Christmas continued!

This Wednesday I am flying to Regina, SK to spend almost 2 weeks with my Mom and sister in Moose Jaw. It still seems weird to be going "home" to Moose Jaw. I grew up near Winnipeg, about 7 hours east of there. However, wherever family is, that's home.
I generally drive up there in summer and plan to do that again this summer. However, last fall my daughter said it was time she saw her grandma. It's been a few years since Mom can't travel like she used to. So we cooked up this bright idea to head north. I'm going now and they'll fly up in a week for about 4 days. I think that's all they can handle. They're such people of the south. I know they're going to complain and freeze the whole time there. In fact, I'll have to pack for them before I leave to be sure they bring the essentials for staying warm. I think the high is supposed to be 8 degrees on Wednesday. I'm not used to it anymore myself!

So this past week I did weave a couple of rugs. I have this really cheerful warp on of carpet warp and I was using loopers. It's the first time I've woven with loopers and it's slow but kind of fun! I realized after about 20 inches that I'd forgotten to add a color of loopers to the mix so that rug wound up being about 50 inches and then I wove the 72 plus inch one that I'm hoping to get into my suitcase to take north with me. It will depend on how much it weighs. Flying these days is no fun. If necessary, I'll just wait til summer and take it when I drive. I don't want to show a picture of it because it's a gift and my Mom might check this blog since I keep telling her to.

Then the rest of the week I spent sewing. I had this brainwave in spring to sew ...............for my 3 nieces. Can't tell you what because of the same reason, Christmas! Well, I love sewing and this pattern isn't hard, just time consuming. Besides I ended up getting more fabric and my Mom and sister will get .................as well. All different colors and designs of fabric. I'm down to the last couple to finish and hope to do that this afternoon and tomorrow.

Then I can re tie the warp onto my nilus and maybe begin weaving another rug because Tuesday and our weekly shot in the arm of inspiration is just around the corner!

At the center on Tuesday we will be discussing what colors we want to use for our challenge this year. It's a joint decision. Colors suggested have included orange, black, red..........bright cheerful colors. I think we'll use 5/2 mercerized cotton this time. We've had 4 yarns each time but maybe this time we'll include 5? That means no handtowels but that's good(mercerized cotton doesn't absorb water like unmercerized does). It's one less thing to consider in figuring out what to do. We've done this challenge twice so most of us will have to dig a bit deeper into what item we want to weave since the easier ones, ones that we are comfortable with, have been woven. We've not added weave structure to the restrictions....hm, maybe that could be added as well, to force us (me) to do something other than just play with color. Having to figure out a weave structure that works with the colors and item being woven will be an interesting change. After all, we have a full year to do it. What could be so hard about that? Yeah, right....

I'll have pictures next week of what I made.
Carol