Feeling Better

Even talking for 9 hours at work today, my cough is better and I can say that I feel good!  It has been weeks and I have let a lot of stuff just go.  The weekend is here and I plan to get a little of the "catch up" done. 

I have been making good progress on the birthday warp, I may actually get it done.  I want to get the scarf off the Baby Mac this weekend and finish the tartan scarf warp to put on.  That will be a longish warp and will probably be on there for a while.  I promised my son a tartan scarf to go on his new coat and I want to give it to him before summer. 

Here is a picture of one of the fillet work pieces that I am using for a valance in the living-room.  I got this one at an antique store in Colorado when I was on the bus trip with my mom.  We did a 5k or 10k  walk each day for six days.

Weaving on the Birthday Towels and Heavy Weight Towels

I am feeling better, but the cough will not go away.  The fact that our air quality is one of the worst in the nation adds to the problem I'm sure.  I did not go to the nurse yesterday, but I guess I need to have my lungs checked again.  I guess I'll go tomorrow at work and have her check to see if there is still a problem.

I finished the heavy kitchen towel that I was making for a friend.  They are pink, white and green...not a color that I would have done, but these were her colors.  I think they turned out well.  I wove them with 8/4 carpet warp.  These make a heavy towel with a good hand that wears well.

I started weaving on the Birthday Towels and had problems with shaft one lifting.  If you have woven Atwater-Bronson lace, you know that every other thread is on shaft one and shaft one is tied to all the treadles but one.  So when you press the treadle that does not have shaft one tied to it, the weight of all the other treadles slowly lifts shaft one making weaving a slow and messy process.  Schacht Looms mades an adaptation to the wolf looms to correct this.  Rubber bands are attached to the back of the loom and then to each treadle, this prevents the weight of the treadles from lifting the shaft.

I added an adaptation of my own.  I put rubber bands on the front of the loom and around shaft one to keep it in place.  I have done this before when I have had the problem.  I think the Schacht correction would have finished the problem but I added the second to make sure I had no problems with the weaving.

When I was winding the warp, it went on so easily, but as I started weaving, I kept having to to tighten the warp.  I must not have wound it on tight enough.  I hope I will not have any other problems, because so far, the weaving has been pretty good and I like the way it looks.

Getting Better and Have a New Warp On

The past few days, I realize that I feel almost good.  That means I must be getting better.  I was into the nurse last week and she could only hear crackling in the lower left lob of my lungs..considerably better than all over my lungs like two weeks ago.  If the cough would only stop.  It seems to really be hanging on...I filled the candy jar at work with cough drops to keep me going.  I feel like my primary source of calories is from cough drops!!

I managed to get my birthday towels on the loom.  I'm afraid that the warp will not be done by my Birthday, but I feel good I finally got it on the loom.  I decided to use a linen that I have been hoarding.  It is from another weaver's stash that I bought, an old beautiful, smooth 20/2 linen "Square-Sale" from Frederick J. Fawcett .   It is hard to find linen that smoothly spun now.  I will include some pictures when I get them on the computer.  (Due to a hijacking of the computer, we had to wipe the C: drive and redo everything.  I am still not used to the new programing and getting everything to work.)

I am weaving the towels in an Atwater-Bronson lace on eight shafts, and tonight when I started weaving the pattern, I had trouble with shaft one rising and the pedals sinking.  If you have woven bronson lace on a baby wolf, you know the problem.  I had to go to the office supply store to get some rubber bands to attach to the treadles to keep them from lifing the shaft when I want it to stay down.  I hope to get the system on the loom tomorrow and I will take a picture of it.

I am measuring another warp to do a length of scarves in the Cummings tartan.  I promised Dustin that I would make him one to go on the new coat that he bought and I need to get it done before the weather warms up.

Homing: Returning to OneSelf

At my weaving group meeting this week, we were talking about the feeling of being overwhelmed, especially this time of year.  One member mentioned that she had so much to do, but when she had a little time she couldn't get to anything.  I remember feeling that way, like I "short circuited".  I had so much running through my mind I was paralyzed and not able to do anything.  In my mind I saw myself as a cartoon character that just sprang apart...arms, legs and head flying off in different directions.

This year I didn't have much of that feeling.  When I got sick, I just let go of everything.  Now that I am feeling better, I am seeing several things that did not get done, and may not get done in time.  But I still have to take it slow, I don't want the cough to get worse again.  Right now I can take a deep breath without coughing and I enjoy that.

I was reading "Women Who Run With the Wolves", a book about the wild woman in all of us and giving that part of yourself room to be.  The chapter on Homing...the need to have that personal space and the need to renew and recharge.  Virginia Woolf talked about having a room of one's own, but it doesn't even need to be a physical space.  However, we all need to have that time to renew.  When all the world is coming at us and we know we will be over-whelmed, we need to close the door on that place and find ourselves.  I remember reading about a woman who would put on ear phones, play beautiful music, and sit and spin facing the corner of the room.  She could not see any problems and could escape into a quiet space and enjoy.  What is your quiet space?  Do you have one?

I know can't take care of everything, but if I take care of myself first, I can go back and look at how I can take care of what needs to be done.  After the break of enjoying my weaving, or making something, I can look at the things that need to be done with fresh eyes.  Then  I can see what things "have" to be done and which of those "have to be done by me."  Not all of them must be done by me, and after the break from them I can find someone to help and get those done.  But I need to remember that I must help me first.  I love those around me, but I can't so them love if I don't show myself love.

Still home from work and knitting

I am feeling better, very little wheezing,. but I still have that cough and am afraid I will get worse if I have to talk for 9 hours at work, so I'm home.

I have been re-knitting the scarf that I pulled apart a couple of weeks ago.  The yarn color was just repeating instead of moving like it did not the example at my LYS.   (I had walked into the store and right there in front of me a beautiful scarf, I asked what is the pattern and was told you get it free when you buy the yarn...so I spent some time picking out the best colors for me....you know the story.) You can see the strip effect and the repeats marked with the yellow pins.  I went into the LYS and my knitting mentor suggested that I change to a smaller needle, I was knitting looser than the example.

I went home and tried 2 sizes smaller....then 1 size smaller and was finally satisfied with the color movement.  The pattern has so much going on, that it is amazing that what attracted me was the color movement.

As you can see from the additional pictures, the purple now crosses like I want it to.  The string on the first picture shows the movement and on the second picture you can see the scarf.   It does have a lot going on, beads on the yarn overs and the leaf pattern of the stitches, but it was the color movement that attracted me and I will continue to see that first.

It's a nice color, isn't it.  I think that I need a new purple dress...

I'm feeling better

I'm feeling better, the antibiotics seem to be doing their job. I managed to take a shower and get dressed (OK it was just sweats...and OK it was 2:00 PM), so I guess I am doing better. I still have the cough and that is what I worry about. If I still have the cough and talking makes it worse, how will I get through nine hours of talking tomorrow at work?


Here is a picture of the book I made a couple of months ago. Isn't it cute?

pneumonia

I didn't feel much better at work so Friday I went to the health center. Yes, I had started wheezing pretty badly and the nurse said go home, you have pneumonia. I started on antibiotics and she gave me some cough syrup that makes me feel woozy. I have mostly been in bed and plan to be there most of the day.
Last week, one of the blogs had pictures of her looms for the new year and I took pictures of mine. Maybe at the half year I can up-date them and hopefully they will have something else on them!

My Big Mac has yardage, I was having trouble with the rhythm of the treadling and kept making mistakes, but I retied the treadles to give me a better "dance" and now I am doing better with the weaving.

The Baby Wolf is weaving heavy tea towels, they were supposed to be a house warming gift, but they will just have to be late. The pinks are a little out of my comfort zone, but they fit the woman I am weaving for.

The Baby Mac is working on the problem warp. The yarn is really too loosely spun for a warp, but I had wound this second warp before I realized the problems. I tried soaking it in gelatin, we will see if that makes any difference.

The Dorothy has a sampler for the Summer & Winter class I was teaching. I always need a warp on a portable loom to demonstrate on. Should I just take if off, or should I weave off the samples and have more for my class examples, or should I just weave it as narrow yardage and then see what happens?

The Rigid Heddle loom was supposed to be tests for finger manipulated lace. I have graphs for the pattern I want to test, but the loom just sits there in the corner.

After looking at these looms, I just feel tired. I will go back to bed and sleep. When I wake up I will feel better and in a few days I will be able to get back to weaving!!...

I also started to think about the bobbin lace pillows with unfinished projects and the knitting needles with unfinished projects and the spindles and spinning wheel with projects. If I took pictures of all the projects, I would really be overwhelmed!

I have been in bed for almost a week. I tested negative for flu, but that is what it feels like. And I start coughing every time I talk, that bodes poorly for my job on the telephones next week. Not able to get much done, but have taken apart a hat of handspun that did not turn out well, and a knitted scarf with beads that didn't look like I wanted it to.