It's My Party and I'll Weave If I Want To

Around here, birthdays are extended from one day to become birthday week. The birthday appointee drives the bus all week so to speak. It's so hard to fit in all the stuff you may want to do that it takes the heat off everybody if it is extended to become a special week. Now, I'm at a severe disadvantage when it comes to BW (birthday week).

The beginning of March is not known for good weather. In fact, out of the last 7 years

the week before and the BW week itself has just plain sucked weather-wise and this year is no different. Sunday it was torrential rain, last night the weather gods brought pelleted snow and some ice. So Gene, bless his heart, is trying to come up with things to do.

I'm not a big go to the movies fan ( but I love Netflicks).  I think Hidalgo was the last one I went to see and only because it was about a horse,Viggo Mortensen is pretty easy on my eyes  and we're the same age! "How about Shasta City?" he says. Oh yeah, sure, lets go over the summit on I5 in the middle of a snow and ice event. Really, all I want to do is weave. Honest, I'm not letting you off the hook. Friday sounds nice for lunch and a browse around all the little Ashland shops I rarely get to.

On the weaving front, the heavy linen warp is on and ready for it's final tie to the front

apron. It is rather nasty stuff to work with. Stiff and hard on the hands. I let it rest overnight and today I'll tighten it up and do the final knot, using leather gloves no doubt.

I am happy to report that the heavy loop Texsolv has made a WORLD of difference in how I view tying up the Barbara V. I am only using 4 shafts and 4 treadles but the cord I precut and color coded went on like a charm. It will live there and eventually all I 'll

have to do is grab the correct tie (harness or lamm) for any given treadle/harness and slip it onto the treadle.

I also took my birthday booty gift certificate ( my big present is the gift of windows for our back porch) and ordered up 18 cones of Harrisville 

Shetland wool from Websters, enough for two big  blankets.

I have so been wanting to do double weave blankets and finally, enough yarn on order 

to get that project out of my head and onto paper planning. Harrisville has such a nice color range too it was hard to pick! I'm taking a mini double weave class on March 28th so hopefully I will have a good understanding of the whole process. To make my weaving world a little easier, my Dad, (who also weaves) gifted me with an electric bobbin winder. How cool is that! My mother, who is the queen of C's included cash, candy and clothes.

I'm going to start on the saddle blankets today, get my 3 shuttles loaded with yarn and do some sampling. I've never worked with 3 shuttles in rotation before. One thing is for sure, I'll spend the week immersed in the process, getting bobbins wound PDQ and nibbling on dark chocolates. A perfectly wonderful birthday week!