I spent the morning threading up for a new woven band, and have a design picked out from Susan Foulkes book.
From this
To this
I think I'll wait for my new Sami Stoorstalka Gehpa shuttle
to get to work on this. The Sami are people in northern Scandinavia, and these shuttles were originally made from reindeer horn. Mine is some modern substance.And I got a surprise in the living room. A while back I brought in some azalea to force bloom. And today it did.
Outside the azaleas are barely beginning.
The rain stopped and I got out for a walk to ease my aching back -- threading is engrossing and when you stop, you realize you can hardly straighten up.
And here's the dogwood, and miniature violas
Then, on the patio, one of my app-owning friends tells me, this is Sweet William.
It was probably among the seeds I strewed last spring, since I believe they come up from seed in the second year. I love Sweet William, so I'm hopeful.
Lovely day today and another Guinness movie planned this evening.
Happy day, everyone, watch what you invent, it may surprise you. See plot of TMITWS sez Ted and Big Ursy and Pony and Ursula. They're not planning to create anything other than havoc.
Prayers for your back
ReplyDeleteI saw a dogwood tree yesterday in full bloom with the most elegant shape I have ever seen. It is in somebody’s yard. Taking a photo isn’t possible. Dogwood trees are the highlight of Spring.
May
My back's fine now, thank you for the kindness. All it takes is a walk and it's back in working order. I love how dogwoods shine through the darker foliage. They're scarcely visible until they flower.
ReplyDeleteI'm a fan of Guinness' 1950s comedies, but I don't think I've seen that one yet. You'll have to tell us how you liked it.
ReplyDeleteI've seen it a couple of times. It's funny and sad and full of lessons learned about work and the economy. Quite a serious undertone really. Not the laff a minnit of other Ealing movies.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes forget to change position enough.
ReplyDeleteWhen you get engrossed, it's easy!
DeleteI'd forgotten about sweet William. It was plentiful when I was young. I can't remember seeing it for a long time.
ReplyDeleteMe neither. That's one reason I'm hopeful it will thrive, because it's a long time since I saw even one.
DeleteSitting in one spot is definitely a no no after the age of fifty
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately when we get engrossed in what ever we are doing it’s something we just can’t help
So true. And I can only thread the heddle standing, which means sort of leaning, not very good. Fortunately I only thread once per weaving.
DeleteThe number of times I emerge from some activity to find I've completely seized up! I have to creak around carefully until everything loosens up and I can move more freely again. You'd think I'd learn...
ReplyDeleteThis is true! The threading took me by surprise because it's been a while.
DeleteI don’t think I’ve ever seen TMITWS. That’s exciting about the Sweet William. Beautiful flowers to look forward to. Hope your back recovered quickly. I’ve never forced azalea. I used to love to force forsythia.
ReplyDeleteIt's years since I saw sweet William, and they look pretty healthy up to now, so I'm hopeful. All it took to fix my back was a walk. If I do that right away, it's fine, because I don't really have back problems. The azalea was a lovely surprise after so many days of nothing seeming to happen. I must remember this idea.
DeleteIt's easy to get stuck, in all sorts of ways. Lovely to see fresh growth everywhere.
ReplyDeleteSo true! Getting physically unstuck is easier than other forms, thankfully.
DeleteI'm looking forward to seeing what you weave with the new shuttle. I don't think we have dogwood trees here.
ReplyDeleteI certainly won't have any excuses when I get the new all purpose shuttle. It will make weaving easier and better once I get the hang of it.
DeleteWow that looks like quite the job getting that strung!
ReplyDeleteI love old movies. We have been watching a pretty old hallmark series. The good witch. Anything but what is really happening in the world.
Cathy
The first picture is where you have to keep the faith that it will work. I have a steep learning curve with wrangling longer warp threads. The old movies are a lovely brief escape, aren't they?
DeleteMy mom used to have Sweet William in her garden but I haven't seen it for years. Hopefully yours will reward you as nicely as your forced azalea.
ReplyDeleteThe first picture in this post would be enough to turn me off of weaving. Oddly, I can rip a piece of knitting or crocheting back to the beginning and start over with no problem at all but when faced with yarn barf I want to chuck the whole thing. Good thing the RC has patience for dealing with such messes and they often land in his lap. Guess that comes from years of dealing with fishing line snarls.
I'm hopeful about the Sweet William. The first picture is all separate threads, no knots, but they're curly so it looks very knotty. Easily threaded.
DeleteI know for certain I would have thrown my hands up and walked away from the yarn before ever stating to thread! I have red twig dogwood bushes everywhere. They grow profusely here.
ReplyDeleteWhat you're seeing is the heddle already threaded, just needing to be mounted on the loom and the threads tautened. It's intimidating in a picture, which amused me, because all I had to do was pick up the bunch of threads and roll them onto the loom to get the second picture. It was less than five minutes between pictures one and two.
DeleteMy biggest take-away here is that there is an implement called a Sami Stoorstalka Gehpa shuttle.
ReplyDeleteI think if I ever got another cat I'd name it Sami Stoorstalka.
Who knew? I'm learning so much history and geography in the course of making a few simple weavings.
DeleteI love the bears' "pussy hats"!
ReplyDeleteMade to measure!
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