And we continue

My husband was in the hospital for nine days, that seems like such a long time.  I think they wanted to keep him there a little longer, but he decided that he had enough.  He has stabilized and is doing much better, but I am worried that I will not be able to do what is needed.  It doesn't help that I need to be in another town for three days this week for teaching.  Luck for us my DS is off work most of that time and will be able to be here.

My week of alone time was supposed to be a time to get things done.  I tidied the house, cleaned a kitchen floor that really needed it.  But I had trouble working on anything that needed attention (scrubbing floors takes no thinking and that was great). 

I did some bobbin lace, I have been doing this pattern or a variation of it for so long it is almost automatic.  

I finished another rotation of the pillow.

The picture shows the join on the pattern.  The marks on the upper left are the number of times I have finished a complete round of the pattern.  Each round is just over twelve inches, so I figure I have about three yards done.  I plan on five yards so I am more than half way.

I tried to work on the Swedish Art weave, but I made more mistakes that progress.  However, I did turn the loom over and take a picture of the halvkrabba.  After I was almost done with it, I realized that I did a similar variation of the same pattern on one of the other pillow tops, oh well, it is a little different.

You can see the the next pattern started that I kept making mistakes on.  It should look great, but I need some stress-free time to work on it.

Another weaving that I had problems with is the overshot sampler that I am working on at Pioneer Craft House.  I need to get this warp off the loom!  I am weaving several different patterns of overshot for class examples.  I finished the third one.

Sample # three

After I finished the sample, put some lease sticks in the back to hold the cross, then cut the piece off so that I could rethread for the fourth sample.

Bad Cross

Yes, in my over stressed condition, I put both sticks in the same side of the cross...and I tied them together without even looking to make sure I was correct.  I had to thread very carefully, and again I read the pattern wrong and had to start over threading a couple of times.

I did finally get it threaded correctly the next day and started weaving the pattern.  I want to get one more sample off the loom and then I am done and have another empty loom.

Change of Plans

We were supposed to spend the weekend in Bryce National Park.

Bryce in the Winter

This is the first year Bryce has opened it's lodge for winter visiting.  My son saw the advertisement and got us reservations.  This was our Christmas gift this year.  

Instead, I spent a lot of time at the hospital.  My husband is on the ninth floor of the tower.  

  
It was a different weekend than planned.  My children did head down to Bryce and had a good time, but I stayed here to check up on his progress.  

It took a few days to get him stabilized, we did not realize that he was in such problems.  We knew about the liver problems, but he had developed kidney problems also.  I spent most of my time feeling guilty for not seeing what was happening to him.  

I did see it, but did not know what to do.  Health is such a delicate thing, you feel like you are doing well and all of a sudden, it is gone.  He is doing much better, I hope I can feel better too.  

Life is always surprising you.  You think you have it all figured out and then "BAM" it hits you with something new.  

A New Year and Weaving Continues

I got good news twice this week.  First I won a towel from the drawing on Susan's blog, http://weeverwoman.blogspot.com/.  I love using handwoven towels and this one will be added to my drawer.  

The second is the notice that I got from AVL looms.  The additional four shafts are ready to ship.  I will need to get the AVL Home loom fixed up and add the new shafts, that will make the loom an eight shaft and it will be fun to have available in the PCH Studio.

A not so great thing also happened.  I was working in the extra room, I had put all my knitting books on the shelves.  I reached for something on the top shelf, and the whole thing collapsed on me.  I was hit in the head, but not very bad and most of the books went on the floor.

Mostly empty space and holes where the brackets were.

I moved the fallen books and checked under them, my inkle loom was there, again, I was lucky, and the loom was not hurt.

Some of the stacked books, the 2nd bracket and shelves in the back.

My son told me the shelves were not strong enough to hold that many books.  

I went to the hardware store and got heavy duty toggle bolts to put the shelves back up.  And I will try not to put so many books there.

I finished the bumberet warp and am pleased with it.  I was only able to get six towels, the last one was too short.  I figured, if I put apron strings that are 6 inches longer on that loom, I will not have as much loom waste.

Bottom shows the weft addition, then six towels, then the short one.

They are going to be an interesting group of towels.  I did some variations in the treadling, from the workshop with Leslie Ruby.  And I ended up liking the yellow and the dark ones more than I thought I would.

Dark towel before washing

I think these towels will wash and hem up well.  I remembered to use the fusible thread on the last half of the towels, so I will need to stitch the first ones.

Weft audition

The section of the weft audition will be cut up for samples for my tea towel class.

Today I went to the Midway Ice Castle with my children.  We had fun walking around and taking pictures, but it was cold.  Since they keep building it, it might be fun to see it in about a month.  Also, they have internal lighting that looks great at night, we were too cold to stay and see it this time.

My children at the fountain in the Ice Castle.