Sunday, August 9, 2009

Rolags, tapestries, Duncan and Marigold, quartet!




I've warped up the three parts of the next tapestry I plan on, and show you a pic here, complete with Duncan supervising the whole procedure, in which he has a vested interest, since some of his fur has been spun up and will be included eventually.

These three will hang as you see, vertically, joined by some interesting form of something which will appear to me once they're done, so as to hang as one piece. I'm working the warp sideways, meaning that I weave the usual way up, but the warp will become horizontal in the end for the hanging part. I did this because it makes some of the shapes more manageable as I go. Also because it's fun.

Bottom section is the earth tones, including my handwoven personal fleece, plus some cotton roving, the fuzzy stuff, and will include a lot of other yarns as I go. Same design, different colors, will be used for middle and top sections.

So I'm carding and spinning up a storm on account of needing the supplies. Spinning singles, i.e. not plied yarns for two reasons: one is I don't need plied yarn for my purposes right now, and the other is that I don't know how to ply anyway yet. I notice that my spinning is producing stuff that's less slubby and more yarny now, and that the fleece is spinning up a treat, lovely and rough enough to cling and stay spun.

I put all my current output of carded and rolagged fleece down on the floor sample that will become our choice (the mid range cherry, for them as wonders, thank you all for a ton of answers and interesting thoughts to consider) and Marigold is deeply suspicious of the whole thing. I wanted to see just how much stuff I have up to now.









I can see her thinking, hey, some animal's hair was TORN OFF to make that stuff, well, she's not getting mine, that's all I have to say. So there's a series of her approach/avoidance Burmese way of stating her case, in between running about and marking the furniture with her scent to make sure this animal doesn't come to life and start barking at her or something.

HP feeling pretty well these days, skin in excellent shape since I put the sheepskin backrest on the wheelchair and the pads behind his legs on the rests, good old sheepskin, in addition to unremitting other care, I might say, from our whole team.

Incidentally, there was no need to adhere the backrest, since the leather natural back of the sheepskin just clings on its own, doesn't slip. But now that the legrests are proving to be a good idea, I will velcro them in place. Or duct tape them depending on my current energy level and mood and whether I can find the velcro.

And he's mentally clearer too at the moment, able to listen with great pleasure to whole detective novels on CD, which is huge, and wonderful. And he's awake till maybe 10 at night, a much more normal kind of life than dropping to sleep in the early evening till next morning. All in all, he's finally doing better and I'm fervently happy about it. Much more like his old self, some jokes returning, noticing more about his surroundings, asking questions. It's more like some kind of a life.

HS's birthday lunch went over well, and as usual he departed taking the remains of the cake with him, our family custom, as part of his birthday loot! he went off to the shore after our family do, to continue celebrating with his friends there, no doubt.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for all the advice about the flooring! after a lot of emails and other helpful thoughts in here, we're going with the mid range one, the warm cherry. It's like the stuff I put in the condo years and years ago, and I loved it then, too. And the exact same man is coming here today to measure and advise again!

    The Gift of Knitting book is on its way to Oregon as of this morning, media mail, look for it in a few days.

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  2. I'm glad things are becoming somewhat normal for you Liz, if you can call it normal, and that HP is on the improve.

    Minimiss

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  3. Actually I think the warm cherry will look good no matter what I said before. Enjoy seeing your weaving prep (and helpful cats).

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