Holiday Wind-Down…

Almost done.  The decorations are still up, but I’m just fine with that.  We had a fresh snowfall last night, it is cold and beautiful.  We still have one more holiday gathering at my sister’s cabin in the Catskills this weekend and the holiday season of fun and festivities will be over and then it is all business.  The fun kind.  The kind where my resolution for the new year is to clear off the eleven looms that need clearing off.

I had a wonderful holiday;  simple, and surrounded by those I love.  We went to Maryland and spent time with my sister and her family, and got to spend the day with my mom and her husband.  We spent New Year’s eve with old friends.  We spent Thursday morning with an even older friend and her husband, I actually went to college with Carol, and she was in from the west coast.  We talked of knitting and weaving and looms until the men at the table did an audible eye roll…

I’m a real grinch when it comes to gifts.  I need nothing and want nothing, unless it is something I really need or want.  You know how that goes.  Usually starts with the “f” word.  Fiber or fiber related tools.  But I have so much, and space is such an issue anymore, that I really discourage gifts unless they are edible or consumable because then they don’t have to be stored or dusted or maintained. Just eaten. 🙂

Still my husband loves to buy me things, and I gratefully unwrap them, and once in awhile he scores with something that I can’t believe I’ve done without for so long.  Take this mug warmer from Brookstone.  Sits on my desk, plugs in, and keeps my mug of tea hot all through the morning.  Score!

And this one, which was a gardening tote with utensils also from Brookstone.  I actually have numerous totes and such for the garden, and I’m sort of happy just using an old Spackle bucket, stuff like this just gets dirty.  But I kept looking at it and started to think what a great knitting bag it would be.  Compact, flat bottomed with little pockets around the front and sides for things like my scissors and tape measure and little bottle with tapestry needles and such.  Even a place to hang markers.  So I tossed the garden tools in the shed and brought the tote to my studio and I just love it.  Simple and perfect for my knitting.  Score!

And my daughter.  She made all her gifts this year, perfectly appropriate for a poor college student, and I absolutely love hand made gifts, so this little drawstring crocheted bag from the leftover Noro Silk from a tank I knitted a couple summers ago means the world to me.  Score!

And after visiting my sister and discovering that there was such a thing as wine charms to identify which glass was yours, she got the idea to take the hundred’s of little paper stars she’s made over the years, cover them with gel medium, and string them on wine charm findings from Amazon.  So I now have my own set, all different, and really really pretty.  Score!

And there were the edible gifts.  I confess I love fruitcake.  I know it is probably the most trashed food of all time, but I adore it.  My mom made the best fruitcake on the planet every year while I was growing up.  It is like comfort food for me.  The kitchen would smell like brandy for a  month.  Her fruitcakes were probably 100 proof.  She stopped making them for many years, but her second husband loves fruitcake so she started making them again a couple years ago.  It was worth the drive to Maryland.  I love her fruitcake and got a big hunk for Christmas.  And my friend and recorder player Misa (she is the tenor to my alto) made me cranberry vodka cordial and homemade truffles.  OMG!  Huge score!  Yes, the bottle was full when she gave it to me and there were more than four truffles in the bag. 🙂

And so Brianna, who is heading back to Massachusetts on Sunday, (I am sooooo going to miss her) is finishing up loose ends, pun intended, and one of her goals this trip home was to warp up her table loom for a guild project.  It is easier to warp the loom in my studio than her cramped apartment.  Our guild is doing its annual swatch exchange, this year the theme is tied weaves.  I’m not planning to participate but Bri had been talking about weaving the Star Trek insignia and this was the perfect opportunity.  She explored some of the suggested tied weaves and decided on Summer Winter and sketched out the design on home made graph paper.  Keep in mind I own expensive weaving software and she has a copy and knows how to use it, but there is nothing like the old fashion pencil and paper and it did my heart proud to see a 21 year old shun technology and do something the old fashioned way.  The draft was eventually put into the computer, but you have to love a pieced together scribbled draft.

So yesterday morning, we did a quick calculation of how much yarn she had and how much she wanted to weave, figuring samples for the guild followed by something like a scarf for her. She wound the warp, and was threaded in record time, and when I asked if she needed help beaming she looked at me confused and said, “I’m all done!”  She was tied on and ready to weave.  So here is one repeat of the Star Trek Insignia, with a shot of the underside.  For the weavers in the group, this is 8 shaft summer/winter woven in Dukagång style.

And I randomly picked the first loom I wanted to clear.  This table loom has had this project on it since May of 2011 when Robyn Spady came to our guild to teach a workshop in Double Faced Cloth.  It was a round robin, so each participant warped their loom with a structure from a draft she gave us, mine was an 8 shaft loom controlled Matelassé.  I loved the sample I did in my notebook and probably have a yard of warp left on the loom. I’m not actually sure, but I can’t just cut it off.  Since this is one of the oldest warps I decided to just bite the bullet and dive in.

Note to all the weavers.  I’ve long stood by the old adage, that if you really really want to understand structure, work on a table loom.  Especially an eight shaft one.  Hand manipulating the shafts for each row really teaches you about structure and what each shaft contributes to that structure.  I am always amazed that the knowledge and understanding I gain is totally worth the time it takes to hand lift each shaft as opposed to just tying them up to a group of treadles and just following a treadling pattern.

I tend to procrastinate with things that are really technical.  Which is sort of silly since I’m happiest when I’m figuring out something technical.  But the conditions have to be right, I can’t focus intently when there are all sorts of distractions and I get cranky when people interrupt me.  But I sat down and looked at what appeared to be an overwhelming lift plan, and tried to re-figure out what I actually had done.  The fog started to clear and suddenly it all made sense and of course, mostly that was due to Robyn’s excellent notes and handouts.  I highlighted the pick up pattern since the plain weave part was easy to see.

And so I’m off and running, this will be a runner, with a border at each end and I’ll stay with this until I clear this loom.  There are other studio things calling to me, like a photo shoot I need to do first thing next week, and prep for a beginning weaving workshop next Saturday, crossing my fingers the snow stays away.  Truth be told I accidentally took one more student than I had a loom for, and scrambled to build a loom from Structo parts I had laying around.  I am waiting for the package with a crank and a 15 dent reed that Nancy C, the Structo goddess from Alabama shipped me on Thursday.  Big thanks to my husband for his use of power tools to get the rust off the base.  But I’ll have a 13th Structo loom for use in the class, and I’m really happy about that.

A very happy New Year to all of you who have kept me blogging, I’m reaching my 600th post and entering my 6th year.  Hugs to you all, and may you have many fiber related journeys!

Stay tuned…