you have 2 tabby threads between the pattern threads.  Here I am using 8/4 cotton warp, since I have about a ton of that laying around the studio.

The Tuesday weavers are going to have a get together at Lou Ann's house when she opens her pool.  We have enough Inkle looms at the center to do a class on "inkling".  Maybe we could have some doing the first band I did and the more adventuresome could tackle this one.

Wally is here at my feet, getting bigger by the moment,  I will try to get a picture of him for next weeks blog.  DH is out of town for 10 days, I am glad I have Wally to keep me company.

Happy Weaving, Tina

Thursday Again

You know that I have not had much time to weave. Not true of last week. So I got my warp done to do double weave as planned. Not so true. I calculated wrong(me??). Anyway away went the double weave. I am doing a simple Ellen's pattern for some place mats and maybe a runner. Maybe this will hit home with some of you. I warp from front to back. Was tying onto the back beam and the warp was a bit too loose. I went around and pulled the yarn to make it tighter. Huum. Know what happen. Yep! I pulled it out of the heddles and the reed. Not but one little section. Yes, I cried. After a tearful feeling sorry for myself, I shook it off, picked up the pile of string in the floor and preceded to thread again. It actually was just a neat little pile not tangled . Any WAY. Here is a picture of what I have done so far.

Before I put the warp on I took off all the sectional parts and wound on different. No problem from then on. Now what to do with the sectional parts??

I kind of like it better. There you have it. Keep on keepin on. Things will always get better.

Happy days.

Bonnie

In with the new

Here is the latest addition to my furry entourage, Miss Etta.  She is not really new to my furry family; she lived with me for six months in 2005, when my mother found out she was allergic to her, but Mom took her back when Mariah, the wandering Shih Tzu was hit by a car.  Miss Etta has moved with Mom from Virginia to Tennessee, but in her latest move, Miss Etta has become fond of stripping the wallpaper from Mom's new home's walls.  Since my walls are 90 year old plaster, she'll have a harder time of it.  She has spent the last three days hiding in various places.  I can only locate her by listening for her hissing at whomever comes near.  An unexpected consequence of her irritability with the other inhabitants of Kittywompuss Cottage is that Leo and Wefty are becoming friends at last.  I fully expect Miss Etta to eventually become integrated into the furry entourage and soon become one of the group that closely monitors my comings and goings.
  As noted yesterday, I am trying to become a spinner.

Here is the Louet S-10 that was donated to the Center last week, in my living room.  Spinning wheels look so much better as furniture than looms do, in my opinion.  Looms take up more space and look to me like work not getting done.  I can't relax with a loom in the room;  it reproaches.  That's why mine are in spare bedrooms.  I only go in those rooms to work.  It's been suggested that I have room for more looms in my dining room and living room, but to me, those rooms already have purposes, and looms don't need to be crowding those purposes out.
  But the spinning wheel is still new, and still looks decorative.  I like the way it looks with all the wood in the living room.  It somehow makes the room look cozier, something nice on this cloudy, cool day.  I haven't spun on it today.  I'm not sure I want to curse that much today!  Yesterday, during my lessons,  I just wanted to let loose a big blue streak of frustration, but took pity on my teachers, bit my tongue many times and tried to behave.  This is really something I want to learn, but I'm finding out, as I get older, that if I can't learn something immediately, I get very frustrated.  I need to read, watch videos, read some more, and then, all by myself, try it again.  I'll keep you posted on my progress.
  A good friend is getting married this weekend, and I've been pondering what to get him and his bride, looking through their registries, and haven't been able to feel excited about anything they have chosen.  I do, however, have a lovely collection of finger-manipulated lace hand towels that need hemming.  This morning, I pulled them out, selected four and started hemming them for Joseph and Kathryn.  I hope they like them, but I know I feel better about giving them something from my hands, rather than a Salter pound-to-grams scale or a set of Crate & Barrel wine glasses.  Weftie joined me by the window as the sun rose and those pesky birds played in the yard.  I listened to J. S. Bach's Goldberg Variations while I hemmed, trying to choose the next one to learn, after I finally get through the last page of Variation 13.  It's going to be a good day!  Happy weaving!
Maggie

It's Tuesday!!!

Another great day with the Tuesday Weavers at the Appalachian Arts Craft Center! I don't know if we can truly describe all the activity that happens each week when we get together. There's just so much going on around here! This picture is a great example! Maggie got spinning lessons today from several of our premier spinners: here you can see Linda doing the teaching. Maggie also got tips from Tina and Pat! In the background of this picture you'll also see Lanny at the rocker loom weaving a rug, Marta weaving placemats, and Pat, Carl and Joyce hard at work at their looms.




At the tables, Bonnie and Carol are going over the instructions for the "caterpillar" rug. Last summer we had a donation of two looms and two bags of "caterpillars" to make a rug. On the table in front of the ladies is a length of uncut weft. Bonnie is going to warp her loom to weave this rug. Since this is a first for us, Bonnie is reading up on this technique.




Ms. Bonnie was back with us today, and she and Ms. Ila got a chance to catch up on each other's news. After lunch, Allan gave us all an update on his mission trip to Haiti. He and his wife, Sharon, did a lot of good work. Thank you....from all of us!

A little serendipity for today: Lanny and Allan have the exact same birthday! Who knew?


Happy Weaving!
LouAnn