Phew! I am sooooo glad that I’ve finished this warp, the problems at the start made it feel like the project was dragging on a little but too long.
The problems I was having did go away and the second two towels were quick and error free 🙂 I like the colours!
I want to mark here, the death of my cat Lucy at 16 years of age.
I was still at university when I went to the South Hobart Cats Home with my flatmates to pick out a kitten.
I wanted a boy because they were cheaper to desex than girls, but this little thing just kept on jumping onto us and Margaret said we had to take her and that she would pay the extra amount (Note to young cat buyers; if you are baulking at paying an extra $20, then it could be a hint that you actually cannot afford a pet… veterinary care is expensive, special ‘old age’ cat food is expensive, boarding catteries are expensive…)
She had a long and interesting life with a lot of travel mostly back and forwards between Tasmania and Victoria when Chris and I lived apart. Maybe I shouldn’t tell you about the time I decided she needed a toilet break in the centre of Melbourne… this was pre-Citylink and we were driving from the airport to Traralgon. She was miowing constantly and I figured that she was busting. But I was prepared! I had a piece of string or rope to attach to her collar and she was meant to meekly go off and do a pee and then jump back into the car to continue our journey like a good little dog ah, Cat. Of course she went wild and immediately slipped her collar (which was elasticised for just this sort of situation) and she ran off. We were in the median strip on Victoria Parade (or Royal parade I can’t remember). I thought she was lost forever, but we found her huddling under a car that was parked on the side of the road. It’s a wonder she survived so long with such a silly owner as me!
She also spent four years living with our friends Wendy and Kim; they were kind enough to take her when we moved to the Northern Territory and returned her too us (air freight!) when they moved to Western Australia.
She was a tiny, pretty and sweet natured cat. She was determined to sleep on me every single night and she would become very displeased if we were late getting the children to bed, the evenings were supposed to be all hers! Ada was particularly enthusiastic about Lucy and she acted as her official doorman – opening and closing the sliding door at Lucy’s whim. She would run around after Lucy saying ‘ucy, ‘ucy, ‘ucy! ( ‘ucy bye bye… forever now darlin’)
Lucy had an extremely annoying habit of miowing at the top of her lungs just after I had dropped off to sleep and this did become an issue during the time that I was breastfeeding Ada three times a night… ever since then her miows set me on edge and I was pretty bad tempered about it. Sorry about that Lucy.
I had hoped that she would just die in her sleep one day and I would never have to make the hard decision. Unfortunately an encounter with a dog on Saturday, her old age, her bad heart murmur… it was all just too much and we had to let her go. I missed her last night; no cat to sleep on my back, bum or legs like a log all night long. Farewell Lucille xxx
This was intended to be a quick little towel warp and I wanted to focus on fun stuff like treadle tie ups and adjustments. But with this loom, with this warp, with this project; I had problems with draw in and then I had problems with ends breaking… lots and lots of ends!
At great expense I mail ordered a temple (stretcher), and when I first used it I broke 8 ends all at once. I wasn’t happy… oh no, I was not happy at all!
After replacing all the ends I realised I was headed for some annoying tension issues and cut about 3/4” off each side of the warp. I cut out all the problem warp ends and started afresh. The purple sides are skinnier than they were, but my sanity is restored.
With proper(ish) temple use the weaving has been progressing smoothly – thank goodness!
This has happened in my life since I last posted:
It is a Glimakra Standard Counterbalance loom with 120cm weaving width, 8 shafts and 10 treadles (actually 9 treadles because as one is missing). I am very excited and a bit daunted.
It is so thrilling to have a big, sturdy, capable loom and I warped it up for a rag rug right away.
I feel a little bit out of my depth with this loom and I need to frequently remind myself to take it ‘one step at a time’ rather than feeling overwhelmed by it all. I have to trust, that soon, I will feel sure of myself with this new tool.
In other news:
Recently, in preparation for the ‘hoped for’ floor loom purchase, I did a big reorganisation and had a new floor installed in my workroom. In order to free up floor space in my room I’ve put away a large folding table and set up a workstation and pegboard inside one of the wardrobes. All this has created a workspace that feels open an uncluttered and inviting.
In fact, I’m going to stop typing now and head on up there. The heater is on and I have some… sewing to do.
This was meant to be a stash busting project; busting all my stash of 8ply knitting wool that I probably wont knit.
The problem was: Most of my stash was used up in the warp which was 3.5m long and 15inches wide (metric/imperial? meh!). So I had to go out and buy more yarn, and then I had to go out and buy more yarn, and then I had to go out and buy yarn a third time! (I weighed the cloth once it was off the loom and it was 670g or 12.5 balls of yarn)
Once again I have chosen to use a rosepath draft and my intentions of using this as a sampler for different treadlings didn’t eventuate. I just liked what I had too much to fiddle with it.
I wanted a stable fabric here so I alternated the diamond pattern rows (8ply yarn doubled) with one row of tabby (plain weave). If you squint at the above picture you might be able to see what I’m talking about.
The fabric is thick and was pretty stiff when taken off the loom. I toyed with making a floor rug instead but was convinced by my weaving buddies to continue with my plans for a big floor pillow. The fabric did soften a lot after being washed – and I knew it would from my experience with previous projects… but still, it can be hard to visualise when you have that raw fabric there in front of you.
So here it is! I seamed the three panels by hand using ladder/mattress stitch. All other seams were done with my sewing machine which was a lot easier than I anticipated! I did sew the zip in by hand though and It looks almost invisible (yay!!!).
I’m also really happy with the pom pom corners 😀
The yarn was chosen by Jasper and given to me for my birthday. I wove it into a scarf and gave it back to Jasper 😀
Self striping sock yarn looks great in a weave!
I bought a beautiful grey sheeps fleece – oh how I love to sniff wool – its my kind of heaven. I washed, carded and spun.
Then I wove.
This is a huck draft. And the red was a happy ‘fix’ for a problem …. not enough warp yarn to get the width I needed.
After I wove and washed (and fulled) this fabric, I lost most of the lovely huck texture. But the fabric…. Oh yes, I love it!
The intended purpose?
A cushion cover. There will be two. Do you like the tassels? I LOVE the tassels! Thanks to my guild buddy Jutta for the inspiration!
Ada turned 17 months old today. She gave the cushion a rigorous test drive and now I’m wondering if it will survive her special brand of loving 😀
