Will The Circle Be Unbroken

This evening is the first time I've had the chance to just sit with my blog. Yesterday morning I was writing in my journal and trying to work through everything that's happened recently. It's kind of unsettling (to say the least!) to have your livelihood change so radically. I thought quite a bit about being intentional with my life. I tend to let myself be blown by the winds without seeing what I can do and simply doing it. Simple things like walking every day. Before I know it, my day is filled with little things, big things, everything, and I never get my walk in. Why don't I simply walk?  Not in a few minutes.  Not when I finish this one more thing. Now. Go walk.

I'd finished up my entry when my cell phone went off.  I've had my phone in my pocket more than usual these days because my best friend's mother recently entered the last stages of dying and I wanted to be sure I was there for her. I glanced at it and, sure enough, it was my friend. Her mother was starting the last of the shutting down process and it wouldn't be much longer. I thought about what I could say.  Honestly, what can you really say at such a time?  This isn't a Hallmark moment. I did remember the hospice nurse telling my mother to keep talking to my grandmother as she died - that hearing was the last to go. So I asked my friend if she had brought her harp, if she was playing her mother out. She said no, there had been no time.  So I offered to bring mine and play her out. Then I went and played my big harp - just playing. The cell phone went off again. Would I come and play for her mother and sit with her?  And I did, although I've never done such a thing before. I quickly tuned the travel harp, packed the car and left for the nursing home.

I didn't quite make it. Her mother passed before I got there, but I played for them both. I must have played for over an hour. I wanted to play well for them, but my hands were shaking - I get performance anxiety really badly. I missed notes.  I didn't have time to trim my nails and I buzzed strings. But this wasn't a concert. This was a way of bringing peace to both of them. My friend asked for tune after tune, most of which I'd never played on the harp. Years of classical piano training and theory stood me in excellent stead. I got through with basic tunes and simple accompaniments.

After my friend asked me for every tune she knew her mother loved, she was ready to let her go - or at least to begin. I took her out to lunch while the hospice nurse prepared her mother for her last journey. On the way back, my friend asked if I could stay with her while they took her mother's body away, which, of course, I did.

I learned an amazing amount from the hospice nurse. The best thing to do at such a time is to simply be there. This man has the gift of silent presence, which means more, I think, than any grand words or pithy sayings.

And so I'm wondering. Is it time to leave the techie, busy world and play people through their transitions? Harpists frequently play at nursing homes. Is that what I'm supposed to be doing?

Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, Lord, by and by?
There's a better home a'waiting
In the sky, Lord, in the sky.

Warm Hats Not Hot Heads, or Back To Political Activism

You know, for a girl who grew up in the 60's and came of age in the 70's I'm a total failure. We left Ohio before Kent State. My first visit to Haight-Ashbury was two years ago. I wasn't at Woodstock. I didn't participate in many other aspects of the 60's resulting in my being the antithesis of my friend's declaration - "If you remember the sixties, you weren't there."  I guess I wasn't there.

In fact, my sole foray into political activism was two years ago and was a total bust It resulted in my becoming, at the tender age of 53, a confirmed independant. I've yet to meet a political party I can deal with, let alone agree with.

Now anybody who has made more than a cursory glance at this blog has probably figured out that I love to knit.  (That has more to do with Carolyn Jones as Morticia Addams than with any back-to-basics movement.) I've knit for charity. I've knit hats for the military.  I've knit hats for chemo patients, both those I know and those I don't. But one day last week, I decided to poke my nose back into the political arena by knitting a hat. Please welcome onto the stage, folks, Warm Hats Not Hot Heads.

So what is WHNHH? A simple way of saying enough is enough; of saying cut the argument, name-calling, divisiveness, and pass-the-buck-ism. How?  By knitting a hat. Knitting a hat for every Senator and Congressman we have.  So here I am, knitting a hat for my Congressman.

Well, okay, not MY Congressman.  My buddy - the one who introduced me to this whole movement snagged my Congressman before I got a chance to.  Both Senators were taken by the time we figured out that we were both in the same district - it's a long story. So I'm knitting for Congressman Lamar Smith - my Congressman before I moved.

Dear Congressman Smith:

Hi, I’m Debbi. I was once your constituent, but I've since moved out of your district. I do remember you, though, and voted for you. As I'm sure you've figured out by now, I'm a knitter. I’ve knit hats for chemo patients, hats for the military, and hats for anybody else who asks. But now I'm knitting a hat for you.  You've probably noticed that quite a few of your colleagues have received similar hats. All these hats have been knit by people who have two things in common - we love to knit and we want to make a difference in our world by encouraging rational dialogue.

The beautiful thing about this movement, it seems to me, is that it applies to everyone equally. It matters not on which side of the aisle you sit. It’s a way of bearing witness to the divisiveness that threatens us all. Abraham Lincoln was truly right. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Of course I hope you like the hat and that it keeps you warm. But what I would really like you to do is to keep it on your desk to remind you, whenever the going gets tough and the harsh words fly, that you have a responsibility to your constituents (and to us all) not to take the low road of anger and discord, but to take the high road of respect and reasoned dialogue.

With best wishes,
Debbi

Finishing Up, Starting Anew, and Last Minute Objects

Okay, who sent the "Interesting Times" thing my way??

The Shawl

Finished Shawl

As all of my Ravelry friends know, this shawl has been a love-hate thing for me. I saw the shawl at  Kid N Ewe this past November. It must have stuck in the back of my mind because, when I was thinking about upcoming demonstrations and remembering how chilly it got last year, I remembered the shawl and how nice and warm it looked. On New Year's Eve, on our way up to the boat, George and I ran by the yarn shop that carries the pattern to get it so I could get started on it that evening. George picked up the pattern while I grabbed the yarn - Cascade Yarns Eco-Wool.  Eco is one of my favorite wools. It comes in natural sheep colors.  It's a heavy yarn but not too bulky.  It smells wonderful and it's warm!

However...  I made the Ultimate Mistake.  I didn't look at the pattern before I bought it. I didn't read the pattern through before I started it. I admit it was strange - charted like no pattern I'd ever seen, but hey - I was doing okay with it.  Until page 4.  After having worked the last row of the chart on page 3, I turned to page 4.  I let out a shriek that could be heard up and down all 50-something miles of that lake!  Page 3 ended with a wrong-side row.  Page 4 started with a wrong-side row.  All was not well.  It took me about 30 minutes to figure it out, but I finally figured out that the wrong side row charts had to be blended to create the row.  Except that there was no way to figure out just how they should have been blended.  So I reverse-engineered the thing from the cover photograph.  This meant, however, that I had to rip out the row I had just knit and do it over.

And that was just the beginning.  It's been over a month with every page and every chart a challenge, but I finally finished it Sunday evening.  And it is gorgeous!  It's big and warm and smells wonderful and is beautiful and I love it!  It's worth all the agony.

And it's been a learning experience. I think it's made me a better knitter and taught me that I know far more about knitting than I ever thought I did.

A Sadder But Wiser Knitter - and her shawl

Update on the Sabina Shawl

Sabina Shawl after wet-finishing

I wet-finished the woven shawl and it turned out even better than I had dared hope. It's gorgeous! It resulted in a request to weave another - which I'll take to be my first commission!!  That's kind of exciting!

New Techniques and the Rigid-Heddle Loom

The Mitered Keyhole Scarf on the Loom

While teaching my first rigid-heddle weaving class, I got to seriously looking at proejcts for my students. I stumbled across this wonderful project  the Mitered Loop Keyhole Scarf from WeaveZine. It directly addresses something my students whine about - "What can I make when I only have 10" weaving width??" Folks, most of the fabric of human history has been woven at or less than 10" wide.  What to do?  Edge-join it (for you woodworkers) or selvege join.  This scarf is an exercise in weaving a very long strip and then looping it and selvege-joining it.  It also teaches clasped-weft technique where two wefts are used in every shot - one on the left side of the weaving and one on the right.  I'm weaving this project directly from the instructions in the project to test it for my students.  But I have gorgeous yarns queued up to weave the next one!

It's good to get the rigid-heddle loom out again. I had a failure on it - trying to weave log cabin dishtowels on double heddles in CotLin.  Sadly, CotLin sticks together and gave me fits trying to get a clean shed.  I'm going to try again in bamboo.

Valentine's Day

A Valentine's Day Card (cover)

With everything that's happened recently, I didn't have anything for my dear husband for Valentine's Day.  He's always so good about getting cards and flowers and never forgetting anything.  I am the world's worst at taking the time to do those kinds of things.  About mid-afternoon, I thought about finishing the caps for his fingerless mitts - I did finish those today - but went upstairs to the long-neglected studio... and got inspiration! An hour and a half later, I had a six-page (counting covers) Valentine's memory book with photos of us through our marriage and sentiments. AND I had it photographed and uploaded to my design team group.  Woot!

But more important, it said what I wanted to say to George.

Two pages of the Valentine's Book

Valentine's ATC's

With the panic about the kittens, I didn't get to the ATC swap.  That's kind of sad, because one of the cards was a Valentine for my swap friends.  I'll have to post the other one later.


Interesting Times

Be like the bird that, pausing in her flight
awhile on boughs too slight
feels them give way beneath her and yet sings
knowing that she hath wings
--Victor Hugo

We're trying to remember this poem... as we recover from us both being laid off from our jobs this morning.  Interesting times, indeed.

The Shawl Is Finished!

The Bamboo Shawl on the Sabina

Yea!  I finished the bamboo lace shawl!  Lots of folks have done this shawl.  I bet it's one of the most popular projects ever published in Handwoven. It's fun to weave and it's so classy and elegant.  A gorgeous hand and drape straight off the loom, even before it's finished.  I'm saying right now, I want one of these for myself, so I'll be off soon to order more thread!  (I'd just go to the local fabric store for it, but I want colors they don't carry to use for dish towels for the boat.)

Close-up of the Shawl

I'll be interested in seeing how the shawl finishes.  The selveges are a little fluttery as are the plain weave sections.  I think that's because the lace blocks draw the warp in some and the plain weave blocks can't compress that much.  So the result is something like seersucker fabric.

Sabina

The Sabina is awesome. When she came home, we were afraid that no matter how much work George put into her, she'd never weave well.  It's hard to get next to something that's held together with screen door hooks!  But we were wrong. Not only is she beautiful, she weaves like a dream.  She holds her own with any modern loom I've tried. I am very much looking forward to the next project!

Well, the immediate next project needs to be warped onto the Baby Wolf.  I'll probably do the 8-harness Peacock Shawl.  I've wanted that shawl for years and I have the supplies.  I just need to get her done!  If I'm close enough to getting the light blue spun for the pinwheel scarf I want to do, I may try that.  It would be wonderful to weave my own handspun.  Whichever project is next, though, it will need to go onto the Baby Wolf.  She's my demonstration loom and it's only three weeks until the St. Francis in the Wood Renaissance Faire.  I'd like to have whichever project about half woven off before the Faire so I can finish it there.  As soon as the Faire is over, I need to start warping on the next tartan project for the Highland Games.  It's always something!!

Kitten Update
The girls went in to be spayed today.  They're home now and sleeping.  I hope they get over this quickly and are back to their normal bouncy, loving selves.  I hate for them to be in pain and uncomfortable, but it's for the best, I know.

Lost and Found Kitties and Snow

It's been a difficult year already and it's just getting started.  After my daughter went back to college, I came down with the worst cold / flu I've had in ages.  I ran a 102-degree fever, which is unusual for an adult and very unusual for me.  I had the worst sniffles and cough, but no sore throat.  The doc tested me for flu, but I came up negative, so he thought it was allergies.  I doubted it was allergies, and then George came down with the same thing three days later.  Hmm...  Well, we're both over it now, so that's a good thing.

On Monday night, George stayed up almost all night transitioning data between the old company we worked for and the new one - The last day of January was the witching time.  I stayed up doing my ATC's.  All three cats were upstairs with me, keeping me company.  Finally, I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer and came to bed.  I did notice the cats didn't climb into bed with me.  It must have been 45 minutes later that George woke me up in a panic.  The front door had blown open and the kittens were both outside.  He rushed out to get them, but they both ran away from him.  I got up and got dressed and went out with him to search the neighborhood.  No sign of them anywhere.  It was raining and cold - not the place for kittens to be.  If the Siamese got out, he came right back, for which I was incredibly grateful.  If we'd lost Ming, too, the world would have just come to an end right there.

So began three days of anxiety and searching.  The forecast was for the coldest weather we've had in years and the two kittens were out in it. Tuesday evening, George was out searching the neighborhood for them when he saw the feral mother cat and Myst.  Myst ran away from him, but at least we knew she was alive and safe.  There was no sign of Calliope.  We left the garage door opened a bit for them and put food out.  We also put food out on the deck where we had found them originally.  The next morning, George woke me up by putting Myst down on top of me.  She had come home during the night and stayed in the garage.  We were so overjoyed to see her, but had still seen no sign of Calliope.  We saw no sign of her until last night.

The forecast last night was for snow.  It hasn't snowed here in 25 years.  We both searched and searched for Calliope, to no avail.  It was overcast and quiet, as it frequently gets before snow.  Just before I went to bed, I checked out on the deck.  Somebody had eaten all the food I'd put out there.  I refilled the food bowl and put it back out on the deck.  I noticed that a freezing rain had started, which hadn't been forecast.  I called to Calliope, and thought I heard a very faint meow.  I couldn't be sure and I thought it might have beeen my imgination.

I came back in and told George.  He went out and stayed for quite a while.  I could hear him meowing and talking.  He came back in, all excited.  He had seen Calliope!  She was eating the fresh food, but she ran away when she saw him.  I told him to put some of her favorite salmon in the bowl and I put on my robe and hurried out.  I sat on the deck in the freezing rain and called and waited quietly.  George brought the salmon and waited with me.  We called and called and heard Calliope meow.  Slowly, her meows got louder and closer.  Suddenly, there she was on the deck.  I told George not to move and not to make a sound.  It was the hardest thing I've ever done to see her and not to lunge for her.  She ate some of the salmon and obviously wanted it, but was so skittery.  We stayed perfectly still and she got less skittery and started eating.  Finally she came up to me and bumped me with her head and let me pick her up.

Calliope Snoozing

She seems fine, although she was very hungry and cold.  She ate two bowls of salmon as soon as she got in and snuggled with me in bed.  It was delightful to have three cats piled on top of me again!

A million thanks to all our friends and neighbors for their good wishes and prayers and for helping us look for the kitties.  And thanks to our vet and SCAT - our cat adoption service, for their advice.  Here are some tips:

• Keep the garage door open just a bit and put out both food and the litter box.  The used litter box helps the cat to identify home by the smell
• Young cats and kittens rarely go more than 1/2 mile from home, so they're probably close by.
• If necessary, use a trap to catch the kitty.  Traps are frequently available to borrow or rent from animal rescue groups.  Do be sure to check the trap frequently.
• CraigsList is sometimes a useful way to find or advertise a lost animal.
• Many rescue groups and shelters have photos of the animals they've taken in which can be seen on the web.  Be sure to check all those resources.
• When picking up a lost cat, be careful, calm and quiet.  Move slowly and let the cat come to you.  Rushing any animal and/or grabbing at them usually frightens them, even if they know you.  If they're hurt or frightened for any other reason, you'll need to be even more calm, quiet and deliberate.
• And, of course, spay or neuter your pet.  Spaying/neutering reduces the desire to roam and, if they do get out, lessens the number of unwanted animals in this world.  There are many low-cost spay/neuter programs around.

Snow!

Snow on the Deck

Well, by Northern standards, it isn't much, but it snowed last night!  Actually, there's ice under the snow, which is making things interesting.  It's starting to melt now, but still.  I wouldn't go out.

The X-Terra in the Snow

I think this would be a good day to stay home.  It's looking like maybe soup or chili for supper.

The Sabina Weaves Again

It took me two days, which is actually something of a record for me, to warp the Budget Bamboo Shawl onto the newly restored Sabina loom.  The shawl project was featured in the November/December 2009 issue of Handwoven magazine.  Made from Aunt Lydia's Bamboo Crochet Thread, it's an inexpensive project with a beautiful hand and and elegant look.  I had measured out about a third of the warp and  sleyed it into the 36" Schacht Standard 4-harness loom. For some reason - probably my dislike of warping - I abandoned the project. I forgot to knot the sleyed warp. I should know better.

When the kittens came to live with us, they quickly found the unprotected warp.  One morning I woke to find all of it on the floor below the loom. Bad kitties! I thought about trashing the warp, but decided to carefully stabilize it and put it aside. I brought it out again to warp onto the Sabina. It took a little combing and straightening to get the tangles out, but I got it successfully warped onto the Sabina along with the rest of the threads.

Lace Shawl warped onto the Sabina

Once I got going, threading and tying up the loom really didn't take all that long.  The lace is a  rhythmic pattern that's easy to learn.  The only downside is that every other thread must thread into the first harness, so you can group no more than two threads at a time to thread.  In, for example, a twill, you can group four threads at a time.

I have to admit, I was tentative throwing the first shots to spread the warp. I guess I was afraid the old loom would shatter into pieces or something. The fishing swivels we used for connecting the tie-up cords to the harness cords did have some problems.  The one controlling the first harness - the one with half of the warp threads, did break.  I don't know if it was under too much pressure or if it was weak, but break it did.  It's rather dramatic when you have a harness raised and you hear a POP and it suddenly drops.  But we replaced the swivel and, thus far, the new one seems to be working okay.

Starting the Shawl

The shawl is woven in blocks of Atwater-Bronson lace, a loom-controlled openwork weave. The designer planned alternating blocks of lace, but liked the center and two border blocks in lace, separated by tabby blocks so much that she wove the entire shawl that way. I chose to weave four repeats that way, four repeats of the lace/tabby blocks reversed, and then weave the shawl in the original configuration until the end when I'll repeat the reverse/original border.

There are a few things I've noticed with the Sabina. The weaving area between the beater and the breast beam is much larger than I'm accustomed to, so I have to reach further to throw the shuttle.  Interesting! However, I don't have to wind the cloth off quite as often. The beater can accomodate a 45" reed, so it's much larger and being made of cherry, much heavier than I'm accustomed to. I have to be careful not to pack the weft down too hard.

But it is wonderful to see the old girl weaving again. I wonder what she thinks, back to doing what she was meant to do.

The Loom Comes Alive

The Newly Restored Sabina and Me

Sabina Loom Before Restoration

Late in December we were given a 45" Sabina Folding Loom.  We knew nothing about Sabina looms and really didn't need a third floor loom!  But George cannot resist a restoration challenge, so we took it in and he started to work.  In working with it, it became apparent that the loom had been stored for at least part of its life in a barn, maybe?  Maybe a garage.  Anyway, the metal was so rusted that none of it could be used.  The wood was dry and rough. Holes were filled with insect nests.

Sabina looms are insteresting.  As nearly as we can figure out, the looms were built in a small workshop in Wilmington, Ohio from the 1930's to 1949.  They do fold, although not the way modern looms fold. Side beams pivot on the castle.  The warp beam, sectional warp beam and back beam are on one side of the side beams and the cloth beam and breast beam are on the other.  Diagonal wooden rods brace the side beams in a horizontal position for weaving.  The beater assembly and treadle assembly both remove and can be stacked against the castle. Pieces lock in place with screen door hooks.

Sabinas are rising shed looms, but don't use the jack mechanism that most modern rising shed looms use. Instead of the treadle causing a scissor mechanism to raise the harness or harnesses, the Sabinas use a system of pullies and chains to raise the harnesses from above.  This causes many people, myself included, to think they're counterbalance or countermarche looms.

An internet search didn't turn up many clues about the Sabina or its provenance. They are around and there are usually a few for sale on eBay or other sales sites at any given time.  But trying to find plans, instructions or even contemporary photos of them isn't as easy as one would hope.  Eventually, George did track down information about the owners of the company.  He even found a Google maps photo of  the house and workshop which are apparently still intact. He's gotten in touch with another man who is restoring a Sabina and they've compared notes. He's found very little, though, in the way of documentation.  After having restored various antique spinning wheels, he's accustomed to letting the wood talk to him.  The Sabina didn't fail.

Sabina before dismantling

He started by carefully photographing the loom as he took it apart. The photographs would serve as the guide to reassembly. The rusted metal bolts and chain were removed and measured for replacement. The old reed and heddles were discarded and new ones ordered.  Each piece was sanded smooth and received a coat of our favorite finishing wax.  As soon as he put a coat of Ashford spinning wheel wax on it, the wood came to life.  It's a beautifully aged cherry. He used brass hardware in places that shouldn't receive much stress. Steel hardware was used where strength is critical.  The steel was ink-dyed to blend with the cherry wood and brass hardware.

After a wrestle with our consciences, we chose to use Texsolv loom cord to replace the metal chains used to raise the harnesses. The Texsolv cord is by no means period, but it should be easier on the cherry pulley wheels and should be much lighter and quieter in operation. I've become a fan of using the Texsolv cord for apron cords. They came standard on my Schacht Baby Wolf loom. After rescuing Calliope from almost hanging herself in the tie-up cords on the older Schacht Standard loom, I've decided to replace the old cording there with Texsolv cord as well.

We ordered a new 15-dent reed and 400 new inserted-eye heddles as well as the Texsolv cord from Woolery.  I'll probably order at least 400 more heddles and at least one more reed.  She can use the Schacht reeds, but they look kind of silly in a beater meant to accomodate a 45" reed.

Warping the Restored Sabina

I have a project all picked out to weave as a gift for my friend who gave us the loom. At only 17.5 inches wide, it will look silly in a 45" loom, but that's not important.  What's important is seeing the old girl back to doing what she was designed to do.

I can hardly wait!