Repatriation has started.

Gary has started moving houseplants to the new place, yay. The bromeliad moved out this morning, the palm to follow. Meanwhile I brought down my snake plant to replace the bromeliad. 

The split leaf philodendron is to follow, also the charcoal drawing on the wall back there.

Every item that leaves is a relief. I'd like to have all the plants downstairs because I forget to water the ones in the guest room. And I don't get to see them anyway, when they're upstairs.

Outside the daylilies at my door are opening.

The kimono sash is completely finished now. I ended up with the knotted finish you see.

Note the use of the clipboard as an art tool. It's very useful as a third hand in various weaving stages. Also it works like a small drawing board when you don't need to wrangle a full size one. Mitchell probably knows this of old.

Along with the current braid on the lucet, and the linen jacket finishing, I fancy making another clasped weft weave, with half the warp threads one color, half the other. Like the eyeglass case, only a band, and the same two colors for the wefts. 

I'm also thinking about making a braid to finish the jacket fronts. Hm. After the current one on the lucet. 

I could remove the current one and come back later to it, but I think it might be wiser to finish the one I'm on. Or I might contract Second Braid Syndrome.

Or I might find fabric for the finishing and pockets of the jacket to match a skirt. I'm pretty sure I have some bits from when I made the skirts. Or maybe this is when I bust out that pink and white stripe cotton fabric, which is still waiting to be pressed.

I'm never short of ideas, as you see. There are only the ones I can be bothered to enter here, one finger typing, you remember. The brain is a busy old loom.

The hobnobs were well received by Gary and New Friend, who is now a new person in my circle too, lovely lady.  I thought they needed to keep up their strength, still packing cars and driving back and forth all weekend.

Happy day everyone, happy solstice, summer or winter, depending on where you are. 

This is as technical as I plan to get about it 

Food, books, votes and glue

Today I got a ride to donate a bunch of food to the food pantry, getting all the food to some of the people. Getting rides has aroused interest in my drivers, one of whom is now a donor, and today's was asking what they accept. Now she knows where to take donations, too. This is all good. People are generous once they know how. 

And I picked up two reserved books at the library, which Blogger won't insert in here, keeps putting after the end of the post. 

Anyway, one's Live Lagom by Anna brones which I  think works very well as a regular book, because it's a nice size and shape, with soft illustrations and a good feeling. 

The other's Antonia Fraser's Must you go? an account of her marriage to Harold Pinter, which should be interesting, two big egos.

I remembered to check the status of my primary ballot, our primary is in early June. Ballot tracking was one of the things I helped bring about (played a tiny part).  This is important particularly in view of the USPS today.

There we go. It's been received. So far so good. I had to change my password to get in, no doubt a security feature.

And I Got The Seeds In, complete with squirrel-deterring peppermint oil soaked qtips. I have another packet to plant and I think I'll wait to see if any container doesn't do well, to add in seeds. I put out the cotton plants, too, in great hopes.

The back forty is now ready for the season.

In other news, I will get some gorilla glue today and set about the BrokeLoom.  

I'm also figuring out if I can finish the cowl backstrap style, though I don't have a big enough rigid heddle in the right dent. 

Meaning I have one with the right spacing -- like knitting needle size -- but it's not wide enough for this item, not enough openings. Still considering this.  It will be much harder to maintain good width and selvedges without a heddle. That's the part that keeps the threads evenly spaced.

When something goes wrong like this broken part, it really triggers a lot of possible solutions. It's all good. My inner Rube Goldberg is on it.

Happy day everyone! It's not a problem, it's an AFGO.

Tuesday thrills and spills

The weather has cheered up, warm and sunny, mid 80s f, lovely gardening weather. Which is what I planned to do since most of the knitters were seizing the day likewise instead of knitting at the group.

Here's how things were on the deck while I drank tea and considered my planting. Including a chipmunk who had planned on coming over to dig, then saw me and froze to the wall, until finally he gave up and left.

Then I thought I'd do a bit of weaving while I waited for more shade on the deck for me to work in .

Then, hellfire, disaster  struck my new little loom. The back member, that part the warp is rolled on, suddenly cracked, rendering it inoperable.  Evidently the tension was too great. My own was a bit high at that point, too.

So, unable to continue, I unwound the work and here it is 

I need to do some finishing work on it and see if it's useful for the knitting ministry or not. It's pretty nice but now it's abbreviated, may be more of an accessory than a useful item. So I'll stitch the end, trim the fringe, and soak then dry it. Then I'll decide.

I first thought of returning the loom for a refund, even went through the process, all the way to the qr code, but had second thoughts. I have weeks before I need act on it and meanwhile if I get wood glue I can probably repair that crack. 

Mainly I don't want to part with the bar heddle that attracted me to start with, and you have to return all the parts for a refund. I could get an entire replacement but I think I might have the same issue again.

So, there's wood glue on my shopping list. And if that doesn't work I have other ideas.

Meanwhile I can work at the band loom,  never any lack of things to do. Also I need to finish those socks, then the second glove, then I have a parcel for the Sock 'n glove 'n whistle Ministry.  

Finally I guess I'll get to gardening. Maybe tomorrow, and plant out the cotton as well as the flower seeds. I'll see if any seeds need to be soaked overnight, too 

Then there was Textiles and Tea. Today's presenter  was Beth Ross Johnson, a weaver and stitcher in ikat, that's painted threads, also the white running stitch called sashiko. And, get this, weaving based on sashiko stitched designs. Take a look 

Here's her kitty holding open the page of pattern notes from her upcoming book 

It's a great combo of stitching and weaving, very appealing.

She's based in Black Mountain and was flooded out by Helene, out of her studio for months, amazed to find World Central kitchen operating in her own neighborhood. She's been through a bit.

So that's where we are just now. For better or worse.

Every day please 

Old art, new weaving and an honor

I've been sending art to good new homes for a couple of years now, so that Handsome Son will have less to deal with after I've gone. I usually ask for a picture of the piece in its new home, and here are some of the latest.

A friend in Ohio modeling her woven bead bracelet

She gave this piece to her daughter 

 

The tiny embroidery on the shelf is in good company, as you see.
 

 

Here it's a silverwork piece, titled Flyover, now living in Georgia. And you saw the bergamot boxes and other gold things on Mary's blog Bless our Hearts, from Florida.

At this point my work is all over the world, there's just no escape!

Meanwhile at home on a cold rainy day, the weaving is well under way with workarounds.

While I work, I'm listening to a YouTube presentation about upcycling kimono fabric, by a young Japanese sewist based in London and knowledgeable about the history of these textiles. 

Nowadays kimonos, however beautiful, are thrown away because there's no room in the modern Japanese home for them and the big wooden chests they're stored in. 

That's probably how my kimono made its way to me via my friend buying it from a wholesaler in second hand clothes.

Meanwhile back at the loom

Knowledgeable weavers will notice that after ages warping and mounting and rolling the warp, I got it rolled backward, but I'm just moving on and we'll see how it works.

I did a row of twining to start the piece and some plain weave to establish the threads evenly. The card is inserted to give a clean start.

The boucle cotton is a bit too textured for the heddle in one direction, and I'm using the Stoorstalka Gehpa shuttle to lift the threads and help the wooden shuttle.  The wooden comb that came with the loom is nice but for this thicker yarn I'm using a bigger comb to pack down the work.

I already loaded a second shuttle in another color of the same yarn, this time solid. I'm looking for subtle stripes. We'll see.

If this comes out well it will be a cowl to send to the knitting ministry.  Rose, this is some of the yarn that Pony brought me! 

And today brought me an invitation to be a guest of honor at an upcoming event about embroidery, particularly gold work. Not my scene, too long, too many people, too orchestrated,  but I can send pictures. Nice to be asked though.

Happy day everyone, just accept invitations you want, not to get worn out at an event to oblige other people. It's okay. 

Meanwhile visit Cup on the Bus, because Joanne's back! She's baaaaack! Yay.

Belated New Year, cardboard art, weaving

Handsome Son visited Saturday, bringing shortbread and ginger ale for the New Year, adding to the tea and banana bread I provided. 

Since the first person over the threshold this year was a blonde woman, we missed the first footing. But HS,  the dark haired man arriving a bit late with food and drink, was close enough.

For people unfamiliar with first footing, it's a tradition in the North of England where I'm from.  It brings luck if the first person over the threshold in the New Year is a dark haired man bringing fuel, food and drink. 

Usually men would leave their houses before midnight, with the items - piece of coal, bottle of Scotch, slice of cake -- and chat in the street until they heard the ships' sirens and bells and, locally, pans beaten with spoons, sounding in the New Year. 

Then they'd be welcomed in with a glass of something good and a kiss from the lady of the house. Local legend has it that it had to be a dark haired man, not a Viking red -blond, this being the territory where Vikings raided. Not inviting one in!

We enjoyed our belated observance as a good start.

Speaking of cardboard as an art material, here's a wall piece I made from the insert in a Misfits grocery box 

And the weaving is progressing while I listen to A Pocketful of Rye.

This determined enjoyment and making is protest against the regime. 

Happy day everyone, make your protests heard by your MOCS.