Well, Look at Me....

I finally finished something! I'm sure the view from my loom helped motivate me.



The old patio door was scratched and drafty, now I have a clear view and the e-glass will help with fading when those projects stay on the loom too long.



I ended up with seven towels.


I have fooled around with every setting on my camera. I either get too washed out or too saturated.



They really fall somewhere between these pictures.



I'm keeping these two as samples. The top (also seen in the center of the right stack in the second picture) was woven 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and produced a wonderful, almost waffle-like texture. It has a lovely hand and would be great for a spring/summer jacket. The bottom one was woven 1,2,3,4 and resulted in a stripe with a nice drape. I would use this structure with a painted warp and a coordinated solid weft. It would make a beautiful lightweight summer shawl.

Variegated Variations

Finally, I'm on the last of the False Damask variegated warp towels. These rather washed out photos don't do justice to the variety of looks I'm getting by changing up weft and treadling.



With black weft I treadled 1-8 with no repeats.



The terra cotta weft was my favorite. I used only 3 repeats each of 1-4 then 5-8, rather than the original 4 repeats.



The last two towels are striped, treadling only 1-4.
Kim's obsession with The Secret Life of Bees has led her to create a beautiful colorway which she named Tupelo Honey. While ensconced in my room (I was teaching a few hours from home) this past weekend I started Mona Schmidt's Embossed Leaves Socks from the Winter 2005 IK. Love the yarn, love the pattern!



The slightly out of focus picture captured with my iphone. While I had it out I had to snap a pic of why I'm finding teaching out of town to be a pretty relaxing weekend. I could get used to this! I just ran down the steps and there was pineapple and strawberries, oatmeal and dried cranberries. Oh my!



And just because I find it funny .... Someone sent this link to one of my psych lists. After watching that I noticed a link to the Colorectal Surgeon's Song. Come on, wouldn't you click too?

Back to Spinning

Once this last bit was plyed, the superwash from Crown Mountain was finally finished. I don't know if it's a characteristic of superwash, or just my inattentiveness, but it was terribly underplyed.



So on to the swift it went and I added more twist. Compare the re-plyed back skein with the underplyed front skein.



Much better, eh? So now I have about 1000 yards, 8 oz., and I have no idea what I'm going to do with it.



Indecision abounds! I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing with the 3 ply corrie that I finished almost a year ago. It's just begging to be knit up with cables and texture stitches. I've got at least 2300 yards so I should have more than enough.



While rummaging around, looking for all those skeins of corrie I uncovered a finished sweater! According to my archives I finished this in April 2005 with the Beast I was spinning way back in 2002. Okay, it's not quite finished - but I've been wearing for the last week without any buttons. I remember buying them, but I can't remember where I put them. (Don't ask why I didn't remember that I finished it!)

The New Normal

Even when expected, death is so difficult to deal with. I have been able to go through my life relatively unscathed by grief. I was in my thirties before any family member or close friend died. My father died 24 years ago and I think about him all the time. Every time I take out a saw I remember "measure twice, cut once"! Why did it take so long for me to learn that lesson? I've reminisced about the way he helped nurture my budding textile interests and served as a willing model of gauge-gone-wild hats before. (There's that measuring problem again)

My mom passed away two weeks ago, coincidentally (or not) on the anniversary of my father's death. While we couldn't keep her at home during the last few months we did everything we could to honor her wishes and one of us was with her every day. I do feel good about that. Now the task is to redefine normal.



Sometimes, especially during the last few months, Mom would get a little confused, but never about Jackson! She always remembered his name and when he was born. How wonderful that she got to experience and share so much with her twelve grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Speaking of Jackson (and believe me, I can!), take a look at our youngest Trick-or-Treater!





There must be twenty of these shots and in each one he's looking more and more bored with the whole thing. Finally ....