A Tale of Two Sundays

Gene was the hands down winner of the busy beaver award yesterday. The hydraulic splitter was rented Saturday night in prep for a day of wood cutting, splitting and stacking.

The cold morning temps and cool day let us know it was just in time too.

Our daytime high was a smidge over 40 and that was with the sun shining. My award for the day would be the Slug Award. I was exhausted after the two weeks of family fun and Saturday spent cleaning, washing and other pick up tasks. Of course there was football.

Shameless I know, but for only the second time this season the Patriots where televised without having to purchase the super duper sports package and I was not going to miss it. Cat naps don't count.

Now I promised some weaving updates and we got them. Once the beautiful bamboo runners were off the Louet I was busy getting a test warp together to try triple weave.

My Dad has never seen double weave in action, and I had been casting around for a way to do a 90" blanket width or better without having to sew. Cindie, my local oracle for all things oddball in weaving had mentioned a draft she had from a class that had 4 layers, why couldn't it be reduced down to 3 layers? Why not indeed! So, I threw a 5" cotton warp together using Maysville rug warp, set at 10 epi or more accurately 30 epi since it is for 3 layers.

This will be the same epi the Harrisville Shetland blankets will be. I got it all wound on and threaded Thursday and then started in. It works! It works beautifully and just like magic, I have three layers with two folds and when I cut it off I should have a cloth that is about 15" wide of plain weave.

In the pictures I've tried to separate the layers so you can see them.

Now there is a downside to anything this magical and that is the weaving time it will take. 6 shots to complete a single shot basically, so it's time consuming. I will likely cut this warp off long before it's done simply because if I'm going to spend that sort of time, I would rather do it on the actual blanket than a test warp. The other thing is it is hard to find that nice even beat since you are working blind on two of the layers. My feeling is wool is much more forgiving than cotton though and certainly will full nicely out. I can leave my treadle tie-up as is though and the shed is just amazing on Hey Baby. I do need to get a semi accurate count of the number of heddles I have on my loom since this blanket warp will be over 900 ends spread over 6 harnesses.

On the Barbara loom, the first rug has finally been completed and before I went into slug mode I balled up some rags so I could plan the colors for a kitchen runner. More will need to be done but I have lots of each of these fabrics.

A few different fabrics for a shot of bright color may go in, but this rug will see a lot of wear and darker is better.

The Murphy is stalled in the threading right now. It's a pretty narrow warp so just a matter of making the time to do it. Today is cleaning and baking day, tomorrow guild meeting and I am hoping my new glasses will be in. Using a 12 year old prescription has been difficult and headache producing to say the least. I hope I can get use to the bifocals without too many problems considering the cost of lenses.

All quiet on the farm front, the barn kitties Buzz and Juno are packing on the winter coat and fat and have taken to escorting me to the barn both morning and night. They flop about in their furabouts on the front porch, getting the last rays of sun while waiting for me.

Buzz throws himself down on the way for me to come and pick him up and carry him the rest of the way.

I am a well trained worker so he almost always gets his wish and before I have even picked him up he is giving me that loud purr that earned him his name. And speaking of the escorts, they are awaiting me.